WO2010058689A1 - Non-contact conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

A non-contact conveying device which can be produced without an increase in production costs, which can be operated without an increase in operating costs, which can be installed without limitation of place, which prevents an object being conveyed from being caught by the joint between conveying rails to cause a conveyance failure, and which does not cause damage to the object being conveyed. A non-contact conveying device (1) configured in such a manner that conveying rails (2) are arranged in the direction of conveyance of glass (3) and that the device is adapted to convey the glass (3) in a levitated state.  The non-contact conveying device (1) is equipped with swirl flow forming bodies (4a, 4b) provided to the conveying rails (2) on conveying surfaces thereof at portions other than ends of the conveying rails (2) and generating a swirl flow to levitate the glass (3).  The non-contact conveying device (1) is also equipped with ejecting slots (6c) having an elongated shape in a plan view.  The ejecting slots (6c) are each provided in an end (2a) of the conveying surface of a conveying rail (2) and, when an end (3a) of the glass (3) being conveying on the conveying rails (2) reaches the joint between adjacent conveying rails (2) or reaches the vicinity of the joint, each eject air to the end (3a) of the glass (3) to levitate the end (3a).

Description

Non-contact transfer device

The present invention relates to a non-contact conveyance device, and more particularly to a device used for floating conveyance of a large FPD panel, a solar cell panel, or the like.

Conventionally, in the production of FPD panels and solar cell panels, a method of increasing production efficiency by increasing the size of one panel has been adopted. For example, in the case of liquid crystal glass, the size is 2850 × 3050 × 0.7 mm in the tenth generation. Therefore, when a liquid crystal panel is placed on a plurality of rollers and rolled as in the past, a strong force acts locally on the glass due to the deflection of the shaft and variations in the roller height, which may damage the glass. is there. Furthermore, since the process steps are required to be non-contact, air floating conveyance is beginning to be adopted.

As an example of an air levitation transport device, a plurality of small-diameter holes are provided to float glass for liquid crystal, and a plurality of plate-like rails through which air is ejected from these small-diameter holes are matched to the size of the glass. It is practiced to form a transport device by connecting them together. There is also a method in which porous carbon is used as a rail material and air is ejected from the pores.

However, in the above method, the air flow rate per 1000 × 1000 mm area requires 250 L / min for the multi-hole type and 150 L / min for the carbon porous type, and a very large air flow rate is required. In addition, the conventional non-contact transfer device maintains the accuracy of the flying height using the balance principle of vacuum suction and air jet force, but at that time, it is necessary to always operate the pump for vacuum suction. There is also a problem of consuming a great deal of energy.

Therefore, in Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-75068, the present applicant has proposed a non-contact conveyance device using a swirling flow in order to reduce the air flow rate and energy consumption while maintaining high flying height accuracy. As shown in FIG. 10, the non-contact transfer device includes a through hole 61 having a circular cross section penetrating from the front surface to the back surface, a fluid jet port 62 for generating a swirling flow by jetting air into the through hole 61, A swirling flow forming body 64 having an annular air supply groove 63 for supplying air to the fluid ejection port 62 is provided. Then, the above-described swirl flow forming body 64 is arranged on the surface of a base body (conveying rail) 66 provided with an air supply path 65 for supplying air to the air supply groove 63 to constitute a conveying device.

According to the non-contact transfer device, the object to be transferred (glass) 67 is levitated by generating an upward swirl flow upward on the surface side of the swirl flow forming body 64, and thereby about 1/2 of the conventional one. Enables conveyance at an air flow rate. On the other hand, an air flow downward due to negative pressure is generated in the vicinity of the opening of the through hole 61, and the same effect as vacuum suction for maintaining the flying height accuracy is exhibited. This eliminates the need for a vacuum suction pump and reduces energy consumption.

When transporting a large panel such as an FPD panel or a solar battery panel using the non-contact transport device, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of transport rails 66 provided with a large number of swirl flow forming bodies 64 are provided on the surface. It arrange | positions in parallel and comprises a conveyance lane, and it moves while the to-be-conveyed object 67 floats.

By the way, when the transport distance of the transported object 67 is extended in the transport lane, the transport rail 66 is added in the transport direction of the transported object 67 to increase the distance. In this case, as shown in FIG. In addition, when the step 71 occurs at the joint of the transport rail 66 or the gap 72 between the transport rails 66 increases, the transported object 67 cannot get over the joint of the transport rail 66 and is caught in the middle, resulting in a transport failure. There is a possibility that the transported object 67 may be damaged.

