Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a disc drying device and a disc drying method, and more particularly, to a disc drying device that allows simultaneous and quick drying of plural discs by a batch process and miniaturization of the device. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In the case of substrates for magnetic discs (hard discs) as information recording media, cleaning of the discs has been performed after the process of grinding, polishing, spattering and plating. For the cleaning of hard discs and substrates therefor (hereinafter these will be simply referred to as discs), plural cleaning processes and drying processes after the cleaning are provided. 
     Typically, the drying process is independent of the cleaning process. The discs after cleaning are immersed in a pure water container and then taken out therefrom to be subjected to the drying process so as to prevent cleaning liquid from remaining after the drying. In that case, the simultaneous handling of multiple discs, the drying processing during the delivery of the discs after cleaning and the like, are performed in order to enhance the throughput from cleaning to drying of the discs. 
     Such drying process is included in the disc cleaning processing in a broad sense, and devices have been known in which the cleaning and drying of discs are performed at the same time. As one of such devices, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-216634 discloses a disc cleaning and drying device using a spin-dry method in which discs are rotated to eliminate fluid adhering to the discs by centrifugal force and then the fluid is received by a rotating through-hole cover to be discharged to the outside. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In the related art, however, when drying the discs after cleaning, there has been a need to transfer the discs in wet condition to the drying process. For this reason, dirt is likely to adhere to the discs in wet condition in the delivery process for transferring to the drying process. In addition, since the recent drying process includes a rinsing process and a spin-drying process, there has been a problem that dirt also adheres to the discs in the delivery process for transferring from the rinsing process to the spin-drying process. 
     Further, the discs are chucked at the time of delivery, or, in a chucked state, the discs in wet condition are taken in and out from one bath to another or from one processing chamber to another. Even when the amount of time for the taking in and out is minimized, it takes about five to six seconds. This processing time causes a decrease in throughput of the whole disc cleaning processing including drying. 
     According to the disc cleaning and drying device disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-216634, continuous processing of the cleaning process and the spin-drying process is performed without handling the discs, thereby allowing a reduction in processing time for the whole cleaning processing. In such a disc cleaning and drying device, however, the number of processable discs is limited to two or three at a time, and cleaning processing efficiency per disc is not much improved. Additionally, one problem is that, to process multiple discs at a time in such a device, upsizing of the device is required. Of course, also in the case where the disc drying device is independently provided, the drying device must be upsized to perform the drying processing of multiple discs at a time. 
     Accordingly, the present invention addresses the above-described problems in the related art, and an object of the invention is to provide a disc drying device that allows simultaneous and quick drying of plural discs by a batch process and miniaturization of the device. 
     It is another object of the invention to provide a disc drying method for simultaneously and quickly drying plural discs by a batch process. 
     A feature of a disc drying device and a disc drying method according to the present invention for achieving such object includes: simultaneously chucking, with a disc chuck mechanism, outer peripheries of plural the discs erected with respective centers of the discs arranged along a single axis, leaving a predetermined space therebetween; externally and removably covering the plural chucked discs with a cylindrical water receiving cover with valley grooves being formed circumferentially in a plane perpendicular to the cylindrical axis in an inner wall surface of the water receiving cover; inserting plural pairs of nozzles, in a removable manner with respect to the discs, into a space formed by the central openings of the chucked discs, and placing each of the pairs of nozzles corresponding to two sides of an inner peripheral surface adjacent to the central opening of each of the discs; rotating the disc chuck mechanism to rotate, about the centers of the discs, the discs with the pairs of nozzles and the water receiving cover mounted, and supplying hot water from the pairs of nozzles to heat the chucked discs; causing the hot water to flow from the inner peripheral surfaces to the outer peripheries of the discs by centrifugal force and to be outwardly discharged; and causing the discharged hot water to flow through the valley grooves and to be discharged to the outside from the water receiving cover. 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, plural discs arranged along a single axis are simultaneously chucked at outer peripheries thereof so that central openings of the discs internally form a space; plural nozzles are disposed in the space so as to supply hot water from inner peripheral surfaces of two sides of each of the discs to heat the discs with the hot water; and the discs are simultaneously rotated to thereby move the hot water from inner peripheries to outer peripheries of the discs and discharge the hot water outwardly of the outer peripheries by centrifugal force. 
     The discharged hot water flows through valley grooves provided in inner wall surfaces of a water receiving cover to the lower side of the discs to be discharged to the outside. Thus, it is possible to prevent the hot water from dripping on the discs during or after cleaning of the discs and to quickly dry by heating, after stopping the hot water, the discs heated along with the dirt cleaning. 
