JPH1059541A - Article positioning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a positioning device at a low cost which can attain a simple structure and shorten work transferring time. SOLUTION: An L-direction positioning plunger having a contact head 2 energized by a coil spring 5 is fitted on a robot hand 30 operated by a robot 20. A work W is pushed by a head 2 together with the advance of a hand, and pressed against the protruding streak 12 of a cassette 10 to determine a position in the L-direction automatically. The position in the B-direction is determined by width aligning mechanism 60. This can eliminate need for fitting a station having a two-axle positioning device in its intermediate position, thus it is possible to shorten transferring time, simplify the device and attain cost reduction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article positioning apparatus, and is particularly effectively used for a work transfer system of a heat treatment facility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 9, a system for transferring a work such as a glass substrate for an LCD, for example, has a cassette 10 on which works W are stacked, a robot 20 for transferring works one by one, and a robot 20 attached to the robot. Robot hand 30
And L, which is the length direction of the work, and B, which is the width direction.
The apparatus includes a work positioning station 40 for positioning the work in the direction, and a loading device or the like on which works such as an oven 50 or a functional module as a heat treatment apparatus are stacked.

[0003] In this system, a work is stored in a cassette 10.
From above, the workpiece needs to be accurately transferred to a predetermined position in order to prevent damage to the workpiece. For this purpose, a two-way positioning station 40 is provided, and the work placed in the cassette 10 is intermediately carried into the positioning station 40, where the positions in the L and B directions are accurately determined.
Work is received again through the oven 0, and finally the oven 5
A two-time transfer method of transferring the data to 0 is used.

[0004]

However, in the above-described positioning apparatus, an extra transfer step to the positioning station 40 occurs in the middle, so that the transfer time of the target work to the final transfer place is reduced. become longer. Therefore, when the work is transferred to a loading device such as a functional module, the entire process time becomes longer, and the efficiency of the production line is reduced.

In the case where the transfer destination is a heat treatment apparatus, if the transfer time of the work becomes longer, one tact time for taking in and out one work becomes longer. Particularly, in a heat treatment apparatus in which a work inlet / outlet is provided at each of two places in order to achieve a high degree of integration of the heat treatment apparatus and a work is taken in and out of the two places, the robot operates between ports having different heights. Since the lifting operation must be performed, one tact time is longer. On the other hand, the work positioning station
Since it is necessary to have a biaxial positioning mechanism in the direction B and the direction B, the structure becomes complicated and the cost is greatly increased.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, shortens the transfer time of articles, and simplifies the structure of the apparatus constituting the transfer system and reduces the cost. It is an object of the present invention to provide an article positioning apparatus capable of shortening one tact time and improving processing efficiency when an apparatus to be transferred is a heat treatment apparatus.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an article positioning apparatus, comprising:
An article pushing section for pushing the article to the positioning section of the article storage body having a positioning section to which an article is applied and positioned; and a moving body for guiding the movement of the article pushing section and moving in the pushing direction by a moving body. And a biasing member interposed between the main body and the article pushing section to elastically bias the article pushing section in the pushing direction.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above, the article is a flat plate, and the housing is a cassette in which the flat plates are stacked in multiple stages and positioned at a predetermined position;
The moving body is a robot hand of a robot positioned at a predetermined position, and is a robot hand for removing the flat object from the cassette and transferring it to a loading device positioned at a predetermined position. And a width direction positioning means for determining a position of the flat object in a direction perpendicular to the pushing direction.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above, the flat object is an object to be processed by a heat treatment apparatus, and the loading device is used in the heat treatment apparatus.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above, the loading device is mounted in the heat treatment device, the heat treatment device has entrances of the object to be processed at two positions, and the robot has The object to be processed is sequentially inserted from the two entrances and loaded on the loading device.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows the structure of a part including a work positioning plunger which is an example of an article positioning apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The positioning plunger 1 includes a contact head 2 as an article pushing section, a plunger shaft 3 to which the article is mounted, a guide block 4 as a main body, a coil spring 5 as an urging member, and the like.

