JP2842986B2 - Transfer device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of transporting members such as liquid crystal panels, semiconductors, and electronic components in a manufacturing process, which are susceptible to damage, damage, malfunction of a control system, and the like due to static electricity sparks. It concerns the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a transfer device used in a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal panel, a semiconductor, an electronic component, or the like has a work 53 such as a liquid crystal panel as shown in FIGS. The work holding members 51 are attached to and held by the work holding members 52.
Is transported by the work transport mechanism 54 to be transported to a predetermined position.

However, when the transfer of the work 53 charged by peeling charging, friction charging, induction charging, or the like is repeated by the above-described transfer device, the charge is accumulated and charged in the work holding member 51. When the charge amount of the work holding member 51 becomes larger than the charge amount of the charged work 53,
A spark (hereinafter, referred to as an electrostatic spark) generated by static electricity occurs between the work holding member 51 and the charged work 53.

[0004] Due to this electrostatic spark phenomenon, semiconductors and insulators of the work are destroyed, and there is a possibility that the quality of products and the yield may be reduced. In addition, noise due to electrostatic sparks may upset the control system for controlling the transport device, resulting in malfunction.

[0005] Therefore, as a transporting device for suppressing the generation of the above-mentioned electrostatic spark, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-19973 is disclosed.
No. 0 publication discloses that the work holding member is formed of a conductive member,
A grounded version of this conductive member is disclosed. According to this transfer device, the electric charge charged to the work holding member is removed by grounding the conductive member, and the generation of the electrostatic spark is suppressed.

[0006]

However, as shown in FIG. 3, the charged plate 55 is charged by the transfer device.
Is stored in the work carrier 56, between the tip of the grounded work holding member 51 formed of a conductive member and grounded and the charged plate 55 already stored in the work carrier 56 (A region in the figure). May generate static sparks. This is because when the work holding member 51 stores the next charged plate 55 on the charged plate 55 in the work carrier 56 that has already stored the charged plate 55, the work holding member 51 is vertically arranged with the work holding member 51. This is because the charged plates 55 constitute one capacitor.

That is, when the work holding member 51 is inserted into the work carrier 56, the capacitance C is large, and the work holding member 51 and the charged plates 55 are charged.
Is small, but when the work holding member 51 is pulled out of the work carrier 56, the capacitor capacitance C is small and the charge amount Q is constant.
(= Q / C) increases, and an electrostatic spark is generated between the work holding member 51 and the charged plate 55.

Therefore, when the work holding member 51 is not formed of a conductive member, the work holding member 51
When the work-holding member 51 is formed of a conductive material, the charge transfers from the charged work 53 to the work-holding member 51, and the electrostatic spark is generated. Occurs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transfer apparatus in which electrostatic spark is not generated between a work and a work transfer member, or is hardly generated. is there.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transporting apparatus for holding a transported body, wherein a part or all of the transported body is formed of a conductor or a conductor coated with an insulator, and the conductor is grounded. Provided on the body holding part and the ground wire connected to the conductor, and does not hold the transferred object by the transferred object holding part.
Sometimes the conductor is turned on to ground, while holding the transferred object
Release the conductor ground when holding the transferred object by the part
It is characterized in that it comprises a switching means for Subeku OFF.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the transporting apparatus of the first aspect, a resistance having an arbitrary resistance value is provided on a ground wire between the conductor and the switching means. I have.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the transported object holding unit and the transported object transporting unit are connected via the insulator, the electric charge from the transported object transporting unit is held by the transported object holding unit. Since the transfer to the transfer unit is not performed, the transferred object holding unit and the transferred object transfer unit are insulated. Thereby, when the switching unit does not hold the transported object by the transported object holding unit, it is turned on, grounds the conductor, and is turned off when the transported object holding unit holds the transported object, By releasing the grounding state of the conductor, when the transported object is not held in the transported object holding portion, the charges charged in the transported object holding portion can be removed without transferring to the transported object transporting portion, When the transported object is held by the transported object holding portion, the transported object holding portion can be completely insulated.

