V-tex Corporation

Mitsuhiro Ikeda

Hideaki Nagai

Tomohiro Sawahata

Katsuyuki Saitoh

Yoshinori Tobita

Shuichi Araki

An object of the invention is to provide a method of controlling a gate valve that operates the gate valve in a short time while suppressing vibration of the valve body. A method of controlling a gate valve provided on an opening of a chamber, wherein the gate valve includes a valve body that opens and closes so as to close the opening of a chamber, a valve seat provided on the edge of the opening to which the valve body is pressed, and a sealing material for sealing between the valve body and the valve seat. The invented method is characterized in that, in moving the valve body to the open position from the closed position where the valve body is pressed against the valve seat with the sealing material compressed, the valve body is made to stop temporarily for a predetermined time at the position immediately before the compressed sealing material is pulled apart or immediately after pulled apart in the opening movement of the valve body.

Method of controlling a gate valve

Particle scattering is suppressed only by controlling the gate valve in opening the gate valve with the internal pressure of the chamber being matched to the atmospheric pressure. A method of controlling a gate valve is characterized in that, in a gate valve that presses its valve body to an opening of a chamber by detecting a torque of a motor that drives the valve body, the method comprises the following steps: acquiring in advance a local maximum of the torque at the time of decompressing the inside of the chamber with the valve body closed under the atmospheric pressure, detecting the torque when a vent gas is being introduced into the chamber before returning the inside of the chamber to the atmospheric pressure for opening the valve body, opening the valve body when the torque exceeds the local maximum of the torque so that a clearance is created between the valve body and the opening of the chamber, and opening fully the valve body after the particles are discharged together with the gas inside the chamber.

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Mitsuhiro Ikeda