JP2009147163A - Carriage - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a carriage capable of preventing dust produced from wheels or the like during traveling from swirling up. <P>SOLUTION: The carriage 10 is a truck that travels inside a clean room 12 wherein the air flow of clean air is formed toward the exhaust port 14 of a floor surface, and is made to travel by wheels 28 provided to the lower part of a truck main body 26. The carriage 10 blows off surrounding air from blow-off ports 30A provided near the wheels 28 to the exhaust port 14 of the clean room 12 and controls the flow velocity of the air blowing off from the blow-off ports 30A higher than the flow velocity of the air flow of the clean air blown off to the clean room 12 and is equal to or lower than the flow velocity of the air flow of exhaust air discharged from the exhaust port 14. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport cart, and more particularly to a transport cart used for transport work in a clean room.

  In a clean room facility that manufactures liquid crystals, semiconductors, and the like, a plurality of FFUs are installed on the ceiling surface of the clean room, and clean air dedusted by the FFUs is downflowed into the clean room. In a clean room, a mesh-like floor called a grating that can be ventilated and an opening formed in the lower part of the side are provided as exhaust ports, and air in the clean room is exhausted to the outside from these exhaust ports. Thereby, since the air flow of clean air is formed in the clean room, dust floating in the clean room can be quickly discharged to the outside, and the clean room can be maintained at high cleanliness.

  By the way, in a clean room facility, a transport carriage is generally used when transporting an object to be transported (for example, a sealed container for housing a semiconductor wafer). The transport carriage is configured to travel along a rail laid on the floor surface. In addition, the transport cart is devised so that dust does not wind up when traveling. For example, the transport cart itself has a shape that does not generate ascending airflow, or a wheel cover that prevents dust from rolling up from the wheels. ing. However, at present, high-speed conveyance at a traveling speed of 180 m / min is required, and it is difficult to prevent dust from being rolled up only by changing the shape of the conveyance carriage and the wheel cover.

  In Patent Document 1, a suction grill is provided on the upper surface of the cart body, an exhaust port is provided on the lower surface of the cart body, and air sucked from the suction grill is blown from the exhaust port toward the grating floor at a high wind speed. The dolly is listed. According to this transport cart, it is possible to prevent turbulent flow from occurring above the transport cart.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-228707 describes a transport carriage in which an exhaust port is formed downward on the outer peripheral portion of the lower surface of the transport carriage and is discharged directly to the grating floor. According to this transport carriage, the dust that winds up from the wheels during traveling can be forcibly discharged to the grating floor by blowing air from the exhaust port at a high speed.
JP-A-10-181882 JP2007-45606

  However, Patent Documents 1 and 2 have a problem that the air blown toward the grating floor does not quickly pass through the grating floor, and instead turbulence is generated and dust is rolled up.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transport carriage that can prevent dust generated from wheels and the like from rolling up during traveling.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a transport carriage that travels in a clean room in which a flow of clean air is formed toward an exhaust port, and is provided by a wheel provided at a lower portion of the carriage body. In a traveling carriage, a clean air flow that blows ambient air from an air outlet provided in the vicinity of the wheels toward an exhaust port of the clean room and a flow rate of air blown from the air outlet to the clean room. And a dust-preventing airflow generating device that controls the airflow to be lower than the airflow velocity of the exhaust air exhausted from the exhaust port.

  According to the present invention, the dust generated from the wheels is blown out together with the surrounding air from the blowout port toward the clean room exhaust port. At that time, since the flow velocity of the air blown out from the blowout port is controlled to be larger than the flow velocity of the clean air flow blown out to the clean room and below the flow velocity of the exhaust air flow exhausted from the exhaust port, The air blown out from the air is forcibly guided to the exhaust port of the clean room. Therefore, the dust generated from the wheels is guided to the exhaust port of the clean room without being diffused to the surroundings and is discharged from the clean room. Thereby, it can prevent that the dust which generate | occur | produces when driving | running | working a conveyance trolley can roll up, and can maintain the inside of a clean room at high cleanliness.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the exhaust port of the clean room is partially provided on the floor surface of the clean room, and is a plurality of openings penetrating vertically. It is characterized by being formed downward. According to the present invention, the air blown out from the outlet is reliably exhausted from the exhaust port.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the exhaust port of the clean room is provided on the side of the transport carriage along the traveling track, and the outlet is formed toward the side. It is characterized by being. According to the present invention, since the air blown out from the air outlet flows sideways along the floor surface, the air can be reliably exhausted from the exhaust port.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the air outlet is provided with a dust removing filter. According to the present invention, since the dust removal filter is provided at the air outlet, the dust generated from the wheels can be removed by the filter and blown out from the air outlet. Further, by providing the filter at the air outlet, the air blown out from the air outlet can be rectified, and the flow velocity can be controlled to be small.

