JP2001206543A - Automatic sheet processing line - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic sheet processing line capable of continuing normal processing without stopping a processing unit inconvenient to stop driving in a state when a work is in the middle of processing even when driving of a specific process out of a pleural number of the processes is temporarily stopped and released. SOLUTION: A buffer unit provided on the line downstream side of each pf processing units an capable of storing and holding a work from a work processing unit is provided on a continues automatic sheet processing line furnished with a plural number if serial work processing units including a processing unit inconvenient to stop driving in the middle of processing the work, and the work from the work processing unit is stored and held by the buffer unit without stopping driving of the work processing unit at the time of stopping driving of a certain specific processing unit by controlling this buffer unit by a controller.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic single-wafer processing line, and particularly to an automatic single-wafer processing line particularly suitable for performing an electrode forming step by printing on a plate-like electric component such as an electric circuit board, a solar cell, or a liquid crystal panel. It relates to the processing line.

2. Description of the Related Art Forming a plurality of electrodes on a plate-like electric component such as a circuit board, a solar cell, or a liquid crystal panel by screen printing is widely performed. The line has been applied to mass production. A cassette is used for supplying and storing a workpiece (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a work), and usually has a configuration of one electrode and one line. When forming a plurality of electrodes, a plurality of processing lines are connected in series. Has been placed.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Hereinafter, an example of a conventional printing and drying line for forming one electrode is schematically shown in block diagrams and schematic diagrams of FIGS. In these figures, 1 is a loader, 2 and 5 are transport units, 3 is a printing machine, 4 is a drying furnace, 6 is an unloader, 11 is a workpiece before printing, 12 is a workpiece immediately after printing, and 13 is a drying machine. Post work, 21, 22
Is a work transfer fork, 23 and 24 are transfer suction mechanisms, 25 and 26 are transfer mechanism guide rails, 31 is a print mask, 32 is printing rubber, 33 is paste ink, 34
Is a jig for ink coating, 41 is a lamp heater, 42,
43 is a chamber, 44 is a belt, 45 and 46 are belt driving rollers, 47 is a drying gas supply port, 48 is an exhaust gas exhaust port, 73 is a loader side cassette, 74 is an unloader side cassette, 101 is a controller, 102 Is a signal cable.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a series of steps for printing and drying a workpiece. Each unit, that is, a loader 1, transport units 2 and 5, a printing machine 3, a drying furnace 4, and an The loader 6 is connected and controlled by a controller 101 and a signal cable 102.

FIG. 4 shows the block diagram of FIG. 3 in an external view of the apparatus. First, the workpiece 11 before printing stored in the cassette 73 of the loader 1 is taken out by the workpiece transport fork 21 of the transport unit 2 and sequentially sent out to the printing machine 3 at a constant tact. In the printing machine 3, the paste ink 33 is stretched on the print mask 31 so as to cover the entire surface with the ink coating jig 34, and is printed with the printing rubber 32.
The printed workpiece 12 is sent to the drying furnace 4. At this time, the workpiece 12 is taken out by the transport suction mechanism 23, and the transport suction mechanism 23 moves on the guide rail 25 together with the workpiece 12 and moves onto the belt 44 that transports the workpiece 12 immediately after printing. It is put on the drying furnace 4.

The drying furnace 4 is heated to several hundred degrees Celsius by a lamp heater 41 in chambers 42 and 43 for heat insulation and protection. A belt 44 is driven by a belt driving roller 45 so as to convey the workpiece 12 immediately after printing. , 46. Further, a gas that does not alter the quality of the printing paste ink is introduced from the gas supply port 47, and is discharged from the exhaust gas exhaust port 48 together with the vapor component in the paste ink 33. As described above, the workpiece 12 immediately after printing is dried in the chamber 44 at a predetermined temperature and a predetermined gas atmosphere for a fixed tact time.

[0007] The dried workpiece 13 carried out by the belt 44 is taken out by the transport suction mechanism 24, and the transport suction mechanism 24 moves on the guide rail 26, and the dried workpiece 13 is transferred to the transport unit 5. It is thrown. After drying, the workpiece 13 is stored in the cassette 74 of the unloader 6 by the workpiece transport fork 22.

