Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Takayuki Fukushima

Shinya Kinoshita

Ryosuke Kanamaru

Yasuhiko Hashimoto

Daiki Miyagawa

Tetsuya Yoshida

Shogo Matsuoka

Hirohiko Goto

Hiroyuki Okada

Masaya Yoshida

Takahiro Inada

Shigeki Ono

Takeshi Shibata

Masayuki Saito

A robot hand includes base body defining gripping position of substrate, first contacting part provided to base body at tip-end side and configured to contact first part of edge part of substrate when substrate is gripped, rotary body provided on base-end side of base body and having second contacting part configured to contact second part of edge part of substrate when substrate is gripped, and mobile body having shaft part to be inserted into shaft hole of rotary body, and configured to move toward tip end of base body to move rotary body toward tip end of the base body. An axial-center line of shaft part extends in thickness directions of base and rotary bodies provided so as to have clearance in axial direction of shaft part with respect to shaft part.

Robot hand and robot having the same

A substrate transfer device includes a manipulator, a substrate gripping hand, an actuator configured to rotate the substrate gripping hand about a roll axis, and a controller adapted to operate the manipulator to hold a substrate by a first engaging member and a second engaging member of the substrate gripping hand, then operate the actuator so that a first principal surface of the substrate is located above a base member, and a normal line of the first principal surface is oriented downward from a horizontal plane, and move a movable guiding member toward the tip-end part of the base member so that the second engaging member, a third engaging member, and the movable guiding member grip the substrate.

Substrate transfer device and method of operating the same

Substrate holding hand including a base plate spreading from base toward tip end sides, part of base plate located at base end side, fixed to hand tip portion, holding position at base plate, engaging claw at part of base plate located at tip end side, engaging claw configured to engage part of edge of substrate in vertical or inclined postures, part of edge located lower than center of substrate, moving portion at base end side of holding position and configured to move toward tip end side, and plurality of rotating bodies at the moving portion, being pressed by movement against edge of substrate located lower than holding position and engaged with claw, and plurality of rotating bodies pushing substrate upward holding position while rotating along edge of substrate.

Substrate holding hand and substrate conveying apparatus

A substrate gripping hand which grips a substrate with a disc shape, includes a base plate, and a guide member provided at the base plate, and having a L-shape when viewed from a horizontal direction, the guide member having a shape in which a base end portion of a bottom surface has a horizontal portion and a first corner portion which is a corner portion formed by the bottom surface and an inner wall surface has a curve line shape.

Substrate gripping hand and substrate transfer device including this substrate gripping hand

A substrate conveying apparatus includes: a substrate grasping hand; a first holding member provided at a tip end portion of the substrate grasping hand and including a plurality of first jaw portions; a second holding member provided at a base end portion of the substrate grasping hand and including a plurality of second jaw portions; a first sensor provided at the base end portion of the substrate grasping hand and configured to emit light or ultrasound and detect substrates; and a controller configured to make the first sensor emit the light or the ultrasound toward spaces each between the adjacent substrates and determine whether or not the substrates are normally held.

Substrate conveying apparatus

The end effector has a first hand and a second hand which can be driven independently from each other. The first hand has a hand body which can be inserted between vertically adjacent substrates stored in a substrate storing portion, holding a substrate immediately above or immediately below the hand body. The second hand has a hand base portion which at least partially advances below a lowermost substrate or above an uppermost substrate of a plurality of substrates stored in a substrate storing portion and a substrate holding means provided to the hand base portion so as to hold two or more substrates including the lowermost substrate or the uppermost substrate. By the end effector, substrates can be conveyed without any problem even when use of a batch conveying type hand is restricted due to the condition on the substrate storing portion side.

Substrate conveying system and method

An end effector has a hand base portion at least a part of which advances below a lowermost substrate or above an uppermost substrate of a plurality of substrates stored in a substrate storing portion, a substrate holding unit provided to the hand base portion so as to hold the two or more substrates including the lowermost substrate or the uppermost substrate, and a protrusion amount change unit for changing a protrusion amount of the substrate holding unit from a reference surface including the surface of the hand base portion opposed to the lowermost substrate or the uppermost substrate. The protrusion amount change unit has a single drive source applying a drive force to the whole substrate holding unit.

End effector and substrate conveying robot

A controller: selects one optical sensor to use from among a first optical sensor and at least one second optical sensor; moves a substrate transfer hand to a detection start position at which an optical path of the selected optical sensor is positioned above a substrate placing portion and does not interfere with a pillar portion; lowers the substrate transfer hand from the detection start position to a detection position at which an object is detected by the optical sensor; and stores, as a height position of the substrate placing portion, a height of the optical path of the optical sensor from a predetermined positional reference when the substrate transfer hand is at the detection position.

