JPH11129174A - Conveying device for article - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conveying device for articles to improve efficiency plate- form article are carried in and carried out and improve the efficiency of conveyance. SOLUTION: Hands 1 and 2 respectively attract a plate-form article and the hands 1 and 2 are independently positioned by a hand positioning mechanism 3. A moving mechanism 4 moves a hand positioning mechanism 3 in the direction of an X-axis and the direction of a Z-axis, and positioned in the carry in and carry out position of a plate-form article. Thereby, in the carry in/out position of the plate-form article, carry in and carry out of the plate-form article are simultaneously effected by the carry in and carry out hands 1 and 2. Further, the plate-form article is individually conveyed by the hands 1 and 2. This constitution improves the efficiency of carry in and carry out of the plate-form article and improves conveyance efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article transport apparatus for transporting plate-like articles such as wafers, liquid crystal panels, and compact disks.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a transport apparatus of this kind, for example, of a plurality of plate-like articles stored in a multi-stage shape in an article storage box, a plate-like article to be processed is grasped by a hand and carried out. Then, the plate-like article is transferred to a target position where various processing such as predetermined inspection and processing is performed, and the plate-like article which has been inspected and processed at the target position is grasped again and the original in the article storage box. Is transported to a target position, and the plate-like article to be processed next is grasped by a hand, carried out, and transported to the target position.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional transport apparatus, since the hand can hold only one plate-like article, loading and unloading of the plate-like article into and from the article storage box can be performed simultaneously. However, there is a disadvantage that the efficiency of loading and unloading plate-like articles is low. In addition, since the hand can grip only one plate-like article, it is necessary to make the hand wait at the target position until the processing of the plate-like article is completed. For this reason, during the processing, the plate-like article to be processed next cannot be carried out from the article storage box and transported to the target position, and there has been a problem that the transport efficiency is poor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an article transporting apparatus which can improve the efficiency of loading and unloading plate-like articles and improve transport efficiency.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides two hands capable of independently holding a plate-like article, and at least two loading / unloading ports for loading / unloading the plate-like article. In the position, there are provided hand positioning means for independently positioning the two hands, and moving means for moving the hand positioning means between at least two loading / unloading positions. The above hand positioning means,
A front-rear movement mechanism for independently moving two hands in the front-rear direction, a first vertical movement mechanism for independently moving the two hands in the vertical direction, and a second vertical movement for simultaneously moving the two hands in the vertical direction The two hands, the front-rear movement mechanism, the first up-down movement mechanism, and the second hand so that the two hands carry out and carry in the plate-like article in parallel at the carry-in / out position of the plate-like article. (2) The vertical movement mechanism is operated according to a predetermined procedure.

The above-mentioned longitudinal movement mechanism comprises upper and lower arms 21 and 22 connected to the two hands 1 and 2, respectively.
Upper and lower arm frames 23 and 26 for slidably supporting the upper and lower arms 21 and 22, respectively, and mounted on the upper and lower arm frames 23 and 26, respectively, to move the upper and lower arms 21 and 22 forward and backward, respectively. It is composed of two first motors (motors 25 and 28). Further, the above-mentioned first up-and-down movement mechanism comprises upper and lower arm frames 2.
A cam rotatably interposed between the upper and lower arm frames 23 and 26 to move the upper and lower arm frames 23 and 26 up and down, a second motor (motor 15) for rotating the cams, one end fixed to the case 14, The upper and lower sides of the arm frame 23,
26, the upper and lower arm frames 23,
26 is always pressed against the outer surface of the cam 2
And two elastic members (compression coil springs 29, 30).