  According to the present invention, the air around the wheel is blown from the outlet toward the exhaust port of the clean room, and the flow rate is controlled to be equal to or lower than the flow rate of the clean air, so that dust generated from the wheel is exhausted to the clean room. It can be reliably discharged from the mouth, and the clean room can always be maintained at a high level of cleanliness.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a transport carriage according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing an example of a first embodiment of a transport carriage according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a front view thereof. The transport cart 10 shown in these drawings is a cart suitable for the clean room 12.

  A grid-like ceiling frame 16 is suspended from the ceiling surface of the clean room 12, and a plurality of FFUs (fan filter units) 18, 18. The FFU 18 includes a casing 18A opened up and down, a fan 18B that sucks air into the casing 18A from above and blows it down, and a HAPA filter 18C that removes the air sucked into the casing 18A. The air in the ceiling back space 20 is removed by the FFU 18 and downflowed into the clean room 12 as clean air.

  A plurality of exhaust ports 14, 14... Are formed on the floor surface of the clean room 12. The plurality of exhaust ports 14, 14... Are arranged around the rail 24 along a rail 24 described later. The exhaust port 14 is formed so as to penetrate vertically, and the clean room 12 and the underfloor chamber 22 are communicated with each other through the exhaust port 14. Therefore, the clean air downflowed into the clean room 12 is sucked into the underfloor space 22. As a result, the dust in the clean room 12 is discharged to the underfloor chamber 22 by the downflow of clean air, so that the clean room 12 is maintained at a high cleanliness level. The exhaust port 14 may be formed on substantially the entire floor surface of the clean room 12, and in that case, the exhaust port 14 is preferably concentrated around the rail 24.

  The underfloor chamber 22 communicates with the ceiling space 20 via a return chamber (not shown) formed on the side of the clean room 12. Therefore, the air in the underfloor chamber 22 is returned to the ceiling back space 22 and blown out from the ceiling back space 22 to the clean room 12 again by the FFU 18. Thereby, air is circulated and the inside of the clean room 12 is always maintained at a high cleanliness.

  On the floor surface of the clean room 12, rails 24 and 24 are laid. The rails 24 and 24 are formed along the traveling track of the transport carriage 10, and the transport carriage 10 is configured to be able to travel on the rails 24 and 24.

  The carriage 10 is mainly composed of a carriage body 26, wheels 28, 28... An unillustrated transported article transfer device is provided on the upper portion of the cart body 26, and the transported article can be loaded and transported by the transported object transfer device. Although a conveyed product transfer apparatus is not specifically limited, For example, a crane, a conveyor, a fork, etc. are used.

  Four wheels 28, 28... Are attached to the lower part of the cart body 26. Each of the wheels 28, 28... Is disposed so as to protrude laterally from the side surface of the carriage body 26, and is rotated by a motor (not shown). The wheels 28, 28... Rotate on the rails 24, 24, so that the transport carriage 10 travels along the rails 24, 24.

  The upper portions of the wheels 28, 28... Are covered with wheel covers 30, 30. Each wheel cover 30 is fixed to the lower portion of the cart body 26 in a state of protruding from the side surface of the cart body 26. Each wheel cover 30 is formed so as to cover substantially the whole except for the lower part of the wheel 28, and a blower outlet 30 </ b> A opened downward is formed in the lower part. Furthermore, the suction port 30B is formed in the upper surface of each wheel cover 30, and the fan 32 is provided in the suction port 30B. By driving the fan 32, air is sucked into the wheel cover 30 from the suction port 30B, and the air is blown out downward from the blower outlet 30A.

