Crucible silicon material feeding method

Abstract

The invention relates to a crucible silicon material feeding method, and relates to the field of material transfer processes. According to the crucible silicon material feeding method, a crucible, a rail guiding vehicle assembly, a feeding mechanism, a visual module and a controller are included. The crucible is used for loading silicon materials. The rail guiding vehicle assembly comprises an X-axis moving mechanism, a Z-axis lifting mechanism and a Z-axis rotating mechanism, the Z-axis rotating mechanism is installed on the Z-axis lifting mechanism, the Z-axis lifting mechanism is installed on the X-axis moving mechanism, and the Z-axis rotating mechanism is used for bearing a crucible. The silicon material at each horizontal height in the crucible is spread through rotation, so that the silicon material at the first height in the crucible is relatively uniform and flat, and the gap between the silicon materials is smaller than the gap between the silicon materials when the silicon materials are directly poured in, so that the problem that the silicon materials cannot be directly poured into the crucible when the silicon materials are put in the existing device is solved. The problem of low crucible loading capacity caused by non-uniform gaps of the silicon materials is solved, and the blanking height set target value cannot enable the blanking materials to be broken, so that the problem that the silicon materials are fragile is solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of material transfer technology, and in particular to a method for feeding silicon material into a crucible. Background Art

[0002] Currently, the transfer of crucible silicon materials is semi-automatic. Workers place the crucible at the material receiving port, then start the feeding mechanism to feed silicon materials into the crucible. The crucible and silicon materials are then moved to the conveyor belt by workers / AGV (automatic guided vehicle) / RGV (rail-guided vehicle), and then transferred to the next workstation via the conveyor belt.

[0003] However, the existing method has the following problems: when the silicon material is put into the crucible, since there is a distance between the silicon material and the bottom of the inner wall of the crucible, the silicon material will collide with the inner wall of the crucible when falling to the bottom of the inner wall of the crucible, causing the silicon material to break; and when the material is put in, the silicon material naturally accumulates in the crucible, and the gap inside the silicon material is uneven, which makes the crucible in a virtual full state after being filled, and the transport amount is less than the crucible load capacity, resulting in low transport efficiency. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present invention provides a crucible silicon material feeding method to solve the problems that the existing feeding method easily causes silicon material to break during feeding and the crucible loading capacity is low.

[0005] The present invention provides a crucible silicon material feeding method, which is applied to a silicon material feeding and transporting device, and the silicon material feeding and transporting device includes: a crucible, a rail-guided vehicle assembly, a feeding mechanism and a controller. The crucible is used to load silicon materials. The rail-guided vehicle assembly includes an X-axis moving mechanism, a Z-axis lifting mechanism and a Z-axis rotating mechanism, the Z-axis rotating mechanism is installed on the Z-axis lifting mechanism, the Z-axis lifting mechanism is installed on the X-axis moving mechanism, the Z-axis rotating mechanism is used to carry the crucible, and the moving path of the X-axis moving mechanism passes through the target position. The feeding mechanism is arranged above the target position. The visual module is used to capture the image in the crucible. The controller is used to output instructions to control the X-axis moving mechanism, the Z-axis lifting mechanism, the Z-axis rotating mechanism, the feeding mechanism and the visual module to perform corresponding actions and receive relevant feedback. The crucible silicon material feeding method comprises: a controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism to move and drive the Z-axis lifting mechanism to move to a target position, a controller outputs a lifting instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism to lift the Z-axis rotating mechanism and the crucible until the outlet of the feeding mechanism is at a first height in the crucible, and the controller outputs a feeding instruction to control the feeding mechanism to evenly feed silicon material into the crucible;

[0006] The controller outputs a rotation instruction to control the Z-axis rotation mechanism to rotate so as to rotate the crucible, and after the Z-axis rotation mechanism rotates one circle, the controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis movement mechanism to move so as to move the outlet of the feeding mechanism at the first height along the radius direction of the crucible until the movement distance of the X-axis movement mechanism reaches the radius length of the crucible;

[0007] The controller outputs a detection instruction to control the visual module to capture an image in the crucible and feed the image back to the controller, and the controller determines whether the silicon material at the first height in the crucible is fully covered according to the image;

[0008] If the crucible is full, the controller outputs a descending instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism to lower the crucible until the outlet of the feeding mechanism is at the second height in the crucible. The controller repeats the above steps and outputs corresponding instructions to control the crucible to descend step by step, and controls the feeding mechanism to perform a rotating spreading operation until the feeding mechanism fills the crucible with silicon material. The controller outputs a moving instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism to drive the feeding mechanism and the crucible away from the target position.

