JPH0741830B2 - Carrier with self-cleaning function - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a carrier vehicle with a self-cleaning function, which is suitable for carrying an object to be transported that does not like dust and the like.

[Conventional technology]

Products such as semiconductors have been consistently manufactured in a clean room in order to prevent adhesion of dust and the like, but in recent years, there is a tendency to provide a clean room for each process.In this case, intermediate products are sequentially A transport vehicle for transporting to the clean room of the next process is required. In addition, a carrier is required to transfer the intermediate product from device to device in each process.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

As this type of transportation vehicle, an unmanned transportation vehicle may be used, but conventionally, in order to prevent adhesion of dust or the like to intermediate products or products, the transported object is, for example, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, In the case of “wafer”), since the cassette containing the wafer is housed in each case and transported, there is a problem that the time required for transportation is long and the productivity is affected. In addition, since the air cleanliness of the transport space and the transfer (handling) space must be increased to a required level, there is a problem that the cost for that is high.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even if the object to be conveyed is directly put in and taken out and conveyed, it can prevent dust and the like from adhering during conveyance or handling The purpose is to provide a car.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

A main body for accommodating an object to be transferred therein, a main body which is closed during transfer, and an openable / closable lid for the main body which is opened during handling of the object to be transferred. A hood that is formed to have an opening, a switch that detects when the opening of the hood has reached a predetermined opening, a carrier box that includes an air purification unit that supplies purified air to the inside of the main body, and a inside of the main body. The transferred object stored is loaded with a transfer robot that enters through the opening and handles the transferred object through the transfer port, and an air curtain unit that forms an air curtain that covers the opening. The air curtain unit starts its operation by using the output of the switch as an operation command, and the air purification unit can switch the strength of the clean air supply air flow and the operation of the switch. Upon receipt of the decree, in which was configured to automatically switch the clean air supply air volume to the "strong".

[Action]

According to the present invention, by supplying clean air to the inside of the main body of the transfer box by the air purification unit, the clean air is blown to the outside from the transferred object transfer port and the opening, and the air curtain that covers the opening is provided. It is designed to be formed by a unit.

At this time, since the transfer robot enters the opening of the transfer box, the external air on the transfer robot side easily flows into the main body of the transfer box when the transfer robot enters. However, since the above-mentioned opening is provided separately from the transferred object transfer port, it is possible to limit the inflow amount of external air by the transfer robot. When the outside air tries to flow in together with the transfer robot when entering the inside of the transfer box body, the transfer air is forcibly removed by the clean air and the air curtain blown out from the inside of the transfer box body. The inflow of external air containing a lot of dust on the side is reliably prevented. Further, when the transported object is transported, the main body of the transport box is covered with the hood, and external air does not enter the inside of the main body.

As a result, the ingress of outside air into the main body is sufficiently prevented by the operation of the air purification unit and the air curtain unit, the opening and closing of the hood, and the opening provided separately from the transfer port for the transferred object. The inside of the main body of the box can be filled with clean air, and it is possible to prevent dust and the like from adhering to the transported object during handling and transportation. Further, according to the present invention, since the transfer robot is mounted, it is not necessary to install a device required for handling, which is a factor of dust generation, in each process, and it is possible to reduce dust generation.

〔Example〕

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

In FIGS. 1 to 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage of an automated guided vehicle M which uses a storage battery as a driving power source, and a drive wheel and its drive mechanism, a guide wire sensor, a mark sensor, etc. are provided under the floor, though not shown. The storage battery, the traveling control device, the operation program device, and the like are housed inside, and the ceiling is covered with a horizontal base 5. 5 on the front part 5A of the horizontal base 5 of the carriage 1.
A transfer robot 6 having a degree of freedom is mounted on the front part of the robot.
The transport box 7 is placed and fixed on the rear side of 5A.

The transport box 7 includes a bottom wall 8, front and rear side walls 9 and 10 and a ventilation part 11 when the traveling direction of the automatic guided vehicle M is the front-back direction.
It is composed of a main body 12 having a back wall 11 formed with a and a hood 14 for covering an opening (transported object transfer opening) 13 of the main body 12.

