JPH11255487A - Conveyer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an overhead conveyer device which can be used in even a clean room. SOLUTION: A winding device of a wire 16 for lifting a workpiece is provided in a closed space surrounded by a casing 14. The winding device is provided with a spline shaft 22 linked to a motor 21 to be almost horizontally extended, winding drum 25 fitted to this spline shaft 22 having an external thread part 24 in a peripheral wall, and an internal thread member 26 screwed to the external thread part 24 of this winding drum 25 also fixed to the casing 14. A small hole 18 is provided in a bottom wall 17 of the casing 14 and in a position hanging down the wire 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus, particularly a ceiling-mounted transfer apparatus used in a clean room of a factory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some transfer devices used in factories and the like include:
For example, there is a structure shown in FIG. This transport device
A rail 1 is arranged above a work space of a factory or a warehouse, for example, near a ceiling along a transport path, and a traveling device 2 is provided along the rail 1 via a drive motor (not shown).

The traveling device 2 is provided with two winding drums 3 rotatably via a driving device (not shown). A thread groove is formed on the peripheral wall of the winding drum 3, and two wires 4 are mounted so as to be wound along the thread groove, and a chuck 6 for holding and releasing a work 5 is hung on each wire 4. Have been. Therefore, when the wire 4 is wound around the winding drum 3, the work 5
Are supported so as to be able to move up and down, and the work 5 is conveyed to a predetermined work stage by the traveling device 2.

[0004]

Such a conventional transfer device is advantageous in that the arrangement position thereof is above the working space, so that the installation space can be saved. There is a problem that it is difficult to use in a manufacturing environment that dislikes (for example, a manufacturing environment such as a semiconductor manufacturing factory).

That is, since the wire 4 is suspended from the winding drum 3, the lower portion of the winding drum 3 is normally opened, so that the driving portion of the winding drum 3 and the like This is because when dust is generated, the dust may fall downward, thereby deteriorating the product quality.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 7, in the case of a structure in which the number of winding drums 3 is large and the number of wires 4 is increased, the number of wear parts such as gears and bearings is increased. However, dust generated from these components cannot be ignored.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8, a shielding plate 7 for receiving dust can be provided below the winding drum 3 to suppress scattering of dust downward. When the wire 4 is wound up along the screw groove with the rotation of the wire, the hanging position of the wire 4 moves from a to b depending on the degree of winding of the wire 4. 7 has wire 4 and shielding plate 7
A long hole 8 of length L is required to avoid interference with
This long hole 8 allows scattering of dust.

Further, even if a belt 9 is used in place of the wire 4 as shown in FIG. 9, a long hole 8 having a length L for preventing interference with the belt 9 is similarly required. Therefore, the present invention provides a transfer device that can suppress scattering of dust outside of the device even if dust is generated from a drive component of the winding device, and can be used in a factory or the like that requires high air cleanliness such as a clean room. Is what you do.

[0009]

A traveling device that moves along a track is provided. The traveling device supports a winding device for a string-like member, and a plurality of string-like members fed from the winding device work the workpiece. In a transport device in which a holding unit is suspended so as to be able to move up and down, the winding device is provided with a casing that surrounds the winding device and forms a space that is isolated from the outside. A small hole is provided at a hanging position of the string-shaped member to insert the string-shaped member.

The winding device has a winding drum having a spiral groove for guiding the string member, and moves the winding drum in the axial direction in accordance with the movement of the unwinding position of the string member. A configuration having moving means may be used.

The winding drum is supported by a spline shaft which is linked to a rotary driving device and is disposed substantially horizontally, so as to be integrally rotatable and movable in the axial direction, and has a male screw portion formed on the outer periphery thereof. A configuration may be employed in which a male screw portion is screwed to the female screw member fixed to the casing.

The helical groove may occupy a part of the male screw portion. The space in the casing may be maintained in a negative pressure state, and the air hole may be provided in the small hole.

Alternatively, a bush may be attached to the small hole to close a gap formed between the small hole and the string-shaped member.

By making the insertion hole in the lower wall of the casing from which the cord-like member is fed out into a small hole, dust generated from a worn portion of the winding device is sealed in the casing, and the generated dust is discharged outside the casing. Minimize splashing.

By moving the unwinding position in the spiral groove, the unwinding position can be maintained at a position corresponding to the small hole.

