Research article

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings in vacuum robots

Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and fabrication of magnetic couplings to use for vacuum robots. The permanent magnetic coupling (PMC) is appropriate for torque transmission in ultrahigh vacuum and highly clean environments. However, conventional structures of PMC are always unsuitable to use for vacuum robots. Design/methodology/approach Two types of design scheme for radial magnetic couplings are introduced and compared. The major characteristic of the novel design scheme is that the inner part uses a nonmagnetic mantle to enclose the magnets and yoke, and the outer part uses two end closures to position magnets. The locating groove on the end closure may be manufactured as T-shape or dovetail shape. Findings The 3D nite element analysis simulation results and experimental studies have demonstrated that the proposed Design B had a lower contamination rate and a higher transmission efciency than the Design A. Research limitations/implications The limitation of the research to date is that issues of control, path-planning, and communication have not yet been addressed. Practical implications The proposed PMC is successfully applied in vacuum robots which uses combined direct drive techniques and magnetic transmit techniques. Originality/value These results suggest that the proposed PMC is suitable for using in vacuum robots. Keywords Robotics, Magnetism, Power transmission systems Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Permanent magnetic couplings (PMC) are device that transmitting torque through magnetic force with no mechanical contact from a primary drive to a secondary follower. In particular, it is very appropriate for torque transmission in ultrahigh vacuum, highly clean, hazardous or corrosive environments, and has been widely used in the elds of industriy and defense. The PMCs as critical component are increasingly used in much of developing vacuum robot for wafer handling related to the eld of semiconductor. It is desirable for transmitting torque or rotary motion from the atmosphere to the vacuum environment. The wafer holder arms of vacuum robot, which operate in the reaction chamber, are magnetically coupled to a directly driving motor outside of the vacuum area. For example, in ultrahigh vacuum, a coaxial drive mechanism is incorporated to the design of a compact wafer-transfer robot, in which multiple sets of magnetic couplings with different congurations are
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simultaneously used to couple different axes, a non-magnetic vacuum partition wall separates the inner and outer rotor to maintain the high vacuum from atmosphere environment. Synchronours-type couplings among different types of PMC can transmit higher torque than others for identical volume of magnetic materials. On the basis of the conguration, these types of couplings can be further categorized into radial, axial and mixed-type couplings. The axial-type couplings usually generate considerable axial force, for example attractive or repulsive force, therefore, they are only suitable to transmit lower torque. However, they possess an advantage of easy adjustment of the air gap. On the other hand, the radial-type couplings can transmit higher torque level by simply increasing the length of the two concentric coupling members or increasing the amount of pole-pairs by augmenting the diameter of couplings. The radial-type couplings are desirable for application in wafer-transfer robot. This type of PMC consists of outer and inner rotors, the outer rotor has permanent magnets of changing polarity on the inner side and the inner rotor has them on the outside. The north and south poles of the rotors are opposite to each
This paper is an updated and revised version of the paper originally presented at 2008 International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (2008 ICIRA), Wuhan, China, October 15-17, 2008. This work was supported in part by the Science & Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality under Grant 07PJ14051 and 071111008.

Industrial Robot: An International Journal 36/3 (2009) 230 237 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0143-991X] [DOI 10.1108/01439910910950487]

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Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