[0008]

The automatic line in the one-electrode forming process as described above has been described. However, since it is often necessary to form a plurality of electrodes on a workpiece, a plurality of such lines are connected in series. Often have to be installed at In such a case, the number of loader sections, unloader sections, and cassettes must be increased in accordance with the number of electrodes to be formed, and the cassette storage space must be provided with a considerable space. In addition, manual operation of the cassette between a plurality of lines is required, and there is a limit in improving productivity.

In the drying furnace and the baking furnace, not only the heat treatment temperature but also the processing time are very important, and if the workpiece is temporarily stopped in the furnace, there is a high possibility that the product becomes defective. For this reason, even if the other units are temporarily stopped, it is desirable that the workpiece in the furnace be processed as it is and collected outside the furnace if normal processing is possible. However, when multiple conventional automatic lines for forming one electrode are directly connected, if units other than the furnace are temporarily stopped, the work remains in all units, and the work in the furnace is kept at the furnace outlet. Cannot be recovered.

Further, even if the printed workpiece can be collected at the furnace outlet, a mechanism is required to return the workpiece so that it does not overlap the subsequent workpiece when the processing is resumed, and each workpiece is individually recognized. In a line where quality control is carried out, it is important to return collected workpieces.

In the case of a long line where a large number of workpieces are processed, if the time of the temporary stop is prolonged, the mechanism for collecting all the workpieces becomes large, and the size cannot be reduced to a practical size.

In a conventional automatic single-wafer processing line, a plurality of automatic lines for one electrode forming step are provided to form a plurality of electrodes on a workpiece, and as described above, a loader section, an unloader section, The number of cassettes had to be increased undesirably according to the number of processes, and the transfer of the cassettes between lines was labor-intensive, requiring a cassette storage space. In addition, the transfer of the cassette during the tact was rate-determining, and the productivity could not be improved much.

Another problem is that when a plurality of automatic lines in which a heat treatment furnace is installed are directly connected, when the lines are temporarily stopped, the workpieces in the furnace are recovered at a furnace outlet after predetermined processing is completed. is there.

It is another object of the present invention to return the processed workpiece to a predetermined rule at the time of resuming the processing so that the recovered workpiece does not overlap with a row of the subsequent processed workpiece. On long lines where many workpieces are processed,
Even if the suspension time is prolonged, it is necessary to keep the collection mechanism in a size that can be practically installed.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic single-wafer processing line which solves the above-mentioned problems of the conventional automatic single-wafer processing line. Even in the processing line, cassette storage can be omitted without unnecessary repetition of each process, cassette transfer between lines is unnecessary, and even if a specific process unit such as a furnace is temporarily stopped, A plate-shaped electric component that allows the workpiece to be recovered by a recovery mechanism of a realistic size at the exit of the operating process unit without increasing the work stagnation, thereby improving productivity. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic single-wafer processing line particularly suitable for printing and forming a plurality of electrodes. In addition, when the line is temporarily stopped, the workpiece in the furnace can be recovered at the furnace outlet after completing a predetermined process, and when the recovered workpiece is restarted, the subsequent workpiece is continuously processed. The problem is to return to a certain rule and process it so that it does not overlap the row of objects. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic single-wafer processing line in which a collection mechanism can be set to a size that can be practically installed even in a long line where a large number of workpieces are processed, even if the suspension time is prolonged.

[0016]

According to the present invention, a plurality of automatic lines for processing a similar series of steps, such as forming a printed electrode, on a workpiece are provided. One line is provided, and a buffer unit is provided between the original lines. In addition, a workpiece that has been once processed in a buffer unit and is subsequently processed continuously is detected by a sensor and returned so as not to overlap. Further, when the buffer unit becomes full of the workpiece, the cassette unit is configured so that the buffer unit can be replaced.

That is, according to the present invention, there is provided a continuous processing unit including a plurality of workpiece processing units connected in series, including a processing unit which is inconvenient to stop the operation while the workpiece is being processed. In the automatic single-wafer processing line, a buffer unit provided downstream of each processing unit and capable of receiving and holding a workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit and a specific processing unit include: An automatic sheet processing apparatus, comprising: a controller for storing and holding a workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit in a buffer unit without stopping the workpiece processing unit when the operation is stopped. A leaf processing line is obtained.

