JP2010270599A - Vacuum pump - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vacuum pump having excellent usability even when being used so as to be controlled or monitored by an external device. <P>SOLUTION: A vacuum pump includes a pump body 1 which carries out evacuation by rotating a rotor formed with a rotary blade at high speed with a motor 11 and a power supply device 2 which drives and controls the motor 11. The power supply device 2 includes a communication interface 24 for executing pump control such as monitoring of a pump control state and start/stop by an external device 3, and storage medium 23 for storing and holding in advance a software for executing pump control such as monitoring of a pump control state and start/stop through the communication interface 24, and outputs the software stored and held in the storage medium 23 to the external device 3 through the communication interface 24. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum pump such as a turbo molecular pump or a drag pump.

  Conventionally, a turbo molecular pump mounted on a vacuum apparatus is configured to be monitored by a host computer on the vacuum apparatus side. The turbo molecular pump control device is provided with a communication interface conforming to the RS-232C or RS-485 standard, and the control state of the turbo molecular pump is transmitted to the host computer via the interface (for example, Patent Documents). 1).

JP 2004-339954 A

  However, since the higher-level protocols are not unified for these interfaces, each manufacturer's device adopts a unique data format. Therefore, there is a problem that the user of the turbo molecular pump needs to create dedicated communication software in accordance with the communication protocol of the control device, which is troublesome and unusable.

The invention of claim 1 is a vacuum pump comprising a pump body that rotates a rotating body at a high speed by a motor to evacuate the pump, and a power supply device that drives and controls the motor. A communication interface for performing pump control such as monitoring and starting / stopping, and a storage medium that preliminarily stores and holds software for performing pump control such as monitoring and starting / stopping the pump control state via the communication interface And software stored in a storage medium is output to an external device via a communication interface.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vacuum pump according to the first aspect, the communication interface includes a first communication interface for performing pump control such as monitoring of the pump control state and starting and stopping, and monitoring of the pump control state. A second communication interface for transmitting software for performing pump control such as starting and stopping to an external device is provided.
A third aspect of the present invention is the vacuum pump according to the second aspect, wherein the communication speed of the first communication interface is lower than the communication speed of the second communication interface.
Invention of Claim 4 uses the low-speed communication interface based on RS-232C, RS-485, and CAN (Controller Area Network) as a 1st communication interface in the vacuum pump of Claim 2, As the second communication interface, a high-speed communication interface conforming to any one of ETHERNET (registered trademark), USB, and IEEE1394 is used.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the vacuum pump according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, in the storage medium, pump information unique to the vacuum pump is stored in advance together with software, and stored in the storage medium. At least one of the generated software and pump information is output to an external device via a communication interface.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the vacuum pump according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, the power supply device includes a direct memory access controller, and transmits either software or pump information from the storage medium to an external device. In such a case, they are transmitted collectively by a direct memory access controller.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, when using it to control and monitor with an external device, the vacuum pump which is more convenient than before can be provided.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of a turbo-molecular pump. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a pump body 1. It is a figure which shows the 1st modification of a turbo-molecular pump. It is a figure which shows the 2nd modification of a turbo-molecular pump.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a turbo molecular pump, and is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a magnetic bearing type turbo molecular pump. The turbo molecular pump includes a pump body 1 and a power supply device 2.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the pump body 1. The rotor 130 is supported in a non-contact manner by electromagnets 121 and 122 constituting the magnetic bearing 12. The rotor 130 magnetically levitated by the magnetic bearing 12 is rotated at high speed by the motor 11. The rotor 130 is formed with a plurality of stages of rotating blades 132 and a cylindrical screw rotor 131.

  On the other hand, on the fixed side, a plurality of stages of fixed blades 133 arranged alternately with the rotary blades 132 in the axial direction, and a screw stator 139 provided on the outer peripheral side of the screw rotor 131 are provided. Each fixed wing 133 is placed on the base 140 via the spacer ring 135. When the pump casing 134 is fixed to the base 140, the stacked spacer ring 135 is sandwiched between the base 140 and the pump casing 134, and the fixed blade 133 is positioned.