[0009] If the floor is not fully paved, the controller will output an alarm command to prompt the operator that the equipment has reported an error.

[0010] In some embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism to move to the target position, including:

[0011] The X-axis moving mechanism moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism moves and drives the crucible to move, and the crucible moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism is aligned with a side of the crucible close to the inner wall of the annular surface.

[0012] In some embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism to move to the target position, including:

[0013] The X-axis moving mechanism moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism moves and drives the crucible to move, and the crucible moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism is aligned with the center of the crucible.

[0014] In some embodiments, the controller outputs a feeding instruction to control the feeding mechanism to uniformly feed silicon material into the crucible, including:

[0015] When silicon material is fed into the crucible through the feeding mechanism, the Z-axis rotating mechanism controls the crucible to rotate at a constant speed about the center of the bottom circle of the crucible, the feeding mechanism does not move, and the discharge port of the feeding mechanism keeps moving relative to the crucible to feed the silicon material evenly.

[0016] In some embodiments, the visual module captures an image in the crucible and feeds the image back to the controller for processing and data comparison to determine whether the silicon material at the first height in the crucible is fully covered, including:

[0017] The controller outputs an acquisition instruction to control the high-resolution camera to capture an image of the silicon material at a first height in the crucible. After receiving the image captured by the high-resolution camera, the controller uses denoising software to denoise the captured silicon material image to improve image quality and obtain a denoised silicon material image. The controller uses an image processing system to extract silicon material features in the denoised silicon material image, obtains the silicon material features to set full material parameters, and the controller recognizes the silicon material image again based on a training model obtained by a machine learning algorithm and in combination with the full material parameters to determine whether it is fully paved.

[0018] In some of the embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism includes a track and a track-guided vehicle, the track is laid on the ground, and the track-guided vehicle moves along the track in the X-axis direction.

[0019] In some of these embodiments, the Z-axis lifting mechanism includes a scissor lift and a top base plate, wherein the top base plate is mounted on top of the scissor lift, and the scissor lift is mounted on top of the rail-guided vehicle.

[0020] In some of the embodiments, the Z-axis rotation mechanism is a rotation mechanism mounted on top of the top substrate, and the crucible is placed on top of a rotation table of the rotation mechanism.

[0021] In some of the embodiments, the silicon material feeding and transferring device further comprises an automatic guided vehicle, which can move in a 360-degree direction, and a lifting platform is installed on the top of the automatic guided vehicle, and the lifting platform is used to lift the crucible.

[0022] In some embodiments, the silicon material feeding and transporting device further includes a cache cover removal mechanism, which includes a cache rack, a crucible pot cover, a suction cup and a cylinder, the cache rack is placed on the ground, the cylinder is installed on the top of the cache rack with the driving end facing downward, the suction cup is installed at the driving end of the cylinder, and the suction cup is used to adsorb the crucible pot cover;

[0023] The crucible comprises a quartz crucible, a sponge tray and a welding frame, wherein the sponge tray is installed on the top of the welding frame, the sponge tray is used to carry the quartz crucible, and the crucible pot cover is closed with the quartz crucible cover;

[0024] The inner side of the cache rack is symmetrically provided with legs for placing the welding frame.

[0025] Compared with the related art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0026] 1. Control the feeding mechanism to evenly feed the silicon material into the crucible. The controller outputs a rotation command to control the Z-axis rotating mechanism to rotate the crucible. After the Z-axis rotating mechanism rotates one circle, the controller outputs a movement command to control the X-axis moving mechanism to move the outlet of the feeding mechanism at the first height along the radius of the crucible. The feeding mechanism performs the feeding operation at the same time to evenly spread the silicon material in the same plane of the crucible, and then moves to the second height to evenly spread the material at the next height, and so on, to fill the crucible. Since the silicon material at each horizontal height in the crucible is spread by rotation, the silicon material at the first height in the crucible is relatively uniform and flat, and the gap between the silicon materials is smaller than the gap between the silicon materials when the silicon materials are directly poured in, which solves the problem of low crucible loading due to uneven gaps in the silicon materials when the existing method is used to feed the silicon materials.

[0027] 2. When the present invention feeds silicon material, a first height, a second height and a step-by-step height are set. These heights are heights that have been proven by experiments not to cause the silicon material to break. Therefore, the feeding mechanism performs the feeding operation at the same time to evenly spread the silicon material in the same plane of the crucible, and then moves to the second height to evenly spread the material at the next height. Under the premise of ensuring uniform spreading, the integrity of the silicon material is also guaranteed, which greatly reduces the possibility of silicon material breakage caused by the existing feeding method.

