JP2005347526A - Carriage - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a carriage which can position a cassette at a desired position only manually. <P>SOLUTION: Reaction force to force of a supporting section 5 which goes to a gravity direction lower part is generated in an air cylinder 4 while moving the supporting section 5 in the gravity direction, and a high reducer mechanism 9 whose reduction ratio is 1/40 is adopted, so that operator's manual capacity which is inputted from a steering wheel 12 is low even if weight of the cassette C is large, and the amount of rise and fall per one revolution of the steering wheel 12 is also increased. As a result, working can be easily and quickly performed by e.g. a woman of small capacity. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport carriage for transporting a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

A mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process is sealed in a cassette in order to prevent adhesion of foreign matters such as dust, and is transported to a mask stocker of a mask changer apparatus. The robot removes the mask from the cassette transported to the mask stocker and loads it into the exposure apparatus. However, the combined weight of a certain type of mask and cassette is 50 kg or more, and it is difficult for a single operator to hold and carry it by hand. Therefore, it is carried out by mounting a cassette containing a mask on a transfer carriage. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a transport carriage that can change the posture of a photosensitive plate to be transported.
JP 2003-140323 A

  However, the mask stocker is provided with an accommodating portion that can accommodate a plurality of cassettes, and usually the accommodating portions are arranged in the vertical direction. Accordingly, when a cassette containing a mask weighing 50 kg or more is transported, it is necessary to lift and lower the cassette from the transport carriage to the housing part at a predetermined height. However, if a crane or hoist is used, the work becomes large and takes time. On the other hand, when the cassette is transported by using the transport carriage described in Patent Document 1, there is a problem that the height position cannot be changed even if the posture of the cassette can be changed.

  On the other hand, it is also conceivable to mount a power source such as a motor on the transport carriage to raise and lower the cassette. However, the transport cart moves at random in the semiconductor manufacturing factory according to the convenience of the process, and therefore, moving while dragging the power cord that supplies power to the motor may hinder the work. . On the other hand, if a battery is installed to be cordless, the weight of the transport carriage increases, and the burden on the operator who pushes it increases. Furthermore, when an operator works alone, there is a problem that it is difficult to know where to move the cassette up and down.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transport carriage capable of positioning a cassette at a desired position only by manual operation.

The transport carriage according to the first aspect of the present invention is a transport carriage for transporting a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process.
A base portion having wheels;
It is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to the base part, and a support part that supports the cassette;
An operation unit for inputting manual force;
A transmission mechanism for transmitting manual force input from the operation unit to the support unit;
And a reaction force portion that generates a reaction force against a force of the support portion directed downward in the gravitational direction while the support portion is moved in the gravity direction.

A transport carriage according to a second aspect of the present invention is a transport carriage for transporting a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process.
A base portion having wheels;
It is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to the base part, and a support part that supports the cassette;
It is extendable from the support part, and has an index part for adjusting the position of the support part in the direction of gravity to a target position.

  The transport cart of the first aspect of the present invention is a transport cart that transports a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to a base portion having wheels and the base portion, A support unit that supports the cassette, an operation unit that inputs a manual force, a transmission mechanism that transmits a manual force input from the operation unit to the support unit, and at least the support unit is moved in the direction of gravity. , And a reaction force portion that generates a reaction force against a force directed downward in the direction of gravity of the support portion, so that the manual force of the operator input from the operation portion is low even if the weight of the cassette is large For example, even a weak woman can easily work. Further, if the reaction force portion is an air cylinder or the like that generates the reaction force using fluid pressure, no electric power is required, so that the transport carriage can be made simple and low cost.

  If the transmission mechanism prevents the transmission of force from the support portion to the operation portion, it is preferable because the support portion can be stopped at an arbitrary position.

  On the other hand, the transport carriage of the second aspect of the present invention is a transport carriage for transporting a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to a base portion having wheels and the base portion. And having a support part for supporting the cassette, and an index part for adjusting the position of the support part in the gravitational direction to a target position, so that the index part is used. Thus, the support portion can be adjusted to an arbitrary height position, and the cassette can be smoothly loaded and unloaded.

