KR100783762B1 - Transfering apparatus for substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

A substrate transfer apparatus is provided to reduce a holding time in the substrate transfer process by conveying stacked substrates according to up/down operations of conveying poles. A substrate transfer apparatus includes a supporting plate(T), first and second lift units(6,8), and first and second drivers(10,12). Substrates are loaded on the supporting plate. The first lift unit includes first conveying poles(P1), which are installed in stand on the supporting plate, having plural supporting arms. The second lift unit, which are installed adjacent to the first conveying poles on the supporting plate, includes second conveying poles(P2) having plural supporting arms. The first driver drives the first and the second conveying poles so as to execute up/down operations along a center shaft on the supporting plate. The second driver rotates the first and the second conveying poles with respect to the center shaft.

Description

Substrate transfer apparatus

1 is a view showing the overall structure of a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a view briefly showing the arrangement of the first lift means and the second lift means of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining the structure of the first drive unit of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining the structure of the second drive unit of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view for explaining the operation of the second drive unit of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a state in which the first lift means is rotated by the second driving unit of FIG. 5.

7 is a view for explaining another operation of the second drive unit of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating a state in which the second lift means is rotated by the second driving unit of FIG. 7.

9 is a view for explaining an initial operation process for the vertical conveyance of the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a state in which the first conveying post is operated up in the state of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a view showing a state in which the second conveying post is operated up in the state of FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a view illustrating a state in which the first conveying post is operated up and down again in the state of FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is a view illustrating a state in which several substrates are vertically conveyed while passing through the substrate lifting cycles of FIGS. 9 to 12.

[Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawing]

 2: base plate 4: support leg 6: first lift means

 8: second lift means 10: first drive part 12: second drive part

 G: Substrate T: Supporting Surface C: Cylinder

 A1, A2: Mounting arms M1, M2: Motors P1, P2: Transfer posts

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate conveying apparatus, and more particularly, to conveying a substrate by a vertical conveying method in manufacturing a substrate for a flat panel display panel. It is related with the board | substrate conveyance apparatus which can be conveyed.

In general, a substrate transfer device for moving a substrate to a predetermined position is provided in a work line for manufacturing the substrate for a flat panel display panel.

The substrate conveying apparatus has a horizontal conveying method and a vertical conveying method according to the conveyance direction of a board | substrate, and the conveyance apparatus of the vertical conveying system which can convey a board | substrate in the state which reduced the area occupied by a work line is used widely recently.

The vertical conveying conveying apparatus is widely known for a structure in which a plurality of substrates are stored in a cassette capable of up / down movement by collectively moving the cassette by a lifting operation of the cassette.

However, the cassette-type vertical conveying apparatus has the following disadvantages when vertically conveying a substrate.

First, it is difficult to increase the efficiency of the space because a separate lifting space must be secured for the entire cassette to be moved up / down within the workplace.

In addition, in order to up / down the entire bulky cassette, a drive source such as a motor or a cylinder and a rail must be additionally installed, and thus the structure may be complicated and excessive costs may be required for manufacturing and maintenance.

In particular, the continuous vertical conveyance of the substrates cannot be realized by the conveying method in which the substrates are collectively moved by the up / down operation while the substrates are stored in the cassette.

Therefore, excessive holding time occurs during substrate transfer, so that satisfactory substrate transfer efficiency cannot be expected, and may be a factor that degrades workability during substrate manufacture.

The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems as described above, the object of the present invention is to enable the continuous vertical conveyance of the substrate, the simple lifting operation and structure of the substrate can significantly reduce the size of the device It is to provide a substrate transfer device.

In order to realize the object of the present invention as described above,

A support surface onto which the substrate is loaded;

First lifting means positioned in at least one point on said support surface and composed of first conveying struts having a plurality of mounting arms;

Second lifting means composed of second conveying struts having a plurality of mounting arms and positioned upright adjacent to the first conveying struts on the support surface;

A first driving unit for causing the first conveying post and the second conveying post to be operated up / down along a central axis at the support surface;

A second drive unit for causing the first conveying post and the second conveying post to be rotated about a central axis;

It provides a substrate transfer apparatus comprising a.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments of the present invention are described to the extent that those of ordinary skill in the art can practice the present invention.

