Transporting system for transporting a container, and method for operating a production installation having a transporting system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10899591-B2
Application number	US-201716095592-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2017
Priority date	Apr 22, 2016
Publication date	Jan 26, 2021
Grant date	Jan 26, 2021

Abstract

In a transporting system for transporting a container, and a method for operating a production installation having a transporting system, the transporting system has a vehicle and a transport vehicle, on whose frame two wheel drives are disposed, which are set apart from each other and have a wheel in each case, in particular, the two wheels are disposed so as to touch a floor in order to generate traction force for the transport vehicle, in particular, the wheel axles of the two wheels are aligned parallel to each other. A first and a second shoulder part are situated and/or provided on the frame, and the first shoulder part is situated at a distance from the second shoulder part, and a space region is situated between the wheel drives and between the shoulder parts, into which the vehicle together with the container it accommodates is able to be driven and out of which the vehicle together with the container may be driven. The container has a width that is greater than the distance, in particular the smallest distance, between the shoulder parts, the vehicle has a lifting device, and the vehicle is able to be driven into the space region when the lifting device is lowered and also when it is raised. When the lifting device is raised, the container is able to be positioned above the shoulder parts on the vehicle, and when the lifting device is lowered, the container may be positioned so as to sit on the shoulder parts.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A transport system for transporting a container, comprising:
a vehicle;
a transport vehicle including a frame and two wheel drives provided on the frame, the two wheel drives set apart from each other, each wheel drive including a wheel;
wherein the frame includes a first shoulder part and a second shoulder part set apart from each other, a space region being arranged between the wheel drives and between the shoulder parts, the vehicle adapted to drive on a floor surface into and out of the space region and adapted to carry the container into and out of the space region, the vehicle including a lifting device and adapted to be driven into the space region when the lifting device is lowered and also when the lifting device is raised; and
wherein the lifting device is adapted to raise the container above the shoulder parts on the vehicle when the lifting device is raised and is adapted to lower the container to sit on the shoulder parts when the lifting device is lowered; and
wherein the two wheels are adapted to touch the floor surface to generate a traction force for the transport vehicle.

2. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein wheel axles of the two wheels are aligned parallel to each other.

3. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the first and the second shoulder parts are arranged as two tracks that extend in parallel.

4. The transport system according to claim 3 , wherein a track direction is parallel to a driving direction of the vehicle in relation to the transport vehicle when the vehicle is entering or leaving.

5. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the space region is closable by a cover to protect stored containers from environmental precipitation.

6. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the two shoulder parts, and/or contact faces of the container and the shoulder parts, have the same distance from the floor.

7. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is adapted to drive underneath the shoulder parts and/or to drive underneath the shoulder parts when the lifting device is lowered.

8. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the wheel drives are arranged on the frame of the transport vehicle, are adapted to be linearly mobile, and/or are supported in a sliding and/or resilient manner.

9. The transport system according to claim 1 , wherein the transport vehicle includes casters adapted to conduct a weight force of the transport vehicle, reduced by a weight force of the wheel drives.

10. The transport system according to claim 9 , wherein, the space region is arranged between the casters.

11. A method for operating a production installation having a transport system according to claim 1 , comprising:
autonomously driving the transport vehicle past a sensor of the production installation and into a transfer zone;
transmitting, with the aid of the sensor, an item of information about goods and/or transport goods held in a container to a central processor of the production installation;
autonomously driving the transport vehicle to an assembly cell;
removing, by the vehicle, at least one container from the transport vehicle;
transporting the container to a workstation of the assembly cell;
setting the container down at the workstation of the assembly cell; and
removing an item of goods and/or an item of transport goods from the container to manufacture a product at the workstation.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising delivering the transport vehicle by an infrastructure vehicle.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the autonomously driving step includes autonomously driving the transport vehicle through an entrance gate of the production installation.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the sensor includes an RFID reader device.

15. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising supplying energy to the transport vehicle in the transfer zone to charge an energy store of the transport vehicle.

16. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising inductively supplying energy to the transport vehicle in the transfer zone to charge an energy store of the transport vehicle.

17. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the container is set down in the setting down on a bearing block of the workstation.

18. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising, emptying the container, and after emptying the container, picking up the container by the vehicle and storing the container in a transport vehicle.

19. The method according to claim 18 , further comprising, after storing the container in the transport vehicle, autonomously driving the transport vehicle out of the production installation.

20. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the transport vehicle is autonomously driven across the transfer zone and past the sensor.

21. The method according to claim 20 , wherein the transport vehicle is autonomously driven to a further infrastructure vehicle.

Assignees

• Sew Eurodrive Gmbh & Co

Inventors

• Soder Johann

Classifications

• B65G65/00

  Loading or unloading (of vehicles B65G67/00) · CPC title

• B66F9/063 Primary

  Automatically guided · CPC title

• B65G67/24

  Unloading land vehicles · CPC title