JPH07276227A - Automatic blade changer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable automatic change of blades to be effected by providing a blade grip means and a nut mounting and dismounting means at an end of an arm which turns between a blade rack which stores new and old blades and a spindle in an automatic blade changer which is mounted on a precision cutting device. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of new blades 1' are held on a first hold shaft 7a of a blade rack 5a. When an upper blade 1 (old blade) is changed on a spindle 2, an arm 10 is turned and a nut mounting and dismounting means 12 is positioned on the spindle 2, and then the spindle 2 is advanced to remove a nut 3 by the nut mounting and dismounting means 12. Next, a blade grip means 11 is positioned for the spindle 2 and the blade 1 is fitted into a ring-like projection 11c to remove it from a mounting section 2a. After that, the arm 10 is turned and the blade grip means 11 is positioned on a second hold shaft 7b to hold the blade 1 on the second hold shaft 7b. After that, the new blade 1' is mounted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auto blade changer mounted on a precision cutting device or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a precision cutting device such as a dicing device, an object to be cut such as a semiconductor wafer is cut by a rotary blade, but the rotary blade is worn or damaged and needs to be replaced appropriately. Normally, Fig. 10 (a) and (b)
As shown in FIG. 2, the blade 1 has a central mounting hole 1a fitted into a mounting portion 2a provided at the tip of the spindle 2,
The nut 3 is screwed onto b and is tightened and fixed.

[0003]

In order to replace the blade 1 fixed to the mounting portion 2a of the spindle 2, the nut 3 must be attached and detached.
It was troublesome to carry out the work while holding it by hand so as not to go around, and it took a lot of time and deteriorated workability. In addition, there was no choice but to rely on human labor, which was a problem in promoting FA. The present invention has been made to solve such conventional problems, and made it possible to automatically and efficiently perform blade replacement in a precision cutting device,
An object is to provide an auto blade changer.

[0004]

As a means for technically solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is an automatic blade changer for automatically attaching and detaching a blade to and from a spindle provided in a precision cutting device. The auto blade changer includes at least a new blade, a blade rack that stores the old blade, and an arm that pivots between the blade rack and the spindle,
The gist of this arm is an auto blade changer in which a blade gripping means for gripping a blade and a nut attaching / detaching means for attaching / detaching a nut to / from a spindle are arranged at the end of this arm. Further, the blade rack is composed of a frame body and a movable body that can be attached to and detached from the frame body. The movable body has a first holding shaft for holding the new blade and a second holding shaft for holding the old blade. The holding shaft is provided,
Stoppers for preventing the blade from falling are formed at the ends of the first holding shaft and the second holding shaft;
The stopper formed on the holding shaft of is a movable stopper biased by a spring, and the stopper formed on the second holding shaft is a fixed stopper. The stopper is formed on the first holding shaft and the second holding shaft. Is capable of holding two or more blades, and the blade gripping means includes two or more swinging pieces, which swing inward in the radial direction and contact the outer circumference of the boss portion of the blade to hold the blades. Gripping and swinging outward in the radial direction to open the blade, the nut attaching / detaching means includes a nut pressing part and a spindle pressing part, and the relative rotation between the nut pressing part and the spindle pressing part The nut is attached to and detached from the spindle, the nut retainer is configured to be non-rotatable, the spindle retainer is configured to be rotatable, and the nut retainer has a protrusion corresponding to the recess formed in the nut. 2 or more Are formed, thereby detaching the nut against rotation of the spindle holding unit, to grip the nut the convex portion is displaced, it is an gist.

[0005]

[Operation] When exchanging a worn or damaged blade (old blade), rotate the arm to the spindle position, first remove the tightening nut of the old blade from the mounting part by the nut attaching / detaching means, and then hold it by the blade gripping means. Hold the old blade off the spindle. After that, the arm is rotated to the position of the blade rack, the old blade of the blade gripping means is fitted and held on the second holding shaft, and the new blade is taken out from the first holding shaft and held. Rotate the arm again to the spindle position, fit the new blade to the spindle mounting part with the blade gripping means, screw the tightening nut with the nut attaching / detaching means to fix the new blade, and finally move the arm back to the original position. Return to position. In this way, the replacement work of the old and new blades can be carried out fully automatically and efficiently.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example in which the present invention is applied to a dicing apparatus will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 4 is a dicing device, in which a cassette 4a containing an object to be cut such as a semiconductor wafer is placed in the cassette mounting area A, and the object to be cut in the cassette 4a is placed in a standby area by the loading / unloading means 4b. It is carried out to B. The workpiece to be cut out is transferred to the chuck table 4 by the transfer means 4c having a swing arm.
The chuck table 4d is moved to the alignment means 4e to position the cutting line of the object to be cut, the chuck table 4d is moved to the cutting region C, and is diced by the blade 1 attached to the spindle 2. . After the dicing, the chuck table 4d is returned to the original position, the object to be cut is conveyed to the cleaning unit 4g by the second conveying unit 4f, spin-cleaned and dried, and then returned to the standby region B by the conveying unit 4c. It is stored in the original position in the cassette 4a by the loading / unloading means 4b.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an automatic blade changer according to the present invention, which is disposed in the cutting area C of the dicing device 4 and has a blade rack 5a for accommodating old and new blades as shown in FIG. It consists of

