JP2006036522A - Stacker crane - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten conveyance cycle time of a stacker crane by suppressing vibration of a mast when a running carrier starts, runs, and stops to improve efficiency of conveyance safely. <P>SOLUTION: A main mast 3 and a submast 4 are erected on the running carrier 2 at a predetermined interval. An elevating base 6 is arranged between the main mast 3 and the submast 4 so as to elevate and lower. A guide 9 is arranged on the main mast 3 and the submast 4 of the stacker crane provided with a transfer machine 7 on the elevating base 6. A guide receiving part 61 of the elevating base 6 is engaged with the guide 9, and a damper 8 is provided between the guide receiving part 61 and an elevating base main body. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a stacker crane, and more particularly to a stacker crane that suppresses mast vibration caused by bending to shorten the transport cycle time of the stacker crane and improve the transport efficiency safely. It is.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in electronic parts manufacturing factories such as liquid crystal, organic EL, and semiconductor, a plurality of thin substrates (hereinafter referred to as “substrates”) such as glass thin plates are accommodated in a cassette, and this cassette is stacked by a stacker crane. At the stocker position of each processing station, it is transferred and transferred, and after each necessary processing, it is transported again to the stocker position of the next processing station. In addition, a stacker crane has been proposed in which the transfer of the cassette is performed by taking in and out the cassette using a transfer machine arranged to be movable up and down on the main mast and the sub mast.
By the way, in recent years, in order to accommodate more cassettes in the stocker, the height of the stocker tends to be high, and the height of the mast of the stacker crane tends to increase according to this high stocker. Is a required length for a traveling carriage that can travel along a traveling rail disposed at a lower position, but is not particularly limited. For example, a main mast and a sub mast having a length of 10 m or more are provided upright. In addition, the main mast and the sub mast are provided with a lifting platform that can be moved up and down, and the lifting platform is used to transfer a cassette between the transfer line and the stocker of the processing station by a transfer machine mounted on the lifting platform. ing.

In addition, the substrate to be transported using this stacker crane is enlarged, and the cassette that accommodates this large substrate inevitably increases in size, and further accommodates the necessary number of substrates stacked. The total weight of the rack is 500 kg to 1000 kg, and in order to shorten the cassette transport cycle time and improve the transport efficiency, the lifting / lowering platform on which the cassette is mounted is simultaneously moved with the traveling carriage. The height is raised.
In this way, when the stacker crane is moved in a state in which the lifting platform on which the heavy cassette is placed is raised to a relatively upper position of the mast and the stacker crane is moved, the traveling speed of the lower traveling carriage and the raised position are It is difficult to perfectly match the moving speed of the mast that supports the cassette. This is because the moving speed of the lifting platform is slightly delayed with respect to the traveling carriage speed. Conversely, when the traveling carriage stops, the main mast and sub-mast with the lifting platform are Without stopping (stopping) immediately, the traveling carriage moves further forward than the fixed position where it stopped due to its inertia.
As described above, after the main mast and the sub mast are bent forward, the reaction is then bent backward due to the reaction, and this operation is repeated, and the inertia force of the mast provided with the lifting platform is weakened to zero. Until the traveling carriage stops at a fixed position, the main mast and the sub mast continue to vibrate in the front-rear direction.

  For this reason, in this stacker crane for transporting substrates, even if the traveling carriage is stopped at a fixed position, the upper lift is completely stopped at the fixed position, and the arm of the transfer machine protrudes to place the cassette. If you do not wait until it is completely stationary to protrude toward the shelf, the next transfer operation cannot be performed from the viewpoint of safety, and therefore the cycle time cannot be shortened. There was a problem.

  In view of the above-described problems of the conventional stacker crane, the present invention reduces the transport cycle time of the stacker crane by suppressing the vibration of the mast at the start, travel and stop of the traveling carriage. The purpose is to improve.

  In order to achieve the above object, the stacker crane of the present invention has a main mast and a sub mast standing on a traveling carriage at a predetermined interval, and a lifting platform is disposed between the main mast and the sub mast so that the elevator can be moved up and down. In a stacker crane in which a transfer machine is mounted on the lifting platform, guides are disposed on the main mast and the sub mast, and the guide receiving portion of the lifting platform is engaged with the guide, and the guide receiving portion and the lifting platform A damper is interposed between the main bodies.

  In this case, the natural frequency of the main mast and the sub mast can be made different.

