JPH04144811A - Base plate inserting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide complete insertion in the base plate inserting device for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel by providing an attracting body for a base plate support which consists of an elevating body and a lateral direction aligning body with aligning mechanism in a transporting body, and positioning the base plate at a prescribed position in the lateral direction, while being aligned for insertion. CONSTITUTION:A base plate W transported from a manufacture process is positioned at a prescribed position in a supported condition by a roller 55, and then the elevating body 45 of an elevating mechanism 41 is raised up to raise an attracting body 51 up to the lower surface of the base plate W, and the base plate W is attractingly supported in an attracting groove 52. Next, the slider 35 of a transportation mechanism 31 is advanced, and the attracting body 51 is inserted into a cassette storing part 12 on a cassette elevator 21. At this time, if there is dislocation between the center of the base plate W in the lateral direction and the center of the storing part 12 of a cassette 11 in the lateral direction, the base plate W receives force in the lateral direction, so that an aligning mechanism 61 is operated, and it is possible to insert a cassette into the storing part 12 while performing centering.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field)
The present invention relates to a substrate insertion device used to insert glass substrates sent out from an in-process device one by one into a storage portion of a substrate cassette into which the glass substrates are placed and transported between processes.

(Conventional technology) A conventional board insertion device of this type is shown in FIG.

(2) is a horizontally provided base, on which a substrate conveyor 2 is provided. This board conveyor 2 (hereinafter referred to as conveyor 2) has a pair of left and right T-shaped brackets 3 vertically erected on a base 1, and a plurality of shafts 4 are arranged parallel to each other between the upper parts of the pair of brackets 3. A pair of flanged rollers 5 are fixed to each of the plurality of shafts 4, horizontally and rotatably suspended, close to the inner surfaces of the pair of brackets 3, and A timing pulley 6 is fixed to one end of each of the plurality of shafts 4 located on the outer side, and the plurality of timing pulleys 6 are connected to a timing pulley 8 and an endless shaft by a motor 7 provided on the base 1. It rotates counterclockwise in the drawing via a timing belt 9.

This conveyor 2 is used to transport glass substrates W (hereinafter referred to as
A substrate (referred to as a substrate W) is positioned from both sides by the collar of the roller 5, supported on the roller 5, conveyed to the front substrate cassette 11, and inserted into the storage section 12 of the substrate cassette 11. There is.

This board cassette 11 (hereinafter referred to as cassette 11) consists of the four corners of a rectangular upper plate 14 to which gripping handles 13 are attached, and a rectangular lower plate 16 provided with a pair of left and right positioning holes 15.
are connected to each of the four corners by guide posts 17 having a circular cross section, and a large number of annular grooves 18 are formed at equal intervals in the vertical direction on the outer periphery of the four guide posts 17, each engaging with both side edges of the substrate W. Accordingly, a large number of storage portions 12 are formed in multiple stages in the vertical direction at equal pitches.

Then, this cassette 11 is transferred to a cassette elevator 21.
As a result, it is intermittently raised (or lowered) by a distance equal to the pitch of the storage section 12.

This cassette elevator 21 (hereinafter referred to as elevator 21) is provided with a linear drive motor 22 on the base 1, and vertically provided with a pair of front and rear cylindrical slide guides 23, and is moved vertically by the linear drive motor 22. A support plate 26 is horizontally attached to the upper end of the drive shaft 24 and the upper end of the pair of slide shafts 25 slidably inserted into the pair of slide guides 23, and a pair of left and right positions are mounted on the upper surface of the support plate 26. A pin 27 is provided protrudingly.

This elevator 21 is operated by a linear drive motor 22.
The support plate 26 is vertically moved up and down via the drive shaft 24, and the pair of positioning holes I5 of the lower plate 16 of the cassette 11 are fitted into the pair of positioning pins 27 of the support plate 26. , the lower plate 16 of the cassette 11 is supported on the support plate 26.

