JP2003345771A - On-line control method for manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To introduce to an on-line control system a manufacturing device that is difficult to control on-line without spending costs and time. <P>SOLUTION: In a manufacturing system into which an existing manufacturing device 23 that is hard to control on-line is introduced and that is subjected to on-line control by a host computer 3, a device controller 4 for controlling the existing manufacturing device 23 is connected to the host computer 3 through a host interface computer 5. The host interface computer 5 converts a recipe ID from the host computer 3 into a recipe ID inputted from a keyboard on the basis of display data acquired from the device controller 4 and outputs the recipe ID to the device controller 4. The device controller 4 operates the existing manufacturing device 23 on the basis of the converted recipe ID received from the host interface computer 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an on-line control method for a manufacturing apparatus having difficulty in on-line control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in order to manufacture industrial products such as electronic devices and mechanical products in an unmanned and stable manner with a high quality, automation has been advanced in the manufacturing system in recent years. For this reason, it is necessary to connect a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses and a higher-level computer that manages the production process online, and control the processing in each manufacturing apparatus to be linked, but it is difficult to perform online control in an online manufacturing system. For example, there is a case where it is desired to introduce an existing manufacturing apparatus several generations ago.

A manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control on-line is controlled by an apparatus controller corresponding to the manufacturing apparatus. An operator inputs processing conditions and the like using a keyboard while looking at a display of the apparatus controller. Therefore, the introduction of a manufacturing apparatus that is difficult to control online has hindered the promotion of automation aimed at unmanned operation.

[0004] When the above-described manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control on-line is introduced into the online manufacturing system, the control system for the manufacturing is largely modified so that the manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control online is adapted to the manufacturing system. And a method in which an operator performs a keyboard operation at his / her own discretion to adapt the manufacturing system to a manufacturing system in which it is difficult to perform online control without modifying the control system.

[0005]

Among the above-mentioned methods, the method for remodeling the control system requires a great deal of remodeling of the control system, which requires a great deal of cost and time. There is a problem that. Further, as a result, there is another problem that there are many cases in which replacement with the latest model has to be considered or automation has to be given up.

On the other hand, in a method of introducing a manufacturing apparatus having difficulty in online control into an online manufacturing system without modifying the control system, the operation of the manufacturing apparatus having difficulty in online control involves a series of manufacturing flows in the manufacturing system. To adapt, the operator judges the operation status of the manufacturing equipment before and after,
Manufacturing is performed by manually inputting the processing conditions and the like of the manufacturing apparatus for which online control is difficult. Therefore, since the presence of an operator is indispensable in the manufacturing system, there is a problem that the purpose of unmanned in the online manufacturing system cannot be achieved.

An object of the present invention is to provide an online control method of a manufacturing apparatus which can solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided, in accordance with the present invention, a manufacturing apparatus in an online manufacturing system in which at least one manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control online is introduced and is controlled online by a host computer. In the online control method, an apparatus controller for controlling the manufacturing apparatus having difficulty in online control and the upper computer are connected via an upper interface computer, and the upper interface computer also receives data obtained from the apparatus controller. And converting the instruction data from the host computer into data that can be read by the device controller and outputting the data to the device controller, and the device controller converts the converted finger received from the host interface computer. Online control method of manufacturing apparatus characterized by based on the data so as to operate the online control difficult manufacturing device is proposed.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an on-line control system in which an existing manufacturing apparatus, which is difficult to control on-line, can be easily controlled on-line by the method of the present invention, whereby the manufacturing system can be automated and unmanned. It is a system configuration diagram.

The on-line control system 1 includes a manufacturing apparatus group 2 including a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses for manufacturing industrial products such as electronic devices and mechanical products, and processing conditions for lots of the respective manufacturing apparatuses in the manufacturing apparatus group 2. A recipe ID
And a higher-level computer 3 that manages the entire processing order. The manufacturing apparatus group 2 and the higher-level computer 3 are connected online.

