Storage Plant Profiled Uprights Maintain Guide Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic storage plants face issues with deformation of uprights due to weight and incorrect load/unload maneuvers, leading to misalignment of guides and potential collisions, which can cause a 'domino effect' resulting in unsafe operation and loss of tray support, necessitating the use of horizontal tie-rods that reduce usable space.
Innovation Solution
The plant design eliminates connecting beams between the elevator zone and flanks, using profiled uprights with rolling surfaces and wheels to maintain parallel and equidistant alignment, allowing the elevator to function as a mobile transverse connection, preventing deformation and maintaining guide alignment without reducing insertion/de-insertion space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If horizontal tie-rods are inserted to prevent deformation of uprights, then structural stability is improved, but usable vertical space for tray insertion is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes horizontal tie-rods from the system entirely. Instead of using traditional horizontal bracing to prevent upright deformation, the design extracts this function and replaces it with vertical guide alignment and a different structural approach that maintains stability without sacrificing vertical insertion space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from horizontal bracing (tie-rods) to vertical guidance (aligned guides on flanks). By changing the dimension of the constraint from horizontal to vertical, the system maintains structural stability while preserving the vertical space needed for tray insertion and extraction operations.
2Strength
If connecting beams are used between elevator zone and flanks, then structural support is improved, but alignment precision of guides deteriorates due to deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces aligned guides on the flanks as intermediary elements that mediate between the structural support function and the alignment precision requirement. These guides serve as reference elements that ensure precise horizontal alignment of the elevator with the storage housings, preventing deformation-induced misalignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by pre-aligning the guides on the flanks before elevator operation. This pre-alignment creates a reference framework that prevents deformation from causing misalignment during operation, effectively counteracting potential structural distortion before it can affect guide alignment precision.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the elevator functions as a mobile transverse connection, then structural deformation is prevented, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by making the elevator serve multiple functions: it acts as both the tray transport mechanism and as a mobile transverse connection that maintains structural alignment. By combining these functions in a single device, the system prevents deformation without requiring additional separate structural components, thereby managing complexity through functional integration.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution maintains the structural integrity and alignment of the storage system, preventing deformation and unsafe operations while maintaining the necessary space for tray insertion and extraction, enhancing safety and efficiency by eliminating the need for horizontal tie-rods.
Implementation Method 1
profiled uprights with rolling surfaces and wheels to maintain parallel and equidistant alignment
Data Source
AI summary
A plant for storing products including at least a pair of vertical stores (40) facing one another, each being provided with opposite flanks (4) which are provided with pluralities of guides (6) located such that a pair of opposite guides which face one another on the same horizontal plane define end rests for single drawers or trays (5). Housings for the drawers or trays are defined between the pairs of guides and the contiguous pairs of guides, each of which is transferable between a load/unload configuration of the products and a storage configuration in which the drawer or tray is inserted with ends thereof on a pair of opposite guides and vice versa. An elevator (9) is provided, mobile along a development direction (A) of the vertical stores such as to move the drawers or trays. The opposite flanks of the stores are provided with profiled uprights (4a).