Patent ID: 7959396

Claim:
An automated warehouse comprising: a rack; a stacker crane that travels along the rack to transfer an article, the stacker crane including a mast, a travel motor and an elevation motor provided in a cart, an elevation frame that is elevated and lowered along the mast by the elevation motor, and a transfer apparatus provided on the elevation frame; means for moving the transfer apparatus relative to the elevation frame, in a travel direction of the stacker crane; and control means for controlling the means for moving and for controlling the travel motor, to move the transfer apparatus toward a front side of the stacker crane at a time of controlling the travel motor to move the stacker crane along the rack in a horizontal direction to transfer an article to a front end of a travel route of the stacker crane, and for controlling the means for moving to move the transfer apparatus toward a back side of the stacker crane at a time of controlling the travel motor to move the stacker crane along the rack in a horizontal direction to transfer an article to a rear end of the travel route of the stacker crane, wherein the mast of the stacker crane has a gate shape and includes support columns provided at both front and rear ends of the cart in the travel direction of the stacker crane, the mast having a width larger than a front space of one rack, and wherein the elevation motor and the travel motor are provided in the cart at positions between the support columns of the mast such that the elevation motor and the travel motor do not extend outside an area defined between the support columns of the mast, and respective output axes of the elevation motor and the travel motor are positioned horizontally and in parallel to each other.