JP5979456B2 - Glass plate conveying apparatus and conveying method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement in conveyance technology for positioning a glass plate on a conveyance path prior to end face processing of the glass plate.

  As is well known, various glass plates such as a liquid crystal display and a glass substrate for a flat panel display (FPD) such as an organic EL display are placed on a plurality of conveyance belts arranged in parallel at intervals. , Sometimes transported at high speed (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  And on the conveyance path, end face processing such as grinding is performed on both sides in the width direction of the glass plate orthogonal to the conveyance direction. In this case, in order to ensure the processing accuracy, it is necessary to accurately position the glass plate on the transport belt prior to the end surface processing. During this positioning, the glass plate is usually moved on the transport belt in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction to adjust the position and orientation of the glass plate with respect to the transport belt.

JP 2007-51029 A JP 2006-247768 A

  By the way, in recent years, the thinning of the glass plate has been promoted, and with this, the actual situation is that the glass plate is easily deformed.

  However, as shown in FIG. 11, when the thinned glass plate G is supported on the plurality of transport belts 1, a portion of the glass plate G that is not supported by the transport belt 1 is bent downward. May end up. And when it is going to position a glass plate on a conveyance belt in this state, the problem that the bending of a glass plate will become a big resistance with respect to the width direction movement of a glass plate, and positioning of a glass plate cannot be performed smoothly. Occurs.

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to perform smooth positioning on a plurality of conveying belts even when a glass plate is thinned.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a glass plate that is transported in a state in which the glass plate is placed on a plurality of transport belts arranged in parallel and is positioned by positioning means disposed on the transport path. In the glass plate conveying apparatus that positions the glass plate by moving it in the width direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, at the time of positioning, a part of the glass plate supported by the conveying belt is supplementarily supported by an elastic body, and the glass plate It is characterized by having an auxiliary support part that reduces the movement resistance in the width direction.

  According to such a configuration, the movement resistance in the width direction of the glass plate is reduced by the auxiliary support by the elastic body of the auxiliary support portion. For this reason, even if it is a case where a glass plate is thinned, a glass plate can be smoothly moved to the width direction by a positioning means, and it becomes possible to perform a positioning operation | work easily.

  Said structure WHEREIN: The structure which has a brush-like part which consists of a some linear member as said elastic body, and supports the glass plate using the elasticity of the said brush-like part may be sufficient as the said auxiliary | assistant support part. .

  If it does in this way, it will become possible to reduce the movement resistance of the width direction of the glass plate at the time of positioning with a simple structure.

  Said structure WHEREIN: It is preferable that the said brush-like part has the rotating shaft of the said width direction, and is comprised so that rotation is possible with conveyance of a glass plate.

  In this way, the support surface that supports the glass plate in an auxiliary manner is sequentially updated by the rotation of the brush-like portion, so that particles such as glass powder adhere to the glass plate or scratches caused by the particles occur. Can be prevented.

  Said structure WHEREIN: It is preferable that the lower part of the said brush-like part is wash | cleaned automatically.

  In this way, since the entire circumference of the brush-like part is automatically washed with the rotation of the brush-like part, it is possible to more reliably prevent adhesion of particles to the glass plate.

  Here, as a method of automatically cleaning the lower part of the brush-like part, for example, a method of immersing the lower part of the brush-like part in the cleaning liquid tank in which the cleaning liquid is stored may be used. Depending on the circulation mode, particles removed by cleaning may accumulate on the bottom of the tank, and the cleaning power may be reduced. For this reason, as a method for automatically cleaning the lower part of the brush-like part, for example, it is more preferable to adopt a configuration in which the cleaning liquid is directly jetted from the cleaning liquid jetting part such as a nozzle to the lower part of the brush-like part. In this way, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the particles removed by the cleaning liquid are mixed into the cleaning liquid used for cleaning, so that the cleaning power can be increased.

  Said structure WHEREIN: It is preferable that the said auxiliary | assistant support part is provided in the said width direction both sides of the said conveyance belt.

  In this way, the downward bending of the glass plate can be more reliably suppressed, and positioning can be performed more smoothly.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a glass plate that is transported in a state in which the glass plate is placed on a plurality of transport belts arranged in parallel and is positioned by positioning means disposed on the transport path. In the glass plate transport method for positioning by moving in the width direction orthogonal to the transport direction, at the time of positioning, a part of the glass plate supported by the transport belt is supplementarily supported by an elastic body, and the glass plate It is characterized by reducing the movement resistance in the width direction.

