JP2000238633A - Linear carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the number of articles carriable at once, and to travel on a curve without hindrance by connecting plural carriage units having a placing stand for placing the articles and a carriage body mounted with a secondary conductor of a linear motor so as to be mutually freely turnable. SOLUTION: Three carriage units 3a are connected to form a linear carriage 3. The respective carriage units 3a are provided with a placing stand 31 for placing a cassette and a carriage body 32. Even if a large number of carriage units 3a are connected by arranging secondary conductors 33 for operating a primary coil of a linear motor in the respective carriage body 32, sufficient propulsion is obtained. The mutual respective carriage units 3a are arranged at intervals of a degree of not interfering between the mutual placing stands 31 by turning of the respective carriage units 3a, and mutual connecting members 34 are connected by a connecting means 35. Since the respective carriage units 3a do not respectively interfere with each other, the respective carriage units 3a can turn according to a curve part of a traveling rail without hindrance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a linear carrier having a mounting table on which articles are mounted and a bogie main body on which a secondary conductor corresponding to a primary coil of a linear motor is mounted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a semiconductor manufacturing line,
In order to absorb a difference in lead time in a plurality of processing steps such as baking and etching, a large number of stockers for storing cassettes accommodating a plurality of works after each processing step are provided. Many processing devices are arranged in each processing step. Cassettes are transported between processing equipment and between processing equipment and stockers by an unmanned transport vehicle that runs on the floor equipped with a robot hand. The cassette is transported by the car. A linear carrier has been proposed in which a mounting table for mounting only one cassette is mounted above a bogie main body provided with a secondary conductor.

[0003] In a semiconductor manufacturing line, it is required to increase the production amount, and in a transport system that connects between stockers and the like, it is required to increase the transport capacity. In order to improve the transport capacity, it is conceivable to increase the number of linear transport vehicles. It was found that the transport capacity reached a peak. This is because the succeeding linear carriers must wait in front of the station until the transferring linear carrier completes the transfer and departs from the station. However, this is because the number of linear carriers in the standby state only increases.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventor has devised to increase the number of cassettes to be transported at one time in order to increase the transport capacity of the linear transport system. However, if the mounting table is made large so that a plurality of cassettes can be mounted on one linear carrier, there is a problem that the vehicle cannot travel on a curve having a small radius of curvature.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to such problems existing in the prior art. The challenge is
The purpose is to increase the number of articles that can be conveyed at one time, and to run the curve smoothly.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a mounting table on which an article is mounted and a bogie main body to which a secondary conductor of a linear motor is attached are provided. The plurality of bogie units provided are rotatably connected to each other.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, each mounting table is attached to an upper end portion of a connecting member provided at a central portion of each bogie main body in plan view, and the connecting member is provided. It is characterized in that they are connected to each other via a connecting means so as to be freely pivotable.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, each of the mounting tables is attached to an upper end portion of a connecting member provided at a central portion of each of the bogie main bodies in plan view. The rear side of the mounting table and the front side of the mounting table of the bogie unit to be connected are rotatably connected to each other via connecting means, and the bogie unit connected to the rear side of the bogie body of the bogie unit. And a front side of the bogie main body is rotatably connected to each other via connecting means.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
By connecting a plurality of cart units, a plurality of articles can be transported at once. And since the connected bogie units can turn mutually, each bogie unit can run on the curved part of the running rail without any trouble. Further, since the respective secondary conductors are provided on the respective bogie main bodies, a sufficient propulsive force can be obtained even when a large number of bogie units are connected. As a result, the transfer capacity of the transfer system can be improved.

According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the functions and effects of the first aspect, when the vehicle stops at a curved portion, the connected bogie main body slightly turns along the traveling rail. However, since the connection members that are the pivot centers are connected to each other, the distance between the connection members does not change.
For this reason, all the bogie units can be stopped without changing the interval. As a result, for example, each carriage unit can be accurately stopped at a predetermined position of each transfer apparatus in a station provided with a plurality of transfer apparatuses according to the connection interval of the carriage units.