A cassette 10 as an article storage body that stores a work W made of a flat LCD glass substrate or the like as an article is opposed to the contact head 2. The contact head 2 is for pressing the work W against a ridge 12 as a positioning portion fixed to the back wall 11 of the cassette 10 to perform positioning in the L direction, which is the length direction of the work.

The guide block 4 has a cylindrical hole 4a inside.
The plunger shaft 3 is slidably inserted therein, so that the plunger shaft 3 in the direction L, which is also the direction in which the contact head 2 is pushed.
Is attached to the frame plate 31 of the robot hand 30 as a moving body with the screws 6 and the contact plate 7, and is reciprocated in the L direction together with the robot hand. The coil spring 5 is interposed between the guide block 4 and the hexagonal nut portion 8 at the tip of the plunger shaft 3, and resiliently urges the shaft and the contact head in the L direction toward the work W. I have.

FIG. 2 shows the entire structure of the robot hand 30 to which the above-described positioning plunger 1 is attached, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged front and side cross section including a partial cross section of FIG. Is shown.

The robot hand 30 comprises a frame plate 31, a support member 32 fixed on the frame plate 31, a pipe having a substantially rectangular cross section, a reinforcing member 33, and a connecting plate 3 for integrating these members.
3a, two suction openings 3 opened in the support member 32
2a (FIG. 3B), a suction pad 34 for sucking the work W, and a suction opening 32c (FIG. 3C) opened for sucking air in the internal space 32b (FIGS. 3B and 3C). 3 (c)), both end covers 35 attached to hermetically seal the internal space 32b, and a pipe joint 36 connecting a vacuum device (not shown) to the suction opening 32c (FIG. 3).
(A)), and the like.

The base side of the robot hand 30 is attached to a mounting portion 21a of the moving body 21 of the robot indicated by a two-dot chain line in the figure.
Attached to. A work detection sensor 37 is attached to one of the reinforcing members 33, and a lead wire thereof is guided in the internal space of the pipe. A sensor amplifier 38 is attached to the frame plate 31. In addition, if the support member and the reinforcing member are formed by a square pipe as shown in the figure,
Since the weight is reduced for high strength, the robot hand can move at high speed.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a robot to which the robot hand 30 is attached. The robot 20 includes the moving body 21, a horizontal moving mechanism 22 for horizontally reciprocating the moving body 21 as indicated by an arrow L, and an elevating mechanism for vertically reciprocating the horizontal moving mechanism 22 in a direction indicated by an arrow V. 23
And a turning drive unit 24 for turning the whole of them. The robot hand 30 including the support member 32 and the like is attached to the moving body 21 of the horizontal moving mechanism 22 as described above. Such a robot automatically operates according to a predetermined NC control program and sensor detection by a control device (not shown). In the figure, the positions of the horizontal moving mechanism 22 indicated by the solid line and the two-dot chain line indicate the uppermost position and the lowermost position, respectively. FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the cassette 10 and a width aligning mechanism 60 as a means for positioning the work in the width direction.

The cassette 10 includes the back plate 11, the ridges 12 for positioning in the L direction, a top plate 13, a bottom plate 14,
5, so that the work W can be mounted on the support
It is composed of a plurality of work receivers 16 provided at multiple locations, and is positioned and installed at a predetermined position by a positioning pin or the like (not shown).

The width aligning mechanism 60 is a mechanism for determining the position of the work W in the width direction B, and is of a swing type in this embodiment, and has a total of four outside the width at the four corners of the cassette 10.
And each mechanism is provided with a swing center shaft 61,
Up-and-down swing arms 62, 6 connected at one end by this shaft
3. Roller 64 rotatably supported at the other end of these rollers
And so on. The swing center shaft 61 is reciprocally rotated by a certain angle between a retracted position shown by a two-dot chain line and an alignment position shown by a solid line in FIG. When aligning the workpieces, the rollers 64 facing each other in the width B direction have an interval (b) slightly larger than the width b of the workpiece.
+ Δb).

FIG. 6 shows a schematic structure of a main body of a two-opening type heat treatment apparatus which is an example of an apparatus which can particularly effectively use the work positioning apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 7 shows a work provided therein. 2 shows the structure of a gondola for loading.