For this reason, when the transport rail 66 is installed, each of the step 71 and the gap 72 generated at the joint between the rails is within an allowable value (for example, glass of 1000 × 1000 × 0.7 (thickness) mm and the flying height is 300 μm. In this case, it is required that the step 71 is within 100 μm and the gap 72 is within 30 mm. However, in this case, since it is necessary to process the transport rail 66 with high accuracy, the manufacturing cost of the transport device may increase, and depending on the conditions of the installation location, regardless of the processing accuracy of the transport rail 66, In some cases, the level difference of the seam cannot be within the allowable value.

As one of the methods for solving the above problem, it is conceivable to increase the upward swirling flow from the swirling flow forming body 64 and increase the floating amount of the entire conveyed object 67. In this case, however, the swirling flow forming body Since it is necessary to increase the air supply amount to 64, there is a problem that the operating cost increases.

As another method, as shown in FIG. 13, the position of the joint is shifted between the transport rails 66a to 66c arranged in parallel, and the transported object 67 is positioned at the joint of the transport rails 66a and 66c on both sides. In addition, there is a plan that the end of the object to be transported 67 is levitated by the central transport rail 66b. However, the transport rail 66 may not be arranged in such a manner due to restrictions on the installation location and the divisional design of the large-sized device. It can not be said.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and the object to be conveyed is a conveyance rail while avoiding an increase in manufacturing cost and operation cost or being restricted by the installation location of the apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a non-contact conveyance device capable of preventing a conveyance failure caused by being caught at the joint of the sheet, and damage to a conveyed object.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a non-contact conveyance device that arranges a plurality of conveyance rails along a conveyance direction of a conveyance object and conveys the conveyance object while floating on the plurality of conveyance rails. A first fluid ejecting means that is provided on a conveying surface other than an end of the conveying rail and causes the ascending swirling flow to float the object to be conveyed; and a conveying surface at an end of the conveying rail. When the end of the object to be transported that is transported on the transport rail reaches the joint between adjacent transport rails or the vicinity thereof, a fluid is sprayed to the end of the transported object, and the transported object And a second fluid ejecting means for levitating the end of the object.

According to the present invention, since the second fluid ejecting means is provided at the end of the transport rail, the end of the transported object that is transported on the transport rail approaches the joint between the transport rails. The end of the conveyed product can be lifted, and the conveyed product can easily get over the step or gap of the joint between the conveying rails. For this reason, it is possible to relax the allowable values of the seam level difference and gap when installing the conveyance rail, and to avoid increasing the manufacturing cost of the non-contact conveyance device or being restricted by the installation location of the device. Is possible. In addition, the amount of air from the pump is not increased to increase the floating amount of the entire transported object, but by applying a floating force only to the part located at the joint of the transport rail to improve overcoming between the transport rails. It is not necessary to increase the operating cost, and the operating cost is not increased.

In the non-contact conveying apparatus, the second fluid ejecting means may be an elongated slot in a top view that ejects fluid upward from the conveying surface of the conveying rail at the end of the conveying rail. it can. According to this, since the fluid supplied to the second fluid ejecting means can be ejected while being compressed, a sufficient levitation force can be applied to the end of the object to be conveyed, and the end of the object to be conveyed It becomes possible to float the part appropriately.

In the non-contact transfer device, the second fluid ejecting means can be disposed so as to cross obliquely with respect to the end surface of the transferred object. According to this, when the fluid from the second fluid ejecting means is sprayed on the end of the object to be transported, it is possible to suppress the generation of a vortex flow above the object to be transported. It is possible to suppress vibrations up and down.

In the non-contact conveyance device, an angle formed between the second fluid ejection unit and the end surface of the object to be conveyed can be 10 ° or less. By setting the angle to 10 ° or more, the generated vortex airflow becomes weak and it is possible to suppress the object to be vibrated.

In the non-contact conveyance device, an angle formed between the second fluid ejecting means and the end surface of the object to be conveyed can be 10 ° or more and 45 ° or less. When the angle is 10 ° or more, as described above, the vibration of the conveyed object can be suppressed, and this effect continues until the angle becomes close to 90 °. However, the larger this angle is, the larger the amount of protrusion in the longitudinal direction becomes, so that there is a disadvantage that a space for arrangement and mounting is required. Considering this point, it is preferable that the angle formed between the second fluid ejecting means and the end face of the conveyed object is suppressed to 45 ° or less.

