JP2000111252A - Vacuum dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a drying time of a material to be dried and to upgrade a surface state after drying by enabling a straightening plate to be set at a predetermined angle to a horizontal direction. SOLUTION: In the vacuum dryer 1, a straightening plate 4 can be regulated so that an angle θ formed to a horizontal direction falls within a range of 85 to 90 deg.. An opening/closing member 3 is opened, a rear surface (non-coated surface) side of a material S is dropped from an opening O of a chamber 2 so as to be opposed to a surface 4a of the plate 4, supported to a substrate support member 6, and its attitude is stabilized by a substrate guide member 7, and hence the material S can be set to a substantially vertical state. Thus, the material S can be dried in the state that the support member is always not brought into contact with a rear surface to a center side and no deflection occurs irrespective of surface adhering or the like. Accordingly, the adhering of the material S is altered, its preparing time can be shortened. The surface state after drying the material to be dried becomes excellent.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum drying apparatus, and more particularly to a vacuum drying apparatus capable of shortening a time required for drying including a preparation time and having a good drying surface of an object to be dried.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a color filter for LCD,
A coating liquid such as a resist liquid is applied to a glass substrate and dried,
A desired pattern is formed by photolithography or the like. Various coating methods such as a spin coating method, a knife coating method, a roll coating method, and a bead coating method are used as a coating liquid coating method. Regardless of the application method using any of these application methods, it is necessary to go through a drying step of the coating film before the pattern forming step.

Conventionally, a dried object such as a glass substrate to which a coating liquid has been applied has been dried by heating in an oven or a hot plate. However, the above-described heating method requires a long time for drying. As a result, in the above-described manufacturing process of the color filter for LCD, the drying process of the coating film on the glass substrate is the rate-determining step of all processes.

Therefore, in recent years, a vacuum drying device has been used as a device capable of shortening the time of the drying step.
In this method, a glass substrate on which a coating film is formed is placed in a vacuum chamber, and the evaporation rate of the solvent is dramatically increased.

[0005]

However, in the conventional vacuum drying apparatus, since the object to be dried is supported in a horizontal state by using the pins in the chamber, the portions where the pins abut on the back surface are in contact with the pins. There is a problem in that the solvent evaporation rate of the coating film differs between the portions not in contact with each other, and pin marks appear on the coated surface after drying. Therefore, the position of the support pin is
Even if pin marks appear on the coating surface, the quality is not affected, and it is provided at several locations outside the multi-patterned pattern formation region inside the substrate. However, depending on the type of the object to be dried, the positions of the support pins located inside the substrate must be changed, which requires time for preparation, which hinders shortening of the drying time. In addition, in the case of large-area imposition, for example, a support pin must be provided at the center of the substrate in order to prevent bending of the substrate, and it is inevitable that pin marks appear on the application surface. There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is possible to shorten the drying time of the object to be dried, and to perform vacuum drying in which the surface state of the object to be dried after drying is extremely good. It is intended to provide a device.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention has an exhaust port in a rear wall portion,
A chamber having an opening for loading / unloading on the upper surface, an opening / closing member for opening / closing the opening, and a rectifying plate disposed substantially parallel to the rear wall in the chamber at a predetermined interval. And a substrate support member provided so as to protrude from the lower end portion of the rectifying plate toward the front wall portion, and a plurality of substrate guides provided so as to protrude from the side end portion of the rectifying plate toward the front wall portion side. The vacuum chamber is configured so that the current plate can be set at an angle of 85 to 90 with respect to the horizontal direction.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a chamber having an exhaust port on a rear wall and an opening for carrying in and out on an upper surface, an opening and closing member for opening and closing the opening, A rectifying plate disposed substantially parallel to the rear wall portion at a predetermined interval, and a substrate supporting member provided so as to protrude from the lower end portion of the rectifying plate toward the front wall portion,
A plurality of substrate support pins provided so as to protrude from the vicinity of the side end of the rectifying plate toward the front wall, and the vacuum chamber forms an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to a horizontal direction in the vacuum chamber. The configuration is such that it can be set as follows.

Further, a third aspect of the present invention provides a chamber having an exhaust port in a rear wall portion, which can be opened by separating a front wall portion and a rear wall portion from each other; A rectifying plate disposed substantially parallel to the wall at a predetermined interval, a substrate support member provided to project from the lower end of the rectifying plate toward the front wall, and a side end of the rectifying plate A plurality of substrate support pins provided so as to protrude from the portion near the front wall side, and the vacuum chamber can be set such that the rectifying plate forms an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to a horizontal direction. Such a configuration was adopted.

