Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor having impinging fluid to feed – shift or discharge... – Having cleaning means
Reexamination Certificate
2003-10-02
2004-12-21
Ridley, Richard (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor having impinging fluid to feed, shift or discharge...
Having cleaning means
C414S940000, C384S015000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06832680
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a work conveying system and a traveling path sealing structure in the work conveying system. Particularly, the present invention is concerned with an improvement of a work conveying system and a traveling path sealing structure wherein, in a production line installed within a clean room for the production of, for example, semiconductor components, liquid crystal display panels, medical supplies, drugs, or processed foods, dust generated in the interior of a traveling path (guide rail) in the work conveying system is prevented from leaking out into the clean room, the work conveying system being adapted to convey a work to each of plural processing apparatuses while allowing the work to circulate among the processing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a semiconductor integrated circuit or a liquid crystal display panel, the deposition of dust causes a lowering of product yield. As to medical supplies, drugs and processed foods, it is desirable for them to be produced in a sterile and sanitary environment. In this connection, intra-clean room production lines are in operation in a wide variety of fields including those production fields, and various technical developments have been made with respect to various processing chambers and work conveying systems installed within clean rooms.
As to the work conveying system, an overhead traveling type work conveying system has been developed. According to this work conveying system, a layout mode of various processing apparatuses to be installed within a clean room is difficult to be restricted and it is possible to select an optimum layout, that is, it is possible to utilize the interior of the clean room effectively and thereby possible to reduce the equipment cost and operation cost of the clean room. The adoption of such an optimal layout is advantageous also in that the work conveying system which can be a generation source of dust (particles) can be kept away from apparatuses such as various processing chambers installed within the clean room.
The applicant in the present case has previously invented a work conveying system provided with moving means capable of moving a work holding means in arbitrary three-dimensional directions in the upper ceiling space within the clean room and applied for a patent (see Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2000-243808).
In this work conveying system, a pair of horizontal fixed guide rails are laid in parallel within a ceiling space and one or plural horizontal traveling guide rails are laid between the pair of fixed guide rails so that they can travel along the fixed guide rails. On each traveling guide rail is provided a traveling block which can travel along the traveling guide rail. A horizontal moving means is constituted by the fixed guide rails, traveling guide rail(s), and a traveling block. Further, the traveling block is provided with a vertical moving means which can move the work holding means up and down. A three-dimensional moving means is constituted by the horizontal moving means and the vertical moving means.
The fixed and traveling guide rails, which are each in an elongated duct shape, contain a drive portion (including a drive motor and a drive mechanism) for the traveling guide rail and the traveling block, also contain a power supply means, and are communicated with each other. Dust (particles) generated from the drive portion and various slide portions is confined into ducts which constitute the fixed and traveling guide rails and is sucked in from one end of a communication path and is discharged to the exterior of the clean room. In this way contamination in the clean room caused by dust present within the ducts which constitute the guide rails is prevented to a considerable extent.
However, the communication path which provides communication between the fixed guide rails and the traveling guide rail(s) is long and, while the dust present within the ducts as communication constituents of the guide rails is sucked in from one end of the communication path and is discharged to the exterior of the clean room, there is a fear that the dust may leak to a lower portion of the clean room from a gap in the communication path, especially from an elongated gap in which a connecting member for connection between the traveling guide rail(s) and the drive portion thereof extends through the duct as a constituent of a fixed guide rail or from an elongated gap in which a connecting member for connection between the traveling block and the drive portion thereof extends through the duct as a constituent of the traveling guide rail, with a consequent likelihood of lowering in the degree of cleanness of the clean room.
In
FIG. 17
there is illustrated a sealing structure in this work conveying system, in which an elongated gap
028
formed in a portion where a connecting member
022
for connection between a traveling guide rail
015
and a drive portion thereof (including a drive motor
023
and a drive roller
026
) extends through a duct
017
as a constituent of a fixed guide rail
014
is sealed. In this sealing structure, the connecting member
022
has a zigzag-bent sectional shape and shield plates
041
a
and
041
b
are inserted deep into slit portions (slits
022
a
and
022
b
) of the connecting member
022
, thereby constituting a labyrinth to prevent dust generated in the drive and slide portions in the duct from leaking out into the clean room. However, even with such a labyrinth structure, since the suction of dust is performed through a long communication path, it has so far been impossible to completely prevent the dust present in the duct from leaking out to the lower portion of the clean room.
Other examples of overhead traveling type work conveying systems are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open Nos. 1993-116885, 1993-39030, and 1995-291123. In these work conveying systems, a traveling roller provided in a traveling body is adapted to roll on a rail laid on a ceiling, whereby the traveling body travels. But a drive portion to drive the traveling roller is covered with a cover member attached to the traveling body itself, so that dust generated in the drive portion and a slide portion between the traveling roller and the rail is easy to be released into the clean room. Since the above conventional techniques are not dedicated to a clean room, they are not applicable to a satisfactory extent to a clean room for which a high degree of cleanness is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems involved in the conventional overhead traveling type work conveying system and provide a work conveying system and a traveling path sealing structure in the work conveying system which can prevent dust generated from a drive portion(s) and various slide portions in a traveling path of the work conveying system from leaking out into a clean room, the work conveying system comprising fixed guide rails and a traveling guide rail(s), and thereby prevent a lowering in the degree of cleanness of the clean room more effectively.
For achieving the above-mentioned object, in a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a work conveying system comprising a least a work holding means for holding a work and a horizontal moving means for moving the work holding means horizontally in an upper ceiling space within a clean room, the work being conveyed to each of plural processing apparatuses while circulating among the processing apparatuses, wherein the horizontal moving means has at least one linear moving mechanism, the linear moving mechanism comprising a traveling path covered with a duct and having a guide portion in the interior thereof, a traveling body adapted to engage the guide portion and travel through an interior space of the traveling path, and a slider connected to the traveling body and adapted to travel together with the traveling body in the exterior of the traveling path, the work holding means or ano
Hirata Corporation
Lorusso, Loud & Kelly
Ridley Richard
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