This invention relates to a disk chucking mechanism and a disk handling robot and, in particular, this invention relates to a magnetic disk chucking mechanism which can reduce a damage of a disk when a magnetic disk or a substrate thereof is derived from a cassette or stored in the cassette and which is possible to chuck or release the disk at high speed and is suitable for chucking a disk having a glass substrate.
It is requested to increase the memory density of a magnetic disk used as an information recording medium of such as a computer and, recently, the magnetic disk is miniaturized by using a glass disk as a substrate.
The hard disk drive device (HDD) has been used in the fields of the automobile product, the consumer electrical appliance and the audio products and the hard disk drive device using disks of 2.5 inches, 1.8 inches, 1.0 inch or smaller is installed in various products.
There is the tendency of miniaturization of hard disk drive device and the unit cost of the hard disk drive device is reduced. Therefore, the manufacturers are requested to manufacture a large number of hard disk drive devices with low cost. Therefore, in even the disk cleaning device and the disk tester, there is a request of efficient cleaning, drying and testing of a large number of disks and there is a request of miniaturization.
The transportation of magnetic disk or substrate thereof (referred to as “disk”, hereinafter) to respective stages of such as cleaning, drying and testing or from those stages is usually performed through a handling mechanism such as a disk handling robot. A disk chucking mechanism is provided in a hand portion provided on a top end side of the disk handling robot and a disk held by the disk chucking mechanism is transported to or derived from a cassette.
As a disk chucking mechanism of this kind, a disk handling mechanism for chucking an inner periphery and an outer periphery of a disk is disclosed in JP-A-09-274779.
The chucking mechanism disclosed in JP-A-09-274779 includes three rollers each having a V-groove and a disk is chucked at two outer peripheral points and at a point of an inner periphery thereof. In this chucking mechanism, a swing mechanism in which a roller arm having a V-groove on the inner peripheral chucking side is rotated by 90° and protrudes on the inner peripheral side of the disk is employed.
In order to improve the manufacturing efficiency and the testing efficiency of disk, the efficiency of the disk handling processing is very important. That is, when the transporting speed of disk is increased in order to improve the efficiencies, the dropping of disk and/or the contact between disks during the transportation may occur unless the disk chucking is reliable. On the other hand, when the chucking force of the chucking mechanism is increased in order to make the disk chucking reliable, chucking mark and/or cracking or chipping of a chamfer portion of the disk tend to occur. Particularly, when the high speed chucking is performed for a disk having a glass substrate, the chamber portion of the disk tends to be cracked or flawed.
Usually, the chucking force required in disk handling is several tens to several hundreds grams. In the disk chucking mechanism disclosed in JP-A-09-274779, the opening and closing of the chuck is performed by a slow drive of an air cylinder in order to reduce a damage of the disk. In order to chuck the disk reliably and stably with such force, it is necessary to feed air to a cylinder slowly to operate the chuck slowly. Therefore, there is a problem that the open/close of the chuck takes a time.
In order to reduce a damage of the disk by the chuck and shorten the chucking time, it is possible to use a vacuum adsorption chuck. In such case, however, there is another problem that, unless an adsorption head having a configuration corresponding to an outer configuration of a disk to be adsorbed is prepared, the adsorption becomes unstable. Further, the vacuum adsorption becomes unstable due to size error caused by variation of disks and positioning error of the disk handling robot and there is a problem of dropping of the disk from the chucking mechanism during the handling or during the transportation of the disk.
An object of the present invention is to provide a disk chucking mechanism with which the damage of magnetic disks or substrates thereof is reduced and high speed chucking and/or opening of the disks can be realized.
Another object of this invention is to provide a disk handling robot having a disk chucking mechanism in which the chuck open/close time is shortened.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a disk handling robot having a disk chucking mechanism suitable for chucking a disk of a glass substrate.
In order to achieve these objects, the disk chucking mechanism or the disk handling robot of this invention is featured by comprising a movement actuator (a forward/rearward moving actuator), a first link member, a second link member which is arranged along a longitudinal direction of the first link member and moved rearward or forward relatively along the longitudinal direction of the first link member by the movement actuator, a third link member connected to end portions of the first and second link members, a first chucking nail provided on the third link member and rotated according to a rotation of the third link member and a spring member which is provided on the second link member and bent correspondingly to the forward or rearward movement, wherein a force for further rotating the third link member in the same direction is generated in the spring member by rotating the third link member by a forward or rearward movement of the second link member to protrude the first chucking nail in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the first or second link member to thereby couple the nail with an inner or outer periphery of the disk.
In this invention, since the link mechanism constructed with the first, second and third link members forms a slider crank mechanism, the third link member is rotated by the drive of the actuator such as an air-cylinder, the chucking nail provided on the third link member protrudes perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the first or second link member. When the chucking nail engages with the disk, the rotation of the chucking nail protruded perpendicularly is stopped and the rotation of the third link member is also stopped. Therefore, it is possible to bend the spring member by further rearward or forward movement of the second link member. Due to this bending, it is possible to energize the first chucking nail such that the first chucking nail is rotated in the direction in which the engagement of the disk is maintained.
