Vehicle transferring system

Abstract: The invention relates to a vehicle transferring system which is used for or in parking buildings. With the vehicle transferring system is able to transfer and hod a vehicle with damaging any wheel of a vehicle. In the vehicle transferring system, wheel supporting members are composed of a shaft and a tubular member which is rotatably attached to the outside of the shaft via bearings. The wheel supporting members are brought into contact with the wheels of a vehicle from both the sides thereof to hold the wheels in a tight state. The wheel supporting members 50 are able to get in under the wheels since the tubular members can rotate when contacting the wheels, thereby a reliable holding is possible and the wheels are free from any damage.

Description: Technical field of the invention The present invention relates to a vehicle transferring system according to the preamble of claim 1. Background of the invention Generally in a parking building, vehicle carry-in and-out are performed by causing a vehicle to be placed on carriage and moving the carriage on which a vehicle is placed, in a parking building. Since a vehicle is moved together with a carriage in a parking building, a large amount of power is needed for the movement and the moving system thereof is made large-sized. On the contrary, the present applicant developed a transferring system which is able to be moved with only a little power and which is able to simplify the moving system known from JP-A-06288133 and defining the preamble of claim 1. Said vehicle transferring system is provided with parking platforms at each floor layer thereof, wherein an elevating apparatus is elevated and lowered to confront the platform of the respective floor layers, and said transfer carrier is disposed on said elevating apparatus. The transfer carrier is constructed so as to reciprocate between the elevating apparatus and parking platform in a state where a vehicle is placed on the transfer carrier. By movements of the transfer carrier, vehicles are transferred onto and carried on a parking platform, and they are carried out from the parking platform to the elevating apparatus. In order to perform such vehicle transfer, the transfer carrier is provided with wheel supporting members by which a vehicle is lifted up. The wheel supporting members of this system are disposed on a transfer carrier and are composed of a single rod member. Furthermore, the respective wheel supporting members are made rotatable, centering around the end part of the opposite side which constitutes a pair, are provided with lifting cylinders, and are able to vertically move on the transfer carrier by elongation and contraction of the lifting cylinders. Since the wheel supporting members are rotatably driven orthogonally to the advancement direction of a vehicle, they are brought into contact with the front wheels and rear wheels of a vehicle from both sides and the wheels are put between the wheel supporting members. In this state, the vehicle is lifted by elongation of the lifting cylinders. Subsequently, the transfer carrier is caused to move toward a parking platform in this state, wherein the vehicle is placed on the platform by contraction of the lifting cylinders. WO-A-8804350 discloses a system of wheel supporting members which support the vehicle by moving in under the wheels from before and behind them and are provided with rollers. This system is suitable for parking vehicles without a driver. Summary of the invention With the first mentioned conventional transfer system, it was necessary to cause the wheel supporting member to be provided with a large holding force for vehicle wheels, whereby a large force for contacting with the vehicle wheels was needed. Therefore, there was a problem that with such a large force vehicle wheels were damaged. The present invention has been developed in view of such problems, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a vehicle transferring system which has no possibility for vehicle wheels to be damaged and vehicles are held without fail. Another object of the invention is to provide a vehicle transferring system constructed so that the wheel supporting members which are brought into contact with the wheels of a vehicle and restrict the wheels of a vehicle, are able to get u nderthe wheels of a vehicle with only a little holding power, the contacting therebetween is made reliable, and the wheels are made free from any damage. The above mentioned objects are accomplished by the teaching contained in the characterizing portion of claim 1. Brief description of the drawings: Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a prior art vehicle transferring system, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a parking platform, Fig. 3 is a