JPH05147731A - Air-floating type conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep the length of a conveying rail to a required minimum by stopping a conveying truck at a stopping position of the conveying truck without reciprocating motion. CONSTITUTION:In order to move a conveying truck 14 on a conveying rail 12 from A-position toward B, a controller 52 controls a solenoid valve 38 to increase the amount of pressurized air from an air injection nozzle 30 to make pushing force generated at the time when the pressurized air jetted from the air injection nozzle 30 collides against air pressure receiving plates 26 larger than suction force produced by magnetic pieces 60 and magnetic material pieces 28. Thus, the conveying truck 14 begins to move toward the B-position. In order to stop the conveying truck 14 at the B-position, a controller 56 preliminarily controls a solenoid valve 44 so that the pushing force toward the B-position side becomes equal to the suction force on the B-position at the stopping B- position. Thus, the conveying truck 14 from the A-position is subjected to the pushing force and the suction force to be retarded and stopped at the B-position without being reciprocated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air levitation type transportation device, and more particularly to an air levitation type transportation device installed in a dust-free environment such as a clean room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, for factory automation in clean rooms such as semiconductor manufacturing factories and pharmaceutical manufacturing factories, there is a demand for a carrier device that does not generate dust because the clean rooms do not like dust. Conventionally, as such a dust-free carrier, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-124623. This dust-free transfer device is an air-floating transfer device that uses a linear motor without a rotation mechanism as a drive device to float the transfer carriage by the air ejected from the air ejection holes formed in the transfer rail. The mechanical friction of is eliminated to prevent dust generation due to mechanical friction.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The air levitation type transfer device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 59-124623 is
In order to stop the transport carriage at the stop positions formed on both sides of the transport rail, linear motor stators are installed on the transport rails before and after the stop position, and these linear motor stators are controlled by the controller to move. While the reciprocating carriage is reciprocated before and after the stop position, the reciprocating movement amount is gradually reduced and stopped at the stop position. As a result, the air levitation type conveyance device has to have an extra conveyance rail behind the stop position, which is disadvantageous in that the conveyance rail becomes longer than necessary.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air levitation type conveyance device capable of minimizing the length of a conveyance rail.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention mounts a carriage on a carrier rail, and ejects the carriage from air jet holes formed at predetermined intervals on the carrier rail. In an air levitation type transport device that is levitated by the above and reciprocates from one stop position formed on both sides of the transport rail to the other stop position, it is installed in the vicinity of the one stop position and the other stop position. A pair of air ejecting members, an air volume adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the amount of pressurized air ejected from the pair of air ejecting members, and an air pressure attached to the carriage with which the air ejected from the pair of air ejecting members collides. A receiving member, a pair of magnet pieces installed in the vicinity of the one stop position and the other stop position, and a magnetic body attached to the trolley at a position corresponding to the pair of magnet pieces and having a magnetic attraction force by the magnet pieces. One piece, Characterized in that it comprises al.

[0006]

The feature of the present invention is that an air injection member is provided instead of the linear motor, and the pressurized air injected from this air injection member collides with the air pressure receiving member of the truck, and the pushing force of the truck generated by this is generated. To move the carriage along the transport rail, and adjust the pushing force with an air volume adjusting mechanism to attract the carriage generated by the magnetic force between the magnet piece on the stop position side and the magnetic piece on the carriage side. It is to equalize the force and to stop the bogie at the stop position without reciprocating.

That is, according to the present invention, first, when the carriage stopped at one stop position is moved to the other stop position, the pushing force by the air injection member on one stop position side Is adjusted by the air volume adjusting mechanism so as to be larger than the attraction force by the magnet piece on the stop position side. As a result, the carriage starts to move from one stop position to the other stop position.