Therefore, it becomes possible to chuck the disk with a predetermined force by only driving the actuator rearward or forward.
In this case, the force for chucking the disk is determined by elasticity of the spring (elastic constant) and bending amount thereof and it is possible to set the force to a substantially constant value.
As a result, the disk chucking mechanism of this invention can easily select the chucking force with respect to the disk in a range from several tens grams to several hundreds grams. Further, the open/close operation of the chuck can be done by only forward/rearward drive of the actuator. Therefore, the disk chucking mechanism of this invention can reduce a damage of the disk when the disk is chucked and shorten the open/close time of the disk chucking by selecting an optimum chucking force correspondingly to the energizing force of the spring member.
a) shows a rear side of the disk chucking mechanism and
In the drawings, same constructive elements are depicted by same numerals.
In
The handling robot 9 has a hand 2 which chucks the disk 1 having a center opening at an inner periphery point of the opening and two outer peripheral points of the disk. The hand 2 is suspended from the handling robot 9 by an arm 4 and constitutes a disk chucking mechanism 3. An elevator mechanism 5 of the handling robot 9 is fixed on a rail 6 and elevates the arm 4 in Z direction. The rail 6 includes a Y axis moving mechanism for the elevator mechanism 5 and is moved in X direction by an X axis moving mechanism 7. A reference numeral 8 depicts a disk cassette positioned below the hand 2 and storing a plurality of disks 1.
The disk chucking mechanism 3 of the hand 2 includes an air cylinder 31 having a linear guide and provided vertically, a finger portion 32 and a bracket link 34 which is a plate member and corresponds to a third link member of this invention. The air cylinder 31, the finger 32 and the bracket link 34 constitute a slider crank mechanism.
The finger portion 32 includes a first finger 32a which is a rod member, a second finger 32b which is a rod member and corresponds to the second link member of the second link member of this invention, a third finger 32c which is a rod member and corresponds to the first link member of this invention and a U-shaped leaf spring 32d. The second finger 32b extends along a longitudinal direction of the third finger 32c.
The air cylinder 31 includes a rail 31a for linear guide and a movable table 31b and is fixed to the arm 4 through a fixed base 31c. The rail 31a is mounted along the arm 4 and moved together the arm 4 vertically by the elevator mechanism 5.
The movable table 31b moves on the rail 31a of the air cylinder 31. The first finger 32a is fixed to the movable table 31b so that the first finger 32a is moved vertically (Z direction) by the air cylinder 31.
As shown in
Incidentally,
In
As shown in
Incidentally, a groove similar to the recess groove 320 is provided in the top end portion of the third finger 32c. Since the linking between the top end portion of the third finger 32c and the bracket link 34 is the same as that of the top end portion of the second finger 32a, detailed description thereof is omitted.
In
b) shows a simpler linking structure for linking the second finger 32b and the third finger 32c and the bracket link 34 by means of a linking metal ware.
The bracket link 34 and the second and third fingers 32b and 32c are linked by linking metal wares 35a and 35b mounted on the first finger 32a and the second finger 32b rotatably supported by pins 34a and 34b. The roller 33c with V-groove provided on the top end side of the bracket link 34 is mounted on the bracket link 34 such that, when the bracket link 34 is rotated clockwise by 90°, it protrudes perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the second finger 32b and the third finger 32c. Incidentally,
In the
The diameter of the roller 33c which engages with the inner periphery of the disk 1 is smaller than those of the rollers 33a and 33b which engage with the outer periphery of the disk 1 depending upon a difference between the inner peripheral diameter and the outer peripheral diameter of the disk 1.
Returning to
When the arm 4 is lowered by a predetermined amount in Z direction after the arm 4 is positioned in a predetermined position in X, Y and Z directions with respect to the disk cassette 8 by the handling robot 9, the finger 2 is inserted into an empty space 8a in a rear portion of the disk cassette 8. Then, when the air cylinder 31 is moved forward and the movable table 31b is moved forward, the first finger 32a and the second finger 32b are lowered, so that the rollers 33a and 33b of the first finger 32a engage with the outer periphery as shown in
The protrusion of the roller 33c is realized by lowering the second finger 32b with respect to the third finger 32c. Since the third finger 32c is fixed, the bracket link 34 is rotated clockwise by 90° when the second finger 32b is lowered, so that the roller 33c is raised in horizontal direction.
When the roller 33c is protruded and engages with the inner periphery of the disk 1, the roller 33c does not rotate any more. In such state, the roller 33c is stopped at a position according to a balance of the relation between the weight and rotating direction of the disk 1. In this case, the rollers 33a and 33b do not engage with the outer periphery of the disk 1 as yet. In this case, the rotation of the bracket link 34 together with the roller 33c is stopped. Therefore, the leaf spring 32d is bent when the first finger 32a is further lowered. This will be described in detail.