Substrate transfer apparatus and method of teaching substrate transfer robot

A wafer transfer method which transfers a wafer with a disc shape to a groove for vertically placing the wafer therein, by use of a wafer holding hand, includes causing the wafer holding hand to hold the wafer at at least three support points on an edge of the wafer; moving the wafer holding hand holding the wafer to cause the wafer with a vertical posture in which the wafer is vertically oriented to be positioned above the groove for vertically placing the wafer therein; causing the wafer holding hand to cease to hold the wafer and to support the wafer at two support points on the wedge of the wafer; and moving the wafer holding hand supporting the wafer downward until the edge of the wafer moves into the groove for vertically placing the wafer therein.

Wafer transfer method and wafer transfer device

An end effector has a plurality of blade bodies and a substrate holding unit on a blade proximal end side of each of the blade bodies. The substrate holding unit includes a substrate placing portion on which the bottom surface edge portion of the substrate is placed and a substrate abutting portion which extends upward from the blade proximal end side of the substrate placing portion and on which the side end portion of the substrate abuts. The height of the substrate abutting portion is set to keep the substrate from entering between an upper end of the substrate abutting portion of the blade body on a lower side and the bottom surface of the blade body on an upper side. In an end effector having a plurality of blades capable of changing in pitch in the vertical direction, substrates mounted in high density can be held without a problem.

A substrate gripping hand includes: a base plate wherein a center line and gripping position are prescribed; at least one fixed claw capable of mating with a substrate edge in the gripping position and provided at a base plate distal end side; a movable claw having an acting portion acting on a substrate edge in gripping position and movable back-and-forth on center line; a pusher having an acting portion acting on an edge lower than the substrate center in a perpendicular orientation and movable back-and-forth parallel with the center line; and an actuator for moving the movable claw and pusher. The pusher acting portion is positioned more to the distal end side than the movable claw acting portion such that the substrate is grasped by the movable claw joint operation and the fixed claw after the substrate is brought to gripping position by the pusher moving forward toward the distal end side.

Substrate gripping hand and substrate transfer apparatus

A substrate position alignment device includes a plurality of rotary tables which hold a plurality of substrates to be vertically spaced apart from each other, a rotation drive device which synchronously rotates the plurality of rotary tables, a plurality of support elements which support the substrate on the rotary table, support element drive members which independently and horizontally move the plurality of support elements between inward positions and outward positions, and up-down devices which move up and down the plurality of support element drive members. The substrate position alignment device operates the rotation drive device, the support element drive members and the up-down device based on the positions of notches of the substrate, to align the notches of the plurality of substrates with a reference rotational angle position.

Substrate position alignment device and control method of substrate position alignment device

A seal belt includes inner and outer belt sections. The inner belt section revolves according to the movable member movement. The outer belt section includes, between the inner belt section and an opening, a first portion in which a first end is retained at a movable member inside section portion, the portion being closer to the opening lower end, and the remaining portion extends along the opening and is retained at a third space position, and a second portion in which a first end is retained at an inside section portion, the portion being closer to the lower end, and the remaining portion extends to a fourth space position along the opening and is retained at the fourth space position. The first portion and second portions lengths are changed in a complementary manner according to the movable member movement. The drive mechanism is surrounded by the inner belt section.

Robot with inner and outer belt sections

An end effector device is provided with a hand; a plurality of holding portions that are provided to the hand, and that hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers such that the plurality of semiconductor wafers are arranged at intervals in the vertical direction in a parallel attitude; a single detector that is arranged outside the plurality of semiconductor wafers viewed from the vertical direction, and that is configured to be able to detect the presence of each one of the semiconductor wafers, opposing a peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer; and a detector moving mechanism that moves the single detector relative to the plurality of semiconductor wafers in the vertical direction such that the single detector opposes the peripheral portion of every semiconductor wafer.

End effector device

The end effector device includes a hand having a storing space, and a plurality of holding portions provided to the hand and configured to respectively peripheral portions of each plate member. Each holding portion includes a plurality of receiving portions which respectively receive a plurality of plate members keeping vertical pitches among them, and a pitch changing mechanism configured to change intervals by vertically moving the plurality of receiving portions respectively. A plurality of linearly moving portions configured to respectively move linearly integrally with the plurality of receiving portions are provided to the hand being exposed outside of the hand, and a plurality of drive portions configured to drive the plurality of linearly moving portions of the pitch changing mechanism are stored in the storing space of the hand.

Growing community of inventors

Takarazuka, Japan

Takayuki Fukushima