JP2001002374A - Gripper device for transfer machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To grip a work on a gripping table without sliding it to prevent its damage by moving at least one of side clamps to change the interval between a work end surface and a clamp end surface to an identical distance, and then moving both side clamps simultaneously to grip the work. SOLUTION: Side clamps are moved by a predetermined clearance on the right and left sides of a panel P by a compressive force of a coil spring 37 caused by movements of a slider 31 and a pressing member 29 with a motor, and clamp members 27A are brought into contact with the end surfaces of the panel P to grip the panel P. At this time, the motor is further rotated by a preset deflection amount of the spring 37 after abutting of the clamp members 27A to the panel P, and the side clamps are pressed by a compressive energizing force T' for deflecting the spring 37 that is caused by the movement of a connecting block 36 structuring the pressing member 29 to press and grip the panel P with the clamp members 27A. Thus, the panel P is prevented from sliding on a mounting table of an exposing device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer system for holding and transporting a work, for example, a panel made of glass, a panel of a cathode ray tube, or the like by running a traveling carriage, and loading or unloading the processing apparatus at a predetermined position. The present invention relates to a gripper device provided on a mounting machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a work, for example, a glass panel,
As a holding device provided in a device for holding and transporting a cathode ray tube panel or the like, a device using a vacuum pad is known (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-67305). For example, when a panel of a cathode ray tube is transferred to an exposure apparatus for processing, as shown in FIG. 10 as a loading position, a center point C of the panel P when the panel P is mounted on a panel mounting table of the exposure apparatus is Although the center position is the same as the center position C 'of the exposure apparatus, the panel P is slightly centered for the exposure processing, so that the position of the panel P after the processing is slightly shifted due to the centering for the exposure processing. When the P is transferred and mounted and after the processing, the center point C of the panel P is shifted from the mounting table center position C ′ in the X and Y directions as shown in FIG. The amount of the displacement is a quantitative value peculiar to the exposure apparatus. Further, when the maintenance of the exposure apparatus is performed, a difference occurs between the center point C of the processed panel before and after the maintenance. However, the stop position of the transfer machine is the same between when the panel P is placed on the mounting table before the normal exposure processing and when the panel P is picked up after the processing. In consideration of such circumstances, as a holding device for holding the panel of the exposed cathode ray tube, a vacuum pad method that does not require severe positioning of the holding device is optimally adopted.

[0003]

However, the vacuum pad method has a problem that since the rubber portion of the pad is strongly pressed against the surface of the panel, an adhering mark is formed, and it takes a lot of trouble to remove the mark. In order to avoid this problem, a side clamp method using a gripper device has been employed as a means for gripping the panel. However, in this side clamp method, when the panel is misaligned due to centering in the exposure apparatus, when a pair of side clamps move and try to clamp the panel, first, the clamp portion of one side clamp is attached to the panel. After the contact, the clamp portion of the other side clamp comes into contact, and the movement of the clamp portion that first comes into contact causes the panel to slide and slid on the panel mounting table, so that exposure processing is performed. There is a problem that the panel seal surface is damaged.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above problems,
Even if the work, for example, a glass panel, a cathode ray tube panel, etc., has been displaced when it is placed on the mounting table by the transfer machine and when it is taken off after processing, etc. An object of the present invention is to provide a grip device having a mechanism capable of gripping a work without sliding or slidingly contacting the work on a mounting table when the work is held between a pair of side clamps.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a work holding body which runs along a track and is provided on a traveling carriage having an adjustable stop position so as to be movable up and down. A rail is provided, and a pair of side clamps for holding a workpiece that moves along the guide rail are provided, and in a gripper device of a transfer machine configured such that each side clamp is separately movable by a driving mechanism,
After at least one of the side clamps is moved and the distance between the work end surface on both sides of the work and the clamp end surface of the side clamp is displaced to the same distance, both side clamps are simultaneously moved to clamp the work. In the gripper device of the transfer machine provided, in the gripper device of the transfer machine, at least one side clamp of the side clamp is moved via a spring urging means by a pressing member moved by the driving mechanism, After the pair of side clamps simultaneously move in the work holding direction and the clamp portion abuts on the work, only the side clamps urged by the spring urging means are further urged by the spring and pressed in the holding direction. A mechanism, and in the gripper device of the transfer machine, one side of the pair of side clamps. The ramp is moved by a pressing member moved by the drive mechanism via spring biasing means, and the pair of side clamps move simultaneously in the work clamping direction, and after the clamp portion comes into contact with the work, the spring is turned on. Only the side clamp urged by the urging means is further provided with a mechanism which is urged by a spring by a preset spring deflection amount and presses in the clamping direction.

