Hand-operated vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism

Abstract

The application discloses a hand-operated vacuum cavity cover safe opening and closing mechanism and belongs to the field of vacuum equipment. The mechanism comprises a base, a reduction gearbox shell is fixedly installed on the top of the base, a power transmission mechanism is installed on the reduction gearbox shell, a bearing receiving shaft is fixedly installed on the outer wall of the reduction gearbox shell, a fixed bearing is fixedly installed on the inner wall of the reduction gearbox shell, a rotating shaft mechanism is fixedly installed at the center of the top of the base, a cavity cover overturning arm is fixedly installed on the outside of the rotating shaft mechanism, a locking mechanism is connected to one end of the power transmission mechanism inside the reduction gearbox shell, and a transmission element is connected to the outside of the locking mechanism. The mechanism has the beneficial effect that the cavity cover can be automatically locked by mechanical force at any opening angle through the physical reverse self-locking characteristics of the worm gear and the worm gear rod, the risk of the cavity cover suddenly falling due to the failure of a traditional supporting rod or accidental touch is effectively avoided, and fundamental guarantee is provided for personal and equipment safety.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of vacuum equipment, and more specifically, to a hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism. Background Technology

[0002] In high-tech industries such as semiconductor manufacturing and vacuum coating, vacuum chambers are core equipment. Frequent opening and closing of the chamber lid is necessary for equipment maintenance, internal cleaning, and material handling. With the increasing size of semiconductor wafers and the upgrading of manufacturing processes, the size of vacuum chambers has also increased accordingly, resulting in exceptionally heavy lids, weighing tens or even hundreds of kilograms. How to safely and effortlessly open and close such heavy-duty lids has become a pressing technical challenge in equipment design.

[0003] Currently, the mainstream cavity cover opening and closing methods in the industry are mainly divided into two categories: automatic and manual. Automatic opening and closing mechanisms driven by cylinders or electric cylinders achieve automated operation, but their system structure is complex, including numerous components such as drivers, controllers, and pipelines, resulting in high manufacturing and maintenance costs. More importantly, these mechanisms heavily rely on external power sources; in the event of power outages, gas outages, or other emergencies, the mechanism will completely fail and become inoperable. Furthermore, in some special application environments requiring explosion protection, the use of electrical components is strictly limited. Another common method uses a simple manual hinge, supplemented by a gas spring or mechanical support rod. While this solution is simple in structure and lower in cost, it has significant drawbacks. First, operators still need to exert considerable physical strength during opening and closing, especially when the cavity cover is near a vertical or horizontal position, making operation particularly difficult. Second, its safety depends entirely on the locking state of the gas spring or support rod. If the support rod is accidentally impacted or its locking structure fails, the cavity cover, weighing up to 100 kilograms, will instantly lose support and fall at high speed, easily causing serious safety accidents such as injuring operators or damaging equipment. While worm gear drives are widely used in transmission applications due to their inherent reverse self-locking characteristics, existing technologies rarely apply them systematically to the vertical flipping of heavy-duty vacuum chamber covers. Simple single-stage worm gear drives struggle to provide a sufficiently large reduction ratio to achieve extreme effort reduction while maintaining a compact structural size. Therefore, current technologies have not yet provided a solution for opening and closing heavy-duty vacuum chamber covers that perfectly combines intrinsic safety, effortless operation, no external power required, and structural reliability. Summary of the Invention

[0004] To overcome the problems of manual opening and closing of vacuum chamber covers in existing technologies, such as laborious operation, serious safety hazards, reliance on external power, and difficulty in controlling the movement process, this invention provides a hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism, including a base, a gearbox housing fixedly installed on the top of the base, a power transmission mechanism installed on the gearbox housing, a receiving bearing fixedly installed on the outer wall of the gearbox housing, and a fixing bearing fixedly installed on the inner wall of the gearbox housing. A rotating shaft mechanism is fixedly installed at the top center of the base, and a cavity cover flipping arm is fixedly installed on the outside of the rotating shaft mechanism. The power transmission mechanism is connected to a locking mechanism at one end inside the gearbox housing. A transmission element is connected to the outside of the locking mechanism, and the transmission element is connected to the rotating shaft mechanism.

[0005] Preferably, the power transmission mechanism includes a hand crank lever, which is rotatably mounted inside a fixed bearing. A worm gear is fixedly mounted at one end of the hand crank lever inside the gearbox housing, and the worm gear is connected to a locking mechanism.

[0006] Preferably, the locking mechanism includes a driven shaft, which is connected to the inner wall of the gearbox housing via a bearing component. A worm gear is fixedly installed on the outside of the driven shaft, and the worm gear shaft meshes with the worm gear.

[0007] Preferably, the transmission element includes a drive gear, a driven gear meshing with the drive gear, and the drive gear is coaxially connected to the driven shaft.

[0008] Preferably, the rotating shaft mechanism includes a rotating shaft seat, which is fixedly installed at the top center of the base, and a transmission shaft is rotatably installed inside the rotating shaft seat.

[0009] Preferably, one end of the drive shaft is fixedly connected to the driven gear, and the other end is rotatably connected to the inside of the bearing, and the cavity cover flipping arm is fixedly installed on the outside of the drive shaft.

