JPH0969548A - Transfer system for thin board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save the space by shortening the time required for transferring a thin board. SOLUTION: First distance sensors 27A, 27B are disposed at two positions in the longitudinal direction in the vicinity of one side face of a glass board W contained in a cassette C. A robot 3 disposed movably to the left and right in front of the thin board has a hand part 5 arranged movably up and down and back and forth and rotatably on a horizontal plane and a second distance sensor is disposed above the robot 3. When the cassette C is mounted on the base 1 of a transfer system M, the first distance sensors 27A, 27B measure the distance to the side face of glass board W contained in the cassette C and a controller 38 mounted on the base 1 controls the robot to correct the positional and angular shifts of glass board by an amount calculated in the controller 38. Subsequently, a second distance sensor 59 measures the distance to the front face of glass board W and the controller moves the hand arm 5C of robot 3 to suck the glass board W and to transfer the glass board W to a cassette for next step.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin substrate carrying device for centering and accommodating a thin thin substrate such as a glass substrate used for a liquid crystal panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when processing a glass substrate housed in a cassette in the next step, the glass substrate must be accurately placed in a predetermined position in the cassette. This is because when the glass substrate is conveyed by a robot or the like, if it is displaced from a predetermined position, a setting failure will occur during the processing in the next step. Therefore, the glass substrates conventionally stored in the cassette are taken out one by one, conveyed to a glass substrate centering device arranged at a position different from the cassette, and centered on the spot, and then the glass substrate is originally returned. Were stored in the cassette that had been stored, or in the cassette for the next process one by one.

[0003]

However, in the conventional centering method, since a centering device for glass substrates is separately arranged and transferred one by one to the centering device, a large transfer time is required for the transfer operation. In addition, a large space for installing the centering device was required.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and by allowing a robot to attract a thin substrate housed in a cassette and at the same time perform centering,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thin substrate carrying device which can eliminate the centering device, save space in the room, and can significantly reduce the time for carrying the thin substrate.

[0005]

A thin substrate transporting device according to the present invention is a thin substrate transporting device for centering a thin substrate stored in a cassette and then transporting the thin substrate to a cassette in the next step, which is arranged on a machine base. A cassette, a first distance sensor that is disposed in at least two positions in the front-rear direction in the vicinity of one side surface of the thin substrate supported in the cassette, and that detects the distance to the side surface of the thin substrate in advance; While moving the substrate upward, a robot that is movable in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction and is rotatable on a horizontal plane, and inputs a signal from the first distance sensor,
A control device that outputs a signal to the robot, and the control device calculates correction amounts of positional deviation and angular deviation with respect to a predetermined position of the thin substrate based on the data detected by the first distance sensor. Correcting the calculated correction amount to move the robot into the cassette,
After the thin substrate is adsorbed, the thin substrate is conveyed to the next process cassette.

Further, it is preferable that the cassette is provided with support pieces capable of supporting the left and right lower surfaces of the thin substrate, respectively, in one stage on each side.

Further, the cassette may be provided with a plurality of supporting pieces, which can support the left and right lower surfaces of the thin substrate, in a plurality of stages in the vertical direction.

Further, it is more preferable that the first distance sensor is supported by the elevating means so that it can be arranged at a side portion of the thin substrate supported by the supporting pieces of each stage.

It is further preferable that the robot includes a second distance sensor capable of detecting a distance from the front surface of the thin substrate.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

A thin substrate carrying device M of the embodiment is shown in FIGS.
4, the supporting frame 19 of the cassette C for storing and holding the rectangular plate-shaped glass substrate W as a thin substrate,
First held by two lifting means 29A, 29B
The distance sensor 27A / 27B, the robot 3 that moves up and down the glass substrate W and conveys it to the next process cassette, and the control device 38 that controls the operation of the robot 3 are configured.

The support frame 19 is a storage cassette placed on the machine base 1 of the apparatus M and capable of storing nine glass substrates W. The support frame 19 is provided at two locations near the bottom plate 20 and the left and right edges of the bottom plate 20. From each of the columns 22 and 24 extending upward from the
-A top plate 21 that connects 24 is configured. Then, on each of the columns 22 and 24, support pieces 23 and 25 capable of supporting the lower left and right ends of the glass substrate W are provided so as to face each other.