In the configuration in which the winding device includes the spline shaft, the winding drum, and the female screw member, when the winding drum is rotated by the rotation driving device, the hanging position of the string-shaped member with respect to the winding drum. Is moved in the longitudinal direction, but the winding drum is moved in the opposite direction to the casing by the female screw member so that the hanging position of the string-shaped member with respect to the casing is not displaced.

By making the helical groove a part of the male screw portion, the structure of the drum can be simplified.

The space inside the casing is maintained in a negative pressure state, and the air guide portion is provided in the small hole, or the bush is attached to the small hole, so that the dust is scattered from the small hole. Complete prevention.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 10 denotes a transfer device, and the transfer device 10 is provided with a traveling device 12 that moves along a rail 11 as a track. The rail 11 is disposed near a ceiling in a clean room such as a semiconductor manufacturing factory, and the driving device 12 can employ various driving types such as a roller driving device and a linear induction motor.

The traveling device 12 has a plurality (for example, 4
And a casing 14 having a winding device 13 therein is mounted therein.
And a space 15 isolated from the outside is formed. The wire 16 as a cord-like member sent out from each winding device 13 is connected to the lower wall 1 of the casing 14.
7 is inserted through a small hole 18 formed at a position where the wire 16 is suspended.
A chuck 20 as a work holding unit for gripping and releasing the workpiece is hung up and down.

As shown in FIGS.
Is provided with a spline shaft 22, which is linked to a motor 21 as a rotary drive device and has a substantially rectangular cross section and is disposed in a substantially horizontal direction. The spline shaft 22 is rotatably supported by the casing 14 via a bearing 23. ing. As shown in FIG. 2, the spline shaft 22 has the wire 16
A winding drum 25 having a male screw portion 24 which also functions as a spiral groove for guiding the winding is fitted, so that the winding drum 25 can rotate integrally with the spline shaft 22 and slide. It will be supported by.

At the end of the winding drum 25 near the motor 21, there is provided a female screw member 26 which is screwed into the male screw portion 24 of the winding drum 25. Is fixed to the lower wall 17 of the casing 14.

The small hole 18 is formed in the lower wall 17 of the casing 14 corresponding to the position where the wire 16 wound around the male screw portion 24 of the winding drum 25 is suspended. Here, the small hole 18 has a sufficiently small diameter so that the wire 16 does not contact the periphery of the small hole 18.

According to the first embodiment, when the winding drum 25 rotates in the ascending direction of the work 19 by the rotation of the motor 21, the wire 16 is wound on the winding drum 25 while being guided by the male screw portion 24. , Winding drum 25
Is moved toward the center of the winding drum 25 (indicated by a chain line arrow in FIG. 1). However, during this time, the take-up drum 25 is moved by the female screw member 26 with respect to the casing 14 in the direction of the solid line arrow (the direction opposite to the chain line arrow) in FIG.

Therefore, the casing 14 of the wire 16
Is always constant, the wire 16 only moves up and down in the small hole 18, and the wire 1
It is no longer necessary to provide a long hole that allows the displacement of No. 6. Therefore, the tightness of the space 15 in the casing 14 can be secured,
Even if dust is generated in the casing 14 due to wear of the bearing 23 or the like, it is possible to minimize scattering of the dust into the working space.

In addition, since the external thread portion 24 for guiding the wire 16 has a function of sliding the winding drum 25, a structure in which the winding drum 25 is slid by another driving device is provided. There is an advantage that the structure can be simplified and the cost can be reduced as compared with the case where it is adopted.

In this embodiment, the casing 1
In order to thoroughly prevent the scattering of dust, the casing 14
The internal space 15 may be maintained in a negative pressure state, and the suctioned dust may be discharged. When the suction dust is discharged in such a manner, the small hole 1 shown in FIG.
8 on the lower surface of the lower wall 17 as a pipe 2
The provision of 7 makes it possible to make the air passing through the small holes 18 a laminar flow to increase the suction efficiency.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a bush 28 made of metal or the like for closing a gap between the small hole 18 and the wire 16 is attached to the small hole 18 in the above embodiment.
According to this embodiment, the wire 16 small hole 18 and the wire 1
6, the dust can be prevented from scattering to the casing 14 completely.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the number of winding drums can be freely set to four, six, etc., and a plurality of winding drums 25 can be provided on one spline shaft 22. Attaching, one winding drum 25
A plurality of wires 16 may be attached to the.

