Configuration of Noncontact Grip System for Carrying Large Flat Sheets Using Vacuum Air Heads

Abstract

This paper configured an improved grip system for gripping and transferring large flat sheets in a noncontact manner. The conventional method for changing the direction of large flat sheets in a conveyor system is to turn the system itself. The new configured grip system applied a noncontact pneumatic head in the vertical direction, with the use of an air levitation table, and Lshaped latches, to lift and rotate large flat sheets to change their direction in the conveyor system. The pneumatic heads made efficient use of a vortex flow and an internal flow guide to improve the swirling flow. The gripping force for the improved head with the inner flow guide was 10% higher than that for the conventional head. To construct a rotational grip system, 12 improved noncontact heads and eight pairs of Lshaped latches were used to provide gripping force against an eight generation liquid crystal display (LCD) glass as a 4:6 ratio, each other. With a partial levitation force from the air blow table, the headandlatch configuration resulted in the overall glass flatness approaching within 3.0 mm on the lower side at a selected grip rotation height of 40 mm.