The manufacturing apparatus group 2 includes two manufacturing apparatuses 21 having apparatus controllers which can easily perform online control.
22 and an existing manufacturing apparatus 23 which is an existing manufacturing apparatus several generations ago and which cannot directly read the recipe ID output from the host computer 3 and is difficult to support online control.
It is made up of Here, it is difficult to correspond to the online control, for example, it is possible to respond to the online control by modifying or exchanging the device controller, or replacing the software, but the cost may be increased. Applicable. The existing manufacturing apparatus 23 is introduced between the manufacturing apparatus 21 and the manufacturing apparatus 22, and a series of manufacturing operations are performed in the order of the manufacturing apparatus 21, the existing manufacturing apparatus 23, and the manufacturing apparatus 22 to manufacture a product. Therefore, the manufacturing device 21 is a pre-process device of the existing manufacturing device 23, and the manufacturing device 22 is a post-process device of the existing manufacturing device 23.

Since the two manufacturing apparatuses 21 and 22 can easily cope with online control, they are directly connected to the host computer 3 online. And the manufacturing apparatuses 21 and 22
Receives the recipe ID of each lot directly from the host computer 3 and performs necessary manufacturing operations at appropriate timing.

The existing manufacturing apparatus 23 is connected to the apparatus controller 4 which directly controls the existing manufacturing apparatus 23, operates according to the recipe ID sent from the apparatus controller 4, and thereby performs necessary manufacturing at appropriate timing. Perform the operation.

The device controller 4 is a computer configured to input and output data from a keyboard and output display display data. The device controller 4 transmits data input from the keyboard to the existing manufacturing device 23 to perform a manufacturing operation. It is configured to be able to.

Here, the recipe ID output from the host computer 3 that manages the manufacturing process of the online control system 1 is not data input by a keyboard. The apparatus controller 4 receives such a recipe ID that is not keyboard-input data output from the host computer 3 and causes the existing manufacturing apparatus 23 to perform a manufacturing operation in accordance with the received recipe ID. An upper interface computer 5 is provided between the controller 4 and the upper computer 3 to enable online control of the existing manufacturing apparatus 23.

The upper interface computer 5 can send and receive data to and from the upper computer 3 on-line and, based on the display data obtained from the apparatus controller 4, transmit data such as processing conditions from the upper computer 3 to the keyboard. It has a function of converting it to input data. Then, the host interface computer 5 outputs the recipe ID, which is the data of the processing conditions and the like from the host computer 3 converted into the data input from the keyboard, to a serial port (not shown) of the device controller 4. Here, when viewed from the device controller 4, the upper interface computer 5 appears to be a mere display device, so that the device controller 4 transmits data to the upper interface computer 5 only by performing display display. Also, the device controller 4
In, the data received from the upper interface computer 5 is recognized as data that is simply input from the keyboard.

As described above, the host computer 3 and the device controller 4 are connected via the host interface computer 5.
Is connected, the existing manufacturing apparatus 23 can receive necessary data from the host computer 3 at an appropriate timing. As a result, in the online control system 1, as in the manufacturing apparatuses 21 and 22, The manufacturing operation can be controlled.

FIG. 2 shows a manufacturing process flow in the online control system 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the upper computer 3, the device controller 4, and the upper interface computer 5 of the online control system 1 The flow of data between them will be described.

When the manufacturing process flow is started, the process proceeds to step S1, where it is determined whether or not there is a scheduling of a manufacturing process to be performed in the host computer 3. If there is any scheduling to be performed, the determination result of step S1 is YES, and the
Enter 2.

In step S2, a process of transmitting the recipe ID from the host computer 3 to the host interface computer 5 is performed. In step S3, the host interface computer 5 receives the recipe ID from the host computer 3. Next, in step S4, a process of monitoring display display data sent from the device controller 4 in the upper interface computer 5 is performed. What the host interface computer 5 is monitoring is the data indicating the status of the lot being processed by the device controller 4 at that time. During processing of the lot, the device controller 4 sequentially displays data indicating the processing status on a display device (not shown). When the processing of the lot is completed, the device controller 4 displays data indicating that the processing is completed. ing. The host interface computer 5 constantly monitors the data display contents.