The robot 3 includes a horizontal moving part 4 formed in a casing at a lower part, a hand part 5 for moving a glass substrate W up and down and carrying the glass substrate W to a next process cassette, a horizontal moving part 4 and a hand part 5. It is configured to include a connection drive shaft 6 that connects and rotates the hand unit 5.

The horizontal moving section 4 is a driving section 40 for driving each operation of the hand section 5, and a guide rail fixed on the machine base 1 of the transporting apparatus in parallel with each other and displaced in the front-rear direction and fixed in the left-right direction. It is provided with a slider 8 guided by 7 · 7 and a screw rod 11 driven by a drive motor 10 fixed on the machine base 1 via a bracket 9.

The slider 8 has a guide rail 7 at the bottom.
A recessed groove 8a for fitting with 7 is formed, and a protrusion 8b with which the screw rod 11 is screwed is formed on the rear surface of the slider 8. The threaded rod 11 is the drive shaft 10 of the drive motor 10.
a.

Therefore, when the drive shaft 10a rotates, the slider 8 is guided by the guide rails 7 and moves in the left-right direction.

The drive unit 40 includes a hand unit 5 and a connecting drive shaft 6.
A drive mechanism that has been generally used in the past for linearly moving a thin plate such as a thin substrate is adopted, and a lower part of the connecting drive shaft 6 is rotatably supported. It is arranged in the body 41. A movable plate 42 for vertically moving the connection drive shaft 6 is provided below the connection drive shaft 6, and a ball screw 43 screwed to the movable plate 42 is connected to a drive motor 44 via a pulley. A drive motor 46 for rotating the connection drive shaft 6 is attached to the movable plate 42 on a pulley 45 attached to the lower end of the connection drive shaft 6 below the movable plate 42.

The hand part 5 includes a hollow first hand 5A connected to the connection drive shaft 6 via a bearing, a hollow second hand 5B and a second hand 5B connected at the tip of the first hand. It is provided with a hollow hand arm 5C connected at the tip.

The upper part of the connecting drive shaft 6 is the first hand 5A.
And a large-diameter hole 6 at the bottom along the axial center direction.
a, a drive motor 61 for forming a small-diameter hole 6b in the upper part and linearly moving the tip of the hand arm 5C;
A drive shaft 62 which is connected to the drive motor 61 and extends through the small diameter hole 6 b of the connection drive shaft 6 to extend above the connection drive shaft 6 is disposed in the connection drive shaft 6.

In the hollow portion of the first hand 5A, a large pulley 51 is fixed to the upper end of the extended connecting drive shaft 6, and the large pulley 51 includes a pulley 52 and a pulley 53 connected to the second arm 5B. Connected via a belt. Also, the first
An arm 55 fixed to the upper end of the drive shaft 62 is provided in the hollow portion of the hand 5A, and is connected to a pin 56 attached to the first hand 5A. Then, the drive motor 61 is driven to rotate the first hand 5A. Further, the upper portion of the pulley 53 is connected to the second arm 5B and configured to transmit the rotation of the first arm 5A to the second arm 5B. Further, the connection between the second arm 5B and the hand arm 5C is also configured via a pulley and a belt. Since this structure is a well-known structure as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-172689, details thereof will be omitted.

Four suction holes for sucking the glass substrate W are formed in the hand arm 5C and are connected to a suction air circuit (not shown). A sensor mount 58 is provided on the upper surface of the end portion of the hand arm 5C that is connected to the second arm, and the sensor mount 58 holds the second distance sensor 59. Then, the second distance sensor 59 measures the distance from the front end face of the glass substrate W using light of a laser or the like, and outputs an electric signal corresponding to the distance to the control device 38.

The hand arm 5C is connected to the controller 3
The rotation angle is set in advance based on the command of No. 8 and is inserted below the center of the glass substrate W at each stage, and the glass substrates W can be sequentially attracted and raised.