other, the magnetic eld is completely symmetric in nonoperative state. When the rotors are twisted over a torsion angle, the magnetic eld line are moved, hence the torque is transmitted from primary shaft to follower one through the air gap. However, conventional PMC are always unsuitable for vacuum robot because that the robot needs the PMC run in vacuum environment with an extremely low-contamination rate and high reliability. It is essential to present some more feasible designs applied in vacuum condition with pressure range from 102 5 to 102 7 Pa. Some considerations related design and fabrication are involved to suit high vacuum and ultrahigh vacuum application requirement. Angular stiffness, synchronous rotary accuracy and air gap are of key specications for design of PMCs. First, angular stiffness depends on the maximal coupling torque of the PMC. If maximum coupling torque is exceeded, the power transmission is interrupted. The synchronous rotary accuracy is predominately related to quantity of the minimal torsion angle. The air gap is determined by the thickness of the vacuum barrier. Various methods to analyze the transmitted torque of magnetic couplings have been employed, mainly including analytical methods (Yao et al., 1995) and nite element analysis (FEA) methods (Wu et al., 1997). The 3D FEA has been shown to be a powerful and effective tool for the analysis and design of synchronous magnetic couplings, taking the end-leakage effects into account (Wang et al., 2008). In order to decrease the contamination rate and increase the reliability, two types of design of radial magnetic couplings were proposed in this paper. The rst type denoted as Design A has two congurations including rst one used screw to x the magnets on the yokes and second one used mucilage to adhesive them. The second type denoted as Design B mainly include two characteristics: the inner rotor of PMC uses a nonmagnetic mantle to enclose the magnet blocks and the yoke which has several locating grooves; the outer rotor of PMC has two end closures which have the T-shape groove or the dovetail shape to position magnets. The design and fabrication of two types of PMC are described and discussed. The Design A was then compared with the Design B base on their structural characteristics and fabrication. The simulations on above two types of design through the 3D FEA method were carried out. In order to verify the validity of simulations, a ve degrees of freedom (DOF) measuring equipment for magnetic couplings was also built. The maximal coupling torques were measured. Results from FEA and testing were discussed and analyzed. In the end, the PMC of the proposed Design B was successfully applied in constructing a novel vacuum wafer transfer robot which used the combined direct drive motor and magnetic transmit technique.

designs, maximal coupling torque of the PMCs need be up to 75 Nm, the air gap is dened as width of 5 mm so that it can allow sufcient thickness of the vacuum barrier to ensure its high stiffness and strength. The magnet material which was radially magnetized was of Nd-Fe-B with residual ux density denoted as Br of 1.19 T, and coercive force as Hc of 835.8 kA/ m in the magnetized direction. In our designs, the sectorshaped magnets with same arc angle are suit to merge the cylindrical curvature, so that the couplings are capable of keeping uniformity of the air gap between the couplings and vacuum barrier. Similarly, the ratio of pole width to pole pitch denoted as a was set to be 0.72 (Hornreich and Shtrikman, 1978) in order to obtain higher efciency of magnetic material. Furthermore, yoke was made of steel ASTM 1045. The bulk conductivity denoted as k of yoke is 2,000,000 S/m, and the BH-curve of the relative permeability of yoke can be seen in Figure 1. The structure of yoke with enough thickness can carry the required ux without saturation. In these designs, the thickness of magnets was assumed to be equal for the inner rotor and the outer one of magnetic couplings. 2.2 Design scheme I Two types of conguration for Design A were proposed. The rst type through socket head screws to connect a set of magnets on the yoke as shown in Figure 2, of which Figure 2(a) is the photograph of the prototype, and Figure 2(b) is the schematic diagram of the design. From the gure, we can see that 14 magnets with sector-shaped were separately located on the inner and outer side at interval of constant angle. The second type used mucilage to adhesive them together, as shown in Figure 3, where Figure 3(a) is the photograph of the prototype, and Figure 3(b) is the schematic diagram of the design. The yoke of these two types both were machined locating grooves to position each magnet on the socket of yoke. In general, the countersunk hole was cut on the magnet and the threaded hole was machined on the iron for the type of using screws. However, the loss of torque will occur obviously, because that the countersunk hole decreased the volume of magnetic material. Besides, the screw would also change the distribution of magnetic eld. Furthermore, overusing the screw may result in bringing containment and particles into vacuum and clean environment, then changing the pressure of vacuum environment. Though it was the most convenient approach to adhesive the magnet on the socket of the yoke with mucilage, the properties such as strength, elasticity and ductility of Figure 1 The BH-curve of the relative permeability of yoke
2.5 2.0 Flux density (T) 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 50,000 0 50,000 1,00,000 1,50,000 2,00,000 2,50,000 3,00,000 3,50,000 Magnetic field strength (A/m)

