JPH036429B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is suitable for transporting objects that would otherwise be contaminated by dust in the air during transport, such as wafers (Si plates) used in the manufacturing process of transistors. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a conveying device suitable for

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the attached illustrative drawings. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is an automated guided vehicle that moves along a preset travel route using an electromagnetic induction method. The vehicle is self-propelled by automatic travel control such as a photoelectric induction system, and is equipped with steering/driving wheels 2 and swivel wheels 3, which are driven by an on-board battery and whose steering is automatically controlled. Reference numeral 4 denotes a conveyed object support section provided at the upper center of the conveyance vehicle 1, and 5 denotes a cover that surrounds the conveyed object support section 4 in an openable and closable manner. This cover 5 has a fixed wall 6 erected behind the transported object support section 4, and is movable in front of the fixed wall 6 in the direction of distance (in the moving direction of the transport vehicle) with respect to the fixed wall 6. It is composed of a movable surrounding wall 7 that is open only on the fixed wall 6 side, and when the movable surrounding wall 7 moves toward the fixed wall 6 side and the periphery of the open part of the movable surrounding wall 7 comes into contact with the periphery of the fixed wall 6. The space above the conveyed object support section 4 is covered in a substantially airtight manner.

As shown in FIG. 3, the movable surrounding wall 7 of the cover 5
The front vertical wall 7a and the upper horizontal wall 7b, which face the fixed wall 6, have a double structure in which the internal space communicates with each other, and the lower wall plate of the upper horizontal wall 7b has a removable and replaceable plate shape. The front vertical wall part 7a is configured with a filter 8, and air is sucked into the front vertical wall part 7a from an air intake port 9a that opens to the outside and passes through the L-shaped space 10 in both the walls 7a and 7b. From the plate filter 8 to the space 11 within the movable surrounding wall 7
A fan 9 is provided to feed the air into the air. The plate filter 8 is a so-called filter used in clean rooms of ultra-LSI factories, precision machinery factories, etc.
HEPA filters are preferred. 30 is an opening/closing means for moving the movable surrounding wall 7 back and forth, and includes a screw shaft 32 driven by a motor 31 in any forward or reverse direction, and a bottom portion of the movable surrounding wall 7 that is screwed onto the screw shaft 32. It consists of a female threaded body 33 attached to.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the transported object support section 4 is provided with a pair of transported object holding bars 12a and 12b that face each other in the moving direction of the transport vehicle. These clamping bars 12a and 12b are connected to slits 1 formed in the floor plate 4a of the conveyed object support section 4.
A support member 14a that vertically penetrates 3a and 13b,
One end is supported in a cantilevered manner by 14b. The support members 14a, 14b are connected to the floorboard 4.
It is driven by a drive device 15 provided below a. The drive device 15 includes a movable base 16 that is movable in the longitudinal horizontal direction (vehicle moving direction), a longitudinal position adjustment means 17 for the movable base 16, and an elevating device supported on the movable base 16 so as to be movable up and down. Platform 18,
a height adjusting means 19 for the lifting table 18; a tilting table 21 whose rear end is supported by a horizontal support shaft 20 on the lifting table 18 and capable of vertically tilting; a tilting means 22 for the tilting table 21; A lateral movement table 24 is supported on the tilt table 21 via a slide guide rod 23 so as to be able to move laterally in the left and right directions.
4, a pair of front and rear drive stands 28a supported on the lateral movement stand 24 so as to be movable in the front and rear directions via a slide guide rod 26 and screw shafts 27a and 27b, respectively. 28b, and a driving means 29 for moving these driving stands 28a, 28b toward and away from each other,
The pair of support members 14a, 14b are attached to the pair of drive stands 28a, 28b.

The longitudinal position adjustment means 17 of the movable base 16 is
A rack gear 34 connected to the movable base 16, and a pinion gear 36 that meshes with the rack gear 34 and is driven by a motor 35 in any forward or reverse direction.
It is composed of. The height adjustment means 19 of the lifting table 18 includes a rack gear 37 connected from the lifting table 18, a pinion gear meshed with the rack gear 37 and pivotally supported on the movable base 16 side, and a pinion gear that can be rotated forward or reverse as desired. It is composed of a motor 38 that drives in the direction of. The tilt stand 2
The first tilting means 22 includes an eccentric cam 39 that supports the free end of the tilt table 21 and is pivotally supported on the lifting table 18.
and a motor 40 that drives the eccentric cam 39 in any forward or reverse direction.

