Grinding apparatus

A grinding apparatus for grinding a wafer stored in a cassette composed of a container for storing said wafer and a lid for enclosing said container, said grinding apparatus comprising:

• a cassette table for placing said cassette thereon;
• lid removing means for removing said lid from said cassette placed on said cassette table and leaving only said container on said cassette table;
• cassette table elevating means for vertically moving said cassette table;
• wafer transfer means for transferring said wafer from said container left on said cassette table lowered by said cassette table elevating means;
• a temporary setting table for temporarily setting said wafer transferred by said wafer transfer means;
• wafer inverting means for inverting said wafer temporarily set on said temporary setting table;
• a chuck table for receiving said wafer inverted by said wafer inverting means in a wafer standby area and holding said wafer under suction;
• chuck table moving means for moving said chuck table from said wafer standby area to a grinding area;
• grinding means provided in said grinding area for grinding said wafer held on said chuck table, said grinding means having a grinding wheel composed of a wheel base and a plurality of abrasive members annularly mounted on said wheel base;
• grinding water supplying means having a water source for supplying a grinding water to said abrasive members of said grinding wheel;
• waste water collecting means for collecting waste water generated in grinding said wafer by operating said grinding means as supplying said grinding water by operating said grinding water supplying means;
• and
• cleaning means for cleaning said wafer held on said chuck table after grinding.