The hood 14 has a lid 15 having a cross-sectional shape along the edge of the side wall 9 on the side of the opening 13 and a cover plate portion that is bent from the rear side edge of the lid 15 to cover the side wall 10 of the main body 12. A strip-shaped edge portion 17 is provided at the front end edge of the side wall 16 to cover the edge portion of the side wall 9, and is hinge-supported by the back wall 11. This body 12
An air purification unit (clean unit) 18 is attached to the outside of the back wall 11 of the. The clean unit 18 has a blower 19 and a filter 20 built therein. An air curtain unit 21 is attached to the outer surface of the side wall 9 with its air outlet port facing upward. 22 is an air curtain unit
21 electric fans. The hood 14 has a hood opening fixing / releasing mechanism (for example, one-touch stay) 23 as shown in FIG. 4 (a) (the hood open state is shown in FIG. 4 (b)).
Is connected to the clean unit 18 (or the main body 12), and the hood opening fixing / release mechanism 23 is a cylinder 23.
It has A and a rod 23B, one end of the cylinder 23A is rotatably connected to the clean unit 18, and the end of the rod 23B is rotatably connected to the hood 14. A switch (for example, a U-shaped photoelectric switch) 24 is attached to the upper end of the inner surface of the side wall 10 on the rear side of the main body 12, as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). , A driver (dog) 25 for driving the switch 24 is a hood
The detection signal which is attached to the lid portion 15 of 14 and which is sent by the switch 24 is used as a command signal for energizing the relay Ry shown in FIG. RY1, RY2 and RY3 are relays R
It is the contact point of y. Further, a hook 26 for engaging the robot arm for opening and closing is attached to the upper surface of the hood 14. The relay
The contact Ry1 of Ry performs the operation of switching between the power supply E _H and the power supply E _L (<E _H ), and the contact RY2 performs the operation of switching between the power supply E _H and the zero potential. The contact Ry3 is provided to notify the transfer robot 6 of the open / closed state of the hood 14. In addition, power supply E _H ,
E _L is taken out from the storage battery mounted on the truck 1. D is a diode.

The main body 1 houses a table 27 on which a wafer cassette C (FIG. 7) is placed. The table 27 is supported at its back wall 11 side end portion on the back wall 11 by a hinge mechanism. The opposite end side is supported by the electric cylinder 28.

Next, the operation of this device will be described.

Now, it is assumed that the automated guided vehicle M is moving toward the station of the process to be stopped after the wafer cassette C containing the wafer W is transferred onto the table 27 at the station of the certain process. At this time, the main body of the transport box 7
12 is covered with a hood 14, and contacts RY1, RY of relay Ry
2, and RY3 are in the state shown in FIG. 6, the air purified by the filter 20 of the clean unit 18 is supplied to the inside of the main body 12 through the ventilation part 11a, and the inside of the main body 12 is filled with the clean air. ing. During this time, the electric fan 22 of the air curtain unit 21 is stopped.

Further, the wafer cassette C is not placed in the posture shown in FIG. 7, but is placed on the table 27 in a posture in which this posture is laid sideways in the direction of the arrow. In this posture, vibrations when the automatic guided vehicle M travels, etc. The wafer W may fall out of the wafer cassette C due to the
Is in a slightly tilted position rather than in a horizontal position, it fits better in the groove C1 in the wafer cassette C and the corners of the wafer W are less likely to be chipped. , The table 27 is tilted by a predetermined angle as shown by the dotted line in FIG.

When the automatic guided vehicle M travels to the station of the next step and stops, the playback system transfer robot 6 starts a pre-instructed operation in response to a command from the operation programmer device, and the hook 26 is released. Hook to open the hood 14 upward as shown in FIG. The hood 14 has a predetermined angle Θ
It opens upward by (the opening angle at which the robot arm that has entered the body 12 can operate), the rod 23B of the hood opening fixing / releasing mechanism 23 extends to the full extent, and the rod 23B is fixed. Is sent.

As a result, the lily Ry is energized, and its contact RY1
Is switched to the power source E _H side, and at the same time, the contact RY2 is switched to the power source E _H side, the rotation speed of the blower 19 is increased, and the amount of clean air supplied into the main body 12 is increased. Further, the contact RY3 is turned on to control the transfer robot 6 (not shown).
Detects that the hood 14 has been opened, and outputs a forward movement command to the electric cylinder 28. The rod of the electric cylinder 28 extends and the table 27 returns to the horizontal posture. This allows the body
Since clean air is strongly blown out from the inside of 12 toward the opening 13, the outside air is prevented from entering the inside of the main body 12 through the opening 13. At the same time, air curtain unit
The electric fan 22 of 21 starts to rotate and blows air upward along the side wall 10 to form an opening (robot arm insertion / removal opening) 13 between the open hood 14 and the front side wall 10.
An air curtain covering A is made to block the entry of external air into the main body 12.

Then, the transfer robot 6 moves the arm from the opening 13A to the main body 12
To open the wafer cassette C from above the table 27.
The operation of taking out to the outside through 13 and transferring to a predetermined position of the station is started.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the clean air is supplied from the clean unit 18 into the main body 12 during the transportation, the dust and the like enter the main body 12 and adhere to the wafer W. Prevent from doing.

Also, when the hood 14 is opened, the amount of clean air supplied from the clean unit 18 into the main body 12 increases,
Clean air is strongly blown out from the opening 12 and the hood 14 and the side wall 9 on the side where the arm of the transfer robot 6 is inserted.
Since the opening 13A between and is blocked by the air curtain,
It is also possible to prevent dust and the like from entering the main body 12 when the transferred object is transferred.

