Patent ID: 7524232
Filing Date: 2009-04-28
Classification: B24B,H01L

Abstract:
1. A workpiece centering apparatus comprising: a tray having a peripheral wall; a water supply section supplying water into said tray via a water inlet provided at a center of a bottom face of said tray; a guide plate being provided in said tray and separated a prescribed distance away from an inner bottom face of said tray, said guide plate covering the water inlet so as to horizontally introduce the water, which is supplied via the water inlet, into the tray; and at least three overflow outlets for overflowing the water from said tray, said overflow outlets being formed in the peripheral wall and arranged in the circumferential direction at regular intervals, wherein a workpiece, which is horizontally fed on a surface of the water stored in said tray, is received and floated by surface tension of the water, and the workpiece is centered in said tray by water flows radially overflowing from said tray via said overflow outlets, wherein an inner face of the peripheral wall is a female tapered face, whose diameter is gradually reduced toward the inner bottom face of said tray, and the overflow outlets are designed to make a diameter of the surface of the water overflowing via the overflow outlets slightly larger than that of the workpiece.