JP2000025808A - Opener - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a door from being dropped without using any vacuum pad. SOLUTION: This opening mechanism is comprised of a latch key inserted into a latch key insertion hole of a door to latch the door and a position setting pin 19 inserted into a door position setting pin insertion hole 18, setting a position of the door and supporting it. When the door is latched with the latch key, there is provided a position setting pin driving lever 21 for lifting up the position setting pin 19 in such a way that a circumferential edge of the position setting pin insertion hole 18 may be supported from below.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an opener, and more particularly, to an opener for opening and closing a door of a thin substrate storage cassette for storing a thin substrate such as a silicon wafer or a liquid crystal substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In performing processes such as alignment and sputtering for thin substrates such as silicon wafers,
It is needless to say that it is important to keep the work room highly clean, but keeping the whole work room highly clean is not preferable in terms of cost and the like. Therefore, usually, the working room is a high-clean space with a high degree of cleanness in which processing devices such as an alignment device and a sputtering device are arranged, and a thin substrate storage cassette in which a thin substrate as a processing target is stored in a high-clean storage portion. Is arranged in a low-clean space having a relatively low degree of cleanliness, and an opener (a so-called “low-clean space”) is set at the boundary of the low-clean space.
Hoop opener or pod opener) is installed.

[0003] Prior to processing of a thin substrate by a processing apparatus, the opener opens a door of a set cassette, opens a high-clean storage section to a high-clean space, and transfers a transfer robot disposed in the high-clean space. Thereby, the thin substrate in the cassette can be taken out to a high clean space.

Conventionally, an opener is provided with a latch key inserted into a latch key insertion hole of a door arranged at a front opening of a cassette to latch the door, and a positioning pin inserted into a positioning pin insertion hole of the door to position and support the door. The latch key is inserted into the latch key insertion hole, the positioning pin is inserted into the positioning pin insertion hole, and the latch key is rotated to latch and open the door.

[0005]

However, in the conventional opener, since there is a gap between the positioning pin and the positioning pin insertion hole, when the door is opened, the door is lowered by its own weight due to its own weight. For this reason, when the door is opened and closed, the lower end of the door and the lower part of the cassette come into contact with each other, and dust is generated and the closing operation of the door is not performed smoothly.

Therefore, conventionally, a countermeasure has been taken to combine a positioning pad with a vacuum pad and to suck the door by the vacuum pad to prevent the door from lowering.

However, according to such a measure, a new vacuum source is required, and control for monitoring a vacuum state and wear control of a vacuum pad are required.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an opener that can prevent a door from lowering without using a vacuum pad.

[0009]

The opener of the present invention comprises:
An opener for opening and closing a door disposed at a front opening of a cassette, the latch key being inserted into a latch key insertion hole of the door to latch the door, and being inserted into a positioning pin insertion hole of the door to position and support the door. In the opener having a positioning pin, when the latch key latches the door, a positioning pin driving mechanism for raising the positioning pin so as to support the peripheral edge of the positioning pin insertion hole from below is provided.

Here, the positioning pin drive mechanism is constituted by a swingable pin drive lever, and the positioning pin is provided at a position of the pin drive lever that is offset from the center of swing of the pin drive lever. preferable.

Further, it is preferable that the latch key is driven by a latch key driving lever, and an interlocking link is connected between the pin driving lever and the latch key driving lever.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of an opener according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 1, the opener 10 has a vertical mounting plate 11 for partitioning a working chamber into a high clean space 50 and a low clean space 60. The opener 10 is provided on a table 12 arranged on the low clean space 60 side.
On the table 12, a cassette 70 accommodating the thin substrate 1 in a multi-stage accommodating section 71 maintained in a high clean state is placed.

The front surface of the cassette 70 has an opening, which is closed by a door 72.

The mounting plate 11 has a door 7 of the cassette 70 mounted thereon.
An opening 11 a is formed at a position facing the cleaning space 2, and the opening 11 a is normally closed by the door holding member 13 arranged on the high clean space 50 side, and the high clean space 50 and the low clean space 60 are formed. Is shut off.

A driving mechanism 1 is provided at the lower end of the door holding member 13.
4 is connected to a holding arm 15 driven by the holding arm 4.

