JPH08143093A - Alignment device for flat platelike work in cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain an alignment device to align two or more flat platelike works that are contained in a cassette. CONSTITUTION: An alignment device has such a constitution that two or more cassettes containing two or more flat platelike works are put on a mount stand, a moving frame 31 moves along rails 34 laid along the mount stand and a pair of side arrangement arms 41 and 42 that are rotatable on a vertical plane and enter the cassette from a side opening to hold the works are provided on the moving frame 31. The alignment device is on standby with the side arrangement arms 41 and 42 kept upright. When the cassette is put on the mount stand, the moving frame 31 approaches the cassette that is mounted. The pair of the side arrangement arms 41 and 42 is turned until the pair faces the side opening of the cassette and enters the inside of the side opening to hold two or more works at a time. Thereby, the positions of the works that are out of order can be put in order while the cassette is carried.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an aligning device for aligning a plurality of flat plate-shaped works stored in a cassette.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the manufacturing process, a plurality of flat plate-shaped works W, for example, liquid crystal glass substrates are stored and transported on a shelf 11 of a cassette 10 shown in FIG. It is supposed to be carried to the process of. The cassette 10 is provided with a back plate 12 so that the work W does not fly backward. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, a gap S is provided between the side surface of the cassette 10 and the edge of the work W for facilitating the loading and unloading of the work W.

[0003]

However, in such a cassette 10, the position of the work W is shifted by the gap S as shown in FIG. However, there is a problem in that the worker cannot correct the positional deviation every time, and the worker cannot correct the positional deviation every time.

[0004]

According to the present invention, a movable frame which moves on a rail along a mounting table on which a plurality of cassettes each accommodating a plurality of flat plate-shaped works are mounted is provided from a side opening hole of the cassette. The above problem is solved by the aligning device in which the pair of width-adjusting arms that enter and sandwich the work in the cassette are rotatably provided on the vertical surface.

[0005]

The aligning device is in a standby state with the width-shifting arm facing upward or downward. The cassette accommodates the work, is carried by the carrying device, and is placed at a predetermined position on the placing table. The moving frame moves to the side of the mounted cassette. After that, the pair of width-adjusting arms rotate to a horizontal state, face the side surface opening hole of the cassette, and enter into the side surface opening hole to clamp the work in the cassette. As a result, it is possible to correct the positions of the works that are displaced in the cassette during the transport of the cassette, and align the positions of all the works.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the configuration of the aligning device 20 will be described.
The aligning device 20 is a device for aligning a plurality of flat plate-shaped works (specifically, liquid crystal glass substrates) housed in the cassette 10. As shown in FIG. 4, the aligning device 20 is incorporated in the work taking-out system 21.

The work pick-up system 21 uses a transfer machine (not shown) to mount the cassette 10 conveyed by a cassette conveyor 22 capable of forward and reverse rotation on a mounting table 23,
23, and the cassette 10 is moved by the aligning device 20.
After aligning the positions of the works W in the inside, the works W are taken out from the cassette 10 one by one by the robot 24 and transferred to the processing device 25 of the next process.

As shown in FIG. 1, the aligning device 20 has a structure in which a pair of width-adjusting arms 41 and 42 are provided on a moving frame 31. The moving frame 31 is movably provided on a fixed frame 32 installed on the floor by a moving frame linear motion bearing 33. The moving frame linear motion bearing 33 is known, and includes a rail 34 laid on the fixed frame 32, a pair of moving bodies 35, 35 attached to the bottom surface of the moving frame 31 and movable on the rail 34, and the like. It is composed of.

The fixed frame 32 has a movable frame 31.
A moving frame cylinder 36 for reciprocating is provided. Cylinder 37 of moving frame cylinder 36
Is attached to the fixed frame 32, and the piston 3
The tip of 8 is attached to the moving frame 31.
In addition, between the moving frame 31 and the fixed frame 32,
A publicly known bendable cable bear 39 for accommodating and protecting a power source, pressure oil, a power cable for sending compressed air, a hydraulic hose, and an air hose is connected to each drive unit on the moving frame 31.

A pair of L-shaped arm support brackets 43 and 44 are movably provided on the moving frame 31 by means of support bracket linear motion bearings 45 and 46. Linear motion bearing 45 for support bracket,
Reference numeral 46 is publicly known, and mainly includes rails 47 and 48 laid on the moving frame 31, and moving bodies 49 and 50 that are attached to the bottom surfaces of the arm support brackets 43 and 44 and can move on the rails 47 and 48. It is composed of.