The blade rack 5a is attached to the upper portion of a partition wall 4h having a substantially V-shaped cross section through a bracket 5c, and as shown in FIG. 2, a frame body 6 and columns 6a of the frame body 6.
It is composed of a movable body 7 which can be detached and attached. Movable body 7
On the front of the first holding shaft 7a for holding the new blade 1 '
And a second holding shaft 7b for holding the old blade are juxtaposed with each other, and stoppers 8 and 9 for preventing the blade from coming off are provided at the tips of these, respectively.

The stopper 8 of the first holding shaft 7a is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the tip ends of the pair of claw pieces 8a are urged outward by springs 8b, and substantially the middle part is a movable stopper pivotally supported by a pin 8c. Operated by. That is, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the engaging rod 6b is advanced by an air cylinder or the like and the tip portion thereof is inserted between the claw pieces 8a, the tip portion of the claw piece 8a closes the spring 8b and closes inward. As a result, the new blade 1'can be freely fitted and removed. When the engaging rod 6b is retracted and removed from between the claw pieces 8a as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the tip of the claw piece 8a opens outward due to the restoring force of the spring 8b,
Prevent the new blade 1'from falling off. On the other hand, the stopper 9 of the second holding shaft 7b is a fixed stopper and is formed in a flange shape slightly smaller than the diameter of the mounting hole of the blade, and the blade loosely fitted on the second holding shaft 7b is detached. Prevent.

The blade exchanging means 5b is a partition wall 4h.
An arm 10 which is disposed in front of the arm 10 and swivels between the blade rack 5a and the spindle 2 by a drive source such as a pulse motor as shown in FIG. 4, and a blade grip provided at the end of the arm 10. It is composed of means 11 and nut attaching / detaching means 12. As shown by phantom lines in FIG. 1, an opening / closing cover 4i is automatically slidable on the partition wall 4h by an air cylinder or the like. When the opening / closing cover 4i is opened, the cutting area C is opened and the blade 1 is opened. It becomes possible to replace it, and when it is closed, the cutting area C is hidden and cutting water or the like is prevented from scattering during dicing.

The blade gripping means 11 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), two or more (three in the illustrated example) rocking pieces 11a are provided on the front surface in the circumferential direction.
When one end is pivotally supported 11b and swings inward in the radial direction, contacts the outer periphery of the boss portion 1b (FIG. 10) of the blade 1 to grip the blade, and swings outward in the radial direction. It is designed to open the blade. In addition, a ring-shaped protrusion 11 that fits into the mounting hole 1a of the blade 1 is provided at the center of the front surface.
c is formed, and the blade gripping means 11 is formed so as to be able to move forward and backward by a cylinder 10a attached to the arm 10.

As shown in FIG. 6 (a), the nut attaching / detaching means 12 has a nut pressing portion 12a provided on the front surface and a spindle pressing portion 12b provided at the central portion, and the nut pressing portion 12a is It is composed of two or more (four in the illustrated example) convex portions 13 arranged in the circumferential direction, and these convex portions 13 are fitted into the concave portions 3a (FIG. 10) formed in the nut 3,
In addition, the pair of left and right convex portions 13 'are formed so as to be inclined inward with respect to each other. That is, the pair of left and right convex portions 13 'are attached to the bracket 14, one end side of the bracket 14 is pivotally supported by the tip end portion of the stay 15 provided in the notch concave portion 12c, and the other end side bifurcated portion is formed. It is pivotally supported by the tip of the piston rod 16 of a small air cylinder, and when this piston rod 16 moves forward, it changes from the state shown in FIG. 6B to the state shown in FIG. The respective nuts 3 are inclined inwardly via the so that the nut 3 can be gripped.