[0028] 3. The rail-guided vehicle of this device integrates X-axis movement, Z-axis lifting and Z-axis rotation, and other matching mechanisms are fixed, which improves the fluency of the whole process. The lifting is achieved by using scissor forks and lifting rigid chains. Compared with the long-distance lifting of electric cylinders, it effectively reduces the installation height required for the equipment, simplifies the product structure, and saves costs.

[0029] Details of one or more embodiments of the present application are set forth in the following drawings and description to make other features, objects, and advantages of the present application more readily apparent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of a better implementation of the device;

[0031] Figure 2 yes Figure 1 A top view of the structural schematic diagram;

[0032] Figure 3 yes Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the structure of the middle crucible;

[0033] Figure 4 yes Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the cache cover structure in;

[0034] Figure 5 yes Figure 1A schematic diagram of the front structure of the track guide vehicle assembly;

[0035] Figure 6 yes Figure 1 A side structural diagram of the track guide vehicle assembly is shown in FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] In order to more clearly understand the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application, the present application is described and illustrated below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0037] Unless otherwise defined, the technical terms or scientific terms involved in this application shall have the general meaning understood by people with ordinary skills in the technical field to which this application belongs. The words "one", "a", "a", "the", "these" and the like in this application do not represent quantitative restrictions, and they can be singular or plural. The terms "include", "comprise", "have" and any variants thereof involved in this application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions; for example, a process, method and system, product or device comprising a series of steps or modules (units) is not limited to the listed steps or modules (units), but may include unlisted steps or modules (units), or may include other steps or modules (units) inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. The words "connect", "connected", "coupled" and the like involved in this application are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether directly or indirectly. The "multiple" involved in this application refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. Usually, the character " / " indicates that the objects associated with each other are in an "or" relationship. The terms "first", "second", "third", etc. involved in this application are only used to distinguish similar objects and do not represent a specific ordering of the objects.

[0038] The present invention provides a crucible silicon material feeding device, please refer to Figures 1 to 6 , which includes a crucible 1, a rail-guided vehicle assembly 4, a feeding mechanism 5, a visual module and a controller.

[0039] Among them, the visual module uses a high-resolution camera, and the controller is an integrated controller in the prior art. The high-resolution camera is electrically connected to the integrated controller and transmits signals. The high-resolution camera can also be not electrically connected to the integrated controller and transmit signals by wireless transmission. The controller has a built-in image analysis system, and the controller database is trained in advance using an image training model, so that the image collected by the high-resolution camera can be directly compared with the controller database to obtain a comparison result.

[0040] See also Figure 5 The rail-guided vehicle assembly 4 includes an X-axis moving mechanism 401, a Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 and a Z-axis rotating mechanism 403. The Z-axis rotating mechanism 403 is mounted on the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402. The Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 is mounted on the X-axis moving mechanism 401. The Z-axis rotating mechanism 403 is used to carry the crucible. The moving path of the X-axis moving mechanism 401 passes through the target position. The target position refers to the position where the silicon material in the crucible is placed. The feeding mechanism 5 is arranged above the target position. The visual module is used to capture the image in the crucible 1. The controller is used to output instructions to control the X-axis moving mechanism 401, the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402, the Z-axis rotating mechanism 403, the feeding mechanism 5 and the visual module to perform corresponding actions and receive relevant feedback.

[0041] In some embodiments, the vision module is installed on the feeding mechanism 5, and can collect the silicon material image at the viewing angle of the feeding mechanism 5 in real time. The distance is close enough, and the collected image is more focused and clearer.

[0042] In other embodiments, a support frame is placed on one side of the target position, and the end of the support frame extends to a certain height directly above the target position. The vision module is installed at the end of the support frame with the viewing angle facing downward, so that images of the entire crucible and the interior of the crucible can be captured. The range of image capture is wide, which is conducive to detecting the flatness of the overall silicon material paving.

[0043] In some embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism 401 includes a track and a track-guided vehicle, the track is laid on the ground, and the track-guided vehicle moves along the track in the X-axis direction. The track is similar to a railway track, and the wheels of the track-guided vehicle are mounted on the track, and the motor in the track-guided vehicle drives the wheels to rotate to achieve movement on the track.