A pair of arm support brackets 43, 44
Are moved toward and away from each other by the approaching and spacing driving device 60. The approaching / separating drive device 60 includes the arm support bracket 43 on the left side in FIG.
1, an approaching / separating cylinder 61, a rotating disc 63 rotatably provided on a central shaft 62 provided upright on the moving frame 31, and a pair of arm supports for supporting the rotating disc 63. It is composed of connecting links 64 and 65 for connecting the brackets 43 and 44.

The cylinder 66 portion of the approaching / separating cylinder 61 is attached to the moving frame 31, and the piston 67 is attached.
1 is the arm support bracket 43 on the left side in FIG.
Attached to. As shown in FIG. 3, one end of each of the connecting links 64 and 65 is rotatably provided on both sides of the rotating disc 63 with the central axis 62 therebetween.

Therefore, when the piston 67 of the approaching / separating cylinder 61 of the approaching / separating drive device 60 is pulled into the cylinder 66, the left arm support bracket 43 in FIG. 1 moves to the right while the connecting link 64 rotates. The arm support bracket 44 on the right side is pulled to the left via the disc 63 and the connecting link 65. Further, when the piston 67 pulled into the cylinder 66 is projected, the left arm support bracket 43 moves leftward in FIG. 1, and the right arm via the connecting link 64, the rotating disk 63, and the connecting link 65. The support bracket 44 is pushed to the right and moved. In this way, the approaching / separating drive device 60
The pair of arm support brackets 43, 44 can be moved toward and away from each other by the operation of the approaching and spacing cylinder 61.

The pair of arm support brackets 43, 44 are provided with width-shifting arms 41, 42. The width-shifting arms 41 and 42 are a pair of arm support brackets 4.
A pair of parallel links 68, 69, 70, 71 rotatably attached to the vertical surfaces of the parallel links 3, 4, and a pair of workpiece holding pieces 7 rotatably provided at the ends of the parallel links.
2, 73.

Of the parallel links, the lower links 69 and 71
Are connected to rotary actuators 74 and 75 provided on the arm support brackets 43 and 44. The rotary actuators 74 and 75 include an air motor and an electric motor. The workpiece clamping pieces 72, 73 have such a length and width that they can enter the side surface opening hole 13 of the cassette 10.

Next, the operation of the aligning device 20 will be described. When the cassette 10 is placed on the mounting table 23, it moves to the side of the cassette 10 by the operation of the moving frame cylinder 36. At this time, the parallel links 68, 69, 70, 71 of the width-shifting arms 41, 42 are rotated upward by the rotary actuators 74, 75 as shown by the phantom lines in FIG.

Therefore, the work holding pieces 70, 71 move upward and approach the arm support brackets 43, 44 as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. 2 to avoid interference with the cassette 10. The width-shifting arms 41, 42 may be faced downward and kept in standby. In this case, the width-shifting arms 41 and 42 need to be provided at a height that does not interfere with the fixed frame 32.

When the moving frame 31 moves near the cassette 10, the rotary actuators 74 and 75 operate to bring the parallel links 68, 69, 70 and 71 into a horizontal state as shown by the solid line in FIG. At the same time, the work holding pieces 70, 71 move downward as shown by the phantom line in FIG. 2, are positioned on both sides of the cassette 10, and face the side opening holes 13 of the cassette 10.

After that, the approaching / separating cylinder 61 of the approaching / separating drive device 60 is operated to operate the pair of work holding pieces 70,
Bring 71 closer together. Then, the pair of work holding pieces 70, 71 enter the side surface opening holes 13 of the cassette 10 and simultaneously press the edges of the plurality of works W in the cassette 10. As a result, the edges of the workpieces W that are not aligned during the transportation of the cassette 10 can be aligned and the vertical arrangement of the workpieces W can be arranged.

The pair of work holding pieces 70, 71 in which the works W are aligned are separated from each other by the operation of the approaching / separating cylinder 61, come out of the cassette 10, and are lifted up by the operation of the rotary actuators 74, 75. , Stop at the position indicated by the imaginary line in FIG. After that, the work W is transferred to the cassette 1 by the robot 24 shown in FIG.
The sheets are taken out one by one from 0 and transferred to the processing device 25 in the next step.

On the other hand, the emptied cassette 10 is transferred to the cassette conveyor 22 (see FIG. 4) by a transfer machine (not shown).
(Refer to above) and is transported to the place where new work is stored. In addition, the moving frame 31 of the aligning device 20
Moves to the side of another cassette 10 and similarly aligns the works W in that cassette 10.

