JP2011003701A - Transfer device for film substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device that can suction a film substrate, without fail, using small suction power and transferring it.SOLUTION: The transfer device (1) suctions a film substrate (11), placed flat on a placement surface (14) and lifts it up and includes a plurality of suction pads (2) arranged on the same virtual plane; a common elevating frame (3) for supporting them; two elevating members (5a and 5b) that are connected with the elevating frame respectively, in such a condition that an elevating means for elevating the elevating frame is allowable to rotate about axial lines that are parallel to the placement surface and are mutually parallel to each other, at two connection sections (4a and 4b) apart in the extending direction of the placement surface; and a control means and a driving means (6a and 6b) that lift the elevating members, at a relative speed difference and/or time difference.

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for attracting and lifting a film substrate such as a thin-film solar cell placed flat on a placement surface and transferring it to another place.

  Thin film solar cells using amorphous silicon-based thin films as the semiconductor film that composes the photoelectric conversion layer can be formed by vapor phase growth and can easily be increased in area, and because of the low formation temperature, they are flexible like plastic films. Further, it can be formed on a substrate, and moreover, an integrated series connection structure, that is, a large number of solar cell unit cells are arranged in parallel on the surface side of a film substrate, and they have connection electrode layers on the back side of the substrate and holes penetrating the substrate. Through the structure connected in series, a high voltage can be taken out by one substrate, and it is also suitable for constituting a low voltage / large current type solar cell module (see Patent Document 1).

  The thin film solar cell having the above-described serial connection structure includes a primary film forming process for forming electrode layers on both surfaces of a long film substrate having through holes formed in a predetermined arrangement, and photoelectric conversion on the electrode layer on the surface side. After a secondary film forming step of laminating and forming a layer and a transparent electrode layer, a laser processing step of dividing the film substrate into each solar cell unit cell, and a laminating step of a sealing material for sealing each surface of the film substrate , And sent to the product part cutting process.

  In the cutting process, in order to accurately position and securely cut the product portion (solar cell module) of the thin film substrate in the die cutting part, the long film substrate unrolled from the supply roll is a resin underlay sheet. They are stacked on top of each other, moved forward with a grip feeder, positioned at a die cutting portion, and die cut with a cutting blade such as a Thomson blade. The film substrate that has passed through the die cutting part is sent to the product carry-out part in a state of being placed on the underlay sheet, and only the product part is adsorbed by the adsorbing part of the transfer device and separated from the remaining part of the film substrate. Then, it is lifted, transferred to a tray and transferred to the next process.

  As a film substrate transfer device, for example, a device provided with a full-surface adsorption-type adsorption portion as described in Patent Document 2 is publicly known. Since the product portion of the substrate is in close contact with the surface of the underlay sheet, it is difficult to peel off from the underlay sheet, and there is a problem that a large adsorbing force is required even though the film substrate is lightweight. In addition, since there is a concern that an excessive adsorption force may adversely affect the product portion, it is difficult to adjust the adsorption force to be appropriate for each product.

JP-A-6-342924 JP 2000-118714 A

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of reliably adsorbing and transferring a film substrate with a small adsorbing force.

  In order to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, the present invention is a transfer device that sucks and lifts a film substrate placed flat on a placement surface, and a plurality of suction pads arranged on the same virtual plane; And a common lifting frame for supporting them and a lifting means for lifting and lowering the lifting frame, wherein the lifting means is installed at the two connecting portions separated in the spreading direction of the mounting surface. Two elevating members respectively connected to the elevating frame in a state in which the rotation about the axis parallel to the surface and mutually parallel is allowed, and a control means for raising them with a relative speed difference and / or time difference, and A drive means is included.

  In the present invention, the driving means is two fluid pressure cylinders disposed in the respective connecting portions, and the two lifting members are output rods of the two fluid pressure cylinders or are connected to the output rods. Preferably, the control means includes a flow control valve connected to the two fluid pressure cylinders. Moreover, it is preferable that each said connection part consists of a spherical joint. Furthermore, it is preferable that each of the connecting portions is disposed above the virtual plane on which the plurality of suction pads are arranged.

