JP2000068348A - Transfer apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a transfer apparatus which does not require large working space below a work, in order to scoop up the article and which is capable of preventing the article from falling down, while supporting the work. SOLUTION: An apparatus transfers a work W, by supporting the work W from below comprises a work supporting member 21a for supporting the work W and stopper members 22 (23) for regulating the movement of the work W supported by the member 21a, and by having the member 21a support the work W, so that the members 22 (23) are displaced upward relative to the work W.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus for supporting and transferring articles from below.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a transfer device, a hand is provided at the end of an arm which is made to extend and contract by connecting a plurality of members.
It is known that the hand is moved into the bottom of the article and is scooped up to support and transfer the lower part of the article. The hand is provided with stoppers for regulating the movement of the article so that the supported article does not shift during the transfer so as to protrude in four directions on the upper surface.

[0003]

Therefore, in the conventional transport device, when the hand enters the lower part of the article, the stopper for restricting the movement of the article on the far side in the entry direction of the hand does not interfere with the article. As described above, the hand must be moved to a lower position, and there is a problem that a large work space is required below the article.

An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer apparatus which does not require a large work space for scooping up articles under the articles and which can prevent the articles from dropping while supporting the articles. It is to be.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transfer apparatus for transferring and supporting an article from below, comprising: an article supporting member for supporting the article; A stopper member for regulating the movement of the article supported by the article support member, and in a state where the article is supported by the article support member, the stopper member is displaced so that the stopper member is positioned relatively above the article support member. It is characterized by doing.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the article supporting member is always urged upward so as to be at substantially the same height as the stopper member when the article is not supported. When the article is supported by the article support member, the lifting of the article support member is restricted by the load of the article, so that the stopper member is displaced upward relative to the article support member. It is assumed that.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the stopper member comprises:
The article is provided with a tapered surface for guiding the article to a predetermined position of the article support member.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the article is supported by the article supporting member, the stopper member is displaced upward. The member can be kept at a low position. Then, by displacing the stopper member upward, the movement of the article after supporting the article can be restricted.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the operation of the first aspect, the article supporting member is located at substantially the same height as the stopper member when the article supporting member does not support the article. Since the stopper member is always urged upward, the stopper member does not protrude from the article support member, in other words, the article support member can be made to enter below the article as in the case where the stopper member is not provided. . And
By supporting the article with the article support member, the lift of the article support member is limited by the load of the article, so the stopper member is displaced upward relative to the article support member without using a dedicated driving source. Can be done.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the operation of the first or second aspect of the present invention, the article supporting member is formed by following the article along the tapered surface provided on the stopper member. The article can be guided to a predetermined position.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A transfer apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a transfer device 1 according to the present embodiment.
1 is a schematic diagram showing a transport device 3 provided with. The transfer apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment transports an article W such as a cassette wafer placed on a transfer station S of a processing apparatus such as a semiconductor in a clean room 2 to an entry / exit station of an automatic warehouse. Is provided in the transfer device 3 for performing the operation.

The transport device 3 includes a traveling vehicle 11 which travels in a suspended state on a rail 4 laid at a height higher than the floor surface 5 and lower than the ceiling 6, and an article W below the traveling vehicle 11. And a transfer device 1 for transferring the same. The floor 5 is provided with a grating and the ceiling 6
The clean air blown from the air is sucked by suction means (not shown) provided below the floor surface 5 to maintain the cleanness of the clean room 2. The rail 4 also includes a power supply line, a signal line, and the like to the transport device 3, and is supported by a support 7.

The traveling carriage 11 includes a traveling section 12 in which wheels engaged with the rail 4 and a drive motor for the wheels are incorporated.
A carriage body 13 having a built-in clean unit including a fan, a filter, and the like is provided. The transfer device 1 is attached to the bottom of the carriage body 13. The clean unit sucks dust generated by the transfer device 1 below the clean unit,
The purified air is released into the clean room 2. In the transfer device 1, the two-stage arms 15, 16 are turned in opposite directions by the arm turning motor 14, and the fork elevating unit 17 attached to the tip of the lower arm 16 is moved forward and backward so as to be orthogonal to the rail 4. It is like that. A hand member 18 is attached to the fork elevating unit 17 so as to be able to move up and down, and the hand member 18 supports a lower portion of the flange Wf of the article W.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the hand member 18 has an article supporting member 21a for supporting the article W.
And stopper members 22, 23a, 23b for restricting the movement of the article W supported by the article support member 21a,
Stopper members 22, 23 with respect to the article support member 21a
The height positions of a and 23b can be displaced. Specifically, the stopper member 22 and the stopper members 23a and 23b are fixed to a U-shaped frame 24a in a plan view, and the portion where the article support member 21a moves up and down is adjusted to the shape of the article support member 21a. Notches are provided. The stopper members 22, 23a regulate the movement of the flange Wf in the left-right direction, and the stopper members 22, 23b regulate the movement of the flange Wf in the front-rear direction.
A tapered surface 29 is provided above the stopper members 22, 23a, and 23b, and guides the article W to a predetermined position on the article support member 21a when scooping. Each article support member 21a has a support piece 2 projecting upward.
1b, the plate 25 is fixed to the support piece 21b, and all the article support members 21a move up and down at the same time.

