Gas-ejecting bearings for transport of glass sheets

• Main Authors: LUO WEIWEI, KUDVA GAUTAM NARENDRA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.06.2014
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; BEARINGS; BLASTING; CHEMISTRY; CONVEYING; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELEMENTS OR CRANKSHAFT MECHANISMS; ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; FLEXIBLE SHAFTS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVEFUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; GLASS; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HEATING; LIGHTING; MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; ROTARY BODIES OTHER THAN GEARING ELEMENTS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SHAFTS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING; WEAPONS

Non-contact, gas-ejecting bearings (3) are provided for conveying flexible glass sheets (13), such as LCD substrates, at high conveyance speeds, e.g., speeds of 40 meters/minute and above, e.g., 60 meters/minute. Gas is provided to the bearing's orifices (22) from a plenum which operates at a pressure Pplenum and the bearings have a calculated static pressure Pmidpoint at the midpoints (27) between the bearing's centermost orifice (26) and each of its nearest neighbors (28) in a horizontal direction which satisfies the relationship Pmidpoint/Pplenum 0.05. The bearings (3) can reduce the time-averaged, peak-to-peak variation in the spacing between a LCD substrate (13) traveling at, for example, 60 meters/minute and the face (20) of the bearing (3) to less than 500 microns, thus reducing the chances that the substrate (13) will hit and be damaged by the bearing (3).