Manipulator Assembly for Controlled Environment Chamber
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing manipulators for controlled environment chambers, such as vacuum and pressure chambers, face challenges in providing reliable gas-tight movement and manipulation of articles within these environments, particularly in achieving three-axis movement while maintaining a seal and efficiently inserting and withdrawing instruments.
Innovation Solution
A manipulator assembly with a ball joint, gimbaled bearing assembly, and a bellows section that allows for three-axis movement while maintaining a gas seal, along with a gate valve and drive assemblies for controlled access and movement, enabling the insertion, manipulation, and withdrawal of articles within controlled environment chambers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a manipulator assembly is designed to provide three-axis movement within a controlled environment chamber, then the ability to manipulate articles is improved, but maintaining a gas-tight seal becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The manipulator assembly is divided into multiple segmented components including a bellows section with multiple pleats, a ball joint with separate sealing elements, and a gimbaled bearing assembly with distinct moving parts. Each segment can move independently while maintaining gas-tight seals at the interfaces, enabling three-axis movement without compromising seal integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
A bellows section acts as an intermediary flexible membrane between the controlled environment chamber interior and exterior, allowing linear movement while maintaining the gas seal. Additionally, magnetic coupling mechanisms serve as intermediaries to transmit motion across sealed boundaries without direct mechanical penetration that would compromise the seal.
2Reliability
If a manipulator assembly incorporates multiple sealing mechanisms to maintain gas-tight environment, then seal reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple sealing functions are merged into integrated components. The ball joint assembly combines rotational sealing, linear sealing, and positional adjustment mechanisms into a single unified structure. The gimbaled bearing assembly merges spherical movement capability with gas-tight sealing in one integrated component, reducing the total number of separate sealing elements while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The ball joint serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides spherical rotation for two-axis angular movement, maintains gas-tight sealing across the chamber boundary, and allows for instrument insertion and withdrawal. The gimbaled bearing assembly similarly provides three-axis movement capability while maintaining the seal, eliminating the need for separate sealing mechanisms for each degree of freedom.
3Area of stationary object
If a manipulator arm is designed with extended reach to access articles throughout the chamber, then coverage area is improved, but the difficulty of maintaining gas seal increases
Solution Approach 1:
The manipulator arm employs dynamic sealing solutions including a bellows section that can expand and contract as the arm extends and retracts. Magnetic coupling mechanisms dynamically maintain the gas seal while allowing continuous motion. The gimbaled bearing assembly provides dynamic spherical movement while maintaining sealing integrity throughout the range of motion, enabling full chamber coverage without compromising the gas-tight environment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables precise and gas-tight manipulation of articles within controlled environment chambers, allowing for efficient insertion, movement, and retrieval of instruments, ensuring a sealed environment and facilitating operations like those required for Langmuir probes or other instruments.
Implementation Method 1
a ball joint (20) including a central passage (38), sealingly seated in the support (4), for permitting three axis movement of the manipulator assembly while maintaining a gas seal
Implementation Method 2
a bellows section (12) permitting the manipulator arm to be extended and retracted while remaining gas tight
Implementation Method 3
a gimbaled bearing assembly (8) connected to the manipulator arm for three axis movement of the arm
Implementation Method 4
a gate valve (32) in the central passage (38) of the manipulator arm for opening and closing the central passage of the manipulator arm
Data Source
AI summary
A movable manipulator assembly for manipulating an article in a controlled environment chamber, including a support for attaching the manipulator assembly in a gas tight manner to an entry port of a controlled environment chamber and externally with respect to the chamber, a ball joint including a central passage, sealingly seated in the support, for permitting three axis movement of the manipulator assembly while maintaining a gas seal, a manipulator arm extending from the ball joint externally with respect to the chamber, the arm including a central passage aligned with the central passage of the ball joint, the arm further including a closable entry port through which the central passage of the manipulator arm can be accessed, and a gimbaled bearing assembly connected to the manipulator arm for three axis movement of the arm.