JPH0210721Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a current collector for supplying electric power or operation command signals to traveling carts and traveling robots that transport parts, etc. in environments where high cleanliness is required, such as semiconductor manufacturing factories. .

Generally, the transportation of electrical equipment materials such as semiconductor wafers is required to be carried out in an extremely clean environment in order to maintain their high quality and performance.

Conventionally, running carts for transporting parts, etc. have been equipped with current collectors that press a sliding contact type current collector called a sliding plate made of a copper-based sintered alloy onto a power supply line using a cantilevered leaf spring. was widely used. In addition, a so-called rolling type current collector, in which a ring is rolled against the power supply line, has been used, but conventional current collectors of this type collect current through a sliding bearing, so The disadvantage is that the parts are subject to severe wear and tear, making it impossible to obtain a stable power supply.
The reality is that it is hardly used at present.

On the other hand, the sliding type current collector system that has been widely used in the past suffers from a lot of mechanical wear due to its structure, and is designed so that the current collector slides down in order to avoid wear and tear on the feeder line. The drawback was that sometimes fine wear particles were scattered around.

Therefore, in conventional semiconductor manufacturing factories, etc., in order to remove the above-mentioned abrasion powder, the trolleys are equipped with vacuum dust collectors equipped with high-density filters, or the running path of the trolley is covered with a cover and the dust is sucked in through ducts. Therefore, the construction cost of the transportation equipment becomes expensive, the volume occupied by the running route becomes large, and the places where the running route can be installed are limited.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a current collector capable of suppressing dust generation, in which a current collecting ring is brought into contact with a power line or a signal line, and a brush held or fixed to the current collecting ring is collected. Bring the power ring into contact with a contact member fixed to a rotatably supported support, roll the current collection ring along the power line or signal line, and extract power or signals through the current collection ring, brush, and contact member. This is how it happens.

1 to 3 are diagrams showing an embodiment of the present invention. The current collector shown in these figures consists of a current collector 1 and a holding mechanism 2 that holds this current collector 1. In the figure, 3 is a power line, 4 is a running train, 11 is a current collector ring, 12 is a boss (support body), 13 is a rolling bearing, 14 is a contact ring (contact member), 15 is a brush, 16 is a brush fixing screw, 17 is a dustproof cover, 21 is a collector holding plate spring, 50a is a collector mounting bolt, and 50b is a nut.

The current collector ring 11 is made of a conductive material such as a copper alloy, and is a rolling bearing 1 whose inner ring is supported by a boss 12 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The power line 3 is supported by press fitting or the like on the outer ring of the power line 3 so as to be able to rotate smoothly, and its outer peripheral surface comes into rolling contact with the power line 3 under an appropriate pressing force by the current collector holding plate spring 21. As shown in FIG. 3, the brush 15 includes a thin plate-like contact member 15a made of a sliding contact material having spring properties, and a support portion 1 made of a conductive material.
5b, and the contact member 15a is comprised of a supporting portion 15b.
It is fixed by welding, etc. In this case, a slot 18 is formed in the contact member 15a. This brush 15, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,
The brush fixing screw 16 is fixed to the brush fixing screw 16 in a state in which it strongly contacts the inner circumferential side of the current collecting ring 11 . The contact member 15a of the brush 15 is a contact ring 1 made of a sliding contact material that is press-fitted into the boss 12 supporting the current collecting ring 11 by its own spring reaction force.
4 with appropriate contact force. At this time, the outer diameter of the contact ring 14 is sufficiently smaller than the outer circumferential diameter of the current collecting ring 11. When the running train 4 runs, the brush 15 rotates together with the current collecting ring 11, and the contact member 15a slides on the outer peripheral surface of the contact ring 14.

The dustproof cover 17 is made of a self-lubricating organic resin material, and is disposed on the opening side of one end of the current collecting ring 11 so as to cover the brush 15 and the contact ring 14, and its outer periphery is used to collect current. Its center portion is fixed to the boss 12 while being in light contact with the ring 11.

The above-mentioned boss 12 is arranged between the leaf springs 21, 21, and the bolts 50a,
It is fixed by a nut 50b. In this configuration, the current collecting ring 11, the brush 15, the contact ring 14, the boss 12, and the leaf spring 21 are made of a conductive material, and the electric power taken out from these is supplied to the running train 4 through a lead wire (not shown). It is becoming more and more common.

Next, to explain the operation of the current collector configured as described above, power from the power line 3 is passed through the current collecting ring 11 → brush 15 → contact ring 14 → boss 12 → leaf spring 21, and then the power source of the running train 4. circuit,
Supplied to drive motors, etc. Here, when the running train 4 is running, the current collecting ring 11 rotates along the power line 3. Therefore, in this current collector, when the current collecting ring 11 moves along the power line 3, the current collecting ring 11 rotates and rolls on the lower surface of the power line 3, so that the power line 3, the current collecting ring 11 Dust generation due to wear can be suppressed to a minimum. Moreover, since the brush 15 is brought into sliding contact with the outer periphery of the contact ring 14 whose outer diameter is sufficiently smaller than that of the current collecting ring 11, the sliding contact of the brush 15 is smaller than the running distance and running speed of the running train 4. The moving distance and sliding speed can be reduced, and therefore the sliding wear of these parts can be minimized and the contact can be made very stable. Further, the torque due to the sliding frictional resistance between the brush 15 and the contact ring 14 is very small because the radius of the contact point is small, and has almost no effect on the rolling friction of the current collecting ring 11. Therefore, rolling wear of the current collecting ring 11 can be made extremely small. Also,
In the above configuration, unlike conventional current collectors of this type, power is not extracted through the bearing part.
It is electrically extremely stable and does not experience instantaneous interruptions. Therefore, the life of the device is long.