According to the third aspect of the invention, in addition to the functions and effects of the first aspect of the present invention, since the bogie main bodies and the mounting tables are connected to each other by the connecting members, especially during high-speed traveling, With the torsion between the carriage body and the mounting table at the curved part of the running rail and the vibration suppressed,
It can be run at high speed. As a result, even during high-speed traveling, the article can be conveyed with as little vibration as possible.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A transfer system using an automatic guided vehicle according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an outline of a transfer system using the automatic guided vehicle of the present embodiment. The transport system 1 according to the present embodiment is used, for example, in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and includes a linear transport vehicle 3 that circulates around a loop-shaped traveling rail 2 suspended from a ceiling and a cassette 4 (article) that stores a plurality of works. ) Is stored in order to absorb the difference in the lead time of each processing step. The traveling rail 2 is divided into a plurality of zones a to h.
In h, only one linear carrier 3 can enter. The entered linear carrier 3 is determined based on whether or not there is a cassette 4 to be transferred to the stocker 5 and whether or not the linear carrier 3 is traveling in a zone immediately before the currently traveling zone. In addition, whether to stop or pass in each of the zones a to h is controlled. Stocker 5 has
A transfer device 51 for transferring the cassette 4 between the linear transport vehicle 3 and the stocker 5, and a shelf 52 for accommodating the cassette 4
And a crane 53 for transferring the cassette 4 to the shelf 52
And are provided. Three transfer devices 51 are arranged side by side on a single stocker 5 at a predetermined interval.

As shown in FIG. 2, the traveling rail 2 is a cylindrical rail having an opening on the upper surface, and is suspended near the ceiling. Three bogie units 3a are connected,
It is a linear carrier 3. Each carriage unit 3a is provided with a mounting table 31 exposed above the travel rail 2 for mounting the cassette 4, and a main body 32 that moves in the travel rail 2 and has wheels (not shown). I have. Each mounting table 31 is provided with a mounting portion for mounting one cassette 4, and a stopper (not shown) is provided to prevent the cassette 4 being transported from moving. Each mounting table 31 is connected to a cylindrical connecting member 34 projecting upward from the center of the bogie main body 32 in a plan view so that the center in plan view matches.

Each bogie main body 32 is provided with a secondary conductor 33 on which the primary coil 21 of a linear motor disposed along the traveling rail 2 acts. For this reason, even if a large number of bogie units 3a are connected so that a plurality of cassettes 4 can be simultaneously transported, the linear transport vehicle 3 can obtain a sufficient propulsive force. Further, each bogie main body 32 can freely travel on the curved portion of the traveling rail 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, there is an interval between the carriage units 3a such that the mounting tables 31 do not interfere with each other due to the rotation of the carriage units 3a. Has become. Each bogie unit 3
Since a does not interfere with each other, each bogie unit 3a can turn without any trouble in accordance with the curved portion of the traveling rail 2, and the automatic guided vehicle 3 can travel on the curved portion of the traveling rail 2. The connecting means 35 is an arm provided with bearings 36 fitted on the connecting members 34 and provided at both ends. By providing the bearing 36, each bogie unit 3
a easily pivots along the curved portion of the traveling rail 2 and has a gap between the connecting member 34 and the connecting means 35 so as to be pivotable.
To keep the same interval.

Further, since the connecting members 34 provided at the center of the bogie main body 32 are connected by the connecting means 35, the centers of turning are connected to each other.
The bogie body 32 (bogie unit 3)
The interval at the center of a) is always constant. Consider a case where the linear carrier 3 stops on a curved portion of the traveling rail 2. After being sufficiently decelerated by the linear motor, the linear transport vehicle 3 is positioned and stopped by braking means such as a magnetic brake (not shown). As shown in FIG. 4A, if the leading bogie main body 32a is braked by the braking means and stopped, the subsequent bogie main bodies 32b and 32c turn each other along the curve of the traveling rail 2. I do. At this time, the distance 38a between the centers of the bogie main bodies 32a, 32b, 32c does not change in plan view. As a result, in the linear transport vehicle 3 of the present embodiment, for example, when braking is applied to the leading bogie main body 32a and the leading bogie main body 32a is accurately stopped at a predetermined position, the following bogie main body 32b is moved to the center distance. It can be stopped at a position separated by 38a. For this reason, even when a plurality of transfer devices are arranged in consideration of the center-to-center distance 38a in one stocker, braking is applied to one of the plurality of bogie main bodies so that each bogie main body can be maintained at a predetermined position. Can be reliably stopped in front of the transfer device.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4B, a method of connecting the rear portion of the bogie main body 32d and the head of the next bogie main body 32e by connecting means mounted at a position deviated from the turning center. In this case, if the leading bogie main body 32d is braked and the leading bogie main body 32d is accurately stopped at a predetermined position, the succeeding bogie main body 32d becomes the leading bogie main body 32d.
Stop while maintaining a constant distance between. At this time, since the running rail 2 is stopped at the curved portion, the center-to-center distance 38b is different from that when the running rail 2 is stopped at the straight portion. For this reason, when a plurality of transfer devices are arranged in one stocker in consideration of the center-to-center distance on a straight line, there is a possibility that the bogie main body is shifted and stopped, and the The cassette may be transferred.