An oven 50, which is a heat treatment apparatus, includes a heat insulating wall 51, a heat treatment chamber 52 surrounded by the heat treatment chamber 52, and a gondola capable of laminating and supporting a work W composed of, for example, about 40 LCD glass substrates at a small interval in the vertical direction. 70, work inlets 53, 54 and outlets 55, 56, hot air circulating duct 57, gondola elevating and lowering, and turning of a support plate for supporting a glass substrate, provided at two positions above and below the height position of H ₁ and H ₂ respectively. A drive control mechanism unit 58 for driving and controlling, a hot air supply device including a heater and a fan (not shown) and the like are provided.

The gondola 70 includes a support frame 71, two sets of turning shafts 72 and turning arms 73 opposed to each other on both sides in the B direction which is the width direction of the work. The board receivers 74 (74-1 to 74-40) from the first stage to the fortieth stage are connected in the direction. The work W is placed on the receiving surface 74a of the substrate receiver 74. The interval between the substrate receivers 74 can be adjusted by the turning arm 73, and the interval is maximum in FIG. 7B.

In FIG. 6, the gondola 70 is at the most lowered position, and the 20-stage and 40-stage substrate receivers 74-2.
0 and 74-40 are the lower inlet 53 and outlet 55 and the upper inlet 54 and outlet 56, respectively. According to such an oven, the ascent space of the upper gondola only needs to be approximately 1/3 of the height of the gondola area, so that the accumulation ratio is 3/2, that is, 50% as compared with a normal one-door entrance oven. The rate can be increased. In addition,
In order to achieve higher integration, the number of entrances and exits can be three or more.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the structure of the work loading side of the work heat treatment equipment to which the positioning device of the present invention is applied.
The workpiece carry-in side of the workpiece heat treatment equipment includes a cassette 10 (10-1) loaded with the workpiece W, a width alignment mechanism 60 installed at four corners thereof, and a robot 20 that moves a robot hand 30 equipped with a positioning plunger 1. , An oven 50 and the like. Robot 20, oven 5
The zero and four width alignment mechanisms 60 are fixedly installed at predetermined positions, respectively. The cassette 10 is loaded with a large number of works W which have been produced and have reached the heat treatment process, and are sequentially sent. The leading one 10 (10-1) is associated with the position of a fixedly installed robot or the like. The workpieces are sequentially positioned and installed at predetermined positions so that the workpiece can be positioned at an appropriate position.

The work heat treatment equipment provided with the positioning device of the present invention as described above operates as follows. Before the cassette 10 loaded with the work W is installed at a predetermined position,
The moving body 21 of the robot 20 is at a retracted position where the robot hand 30 is retracted with respect to the cassette 10, and does not prevent the cassette 10 from moving in the direction of arrow B and being set at a predetermined position. At this time, the width aligning mechanism 60 is also at the retracted position as shown by the two-dot chain line.

When the cassette 10 is positioned and installed at a predetermined position, the four width aligning mechanisms 60 are operated to reach the positions indicated by the solid lines, and the rollers 64 determine the position of the work in the B direction. The positioning accuracy at this time is δb as described above,
The accuracy is such that the work is safely supported by the work receiver 16 in the cassette and is also safely supported by the receiving surface 74a of the substrate receiver 74 of the heat treatment apparatus. After positioning in the width direction, the roller 64 may be retracted. However, since there is a clearance δb between the roller and the work and the roller is rotatable, the roller may be left in the positioning state. In that case, it is desirable that the rollers be independent for each stage of the work.

When the position in the width direction of the work is determined, the moving body 21 of the robot advances the robot hand 30 by a predetermined distance in the direction of the cassette 10 by the NC control, and the state shown by the solid line in the figure is reached. At this time, the height position of the robot hand is adjusted in advance by the elevating mechanism 23 so as to be located slightly below the work to be taken out.

When the robot hand 30 moves forward, the contact head 2 of the positioning plunger 1 contacts the work W and presses it against the positioning ridge 12 on the back side of the cassette 10 to determine the position of the work in the L direction. In this state, the coil spring 5 of the positioning plunger 1 is compressed, and a spring force acts on the work. Accordingly, the coil spring 5 is selected to have an appropriate spring force that can press the work and does not break the work when compressed. When the coil spring 5 is compressed, the plunger shaft 3 is guided by the hole 4a of the guide block 4 and enters the inside. The advance amount of the robot hand 30 is
The amount of compression of such a coil spring and the spring force generated therewith are determined in the calculation.