front elevational view of a transfer carrier, Fig. 4 is a plan view of the transfer carrier, Fig. 5 is a plan view of the front wheel supporting members, Fig. 6 is a plan view of a vehicle path, Fig. 7 is a partially broken plan view of a wheel supporting member according to the invention, Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of the wheel supporting member of Fig. 7, Fig. 9 is a plan view and Fig. 10 a side elevational view for explaining the operation of the wheel supporting members according to the invention, Fig. 11 to 14 are plan views and Fig. 15 to 17 side elevational views for explaining the operation of the entire system, Fig. 18 is a plan view showing another preferred embodiment of the system, Fig. 19 is a plan view of a vehicle path showing another preferred embodiment thereof, and Fig. 20 is a side elevational view for explaining the transfer carrier, which shows the application range of wheel bases. Fig. 1 shows an elevating apparatus 22 being elevated and lowered, moving a transfer carrier to a parking platform 20 at a prescribed floor layer shown in Fig. 2, wherein the elevating apparatus 22 is linked with a winch (not illustrated) via wires 16. A U-shaped vehicle path 1 is rotatably placed on the elevating apparatus 22, and a slider 2 having a transfer carrier 5 is attached to said vehicle path 1. Said slider 2 is reciprocatably mounted in said vehicle path 1 via rollers 3 provided inside the vehicle path 1. The reciprocating movements of said slider 2 are driven by a transfer motor 6 attached on said vehicle path 1. Therefore, said slider 2 has a rack 8 formed at the underside thereof, and the rack 8 is engaged with a gear 7 at the rotatating shaft side of the motor 6. Said transfer carrier 5 loads a vehicle and is provided at both sides thereof with rollers 4 rolling on and being brought into contact with the inside of the slider 2, whereby said transfer carrier 5 is able to reciprocate by the rolling movements of these rollers 4. Fig.3 and Fig.4 show said transfer carrier 5, where a chain 10 is connected to the underside thereof. Said chain 10 is endlessly suspended with the vehicle path 1 and at the same time is wound in a sprocket 9 (see Fig.1) rotatably attached to the underside of the slider 2. Therefore, since the slider 2 is caused to move by driving of the transfer motor 6 and the movement thereof is transmitted to the transfer carrier 5 via the sprocket 9 and chain 10, whereby said transfer carrier 5 is able to reciprocate. By this movement, the transfer carrier 5 comes on the parking platform 20 (see Fig.2) along with the slider 2. In Fig.1, 17 is a slider roller attached to the underside of the slider 2, and 24 is a transfer roller attached to the underside of the transfer carrier 5. Either of them rolls and moves on the bottom plate of the parking platform 20 when the transfer carrier 5 comes thereon. Two pairs of front wheel supporting members 40,41 which correspond to the left and right front wheels 31 of a vehicle 30, and two pair of rear wheel supporting members 42,43 which correspond to the left and right rear wheels 32 of said vehicle 30 are attached to the transfer carrier 5. These wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 which constitute pairs are vertically movable by wheel supporting member lifting cylinders 14 secured at the underside thereof, and all the wheel supporting members are constructed so as to be simultaneously elevated and lowered in the vertical direction. Furthermore, they are rotatably linked with each other by wheel supporting member cylinders 13. The respective wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are able to be set at a position orthogonal to or parallel with the vehicle incoming direction. As shown in Fig.5 and Fig.6, the front wheel supporting members 40,41 are installed on a movable table 21 which supports the same. The movable table 21 is screwed with a spiral rotating shaft 12 which is driven and rotated by an adjusting motor 11 secured to the transfer carrier 5 and is able to move on slide rails 23 of the transfer carrier 5 by driving of the adjusting motor 11. With this construction, since the front wheel supporting members 40,41 are able to move in the range of distance D, they are able to match the wheel intervals of various kinds of vehicles. The front wheel supporting members 40,41 and rear wheel supporting members 42,43 rotate by driving of the wheel supporting member cylinders 13, and by the rotation of the wheel supporting members, the wheel supporting members are brought into contact with the front wheels 31 and rear wheels 32 in order to hold and restrict the front wheels 31 and rear wheels 32. Therefore, the wheel supporting member cylinders 13 constitutes a contacting means by which the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are