The Study on the Development of Composite Robot Hand for TFT-LCD Glass Transport

摘要

A robot hand is used to transport the glass substrate in TFT-LCD manufacturing process. Carbon/epoxy composite is one of the best materials for this kind of robot hand application, due to their lightweight, high stiffness, and good damping characteristics. Major requirement of the robot hand is given as allowable deflection under weight loading of glass substrate and robot hand itself. In this thesis, a carbon/epoxy robot hand was analyzed using finite element method and beam theory to determine the deflection of the hand under the loading that is equivalent to actual weight. Because natural frequency is one of the major interests in robot hand design for TFT-LCD manufacturing process, modal analysis is also conducted using finite element method and beam theory. A robot hand was manufactured, and actual deflection and natural frequency were measured to verify the analysis results and compliance to requirement. The test results showed good agreement with analysis results.