JP2000081283A - Sintering furnace - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize efficient sintering processes in performing sintering of a glass substrate while the glass substrate is conveyed in a state being laid on a heat resisting setter through a sintering furnace body. SOLUTION: A sintering furnace comprises a cassette robot 20 for taking out glass substrates one by one from a cassette of a cassette station 10, putting the same on a rest 30 and placing the glass substrates put on the rest 30 in the cassette of the cassette station 10, and a setter robot 40 for laying the glass substrates put on the rest 30 on a setter and putting the glass substrates laid on the setter on the rest 30. In laying the glass substrates on the setter, if a glass substrate is larger than a given size, one of such glass substrates is laid, and if a glass substrate is smaller than the given size, two of such glass substrates are laid. The glass substrates can be automatically conveyed into a sintering furnace body 1, and in the case of the glass substrate smaller than the given size, sintering can be carried out in a state where two such substrates are laid on the setter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention belongs to the technical field of a baking furnace used for baking and solidifying components formed on a glass substrate, and particularly in a baking process of a glass substrate as an electronic component such as a substrate for a plasma display. The present invention relates to a firing furnace preferably used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a baking furnace of the type shown in FIG. 1 has been generally used as a baking furnace for baking and solidifying components formed on a glass substrate of this kind. Usually, the melting temperature of a glass substrate is about 400 ° C., whereas the firing temperature of electrodes and ribs is 500 to 600 ° C., so that the glass substrate softens during firing. For this reason, as shown in FIG.
The firing is performed with the glass substrate G placed on a heat-resistant setter S that does not soften even during firing.

[0003] In the firing furnace shown in FIG.
, A glass substrate G is placed on a setter S at an upper position of the lifter conveyor 2. Then, the glass substrate G is introduced together with the setter S into the upper passage of the firing furnace main body 1 by the entrance conveyor 3, and is heated to about 500 to 600 ° C. by the heating unit while being conveyed as it is by the roller conveyor together with the setter S. And cooled to about 400 ° C. in the slow cooling section. Next, when the glass substrate G is conveyed to the end of the upper passage, the glass substrate G is lowered to the lower passage by the lifter conveyor 4 together with the setter S, and is returned to room temperature in the cooling unit while being conveyed in the lower passage in the reverse direction by the roller conveyor. When the setter S carrying the glass substrate G reaches the outlet, it is transferred to the lifter conveyor 2 by the outlet conveyor 5, where the fired glass substrate G is removed. Then, the empty setter S is moved to the upper position by the lifter conveyor 2, where the next glass substrate G is placed, and the firing step is repeated.

[0004]

In a baking furnace of the type described above, glass substrates of different sizes for each lot are placed on a setter and sent to the baking furnace body.
On the other hand, the glass substrates are transported from the previous process to this firing process in a state where a plurality of glass substrates are stored in the cassette. Also,
When the fired glass substrate is sent from the firing process to the next process, it must be stored in the same cassette. In order to cope with such demands, in the above-described conventional firing furnace, the glass substrate before firing is manually removed from the cassette, placed on a setter, and the glass substrate after firing is manually processed. It was removed from the setter and stored in a cassette. For this reason, there was a problem that an efficient firing process could not be realized.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a firing furnace capable of realizing an efficient firing process.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a firing furnace according to the present invention comprises a glass substrate placed on a heat-resistant setter and the glass substrate being fired while being transported through a firing furnace body. And a cassette station for setting a cassette containing a plurality of glass substrates and an empty cassette, and taking out the glass substrates one by one from the cassette of the cassette station and placing them on a temporary placing table, Equipped with a cassette robot that stores the glass substrate on the placing table in the cassette of the cassette station, and a setter robot that places the glass substrate on the temporary placing table on the setter and the glass substrate on the setter on the temporary placing table. Then, when placing the glass substrate on the setter, place one glass substrate having a size larger than the predetermined size and Glass substrate size is characterized in that as placed two.

