Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
WO91/1239~ P~T/SE91/~
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Car parkin~ structure
The present invention relates to a car parking
structure. -
More particularly, the invention relates to a
car parking structure of the kind comprising a multistory
building which is provided with at least one vertical
elevator shaft and an elevator, arranged for movement
in a vertical dlrection in said shaft and having at least
one car parking space, and which has a plurality of
parking floors, each containing a plurality of car parking
spaces, arranged in a continous sequence around the ele-
vator shaft, and a plurality of movable load platforms,
which are adapted each to carry a car parked thereon,
each one of said car parking spaces being provided with
supporting and conveying means for the load platfor~s by
lS which the load platEorms may be supported in and moved
in horizontal directions between different parking spaces.
Car parking structures of said kind are previously
known, e.g. through US-A 4 768 914. A disadvantage of
these known structures is that the supply of unoccupied
load platforms to and the removal of such load platforms
from an entrance and~or exit floor must be carried out
by means of said elevator or, alternatively, the structure
has to be provided with one or more storage shafts for
unoccupied load platforms and with additional elevators
in these shafts, on which a plurality of load platforms
may be carried stacked upon each other. However, in prac-
tice, both alternatives are unfavourable.
In the first case, the time during ~hich the eleva-
tor may be utilized for the transportation of cars to
or from said entrance and/or exit floor will be substan-
tially reduced and hence, the tendency to the formation
of a queue during rush hours will increase in an annyoing
manner.
In the second case, the special storage shaEts
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WO91/1239~ PCT/SE9t/~
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for unoccupied load platforms will preclude a uniform
disposition of the various ~loors in the building and
make it impossible to provide a continous sequence of
car parking spaces around the elevator shaft on said
entrance and/or exit floor as is most desirable in order
to make it possible, when so required, to utilize this
floor as a buffert store for cars which are to be col-
lected within short or which recently have been left
and are waiting for transportation to other floors by ` ~.
means of the elevator.
The invention has for its purpose to provide a
new and improved car parkin~g structure of the kind ini- .
tially specified which eliminates or at least substan-
tially reduces the disadvantages of the prior structures
described above.
In accordance with the invention, for this purpose,
there is,proposed a structure of said kind, primarily
characterized in that it also comprises at least one
storage floor for temporarily unutilized load platforms
which is located under a parking floor provided with
an entrance and/or exit and which has a strongly reduced
height as compared to the parklng floors and contains
a plurality of storage spaced for unutilized load plat-
forms, arranged in a continous sequence around the eleva-
tor shaft and provided with supporting and conveyingmeans for the load platforms similar to the supporting
and conveying means provided at the car parking spaces,
said supporting and conveying means of at least one car
parking space on said parking floor provided with an
entrance and/or exit and of a storage space on the storage
floor located under said car parking space being mounted
on a lifting table by which an unutilized load platform
may be moved in a vertical direction between these two
spaces.
By providing the structure with at least one storage
floor of strongly reduced height and at least one lifting
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table for moving unoccupied load platforms between said
floor and an entrance and/or exit floor, as above pro-
posed, one may facilitate an extremely rapid and simple
movement of unoccupied load platforms to and from the
latter floor without utilization of the elevator and
without having to infringe upon the po~sibility of utili-
zing the entire area around the elevator shaft on this
floor as car parking spaces, when so desired Since the
storage floor may have a height of only about 3 - ~ deci-
meters, the provision of one or more such floors neithercauses any substantial increase of the total volume of
the building.
Even if the movement of unoccupied load platforms
between said storage floors and said entrance and/or
exit floor preferably is effected by means of the lifting
table, the structure may suitably be arranged to permit
a movement of unutilized load platforms to and from the
storage floor also by means of the elevator. Such a con-
struction makes it possible, when so required, to fill
the storage floor with unoccupied load platforms or to
clear it of such load platforms.
In this case, the elevator may preferably be pro-
vided with at least one space of low height for an unuti-
lized load platform under a car parking space therein.
According to a preferred embodiment of the inven-
tion, the lifting table may also be arranged to be uti-
lized for moving a load platform, having a car parked
thereon, between said parking floor provided with an
entrance and/or an exit and another adjacent parking
floor. Hereby, it is possible ~uring rush hours, to in-
crease the buffert store of cars close to the entrance
or exit, respectively, i.e. the number of cars which
are located close to the entrance or exit and which are
to be collected within short or which recently have been
left and are waiting for further transportation in the
structure by means of the elevator.