Therefore, since the embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various other forms, the claims of the present invention are not limited to the embodiments described below.

1 is a view showing the overall structure of a substrate transport apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, 2 denotes a base plate.

The base plate 2 is formed in a plate shape having a support surface T thereon, and is used to convey a substrate for a flat panel display panel (G, hereinafter referred to as a "substrate") in a vertical direction. It serves as a kind of workbench to provide realms.

The base plate 2 may be a plate of metal or synthetic resin having excellent durability and strength, and may be horizontally disposed in a state of being supported by the bottom surface in combination with the plurality of supporting legs 4.

The first lift means 6 is located on the support surface T of the base plate 2.

The first lift means 6 consists of a plurality of first conveying struts P1, which are conveyed in FIG. 2 at a corner point along the circumference of the support surface T. In FIG. It is installed in four places as follows.

That is, the four first conveying struts P1 are positioned in the upright state so as to correspond to the corner points of the substrate G on the support surface T, respectively.

The first conveying struts P1 are spaced apart at four points so as to be positioned outside the edges of the substrate G (see FIG. 2).

In addition, although not shown in the drawing, the first conveying strut P1 may be positioned to correspond to one side of four edge edges of the substrate G on the support surface T, respectively.

The first conveying struts P1 are formed in the form of rods of long cylinders or polygons as shown in FIG. 1, and the first mounting arms A1 are formed at one or more points along the length direction.

The first mounting arms A1 have a posture parallel to the support surface T along the longitudinal direction of the first conveying struts P1 as shown in FIG. 3, and are respectively coupled to the outer surface at regular intervals. It is fixed.

The first mounting arms A1 are formed to have a length capable of supporting the four bottom edges of the substrate G on the outer surfaces of the four first transport pillars P1, respectively.

The first lift means 6 is an edge of the substrate G with the first mounting arms A1 positioned at any one of the four first transport posts P1 as shown in FIG. 3. It can be mounted horizontally while supporting the bottom of the point in contact.

The substrate transport apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises a second lift means (8).

The second lift means 8 is composed of four second conveying struts P2 as shown in FIG. 1, and the second mounting arms A2 are formed on the outer surface of the second conveying struts P2. Are combined.

A plurality of second mounting arms A2 are formed at the same interval as the first mounting arms A1 of the first transport post P1.

The second conveying struts P2 are positioned on the support surface T in a state where they are erected at regular intervals from the first conveying struts P1 as shown in FIG. 2.

The second mounting arms A2 are disposed between the first mounting arms A1.

The first mounting arm A1 and the second mounting arm A2 have a transfer / takeover of the substrate G on the side of the first conveying strut P1 or the second conveying strut P2. It is possible to support.

The first mounting arm A1 and the second mounting arm A2 are integrally formed on the side of the first conveying support P1 and the second conveying support P2, or in addition to the bracket or screw. Can be detachably combined in a conventional manner.

The first mounting arm A1 and the second mounting arm A2 may have a bottom surface to prevent the central point of the substrate G from sagging when supporting four points of the substrate G. It is preferable to form a length that can sufficiently support the.

At this time, the first and second mounting arms A1 and A2 should be arranged so as not to contact each other when the conveying struts P1 and P2 are operated up / down.

A shock absorbing member Q, such as a cap or pad made of rubber or urethane, may be attached to the front end of the first and second mounting arms A1 and A2 as shown in FIG. 1.

When the buffer member Q is mounted on the substrate G with the first and second mounting arms A1 and A2, scratches or cracks are generated on the side of the substrate G by contact impact or friction. Can be prevented.

The first conveying strut P1 and the second conveying strut P2 are fitted with the fixed flanges E provided on the base plate 2 as shown in FIG. 1 and rotated relative to the center axis. And up / down operations are possibly coupled.

On the other hand, the substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a first driving unit 10.

The first driving unit 10 drives the first conveying support P1 and the second conveying support P2 to be moved up / down at a predetermined pitch while sliding along the central axis of the base plate 2. do.

To this end, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the cylinders C are attached to the bottom surface of the base plate 2, and the first and second conveyance posts P1 and P2 are driven by driving the cylinders C. As shown in FIG. Are allowed to move up / down along the central axis.

