JP2003100837A - Transfer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small and lightweight transfer system at a low cost. SOLUTION: The transfer system comprises a plurality of slide tables (12, 13 and 14), and a slide mechanism section (18) disposed between the plurality of slide tables and sliding them relatively to each other. Each of the plurality of slide tables is provided with a vertical member (19) extending therefrom in the vertical direction along the sliding direction of the slide table and the slide mechanism section is disposed between the vertical members provided, respectively, in the adjacent slide tables.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer device for carrying and moving heavy objects and the like, and more particularly to a mechanical portion of a slide table in a transfer device used in a clean room such as a semiconductor manufacturing factory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At a semiconductor or liquid crystal manufacturing site, there is a room called a clean room which does not contain dust, and the manufacturing work is carried out in this clean room. When a semiconductor or liquid crystal is manufactured, if dust such as dust adheres to the semiconductor, it is possible that only that portion cannot be doped or the wiring may be broken. In order to prevent these, dust such as dust is removed in a clean room where semiconductors and liquid crystals are manufactured.

By the way, various machines are operating in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Among them, a slide table type transfer device is used as a transfer device for moving an object to be transferred, for example, a glass case or the like (hereinafter, referred to as a work) for accommodating a semiconductor wafer.

When a work is moved in a clean room, this slide table type transfer device (hereinafter, simply referred to as a transfer device) places a heavy object on the slide table and expands and contracts the entire slide table in a certain direction. Then, it is moved to the target position.

[0005]

FIG. 3 (a) is a diagram showing the appearance of a conventional transfer device 31. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 3 (a),
The transfer device 31 includes an upper fork 32 located at the upper stage.
And a middle fork 33 located in the middle section and a lower fork 34 located in the lower section. Note that this fork (slide table) is not limited to the three-stage configuration.

The transfer device 31 includes a lower fork 34.
The motor 35 disposed below the drive belt 36, the drive belt 36 that rotates by the drive of the motor 35, and slides the middle fork 33 with respect to the lower fork 34;
3 is provided with a middle belt 37 for sliding the upper fork 32, and a slide mechanism portion for smoothly sliding the upper fork 32 and the middle fork 33, which is not shown in FIG. 3A. I have it.

The slide mechanism section is a linear guide mechanism and is composed of rails and blocks. As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the sliding mechanism allows the forks to expand and contract linearly in the direction of the arrow at the same ratio. That is,
The transfer device 31 configured as described above is expanded and contracted by driving the motor 35 so that the sliding distance of the upper fork 32 with respect to the middle fork 33 and the sliding distance of the middle fork 33 with respect to the lower fork 34 become equal.

Next, FIG. 3 (b) is a view of the transfer device 31 of FIG. 3 (a) viewed from the direction of arrow B. As shown in FIG. 3B, in the transfer device 31, blocks 38-1 are arranged on the upper surfaces of the middle forks 33 and the lower forks 34, and the rails 38 corresponding to the respective blocks 38-1.
-2 is arranged on the lower surfaces of the upper fork 32 and the middle fork 33. This block 38-1 and rail 3
The fork is smoothly slid in the direction of the arrow by the slide mechanism 38 including 8-2. It should be noted that although the slide mechanism portion 38 has a structure capable of suppressing the generation of dust, the description of the structure is omitted here because it is not related to the present invention.

When the motor 35 is driven, the transfer device 31 causes the drive belt 36 to rotate via pulleys provided at both ends of the lower fork 34. Drive belt 3
When 6 rotates, drive belt 36 and middle fork 3
The middle fork 33 slides by means of the lower fixing bracket that fixes the element 3. When the middle fork 33 slides, the middle fixing bracket that fixes the lower fork 34 and the middle belt 37 together causes the middle belt 37 to move.
Is rotated via pulleys provided at both ends of the middle fork 33. Then, the upper fork 32 is fixed by the rotation of the middle belt 37 and the upper fixing bracket that fixes the middle belt 37.
Slide 2

As described above, by driving the motor 35, the sliding distances of the upper fork 32 and the middle fork 33 can be made equal, and the work to be placed on the upper fork 32 can be moved to the target position. By the way, when the work is placed on the transfer device 31 and moved, the weight of the work placed on the transfer device 31 is naturally only the work having a weight enough to withstand the transfer device 31. If a work having a weight equal to or more than the specified weight is placed, the fork may be deflected by the weight greater than the specified weight when the fork is slid and moved, which may cause a failure of the transfer device 31. This is because each member of the transfer device 31 has a flat plate shape.

