JPH02130849A - Conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a conveyor for cleanly conveying an article of an arbitrary shape with its lower face being planar and effectively controlling its speed by laterally splitting one side of a conveying face or the conveying face, and providing its center with a driver for applying a conveying direction force to the article in contact with one side of the article. CONSTITUTION:A semiconductor wafer 1 is floated and supported on a conveying face 3 by injected gas from first gas injection holes 4, and pressed to a driver 6 side by the injected gas from second gas injection holes 5. That is, the part of the outer surface of the wafer 1 is brought into contact with two pins 7, and the wafer 1 is held in the shape interposed between the pins 7. Then, when an actuator 8 of the driver 6 is driven to move the pins 7, the wafer 1 is conveyed together with the pins 7. In this case, since the interval L of the two pins 7 of the driver 6 is sufficiently wide, the wafer 1 is stably held by the pins 7. The start, acceleration, deceleration, stop and positioning of the wafer 1 can be facilitated by the speed control of the driver 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an article conveyance device, and particularly to semiconductor wafers and liquid crystal glass substrates that require high cleanliness.

The present invention relates to a transport device suitable for transporting magnetic disks and the like.

(Prior Art) In a conventional device, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-279149, the conveyance surface is arranged at an angle with respect to the direction of gravity.

The semiconductor wafer is conveyed by bringing an orientation flat portion provided on the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer into contact with the conveyor belt and driving the conveyor belt.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional technology, the driving force for conveyance is applied to the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer using a conveyor belt, so that a force that attempts to rotate the semiconductor wafer is generated.

Therefore, the start of conveyance generates a large acceleration.

When accelerating, decelerating, or stopping, the semiconductor wafer begins to rotate and the orientation flat section separates from the conveyor belt, making it impossible to apply a stable driving force to the semiconductor wafer.
There was a problem that stable transportation was impossible. Further, unless a straight line portion is provided on the outer edge of the article to be conveyed, stable conveyance cannot be performed, and for example, it is impossible to convey a completely circular article such as a magnetic disk.

An object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable conveying device that can cleanly convey articles of any shape with a flat bottom surface and can reliably perform speed control, that is, starting, accelerating, decelerating, stopping, and positioning. be.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, in a transfer device comprising a horizontally installed conveying surface that supports the lower surface of the article, and a plurality of ejection holes provided on this conveying surface and ejecting gas toward the lower surface of the article, the conveyor A drive device is provided on one side of the surface, or in the center of the transport surface divided into left and right halves, for contacting one side of the article and applying a force in the conveyance direction to the article. Furthermore, in order to carry out reliable conveyance, the contact portion of the drive device with the article has a plurality of pins arranged so as to be able to stably convey the article, and a pressing force for pressing the article is applied to the pins. This means that a means has been established.

[Effect]

The article is floated and supported on the conveyance surface by gas ejected from the jet holes provided on the conveyance surface, and one side of the article comes into contact with the drive device. By driving the drive device, the article moves along with the movement of the drive device. In addition, the pins that come into contact with the article are arranged to match the shape of the article so that the article can be driven stably, and the article is moved toward the drive device so as to apply a stable conveyance direction force to the article. A means for pressing is provided. Thereby, generation of dust due to sliding between the article and the drive device can be suppressed. Further, by controlling the speed of the drive device, starting, accelerating, decelerating, stopping, and positioning of the article can be performed stably.

〔Example〕

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

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, and in these figures, reference numeral 1 indicates an article to be transported, and in this example, a circular article such as a semiconductor wafer is shown. . 2 is a conveyance path, 3 is a horizontal flat conveyance surface formed in the conveyance path 2, 4 is a first gas ejection hole provided in the conveyance surface 3,
This gas ejection hole 4 is provided at right angles to the conveying surface 3.

5 is a second gas ejection hole provided on the conveyance surface 3;

This gas ejection hole 5 is provided diagonally with respect to the conveying surface 3. Reference numeral 6 denotes a drive device provided close to one side of the conveyance surface 3, and this drive device 6 consists of two pins 7 projecting slightly above the conveyance surface 3 and an actuator 8 that drives the pins 7. It is configured. The outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer 1 comes into contact with the pins 7 in this driving device 6, and the intervals between the pins 7 are determined by the diameter of the circular article 1, for example, the semiconductor wafer 1 shown in this embodiment.
In this case, it is preferable to set the value to about 0.6D<L<0.8D, and the actuator 8 of the drive device [6 may be composed of a linear motor, an air cylinder, or an actuator that can control the constant speed of a ball screw. .

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the above-mentioned apparatus of the present invention will be explained.

The semiconductor wafer 1 is floated and supported on the transfer surface 3 by the gas ejected from the first gas ejection hole 4, and is pressed against the driving device 6 by the ejected gas from the second gas ejection hole 5. That is, a part of the outer circumference of the semiconductor wafer 1 is
The semiconductor wafer 1 is held in contact with the pins 7 of the book and is held between the pins 7. Next, the drive gear! ! ! When the actuator 8 at 6 is driven to move the pin 7, the semiconductor wafer 1 is transported together with the pin 7. At this time, since the distance between the two pins 7 of the drive device 6 is sufficiently wide, the semiconductor wafer 1 is stably held by the pins 7.

Further, by controlling the speed of the drive device 6, starting, accelerating, decelerating, stopping, and positioning of the semiconductor wafer 1 can be easily performed.

