JP2000333303A - Conveying facility - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate wiring and piping, enable high-speed movement and increase reliability, even if a conveying robot is used in common with a plurality of apparatus to curtail cost. SOLUTION: A conveying robot 4, which is movable on guide rails 9 and moves a substance to be conveyed 3, a first communicating means 12 which is put on this robot 4 and receives operation directions without touching, a second communication means 13 which transmits the operation directions for the robot 4 to the first means 12, a feeder 7 laid along the track for the robot 4, and a pickup coil 8 which is put on the robot 4 and extracts electrical energy out from the feeder 7 without contacting, are provided. Consequently, wiring and piping which used to be performed becomes unnecessary, and load application to these on the occasion of movement of the robot 4 and maintenance work are eliminated, and accordingly high-speed movement becomes feasible, and low-cost, high-reliability conveying facilities become available.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transport facility used for manufacturing semiconductors, liquid crystals, and the like that require high cleanliness.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional transfer facility will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a conventional transport facility. A transfer robot 4 is provided in front of the apparatus 1 and the apparatus 2, respectively. The transfer robot 4 performs loading and unloading of the transferred object 3 into and out of each apparatus, and interaction between the transfer robots. Electric energy and control signals are supplied through the wiring / piping 15, the drive motor 6 rotates the power transmission mechanism 5 to transmit power to the power transmission mechanism 9, and the transfer robot 4 moves horizontally on the guide rail 8. .

[0003]

In the above configuration, a transport robot is required for each device.
Configuration costs are high. In order to reduce the cost, there has been a layout facility for sharing a transfer robot with a plurality of devices. However, since the moving distance of the transfer robot is increased, the length of wiring and piping is increased, which makes it difficult to handle. In addition, if the length of wiring and piping becomes longer, the load when moving the transfer robot will be applied to them, making it difficult to move at high speed.In order to shorten their life, the maintenance frequency of wiring and piping will be increased, and replacement cycles will be increased. There was also the problem of shortening.

[0004] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a transfer facility that allows easy wiring and piping, enables high-speed movement, and improves reliability even if a plurality of devices share a transfer robot and reduce costs. It is to provide.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transfer apparatus, comprising: a transfer robot which is movable on a guide rail and transfers an object to be transferred;
A first communication unit mounted on the transfer robot for non-contactly receiving an operation instruction; a second communication unit for non-contactly transmitting an operation instruction to the transfer robot to the first communication unit; A power supply line laid along the trajectory of the robot and a pickup coil mounted on the transfer robot and extracting electric energy from the power supply line in a non-contact manner are provided.

As described above, the transfer robot which can move on the guide rail and transfers the object to be transferred, the first communication means mounted on the transfer robot for receiving operation instructions in a non-contact manner, A second communication unit that transmits an operation instruction to the first communication unit in a non-contact manner; a power supply line laid along a trajectory of the transfer robot; Since the pickup robot includes the pickup coil, the transfer robot can be driven by the electric energy extracted by the pickup coil, and transmission and reception are performed between the first communication unit on the transfer robot side and the external second communication unit. Thus, the operation of the transfer robot can be controlled. For this reason, conventional wiring and piping are not required, and a load is not applied to the transfer robot when the transfer robot moves, and maintenance work is not performed, so that high-speed movement is possible.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the transfer robot is provided with a vacuum generating device for vacuum-sucking an object to be transferred. As described above, since the transfer robot is provided with the vacuum generating device for vacuum-sucking the transferred object, the transfer robot can transfer the transferred object at a high speed, and can suppress the displacement of the transferred object at the time of the transfer, thereby improving reliability. The performance is improved.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a transport facility according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote devices, 3 an object to be transferred, 4 a transfer robot, 5 a power transmission mechanism, 6 a drive motor, 7 a power supply line, 8 a pickup coil, 9
Is a guide rail, 10 is a power transmission mechanism, 11 is a vacuum generator, 12 and 13 are control signal transmitting and receiving devices, and 14 is a transport control device.

As shown in FIG. 1, a power supply line 7 is laid along the trajectory of the transfer robot 4 in front of the device 1 and another device 2, and a pickup coil 8 for taking out electric energy from the power supply line 7 in a non-contact manner. Is mounted on the transfer robot 4. The transfer robot 4 is mounted on a control signal receiving device (first communication unit) 12 that can move on the guide rail 9 by the drive motor 6 and receives operation instructions in a non-contact manner. The drive motor 6 rotationally drives the power transmission mechanism 5 mounted on the transfer robot 4 and transmits power to another power transmission mechanism 10 laid along the guide rail 9. Further, another control signal receiving device (second communication means) 13 is provided in the transport control device 14, and transmits an operation instruction to the transport robot 4 to the control receiving device 12 in a non-contact manner. In this case, a vacuum generator 11 is mounted on the transfer robot 4, and generates a vacuum by itself without supplying a vacuum driving force from the outside. The transferred object 3 is a semiconductor substrate or the like. In this case, in each of the apparatuses 1,..., Cleaning, film formation, resist application and development, exposure, heat treatment, impurity diffusion,
Processing such as CMP, plating, and inspection can be performed, and the number of apparatuses 1 is not limited.

