JPH0366186B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a transport vehicle for transporting goods in a clean room in a semiconductor manufacturing factory, medical equipment, etc. The present invention relates to a clean room transport vehicle that runs on the floor/wall surface portion in a clean room provided near the top of the clean room.

In such a clean room transport vehicle, in order to suppress pollution in the clean room as much as possible, it is necessary to suppress the scattering of fine particles from the vehicle body itself, but conventionally, no measures have been taken to avoid this. There was a disadvantage that the inside of the clean room was contaminated due to the transport vehicle, so there was room for improvement.

To be more specific, transport vehicles are equipped with various drive units, such as a travel drive device such as an electric motor for travel, or a drive device for a cargo handling robot, and as a result, There is a risk that fine particles such as abrasion powder may be scattered from the transport vehicle. Of course, transport vehicles are generally provided with a body casing that covers the above-mentioned drive unit, but the casing also has holes for exposing or inserting the axle insertion holes and various sensors for running control. Due to this, it was impossible to eliminate the scattering of fine particles from the vehicle body.
In particular, when a travel control control box is installed inside the casing,
Due to the fact that a fan for cooling the control box is provided within the casing, the above-mentioned problem of particle scattering becomes more noticeable.

In addition, a downflow type clean room has the function of discharging particulates scattered from the car body while flowing them downward.
In order to carry out the above-mentioned discharge appropriately, there is a disadvantage that the purification equipment for the clean room itself must be modified to a large-scale equipment with excellent purification performance, which is impractical.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to suppress contamination in a clean room caused by transport vehicles by a simple modification that effectively utilizes the original configuration of the clean room. be.

The characteristic structure of the clean room transport vehicle according to the present invention is that a blower device for discharging the air inside the transport vehicle toward the exhaust port is provided at the bottom of the transport vehicle, and its functions and effects are as follows. It is.

That is, by using the blower to suck in the air inside the transport vehicle and discharge the air toward the exhaust port, fine particles such as abrasion powder generated inside the vehicle body can be discharged as described above. This ensures that the particles are discharged together with the air through the exhaust port to prevent fine particles generated inside the vehicle body from contaminating the inside of the clean room.

Therefore, this is an advantageous configuration in terms of production, in which the blower is simply installed at the bottom of the transport vehicle while effectively utilizing the exhaust port located on or near the floor wall surface of the clean room, and the clean room can be operated using the transport vehicle. Now we can control pollution.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, purified air is blown into the room through a filter F provided on the ceiling side, and the floor wall surface 1 is formed of grating.
A room air outlet H is provided on the floor wall 1,
Thus, a so-called down-flow type clean room A is configured, in which purified air blown from the ceiling side is made to flow through the floor and wall surfaces 1.

Three strips 2 forming a road surface for transport vehicles are provided on the floor wall surface, and a cargo handling station 3 is provided.
A plurality of these are provided on the lateral sides of the strip 2 at intervals in the longitudinal direction of the strip 2, and a transport vehicle B equipped with a cargo handling robot 4 can freely run along the strip 2. It is constructed so that it can carry out various types of goods transportation, such as transporting a wafer storage capsule X in a semiconductor manufacturing factory.

When the cargo handling robot 4 is constructed, the article support 4a is attached to the tip of the arm 4c which can be driven in and out of the base end side frame 4b so as to be rotatable around the vertical axis, and The side frame body 4b is attached to the upper part of the transport vehicle B so that it can be driven up and down and rotated freely.

To be more specific about the transport vehicle B, a pair of left and right propulsion wheels 5 are provided to be driven separately by variable-speed electric motors, and a pair of front and rear idler wheels 6 are provided to freely rotate around a vertical axis. It is configured to be movable and can be steered by varying the rotational speed of the left and right propulsion wheels 5.

Various drive devices for traveling, various drive devices for the cargo handling robot 4, a control box 7 for automatic travel and automatic operation of the cargo handling robot 4, and various devices such as a cooling fan 8 for the robot 4 are installed. A vehicle body casing 9 is provided to cover the vehicle body casing 9, and an article storage section C is provided in the upper part of the vehicle body casing 9.