2. Design and fabrication on the PMC

2.1 General description Design scheme in this paper focuses on the typical cylindrical couplings with iron yokes and magnets located separately without jointing with each other. The alternate magnetized poles were allocated circumferentially. The yokes with high permeability short-circuited the inner- and outer-magnet rings of the couplings to avoid magnetic leakage, thus improving the efciency of torque transmission. In these 231

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Figure 2 Design of the PMC using screws to x magnets on yoke: (a) photograph of the prototype; (b) schematic diagram of the design
N N SN S

S N S

S N

Outer rotor N S N S N SN S

Inner rotor

(a)

(b)

Figure 3 Design of the PMC using mucilage to adhesive magnets on yoke: (a) photograph of the prototype; (b) schematic diagram of the design
Outer rotor inner rotor

Figure 4 The inner rotor of conguration for PMC and the cover
inner rotor

(a) inner rotor

cover

Outer rotor (b)

the adhesive layer are of critical issue. Since the magnetic coupling torque between inner and outer rotors was permanently remained while running, the vary load was exerted on the PMC, failure of strength will potentially occur in the adhesive layer. On the other hand, it was possible that the mucilage contaminated the vacuum environment. Therefore, the above two types of conguration of the PMCs were undesirable for using in constructing the vacuum robot. It was essential to design some more reasonable structures for the special application. 2.3 Design scheme B Two novel types of conguration for PMC were proposed in this design. In the improved conguration than Design A, the inner rotor of PMC used a cover made of un-conducted magnetic materials enclosing the magnets and yoke as shown in Figure 4. Rim of the cover mate to the ange of the yoke, then hold them together through screws. The yoke also had locating grooves to position each magnet on the socket of yoke, just was similar to the types of Design A. While using 232

the insulation shell served as a reliable seal to separate the two coupling halves from two different medium environments, the cover will ensure a lower outgas rate and atom contamination rate than the Design A. The outer rotor of PMC consists of upper- and lower-end caps, hollow cylinder and magnets. Two types of end caps are designed and fabricated. One of the end caps was machined into T-shaped grooves by EDM, other one of that was cut into dovetail groove. End caps with T-shaped or dovetail grooves were separately mounted on upper and lower ange of the hollow cylinder, and held tightly by screws. Grooves on upper- and lower-end caps were aligned, and then formed the locating grooves for retaining the magnet. Magnets were also adhesive on the yoke by mucilage in order to increase the fastener strength. The conguration of the PMC with T-shaped and dovetail groove are, respectively, shown in Figures 5 and 6. The above two gures depict the conguration of PMC, structure of outer rotor and end cap and shape of magnet in detail. The yoke was manufactured as cylinder-shaped without locating grooves. As we can see by comparing Figures 5 and 6, it was easier to fabricate magnets and end caps into dovetail shape than T-shape. However, it was more difculty to mount the magnets into the dovetail groove than into the T-shape groove because of the tolerances of the positioning groove from machining and assembly. These two types of PMC from Design B both had a higher material utilization rate and a lower contamination rate than Design A with screw to x, and had higher connection reliability than Design A with mucilage

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Figure 5 Conguration of PMC using T-shape groove