Next, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the lot processing that has been performed by the equipment controller 4 has been completed based on the data indicating the lot processing state of the equipment controller 4 acquired in step S4. . If the lot processing that has been performed so far is completed in the device controller 4, the determination result of step S5 is YES, and the process proceeds to step S6. If the lot processing is not yet completed in the device controller 4, the determination result in step S5 is NO, the process returns to step S4, and the lot processing that has been performed in the device controller 4 is completed, and the determination in step S5 is completed. Result is YES
Steps S4 and S5 are repeated until.

In step S6, the apparatus controller 4 performs a process of transmitting the report data for which the lot processing has been completed, which has been performed so far, to the host computer 3. Next, in step S7, the host interface computer 5 executes the process in step S4. Based on the display data obtained from the device controller 4, the recipe ID already received is converted into data input from the keyboard in step S 3, and the converted recipe ID is converted to the device controller 4.
Is transmitted.

That is, the recipe ID of the next lot to be processed is transmitted from the high-level computer 3 to the high-level interface computer 5. If there is a lot currently being processed, the high-level interface computer 5 waits for completion of the lot. The recipe ID received from the host computer 3 is transmitted to the device controller 4.

Next, in step S8, the recipe ID received from the upper interface computer 5 is set in the device controller 4, and in step S9, the device controller 4 controls the operation of the existing manufacturing device 23 according to the set recipe ID. .

After the upper interface computer 5 transmits the recipe ID to the apparatus controller 4 in step S7, the recipe ID transmission completion report data is transmitted to the upper computer 3 in step S10, and the process proceeds to step S1.
In 1, the upper computer 3 receives the recipe ID transmission completion report data, and returns to step S1. Also, when the lot completion report data is sent from the upper interface computer 5 to the upper computer 3 in step S6, the lot computer 3 receives the lot completion report data in step S12 and returns to step S1.

In step S1, it is determined whether or not there is any scheduling to be performed again. If there is any remaining scheduling to be performed, the determination result in step S1 is YES and the process goes to step S2. . If there is no remaining scheduling to be performed, the determination result in step S1 is NO, and the manufacturing processing flow ends.

[0028]

According to the present invention, as described above, in an online control method of a manufacturing apparatus in an online manufacturing system in which at least one manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control online is introduced and controlled online by a host computer, An upper controller is connected to an upper controller and an upper controller that controls the manufacturing apparatus that is difficult to control, and the upper interface computer transmits instruction data from the upper computer based on the data obtained from the upper controller. The controller converts the data into a data that can be read and outputs the data to the device controller. The device controller operates the manufacturing device that is difficult to perform online control based on the converted instruction data received from the host interface computer. Because it was Unishi, the operator can transmit the instruction data from the host computer at all to the apparatus controller by the same procedures as for operating the input device of a keyboard device of the apparatus controller, to set the processing condition to the apparatus controller. Therefore, it is possible to operate the manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control on-line in exactly the same manner as if it were manually operated by an operator without an operator, and to change processing conditions for a lot. Therefore, it is possible to introduce a manufacturing apparatus that is difficult to perform online control into an online manufacturing system inexpensively and inexpensively without time, and to perform online control.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic system configuration diagram of an online control system according to a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a manufacturing process in the online control system shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Online control system 2 Manufacturing equipment group 3 host computer 4 Equipment controller 5 Upper interface computer 21, 22 Manufacturing equipment 23 Existing manufacturing equipment

   ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page    (72) Inventor Takeshi Ono             1-25-1, Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Taisei             Construction Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Akitoshi Tanikawa             1-25-1, Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Taisei             Construction Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B045 BB23 BB28 BB42                 5B089 GA23 HA06 JB10 JB21 KA04                       KF05

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An on-line control method for a manufacturing apparatus in an online manufacturing system in which at least one manufacturing apparatus which is difficult to control online is introduced and is controlled online by a host computer. Connecting the device controller and the host computer via a host interface computer, wherein the host interface computer reads instruction data from the host computer based on data acquired from the device controller. And outputs the data to the device controller. The device controller operates the manufacturing device having difficulty in online control based on the converted instruction data received from the upper interface computer. An on-line control method for a manufacturing apparatus, wherein the method is performed.