In the non-contact conveyance device, the first fluid ejection means includes a fluid ejection port on the back surface of a ring-shaped member having a circular cross-sectional through hole penetrating from the front surface to the back surface, and the fluid is ejected from the fluid ejection port. By ejecting, a swirling flow is generated on the surface side of the ring-shaped member in a direction away from the surface, and a fluid flow in the direction of the back surface in the vicinity of the opening of the through hole on the surface side of the ring-shaped member. Can be configured to generate.

According to the above configuration, since the fluid is ejected from the fluid ejection port, the fluid flow and the swirling flow in the direction away from the surface are generated on the surface side of the ring-shaped member, and the object to be conveyed is levitated. It is possible to carry at a low fluid flow rate of about 100 L / min, about / 2. In addition, by ejecting fluid from the fluid outlet, a fluid flow in the direction of the back surface is generated in the vicinity of the opening of the through hole on the ring-shaped member surface side, which is equivalent to vacuum suction for maintaining the flying height accuracy. As a result, a vacuum suction pump is not required and energy consumption can be kept low.

In the non-contact transfer apparatus, a plurality of the first fluid ejecting means are arranged in each row over two rows on the transport surface of the transport rail, and each swirl flow of the first fluid ejecting means belonging to one row And the direction of each swirl flow of the first fluid ejection means belonging to the other row can be configured to be different from each other. With this configuration, the swirl flow from the adjacent first fluid ejecting means in the adjacent row is enhanced, and the object to be transported can be transported while floating by the fluid ejected from the first fluid ejecting means.

As described above, according to the present invention, while the manufacturing cost and the operating cost are increased and the restriction on the installation location of the apparatus is avoided, the object to be conveyed is caught at the joint of the conveyance rail, resulting in a conveyance failure. It is possible to prevent the object to be conveyed from being damaged.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the case where air is used as the transfer fluid and the liquid crystal glass 3 is transferred as an object to be transferred will be described as an example.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a non-contact conveyance device according to the present invention. This non-contact conveyance device 1 includes a rectangular column-shaped conveyance rail 2 extending in the conveyance direction of the glass 3, and the conveyance direction of the glass 3. They are arranged side by side in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction.

A plurality of swirl flow forming bodies 4a, 4b are installed in two rows on the surface of each transport rail 2, and these swirl flow forming bodies 4a, 4b are similar to the swirl flow forming body 64 shown in FIG. is there. As shown in FIG. 2, each swirl flow forming body 4 includes a through hole 41 penetrating from the front surface to the back surface, and a concave portion 42 as an air passage on the back surface as shown in FIGS. 2 (c) and 2 (d). A pair of jet outlets 44 are provided in the vicinity of the inner peripheral surface of the through-hole 41 in the vicinity of the inner peripheral surface of the through hole 41 for jetting air from the inner peripheral surface.

On the other hand, on the surface (transport surface) of the transport rail 2, as shown in FIG. 3, a through hole 45 to which air is supplied via air supply paths 5 a and 5 b described later, and air from the through hole 45 are swirled. An annular groove 46 having a circular shape in a plan view is provided to be supplied to a recess 42 (see FIG. 2) provided on the back surface of the flow forming bodies 4a and 4b. Further, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), the inside of the transport rail 2 is arranged along the long axis of the transport rail 2 and is used for transporting air supplied from a pump (not shown). Air supply paths 5a and 5b are provided.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), a plate-like slot plate 6 is fixed to one end portion 2a of the transport rail 2 through a plurality of mounting screws 6a. A recess (air path) 6b disposed so as to be continuous with the air paths 5a and 5b, and an elongated ejection slot 6c extending from the top of the recess 6b toward the surface of the transport rail 2 are provided. The recess 6b and the ejection slot 6c are provided to generate an upward air flow at the end 2a of the transport rail 2. Here, the length L of the ejection slot 6c is formed larger than the diameter of the air supply paths 5a and 5b. Further, the width D1 of the ejection slot 6c is formed smaller than the width (depth) D2 of the recess 6b in order to compress and blow out (spout) air supplied through the recess 6b. It is preferable to be 1 mm or less.

Next, the operation of the non-contact transfer device will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 3, the air supplied from the pump to the air supply paths 5 a and 5 b of the transport rail 2 is supplied to the annular groove 46 through the through hole 45, and the swirl flow forming bodies 4 a and 4 b are supplied from the annular groove 46. And is ejected from the ejection port 44 to the through hole 41. As a result, an upward swirling flow is generated above the swirling flow forming bodies 4a and 4b, and the glass 3 is floated by the swirling flow. In addition, by ejecting air from the spout 44, an air flow in the back surface direction due to negative pressure is generated in the central portion of the swirl flow forming bodies 4a and 4b (near the opening of the through hole 41), It has the same effect as vacuum suction for maintaining the flying height accuracy.

