The present application is based on and claims priority of Chinese patent Application No. 201711341674.8 filed on Dec. 14, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The corresponding PCT application No. PCT/CN2017/117414 is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
This disclosure relates to a field of a mechanical device, and in particular to a fully-automatic device for detecting substrate size, a substrate detection line and a detecting method thereof.
With rapid advancement of science and technology, people's awareness of environmental protection is rapidly increasing. Substituting new energy for non-renewable energy such as fossils becomes a general trend. A thin-film battery is a high-tech achievement to generate electricity by using solar energy. After entering the 21st century, a conversion efficiency of thin-film battery has reached an unprecedented rapid development.
The thin-film battery is one kind of solar cells, and has a complicated preparation process. All of the PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) plating film, TCO transparent conductive plating film, and CIGS solar thin-film battery plating film have very strict requirements for dimensional accuracy of materials. In order to ensure normal operation of the most important deposition process, it is necessary that a first-stage substrate conforms to the process requirements. The existing drive line does not include an automatic detection device for the substrate size, but only sample inspection made by operators when the raw materials are put into the warehouse or qualified certification documents provided by the raw material manufacturers, so that the dimensional accuracy of the materials cannot be guaranteed, and thereby it is urgent to develop a fully-automatic device for detecting material size.
Reference numbers are described as follows: 1—main frame, 2—load plate, 3—conveying belt, 4—gate-type travelling mechanism, 5—laser sensor, 6—travelling rail, 7—first travelling mechanism, 8—second travelling mechanism, 9—cross beam, 10—third travelling mechanism, 11—second travelling rail, 12—first frame, 13—upper travelling wheel, 14—lower travelling wheel, 15—first servo motor, 16—first rack, 17—first output gear, 18—second frame, 19—slider, 20—second servo motor, 21—second rack, 22—second output gear, 23—groove, 24—position sensor, 25—third frame, 26—cam mounting rod, 27—cam, 28—support rod, 29—push rod, 30—third servo motor, 31—fourth servo motor, 32—third rack, 33—third travelling rail, 34—through hole, 35—sliding sleeve, 36—guide hole, 37—automatic feeding device, 38—substrate size detecting device, 39—material output station, 40—air hole, 41—guard plate, 42—transmission shaft, 43—substrate.
The embodiments described below with reference to the drawings are exemplary, are used to explain the present disclosure, and cannot be construed as limiting the present disclosure.
An embodiment of the present disclosure is provided as follows: as shown in
During operation, feeding is performed by a feeding device or by an operator. The substrate is transported to an appropriate position by the conveying belt 3, and then the conveying belt 3 stop working, and the gate-type travelling mechanism 4 is driven by its own drive device to move along the travelling rails 6, while the third travelling mechanism 10 is driven by its own drive device to move on the gate-type travelling mechanism 4, and at the same time, the laser sensor 5 scans four sides of the substrate, scanning position coordinates of the two end points on each side and transmitting the data to the data processing means, and then the data processing means obtains a exact size of the substrate through calculation. It should be noted that the data processing means is of the prior art but not shown in the drawings. The conveying belt 3 is also of the prior art. Each of conveying belts 3 may be provided with a separate drive device, or may adopt a structure as shown in
In a specific implementation, please referring to
As shown in
When the first servo motor 15 rotates, the first output gear 17 is driven to rotate, and the first output gear 17 is engaged with the first rack 16, so that the first travelling mechanism 7 and the second travelling mechanism 8 are movable along the travelling rails 6. There are two upper travelling wheels 13 and two lower travelling wheels 14, totally four wheels, to cooperate with the travelling rails 6, which may effectively improve the travelling stability. Of course, the solution including three wheels or more than four wheels may also be available herein.
As shown in
In order to realize fully-automatic control, as shown in
In practical use, as shown in
A working principle of the positioning mechanism is presented as follows: the third servo motor 30 rotates the cam 27. The cam 27 rotates synchronously with the cam 27 on the other side through the support rod 28. Since the cam is used, the motion track of the support rod 28 has a highest point and a lowest point. When the support rod 28 moves to the highest point, the support rod 28 pushes all the push rods 29 up to the highest point. At this time, the top portions of the respective push rods 29 extend from the respective through holes 34 out and above the top surface of the load plate 2 and the top surface of the substrate 43. When the support rod 28 moves to the highest point, the third servo motor 30 stops rotating, and the fourth servo motor 31 starts to work. By means of the cooperation between the fourth servo motor 31 and the third rack 32, the third frame 25 travels along the third travelling rail 33. At this time, the respective push rods 29 move along the length of the through hole 34 and push the edge of the base plate 43 to move, so that the substrate is straightened, that is, the long side of the substrate is parallel to the long side of the load plate 2. Then, the fourth servo motor 31 rotates in a reverse direction, the third servo motor 30 rotates in the reverse direction (or forward direction), the third frame 25 returns to its original position, the support rod 28 moves to the lowest point, and the respective push rods 29 are retracted under the load plate 2.
In addition to the foregoing embodiments, the present disclosure also presents some auxiliary arrangements. As shown in
As shown in
A substrate detection line, as shown in
The automatic feeding device 37 and the material output station 39 are of prior arts and can realize automatic feeding and automatic discharging.
