Car park

Abstract

A car park (or other storage facility), comprising: a plurality of annular parking levels; an outer structure and a central core for supporting the parking levels; and a hoisting mechanism; wherein each of the plurality of parking levels comprises a plurality of parking compartments located between the outer structure and the inner core, each of the levels is rotatable to bring a respective compartment into alignment with the hoisting mechanism so that the respective compartment can be detached from the respective level and raised or lowered by the hoisting mechanism. In one embodiment, the plurality of annular parking levels constitutes a first parking circuit and the car park includes at least one additional parking circuit comprising a further plurality of annular parking levels, wherein the first parking circuit and the additional parking circuit are coaxial.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a car park or parking garage, and to a storage facility. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Existing multilevel car parks provide multiple parking compartments or platforms, each generally accessible by means of a sequence of ramps joining each level. The ramps may be essentially straight or, in some existing car parks, spiral. The ramps, however, consume a substantial amount of space that ideally would be devoted to parking compartments. [0003] This problem has been addressed in some existing car parks by providing a multilevel car park with one or more hoists, for transporting the cars to the parking compartments. This reduces or eliminates the need for ramps. For example, CH 686,896 discloses a car park comprising a silo with radiating parking compartments at each level. The parking compartments at any particular level form an annulus. In the centre of the silo—within the annuluses—is a central shaft with a hoist for ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] It is an object of the present invention to provide a car park in which a higher parking density can be achieved in an alternative to existing approaches.

[0015] Thus, in the former of these embodiments each parking compartment is moved through the shortest distance between levels, but in the latter embodiment a reduced lifting force can be used by taking advantage of the mechanical advantage provided by employing a spiral motion.

[0018] In one embodiment, the car park has multiple entrance levels so that cars may enter said car park more quickly. Preferably the car park exit corresponds with the car park entrance, but this need not be the case; for example, the car park exit could be located in a different level from the car park entrance so that a car can be moved through the exit for exiting while another car enters the entrance in anticipation of being moved to a suitable parking location.

Problems solved by technology

The ramps, however, consume a substantial amount of space that ideally would be devoted to parking compartments.

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