PMC

Figure 7 The photograph of two prototypes of the PMC

outer rotor T shape

inner rotor

outer rotor

PMC

Dovetail shape

T-shaped end cap

T-shaped magnet

Figure 6 Conguration of PMC using dovetail groove

PMC outer rotor

dovetail end cap

the nite element (FE) model is built according to this physical model. The cross-section view of the PMC is shown in Figure 7. In which the label H represents for the thickness of magnet; the label R1 stands for the inner radius of inner magnetic coupling; the label R2 is denoted as outer radius of inner magnetic coupling; the label R3 stands for the inner radius of outer magnetic coupling; the label R4 stands for the outer radius of outer magnetic coupling; the label air_gap stands for the length of air gap; and the label L stands for the axial length of PMC. From Figure 8, we can see that vacuum barrier, which is applied to separates the atmosphere and vacuum environment, was not modeled in this FE model because its permeability is close to air. Similarly, the thickness of yokes was assumed to be uniformity along radial direction. On the other hand, an area outside both upper and lower end of the PMCs was included to model the end-leakage effect. The width of the air layer considered in this model was set as about three times the magnetic thickness in order to meet the requirement of sufcient solving accuracy (Wu et al., 1997). Since the magnetic coupling was periodically symmetrical for each pole, the fractional FE models were established. The master and slave boundaries were applied in this paper, which can simplify model complexity. The magnetic eld on the slave boundary was subjected to match the eld on the master boundary. The magnitude of the magnetic eld on both boundaries was equal. The elds on the two boundaries can either point in the same direction, or in opposite directions, as specied during the modeling process. The FE models from the PMCs with four types of conguration from the Designs A and B were, respectively, shown in Figure 9(a)-(d). The parameters used in FE simulation were listed in Table I. Four FE model were Figure 8 The cross-section view of PMC

dovetail magnet R2 R1 H H

to adhesive. Therefore, these two novel types of the PMC were more suitable for using in constructing a vacuum robot. The photographs of two prototypes for Design B are shown in Figure 7.

3. Analysis and experiment

3.1 3D FEA simulation The 3D FEA module of Ansofts Maxwell 11 was employed in this study to simulate the PMC. Physical model mainly includes the outer rotor, inner rotor and air gap, therefore, 233
R3 R4

air_ gap

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Figure 9 FE model of the PMCs: (a) FE model with screw xing; (b) FE model using mucilage to adhesive; (c) FE model with the T-shape groove; (d) FE model with the dovetail groove
y

z z

y (a) (b)

y z

(c)

(d)

Table I Parameters used in FE analysis

Design A Screws Mucilage xing xing Design B T-shape Dovetail groove groove

Air_gap (mm) Br (T) Hc (KA/m) a k (S/m) R2 (mm) H (mm) L (mm) n

5 1.19 835.8 0.72 2,000,000 40 7 48 14 66 5 30 12 41 6 50 12 66 6 26 12

last model from Design B used the dovetail groove. The material of the end caps for the last two models was aluminum. The results of each model, which were maximal coupling torque of PMC, were summarized in Table II in next subsection. The maximal torque is yielded when the twisted angle is half-a-pole pitch (Huang et al., 2001). 3.2 Experimental set-up The experimental set-up in order to measure the static coupling torques of PMCs was established as shown in Figure 10. The Z-positioning stage 1 is vertically mounted on the base 3, and the Z-stage driven and operated by manual, its stroke can be up to 250 mm in z-direction. The X-Y positioning stage 2 is stacked on the moving table of the Z-stage 1, this stage 2 with precision leadscrew and linear ball bearing can provide linear motion of 25 mm, respectively, in x- and y-direction. The inner rotor of the PMC 5 is connected coaxially to shaft of the torque sensor, 4 by mean of mechanical coupler. The torque sensor is vertically mounted on the angle bracket, which is fastened to the moving table of the X-Y positioning stage 2 by mean of a 234

analyzed in order to compute the coupling torques of the PMCs. The rst model was Design A with screws xing, the second model was also Design A using mucilage to adhesive only, and the third model was Design B with the T-shape groove and the

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Table II The results comparison of different models

Screws xing FEA (Nm) Experiment (Nm) Error (%) 61.4 60.9 0.8 Mucilage xing 71.2 72.3 1.5 T-shape groove xing 70.7 72.6 2.6 Dovetail groove xing 72.2 70.9 1.8