The door holding member 13 can be displaced in a front-rear direction a (corresponding to the left-right direction in FIG. 1) and a vertical direction b. The door holding member 13 connects the door 72 of the cassette 70 set on the table 12 to the opening 11a.
1 and moves rearward (rightward in FIG. 1) while holding the door 72 (FIG. 1).
Corresponds to the state α indicated by the dashed line. Then, the door 72 of the cassette 70 is opened by moving downward (corresponding to a state β shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 1). With the opening of the door 72, the highly clean multi-stage accommodating portion 71 of the cassette 70 is opened to the high clean space 50, and the transfer robot (not shown) arranged in the high clean space 50 causes the thin substrate in the cassette 70 to be opened. 1 can be taken out to the high clean space 50. When closing the door 72 of the cassette 70, the door holding member 13 operates in the opposite manner to the above.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view schematically showing the state of connection between the door 72 of the cassette 70 and the door holding member 13, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a front view showing the principle of the connection between the latch key and the positioning pin of the door holding member 13, FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the latch key, FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the positioning pin. FIGS. 8 to 13 are operation principle diagrams for explaining a series of operations of the door holding member 13 when the door 72 of the cassette 70 is opened.

In FIGS. 2 to 13, a latch key insertion hole 17 into which a latch key 16 is inserted is formed on the front surface of the door 72 of the cassette 70 at the left and right portions at the center in the vertical direction. Positioning pin insertion holes 18 are formed above the latch key insertion hole 17 and below the other latch key insertion hole 17, respectively.

On the other hand, on the front surface of the door holding member 13, a door 72 is provided.
Each latch key insertion hole 17 and each positioning pin insertion hole 1
A latch key 16 and a positioning pin 19 are arranged at a position facing the position 8.

The latch key 16 is for latching the door 72. As shown in FIGS. 2, 5 and the like, a rotating shaft 16a and an engaging member having a central portion connected to one end of the rotating shaft 16a. The stop portion 16b has a T-shape. A latch key drive lever 20 that can swing about the position of the rotation shaft 16a as a swing center is fixed to the other end of the rotation shaft 16a of each latch key 16.

The positioning pin 19 is for supporting the peripheral portion of the positioning pin insertion hole 18 of the door 72 from below. Each positioning pin 19 is fixed to a positioning pin drive lever 21 that can swing about a point O shown in FIG. 6 as a swing center, and the fixed position is set to a position shifted from the swing center O.

Each of the latch key driving levers 20 and each of the positioning pin driving levers 21 are connected to a step-like band-shaped interlocking link 22 as shown in FIG.
As shown by a solid line and a two-dot chain line in FIG.
It swings in the range of.

As shown in FIG. 4, at least one of the two latch key driving levers 20 has a first cam follower 25 which is always in contact with the latch key driving cam 24 by the urging force of a compression coil spring 23 or the like. It is arranged. The latch key drive cam 24 moves up and down following the up and down movement of the first door holding member drive cam 26 near the upper end of the up and down range of the first door holding member drive cam 26 described later. Latch key drive cam 24
Is the locking portion 16b of the latch key 16 when it is at the upper end position.
Is maintained in a horizontal state (corresponding to the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 4), and the latch key 16 can be inserted into the latch key insertion hole 17 of the door 72 as shown in FIG. When the latch key drive cam 24 is lowered from the upper end position to the lower end position after the latch key 16 is inserted into the latch key insertion hole 17, the latch key
5B, the latch key 16 rotates about 90 ° (corresponding to the state shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 4), and as shown in FIG. To operate to latch the door 72. FIG.
Reference numeral 27 in the symbol denotes a stopper for restricting the lower end position of the latch key driving cam 24.

The rotation of the latch key drive lever 20 as described above is transmitted to other latch key drive levers 20 and respective positioning pin drive levers (positioning pin drive mechanisms) 21 via the interlocking link 22. The other latch key drive lever 20 operates in the same manner as the latch key drive lever 20, and the locking portion 16b of the latch key 16 changes from the horizontal state to the vertical state to latch the door 72.

On the other hand, each positioning pin drive lever 21 is
As shown in FIG. 6, the rotation about the point O is performed by about 90 ° from the state shown by the solid line to the state shown by the two-dot chain line. The rotation of the positioning pin drive lever 21 causes the swing center O
The positioning pin 19 at a position deviated from the position is raised, and FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, the positioning pin insertion hole 1 of the door 72 is provided.
8 is supported from below.