  According to the stacker crane of the present invention, the main mast and the sub mast are erected on the traveling carriage at a predetermined interval, and the lifting platform is disposed between the main mast and the sub mast so as to be movable up and down. In a stacker crane having a transfer machine mounted on a table, guides are arranged on the main mast and the sub mast, and a guide receiving part of the lifting platform is engaged with the guide, and a damper is provided between the guide receiving unit and the lifting table body. Therefore, even if the mast bends due to inertial force when the carriage is started, traveled, or stopped, the vibration of the mast caused by this bend can be absorbed by the damper. As a result, the transport cycle time of the stacker crane can be shortened, and the transport efficiency can be improved safely.

  In addition, by making the natural frequency of the main mast and the sub mast different, the vibration of the mast can be absorbed efficiently.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a stacker crane of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

1 to 3 show an embodiment of a stacker crane of the present invention.
This stacker crane is capable of traveling along a traveling rail 1 disposed on a floor surface of an electronic component manufacturing plant such as a liquid crystal, organic EL, and semiconductor, and can control speed and a fixed position stop. 2 and, on the traveling carriage 2, for example, a main mast 3 and a sub mast 4 having a length of about 18 m are erected at a predetermined interval, and between the main mast 3 and the sub mast 4, The lifting platform 6 is arranged so as to be movable up and down, and a loading machine 7 for transferring the cassette 5 is mounted on the lifting platform 6 in combination with a plurality of transfer arms 71 that can be moved up and down and turned. To make up.
In this stacker crane, guides 9 are arranged on the main mast 3 and the sub-mast 4, and the guide receiving part 61 of the lifting platform 6 is engaged with the guide 9, and between the guide receiving part 61 and the lifting platform body. A mechanical damper 8 is interposed.

The traveling carriage 2 is provided with a traveling drive device at a lower portion thereof, and the traveling drive device is arranged along the traveling rail 1 via a plurality of traveling wheels 22 that are driven by a traveling motor 21 so as to be capable of shifting. Perform stable running.
The travel drive device is not particularly limited. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the travel drive device is in contact with the top surface of the travel rail 1 laid along the travel direction of the travel cart 2, and A plurality of traveling wheels 22 that support the entire load are supported so as to be able to roll, and the guide wheels 23 are opposed to both side surfaces of the traveling rail 1 and sandwich both side surfaces of the traveling rail 1. Thus, the traveling carriage 2 can travel safely and at high speed along the traveling rail 1 serving as a conveyance path.

The main mast 3 and the sub mast 4 are erected at a predetermined interval on the upper portion of the traveling carriage 2 so as to oppose each other with the lifting platform 6 interposed therebetween, and by changing the rigidity, the main mast 3 and the sub mast 4 4 has different natural frequencies.
The main mast 3 and the sub mast 4 are respectively provided with guides 9 in the vertical direction. The guides 9 engage with the guides 9 so that the guide receiving portion 61 of the lifting platform 6 can be moved up and down and not detached in the front-rear direction. ing.

Further, a swing preventing mechanism is provided at the upper portion of the mast 2 so that the upper portion of the mast does not swing beyond an allowable range when the traveling carriage 2 is running or stopped.
This swing prevention mechanism is provided with a guide wheel 11 that is brought into contact with both sides of a guide rail 10 disposed above the mast 2 and prevents the guide wheel 11 from swinging. A driving upper motor (damping motor) 12 is controlled and driven.
In this case, the capacity of the traveling motor 21 mainly disposed for traveling is increased while the capacity of the traveling upper motor 12 for driving the guide wheels 11 is decreased. Then, the traveling motor 21 and the traveling upper motor 12 are electrically connected to detect the speed of the traveling carriage 2 driven by the traveling motor 21 and feed back the speed signal to the traveling upper motor 12 side. Thus, the output torque of the traveling upper motor 12 is controlled.
In addition, the guide rail 10 is disposed so as to be parallel to the traveling rail 1 at a position above the trajectory along which the mast moves in accordance with the traveling direction of the traveling carriage 2.