A large number of slit-shaped ventilation holes 10a, 10b are formed in each of the upper and lower walls of the vehicle body casing 9, and an electric fan 1 serves as a blower device for discharging the air inside the transport vehicle toward a discharge port.
A plurality of pieces of 1 are provided at the bottom of the transport vehicle B, and
It is designed to suppress fine particles such as abrasion powder generated in the transport vehicle B from scattering into the clean room.

To explain the control configuration for automatically driving the transport vehicle B, a vertically slit-shaped laser beam K is used.
A laser generating device 12 for projecting light along the transport vehicle travel route is provided at the end of the transport vehicle travel route, and a tracking sensor 13 is provided in which a plurality of laser beam receiving elements such as photodiodes are arranged in the width direction of the vehicle body. , are provided on the wall surface of the casing facing the laser generator 12, and left and right propulsion wheels 5,
The vehicle B is configured to automatically travel along the travel route by automatically changing the rotational speed of the transport vehicle B.

However, although not illustrated, a controller that outputs various information such as destination data is fixedly installed, a mark is provided on the traveling road surface to display the stop position of the transport vehicle B, and information from the controller is sent to the control box 7. a receiver for transmitting, and
Mark-reading sensors for transmitting the stop position of the transport vehicle to the control box 7 are provided on the vehicle body to stop the transport vehicle B at a desired station for cargo handling, and to stop the transport vehicle B at a desired station for cargo handling.
to start towards the next station.
This is done automatically based on the information from the controller.

A rod-shaped member 14 that is movable and protrudes toward the station side.
The three of them are lined up in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and
A reference surface forming member 15 is provided so as to penetrate through the vehicle body casing 9, and a reference surface forming member 15 with which the rod-like member 14 comes into contact is provided on the side wall of the transport vehicle of the station 3, and each of the rod-like members 14 is separately protruded. A driving device 16 such as an electromagnetic solenoid for operation is provided, and potentiometers 17 for individually detecting the amount of protrusion of the rod-like members 14 are provided and are interlocked and connected to the rod-like members 14 by a rack-and-pinion transmission mechanism. , based on the detection information of the amount of protrusion of the rod-shaped member 14 that is operated to protrude when the transport vehicle B is stopped beside the station, the longitudinal position and lateral distance of the transport vehicle B with respect to the station 3,
The control box 7 is configured to calculate and determine the inclination accuracy in the horizontal plane. Then, based on the calculation and determination results, the pre-stored cargo handling robot operation information is automatically corrected, so that cargo handling work can be carried out appropriately regardless of changes in the stopped state of transport vehicle B with respect to station 3. It is configured.

A tubular body 18 that surrounds the lateral outer side of the transport vehicle B and discharges air downward is provided, and a blower 19 that supplies air in the clean room A to the tubular body 18 is provided within the vehicle body casing 9. The mounting portions of the propulsion wheels 5 and idle wheels 6 are covered with an air curtain to suppress particles generated during travel from scattering into the clean room A. However, 20 in the figure is a suction duct connected to the blower 19 in communication.

Next, another example will be described.

The specific configuration of the exhaust opening H can be modified in various ways, such as by providing a tubular body with a ventilation hole on the floor wall surface and providing the exhaust opening H for room air above the floor wall surface 1.

When configuring the transport vehicle B, various changes can be made to the drive configuration for traveling, and various changes can also be made to the specific configuration for automatically controlling the transport vehicle B.

Further, the transport vehicle B of the present invention is intended for various types, such as a type that has an article storage section C in the vehicle body itself, and a type that pulls an article storage trolley portion.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings illustrate an embodiment of the clean room transport vehicle according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a side view of the transport vehicle running in a clean room, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway front view of the transport vehicle stopped beside the station. Figure, 3rd
The drawing is a partially cutaway side view of the transport vehicle, and FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration for detecting the stopped state of the transport vehicle with respect to the station. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Floor wall surface part, 11... Air blower, A... Clean room, B... Transport vehicle, H... Exhaust opening part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A clean room A in which an outlet H for discharging room air is provided at or near the floor wall 1 or above it.
This is a clean room transport vehicle that runs on the floor wall surface portion 1 of the interior of the clean room, and a blower device 11 for discharging the air inside the transport vehicle B toward the exhaust port H is provided at the bottom of the transport vehicle B. A clean room transport vehicle.