The invention concerns a device (
In combination with a modular design, such that this device can be quickly and easily mounted, dismantled and remounted, this is a less costly alternative for the indoor car parks, parking silos, multi-storeyed car parks and similar systems with a higher utilisation of space.
Private vehicles are parked on the road, in parking lots, in garages, multi-storeyed car parks or also in access-controlled automated parking systems. In the typical multi-storeyed car parks, only about 40% of the ground area and around 30% of the enclosed volume can be used for parking the private vehicles. While an average automobile is about 1.7 m wide, 1.6 m high and 4.4.m long, which results in a cubic volume of around 12 m3, the regular multi-storeyed car parks and parking systems include a volume of up to 80 m3 and more per vehicle. In contrast to the earlier models, the modern cars with their compact motors are no longer rectangular in their shape. These taper conically or in oval shape mainly at the front, starting from the rear-view mirror at the side, for which reason a rectangular parking area cannot be used optimally. A lot of valuable space is thus lost in the usual parking systems through entry and exit paths, manoeuvring, space for opening doors, stairs, lifts, footway, solid pillars and beams, the minimum floor height for persons, as well as escape routes, illumination and fire-extinguishing systems etc. Parking needs time and skill and is perceived as unpleasant.
In other systems the cars are lifted high with lifting systems, in order to save place, and then these are parked closely by staff (valet parking). This makes parking more expensive and increases the access time.
In the existing parking systems, it is necessary to drive-in the car exactly in a parking slot for parking, where the driver automatically receives instructions for cantering the vehicle on a palette. These palettes, which are needed for displacing the vehicle, show a rectangular area with the minimum length and width of the largest car to be parked, plus tolerances for inaccurate parking and manoeuvring. As such, more area is needed than the effective average ground area of the vehicle. Furthermore, before each parking these palettes must be procured or replaced, which needs a complicated mechanism and extensive control and consumes a lot of time and space.
In case of other systems with fixed platforms hanging from vertical chains, which can be seen occasionally in Asia, the enclosed space can be used only poorly and the long access time restricts the actual number of parking spots.
The known systems are designed as fixed structures, which do not permit an economical and quick parking and hence are suitable only for the long-term permanent usage. The long construction time, high investments and the long-term retention have an investment-dampening effect.
The tasks of the invention are to devise a simple technical device and an automated method to park the private vehicles quickly and economically with minimum space requirement and to retrieve them quickly for the users upon their request.
In order that the vehicles can be parked as closely and precisely as possible, taking the car in and out of the storage should be done automatically. To do this, the modern shapes and the different sizes of the cars should be taken into account for an optimum parking. To keep the usage costs below the current level, the device should be manageable with fewer persons or even without an operator, and it should have low maintenance, minimum susceptibility to faults and high reliability. In order to make the device suitable for temporarily available parcels of lands and gaps between buildings, and for temporary solutions, it should be devised in a simple modular design with little effort, which can be remounted quickly, if needed.
In order that the vehicles can be gripped mechanically, displaced and parked precisely, these must first be positioned correctly. To do this precisely and without errors, it cannot be left to the customers. Placing the vehicle must be simple. Even when the vehicle is not placed correctly, the system must fulfil its task. The first sub-task is thus to centre the vehicle automatically by mechanical means and to bring it in a uniform, precise position for the mechanical and electronic collection.
The vehicles should be moved and stored automatically through a simple technique without any means of transportation. The second sub-task is to grip the vehicles accurately and quickly by means of a method, so as to move it to the assigned position and to pull it out of this again. For this, the components must be designed in such a way that these can grip the vehicle at an appropriate point, suitable for all vehicle types, in order to place it on the platform of the lift and on the parking ramp, and finally pull the vehicle out of there again and place it on the exit ramp to be handed back to the user, when needed.
The third sub-task is to park the vehicles as closely as possible with a smart arrangement, with the least wastage of space and simple construction. The modern basic shapes and the different widths, heights, and lengths of the cars should be used optimally. By means of selected arrangement, the method, the
In order that the vehicles can be parked as closely and precisely as possible, taking the car in and out of the storage should be done automatically. To do this, the modern shapes and the different sizes of the cars should be taken into account for an optimum parking. To keep the usage costs below the current level, the device should be manageable with fewer persons or even without an operator, and it should have low maintenance, minimum susceptibility to faults and high reliability. In order to make the device suitable for temporarily available parcels of lands and gaps between buildings, and for temporary solutions, it should be devised in a simple modular design with little effort, which can be remounted quickly, if needed.