As described above, the present invention has two hands, and at the loading / unloading position for loading / unloading a plate-like article,
The two hands can be positioned independently. For this reason, the loading and unloading of the plate-like article can be performed simultaneously by the two hands at the loading / unloading position, and the plate-like article can be individually transported by the two hands. Efficiency and transport efficiency can be improved. Also,
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to, for example, a system in which a plate-shaped article stored in an article storage unit is taken out, transported to a target position, and returned to an original position after predetermined processing at the target position. In this case, during the processing, the processed plate-like article is loaded into the original position of the article storage unit, the unprocessed plate-like article is unloaded from the article storage unit, and the unloaded plate-like article is processed. Since it is possible to convey the plate-like article, the time required for conveying and processing the plate-like article can be reduced.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of an embodiment of the article conveying apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the appearance of the hand positioning mechanism in FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an internal configuration of the hand positioning mechanism.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view in which a part of the hand positioning mechanism is omitted. As shown in FIG.
Two hands 1 and 2 each holding a plate-like article a,
As will be described later, a hand positioning mechanism 3 that positions the two hands 1 and 2 independently (individually) when loading and unloading the plate-shaped article, and the X-direction and the Z-axis And a moving mechanism 4 for moving and positioning. Here, two hands 1, 2
Is a disk-shaped or square-shaped article such as a wafer, a liquid crystal panel, or a compact disk. Further, the “holding” means that the plate-shaped article a is sucked or gripped.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hand positioning mechanism 3 is housed in a case 14 and is mounted on a Z-axis direction moving member 5 movable in the Z-axis direction. Guide members 6 are attached to both opposing surfaces of the Z-axis direction moving member 5 in the vertical direction. Each of the guide members 6 is slidably fitted in each of the guide grooves 10 formed in the vertical direction of two vertical members 8 and 9 which are provided vertically on the X-axis direction moving member 7 so as to face each other. I have. The Z-axis direction moving member 5 is configured to be movable in the Z-axis direction by driving a motor (not shown). The X-axis direction moving member 7 is provided so as to be slidable in the length direction on the base 11, and is configured such that the X-axis direction moving member 7 can move in the X-axis direction by driving a motor (not shown).

Next, the detailed configuration of the hand positioning mechanism 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 3, the hand 1 is attached to the tip of the arm 21, and the hand 2 is attached to the tip of the arm 22.
As shown in FIG. 2, the hands 1 and 2 each have a suction hole 12 for sucking the plate-like article a.
Thereby, the plate-like article a can be adsorbed.
The arm 21 is, as shown in FIG.
Are slidably fitted in concave grooves 24, 24 formed in the longitudinal direction on the lower surface side. In addition, as shown in FIG.
5 are provided. Of the upper surface of the arm 21, the long hole 3
A rack 36 is fixed to the portion corresponding to 5 in the longitudinal direction of the long hole 35. The rack 36 is configured to engage with a pinion 37 fixed to a shaft of the motor 25 mounted on the upper surface of the arm frame 23. As shown in FIG. 4, the arm 22 has concave grooves 38, 38 formed in the length direction on the upper surface side of the arm frame 26.
Are slidably fitted to each other. The arm 22 includes a rack (not shown) and the motor 2 similarly to the arm 21 described above.
8 (see FIG. 3) is configured to engage with a pinion (not shown) attached to the shaft of FIG.

With the above structure, the arm 21 is guided by the concave grooves 24, 24 by the forward / reverse rotation of the motor 25, and
Forward and backward in the Y-axis direction. On the other hand, the arm 22
Is guided by the concave grooves 38, 38 by the forward / reverse rotation of the motor 28, and can move forward and backward in the Y-axis direction in FIG. Therefore, the hand 1 integrated with the arm 21 and the hand 2 integrated with the arm 22 can independently move forward and backward.

Arm frame 23 and arm frame 26
As shown in FIG. 3, camshafts 31 and 32 are provided between both ends, and both ends of the camshafts 31 and 32 are rotatably mounted on bearings (not shown) provided on the side surface of the case 14. Have been. The camshaft 31 and the camshaft 32 are configured to be able to rotate in the same direction by the motor 15. Camshaft 3
As shown in FIG. 3, two cams 33A and 33B are attached to both ends of the first cam 1 respectively. Camshaft 3
Two cams 33A and 33B are similarly formed on both ends.
Are respectively attached. The above-mentioned cams 33A, 33
B has a shape as shown in FIG. Note that FIG.
The circle shown by the one-dot chain line in the middle is an auxiliary one for making the outline of the cam easy to understand.

