| 摘要 |
A vacuum processing apparatus as illustrated in Fig. 1 includes a processing chamber 10 and a second chamber 16 which contains a workpiece transporting device 50 comprising two conveyors 52 and 54 on a common frame 60 and a means 70 eg acting through a seal in the chamber wall for aligning the frame and each conveyor to transfer workpieces in opposite directions through the second chamber. The second chamber 16 may be an end lock with access to the outside or an intermediate lock or holding chamber between the processing chamber 10 and an end lock 18. A first gate valve 20 is operable to interconnect chambers 10 and 16, and a second gate valve 24 is operable to provide access is the second chamber 16. Preferably, the conveyors 52 and 54 comprise two parallel sets of horizontal rollers and an elevator for selectively aligning each set of rollers with a pass line 48 along which workpieces are transferred between the end lock 18 and the chamber 16 and between the chamber 16 and the processing chamber 10. The rollers of an aligned set may be driven by a magnetic coupling through the wall of chamber 1b. The method involves the successive steps of:- a) processing a workpiece; b) transporting the processed workpiece from a first conveyor is a first chamber to a first level of a multi-level conveyor is a second chamber; c) aligning the second level of the multi-level with the first conveyor; d) transporting a first unprocessed workpiece from the second level onto the first conveyor, then sealing the first chamber from the second chamber; e) transporting a second unprocessed workpiece from a second conveyor outside the second chamber onto the second level; f) aligning the first level with the second conveyor; g) transporting the processed workpiece from the first level to the second conveyor; and h) sealing the second chamber. <IMAGE> |