In the present invention as described above, in a state where the back surface side of the current plate forms an angle of 85 to 90 ° with respect to the horizontal direction,
Since the substrate guide member guides and holds the side end of the object to be dried and the substrate support member supports the lower end of the object to be dried, the object to be dried does not abut the support member on the back surface near the center, and is bent. Drying is performed in a state where there is no, and the substrate supporting member supports the lower end of the object to be dried in a state where the back surface side of the current plate is at an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to the horizontal direction, and the substrate supporting pins are Since the vicinity of the side end portion of the object to be dried is supported, the object to be dried is subjected to the drying process without abutting the support member on the back surface near the center and with almost no bending, and the current plate is provided with the object to be dried. The exhaust path from the outlet to the exhaust port in the rear wall is made uniform.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The first invention Figure 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a vacuum drying apparatus of the first aspect of the invention, the vacuum drying device 2 is shown in Figure 1 A-
3 is a perspective view of a current plate of the vacuum drying apparatus shown in FIG. 2. 1 to 3,
The vacuum drying apparatus 1 of the present invention includes a chamber 2 and a current plate 4 provided inside the chamber 2.

The chamber 2 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape including opposed front and rear walls 2A and 2B, a bottom plate 2C, opposed side walls 2D and 2D, and an upper surface 2E. Upper part 2E
Is formed with an opening O for carrying in and out the object to be dried, and an opening / closing member 3 for opening and sealing this opening O.
Are rotatably installed.

The current plate 4 is disposed on the rear wall 2B via a plurality of support members 5 so as to be substantially parallel to each other. The current plate 4 may be formed of a material such as aluminum, SUS, iron, copper, or resin.
Is preferably equal to or more than the area of the object S to be dried. Further, the periphery of the current plate 4 and the bottom plate 2C, the side walls 2D, 2D, and the upper surface 2E of the chamber 2 (opening / closing member 3).
It is preferable to dispose the current plate 4 so that the distance from the current plate is as uniform as possible. Further, the current plate 4 and the rear wall 2B
It is preferable to set the space as small as possible after securing a necessary exhaust path and miniaturizing the apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 3, the current plate 4 is
A plurality (two in the illustrated example) of substrate support members 6 are provided so as to protrude from the lower end 4b in the direction of the front wall 2A, and are provided so as to protrude in the direction of the front wall 2A from each side end 4c. (In the illustrated example, two on each of the left and right sides). The substrate supporting member 6 is for supporting the object to be dried S indicated by a virtual line (two-dot chain line) in FIGS. 2 and 3. Further, the substrate guide member 7 is formed in a hook shape in a rectangular shape, and the substrate S to be dried supported by the substrate support member 6.
Is held by the hooks 7a to prevent the object to be dried S from inclining in the direction of the front wall 2A or the direction of the current plate 4, and separate the object to be dried S from the surface 4a of the current plate 4 at a desired distance. To stabilize the posture. Such a substrate support member 6 includes:
A material formed of a material such as aluminum, SUS, iron, copper, or resin can be used.
A material formed by selecting a material that does not damage the object to be dried S by friction or the like from the above materials can be used.

An exhaust port 9 is provided in the rear wall 2B. This exhaust port 9 is one in the illustrated example, and is disposed so as to be located substantially at the center of the current plate 4, and the gas in the chamber 2 on the surface 4 a side of the current plate 4 is removed from the peripheral portion of the current plate 4. It is configured to uniformly exhaust (the exhaust path indicated by the arrow in FIG. 2). The area of the exhaust port 9 is preferably equal to or less than the area obtained by subtracting the area of the current plate 4 from the area of the rear wall 2B. Note that a plurality of exhaust ports 9 may be provided. In this case as well, the exhaust ports 9 are arranged at positions where the gas in the chamber 2 on the surface 4 a side of the current plate 4 can be uniformly sucked from the peripheral portion of the current plate 4.