  According to such a method, it is possible to receive the same operational effects as the corresponding configuration already described.

  As described above, according to the present invention, at the time of positioning, a part of the glass plate supported by the conveyor belt is supplementarily supported by the elastic body, so that the movement resistance in the width direction of the glass plate is reduced. Even if the glass plate is thinned, it can be positioned smoothly on the conveyor belt.

It is a top view which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the width direction which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the conveyance direction which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the positioning area | region and processing area | region of the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a top view which shows the positioning area | region and processing area | region of the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a top view which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the conveyance direction which shows the rotating brush of the conveying apparatus of the glass plate which concerns on 4th Embodiment. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the conveyance direction which shows the modification of the washing | cleaning method of the rotating brush shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the problem of a prior art.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a glass plate conveying apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In this conveying device, a plurality of conveying belts 1 parallel to the conveying direction (in the direction of arrow A in the figure. The arrow A in the other drawings also indicates the conveying direction) are arranged in a width direction orthogonal to the conveying direction ( In the following, it is simply referred to as the width direction).

  The conveyor belt 1 is composed of an endless belt, and is driven synchronously by, for example, sharing a servo motor and a rotating shaft. The width and pitch of the conveyor belt 1 can be changed as appropriate according to the bending of the glass plate G.

  Here, the plate | board thickness of the glass plate G conveyed is 0.3-0.7 mm, for example, The magnitude | size shall be 1500 mm or more, for example for one side.

  On the conveyance path of the conveyance belt 1, a positioning region Z <b> 1 for positioning the glass plate G placed on the conveyance belt 1 is provided. In the positioning area Z1, the pressure rollers 2 functioning as positioning means are disposed on both sides of the conveyance path of the glass sheet G, respectively. Each pressing roller 2 can be moved back and forth in the direction of the arrow B (width direction) in the figure, and comes into contact with both sides facing the width direction of the glass plate G being conveyed. Perform positioning.

  The positioning region Z1 is further provided with an auxiliary support portion 3 that supports the glass plate G supported by the conveyor belt 1 in an auxiliary manner. In the illustrated example, a plurality of auxiliary support portions 3 are arranged between adjacent conveyance belts 1 and between the conveyance belt 1 and the pressure roller 2 at both ends in the width direction.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the auxiliary support portion 3 includes a base member 4 made of metal or the like, and a support block 5 made of resin or the like integrated with the base portion 4. The support surface 6 formed on the upper surface of the support block 5 has a liquid ejection hole 7 through which liquid (for example, water) is ejected. On the support surface 6, a liquid layer 8 is formed by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejection holes 7, and a part of the glass plate G is floated and supported by the liquid layer 8. Here, the liquid layer 8 is sequentially updated to a new liquid by supplying the liquid from the liquid ejection hole 7. In the figure, 9 is a belt guide and 10 is a belt frame.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the support surface 6 includes a first taper surface 6a located upstream in the transport direction, a second taper surface 6b located downstream in the transport direction, a first taper surface 6a and a second taper surface. It consists of the horizontal surface 6c located between the taper surfaces 6b. The first tapered surface 6 a is provided to prevent the glass plate G from coming into direct contact with the support surface 6 when the glass plate G is largely bent. The support surface 6 may be configured by the first tapered surface 6a and the horizontal surface 6c by omitting the second tapered surface 6b, or may be configured by only the horizontal surface 6c by omitting these tapered surfaces 6a and 6b. May be. The horizontal surface 6 c of the support surface 6 is preferably disposed slightly lower than the upper surface of the transport belt 1.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a pair of auxiliary belts 11 that sandwich and convey the glass plate G between the conveying belt 1 and the processing region Z2 adjacent to the downstream side of the positioning region Z1 are provided. They are arranged in parallel. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, on both sides of the conveyance path of the glass plate G where the conveyance belt 1 and the auxiliary belt 11 overlap, on both sides of the glass plate G sandwiched between the conveyance belt 1 and the auxiliary belt 11. On the other hand, a grinding tool 12 made of a rotating grindstone or the like for performing grinding or corner cutting is provided.

  Next, the operation of the glass plate conveying apparatus having the above configuration will be described.

