Gas film wafer transportation system

Claim 1

A manufacturing system comprising: (a) at least two processing stations for performing processing steps on an object being manufactured; (b) an air track creating a film of air, on the underside of said object, and with force components capable of both holding the object off of said track and moving the object along the track, and extending between said two processing stations for transporting the objects from one station to the other station, the operating level for processing the object in one station being either at a different elevation than the other station, or requires an angular orientation different from the other station, said air track having two sections of different angular orientation relative to each other; (c) an air track swivelator positioned between said two sections and having a pivot essentially centrally located in the planes of the two sections and normal to the path of the object being transported and being capable of being rotated 360° about said pivot, said swivelator comprising a sensor for detecting the presence of an object and a plurality of air jets for stopping the object, when detected, for attracting the object toward, but out of contact of, the surface of the swivelator during rotation, and for moving the object in either a forward or reverse direction after rotating the swivelator a predetermined number of degrees; and (d) means operable for providing an air flow so as to stop and hold said object on the air film, while said swivelator is rotated, and to move the object after rotation, whereby the object is moved from said one section of air track to said other section.