Therefore, when the transported object is not held, the electric potential can be set to 0 by removing the electric charge charged in the transported object holding portion by grounding, and thereby, when the transported object is held. In addition, since the charge from the transported object holding unit to the transported object is not transferred, the charge from the transported object holding unit to the transported object can be eliminated.

When the transported object is held, the charge is transferred from the charged transported object to the transported object holding portion by insulating the transported object holding portion, and the transported object holding portion and the transported object are held. Can be substantially the same potential, whereby, for example, after the transported object is stored in the storage unit or the like, when the transported object holding unit is pulled out of the storage unit, the transported object holding unit and the transported object The occurrence of an electrostatic spark between the two can be suppressed.

Therefore, when the switching means is switched at the above-mentioned timing and the transport of the transported object is repeated, the transported object holding portion and the transported object are hardly charged. Almost no electrostatic spark is generated between the section and the transported object. As a result, it is possible to reduce the damage to the transported object due to the electrostatic spark, the occurrence of troubles in the transport device itself, and the like.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the current flowing through the switching means is reduced by providing a resistor having an arbitrary resistance value on the ground line between the conductor and the switching means. Can be. With this configuration, when the conductor is grounded, the current due to the electric charge charged in the transported object holding portion can be reduced and can flow to the switching device, so that the occurrence of spark in the switching device due to the large current can be eliminated. . Further, this makes it possible to prevent the switching means from being worn by sparks and noise.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b), the transfer device according to the present embodiment is provided on a work holding member 1 having a substantially U-shape in plan view and provided on the surface of the work holding member 1, and serves as a transferred object. And a work transfer mechanism 4 connected to the work holding member 1 and driving the work holding member 1 to transfer and drive the work 3. And a conveyed object transport section comprising:

The work holding member 1 and the work transfer mechanism 4
An insulating portion 5 (a hatched portion in the figure) made of an insulator is provided between the two, and thereby insulates the work holding member 1 from the work transfer mechanism 4.
That is, the charge from the transfer device main body is not transferred to the work holding member 1, so that the charge is not transferred to the work 3 held by the work holding member 1 via the work holding member 1. Has become.

The work holding member 1 is partially or entirely formed of a conductor, and the conductor 1a is provided with a switch 6 as a switching means for turning ON / OFF at an arbitrary timing. The ground line 7 is connected. Therefore, when the switch 6 is turned on, the conductor 1a is grounded, and when the switch 6 is turned off,
The ground state of the conductor portion 1a is released. That is, the switch 6
Is turned off, the work holding member 1 can be completely insulated.

A resistor 8 having an arbitrary resistance value (several kΩ to several GΩ) is provided between the conductor portion 1a and the switch 6.
Are connected to adjust the current flowing through the switch 6. Thus, when the switch 6 is turned on, the voltage applied to the switch 6 can be reduced, so that spark at the switch 6 can be prevented.

In the above configuration, the work holding member 1
Is connected to the work transport mechanism 4 via the insulating section 5, and as described above, when the work 3 is not held by the work holding member 1, the switch 6 is turned on to ground the conductor section 1a. Then, the electric charge charged on the conductor portion 1a can be removed without being transferred to the work transport mechanism 4. When the work 3 is held by the work holding member 1, the switch 6 is turned off and the grounding state of the conductor 1a is released, whereby the work holding member 1 can be completely insulated.

Thus, when the work 3 is not held and transported, the potential charged to the work holding member 1 can be reduced to zero by removing the electric charge by grounding. And work holding member 1
The transfer of the charge from the workpiece 3 to the workpiece 3 can be eliminated, and the workpiece 3 can be transported without being charged.

When the work 3 is held and transported, the work holding member 1 is completely insulated,
The electric charge is transferred from the charged work 3 to the work holding member 1, and the work holding member 1 and the work 3 can be set to substantially the same potential. For example, after the charged work 3 is stored in a work carrier (not shown). In addition, when the work holding member 1 is pulled out from the work carrier, it is possible to suppress occurrence of electrostatic spark between the work holding member 1 and the work 3.