The arm frame 23 is supported on the inside of the upper surface of the case 14 by four compression coil springs 29. At the same time, the lower surface of the arm frame 23 is constantly urged downward by the four compression coil springs 29. In detail, although not shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, 4
The two bearings 52 are rotatably mounted, and the outer peripheral surface of each bearing 52 is always in contact with the outer surface of the corresponding four cams 33B.

The arm frame 26 is supported inside the lower surface of the case 14 by four compression coil springs 30. At the same time, the upper surface of the arm frame 26 is constantly urged upward by the four compression coil springs 30. In detail, although omitted in FIGS. 3 and 4, four parts of the arm frame 26 are connected to the arm frame 26 via mounting members 53 as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.
The two bearings 54 are rotatably mounted, and the outer peripheral surface of each bearing 54 is configured to always contact the outer surface of the corresponding four cams 33A.

With the above-described configuration, the arm frame 23 includes the four cams 33 attached to the cam shafts 31 and 32.
B is in constant contact with the arm 33 via the bearing 52, and the rotation of the cam 33B causes the arm frame 23, which is a follower of the cam 33B, to move up and down as shown in FIG.
The arm frame 26 is always in contact with the four cams 33A attached to the camshafts 31 and 32 via the bearings 54, and the rotation of the cam 33A causes the arm frame 23, which is a follower of the cam 33A, to move as shown in FIG. A vertical movement as shown in FIG.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, the cams 33A, 33
The movement of the arm frames 23 and 26 according to the rotation angle of B will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the rotation angles of the cams 33A and 33B are 0 °,
The arm frame 23 is at the lowest position, while the arm frame 26 is at the highest position. Next, as shown in FIG. 5B, the rotation angles of the cams 33A and 33B are set to one.
When the angle is 20 °, the arm frame 23 is at the highest position against the compression coil spring 29, and the arm frame 26 is at the lowest position against the compression coil spring 30. In addition, as shown in FIG.
When the rotation angle of 33B is 240 °, the arm frame 23 remains at the highest position, while the arm frame 26 returns to the highest position. Further, as shown in FIG. 5D, the rotation angles of the cams 33A and 33B are 3 degrees.
At 60 °, the arm frame 23 returns to the lowest position, while the arm frame 26 remains at the highest position. Since the arm frames 23 and 26 operate as described above, the arm 2 integrated with the arm frames 23 and 26 is used.
Arms 1 and 22 (hands 1 and 2)
The same operation as in steps 3 and 26 is performed.

As described above, the article conveying apparatus of this embodiment has two hands 1 and 2, and the hand positioning mechanism 3 can position the two hands 1 and 2 independently. . Therefore, two hands 1,
2, the plate-like articles can be individually conveyed, and the two hands 1, 2 can simultaneously carry in and carry out the plate-like articles, so that the efficiency of loading and unloading of the plate-like articles is improved, and the transfer efficiency is improved. Can be improved.

Next, referring to FIG. 6, a case in which the article transport apparatus thus configured is applied to a system for processing or inspecting a plate-like article such as a wafer, a liquid crystal panel, and a compact disk will be described with reference to FIG. explain. In such a system, the article transport device A according to this embodiment
Are provided between an article storage section B in which a plurality of plate-shaped articles a are stored and a processing section C that performs various processes such as processing and inspection of the plate-shaped articles a taken out of the article storage section B. .

The article storage section B contains a plate-like article a inside.
Are stored in a multistage manner at predetermined intervals.
(See FIG. 7), and has an elevating mechanism (not shown) for raising and lowering the article storage box 41 at the time of mounting. The article storage box 41 has an opening through which a plate-like article is carried in and out, and excluding this opening, as shown in FIG.
A shelf 43 for placing and storing the plate-like article a at the same height inside the side wall 42;
Further, a plurality of shelves 43 are provided at predetermined intervals L in the vertical direction of the side wall 42. As shown in FIG. 6, the processing section C has a rotatable stage 51 for receiving the plate-like article a, and this stage 51 is moved by a stage moving mechanism 52 in the X-axis direction, the Y-axis direction, and the Z-axis direction. It is configured to be movable and positionable. The processing unit C includes:
A processing device 53 corresponding to processing and inspection of the plate-like article a is installed.