When the weight of the disk 1 is, for example, from 10 grams to ten-odd grams, the leaf spring 32d starts to bend correspondingly to the weight of the disk 1 since the roller 33c is rotated clockwise and engages with the inner periphery of the disk 1. When the first finger 32a is further lowered, the leaf spring 32d is bent further to push up the disk 1 and the roller 33c is stopped in the vicinity of the horizontal position when the rollers 33a and 33b are in the positions shown by dotted lines shown in
That is, until the rollers 33a and 33b of the first finger 32a engage with the outer periphery of the disk 1, the second finger 32b can be lowered. By the lowering of the rollers 33a and 33b from the position shown by the dotted line in
The energizing force of the leaf spring 32d is increased with lowering of the rollers 33a and 33b and a force for further rotating the bracket link 34 clockwise even when the roller 33c is stopped is applied to the inner periphery of the disk 1. The energizing force of the leaf spring 32d moves the rollers 33a and 33b from the position shown by the dotted line to the position shown by the solid line.
Thus, the rollers 33a and 33b of the first finger 32a are engaged with the outer periphery of the disk 1 when a predetermined force is applied to the inner periphery of the disk 1. At this time, a further lowering of the second finger 32b is stopped. Therefore, it becomes possible to chuck the disk 1 with the predetermined force generated by the U-shaped leaf spring 32d by only the forward drive of the actuator 31.
As a result, it is possible to increase the drive speed of the air cylinder 31. Incidentally, when the weight of the disk 1 is several hundreds grams, the energizing force can be increased by increasing the repulsive force of the leaf spring 32d.
The chucking force in such case substantially corresponds to a lowering difference Δd (refer to
Since the lowering of the first finger 32a is stopped when the rollers 33a and 33b of the first finger 32a engage with the outer periphery of the disk 1, the amount of lowering (Δd) is restricted to a constant amount. Therefore, it is easily to set the chucking force with respect to the disk in a range from several tens grams to several hundreds grams by selecting the repulsive force (elastic force) and the bending amount of the leaf spring 32d.
Incidentally, the release of the disk 1 is performed by driving the air cylinder 31 rearward and lifting up the movable table 31b.
In this embodiment, the V-grooved roller on the inner periphery chucking side is swingable. However, it is possible to make the V-grooved roller on the outer periphery chucking side swingable. In such case, the swinging direction is counterclockwise. Therefore, the disk 1 is chucked by the rearward drive of the actuator. It is possible to chuck the disk 1 with a predetermined force by only the rearward drive.
Such mechanism can be realized by exchanging the positions of the roller 33c and the rollers 33a and 33b.
The finger 32a in
Thus, the roller 33c is positioned in the outer periphery of the disk 1 and the rollers 33a and 33b are positioned on the inner periphery side of the disk 1, such that the position of the roller 33c and the positions of the rollers 33a and 33b are reversed.
The movable table 31b rotates the bracket link 34, which is moved rearward and positioned in the outer periphery side, counterclockwise.
Therefore, the roller 33c engages with the outer periphery of the disk 1 and the rollers 33a and 33b engage with the inner periphery of the disk 1 by lifting up and bending the leaf spring 32d.
Incidentally, the rollers 33a and 33b can protrude toward the inner periphery of the disk 1 by moving the arm 4 along the cassette 8.
Therefore, the second finger 32e is constructed as a single leaf spring and one end portion of the leaf spring is fixed to the movable table 31b. The other end portion of the second leaf spring 32e is coupled to the bracket link 34 through a link coupling metal ware 35d. Thus, the structure of the second finger 32e becomes simpler than that shown in
As shown, the second finger 32e is bent inside. The first finger 32a, which includes the rollers 33a and 33b, is fixed to the movable table 31b through a pedestal 32f. The length of the third finger 32c is shorter than that shown in
Since other constructions are substantially similar to those shown in
Since the disk chucking mechanism having such structure can be made compact, it is effective for disks having outer diameter not larger than 1.8 inches.
The roller 33c takes in the form of a chucking nail for chucking the disk. This chucking nail protrudes in a left side direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the third finger 32c of the embodiment shown in
The chucking nail may protrude in a right side direction perpendicularly to the longitude direction of the second finger 32b. In such case, it is possible to derive the disk 1 from the opposite side of the cassette 8 in
Further, in
In the embodiment shown in
Further, this invention can be applied to a chucking mechanism for chucking a disk at three outer peripheral points of the disk by replacing the V-grooved roller of the inner periphery shown in
Further, the leaf spring is provided on the second finger 32b in the embodiments may be such as coil spring.
Further, though the disk chucking is described mainly when the disk 1 is derived from the cassette 8, the disk chucking mechanism of this invention can be applied to a case where the disk 1 is stored in the cassette 8 by reversing the described operation. Further, the disk chucking mechanism of this invention can be applied to the storing of the disk in and the deriving of the disk out from other location than the cassette.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-130301 | May 2007 | JP | national |