  In the present invention, a plurality of the lifting frames and the lifting means are provided corresponding to the plurality of film substrates placed flat adjacent to the mounting surface, and a plurality of supports that respectively support the lifting means. A body, a movable body common to the plurality of supports, means for reciprocating the movable body between the transfer positions of the film substrates, and the plurality of supports in the adjacent direction of the film substrates. It is preferable to further include means for contacting and separating.

  Since the transfer device according to the present invention is configured as described above, it has operations and effects as described below.

  The film substrate placed flat on the mounting surface is sucked by a plurality of suction pads arranged on the same virtual plane by a common lifting frame, and the relative speed difference between the two lifting members connected to the lifting frame And / or by raising with a time difference, a lifting force is applied intensively to one edge of the film substrate at the start of raising, so that at one edge, a mounting surface (or another Peeling from the film substrate is started relatively easily, and once peeling is started, the entire film substrate can be easily removed from the placement surface by the inflow of air into the gap generated between the film surface and the placement surface. Detachable.

  Therefore, a large adsorption force is not required to adsorb and lift the film substrate, and there is no influence on the product part due to the excessive adsorption force. In addition, there is an advantage that the application range of the adsorption force is expanded, an adsorption error hardly occurs, and it is not necessary to strictly adjust the adsorption force according to the flatness or pattern of the film substrate surface.

  Further, when the adsorbed film substrate rises, the entire film substrate assumes an inclined posture with the above speed difference and / or time difference, whereby air on the upper surface of the film substrate is guided to the lower side along the inclination. Therefore, the air resistance at the initial rise can be reduced, and fluttering due to air resistance and adsorption errors can be suppressed.

  While performing the ascending operation with the tilt posture as described above, the film substrate is always kept flat, and no wrinkles or bending occurs due to the adsorption operation. In addition, since the two lifting members are only raised with a relative speed difference and / or time difference, the basic structure and the lifting stroke of the two lifting members can be configured identically or symmetrically, and the structure of the apparatus is complicated. There is no need to do.

  Further, the driving means is two fluid pressure cylinders disposed in the respective connecting portions, and the two lifting members are output rods of the two fluid pressure cylinders or are fixed to the output rods. In the aspect in which the control means includes a flow control valve connected to the two fluid pressure cylinders, each output rod is simply adjusted by adjusting the flow rate of the working fluid in the two fluid pressure cylinders by the flow control valve. A speed difference and / or a time difference can be easily set in the ascending operation, and can be implemented at low cost.

  Furthermore, in the aspect in which each of the connecting portions is formed of a spherical joint, the lifting operation of the lifting frame with the inclined posture as described above can be smoothly performed without causing any stagnation in each connecting portion, and the lifting frame. There is also an advantage that the position of each suction pad on the mounting surface can be accurately defined.

  Further, in an aspect in which each of the connecting portions is disposed above the virtual plane on which the plurality of suction pads are arranged, each suction pad is started at the start of the ascending operation with the tilting posture of the lifting frame. Due to the vertical offset of each connecting part, with the rise of one edge part of the film substrate, on the other edge part side that rises with a delay, a minute displacement in the spreading direction of the mounting surface occurs, By this minute displacement, there is an advantage that the other edge end side of the film substrate is reliably separated from the mounting surface and the cut film remaining portion.

  Further, a plurality of the lifting frames and the lifting means are disposed corresponding to the plurality of film substrates placed flat adjacent to the mounting surface, and a plurality of supports that respectively support the lifting means, A movable body common to the plurality of supports, a means for reciprocating the movable body between the transfer positions of the film substrates, and a plurality of the supports being contacted and separated in the adjacent direction of the film substrates. In the aspect further comprising the means, a plurality of film substrates placed adjacent to the placement surface can be adsorbed and transferred all at once, the transfer efficiency can be improved, and each film substrate can be moved in common. When transported to the transfer position by the body, the supports can be separated from each other so that they can be transferred with an appropriate space between each film substrate, and handling such as distribution of each film substrate after transfer is easy. It can be done.