[0006]

In the gripper device having the above structure, at least one of the side clamps is moved and the distance between the work end surface on both sides of the work and the clamp portion end surface of the side clamp is displaced by the same distance. Move at the same time and hold the work on both sides simultaneously. The one side clamp is moved via a spring biasing means by a pressing member moved by the driving mechanism, and the pair of side clamps are simultaneously moved in the work clamping direction, so that the clamp portion contacts the work. After that, when only the side clamps urged by the spring urging means are further urged by the spring and pressed in the clamping direction, the work is fixed on the mounting table after the clamp portion first abuts,
Thereafter, the side clamp is elastically biased and pressed, and the work is held at a predetermined pressure.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the overall configuration of the transfer machine will be described. As shown in FIG. 9, the transfer machine 1 that conveys a work, loads the work on a mounting table at a predetermined position, and unloads the work, The traveling carriage 3 travels along the traveling carriage 2, a work holder body 4 that is lifted and lowered by four belts by a hoist mounted on the traveling carriage 3, and a gripper device 5 provided on the work holder body 4. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 6 denotes an auxiliary beam, reference numeral 7 denotes a suspension member of the track 2, and reference numeral 8 denotes a geared motor for changing the direction of the work.

Hereinafter, a case will be described in which the transfer machine 1 is run, the panel P of the cathode ray tube is mounted on a mounting table (not shown) of the exposure apparatus 9 for processing, and then the panel P is taken out. As shown in FIG. 9, the self-propelled traveling vehicle 3
Is stopped at a predetermined position, the work holder main body 4 descends, and the panel P held by the gripper device 5 is placed on the mounting table of the exposure device 9, and then the work holder main body 4 rises. The traveling carriage 3 travels to the side of the exposure device 9 where the exposure processing has already been completed, and performs operations such as lowering of the work holder main body 4, clamping of the panel P of the gripper device 5, and raising of the work holder main body 4. Is driven to change the direction of the panel P to load, unload, and convey the panel P.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the work holder body 4 is composed of a frame 11 and a plate-like work holder body 1.
The work holder body 12 is provided with a pair of guide rails 13A and 13B. The guide rails 13B are two separate ones. As shown on the right side of the bottom view of FIG.
13B, bearing-containing blocks 14A, 14B are provided so as to be able to run freely, and the blocks 14A, 14B have:
The slider 15 is attached. The ball nut 16 is attached to the slider 15 via a mounting member 15A (see FIG. 3).
Is fixed, and the screw shaft 1 is screwed with the ball nut 16.
7 is drivingly connected to a motor 18 constituting a driving mechanism,
The slider 15 is moved by a drive mechanism having the motor 18. A support frame 19 is mounted on the slider 15, and a clamp arm 20 is mounted on the support frame 19. Rubber clamp members 21 A, 21 B holding the panel P are mounted on the clamp arm 20.
Is attached. Here, this clamp member 21
A and 21B may be integrated. In addition, 17A and 17B of FIG. 2 are bearings of the screw shaft 17, and 18A is a toothed belt.

As shown on the left side of the bottom view in FIG. 2, blocks 23A and 23B containing bearings are provided on the guide rails 13A and 13B so as to run freely, and a slider 24 is mounted on the blocks 23A and 23B. It is attached. A support frame 25 is attached to the slider 24, a clamp arm 26 is attached to the support frame 25, and rubber clamp members 27A and 27B that hold the panel P are attached to the clamp arm 26 (FIG. 4). reference). As described later, this slider 24
Is moved with the intervention of the coil spring 37 by the movement of the slider 31 provided with the pressing member 29.

As shown further on the left side in the bottom view of FIG. 2, blocks 30A and 30B with bearings are provided on the guide rails 13A and 13B so that they can run freely. The slider 31 is attached. A ball nut 32 is fixed to the slider 31 via a mounting member (not shown), and a screw shaft 33 screwed with the ball nut 32 is drivingly connected to a motor 34 constituting a driving mechanism. The slider 31 is moved by driving a ball nut 32, a screw shaft 33, a toothed belt 34A, and a motor 34.

On the other hand, a pressing member 29 for pressing and moving the slider 24 is attached to the slider 31. The pressing member 29 is composed of a connecting shaft 35 and the connecting shaft 35.
And a connecting block 36 fixed to the connecting block 36. The other end of the connecting shaft 35 is inserted and removably inserted into an L-shaped member 24A fixed to the slider 24. The coil spring 3 is provided between the connection block 36 and the L-shaped member 24A.
7 are interposed.

Here, the rotation of the motor 34 causes the screw shaft 3 to rotate.
3 rotates and the ball nut 32 moves due to the rotation, so that the slider 31 moves, and the pressing member 29 attached to the slider 31 moves accordingly. The slider 24, the clamp arm 26, and the rubber clamp member 27 are compressed between the
A moves.