[0007]

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a baking furnace to which the present invention is applied. A baking furnace body 1 similar to that shown in FIG. 1 is provided in two rows of an A line and a B line. Each is provided with a lifter conveyor 2, an entrance conveyor 3, and an exit conveyor 5. Then, in order to automate the handling of the glass substrate to be taken in and out of each firing furnace main body 1, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a cassette station 10, a cassette robot 20, two temporary placing stands 30, and two setter robots 40 are arranged.

The cassette station 10 is for mounting a glass substrate storage cassette C. As shown in FIG. 3, the A line supply cassette 11a, storage cassette 12a, buffer cassette 13a, and so on. , The supply cassette section 11b for the B line, the storage cassette section 12b,
And a buffer cassette section 13b. Of these, the supply cassette unit 11a and the storage cassette unit 12a, and the supply cassette unit 11b and the storage cassette unit 12b are each configured in a two-stage structure to save space. In the illustrated example, each cassette section stores the cassette C supported by four arm members 10a.

A cassette C containing a plurality of glass substrates G is transported to the supply cassette units 11a and 11b from the previous process. Then, the glass substrates G are taken out of the cassette C one by one by the cassette robot 20 and placed on the temporary placing table 30. On the other hand, the storage cassette unit 12
An empty cassette C is set in a and 12b, and the fired glass substrate G is carried by the cassette robot 20 and stored therein. Then, the cassette C in which the glass substrate G is full is transferred from the storage cassette units 12a and 12b to the next step by another robot (not shown). An empty cassette C is placed in the buffer cassette sections 13a and 13b, and the storage cassette sections 12a and 12b
When the cassette is full, or when the cassette is not supplied to the storage cassette units 12a and 12b, the processed glass substrates are stored to save time.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the cassette. FIG. 4 (a)
Is a front view, and FIG. 4B is a side view. This cassette C
Is made of aluminum, and can accommodate both large and small glass substrates. That is, a frame is composed of the upper plate 14, the lower plate 15, and the five left and right side plates 16 connecting them, and each of the side plates 16 has a support rod 17 of the same length protruding inward and vertically. Six are attached at equal intervals in the direction. That is, the support rods 17 protrude inward such that five rows from each side are lined up at the same height, and the rows of the support rods 17 are provided in six stages. Then, as shown in FIG.
Six glass substrates G are accommodated such that one glass substrate G is placed on the substrate. Here, the upper plate 14 may be a single flat plate, but at least the lower plate 15 has a window as shown in FIG. 5, for example, so that a jig for taking in and out the glass substrate G can enter and exit in a separate step. 15a is provided.

The cassette robot 20 takes out the glass substrates one by one from the cassettes C set in the supply cassette sections 11a and 11b of the cassette station 10, transports the glass substrates, and places them on the temporary placing table 30, The operation of holding the glass substrate on the temporary placement table 30, transporting the glass substrate, and storing the glass substrate in the cassette C set in the storage cassette units 12a and 12b is performed. At the time of loading / unloading the glass substrate with respect to the cassette C in the cassette station 10, the cassette C needs to be set at a predetermined position. The window of the lower plate 15 of the cassette C is used for positioning the cassette C.
One is.

A first example shown in FIG. 6 to FIG.
In this example, positioning actuators 18 are provided in two diagonal directions in the window 15a. In this example, the actuator 18 is provided on two arm members 10a at diagonal positions among the four arm members 10a supporting the cassette C. The actuator 18 is an air cylinder 18
After the cassette C is placed on the arm member 10a, the air cylinder 18a is moved to the air cylinder 18a by a structure in which rotating members 18c made of MC nylon are attached to both ends of the horizontal bar above the supporting member 18b which moves back and forth by a. Activate the rotating body 18c
Is drawn to two sides of the window 15a to perform positioning.

