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AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorsHendricus F. G. Smulders, Johannes L. M. Hagen, Marinus J. J. Dona
Estimating the term…
A positioning device having a plate-shaped carrier (5) which is displaceable in a horizontal plane and which is journalled on a table (1) and on which is exerted a pressure and tensile force, respectively, by means of at least two translation drives (11, 13). The translation drives (11, 13) are coupled to the carrier (5) by means of horizontally operating static thrust and tensile bearings, respectively (33 to 41, 49), which transfer via a viscous medium in a contactless manner pressure and tensile forces respectively, between the carrier (5) and the translation drives (11, 13). The contactless bearings (33 to 41, 49) are pre-stressed with a force which is larger than the maximum occurring tensile force between the drives (11, 13) and the carrier (5). Thus, a substantially frictionless coupling is obtained between the drives (11, 13) and the carrier (5). This coupling acts at the same time as a guide for the carrier (5).
A positioning device comprising a flat table, a horizontal plate-shaped carrier displaceable in two orthogonal coordinate directions with respect to said flat table, said device including a first translation drive coupled to the carrier for exerting pushing and pulling forces on the carrier in a first coordinate direction, a second translation drive coupled to the carrier for exerting pushing and pulling forces on the carrier in a second coordinate direction at right angles to the first coordinate direction, said forces exerted on the carrier by said first and second drives lying in one horizontal plane, a first horizontally operating static push and pull bearing coupling said first drive to the carrier in a contactless manner via a viscous medium, and a second horizontally operating static push and pull bearing coupling said second drive to the carrier in a contactless manner via a viscous medium, each said first and said second push and pull bearings being pre-stressed in its respective first and second coordinate directions with an associated force acting to attract said carrier to said first and second drives to oppose the respective maximum occurring pulling force between said first and said second drives on the one hand and said carrier on the other hand whereby said drives and said carrier remain in operative relationship with each other notwithstanding the application of said maximum occurring pulling force.
A positioning device comprising a flat table, a horizontal plate-shaped carrier displaceable in two orthogonal coordinate directions with respect to said flat table, said device including a first translation drive coupled to the carrier for exerting pushing and pulling forces on the carrier in a first coordinate direction, a second translation drive coupled to the carrier for exerting pushing and pulling forces on the carrier in a second coordinate direction at right angles to the first coordinate direction, said forces exerted on said carrier by said first and second drives lying in one horizontal plane, a first horizontally operating static push and pull bearing coupling said first drive to the carrier in a contactless manner via a viscous medium, and a second horizontally operating static push and pull bearing coupling said second drive to the carrier in a contactless manner via a viscous medium, said first and second bearings both applying attracting and repelling forces to said carrier, said respective repelling force of each bearing offsetting said respective attracting force and the maximum force applied by the respective first and second translation drives in the pushing mode of operation, said respective attracting force of each bearing offsetting said respective repelling force and the maximum force applied by the respective first and second translation devices in the pulling mode of operation, whereby said drives and said carrier are maintained in operative relationship.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.