brought into contact with the front wheels 31 and rear wheels 32 of a vehicle 30, and the wheel supporting members 40,42 are provided with a sensor (not illustrated) which detects a contacting of wheels with each of the wheel supporting members. Fig.7 and Fig.8 show one of the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 which are identical to each other. Therefore, in Fig.7 and Fig.8, a wheel supporting member of the preferred embodiment is given 50 as a reference number, which is substituted for the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 in the description herein. The wheel supporting member 50 is provided with a shaft 51 linked with a piston of one of the wheel supporting member cylinders 13, and a tubular member 52 which is rotatably mounted outside the shaft 51. The tubular member 52 is brought into contact with the wheels 31,32 of a vehicle 30 and is rotatable on the shaft 51 via bearings 53,54. When the wheel supporting member 50 having such a structure is brought into contact with the wheels 31,32 of a vehicle 30, it is possible to perform a contacting with the wheels 31,32 without fail because the outer tubular member 52 is rotated. Fig.9 and Fig.10 shows actions of the wheel supporting member 50, wherein when the wheel supporting member 50 is rotated by driving of the wheel supporting member cylinder 13 and is brought into contact with the front wheels 31 (as with the rear wheels 32), the tubular member 52 is rotated. For this reason, as shown with dashed lines in the drawings, the wheel supporting member 50 gets in under the wheels 31 and is reliably brought into contact with the wheels 31. Therefore, since the wheel supporting member 50 is brought into contact with the wheels 31 without fail, it is possible to secure a sufficient holding force when lifting the vehicle 30, as described later. Furthermore, the wheels are made free from any damage. Still furthermore, in a case where the wheel supporting member 50 is used as wheel stoppers when the vehicle 30 is caused to ride on the vehicle path 1 described later, since the tubular member 52 is rotatated in line with rotations of the wheels 31 of vehicle 30, the wheels 31 rotate idly. Therefore, the vehicle 30 will never go beyond the wheel supporting member 50, and the safety is secured. As Fig. 11 through Fig. 16 show, when a vehicle comes in, the front wheel supporting member 40 placed forward of the vehicle is positioned orthogonally to the incoming direction of vehicle 30 and the other wheel supporting members 41, 42, 43 are located at positions parallel to the vehicle incoming direction, whereby the vehicle incoming is made easier. A vehicle which comes in at an excessive speed is suppressed at a prescribed position by the wheel supporting member 40. In this state, a vehicle 30 comes in, and the rear wheel supporting member 42 is driven and rotated to be located at a position orthogonal to the vehicle incoming direction, as shown in Fig.12, at the moment when the front wheels 31 passed the rear wheel supporting member 42. Thereby, the front wheels 31 are brought into contact with the front wheel supporting member 40 as shown in Fig.13, and the movable table 21 is moved in this state by the sensor signals in order to cause the wheel supporting members 40,41 to be moved integrally therewith. And the wheel supporting members 40,41 are caused to stop by the sensor signals at the moment when the rear wheels 32 are brought into contact with the rear wheel supporting member 42. By movement of the front wheel supporting members 40,41, the wheel supporting members are able to match the wheel intervals of various kinds of vehicles. As shown in Fig.14, in this state, the front wheel supporting member 41 and rearwheel supporting member 43 are driven and rotated by wheel supporting member operating cylinders 13 and are located orthogonally to the vehicle incoming direction and are brought into contact with the rear parts of the front and rear wheels 31,32, whereby the vehicle is stopped and fixed by the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43. While fixing the vehicle, the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are securely in contact with the wheels 31,32 and hold and restrict the wheels. Next, the vehicle is moved to an appointed floor layer, where the vehicle is parked, by moving an elevating apparatus 22. As shown in Fig.15, the wheel supporting member lifting cylinders 14 of the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are driven in order to simultaneously lift the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43, whereby the vehicle 30 is lifted together with the front and rear wheels 31,32. Fig.16 is a view showing the states where the transfer motor 6 is driven. The slider 2 is caused to move toward the parking