Air Bearing Vacuum Floating Unit
Floating Units are the solution for all processes that require non-contact transportation and precise positioning of flat, fragile objects.
Floating units are used for coating glass for screen production. During the coating process, the glass substrate hovers above the Floating Unit at a defined distance of a few μm from the carrier plate.
Description
Concept and Design
Floating Units are the solution for all processes that require non-contact transportation and precise positioning of flat, fragile objects.
Floating units are used for coating glass for screen production. During the coating process, the glass substrate hovers above the Floating Unit at a defined distance of a few μm from the carrier plate.
This is achieved through the precise arrangement of pressure nozzles and vacuum nozzles. The requirements for precise positioning could not be met by simply creating an air cushion by pressure nozzles that work against the ambient pressure. Only the interaction of positive and negative pressure makes it possible to position the glass substrates so precisely that they can be moved within the narrow focus of a stationary laser.
The body of the Floating Unit is made of black anodized aluminum.
Side-by-side placement of several Floating Units is possible. Deviating sizes are available on request. The air gap at the edges can be individually controlled by a separate air supply. It is set to 45µm, while the PV functionality is retained.
key Futures
- Floating Unit 665 x 249 x 67 mm (l x w x h)
- For non-contact transport of fragile substrates
- Substrate thickness 5 mm ± 0.2 mm
- Air bearing/vacuum chuck
- Nominal air gap 30 µm
- Clean room suitable
- Side-by-side placement is possible
Setup Procedure
Setup Procedure
- Connect the Floating Unit (FU) to 4 Tip-Tilt-Units (TTUs), which serve as a leveling
- Set TTUs to the approximate
- Position FU on the
- Connect to air supply and
- Align FU as required, using an auxiliary axis system and/or a digital spirit
- Continue setting up the 2nd FU:
Align 2nd FU with reference to 1st FU. Use an auxiliary axis system, a digital spirit level or a steel ruler. For optimum performance, the height offset at the gap between the FUs should be < 5 µm. - Continue with the setup of additional FUs as described
Specifications
Specifications
| Mechanical Data | Unit | Value |
| Dimension (length x width x height) | mm | 665 x 249 x 67 |
| Mass | kg | 24 |
| Substrate thickness | mm | 0.5 ± 0.2 |
| Nominal air gap | µm | 30 |
| Air gap flatness over 100 mm | µm | ± 3 |
| Air gap flatness over the whole Floating Unit | µm | ± 6 |
| Repeatability of air gap with moving glass, at any reference point on the PV chuck | µm | ± 1 |
| Flatness chuck surface | µm | ± 7 |
| Supply air pressure | kPa | 15 |
| Vacuum | kPa | – 8 |
| Air consumption | Sl/min | 60 |
| Vacuum consumption | Sl/min | 60 |
| Clean room suitability | suitable | |
| Material | aluminum, black anodized | |
| MTBF | h | > 20 000 |
| Requirements on Air Quality | Value | ISO Class |
| Particle size | ≤ 1 µm | DIN ISO 8573-1 – class 2 |
| Pressure dew point | ≤ +3 °C | DIN ISO 8573-1 – class 4 |
| Oil content | ≤ 0.1 mg/m³ | DIN ISO 8573-1 – class 2 |
Documentation
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