Therefore, when the positioning pin 19 is inserted into the positioning pin insertion hole 18, a gap is formed between the peripheral edge of the positioning pin insertion hole 18 and the positioning pin 19. The positioning pin 19 is lost due to the elevation of the positioning pin 19 due to the rotation of the positioning pin drive lever 21. Therefore, when the door holding member 13 is retracted to open the door 72, the door 72 does not descend. Therefore, when the door 72 is opened and closed, the problem that the lower end of the door 72 contacts the lower part of the cassette 70 can be eliminated, and the generation of dust and the closing operation failure of the door 72 can be prevented.

The driving mechanism 14 is, in principle, shown in FIGS.
Are configured to perform a series of operations as shown in FIG. FIG.
12 correspond to a series of operations of the drive mechanism 14 from the time when the cassette 70 is set on the table 12 to the time when the opening of the door 72 ends.

In FIGS. 8 to 12, reference numeral 15 'indicates a simplified version of the holding arm 15 shown in FIG.

The drive mechanism 14 includes, for example, an electric motor 28 as one power source. A male screw portion 29a of a ball screw 29 as a lifting member is connected to an output shaft of the electric motor 28. The first door holding member driving cam 26 is fixed to the female screw portion 29 b of the ball screw 29. A second cam follower 31 provided on an L-shaped link lever 30 is always in contact with the first door holding member driving cam 26.
The link lever 30 has a third cam follower 33 which is always in contact with the second door holding member driving cam 32 at the fixed position.
Are arranged. The end of the holding arm 15 'is always in contact with the third cam follower 33, and the holding arm 15'
Is configured to move integrally with the third cam follower 33. Further, the link lever 30 has a fourth cam follower 3 that can contact the second door holding member driving cam 32.
4 are provided. Although not shown, a power transmission mechanism is disposed between the first door holding member driving cam 26 and the latch key driving cam 24 shown in FIG. 4, and the latch key driving cam 24 is Door holding member drive cam 26
When is located near the upper end position, the first door holding member driving cam 26 is interlocked with the first door holding member driving cam 26 via the power transmission mechanism to perform a lifting operation.

Next, the operation of the driving mechanism 14 will be described in order.

When the cassette 70 is set on the table 12, as shown in FIG. 8, the first door holding member driving cam 26 is maintained at the upper end position of the ascending / descending range, and the latch key of the door holding member 13 The positioning pin 16 and the positioning pin 19 are inserted into the latch key insertion hole 17 and the positioning pin insertion hole 18 of the door 72, respectively.

In this state, as shown in FIG.
The latch key drive cam 24 is located at the upper end of the elevation range, and the latch key drive lever 20 is in a state shown by a solid line. For this reason, the latch key 16 enters the latch key insertion hole 17 with the locking portion 16b being horizontal (see FIG. 5).
This corresponds to (A). ).

Since the latch key drive lever 20 is in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 4, the positioning pin drive lever 21 is in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. Therefore, the positioning pin 19 is at the lowered position as shown by the solid line in FIGS. 6 and 7, and in this state, the positioning pin 19 is in the positioning pin insertion hole 18.

When the electric motor 28 is operated from the state shown in FIG. 8 to lower the first door holding member driving cam 26 via the ball screw 29, the first door holding member driving cam 26 is lowered. Then, the latch key drive cam 24 starts the lowering operation, and the latch key drive lever 20 starts rotating. Then, the latch key driving cam 24 is moved to the stopper portion 2.
7 (corresponding to the state shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 4), the latch key drive cam 24 stops descending.

Between the start of the lowering of the latch key driving cam 24 and the stop of the lowering, the latch key driving lever 20 rotates about 90 °, and is displaced from the state shown by the solid line in FIG. For this reason, the locking portion 16b of the latch key 16 changes from the horizontal state shown in FIG.
And the door 72 is latched.

The rotation of the latch key drive lever 20 causes the other latch key drive lever 20 to rotate about 90 ° via the interlocking link 22 from the state shown by the solid line to the state shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. The door 72 is displaced, and the locking portion 16b of the other latch key 16 latches the door 72.