  By the way, the fan 32 has a flow velocity of air blown from the air outlet 30 </ b> A larger than a flow velocity of the clean air flow blown to the clean room 12 and not more than a flow velocity of the exhaust air flow exhausted from the exhaust port 14. The rotation speed is controlled. Note that the flow rate of the clean air flow and the flow rate of the exhaust air flow are determined in advance by the settings of the clean room 12 (that is, the area of the outlet of the FFU 18, the area of the exhaust port 14, the rotational speed of the fan 18 B of the FFU 18, etc.). Yes.

  Next, the operation of the transport carriage 10 configured as described above will be described.

  When the transport cart 10 is run, particularly when the transport cart 10 is run at a high speed of 180 m / min or more, dust is generated from the wheels 28, 28. The conventional transport cart has a problem that the dust is rolled up and adheres to a product or the like.

  Therefore, in the transport carriage 10 of the present embodiment, by driving the fan 32, air is sucked from the suction port 30B and blown downward from the blower outlet 30A together with dust around the wheels 28. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the flow rate of air blown from the air outlet 30 </ b> A is larger than the flow rate of the clean air flow blown to the clean room 12 and is equal to or lower than the flow rate of the exhaust air flow exhausted from the exhaust port 14. So that it is controlled. Thereby, the air blown out from the air outlet 30 </ b> A is forcibly guided to the exhaust port 14 and is sucked into the underfloor space 22. Therefore, the dust contained in the air blown out from the air outlet 30A is guided to the exhaust port 14 and discharged to the underfloor space 22 without diffusing to the surroundings. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, dust can be prevented from rolling up, and the clean room 10 can always be maintained at a high cleanliness level.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the air around the wheel 28 is blown out from the air outlet 30 </ b> A toward the floor surface of the clean room 12, and the flow velocity is larger than the flow velocity of the clean air blown out to the clean room 12. In addition, since the exhaust air flow exhausted from the exhaust port 14 is controlled to be equal to or lower than the flow velocity of the exhaust air, dust generated from the wheels 28 can be reliably discharged from the exhaust port 14 of the clean room 12, and the clean room 10 can always be used. High cleanliness can be maintained.

  Next, a transport cart according to a second embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a front view showing the transport carriage 40 of the second embodiment. The transport cart 40 according to the second embodiment is a cart suitable for transport in a clean room 42 that uses the air inlet 47 of the duct 44 provided on the side of the rail 24 as an exhaust port.

  As shown in FIG. 3, ducts 44 and 44 are provided outside the rails 24 and 24 inside the clean room 42. Each duct 44 is disposed along the rail 24 and communicates with the ceiling back space 20. Further, the duct 44 has an air inlet (corresponding to an air outlet) 46 formed on a side surface facing the rail 24, and the air in the clean room 42 is sucked into the duct 44 through the air inlet 46 and the space behind the ceiling. 20 is configured to supply air. Note that the floor surface of the clean room 42 is a flat surface without an opening, and the air downflowed from the FFU 18 forms an airflow that flows toward the air inlet 46 on the floor, and flows from the air inlet 46 to the duct 44. Sucked.

  When compared with the transport cart 10 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the transport cart 40 has a suction port 30 </ b> B on the upper surface of the wheel cover 30 and an outlet 30 </ b> A on the lower surface in the first embodiment. On the other hand, in 2nd Embodiment, the lower part of the outer side surface of the wheel cover 50 is made into the blower outlet 50A, and the lower part of the inner side surface of the wheel cover 50 is made into the suction inlet 50B. A fan 52 is provided in the suction port 50B. By driving the fan 52, air is sucked into the wheel cover 50 from the suction port 50B, and the dust around the wheel 28 is sideways from the air outlet 50A. Is blown out.

  The fan 52 is configured such that the air speed of the air blown from the outlet 50 </ b> A is larger than the flow velocity of the clean air flow blown to the clean room 12 and is equal to or lower than the flow velocity of the exhaust air discharged from the suction port (exhaust port) 46. Controlled. The flow rate of the clean air flow and the flow rate of the exhaust air flow are set in the clean room 12 (that is, the area of the blower outlet of the FFU 18, the area of the suction port (exhaust port) 46, the rotation speed of the fan 18B of the FFU 18). Is determined in advance.

