Sealed robot drive

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9948155-B2
Application number	US-201414540072-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 13, 2014
Priority date	Nov 13, 2013
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

A transport apparatus including a housing, a drive mounted to the housing, and at least one transport arm connected to the drive where the drive includes at least one rotor having at least one salient pole of magnetic permeable material and disposed in an isolated environment, at least one stator having at least one salient pole with corresponding coil units and disposed outside the isolated environment, where the at least one salient pole of the at least one stator and the at least one salient pole of the rotor form a closed magnetic flux circuit between the at least one rotor and the at least one stator, and at least one seal configured to isolate the isolated environment where the at least one seal is integral to the at least one stator.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transport apparatus comprising:
a housing;
a drive mounted to the housing; and
at least one transport arm connected to the drive;
where the drive includes
at least one rotor having at least one salient pole of magnetic permeable material and disposed in an isolated environment;
at least one stator having at least one salient pole with corresponding coil units and disposed outside the isolated environment;
where the at least one salient pole of the at least one stator and the at least one salient pole of the at least one rotor form a closed magnetic flux circuit between the at least one rotor and the at least one stator; and
at least one seal configured to isolate the isolated environment where the at least one seal is integral to the at least one stator so that the at least one seal is free of transport apparatus structural loading but for a pressure differential loading between the isolated environment and as environment outside the isolated environment.

2. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one seal comprises a membrane mounted to the at least one stator.

3. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one seal depends from the at least one stator.

4. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one stator structurally supports the at least one seal.

5. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one seal conforms to a shape of the at least one stator.

6. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rotor and the at least one stator form stacked motors or motors that are radially nested one inside the other.

7. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising at least one reluctance based encoder track disposed on each of the at least one rotor and at least one reluctance based position feedback sensor configured to interface with the at least one reluctance based encoder track.

8. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rotor is coupled to a coaxial drive shaft arrangement for driving the at least one transport arm.

9. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one stator is a segmented stator.

10. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the drive is configured as an axial flux flow drive or a radial flux flow drive.

11. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one stator includes laminated salient poles.

12. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rotor includes laminated salient poles.

13. The transport apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one rotor includes a drive member interface, and the drive further includes a drive transmission member interfaced with the at least one rotor at the drive member interface such that the drive transmission member interfaces with the laminated salient poles and fixes the laminated salient poles to the drive transmission member.

14. The transport, apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the laminated salient poles are fixed to the drive transmission member so that the laminated salient poles are arranged axially relative to the drive transmission member.

15. The transport apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the laminated salient poles are fixed to the drive transmission member so that the laminated salient poles are arranged radially relative to the drive transmission member.

16. The transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the drive includes a z-axis drive motor connected to the housing.

17. A transport apparatus comprising:
a housing;
a drive mounted to the housing; and
at least one transport arm connected to the drive;
where the drive includes
at least one rotor having at least one salient pole of magnetic permeable material and being located within an isolated environment;
at least one stator having salient stator poles with respective coil units and being located outside the isolated environment;
at least one salient stator pole extension disposed within the isolated environment and aligned with a respective salient stator pole so that the at least one salient stator pole extension and the at least one salient pole of the rotor form a closed magnetic flux circuit between the at least one stator and the at least one rotor; and
at least one seal disposed between each salient stator pole drill a respective salient stator pole extension where the at least one seal and each stator extension are arranged so that the stator pole extension and the at least one seal are both configured to isolate the isolated environment.

18. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the drive further includes a seal support member having an inner surface disposed in the isolated environment and an outer surface facing away from the isolated environment, where the at least one seal is disposed on or adjacent the outer surface and the seal support surface is configured to structurally support the at least one seal.

19. The transport apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the seal support member is configured to house the at least one salient stator pole extension.

20. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one stator and the at least one rotor form stacked motors and the at least one seal is common to each of the stacked motors.

21. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one stator and the at least one rotor form a stack of motors and the at least one seal includes a seal for each motor that is distinct from seals of other motors in the stack of motors.

22. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one salient stator pole extension and the at least one rotor are positioned such that the at least one salient stator pole extension and the at least one rotor have an obstructionless interface.

23. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein each stator and respective rotor form a motor module configured to be stacked with other motor modules.

24. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the drive is configured as an axial flux flow drive or a radial flux flow drive.

25. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one rotor includes laminated salient poles.

26. The transport apparatus of claim 25 wherein the at least one rotor includes a drive member interface, and the drive further includes a drive transmission member interfaced with the at least one rotor at the drive member interface such that the drive transmission member interfaces with the laminated salient poles and fixes the laminated salient poles to the drive transmission member.

27. The transport apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the laminated salient poles are fixed to the drive transmission member so that the laminated salient poles are arranged axially relative to the drive transmission member.

28. The transport apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the laminated salient poles are fixed to the drive transmission member so that the laminated salient poles are arranged radially relative to the drive transmission member.

29. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one stator includes laminated salient poles.

30. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the drive includes a z-axis drive motor connected to the housing.

31. The transport apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising at least one reluctance based encoder track disposed on e

Assignees

• Brooks Automation Inc

Inventors

• Moura Jairo T
• Gilchrist Ulysses
• Caveney Robert T

Classifications

• H02K1/246

  Variable reluctance rotors · CPC title

• H02K19/103 Primary

  Motors having windings on the stator and a variable reluctance soft-iron rotor without windings · CPC title

• H02K11/21

  Devices for sensing speed or position, or actuated thereby (specially adapted for machines having non-mechanical commutating devices H02K29/06, H02K29/14) · CPC title

• H02K1/148

  Sectional cores (H02K1/141 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B25J11/0095

  Manipulators transporting wafers · CPC title