Further, the nut pressing portion 12a is formed non-rotatably, and the spindle pressing portion 12b is formed rotatably. The spindle pressing portion 12b has a tip engaged with a hexagonal engaging hole 2c (see FIG. 10) formed in the tip surface of the spindle 2 so that the spinle 2 can be rotated. That is, the nut 3 is pressed by the nut pressing portion 12a in a non-rotating state, and the spindle 2 is rotated by the spindle pressing portion 12b.
The nut 3 can be loosened and removed from b. Further, when the nut 3 is fitted, the nut 3 can be fastened to the threaded portion 2b of the spindle 2 by rotating the spindle 2 in the reverse direction with the spindle pressing portion 12b while pressing the nut 3 non-rotatably by the nut pressing portion 12a. I can.

The automatic blade changer according to the present invention is constructed as described above, and the blade replacement work will be described in order with reference to FIGS. 7 to 9. First, as shown in FIG. 7A, the first blade rack 5a of the blade rack 5a will be described. The holding shaft 7a holds a plurality of (two in the illustrated example) new blades 1 ', and the spindle 2 is equipped with the blades 1 (old blades) to be replaced. When the blade 1 of the spindle 2 is replaced, as shown in FIG.
The arm attaching / detaching means 1 is rotated by rotating the arm 10 as shown in FIG.
Position 2 on spindle 2. In addition, 17 is an arm 1
It is a return spring that facilitates the turning movement of 0.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7C, the spindle 2
(Specifically, the spindle unit 2 ') is moved forward, the nut attaching / detaching means 12 loosens the nut 3, and the nut pressing portion 12
a and hold the spindle 2 as shown in Fig. 7 (d).
To remove nut 3 completely.

Thereafter, the blade gripping means 11 is positioned with respect to the spindle 2 as shown in FIG. 7 (e), the spindle 2 is advanced as shown in FIG. 7 (f), and at the same time as shown in FIG. 8 (g). The blade 1 is fitted into the ring-shaped projection 11c and held via the swing piece 11a, and the spindle 2 is retracted to completely remove the blade 1 from the mounting portion 2a.

From this state, as shown in FIG.
Is swung to move the blade holding means 11 to the second holding shaft 7b.
Position, and the cylinder 10a is operated to advance the blade gripping means 11 to move the blade 1 to the second holding shaft 7
After fitting to b and releasing the grip of the rocking piece 11a, FIG.
As described above, the blade gripping means 11 is retracted to hold the blade 1 on the second holding shaft 7b.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 8 (n), the arm 10 is rotated to position the blade gripping means 11 on the first holding shaft 7a, the blade gripping means 11 is advanced by the cylinder 10a, and the swinging piece 11a is moved. Hold the new blade 1 '. At this time, the engaging rod 6b of the frame 6 is actuated to unlock the movable stopper 8 of the first holding shaft 7a. After this release, the new blade 1'can be pulled out from the first holding shaft 7a by retracting the blade gripping means 11 as shown in FIG. After removing the new blade 1 ', the stopper 8 is locked again.

The blade gripping means 11 is positioned on the spindle 2 by rotating the arm 10 as shown in FIG. 8 (w) while holding the new blade 1 ', and the spindle 2 is advanced to move the new blade 1'. Insert into the mounting portion 2a. After the insertion, the swing piece 11a is released and the spindle 2 is retracted as shown in FIG.

After that, the arm 10 is swung as shown in FIG. 9F to position the nut attaching / detaching means 12 on the spindle 2, and the spindle 2 is moved forward as shown in FIG. Tighten the held nut 3 to the mounting portion 2a. The tightening of the nut 3 can be performed by holding the nut 3 non-rotatably by the nut pressing portion 12a and rotating the spindle 2 by the spindle pressing portion 12b as described above.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 9 (A), the spindle 2 is retracted, the arm 10 is rotated, and the blade exchanging means 5b is moved.
The replacement work is completed by returning the to the original position. In this way, the blade 1 of the spindle 2 and the new blade 1'of the blade rack 5a can be exchanged fully automatically and efficiently.