It is a top view which shows the die cutting process line of the film board | substrate with which the transfer apparatus which concerns on this invention embodiment was attached. It is AA sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the transfer apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is BB sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the transfer apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is BB sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the adsorption | suction state of the film substrate by the transfer apparatus of this invention embodiment. It is BB sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the lifting operation | movement of the film substrate by the transfer apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is BB sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the conveyance operation of the film substrate by the transfer apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is CC sectional drawing of FIG. 1 which shows the transfer operation | movement of the film substrate by the transfer apparatus of embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of FIG. 5 illustrating the lifting operation of the film substrate by the transfer device according to the embodiment of the present invention. (A) is a top view which shows the layout of the connection part which concerns on this invention embodiment, (b) is a top view which shows the layout of the connection part which concerns on another embodiment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on illustrated embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a die-cutting line for a thin-film solar cell provided with a transfer device 1 according to the present invention. An endless belt-like underlay sheet 14 that is circulated therethrough is disposed. The underlay sheet 14 is made of a flexible sheet material such as PET resin, and is wound endlessly on a plurality of guide rolls including a pair of guide rolls 14a and 14b disposed at both ends of the conveyance path of the film substrate 10. Yes.

  The film substrate 10 of the thin-film solar cell that has undergone the film forming step, the laser processing step, and the sealing material laminating step is unwound from a supply roll (not shown), and on the underlying sheet 14 on the upstream side in the conveying direction of the die cutting unit 13. In the state of being supplied to the underlay sheet 14 and placed on the underlay sheet 14, the product portion 11 constituting the solar cell module is die-cut by the cutting blade 13 such as a Thomson blade. In the film substrate 10 according to the present embodiment, unit modules composed of a large number of solar cell unit cells arranged in the width direction and connected in series to each other are intermittently arranged in the longitudinal direction of the film substrate 10. Six rows are arranged in parallel for each rectangular processing region, and in the die-cutting part 3, each processing region is die-cut into three product parts 11 that are a set of two rows of unit modules.

  A fixing grip 15 is provided on the downstream side in the conveyance direction of the die cutting unit 13 to hold the film substrate 10 positioned in the die cutting unit 13 together with the underlay sheet 14, and further on the downstream side in the conveyance direction. A grip feeder 16 is provided for gripping the processed film substrate 10 together with the underlay sheet 4 and advancing integrally. During the pause period of the intermittent conveyance operation of the grip feeder 16, the product part 11 is die-cut by the die-cutting unit 13, and the film substrate 10 that has been die-cut is placed on the underlay sheet 14, The products are sequentially conveyed to the product suction stage 17 on the downstream side in the conveyance direction.

  On the side of the above-described die cutting line (13 to 17), tray conveyors 181 and 182 for loading the product portion 11 on the tray 20 and transferring it to the next process are extended in parallel. Reference numeral 1 denotes a product suction stage 17 that sucks and lifts only the product portion 11 of the film substrate 10 and transfers it to the transfer station 18 (181) of the tray transfer conveyor.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the transfer device 1 supports a plurality of suction pads 2 assigned to the three product portions 11 of the film substrate, and supports each suction pad 2 for each of the three product portions 11. Lift frame 3, air cylinders 6 (6 a, 6 b) that raise and lower each lift frame 3, supports 7, 70 that support each air cylinder 6, movable body 8 common to these supports 7, 70, the movable body A feed mechanism 9 is provided for reciprocally moving 8 between the product suction stage 17 and the transfer station 18.

