An adjustable length frog-leg type wafer handler is provided. The wafer handler has two arms each having an upper portion and a lower portion. The lower portion may extend between a normal position and an extended position, and/or the upper portion may extend between an normal position and a compressed position. The adjusted positions (i.e., extended or compressed) are assumed as the wafer handler moves through a center position. Thus, the inventive wafer handler has a normally smaller arm lengt...

In a method of subordinating the orientation of a grab on a Public Works machine to the angle of rotation of the turret three directions are chosen, the first two being determined by the desired orientation of the grab in the loading and unloading zones, respectively, and the third passing through the axis of rotation of the turret 2, the angle of rotation of the turret starting from the third direction is measured and compared with the angle between a straight line, passing through the point of...

A transfer mechanism for transferring armature forms between a supply pallet and an armature winding machine comprises a turret plate rotatable through 180.degree. angles for presenting opposite margins thereof successively to said supply pallet and said winding machine. In operation, the supply pallet is indexed to receive wound armature forms held by a first armature gripping mechanism mounted on said turret plate and to supply unwound armature forms to said first gripping mechanism. As these ...

Objects (240) are picked up from a conveyor (242) by a pickup head (90, 92), moved radially by a transfer assembly (26-50; 82-92) which then is rotated by an actuator (16) to position the pickup head at a second location where the transfer assembly moves the pickup head radially.

An automated sheet-moving system for moving sheets from a printing press and to a bindery and with a fully automated system where the sheets need not be manually handled. The sheets are initially formed in a stack on a stacker and are then placed onto a tray where a pick-up mechanism moves the sheets to a station adjacent a bindery feeder. An automated pick-up then moves the sheets from the station to the bindery feeder, in response to the requirement for sheets in the bindery feeder. A speciall...

A robot assembly, including a central hub, has two arms arranged for independent rotation about the hub. Two carriers, oriented 180.degree. apart from each other, are coupled to an end of each of the arms. A drive is provided for rotating the arms in opposite directions to extend one or the other of said carriers radially from said central hub, and for rotating the arms in the same direction to effect rotation of the carriers.

The present invention provides a load lock having a vertically movable lid, an internal robot, and a wafer lifting mechanism and further provides a method of transferring wafers through a load lock directly to a process chamber. An atmospheric transfer robot shuttles wafers to and from the lifting mechanism while the lid is raised and the lifting mechanism then transfers wafers to and from the internal robot. The load lock is directly attached to a process chamber and communicates therewith via ...

A material handling device comprising first and second upper arm members having respective proximal and distal end portions and first and second forearm members having respective proximal and distal end portions. The proximal end portions of the first and second forearm members are pivotally coupled to the distal end portions of the respective first and second upper arm members by respective first and first and second pivot assemblies. The distal end portions of the first and second forearm memb...

The present invention is directed to aligning wafers within semiconductor fabrication tools. More particularly, one or more aspects of the present invention pertain to quickly and efficiently finding an alignment marking, such as an alignment notch, on a wafer to allow the wafer to be appropriately oriented within an alignment tool. Unlike conventional systems, the notch is located without firmly holding and spinning or rotating the wafer. Exposure to considerable backside contaminants is thereb...

The invention relates to a process and device for taking up stacked or flat objects and subsequently transferring them from a collecting point forming a first station to a second station at which the objects are further processed or handled. The gripping device used is assisted by additional supports in the region not covered by the grip. This assistance occurs when the object is taken up from the first station and stops during the transfer to the second station. The additional supports may be m...