[0044] In some embodiments, the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 includes a scissor lift and a top base plate, wherein the top base plate is mounted on the top of the scissor lift, and the scissor lift is mounted on the top of the track-guided vehicle. The scissor lift is an existing scissor lift, which is driven by an internal hydraulic lever to drive the connecting rod to move so as to achieve lifting, and the top base plate is a placement plate, which is lifted and lowered following the top of the scissor lift.

[0045] In some of the embodiments, the Z-axis rotating mechanism 403 is a rotating mechanical device, which is installed on the top of the top substrate, and the crucible 1 is placed on the top of the rotating table of the rotating mechanical device. The rotating mechanical device is a rotating platform commonly used in the prior art, which includes a base, a placing table rotatably connected to the base, a gear installed on the bottom surface of the placing table, a motor installed on one side of the base, and the driving gear of the motor is engaged with the gear on the bottom surface of the placing table, and the motor drives the gear to rotate to drive the placing table to rotate.

[0046] In some of the embodiments, the feeding mechanism 5 is a common welding device, which includes a feeding hopper and a vibrating feeder. The silicon material is fed into the vibrating feeder through the feeding hopper, and the feeding is achieved by the vibration of the vibrating feeder.

[0047] In some of the embodiments, the silicon material feeding and transporting device further comprises an automatic guided vehicle 3, which can move in 360 degrees, and a lifting platform is installed on the top of the automatic guided vehicle 3, and the lifting platform is used to lift the crucible 1. The automatic guided vehicle 3 is an AGV in the prior art, which is controlled by an intelligent system and can guide and move by itself. The lifting platform can be driven by an electric cylinder or a scissor lift, both of which are installed on the top of the shell of the automatic guided vehicle 3.

[0048] See also Figure 4 In some embodiments, the silicon material feeding and transporting device further comprises a cache cover removal mechanism 2, which comprises a cache rack 201, a crucible pot cover 202, a suction cup 203 and a cylinder 204, the cache rack 201 is placed on the ground, the cylinder 204 is installed on the top of the cache rack 201 with the driving end facing downward, the suction cup 203 is installed at the driving end of the cylinder 204, and the suction cup 203 is used to adsorb the crucible pot cover 202;

[0049] The inside of the buffer rack 201 is symmetrically provided with feet for placing the welding frame 103, and the feet can also be replaced by positioning pins. The positioning pins are used to position the crucible 1 to prevent the position of the crucible 1 from being greatly deviated during the movement and rotation process.

[0050] The crucible 1 is used to load silicon material.

[0051] In some of these examples, see Figure 3 The crucible 1 includes a quartz crucible 101, a sponge tray 102 and a welding frame 103. The sponge tray 102 is installed on the top of the welding frame 103. The sponge tray 102 is used to carry the quartz crucible 101, and the crucible cover 202 covers the quartz crucible 101. The quartz crucible 101 is a carrier for loading silicon materials, and the quartz crucible 101 is a cylindrical body with an open top. The sponge tray 102 is a truncated cone. The functions of the sponge tray 102 and the welding frame 103 are to reduce the limitations of the quartz crucible 101 caused by its own material and shape during the movement of the crucible, such as preventing the overturning phenomenon during the transportation of the crucible, and improving the accuracy and stability of the crucible positioning, thereby achieving the effect of controllable motion trajectory.

[0052] When the device is running, the automatic guided vehicle 3 lifts the welding frame 103, moves the quartz crucible 101 and the crucible cover 202 to the right below the buffer rack 201, and then lowers the welding frame 103 to the foot of the buffer rack 201. Alternatively, the welding frame 103 can be aligned with the positioning pins, and the cylinder 204 drives the suction cup 203 to descend, so that the crucible cover 202 and the quartz crucible 101 are separated, and the cylinder 204 drives the suction cup 203 to reset. After the track-guided vehicle moves to the right below the buffer rack 201, it lifts the welding frame 103 and moves it to the above-mentioned target position. After the quartz crucible 101 is filled, it is placed on the rail guided vehicle, and the welding frame 103 is lifted up by the scissor lift. After the rail guided vehicle moves to the bottom of the buffer rack 201, the welding frame 103 is lowered and placed on the foot of the buffer rack 201. The cylinder 204 drives the suction cup 203 to descend, so that the crucible pot cover 202 and the quartz crucible 101 are covered, and the cylinder 204 drives the suction cup 203 to reset. The automatic guided vehicle 3 moves to the bottom of the buffer rack 201, and the lifting platform of the automatic guided vehicle 3 lifts the welding frame 103 to separate the welding frame 103 from the foot, and then the automatic guided vehicle 3 moves to drive the welding frame 103 to move to the next process.