The cylinder (C) is fixed to the bracket (B) is coupled to have a posture corresponding to the lower ends of the first and second conveying struts (P1, P2) on the bottom of the base plate (2).

The piston rods C1 of the cylinders C are connected to ends of the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2, respectively. Therefore, when the cylinder C is driven, the transport posts P1 and P2 can be operated up / down by the piston rod C1.

The first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 are operated up / down by the interval between the first and second mounting arms A1 and A2.

The first driving unit 10 is operated such that the first conveying strut P1 and the second conveying strut P2 are alternately moved up and down, and the substrate G is operated by the up / down operation. Can be gradually lifted upwards.

In the above description, the cylinder C is used as the driving source of the first driving unit 10 and the power is directly transmitted to the piston rod C1 of the cylinder C. .

For example, although not shown in the drawings, the power transmission may be set in various power transmission methods (rack / pinion, link) using one or more motors or cylinders.

This structure can be easily carried out by those skilled in the art, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, the substrate transfer apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises a second drive unit 12.

The second driving unit 12 is configured to change the mounting posture of the first mounting arm A1 and the second mounting arm A2.

To this end, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, when the shafts of the motors M1 and M2 are rotated by using two motors M1 and M2, the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 form a central axis. It is to be rotated as a reference.

Screws S are connected to the two motors M1 and M2 shafts, respectively, and the screws S have left and right threads S1 and left threads S2 along the length direction.

One end of each of the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 configured by four is connected to one end of the links L1 and L2 as shown in FIG. Opposite ends are connected to the moving bodies F1 and F2 screwed two by one on each screw S side.

Connection points of the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 and the links L1 and L2 and the movable bodies F1 and F2 are connected and fixed by a conventional hinge coupling.

One end of each of the links L1 and L2 is hinged in a conventional manner so that the connection state can be maintained even when the first and second conveying posts P1 and P2 are operated up / down.

One of the movable bodies F1 of the movable bodies F1 and F2 is coupled to the right threaded portion S1 of the screw S, and the other movable bodies F2 are coupled to the left threaded portion S2.

That is, the moving bodies F1 and F2 are spaced apart from each other along the axis of the screws S when the screws S are rotated forward and backward by the driving of the motors M1 and M2 or vice versa. Is moved.

Therefore, the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 are powered by the link cutting motions of the links L1 and L2 connected to the moving bodies F1 and F2, and the following reference is made based on the center axis. It is rotated together.

First, when any one of the motor M1 is rotated as shown in FIG. 5 and the moving body F1 is in a narrowed state as shown in the drawing, the first conveyance is performed by the link cutting motion of the link L1. The dragon prop P1 is rotated as in FIG.

In the rotated state as described above, four points of the substrate G may be supported by the first mounting arm A1 coupled to the first transport post P1 in a state of being mounted.

And when the other motor M2 is rotated as shown in FIG. 7 and the space | interval of the said mobile body F2 becomes narrow as shown in the figure, the said 2nd conveyance by the link cutting motion of the said link L2. The dragon prop P2 is rotated as in FIG. 8.

In the rotated state as described above, four points of the substrate G may be supported by the second mounting arm A2 coupled to the second conveying support P2 as shown in FIG. 8.

In the above, two motors M1 and M2 are used as driving sources of the second driving unit 12, and the rotational force generated by the motors M1 and M2 passes through the screws S and links L1 and L2. It is shown in the description and drawings as an example that is delivered, but is not limited thereto.

For example, although not shown in the drawings, it may be set to be driven by direct or indirect power transmission using a piston rod of a motor shaft or cylinder.

Such a power transmission structure can be easily carried out by those skilled in the art, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The second driving unit 12 includes the first and second mounting arms A1, which are alternately mounted on the side of the first conveying support P1 or the second conveying support P2. A2) can be changed to a stationary or non-mounted posture.

Accordingly, the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 are lifted by the driving of the first and second driving units 10 and 12, and are sequentially stacked upward from the support surface T. The substrate G can be vertically conveyed in a state.

An operation process for vertical conveyance of the substrate G will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, as shown in FIG. 9, when the substrate G is supplied to be mounted on the lowermost first mounting arm A1 side of the first transport pillars P1, the first transport pillar P1 is provided. ) Are up.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, the second transport arms A2 of the second transport struts P2 may support the substrate G while the first transport struts P1 are up. It is operated up in the pivoted position.

