US 12,378,069 B2
Automated storage tower with carousel
Trond Austrheim, Etne (NO); and Ingvar Fagerland, Kolnes (NO)
Assigned to Autostore Technology AS, Nedre Vats (NO)
Appl. No. 17/906,434
Filed by Autostore Technology AS, Nedre Vats (NO)
PCT Filed Mar. 23, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/057502
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 15, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/197942, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 7, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 20200391 (NO), filed on Mar. 31, 2020; and application No. 20200752 (NO), filed on Jun. 26, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0116192 A1, Apr. 13, 2023
Int. Cl. B65G 1/04 (2006.01)
CPC B65G 1/045 (2013.01) [B65G 2812/99 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A storage tower for storing storage containers, wherein the storage tower comprises:
a vertically extending supporting structure having a vertical axis, and
m horizontally oriented container supports arranged along the vertical axis of the supporting structure and supported by container supporting frameworks, the container supports being distributed at vertical intervals and m being a positive integer of 2 or more, to provide different levels where storage containers can be stored,
wherein each container support is rotationally connected to the support structure and configured to support at least one storage container,
wherein each level of a number l of the container supports, l being a positive integer of 1 to m−1, that are arranged above the remaining levels of m−l container supports is configured to display at least one opening having a size being at least a maximum horizontal cross section of the storage containers to be stored,
wherein the l container supports are configured to rotate about the vertical axis independently such that at least one opening of each level of the l container supports is vertically alignable with at least one opening of the other levels of the l container supports by individual rotation of the container supports; and
wherein each container support comprises vertical guide plates arranged at least partly around the perimeter of each of the at least one opening, wherein the vertical guide plates are configured to align a storage container being lifted or lowered into the respective opening in the horizontal plane.