Pallet Racking system which allows the user to lower or heighten the racking to actual pallet heights. This in done manually at the moment-extremely time-consuming, which means that warehouses are not taking full advantage of the space available. Each bay position is hydraulic operated with this system, so that any bay can be tailored to real pallet height, allowing more pallets to be put in the floor square footage available.-- PaddyPat, Aug 27 2003 try these people http://www.1stop-ma...ling-equipment.com/ [ato_de, Oct 04 2004] there are several systems in existence that fit your criteria. What you have failed to consider is the fact that hydrulic lifting systems are very expensive, both in initial investment and maintenance costs. Much cheaper to lease or purchase a bigger warehouse.-- ato_de, Aug 27 2003 I have seen this in NY city hotels and Boston South Train Station. Both implementations looked like adapted lifts from a car shop. They were slow, clumsy and certainly expensive so [ato]'s argument applied. On the other hand, I saw a ware house system where a single automated forklift moved multi ton machine parts between simple shelves. The owner said the automated system cost a fraction of a regular forklift and driver, so there may be a way.-- kbecker, Aug 27 2003 As I deal with robotics and automation on a daily basis, I don't see the height of an upper level pallet stack as a problem. The height can be a known value which is manually entered, or measured by the system itself, and tended to autonomously.
Many control systems that are currently available would manage this application without any modification whatsoever.
On the other hand, if you were looking to apply this type of system without purchasing the (not-so-expensive) software to run it, you could use a simple photo-sensor (just like the ones you find at the base of almost every garage door opener installation) to alert the system of a possible obstruction.
As for the cost of this type of system, some facilities may find it justifiable. Many buildings have much more interior height than is actually used, and there may simply be no practical way for such facilities to re-locate or expand.
I'm sure this is already baked to some degree though...-- X2Entendre, Aug 27 2003 random, halfbakery