  Each suction pad 2 is attached downward to the lower end portion of the suction tube fixed to the support plate 31, and in order to suck the product portion 11 of the film substrate while keeping it flat, for example, FIG. Are arranged on the same virtual plane in a grid layout as shown in FIG. The upper end of each suction pipe is connected to a vacuum generator such as a vacuum ejector or a vacuum pump via a pipe and a solenoid valve (not shown). In the illustrated example, seven suction pads 2 are supported by one support plate 31, and four support plates 31 are fixed to the lower surface of the support frame 32 to constitute one lifting frame 3.

  Each elevating frame 3 (support frame 32) has elevating members 5a and 5b via connecting portions 4 each having two spherical joints at each end in the longitudinal direction corresponding to the width direction of the film substrate 10 and the underlay sheet 14. It is connected to. The elevating members 5a and 5b are fixed to the tips of the output rods 61 of the air cylinders 6a and 6b, and at the lower ends of the pair of guide rods 51 and 51 that are linearly guided by the housings of the air cylinders 6a and 6b. Further, the upper ends of the guide rods 51 and 51 are rigidly joined to each other by the end plate 52, so that each of the two spherical joints (connecting portion 4) connected to the elevating members 5a and 5b is held horizontally. It is like that.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the air cylinders 6a and 6b are fixed to the outer surface sides of the side plates 7a and 7b of the supports 7 and 70. On the inner surface side, the side plates 7a and 7b are rigidly connected to each other via a beam 7d. It is joined. Of the three supports 7, 70, 7, the center support 70 (side plates 7 a, 7 b) is fixed to the moving body 8 at its upper end. On the other hand, the support bodies 7 and 7 on both sides are slidably supported on guide rails 80 and 80 provided on the upper surface of the movable body 8 by a top plate 7c rigidly joined to the upper ends of the side plates 7a and 7b. It can be moved by a feeding means that does not, and can be moved toward and away from the central support 70. As this feeding means, a known feeding means such as a linear actuator such as an air cylinder, a rotary actuator via a feed screw mechanism or a rack and pinion mechanism, or a linear motion cam can be used.

The moving body 8 is installed on a pair of guide beams 90, 90 extending in parallel from above the product suction stage 17 to above the transfer station 18, and at the end of the moving body 8, the guide beam 90, By rotating the feed screw shaft 91 screwed into the nut member 81 provided on the upper surface of the moving body 8 with a motor 92 connected to one end thereof, the wheel 92 is provided in rolling contact with the upper surface of 90. , And can be reciprocated along the guide beams 90, 90.
In the present embodiment, the wheels 82 are used as the traveling means of the moving body 8. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various forms can be used as long as they can travel, such as an LM guide.

  An empty tray supply device 180 that supplies empty trays to the transfer station 18 (181) supports a supply conveyor (roller conveyor) using a drive roll and a plurality of trays 20 in a stacked state above the supply conveyor (roller conveyor). A separation supply mechanism for dropping only the lower tray 20 onto the supply conveyor is provided. Further, the tray conveyors 181 and 182 installed in the transfer station 18 are roller conveyors using drive rolls for moving the tray loaded with products downstream.

  The conveyor 181 includes a height adjustment mechanism (lifting means) (not shown), and adjusts the tray position (height) on which the product parts 11 are stacked according to the number of stacked sheets, so The vertical distance is always kept constant. Furthermore, the transport conveyor 181 is configured to be tiltable so as to have a downward slope from the horizontal posture toward the transport direction. Although not shown, a storage rack capable of storing the tray 20 storing the product portions 11 in a plurality of stages of roller conveyors is installed on the downstream side of the transport conveyor 182. The transport conveyor 182 is configured as a stacker that can be moved up and down in accordance with the roller conveyors of each stage, and includes a tray pushing mechanism for pushing the tray 20 to the positioned roller conveyor.

  Next, the operation based on the above embodiment will be described.