The gripper device 5 configured as described above
By driving the motor 18 and the motor 34, the side clamp 22 and the side clamp 28 are contracted and moved, and the panel P is sandwiched from both sides. Here, the pair of side clamps 22 and 28 can be shifted left and right by driving a motor while holding the panel P therebetween.

A mechanism for holding the panel P mounted on the mounting table without sliding even if the center position of the panel P is shifted after the panel P is processed by the exposure device 9 will be described below. As shown in FIG. 10, when the transfer machine 1 mounts the panel P on the mounting table of the exposure apparatus 9,
The center position C ′ of the mounting table coincides with the center point C of the panel P. Here, when the exposure processing is completed and the panel P is unloaded and taken out of the mounting table, the panel P is displaced by a predetermined amount due to the centering in the exposure processing, so that the traveling vehicle 3 moves in the traveling direction (X direction). Then, the position is adjusted by a predetermined amount and the fine movement is stopped, and the center position C ′ of the mounting table is aligned with the X direction side and stopped.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which both side clamps 22 and 28 are expanded at the loading point. Rubber clamp members 21A and 21B of the expanded side clamps 22 and 28 and rubber Clamp members 27A, 27B
Is a fixed width that is set in advance according to the size of the workpiece, that is, the size of the CRT panel P, and the gap G between the end faces of the clamp members 21A and 21B and the panel P is the clamp member 27A, It is the same as the gap G between the end face of 27B and the end face of panel P. That is, the left and right gaps G in the figure are the same, and the widening width W thereof is the same as the widening width when the panel P after the exposure processing is sandwiched.

However, as shown in FIG. 8, in the exposure process, for example, the position of the panel P is shifted in the Y direction,
End surface of panel P and clamp member 2 of side clamp 22
When the end face of 1A is a gap of G + G ', the side clamp 22 is preset to move by G', and the side clamp 22 is first moved by G '.
In this case, when the side clamps 22 and 28 are displaced on both sides, respectively,
2 and 28 are moved so that the gap becomes G. In this case, the amount of movement can be set in advance as the amount of adjustment rotation of the motors 18 and 34 because the amount of displacement of the panel P due to centering is quantitative.

After the side clamps are moved so as to form a gap G on the left and right sides of the panel P,
When the motors 2 and 28 are moved by the simultaneous driving rotations of the motors 18 and 34, the clamp members 21A, 21B, 27A and 27B abut on the end face of the panel P when the gap G is moved. The panel P is pinched by the movement of the side clamp.

At this time, a mechanism for securely holding the panel P will be described. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a side clamp 28 which is moved by being biased by a spring has a clamp member 27A. , 27B abut the panel P at the same time as the clamp members 21A, 21B. After the abutment, the motor 34 further rotates by a predetermined amount. The side clamp 28 is pressed by the bending force (from T to T ′) and pressed by the compression urging force, and the panel P is pressed and clamped by the clamp members 27A and 27B, so that the panel P is placed on the mounting table of the exposure apparatus 9. Sliding is prevented.

Here, the amount of deflection of the spring 37 is determined in advance, and a desired biasing force can be applied to the panel P by driving the motor to rotate the amount of deflection. That is, for the panels of various sizes, the widening width W of the side clamp is set for each size, and the motor 34 is set to have a predetermined bending amount based on the bending displacement amount of the spring 37 measured in advance. By setting the amount of rotation of, the panel P can be clamped with a gripping force suitable for each panel.

By the way, if the exposure apparatus is removed for maintenance and then reinstalled, the centering position of the center point C of the panel P on the mounting table is also different from the previous one due to its centering. Based on the amount of deviation from the position, the stop position adjustment amount of the traveling vehicle is set, and the motor rotation amount for driving the side clamps is adjusted so that each side clamp has a predetermined expansion width W. The loading and unloading points can be easily set and adjusted by setting the gap between the clamp member and the end face of the clamp member to be G.

[0022]

According to the present invention, a work carrier is provided on a traveling carriage whose stop position can be adjusted, and a pair of side clamps for clamping the work are provided on the work carrier body so as to be separately movable by a driving mechanism. When at least one of the side clamps is moved and the distance between the work end surface on both sides of the work and the clamp portion end surface of the side clamp is displaced by the same distance, the gripper device is used. Is equipped with a mechanism that simultaneously moves and clamps the work, so that even if the position where the work is placed on the mounting table and loaded is shifted from the position where the work is unloaded after processing, etc. The workpiece can be gripped without being slid on the mounting table, and thus, it is possible to prevent the work from being in sliding contact with the mounting table and being damaged when unloading.