Next, when the carriage is stopped at the other stop position, the pushing force by the air injection member on the other stop position side is due to the attraction force by the magnet piece on the other stop position side and the other stop position. The pushing force is adjusted in advance by the air volume adjusting mechanism so that the pushing force is equalized at the positions. As a result, the carriage that has moved from one stop position is gradually decelerated by receiving the pushing force and the suction force, and stops at the other stop position without reciprocating.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of an air levitation type transport device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an air levitation type conveyance device 10 according to the present invention. The air levitation type transfer device 10 is installed in a clean room, and a transfer carriage 14 capable of reciprocating from the position A of the transfer rail 12 to the position B can transfer wafers or chemicals used in the clean room without dust.

The carrier rail 12 is formed in a hollow rectangular parallelepiped and has a plurality of air ejection holes 1 on its upper and side surfaces.
6 are formed at predetermined intervals and communicate with the hollow portion. A compressor 20 is connected to the transport rail 12 via a duct 18. An oil removing filter 22 and an air volume adjusting valve 24 are attached to the duct 18. As a result, the pressurized air supplied from the compressor 20 to the duct 18 has its air volume adjusted by the air volume adjustment valve 24 and the oil mist in the air is removed by the oil removal filter 22, and then the hollow portion of the transfer rail 12 is removed. To be ejected from the air ejection holes 16, 16. The air volume of the pressurized air ejected from the air ejection holes 16, 16 ... Is adjusted in advance by the air volume adjustment valve 24 so that the carrier truck 14 can float above the carrier rail 12 by a predetermined amount.

Both sides of the transport carriage 14 are bent and formed on the transport rail 12. Further, a pair of air pressure receiving plates 26 are fixed to both side surface portions of the transport carriage 14. The air pressure receiving plate 26, as shown in FIG.
The air pressure receiving surfaces 26a and 26b on both sides are the carriage 14
It is attached so as to be orthogonal to the moving direction of. Furthermore,
A pair of elongated magnetic material pieces 28, 28 are formed in the vicinity of the pair of air pressure receiving plates 26, 26, and the carrier 1
It is fixed to the upper surface of No. 4.

On the other hand, a pair of air injection nozzles 30, 30 are provided near the position A of the transport rail 12, and a pair of air injection nozzles 32, 32 are provided near the position B. The injection port 34 of the compressed air of the air injection nozzle 30 is installed to face the air pressure receiving surface 26a of the air pressure receiving plate 26, and the injection port 36 of the compressed air of the air injection nozzle 32 receives the air pressure. It is installed so as to face the air pressure receiving surface 26b of the plate 26.

As shown in FIG. 1, the air injection nozzle 30 is connected to the above-described compressor 20 via a duct 40 to which an electromagnetic valve 38 is attached. This duct 4
An oil removal filter 42 is attached to 0. As a result, in the pressurized air supplied from the compressor 20 to the duct 40, after the oil mist in the air is removed by the oil removal filter 42, the air amount is adjusted by the electromagnetic valves 38, 38 to adjust the air injection nozzle 30. , 30 and collides with the air pressure receiving surface 26a of the air pressure receiving plate 26.

The air injection nozzle 32 is connected to the compressor 20 via a duct 46 to which an electromagnetic valve 44 is attached. An oil removal filter 48 is attached to the duct 46. This allows the compressor 2
The pressurized air supplied from 0 to the duct 46 has the oil mist in the air removed by the oil removal filter 48,
The amount of air is adjusted by the electromagnetic valves 44 and 44, the air is ejected from the air injection nozzles 32 and 32, and the air pressure receiving plate 26 of the carrier truck 14 stopped at the position B (the position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 2). It collides with the air pressure receiving surface 26b.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the electromagnetic valve 38 is connected to a controller 52 via a cable 50, and the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valve 38 is controlled by the controller 52. The electromagnetic valve 44 is connected to a controller 56 via a cable 54.
The opening / closing amount is controlled by. The controllers 52 and 56 are connected by a cable 58, and the controller 52 can control the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valve 44 and the controller 56 can control the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valve 38.

On the other hand, a magnet piece 60 is provided near the base end of the air injection nozzle 30, and a magnet piece 62 is provided near the base end of the air injection nozzle 32. The magnet piece 60
Is installed at a position facing the magnetic piece 28 fixed to the above-mentioned transport carriage 14. Further, the magnet piece 62 is stopped at the position B (the position indicated by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2).
4 is installed at a position facing the magnetic piece 28.