In this way, the aligning device 20 causes the pair of width-adjusting arms 41 and 4 to move by the movement of the moving frame 31.
2 is moved to the side of the cassette 10 and the width-adjusting arms 41,
42 into the cassette 10 to align the edges of the work W that has become misaligned during the transport of the cassette 10,
You can arrange the vertical arrangement of.

[0023]

According to the aligning device of the present invention, a pair of width-adjusting arms can simultaneously sandwich a plurality of works in the cassette from both sides to align both ends of all the works for positioning. Therefore, the robot can sandwich the same position of each work and feed the work into the next process without any trouble. In the aligning device of the present invention, the movable frame is movably supported on the rails, so that the workpieces in other cassettes can be aligned while the robot takes out the workpieces. Therefore, the work for aligning the works performed by the aligning device and the work for taking out the works performed by the robot can be efficiently performed without interfering with each other. In the aligning device of the present invention, since the width-adjusting arm is rotatably provided on the movable frame in the vertical plane, the width-adjusting arm can be retracted except when aligning the workpieces, and the interference between the width-adjusting arm and the cassette can be prevented. Can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an alignment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the alignment device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of a work picking system in which an aligning device is incorporated.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cassette.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the cassette.

[Explanation of symbols] W work 10 cassette
13 Side Opening Hole 20 Aligning Device 23 Mounting Table
31 moving frame 34 rails 41, 42 width-shifting arm

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] January 10, 1995

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be amended] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Claims]

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0004

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0004]

According to the present invention, the inside of the cassette is inserted from a side opening hole of the cassette into a frame along a mounting table on which a cassette containing a plurality of flat plate-shaped works is mounted. A pair of width-adjusting arms that sandwich the work is installed.
The above-mentioned problems are solved by the digit alignment device.

[Procedure 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0005

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0005]

The aligning device is in a standby state with the width-altering arm facing upward or downward. The cassette accommodates the work, is carried by the carrying device, and is placed at a predetermined position on the placing table. The frame is located beside the mounted cassette. After that, the pair of width-adjusting arms rotate to a horizontal state, face the side surface opening hole of the cassette, and enter into the side surface opening hole to clamp the work in the cassette. As a result,
It is possible to correct the position of the work which is displaced in the cassette during the transportation of the cassette and align the positions of all the works.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0006

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 when a frame is a moving frame .
First, the configuration of the aligning device 20 will be described. Aligning device 20
Is an apparatus for aligning a plurality of flat plate-shaped works (specifically, liquid crystal glass substrates) housed in the cassette 10.
As shown in FIG. 4, the aligning device 20 is incorporated in the work taking-out system 21.

[Procedure Amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

The fixed frame 32 has a movable frame 31.
A moving frame cylinder 36 for reciprocating is provided. Cylinder 37 of moving frame cylinder 36
Is attached to the fixed frame 32, and the piston 3
The tip of 8 is attached to the moving frame 31.
In addition, between the moving frame 31 and the fixed frame 32,
A well-known bendable cable carrier (registered trademark) for accommodating and protecting a power supply cable for supplying power, pressure oil, compressed air, a hydraulic hose, and an air hose to each drive device on the moving frame 31.
Mark 39 is connected.

[Procedure correction 6]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0023

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0023]

According to the aligning apparatus of the first aspect , a plurality of works in the cassette can be simultaneously sandwiched by the pair of width-shifting arms from both sides, and both ends of all the works can be aligned and positioned. Therefore, the robot can sandwich the same position of each work and feed the work into the next process without any trouble. As in the aligning device of claim 2,
When the boom is a moving frame , the frame is movably supported on the rails, so that the workpieces in other cassettes can be aligned while the robot takes out the workpieces. Therefore, the work for aligning the works performed by the aligning device and the work for taking out the works performed by the robot can be efficiently performed without interfering with each other. Also, when the movable frame is provided so that the width-shifting arm can rotate on the vertical surface,
The width-adjusting arm can be retracted except when aligning the works, and the interference between the width-adjusting arm and the cassette can be prevented.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A work in the cassette is inserted from a side opening hole of the cassette into a moving frame that moves on a rail along a mounting table on which a plurality of cassettes containing a plurality of flat plate-shaped works are placed. An aligning device for a flat plate-like work in a cassette, which is provided with a pair of width-adjusting arms rotatably on a vertical plane.