After the distance between the traveling carriage whose stop position can be adjusted and the end face of the work on both sides of the work and the end face of the clamp portion of the side clamp is displaced by the same distance, both side clamps are simultaneously moved to clamp the work. Is provided, the work can be held at a position close to the center of the gripper device. As a result, the eccentric load on the work holding body is reduced, and the inclination of the work holding body during transportation can be reduced. it can. In addition, since a pair of side clamps for holding the work are separately movably provided by the drive mechanism on the work holding body,
These can be moved at the same time, and as a result, the work can be shifted left and right while sandwiching the work. In this case, it is not necessary to install another slide mechanism conventionally used.

In the gripper device, one of the side clamps is moved via a spring urging means by a pressing member moved by the driving mechanism, and the pair of side clamps are simultaneously moved in the work clamping direction. If only the side clamps biased by the spring biasing means are further pressed in the clamping direction after the part abuts on the workpiece, the Since only the side clamp urged by the spring urging means is pressed and the other side clamp does not move, the work can be held in a fixed position on the mounting table, and accordingly, The work can be reliably prevented from sliding, and the work can be reliably held without applying excessive holding force to the work.

Further, the one side clamp is pressed by the pressing member moved by the driving mechanism via the spring urging means, so that the gripping force of the work is reduced by the displacement of the spring, that is, the motor of the driving mechanism. The adjustment can be made by the rotation amount, and as a result, the torque control of the motor can be omitted.

Further, after at least one of the side clamps is moved by the gripper device, and the distance between the work end surface on both sides of the work and the clamp end surface of the side clamp is displaced by the same distance, both side clamps are simultaneously moved. As a result, a mechanism for clamping the work can be provided, so that the handling stroke of the side clamp can be made constant, and therefore the cycle time can be prevented from being affected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view, partially in section, showing the vicinity of a pressing member of a gripper device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view showing, in partial cross section, the vicinity of a pressing member and the vicinity of a block mounting portion.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the gripper device.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a partial cross section taken along line AA of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a pressing member in a cross section before a coil spring is compressed.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a pressing member in a cross section after compression of a coil spring.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation state of a side clamp.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation state of a side clamp.

FIG. 9 is an operation explanatory view of the transfer machine.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional shift when a panel is loaded and unloaded.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Transfer machine 2. Track
3: traveling cart 4: work holder body 5: gripper device
6 auxiliary beam 7 suspension member 8 geared motor
9 Exposure device 11 Frame 12 Plate-shaped work holder body 13A, 13B Guide rail 14A, 1
4B Block 15 Slider 16 Ball nut 17
..Screw shaft 18.Motor 19.Support frame 20
..Clamp arm 21A, 21B..Rubber clamp member 22
..Side clamps 23A, 23B..Block 24
..Slider 25..Support frame 26..Clamp arm 27A, 27B..Clamp member 28 made of rubber
..Side clamp 29..Pressing member 30A, 30B..Block 31.Slider 31A..Mounting member 32
..Ball nut 33..Screw shaft 34..Motor 34
A. Toothed belt 35 Connection shaft 36 Connection block 37
・ ・ Coil spring C ・ ・ ・ Center point C '・ ・ Center position G ・
..Gaps

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3F061 AA01 BA03 BB08 BC01 BC19 BD04 BE24 BE41 BF00 DB00 DB06 3F204 AA07 BA05 CA01 CA07 DB08 DB10 DC01 DD14 DD20 5C012 AA02 5C028 DD01 DD02

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A guide rail is provided on a work holder main body which travels along a track and can be moved up and down on a traveling carriage whose stop position is adjustable, and a work clamp which moves along the guide rail. A pair of side clamps is provided, and each side clamp is separately movable by a drive mechanism in a gripper device of a transfer machine,
After at least one of the side clamps is moved and the distance between the work end surface on both sides of the work and the clamp end surface of the side clamp is displaced to the same distance, both side clamps are simultaneously moved to clamp the work. A gripper device for a transfer machine, comprising: 2. The at least one side clamp of the side clamps is moved via a spring urging means by a pressing member moved by the driving mechanism, and the pair of side clamps are simultaneously moved in a work clamping direction. 2. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein only the side clamp urged by the spring urging means is further urged by the spring and pressed in the clamping direction after the clamp portion comes into contact with the workpiece. Transfer equipment gripper device. 3. One of the pair of side clamps is moved via a spring urging means by a pressing member moved by the driving mechanism, and the pair of side clamps are moved in the work clamping direction. Move at the same time,
After the clamp portion comes into contact with the workpiece, only a side clamp urged by the spring urging means is further urged by a spring deflection amount set in advance to press in the clamping direction. The gripper device for a transfer machine according to claim 1.