  In parallel with the die-cut film substrate 10 being placed on the underlay sheet 14 and transported to the product suction stage 17, the moving body 8 of the transfer device 1 is moved from the transfer station 18 to the product suction stage 17. It has returned to above. As shown in FIG. 2, three product portions 11 are disposed adjacent to the product suction stage 17 between the remaining film portions 12. In accordance with this, the support bodies 7 on both sides of the transfer device 1 have moved closer to the center support body 70, and from this state, as shown by arrows z and z in FIG. The output rods 61a and 61b of the cylinders 6a and 6b protrude at the same time to lower the elevating frame 3 in a horizontal posture, and the product portion 11 is sucked by each suction pad 2.

  Next, as shown by arrows za and zb in FIG. 5, one of the air cylinders 6 a is operated at a relatively high speed in advance of the other air cylinder 6 b, so that the elevating member 5 a side of the elevating frame 3 is first. The product portions 11 that are lifted up and sucked by the suction pads 2 arranged on the same plane are lifted so as to be turned from the one lifting member a side while being kept flat. By such a turning operation, lifting force via the suction pad 2 is intensively applied to one edge of the product portion 11 when the lifting frame 3 starts to rise, and the edge from the underlaying sheet 14 is applied to the edge. Peeling is started with less force, and once peeling starts, separation of the entire product portion 11 from the underlay sheet 14 is promoted by the inflow of air into the gap formed between the underlay sheet 14. It will be.

  Further, in the transfer device 1 of the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the connecting portions 4 a and 4 b by spherical joints are arranged so as to be offset upward by a height h with respect to the placement surface on the underlay sheet 14. Therefore, when the entire lifting frame 3 is slightly tilted by the lifting operations za and zb with the speed difference and time difference of the lifting members 4a and 5b on each side, On the mounting surface, a minute displacement as indicated by an arrow β is generated, and the slight shifting operation promotes separation from the underlay sheet 14 and separation from the film remainder 12.

  The above-described operation with the speed difference and time difference between the air cylinders 6a and 6b can be set by adjusting the flow rate of the compressed air using a flow rate control valve (speed control valve). For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the air cylinders 6a and 6b are raised, the opening degree of the speed control valves 63a and 63b on the exhaust side is made different, and the opening degree of the one speed control valve 63a is relatively large. And by making the opening degree of the other speed control valve 63b relatively small, one air cylinder 6a can be raised faster than the other air cylinder 6b.

  Naturally, the compressed air of the same circuit can be used for each air cylinder 6a, 6b, and the solenoid valve of each air cylinder 6a, 6b is operated at the same timing. Since the air cylinders 6a and 6b differ only in the ascending speed and the stroke is constant, the elevating frame 3 is again in the horizontal posture after the ascending operation is completed. Each speed control valve 62a, 62b, 63a, 63b is equipped with a check valve, and when the air cylinders 6a, 6b are lowered, the opening degree of the speed control valves 62a, 62b is set at the same speed and at the same timing. Can be lowered.

  Further, by setting the opening degree of the speed control valves 63a and 63b and / or the speed control valves 62a and 62b, or by increasing the cracking pressure of the check valve of the speed control valve 62b, or by using the check valve as an electromagnetic opening / closing valve. In addition, the start when the other air cylinder 6b is raised can be delayed. Although the time difference can be set according to the opening / closing timing of the solenoid valve, it is cheaper to set the speed difference or the time difference only by setting the speed control valves 63a and 63b as in the embodiment by using existing components. The device can be configured.