Here, FIG. 4 shows the slide mechanism portion 38.
It is a figure which shows the external appearance. As shown in FIG. 4, the slide mechanism portion 38 includes a concave block 38- on the rail 38-2.
1 is configured to mesh with each other, and slides in the linear direction (the arrow direction in the figure). In addition, the arrow direction in FIG.
It corresponds to the arrow direction of (a), and in FIG. 3 (b),
It corresponds to the front-back direction of the page.

Then, the block 38-1 and the rail 38
The shape of −2 is a rectangular parallelepiped whose upper and lower surfaces are wider than the side surfaces. In FIG. 4, one rail 38-2 has one
Although one block 38-1 is provided, in the actual configuration, one rail 38-2 arranged on a certain fork is provided.
Is provided with a plurality of blocks 38-1. Further, in FIG. 4, the block 38-1 is located on the rail 38-2, and the vertical relationship of this configuration is reversed in FIG. 3, but the vertical relationship in FIG. The reason for doing the reverse is to explain the configuration and operation of the slide component 38 in FIG. 4 in an easy-to-understand manner.

The slide mechanism section 38 in the conventional transfer device 31 is arranged horizontally with respect to the upper and lower surfaces of each fork. That is, each fork and rail 3
The wide surfaces of 8-2 were arranged to be horizontal. This is to downsize the entire transfer device 31. As described above, the conventional transfer device 31 has a configuration in which the thickness of the device is reduced in order to reduce the size of the device.

However, in the conventional transfer device 31 as described above, there is a problem that each member is bent when a work having a prescribed weight or more is placed. This is because the whole device is made thin, and the section modulus of each member constituting the transfer device 31 becomes small. The section modulus is a value obtained in order to check the strength related to deformation and bending of a member, and indicates that the larger the value, the greater the strength against deformation and bending. The section modulus is a numerical value specified by the shape of the section of the member (here, each fork or the like), and the value changes only by the shape of the section regardless of the material of the member. And in the conventional transfer apparatus 31, the section modulus was low and it was weak to the force from above.

Therefore, it is necessary to increase the strength of the entire transfer device 31 according to the weight of the work. In order to increase the strength of the transfer device 31 as a whole, it is necessary to increase the strength of each member (for example, each of the above forks) included in the transfer device 31. However, in order to increase the strength of each member, it is necessary to increase the outer dimensions of the member, and the transfer device 3
1 There was a problem that the external dimensions and weight of the whole became large. That is, in order to increase the section modulus of the member,
It is necessary to widen the upper and lower surfaces (horizontal surface) of the member and the side surfaces (thickness) of the member to be wide.
The overall external dimensions and weight had become large. Then, for the transfer device 31 moving on a certain floor, the increase in the outer dimension in the horizontal direction poses a serious problem such that the movement space cannot be secured on a small floor.

Further, there is a problem that the cost of the member increases correspondingly as the external dimensions increase. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight, compact, and low-cost transfer device in order to solve the above problems.

[0017]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following configurations. That is, the transfer device of the present invention includes a plurality of slide tables,
And a slide mechanism unit arranged between the plurality of slide tables for sliding the plurality of slide tables with respect to each other, in which at least one slide table of the plurality of slide tables is perpendicular to the slide table. A vertical member extending in a direction is provided along the sliding direction of the slide table, and the slide mechanism portion is arranged between the vertical members provided on the slide tables adjacent to each other.

As described above, by providing a vertical member in the cross-sectional shape of each slide table, it becomes possible to increase the strength of deformation and bending in the vertical direction. Further, by disposing the slide mechanism portion on the vertical member so as to be parallel to the vertical direction with respect to the slide table, it becomes possible to increase the strength of deformation and bending in the vertical direction. As the strength is increased, the outer dimensions (horizontal surface) of the slide table can be reduced, and the transfer apparatus as a whole can be reduced in size and cost.

Further, in the transfer device, the slide mechanism portion is provided along one of the vertical members provided on each of the adjacent slide tables along the sliding direction. It is preferable that the rail portion and the guide portion provided on the other side for guiding the rail portion in the sliding direction are provided.

As described above, by using the slide table having the horizontal and vertical cross-sectional shapes, the cross-section coefficient of the slide table is increased, and the slide mechanism portion is arranged in parallel with the vertical direction with respect to the slide table. Since the section modulus of the slide mechanism portion also increases, it becomes possible to increase the strength of deformation and bending.

The transfer device is composed of three slide tables in which the plurality of slide tables are vertically arranged in three stages, and a vertical member provided on the middle slide table has a vertical member in the slide mechanism section. It is preferable that the rail portion is arranged and the guide portion of the slide mechanism portion is arranged on a vertical member provided on each of the upper and lower slide tables.