platform 20 via a gear 7 and rack 8. When said slider 2 is guided and moved by the rollers 3, the transfer carrier 5 moves in the right direction on the slider 2 via a chain 10 by rotations of a sprocket 2 of said slider 2. By the movement, the transfer carrier 5 comes on the parking platform 20 togetherwith the slider 2, and the slider rollers 17 and transfer rollers 24 move on the bottom of the parking platform 20 and reach an appointed parking position. Where the vehicle is caused to arrive at the appointed parking position, the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are lowered by driving the wheel supporting member cylinders 14 to cause the vehicle 30 to be parked at the appointed position. Thereafter, the other wheel supporting members 41,42,43 are located at positions parallel to the vehicle incoming direction of the vehicle 30 in such a state where the front wheel supporting member 40 is located orthogonally to the vehicle incoming direction, whereby the fixing state of the wheels is released (as in Fig.11). Then, the slider 2 is moved via the gear 7 and rack 8 by driving the transfer motor 6. At this time, the transfer carrier 5 is moved in the left direction via a chain 10 by rotations of the sprocket 9 of the slider 2. Thus, the respective wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 and transfer carrier 5 return to the original position in the elevating apparatus 22 together with the slider 22, and at the same time the position of the movable table 21 corresponding to the wheel base of the vehicle wh ich is now caused to come in and to be parked is stored in a memory means. Furthermore, the elevating apparatus 22 is returned to the vehicle incoming position and the adjusting motor 11 is driven in order to cause both the movable table 21 and the front wheel supporting members 40,41 to retreat to an appointed position, whereby the standby for subsequent vehicle incoming is enabled. When carrying out a vehicle, the elevating apparatus 22 is moved to the parking floor of a vehicle 30 to be taken out, and the slider 2 is moved to the parking platform 20 via the gear 7 and rack 8 by driving of the transfer motor 6 and at the same time the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are also moved to the parking platform 20 together with the transfer carrier 5 by a sprocket 9 and chain 10. At this time, the front wh eel supporting member 40 is located orthogonally to the vehicle incoming direction by driving the wheel supporting member cylinders 13 while the other wheel supporting members 41,42,43 are located parallel to the incoming direction of vehicle 30 (See Fig.11). The transfer carrier 5 is moved in the right direction, and the rear wheel supporting member 42 is located orthogonally to the vehicle incoming direction by driving of the wheel supporting member cylinder 13 at the moment when the transfer carrier 5 passes the front wheels 31 (See Fig. 12). As the transfer carrier 5 further moves, the front wheel supporting member40 is brought into contact with the front wheels 31, and the front wheel supporting members 40,41 are moved in the left direction along with the movable table 21 (See Fig. 13). Then, the transfer carrier 5 stops moving at the moment when the rear wheel supporting member 42 is brought into contact with the rear wheels 32. Thereafter, the wheel supporting members 41,43 are rotated and moved to the position orthogonal to the vehicle incoming direction in order to fix the front and rear wheels 31, 32 (See Fig. 14). In this case, such a method may be also available where the movable table 21 is moved to the position of the front and rear wheels 31,32 of the vehicle, which is stored in memory when causing the vehicle to come in, and the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are rotated and moved to the position orthogonal to the vehicle incoming direction at the moment when the movement of the transfer carrier 5 onto the parking platform is completed, whereby the front and rear wheels 31,32 are fixed. The respective wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are simultaneously lifted by driving the wheel supporting member lifting cylinders 14 in this state, and the vehicle 30 is lifted. Under this condition, the slider 2 is moved to the elevating apparatus 22 by driving the transfer motor 6 and the transfer wheel supporting member 5 is also moved to the elevating apparatus 22 by a sprocket and chain, and simultaneously the vehicle 30 which is lifted by the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 is caused to move onto the vehicle path 1. Thereafter, the wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are lowered at an appointed position, thereby causing the vehicle 30 to be placed on the vehicle path 1. Next, the elevating apparatus 22 is moved to the vehicle