In addition, a descent restricting member 26 is fixed to the frame 24a so as to protrude upward. Frame 2
4a, a connecting member 27 that rises above the lowering regulating member 26 is provided on the outer edge of the frame 24b.
Is fixed. By arranging the plate 25 between the descent restricting member 26 and the frame 24b, the ascent and descent of the plate 25 are restricted, and the amount of elevating and lowering of the article support member 21a is determined. Also, in the frame 24a,
An elastic member 28 such as a spring is provided, and the article supporting member 21a is always urged upward so that the article supporting member 21a is at substantially the same height position as the stopper members 22, 23a, and 23b.

The movement of the hand member 18 when supporting the article W will be described with reference to FIGS. First,
The arm rotation motor 14 is driven to extend the arms 15 and 16 so that the article support member 21a of the hand member 18 enters below the flange Wf of the article W. At this time, the article support member 21a is urged upward by the elastic member 28 and is located at substantially the same height as the stopper members 22, 23a, and 23b. Therefore, the article support member 2
If the hand member 18 enters the height position where 1a does not interfere with the flange Wf, the stopper members 22, 23a, 2
3b does not interfere with the flange Wf. (FIG. 4
(A))

When the frames 24a and 24b are raised by operating the fork elevating section 17, the article supporting member 21a comes into contact with the flange Wf. Further, the frames 24a, 24
b, the height of the article support member 21a does not change due to the load of the article W, and the frames 24a, 24
Only b rises. As a result, the stopper members 22, 2
3a and 23b are located relatively above the article support surface 21. At this time, the article W moves to a predetermined position of the article support member 21a by the tapered surface 29. The stopper members 22, 23a, and 23b are in a state surrounding the four sides of the flange Wf, and restrict the movement of the article W. (FIG. 4
(B))

When the fork elevating section 17 is further operated to raise and lower the frames 24a and 24b, the plate 25 comes into contact with the lowering restricting member 26, the plate 25 is lifted together with the frames 24a and 24b, and the article W is completely supported by the article supporting member. 21a.

As described above, in the present embodiment, even if the object supported by the article support member 21a is the flange Wf having no large working space below, the article support member 21a can be made to enter, and after being supported. Is the stopper member 22,
The movement of the article W can be reliably restricted by the parts 23a and 23b.

The present invention may be embodied as follows. In the present embodiment, the stopper members 22, 23a, and 23b are relatively raised with respect to the article support member 21a in a series of operations for raising the hand member using the load of the article W. However, a dedicated drive source for raising the stopper members 22, 23a, 23b with respect to the article support member 21a is separately provided, and the fact that the article support member 21a has supported the article W is detected by a sensor or the like.
Activating the drive source to stop the stopper members 22, 23a, 23b
May be raised.

In the present embodiment, the article supporting member 2
Although the flange Wf of the article W is supported by 1a, the bottom of the article W may be supported by the article support member 21a.

In this embodiment, the transfer device 1 is mounted on the transfer device 3 for transferring the article W from the transfer station S to the loading / unloading station of the automatic warehouse. However, the transfer device 1 is mounted on a crane used in the automatic warehouse. Is also good. In that case,
Since the required working space below the article storage shelf is small, the storage efficiency of the automatic warehouse can be improved. Also,
The transfer device 1 may be attached to an automatic guided vehicle or another transfer device.

[0023]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the article is supported by the article support member, the stopper member is displaced upward. It is possible to keep the member at a low position, and it is possible to enter the article without projecting the stopper member from the article support member, so that there is not much work space for entering the article support member In this case, it is possible to enter. Also, in a state where the article is supported by the article support member, the stopper member is displaced upward with respect to the article support member,
The movement of the article supported by the article support member can be restricted by the stopper member, and the drop of the article can be reliably prevented. Furthermore, if the working space is the same, the height of the stopper member can be made higher than before, and the movement of the article can be more reliably regulated.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect is provided.
In addition to the effects of the invention described in the above, the article supporting member is always urged upward so as to be at substantially the same height position as the stopper member in a state where the article supporting member is not supporting the article, By allowing the article support member to enter without entering the article support member, the article support member can be entered even when there is not enough working space. In addition, by supporting the article with the article support member, the load of the article restricts the rise of the article support member, and the stopper member can be displaced upward relative to the article support member. It is not necessary to use a dedicated drive source for raising the drive.

According to the invention described in claim 3, according to claim 1
Alternatively, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 2, by providing a tapered surface on the stopper member, the article can be guided to a predetermined position of the article support member even if the position of the article and the article support member is deviated from predetermined. can do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a transfer device provided with a transfer device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a main part plan view showing an article support member and a stopper member of the transfer device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are cross-sectional views taken along the line BB of FIG. 2, illustrating the movement of the transfer device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transfer device 21a Article support member 22 Stopper member 23 Stopper member W Article

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A transfer device for supporting and transferring an article from below, comprising: an article support member for supporting the article; and a stopper member for restricting movement of the article supported by the article support member. A transfer device wherein the stopper member is displaced upward relative to the article support member when the article is supported by the member. 2. The article support member is always urged upward so as to be at substantially the same height as the stopper member when the article support member does not support the article. 2. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the stopper member is displaced upward relative to the article support member by restricting the rise of the article support member. 3. The transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stopper member has a tapered surface for guiding the article to a predetermined position on the article support member.