Material or article handling – Process
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-07
2003-11-18
Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Process
C414S793800, C414S796500, C414S796700, C187S391000, C187S394000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06648587
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENTS REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to the field of clean room-like environments and, more particularly, to a material delivery system for such environments.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many manufacturing or assembly processes require an environment which is free of particulates or other contaminants to at least a certain degree. Clean rooms have long been used in the semiconductor industry for the processing of wafers from which semiconductor devices are formed. Other industries which have used clean rooms include computer disk drive manufacturers. Certain disk drive parts are manufactured in a clean room environment, while other parts are manufactured and then cleaned prior to entry into a clean room for incorporation into some type of an assembly within the clean room (e.g., an actuator arm assembly).
One alternative to clean rooms which has been used at least in the computer disk drive industry is a so-called minienvironment. Minienvironments effectively are a self-contained unit which may be disposed within or outside of a clean room and which provide clean room-like air qualities. A representative example of a minienvironment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,768 to Zytka et al., which is owned by the assignee of this patent application, and which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. Generally, a minienvironment is an enclosure of sorts which has its own forced air system for delivering filtered air into the noted enclosure. Various types of access may be provided to the minienvironment and through which this air may be discharged along with any particulates or other contaminants contained therein. These accesses or fluid interconnections with the surrounding environment are typically disposed on a lower portion of the minienvironment, and the filtered air is typically introduced into the minienvironment in an upper portion thereof.
Smaller-sized openings may be provided in the minienvironment's enclosure to allow an operator to dispose his or her arms therethrough to retrieve parts and/or to execute some type of operation (e.g., assembly) within the minienvironment. Only the operator's hands and possibly a portion of the operator's arms need to meet certain cleanliness requirements with this type of minienvironment. It should be appreciated that these types of minienvironments thereby do not provide for total isolation from the surrounding environment, but instead rely on a higher air pressure within the minienvironment's enclosure to keep particulates and other contaminants which may exist in the surrounding environment from flowing into the minienvironment through the noted fluid interconnections. The above-noted reference to an “enclosures” for a minienvironment would thereby include a shroud, hood, or the like which does not provide for a total enclosure (e.g., a gap may exist along a lower portion of a sidewall of the minienvironment). Some minienvironments may include a glove box or the like to further maintain the cleanliness within the minienvironment and for the above-noted types of purposes. Still other minienvironments have no access for operations personnel during normal operations within the minienvironment, but instead rely on robotic devices within the minienvironment to perform the desired operation(s) therewithin. In both of these later instances, there may be a total isolation of the interior of the minienvironment from the surrounding environment.
There are rather significant costs associated with the operation of both clean rooms and minienvironments. Simply put, the various actions which are undertaken in order to maintain the desired level of cleanliness often come at a rather significant financial cost. Both personnel and all other materials (e.g., parts to be used in an assembly being executed in the clean room/minienvironment) which enter the clean room or the minienvironment must be within the desired cleanliness level. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,713,791 and 5,344,365 both address rather extravagant systems/methods directed to the transfer of materials to/from/within a clean room environment. So-called “clean carts” have also been used to transfer materials from outside a clean room to a location therein. Known clean carts are simplistically a box with an access door on a side thereof (i.e., the top is non-removable in these units). Cleaned parts are loaded into this “box” through the access door. Filtered air is simultaneously blown into the “box” during loading through this access door as well. All intended discharges from within the “box” at this time are also through this same access door as there are no other designed perforations in the clean cart. Once the clean cart is loaded, the door is closed to seal the interior of the same and it may then be wheeled into the clean room. Typically these clean carts are parked next to a station which uses the parts contained therein in some manner.
Numerous disadvantages exist in relation to known clean carts. One is that these clean carts consume floor space which in some cases may be at a premium. Another is that the operator must manually retrieve parts from the clean cart and provide the same to the subject workstation. Often this involves certain repetitive motions which may subject the operator to injury over time. For instance, an operator positioned on a chair at a minienvironment may have to rotate 90° and bend over to access the parts contained within the clean cart, and thereafter rotate back to the minienvironment with the parts in hand (typically on a tray) to position them into the minienvironment. The alternative would be for the operator to get up and walk over to the clean cart which not only wastes valuable time, but possibly means positioning the clean cart at a location where there may be unanticipated impacts between the clean cart and personnel which would be undesirable in a number of respects.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a material delivery system and, more particularly, to a material delivery system for use with a workstation in a “clean” or filtered environment, such as a clean room or a minienvironment. One particularly desirable application for the present invention is for use in the assembly of computer disk drives.
A first aspect of the present invention generally relates to controlling the movement of an elevator in a material delivery system of the above-described type. A plurality of containers (e.g., a tray having a plurality of disk drive components stored therein), may be loaded on the elevator, either directly or through one or more intermediate structures. The elevator may be moved to position one of the containers for removal in a desired manner at the work station where the material delivery system of the first aspect is incorporated. One way to accomplish this movement of the elevator is to monitor for the presence of a container at least at one vertical position, and then to use the information to move the elevator in a predetermined manner.
Various refinements exist of the features noted above in relation to the first aspect of the present invention. Further features may also be incorporated in the present invention as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. The work station that incorporates the first aspect of the present invention may include a tabletop or other work surface, on which one or more processing/assembly operations are performed in the filtered environment. The material delivery system may incorporate a number of features to reduce the potential for affecting the cleanliness level in the filtered environment. For instance, the material delivery system may include an upper support that is disposed at least generally at the same elevation as the work surface of the work station which incorporates the material delivery system of the first aspect. This upper support would then include a cavity that is aligned with the el
Finn Michael A.
McCrandall John D.
McMunigal Tom E.
Bratlie Steven A.
Marsh & Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP
Maxtor Corporation
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