  First, as shown in FIG. 1, the glass plate G is placed on the transport belt 1 in a horizontal posture. And the glass plate G is conveyed by the conveyance speed of 60-180 m / min in the arrow A direction with the drive of the conveyance belt 1, for example. When the glass plate G is transported to the positioning region Z1 on the transport path, the glass plate G is temporarily stopped or sufficiently decelerated (for example, about 1/10 of the transport speed), and both sides of the glass plate G in the width direction. The pressing roller 2 provided on the side abuts on both sides of the glass plate G to position the glass plate G. During this positioning, the glass plate G is supplementarily supported by the auxiliary support portion 3.

  Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a part of the glass plate G is levitated and supported by the liquid layer 8 formed on the support surface 6 of the auxiliary support portion 3. Thereby, the bending of the glass plate G generated in a region not supported by the conveyance belt 1 such as between adjacent conveyance belts 1 is restricted, and the movement resistance (friction resistance) in the width direction of the glass plate G can be reduced. it can. Therefore, the glass plate G can be smoothly positioned by the pressing roller 2. In addition, the protective effect of the liquid layer 8 can effectively suppress the situation in which the glass plate G is in direct contact with the support surface 6 and scratches are generated.

  Then, after the positioning of the glass plate G is completed in this way, the supply of the liquid supplied from the auxiliary support portion 3 is stopped or reduced, and the glass plate G is conveyed to the downstream processing region Z2. That is, by returning the glass plate G to a state in which it is difficult to move on the transport belt 1, the glass plate G can be accelerated and decelerated in a short time, and the overall transport speed is increased.

  The glass plate G transported to the processing region Z2 is sandwiched between the transport belt 1 and the auxiliary belt 11 and subjected to end face processing by the grinding tool 12.

  In this embodiment, the glass plate G is sandwiched between the conveyor belt 1 and the auxiliary belt 11 so as to maintain the position of the positioned glass plate G. However, the auxiliary belt 11 is omitted and the processing is performed. The glass plate G may be sucked and held on the transport belt 1 in the region Z2.

  Moreover, although the case where the glass plate G was supported auxiliary | assistantly using the liquid layer 8 was demonstrated, you may make it support the liquid by spraying directly on the glass plate G, without making it a layer form. In this case, gas (for example, air) may be ejected instead of the liquid.

Second Embodiment
FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a glass sheet transport device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The conveyance device according to the second embodiment is different from the conveyance device according to the first embodiment in that the auxiliary support portion 3 is provided only between the conveyance belt 1 located at both ends in the width direction and the pressing roller 2. It is at the point where it was placed. That is, when the glass plate G is relatively small (for example, when the dimension of one side is 1500 mm or less), the bending of the glass plate G in the non-existing region of the conveyance belt 1 is small, so the number of auxiliary support portions 3 to be arranged is It can be reduced as appropriate. Similarly, when the thickness of the glass plate G is relatively thick (for example, when the thickness is 0.5 mm or more), the bending of the glass plate G is reduced, so the number of auxiliary support portions 3 to be disposed. Can be reduced. In other words, the arrangement mode of the auxiliary support portion 3 can be appropriately changed according to the size and thickness of the glass plate G.

<Third Embodiment>
FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a glass sheet transport device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. The conveyance device according to the third embodiment is different from the conveyance devices according to the first and second embodiments in that the positioning of the glass plate G is performed while conveying.

  Specifically, a plurality of pressing rollers 2 urged toward the center in the width direction by an elastic body 13 such as a leaf spring are arranged along one side of the conveyance path corresponding to the positioning region Z1. ing. A reference belt 14 that is long in the transport direction is disposed on the other side of the transport path side corresponding to the positioning region Z1 so as to face the pressing roller 2. The reference belt 14 is composed of an endless belt so as not to hinder the conveyance of the glass plate G, and is driven and rotated at the same speed as the conveyance speed of the glass plate G or in accordance with the movement of the glass plate G. To follow and rotate.

  In the positioning area Z1, the glass plate G is continuously conveyed at a predetermined conveyance speed (for example, 4 to 25 m / min) without being decelerated, and the pressure roller 2 sequentially presses the glass plate G toward the reference belt 14 side. And positioning.

