JPH0246052Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention uses a production plate to subject polycrystalline silicon wafers used in solar cells and other photoelectric conversion elements to the action of centrifugal force using a turntable mechanism. The present invention relates to a rotary lifting device for a turntable that constitutes a main part of a silicon melting furnace that is a manufacturing device for manufacturing by the spin method.

[Conventional technology]

In the silicon melting furnace mentioned above, it is absolutely necessary to maintain the interior in a completely inert argon gas atmosphere, etc., but when performing the spin method, the turntable is rotated and raised and lowered in the above atmosphere. It is necessary to make the action take place.

However, the shaft of the turntable must be inserted into the melting furnace main body, which is maintained in the gas atmosphere, through the bottom wall so that it can rotate and move up and down. A sliding part occurs in the part that penetrates the bottom wall of the main body during rotation and vertical movement, and this sliding part must be completely sealed in order to maintain the inside of the melting furnace main body in an atmosphere such as upper argon gas. .

The present invention has been newly created to solve these problems.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

Therefore, in the present invention, the shaft of the turntable is inserted into the opening of the melting furnace main body to integrally form a rotating and lifting mechanism, and the mechanism is covered with a cover that is fixed to the main body opening in an airtight state. By storing it away, it is communicated with the inside of the main body, and by sealing the atmospheric gas inside the cover, a complicated partial sealing mechanism is not required, making it simple and compact. The purpose is to be able to provide products that are inexpensive.

[Means for solving problems]

That is, in the present invention, a shaft is inserted through an opening in a main body whose interior is maintained in an inert gas atmosphere, and a shaft with a turntable fixed to its upper end is arranged to be rotatable and movable up and down. A cylinder is installed at the lower part of the top, and the cylinder and the shaft are connected through a bearing, and a transmission pulley is fitted to the shaft so that it can be driven and rotated by a drive source provided on the elevating plate. In addition, the elevating plate is guided by a guide rod so as to be freely raised and lowered, and is installed so as to move together with the shaft, thereby forming a rotary elevating mechanism, and the mechanism is in communication with the main body and is fixed in an airtight manner. The present invention provides rotational lifting and lowering of a turntable in a spin method silicon melting furnace which is covered and sealed with a cover.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows the main parts of the silicon melting furnace, and
The figure shows the rotary lifting device of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the silicon melting furnace A is comprised of a mold module conveying self-supporting roller 2 provided in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in the figure) inside a main body 1 that is formed in a sealed state with the outside. ,
A molten silicon injection part 3 provided in the upper part of the central part, a turntable 4 provided in the lower part of the central part, and a pre-heating part 5 and an after-heating part provided on the left and right sides of the central part, respectively. 6, mold module take-in parts (not shown) provided at the front and rear parts, respectively, and a mold module and product take-out part.

Here, the pre-heating section 5 and the after-heating section 6 are provided with heat insulating materials 5a and 6a installed inside a housing 1a forming the outer shell of the main body 1, respectively, and heaters 5b and 6b installed inside the housing 1a, respectively. The molten silicon injection part 3
The molten silicon injection section 3 is composed of a silicon injection tube 3a, a crucible 3b which can be turned over and tilted freely by a reversing bar 3d, and a funnel 3c arranged coaxially in order from the top to the bottom.
Also, a heat insulating material 3e and a heater 3f are arranged inside, and the silicon injection pipe 3a is connected to the crucible 3b.
Silicon is injected into the wafer, this silicon is melted in the argon atmosphere of the main body 1, and the molten silicon is injected into the mold module 7 which is rotated by the turntable 4 to mold the silicon wafer. The mold module 7 is not necessarily limited to a flat plate type as shown in the illustrated example, but also includes a vertical type.

Therefore, since the distance between the funnel 3c and the mold module 7, that is, the head of the molten silicon, differs depending on the type of mold module used,
In order to maintain an appropriate distance from the turntable 4, it is necessary to have a function of raising and lowering the turntable 4.

That is, the turntable 4 needs to have both a rotation function and an elevating function.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide a rotating lifting device for the turntable 4, and the rotating lifting device B is constructed as follows.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the device B is provided in the main body 1 directly below the molten silicon injection section 3.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an opening 8 is provided in the bottom wall 1b of the housing 1a which forms the outer shell of the main body 1, and an opening 8 is provided at the bottom of the opening 8 in a sealed state with the outside. The bottom cylindrical cover 9 is an O-ring 10,
It is fixed and vertically installed with a seal 10'.

Inside the cover 9, there is provided an air or hydraulic cylinder 11 fixed to the bottom wall 9a, and the turntable 4 is fixed to the upper end of the output shaft 11a via a bearing 12. The shaft 13 is arranged in a row so as to be rotatable, and the output shaft 11a is in a non-rotating state.

The upper end of the shaft 13 is inserted into the main body 1 through the opening 8, so that the turntable 4 is disposed within the main body 1.

Further, from the bottom wall 9a of the cover 9, at least two guide rods 14, 14 are connected to the cylinder 1.
1, and both ends of the lifting plate 15 are fitted into the guide rods 14, 14 via bushes 16, 16, whereby the lifting plate 15 is It is constructed so that it can be moved up and down while remaining horizontal.

Further, the shaft 12 includes a transmission pulley 17.
The transmission pulley 17 is supported by the elevating plate 15 via a bearing 18 so as to be rotatable in the axial direction but prevented from moving in the axial direction.

On the other hand, the elevating plate 15 is connected to a drive source 1 such as a motor.
9 is fixed, and a pulley 20 is fixed to its drive shaft 19a, and the pulley 20 and the transmission pulley 17 are interlocked and connected by a transmission mechanism 21 such as a belt, so that the drive source can The shaft 13 is driven and rotated, and the turntable 4 rotates.