Next, the operation of the transport equipment having the above configuration will be described. As described above, the drive motor 6 is driven by the electric energy extracted by the pickup coil 8.
Rotates the power transmission mechanism 5 to transmit power to the power transmission mechanism 10, and the transfer robot 4 moves on the guide rail 8 in the horizontal direction, and transfers the transferred object 3. The operation instruction of the transfer robot 4 is transmitted and received between the control signal transmitting and receiving device 13 of the transfer control device 14 and the control signal transmitting and receiving device 12 of the transfer robot 4.

If a vacuum is generated by a power motor and a fan provided inside the vacuum generator 11, the transferred object 3 on the arm of the transfer robot 4 can be supplied without supplying a vacuum driving force from the outside.
Can be vacuum-sucked, in which case the transfer robot 4
Can be moved at a higher speed.
It is also possible to suppress displacement of the transfer robot 4 on the arm during transfer.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the transfer robot 4 can be driven by the electric energy extracted by the pickup coil 8, and the control signal receiving device 12 of the transfer robot 4 and the external control signal The operation of the transfer robot 4 can be controlled by transmitting and receiving data to and from the receiving device 13. For this reason, the conventional wiring and piping are not required, and there is no fear of applying a load to the transfer robot 4 when the transfer robot 4 moves, so that high-speed movement is possible.
Also, maintenance work for wiring and piping is eliminated.

Further, since the transfer robot 4 is provided with the vacuum generator 11 for vacuum-sucking the transferred object 3, the transfer robot 4 can transfer the transferred object 3 at high speed, and the transfer object 3 can be displaced during transfer. Can be suppressed, so that transport trouble can be prevented beforehand.

The power transmission mechanism 5 and the power transmission mechanism 10
May be a combination of a gear and a rack, or a combination of a toothless pulley and a guide. The means for transmitting and receiving the operation instruction signal of the transfer robot 4 in a non-contact manner may be infrared light or radio wave.

[0015]

According to the transfer equipment of the present invention, a transfer robot which can move on a guide rail and transfers an object to be transferred, and a first communication which is mounted on the transfer robot and receives an operation instruction in a non-contact manner. Means, and second communication means for transmitting an operation instruction to the transfer robot to the first communication means in a non-contact manner;
Since the power supply line is laid along the path of the transfer robot and a pickup coil mounted on the transfer robot and taking out electric energy from the power supply line in a non-contact manner, the transfer robot is operated by the electric energy extracted by the pickup coil. It can be driven, and the operation of the transfer robot can be controlled by transmitting and receiving between the first communication means on the transfer robot side and the second communication means on the outside. For this reason, conventional wiring and piping are not required, and a load is applied to the transfer robot when it is moved, and maintenance work is eliminated, so that high-speed movement is possible, and a low-cost and highly reliable transfer facility is provided. Can be.

According to the present invention, the transfer robot is provided with the vacuum generating device for vacuum-sucking the transferred object, so that the transferred object can be transferred at a high speed, and the displacement of the transferred object during transfer is suppressed. Reliability can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a transport facility according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a conventional transport facility.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus 2 Apparatus 3 Conveyed object 4 Transfer robot 5 Power transmission mechanism 6 Drive motor 7 Power supply line 8 Pickup coil 9 Guide rail 10 Power transmission mechanism 11 Vacuum generator 12 Control signal transmission / reception apparatus 13 Control signal transmission / reception apparatus 14 Transport control apparatus 15 Wiring and piping

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tomoya Maeda 1-1, Sachimachi, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electronics Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Keisei Matsushita 1-1, Sachimachi, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electronics F-term (reference) 5F031 CA05 GA08 GA44 GA48 GA58 LA07 5H105 AA12 AA20 BA02 BB07 CC03 CC15 DD10 5H301 AA02 AA09 BB05 BB20 CC03 DD07 DD15 EE02

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A transfer robot that is movable on a guide rail and transfers an object to be transferred, a first communication unit mounted on the transfer robot and receiving an operation instruction in a non-contact manner, and an operation to the transfer robot. A second communication unit for transmitting an instruction to the first communication unit in a non-contact manner, a power supply line laid along a trajectory of the transfer robot; A transfer facility equipped with a pickup coil that extracts energy. 2. The transfer equipment according to claim 1, wherein the transfer robot includes a vacuum generator for vacuum-sucking the transferred object.