incoming inlet, wherein the vehicle path 1 on the elevating apparatus 22 is rotated to cause the front side of the vehicle 30 to be turned to the inlet side. The respective wheel supporting members 40,41,42,43 are rotated and located at a position parallel to the vehicle incoming direction, whereby the fixing state of the front and rear wheels 31,32 is released to carry out the vehicle 30. Thereafter, the movable table 21 of the front wheel supporting members 40,41 is moved to the original position via a spiral swivel shaft 12 by driving of the adjusting motor 11. The vehicle path 1 on the elevating apparatus 22 is rotated to stand by for the incoming of subsequent vehicles. Thus, a vehicle is carried in and out. If the wheel supporting member 43 is held at the wheel stopping position when carrying out the vehicle, it is possible to prevent the vehicle from an erroneous starting toward the back. Fig. 17 shows a preferred embodiment of a wheel supporting member according to the invention. A wheel supporting member 60 is provided with a linkage rod 61 connected to the wheel supporting member cylinder 13 and a contacting rod 62 attached to the linkage rod 61. The linkage rod 61 is moved on the transfer carrier 5 in the vehicle incoming direction and in direction orthogonal thereto by driving of the wheel supporting member cylinder 13, but the linkage rod 61 itself does not rotate. The contacting rod 62 is rotatably mounted along the lengthwise direction of said linkage rod 61. This contacting rod 62 is disposed at a corner at the wheel 31 side at the linkage rod 61, wherein the contacting 61 confronts the wheels 31 of a vehicle. In such a construction, since the contacting rod 62 confronts the wheels 31, it is able to turn by the contact with the wheels 31. Therefore, the entire wheel supporting member 60 is able to get in under the wheels 31, whereby the contacting with the wheels 31 is very secure and reliable, and the wheels are made free from any damage. Fig. 18 is a preferred embodiment regarding the operation of a wheel supporting member 70. The structure of a wheel supporting member 50 shown in Fig. 17 and that of a wheel supporting member 60 shown in Fig. 18 may be used as the structure of the wheel supporting member 70. Such a wheel supporting member 70 is horizontally movably attached in the X-Y direction on the transfer carrier 5, and the wheel supporting member 70 may be brought into contact with the wheels 31 of a vehicle and may be released therefrom by the movement thereof. That is, as for the wheel supporting member 70, the position A is the retreating position from a vehicle 31, and the position B is where the wheel supporting member moves in the Y direction, wherein the wheel supporting member 70 is brought into contact with the wheels 31 by further moving thereof from the position B in the X direction. Namely, with such a horizontal movement, it is possible to bring the wheel supporting members into contact with the wheels 31. Fig. 19 is a plan view of a vehicle path having two movable tables 21 a, 21 b which are movable in the forward and rearward direction of the transfer carrier 5 of the vehicle path 81. The front side wheel supporting members 40,41 and the rear side wheel supporting members 42,43 in the vehicle incoming direction are respectively provided on the movable tables 21 a,21 b. Each of the movabletables is driven and is causedto advance and retreat in the range of the moving strokes D and E by separate movable table motors 1.1. The movable tables 21a, 21b are provided with a front wheel sensor 82 to detect the wheels positioned at the front wheel supporting member position in the vehicle incoming direction and a rear wheel sensor 83 to detect the wheels positioned at the rear wheel supporting member position, and is further provided with a pass sensor 83 to detect that a vehicle has passed, at the vehicle incoming inlet of the transfer carrier 5. These sensors may be provided in plurality at both the left and right sides to increase their reliability. Furthermore, even though the pass sensor 84 is secured at the fixing side of the vehicle incoming inlet, the effect thereof is identical. As in Fig.11 through Fig.16, the vehicle transferring system firstly causes the wheel supporting member 40 to move to the wheel stopping position when causing a vehicle to come in. When the front wheels 31 of the incoming vehicle passes through the rear wheel sensor 83, said vehicle transferring system causes the wheel supporting member 42 to be operated to fix the wheels, and further causes the front side movable table 21 a to advance so as to escape therefrom, in response to a signal of the front wheel sensor 82 when the front wheels 31 reach the frontmost wheel supporting member 40. Still furthermore, when the rear wheel sensor 83 