In the embodiment, the male screw portion is used as a spiral groove for winding, and the unwinding position is moved by screwing the male screw portion and the female screw member. The mechanism is not limited to a mechanism for moving the winding drum in the axial direction by screwing the screws. In other words, instead of this mechanism, a reciprocating mechanism for moving the winding drum in the axial direction separately from the spiral groove for winding is used, and the amount of movement by this reciprocating mechanism is used as the amount of movement of the unwinding position. A method of electrically or mechanically controlling the detection data may be used.

[0031]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a small hole is formed in the lower wall of the casing through which the string-like member is fed out, so that the worn portion of the winding device and the like are removed. Scattering of dust generated from the outside of the casing can be minimized. Therefore, there is an effect that it can be used for a transfer operation in a clean room or the like.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the winding device includes a winding drum having a spiral groove for guiding the string member, and a winding position of the winding drum for unwinding the string member. Since the moving means moves in the axial direction in accordance with the movement of the hole, the unwinding position can be maintained at a fixed position corresponding to the small hole.

According to the third aspect of the invention, when the take-up drum is rotated by the rotary driving device, the hanging position of the string-shaped member with respect to the take-up drum moves in the longitudinal direction. The take-up drum can be moved relative to the casing in the opposite direction, so that the hanging position of the string-like member with respect to the casing is not displaced. Therefore, it is only necessary to provide a small hole in the lower wall of the casing, so that scattering of dust outside the casing can be minimized.

Further, since the winding drum is slid to offset the change in the hanging position of the string member by effectively utilizing the male screw portion for guiding the string member, the winding drum is slid. As compared with the case where a separate driving device is provided, the structure is simplified, the cost can be reduced, the weight increase can be suppressed, and the transport speed is not adversely affected.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the spiral groove on which the string-like member is wound is directly used as the male screw portion, the winding drum itself can be used without providing a special mechanism as moving means. The function of maintaining the unwinding position constant can be achieved by using the spiral groove which is essentially possessed as it is.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the space in the casing is maintained in a negative pressure state, and the air guide portion is provided in the small hole, so that air can be smoothly sucked from the small hole. Therefore, there is an effect that the dust to be scattered from the small holes is surely discharged to prevent the dust from being scattered into the work space.

According to the sixth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that dust can be reliably prevented from scattering from the small holes by the bush.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an essential part cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a main part of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory side view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an overall view of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional technique.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a conventional state of winding a wire.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a belt winding state according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Conveying device 11 ... Rail (track) 12 ... Traveling device 13 ... Winding device 14 ... Casing 15 ... Space 16 ... Wire (string-like member) 17 ... Lower wall 18 ... Small hole 19 ... Work 20 ... Chuck (Work holding) 21) Motor (rotary driving device) 22 ... Spline shaft 24 ... Male screw part 25 ... Winding drum 26 ... Female screw member 27 ... Pipe (air guide part) 28 ... Bush

Claims (6)

[Claims] A traveling device that moves along a track is provided, and a winding device for a string-like member is supported by the traveling device, and the work holding unit is moved up and down by a plurality of string-like members sent out from the winding device. In the transport device which is suspended as possible, the winding device is provided with a casing which surrounds the winding device and forms a space which is isolated from the outside. A transport device, characterized in that a small hole through which a string-like member is inserted is provided at a lower position. 2. The winding device according to claim 1, further comprising: a winding drum having a helical groove for guiding the string member, and moving the winding drum in an axial direction in response to movement of the unwinding position of the string member. The transport device according to claim 1, further comprising a moving unit that moves. 3. The winding drum is supported by a spline shaft, which is linked to a rotary driving device and is disposed in a substantially horizontal direction, so as to be integrally rotatable and movable in the axial direction, and has an external thread portion formed on an outer periphery. The transfer device according to claim 2, wherein the male screw portion is screwed with the female screw member fixed to the casing. 4. The transfer device according to claim 3, wherein the spiral groove occupies a part of the male screw portion. 5. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the space in the casing is maintained in a negative pressure state, and an air guide portion is provided in the small hole. 6. The conveying device according to claim 1, wherein a bush for closing a gap formed between the small hole and the string-like member is attached to the small hole.