The vacuum drying apparatus 1 can be adjusted so that the angle θ formed by the current plate 4 with respect to the horizontal direction is in the range of 85 to 90 °. Then, the opening / closing member 3 is opened and the back surface (non-coating surface) side of the dried object S is lowered from the opening O of the chamber 2 so as to face the surface 4 a of the rectifying plate 4, and is supported by the substrate support member 6. By causing the substrate guide member 7 to stabilize the posture, the object S to be dried can be set to a substantially vertical state. Thereby, the object to be dried S
Irrespective of imposition or the like, the drying process can be performed in a state where the support member does not always contact the back surface near the center and in a state where there is no bending. Therefore, even if the imposition of the object to be dried S is changed, the time required for preparation is extremely short. In addition, the drying time can be reduced without deteriorating the surface state of the object S to be dried, and the surface state of the object to be dried after drying becomes extremely good. Current plate 4
Is most preferably 90 °, and if it is less than 85 °, the chamber 2
It is somewhat difficult to carry in and out by moving up and down. Further, when the angle of the current plate 4 with respect to the horizontal direction exceeds 90 °, the coating film of the drying target S is always in contact with the substrate guide member 7 and the uncured coating liquid easily adheres to the drying target S. It is not preferable because it causes contamination.

The material of the chamber 2 is not particularly limited, and the internal volume, internal shape and the like are not limited to those shown in the figures, and can be appropriately set in consideration of the object to be dried. Second Invention FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the vacuum drying apparatus of the second invention, and FIG.
6 is a perspective view of a current plate of the vacuum drying apparatus shown in FIG. 5. 4 to 6,
The vacuum drying device 11 of the present invention includes a chamber 12 and a current plate 14 provided inside the chamber 12.

The chamber 12 is provided with the above-described vacuum drying apparatus 1.
Like the chamber 2, the front wall portion 12A and the rear wall portion 12B facing each other, the bottom plate portion 12C, and the side wall portions 12D and 12
D and an upper surface portion 12E. An opening O for carrying in and out the object to be dried is formed in the upper surface 12E, and an opening / closing member 13 is rotatably installed in the opening O.

The current plate 14 is disposed substantially parallel to the rear wall portion 12B via a plurality of support members 15, similarly to the current plate 4 of the vacuum drying apparatus 1 described above. The area of the current plate 14, the distance between the peripheral portion of the current plate 14 and each inner wall of the chamber 12, and the distance between the current plate 14 and the rear wall portion 12 </ b> B are the same as those of the current plate 4 of the vacuum drying device 1 described above. Can be set in the range.

As shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of (two in the illustrated example) substrate support members 1 provided so as to protrude from the lower end 14b in the direction of the front wall 12A, as shown in FIG.
6 and the front wall 12A from the surface 14a near the side end 14c.
And a plurality of (five in each of the left and right in the illustrated example) provided so as to protrude in the direction. The substrate supporting member 16 is for supporting the lower end portion of the dried object S indicated by a virtual line (two-dot chain line) in FIGS. 5 and 6. In addition, the substrate support pins 18 are used to connect the drying target S to the current plate 1.
4 to hold it at a desired distance from the surface 14a, and may have any shape such as a conical shape, a cylindrical shape, and a prismatic shape. The disposition position of the substrate support pins 18 is set so as to be at the peripheral portion of the object S to be dried, which does not affect the quality even if a pin mark appears on the application surface. Bending prevention (bending amount 10m
m or less) is preferable in the range of 200 to 300 mm. Such a substrate support member 16 is made of aluminum, S
What was formed with materials, such as US, iron, copper, and resin, can be used. The substrate support pin 18 can be selected from the above materials so as not to damage the object S due to friction or the like.

One exhaust port 19 is provided in the rear wall 12B of the chamber 12 so as to be located substantially at the center of the current plate 14, and the gas in the chamber 12 on the surface 14a side of the current plate 14 is provided. From the periphery of the current plate 14 (exhaust path indicated by an arrow in FIG. 5). It should be noted that a plurality of exhaust ports 19 may be provided, and in this case as well, the exhaust ports 19 are provided at positions where the gas in the chamber 12 on the surface 14 a side of the current plate 14 can be uniformly sucked from the peripheral portion of the current plate 14.