First distance sensors 27A and 27B (hereinafter referred to as 2
7 will be described. ) Uses light from a laser or the like, and ascending / descending means 29A / 29B (hereinafter, referred to as “positioning means”) is arranged at a position corresponding to the side surface position of the glass substrate W supported by the supporting pieces 23/25 of each stage. The distance between the glass substrate W and the left side surface of the glass substrate W is measured at two positions in the front-rear direction, and the electricity corresponding to the distance between the glass substrate W and each first distance sensor 27 is measured. The signal will be output to the control device 38 together with the second distance sensor 59.

The ascending / descending means 29 fixes the guide column 30 vertically installed on the machine base 1 and the first distance sensor 27, and is vertically slidable in the concave groove 30a of the guide column 30.
1 and the slider 31 fixed to the upper end surface of the guide column 30.
And a drive motor 33 for moving the motor up and down.

The drive shaft 33a of the drive motor 33 is connected to a screw rod 32 which is screwed into the screw hole of the slider 31. By the rotation of the drive shaft 33a, the slider 31 and the first distance sensor 27 of each stage are connected. The support pieces 23 and 25 are moved by the vertical distance.

The control device 38 is arranged at a predetermined position of the device M, receives an electric signal from the first distance sensor 27, and based on the measured data, corrects the lateral displacement of the glass substrate W in advance. And the correction amount of the angular deviation is calculated to control the position of the hand arm 5C. In addition, the second distance sensor 5
An electric signal from 9 is input to insert the hand arm 5C below the center of the glass substrate W to elevate the glass substrate W, and at the same time, the glass substrates W in each stage are centered.

The measurement of the distance between the first distance sensor 27 and the glass substrate is not limited to this embodiment. For example, the lifting means 29 can be moved left and right with respect to the cassette C, and an encoder is attached. The movement amount may be measured by the pulse amount of the encoder.

Next, the operation of the transporting device for the thin substrate constructed as described above will be described.

When the cassette C containing the glass substrate W is placed in the apparatus M, the first distance sensor 27 causes the drive motor 3 to move.
3 starts the lifting motion. Then, the distances to the side surfaces of all the glass substrates W stored in the cassette C are measured, and the data is output to the control device 38.

Assuming that the distance between the first distance sensor 27A and the glass substrate W as stored is X ₁ , and the distance between the side of the glass substrate W as 27B and X ₂ is X ₂ , the left and right sides of the glass substrate W are defined. The deviation X is represented by X = | X ₁ −X ₂ |. In addition, the first distance sensor 27A and the first distance sensor 2
When the distance between 7B is Y, the inclination angle θ of the deviation of the side surface of the thin substrate with respect to the predetermined position is represented by tan θ = X / Y.

The distance between the side surface of the glass substrate W at a predetermined position (reference position) and the first distance sensor 27A (27B) is T.
Then, the lateral movement correction amount Z of the robot 3 with respect to the glass substrate W is V, where V is the shortest distance between the horizontal line of the first distance sensor 27A and the horizontal line of the rotation center of the hand unit 5 of the robot 3. The correction amount U due to rotation deviation is U =
The correction amount R (R
= T−X ₁ ) in consideration of the difference with Z = U−R.

This calculation is performed in the control device 38, and the robot 3 is instructed about the tilt angle θ with respect to all the glass substrates W and the lateral movement correction amount Z of the robot 3.

After the robot 3 has moved in the left-right direction by the correction amount Z, the hand arm 5C of the robot 3 adsorbs the uppermost glass substrate W stored in the cassette C and conveys it to the next process cassette. It is raised to the standby position S1 corresponding to the upper glass substrate. This is the drive motor 44
The driving is performed by raising the movable plate 42 and raising the connecting drive shaft 6.

When the hand arm 5C is placed at the standby position S1, the drive motor 46 is driven to rotate by the tilt angle θ calculated and corrected by the controller 38. And
At that position, the second distance sensor 59 measures the distance from the front surface of the glass substrate W and outputs it to the controller 38. The control device 38 calculates the movement distance of the hand arm 5C and instructs the movement distance to the hand arm 5C so that the glass substrate W can be stored in a predetermined position of the cassette for the next process based on the input data. And the tilt angle θ
According to the instruction, the hand arm 5C is moved to the suction position S2 below the center of the glass substrate W to be conveyed, sucks the glass substrate W, and slightly moves up. At this point, the glass substrate W has been centered at a predetermined position.

