JP2009241194A - Stage device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a stage device, in which guide rails are kept horizontal along the whole length of them, so that movable members are stably movable even on a large-sized device. <P>SOLUTION: The guide rail 17 is fixed to an installation surface 25a of an adjust plate 25, and the height position of the adjust plate 25 is adjusted by a height adjusting mechanism 26. In the case where there is a part where the guide rail 17 is not kept horizontal in the length direction, a tightening quantity to a height adjusting screw 27 of the height adjusting mechanism 26 provided close to the part is adjusted to adjust the height position of the adjust plate 25 to a top plate 10. The height position of the guide rail 17 is thus finely adjusted. The adjustment is performed along the whole length of the guide rail 17. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention particularly relates to a stage device used for manufacturing and inspection of a large-sized liquid crystal display or the like.

As a conventional invention in such a field, there is JP-A-2006-49384. The stage apparatus described in this publication includes a stone surface plate on which an object such as a glass substrate of a liquid crystal display is placed, a pair of guide bases (support members) extending at both ends of the stone surface plate, and a guide A gantry section (moving body) that is guided by a linear guide bearing (guide rail) on the base and moves above the object.
JP 2006-49384 A

  Here, in recent years, since the size of a liquid crystal display or the like tends to increase the size of the object, the size of the device increases accordingly, and the support member and the guide rail become longer. Therefore, in the above stage device, it becomes difficult to keep the guide rail horizontal throughout the entire length at the time of manufacture, and there arises a problem that the movable body cannot be stably moved at a certain height position. . For example, when adjusting the height position of the guide rail by fixing the guide rail to the adjustment plate and placing a spacer between the adjustment plate and the support member after manufacturing, adjust the height with high accuracy. The problem is that it cannot be performed and the guide rail cannot be kept horizontal over its entire length. In addition, it is very difficult to finely adjust by inserting spacers one by one, which causes a problem that it takes time and effort.

  An object of this invention is to provide the stage apparatus which can maintain a guide rail horizontally over the full length and can move a moving body stably, even when an apparatus enlarges.

  In the stage apparatus according to the present invention, the guide rail is fixed in the stage apparatus in which the guide rail extends along the longitudinal direction of the support member above the long support member and the moving body is guided along the guide rail. And an adjustment plate that is supported so as to be movable in the height direction on the upper surface of the support member, and the height position of the adjustment plate is adjusted, and a plurality of adjustment plates are provided along the longitudinal direction. A height adjusting mechanism.

  In this stage apparatus, the guide rail is fixed to the mounting surface of the adjustment plate, and a plurality of height adjustment mechanisms for adjusting the height position of the adjustment plate are provided on the adjustment plate along the longitudinal direction of the support member. Yes. Accordingly, the adjustment of the height position of the adjustment plate by the height adjustment mechanism can be performed at a plurality of locations along the longitudinal direction, so that the precise adjustment of the height position of the guide rail can be performed over the entire length. . Thereby, even when the apparatus is enlarged, the guide rail can be kept horizontal over the entire length, and the moving body can be moved stably.

  Further, it is preferable that a reading object to be read by a reading unit provided on the moving body is installed on the mounting surface of the adjustment plate. By installing the object to be read together with the guide rail on the mounting surface of the adjustment plate, the height position of the guide rail is adjusted without changing the relative positional relationship between the object to be read and the reading means of the moving body. be able to.

  Specifically, the reading unit is a position detection sensor, and the reading object is a linear scale.

  In addition, the height adjusting mechanism is screwed to the adjustment plate and penetrates the height adjusting screw, and the height adjusting screw is vertically screwed to the support member. It is preferable to have a fixing screw that contacts the upper end of the height adjusting screw at the head. Easy to adjust the tightening amount of the height adjustment screw because the lower end of the height adjustment screw that penetrates the adjustment plate abuts the support member and forms a gap between the adjustment plate and the support member. The height of the guide rail can be adjusted. Furthermore, the fixing screw passes through the height adjusting screw in the vertical direction, is screwed to the support member, and comes into contact with the upper end of the height adjusting screw at the head, thereby allowing the fixing screw to pass through the height adjusting screw. Thus, the adjustment plate can be fixed to the support member.

  According to the stage apparatus according to the present invention, even when the apparatus is enlarged, the guide rail can be kept horizontal over the entire length, and the moving body can be stably moved.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a stage apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the stage apparatus 1 has a pair of long support members 2 arranged in parallel so as to be parallel to each other in a horizontal plane, and both ends so as to move along the extending direction of the support member 2. Each part includes a moving body 3 supported by a support member 2. For example, a processing device or an inspection device is mounted on the moving body 3.

