Design News for Mechanical and Design Engineers

Haag's company, Robotic Parking, Inc (Pinellas Park, FL) faced multiple challenges when building the compact parking structures. First, they had to find a means of reliably moving cars that would not obstruct the pallets upon which cars are moved.

Designers considered using hydraulics as the workhorse for moving the heavy loads weighing several thousand pounds each. However, engineers were concerned about hydraulic leaks. Haag was also worried that hydraulic hoses might get caught in the robotic carrier modules as cars moved through the structure.

The company's engineers found solutions to their engineering challenges by selecting ActionJac™worm gear screw jacks from Nook Industries (Cleveland, OH). Nook engineers modified three- and five-ton upright ball screw jacks to comply with space constraints. The screw jacks move pallets containing vehicles onto the lower carrier module and transfer vehicles to the vertical lift transporter where the palletized vehicles are moved to spaces within the upper parking matrix.

The ActionJac screw jacks lift loads from 1/4 to 20 tons and are guaranteed for five years, which helped alleviate concern at Robotic Parking about reliability. The screw jacks also operate within confined spaces measuring just a few inches, eliminating entanglement and interference dangers.