     Furthermore, in the case of shallow valley grooves or the like, or, depending on the shapes of the valley grooves, fins for preventing the hot water from dripping may be provided on both sides of an upper surface of each valley groove. Preferably, the fins are provided over a semicircle or a larger portion of the cylinder of the water receiving cover. 
     With this structure, the hot water after cleaning and heating peripherally discharged by centrifugal force is received and guided by the valley grooves formed in the inner wall surface of the cylindrical water receiving cover to be discharged to the outside from the lower side of the water receiving cover. 
     Also, the pairs of nozzles are inserted into the space formed by the central openings of the chucked discs in such a manner that the pairs of nozzles are removably mounted on the discs along with the water receiving cover. This allows miniaturization of the whole drying device. 
     The arrangement may be such that there is further provided an advancing/retreating mechanism for advancing and retreating the nozzles and the water receiving cover along the single axis with respect to the chucked discs. With this structure, the discs are retreated from the disc chuck mechanism, thereby facilitating loading and unloading of the discs from the disc chuck mechanism. Thus, the efficiency of a batch process may be improved. 
     Accordingly, it is possible to realize the disc drying device that allows simultaneous and quick drying of the plural discs by the batch process and is small-sized. 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1A  is a side sectional view for explaining the drying principle of a disc drying device; 
         FIG. 1B  is an explanatory view of a hot water supplying portion of  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIG. 1C  is a front schematic view of  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIG. 2  is a sectional view for explaining a hot water supply nozzle unit without a water receiving cover and the water receiving cover according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a sectional explanatory view, with the water receiving cover mounted, of a disc drying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4A  is an explanatory view of a handling robot that simultaneously picks up plural discs from a disc cassette; and 
         FIG. 4B  is an explanatory view of the relation between the discs and a disc lifter. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     In  FIG. 3 , reference sign  10  denotes a disc drying device;  1  and  1   a  denote disc chuck mechanisms of the disc drying device  10 ;  2  and  2   a  denote rotary drive mechanisms (drive motors) of the disc chuck mechanisms  1  and  1   a ;  3  denotes a hot-water supply nozzle unit (see  FIG. 1A );  4  denotes a water receiving cover (see  FIG. 1A );  5  denotes an enclosure;  6  denotes a water receiving cover advancing/retreating mechanism; and  9  denotes a disc (see  FIG. 1A ). 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1A to 1C , the disc chuck mechanism  1  is composed of a chuck opening and closing mechanism  11  and three chuck arms  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c , and holds the five (plural) discs  9  using an outer circumferential three-point chuck (see  FIG. 1C ), with the discs  9  being erected with respective centers thereof arranged along X axis, leaving a predetermined space therebetween. 
     It should be noted that  FIG. 1A  is a sectional view taken along the arrowed line A-A of  FIG. 1C  and therefore the chuck arm  12   c  does not appear in  FIG. 1A . 
     The chuck arms  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c  are respectively provided with five respective chuck rollers  13   a ,  13   b , and  13   c  for simultaneously chucking the five discs  9 , corresponding to outer peripheries of the five discs  9  arranged and erected leaving a predetermined space therebetween. It should be noted that the chuck roller  13   c  does not appear in  FIG. 1A , in the same manner as the chuck arm  12   c.    
     As shown in  FIG. 1A , the five respective chuck rollers  13   a ,  13   b , and  13   c  are provided on the chuck arms  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c , respectively, leaving predetermined spaces corresponding to the outer peripheries of the respective arranged discs  9 . 
     The respective chuck arms  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c  of the disc chuck mechanism  1  are rotated about the center of the discs  9  by the rotary drive mechanism  2  to thereby simultaneously rotate the five discs  9 . 
     The hot-water supply nozzle unit  3  is constructed by bundling five nozzles  30  each composed of a pair of nozzles  3   a  and  3   b  shown in  FIG. 1B . The pair of nozzles  3   a  and  3   b  of each of the five nozzles  30  jet hot water  7  toward inner peripheral surfaces of the two sides of each disc  9 . 
     The hot-water supply nozzle unit  3  is inserted from the outside into an internal space  8  (see  FIGS. 1A to 1C ) formed by a central opening  9   a  (see  FIGS. 1B and 1C ) of the disc  9 , and the nozzles  3   a  and  3   b  are placed corresponding to inner peripheral surfaces  9   b  of each of the five discs  9 . Thus, the five nozzles  30  are provided in a bundled manner, in such a manner as to be displaced leaving predetermined spaces corresponding to the predetermined spaces of the discs  9  (see  FIG. 1A ). 
