A gripper device includes a holding portion that is attached to an elevating section capable of lifting and lowering above a transfer section to hold an article, a first positioning section that is attached to the elevating section and that positions the holding portion in a horizontal direction with respect to the article by contacting the article at two first contact positions in an upper portion of the article, and a second positioning section that is attached to the elevating section and that positions the holding portion in a height direction with respect to the article by contacting the article at three second contact positions that are not located on a straight line in the upper portion of the article.

The present application discloses a material handling system and a monitoring system and a monitoring method for particles in a traveling area of overhead hoist transfers, wherein the monitoring system for particles in the overhead hoist transfer traveling area comprises gas sampling modules, a particle counter and a monitoring device. The gas sampling module is configured to obtain the gas to be tested around traveling wheels of each overhead hoist transfer (OHT). The particle counter is configured to test the gas to be tested for the size and number of particles in the gas to be tested. The monitoring device is electrically connected to the particle counter, and is configured to acquire the size and number of the particles tested and alarm when determining that the content of particles does not meet a preset standard.

A gripper device includes a pair of engaging portions attached to an elevating section capable of lifting and lowering above an article and respectively engageable with the pair of held portions, and a driver to move the pair of engaging portions from a standby position where a distance between the pair of engaging portions is shorter than an interval between the pair of held portions, to an engaging position where the pair of engaging portions is capable of engaging with the pair of held portions, such that the pair of engaging portions separate from one another.

Disclosed is an article transfer apparatus. The article transfer apparatus includes a vehicle that travels along a driving rail installed on a ceiling, a hoist module that picks up an article-to-be-transferred, a vehicle body, on which the hoist module is mounted and which is connected to the vehicle, a drop preventing member provided in the vehicle body, and that prevents the article-to-be-transferred from dropping while the vehicle travels, and a controller that receives loading/unloading information of the article-to-be transferred to determine a size of the article-to-be-transferred, and to drive the drop preventing member according to a size of the article-to-be transferred.

Embodiments of equipment front end modules (EFEMs) are provided herein. In some embodiments, an EFEM includes: two or more loadports for receiving two or more types of substrates; an overhead storage unit having a plurality of storage shelves disposed above the two or more loadports and configured to hold two or more types of front opening unified pods (FOUPs) of different sizes that store the two or more types of substrates, respectively, wherein a horizontal alley is disposed between the plurality of storage shelves and the two or more loadports to provide a horizontal passageway for the FOUPs during transport to the two or more loadports; and an overhead transport system having a pair of vertical actuators disposed on opposite sides of the overhead storage unit and configured to transport FOUPs from the overhead storage unit to the two or more loadports.

Provided are a flow supply apparatus and supply method. The flow supply apparatus, comprising: a rail; a transport unit disposed on the rail, where an object is loaded; and a gas treatment unit provided on the transport unit and configured to purge the object. The object includes a FOUP with a substrate accommodated therein, and fume is removed from the substrate through the purging.

A method of operating an article transport system includes deriving a predicted transport request time-point of a target apparatus from pre-collected operation data of the article transport system, calling a transport vehicle of the article transport system at a time-point prior to the derived predicted transport request time-point, and moving the called transport vehicle to the target apparatus.

A management device for a substrate processing system and a management method for the substrate processing system are provided to allow an operation work in charge of an overhead hoist transport (OHT) control system to know an inspection work end state using an inspection work state, when an inspector performs inspection work of a manufacturing facility using an OHT. The management device includes a tag for inspector that transmits location information for inspector, a repeater that interworks with the tag for inspector to relay the location information for inspector, and an OHT control system including a location information converter that interworks with the repeater to receive the location information for inspector and converts the location information for inspector into location coordinates for inspector.

Provided is a transferring apparatus for transferring a container in which an article is accommodated. The transferring apparatus may include a first rail, a second rail located below the first rail, and a transfer unit located on the sides of the first rail and the second rail, and configured to transfer the container between a first vehicle traveling on the first rail and a second vehicle traveling on the second rail, in which the transfer unit may include a frame having an elevation space therein, and an elevation member for elevating the container between a first position transferring the first vehicle and the container and a second position transferring the second vehicle and the container, in the elevation space.

A wafer transportation pod includes a body, a main compartment enclosed by the body, the main compartment to provide a controlled environment, a holding device within the main compartment, the holding device to hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers, a top latching mechanism configured to connect to another pod or a carrier mechanism of an overhead hoist transfer (OHT) system, a bottom latching mechanism configured to connect to another pod, the bottom latching mechanism being similar to the latching mechanism on the carrier.