In the second example shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, positioning blocks 19 are provided in four diagonal directions in the window 15a of the lower plate 15, respectively. In this example, a block 19 is provided on each of the four arm members 10a supporting the cassette C. The block 19 has a tapered surface inclined downward toward the outside, and the lower plate 1 is formed on the tapered surface.
When the cassette C is placed on the arm member 10a so that the end of the window 15a of the cassette 5 is placed, the cassette C slides down and is positioned.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the cassette robot 20. As shown, the cassette robot 20 is
A gantry 22 runs on the gantry 22. The gantry 22 can move up and down and can rotate in the left-right direction. The first arm 23 can rotate in the left-right direction. A second arm 24, a frame 25 capable of rotating in the left-right direction with respect to the second arm 24, a rotating body 26 capable of rotating in the front-rear direction with respect to the frame 25, and a rotating shaft extending forward from the rotating body 26 Is connected to the hand 27. The two hands 27 are provided in parallel, and a plurality of suction pads 27a are attached to each of them in an upward direction. The two substrates 27 suck and support the glass substrate.

The cassette robot 20 has two hands 2
At 7, the glass substrate in the cassette is scooped from below, and two operations are performed: an operation of moving the glass substrate while supporting the glass substrate and placing the glass substrate on the temporary placing table 30, and an operation opposite thereto. When performing these operations, the hand 27 can hold the glass substrate horizontally by moving the tip up and down or rotating the entire hand left and right according to the weight of the glass substrate. It does not slip.

On the temporary placing table 30, the cassette robot 20
Is placed on the plurality of pin members. The hand 27 of the cassette robot 20 is moved in and out through these pin members. Then, in the temporary placing table 30, in order to accurately place the glass substrate on the setter S by the setter robot 40, the positional shift of the glass substrate placed on the pin member is corrected. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, the glass substrate G placed on the plurality of pin members 31 is sandwiched therebetween.
The positioning roller 32 is slid by the driving mechanism 33, and as shown in FIGS.
By pressing the end surface of the glass substrate G, the positional deviation of the glass substrate G is corrected. Normally, the roller 32 on the long side is slid first.

FIG. 15 shows an example of this drive mechanism. The illustrated mechanism includes a belt 35 wound around a pair of rotating bodies 34.
A pair of positioning rollers 32 facing each other are attached to each other, and the belt 35 is rotated by an air cylinder 36 to move each pair of positioning rollers 32 at a constant speed, and press the end face of the glass substrate to temporarily The center of the glass substrate is adjusted to a predetermined position of the table 30.

The setter robot 40 has a catcher for holding the glass substrate at the tip of a rotatable arm (not shown), and places the glass substrate on the temporary table 30 on the setter S. The operation of placing and the operation of returning the fired glass substrate to the temporary placing table 30 from above the setter are performed.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a catcher attached to the tip of the setter robot. As shown in the drawing, the catcher 41 has a skeleton including one horizontal frame 42 and two vertical frames 43 and 44 which are orthogonal to each other, and a wrist mounting portion 45 of the robot is fixed to a desired portion of the skeleton. ing. Each frame 42, 43, 44 has a claw 4 by an air cylinder 42a, 43a, 44a, respectively.
There are five opening and closing mechanisms, and the vertical and horizontal directions are controlled independently. By operating this opening / closing mechanism, the glass substrate is conveyed while being held from the surroundings by the six claws 45 as shown in FIG.

Here, there are two types of glass substrates, an R-chamfered substrate Gr as shown in FIG. 18A and a C-chamfered substrate Gc as shown in FIG. 18B. Among them, the R chamfered substrate Gr has a shape in which the end surface is drawn with a ground glass-like uniform polished surface α, while the C chamfered substrate Gr is formed.
Has an end surface shape in which both ends of the glossy surface β have an end surface γ of about 0.2 mm width at a 45 ° angle. This end surface γ
Is a grinder-polished surface, which is an uneven cut surface. If these glass plates are on the setter, R
Since the chamfer has a shape polished in an arc shape, it is gripped and lifted with a normal nail. However, the C-chamfer cannot be lifted by gripping with a normal nail because the end face has a glossy surface and slides.