Hand arm 5C attracting the glass substrate W
Returns from the suction position S2 to the standby position S1. Then, the robot 3 is driven by the drive motor 10 to drive the screw rod 1
1 is rotated, and the horizontal moving unit 4 moves rightward (see FIG. 1) on the guide rail 7 via the slider 8 to move to a predetermined position. Then, the hand arm 5C is activated again to store the glass substrate W in a predetermined position of the next process cassette.

Next, the robot 3 moves to the predetermined position in the left direction again to store the next glass substrate W in the next process cassette. Then, the rotation of the hand unit 5 is corrected by the calculated tilt angle, and the hand unit 5 waits at the standby position S1. Then, in the same manner as above, the hand arm is operated to adsorb the second-stage glass substrate W and convey it to the next process cassette.

In this way, all the glass substrates W stored in the cassette C are sequentially conveyed from the top to the next process cassette and stored therein.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the cassette is placed on the machine base, the thin first substrate supported by the cassette is moved by the two first distance sensors to determine the distance from the side surface thereof. Measure and output to the controller. Then, the correction amounts of the position shift and the angle shift of the thin substrate are calculated in advance, and a command is issued to the robot. The robot moves in the left and right direction by the amount of positional deviation,
After the robot's hand waits at the corrected angle, the second
The distance sensor measures the distance from the front surface of the thin substrate, and the hand of the robot moves to a predetermined position based on the data. Then, the thin substrate is sucked and transported to the next process cassette. Since the robot hand picks up the thin substrate and the positioning (centering) of the thin substrate is completed at the same time, the conventional positioning step can be omitted, and the transport time of the thin substrate can be significantly shortened. In addition, since the centering device that has been conventionally separately arranged can be omitted, the space in the room can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a thin substrate transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view as seen from an arrow A in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view on arrow B in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing details of the robot of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Machine stand 3 ... Robot 5 ... Hand part 19 ... Support frame, 27A and 27B ... 1st distance sensor 29 ... Elevating means 38 ... Control device 59 ... 2nd distance sensor W ... Glass substrate (thin substrate) M ... Positioning storage Device C: Cassette θ: Tilt angle Z: Horizontal displacement correction amount

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B65H 3/08 310 B65H 5/10 B 5/10 0333-3E B65D 85/38 R

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A thin substrate transfer apparatus for centering a thin substrate housed in a cassette and then transporting the thin substrate to a cassette in the next step, comprising: a cassette placed on a machine base; and a thin substrate supported in the cassette. A first distance sensor that is arranged in at least two positions in the front-rear direction in the vicinity of one side surface and that detects the distance to the side surface of the thin substrate in advance; Data that is provided by a robot that is movable and rotatable on a horizontal plane, and a controller that inputs a signal from the first distance sensor and outputs a signal to the robot, and data detected by the first distance sensor. Based on
After the controller calculates correction amounts of positional deviation and angular deviation with respect to a predetermined position of the thin substrate, corrects the calculated correction amounts, moves the robot into the cassette, and sucks the thin substrate. A thin substrate carrying device characterized by carrying to a next process cassette. 2. The apparatus for transporting a thin substrate according to claim 1, wherein the cassette is provided with supporting pieces capable of respectively supporting the left and right lower surfaces of the thin substrate in one step on the left and right sides. 3. The apparatus for transporting a thin substrate according to claim 1, wherein the cassette is provided with a plurality of supporting pieces capable of supporting the left and right lower surfaces of the thin substrate respectively in a plurality of stages in the vertical direction. . 4. The first distance sensor is supported by an elevating means so that it can be arranged at a side portion of a thin substrate supported by the supporting pieces of each stage. 2. The thin substrate carrying device according to claim 2, or claim 1. 5. The apparatus for transporting a thin substrate according to claim 1, wherein the robot includes a second distance sensor capable of detecting a distance from the front surface of the thin substrate.