In this way, this conventional substrate insertion device receives the substrates W delivered one by one from the device during the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display panel by the conveyor 2 and inserts them into the cassettes on the elevator 21.
1, the both sides of the substrate W are engaged with the annular 'IIt18 of each guide post 17 of the cassette 11, and the substrate W is transferred to the cassette 1.
It is designed to be inserted into the storage section 12 of No. 1.

When one substrate W has been inserted into the storage section 12 of the cassette 11, the cassette 11 is raised (or lowered) by one pitch by the elevator 21, and the next substrate W is placed in the upper stage (
or lower), and one substrate W is stored in each storage section 12 of the cassette 11.

By the way, in this conventional board insertion device, the positional relationship between the converter 2, the elevator 21, and the cassette 11 is determined in advance when the device is manufactured, but when the cassette 11 is used for a long period of time, due to its structure, Conveyor 2 and storage section 12 of cassette 11 may
may be misaligned, and the substrate W may hit the guide post 17 of the cassette 11 and not enter smoothly.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional substrate insertion device, the substrate W may not enter the cassette 1) smoothly, and if the next substrate W sent out collides with this substrate W, , damage to the substrate W occurs.

To prevent this, it is possible to check the insertion status of the substrate W using a sensor or the like, and to stop the apparatus if the insertion of the substrate W is incorrect. Since it is also necessary to stop the manufacturing equipment in the previous process during the manufacturing process, the operating rate of the manufacturing equipment decreases, and substrate defects occur due to the stoppage of the manufacturing equipment, resulting in poor yield.

In addition, in preparation for the deformation of the cassette 11, it is possible to make the annular groove 18 of the guide post 17 with which the substrate W engages larger in advance, but if it is made too large, the cassette 11 will not be able to move inside the cassette 11 while it is being transported. Since the movement of the substrate W becomes large, chips and cracks occur in the periphery of the substrate W.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to reliably insert a substrate such as a glass substrate W of a liquid crystal display panel into a cassette.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention is a board insertion device for inserting a board into a storage portion of a cassette, which is provided with engaging portions for both side edges of the board, and which moves forward and backward toward the cassette. a conveying body that is movable, an elevating body that is movable up and down on the conveying body, an adjustment body that is movable in the left and right directions on this elevating body, and an adjustment body that is installed on this adjustment body that allows the substrate to be moved up and down. A suction body that attracts the suction body, and an alignment mechanism that aligns the suction body to a predetermined position in the left-right direction and biases the adjusting body to a predetermined position in the left-right direction to allow movement in the left-right direction from this position. It is equipped with

(Function) The substrate insertion device of the present invention raises the suction body using the elevating body with respect to the substrate supplied to a predetermined position, adsorbs the substrate with the suction body, and advances the suction body to the cassette using the conveying body. and insert the board into the cassette compartment.

At this time, if the centers of the board and the cassette compartment are misaligned, one side edge of the board will come into contact with the engaging part of the cassette, and the board will move from the engaging part on one side of the cassette to the other side. In response to the reaction force, the adjusting body moves in the direction of this reaction force, and the center of the substrate moves toward the center of the cassette storage section, making it possible to insert the substrate into the cassette storage section.

Then, when the adsorption of the substrate is released after insertion, the adsorption body returns to its original position together with the adjustment body by the alignment mechanism.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the board insertion device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 31 holds a glass substrate W (hereinafter referred to as a substrate W) in a front substrate cassette 11 (hereinafter referred to as a cassette 11).
This transport mechanism 31 is a transport mechanism that transports
A frame 32 having a rectangular cross-section is horizontally mounted on a base (not shown), a guide rail 33 is horizontally mounted on one side of the frame 32, and a pair of front and rear timing pulleys 34 are rotatably supported. Above guide rail 33
A slider 35 as a conveying body is movably engaged with the belt, an endless timing belt 36 is hooked and rotated around the pair of front and rear timing pulleys 34, and the slider 35 is fixed to a part of the timing belt 36. The rear timing pulley 34 is driven in both forward and reverse directions by a motor 37 provided on the other side of the frame 32, and the motor 37 moves the slider 35 in the front-rear direction (Y direction) along the guide rail 33. It looks like this.

