| YASKAWA Electric Corporation (President: Koji Toshima) has selected double-link column for the lift shaft for the first time in the industry, targeting the handling of extra-large LCD glass substrates of the 10th-generation size. We have developed and commercialized a clean robot “MOTOMAN-CDL3000D” which can improve the production efficiency and reduce equipment costs and line setup costs/time by handling larger substrates. The sales will start on December 1, 2007. |
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| 1. Purpose of the commercialization |
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YASKAWA has been supplying the market with clean robots for handling LCD glass substrates targeting at the LCD field since 1997. The accumulated shipping quantity as of October 2007 is approximately 12,000 units, and they have been applied to production lines in the flat-panel display (FPD) manufacturing field.
Recently, flat screen TVs are subject to severe market competition, such as handling full high-definition, producing larger screen sizes, and lowering prices. These thin panels need to meet conflicting conditions of higher precision, larger size, and lower price, and the improvement in production efficiency including equipment productivity is required.
“MOTOMAN-CDL3000D” employs double-link column mechanism (up/down stroke: 4,000 mm) to the lift shaft for the first time in the industry, and high-speed and high-precision handling of 3 m ‘ 3 m extra-large mother glass substrates called “the 10th generation” has been achieved. In addition, with the flexible operation of the double-link column mechanism, the equipment productivity can be improved by reducing special supplementary equipment and setting up the line earlier, which can help improve production efficiency in various scenes from the installation to the panel production.
With “MOTOMAN-CDL3000D” with a lift shaft of double-link column mechanism developed this time together with our existing glass substrate handling robots of vertically articulated structure and those with a lift shaft of single-link mechanism or direct-operated mechanism, we will supply the market with glass substrate handling robots handling from small-sized glass substrates to the 10th-generation extra-large glass substrates in future utilizing the features of each type of the robots, and strengthen our FPD robot business further.
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| 2. Main features |
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High-speed handling of the 10th-generation extra-large LCD glass substrate has been developed |
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Attached supplementary document-1 |
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The lift shaft of this robot employs our original double-link column mechanism. By achieving a payload of 100 kg/arm, up/down stroke of 4,000 mm, front-back stretching stroke of 5,200 mm with double arms, the handling of the 10th-generation-compatible extra-large LCD glass substrates of 2,850 ‘ 3,050 mm has been enabled.
The high-rigidity and flexible operations using the double-link column mechanism reduces arm sagging. The compensation level of the torsional direction of the hand carrying glass substrates can be adjusted by vertical twisting movement of the right/left link type columns.
The saving of the entire weight including the drive motor and the reduction gear as well as the improvement in the power transmission system besides the high-rigidity mechanism and degree of freedom as described above has achieved the highest handling speed in its class, which can handle at a high speed with the tact time of 37.4 seconds*, which is equivalent to the 8th- generation (2,200 ‘ 2,500 mm class) high-speed handling.
The high-speed and stable handling of extra-large LCD glass substrates will help improve the productivity in liquid crystal panel production.
*: Based on YASKAWA’s assumed patterns (removal from the glass cassette, rising and lifting, simultaneous glass replacement by double arms, horizontal movement while falling, mounting to another cassette, return to origin by horizontal movement)
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Simple equipment requiring no special carrier for glass substrate alignment and cost reduction |
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Attached supplementary document-2 |
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For alignment compensation (displacement in the X-θ direction) of a glass substrate when the substrate is loaded to or unloaded from a cassette, conventional robots require a traverse carrier which carries the robot and moves in the X (horizontal) direction. The compensation is realized by the complex combination of the movement of the carrier and the θ-directional movement (rotation) of the robot. In “MOTOMAN-CDL3000D”, the right and left link columns of the lift shaft are moved independently. Therefore, the central turning position of the robot can be moved in the X (lateral) direction with a hand part kept at the same level. Combined with its rotation, the robot alone can compensate the X-θ directional alignment of a glass substrate. This eliminates the use of special carriers for glass substrate alignment, making the equipment simple. The equipment costs and installation time can be reduced to a large extent. |
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On-site assembly is unnecessary, minimizing the installation work. The line can be set up earlier with less than half of the time required before. |
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Since the lift shaft of the robot employs a right/left link system, the entire robot height can be reduced by the bending of the joint area and the posture can be minimized allowing a compact land transportation. In addition, the path line from the floor surface to the glass substrate on the bottom step inside the cassette is adjustable up to 1,360 mm.
Robots with a tall direct-operated lift shaft of a few meters used to require assembly of the body at the installation site, but “MOTOMAN-CDL3000D” can maintain the posture for land transportation size after the robot is assembled, and on-site assembly isn’t necessary, minimizing the installation work.
Space, operating time, and costs can be reduced, and the line can be set up earlier with less than half of the time required before.
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3. Main applications
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Handling of large-sized glass substrates in the liquid crystal panel manufacturing field, substrate replacement in cassettes and processing systems |
| 4. Sales plan |
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Sales plan: 400 units/year |
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| Information: |
This robot, “MOTOMAN-CDL3000D,” will be exhibited and demonstrated at the YASKAWA Electric Corporation booth at the “2007 International Robot Exhibition” held at the Tokyo Big Sight from November 28 to December 1, 2007.
In addition, it will be exhibited and demonstrated at the YASKAWA booth at “SEMICON Japan 2007” held at the Makuhari Messe from December 5 to 7, 2007. |
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Attached photo ”MOTOMAN-CDL3000D“ |
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[Contact]
YASKAWA Electric Corporation
Robotics Division
Business planning department,
Assistant Manager
Hiroyuki Ataka
Tel: +81-93-645-7703
Fax: +81-93-631-8140
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