JP2665498B2 - Pressurized container flange mounting mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a flange mounting mechanism for a pressurized container.

(Prior Art) An example of this type of pressurized container is an oxidative pressurized furnace used for semiconductor production.

In this type of pressurized container, it is preferable that the number of open / close sections is as small as possible due to the problem of its function. Thus, a mechanism that allows the flange to be opened and closed is employed.

As shown in FIG. 7, this oxidation pressurizing furnace has a heater 2, a process tube 3 and the like arranged in a tank 1, and a boat 4 on which semiconductor wafers are mounted can be taken in and out from one end of the tank. After the transfer of (4), the cap 5 can be attached. On the other hand, the other end of the process tube 3 is connected to an injector 6 for introducing a process gas.

The structure of the tank 1 on the injector 6 side is the sixth
The results are as shown in FIGS.

That is, a tank-side flange 1a is formed on the injector 6 side of the tank 1, and a first flange 10 having substantially the same diameter as the bolt 11 and the nut 12 is formed on the flange 1a.
Has been fixed by. The bolts 11 are arranged at equal intervals along the circumferential direction of the flange 10. A hole 10a is formed at the center of the first flange 10 so that maintenance work can be performed through the hole while the first flange 10 is fixed.

A second flange 20 is provided to seal the hole 10a of the first flange 10. This second
The flange 20 is small enough to seal the hole 10a and has a smaller diameter than the first flange 10.
The second flange 20 is fixed by a nut 16 after being inserted into a plurality of stud bolts 15 erected around the hole 10a of the first flange 10.

An arm 22 is welded to the second flange 20, and the arm 22 is rotatably supported around a pivot shaft 24. As a result, the second flange 20 can be opened and closed.

Here, in order to open and close the second flange 20,
The second flange 20 needs to be detached from the stud bolt 15. For this reason, the rotation fulcrum shaft 24 is
Slidable in a direction away from the surface of the flange 10. In order to secure such a slide movement, a slide shaft 26 is fixed to one end of the rotation fulcrum shaft 24 so as to be orthogonal thereto, and this slide shaft 26 is, for example, welded to the outer peripheral surface of the tank 1. The bearing 28 is slidably supported by the bearing 28.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the oxidizing and pressurizing furnace as described above, a maintenance operation in a range of releasing the second flange 20 without removing the first flange 10 can be performed. But this second
There was a problem with mounting the flange 20.

First, the mounting of the second flange 20 to the first flange 10 is performed.
Since this was fixed to the outer peripheral surface by welding, this operation was extremely complicated. In other words, in order to perform the above welding operation, the second flange and its accessories having a considerable weight must be manually held and positioned at a predetermined position, and the welding operation must be performed at this determined position. In general, even if a plurality of personnel are required, it usually takes three days.

Further, when the second flange 20 is displaced before and after the second flange 20 is released after the one-end welding as described above, there is no means for adjusting the misalignment.
The second flange had to be manually moved within mechanical tolerances, and the adjustment was extremely complicated. In particular, when the bearing 28 is welded to the outer peripheral surface of the tank 1 as in the prior art, one of the mounting reference positions of the second flange 20 to the first flange 10 is the outer peripheral surface of the tank 1, There has been a problem that the displacement of the bolts and holes for fixing the second flange often occurs.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, to facilitate the mounting operation, and to greatly reduce the mounting position shift between the flanges so that the mounting at the time of resetting is also possible. An object of the present invention is to provide a pressurized container flange mounting mechanism which can be greatly simplified.

[Constitution of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a first flange, which is bolted to a container-side flange formed at one end of a pressurized container and has a hole formed in a center portion, A small-diameter second flange fixed by a nut to a stud bolt erected around the hole so as to seal the hole of the first flange; and an arm fixed to the second flange. A pressurizing container flange mounting mechanism having a rotating shaft rotatably supporting the arm, wherein a sliding guide member for slidingly guiding the rotating shaft in a direction away from the first flange is provided as a first member. And the second flange is detached from the stud bolt by the slide movement, and the second flange can be set to a position capable of opening and closing.

