| 摘要 |
Disclosed is an improved transfer mechanism 21 that transfers, in a vertical heat treatment system, process objects W between a container (carrier) 16 for containing therein plural process objects, and a holder (boat) 9 for holding plural process objects at vertical intervals via ring-shaped support plates 15 . The transfer mechanism 21 includes plural substrate support devices 21 spaced at intervals, and each of the substrate support devices 21 has a gripping mechanism 28 for gripping a process object W on the under side of the respective one of the substrate support devices 20 . The gripping mechanism 28 includes a fixed engagement member 30 fixedly provided on a distal end of the substrate support device 20 to be engaged with a front edge of a process object W, and a movable engagement member 31 movably attached to a proximal end of the substrate support device 20 to be engaged with a rear edge of the process object W. Plural process objects W can be rapidly, securely transferred at the same time. A simple structure of the gripping mechanism 28 reduces the thickness of the substrate support device 21 , so that the intervals of the ring-shaped support plates 15 can be reduced. Thus, the number of process objects to be simultaneously treated in a heat treatment furnace can be increased. As a result, improvement in throughput can be achieved.
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