In order that the vehicles can be gripped mechanically, displaced and parked precisely, these must first be positioned correctly. To do this precisely and without errors, it cannot be left to the customers. Placing the vehicle must be simple. Even when the vehicle is not placed correctly, the system must fulfil its task. The first sub-task is thus to centre the vehicle automatically by mechanical means and to bring it in a uniform, precise position for the mechanical and electronic collection.
The vehicles should be moved and stored automatically through a simple technique without any means of transportation. The second sub-task is to grip the vehicles accurately and quickly by means of a method, so as to move it to the assigned position and to pull it out of this again. For this, the components must be designed in such a way that these can grip the vehicle at an appropriate point, suitable for all vehicle types, in order to place it on the platform of the lift and on the parking ramp, and finally pull the vehicle out of there again and place it on the exit ramp to be handed back to the user, when needed.
The third sub-task is to park the vehicles as closely as possible with a smart arrangement, with the least wastage of space and simple construction. The modern basic shapes and the different widths, heights, and lengths of the cars should be used optimally. By means of selected arrangement, the method, the In this solution, the vehicles are cantered automatically and exactly on a parking ramp by driving it on longitudinally aligned rollers (25) on the parking ramp and moving it with side guide rails (21) while driving in the vehicle at the wheels (16) in the middle of the parking ramp (
The proper positioning of the vehicle is achieved by instructing the driver to drive till an electronic and mechanical stopper, upon which a stop signal is given to him. The vehicle is now gripped mechanically, measured electronically and a computer determines a suitable parking space for the vehicle. If none is available, the driver—as in the case of a car washer—is instructed to put the steering wheel in neutral, to apply the brakes, to shift the gear to 1 or P, to leave the vehicle and to close the doors. Once this leaving has been registered electronically, any further access is barred with the help of a gate for security. As such, the vehicle is now ready to be parked and the parking ticket can be issued to the driver. To avoid delays, several such parking ramps (
As an alternative, fixed guide rails or rails with mechanical drive can also be used for cantering the vehicle. In the variant of a fixed guide rail, the car is held only within a specific limit of the lateral deviations. These guide rails are then aligned for the widest vehicle. The exact cantering is then done by the arms (forked rails) (44) of the tractor (
Traktor (
In order to manage without palettes or conveyor belts, all vehicles must be gripped at a uniform point, suitable for all models. This is done with the help of a device, the tractor (40) (
The forked rail is connected with the tractor rail via two rods (41) and a slider (43) mounted on the tractor rail with pneumatic or hydraulic actuators. This tractor rail can move over the lifting platform beyond it (31) (
Next the vehicle—rolling on the roller fingers—is pulled on to the lifting platform (
Roller Finger (
The transfer of the tensile and impact forces from the tractor (40) to the wheels and the lifting of the vehicle is resolved by the mentioned roller fingers (51). These comprise of one to two rollers (57), which carry a lifting roller (58). The rollers roll on the corresponding platform. The lifting rollers (58) serve for lifting and carrying the wheel. The lifting rollers are designed either as separate rollers or concentric on the same axis as the rollers, where these then have the form of a segment of a barrel and overlay the rollers. (Z5a, 58). In this way the contact surface of the wheels can be enlarged in small increments. The axes of the rollers have a flange (53) on both the sides. The inner flange runs in the forked rail (44), where the drive cylinder (48) is present that contracts the roller fingers. In the open position these roller fingers are held in a certain starting position by means of springs. In the closed position the fingers are mechanically anchored with the rails, in order to transfer the compression and the tensile forces of the tractor to the vehicle. The front-most roller can also be anchored fixed and hence this additional anchoring can be omitted.
The lifting platform (31) comprises of a plate fitted to the parking platform (8). This is placed on the rollers so that it can move horizontally lengthwise against the other platforms and can connect there. This can also be fixed permanently at the lift (at the lift cabin). Its shape is such that it connects centrally with the connecting platforms through the conical or rounded fronts and that the rollers travel over the platform thrusts without hitting. The lifting platform is mounted on a conventional lift (61). This leads to vertical guide rails (65) by means of an upper and lower rail (67) and stabilised. These vertical rails are fixed either (
The tractor is connected with the lifting platform by means of the mounting of the drive cylinder (48) and through the guide of the tractor rail (42). In case of a movable lifting platform design; so that the lifting platform (31) extending below the front of the vehicle can be moved vertically, it is retracted in the centre position (platform position 2). For discharging the vehicle, the vehicle is gripped in the same way with the tractor on the parking platform, pulled on to the lifting platform and the pushed on to the other side of this (platform position 3) on the exit ramp (9).
