Patent ID: 8480348

Claim:
A processing apparatus for a thin plate container, the processing apparatus comprising: a thin plate container for supporting one or plural thin plates for use in carriage, storage, and processing, the thin plate container comprising: a plurality of processing trays arranged in a stack, each processing tray supporting at least one thin plate; a coupling mechanism for integrally coupling together said plurality of processing trays in the stack and allowing said processing trays to be separated at any location within the stack, wherein said each processing tray includes first side and second side supports for supporting opposing sides of at least one thin plate, said first and second side supports mutually fitting together to form a housing space sealed off from the external environment for constraining and supporting said thin plate sandwiched therebetween within the housing space; a mounting table for mounting the thin plate container; a separation mechanism for separating and opening the thin plate container mounted on said mounting table at any location within said stack; and a loader/unloader for loading in and out a thin plate housed at the arbitrary location opened by said separation mechanism.