Rack-Integrated Escape Channels for Long-Aisle Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional rack systems face challenges in providing efficient escape routes that comply with legal regulations and customer requirements, especially for long aisles with vertical conveyors, which often require shutting down adjacent modules during maintenance, reducing system performance.
Innovation Solution
A rack system with integrated escape channels within the rack structure, allowing maintenance technicians to escape directly to the outside without using adjacent aisles, and these channels can be arbitrarily positioned and scaled to accommodate varying aisle lengths and lifter configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional rack systems use face-sided accesses for escape routes, then escape possibilities are provided, but the escape routes are blocked when vertical conveyors are positioned at the face sides
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces escape channels that extend in the longitudinal direction through the rack modules, rather than relying solely on face-sided exits. This dimensional shift allows maintenance personnel to escape through the length of the rack system, bypassing blocks at the face sides caused by vertical conveyors.
Solution Approach 2:
The rack system is divided into multiple rack modules with individual escape channels in each. This segmentation allows independent escape routes within each module, so that a blockage in one module does not affect escape possibilities in other modules.
2Reliability
If additional passages are provided in central regions for escape, then escape distance requirements are met, but automatic operation of storage and retrieval devices must be shut down
Solution Approach 1:
Escape channels are extracted as separate, dedicated pathways within the rack structure, distinct from the maintenance aisles used for operational access. This separation allows escape routes to function independently without interfering with the automatic operation of storage and retrieval devices in maintenance aisles.
Solution Approach 2:
The escape channels act as intermediary pathways that connect maintenance personnel to safe exit points without requiring them to traverse through active maintenance aisles. This mediator structure enables escape while preserving the operational status of adjacent rack modules.
3Reliability
If horizontal tunnels are provided through racks for escape, then escape to adjacent rack modules is enabled, but rack compartments are lost and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The longitudinal escape channels serve multiple functions: they provide escape routes for maintenance personnel, structurally integrate with the rack module design, and can be configured to pass through or alongside rack compartments depending on the specific implementation, thereby reducing the need for separate dedicated tunnel structures.
4Reliability
If rack-integrated escape channels are provided, then escape routes are always within permissible distance without shutting down adjacent modules, but rack structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The escape channels are merged with the existing rack module structure rather than being added as separate external structures. The channels utilize the longitudinal space within rack modules and can share structural elements with the rack framework, thereby reducing the increase in overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
It is disclosed rack system (10) comprising: at least two rack modules (12) directly adjacent in a height direction (Y) of the rack system (10); wherein the rack modules (12) are formed of two racks (14) being aligned in parallel to each other in a longitudinal direction (X) of the rack system (10) and being spaced apart from each other in transverse direction (Z) of the rack system (10) for defining a rack aisle (16) between them, and comprise a plurality of directly adjacent rack compartments (20); wherein each of the rack modules (12) in the area the rack aisle (16) comprises a maintenance aisle (32) configured for automatically operating and manually maintaining at least one storage and retrieval device (24); and wherein within at least one of the racks (14) a rack-integrated escape channel (26) is provided for connecting the maintenance aisles (32) directly to an outside world of the rack system (10), and wherein the escape channel (26) is configured to be passed by a maintenance technician.