  By providing a positioning member for positioning in the direction crossing the direction of gravity in the transport carriage and the delivery section of the cassette, the support section can be aligned with the delivery section, and the cassette can be lowered and lowered. Furthermore, it can be performed smoothly.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a top view of a transport carriage according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a view of the transport carriage of FIG. 1 taken along line II-II and viewed in the direction of the arrow. In FIG. 2, the vertical direction is the direction of gravity.

  In FIG. 2, a housing 2, which is a base portion with four wheels 1 attached to the lower surface, has a handle 3 at the left end in the figure. Four air cylinders 4 are arranged in the housing 2, and the telescopic rod 4 a protrudes from the upper surface of the housing 2, and the upper end thereof is in contact with the lower surface of the rectangular plate-like support portion 5. The air cylinder 4 gives upward force to the telescopic rod 4a with the fluid pressure accumulated therein, and the fluid pressure can be adjusted using an adjustment valve 16 described later.

  Four guide shafts 6 are implanted on the lower surface of the support portion 5, and the lower ends of the guide shafts 6 are guided into the housing 2 while being guided by the guides 7. A jack 8 is arranged at the center of the upper surface of the housing 2, and the upper end of the screw shaft 8 a is in contact with the lower surface of the support portion 5. The input portion 8 b of the jack 8 is connected to a reduction mechanism 9 including a gear pair (not shown) (having a reduction ratio of about 1/40) via a coupling 10, and the reduction mechanism 9 is connected via a coupling 11. It is connected to a handle 12 that is an operation unit. As is well known, the jack 8 can expand and contract (up and down) the screw shaft 8a by the force input from the input portion 8b, but the force applied to the screw shaft 8a is caused by its tooth surface friction. Therefore, the signal is not transmitted to the input unit 8b. The jack 8 and the speed reduction mechanism 9 constitute a transmission mechanism.

  A pair of rails 5a are provided on the upper portion of the support portion 5 so as to extend in the left-right direction in FIG. 2, and the slide table 13 is supported movably along the rails 5a in a form guided by the guides 13a. ing. On the slide table 13, a cassette C containing a mask M is mounted. The cassette C has a plurality of wheels T on the lower surface, and is easy to move when moving from the slide table 13 to the mask stocker MS.

  FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing the side surface of the support portion 5. In FIG. 3, a pair of links 15, 15 that are coupled to the slide base 13 by pins 15 p and can be pivoted are arranged. A rod-shaped indicator portion 14 is pivotally attached to the tips of the links 15 and 15 by a pin 14p. Therefore, when the links 15 and 15 are rotated counterclockwise in the drawing, the indicator portion 14 is accommodated in the gap between the support portion 5 and the slide base 13 (see FIG. 3A). On the other hand, when the links 15 and 15 are rotated clockwise in the figure, the indicator portion 14 is translated laterally and forwardly from the gap between the support portion 5 and the slide base 13 (FIG. 3). (See (b)).

  A pair of tapered surfaces 2a and 2a as positioning members are formed at the lower end of the right side surface in FIG. An adjustment valve 16 connected to the air cylinder 4 is disposed at the lower end of the left side surface of the housing 2 in FIG.

  Next, the operation of the transport cart according to this embodiment will be described. The operator moves to a predetermined mask stocker MS while holding the handle 3 and pushing the transport carriage loaded with the cassette C. At this time, it is preferable to set the support portion 5 at the lowest position because the center of gravity is lowered and the conveyance is stabilized. In addition, it is preferable that the indicator portion 14 be accommodated below the slide table 13 because it does not interfere with the conveyance (see FIG. 3A).

  Rubber rollers GR and GR are disposed below the mask stocker MS so as to face the tapered surfaces 2a and 2a of the transport carriage. The distance between the rubber rollers GR and GR is a position where the transport carriage is in the transport position and centered with respect to the transport location of the mask stocker MS when the rubber rollers GR and GR are in contact with the tapered surfaces 2a and 2a, respectively. Therefore, even when the operator has moved the transport carriage to a position slightly deviated from the transport location of the mask stocker MS, the positioning can be appropriately performed by the tapered surfaces 2a and 2a only by bringing the transport carriage to the mask stocker MS. Can be done.