When the position of the work W in the L and B directions is determined, the moving body 21 of the robot retreats by a predetermined distance necessary to remove the compression strain of the spring, and rises slightly to move the work to the suction pad 34. Then, a vacuum device (not shown) is operated and the suction pad sucks and holds the work. Then, the moving body 21 retreats, the robot hand 30 retreats from the cassette 10, and the robot 20 moves 180 degrees around the center O.
° rotate.

In this state, the elevating mechanism 23 of the robot operates to make the robot hand face the entrance 53 below the oven. Next, the moving body 21 moves forward, and the robot hand holding the work moves forward into the oven 50 by a predetermined distance, releases the suction pad and slightly lowers, and moves the work to the substrate receiver 74 (74-20). On the receiving surface 74a. Since the work is accurately positioned in both the L and B directions in the cassette 10 and the robot hand 30 moves by a distance calculated in advance, the work is accurately transferred from the cassette 10 to the oven 50. As a result, the oven 50
When the work is unloaded from the robot, the robot on the unloading side can accurately transfer the work into the cassette for loading the heat-treated work.

When one work is transferred from the cassette 10 to the oven, the robot hand retreats, the robot rotates again by 180 °, the elevating mechanism operates, and the robot hand is moved to the next stage in the cassette 10. Set to a position corresponding to the workpiece. Then, the next work is taken out by the same operation, the work is inserted from the entrance 54 above the oven, and the work is put on the substrate receiver 74 (74-40) by the same operation. When new works are loaded on the upper and lower two places, the work mounting by a series of robot operations is completed.

When the work is loaded on the oven from the inlet side, the heat-treated work of that stage has been taken out from the outlet side before that. Further, when the work is taken in and out of the oven, a shutter (not shown) opens and closes the entrance. In the oven 50, when the work for two stages is taken in and out, the gondola 70 goes up one stage, and the work is taken in and out again. When the gondola rises one step at a time and reaches the uppermost position, the gondola descends to the lowermost step and rises again one step at a predetermined time interval. During this time, the heat treatment of the workpieces is completed two by two.

Positioning plunger 1 and width aligning mechanism 6
According to the method for transferring the work from the cassette 10 to the oven 50 using the above-described method, the intermediate transfer process to the work positioning station as in the related art can be omitted.
Transfer time can be halved. As a result, as in the oven 50 of the present example, two workpiece entrances are provided at two locations to achieve high integration, and an extra operation of raising and lowering between the upper and lower entrances of the robot is added as compared with a normal one entrance / exit. Even with such a heat treatment apparatus, loading and unloading of a workpiece can be completed within a predetermined time.

The provision of the one-way (B-direction) width aligning mechanism 60 for the cassette 10 makes it possible to install a positioning station having a two-way positioning mechanism, which makes the structure extremely complicated and greatly increases the cost. Since the transfer equipment can be abolished, simplification of the structure of the transfer equipment as a whole, reduction in cost, and reduction in installation space can be achieved. Furthermore, since the movement of the robot is simplified, control can be simplified and driving energy can be reduced.

In the above, an example has been shown in which the heat treatment apparatus using the positioning apparatus of the present invention is an oven having two entrances and exits, respectively. It goes without saying that the positioning device of the present invention can also be effectively used for an oven having a doorway. The oven 50 is of a tact type in which a work is taken in and out at every tact. However, the present invention is also applicable to a batch type heat treatment apparatus in which a work is transferred from a cassette to a magazine or the like and is taken in and out of the oven. Can be applied. Further, the symmetry of the transfer of the workpiece is not limited to the heat treatment apparatus, but may be a functional module or a suitable loading facility of a transport system.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an urging member for elastically urging the article pushing portion is provided between the article pushing portion and the main body portion. The article can be pushed with a force corresponding to the elastic deformation of the biasing member. As a result, by appropriately determining the moving distance of the main body in the pushing direction, the article is pressed against the positioning portion of the container with an appropriate force, and the position of the article in the one direction in the direction is extremely reduced without any gap or error. It can be determined accurately. Further, since positioning can be performed only by pressing the main body member within the range of elastic deformation of the biasing member, the positioning operation is extremely easy.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the main body and the article pushing section are attached to the robot hand of the robot, the moving distance of the main body can be easily and accurately determined by NC control or the like. As a result, the elastic force for pressing the article can be accurately regulated, the article can be reliably pressed against the positioning portion of the cassette, and the breakage of the article when it is a flat plate can be reliably prevented.