The parking platform (8) comprises of conical plates (circular discs) with fixing points for suspension or supports. To ensure that these rails do not extend in the overlapping parking areas and manoeuvring paths, these are placed in the rear part of the platform. The conically converging forms enable close parking. In this way, the rectangular base shapes overlap at the front corners and on the sides. Large vehicles can extend beyond the platform on the sides and the wheels can roll in and out on the adjacent platforms. In case of the movable lifting platform design: The selected front line of the platform enables on one hand the maximum lifting of the lifting platform, helps it in exact cantering during thrust and enables a smooth transfer of the rollers when the thrusts are transferred. Through the selected suspension of each individual platform no cross rails are necessary, and hence no vertical space is needed and the distance to the ceiling can be kept low. Possible horizontal reinforcements of the plates can be placed at the side margins, where enough space is available.
In order that the vehicles can be parked compactly with the least utilisation of space, the cars are pushed on to small, fixed parking platforms (8) in keeping with the conical or oval base forms of the front part of the cars. These are placed star-shaped in a polygon and form a circular disc. With their conically converging front section and rounding the vehicles can thus be parked compactly, in circles, with the front facing the centre point of the circle. This special compact arrangement is enabled by the automatic, without using the displacement of the vehicles done through palettes, through the cantered, exact guiding of the vehicle during parking, through the computer-assisted optimisation and allocation of the positions and through the selected design of the platforms. In this way the rectangular parking ground forms overlap and their paths overlap when the vehicles are being pushed in and pulled out. The conical form in the front and the short front section of the vehicle is used to reduce the distances accordingly. By means of the electronic measurement and gripping of the vehicle done in the angle, these are distributed in such a way on the parking platforms (8) that on the side of each broad car two small cars can be placed, such that the parking distances is further reduced. In this way, space is available only for the average vehicle width for each position and not for the biggest vehicle.
Calculations show that the optimum number of vehicles per deck is around 14 to 20. In case of a higher number the inner space of the circular discs becomes unnecessarily large. If the number of the parking platforms is less, the space in the centre becomes too small or the space requirement for the lift and the lifting platform becomes too large as compared to the usable area.
In contrast to the conventional systems and other automated parking systems with rectangular palettes, the area requirements here is reduced considerably. No movable parts are necessary on the individual parking platforms (8), which makes the design very simple.
Alternatively, the parking platforms (8) can also be shaped and mounted closely in such a way that these form a gap-less circular disc, through which the vehicles can be parked at an angle, depending upon the width of the car, side by side with the least distance. This is enabled by placing the pillars (2) widely outside and supporting the platforms on horizontal rails.
The vertical rails (71) are present in the outer part between the parking platforms. Depending on the arrangement none or only sidewise or radial horizontal rails are necessary below the platforms. In this way, the height of the floors and hence the vertical loss of space can be ignored.
The height of the individual decks i.e. the vertical distance can be decided before mounting and, if necessary, can be adjusted to the requirement with least effort. The vertical distance is to be set for the expected vehicle height to several different deck heights. Because the deck is allocated based on the values measured for the vehicle, each vehicle would require only that much height as necessary. In this way, the space utilisation efficiency is enhanced once again and the increase is about three-fold as compared to the conventional multi-storeyed car parks.
The exit ramp (9) comprises of a simple plate, on which the vehicle is pushed by the tractor in the same way as on the parking platform, but in the forward direction. After the vehicle has been pushed on to it, the exit ramp is opened and made accessible to the driver. To avoid delays while driving away, several exit ramps can be placed, which can be supplemented with connecting loading zones.
The lift shaft as well as the cover with the parking platforms comprise of elements that can be combined together. By means of a consistent modular design and the use of plug and screw connection, the mounting is quick and easy. In the reverse sequence, the assembly can be dismantled again. Optionally, the cover can also be fixed on to the walls of the building as a hanging or standing structure. The complete plant can be assembled above or also below the ground.
Given the fact that the user has no access to the decks, the emergency devices such as escape routes and fire-extinguishing systems, as also stairs, lifts, illumination and ventilation can be avoided to a large extent. The lift is based on commercial design with the technology used for lifts for carrying people and goods.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1688/04 | Oct 2004 | CH | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CH2005/000599 | 10/12/2005 | WO | 00 | 6/18/2008 |