Next, the operation of the air levitation type transport device 10 configured as described above will be described. First, the carrier truck 14 stopped at the position A has the air injection nozzles 30, 30.
The pressing force of the carrier truck 14 generated when the pressurized air jetted from the vehicle collides with the air pressure receiving surface 26a of the air pressure receiving plate 26 of the carrier truck 14, the magnet piece 60, and the magnetic piece 28 of the carrier truck 14. It is stopped because the attraction force of the carrier truck 14 generated by the magnetic force between the two is balanced. Therefore, the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valve 38 is controlled by the controller 52 so that the pushing force becomes equal to the suction force.

Next, the case where the carrier vehicle 14 stopped at the A position is moved toward the B position will be described. First, the controller 52 controls the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valves 38, 38 to increase the amount of pressurized air from the air injection nozzles 30, 30. As a result, the pushing force becomes larger than the suction force, so that the transport carriage 14 starts to move in the B position direction along the transport rail 12.

Next, the case where the carrier vehicle 14 is stopped at the position B will be described. First, the pushing force on the B position side (the pushing force of the carrier vehicle 14 generated when the pressurized air jetted from the air jet nozzles 32, 32 collides with the air pressure receiving surface 26b of the air pressure receiving plate 26) is The controller 56 uses the controller 56 to open and close the opening / closing amount of the electromagnetic valve 44 so that the attraction force on the position side (the attraction force of the magnet piece 62 and the magnetic piece 28 of the carriage 14) becomes equal at the position where the carriage 14 stops at the position B. Is controlled in advance. As a result, the carrier vehicle 14 that has moved from the position A is gradually decelerated by receiving the pushing force and the suction force, and stops at the position B without reciprocating.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, as compared with the conventional air levitation type conveying apparatus which has stopped while reciprocating at the stop position, it is possible to stop without reciprocating at the stop position. The length of the transport rail 12 can be minimized. Further, in this embodiment, since the carriage 14 is moved by the pressurized air instead of the linear motor stator, a complicated control system for controlling the linear motor stator becomes unnecessary.

[0021]

As described above, according to the air levitation type conveyance device of the present invention, an air injection member is provided in place of the linear motor, and the pressurized air injected from this air injection member is applied to the air pressure of the carriage. It collides with the receiving member, and the pushing force of the truck generated by this causes the truck to move along the transport rail, and the pushing force is generated by the magnetic force between the magnet piece on the stop position side and the magnetic piece on the truck side. The air flow adjusting mechanism adjusts the suction force so that it becomes equal to the suction force of the trolley, and the trolley is stopped without reciprocating at the stop position. Therefore, the length of the transport rail can be minimized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an air levitation type conveyance device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing an embodiment of an air levitation type conveyance device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Air-floating type conveyance device 12 ... Conveyance rail 14 ... Conveyor carriage 20 ... Compressor 26 ... Air pressure receiving plate 28 ... Magnetic material piece 30, 32 ... Air injection nozzle 38, 44 ... Electromagnetic valve 52, 56 ... Controller 60, 62 … Magnet pieces

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Kiyoki Watanabe 3-11-1, Shimozakabe, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture Hitachi Kiden Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stop position formed on both sides of the transport rail by mounting a dolly on the transport rail, allowing the dolly to float by air ejected from air ejection holes formed at predetermined intervals on the transport rail. In the air levitation type conveyance device that reciprocates from one stop position to the other stop position, a pair of air injection members installed in the vicinity of the one stop position and the other stop position, and the air is ejected from the pair of air injection members. An air volume adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the amount of pressurized air, an air pressure receiving member attached to the carriage with which the air jetted from a pair of air jetting members collide, and the vicinity of the one stop position and the other stop position An air levitation type conveyance device comprising: a pair of magnet pieces installed on the carriage; and a magnetic piece that is attached to the trolley at a position corresponding to the pair of magnet pieces and receives a magnetic attraction force by the magnet pieces.