In addition, the swirl flows of the swirl flow forming bodies 4a and 4b are opposite to each other, and the swirl flow formation bodies 4a and 4b are alternately arranged vertically and horizontally on the paper surface of FIG. The horizontal component force of the swirling flow formed by is canceled out. As a result, the force applied to the glass 3 by the swirl flow is only the force of two vertical components of the levitation force and the suction force, and the rotation of the glass 3 can be reliably prevented.

The glass 3 that has floated in this manner is supplied with a driving force by a linear motor, a friction roller, a belt or the like (not shown) and is transferred in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. And when the edge part 3a of the glass 3 approaches the joint of the conveyance rail 2, the air which ejects from the ejection slot 6c of the slot plate 6 is sprayed on the back surface of the glass 3, and a levitation force is given to the edge part 3a of the glass 3. The As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the end portion 3 a of the glass 3 and the vicinity thereof float up, and the glass 3 can easily get over the step 2 c of the joint of the transport rail 2 and the gap 2 d between the transport rails 2. .

For this reason, the allowable value of the step 2c and the gap 2d when installing the transport rail 2 can be relaxed, and it is avoided that the manufacturing cost of the non-contact transport device is increased and that the place where the device is installed is restricted. It becomes possible. In addition, since the floating amount of the glass 3 as a whole is not increased but a floating force is applied only to the portion located at the joint of the conveyance rail 2, the air from the pump is improved in order to improve overcoming between the conveyance rails 2. There is no need to increase the amount and the operation cost is not increased.

In addition, in the said embodiment, although the case where air was used as a fluid was demonstrated, process gas, such as nitrogen other than air, can also be used. In addition, as a means for floating the end portion 3a of the glass 3 at the joint between the conveyance rails 2, an elongated slot 6c in the top view is provided, but a through hole having an elliptical shape in the top view is provided, or a plurality of small through holes are provided. The holes may be formed side by side on a straight line.

Further, in the above embodiment, the slot 2 is formed on the end 2a of the transport rail 2 and the ejection slot 6c is formed. However, the end 2a of the transport rail 2 is not provided with the slot plate 6. A through hole that connects the surface (transport surface) of the transport rail 2 to the internal air supply paths 5a and 5b may be formed.

FIG. 7 is a top view showing a second embodiment of the non-contact transport apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a region G in FIG. In these drawings, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 to 5 are given the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

In the non-contact conveyance device 1 of the first embodiment, since the ejection slot 6c is arranged along the end surface 2b of the conveyance rail 2 (see FIG. 4A), the end surface 3b on the conveyance destination side of the glass 3 (see FIG. 4). 1 and FIG. 5) and the ejection slot 6c are in a parallel positional relationship. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, an eddy current is likely to be generated above the glass 3, and the glass 3 may be vibrated up and down.

Therefore, in the non-contact conveyance device 10 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a diagonal block 7 having a right triangle in a top view is disposed between the conveyance rail 2 and the slot plate 6, and the ejection slot is formed. 6c is made to cross diagonally with respect to the end surface 3b on the conveyance destination side of the glass 3 (the arrangement surface 7c of the slot plate 6 is arranged obliquely with respect to the end surface 2b of the conveyance rail 2). In addition, as shown in FIG. 8A, air supply paths 7a and 7b connecting the air supply paths 5a and 5b in the transport rail 2 and the recess 6b in the slot plate 6 are provided inside the oblique block 7. A plurality of mounting holes (not shown) for screwing the slot plate 6 are provided on the arrangement surface 7 c of the slot plate 6.

In the non-contact conveyance device 10, as shown in FIG. 9, when the end 3 a of the glass 3 approaches the seam of the conveyance rail 2, the glass 3 and the ejection slot 6 c are obliquely intersected with each other. Air is blown on the back side. In this case, since the vortex is not generated at a stretch, the force for generating the vibration is weak and the generation of the vortex above the glass 3 is reduced. Thereby, it can control that glass 3 vibrates up and down, and it becomes possible to move the joint of conveyance rail 2 more smoothly.

Here, the installation angle θ (see FIG. 8A) of the ejection slot 6c with respect to the end surface 3b of the glass 3 is preferably 10 ° or more. When the angle θ is less than 10 °, the influence of the vortex airflow becomes large, and there is a possibility that vibration is likely to occur. On the other hand, when the angle θ is 10 ° or more, there is an advantage that the influence of the vortex airflow is reduced and the occurrence of vibration can be reduced. This advantage continues until the angle θ is close to 90 °. On the other hand, the larger the angle θ, the larger the amount of the oblique block 7 that projects in the longitudinal direction. For this reason, the fault which requires the space on arrangement | positioning and attachment arises, and when this point is considered, it is preferable to suppress angle (theta) to 45 degrees or less. Therefore, the installation angle θ of the ejection slot 6c with respect to the end surface 3b of the glass 3 is preferably 10 ° or more, and more preferably 10 ° or more and 45 ° or less.