     A connector pipe  31  (see  FIG. 1A ) is provided on a bundled end portion of the hot water supply nozzle unit  3 . The connector pipe  31  is fixed to a closed bottom  4   a  (see  FIG. 1A ) of the water receiving cover  4  as shown on the left side of the figure. The connector pipe  31  is connected to a hot water supply pipe  32 , and the hot water  7  is supplied to the five nozzles  30  from the outside through the connector pipe  31 . 
     In  FIG. 1C , the hot water supply nozzle unit  3  located on the bottom  4   a  and the bottom  4   a  are removed for convenience of explanation for the water receiving cover  4  and a chucked state of the disc  9 . 
     The hot water supply nozzle unit  3  is advanced and retreated with respect to the disc chuck mechanism  1  along with the water receiving cover  4  by the drive of the water receiving cover advancing/retreating mechanism  6  (see  FIGS. 2 and 3 ) to be mounted and removed on and from the five chucked discs  9 . When the hot water supply nozzle unit  3  is advanced to be mounted on the five discs  9 , the hot water supply nozzle unit  3  is disposed within the internal space  8  formed by the central openings  9   a  as shown in FIG.  1 A, and the nozzles  3   a  and  3   b  are placed to face the two sides of the inner peripheral surface  9   b  of each of the five discs  9  (see  FIG. 1B ). At this time, the five nozzles  30  are located slightly downward from the center of the central openings  9   a.    
     The water receiving cover  4  is, as shown in  FIGS. 1A and 1C , a bottomed cylindrical member, having the bottom  4   a , with a side surface for covering the five chucked discs  9  partially opened in a slit shape along the central axis of the cylinder (see an opened side surface  4   c  in  FIG. 10 ). In inner wall surfaces of the water receiving cover  4 , five (plural) valley grooves  4   b  corresponding to the outer peripheries of the five (plural) discs  9  for receiving the hot water  7  discharged outwardly of the outer peripheries, are circumferentially formed perpendicular to the cylinder axis, leaving a predetermined space therebetween. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1C , the opened side surface  4   c  of the water receiving cover  4  is formed by opening a portion of the water receiving cover  4  corresponding to the lower side of the five erected discs  9  along the cylinder axis X so as to discharge the hot water  7  flowing through the valley grooves  4   b  of the water receiving cover  4 , and serves as a discharge opening of the water receiving cover  4 . 
     The opened side surface  4   c  is formed from the top face to the bottom of the cylinder along the cylinder central axis on the side surface of the water receiving cover  4 . However, since it is only necessary to allow discharge of the hot water  7 , the opened side surface  4   c  may be provided on a portion of the side surface of the water receiving cover  4  or alternatively, may be provided as an inclined groove for discharge. 
     It should be noted that since the head of the water receiving cover  4  is opened, the opened side surface  4   c  is not necessarily required. Moreover, the opened side surface  4   c  does not have to be provided as a slit-like opening on a side surface along the cylinder axis of the water receiving cover  4 , but the discharge opening may be formed in any shape. 
     The disc chuck mechanism  1  is rotated about the center of the five discs  9  by the rotary drive mechanism  2 . When the disc chuck mechanism  1  is rotated, the hot water  7  jetted to the respective inner peripheral surfaces of the five discs  9  is guided from the inner peripheries to the outer peripheries of the five discs  9  by centrifugal force to be discharged further outwardly from the outer peripheries. At this time, the five discs  9  are heated by the hot water  7 . Thus, when the hot water  7  is stopped after the completion of cleaning, the heated discs  9  can be quickly air-dried. 
     The outwardly discharged hot water  7  is received by the valley grooves  4   b  of the water receiving cover  4  provided corresponding to the respective outer peripheries of the five discs  9 , outside of the outer peripheries. And then, the hot water  7  flows through the valley grooves  4   b  and is discharged from the opened side surface  4   c  to fall to the enclosure  5  (see  FIGS. 2 and 3 ). 
     The enclosure  5  is, as shown in  FIG. 2 , a bottomed cylinder that is one size larger than the water receiving cover  4 , and a discharge opening  5   a  is provided in a side surface on the floor side of the enclosure  5 . 
       FIG. 2  is a sectional view for explaining the hot water supply nozzle unit without the water receiving cover and the water receiving cover according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
     According to this embodiment, the hot water supply nozzle unit  3  and the bottom  4   a  of the water receiving cover  4  are fixed to a bottom  5   b  of the enclosure  5  as shown on the left side of the figure. Also, an arm  6   a  of the water receiving cover advancing/retreating mechanism  6  is coupled to an opened head portion of the enclosure  5  through a bracket  6   b , and configured to advance/retreat the hot water supply nozzle unit  3 , the water receiving cover  4 , and the enclosure  5  at the same time. 