  The support member 2 is supported at both ends in the longitudinal direction by the legs 4 and 6, and is supported at the substantially central position in the longitudinal direction by the legs 7. In addition, an XY stage device 8 is disposed between the leg portion 4 and the leg portion 7 below the support member 2. The XY stage device 8 moves the object 11 placed on the upper surface of the suction disk 9 within a horizontal plane. Examples of the object 11 include a glass substrate of a liquid crystal display, and the object 11 is processed or inspected by a processing device or an inspection device mounted on the moving body 3. The section between the leg 6 and the leg 7 is used as a space for maintenance of the device mounted on the moving body 3. The total length of the support member 2 is about 6 to 10 m (length C in FIG. 1), the distance between the leg 4 and the leg 7 of the support member 2 is about 3 to 5 m (length A in FIG. 1), and the support member 2 The distance between the leg part 6 and the leg part 7 is about 3 to 5 m (length B in FIG. 1). The “height” in claim 1 indicates a relative distance between the object 11 and the device mounted on the moving body 3.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the support member 2 includes a guide base 5 formed by arranging hollow members 12, 13, and 14 side by side in the lateral direction of the support member 2 in the horizontal direction, and the guide base 5. And a top plate 10 fixed to the upper surface 5a. The “short direction” is a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the moving body 3. The guide base 5 is formed into a substantially square cross section by connecting the long side outer peripheral surfaces of the hollow members 12, 13, and 14 having a substantially rectangular cross section to each other as a joint surface. Specifically, the hollow members 12, 13, 14 bring the side wall 12 a of the hollow member 12 and one side wall 13 a of the hollow member 13 into surface contact, and the other side wall 13 b of the hollow member 13 and the hollow member In a state in which the side wall 14a of the fourteen is in surface contact, the respective corners on the outer peripheral side are welded to each other to form a welded portion 15 that extends along the longitudinal direction of the support member 2. Yes. Each of the hollow members 12, 13, and 14 is not an elongated member formed by connecting a plurality of members in the longitudinal direction, but is preferably a single elongated member. Thereby, the positional accuracy in the longitudinal direction of components such as the guide rail 17 and the linear scale (reading object) 16 supported by the support member 2 can be ensured.

  A top plate 10 that extends over substantially the entire length of the guide base 5 is fixed to the upper surface 5 a of the guide base 5. The top plate 10 is fixed over the adjacent hollow member 12 and hollow member 13. An adjustment plate 25 having the same shape as the top plate 10 is fixed to the upper surface 10a (see FIG. 3) of the top plate 10 so as to be adjustable in the height direction. On the upper mounting surface 25a of the adjustment plate 25, a linear scale 16 for measuring the position of the moving body 3, a guide rail 17 for guiding the moving body 3, and a linear for moving the moving body 3 are provided. The stator 18 a of the motor 18 is attached so as to extend along the longitudinal direction of the support member 2. The mounting surface 25a of the adjustment plate 25 is provided with the linear scale 16, guide rails 17 and the stator 18a of the linear motor 18 that require positional accuracy. Sufficient flatness is ensured.

  The moving body 3 that moves above the support member 2 is provided with connecting plates 19 that are opposed to the mounting surface 25a of the adjusting plate 25 at both ends. 17, a slider 20 that is fitted to the linear scale 16, a position detection sensor (reading means) 21 that detects the position of the moving body 3 by reading the scale of the linear scale 16, and a linear motor 18. A mover 18b is attached. As the position detection sensor 21, any sensor such as a CCD camera or an optical sensor may be applied.

  The top plate 10 and the adjustment plate 25 are provided with a height adjustment mechanism 26 that adjusts the height position of the adjustment plate 25 in a stepless manner. A pair of the height adjusting mechanisms 26 are provided on both sides of the guide rail 17 at intervals of about 0.2 to 0.3 m along the longitudinal direction of the adjusting plate 25.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the height adjusting mechanism 26 includes a height adjusting screw 27 that is screwed into and passed through the adjustment plate 25, a lock nut 28 that locks the height adjusting screw 27, and an adjustment plate. And a fixing screw 29 for fixing 25 to the top plate 10.