The horizontal position adjusting means 25 of the lateral movement table 24 includes a screw shaft 42 supported on the tilt table 21 and driven by a motor 41 in any forward or reverse direction, and a screw shaft 42 that is screwed onto the screw shaft 42 and is mounted on the lateral movement table 24. 24 and a female threaded body 43 attached to the lower side of the body. The drive means 29 of the drive bases 28a, 28b includes screw shafts 27a, 27b into which the drive bases 28a, 28b are screwed and whose screw directions are opposite to each other, and this screw shaft 27.
It is composed of a motor 44 that drives the motors a and 27b in any forward or reverse direction.

To explain how to use it, the conveyance vehicle 1 is stopped at the conveyed object receiving position, the movable surrounding wall 7 of the cover 5 is moved, and the screw shaft 32 of the opening/closing means 30 is connected to the motor 31.
3 and move it to the opening movement limit position as shown in FIG. 3, thereby opening the conveyed object support section 4. Then, by rotating the screw shaft 42 by the motor 41 of the left-right position adjusting means 25 and moving the lateral movement table 24 laterally from the backward limit position shown in FIG. 14
a, 14b and the driving platforms 28a, 28b to protrude from the transport vehicle 1 in the lateral direction. Due to the protruding movement of the pair of clamping bars 12a, 12b, the pair of clamping bars 12a, 12b are placed on both sides of the transferred object, for example, the wafer carrier 45, which is placed at a predetermined location on the side of the transport vehicle stop position. will be located. After this, the motor 4 of the drive platform drive means 29
4, the screw shafts 27a, 27b are rotated, and the pair of clamping bars 12 are removed together with both driving bases 28a, 28b.
By moving a and 12b closer to each other,
A wafer carrier 45 located in the middle is held between both holding bars 12a and 12b.

Next, the motor 38 of the height adjusting means 19 rotates the pinion gear engaged with the rack gear 37 to raise the elevating table 18 by a predetermined amount, so that the wafer carrier 45 held between the pair of holding bars 12a and 12b is lifted by a predetermined amount together with the lifting table 18, the tilting table 21, and the lateral movement table 24. And the motor 41 of the left and right position adjustment means 25
The screw shaft 42 is reversely rotated to move the horizontal movement table 24 to the fourth position.
The wafer carrier 45 is moved backward to the backward limit position shown in the figure, and the wafer carrier 45 is pulled onto the conveyed object support section 4 on the conveyance vehicle 1 together with the horizontal movement table 24, and further the tilting means 2
By rotating the eccentric cam 39 by a predetermined angle by the motor 40 of No. 2 and tilting the tilt table 21 upward around the support shaft 23, the pair of clamping bars 12
Wafer carrier 45 held between a and 12b
is tilted forward and upward together with the transverse movement table 24 as shown in FIG. At this time, the wafer carrier 45
The loading/unloading ports 46a of the wafer support shelves 46 formed in multiple stages are supported so as to open toward the forward direction of the transport vehicle 1. Therefore, when the wafer carrier 45 is tilted forward as described above, The wafer support shelf 46 is located at the loading/unloading port 46a.
Since the wafer support shelf 46 is inclined to be higher toward the side, it is possible to prevent the wafers stored in the wafer support shelf 46 from jumping out from the loading/unloading port 46a when the transport vehicle 1 is stopped.

Once the wafer carrier 45 is loaded onto the object support section 4 as described above, the screw shaft 32 is rotated by the motor 31 of the opening/closing means 30 to move the movable surrounding wall 7 of the cover 5 to the fixed wall as shown in FIG. By moving the wafer carrier 45 to a position where it comes into contact with the object support section 6, the movable surrounding wall 7 and the fixed wall 6 surround the wafer carrier 45 carried onto the object support section 4, thereby shielding it from the outside world. Then, by operating the fan 9 and sending the outside air, which has been purified by the filter 8, into the space 11 surrounded by the movable wall 7 and the fixed wall 6, a clean air flow is generated in the space surrounding the wafer carrier 45. , when air containing dust from the outside enters into the space 11, the wafer carrier 4
5 and the wafers housed therein can be prevented from being contaminated.