On the other hand, there is a small amount of abrasion powder generated from the sliding contact portion between the brush 15 and the contact ring 14. This abrasion powder can be prevented from scattering to the outside by the dustproof cover 17. Note that, as shown in FIG. 3, since the contact member 15a of the brush 15 is slotted, stable contact can be obtained with slight sliding contact pressure.

4 to 6 are diagrams showing another embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment shown in these figures differs from the above embodiment in the configuration of the brush. That is, in this embodiment, the brush 15 includes a contact member 15c made of a sliding contact material having spring properties as shown in FIG. The supporting portion 15d is made of a conductive material having elastic properties. Here, the contact member 15c and the support member 15d are fixed by welding or the like.
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, this brush 15 has a support portion 15d that contacts the inner circumferential surface of the current collecting ring 11 due to its elastic reaction force and is held within the inner circumferential surface of the current collecting ring 11, and is supported by a boss. With the contact member 15c in contact with the contact ring 14 press-fitted into the contact ring 12, the current collector ring 1
Rotates with 1. In this structure, the support part 15
d and the current collector ring 11.
By making the contact pressure of the contact member 15c larger than the contact pressure of the contact member 15c with respect to the contact pressure of the contact member 15c with respect to the current collecting ring 11 and the support portion 15d, it is possible to prevent slipping between the current collecting ring 11 and the support portion 15d.

This embodiment has the same effect as the above embodiment,
In addition, the brush 15 can be installed and removed very easily, and maintenance can be easily performed.

7 and 8 are diagrams showing another embodiment of this invention. In these figures, reference numeral 4a
22 is a plate spring support block, 23 is a lead wire, and 51 is a mounting screw.

This embodiment shows a device that collects current from two power lines 3, and a collector 1 configured as shown in FIG. 50a and a nut screwed thereon, and is pressed against the power line 3 with an appropriate force to make rolling contact and collect current. A holding leaf spring 21 holding the current collector 1 is supported at both ends by leaf spring support blocks 22. With this configuration, the collector 1 can be pressed against the power line 3 under the same conditions in both the forward and reverse directions of the traveling trolley 4, and the contact is easier compared to the conventional holding method using a cantilevered leaf spring. Stability is greatly improved. Furthermore, in this embodiment, two current collectors 1 are provided for the same power line 3. In this configuration, collector 1
Since these are held independently and pressed against the power line 3, there is no momentary interruption in the power output even when the traveling carriage 4 passes through a gap such as a joint in the power line 3. Furthermore, the problem of instantaneous disconnection caused by the undulation of the power line 3, which has been a problem in the past, is significantly improved because the probability that two current collectors contacting the same power line will be disconnected at the same time is extremely small.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing details of the holding mechanism 2 for the collector 1. The current collector holding plate spring 21 is made of a conductive material and is formed into an integral structure by pressing or the like, and a lead wire 23 is attached to a protrusion provided at one end.
Connected by caulking etc. The leaf spring support block 22 is made of an insulating material, for example, hard plastic, and has a slit for fitting the current collector holding leaf spring 21, a screw hole for fixing, a hole for taking out the lead wire, etc. , the current collector holding plate spring 21 can be assembled by a very simple assembly operation, which is just as shown in FIG. Further, the lead wire 23 is passed through a hole provided on the side surface of the leaf spring support block 22 to the traveling bogie 4.
guided inward.

According to the above configuration, the current collector can be assembled and replaced very easily. and,
It is possible to significantly reduce wear and tear on the power line 3 and collector 1 due to shot arcs that occur during instantaneous disconnection, which was a problem in the past, and extremely stable current collection is possible despite the rolling contact method. .

In addition, in the present invention, when there are three or more power lines, it is only necessary to add a pair of collectors, and the number of collectors arranged on one power line is not limited to two, but can be changed to two as necessary. A plurality of the above may be provided.

Further, the current collector according to this invention is not limited to the case where power is supplied from a power line as in each of the above embodiments, but can also be used when receiving a signal from a signal line.

As explained above, according to the present invention, wear on power lines and collectors can be extremely reduced, and the amount of dust generated can be significantly reduced compared to conventional sliding type collectors, and stable current collection can be achieved. becomes. Therefore, if the present invention is applied, for example, to a current collector for a transport vehicle for electrical equipment materials used in a semiconductor manufacturing factory, it is possible to maintain a high level of cleanliness in the manufacturing environment without contaminating the electrical equipment materials. Furthermore, there is no need for a cover or vacuum dust collector to cover the running route as in the past, which reduces the cost of constructing the running route and greatly increases the degree of freedom in laying the running route. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front sectional view of a current collector shown as an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken from the line shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a current collector shown in Figs. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 is a front cross-sectional view of a current collector shown as another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken from FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a brush of the current collector shown in FIG. 5, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a current collector shown as another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a current collector holding device of the current collector shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the mechanism. 1... Current collector, 2... Holding mechanism for current collector 1, 3
... Power line, 4 ... Running train, 11 ... Current collector ring, 12 ... Support body (boss), 14 ... Contact member (contact ring), 15 ... Brush, 17 ... Cover (dust-proof cover) .

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A current collecting ring whose outer circumferential surface is in contact with a power line or a signal line and rolls against the power line or signal line, and a current collecting ring that is provided at the axis of the current collecting ring to rotatably support the current collecting ring. a support and
a ring-shaped contact member fitted to the support;
A brush that is held or fixed inside the current collecting ring and is pressed against the contact member by its own elastic force and rotates together with the current collecting ring while being in contact with the contact member; A current collector comprising a cover that covers a contact member, and is configured to extract power or signals from a power line or a signal line through the current collection ring, the brush, and the contact member.