Further, the rotation of the latch key driving lever 20 causes the positioning pin driving lever 21 to rotate about 90 ° via the interlocking link 22, and is displaced from the state shown by the solid line in FIG. I do. Therefore, the positioning pin 19 rises from the lowered position shown by the solid line in FIGS. 6 and 7 to the raised position shown by the two-dot chain line, and comes into contact with the peripheral edge of the positioning pin insertion hole 18 from below.

FIG. 9 shows the drive when the latch key 16 latches the door 72 as described above and the positioning pin 19 supports the peripheral edge of the positioning pin insertion hole 18 from below as described above. This corresponds to the state of the mechanism 14.

In FIG. 9, the position of the female screw portion 29b of the ball screw 29 as the elevating member is referred to as a second operation switching position, and the elevating range from the second operation switching position to the upper end position is referred to as a third elevating range. I do.

The first door holding member driving cam 26, the latch key driving cam 24, the latch key driving lever 20, the first cam follower 25, the link 22 and the like constitute a latch key rotating mechanism.

From the state shown in FIG.
And the second cam follower 3 of the link lever 30
When 1 starts contacting the slope 26a of the first door holding member driving cam 26, the third cam follower 33 starts moving the upper surface 32a of the second door holding member driving cam 32 to the right in FIG. Therefore, the door 72 latched by the latch key 16 and positioned and supported by the positioning pin 19 as described above advances integrally with the door holding member 13 and moves away from the opening of the cassette 70.

FIG. 10 corresponds to the state of the drive mechanism 14 when the second cam follower 31 has risen to the upper end position of the slope 26a of the first door holding member drive cam 26.

In FIG. 10, the position of the female screw portion 29b of the ball screw 29 as the elevating member is referred to as a first operation switching position, and the elevating range from the first operation switching position to the second operation switching position is a second elevating / lowering position. It is called a range.

Further, the first door holding member driving cam 26, the second door holding member driving cam 32, the link lever 30, and the second
The cam follower 31, the third cam follower 33, and the like constitute a door slide mechanism.

From the state shown in FIG.
8, the second cam follower 31 starts contacting the upper surface 26b following the inclined surface 26a of the first door holding member driving cam 26, and the third cam follower 33 moves to the upper surface 32a of the second door holding member driving cam 32. The contact starts with the arc surface 32b following the arc surface 32b, and then starts contact with the vertical surface 32c following the arc surface 32b. For this reason, the door 72 starts descending integrally with the door holding member 13.

FIG. 11 corresponds to the state of the drive mechanism 14 when the third cam follower 33 starts contacting the vertical surface 32c of the second door holding member drive cam 32. At this time, the fourth cam follower 34 is also in contact with the vertical surface 32c of the second door holding member drive cam 32.

In the above description, the position of the female screw portion 29b shown in FIG. 10 is referred to as the first operation switching position, but the position of the female screw portion 29b shown in FIG. 11 is referred to as the first operation switching position. Alternatively, a range from the position illustrated in FIG. 10 to the position illustrated in FIG. 11 may be referred to as a first operation switching position.

From the state shown in FIG.
8, the third and fourth cam followers 33, 3
4 descends while abutting on the vertical surface 32c of the second door holding member drive cam 32, and the door 72 descends integrally with the door holding member 13. Then, when the door 72 has descended to the appropriately set descending position, the operation of the electric motor 28 is stopped,
The opening of the door 72 ends.

FIG. 12 corresponds to the state of the drive mechanism 14 when the opening of the door 72 is completed.

In FIG. 12, the position of the female screw portion 29b of the ball screw 29 is the lower end position, and the elevating range from this lower end position to the first operation switching position is referred to as a first elevating range.

The first door holding member driving cam 26, the second door holding member driving cam 32, the second cam follower 31,
The third cam follower 33, the fourth cam follower 34, and the like,
Construct a door lifting mechanism.

FIGS. 8 to 12 are diagrams for explaining the operation principle of the driving mechanism 14 as described above.
Although the actual structure has been simplified or simplified, in the actual structure, a groove cam, a spring, or the like for regulating the cam from the opposite side is used.

On the other hand, when the opened door 72 is closed, the operations reverse to the above-mentioned operations are performed in order.