[0053] The RGV rail-guided vehicle of this device integrates X-axis movement, Z-axis lifting and Z-axis rotation, and other matching mechanisms are fixed, which improves the fluency of the entire process. The lifting is achieved by using scissor forks and lifting rigid chains. Compared with the long-distance lifting of electric cylinders, it effectively reduces the installation height required for the equipment, simplifies the product structure, and saves costs.

[0054] The device has a high degree of automation and high efficiency. Even if the weight of a full crucible reaches more than 500kg, it can still be transported normally, solving the problem of difficulty and safety hazards in manual transportation.

[0055] The present invention also provides a silicon material feeding and transporting method, which is applied to the crucible silicon material feeding device provided by the present invention. The method includes: step S100, step S200, step S300, step S400, step S410 and step S420.

[0056] Step S100, the controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism 401 to move and drive the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 to move to a target position. The target position refers to the position where the silicon material falls into the crucible.

[0057] In some embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism 401 moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 moves and drives the crucible 1 to move, and the crucible 1 moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 is aligned with the side of the inner wall of the annular surface of the crucible 1. The crucible 1 moves so that the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 is close to the inner wall annular surface of the crucible 1.

[0058] In other embodiments, the X-axis moving mechanism 401 moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 moves and drives the crucible 1 to move, and the crucible 1 moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 is aligned with the center of the crucible 1. Here, it means that the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 extends into the crucible 1 and coincides with the axis of the crucible 1.

[0059] Step S200, the controller outputs a lifting instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 to lift the Z-axis rotating mechanism 403 and the crucible 1 until the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 is at a first height in the crucible 1, the first height refers to the vertical distance between the bottom wall inside the crucible and the discharge port, and the vertical distances between the first height and the second height, and the second height and the third height are fixed. The controller outputs a feeding instruction to control the feeding mechanism 5 to uniformly feed silicon material into the crucible 1. When the feeding mechanism 5 feeds silicon material into the crucible 1, the Z-axis rotating mechanism 403 controls the crucible 1 to rotate at a uniform speed with the bottom center of the crucible 1 as the center, the feeding mechanism 5 does not move, and the discharge port of the feeding mechanism 5 and the crucible 1 keep moving relative to each other to uniformly feed silicon material.

[0060] Step S300, the controller outputs a rotation instruction to control the Z-axis rotation mechanism 403 to rotate the crucible 1, and after the Z-axis rotation mechanism 403 rotates one circle, the controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis movement mechanism 401 to move the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 at the first height along the radius of the crucible 1, which can be from the inner wall of the crucible ring surface to the center of the crucible, or from the center of the crucible to the inner wall of the crucible ring surface, until the movement distance of the X-axis movement mechanism 401 reaches the radius length of the crucible 1.

[0061] Step S400 , the controller outputs a detection instruction to control the visual module to capture an image in the crucible 1 and feeds the image back to the controller for processing and data comparison to determine whether the silicon material at the first height in the crucible 1 is fully covered.

[0062] Step S410, if the crucible 1 is fully covered, the controller outputs a descending instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 to lower the crucible 1 until the outlet of the feeding mechanism 5 is at the second height in the crucible 1. The controller repeats the above steps, and outputs corresponding instructions to control the crucible 1 to descend step by step, and controls the feeding mechanism 5 to perform a rotating material spreading operation until the feeding mechanism 5 covers the silicon material in the crucible 1. The controller outputs a moving instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism 401 to drive the feeding mechanism 5 and the crucible 1 away from the target position. The controller outputs an acquisition instruction to control the high-resolution camera to capture the image of the silicon material at the first height in the crucible 1. After receiving the image captured by the high-resolution camera, the controller uses the denoising software to denoise the collected silicon material image to improve the image quality and obtain the denoised silicon material image. The controller uses the image processing system to extract the silicon material features in the denoised silicon material image, obtains the silicon material features to set the full material parameters, and the controller recognizes the silicon material image again according to the training model obtained by the machine learning algorithm and in combination with the full material parameters to determine whether it is fully covered. When the present invention feeds silicon material, a first height, a second height and a step-by-step height are set. These heights are all heights that have been proven by experiments not to cause the silicon material to break. Therefore, the feeding mechanism performs the feeding operation at the same time to evenly spread the silicon material in the same plane of the crucible, and then moves to the second height to evenly spread the material at the next height. Under the premise of ensuring uniform spreading, the integrity of the silicon material is also guaranteed, which greatly reduces the possibility of silicon material breakage caused by the existing feeding method.