41 is a lifting mechanism for lifting and lowering the substrate W; this lifting mechanism 41
As shown in FIG. 2, a cylinder 42 is vertically provided on the slider 35, and a pair of cylindrical slide guides 43 is vertically provided on the slider 35, and the slider 35 is slidably inserted into the pair of slide guides 43. A pair of slide shafts 4
A bracket 45 serving as an elevating body is horizontally attached to the upper end of the cylinder 42, and the bracket 45 is moved up and down in the vertical direction (Z direction) by a cylinder 42.

A fine movement stage 49 as an adjustment body is provided on the upper part of the bracket 45 so as to be horizontally movable in the left-right direction (X direction) via a pair of front and rear sliders 48. A T-shaped suction stage 51 as a suction body is installed horizontally via a stay 50, and a suction groove 52 is formed on the upper surface of this suction stage 51, and the suction groove 52 is configured to suction the substrate W. It has become.

Note that the fine movement stage 49 is configured to move in the left-right direction with extremely small force.

Further, a plurality of flanged rollers 55 are arranged on both sides of the suction stage 51, and these rollers 55 pick up the substrates W that are sent out one by one from the device during the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display panel. The collar allows it to be positioned and supported from both sides.

Reference numeral 61 denotes an alignment mechanism for centering the suction stage 51 at a predetermined position in the left and right direction;
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a shaft 63 is rotatably supported by the bracket 45 through an opening 62 formed in the fine movement stage 49, and a plate cam is attached to the upper end of the shaft 63. 64 is mounted horizontally to face the upper surface of the fine movement stage 49, this plate cam 64 is urged clockwise in FIG. The plate cam 64 protrudes from the upper surface of the stage 49, and the plate cam 64 has a shape in which engaging surfaces 68 and 69 are formed by cutting out two places on the outer periphery of a disc, and the engaging pins are attached to the engaging surfaces 68 and 69. 66 and 67 are brought into contact with each other.

The shaft 63 and plate cam 64 of this alignment mechanism 61 can be rotated with an extremely small force, and the spring 65 urges the plate cam 64 with a commensurately small force. The cam 64 rotates clockwise in FIG. 3, and the plate cam 64 stops with the engagement pins 66 and 67 in contact with the two engagement surfaces 68 and 69 of the plate cam 64, respectively. It has become.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cassette elevator 21 shown in FIG. 6 is located in front of the frame 32 of the transport mechanism 31.
A support plate 26 of this cassette elevator 21 is provided.
The lower plate 1 of the board cassette 11 is attached to a pair of positioning pins 27.
The lower plate IG of the cassette 11 is supported on the support plate 26 by fitting the pair of positioning holes 15 of the cassette elevator 21. In this state, the support plate 26 of the cassette elevator 21 is raised and lowered.

Then, in the substrate insertion apparatus of this embodiment, when the substrates W sent out one by one from the apparatus during the manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display panel are supported on the plurality of rollers 55 and positioned at a predetermined position, The bracket 45 of the elevating mechanism 41 rises, and thereby the suction stage 51 rises to the lower surface of the substrate W to support the substrate W, and the suction groove 52 suctions and holds the substrate W.

Next, the slider 35 of the transport mechanism 31 moves forward, thereby moving the suction stage 51 to the cassette II.
The substrate W is transferred to the cassette 11 on the cassette elevator 21, and both sides of the substrate W are engaged with the annular grooves 18 of each guide post 17 of the cassette 11, and the storage section 1 of the cassette 11 is moved.
Insert into 2.

Note that the transport speed at this time is such that the substrate W is in the cassette l-11.
At high speed until a few mm before the board W enters the cassette 11
When entering, the speed is low.

At this time, if the center of the substrate W in the left-right direction (X direction) and the center of the storage section 12 of the cassette 11 in the left-right direction match, the substrate W will smoothly enter the storage section 12; As shown in the figure, if the center a of the substrate W and the center b of the storage section 12 of the cassette 11 are misaligned,
One side edge of the substrate W comes into contact with the bottom of the annular groove 18 of the guide post 17 serving as the engaging portion of the cassette 11, and a force in the F direction is applied to the substrate W.