A case in which the cassette 4 is transported between the stockers 5 by the linear transport vehicle 3 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Specifically, the linear transport vehicle 3 which is traveling in the zone h and on which the cassette 4 is not mounted is moved to the stocker 5a.
The case where three cassettes 4 are received and the cassettes 4 are transferred to the stocker 5e will be described. In order to increase the transfer capacity of the stocker 5 in accordance with the improvement of the transfer capacity, the same number of transfer devices 51 as the bogie units 3 a connected to the linear transfer vehicle 3 are arranged in the stocker 5. It is not always necessary to arrange the same number of transfer units 51 as the number of the trolley units 3a, for example, when there are a large number of trolley units 3a or in the case of multi-product small-lot production. In the linear transport vehicle 3 in the zone h, each bogie unit 3a turns along the traveling rail 2 at the curved portion 22. Since the linear transport vehicle 3 does not exist in the zone a ahead, the linear transport vehicle 3 does not need to wait at the standby position at the front end in the traveling direction of each zone.
Into the zone a and stop at a predetermined position in front of the stocker 5a. At this time, the leading bogie unit 3a of the linear carrier 3 is stopped before the transfer device 51a of the stocker 5a, and the central bogie unit 3a is stopped before the transfer device 51b. Transfer devices 51a, 51
When the cassettes 4 are transferred from b and 51c to the mounting table 31 of the carriage unit 3a, it is confirmed that the linear carrier 3 does not exist in the next zone b, and the linear carrier 3 is started.

Since the linear carrier 3 does not exist in the zones c, d and e, the linear carrier 3 passes through the zones c and d. In the zone e, the linear carrier 3 is stopped at a predetermined position before the stocker 5e. And the transfer device 5
1, the cassettes 4 and 4 are transferred from the linear transport vehicle 3 to the stocker 5
Transfer to e.

In the present embodiment, the connecting members 34 are connected by the connecting means 35 so as not to change the distance between the centers of the bogie units 3a. However, when the linear carrier 3 is driven at a higher speed, for example, As shown in FIG.
a may be connected at a plurality of upper and lower locations. This is because the bogie unit 3a only connects the bogie main body 32 and the mounting table 31 by the connecting member 34 provided at the center in plan view. The mounting table 31 is twisted with respect to the bogie main body 32 due to the force, and there is a possibility that vibration is generated. In order to prevent this, not only the front side of the mounting table 31 connected to the rear side of the mounting table 31 is connected with the pin by the connecting means 39, but also the front side of the bogie body connected to the rear side of the mounting body 32 is pinned by the connecting means 39. The connection further strengthens the connection between the bogie units 3a, and allows the bogie units 3a to travel at high speed.
a can be stabilized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating an outline of a transfer system in which an automatic guided vehicle according to an embodiment is used.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a main part showing a linear transport vehicle and a traveling rail according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the linear transport vehicle according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the distance between the bogie units according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a linear carrier according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 running rail 3 linear carrier 3a bogie unit 4 cassette (article) 21 primary coil 31 mounting base 32 bogie main body 33 secondary conductor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A linear carrier, comprising: a plurality of bogie units each including a mounting table on which an article is mounted and a bogie main body on which a secondary conductor of a linear motor is mounted; car. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each mounting table is attached to an upper end of a connecting member provided at a central portion of each bogie main body in plan view, and the connecting members are rotatably connected to each other via connecting means. The linear carrier according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A mounting table of a bogie unit to be connected to a rear side of the mounting table of the bogie unit, wherein each mounting table is attached to an upper end of a connecting member provided at a central portion of each bogie body in plan view. And the front side of the bogie unit of the bogie unit and the front side of the bogie body of the bogie unit to be connected to each other via the connecting means. The linear carrier according to claim 1, wherein the linear carrier is freely connected.