In addition, the clean air sent into the space 11 is
The air flows out to the outside world through gaps and slits 13a and 13b created between the movable surrounding wall 7 and the fixed wall 6, but an air outlet may be provided at an appropriate position. Further, while the transport vehicle 1 is running, the wafer carrier 45 is held between a pair of clamping bars 12 as shown in FIG.
Since the wafer carrier 45 is held in the air by the clamping bars 12a and 12b, if there is a risk that the wafer carrier 45 may slip off the clamping bars 12a and 12b due to vibration etc.
The holding bars 12a, 12b may be provided with protrusions that sit on the wafer carrier 2b, or in the recesses formed in the wafer carrier 45.
It can be configured so that they fit together.

The wafer carrier 45 is supported in the clean area on the object support section 4 as described above.
The wafer carrier 45 is transported to a predetermined position by the automatic traveling of the transport vehicle 1, but the work of transporting the transported wafer carrier 45 to a receiving stand or the like installed on the side of the transport vehicle stopping position is different from the above-mentioned transport work. You can do it in reverse order. If there is an error in the stopping position of the transport vehicle 1 at this time, the motor 35 of the longitudinal position adjustment means 17 rotates the pinion gear 36 to move the movable base 16 in the longitudinal direction.
The wafer carrier 45, which is held between a pair of holding bars 12a and 12b, is moved to the lifting table 18 and the tilting table 2.
1 and the transverse movement table 24, the position can be adjusted in the front-rear direction.

The conveyance device of the present invention can be implemented and used as described above, and its feature is that the cover covering the conveyed object support section is provided with a vertical plate erected on one side of the conveyed object support section. a movable enclosing wall that is supported on the conveyed object support section so as to be movable in the distance direction relative to the fixed wall and that is open on the fixed wall side; The present invention is characterized in that an air flow space and a fan are provided within the movable wall to generate an air flow discharged from the filter toward the space within the movable wall.

However, according to the conveying device of the present invention, after the object to be conveyed is placed on the object supporting section, the movable surrounding wall is moved toward the fixed wall, and the movable surrounding wall is moved toward the fixed wall to form a structure between the movable surrounding wall and the fixed wall. The object to be transported is surrounded by a sealed space, and in this state, the fan is operated to send clean air from the filter into the sealed space, thereby transporting the object to be transported in a protected state in a clean area. I can do it.

Moreover, by keeping the movable surrounding wall away from the fixed wall, the transported object can be easily placed on the transported object support that is open upwardly and in the front and back, and the filter is placed above the transported object support. Compared to the case where there is a fixed ceiling wall to which a ceiling wall is attached, loading and unloading work can be easily performed even when large and heavy objects are to be transported.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side view, Fig. 2 is a plan view, Fig. 3 is a longitudinal side view of the main part, Fig. 4 is a longitudinal cross-sectional rear view of the main part, and Fig. 5 is the main part in the conveyed state of the transported object. FIG. 1... Automatic guided vehicle, 4... Transported object support section, 5
... Cover that can be opened and closed, 6 ... Fixed wall, 7 ... Movable surrounding wall, 8 ... Plate filter, 9 ... Fan,
10... Air flow space, 11... Space within the movable surrounding wall, 12a, 12b... A pair of clamping bars, 14
a, 14b...Supporting member, 15...Driving means, 1
6...Movable base, 17...Anteroposterior position adjustment means, 1
8... Lifting platform, 19... Height adjustment means, 20...
Support shaft, 21...Tilt stand, 22...Tilt means, 2
3, 26...Slide guide rod, 24...Transverse movement table, 25...Right and left position adjustment means, 27a, 27
b, 32, 42... Spiral shaft, 28a, 28b... Drive stand, 29... Drive stand drive means, 30... Cover opening/closing means, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 44
... Motor, 33, 43 ... Female threaded body, 34,
37...Rack gear, 36...Pinion gear, 3
9...Eccentric cam, 45...Wafer carrier (object to be transported), 46...Wafer support shelf, 46a...Input/unloading port.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cover that covers a conveyed object support section is movable in a direction near and far from a vertical plate-shaped fixed wall erected on one side of the conveyed object support section, and with respect to the fixed wall on the conveyed object support section. The movable surrounding wall is supported and the fixed wall side is open, and a filter is disposed on the upper horizontal wall of the movable surrounding wall, and an air flow is generated from the filter toward the space within the movable surrounding wall. A conveying device comprising an air flow space and a fan provided within the movable wall.