AUTOMATED WORK CENTER AND METHOD

摘要

An automated work center for use in materials handling operations is disclosed. The work center includes a randomly accessible vertically moving temporary storage queue (11) for receiving containers (25) that hold material goods. A fixed loading ramp (20) is arranged to receive containers (20) from an external system and to load the received containers onto the storage queue (11) A work area (5) having a plurality of rotatable work tables (7)provides an gives the operator access to the containers. A delivery system (14) transfers containers between the storage queue (11) and the work tables (7) and a takeaway system (16) transfers containers between the work area and the conveyor network. An automated control system (17) coordinates the delivery of containers between the temporary storage queue (11) and the work area (5.) A consolidation queue (18) having a multiplicity of vertically spaced shelfs may be disposed opposite the work tables (7) to facilitate the consolidation of ordered goods.