Such a vacuum drying device 11 includes the current plate 1
4 can be adjusted so that the angle θ with respect to the horizontal direction is in the range of 70 to 85 °. And the opening and closing member 13
Is opened, and the object to be dried S is moved from the opening O of the chamber 12 to the front surface 14a of the current plate 14 on the back surface (non-coating surface) side.
The object to be dried S can be held by being carried in such a manner as to face the substrate and supported by the substrate support member 16 and the substrate support pins 18. In the vacuum drying device 11 of the present invention,
By holding the object to be dried S in such a state that the object to be dried S is slightly inclined from the vertical state, contact between the coating film of the object to be dried S and the substrate supporting member or the like can be eliminated, and the uncured part of the substrate supporting member or the like can be removed. It is possible to prevent the coating liquid from adhering to cause contamination of the dried object S. In addition, the drying target S can be subjected to the drying process in a state where the support member does not always contact the back surface near the center and there is almost no bending regardless of the imposition or the like. Therefore, even if the imposition of the object to be dried S is changed, the time required for preparation is extremely short. In addition, the drying time can be shortened without deteriorating the surface condition, and the surface condition of the object to be dried within a necessary range after drying becomes extremely good. The above-mentioned current plate 1
If the angle of 4 with respect to the horizontal direction is less than 70 °, bending of the dried object S supported by the plurality of substrate holding pins 18 becomes large, and handling by a robot becomes difficult, which is not preferable. On the other hand, if the angle of the current plate 14 with respect to the horizontal direction exceeds 85 °, the danger of the dried object S falling in the direction of the front wall portion 12A due to some external force increases, which is not preferable.

The material of the chamber 12 is not particularly limited, and the internal volume, internal shape, and the like are not limited to those shown in the drawings, and can be appropriately set in consideration of the object to be dried. Third Invention FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the vacuum drying apparatus of the third invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line C of FIG. 7 and 8, the vacuum drying apparatus 21 of the present invention includes a chamber 22 and a current plate 24 provided inside the chamber 22.

The chamber 22 has a front wall portion 22A opposed thereto.
And the rear wall portion 22B, and the opposed bottom plate portion 22C and the upper surface portion 22
E, a rectangular parallelepiped shape including opposing side wall portions 22D, 22D, and the constituent members of another chamber 22 can be separated from and connected to the rear wall portion 22B in the direction of arrow a.

The current plate 24 has the same structure as that of the current plate 14 of the vacuum drying apparatus 11 described above. That is, the current plate 24 is disposed on the rear wall portion 22B so as to be substantially parallel to the rear wall portion 22B via the plurality of support members 25.
A plurality (two in the illustrated example) of the substrate support members 26 provided to protrude in the 2A direction, and a plurality (FIG. 9) provided to protrude in the direction of the front wall 22A from the surface 24a near the side end 24c. In the illustrated example, five (left and right) substrate support pins 28 are provided. The area of the current plate 24, the distance between the peripheral portion of the current plate 24 and each inner wall of the chamber 22, and the distance between the current plate 24 and the rear wall portion 22B are the same as those of the current plate 4 of the vacuum drying apparatus 1 described above. Can be set in the range. The arrangement interval and the like of the substrate support pins 28 are determined by the above-described vacuum drying apparatus 1.
It can be set in the same range as that of the first rectifying plate 14.

One exhaust port 29 is provided in the rear wall 22B of the chamber 22 so as to be located substantially at the center of the current plate 24, and the gas inside the chamber 22 on the surface 24a side of the current plate 24 is provided. From the periphery of the current plate 24 (exhaust path indicated by an arrow in FIG. 8). It should be noted that a plurality of exhaust ports 29 may be provided, and also in this case, the exhaust ports 29 are arranged at positions where the gas in the chamber 22 on the surface 24 a side of the current plate 24 can be uniformly sucked from the peripheral portion of the current plate 24.

Such a vacuum drying device 21 includes a current plate 2
4 can be adjusted so as to form an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to the horizontal direction. Then, the constituent members of the other chamber 22 are separated from the rear wall portion 22 </ b> B to be in an open state (a state indicated by a dashed line in FIG. 8). (Non-applied surface) side is rectifying plate 24
Of the substrate supporting member 2
The object to be dried S can be held by being supported by the substrate 6 and the substrate support pins 28. By holding the object to be dried S in such a state that the object to be dried S is slightly inclined from the vertical state, contact between the coating film of the object to be dried S and the substrate supporting member or the like can be eliminated, and the uncured part of the substrate supporting member or the like can be removed. It is possible to prevent the coating liquid from adhering to cause contamination of the dried object S. Also, regardless of the imposition or the like, the object to be dried S is always in a state in which the support member does not contact the back surface near the center, and
Drying can be performed in a state where there is almost no bending. Therefore, even if the imposition of the dried object S is changed,
The time required for preparation is extremely short. In addition, the drying time can be shortened without deteriorating the surface condition, and the surface condition within a necessary range after the drying of the object to be dried becomes extremely good. If the angle of the above-mentioned current plate 24 with respect to the horizontal direction is less than 70 °, the bending of the object to be dried S supported by the plurality of substrate support pins 28 becomes large, and handling by a robot becomes difficult, which is not preferable. On the other hand, if the angle of the current plate 24 with respect to the horizontal direction exceeds 85 °, the danger of the dried object S falling in the direction of the front wall portion 22A due to some external force increases, which is not preferable.

