Carrying apparatus and carrying control method for sheet-like substrate

Abstract

The present invention relates to a transporting apparatus and a transporting control method for thin plates, the apparatus for transporting the thin plates such as liquid crystal display panels and glass plates into a processing chamber, comprising a rather large robot (14) having rotating arms (16) for transporting large-sized thin plates. The transporting apparatus and a thin plate transporting system can stably raise the plates up to the heights of approximately 2 m and can transporting the plates with the deflected amount of the extended rotating arms (16) compensated. A horizontal support table (13) liftably cantilevered on two upright support members (12) is provided in the apparatus, and the transporting robot (14) with the rotating arms (16) is placed on the horizontal support table (13). Also, the deflected amount of the extended rotating arms is compensated by raising the height of the horizontal support table (13) based on the deflected amount. The deflected amount can also be compensated by varying the installation angle of the robot (14) placed on the horizontal support table (13).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a transporting apparatus and a transporting control method for thin plates, the transporting apparatus being installed in a given clean environment for transporting or transferring the thin plates such as semiconductor wafers, liquid crystal display units, plasma display units, organic electroluminescence display units, inorganic electroluminescence display units, field emitting display units, liquid crystal display panels, printed-wiring assemblies, and partly-finished products. BACKGROUND ART [0002] Conventionally, used as a robot for transporting thin plates in the clean environment is a scalar type robot represented in the Japanese Patent No. 2,739,413. However, in these days, as display units such as liquid crystal display units (liquid crystal display TV) become larger in size, glass plates used therefor also become larger in size, which requires upsizing of a robot for transporting the plates. Accordingly, when glass pla...

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Benefits of technology

[0007] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a transporting apparatus and a transporting system, the transporting apparatus installed in a given clean environment and capable of providing stable behavior in transporting a large-sized sheet medium upward against the gravity, eliminating the necessity of large power that was required conventionally.

[0031] According to another embodiment of the transporting control method of the present invention, the transporting control method is characterized in that in the step (c), read from the storing means is the compensation data calculated and stored in advance based on the deflected amount; calculating of the compensation data in the step (d) is not performed; and processing in the step (e) is performed based on the read compensation data. In this embodiment, deflection is compensated by calculating in advance compensation data of a deflected amount corresponding to each of the moving positions and reading out the compensation data. Accordingly, it becomes possible to eliminate the necessity to calculate compensation data in moving operation, thereby reducing the load on the controller and increasing the processing speed.

Problems solved by technology

However, in these days, as display units such as liquid crystal display units (liquid crystal display TV) become larger in size, glass plates used therefor also become larger in size, which requires upsizing of a robot for transporting the plates.

Since a large-sized thin plate (or glass plate) is heavy and vulnerable to deflection, it is difficult to transport the heavy, large-sized thin plate upward, at high speed and stably.

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