Abstract:
A parking device includes a first vertical support post; a first horizontal arm cantilevered from the first vertical support post; a first vertical roller post connected to and horizontally moveable along the first horizontal arm, the first vertical roller post having a first wheel disposed on the bottom thereof, the first wheel acting to support the first vertical roller post; a parking platform connected to the first vertical roller post and capable of moving vertically along the first vertical roller post; a first moving mechanism for moving the parking platform vertically along the first vertical roller post; and a second moving mechanism for moving the first vertical roller post horizontally along the first horizontal arm.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/337,199, filed Jan. 7, 2003, which is included in its entirety herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to car parking, and more specifically, to a parking device.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0005]     In big cities around the world, such as New York City, N.Y., parking space is in demand and expensive. Multi-deck parking is a way to increase the efficiency of a parking lot. Many multi-deck parking products are currently available, yet they are of designs that sacrifice some existing ground parking space for maneuvering a car onto or off of the upper deck. In addition, many times the car in the upper deck cannot be moved without moving the car underneath first, which is very inconvenient. In some cases, the parking structure itself makes it more difficult to maneuver the car in or out of the ground parking space than in lots without the added parking structure.  
         [0006]     Prior art includes the following. Multi-floor parking facilities (i.e. garages) are commonplace, yet these require space for a ramp to reach higher levels. Valuable parking space is sacrificed to build the ramp. Vertically movable platforms are also known, and these can be used in an existing parking space to increase the parking capacity. However, during parking or retrieving a car from an upper deck, the car that is parked underneath needs to be removed first. Rotational parking structures are also known, these having multiple platforms in two levels and an overall structure like a box. Each platform can be moved up or down and left or right if the space to be moved to is not occupied. In this design, an empty space is always required in order to move cars around. This reduces the space usage efficiency to less than double the existing capacity, and therefore is not as effective as it could be. In addition, the typical rotational parking structure has four posts or columns, and only allows parking or retrieving a car on or from platforms at the farthest right or left positions. The posts also make it difficult to drive a car on and off the parking platform.  
         [0007]     Thus, there is a need for a parking/storage device having improved efficiency and ease of use.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     The invention is a parking device that allows multiple levels of parking or storage without needing additional ground space. The device can improve the parking capacity of any given parking facility by n times if the number of decks built on top of the ground level is n.  
         [0009]     According to the invention, a parking device comprises a first vertical support post; a first horizontal arm cantilevered from the first vertical support post; a first vertical roller post connected to and horizontally moveable along the first horizontal arm, the first vertical roller post having a first wheel disposed on the bottom thereof, the first wheel acting to support the first vertical roller post; a parking platform connected to the first vertical roller post and capable of moving vertically along the first vertical roller post; a first moving mechanism for moving the parking platform vertically along the first vertical roller post; and a second moving mechanism for moving the first vertical roller post horizontally along the first horizontal arm.  
         [0010]     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a parking device according to the invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view illustrating the second moving means of the parking device of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0013]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of the roller posts of the parking device of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0014]      FIG. 4  is an exploded perspective view illustrating the first and second moving means of the parking device of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0015]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the parking device of  FIG. 1  when the platform is in the upper position.  
         [0016]      FIG. 6  is a detail of the guide of  FIG. 2 .  
         [0017]      FIG. 7  is a detail of the roller wheels of  FIG. 6 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0018]     The invention allows parking or retrieving a car on or from an upper deck directly above a ground parking space while maintaining the existing parking lot design. The invention does not require additional space for car maneuvering. In addition, a car on an upper deck can be moved independently from a car underneath. The invention actually doubles or triples the capacity of a parking lot when a double-deck or triple-deck parking device is respectively used. More improvement is possible with more decks being chosen. The same device can also be used for multi-level storage.  
         [0019]     The invention includes a platform that can be moved vertically (up and down) above a driveway of a parking lot. The platform can be moved horizontally (left and right) above an existing parking space. A car is parked in an upper position by driving it onto the platform when the platform is lowered onto the surface of the drive way, moving the platform up until it reaches a position that is high enough to clear the car in the existing parking space, and then moving the platform horizontally to a position directly above the existing parking space.  
         [0020]     When a car on the upper position is to be retrieved, the platform is moved horizontally from directly above the existing parking space to the space above the driveway, and then moved down to ground level so that the car can be driven away.  
         [0021]     Please refer to  FIGS. 1-6 . The figures describe the invention when only one deck is built on top of an existing parking space. In the following embodiment, a parking application is used to describe the invention. The same idea applies to storage applications of different scales.  
         [0022]     A platform F that is designed to carry the weight of a car is attached to a frame E. There are two vertical roller posts RP connected by a turning axle T 1 . The roller posts RP have wheels W at the bottom and can be moved left and right (horizontally) on the ground (or other foundation), as shown in  FIG. 1 . The ground or foundation can be equipped with tracks T for easier movement of the wheels W, if desired. A beam B can be used to connect the two roller posts RP at the top to strengthen the structure, if required.  