That is, the drive source 19 rotates the turntable 4, and the cylinder 11 moves the turntable 4 up and down, and the rotation mechanism and lifting mechanism of the turntable 4 are integrally formed as described above. These two mechanisms are all internally contained within the cover 9, that is, covered by the cover 9.

Further, an outward flange 8a is provided at the lower end of the opening 8 in the main body 1.
The main body 22a of the holder 22 is superimposed on the bottom plate 22b, and the inward flange 9b of the cover 9 is stacked on the bottom plate 22b, and the O-ring 1 is placed between them.
The cover 9 is secured to the main body 1 in an airtight manner from the outside by tightening with bolts or the like through the holes 0 and 10'.

Further, the holder 22 is formed hollow by closing the lower end opening of the main body 22a, which is formed in a substantially inverted cup shape in longitudinal section, with the bottom plate 22b.
The main body 22 of the holder 22 is installed in the opening 8 by fixing the bottom plate 22b and the bottom plate 22b.
The shaft 13 is rotatably and slidably inserted into shaft holes 22d and 22e that pass through the centers of the top plate 22c and the bottom plate 22b, respectively, and the holder 22 houses a carbon bushing 23. The shaft 13 is held in place by a holding ring 24, thereby preventing the shaft 13 from swinging.

Thus, the cover 9 is in communication with the inside of the main body 1, but the outside air is connected to the O-rings 10, 10'.
Therefore, when evacuating the main body 1 and filling it with argon gas, the inside of the cover 9 is evacuated from the vacuum port v, and then the gas supply port g is sealed.
Argon gas is filled in the inside of the main body 1 to maintain an atmosphere of inert argon gas, etc., as in the inside of the main body 1, so that a sealing mechanism is not required even at the rotating and sliding parts of the shaft 13 with respect to the main body 1. It will not be possible to do so.

Here, the shaft 13 may be formed of a single shaft material, but as shown in the illustrated example, the rotating shaft 13
It may be formed by connecting the transmission shaft 13b and the transmission shaft 13b on the same axis, and in such a case, the rotation shaft 13b
The turntable 4 is fixed to the upper end of the transmission shaft 13b, while the output shaft 11 of the cylinder 11 is connected to the lower end of the transmission shaft 13b.
A and the bearing 12 are connected to each other, and
The transmission pulley 17 is fitted, and the rotating shaft 13a is
The lower end of the transmission shaft 13b and the upper end of the transmission shaft 13b are connected to each other on the same axis via a joint 25 such as a built-in key.

In the above configuration, when the output shaft 11a of the cylinder 11 is operated, the shaft 13 is slid in the axial direction upward or downward in the figure, and the turntable 4 is moved up and down.

At this time, although the transmission pulley 17 is fitted onto the shaft 13, it is rotatable with respect to the elevating plate 15 via a bearing 18 and is prevented from moving in the axial direction, so that the cylinder 11 causes the transmission pulley 17 to move up and down together with the shaft 13, thereby raising and lowering the lifting plate 15.
The drive source 19 is also moved up and down at the same time, and as a result, the turntable 4 is moved up and down without any influence on the rotation mechanism.

Further, the turntable 4 is rotated by the rotational force of the drive shaft 19a in the drive source 19 being transmitted to the transmission pulley 17 via the pulley 20 and the transmission mechanism 21, and the shaft 13 is rotated.

At this time, the shaft 13 and cylinder output shaft 11
Since a is rotatable in the axial direction via the bearing 12 and connected in the axial direction, the rotational force of the shaft 13 is not transmitted to the cylinder output shaft 11a, but is transmitted to the cylinder output shaft 11a. Therefore, when the turntable 4 is rotated, the elevating mechanism thereof is not affected.

That is, even though the rotation mechanism and the elevating mechanism are integrated, the rotation function and elevating function of the turntable 4 can be fully satisfied.

[Effect of idea]

As explained above, since the present invention is configured, special sealing mechanisms are installed at various places in the turntable rotation and lifting device installed in the silicon melting furnace for the spin method in order to maintain the argon gas atmosphere inside the main body. In contrast to conventional systems, the present invention integrates the rotating mechanism and the elevating mechanism, and both mechanisms are covered with a cover 9 that communicates with the main body 1 and is sealed from the outside. To provide a simple and compact device at low cost without requiring complicated sealing mechanisms at various locations, and to perform the rotation and raising/lowering operations of a turntable 4 individually and smoothly. Can be done.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing the main parts of a silicon melting furnace for spin method equipped with a rotary lifting device for a turntable according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional side view of the rotary lifting device. 1... Main body, 4... Turntable, 8... Opening, 9... Cover, 11... Cylinder, 12
...Bearing, 13...Shaft, 14,14
... Guide rod, 15 ... Lifting plate, 17 ... Transmission pulley, 19 ... Drive source.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A shaft is inserted through the opening of the main body whose interior is maintained in an inert gas atmosphere, and a turntable is fixed to the upper end of the shaft, which is rotatable and movable up and down. A cylinder is installed, and the cylinder and the shaft are connected through a bearing, and a transmission pulley is fitted to the shaft so that it can be driven and rotated by a drive source provided on the elevating plate. is guided by a guide rod so as to be freely raised and lowered, and is constructed so as to move together with the shaft, thereby forming a rotating lifting mechanism, and the mechanism is in communication with the main body, and is covered with a cover that is airtightly fixed. A rotary lifting device for a turntable in a closed silicon melting furnace for spin method.