[0063] Step S420: If the floor is not fully covered, the controller outputs an alarm command to prompt the operator that the equipment has reported an error.

[0064] The feeding mechanism is controlled to evenly feed silicon material into the crucible. The controller outputs a rotation instruction to control the Z-axis rotating mechanism to rotate the crucible. After the Z-axis rotating mechanism rotates one circle, the controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism to move so that the outlet of the feeding mechanism moves along the radius of the crucible at the first height. The feeding mechanism performs feeding operations at the same time to evenly spread the silicon material in the same plane of the crucible, and then moves to the second height to evenly spread the material at the next height, and so on, until the crucible is filled. Since the silicon material at each horizontal height in the crucible is spread by rotation, the silicon material at the first height in the crucible is relatively uniform and flat, and the gap between the silicon materials is smaller than the gap between the silicon materials when the silicon materials are directly poured in, which solves the problem of low crucible loading due to uneven gaps in the silicon materials when the existing device feeds the silicon materials.

[0065] As described above, at least one embodiment of each part of the silicon material feeding and transporting method provided by the present invention has been described respectively. It should be noted that each part of the silicon material feeding and transporting method can be combined with different embodiments to form different embodiments of the silicon material feeding and transporting method.

[0066] The silicon material feeding and transferring device and the corresponding silicon material feeding and transferring method are respectively described below through two embodiments.

[0067] In a specific overall embodiment, the silicon material feeding and transporting device consists of five parts: the first part is the crucible integration mechanism 1; the second part is the cache cover removal mechanism 2; the third part is the AGV3; the fourth part is the RGV4; and the fifth part is the feeding mechanism 5.

[0068] The crucible integrated mechanism 1 is composed of a quartz crucible 101, a sponge tray 102, and a welding frame 103. Its main functions are: during the movement of the crucible, it can reduce the limitations caused by its own material and shape, such as preventing the overturning of the crucible during transportation, improving the positioning accuracy of the crucible, and realizing controllable movement trajectory.

[0069] The cache cover removal mechanism 2 is composed of a cache rack 201, a crucible cover 202, a suction cup 203 and a cylinder 204, and its main functions are: 1. to facilitate RGV4 to remove the crucible integrated mechanism 1; 2. to achieve the adsorption of the crucible cover 202 and move it up and down through the combined braking of the cylinder 204 and the suction cup 203.

[0070] AGV3 can move 360° and can rise a certain distance in the Z-axis direction.

[0071] RGV4 is composed of an X-axis moving mechanism 401, a Z-axis lifting mechanism and a Z-axis rotating mechanism. The X-axis moving mechanism is a motor assembly that drives the pulley to move on the track, the Z-axis elevator drives the lifting chain up and down through the motor, and the Z-axis rotating mechanism drives the slewing bearing to rotate through the motor. The X-axis moving mechanism 401 is controlled by the power system to mesh the gear rack, so that RGV4 can move back and forth along the X-axis on the track; the Z-axis lifting mechanism 402 is lifted and lowered by the lifting rigid chain, and the scissor fork assists in the movement, so as to achieve lifting in the Z-axis direction; the Z-axis rotating mechanism is controlled by the power system to rotate the slewing bearing, so as to achieve Z-axis rotation. The rotating mechanism is composed of a slewing bearing assembly and a motor assembly.

[0072] The feeding mechanism 5 is a robot feeding material into the feeding hopper, and the vibrator vibrates to realize the material falling at a certain speed. The feeding mechanism is a simple welding product, plus a vibrator (vibrating the material and moving slowly), not complicated, and the shape is a funnel type.

[0073] In a specific overall embodiment, the silicon material feeding and transporting method includes eight steps.

[0074] In the first step, the AGV carries the crucible integrated mechanism and moves it to the origin position of the cache cover removal mechanism; then the AGV descends to complete the landing of the crucible integrated mechanism on the cache rack. After the AGV separates from the crucible integrated mechanism, the AGV drives away from the origin position of the cache cover removal mechanism.

[0075] In the second step, the RGV moves along the X-axis to the origin of the cache cover removal mechanism; the cover removal mechanism cylinder extends, the suction cup works to suck the crucible lid, and then the cylinder retracts (the two actions are performed simultaneously).

[0076] In the third step, the Z-axis lifting mechanism in the RGV rises, lifts the crucible integrated mechanism, separates it from the buffer rack, and then the RGV carries the crucible integrated mechanism and moves it to the feeding origin.

