JPH0249556B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] This invention relates in particular to a size change mechanism for a plate material processing line. [Technical background of the invention and its problems] For example, plate material processing lines such as liquid crystal panel production lines, thermal head production lines, photomask production lines, printed circuit board production lines, etc. It consists of a system for inputting plate-shaped materials into the process, a processing line, and a system for storing processed plate-shaped materials. Conventionally, in such a plate-shaped material processing line, it has been extremely difficult to change the size or lot of the plate-shaped material. That is, when changing the material size or lot, it was necessary to recognize the size or manage the quantity. However, size recognition is difficult to process in terms of hardware and software, and the cost is enormous. In addition, in the case of quantity control, there is a drawback that deviations occur when a defect occurs in the middle of the line. [Purpose of the Invention] This invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a size changer for a plate-shaped material processing line that allows the size and lot of plate-shaped materials to be easily changed. The purpose is to provide a mechanism. [Summary of the Invention] That is, the size change mechanism of the plate-shaped material processing line according to the present invention divides the lots of the first and second plate-shaped materials to be processed by adding a material (dummy material) having properties different from those of the processing materials. ) is flowed between lots, and the size is changed by distinguishing between the processed material and the dummy material using sensors installed on the loader and unloader to detect the above-mentioned properties. [Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows an overview of the plate material processing line, which mainly consists of a loader 10 and a processing line 1 .
2, and an unloader 14 . The loader 10 includes a plate-shaped material (for example, glass) 16
Glass plates 16 are fed to the processing line 12 one by one from a lot 18 in which interleaving papers are alternately sandwiched, while removing the interleaving papers. In this case, the glass plate 16 is suctioned by a suction pad of an orthogonal type transport robot 20, and transferred from the rotor 18 to the carrying-in conveyor 22 of the loader 10 connected to the processing line 12.
are moved one by one. Figure B shows its movement trajectory. Furthermore, this loader 10 has a rotary conveyor 24 that moves as shown by the arrow in Figure A, and when the rotary rotor 18 becomes empty, the conveyor 24 automatically supplies the next rotary rotary rotor 26. I'm starting to do that. The unloader 14 stores the processed glass plate 16 that has left the processing line 12 into a storage cassette 28. In this case, the unloader 14 receives the processed glass plate 16 that has come out of the processing line 12 by a carry-out conveyor 30 connected to the processing line 12 , and always stops it at a fixed position and in a fixed state by a fixed position stop position 32. Then, the untreated back side of the glass plate 16 is sucked to the suction pad of the orthogonal robot 34, and
It is moved to the storage cassette 28 and inserted and stored. Figure C shows its movement trajectory. Also, like the loader 10 , this unloader 14 also has a cassette conveyor 36 that moves in the direction of the arrow.
When the conveyor 36 is full of cassettes 28 or when the number of glass plates 16 reaches a predetermined number, the next waiting cassette 38 is automatically fed. The plate-shaped material processing line as described above is controlled by a control section (not shown). A block diagram of this plate-like material processing line is shown in FIG. Here, the control unit 40 includes an operation panel, a CPU, a memory,
The robot main bodies 20 and 34, the rotary conveyor 24, and the cassette conveyor 36 are controlled by the operation program for this line, which includes I/O, etc., stored in the memory in advance, and the input data on the size and number of glass plates 16. , loading conveyor 2
2, the unloading conveyor 30, and other blocks. The above plate-like material processing line shows the case where there is only one processing line, and if subsequent lines (for example, exposure line, post-processing line, etc.) are added, the above-mentioned Such an unloader 14 is operated in reverse and is also used as a loader.
That is, the glass plates 16 are taken out one by one from the storage cassette 28 in which the set glass plates 16 are stored and supplied to the processing line. In this case, the fixed position stop position 32 may not be provided. In the loader 10 of such a plate material processing line, when one lot 18 is composed of a plurality of first and second glass plates 161 and 162 of different sizes as shown in FIG. A plate material having different properties is interposed between the glass plate 161 and the second glass plate 162 as a dummy 42 . As this dummy 42, for example, the glass plate 1
Since 6 is a non-metal, it is possible to use a metal. In addition, suction pads 441 and 44 that suction the glass plate 16 of the robot 20 of the loader 10
A sensor 48, for example a metal sensor, for detecting the dummy 42 is attached to the robot arm 46 to which the dummy 2 is attached. In this case, the sensor 48 is connected to the suction pads 441 and 4 for reliable detection.
42 is preferable. The detection result of this sensor 48 is transmitted to the control section 40. That is, when the metal sensor 48 detects the metal dummy 42, the control unit 40 recognizes the size change. This has priority over the number management performed based on the number of times the robot 20 operates. That is, the robot arm 46 of the loader 10 gradually approaches the loaded first glass plate 161, picks it up, and transfers it to the conveyor 22. At this time, if the number of glass plates 161 is not the predetermined number, the above operation is repeated. However, when the metal sensor 48 detects the metal dummy 42, the control unit 40 instructs the loader 10 and the processing line 12 to change the size as programmed in advance. Alternatively, when loading the first glass plate 161 and the second glass plate 162 separately, in other words, the lot 18 as shown in FIG. Board 16
In the case of 2, a dummy is loaded at the end of the first glass plate 161 or at the start of the second glass plate 162, and by changing the program, it is possible to change the size and change the lot using the lot conveyor 24 at the same time. can be done. Also, on the unloader 14 side, the robot arm 46 of the loader 10 is connected to the arm of the robot 34.
By attaching a sensor in the same manner as in the case of the loader 10 described above, it is possible to change the size and cassette. Furthermore, as described above, even when the unloader 14 shown in FIG. 1 is used as the loader 10 , size changes and cassette changes can be made in the same manner. That is, a dummy material 42 having different properties from the first and second plate-shaped materials 161 and 162 of different sizes to be processed is used as the first and second plate-shaped materials 1.
61 and 162, and the loader 10 and unloader 14 determine the dummy material 42 to change the lot or size. In addition to detecting the dummy material 42 based on the relationship between metal and non-metal as shown in this embodiment,
Conceivable methods include magnetic and non-magnetic materials, permeability and non-transmission, reflective materials and non-reflective materials, or characteristics of materials such as density and temperature. Further, it is also possible to deal with the case of plate-like materials of three or more different sizes in the same way. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a size change mechanism for a plate-shaped material processing line, which allows the size and lot of the plate-shaped material in the plate-shaped material processing line to be easily changed. can do.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows an outline of the plate material processing line, where A is an external view, B and C are diagrams showing glass movement trajectories, and Fig. 2 is a block outline diagram of the plate material processing line in Fig. 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a size change mechanism of a plate-shaped material processing line according to an embodiment of the present invention. 10 ...Loader, 12 ...Processing line, 14 ...
...Unloader, 16...Glass plate, 161...First glass plate, 162...Second glass plate, 20
...Robot, 42...Dummy, 48...Sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a plate-shaped material processing line consisting of a loader for inputting plate-shaped material into the processing line, a processing line, and an unloader for storing the processed plate-shaped material, a first plate-shaped material, A means for interposing a dummy material having characteristics different from those of the first and second plate-like materials between the second plate-like material and a second plate-like material made of the same material but different in size, and flowing the dummy material into the plate-like material processing line; A board characterized in that it is equipped with sensor means for configuring materials in the loader and unloader, respectively, and means for changing the lot or size of the loader and unloader, respectively, when the respective sensor means detect a dummy material. Size change mechanism for shaped material processing line.