The number of new blades 1'held in the blade rack 5a may be one, but may be two or three or more. Further, since the movable body 7 of the blade rack 5a can be attached to and detached from the frame body 6 as described above, when the new blade 1'of the first holding shaft 7a is completely replaced, it is removed from the frame body 6 and new. The blades are refilled and the old blades collected on the second holding shaft are removed.
Further, in the present invention, the blade cover having a function of supplying cutting water to the blade is omitted for ease of explanation, but in practice, the blade cover is provided,
It is configured to retract to a position where it does not get in the way when the blade is replaced. Further, by disposing the blade detecting means on the blade cover, it is possible to automatically detect the chipping of the blade and the like, and output a blade replacement instruction to the CPU to fully automatically replace the blade.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In precision cutting equipment such as dicing, it is possible to provide an automatic blade changer that automatically and efficiently replaces the blade mounted on the spindle, reducing the burden on the operator and facilitating FA operation. It has excellent effects such as remarkably improving efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example in which the present invention is applied to a dicing device.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a blade rack.

FIG. 3 shows a stopper of the first holding shaft,
(A) is an explanatory view showing a state in which the new blade is locked, and (B) is a state in which the lock is released.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an auto blade changer.

5A and 5B show a blade gripping means, wherein FIG. 5A is a perspective view and FIG. 5B is a front view for explaining the movement of the swing piece.

6A and 6B show a nut attaching / detaching means, wherein FIG. 6A is a perspective view, FIG. 6B is a plan view, and FIG.

7A to 7F are explanatory views showing the operation of the auto blade changer.

8A to 8C are explanatory views showing the operation of the auto blade changer following FIG.

9A to 9C are explanatory views showing the operation of the auto blade changer following FIG.

FIG. 10A is a perspective view showing a state in which a blade is mounted on a spindle, and FIG. 10B is an exploded perspective view thereof.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Blade 1a ... Mounting hole 1b ... Boss 2
… Spindle 2a… Mounting part 2b… Screw part 2
c ... Engagement hole 3 ... Nut 3a ... Recess 4 ... Dicing device 5 ... Auto blade changer 5a ...
Blade rack 5b ... Blade exchanging means 6 ... Frame 7 ... Movable body 7a ... First holding shaft 7b ... Second holding shaft 8, 9 ... Stopper 8a ... Claw piece
8b ... Spring 10 ... Arm 11 ... Blade gripping means 11a ... Oscillating piece 12 ... Nut attaching / detaching means 1
2a ... Nut pressing part 12b ... Spindle pressing part 13
… Convex part 14… Bracket 15… Stay 16
… Piston rod

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shigemasa Oya 2-10-19, Step-in, Ueda-shi, Nagano Ueda Nihon Radio Co., Ltd. No. 19 Ueda Nihon Radio Co., Ltd.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An auto blade changer for automatically attaching and detaching a blade to and from a spindle provided in a precision cutting device, the auto blade changer comprising a blade rack for accommodating a new blade and an old blade, At least an arm pivoting between the blade rack and the spindle is provided, and a blade gripping means for gripping a blade and a nut attaching / detaching means for attaching / detaching a nut to / from the spindle are provided at an end of the arm. Auto blade changer. 2. The blade rack comprises a frame body and a movable body which can be attached to and detached from the frame body. The movable body holds a first holding shaft for holding a new blade and an old blade. The automatic blade changer according to claim 1, wherein a second holding shaft is provided. 3. The automatic blade changer according to claim 2, wherein stoppers for preventing the blade from falling are formed at the ends of the first holding shaft and the second holding shaft. 4. The auto blade according to claim 3, wherein the stopper formed on the first holding shaft is a movable stopper biased by a spring, and the stopper formed on the second holding shaft is a fixed stopper. changer. 5. The automatic blade changer according to claim 2, wherein each of the first holding shaft and the second holding shaft can hold two or more blades. 6. The blade gripping means includes two or more swinging pieces, and the swinging pieces swing inward in the radial direction and contact the outer periphery of the boss portion of the blade to grip the blade, 6. The auto blade changer according to claim 1, which swings outward to open the blade. 7. The nut attaching / detaching means includes a nut pressing portion and a spindle pressing portion, and the nut is attached / detached to / from the spindle by relative rotation of the nut pressing portion and the spindle pressing portion. Auto blade changer as described. 8. The automatic blade changer according to claim 7, wherein the nut pressing portion is configured to be non-rotating and the spindle pressing portion is configured to be rotatable. 9. The nut retainer has two or more protrusions corresponding to the recesses formed in the nut. The nut retainer is attached and detached against rotation of the spindle retainer, and the protrusion is displaced. 9. The automatic blade changer according to claim 7, wherein the nut is gripped by a lever.