The lifting platform 6 is supported so that it can be moved up and down and not separated in the front-rear direction by the guide receiving portion 61 engaging with the guides 9 of the main mast 3 and the sub-mast 4. This is performed by a motor (not shown) via the wire 13.
Two guide receiving portions 61 are arranged on the main mast 3 side and the sub mast 4 side of the lifting platform 6 respectively, and in this embodiment, the guide receiving portion 61 and the lifting platform main body on the lower side of the sub mast 4 are provided. Between them, a hydraulic mechanical damper 8 that functions in both expansion and compression and attenuates the force in the bending direction of the masts 3 and 4 is interposed.
The guide receiving portion 61 on the main mast 3 side is pivotally supported so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction so as to follow the bending of the main mast 3. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, it is possible to provide two guide receiving portions 61 and to pivotally support the intermediate portion.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the transfer machine 7 has its transfer arms 71 arranged on both sides or one side along the traveling direction of the traveling carriage 2, and a plurality of shelves are multi-staged. It protrudes (extends) toward the stocker 14 provided.
As a result, the cassette 5 is moved to any one of a plurality of shelves formed in the stocker 14 via the arm 71 of the transfer machine 7, or vice versa. It can be easily transferred to 71.

Next, the operation of the stacker crane of this embodiment will be described.
FIGS. 4B and 4C show the bending of the main mast 3 when the traveling carriage 2 is driven at the speed shown in FIG.
FIG. 4B shows a conventional stacker crane having no damper. Vibration caused by bending continues in all states of acceleration, speed maintenance, deceleration, and stop, and is particularly noticeable in the stop state.
On the other hand, FIG. 4 (c) shows the stacker crane of the present embodiment provided with the damper 8, and although there is bending, vibration is suppressed in all states of acceleration, speed maintenance, deceleration, and stop. In the stop state, the difference from the conventional example in FIG.
FIG. 4D shows the damping force of the damper 8 of the stacker crane according to the present embodiment. The damper 8 is generated in the main mast 3 due to the inertia of the lifting platform 6, for example, as shown in FIG. The bending force F1 is attenuated and transmitted to the submast 4 as a reduced bending force F2.
In the case of reaction, the bending force of the sub-mast 4 is attenuated and transmitted to the sub-mast 4 as a reduced bending force, and the vibration of the masts 3 and 4 can be absorbed by repeating these steps.

  Thus, the stacker crane of the present embodiment allows the main mast 3 and the sub mast 4 to stand on the traveling carriage 2 at a predetermined interval, and the elevating platform 6 can be moved up and down between the main mast 3 and the sub mast 4. In the stacker crane in which the transfer machine 7 is mounted on the lifting platform 6, the guide 9 is disposed on the main mast 3 and the submast 4, and the guide receiving portion 61 of the lifting platform 6 is engaged with the guide 9. In addition, since the mechanical damper 8 is interposed between the guide receiving portion 61 and the lift base body, even if the masts 3 and 4 are bent due to inertial force at the time of starting, running and stopping of the traveling carriage, this bending is caused. The damper 8 can absorb the vibrations of the masts 3 and 4 caused by this, and thereby, the stationary of the masts 3 and 4 can be accelerated, and the transport cycle time of the stacker crane can be shortened. Thereby improving the conveyance efficiency.

  As described above, the stacker crane of the present invention has been described based on the embodiment thereof, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration described in the above embodiment. For example, a plurality of dampers may be provided or the main mast side may be provided. The configuration can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the invention.

  The stacker crane of the present invention has the characteristics that the transport cycle time of the stacker crane is shortened and the transport efficiency is improved safely by suppressing the vibration of the mast at the start, travel and stop of the traveling carriage. For this reason, it can be suitably used for applications in which conveyance and transfer are performed with a fixed position stop of a conveyed product using a stacker crane having a high mast.

It is a front view which shows one Example of the stacker crane of this invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is a side view which shows the same stacker crane and stocker. (A) is a graph showing the traveling speed of the traveling cart, (b) is a graph showing the deflection of the main mast of the conventional stacker crane, (c) is a graph showing the deflection of the main mast of the stacker crane of the present invention, (d ) Is a graph showing the damping force of the damper.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Traveling rail 2 Traveling carriage 21 Traveling motor 22 Traveling wheel 23 Guide wheel 3 Main mast 4 Submast 5 Cassette 6 Lifting table 61 Guide receiving part 7 Transfer machine 71 Transfer arm 8 Damper 9 Guide 10 Guide rail 11 Guide wheel 12 Traveling Upper motor 13 Wire 14 Stocker

Claims (2)

  A stacker in which a main mast and a sub-mast are erected on a traveling carriage at a predetermined interval, and an elevator is disposed between the main mast and the sub-mast so that the elevator can be moved up and down, and a transfer machine is mounted on the elevator In the crane, a guide is disposed on the main mast and the sub mast, and a guide receiving portion of the lifting platform is engaged with the guide, and a damper is interposed between the guide receiving portion and the lifting platform body. Stacker crane.   2. The stacker crane according to claim 1, wherein the main mast and the sub mast have different natural frequencies.

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