As described above, in the case of a three-stage type transfer device, in order to suppress the deflection of the entire transfer device, it is natural that the deformation and bending strength of the middle stage slide table (middle fork) is increased. Is effective. By arranging the rails that configure the slide mechanism section on all the vertical members provided on the middle-stage slide table, the section modulus of the middle-stage slide table can be increased, so that the deflection of the entire transfer device can be reduced. It will be possible.

[0023]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the transfer device 11 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1 (a), the transfer device 11 is provided with an upper fork 12 located at the upper stage, a middle fork 13 located at the middle stage, and a lower fork 14 located at the lower stage. Note that this fork (slide table) is not limited to the three-stage configuration.

The transfer device 11 has a lower fork 14
The motor 15 disposed below the drive belt 16, the drive belt 16 that rotates by the drive of the motor 15 and slides the middle fork 13 with respect to the lower fork 14, and the middle fork 1
3 is provided with a middle belt 17 for sliding the upper fork 12 and a slide mechanism portion for smoothly sliding the upper fork 12 and the middle fork 13, which is not shown in FIG. 1A. I have it.

The slide mechanism section is a linear guide mechanism and is composed of rails and blocks. As shown in FIG. 1 (a), each slide fork causes the forks to expand and contract in a straight line in the direction of the arrow. Above upper fork 1
2, the middle fork 13, and the lower fork 14 each include a vertical member 19. Then, the slide mechanism portion is arranged on the vertical member 19.

The vertical member 19 is the upper fork 1
2, the middle fork 13 and the lower fork 14, which extend in the vertical direction and the sliding direction, and are installed, for example, plate-shaped, and installed near both ends of the lower surface of the upper fork 12 and the upper surface of the lower fork 14. Then, the upper and lower forks 12 and the lower forks 14 are vertically installed at both ends of the middle fork 13 so as to face the outside of the vertical member 19 of the upper fork 12 and the lower fork 14. In the transfer device 11 shown, the vertical member 1 provided on the middle fork 13 is
9 is the outer side, and an upper fork 12 and a lower fork 14
A vertical member 19 provided on each of these is located inside.

The operation of the transfer device 11 is similar to that of the conventional transfer device 31 described above. First, when the motor 15 is driven, the drive belt 16 is applied to both ends of the lower fork 14. It rotates through the provided pulley. When the drive belt 16 rotates, the middle fork 13 slides by the lower fixing bracket that fixes the drive belt 16 and the middle fork 13. When the middle fork 13 slides, the middle fixing bracket that fixes the lower fork 14 and the middle belt 17 causes the middle belt 17 to rotate via pulleys provided at both ends of the middle fork 13. Then, by rotating the middle belt 17, the upper fork 12 is slid by the upper fork 12 and the upper fixing bracket that fixes the middle belt 17.

As described above, by driving the motor 15, the sliding distance of the upper fork 11 with respect to the middle fork 12, and the middle fork 12 with respect to the lower fork 13.
It can be expanded and contracted so that the sliding distance is equal. FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the external appearance of the transfer device 11 when viewed from the direction of arrow A in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the lower fork 14
The block 18-1 is arranged on the vertical member 19 of the rail 18 corresponding to the block 18-1 of the lower fork 14 thereof.
-2 is arranged on the vertical member 19 below the middle fork 13, and also on the vertical member 19 above the middle fork 13.
Then, the block 18-1 is arranged this time, and the rail 18-2 corresponding to the block 18-1 of the middle fork 13 is arranged.
Are arranged on the vertical member 19 of the upper fork 12.
The fork is smoothly slid in the direction of the arrow by the slide mechanism section 18 including the block 18-1 and the rail 18-2. It should be noted that although the slide mechanism portion 18 has a structure capable of suppressing the generation of dust, the description of the structure is omitted here because it is not related to the present invention.

A feature of the transfer device 11 of the present invention is that each fork is provided with a vertical member 19 extending in a vertical direction and a sliding direction, and the slide mechanism portion 18 is provided on a surface where the vertical member 19 of each fork faces each other. Is to place. That is, the widest surface of the slide mechanism portion 18 is configured to be perpendicular to each fork.

As described above, in order to arrange the slide mechanism portion 18 in the vertical direction with respect to each horizontal fork, the vertical member 19 is provided on each of the up fork 12, the middle fork 13, and the lower fork 14. By providing this vertical member 19, it becomes possible to increase the section modulus in the vertical direction of each fork. As a result, the strength against the weight of the work can be increased in the vertical direction of each fork of the transfer device 11, and the size of the horizontal surface of the member can be reduced. Further, arranging the slide mechanism portion 18 on the vertical member 19 so that the wide surface thereof is parallel to the vertical direction also has the effect of further increasing the sectional modulus of the entire transfer device 11.