Figure 11 Schematic diagram of experimental design

Torque Sensor Amplifier

y x A/D Acquisition Card

Figure 10 Experimental set-up: (1) Z-positioning stage; (2) X-Y positioning stage; (3) base; (4) torque sensor; (5) PMC; (6) uz, ux positioning stage; (7) controller of torque sensor
z x y 4 x x z

AEMC 1 5 2 6 3
.

screw connection. uz, ux positioning stage 6, which can rotate range from 0 to 3608 about z-axis and from 0 to 58 about x-axis, respectively. The outer rotor of the PMC 5 is fastened to the chuck of the stage 6 by mean of a ange adapter. The torque sensor 4 used in this experiment is the ORT-803 type, and the controller of torque meter 7 is the TN-2 type of the Oriental Technology Company. The A/D acquisition card is the ADLINK PCI-9221, which is a 16-bit high-resolution multi-function data acquisition (DAQ) card, with 16-channel single terminal or eight-channel differential input capable of up to 250 kS/s sampling rate. The schematic diagram of the working principle of the experiment set-up is shown in Figure 11. The coaxiality between the inner and the outer rotor of the PMC can be set by the X-Y positioning stage; the coupling length between the inner and the outer rotor in axial direction can be adjusted by the Z-positioning stage; the slope angle of the outer rotor can be regulated by the ux positioning stage; while the torsional angle is implemented by the uz positioning stage. The maximal torque can be measured when the torsional angle was half-a-pole pitch. The torque value measured is output as frequency signal range from 5 to 15 kHz by mean of the torque sensor, and then it was translated to the analog voltage signal range from 2 5 to 5 V by the torque sensor amplier. Finally, the 16-bit high-resolution DAQ card was used to convert the analog voltage positional to digital signals range from 0 to 100 Nm. 3.3 Results and discussion The testing results from four types of PMC are summarized and compared with the results from FE simulation in Table II, and the following conclusions can be drawn: 235

The error between these two methods is less than 3 percent, which shows that the 3D FEA has a high accuracy. The method of using screws to x will decrease the maximal torque of PMC obviously. The countersunk hole on the magnet made the volume of magnet block decrease about 5 percent in the example of this paper, and the screw also changed the distribution of magnetic eld. The result showed that the maximal torque decreased about 15 percent compared with other models.

In order to discuss the inuence of the deviation length between the inner and the outer rotor in axial direction, and the slope angle of the outer rotor, the prototype for T-shape groove of PMC from Design B was taken as an experiment example. In Figure 12, the deviation length was set as four cases, which is 0, 5, 15 and 25 mm. When the deviation length changed less than 5 mm in this case, its inuence is small. However, when the deviation length changed more than 10 mm in this case, the maximal torque and the stiffness of PMC decreased greatly. Furthermore, the slope angle of the outer rotor has little inuence on the transmitted torque of PMC when the slope angle changed from 0 to 28 (Figure 13).

4. Application for constructing vacuum robots

The shafting of vacuum robot was designed which combined used the rotary direct drive technique and the magnetic force transmission technique. With a direct drive motor system, it is no need for mechanical linkage (gearbox, belt, etc.) between the payload and the motor. Thus, it does not exit the backlash, clearance, friction, or elasticity problems. This makes for a much stiffer and more easily controlled system. Furthermore, the direct drive solution reduces the number of components, simplies assembly and thus reduces the overall cost of the system. All this increase the dynamic performance and precision of the system, and help to create a cleaner robot with lower particulate contamination. The partial crosssection view of a drive section of the 2 DOF vacuum robot can be seen in Figure 14. In this design, the rotational and radial position of the arm was dependant upon the motion of the two rotary direct drive

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Figure 12 The inuence of deviation length

80 70 60 50 Torque (Nm) 40 30 20 10 0 10 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Torsion angle () 0 mm 5 mm 15 mm 25 mm