With this configuration, when the semiconductor wafer 1 is transferred, the semiconductor wafer 1 is moved by the pins 7 provided in the drive device 6 with a slight force generated by the gas ejected from the second gas ejection hole 5.
Since the semiconductor wafer 1 moves together with the pins 7 while being pressed against it, the semiconductor wafer 1 can be transported in a clean state without damage such as chipping, and the transport speed can also be controlled reliably. Also,
Since the drive bag w6 is installed below the transport surface 3, it is possible to reduce the possibility that dust from these elements will adhere to the wafer surface.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, in which the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same parts.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a rectangular article to be transported, such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device.

In this embodiment, a driving bag M6 provided close to one side of the conveying surface 3 has a holding pin 7a that contacts one side 9a of the glass substrate 9 to hold the article, and a holding pin 7a that holds the article in contact with one side 9a of the glass substrate 9, and The drive pin 7btI is an IR-shaped drive pin that contacts the front and rear sides 9b and applies a force in the conveying direction. According to this embodiment, since the force in the transport direction is applied to the glass substrate 9 by the drive pin 7b, the transport speed can be controlled reliably.

No. 4 WI shows another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, and in this figure, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 are the same parts.

In this embodiment, the conveyance surface 3 is arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the conveyance direction of the article.
It is formed by divided transport surfaces 3 and 3b, and the left and right transport surfaces 3a
, 3b is provided with a driving bag 516 in the central portion 3c for applying a force in the conveying direction to the article.

The inner circumferential surface 10a of a donut-shaped object to be transported, for example, a magnetic disk 10, is brought into contact with two pins 7 of a drive device 6. According to this embodiment, since the pins 7 are in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the magnetic disk 10, there is no possibility that the magnetic disk 10 will fall off the conveyance surface 3, and more reliable conveyance can be achieved. Further, by supporting the pin 7 of the drive device 6 with a movable member 11 having a controllable movable mechanism as shown in FIG.
The contact force of the pin 7 to the inner circumferential surface 10a of the magnetic disk 10 can be controlled, and the magnetic disk 10 can be transported without damaging the inner circumferential surface 10a of the magnetic disk 10. By moving the magnetic disk 10, it is possible to easily load and unload the magnetic disk 10 onto and from the transport surface 3. The movable member 11 may be made of a controllable bimorph piezoelectric element, a shape memory alloy, a bimetal, or the like.

5 and 6 show other embodiments of the apparatus of the present invention, and in these figures, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 are the same parts. A driving device 6 is provided close to one side of the conveying surface 3 formed in a horizontal plane, and a pressing device is provided opposite to the driving device 6 on the other side of the conveying surface 3! 13 are provided. This pressing device 13 includes a pressing pin 12 having a movable mechanism 15 and a driving mechanism 14 for moving this pressing pin 12 at the same speed and in the same direction as the driving device 6.
It is made up of. The pressing pins 12 in the pressing device L13 contact the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer 1 and press the semiconductor wafer 1 against the pins 7 of the driving bag w6. The pressing force of the pressing pins 12 is controlled by the cutter 15a of the movable mechanism 15 so as not to cause damage such as chipping to the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer. wafer 1 to pin 7
Since the conveyance is carried out while being securely held by the pressing pins 12, more reliable and reliable conveyance control can be realized than when the pressing force is applied by the ejected gas as shown in the embodiment of FIG. Also.

As described above, the pressing pins 12 press the semiconductor wafer 1 with a slight force, so that the object to be transported can be transported cleanly without being damaged. Note that the movable mechanism 15 is the movable member 11 shown in FIG.
It is also possible to have a configuration in which is omitted.

In the above embodiments, the shape of the transported object was limited to a circular or rectangular shape, but by appropriately arranging the pins of the drive device, it is possible to cleanly and reliably transport objects of any shape with a flat bottom surface. It can be carried out.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to float and support an article on a conveyance surface and convey it with only a part of the side surface of the article in contact with the drive device, so that the article can be conveyed by controlling the drive device. Transport control, that is, starting, acceleration, deceleration, and stop positioning, can be performed stably, and clean transport can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially sectional perspective view of one embodiment of the device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of another embodiment of the device of the present invention. , FIG. 4 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the device of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 1-1 of FIG. 4, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 6. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Semiconductor wafer, 2... Conveyance path, 3... Conveyance surface, 4... First gas ejection hole, 5... Second gas ejection hole, 6... Drive device, 7-'-pin, 8... actuator, 9... glass substrate, 10... magnetic disk, 12... pressing pin, 13... pressing device w1゜Fig. 2. 7b --- Mato Kangonq... Keshin board

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a conveyance device comprising a conveyance surface supporting the lower surface of the article and a plurality of ejection holes provided on the conveyance surface and ejecting gas toward the lower surface of the article, one side of the conveyance surface A conveyance device characterized in that a drive device is provided below the conveyance surface for contacting one side of the article and applying a force in the conveyance direction to the article. 2. The conveyance surface is formed into left and right halves with respect to the conveyance direction of the article, and a drive device is provided in the center of the left and right conveyance surfaces for contacting one side of the article and applying a force in the conveyance direction to the article. The conveying device according to claim 2, characterized in that: 3. The conveying device according to claim 3, wherein the conveying surface is formed as a horizontal plane, and a plurality of gas jet holes are provided on the horizontal plane conveying surface to generate a force that presses the article toward the drive device. Device. 4. The conveyance surface is formed horizontally, and a pressing device is provided on one side of the conveyance surface facing the drive device to move in the same direction at the same speed as the drive device and press the article against the drive device. The conveying device according to claim 2, characterized in that: 5. Claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the drive device is constructed of a plurality of pins that are provided to protrude slightly above the conveyance surface and come into contact with the article, and an actuator that supports and drives the pins. conveyance device.