As described above, the opener 10 according to the present embodiment is an opener that opens and closes the door 72 disposed in the front opening of the cassette 70, and is inserted into the latch key insertion hole 17 of the door 72. When the latch key 16 latches the door 72, the peripheral portion of the positioning pin insertion hole 18 is provided with a latch key 16 for latching the door 72 and a positioning pin 19 inserted into the positioning pin insertion hole 18 of the door 72 for positioning and supporting the door 72. A positioning pin driving mechanism 21 for raising the positioning pin 19 so that the positioning pin 19 can be supported from below.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the lowering of the door 72 can be prevented without using a vacuum pad.

Here, the positioning pin drive mechanism is constituted by a swingable positioning pin drive lever 21, and the positioning pin 19 is located at a position of the positioning pin drive lever 21 shifted from the center O of swing of the positioning pin drive lever 21. Therefore, the positioning pin 19 can be raised by a very simple configuration.

The latch key 16 is driven by a latch key drive lever 20 and a positioning pin drive lever 21
And an interlocking link 22 between the
Are connected, the rotation of the latch key 16 and the raising operation of the positioning pin 19 can be performed in conjunction with each other.

The driving mechanism 14 has one power source 28
Elevating member 29 that moves up and down by receiving the power of power source 28
In conjunction with the elevating movement of the elevating member 29,
In the first elevating range from the lower end position in the elevating range to the first operation switching position in the first elevating range, interlocking with the elevating motion of the elevating member 29 and the elevating member 29 for raising and lowering the door holding member 13. Then, the door holding member 13 is moved in the second elevating range from the first operation switching position in the elevating range of the elevating member 29 to the second operation switching position just before the upper end position.
Sliding mechanisms 26, 30, 3
1, 32, 33 and the latch key 1 in the third elevating range from the second operation switching position in the elevating range of the elevating member 29 to the upper end position in conjunction with the elevating movement of the elevating member 29.
6, a latch key rotation mechanism 20, 22, 2
4, 25, and 26.

Therefore, the structure of the drive mechanism 14 can be simplified,
Control can be simplified, costs can be reduced, and the like.

As a power source, an air cylinder or the like may be used in addition to the electric motor. Further, a belt or the like can be used instead of the ball screw.

[0063]

According to the present invention, when the latch key latches the door, a positioning pin drive mechanism for raising the positioning pin so as to support the peripheral portion of the positioning pin insertion hole from below is provided, so that a vacuum pad is used. And the door can be prevented from lowering.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an opener according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view schematically showing a combined state of a cassette door and a door holding member.

FIG. 3 is a front view basically showing a state of connection between a latch key and a positioning pin of a door holding member.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a latch key.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the latch key.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a positioning pin.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the operation of the positioning pins.

FIG. 8 is an operation principle diagram for explaining a series of operations of a door holding member when the door of the cassette is opened.

FIG. 9 is an operation principle diagram for explaining a series of operations of the door holding member when the door of the cassette is opened.

FIG. 10 is an operation principle diagram for explaining a series of operations of the door holding member when the door of the cassette is opened.

FIG. 11 is an operation principle diagram for explaining a series of operations of the door holding member when the door of the cassette is opened.

FIG. 12 is an operation principle diagram for explaining a series of operations of the door holding member when the door of the cassette is opened.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Opener 16 Latch key 17 Latch key insertion hole 18 Positioning pin insertion hole 19 Positioning pin 20 Latch key drive lever 21 Positioning pin drive lever (positioning pin drive mechanism) 22 Interlocking link 70 Cassette 72 Door

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3E084 AA05 AA14 BA02 CA03 EA01 FA09 GA08 GA10 GB19 GB21 5F031 AA10 BB04 BC03 CC63 EE03 EE04

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An opener for opening and closing a door disposed at a front opening of a cassette, wherein the opener is inserted into a latch key insertion hole of the door and latched by the door and inserted into a positioning pin insertion hole of the door. An opener having a positioning pin for positioning and supporting the door, wherein when the latch key latches the door, a positioning pin drive mechanism for raising the positioning pin so as to support the peripheral portion of the positioning pin insertion hole from below is provided. Opener characterized by. 2. The positioning pin driving mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the positioning pin driving mechanism comprises a pivotable positioning pin driving lever, and the positioning pin is displaced from the center of the positioning pin driving lever in the positioning pin driving lever. An opener characterized in that it is provided at a position where it is located. 3. The opener according to claim 2, wherein the latch key is driven by a latch key drive lever, and an interlocking link is connected between the positioning pin drive lever and the latch key drive lever.