It is more preferable to add a second flange position adjusting mechanism. For example, when the sliding direction is defined as the Z direction, X, Y orthogonal to the Z direction are preferable.
It is desirable that the second flange can be finely adjusted in a certain allowable range in the direction, and that the second flange can be finely adjusted in the θ direction, which is a direction of rotation about the Z axis.

(Operation) In the present invention, a slide guide member for detaching the second flange from the stud bolt is attached to the first flange itself.

Here, the mounting position of the second flange is a problem due to the eccentricity with respect to the first flange, and when such eccentricity occurs, the stud bolt erected on the first flange and the bolt of the second flange. The holes do not match, and it becomes impossible to attach. In the related art, since the reference for positioning the second flange is the outer peripheral surface of the pressurized container, this kind of misalignment often occurs.

In the case of the present invention, since the slide guide member is provided on the first flange itself which needs to be aligned with the second flange, the mounting reference of the second flange is on the first flange. Therefore, since the positional accuracy is determined only by the processing accuracy of the first flange without accumulating other mechanical errors, the above-described positional deviation at the time of mounting and resetting can be reduced as much as possible.

In addition, since it is not necessary to weld to the surface of the pressurized container as in the related art, the mounting of the slide guide member becomes easy,
The burden on the operator is reduced, and the mounting work time can be significantly reduced.

Also, if a degree of freedom for adjusting the mounting position of the second flange is given, even if a positional deviation occurs, it can be easily corrected.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to an oxidation pressurizing furnace will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

The outline of the pressurized oxidation furnace is as shown in FIG. 7, and therefore, a description will be given below of a flange mounting mechanism which is a characteristic configuration thereof.

A large flange 30 (which is an example of a first flange) having the same diameter as the flange 1a of the tank 1 is disposed in close contact with the flange 1a.
The nut 32 is inserted, and a nut 34 is screwed into the threaded portion of the bolt 32 from the flange 1a side of the tank 1 to be fastened. A circular hole 36 is formed at the center of the large flange 30 so that a predetermined maintenance operation can be performed through the hole 36 without detaching from the large flange 30. Further, a plurality of stud bolts 38 are fixed around the hole 36, and a small flange (second
40) can be fixed.

The small flange 40 is formed in a size sufficient to seal the hole 36 of the large flange 30, and a hole 42 formed on the edge along the circumferential direction is inserted into the stud bolt 38,
It can be fixed by a nut 44.

Next, the opening and closing mechanism of the small flange 40, which is a characteristic configuration of the present embodiment, will be described. First, two special bolts are used for fixing the large flange 30. That is, these two special bolts are bolts 50, 50 which also serve as a slide guide in the Z direction of the small flange 40,
The part that goes out of the large flange 30 is the Z-direction slide shaft 50a,
The slide shafts 50a, 50a support linear bearings 52, 52, respectively.

On the other hand, in order to support the small flange 40 so that it can be opened and closed, an arm 60 is fixed to the small flange 40 by, for example, welding or the like. One end of this arm 60 is rotatable around a pivot 70. The rotating support shaft 70 is fixed to and supported by the two linear bearings 52, 52 at both ends.

Next, a mechanism for finely adjusting the position of the small flange 40 will be described. In this embodiment, the small flange 40 can be adjusted in the X, Y, and θ directions shown in FIG.

First, the X-direction adjusting mechanism 100 will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, four long holes 74 having a longitudinal axis in the X direction are formed in fixed pieces 72, 72 to which both ends of the rotary support 70 are fixed. Have been. The rotation support shaft 70 fixes the fixing piece 72 to a side surface of the linear bearing 52, 52 opposed to the linear bearing 52 by a screw 76. The position can be adjusted in the X direction within an allowable range of the elongated hole 74. .