Therefore, in the catcher 41 shown in FIG. 16, a slanted claw 45 as shown in FIG. 19 is used, and a spring 47 is inserted into a shaft 46 of the claw 45 and is loosely fitted to a mounting portion 48. ing. Therefore, when the catcher 41 is pressed against the setter S, the spring 47 works and the six claws 45 adhere to the surface of the setter S. FIG. 20 (a)
And (b), the claw 45 is formed by fixing a claw member 45a to a jig 45b with a screw 45c.
As shown in the figure, a has an elastic body 49 made of urethane rubber or the like integrally attached to the surface in the shape of a cut piece as shown. By employing the claw 45 having such a configuration, both the R-chamfered substrate and the C-chamfered substrate can be lifted from the setter S.

By using a larger setter, it is possible to cope with both the case where one sheet is mounted and the case where two sheets are mounted according to the size of the glass substrate. FIG. 21A shows a state in which one glass substrate Gb larger than a predetermined size is mounted on the setter S, and FIG. 21B shows a state in which two glass substrates Gs smaller than the predetermined size are mounted on the setter S. I have. In the case of a glass substrate Gb larger than a predetermined size, the glass substrate Gb is rotated by 90 degrees by a catcher and placed so that the center of the glass substrate Gb is aligned with the center of the setter S. In the case of the glass substrate Gs smaller than the predetermined size, two centers other than the center of the short side of the setter S and the center of the setter S obtained by dividing the long side of the setter S into four are aligned with the center of the glass substrate Gs. Put on.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The glass substrate can be automatically loaded into the firing furnace body and fired. In the case of a glass substrate having a size smaller than a predetermined size, firing can be performed while two glass substrates are placed on the setter. Can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional firing furnace.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a firing furnace to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the cassette station.

FIG. 4 is a front view and a side view showing an example of the cassette.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a lower plate of the cassette.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing how a cassette is positioned by an actuator.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the actuator.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the actuator.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a cassette positioned by a positioning block.

FIG. 10 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing how the positioning of the cassette is performed by the positioning block.

FIG. 12 is a side view and a plan view showing an example of the cassette robot.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of correcting a positional shift of a glass substrate on a temporary placing table.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the positional shift of the glass substrate has been corrected on the temporary placing table.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing a driving mechanism of a positioning roller for correcting a displacement of the glass substrate on the temporary placing table.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing an example of a catcher attached to the tip of the setter robot.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a state where a glass substrate is held by claws of a setter robot.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing an end surface of a glass substrate.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing claws in a catcher.

FIG. 20 is a top view and a side view of a claw portion forming a claw in the catcher.

FIG. 21 is a plan view showing a state where a glass substrate is placed on a setter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 G Glass substrate S Setter 1 Firing furnace main body 2 Lifter conveyor 3 Inlet conveyor 4 Lifter conveyor 5 Outlet conveyor 10 Cassette station 10a Arm member 11a, 11b Supply cassette part 12a, 12b Storage cassette part 13a, 13b Buffer cassette part 14 Upper plate 15 Lower Plate 15a Window 16 Side plate 17 Support rod 18 Actuator 18a Air cylinder 18b Support member 18c Rotating body 19 Block 20 Cassette robot 21 Rail 22 Mount 23 First arm 24 Second arm 25 Third arm 26 Rotating body 27 Hand 27a Cushion 30 Temporary Table 31 Pin member 32 Roller 33 Drive mechanism 34 Rotating body 35 Belt 36 Air cylinder 40 Setter robot 41 Catcher 42 Horizontal frame 42a Air series Da 43,44 vertical frames 43a, 44a air cylinder 45 claw 45a pawl member 45b jig 45c screw 46 the shaft 47 the spring 48 the mounting member 49 elastic body

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A firing furnace for firing a glass substrate while transporting the glass substrate on a heat-resistant setter in a firing furnace main body, wherein a cassette containing a plurality of glass substrates and an empty cassette And a cassette robot for taking out glass substrates one by one from the cassette of the cassette station and placing them on the temporary storage table, or storing the glass substrates on the temporary storage table in the cassette of the cassette station, It has a setter robot that puts the glass substrate on the temporary placing table on the setter or places the glass substrate on the setter on the temporary placing table, and when placing the glass substrate on the setter, the glass substrate with a size larger than the predetermined size is A firing furnace characterized by mounting one glass substrate and mounting two glass substrates smaller than a predetermined size. .