When the processing unit in the processing unit on the downstream side of the line is temporarily stopped, the controller stores the work in the buffer unit and simultaneously stops the operation of the processing unit on the upstream side. When the stop is released, the processing of the workpiece in the buffer unit is restarted, and at the same time, the operation of the upstream processing unit can be restarted.

[0019] Further, the controller can cause the workpiece accommodated in the buffer unit to be dispensed so as to be inserted into the gap in the rear conveying line where there is no workpiece when the processing is resumed when the processing is temporarily stopped.

Further, the controller can restart the processing in the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit.

Further, the controller can restart the processing in the reverse order of the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit.

The buffer unit may be a replaceable cassette type buffer unit.

Further, the cassette type buffer section can be made detachable.

[0024]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic single-wafer processing line capable of forming three electrodes according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an automatic line from the first printing press to the next printing press in FIG. In these figures, 1 is a loader, 2, 5,
8, 82, 84, 87, 89 are transport units, 3, 9,
85 is a printing machine, 4 and 81 are drying furnaces, 6 is an unloader,
7, 83 and 88 are buffer units, 11 is a workpiece before printing, 12 is a workpiece immediately after printing, 13 is a workpiece after drying, 14 is a workpiece to be stored in a buffer unit, 22 is a workpiece transport fork, 23 and 24 are suction mechanisms for conveyance, 2
5 and 26 are guide rails for a transfer mechanism, 41 is a lamp heater, 42 and 43 are chambers, 44 is a belt, 45 and 4
6 is a belt driving roller, 47 is a drying gas supply port,
48 is an exhaust gas outlet, 71 is a workpiece storage guide, 7
2 is a workpiece detection sensor, 86 is a drying and firing furnace, 10
1 is a controller, 102 is a signal cable. The printing machines 9 and 85, the drying furnaces 81 and 86, and the transport units 82 and 87 shown in FIG.
And the transport unit 5.

In FIG. 1, units such as a transport unit, a printing machine, and a drying oven are connected to a controller 101 by a signal cable 102 and are controlled.

In FIG. 2, as in the conventional example of FIG. 4, the workpiece before printing is supplied from a loader 1 to a printing machine 3 similar to that shown in FIG. . Workpiece 12 immediately after printing printed by printing machine 3
Is transported along the transport mechanism guide rails 25 and placed on the transport belt 44 of the drying furnace 4. The workpiece 12 immediately after printing introduced into the drying furnace by the belt 44 is dried in the drying furnace 4. After drying, the workpiece 13 is placed on the workpiece transport fork 22 of the transport unit 5 by the transport suction mechanism 24 that moves along the guide rail 26, and the buffer unit 7 is moved using the workpiece transport fork 22. It is placed on the workpiece storage guide 71 and stored in the buffer unit 7 as the buffer unit storage workpiece 14,
The first printing step is completed.

At this time, if there is no trouble in each processing step, the dried workpiece 13 (buffer unit storage workpiece 14) is supplied from the buffer unit 7 to the transport unit 8. Thereafter, the workpiece is transported to the printing press 9 by the transport unit 8 according to the arrow in the processing direction of the workpiece shown in FIG. It is dried at 81 and temporarily stored in the buffer unit 83 by the transport unit 82 to complete the second printing step. The workpiece is further transported from the buffer unit 83 to the printing machine 85 by the transport unit 84 to perform the third electrode printing, and then dried / fired in the drying / firing furnace 86 to transport the third electrode. The print data is temporarily stored in the buffer unit 88 by the unit 87 to complete the third printing step, and is finally stored in the unloader 6 by the transport unit 89. In this manner, the workpiece can be continuously and repeatedly subjected to the necessary number of processes along the workpiece processing direction.