[0077] In the fourth step, the Z-axis lifting mechanism in the RGV rises to the first feeding height, and the feeding mechanism starts to discharge the material. The vibrator vibrates to make the material uniformly discharged at a certain speed. The Z-axis rotating mechanism starts to rotate. During the material feeding process, the material is rotated to ensure that there is material in every place in the crucible to avoid the material being concentrated in a certain area and piled into a small hill shape. The protrusion is the positioning pin, which is used to locate the crucible integration mechanism to prevent the crucible position from deviating greatly during movement and rotation. At regular intervals, the RGV moves along the X-axis so that the relative position of the feeding port and the crucible changes along the horizontal center line of the crucible. Through visual recognition, it is determined whether the material at the first feeding point is full. Visual recognition is camera recognition. Through the camera system, the material situation in the crucible is judged, and then a signal is output to let the RGV rotate and move, etc., so that the material can be filled in every area of ​​the crucible. At the same time, it is determined whether the crucible is full and the feeding mechanism stops feeding.

[0078] Step 5. The first feeding place is full, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism in the RGV drops to the second height. The second height is set so that the silicon material cannot be too high from the lowest surface of the crucible. There is a limit. If it is too high, the silicon material will fall and break directly. The silicon material should be kept within a certain weight range as much as possible. If it is too high, fine powder will appear. These will affect the subsequent silicon material processing technology. The subsequent processes are not involved here. The purpose is to ensure the integrity of the silicon material and reduce the fine powder rate. Repeat the fourth step. Because the silicon material cannot be too high from the lowest surface of the crucible, there is a limit. If it is too high, the silicon material will fall and break directly. The silicon material should be kept within a certain weight range as much as possible. If it is too high, fine powder will appear. These will affect the subsequent silicon material processing technology. The subsequent processes are not involved here. The purpose is to ensure the integrity of the silicon material and reduce the fine powder rate.

[0079] Step 6. Repeat step 5 until the crucible is full and the feeding mechanism stops.

[0080] In the seventh step, the RGV carries the full crucible integrated mechanism, moves along the X-axis to the origin of the cache cover mechanism, descends, places the full crucible integrated mechanism on the cache rack, and then the RGV drives away.

[0081] In the eighth step, the AGV drives into the origin position of the cache cover removal mechanism and starts to rise until the full crucible integrated mechanism is separated from the cache rack, and then carries the full crucible integrated mechanism and moves to the next process position area.

[0082] At this point, the crucible feeding and transferring process is completed.

[0083] It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the application, rather than to limit it. Based on the embodiments provided in this application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the protection scope of this application.

[0084] Obviously, the drawings are only some examples or embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in the field, the present application can also be applied to other similar situations based on these drawings without creative work. In addition, it is understandable that although the work done in this development process may be complicated and lengthy, for ordinary technicians in the field, certain changes in design, manufacturing or production based on the technical content disclosed in this application are only conventional technical means and should not be regarded as insufficient content disclosed in this application.

Claims

1. A crucible silicon material feeding method, applied to a silicon material feeding and transporting device, characterized in that: The silicon material feeding and transferring device includes: A crucible (1) for loading silicon material; A rail-guided vehicle assembly (4), comprising an X-axis moving mechanism (401), a Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) and a Z-axis rotating mechanism (403), wherein the Z-axis rotating mechanism (403) is mounted on the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402), and the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) is mounted on the X-axis moving mechanism (401), wherein the Z-axis rotating mechanism (403) is used to carry a crucible, and the moving path of the X-axis moving mechanism (401) passes through a target position; A feeding mechanism (5), which is arranged above the target position; A visual module, used for capturing images of the crucible (1); A controller, used for outputting instructions to control the X-axis moving mechanism (401), the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402), the Z-axis rotating mechanism (403), the feeding mechanism (5) and the visual module to perform corresponding actions and receive relevant feedback; The crucible silicon material feeding method comprises: The controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism (401) to move and drive the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to move to a target position; the controller outputs a lifting instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to lift the Z-axis rotating mechanism (403) and the crucible (1) until the outlet of the feeding mechanism (5) is at a first height in the crucible (1); the controller outputs a feeding instruction to control the feeding mechanism (5) to evenly feed silicon material into the crucible (1); The controller outputs a rotation instruction to control the Z-axis rotation mechanism (403) to rotate so as to rotate the crucible (1); and after the Z-axis rotation mechanism (403) rotates one circle, the controller outputs a movement instruction to control the X-axis movement mechanism (401) to move so as to move the outlet of the feeding mechanism (5) at a first height along the radius direction of the crucible (1) until the movement distance of the X-axis movement mechanism (401) reaches the radius length of the crucible (1); The controller outputs a detection instruction to control the visual module to capture an image in the crucible (1) and feeds the image back to the controller, and the controller determines whether the silicon material at a first height in the crucible (1) is fully spread according to the image; If the crucible (1) is fully covered, the controller outputs a descending instruction to control the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to lower the crucible (1) until the outlet of the feeding mechanism (5) is at a second height in the crucible (1). The controller repeats the above steps and outputs corresponding instructions to control the crucible (1) to descend step by step, and controls the feeding mechanism (5) to perform a rotating material spreading operation until the feeding mechanism (5) is fully covered with silicon material in the crucible (1). The controller outputs a moving instruction to control the X-axis moving mechanism (401) to drive the feeding mechanism (5) and the crucible (1) away from the target position; If the floor is not fully paved, the controller will output an alarm command to prompt the operator that the equipment has reported an error.

2. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The X-axis moving mechanism (401) moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to move to a target position, including: The X-axis moving mechanism (401) moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) moves and drives the crucible (1) to move, and the crucible (1) moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism (5) is aligned with a side of the crucible (1) close to the inner wall of the annular surface.

3. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The X-axis moving mechanism (401) moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to move to a target position, including: The X-axis moving mechanism (401) moves and drives the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) to move, and the Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) moves and drives the crucible (1) to move, and the crucible (1) moves to a position where the outlet of the feeding mechanism (5) is aligned with the center of the crucible (1).

4. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The controller outputs a feeding instruction to control the feeding mechanism (5) to uniformly feed silicon material into the crucible (1), including: When silicon material is fed into the crucible (1) through the feeding mechanism (5), the Z-axis rotating mechanism (403) controls the crucible (1) to rotate at a uniform speed with the bottom center of the crucible (1) as the center, the feeding mechanism (5) does not move, and the discharge port of the feeding mechanism (5) and the crucible (1) maintain relative movement to uniformly feed the silicon material.

5. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The visual module captures an image in the crucible (1) and feeds the image back to the controller for processing and data comparison, so as to determine whether the silicon material at a first height in the crucible (1) is fully covered, including: The controller outputs an acquisition instruction to control a high-resolution camera to capture an image of silicon material at a first height in the crucible (1); after receiving the image captured by the high-resolution camera, the controller uses denoising software to denoise the captured silicon material image to improve image quality and obtain a denoised silicon material image; the controller uses an image processing system to extract silicon material features in the denoised silicon material image, obtains the silicon material features and sets a full material parameter; the controller recognizes the silicon material image again based on a training model obtained by a machine learning algorithm and in combination with the full material parameter to determine whether it is fully paved.

6. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The X-axis moving mechanism (401) comprises a track and a track-guided vehicle, wherein the track is laid on the ground, and the track-guided vehicle moves along the track in the X-axis direction.

7. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 6, characterized in that: The Z-axis lifting mechanism (402) comprises a scissor lift and a top base plate, wherein the top base plate is mounted on the top of the scissor lift, and the scissor lift is mounted on the top of the track-guided vehicle.

8. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The Z-axis rotating mechanism (403) is a rotating mechanical device, which is installed on the top of the top substrate, and the crucible (1) is placed on the top of the rotating table of the rotating mechanical device.

9. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The silicon material feeding and transporting device further comprises an automatic guided vehicle (3), which can move in a 360-degree direction, and a lifting platform is installed on the top of the automatic guided vehicle (3), and the lifting platform is used to lift the crucible (1).

10. The crucible silicon material feeding method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The silicon material feeding and transporting device also includes a buffering and lid removing mechanism (2), which includes a buffering rack (201), a crucible pot lid (202), a suction cup (203) and a cylinder (204), wherein the buffering rack (201) is placed on the ground, the cylinder (204) is installed on the top of the buffering rack (201) with the driving end facing downward, the suction cup (203) is installed at the driving end of the cylinder (204), and the suction cup (203) is used to adsorb the crucible pot lid (202); The crucible (1) comprises a quartz crucible (101), a sponge tray (102) and a welding frame (103), wherein the sponge tray (102) is installed on the top of the welding frame (103), the sponge tray (102) is used to carry the quartz crucible (101), and the crucible pot cover (202) covers the quartz crucible (101); The inner side of the cache rack (201) is symmetrically provided with feet for placing the welding frame (103).

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