Patent ID: 8308418

Claim:
A buffer stocker comprising: a longitudinally-extending transport track adapted to move a plurality of transport vehicles horizontally along said transport track, said transport vehicles being configured for carrying, lowering, and raising a container; and a plurality of conveyor systems associated with said transport track, said plurality of conveyor systems comprising an upper-level conveyor system at a first elevation and a lower-level conveyor system at a second elevation and positioned beneath said upper-level conveyor system; said transport track including a plurality of track points longitudinally spaced along said transport track positioned for transferring a container from said transport vehicles to said upper-level conveyor system and said lower-level conveyor system, a first track point of said track points being different in location from a second track point of said track points; each of said upper-level and lower-level conveyer systems comprising a load/unload conveyor belt and a first conveyor belt operably communicating with the load/unload conveyor belt for transferring containers therebetween, said load/unload conveyor belt of said upper-level conveyor system being vertically aligned with and accessible to said first track point, and said load/unload conveyor belt of said lower-level conveyor system being vertically aligned with and accessible to said second track point, wherein said load/unload conveyor belt of said upper-level conveyor system is longitudinally offset beneath the transport track from said load/unload conveyor belt of said lower-level conveyor system; said load/unload conveyor belts of said upper-level and lower-level conveyor systems each being configured for receiving and transferring a container between one of said transport vehicles at said first or second track points and said first conveyor belt of each respective upper-level and lower-level conveyor systems, said first conveyor belts of said upper-level and lower-level conveyor systems overlapping in plan view.