         [0023]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , each roller post RP has a “U” shaped cross section U, although other sections can also be used as long as an inside face is open. At the two ends of the frame E, there are sets of rollers R attached to the frame E. These rollers R sit inside of the hollow of the “U” shaped roller posts RP, as shown in  FIG. 3 . The rollers R can be driven to travel up and down along the roller posts RP by a moving mechanism D 1  (i.e., a chain drive or the like, see  FIG. 4 ), which in turn allows the platform F to travel up and down. The turning axle T 1  assures that the rollers R in the roller posts RP travel at the same pace.  
         [0024]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , there are two horizontal arms A (shown as lines for simplicity) above ground level and cantilevered to the left from two vertical support posts P (also shown as lines). The posts P and arms A can be I or W structural sections (commonly referred to as I-beams), channel sections, or any comparable structural sections. The support posts P can be embedded in the ground (or other foundation) like piles, or fixed another way provided they are suitably sturdy. In  FIG. 1 , the platform F is shown in the lower position. When the platform F is in the upper position, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the platform F and the frame E are carried by the roller posts RP, which can be moved right and left while being guided by the two arms A that are supported by the two posts P. This design allows the platform F to be moved up and down when it is at the left position and be moved right and left when it is at the upper position. The arms A are equipped with a moving mechanism D 2  (see  FIG. 4 ), which can include a motor.  
         [0025]     Guides C, as shown in  FIG. 2 , are provided to allow the roller posts to move along the arms A. Each guide C is fixed to the respective roller post RP and allows the respective arm A to travel there-through. The guides C can be moved left and right along the arms A by the moving mechanism D 2 , which can include a motor and drive mechanism such as a chain drive. In normal operation, it is expected that the roller posts RP are mainly in compression from the weight of the platform F, frame E, and any carried car, while the guide C mainly transmits a moment, resulting from the cantilevered weight, to the arms A, which themselves do not see a large portion of the weight. Due to the supporting action of the roller posts RP, the bending force on the arms A incurred by the weight carried on the platform F does not substantially change with the position of the roller posts RP.  
         [0026]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , each guide C is connected to the right side of each roller post RP. When the moving mechanism D 2  drives the guides C to travel along the arms A and carry the roller posts RP to the leftmost position, the roller posts RP are situated outside of the left margin of the ground parking space, while the left end of the arm A may remain inside the margin. A turning axle T 2  connects the two guides C to move them at the same pace. When the guides C travel to the right with the roller posts RP and reach the rightmost position, there is nothing projecting beyond the left margin of the ground parking space. However, at this position, the right ends of the guides C protrude to the right.  
         [0027]     A detail of one guide C is show in  FIG. 6 , which illustrates the guide C, the arm A, and the roller post RP as viewed in a direction of an arrow Z of  FIG. 2 . The arm A is shown as a wide-flange beam. The guide C is a box-tube or built-up section. Installed within the guide C are eight roller wheels RW (four shown, four directly behind those shown), which run on axles fixed to the inside of walls of the guide C. The purpose of the roller wheels RW is to guide the roller post RP along the arm A and to transmit forces and moments from the roller post RP to the arm A. The roller wheels RW can ride on the inside surfaces of the top and bottom flanges of the horizontal arm A.  FIG. 7  shows a side view of the roller wheels RW and how they interact with the arm A. Although eight roller wheels RW are proposed for each guide C, more or fewer can be used depending on requirements.  
         [0028]     When a car is to be parked above ground, the car is driven onto the platform F at the ground (lower) position, then the platform F is pulled up along the roller posts RP to the upper position. The height of the upper position is designed to clear the car parked on the ground level. The platform F is then moved with the roller posts RP to the right until it is directly above the ground parking space as shown in  FIG. 5 . Thus, one car can be parked above another. When the car is to be retrieved from the upper deck, the platform F is moved with the roller posts RP to the left until the right edge of the platform F clears the left side of the ground parking space. The platform F is then moved down along the roller posts RP until it reaches the ground. The car then can be driven away. Thus, during parking a car on and retrieving a car from the platform F, any car in the ground parking space need not be moved. Hence, a benefit of the invention is that there is no sacrifice of the ground space utility around the existing parking space.  
         [0029]     The invention can be used for parking applications as described above, and can also be used for multi-level storage of other goods. The invention can be used for storing very small items, and can also be used for large items too, such as for furniture storage. The same concept applies to different sizes of application. Proper engineering design needs to be done for each specific application.  
         [0030]     The detailed designs of the platform F, the roller posts RP, the arms A, the motor mechanisms, and the related safety factors are commonly known in the art.  
         [0031]     The parking or storage device of the invention allows multiple levels of parking or storage without needing additional ground space. The device can improve the parking capacity of any given parking facility by n times if the number of decks built on top of the ground level is n.  
         [0032]     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.