In the present embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, a process gas other than air can be used as a fluid, and an elliptical through hole or the like in top view is used instead of the ejection slot 6c. In addition, a through hole that connects the surface of the bevel block 7 to the internal air supply paths 7 a and 7 b may be formed in the bevel block 7 without attaching the slot plate 6.

It is a top view which shows 1st Embodiment of the non-contact conveying apparatus concerning this invention. FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing the swirl flow forming body of FIG. 1, in which FIG. 1A is a top view, FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. FIG. 8C is a cross-sectional view taken along the line CC of FIG. 5B, and is a bottom view showing a case where the back surface of the swirling flow forming body is formed to be different from the back surface of the swirling flow forming body shown in FIG. FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing a state where the swirl flow forming body of FIG. 1 is installed on a transport rail, where FIG. 2A is a front cross-sectional view, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along line EE of FIG. (A) is an enlarged view of region A in FIG. 1, and (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along line FF in (a). It is a figure which shows the conveyance state of the glass in the joint line between conveyance rails. It is a figure which shows the generation | occurrence | production state of the vortex | airflow above glass. It is a top view which shows 2nd Embodiment of the non-contact conveying apparatus concerning this invention. (A) is the enlarged view of the area | region G of FIG. 7, (b) is a perspective view of (a). It is a figure which shows the conveyance state of the glass in the joint line between conveyance rails. It is sectional drawing which shows the conventional non-contact conveying apparatus. It is a top view which shows the conventional non-contact conveying apparatus. It is a figure which shows the conveyance state of the glass in the joint line between conveyance rails. It is a top view which shows the conventional non-contact conveying apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Non-contact conveyance apparatus 2 Conveying rail 2a End part 2b End surface 2c Level difference 2d Gap 3 Glass 3a End part 3b End surface 4 (4a, 4b) Swirl flow formation body 5 (5a, 5b) Air supply path 6 Slot plate 6a Mounting screw 6b Recess 6c Ejection slot 7 Bevel block 7a, 7b Air supply path 7c Slot plate placement surface 10 Non-contact conveying device 41 Through hole 42 Recess 44 Ejection port 45 Through hole 46 Annular groove

Claims (7)

A non-contact conveyance device that arranges a plurality of conveyance rails along a conveyance direction of a conveyance object, and conveys the conveyance object while floating on the plurality of conveyance rails,
A first fluid ejection means provided on a conveyance surface other than an end of the conveyance rail, and causing an upward swirling flow to float the object to be conveyed;
When the end of the object to be conveyed that is provided on the conveying surface at the end of the conveying rail and is conveyed on the conveying rail reaches the joint between adjacent conveying rails or the vicinity thereof, the object to be conveyed And a second fluid ejecting means for spraying a fluid onto the end of the object and floating the end of the object to be conveyed. The said 2nd fluid ejection means is an elongate slot-like ejection slot which ejects a fluid upwards from the conveyance surface of this conveyance rail in the edge part of the said conveyance rail. The non-contact conveying apparatus as described. The non-contact transfer device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second fluid ejecting means is disposed so as to cross obliquely with respect to an end face of the transferred object. The non-contact conveying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein an angle formed by the second fluid ejecting means and an end face of the object to be conveyed is 10 ° or more. The non-contact conveying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein an angle formed by the second fluid ejecting means and the end surface of the object to be conveyed is 10 ° or more and 45 ° or less. The first fluid ejection means includes a fluid ejection port on the back surface of a ring-shaped member having a circular through-hole penetrating from the front surface to the back surface, and ejects fluid from the fluid ejection port, thereby A swirling flow in the direction away from the surface is generated on the surface side of the ring-shaped member, and a fluid flow is generated in the vicinity of the opening of the through hole on the surface side of the ring-shaped member. The non-contact conveyance apparatus in any one of Claim 1 thru | or 5. A plurality of the first fluid ejection means are arranged in each row in two rows on the transport surface of the transport rail, the direction of the swirl flow of the first fluid ejection means belonging to one row, and the other row 7. The non-contact transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the directions of the swirling flows of the first fluid ejecting means belonging to each other are different from each other.

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