That is, in the transfer device 11, each fork is provided with the vertical member 19 in the vertical direction and the sliding direction with respect to each fork. Also, the vertical member 1 of each fork
The slide mechanism unit 1 is provided on the facing (adjacent) faces of 9
8 are arranged. As a result, the strength in the vertical direction is increased, and as the strength is increased, the area of the members constituting the transfer device 11 in the horizontal direction can be reduced, and the transfer device 11 can be made smaller and lighter. can do.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 2 is a view of a transfer device 21 according to another embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the same direction as FIG. 1 (b). Transfer device 21
Has almost the same configuration and operation as the transfer device 11 described above. In the configuration, the vertical member 29 is provided on the horizontal member that is the upper fork 22, the middle fork 23, and the lower fork 24, and the vertical member 29 is provided. The slide mechanism unit 28 (the linear guide mechanism including the block 28-1 and the rail 28-2) is arranged in the. The operation of the transfer device 21 is omitted.

The difference from the transfer device 11 is that the rail 28-2 in the slide mechanism 28 is attached to the middle fork 2.
3 is arranged on the vertical member 29. in this way,
By disposing all the rails 28-2 in the slide mechanism unit 28 on the vertical member 29 of the middle fork 23, the section modulus of the middle fork 23 can be increased, and the strength can be further increased as compared with the transfer device 11. Becomes

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various configurations can be adopted within the scope of the claims. For example, the following configuration changes are possible. In the above embodiment, the vertical member 19 provided on the middle fork 13 is on the outside,
Although the vertical members 19 provided on the upper fork 12 and the lower fork 14 are located inside, the vertical members 19 may be reversed from each other. That is, the vertical member 19 provided on the middle fork 13 may be disposed inside and the vertical member 19 provided on each of the upper fork 12 and the lower fork 14 may be disposed outside.

[0037]

According to the transfer device of the present invention, a vertical member is provided in the vertical direction with respect to a member constituting a slide table, and a slide mechanism member for performing sliding movement on the vertical member has a wide surface. Are arranged so as to be parallel to the vertical direction, the section modulus becomes higher in the vertical direction of the member, and the transfer strength for the transferred object increases. As the transfer strength increases, it becomes possible to use a lightweight member or reduce the amount of the member used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a transfer device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of FIG. 1, and FIG. 1B is a view showing the external appearance of the transfer device 11 when viewed from the direction of arrow A.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transfer device 21 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an appearance of a conventional transfer device 31;
(B) is a figure which shows the external appearance of the transfer apparatus 11 when it sees from the arrow B direction.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an appearance of a slide mechanism section 38.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 21 Transfer device 12,22 Upper fork 13,23 Middle fork 14 and 24 lower forks 15 motor 16 drive belt 17 Middle Belt 18, 28 Slide mechanism section 18-1, 28-1 block 18-2, 28-2 rail 19, 29 Vertical member

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Ei Takeuchi             2-1, Toyota-cho, Kariya City, Aichi Stock Association             Inside Toyota Toyota Industries (72) Inventor Mineo Kanno             2-1, Toyota-cho, Kariya City, Aichi Stock Association             Inside Toyota Toyota Industries F term (reference) 3F036 BA03 DD01 DD09                 5F031 CA02 CA05 DA01 DA08 EA01                       FA03 GA02 GA42 LA07 LA13                       NA02

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A transfer apparatus comprising: a plurality of slide tables; and a slide mechanism section arranged between the plurality of slide tables to slide the plurality of slide tables relative to each other, wherein the plurality of slide tables are provided. A vertical member extending vertically from the at least one slide table along the sliding direction of the slide table, and the slide mechanism section is arranged between the vertical members provided on the slide tables adjacent to each other. A transfer device characterized by: 2. The slide mechanism section includes a rail section provided on one side of the vertical members provided on each of the adjacent slide tables along the sliding direction, and a rail section provided on the other side. The transfer device according to claim 1, further comprising: a guide portion provided on a side for guiding the rail portion in the sliding direction. 3. The plurality of slide tables comprises three slide tables arranged in three stages in the vertical direction,
The rail portion of the slide mechanism section is arranged on the vertical member provided on the middle slide table, and the guide portion of the slide mechanism section is arranged on the vertical member provided on each of the upper and lower slide tables. The transfer device according to claim 2, wherein: