JP6578794B2 - Transport system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport system using two types of carts and a multistage shelf.

  Patent Document 1 (JP4296601B) provides a buffer directly below a traveling rail of an overhead traveling vehicle for transportation between bays, and provides a traveling rail of an overhead traveling vehicle for transportation within a bay in parallel with the traveling rail for transportation between bays. It is disclosed that it is provided. The overhead traveling vehicle for transporting between bays can transfer articles between the lower side, and the overhead traveling vehicle for transporting within bays can transfer articles between the lower side and the side. However, in Patent Document 1, there is a limit to the number of articles that can be buffered.

JP4296601B

  The subject of this invention is providing the conveyance system which can deliver articles | goods between two types of trolley | bogies, and can temporarily store many articles | goods.

This invention is a transport system comprising a plurality of carriages and shelves,
A first carriage capable of transferring articles to a plurality of height side positions;
A second carriage capable of transferring an article to a plurality of lateral positions and capable of transferring an article downward;
A multi-stage that is arranged between a traveling path of the first carriage and a traveling path of the second carriage, and in which the first carriage and the second carriage both have cells in which articles can be transferred in multiple stages. And shelves.

  In the present invention, the multi-stage shelf allows the first carriage and the second carriage to both carry in and out the articles and can store a large number of articles. Therefore, the multistage shelf can be used to transfer articles between the first carriage and the second carriage. The number increases.

Preferably, the multi-stage shelf is arranged so that the upper and lower cell rows face the load port of the processing apparatus,
The first carriage is configured to convey articles between a cell facing the load port and another shelf,
The second carriage is configured to convey an article between a cell facing the load port.

  The other shelves are similar multi-level shelves, stockers, or one level shelves in the height direction. The first carriage can transfer the multistage shelves or between the multistage shelves and the stocker at high speed, and the second carriage can quickly carry the articles between the multistage shelves and the load port. .

  Particularly preferably, in the row of cells facing the load port, at least one cell is a cell for loading into the load port, and the other at least one cell is a cell for carrying out from the load port.

  A carry-in cell and a carry-out cell are provided corresponding to each load port. For this reason, the articles carried into the load port carried by the first carriage can be unloaded to the carrying-in cell, and the second carriage can temporarily store the article to be carried out from the load port in the carrying-out cell. For example, an article to be carried into the load port is conveyed in advance to the carry-in cell by the first carriage. When an article to be carried out appears at the load port, the second cart can unload the article into the carry-out cell and immediately carry the article in the carry-in cell into the load port. If an unloaded article appears at the load port before arrival of the loaded article, the unloaded article is unloaded to the unloading cell. Then, as soon as the article for loading is unloaded into the cell for loading, it can be loaded into the load port by the second carriage.

Main part enlarged plan view of the transport system of the embodiment Enlarged front view of the main part of the transport system of the embodiment The principal part top view of the conveyance system of an Example Side view of the first carriage and its running rail Front view of the first carriage and its running rail Side view of the second carriage and its running rail

  In the following, an optimum embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be shown. The scope of the present invention should be determined according to the understanding of those skilled in the art based on the description of the scope of the claims, taking into account the description of the specification and well-known techniques in this field.

  The conveyance system 2 of an Example is shown in FIGS. The first carriage 4 for long distance conveyance travels along the traveling rail 10 for long distance conveyance, and the second carriage 6 for short distance conveyance travels along the traveling rail 12 for short distance conveyance. Both the traveling rails 10 and 12 are supported by the column 14 from the ceiling 9 side of the building. The carriages 4 and 6 are both overhead traveling vehicles, and include a lateral transfer device and a lifting device, and convey and transfer articles such as the carrier 8. The first carriage 4 transfers the carrier 8 to the side, and the second carriage 6 transfers the carrier 8 to the side and downward. For this reason, the second cart 6 further includes a hoist. The carrier 8 is a carrier such as a semiconductor wafer or a reticle, and the type of article to be conveyed is arbitrary.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the carriages 4 and 6 convey the carrier 8 while holding it at a common height position, for example. And between the traveling rails 10 and 12, a multi-stage shelf 20 having upper and lower multi-stages is provided so that the carrier 8 can be transferred from both the carriages 4 and 6 by combining lateral movement and elevation. As shown in FIG. 1, the multistage shelf 20 is provided with a plurality of upper and lower cell rows 26a, b, c, etc., and in the cell row 26, for example, cells are provided in three upper and lower rows, preferably 2 to 4 rows. Is provided. The uppermost cell 21 has a mounting surface that is slightly lower than the bottom surface of the carrier 8 on which the carriages 4 and 6 are transported. The carriages 4 and 6 move the lateral transfer device such as a slide fork laterally and have a short height distance. The carrier 8 can be transferred by raising and lowering only. 22 is a middle cell, and 23 is the lowest cell.

  The traveling rail 12 passes directly above the load port 32 of the processing device 30, and the multistage shelf 20 is arranged between the traveling rails 10 and 12 so that there is a row 26 of cells facing the load port 32. . The first carriage 4 for long-distance conveyance conveys the carrier 8 between the multi-stage shelf 20 and another multi-stage shelf 20, a stocker (not shown), or another buffer, and carries the carrier with the cells 21 to 23 and the like. Deliver. The second carriage 6 for short-distance conveyance conveys the carrier 8 between the multistage shelf 20 and the load port 32, and transfers the carrier 8 between the cells 21 to 23 and the load port 32. As shown in FIG. 1, an additional multistage shelf 34 may be provided on the other side of the multistage shelf 20 when viewed from the traveling rail 10.

  The travel rail 10 for long-distance conveyance is an interbay route, and a large number of first carts 4 travel and are arranged in a U-shape in the bay as shown in FIG. The short-distance conveyance traveling rails 12 are arranged outside the long-distance conveyance traveling rails 10 in the bay, and a small number of second carts 6 of about one to several units travel. For this reason, it is unlikely that the second carriage 6 for short-distance conveyance is congested and the arrival at the load port 32 is delayed. The travel rails 12 for short-distance conveyance may be arranged only in one bay, or may be arranged so as to extend to other bays as shown in FIG.

  The first carriage 4 carries in / out the carrier to / from the cells 21 to 23, and the second carriage 6 carries in / out the carrier between the cells 21 to 23 and the load port 32. As shown in FIG. 1, since there is one cell row 26a so as to face one load port 32a, three cells 21 to 23 are dedicated to the load port 32a facing each other, one of them or Two of them are assigned to temporary storage of carriers carried out from the load port 32 and the rest are assigned to temporary storage of carriers carried into the load port 32. There is also a cell column 26b at a position between the load ports 32 and 32. The cells in the cell column 26b are, for example, general-purpose cells that do not correspond to a specific load port.

  4 and 5 show the structure of the first carriage 4 for long-distance conveyance. The traveling carriage 15 and the power receiving carriage 16 travel in the traveling rail 10, and the upper frame 40 is supported on the traveling carriage 15 by a shaft. A pair of front and rear first side plates 50, 50 are supported by the upper frame 40 along the traveling direction, and the second side plate 55 is moved up and down together with the linear guide 52 along the guide rail 51 provided on the side plate 50. To do. In order to raise and lower the slide fork 42 of the lateral transfer device with a large stroke, a guide rail 56 is further provided on the second side plate 55, and the linear guide 57 is raised and lowered along the guide rail 56.

  The rotation mechanism 60 is fixed to a pair of linear guides 57, 57 and moves up and down, and a slide fork 42 is attached to the lower part of the rotation mechanism 60. The slide fork 42 is rotated by the rotation mechanism 60 so as to match the load port. The rotation mechanism 60 may not be provided. In the slide fork 42, the base plate 43 is fixed to the rotating mechanism 60, the top plate 45 can be moved back and forth in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the first carriage 4 in the horizontal plane, and the middle plate 44 is a top plate. Similarly, the plate 45 advances and retreats on both sides with a half stroke. A chuck 46 is provided at the bottom of the top plate 45 to hold the flange 48 of the carrier 8. 4 and 5 show a state where the carrier 8 is lowered and advanced laterally by a chain line. A scalar arm or the like may be used instead of the slide fork 42. When the lift stroke of the slide fork 42 may be small, the side plate 55 to the linear guide 57 may not be provided. Further, the lateral movement and elevation of the carrier 8 may be performed in parallel.

  FIG. 6 shows the structure of the second carriage 6. A traveling carriage and a power receiving carriage (not shown) are provided in the traveling rail 12, and the rotating mechanism 60 and the slide fork 42 are moved up and down by the double side plates 50 and 55, the guide rails 51 and 56, and the linear guides 52 and 57. Further, the slide fork 42 is rotated by the rotation mechanism 60. In order to deliver the carrier 8 to and from the load port 32, a hoist 62 is provided at the bottom of the top plate 45, and a lifting platform 64 including the chuck 46 is moved up and down by a suspension material such as a belt 63. The rotation mechanism 60 may not be provided, and the side plate 55 to the linear guide 57 may not be provided when the lifting stroke for transfer to the multistage shelf 20 may be small. The slide fork 42 may be another horizontal transfer device such as a SCARA arm, and the horizontal movement and elevation of the carrier 8 may be performed in parallel.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the first carriage 4a and the second carriage 6a carry out the carrier unloading and loading into the load port 32a using the cell row 26a. The second carriage 6a unloads the carrier from the load port 32a, and transfers the carrier to the cell for unloaded articles in the cell row 26a. The first carriage 4a transfers the carrier to the cell for incoming goods in the cell row 26a, takes out the carrier from the cell for outgoing goods, and starts conveyance. Further, the second carriage 6a takes out the carrier from the cell for incoming goods and delivers it to the load port 32a.

  If it does in this way, after a carrier is removed from the load port 32a, the next carrier can be carried in in a short time. Accordingly, the throughput of the processing device 30 is improved. For example, the carrier that the first cart 4 supplies to the load port 32 in advance is unloaded into the loading cell of the multistage shelf 20. When the carrier to be carried out appears in the load port 32, the second cart 6 unloads the carrier to the carrying-out cell of the multistage shelf 20, and carries the carrier from the carrying-in cell into the load port. Then, the time for the load port 32 to wait for carrier loading can be minimized.

  On the other hand, when the carrier to be loaded into the load port 32a has not arrived and the carrier to be loaded into the load port 32a appears, the second carriage 6 unloads the cell to the cell for unloading in the cell row 26a. deep. When the first carriage 4 carrying the carrier to be supplied to the load port 32a arrives at the cell row 26a, it unloads the carrier to the loading cell, and loads and carries the carrier from the carrying-out cell. . At the same time, for example, the second carriage 6 carries the carrier into the load port 32a from the cell facing the load port 32a. Then, the carrier can be carried out and carried in while the first cart 4 is stopped. Here, it is preferable to control the second carriage 6 so that the first carriage 4 and the second carriage 6 arrive at the position facing the load port 32a almost simultaneously. Then, the first cart 4 and the second cart 6 can be stopped and the carrier can be carried out and carried in.

The embodiment has the following characteristics.
1) By arranging the multi-stage shelf 20 between the traveling rails 10 and 12, the first carriage 4 is dedicated to long-distance conveyance, and the second carriage 6 is used for short-distance conveyance between the multi-stage rack 20 and the load port 32. I can concentrate on it.
2) Since the traveling rail 12 for short-distance conveyance requires only a small number of second carts 6, there is little traffic jam in the second carts 6.
3) The first carriage 4 for long-distance conveyance does not require a hoist and can convey the carrier at high speed.
4) The first carriage 4 and the second carriage 6 can access the upper and lower multistage shelves 20 by the side plate 50 to the linear guide 57.
5) Since the multi-level shelf 20 is multi-level up and down, a large number of carriers can be temporarily stored. For this reason, a large number of articles can be delivered between the first carriage 4 and the second carriage 6.
6) Since at least one cell dedicated to carry-out and one cell dedicated to carry-in can be secured for each load port 32, it is convenient for loading and unloading of carriers into the load port 32.
7) The carrier can be carried out from the load port 32 and the carrier can be carried into the load port 32 in a short time.

2 Transport system 4 First cart 6 Second cart 8 Carrier 9 Ceiling 10, 12 Traveling rail 14 Post 15 Traveling cart 16 Power receiving cart 20 Multistage shelves 21-23 Cell 24 Column 26 Cell row 30 Processing device 32 Load port 34 Multistage shelf 40 Upper frame 42 Slide fork 43 Base plate 44 Middle plate 45 Top plate 46 Chuck 48 Flange 50, 55 Side plate 51, 56 Guide rail 52, 57 Linear guide 60 Turning mechanism 62 Hoist 63 Belt 64 Lifting platform

Claims (2)

A transport system comprising a plurality of carriages and shelves,
A first carriage capable of transferring articles to a plurality of height side positions;
A second carriage capable of transferring an article to a plurality of lateral positions and capable of transferring an article downward;
A multi-stage that is arranged between a traveling path of the first carriage and a traveling path of the second carriage, and in which the first carriage and the second carriage both have cells in which articles can be transferred in multiple stages. shelf, has a capital,
In the multi-stage shelf, the upper and lower cell rows face the load port of the processing apparatus, and at least one cell in the row of cells facing the load port is a loading cell for temporarily storing articles to be loaded into the load port. The other at least one stage cell is arranged to be a cell for unloading that temporarily stores the articles unloaded from the load port,
When an article to be taken out from the load port occurs,
The second carriage unloads an article from a load port to the unloading cell,
The first carriage carries an article to be loaded into a load port from another shelf to the loading cell, and unloads the article from the carrying cell at the same stop position, and then conveys the article to another shelf. And
The transport system configured to carry the article from the carry-in cell into the load port .   When an article to be loaded into the load port is generated, the first carriage loads an article to be loaded into the load port from another shelf into the loading cell,
  Next, when an article to be carried out from the load port is generated, the second carriage carries out the article from the load port to the carrying-out cell and carries the article from the carrying-in cell to the load port. The transport system of claim 1, wherein the transport system is configured.

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