Then, the component forces of this force in the F direction are FX and FY, so if you try to carry the substrate W as it is in the FY force direction, F
The force in the X direction is transmitted from the substrate W to the fine movement stage 49 via the suction stage 51 and the stay 50, and is further transmitted from one engagement pin 67 on the fine movement stage 49 to the engagement surface 69 of the plate cam 64, causing the plate The cam 64 attempts to rotate counterclockwise against the spring 65.

Then, this force in the FX direction gradually becomes stronger due to the conveyance mechanism 31, and the plate cam 64 of the alignment mechanism 61 moves against the spring 6.
5, the fine movement stage 49 is moved in the FX direction along the circular outer peripheral surface of the guide post 17, as shown in FIG.
As a result, the substrate W enters the storage section 12 of the cassette 11, and accordingly, one engagement pin 67 on the fine movement stage 49 rotates the plate cam 64 counterclockwise against the spring 65. In this state, the other engagement pin 66 on the fine movement stage 49 and the engagement surface 68 of the plate cam 64 are separated.

At this time, in order to prevent cracks or chips from occurring on the side edges of the substrate W, it is necessary to reduce the biasing force of the spring 65, and for this purpose, it is necessary to reduce the rotational resistance of the plate cam 64 and the fine movement stage. It is necessary to make the sliding resistance of 49 sufficiently small.

After inserting the substrate W into the cassette 11, the suction stage 51 releases the suction of the substrate W, the elevating mechanism 41 lowers the suction stage 51, the transport mechanism 31 moves the suction stage 51 backwards, and the suction stage 51 is returned to its original state. After returning to the original state, the cassette 11 is raised by one pitch by the cassette elevator 21 and waits for the next substrate W.

Moreover, at this time, when the suction stage 51 releases the suction of the substrate W, the suction stage 51 becomes free, so the spring 65 rotates the plate cam 64 clockwise, thereby causing the engagement surface of the plate cam 64 to rotate. 69 pushes the engagement pin 67 of the fine movement stage 49, and the fine movement stage 49 returns to its original position.

Note that the action of this alignment mechanism 61 is the same when the fine movement stage 49 moves in either the left or right direction, and when the fine movement stage 49 moves from its stable position, the engagement pin 66,
67 pushes one of the engagement surfaces 6g and 69 of the plate cam 64 to rotate the plate cam 64 counterclockwise against the spring 65, and the other of the engagement pins 66 and 67 When the force that was moving the fine movement stage 49 is released, the plate cam 64 is rotated clockwise by the spring 65, and the fine movement stage 49 is returned to its original position. Return to position, plate cam 64
An engagement pin 66 on each of the two engagement surfaces 68 and 69,
When the plate cam 67 is in contact with the plate cam 64, the plate cam 64 cannot rotate and stops, and the fine movement stage 49 returns to the stable position.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the board can be inserted into the cassette without any force, so damage to the board due to incorrect insertion of the board can be prevented, and damage to the board due to incorrect insertion of the board can be prevented. Since there is no need to stop the manufacturing equipment that performs this, the operating rate of the manufacturing equipment is improved, and the occurrence of substrate defects due to the stoppage of the manufacturing equipment is eliminated, so that the yield is improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the board insertion device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of its main parts, FIG. 3 is a plan view of its main parts, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are its main parts. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the alignment mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional board insertion device. W... Board, 11... Cassette, 12... Storage section, 17
...Guide post as an engaging part, 35..Slider as a conveying body, 45..Bracket as an elevating body, 4
9. Fine movement stage as an adjustment body, 51. Adsorption stage as an adsorption body, 61. Alignment mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A board insertion device for inserting a board into a storage section of a cassette, which is provided with engagement parts for both side edges of the board, and includes a carrier provided so as to be movable forward and backward toward the cassette; an elevating body that is movable up and down on the conveying body;
An adjustment body provided on the elevating body so as to be movable in the left-right direction; an adsorption body provided on the adjustment body for adsorbing the substrate; A board insertion device comprising: an alignment mechanism that urges the adjustment body to a predetermined position in the left and right direction to allow movement in the left and right direction.