[0010] Preferably, the helix angle of the worm gear is designed to be smaller than the friction angle when the worm gear is engaged.

[0011] Preferably, the helix angle of the worm gear is less than 4 degrees.

[0012] Beneficial effects: The beneficial effects of adopting the technical solution of this invention are as follows: (1) By utilizing the physical reverse self-locking characteristics of the worm gear and worm rod, the cavity cover can be automatically locked by mechanical force at any opening angle, effectively avoiding the risk of the cavity cover suddenly falling due to failure of the traditional support rod or accidental contact, providing fundamental protection for personal and equipment safety. Through the two-stage gear reduction system composed of the worm gear, worm rod and driving gear, the transmission ratio is improved, reducing the operating force required to drive the heavy cavity cover to a level that ordinary people can easily complete with one hand, with good ergonomics.

[0013] (2) Manual operation makes the opening and closing speed and process of the cavity cover completely controllable. The operator can achieve slow and smooth closing, accurately control the contact and compression of the sealing ring, effectively avoid damage to the sealing parts or cavity structure caused by impact, extend the service life of the equipment, and does not rely on any electric or pneumatic power source. It not only saves energy and the cost of complex control systems, but also can be used normally and safely in emergency situations such as power outages, lack of air supply, or special environments with explosion-proof requirements. Attached Figure Description

[0014] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. It should be understood that the following drawings only show some embodiments of the present invention and should not be regarded as a limitation of the scope. For those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained from these drawings without creative effort.

[0015] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a top view of the structure of the rotating shaft seat of the present invention; Figure 3 This is a bottom view of the base structure of the present invention; Figure 4 This is a structural cross-sectional view of the gearbox housing of the present invention.

[0016] In the diagram: 1. Base; 2. Gearbox housing; 21. Receiving bearing; 22. Fixed bearing; 3. Power transmission mechanism; 30. Hand crank lever; 31. Worm gear; 4. Rotary shaft seat; 5. Cavity cover flipping arm; 60. Worm gear; 61. Driven shaft; 70. Driving gear; 71. Driven gear; 8. Transmission shaft. Detailed Implementation

[0017] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Therefore, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention provided in the accompanying drawings is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but merely to represent selected embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without inventive effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0018] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. Specific embodiments are as follows: like Figures 1 to 4 As shown, a hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism includes a base 1, a gearbox housing 2 fixedly mounted on the top of the base 1, a power transmission mechanism 3 mounted on the gearbox housing 2, a receiving bearing 21 fixedly mounted on the outer wall of the gearbox housing 2, a fixed bearing 22 fixedly mounted on the inner wall of the gearbox housing 2, a rotating shaft mechanism fixedly mounted at the center of the top of the base 1, a cover flipping arm 5 fixedly mounted on the outside of the rotating shaft mechanism, a locking mechanism connected to one end of the power transmission mechanism 3 located inside the gearbox housing 2, a transmission element connected to the outside of the locking mechanism, the transmission element being connected to the rotating shaft mechanism, and a hand crank lever 30 rotatably mounted inside the fixed bearing 22. The hand crank lever 30 is located inside the gearbox housing 2. A worm gear 31 is fixedly installed at one end and connected to a locking mechanism. The locking mechanism includes a driven shaft 61, which is connected to the inner wall of the gearbox housing 2 via a bearing. A worm wheel 60 is fixedly installed on the outside of the driven shaft 61, and the worm gear 31 meshes with the worm wheel 60. The transmission element includes a drive gear 70, which meshes with a driven gear 71. The drive gear 70 is coaxially connected to the driven shaft 61. The rotating shaft mechanism includes a rotating shaft seat 4, which is fixedly installed at the top center of the base 1. A transmission shaft 8 is rotatably installed inside the rotating shaft seat 4. One end of the transmission shaft 8 is fixedly connected to the driven gear 71, and the other end is rotatably connected to the inside of the bearing 21. The cavity cover flipping arm 5 is fixedly installed on the outside of the transmission shaft 8. The operator applies driving force through a hand crank 30. This force is first transmitted to the worm gear 31, which drives the worm wheel 60 meshing with it to rotate, completing the first stage of deceleration and self-locking. Then, the driving gear 70, which rotates synchronously with the worm wheel 60, transmits power to the driven gear 71 connected to it, forming the second stage of deceleration. This causes the transmission shaft 8, which rotates synchronously with the driven gear 71, to drive the cavity cover flipping arm 5 to transmit the rotation after the two stages of deceleration and torque amplification to the cavity cover, thereby driving the cavity cover to open and close.