  After bringing the transport carriage to the transport position, the operator raises the support base 5 in accordance with the transport location (here, the shelf MS1) where the cassette C is desired to be transported among the plurality of transport locations of the mask stocker MS. Specifically, when the handle 12 is rotated by the operator's hand, the rotational force decelerated via the speed reduction mechanism 9 is input to the jack 8 and the screw shaft 8 is extended upward. Thereby, the support part 5 which mounts the cassette C raises. At this time, the air cylinder 4 which is a reaction force portion generates a reaction force that balances the force (the weight of the support base 5, slide base 13, cassette C, mask M, etc.) downward from the support portion 5 in the direction of gravity. Therefore, even if the worker is a weak woman, it is easy to move up and down.

  When the shelf MS1 approaches, the operator rotates the links 15 and 15 so that the indicator portion 14 protrudes in front of the transport carriage (see FIG. 3B), and further raises the support base 5. When the index part 5 comes into contact with the lower surface of the shelf MS1, it can be seen that the horizontal positions of the upper surface of the slide table 13 and the upper surface of the shelf MS1 coincide. Therefore, the operator pushes the slide base 13 to the right in FIG. 2 and contacts the shelf MS1 of the mask stocker MS. As a result, there is no gap between the slide table 13 and the shelf MS1, so if the operator pushes the cassette C onto the shelf MS1, the cassette C moves smoothly to the shelf MS1 due to the rolling of the wheels T. When the cassette C is placed on the transport carriage from the mask stocker MS, the operation may be performed in the reverse procedure.

  According to the present embodiment, while moving the support portion 5 in the direction of gravity, the air cylinder 4 generates a reaction force against the force of the support portion 5 directed downward in the gravitational direction, and the reduction mechanism 9 as high as 1/40 is provided. Since it is adopted, even if the weight of the cassette C is large, the manual force of the operator input from the handle 12 can be low, and the lifting / lowering amount per rotation of the handle 12 also increases. Even women can work easily and quickly. The support 5 after the cassette C has been transported is lightened. In this case, the adjustment valve 16 reduces the pressure of the air cylinder 4 to reduce the amount of protrusion of the telescopic rod 4a. Can be easily lowered.

  Furthermore, according to this Embodiment, the support part 5 can be adjusted to arbitrary height positions using the index part 14 for adjusting the height position of the support part 5 (slide table 13) to a target position. The cassette C can be loaded and unloaded smoothly.

  The present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can of course be changed or improved within the scope of the invention. For example, the indicator unit 14 may be configured to be movable in the axial direction instead of being configured to move in parallel by the parallel link, and thereby be configured to be extendable and retractable from the support unit 5.

It is a top view of the conveyance trolley concerning this embodiment. It is the figure which cut | disconnected the conveyance trolley | bogie of FIG. 1 by the II-II line | wire, and looked at the arrow direction. It is a perspective view which expands and shows the side surface of the support part.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wheel 2 Case 2a Tapered surface 3 Handle 4 Air cylinder 4a Telescopic rod 5 Support part 5a Rail 6 Guide shaft 7 Guide 8 Jack 8a Shaft 8b Input part 9 Deceleration mechanism 10 Coupling 11 Coupling 12 Handle 13 Slide stand 14 Index part 15 Parallel link 16 Control valve

Claims (4)

In a transport cart that transports a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process,
A base portion having wheels;
It is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to the base part, and a support part that supports the cassette;
An operation unit for inputting manual force;
A transmission mechanism for transmitting manual force input from the operation unit to the support unit;
And a reaction force portion that generates a reaction force against a force of the support portion directed downward in the gravitational direction while the support portion is moved in the gravitational direction.   The conveyance cart according to claim 1, wherein the transmission mechanism prevents transmission of force from the support portion toward the operation portion. In a transport cart that transports a cassette containing a mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process,
A base portion having wheels;
It is movable in the direction of gravity with respect to the base part, and a support part that supports the cassette;
A transport carriage characterized by being extendable and contractable from the support part and having an index part for adjusting the position of the support part in the direction of gravity to a target position. The conveyance cart according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a positioning member that performs positioning in a direction intersecting a gravitational direction between the conveyance cart and the transfer portion of the cassette.

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