Compact Cleanroom Line Guide With Openable Dust-Tight Sleeves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing line guide devices for clean room applications, such as those used in semiconductor production, release particles due to abrasive wear and are difficult to maintain or modify, requiring complete replacement of intact lines and lacking flexibility for adding or replacing individual lines or line strands.
Innovation Solution
A line guide with a prefabricated flexible enclosure that allows individual lines or line strands to be easily replaced or modified by introducing a line bundle into prefabricated receiving means, eliminating the need for additional outer sheaths and enabling non-destructive maintenance, using materials like fluoropolymers and flexible plastics for reduced abrasion and weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional chain link structures with rotary joints are used, then the line guide device is robust and can handle dynamic movement, but it releases particles due to abrasive wear between chain links
Solution Approach 1:
The enclosure is divided into multiple modular enclosure units that can be connected together. Each unit contains receiving means for lines, and the modular structure allows segmentation of the line guide system while maintaining dust-tight sealing between units through closure profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a flexible enclosure made of elastomeric material that forms a dust-tight seal while allowing dynamic movement. The flexible nature of the enclosure eliminates rigid chain links that cause abrasive wear, while the elastomeric material maintains sealing integrity during displacement.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If lines are completely enclosed in a dust-tight flexible enclosure, then particle release from lines is minimized, but maintenance and replacement of individual lines becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The enclosure is segmented into modular units with closure profiles that allow opening. This enables access to individual lines for maintenance while maintaining the dust-tight enclosure when closed, resolving the contradiction between protection and accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The closure profiles are designed to be dynamically openable and closable, allowing the enclosure to transition between sealed and accessible states. This dynamic capability enables easy line replacement while maintaining dust-tight sealing during operation.
3Reliability
If a complete assembly replacement is performed for line maintenance, then dust-tight sealing is maintained, but intact lines must be replaced and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The modular enclosure units can be opened independently to access specific lines, allowing replacement of only the necessary components rather than the entire assembly. This reduces waste and maintenance costs while maintaining sealing integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The modular design allows recovery and reuse of intact enclosure units and lines. Only the specific lines or units requiring maintenance are replaced, while functional components are recovered and reused, reducing overall maintenance costs.
4Strength
If additional outer sheaths are added to lines for protection, then line durability is improved, but the overall structure becomes heavier and more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The protective enclosure and the line guide structure are merged into a single integrated flexible enclosure. This eliminates the need for separate outer sheaths on individual lines, reducing overall weight and structural complexity while maintaining protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible enclosure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides dust-tight sealing, protects lines from damage, guides line movement, and eliminates the need for additional protective sheaths. This multi-functionality reduces overall structural complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for producing a conduit for a clean room application, comprising electric cables and an elongate flexible sheath which can be moved back and forth so as to form a deflecting bend between two towers, wherein the flexible sheath has a number of parallel receiving portions, each for at least one cable, wherein each receiving portion extends in the manner of a channel in a longitudinal direction from a first end to a second end; the method comprising the steps of providing at least one cable bundle of contiguous cables and providing the flexible sheath, wherein the sheath is prefabricated and the cable bundle is introduced into a receiving portion of the prefabricated sheath, wherein the prefabricated sheath comprises at least one sleeve unit having two interacting closure profiles of a closure in order to close an open state in a dust-tight manner and the cable bundle is inserted into the opened sheath transversely to the longitudinal direction or the prefabricated sheath comprises at least one sleeve unit which is produced so as to be circumferentially closed and the cable bundle is drawn into the closed sleeve unit in the longitudinal direction.