Next, an example of the operation when the article transport device is applied to a system for processing or inspecting a plate-like article will be described with reference to the drawings. Now, it is assumed that a plurality of plate-shaped articles a are stored in the article storage box 41 in a multi-stage manner using the shelf 43. First, the processing unit C
The operation of unloading the plate-like article a to be processed in the processing unit C from the article storage box 41 in parallel with the loading of the plate-like article a already processed in the article storage box 41 will be described with reference to FIG. I do.

In this case, the hand positioning mechanism 3
It is at the solid line position shown in FIG. 6 and faces the article storage unit B, and the hands 1 and 2 are at the position shown in FIG. Next, when the motors 25 and 28 rotate, the arms 21 and 22 advance, so that the hands 1 and 2 integrated with the arms 21 and 22 advance, and the hands 1 and 2 reach the position shown in FIG. Then, the motors 25 and 28 stop rotating. Next, the hand 2 releases the suction of the plate-shaped article a. Continue to motor 1
5 rotates and the camshafts 31 and 32 rotate 120 °,
The motor 15 stops rotating. Thereby, FIG. 5 (B)
, The arm frame 23 is at the highest position, while the arm frame 26 is at the lowest position.

As a result, the arm 1 is at the position shown in FIG. 8C, and the arm 2 is at the position shown in FIG. Here, since the hand 2 separates from the plate-shaped article a, the transfer of the plate-shaped article a to the original shelf by the hand 2 is completed. On the other hand, the hand 1 sucks the plate-shaped article a. next,
When the motors 25 and 28 rotate again, the arms 21 and 22 retreat, so that the hands 1 and 2 integrated with the arms 21 and 22 retreat, and when the hands 1 and 2 reach the position shown in FIG. The motors 25 and 28 stop rotating. Thereby, the plate-like article a to be processed in the processing section C is carried out from the shelf of the article storage box 41 by the hand 1. The plate-like article a carried out of the article storage box 41 is transported toward the processing section C. During this transport, the article storage box 41
As shown in (E) of FIG.
Descend by minutes.

Next, the plate-like articles a which have been processed by the processing section C are unloaded from the processing section C, and at the same time, the plate-like articles a unloaded from the article storage box 41 are transferred to the processing section C as described above. The loading operation will be described with reference to FIGS. In this case, the hand positioning mechanism 3 is at the position indicated by the two-dot chain line shown in FIG.
The hands 1 and 2 are at the position shown in FIG. It is assumed that a plate-like article a that has been processed by the processing unit C is placed on the stage 51.

First, the arms 21 and 22 move forward by the rotation of the motors 25 and 28, so that the hands 1 and 2 move forward. When the hands 1 and 2 reach the position shown in FIG. , 28 stop rotating. Subsequently, the motor 15 rotates, and the camshafts 31 and 32 further move 120.
When rotated, the motor 15 stops rotating. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 5C, the arm frame 23 remains at the highest position, while the arm frame 26 moves up to the highest position. As a result, FIG.
(C), and the arm 2 is at the position shown in (C) of FIG. Here, the hand 2 sucks the plate-shaped article a placed on the stage 51. Next, only the motor 28 rotates, and the hand 2 integrated with the arm 22 retreats.
When the hand 2 reaches the position (D), the motor 28 stops rotating. Thereby, the plate-shaped article a is
Is carried out of the stage 51 of the processing section C.

Subsequently, since the Z-direction moving member 5 is lowered in the Z-axis direction by the distance L between the shelves 43 of the article storage box 41, the hands 1 and 2 are moved as shown in FIG. At the interval L. As a result, the plate-like article a sucked by the hand 1 is mounted on the stage 51, and the hand 1 releases the suction. Next, the motor 15
When the cam shafts 31 and 32 further rotate 120 °, the motor 15 stops rotating. As a result, FIG.
As shown in (D), the arm frame 23 returns to the lowest position, while the arm frame 26 remains at the highest position. As a result, the arm 1 is at the position shown in FIG. 10F, and the arm 1 is separated from the plate-like article a. Next, only the motor 25 starts rotating, and the arm 21
When the hand 1 moves backward and reaches the position shown in FIG. 10G, the motor 25 stops rotating. Thus, the loading of the plate-like article a into the stage 51 is completed.

