Cart for moving items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9327952-B1
Application number	US-201113294122-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 10, 2011
Priority date	Nov 10, 2011
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

A cart for moving items includes a base, wheels coupled to the base, and one or more rollers coupled on an upper surface of the base. The base includes one or more loading areas for loading items to be moved onto the base, and one or more unloading areas for unloading items from the base. The rollers coupled on one or more upper surfaces of the base in the loading areas may support items as the items are loaded onto the base.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cart for moving items, comprising:
a base comprising:
one or more loading areas for loading items to be moved onto the base;
one or more unloading areas for unloading items from the base; and
a continuous walkway extending from a side of the base transverse to a loading or unloading side of the base and at least partially passing through at least one of the loading areas and at least partially passing through at least one of the unloading areas, wherein an end of the continuous walkway is flush with an edge of the base on the side of the base transverse to the loading or unloading side of the base, wherein the continuous walkway is configured to be walked in by personnel loading or unloading items from the base;

a plurality of rollers coupled on one or more upper surfaces of the base in at least one of the loading areas, wherein the rollers are configured to at least partially support items as the items are loaded onto the base, wherein the one or more rollers are not present in the continuous walkway, and wherein the width of the continuous walkway is wider than the greatest distance between adjacent rollers in the at least one of the loading areas on a first side of the continuous walkway and is wider than the greatest distance between adjacent rollers in the at least one of the loading areas on a second side of the continuous walkway; and
one or more wheels coupled to the base.

2. The cart of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the rollers in at least one of the loading areas are configured to roll in two or more horizontal directions.

3. The cart of claim 2 , wherein at least some of the rollers in at least one of the loading areas comprise ball transfer devices.

4. The cart of claim 1 , further comprising one or more tracks of rollers configured to support items being shifted out of the loading area to another area on the cart.

5. The cart of claim 1 , further comprising one or more item-retaining portions coupled to the base.

6. The cart of claim 1 , further comprising one or more item holding areas, wherein at least some of the rollers are configured to support items on the cart as the items are moved from the loading area to the holding area.

7. The cart of claim 1 , further comprising one or more rollers configured to support items as the items are unloaded from the cart.

8. A system for managing inventory of physical items, comprising:
a cart comprising:
a base comprising one or more loading/unloading areas for loading or unloading items to be moved;
a continuous walkway extending from a side of the base transverse to a loading/unloading side of the base and at least partially passing through at least one of the loading/unloading areas, wherein an end of the continuous walkway is flush with an edge of the side of the base transverse to the loading/unloading side of the base, wherein the continuous walkway is configured to be walked in by personnel loading or unloading items from the base;
a plurality of rollers coupled on one or more upper surfaces of the base in at least one of the loading/unloading areas on the base, wherein the rollers are configured to at least partially support items as the items are loaded onto the base or unloaded from the base, wherein the one or more rollers are not present in the continuous walkway, and wherein the width of the continuous walkway is wider than the greatest distance between adjacent rollers in the at least one of the loading/unloading areas on a first side of the continuous walkway and is wider than the greatest distance between adjacent rollers in the at least one of the loading/unloading areas on a second side of the continuous walkway.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein at least some of the rollers in at least one of the loading/unloading areas are configured to roll in two or more horizontal directions.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein at least some of the rollers in at least one of the loading areas comprise spherical rollers.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart further comprises one or more tracks of rollers configured to support items being shifted out of the loading area to another area on the cart.

12. The system of claim 8 , the rollers on the first side of the continuous walkway and the rollers on the second side of the continuous walkway are configured to support items being shifted out of the loading area to another area on the cart.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the rollers are configured to support items as the items are accumulated into at least one horizontal row on the base.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more loading/unloading areas comprise:
one or more loading areas;
one or more unloading areas; and
one or more rollers between the loading area and the unloading area, wherein at least some of the rollers are configured to support items as they are transferred from at least one of the loading areas to at least one of the unloading areas.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart further comprises one or more item holding areas, wherein at least some of the rollers are configured to support items on the cart as the items are moved from at least one loading area into the holding area.

16. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart further comprises one or more item holding areas, wherein at least some of the rollers allow items to be rolled onto the cart in a first horizontal direction and allow the items to be rolled to the holding area in a horizontal direction that is different from the first horizontal direction.

17. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart further comprises:
one or more item holding areas, wherein at least one of the holding areas is at a decline relative to at least one of the loading areas.

18. The system of claim 8 , further comprising one or more rollers configured to support items as the items are unloaded from the cart.

19. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart further comprises one or more item-retaining portions coupled to the base.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein at least one of the one or more item-retaining portions comprises one or more doors configured to allow items to be unloaded from the cart.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein at least one of the one or more item-retaining portions comprises at least one door configured to inhibit items from coming off one side of the cart when the item is being loaded from the other side of the cart.

22. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a lift truck configured to couple with the cart and raise the base.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the lift truck comprises a control platform adjacent to the cart on the side of the base transverse to the loading/unloading side of the base, wherein the control platform is flush with the continuous walkway.

24. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cart comprises a motor configured to move the cart from one location to another.

25. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a lift mechanism configured to raise the base.

26. The system of claim 8 , further comprising one or more storage racks, wherein the cart is configured to receive items from the one or more storage racks.

27. The system of claim 26 , wherein each of the one or more storage racks comprises one or more rollers configured to support items in the rack, wherein at least some of the rollers on the cart and at least some of the rollers on the rack a

Assignees

• Kolharkar Mangesh S
• Mangold David L
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Kolharkar Mangesh S
• Mangold David L

Classifications

• B66F9/127 Primary

  Working platforms · CPC title

• B65G1/0435

  with pulling or pushing means on either stacking crane or stacking area · CPC title

• B65G1/0407

  using stacker cranes (constructional features of stacker cranes B66F9/06) · CPC title

• B66F9/19

  Additional means for facilitating unloading · CPC title

• B66F9/07

  Floor-to-roof stacking devices, e.g. "stacker cranes", "retrievers" · CPC title