Then, the substrate G mounted on the first mounting arm A1 side is moved while being moved to the bottom second mounting arm A2 side of the second conveying post P2 as shown in FIG. 11. do. That is, the take over / takeover of the board | substrate G advances during the up operation | movement of the said 2nd conveyance prop P2.

Then, the first conveying post P1 is operated in a state in which the first mounting arm A1 is rotated so as to be in a non-holding posture.

By this operation, the substrate G mounted on the first mounting arm A1 side is mounted on the bottom of the second mounting arm A2 side of the second transfer post P2 and is upward. Is moved to the vertically conveyed state.

Subsequently, when a new substrate G1 is supplied to the lowermost first mounting arm A1 side of the down-operated first transport post P1, the first transport is carried in a state where the substrate G is mounted. The dragon prop P1 is up again.

Then, the board | substrate G mounted on the bottom 2nd mounting arm A2 side of the said 2nd conveyance support P2 is as shown in FIG. 12 at the bottom of the 1st conveyance support G. As shown in FIG. It is conveyed vertically upward again while being moved to the state mounted on the 2nd 1st mounting arm A1 side. That is, two substrates G are mounted on the first conveying post P1 side.

In this state, the second conveying posts P2 are repeatedly operated in the state in which the second mounting arms A2 are rotated in a non-holding position, and then repeats the up operation as described above.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 13, the first and second conveying struts P1 and P2 alternately carry out an up / down operation by repeating the lifting cycle. The several board | substrate G can be supplied by a continuous vertical conveyance system in the state mounted on the 2 conveyance post P2 side.

In addition, the substrate conveying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the function of supplying the substrate (G) in a vertical conveying manner upwards as described above, for example, while lifting in the reverse order of the above operation process, The carrying out operation may be performed while lifting the substrate G in a vertical conveyance manner toward the lower side.

As described above, the present invention can provide further improved substrate transfer efficiency by providing means for enabling continuous vertical transfer of the substrate.

In particular, the means can carry the vertical vertical conveyance of the substrate in a stacked state while the conveying posts are up / down and rotated at a constant pitch, thereby greatly reducing the holding time during conveyance of the substrate and miniaturizing the size of the apparatus. .

Therefore, when carrying out a series of work processes for manufacturing the substrate it is possible to secure a further improved substrate transfer efficiency to increase the work efficiency and productivity.

Claims (7)

A support surface onto which the substrate is loaded; First lifting means positioned in at least one point on said support surface and composed of first conveying struts having a plurality of mounting arms; Second lifting means composed of second conveying struts having a plurality of mounting arms and positioned upright adjacent to the first conveying struts on the support surface; A first driving unit for causing the first conveying post and the second conveying post to be operated up / down along a central axis at the support surface; A second drive unit for causing the first conveying post and the second conveying post to be rotated about a central axis; Substrate conveying apparatus comprising a. The method according to claim 1, The first conveying strut and the second conveying strut are made of a rod of a cylinder or a polygonal cylinder, and the mounting arms protrude from the outer surface at regular intervals along the longitudinal direction of the rod. Substrate conveying apparatus. The method according to claim 1, And the first conveying post and the second conveying post are positioned at a point at which the four supporting edges or one side of the four edges of the substrate can be supported by the mounting arms. The method according to claim 1, The substrate transfer apparatus further includes a buffer member, The shock absorbing member is formed in the form of a rubber or urethane cap or pad, the substrate conveying apparatus, characterized in that the cover is attached or covered to cover the outer surface of the first mounting arm and the second mounting arm. The method according to claim 1, The first drive unit uses a motor or a cylinder as a drive source, and receives power from the drive source to generate and transmit power such that the first conveying post and the second conveying post are up / down along a central axis. Substrate conveying apparatus, characterized in that set possible. The method according to claim 1, The second driving unit uses a motor or a cylinder as a driving source, and receives power from the driving source to enable power generation and transmission such that the first conveying post and the second conveying post are rotated based on a central axis. Substrate conveying apparatus, characterized in that set. The method according to claim 1, The first mounting arm and the second mounting arm are each positioned at the same point from the support surface or between one of the mounting arms, and the other mounting arm is positioned between the mounting arms. Device.

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