Therefore, even if the switch 6 is switched at the above timing and the transfer of the work 3 is repeated, almost no electrostatic spark is generated between the work holding member 1 and the work 3, so that the work 3 is damaged by the electrostatic spark. And the occurrence of troubles and the like of the transfer device itself can be reduced.

As a result, it is possible to improve the quality and yield of a product manufactured by the work 3 and to reduce malfunction of the control system in the manufacturing process.

In the conventional transfer device, for example, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a work 53 (FIG. 2) in a work carrier 56 has a charge amount of about 1 kV and generates an electrostatic spark. In the present invention, static spark does not occur until the charge amount of the work 3 in the work carrier becomes 7 to 10 kV.

Therefore, the present invention can be suitably used particularly in a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal panel, a semiconductor, an electronic component, or the like, which is easily affected by electrostatic breakdown due to electrostatic charging, malfunction of a control system, and the like.

In this embodiment, the work holding member 1 is partially or entirely formed of a conductor. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the work holding member 1 may be formed of a conductor coated with an insulating film. May be.

Further, in the present embodiment, the switching timing of the switch 6 is set so that the switch is turned ON when the work holding member 1 does not hold the work 3.
Is turned off when the work 3 is held, but even if the switch 6 is not switched at this timing, the switch 6 is turned on and off repeatedly to charge and discharge the work holding member 1. Can be repeated. Therefore, the above switch 6
Even if the timing of switching is shifted, the occurrence of electrostatic spark between the work holding member 1 and the work 3 can be reduced.

[0030]

As described above, the transfer apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention holds the object to be transferred, and is formed partially or entirely of a conductor or a conductor coated with an insulator, and the conductor is grounded. The transferred object holding unit, the transferred object holding unit, which is connected to the transferred object holding unit via an insulator, drives the transferred object holding unit and transfers the transferred object, and the conductor provided connected to a ground line, the by conveyance object holder
Turn ON to ground the conductor when the carrier is not held
On the other hand, when the transferred object is held by the transferred object
Is a configuration provided with switching means for turning off the conductor to cancel the grounding .

Thus, the electrostatic spark between the transported object holding portion and the transported object can be almost eliminated, so that damage to the transported object due to the electrostatic spark and troubles of the transport device itself can be reduced. It has the effect of being able to do so.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention,
As described above, in the ground wire between the conductor and the switching means,
In this configuration, a resistor having an arbitrary resistance value is provided.

Thus, when the conductor is grounded, it is possible to reduce the current caused by the electric charges charged in the transferred object holding portion and to flow the current to the switching means, thereby eliminating the occurrence of spark in the switching means due to the large current. It has the effect of being able to do so.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 1 (b) is a side view.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional transport device, wherein FIG. 2 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 2 (b) is a side view.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a work is transferred to a work carrier by the transfer device shown in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 work holding member (conveyed object holding unit) 2 work suction member (conveyed object holding unit) 3 work (conveyed object) 4 work conveying mechanism (conveyed object conveying unit) 5 insulating unit (insulating material) 6 switch ( Switching means) 7 Ground wire 8 Resistance

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B65G 49/07 B65G 43/00 H01L 21/68 H05K 13/02

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A carrier holding part, and a part or the whole is formed of a conductor or a conductor coated with an insulator, and the conductor is grounded, and the carrier holding part is insulated from the carrier holding part. is connected through the body, and the conveyance object transport unit that transports the object to be transferred by driving the conveyance object holding portion, provided on the ground line connected to the conductor, the holding conveyance object
When the transported object is not held by the
ON while holding the transferred object by the transferred object holding unit
And a switching means for turning off the conductor to cancel grounding . 2. The transporting device according to claim 1, wherein a resistance having an arbitrary resistance value is provided on a ground wire between the conductor and the switching means.