Patent ID: 8657346

Claim:
A lid opening/closing system for a closed container including a lid having a flat plate shape and having plural engaged portions, a container body having an opening to be closed by said lid and an interior space that opens at said opening, and a latch mechanism including plural latch main bodies, each latch main body can move along an axis relative to said container body, and plural engagement portions, each of which plural engagement portions projects from each of the latch main bodies, is provided for a corresponding one of said engaged portions and can engage with said corresponding engaged portion, for fixing the lid to said container body by the engagement of each of said engagement portions with said corresponding engaged portion, said system being adapted to fix said lid to said closed container by causing the latch main bodies to move along said axes, said system comprising: a housing that defines a mini-environment having an opening portion; a door that can move between a position at which the door substantially closes said opening portion and a position at which the door leaves said opening portion open, and can hold said lid; a latch mechanism drive device that can operate said latch mechanism when said closed container is at a position at which opening and closing of said lid by said door is performed, said latch mechanism drive device being capable of moving said latch main bodies between an engaged position at which each of said engagement portions engages with said corresponding engaged portion and a released position at which each of said engagement portions does not engage with said corresponding engaged portion, and being fixedly disposed on said housing independent from said container body and said door, wherein the latch mechanism drive device moves each of the latch main bodies along the axes independently from the container body; and an engagement portion position detection sensor that detects the moving position of at least one of said engagement portions that changes with the movement of said latch main bodies along said axes caused by said latch mechanism drive device.