Goods transport facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10669104-B2
Application number	US-201716346169-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2017
Priority date	Nov 14, 2016
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

A goods transport facility for transporting goods along a transportation path including a curved part, and in particular a goods transport facility provided with a plurality of transport carriages that move along a pair of left and right rails, which are provided along the transportation path, so as to transport goods. A rail width adjusting mechanism capable of changing a rail width between the left and right rails and is provided in at least one of a curving region and an S-curve region in the curved part of the transportation path.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A goods transport facility for transporting goods along a transportation path including a linear part and a curved part,
the goods transport facility comprising:
a pair of left and right rails provided along the transportation path; and
a plurality of transport carriages configured to move along the rails so as to transport goods,
wherein each of the transport carriages includes a carriage body that supports the goods, a pair of left and right wheels that rotate around a first axis of rotation while being supported by top surfaces of the rails, and a pair of left and right side rollers that rotate around a second axis of rotation that is different from the first axis of rotation, the pair of left and right side rollers being located to face sides of the rails and limit a lateral movement of the carriage body, and each of the transport carriages is coupled to the preceding and subsequent transport carriages in a swinging manner so as to be a train of the transport carriages consecutively traveling along the transportation path, and

a rail width adjuster capable of changing a rail width between the left and right rails is provided in at least one of a curving region being transition from the linear part to the curved part while the transport carriages entering the curved part of the transportation path and a region where a direction of a curve changes in the curved part.

2. The goods transport facility according to claim 1 , wherein a gap between a pair of left and right positioning members fixed to the respective left and right rails is changed by the rail width adjuster so as to change the rail width.

3. The goods transport facility according to claim 2 , wherein the pair of left and right positioning members is yoke halves for coupling the left and right rails.

4. The goods transport facility according to claim 1 , wherein the rail width adjuster is located so as to change a rail width at a position where a gap between the rail and the side roller is larger than that of the linear part.

Assignees

• Daifuku Kk

Inventors

• Fujio Yoshihiko

Classifications

• B65G47/40

  by tilting conveyor buckets · CPC title

• B65G35/06 Primary

  comprising a load-carrier moving along a path, e.g. a closed path, and adapted to be engaged by any one of a series of traction elements spaced along the path (effecting drive at two or more points spaced along the length of an endless conveyor B65G23/32) · CPC title

• B61B13/00

  Other railway systems · CPC title

• B65G63/00

  Transferring or trans-shipping at storage areas, railway yards or harbours {or in opening mining cuts}; Marshalling yard installations · CPC title

• E01B5/16

  Distance keepers · CPC title