Figure 14 The partial cross-section view of a drive section of the 2 DOF vacuum robot: (1), (2) rotary direct drive system; (3), (4) outer parts of the PMC; (5) insulation shell; (6)-(9) concentric hollow drive shaft

8 9

5 4 7 3

Figure 13 The inuence of slope angle

80 70 60 50 Torque (Nm) 40 30 20 10 0 10 0 2 4 6 8 Torsion angle () 10 12 14 2 degree 0 degree

system 1, 2, which were arranged co-axially. Each drive system was functionally identical and mechanically similar, and each contained three elements: the drive motor, the rotary position encoder, and the drive shaft. The drive motor and the drive shaft both had a large, open, inner diameter. The hollow design allowed for tubing, xtures, rotary unions and wiring to travel up through the center of the shaft and the motor. The rotation of the arm was driven by the drive shaft 6, while the radial motion was driven by the shaft 7. The drive shaft 6 runs through the hollow shaft 7 and the direct drive system 2. The two concentric hollow drive shafts 6 and 7 connected the two outer parts of the PMC 3, 4, respectively, and the outer parts of PMC transmited torque to the inner parts by magnetic force through the insulation shell 5, which separated the atmospheric region and the vacuum region. The drive and control mechanisms for the arm were completely outside the insulation shell. The structure of the insulation shell was designed as a novel stepped type. It was helpful to simultaneously use two sets of magnetic couplings with different dimension to couple different axes, and the crosscoupling of multiple sets of PMC will decrease greatly 236

because of obviously different demension. In order to insure the demand of ultrahigh vacuum and highly clean environment and a higher reliability for the vacuum robot, the proposed Design B of T-shape groove and dovetail shape groove of PMC were used. Finially, the robot arm rotated and extended through the rotation of the two concentric hollow drive shafts 8 and 9 which attached to the inner parts of PMC.

5. Conclusion
Based on the analysis, simulations and measurement of all above PMC structure types, the conclusion can be obtained that the proposed Design B both had a lower contamination rate than the Design A; and they also had a higher transmission efciency than the screws xing type of Design A, and had higher connection reliability than the mucilage xing type of Design A. The maximal torque decreased about 15 percent for the screws xing type compared with other types. Besides, the inuences of the deviation length and the slope angle between the inner and the outer rotor were discussed. The results showed that when the deviation length changed less than 5 mm in this case, its inuence is small. However, when the deviation length changed more than 10 mm, the maximal torque and the stiffness of PMC decreased greatly. The slope angle of the outer rotor has little inuence on the transmitted torque of PMC when the slope angle changed from 0 to 28.

Design and fabrication of magnetic couplings Pinkuan Liu, Yulin Wang and Jun Wu

Industrial Robot: An International Journal Volume 36 Number 3 2009 230 237

Furthermore, the shafting of vacuum robot was introduced, and the proposed Design B of PMC was veried to be feasible and can be applied in the vacuum robot successfully.

References
Hornreich, R. and Shtrikman, S. (1978), Optimal design of synchronous torque couplers, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 14, pp. 800-2. Huang, S.M., Chen, W.L., Yau, C.H. and Sung, C.K. (2001), Effects of misalignment on the transmission characteristics of magnetic couplings, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, Vol. 215 No. 2, pp. 227-35.

Wang, Y.L., Liu, P.K. and Wu, J. (2008), Near-optimal design and 3D nite element analysis of multiple sets of radial magnetic couplings, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 44 No. 12, pp. 4747-53. Wu, W., Lovatt, H.C. and Dunlop, B. (1997), Analysis and design optimisation of magnetic couplings using 3D nite element modelling, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 33, pp. 4083-94. Yao, Y.D., Chiou, G.J., Huang, D.-R. and Wang, S.-J. (1995), Theoretical computations for the torque of magnetic coupling, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 31, pp. 1881-4.

Corresponding author
Pinkuan Liu can be contacted at: pkliu@sjtu.edu.cn

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