detects the rear wheels 32, said system causes the rear side movable table 21 b to advance so as to escape from the rear wheels. When the pass sensor 84 detects a passing of a vehicle and the front side movable table 21 a advances to an appointed position, the front and rear movable tables 21a, 21b are stopped, and at the same time the rear side wheel supporting members 41,43 are caused to perform a vehicle stopping action, whereby the front and rear wheels are held and restricted. Furthermore, when carrying out a vehicle, the carry-out action is able to be similarly performed. In this state, a vehicle is housed in the range of length of the transfer carrier 5. Since the front and rear wheels 31,32 are restricted, an appointed parking action is able to be performed as in the above description at appointed floor layers. The front and rear movable tables 21 a, 21 bare drawn near each other in advance, and a stoppage is indicated to the vehicle side when the pass sensor 84 detects a passing of a vehicle when carrying in a vehicle, or the transfer carrier 5 is caused to advance to the extreme position of the parking platform, and the front and rear movable tables 21 a, 21b are caused to retreat until the front wheel sensor 82 and rear wheel sensor 83 detect the wheels 31,32, whereby it is possible to securely restrict the front and rear wheels 31,32 without fail. Fig.20 is a side view for explanation of a vehicle transferring system, which shows the application range of a wheel base. Thus, since the front and rear movable tables 21a,21b respectively have the movement strokes D and E, in the vehicle transferring system according to the invention, it is possible to utilize the range of length of the transfer carrier to the maximum in vehicles in which the wheel arrangement is different from each other, regardless of the size of the wheel base of vehicle, and to match a wide range of vehicles. In this example where the front movement stroke Dot the movable tables 21 a, 21 b is 645mm and the rear movement stroke E is 450mm, the vehicle transferring system is applicable to vehicles Having its wheel base of 1,920mm at the minimum W1 and 3,015mm at the maximum W2.

Claims: A vehicle transferring system comprising: A plurality of wheel supporting members (40,41,42,43) which are in contact with the respective wheels (31,32) of a vehicle (30) from before and behind the wheels (31,32) to hold and restrict them or are-driven to a position retreating from the wheels (31,32); a transfer carrier (5) on which the wheel supporting members (40,41,42,43) are vertically moveably provided and which is movable in the entering and exiting directions of the vehicle (30) and lifting means (14) for lifting the vehicle (30) from the transfer carrier (5) through the wheels supporting members (40,41,42,43), whereby the frontmost wheel supporting member (40) in relation to the vehicle entering and the rearmost wheel supporting member (40) in relation to the vehicle exiting may be moved to a wheel holding position while the other wheel supporting members (41,42,43) may in each case be moved to a retreating position, wherein said transfer carrier (5) is provided with a movable table (21a) which is movable in the forward and backward direction, onto which the front wheel supporting members (40,41) for the vehicle entering (30) are attached, being characterized in that said wheel supporting members (40,41,42,43) are provided with means for rolling such as tubular member (52) or a contacting rod (62) between the parts which are in contact with the wheels (31,32) and the means for rolling are enabled for wheel holding actions individually before and behind the wheels (31,32) and said transfer carrier (5) is provided with a front wheel sensor (82) and a rear wheel sensor (83) for detecting the wheels (31,32) at the wheel holding and restricting position of the wheel supporting members (40,41) so that the movable table (27) may be advanced by detection signals of these sensors (82,83) in accordance with the wheelbase of the vehicle (30) and wherein said transfer carrier (5) is further provided with a movable table (21b) which is movable in the forward and backward direction, onto which the rear wheel supporting members (42,43) for the entering vehicle are attached, and a passage sensor (84) for detecting passage of th rear and of the vehicle through the marginal point for the vehicle at the entrance of the transfer carrier (5) so that the movable tables (21a,21b) may be advanced by signals of the passage Sensor (84) in accordance with the overall length and wheelbase of the vehicle.

Inventors: KITAMURA AKIO, KITAMURA, AKIO, Kitamura, Akio, c/o Giken Seisakusho Co., Ltd.
Applicants: GIKEN SEISAKUSHO KK, GIKEN SEISAKUSHO CO. LTD.
Application year: 1996
Main classification: E04H6
IPC codes: E04H6