[0019] It should be noted that the helix angle of the worm gear rod 31 is designed to be smaller than the friction angle when the worm gear 60 is engaged. The helix angle of the worm gear rod 31 is less than 4 degrees. The core safety guarantee comes from the reverse self-locking characteristic of the worm gear 60 and the worm gear rod 31. The principle is that when the helix angle of the worm gear rod 31 is designed to be small enough that it is smaller than the friction angle of the meshing interface between the worm gear rod 31 and the worm gear 60, the mechanism has a reverse self-locking capability. Specifically, when the weight of the cavity cover attempts to drive the worm gear 60 to rotate in the reverse direction through the transmission chain, a tangential force will be generated on the helical surface of the worm gear rod 31. This tangential force is insufficient to overcome the maximum static friction force generated by the normal force. Therefore, the worm gear 60 cannot drive the worm gear rod 31 to rotate, and the entire transmission system is mechanically and firmly locked. This design fundamentally eliminates the possibility of the cavity cover falling accidentally.

[0020] In this embodiment, the transmission ratio is precisely designed to achieve effortless operation of a 30kg cavity cover. A single-headed worm gear 31 with 40 teeth is used, resulting in a transmission ratio i1 = 40. In the two-stage reduction mechanism, the driving gear 70 has 20 teeth, and the driven gear 71 has 80 teeth, resulting in a transmission ratio i2 = 4. Therefore, the total transmission ratio of this safe opening and closing mechanism is I = i1 × i2 = 40 × 4 = 160. This total transmission ratio falls within the range of 100 to 500. This range ensures sufficient effort during operation without causing the opening and closing process to be too slow, achieving a good balance between efficiency and ergonomics.

[0021] When the cavity cover needs to be opened, the operator turns the hand crank 30. The power, after passing through a two-stage reduction system with a total transmission ratio of 160, amplifies the small torque applied by the operator by 160 times, allowing the 30kg cavity cover to be easily and smoothly opened upwards to a target angle, such as 0 to 75°. At any point during the opening process, once the operator stops turning the hand crank 30 and releases their hand, the gravity of the cavity cover will generate a torque attempting to make it fall. This torque acts in the opposite direction on the worm gear 60 through the cavity cover tilting arm 5, the drive shaft 8, the driving gear 70, and the driven gear 71. However, due to the reverse self-locking characteristics of the worm gear 60 and the worm gear rod 31, the worm gear 60 cannot drive the worm gear rod 31 to rotate. The entire transmission chain is instantly locked, and the cavity cover will safely remain at its current angle without any falling.

[0022] In addition, the worm gear rod 31 can be made of 40Cr material and undergo carburizing and quenching treatment to improve wear resistance, the worm wheel 60 can be made of wear-resistant tin bronze material, the secondary gear can be made of stainless steel material, and the transmission shaft rod 8 can be supported by vacuum-compatible ceramic ball bearings to ensure smooth rotation and cleanliness.

[0023] Working principle: The driving force is applied by the hand crank lever 30, which drives the transmission shaft 8 through the worm gear 60 and the secondary gear to rotate the cavity cover flipping arm 5 to support the cavity cover. It has a reverse self-locking effect, which can prevent the cavity cover from falling off due to the support falling off or accidental contact.

[0024] The above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. For those skilled in the art, the present invention can have various modifications and variations. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism, characterized in that, Includes a base (1), on the top of the base (1) a gearbox housing (2) is fixedly installed, a power transmission mechanism (3) is installed on the gearbox housing (2), a receiving bearing (21) is fixedly installed on the outer wall of the gearbox housing (2), and a fixed bearing (22) is fixedly installed on the inner wall of the gearbox housing (2). A rotating shaft mechanism is fixedly installed at the top center of the base (1), and a cavity cover flipping arm (5) is fixedly installed on the outside of the rotating shaft mechanism. The power transmission mechanism (3) is connected to a locking mechanism at one end inside the gearbox housing (2). A transmission element is installed on the outside of the locking mechanism, and the transmission element is connected to the rotating shaft mechanism.

2. The hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that, The power transmission mechanism (3) includes a hand crank lever (30), which is rotatably mounted inside the fixed bearing (22). A worm gear lever (31) is fixedly mounted at one end of the hand crank lever (30) inside the gearbox housing (2), and the worm gear lever (31) is connected to the locking mechanism.

3. The hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 2, characterized in that, The locking mechanism includes a driven shaft (61), which is connected to the inner wall of the gearbox housing (2) through a bearing component. A worm gear (60) is fixedly installed on the outside of the driven shaft (61), and the worm gear rod (31) meshes with the worm gear (60).

4. The hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 3, characterized in that, The transmission element includes a drive gear (70), which is externally meshed with a driven gear (71), and the drive gear (70) is coaxially connected with the driven shaft (61).

5. A hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 4, characterized in that, The rotating shaft mechanism includes a rotating shaft seat (4), which is fixedly installed at the top center of the base (1), and a transmission shaft rod (8) is rotatably installed inside the rotating shaft seat (4).

6. The hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 5, characterized in that, One end of the drive shaft (8) is fixedly connected to the driven gear (71), and the other end is rotatably connected to the inside of the bearing (21). The cavity cover flipping arm (5) is fixedly installed on the outside of the drive shaft (8).

7. A hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 6, characterized in that, The helix angle of the worm gear (31) is designed to be smaller than the friction angle when the worm gear (60) is engaged.

8. A hand-cranked vacuum chamber cover safety opening and closing mechanism according to claim 7, characterized in that, The helix angle of the worm gear (31) is less than 4 degrees.

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