General description

One of the considerations for mechanical design for stable transport of glass substrates is equalizing the weight of substrates acting on the feed rollers and increasing and equalizing the coefficient of friction at the contact points between the substrates and individual feed rollers.

Explanation

1)Rules and principles about roller transport

・In the case of roller transport, the principle of transport function is the control of frictional force to move the individual loads being transported.
・In practice, the rotational force of the drive motor for transport is transmitted to the feed rollers. Then, due to the weight of each substrate acting on the feed rollers and the coefficient of friction of feed rollers, the frictional force is produced in the tangential direction. By means of the reaction force to the frictional force, each substrate is transferred. (Fig.1).
・Therefore, as a rule, such mechanical design is required that can cause the frictional force to be generated at the point of contact between individual substrates and feed rollers for ensuring steady transport.

2)Consistency with the principle of roller transport

・For stable transport of substrates based on the roller transport, the following considerations are important.

・To increase the number of feed rollers as a solution in the mechanical structure described in 1 to minimize possible effects of any deformed substrates and equalize the substrate weight acting on individual rollers to the full extent practicable. (Fig.2).

・To install structural members of larger friction coefficient (e.g. rubber) onto the outer circumference of feed rollers as a solution in the mechanical structure described in 2. (Fig.3).
・In this case, the friction members installed onto the outer circumference of feed rollers should be of easy-to-replace design and the replacement members should be commercially available.
・For example, rubber-made O-rings and urethane rubber can be adopted.Rollers included in MISUMI FAparts are also commercially available as standard components.