  In this embodiment, a plurality of rows (two rows in the drawing) of auxiliary support portions 3 are arranged between adjacent conveyance belts 1. In addition, when the glass plate G is continuously transported at a predetermined transport speed without decelerating in the positioning region Z1, the supply amount of the liquid supplied from the auxiliary support unit 3 may be constant after the positioning is completed. . This is because the conveyance of the glass plate G is performed at a relatively low speed without acceleration / deceleration, and the risk that the glass plate G is displaced on the conveyance belt 1 after passing through the positioning region Z1 is small. In this case, the facility for switching the liquid supply amount can be simplified.

<Fourth embodiment>
FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a glass sheet transport device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The conveying device according to the fourth embodiment is different from the conveying devices according to the first to third embodiments in that the auxiliary support portion is constituted by a rotating brush 16 including a plurality of linear members 15 as elastic bodies. There is.

  Specifically, each rotary brush 16 is pivotally supported by a rotation shaft 17 orthogonal to the conveyance direction, and is driven to rotate as the glass plate G is conveyed. These rotating brushes 16 support the glass plate G supported by the conveyor belt 1 by using the elasticity of the linear member 15. In addition, it is preferable to arrange | position the rotary brush 16 in the height from which the upper end becomes substantially the same horizontal surface as the upper surface of the conveyance belt 1. FIG.

  The linear member 15 has such elasticity that the hair tips are bent by the weight of the glass plate G when the glass plate G is auxiliary supported, and is made of, for example, resin (for example, nylon resin) Those having a small diameter (for example, 30 μm or less, preferably 20 μm or less) are used.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the lower part of each rotary brush 16 is immersed in the cleaning liquid 18, and particles and the like adhering to the linear member 15 are cleaned by the cleaning liquid 18 as the rotary brush 16 rotates. It has come to be. As a result, it is possible to prevent the glass plate G that is supplementarily supported by the rotating brush 16 from being stained or scratched due to particles.

  Here, instead of immersing the rotary brush 16 in the cleaning liquid, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, one or more cleaning liquid spray nozzles 19 (or pipes are opened in the lower portion of the rotary brush 16. Alternatively, the cleaning liquid 18 may be directly sprayed from the small holes). In this way, the clean cleaning liquid 18 can be continuously supplied simply from the cleaning liquid spray nozzle 19, so that particles can be efficiently removed.

  In this embodiment, the case where the auxiliary support portion is configured by a rotating brush has been described. However, a planar brush-like member (for example, artificial turf or the like) that does not have a rotating configuration may be used. In addition to the brush-like member, any low friction material having a frictional resistance smaller than that of the conveyor belt 1 can be applied as an auxiliary support portion.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveyor belt 2 Press roller 3 Auxiliary support part 6 Support surface 6a 1st taper surface 6b 2nd taper surface 6c Horizontal surface 7 Liquid ejection hole 8 Liquid layer 11 Auxiliary belt 12 Grinding tool 13 Elastic body 14 Reference belt 15 Linear member 16 Rotation Brush 18 Cleaning liquid

Claims (4)

The glass plate is transported in a state where it is placed on a plurality of transport belts arranged in parallel, and the glass plate is moved in the width direction perpendicular to the transport direction and positioned by positioning means arranged on the transport path. In the glass plate transfer device,
At the time of positioning, a part of the glass plate supported by the conveyor belt is supplementarily supported by an elastic body, and includes an auxiliary support portion that reduces the movement resistance in the width direction of the glass plate ,
The auxiliary support part has a brush-like part composed of a plurality of linear members,
The brush-like portion has a rotation axis in the width direction and can be rotated along with the conveyance of the glass plate,
A glass plate conveying apparatus that supports the glass plate by utilizing the elasticity of the brush-like portion . The glass plate conveying apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a lower portion of the brush-like portion is automatically cleaned. The said auxiliary | assistant support part is provided in the said width direction both sides of the said conveyance belt, The conveying apparatus of the glass plate of Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. The glass plate is transported in a state where it is placed on a plurality of transport belts arranged in parallel, and the glass plate is moved in the width direction perpendicular to the transport direction and positioned by positioning means arranged on the transport path. In the conveyance method of the glass plate,
During positioning, a part of the glass plate supported by the conveyor belt is supplementarily supported by an elastic body, and the movement resistance in the width direction of the glass plate is reduced .
The elastic body has a brush-like portion composed of a plurality of linear members,
The brush-like portion has a rotation axis in the width direction and can be rotated along with the conveyance of the glass plate,
A method of conveying a glass plate, wherein the glass plate is supported by utilizing elasticity of the brush-like portion .