     In this embodiment, valley grooves  41 , each composed of two sides of a triangle including a vertical side, are formed by changing the V-shape of the valley grooves  4   b . Fins  42  and  43  for preventing water from dripping are provided along the valley grooves  41  on both sides of each of the valley grooves  41 . 
     The water receiving cover  4  is composed of a water receiving cylindrical body  44  with the valley grooves  41  formed on the inside thereof by forming a metallic plate into an accordion shape, and the fins  42  and  43 . The fins  42  and  43  are formed with fin rings  45  V-shaped in section for forming the fins  42  and  43  thereon being disposed corresponding to portions between the valley grooves  41  to be attached to inner wall surfaces of the water receiving cylindrical body  44  having the valley grooves  41  and bolted from the outside. The water receiving cover  4  is formed with the water receiving cylindrical body  44  externally covered with an outer peripheral cover  46 . 
     It should be noted that the first and last fin rings  45  are formed with the V-shaped section vertically cut in half, and therefore only either one of the fins  42  and  43  is formed thereon. 
     In the meantime, the water receiving cover advancing/retreating mechanism  6  is composed of the advancing/retreating arm  6   a  attached to a lower side portion of the enclosure  5 , the bracket  6   b , and an x-direction advancing/retreating drive mechanism  6   c . The x-direction advancing/retreating drive mechanism  6   c  is fixed to a device frame  14 . 
       FIG. 3  is a side sectional view for explaining a drying operation condition of the disc drying device with the water receiving cover mounted. 
     The disc chuck mechanism  1  is fixed to an erected turning table  15  through the rotary drive mechanism  2 . A cover disc  15   a  is provided in front of the turning table  15 . The turning table  15  includes, as shown in  FIG. 3 , a rotary shaft  15   b  journaled to the erected device frame  14 , and is rotationally driven by a drive motor  20 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the turning table  15  is provided with another disc chuck mechanism  1   a  above the disc chuck mechanism  1 . These two disc chuck mechanisms  1  and  1   a  are laterally provided on the turning table  15 , at a predetermined angle with respect to rotation center O of the turning table  15 . Thus, the turning table  15  is rotated in a vertical plane about the rotation center O of the turning table  15 , thereby allowing the two disc chuck mechanisms  1  and  1   a  to face alternately the water receiving cover  4 . 
     The upper disc chuck mechanism  1   a  exchanges, at this position, the five discs  9  with a pickup arm  17  of a handling robot  16  (see  FIG. 4 ).  FIG. 3  illustrates a state where the five discs  9  are simultaneously unloaded from the disc chuck mechanism  1   a  or loaded on the disc chuck mechanism  1   a  after the unloading. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4A , the pickup arm  17  of the handling robot  16  simultaneously picks up the five discs  9  or simultaneously stores the five picked-up discs  9  in a cassette  18 . 
       FIG. 4A  is an explanatory view of the handling robot  16  that simultaneously picks up the five discs  9  from the disc cassette  18 . 
     The five discs  9  stored in the cassette  18  shown by a two-dot-dash line are lifted, leaving a predetermined space, from the cassette  18  by a disc lifter  19  moving up and down. The disc lifter  19  is provided with five support teeth  19   a  in a comb-teeth shape, leaving a predetermined space therebetween. A V-shaped or U-shaped groove  19   b  for receiving the rim of the disc  9  is cut in an edge of each of the support teeth  19   a.    
     The central openings  9   a  of the five discs  9  upwardly protruded from the cassette  18  by the disc lifter  19  are located above the cassette  18 . The pickup arm  17  of the handling robot  16  is introduced from the side through the central openings  9   a  of the five discs  9  lifted up in this state to be raised, thereby simultaneously hanging the five discs  9  thereon. 
     V-shaped grooves  17   a  are cut in disc hanging positions on the pickup arm  17 , leaving predetermined spaces corresponding to the arrangement of the discs  9 . Also, in the bottom of the cassette  18 , there are provided openings (not shown) in which the support teeth  19   a  of the disc lifter  19  are put. 
     The above describes the state in which the five discs are picked up from the cassette  18 . When storing the five discs in the cassette  18 , on the other hand, the pickup arm  17  descends with the five discs aligned with empty disc-storing positions of the cassette  18  and then the raised disc lifter  19  receives the five discs to descend, that is, the reverse action of the above. 
     The present invention has been described in terms of one embodiment in which the plural pairs of nozzles and the water receiving cover are relatively advanced and retreated along the single axis with respect to the disc chuck mechanism to be thereby retracted outside of the location of the plural chucked discs. However, the present invention may include the configuration in which the plural pairs of nozzles and the water receiving cover are removably mounted on the plural chucked discs. 
     The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Technology Category: 2