Further, as the article positioning device, a width direction positioning means for determining the width position of the article in the cassette is also provided, so that the article can be positioned in the cassette in two directions. As a result, even if articles need to be accurately transferred from the cassette to another article loading apparatus, there is no need to provide a two-axis positioning station in the middle, and the overall positioning apparatus can be simplified and the transfer system can be simplified. Thus, it is possible to reduce the size, space, speed up the transfer process, and cost. In this case, since the position in one direction is automatically determined by the advance of the robot hand, the positioning in two directions can be performed by the positioning operation in only one direction and the required time.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above-described effects, the object to be processed can be transferred from the cassette to the heat treatment apparatus with high accuracy and in a short time, so that the transfer time is shortened and the processing efficiency is improved. be able to. Also, in the heat treatment equipment where one tact time is fixed in advance, it is possible to reduce the transfer speed of the robot by shortening the transfer time, which allows more room for the robot operation and improves the safety and reliability of the transfer. Can be done.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in the case where the entrance and exit of the workpiece are provided at two places by shortening the transfer time of the workpiece, the robot operation is added with a lifting operation between the two entrances. However, the processing object can be taken in and out of the heat treatment apparatus within one predetermined tact time. As a result, high integration of the heat treatment apparatus becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows the structure of a part of a robot hand and a cassette including a positioning plunger which is an article positioning apparatus to which the present invention is applied, (a) is a plan view, and (b) is a side view.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the robot hand.

3A is a front view showing a partial cross section of the robot hand, FIG. 3B is a side cross section of a suction part, and FIG. 3C is a side cross section of an air suction part.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a robot to which the robot hand is attached.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic structure of a cassette and a width aligning mechanism;
(A) is a perspective view and (b) is a plan view.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an oven which is an example of a heat treatment apparatus constituting a transfer system including the positioning device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a structure of a gondola portion of the oven,
(A) is a plan view and (b) is a side view.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a transfer portion on the workpiece inlet side of the heat treatment equipment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a transfer portion on the work inlet side of a conventional heat treatment facility.

[Description of Signs] 2 Contact head (article pushing section) 3 Plunger shaft (article pushing section) 4 Guide block (main body section) 5 Coil spring (biasing member) 10 Cassette (cassette, article storage body) 12 Ridge (positioning) Part) 20 robot 30 robot hand (moving body) 50 oven (heat treatment device) 53, 54 entrance 60 width alignment mechanism (width direction positioning means) 70 gondola (loading device) W work (article, flat plate, workpiece)

Claims (4)

[Claims] An article pushing section for pushing the article against the positioning section of the article storage body provided with a positioning section to which the article is applied and positioned; and a moving body for guiding the movement of the article pushing section. A main body that is moved in the pushing direction, and an urging member that is interposed between the main body and the article pushing unit and that elastically urges the article pushing unit in the pushing direction. Characteristic article positioning device. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the article is a flat plate, the storage body is a cassette in which the flat plates are stacked in multiple stages and positioned at a predetermined position, and the moving body is a robot of a robot positioned at a predetermined position. A robot hand for taking out the flat object from the cassette and transferring the flat object to a loading device positioned at a predetermined position, the position being the position of the flat object in the cassette and the pushing 2. The article positioning apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a width direction positioning means for determining a position in a direction perpendicular to the direction. 3. The article positioning apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the flat object is an object to be processed by a heat treatment apparatus, and the loading apparatus is used in the heat treatment apparatus. 4. The loading device is mounted in the heat treatment device, the heat treatment device has entrances of the object at two positions, and the robot sequentially moves the object at the two positions. 4. The article positioning device according to claim 3, wherein the article positioning device is inserted from an entrance and placed on the loading device.