Further, in this embodiment, since the table 27 can be tilted, the object to be transferred is the cassette wafer C containing the wafer W.
In this case, the wafer W can be prevented from being damaged.

In the above embodiment, the air volume of the clean air sent out by the clean unit 18 is switched between the time of transportation and the time of transfer, but of course, a constant air volume may be used.

Further, in the present embodiment, clean air is supplied into the main body 12 even during transportation, but the transportation box 7 is not
In the case of a sealed structure in which the space between the main body 12 and the main body 12 is hermetically sealed, or if the transported object may have low air cleanliness, the clean air supply is stopped and the hood 14 is opened during transportation. The clean air may be supplied only during transfer.

Further, although the present embodiment has been described by taking an unmanned guided vehicle as an example, in the case of a guided vehicle guided by a guided vehicle, a station may be provided with a power cord for obtaining power sources Eh and El. .

In addition, in this embodiment, the transfer robot 6 opens and closes the hood 14.
However, a hood opening / closing drive mechanism controlled from the dolly 1 side may be provided.

In addition, when carrying in and out the transported object manually,
Since it is sufficient to start from 13, the edge portion 17 of the hood 14 has a size that covers the entire side wall 9, and the air curtain unit 21 may be omitted.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention operates the air purification unit and the air curtain unit when the transfer robot handles the transferred object with the hood open, and is provided separately from the transferred object transfer port. It is designed to allow the transfer robot to enter through the opening,
Since the main body of the transfer box is covered by the hood during transfer, it is possible to constantly fill the inside of the transfer box with clean air, and prevent dust from adhering to the transferred object. It has become. Therefore,
The time required for handling and transportation can be shortened compared to the conventional method, and the air cleanliness of the handling space and the transportation space can be low, so the cost for securing these spaces can be saved. It will be possible. Furthermore, since the transfer robot is mounted, it is not necessary to install equipment required for handling, which is a factor of dust generation, in each process, and it is possible to reduce dust generation. Further, by starting the operation of the air purification unit using the output of the switch as the operation command, it is possible to turn off the air purification unit during normal transportation when the airtightness is good.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention, in which some components are omitted, FIG. 2 is a side view in which some of the above embodiments are omitted, and FIG.
The figure is a rear view in which a part of the above embodiment is omitted, FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b) are views showing a closed state and an open state of the hood of the above embodiment, and FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). 6A and 6B are views showing a switch when the hood is closed and a switch when the hood is opened in the above embodiment, FIG. 6 is a view showing an electric circuit in the above embodiment, and FIG. It is a perspective view shown. 1 ... carrier truck, 7 ... transport box, 12 ... main body, 13, 13A ... opening, 14 ... hood, 18 ... air purification unit, 21 ... air curtain unit, 24 ... switch, 25 ... Dog.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-63-130466 (JP, A) Actually opened 59-140434 (JP, U) Actually opened 62-686867 (JP, U)

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A body for accommodating an object to be conveyed, a main body that is closed during transportation and an openable / closable lid so that the main body is opened during handling of the object to be conveyed. A hood formed to have a material transfer port and an opening, a switch for detecting that the opening of the hood has reached a predetermined opening, and a carrier box including an air purification unit for supplying purified air into the main body. A transfer robot that enters the transferred object housed inside the main body through the opening and handles the transferred object through the transfer port, and an air curtain unit that forms an air curtain that covers the opening. The air curtain unit starts to operate with the output of the switch as an operation command, and the air purification unit is installed.
A transport vehicle with a self-cleaning function, which is capable of switching the strength of the clean air supply, and automatically switches the strength of the clean air supply to "strong" when a switch operation command is received. 2. A main body for accommodating an object to be conveyed, a main body which is closed when being conveyed, and which is openably and closably closed so that the main body is opened when handling the object to be conveyed. A hood formed to have a material transfer port and an opening, a switch for detecting that the opening of the hood has reached a predetermined opening, and a carrier box including an air purification unit for supplying purified air into the main body. A transfer robot that enters the transferred object housed inside the main body through the opening and handles the transferred object through the transfer port, and an air curtain unit that forms an air curtain that covers the opening. The air-purifying unit and the air-curtain unit, which are mounted, start operation by using the output of the switch as an operation command, and the self-cleaning function is provided. . 3. A main body contains a tiltable table and a cylinder device for tilting and displacing the table, and the table takes a tilted posture at a predetermined angle according to the closing movement of the hood. A carrier vehicle with a self-cleaning function according to claim 1. 4. The guided vehicle with a self-cleaning function according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the guided vehicle is an unmanned guided vehicle. 5. A carrier vehicle with a self-cleaning function according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the carrier vehicle is a hand guided vehicle and has a power cord.