In FIG. 1, for example, when the printing press 85 is temporarily stopped due to maintenance or trouble of the printing press 85, various processing units upstream of the line from the printing press 85 are also temporarily stopped. Should. This is because the flow of the workpiece is blocked by the stopped printing machine 85. However, the workpieces of the upstream drying furnaces 4 and 81 are not suitable as products if they are not sufficiently or excessively processed without completing a predetermined heating step, and must be discarded. Not get.
Therefore, usually, the heat treatment must be completed under predetermined conditions.

According to the present invention, the buffer unit 7, which can absorb the flow of the workpiece immediately after each of the drying furnaces 4, 81, 86, which is an inconvenient processing unit when the operation is stopped,
Since the 83 and 88 are arranged, there is no need to stop the flow upstream of the stopped processing unit. That is, when the printing machine 85 is stopped as described above, the loader 1, the transport units 2, 8, and 84, and the printing machines 3, 9, and 85 are temporarily stopped. 81
Transports the processed workpieces by the transport belt 44 while drying the workpieces continuously, and after drying the workpieces from the furnace as the workpieces 13 after drying, the transport unit 5 or the transport unit 5 successively by the transport suction mechanism 24. 82, and the buffer unit 7 or 83
After drying, the workpiece 13 can be carried in and stored. At this time, since the buffer unit 7 has a cassette structure, the workpiece storage guide 71
The workpiece 14 can be successively stored / recovered in a cassette one after another. Further, there is no problem even if the drying / baking furnace 86, the transport units 87 and 89, the buffer unit 88, and the unloader 6 after the printing machine 85 continue the processing.

Next, when the processing of the printing press 85 which has been stopped is restarted, the workpiece is sent out to the gap between the subsequent workpieces, or the subsequent one is forcibly suspended. After preferentially paying out the workpiece 14 stored in the buffer unit 7, the processing of the subsequent workpiece is restarted. In order to pay out the workpiece 14 from the buffer unit 7 to the gap between the subsequent workpieces, the absence of the workpiece is detected by using the workpiece detection sensor 72 installed in front of the buffer unit 7, When the workpiece storage guide 71 is lowered at the timing when the workpieces do not overlap each other and the workpiece 14 is paid out, the processing can be performed without any problem without the workpieces overlapping.

When the processing of the printing press 85 is restarted,
When it is necessary to perform quality control for each workpiece, the first-in first-out rule is that the storage guide 71 of the buffer unit 7 is once lowered to the lowermost end, and then sequentially paid out from the lower workpiece 14, and the final When the payout of the workpiece is completed, the controller 101 may be controlled so that the subsequent units are temporarily released from suspension.

In the first-in first-out rule, as the line becomes longer as in this example, frequent pauses are likely to occur, and the productivity is reduced. In order to cope with this, the suspension of each unit is simultaneously released, and the gap between the workpieces caused by other pauses is reduced by the sensor 72 to remove the workpiece 14 of the buffer unit 7. Paying out one by one increases the processing capacity. At this time, if the controller 101 sequentially follows the order of all the workpieces on the line and recognizes that the order has changed after the processing is completed, quality control for each workpiece can be performed. In addition, first-in first-out may be used instead of first-in first-out.

Further, when the suspension time is long, it is necessary to collect all the workpieces in the drying furnaces 4 and 81.
In some cases, a sufficient number of 1s cannot be secured. in this case,
When the storage guide 71 is full of the workpiece 14, the problem can be solved by preparing storage guides having the same shape and replacing them.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the printing press 85 is temporarily stopped has been described, but the same applies regardless of which unit in the drawing is temporarily stopped.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of workpiece processing units connected in series with each other are included, including a processing unit in which it is inconvenient to stop the operation while the workpiece is being processed. Equipped with a continuous automatic single-wafer processing line,
A buffer unit provided downstream of the line of each processing unit and capable of receiving and holding the workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit, and a certain processing unit when the operation is stopped, A controller for storing and holding the workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit in the buffer unit without stopping the operation of the workpiece processing unit. Therefore, a processing unit in which it is inconvenient to stop the operation while the workpiece is being processed even if a specific processing step is temporarily stopped and canceled while a plurality of processings are being processed continuously. Normal processing can be continued without stopping.