  3 is an example in which air is directly sucked from the fan 52, and the left wheel cover 50 in FIG. 3 is connected to a duct 54 to the fan 52. In this example, air is sucked from the opening 26B by connecting to the opening 26B on the upper surface of the cart body 26. Any form may be used and the same form may be employ | adopted by both right and left.

  Also in the case of the transport carriage 40 configured as described above, the flow velocity of air blown from the blowout port 50 is larger than the flow velocity of clean air blown into the clean room, and the air is exhausted from the suction port (exhaust port) 46. Since the flow velocity is lower than the flow rate of the exhaust air, the dust contained in the air blown from the air outlet 50A is forcibly guided to the air inlet 46 without diffusing to the surroundings. Therefore, dust can be prevented from rolling up, and the clean room 42 can always be maintained at a high cleanliness level.

  Next, a transport cart according to a third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Compared with the transport carriage 40 of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the transport carriage 60 of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 4 has a fan 62 and a filter 64 at the position of the outlet 50A of the wheel cover 50. It differs in that it is provided.

  According to the third embodiment, since the filter 64 is provided at the position of the air outlet 50 </ b> A, dust generated from the wheels 28 can be removed by the filter 64. The transport carriage 60 can be used in the clean room 12 in which the exhaust port 14 (see FIG. 1) is formed on the floor surface and in the clean room 42 in which the intake port 46 of the duct 44 is the exhaust port.

  In the above-described embodiment, the rotational speeds of the fans 32 and 52 may be appropriately changed according to the state of the clean rooms 12 and 42. That is, the rotational speeds of the fans 32 and 52 may be changed according to the flow rate of the clean air flow in the clean rooms 12 and 42 and the flow rate of the exhaust air flow. In this case, it is preferable that the flow rate data of clean air and exhaust air can be appropriately received in a non-contact manner from the control devices of the clean rooms 12 and 42.

  In the above-described embodiment, air is always blown out from the outlets 30A and 50A in a certain direction. However, the air outlet direction of the clean rooms 12 and 42 is automatically adjusted according to the position of the outlet. May be. For example, a movable louver is provided at the air outlets 30A, 50A so that the air direction can be adjusted, and the position information of the exhaust port is input as needed from the control device of the clean rooms 12, 42, etc. The wind direction may be automatically adjusted according to the information.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, only the air blowing air volume in the transport carriages 10, 40, 60 is controlled, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the air volume on the clean room 12, 42 side (that is, the FFU 18) is controlled. You may make it do.

The side view which shows 1st Embodiment of the conveyance trolley | bogie which concerns on this invention. Front view of the transport cart in FIG. Front view showing a second embodiment of the transport carriage Front view showing a third embodiment of the transport carriage

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Conveyance cart, 12 ... Clean room, 14 ... Exhaust vent, 16 ... Ceiling frame, 18 ... FFU, 20 ... Back space, 22 ... Under floor space, 24 ... Rail, 26 ... Dolly body, 28 ... Wheel, 30 ... Wheel Cover, 32 ... Fan, 40 ... Conveyor Cart, 42 ... Clean Room, 44 ... Duct, 46 ... Inlet, 50 ... Wheel Cover, 60 ... Conveyor Cart

Claims (4)

In a transport cart that travels in a clean room where an airflow of clean air is formed toward the exhaust port, and travels by wheels provided at the bottom of the cart body,
From the air outlet provided in the vicinity of the wheel, the surrounding air is blown out toward the exhaust port of the clean room, and the flow velocity of the air blown out from the air outlet is larger than the flow velocity of the clean air blown out to the clean room, In addition, the transport carriage includes a dust-preventing airflow generation device that controls the flow rate of the exhaust air exhausted from the exhaust port to be equal to or lower than the flow velocity. The exhaust port of the clean room is a plurality of openings that are partially provided on the floor surface of the clean room and penetrated up and down,
The transport cart according to claim 1, wherein the air outlet is formed downward.   2. The transport carriage according to claim 1, wherein an exhaust port of the clean room is provided on a side of the transport carriage along the traveling track, and the outlet is formed toward the side. .   The conveyance cart according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a filter for dust removal is provided at the air outlet or the exhaust port.

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