  As shown in FIG. 6, each product portion 11 sucked by each suction pad 2 and lifted together with each lifting frame 3 from the placement surface (14) is fed with a feed screw mechanism (81, 91, 92). Is transferred in the horizontal y direction together with the moving body 8 and transferred to the transfer station 18. In this transport process, as shown in FIG. 7, the support bodies 7 on both sides are moved from the center support body 70 along the guide rails 80, 80 so as to correspond to the arrangement pitch of the trays 20 in the transfer station 18. Since it moves in the away x direction, when it stops at the transfer station 18, it is possible to immediately lower the elevating frame 3 and transfer the three product parts 11 to the tray 20.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, Based on the technical idea of this invention, various deformation | transformation and a change are further possible.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9A, the case where two connecting portions 4a and 4b are installed on both sides of the product portion 11 has been described. As shown in FIG. 9 (b), connecting portions 4a 'and 4b' may be installed in the diagonal 2c direction of the product portion 11, and in this case, they are attracted to the corner located on one side of the diagonal 2c direction. It is possible to lift the product part 11 by lifting the product part 11 by concentrating the force. Since the arrangement of the suction pads 2 is fixed by the elevating frame 3, one connecting portion 4a 'may be provided at only one place. Even in such an arrangement of the asymmetrical connecting portions 4a ′ and 4b ′, it is only necessary to consider the mutual positional relationship between the spherical joints, and the mounting portion such as the air cylinder can be moved in the transport direction regardless of the rotational axis direction. And can be installed according to the equipment layout based on the transfer direction. Further, the suction pads may be arranged other than the lattice shape.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the air cylinder is used as the driving means for moving the elevating member 5 up and down has been described. However, other fluid pressure cylinders such as a hydraulic cylinder and an air hydro cylinder can be used. The type, arrangement, and the like can be other configurations that can set a speed difference or a time difference. Further, as the driving means, an electric actuator is used instead of the fluid pressure cylinder, and the transfer device is configured by an electric control means using a pulse control or a delay circuit, or by a mechanical control means such as a cam mechanism. A transfer device can also be configured.

  Furthermore, in the said embodiment, although the case where the transfer apparatus which concerns on this invention was implemented in the process line which demolds the product part of a thin film solar cell from a film substrate was described, the transfer apparatus which concerns on this invention has multiple It can be applied to various transfer devices that pick up and lift a film substrate, including a separation supply device that picks up and lifts only the uppermost film substrate from a loaded film substrate, regardless of whether the film substrate is unloaded or supplied. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transfer apparatus 2 Suction pad 3 Lifting frame 4, 4a, 4b Connection part (spherical joint)
5, 5a, 5b Lifting member 6, 6a, 6b Air cylinder 7, 70 Support body 8 Moving body 9 Feed mechanism 10 Film substrate 11 Product part (film substrate)
12 Remaining film part 13 Die cutting part 14 Underlay sheet (mounting surface)
17 Product adsorption stage 18 Transfer station 20 Tray 61, 61a, 61b Output rod 62a, 62b, 63a, 63b Speed control valve

Claims (5)

A transfer device for sucking and lifting a film substrate placed flat on a mounting surface, a plurality of suction pads arranged on the same virtual plane, a common lifting frame for supporting them, and the lifting frame In a thing provided with the raising / lowering means to go up and down,
The elevating means is connected to the elevating frame in a state in which the two elevating parts separated in the direction in which the mounting surface spreads are allowed to rotate around an axis parallel to and parallel to the mounting surface. A film substrate transfer apparatus, comprising: two lift members, and a control means and a drive means for raising them with a relative speed difference and / or time difference.   The driving means is two fluid pressure cylinders disposed in the respective connecting portions, and the two lifting members are output rods of the two fluid pressure cylinders or are fixed to the output rods. 2. The film substrate transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the control means includes a flow rate control valve connected to the two fluid pressure cylinders.   The apparatus for transferring a film substrate according to claim 1, wherein each of the connecting portions includes a spherical joint.   The said connection part is arrange | positioned upwards with respect to the said virtual plane in which these several suction pads were arranged, The transfer of the film substrate as described in any one of Claims 1-3 characterized by the above-mentioned. apparatus. A plurality of the lifting frames and the lifting means are provided corresponding to the plurality of film substrates placed flat adjacent to the mounting surface, and a plurality of supports that respectively support the lifting means; A moving body common to the supporting body, means for reciprocating the moving body between the transfer positions of the film substrates, and means for contacting and separating the plurality of supporting bodies in the adjacent direction of the film substrate; The film substrate transfer device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

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