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WO91/12395 PCT/SE91/~
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207~522
Below the invention will be described in further
detail with ref erence to the accompanying diagrammatic
drawings, in which:-
Figure l shows a plan view, in section, of a car -
parking structure according to an embodiment of the inven-
tion, selected by way of example.
Figure 2 shows a side elevation of said structure,
in section taken along line II-II in Figure l, and
Figure 3 shows a perspective view of a load plat-
form, seen in an inclined direction from below.
The parking structure shown in the drawings isconstructed as a multistory building l0 containing a
plurality of floors 11 having a larger height and two
floors 12 having a substantially lower height. All floors
11 and 12 are divided into nine compartments 13 and 14,
respectively, having a rectangular cross-section as seen
in plan view. On each ~loor, these compartments are
arranged in three side-by-side raws, each containing
three compartments. The central compartments on the various
floors together form a central vertical elevator shaft
15 containing an elevator 16 which may be controllably
moved in an upward and downward direction by means of
a hoist mechanism located within an upper extension 17
of the building.
Figure l shows a section through that one floor
ll which is located on the ground level and which is
provided with an entrance opening 18 and an exit opening
l9. This floor and all other floors ll have sufficiently
large height to make it possible to utilize each of the
various compartments 13 located thereon around elevator
shaft 15 as a car parking space in which a car 20 may
be stored parked on a movable generaally rectangular load
platform 2l.
The elevator 16 may preferably contain two compart-
ments 16a, which are located one above the other and
serves as car parking spaces and which have a height
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corresponding to the height of floors 11, and, beneath
said compartments, a compartment 16b of substantially
lower height which may receive unutilized load platforms
21.
At its bottom, each one of the abovementioned
compartments 13 and 16a on floors 11 and in elevator
16, which may be used as car parking spaces, is provided
with supporting and conveying means 22, 23 for the load
platforms 21 by which said platforms may be supported
in stationary positions in said compartments and, when
so desired, moved in horizontal directions between adja-
cent compartments 13 or between a compartment 13, located
at a long side or a short side of elevator shaft 15 on
any floor 11, and a compartment 16a in elevator 16, located
on level with sa.id floor.
These supporting and conveying means 22, 23 for
load platforms 21 may be constructed in many different
ways. However, they should be such as to permit a control-
lable movement of the load platforms in the longitudinal
direction as well as in the transversal direction of
said platform. In the illustrated embodiment, the suppor-
ting means are assumed to consist of rotatably mounted
spherical balls 22 which are located in mutually perpendi-
cular raws and columns in the various compartments serving
as car parking spaces and which may project partially
into crossing guide grooves 25, formed in the lower sides
of the load platforms. The conveying means 23 may consist
of one endless conveyor chain extending in the longitudinal
direction of compartment 13 and another endless conveying
chain extending in the transversal direction of said
compartmentl each one of said chains being supported
by two chain wheels and provided with a number of drivers
which may engage with a longitudinal or transversal raw
of engagement means 26 provided on the lower side of
a load platform. Hereby, the conveying means 23 may be
utilized for controllably moving load platforms 21 in
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WO91/12395 PCT/SE91/~
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their longitudinal directions as well as in their trans-
versal directions. Additionally, they may also be utilized
for temporarily holding the load platforms in a desired
position in a car parking space on a floor 11 or in ele-
vator 16.
The two floors 12 of low height located under
floor 11 on the ground level have for their purpose to
serve as a storage for unoccupied load platforms 21.
Therefore, the various compartments 14, located around
elevator shaft 15 on floors 12, are formed as storage
spaces for temporarily unutilized load platforms and
provided with supporting and conveying means 22, 23,
corresponding to the supporting and conveying means pro-
vided on floors 11 and in elevator 16. Such supporting
and conveying me~ns 22, 23 are also provided in the lower
compartment 16b in elevator 16 which has a low height
corresponding to the height of compartments 14.
In the compartment 13, located immediately behind
entrance opening 18 and serving as a car parking space, ` .
the supporting and conveying means 22, 23 are mounted
on a lifting table 24. By means of diagramatically indica-
ted lifting means 27, this lifting table 24 may be moved
in a vertical direction from the position in flush with
the ground level, shown in full lines in Figure 2, to
anyone of the three alternative positions shown in dash-
dotted lines, where it will be located on level with
the bottom surface of one or the other one of the two low
floors 12 or the next lower floor 11. Hereby, lifting
table 2g may be utilized for moving unoccupied load plat-
forms 21 between the floor 11, located on the ground level,and the two floors 12, serving as a store for such plat-
forms. Moreover, it may also be utilized to move a load `~
platform 21, having a car parked thereon, between the
floor 11 located on the ground level and the next lower
floor 11.
