Patent ID: 8215616
Filing Date: 2012-07-10
Classification: A47F,B65G,B66F

Abstract:
1. A method for operating a merchandise presentation arrangement that features a lifting device with a lifting bottom for depositing merchandise in stack layers arranged on top of one another, as well as a lifting cushion arrangement that carries the lifting bottom and comprises one or more lifting cushions that are arranged on top of one another and can be individually filled with a compressed fluid, particularly compressed air, wherein the lifting cushions can be expanded up to a functional height limited by a lift limiting device by supplying compressed fluid and used in succession if several lifting cushions are provided, wherein each lifting cushion is assigned a separate control valve that controls the supply of compressed fluid to the respective lifting cushion, as well as a separate pressure sensor that measures the fluid pressure in the respective lifting cushion, and wherein a control unit is provided connected to the at least one pressure sensor and switches the control valves, and wherein, after depositing the merchandise and activating the lifting device, compressed fluid is supplied to a lifting cushion or one of the lifting cushions in an automatic program sequence until the fluid pressure increases to a reference pressure value p Ref that essentially corresponds to the total weight of the merchandise, and the lifting cushion begins to expand with an essentially constant reference pressure value, whereupon the supply of compressed fluid is interrupted, and wherein the control unit recalculates the reference pressure value for each lifting cushion into a switching pressure value p Schalt that is assigned to the respective pressure sensor in accordance with the formula in which N is the total number of lifting cushions and n is the number assigned to the respective lifting cushion in the sequence in which the lifting cushions are used, and wherein the supply of compressed fluid to the respective lifting cushion is released when the fluid pressure in the one lifting cushion or the first of several lifting cushions falls below the switching pressure value assigned to the lifting cushion due to the removal of merchandise such that the lifting cushion expands up to its functional height, whereupon the increase in the fluid pressure in the lifting cushion is used as a switching signal for interrupting the supply of compressed fluid to the one lifting cushion or the first of several lifting cushions, and wherein, if several lifting cushions are provided, the supply of compressed fluid to the respectively next lifting cushion is released simultaneously or in a time-delayed fashion referred to the interruption of the supply of compressed fluid to a lifting cushion that was expanded up to its functional height, wherein the supply of compressed fluid to the next lifting cushion is interrupted after at least its switching pressure value is reached and is subsequently released again in order to expand the lifting cushion up to its functional height once the fluid pressure falls below the switching pressure value due to the removal of merchandise.