Next, the Y-direction adjustment mechanism 110 will be described. The rotation member 80 is inserted into the rotation support shaft 70 so as to be movable in the axial direction, thereby enabling adjustment of the position of the small flange 40 in the Y direction. I have. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the rotation support shaft 70 has bolt portions 70a, 70a at both ends and a shaft portion 70b at an intermediate portion thereof, and the shaft portion 70b is a hole portion of the rotation member 80. Inserted into 82. Then, nuts 82 are screwed into the bolt portions 70a, 70a on both sides of the rotating member 80, and the upper and lower nuts 82 position the rotating member 80 up and down without play, and allow rotation. It has become. Therefore, by changing the position of the nut 82,
The position of the rotating member 80 in the Y direction, that is, the position of the small flange 40 in the Y direction is adjustable. Note that the lower nut 82 has a double nut structure because the weight of the small flange 40 and the like acts on the lower nut 82. Furthermore, in order to ensure smooth rotation of the rotating member 80, a hollow cylindrical member 84 with a flange made of, for example, engineering plastic is inserted into both sides of the hole 82 of the rotating member 80. And this hollow cylindrical member
Reference numeral 84 is arranged between the inner surface of the hole 82 of the rotating member and the shaft portion 70b so as to ensure smooth rotation.

Next, the θ-direction adjusting mechanism 120 will be described. The arm 60 supporting the small flange 40 has an arc-shaped long hole 62 centered on the center of the small flange 40. Two bolts 64 with seats are inserted into the elongated holes 62, and are screwed into screw holes (not shown) provided on the upper surface of the rotating member 80. Therefore, the arm 60 can be rotated in the θ direction within the allowable range of the elongated hole 62 with the seat bolt 64 loosened, and in the present embodiment, the arm 60 can be Position adjustment is possible.

It is sufficient to adjust the position in the θ direction only at the time of shipment of the product. Therefore, after adjusting as described above, the lock pins 66, 66 shown in FIG. What you do.

 Next, the operation will be described.

First, attachment of the large flange 30 and the small flange 40 will be described. The large flange 30 is fixed to the tank-side flange 1a with bolts and nuts in the same manner as in the prior art, but two of them are bolted with a slide shaft 50a.

Next, the attachment of the small flange 40 to the large flange 30 will be described.
60, rotating member 80, rotating support shaft 70 and linear bearings 52, 52
After the linear bearings 52,5
2 is inserted into the slide shafts 50a, 50a, and upper portions thereof are prevented from falling off. Then, the hole 42 of the small flange 40 and the large flange 30
The X, Y, and θ directions are adjusted by the X, Y, and θ adjustment mechanisms 10 so that the stud bolts 38 that are erected on the
Execute via 0,110,120. At this time, when positioning is performed in the θ direction, the lock pins 66, 66 are driven in to fix the position.

After the positioning as described above, the nut 44 is screwed into the stud bolt 38, and the small flange 40 is fixed. In this way, the fastening of the large flange 30 and the small flange 40 is completed, but in the case of this embodiment, welding or the like is not required unlike the conventional case, and the opening and closing mechanism of the small flange 40 is Since it is attached to itself, there is no need for a troublesome work of holding down and positioning the small flange 40 of a considerable weight by hand as in the related art, and performing welding while maintaining this state. Therefore, the work of mounting the flange is significantly reduced as compared with the related art. The work of the present embodiment could be completed in about three hours, compared to the case where the present inventors required about three days to attach, adjust, and confirm the flange of the conventional structure.

The large flange 30 and the small flange 40 described above are opened and closed when maintenance in the tank 1 is performed. Since the inside of the tank 1 is always set to be pressurized, it is necessary to completely seal the tank 1. As described above, the bolts are completely fastened using a large number of bolts.