A structure of an existing automatic feeding device 37 is provided below. The automatic feeding device 37 includes a conveying table, a mechanical turnover boom, a travelling rail, a lifting mechanism, and an alarm device. The conveying table can be conveyed through, for example, rollers. The mechanical turnover boom is provided on the conveying table. The mechanical turnover boom is equipped with a vacuum suction cup, the vacuum suction cup can be extended and retracted, and employs an advanced double-layer adsorption structure (inner and outer layers), so that suction sheet(s) is more firm, and thereby preventing the defect of adsorption leakage caused by that the outer layer of the suction cup is broken. Each suction cup has a separate gas valve for switching control, and the number of the suction cup can be freely selected to facilitate for the loading operation requirements of various substrates. The mechanical turnover boom can slide along the travelling rail to achieve elongation and contraction. The mechanical turnover boom is provided with a sensor for sensing whether the substrate is provided on the frame and whether the frame is close to the substrate. The mechanical turnover boom is mechanically turned over, and the operation speed is fast (the fastest loading speed is 35 seconds/sheet) and stable without any shake, and can meet the loading of the substrate with a thickness of 1 mm-12 mm. A dual-channel turnover transmission chain protection is provided, which can ensure the turnover process safe and reliable. The turnover boom is controlled by a servo motor, which not only satisfies the customer's requirement for speed, but also makes the turnover boom mechanism more stable and reliable. The turnover angle is adjustable in a range of 95 degrees-110 degrees to meet various requirements for loading angle of the substrate. The alarm device, specifically the traffic light alarm device, alarms according to a g result of the sensor, and can automatically alarm and display when the abnormal situation occurs. The alarm device has a switch for emergency stop, which can be controlled when an abnormal situation occurs. The lifting mechanism is used for preventing the distance between the substrates stacked on a substrate rack from being too short and thereby pressing against the adjacent substrate during the turnover process, when the mechanical turnover boom is used to suck the substrates. With the lifting mechanism, the sucked substrate is lifted and then reversed, and the sensor on the boom is used to detect whether it is lifted to a proper height so as to avoid colliding other substrates. After the substrate is sucked, the turnover boom frame is turned over horizontally and placed on the conveying table. Then the vacuum suction cup on the turnover boom frame loses the suction force, and the substrate is separated from the suction cup. A positioning structure will be provided on the conveying table so that the substrate is placed in a proper position on the conveying table each time. The lifting mechanism may be a structure composed of a motor and a mechanical rod.
The existing material output station 39 has a conveying device and a rotating device. When the substrate size is acceptable, the conveying device is opposite to the next processing station. The conveying device sends the substrate to the next station for further processing. When the substrate size exceeds an error value and is not acceptable, the conveying device is rotated 90 degrees by the rotating device to be in flush with a branch processing station, and the substrate is sent to the base of the branch processing station, waiting to be unloaded.
The present disclosure also provides a method for detecting the above-described substrate detection line, comprising the following steps:
taking pieces: the automatic feeding device 37 picks up the substrate 43 from the material rack, reverses the substrate 43 from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction, and horizontally places the substrate 43 on the substrate size detecting device 38;
detecting size: the conveying belt 3 on the substrate size detecting device 38 transports the substrate 43 to a preset position, and the laser sensor 5 scans the four sides of the substrate 43 one by one, and sends the collected data to the data processing device and calculates the length, width, and diagonal dimension of the substrate 43 by the data processing device, and compares the calculation results with preset values to determine whether the substrate 43 is qualified in size;
discharging pieces: the conveyor 3 conveys the substrate 43 to the material output station 39; the material output station 39 conveys the substrate 43 according to the detection result fed back by the data processing device; when the size of the substrate 43 is qualified, the substrate 43 is transferred to the next station; and when the size of the substrate 43 is unqualified, it is rotated 90 degrees and transferred to the branch processing station.
In the above method, when the size detection is performed, the following steps are further included. When the substrate 43 is placed on the conveying belt 3, the conveying belt 3 moves with the substrate 43 while the substrate 43 passes the position sensor 24. When the tail portion of the substrate 43 leaves from the position sensor 24, the conveying belt 3 stops operating. At this time, the substrate 43 is located at the detecting position. In order to improve accuracy of the size detection, the positioning mechanism starts working at this moment. The push rod 29 of the positioning mechanism extends out of the through hole 34 under action of the third servo motor 30, and is higher than the top surface of the base plate 43. At the same time, under the action of the fourth servo motor 31, the push rod 29 moves along the length direction of the through hole 34 and pushes the edge of the base plate 43 to be aligned with the base plate 43. Then, the cross beam 9 is driven by the two first servo motors 15 to make an oblique motion at a 45 degree, so as to roughly determine the approximate range of the lower substrate, and then returns to the middle of the substrate, and begins to scan the four sides of the substrate 43 one by one. At least two end points of each edge of the substrate 43 are scanned to determine the range of the edges of the substrate 43. Finally, the data processing device automatically synthesizes the coordinate values of the distance position of the substrate and performs four operations to determine the length, the width and the diagonal of the substrate 43. Finally, the data processing device compares the size of the substrate with the size as set in advance by the user to determine whether to meet the size requirements.
The configurations, features, and effects of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the embodiments as shown in the drawings. The above-described embodiments are only the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, but the present disclosure is not limited to the implementation scope as shown in the drawings. Any changes made according to the conception of the present disclosure, or equivalent embodiments that are modified to equivalent variations, which do not exceed the spirit covered by the description and the drawings, should be embraced by the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201711341674.8 | Dec 2017 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2017/117414 | 12/20/2017 | WO | 00 |