The plate-like article a carried out of the stage 51 by the hand 2 is conveyed toward the article storage section B. During this transport, the Z-axis direction moving member 5 rises in the Z-axis direction by the above-mentioned interval L, whereby the hands 1,
2 rises by that amount as shown in FIG. Then, when the hands 1 and 2 come to a position facing the article storage section B, the plate-like article a to be adsorbed by the hand 2 is carried into the original shelf position of the article storage box 41 as described above, and the hand 1 The unprocessed plate-like article a in the article storage box 41 is carried out. In addition, when the processing unit C is an inspection unit, if the plate-like article a inspected by the inspection unit is defective, FIG.
Is collected in the defective product storage section D.

As described above, in the system to which the article transport device of this embodiment is applied, the plate-like articles can be loaded into and unloaded from the article storage box 41 at the same time. Can be loaded and unloaded at the same time. For this reason, while processing the plate-shaped article in the processing unit C, the processed plate-shaped article is carried into the original position of the article storage box 41 and the unprocessed plate-shaped article is unloaded from the article storage box 41, Since the transported plate-like article can be transported to the processing section C, the time (cycle time) required for transporting and processing the plate-like article can be reduced.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, 2
With two hands, the two hands can be independently positioned at a loading / unloading position where a plate-like article is loaded / unloaded. Therefore, the loading and unloading of the plate-like articles can be performed simultaneously by the two hands at the loading / unloading position, and the plate-like articles can be individually transported by the two hands.
Efficiency at the time of loading and unloading of plate-like articles and improvement of transport efficiency can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an external configuration of an embodiment of an article conveying apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the appearance of a hand positioning mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an internal configuration of the hand positioning mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view in which a part of the hand positioning mechanism is omitted.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation of an arm frame according to a rotation angle of a cam.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a system to which the article transport device of the embodiment is applied.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of an article storage box.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an operation example of a hand positioning mechanism.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another operation example of the hand positioning mechanism.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an operation subsequent to FIG. 9;

11 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the cam shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a cam portion shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view of a cam portion of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a Plate-like article 1, 2 Hand 3 Hand positioning mechanism 4 Moving mechanism 5 Z-axis direction moving member 7 X-axis direction moving member 14 Case 15 Motor 21, 22 Arm 23, 26 Arm frame 25, 28 Motor 29, 30 Compression coil spring 31 , 32 Camshaft 33A, 33B Cam 41 Article storage box 52, 54 Bearing

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Two hands capable of independently holding a plate-shaped article, and hand positioning for independently positioning the two hands at at least two loading / unloading positions for loading / unloading the plate-shaped article. And a moving means for moving the hand positioning means between at least the two carry-in / out positions. 2. A hand-moving mechanism for moving the two hands independently in a front-rear direction, and a first mechanism for moving the two hands independently in a vertical direction.
An up-down movement mechanism, and a second up-down movement mechanism that simultaneously moves the two hands in the up-down direction, wherein at the carry-in / out position of the plate-like article, the two hands parallel carry-out and carry-in of the plate-like article. As described above,
2. The article conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the two hands, the front-rear movement mechanism, the first vertical movement mechanism, and the second vertical movement mechanism are operated according to a predetermined procedure. 3. The vertical movement mechanism includes upper and lower arms respectively connected to the two hands, and upper and lower arm frames that slidably support the upper and lower arms, respectively.
And two first motors respectively mounted on the upper and lower arm frames for moving the upper and lower arms back and forth, wherein the first vertical movement mechanism is rotatably interposed between the upper and lower arm frames. A cam for moving the upper and lower arm frames up and down, a second motor for rotating the cam, one end fixed to the case, and the other end fixed to the upper and lower arm frames, respectively. 3. The article conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each of said two cams comprises two elastic members which constantly press against the outer surface of said cam.