  The base 140 is provided with an exhaust port 141, and a back pump is connected to the exhaust port 141. By rotating the rotor 130 at a high speed while being magnetically levitated, the gas molecules on the intake port side are exhausted to the exhaust port 141 side. Although not shown, the floating position of the rotor 130 is detected by a displacement sensor, and the rotation speed is detected by a rotation speed sensor.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the power supply device 2 is provided with a turbo molecular pump drive unit 22 and a CPU 21 that controls the turbo molecular pump drive unit 22. The turbo molecular pump drive unit 22 is provided with an excitation amplifier 222 that supplies an excitation current to the electromagnet 12 and an inverter 221 that drives the motor 11. The CPU 10 controls the excitation amplifier 222 and the inverter 221 of the turbo molecular pump drive unit 22 based on signals from the displacement sensor and the rotation speed sensor.

  A memory 23 that is a non-volatile storage medium such as a ROM stores a program processed by the CPU 10 and stores information unique to the turbo molecular pump and communication software (program). Information unique to the pump includes electronic data of an instruction manual and parameters for controlling the turbo molecular pump. The communication software includes a program for monitoring the control state of the turbo molecular pump from the host computer 3 and a program for controlling start / stop of the power supply device 2.

  The power supply device 2 is provided with a communication interface 24 for communicating the control state of the pump such as the rotation speed to the outside. As the communication interface 24, a communication interface compliant with the RS-232C or RS-485 standard is used. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the host computer 3 on the vacuum apparatus side is connected via the communication interface 24, but the apparatus for controlling and monitoring the turbo molecular pump may be a PC (personal computer) or the like. The host computer 3 can control the pump and monitor the control state via the communication interface 24, and can download an instruction manual and communication software stored in the memory 23 of the power supply device 2. By executing the communication software downloaded from the power supply device 2 side, the host computer 3 can perform control such as control state monitoring and start / stop. Also, it is possible to easily browse the instruction manual.

  In the conventional turbo molecular pump, in order to be able to control from the host computer 3, as described above, it is necessary to create dedicated communication software that matches the communication protocol of the device based on the description in the instruction manual. there were. However, in the present embodiment, the communication software stored in the memory of the power supply apparatus 2 can be downloaded to the host computer via the communication interface, so the user creates the communication software. Save time and effort.

  Further, although a mode in which an instruction manual, control and status monitoring software are attached on a medium such as a CD-ROM is also conceivable, there are the following problems. That is, the vacuum device is often equipped with a plurality of turbo molecular pumps. However, for example, when the firmware of the power supply device 2 is upgraded, the instruction manual and control and status monitoring software are also changed. Therefore, it is necessary to manage a plurality of turbo molecular pumps and each CD-ROM with a one-to-one correspondence. However, even when the CD-ROM or the like is managed by the serial number of the pump body 1 or the power supply device 2, it is difficult to confirm the serial number when the turbo molecular pump is incorporated in the device. Occurs. As described above, it is complicated to manage the CD-ROM in which the instruction manual, the control, and the status monitor software are stored so that it is easy to determine which power supply device is the CD-ROM.

  On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the instruction manual and control and status monitor software are downloaded from the power supply device 2, they are completely matched with the connected power supply device 2. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate human error such as the inconvenience relating to the management of the instruction manual and control and status monitor software as described above, and the mistake of control and status monitor software.

  FIG. 3 is a view showing a modification of the turbo molecular pump shown in FIG. In the power supply device 2 shown in FIG. 3, two communication interfaces 24A and 24B are provided. One is a communication interface 24A for controlling the pump and monitoring the control state, and the other is a communication interface 24B for downloading the instruction manual and control and state monitoring software. Thus, by separating the communication system, it is possible to download the instruction manual and software without affecting the control of the pump performed on the PC side and the monitoring of the control state.