  The height adjustment screw 27 passes through a screw hole 25 b formed in the adjustment plate 25, and a lower end portion of the height adjustment screw 27 comes into contact with the upper surface 10 a of the top plate 10, thereby causing a gap between the adjustment plate 25 and the top plate 10. Is forming. The size of the gap can be adjusted steplessly by the tightening amount of the height adjusting screw 27, and the adjustment plate 25, the linear scale 16, and the guide rail 17 are moved upward by this gap. As described above, the height positions of the linear scale 16 and the guide rail 17 can be easily adjusted by adjusting the tightening amount of the height adjusting screw 27.

  The height adjusting screw 27 has a through hole 27a extending from the upper end to the lower end at the center position, and a fixing screw 29 is inserted into the through hole 27a. The fixing screw 29 is fastened at the lower end side to the top plate 10 and supports the lower surface of its head in contact with the upper surface of the head of the height adjusting screw 27, thereby supporting the fixing screw 29 via the height adjusting screw 27. Thus, the adjustment plate 25 and the top plate 10 are fixed.

  2 and 3, only one end side of one support member 2 and the moving body 3 is shown, but the other end side of the other support member 2 and the moving body 3 has the same configuration.

  As described above, in the stage apparatus 1, when there is a portion that is not kept horizontal in the longitudinal direction of the guide rail 17, the height adjustment screw 27 of the height adjustment mechanism 26 provided near that portion. By adjusting the tightening amount, the height position of the adjustment plate 25 with respect to the top plate 10 can be adjusted steplessly, and thereby the height position of the guide rail 17 can be adjusted with high accuracy. Such adjustment is performed over the entire length of the guide rail 17. Thereby, even when the apparatus is enlarged, the guide rail 17 can be kept horizontal over the entire length, and the moving body 3 can be moved stably.

  In particular, in the stage apparatus 1 of the type in which the XY stage apparatus 8 or the like is disposed below, the support member 2 has a space for disposing the XY stage apparatus 8 at least in a section between the leg section 4 and the leg section 7. It is necessary to ensure below the support member 2, and reinforcing leg portions or truss structures for suppressing the bending and distortion of the guide rail 17 cannot be provided below the support member 2. Therefore, the present invention in which the height position of the guide rail 17 can be adjusted steplessly over the entire length is particularly effective for a stage apparatus such as the stage apparatus 1.

  Further, by installing the linear scale 16 together with the guide rails 17 on the mounting surface 25a of the adjustment plate 25, the guides are not changed without changing the relative positional relationship between the linear scale 16 and the position detection sensor 21 of the moving body 3. The height position of the rail 17 can be adjusted.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above.

  For example, in this embodiment, the reading means is the position detection sensor 21 and the reading object is the linear scale 16, but instead, the reading object is an inspection camera and the reading object is an inspection object. It may be an object such as a glass substrate. Further, the reading object may be an inspection sheet or the like, and the state of ink attached to the inspection sheet may be read by an inspection camera. When the reading object is a glass substrate or inspection paper, the adjustment plate is extended to the inside of the stage device so that the object can be placed.

  The guide base 5 of the support member 2 is composed of a plurality of members using the hollow members 12, 13, and 14, but instead of this, a single hollow square member may be used.

It is a perspective view which shows the stage apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a principal part expansion perspective view of the stage apparatus shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which follows the III-III line of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Stage apparatus, 2 ... Support member, 3 ... Moving body, 10a ... Upper surface, 16 ... Linear scale (reading object), 17 ... Guide rail, 21 ... Position detection sensor (reading means), 25 ... Adjustment plate, 25a ... mounting surface, 26 ... height adjusting mechanism, 27 ... height adjusting screw, 29 ... fixing screw.

Claims (4)

In the stage apparatus in which the guide rail extends along the longitudinal direction of the support member above the long support member, and the moving body is guided along the guide rail,
An adjustment plate that has a mounting surface to which the guide rail is fixed and is supported so as to be movable in the height direction on the upper surface of the support member;
A stage apparatus comprising: a height adjustment mechanism that adjusts the height position of the adjustment plate, and a plurality of height adjustment mechanisms provided on the adjustment plate along the longitudinal direction.   The stage apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a reading object to be read by reading means provided on the movable body is installed on the attachment surface of the adjustment plate.   3. The stage apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the reading unit is a position detection sensor, and the reading object is a linear scale. The height adjustment mechanism is
A height adjusting screw that is screwed to and penetrates the adjustment plate;
A fixing screw that penetrates the height adjustment screw in the vertical direction and is screwed to the support member and abuts against an upper end of the height adjustment screw at a head. Item 4. The stage device according to any one of Items 1 to 3.

Images