When the processing unit on the downstream side of the line is in a state of receiving the work temporarily, the controller stores the work in the buffer unit and simultaneously stops the operation of the upstream processing unit. When the stop is released, the processing of the workpiece in the buffer unit is restarted, and at the same time, the operation of the upstream processing unit can be restarted. Further, the controller can cause the workpiece stored in the buffer unit at the time of the temporary stop to be paid out so as to be inserted into the gap portion of the rear transport line where the workpiece is not present at the time of resuming the processing. Therefore, even if pause and release are performed while a plurality of processes are being processed continuously, it is possible to automatically perform normal processing on the evacuated workpiece and return to the normal line. It is.

The controller may restart the processing in the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit, or may restart the processing in the order reverse to the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit. Therefore,
Even when a plurality of processes are paused and canceled during continuous processing, individual quality control of the evacuated workpiece can be performed.

The buffer unit is a replaceable cassette type buffer unit. Therefore, even if the processing is temporarily stopped and canceled while a plurality of processings are being continuously performed, a large number of workpieces can be easily evacuated by replacing the cassette.

Further, the cassette type buffer section can be made detachable. Therefore, even if the buffer is paused and released during the continuous processing of a plurality of processes, even if the buffer is filled with the workpiece, by removing and replacing the buffer, All workpieces can be easily retracted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic sheet processing line having an automatic printing / drying / firing step capable of forming three electrodes consistently according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an automatic printing / automatic printing of the automatic sheet processing line shown in FIG.
It is the schematic which shows a drying processing unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a conventional automatic sheet-fed processing line having an automatic printing / drying step capable of forming one electrode.

FIG. 4 shows an automatic printing / automatic printing of the automatic sheet-fed processing line shown in FIG.
It is a figure showing a drying processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Loader, 2, 5, 8, 82, 84, 87, 89
Transport unit, 3, 9, 85 Printing machine, 4, 81 Drying furnace, 6 unloader, 7, 83, 88 Buffer unit, 12 Workpiece immediately after printing, 13 Workpiece after drying, 14 Buffer unit storage work Thing, 22
Workpiece transfer fork, 23, 24 transfer suction mechanism,
25, 26 transport mechanism guide rail, 31 printing mask, 32 printing rubber, 33 paste ink, 34 ink coating jig, 41 lamp heater, 42, 43
Chamber, 44 belt, 45, 46 Belt driving roller, 47 Drying gas supply port, 48 Exhaust gas exhaust port, 71 Work storage guide, 72 Workpiece detection sensor, 73 Loader side cassette, 74 Unloader side cassette, 86 printing and firing furnace, 101 controller, 102 signal cable.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // H01L 31/04 H01L 31/04 M

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A continuous automatic single-wafer processing line including a plurality of workpiece processing units connected in series with each other, including a processing unit in which it is inconvenient to stop the operation while the workpiece is being processed. A buffer unit that is provided downstream of each of the processing units and that can receive and hold the workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit, and a specific processing unit is stopped A controller for storing and holding the workpiece discharged from the workpiece processing unit in the buffer unit without stopping the workpiece processing unit when the operation is stopped. Single wafer processing line. 2. The controller according to claim 1, wherein when the processing unit in the processing unit on the downstream side of the line is in a pause state, the controller stores the workpiece in the buffer unit and simultaneously stops the operation of the upstream processing unit. 2. The automatic single-wafer processing according to claim 1, wherein when the suspension is released, the processing of the workpiece in the buffer unit is resumed and the operation of the upstream processing unit is resumed at the same time. line. 3. The controller according to claim 1, wherein the controller dispenses the workpiece stored in the buffer unit during a temporary stop so as to insert the workpiece into a gap in the rear transport line where the workpiece is absent when the processing is resumed. The automatic single-wafer processing line according to claim 1. 4. The automatic single-wafer processing line according to claim 1, wherein the controller restarts the processing in the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit. 5. The automatic single-wafer processing line according to claim 1, wherein the controller restarts the processing in the reverse order of the order in which the workpieces are stored in the buffer unit. 6. The automatic single-wafer processing line according to claim 1, wherein the buffer unit is a replaceable cassette type buffer unit. 7. The automatic single-wafer processing line according to claim 6, wherein the cassette type buffer unit is removable.