Here, in the case of replacing the process tube 3 in the tank 1, the large flange 30 also needs to be detached, but in other cases, only the small flange 40 is released and the large flange 30 is released. The required maintenance work can be performed via the hole 36 formed in the hole.

Here, the releasing operation of the small flange 40 will be described. First, the nut 44 fastening the small flange 40 is detached from the stud bolt 38. Thereafter, the rotation support shaft 70 is slid along the X direction in a direction away from the surface of the large flange 30 via the linear bearings 52, 52. The movement of the stud bolt
Continue to the point where you leave from 38. Thus, when the small flange 40 is completely separated from the stud bolt 38, the small flange 40 can be released. That is, the small flange 40 is fixed to the turning member 80 via the arm 60, and since the turning member 80 is rotatable around the turning support shaft 70, the small flange 40 is rotated. By this rotation, the obstacle on the front side of the hole 36 of the large flange 30 can be completely removed. Therefore,
In this state, the required maintenance work in the tank 1 can be performed through the hole 36.

Then, after such maintenance work is completed, the small flange 40 is attached by performing the mounting operation of the small flange 40 according to a procedure reverse to the release operation described above.
Can be performed.

Here, since the small flange 40 can be opened and closed via an opening and closing mechanism fixed to the large flange 30, the small flange 40 is opened after the small flange 40 is released and when the small flange 40 is closed thereafter. The displacement between the large flanges 30 is reduced,
The troublesome position adjustment work at the time of resetting can be significantly reduced as compared with the related art.

Further, in the case of the present embodiment, even if the center of the small flange 40 does not coincide with the center of the large flange 30 and is eccentric due to a mechanical error, the X, Y
Since the position in the direction can be finely adjusted, the position can be adjusted in such a two-dimensional plane, so that both centers can be easily adjusted to the same position, and the stud bolt 38 and the small flange 40 can be adjusted. Positioning with the hole 42 can be easily performed.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention.

For example, the present invention attaches the opening / closing mechanism of the small flange 40 to the large flange 30 itself, thereby reducing the positional deviation with respect to the large flange that requires positioning with the small flange by eliminating the accumulation of mechanical errors. This is not necessarily required to include a position adjusting mechanism in the X, Y or θ directions as in the above embodiment.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the oxidation and pressure furnace used in semiconductor manufacturing, but can be applied to various pressure vessels.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the work of attaching the large and small flanges for sealing the pressurized container is easy, and the positional deviation between the two flanges is greatly reduced. As a result, installation at the time of resetting can be greatly simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 (A) and 1 (B) are a front view and a partially cutaway side view of a tank end face on an injector side when the present invention is applied to a pressurized oxidation furnace, and FIG. FIG. 3A is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view for explaining the relationship between the arm, the pivot, and the pivot member. FIG. 4 is a view B of FIG. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion C in FIG. 1 (A), FIG. 6 is a front view, a side view, and FIG. 7 for explaining a conventional flange mounting mechanism. FIG. 1 is an overall explanatory view of a pressure oxidation furnace. 1a Tank flange, 30 First flange, 38 Stud bolt, 40 Second flange, 50a Slide shaft, 52 Linear bearing, 60 Arm, 70 turns Rotating shaft, 80: rotating member, 100: X direction adjusting mechanism, 110: Y direction adjusting mechanism, 120: θ direction adjusting mechanism.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first flange bolted to a container-side flange formed at one end of a pressurized container and having a hole formed in a center portion, and a first flange is sealed so as to seal the hole. A small-diameter second flange fixed to a stud bolt erected around the hole by a nut, an arm fixed to the second flange, and a rotating shaft rotatably supporting the arm. In the flange mounting mechanism for a pressurized container having: a slide guide member that guides a slide movement of the rotation axis in a direction away from the first flange is disposed on the first flange, and the slide movement causes a second slide guide member to be provided. A flange mounting mechanism for a pressurized container, wherein the flange is detached from the stud bolt, and the second flange can be set at a position capable of opening and closing.