  When the communication interface is divided into two systems as shown in FIG. 3, the communication interface 24A for controlling the pump and monitoring the control state in consideration of the situation peculiar to the turbo molecular pump under the noise environment has a noise resistance. Use a reliable low-speed interface. On the other hand, a high-speed interface is used for the communication interface 24B used for downloading software and instruction manuals used for control and control state monitoring so that the information can be downloaded quickly even if the amount of information is large.

  The boundary between high-speed communication and low-speed communication is generally about 1 Mbps. Here, the case where the communication speed exceeds 1 Mbps is high-speed communication, and the case where the communication speed is 1 Mbps or less is low-speed communication. Examples of the low-speed communication interface 24A include a low-speed communication interface that conforms to RS-232C, RS-485, CAN (Controller Area Network), and the like that are generally used in an industrial environment. As the high-speed communication interface 24B, a high-speed communication interface conforming to ETHERNET (registered trademark), USB, IEEE 1394, etc., which is generally used for consumer products is used. The PC connected to the power supply device 2 communicates with the high-speed communication interface 24B using a protocol attached to the PC as a standard or an application conforming thereto, and downloads an instruction manual, control, and status monitor software. Then, the downloaded communication software is executed to control the pump and monitor the control state via the low-speed communication interface 24A.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second modification, in which a direct memory access controller 25 is provided in the configuration of FIG. Direct memory access (DMA) is a method of directly transferring data between a peripheral device and the memory 23 without using the CPU 21. When such DMA is used, data is processed in a lump, so that the speed is improved as compared with the case where the CPU 21 directly transfers the data, and other operations are allocated to the CPU 21 during that time, thereby improving the efficiency as a whole. be able to. That is, the instruction manual, control and status monitor software can be downloaded so as not to affect the control of the CPU 21 and the control status monitor.

  Each of the embodiments described above may be used alone or in combination. This is because the effects of the respective embodiments can be achieved independently or synergistically. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment as long as the characteristics of the present invention are not impaired. In the above-described embodiment, the turbo molecular pump has been described as an example. However, the vacuum pump attached to the vacuum apparatus as described above is not limited to the turbo molecular pump, and may be, for example, a drag pump (screw groove pump). The same can be applied.

  1: pump body, 2: power supply device, 3: external device, 11: motor, 12: magnetic bearing, 21: CPU, 22: turbo molecular pump drive unit, 23: memory, 24, 24A, 24B: communication interface, 25 : Direct memory access controller, 130: Rotor, 132: Rotor blade

Claims (6)

A vacuum pump comprising a pump body that rotates a rotator formed with rotating blades at a high speed by a motor and evacuates the motor, and a power supply device that drives and controls the motor,
The power supply device
A communication interface for performing pump control such as monitoring and starting / stopping the pump control state by an external device;
Software for performing pump control such as monitoring and starting / stopping of the pump control state via the communication interface, and a storage medium storing and holding in advance,
A vacuum pump, wherein the software stored and held in the storage medium is output to an external device via the communication interface. The vacuum pump according to claim 1, wherein
The communication interface is
A first communication interface for performing pump control such as monitoring and starting / stopping of the pump control state;
A vacuum pump comprising: a second communication interface for transmitting software for performing pump control such as monitoring of the pump control state and starting / stopping to the external device. The vacuum pump according to claim 2,
A vacuum pump characterized in that the communication speed of the first communication interface is lower than the communication speed of the second communication interface. The vacuum pump according to claim 3,
Using a low-speed communication interface compliant with any of RS-232C, RS-485, and CAN (Controller Area Network) as the first communication interface,
A vacuum pump using a high-speed communication interface conforming to any one of ETHERNET (registered trademark), USB, and IEEE1394 as the second communication interface. In the vacuum pump as described in any one of Claims 1-4,
In the storage medium, pump information unique to the vacuum pump is stored and held in advance together with the software,
A vacuum pump, wherein at least one of the software and the pump information stored and held in the storage medium is output to an external device via the communication interface. In the vacuum pump as described in any one of Claims 1-5,
The power supply device includes a direct memory access controller,
A vacuum pump characterized in that when the software and the pump information are transmitted from the storage medium to the external device, they are collectively transmitted by the direct memory access controller.

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