Parallel Storage Sections with End Platforms for Order Picking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage and order picking systems are limited by low speed, complexity, and high failure risk, with inefficient use of space and increased carrier movement distances.
Innovation Solution
A system with a frame of parallel elongated storage sections and platforms at both ends, where holders are moved horizontally between storage sections using movement means, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval of articles with reduced profile movement and enhanced speed, and optionally featuring multiple holders per platform for increased capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If use is made of a frame with rows and columns of elongated storage sections with belt conveyors, then articles can be stored and retrieved, but the system operates at low speed
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides storage sections into discrete segments with holder supports that can independently hold and transfer holders. Each storage section is segmented into positions that can be individually accessed, allowing parallel operations and reducing the need for complex belt conveyor systems while maintaining storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
Holder supports act as intermediary elements between storage sections and carriers. Instead of directly moving articles between storage sections using complex belt conveyors, the system uses holder supports to temporarily hold holders, simplifying the transfer mechanism and enabling faster operations without requiring complex drive systems for each storage section.
2Reliability
If drives are provided for all belt conveyors of storage sections, then articles can be moved between sections, but the system becomes complex and failure prone
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the drive system from each individual storage section, eliminating the need for multiple independent belt conveyor drives. Instead, carriers move along a simplified path and deposit holders at holder supports, which then transfer holders between storage sections passively, removing complex drive mechanisms and reducing failure points.
Solution Approach 2:
The holder support system performs the transfer function automatically once holders are deposited. The holder support receives a holder from a carrier and automatically transfers it to the appropriate storage section without requiring additional active drive mechanisms, enabling reliable passive transfer that reduces system complexity and failure risk.
3Speed
If the depth of the system is kept limited, then space is saved, but more storage sections are required and carrier movement distances become longer
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes the vertical dimension by implementing multiple levels of storage sections stacked vertically. Carriers traverse horizontally along a limited-depth frame while holder supports operate at different vertical levels, allowing dense storage capacity within a compact footprint without requiring carriers to travel long distances along a single level.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple storage sections are merged into a unified frame structure with shared carrier paths and coordinated holder supports. This consolidation allows carriers to serve multiple storage sections efficiently within a compact footprint, reducing the need for separate long movement paths while maintaining quick access to all sections through the integrated holder support transfer mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
A device, provided for the storage of articles and the formation of article groups, includes a frame having a first series of mutually parallel elongated storage sections that extend between a first end and a second end of the frame, and a number of article holders. The storage sections are provided with holder supports on which a number of the holders can be supported. At the first end and the second end of the frame, first and second platforms, respectively, have been arranged which each are adapted for accommodating at least one holder, and movement elements for horizontally moving at least one holder from the first platform at the first end of the frame to the holder supports of a selected storage section while moving one or more holders representing a same holder length from the selected storage section to the second platform at the second end of the frame.