Interlock apparatus for a transfer machine
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsYoshiharu Ota, Masaaki Yoshida, Shinya Tanoue, Tatsuya Iwasaki
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Abstract
An interlock apparatus for a transfer machine includes a drive unit for driving the arms of a transfer machine for transferring a substrate such as an LCD substrate. The apparatus also includes a control unit having a monitor function for monitoring a parameter representing the movement condition of the arms and stopping the drive unit when the parameter exceed a predetermined value. The apparatus also includes a switching function for selectively switching the predetermined value between a teaching mode in which the position of the arm is controlled and a practical operation mode in which the transfer machine is actually operated.
Claims11
A movable interlock apparatus comprising:
- a drive unit for driving a substrate moving machine along a transfer path for moving a substrate;
- and
- a control unit for controlling the movement of said drive unit in accordance with a teaching mode for performing a teaching operation of said substrate moving machine and a practical operation mode for controlling a practical operation of said substrate moving machine, said control unit including memory means for storing a teaching threshold value for the teaching mode and a practical threshold value for the practical operation mode which is higher than the teaching threshold value, and a controller for monitoring a parameter representing movement condition of said substrate moving machine and stopping said drive unit if the parameter exceeds the practical threshold value when the control unit is in the practical operation mode and if the parameter exceeds the teaching threshold value when the control unit is in the teaching mode.
A movable interlock apparatus comprising:
- a drive unit for driving a transfer machine along a transfer path for transferring a substrate;
- a control unit for controlling the movement of said drive unit in accordance with a teaching mode for performing a teaching operation of said drive unit and a practical operation mode for controlling a practical operation thereof, said control unit including memory means for storing a teaching threshold value for the teaching mode and a practical threshold value for the practical operation mode, the teaching threshold value being lower than the practical threshold value, and a controller for monitoring a parameter representing a movement condition of said transfer machine and stopping said drive unit if the parameter exceeds the practical threshold value when the control unit is in the practical operation mode and if the parameter exceeds the teaching threshold value when the control unit is in the teaching mode.
An interlock mechanism for a transfer machine configured to move along a transfer path comprising:
- a drive unit for driving arm means of the transfer machine for transferring a substrate;
- and
- a control unit for controlling movement of the drive unit in accordance with a teaching mode for performing a teaching operation of said drive unit and a normal operation mode for controlling an actual operation thereof;
- wherein the control unit includes a memory for storing a teaching threshold value and a practical threshold value higher than the teaching threshold value;
- and
- a controller for monitoring a parameter representing an acceleration of the arm means and positional deviation thereof and for stopping the movement of the drive unit when the parameter exceeds the teaching threshold value when the control unit is in the teaching mode and if the parameter exceeds the practical threshold value when the control unit is in the practical mode.
An interlock apparatus for a process machine for processing a substrate comprising:
- a drive unit for driving a transfer device along a transfer path for transferring the substrate to the process machine;
- a control unit for controlling the drive unit in accordance with a teaching mode for performing a teaching operation of the drive unit and a practical operation mode for controlling an actual operation thereof, the control unit including means for stopping the operation of the drive unit when the movement parameter of the drive unit exceed a predetermined value and means for setting the predetermined values smaller in the teaching mode than in the practical operation mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.