The material of the chamber 22 is not particularly limited, and the internal volume, internal shape, and the like are not limited to those shown in the drawings, and can be appropriately set in consideration of the material to be dried.

In the present invention, the object to be dried is not particularly limited, and may be a substrate provided with a coating film formed by various methods such as die coating, gravure coating, shoe coating, and spin coating.

[0030]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect, the rear surface side of the current plate is covered by only the substrate supporting member and the substrate guiding member with the back surface at an angle of 85 to 90 degrees with respect to the horizontal direction. Since the dried body is supported, the body to be dried can be subjected to the drying treatment without bending without the support member being in contact with the back surface near the center, and the surface state of the body to be dried after drying is supported. Very good without any traces of the members.
In the second and third inventions, the object to be dried is supported by the substrate support member and the substrate support pins in a state where the back surface side of the current plate is at an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to the horizontal direction. The body can be subjected to the drying process without the support member abutting on the back surface near the center and with little bending at the above-mentioned inclination angle, and the surface condition of the body to be dried after drying affects quality. There is no trace of the supporting member except for the outer peripheral portion which is not so excellent. And, in the present invention, the work of changing the position of the support pin by changing the imposition of the object to be dried as seen in the conventional vacuum drying apparatus is unnecessary, and the preparation time can be greatly reduced. High-quality drying can be performed regardless of the imposition even on a large-area substrate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of a vacuum drying device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the vacuum drying apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a current plate of the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of a vacuum drying device of the present invention.

5 is a cross-sectional view of the vacuum drying apparatus shown in FIG. 4 taken along line BB.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a current plate of the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of a vacuum drying device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the vacuum drying apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 11, 21 ... vacuum drying apparatus 2, 12, 22 ... chamber 2A, 12A, 22A ... front wall 2B, 12B, 22B ... rear wall 2C, 12C, 22C ... bottom plate 2D, 12D, 22D ... side wall 2E, 12E, 22E: Upper surface part 3, 13: Opening / closing member 4, 14, 24 ... Rectifying plate 6, 16, 26 ... Substrate support member 7: Substrate guide member 18, 28 ... Substrate support pin 9, 19, 29 ... Exhaust Mouth S ... body to be dried

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Akira Amada 1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Inside Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masaharu Kanazawa 1-1-1, Ichigaga-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo No. 1 Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 3L113 AA01 AB10 AC23 AC45 AC46 AC49 AC54 AC55 AC63 AC67 AC75 AC76 AC79 BA34 DA08 DA10 DA24

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A chamber having an exhaust port on a rear wall portion and an opening for carrying in and out on an upper surface portion, an opening / closing member for opening and closing the opening portion, and a rear wall portion inside the chamber. A rectifying plate disposed substantially in parallel with a predetermined interval, a substrate supporting member provided to protrude from the lower end of the rectifying plate toward the front wall, and a front end from a side end of the rectifying plate. A plurality of substrate guide members provided so as to protrude toward the wall, and the chamber can be set so that the rectifying plate forms an angle of 85 to 90 ° with respect to a horizontal direction. Vacuum drying equipment. 2. A chamber having an exhaust port on a rear wall portion and an opening for carrying in and out on an upper surface portion, an opening / closing member for opening and closing the opening portion, A rectifying plate disposed substantially in parallel with a predetermined interval, a substrate supporting member provided so as to protrude from the lower end of the rectifying plate to the front wall portion side, and from a vicinity of a side end of the rectifying plate. A plurality of substrate supporting pins provided so as to protrude toward the front wall side, wherein the chamber can be set so that the rectifying plate forms an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to a horizontal direction. Vacuum drying equipment. 3. A chamber having an exhaust port in a rear wall portion, which can be opened by separating the front wall portion and the rear wall portion from each other, and a predetermined distance between the rear wall portion in the chamber. A rectifying plate disposed substantially parallel to the rectifying plate, a substrate support member provided to protrude from the lower end of the rectifying plate toward the front wall, and a front wall from the vicinity of a side end of the rectifying plate. A plurality of substrate support pins provided so as to protrude to the side, and wherein the chamber can be set so that the rectifying plate forms an angle of 70 to 85 ° with respect to a horizontal direction. apparatus.