JP2000158317A - Rubbing method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform rubbing of a liquid crystal board with high accuracy and evenness by eliminating problems such as roller vibration and dust adhesion. SOLUTION: A pair of rollers 11 and 12 are each rotatably provided separated at a predetermined interval in a vertical direction. An endless belt 13 including a rubbing cloth for liquid crystal polishing on an outer surface is travelably wound between the rollers 11 and 12. A liquid crystal is brought into contact with the rubbing cloth of the endless belt 13 while the endless belt is traveling for performing rubbing of the liquid crystal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method for rubbing a liquid crystal in order to make the alignment of the liquid crystal constant, and an apparatus used for the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art
In order to orient the liquid crystal alignment film in a fixed direction, a roller covered with a rubbing cloth is rotated on the surface of the liquid crystal substrate. The rubbing cloth has fluff, and by touching the ends of the bristles, many thin lines are formed on the surface of the liquid crystal in a certain direction, and the detailed mechanism has not been elucidated yet. Is constant.

[0003] This conventional rubbing apparatus has a configuration shown in FIG. That is, the liquid crystal substrate a is fixed on a horizontal surface,
The rubbing cloth c of the roller b rubs the liquid crystal substrate a by the roller b on which the rubbing cloth c is adhered traveling on the liquid crystal substrate a while rotating about the horizontal axis.

[0004] However, the conventional rubbing device has a problem that the groove generated in the liquid crystal substrate is not uniform due to the vibration generated when the roller b rotates.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned conventional rubbing process, lint of the rubbing cloth which has been torn off due to friction is generated as dust. Therefore, when the operation is performed with the liquid crystal substrate horizontal, the dust adheres to the surface of the liquid crystal substrate. There is a problem in that the liquid crystal substrate is rubbed due to dust or entanglement, so that unnecessary groove lines are formed on the liquid crystal substrate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for uniformly rubbing a liquid crystal substrate with high accuracy.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following objects. (1) A pair of rollers are rotatably arranged at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction, and a pair of outer rollers are provided between the two rollers. A liquid crystal rubbing method comprising: wrapping an endless belt having a rubbing cloth for liquid crystal polishing so that the liquid crystal can be run, and bringing the liquid crystal into contact with the rubbing cloth of the belt while running the endless belt to rub the liquid crystal. 2) a pair of rollers arranged rotatably at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction, an endless belt wound rotatably between the two rollers, and having a rubbing cloth for polishing liquid crystal on its outer surface; A liquid crystal holding member which is disposed outside the liquid crystal holding member and holds the liquid crystal to contact the liquid crystal with the rubbing cloth; and a liquid crystal holding member provided inside the belt opposite to the liquid crystal holding member. And a backup plate for supporting the belt when the liquid crystal comes into contact with the rubbing cloth, and rubbing the liquid crystal by pressing the liquid crystal against the rubbing cloth of the belt while running the belt. Provide equipment.

According to the present invention, the liquid crystal is brought into contact with the rubbing cloth of the belt while running the belt while supporting the belt with the backup plate. Therefore, compared with the conventional technology in which a roller on which a rubbing cloth is attached is brought into contact with a liquid crystal substrate and the roller is moved horizontally while rotating the roller about a horizontal axis, the vibration of the roller is applied when rubbing the liquid crystal substrate. Since there is no influence and the entire surface of the liquid crystal substrate can be brought into contact with the belt at the same time, the time for rubbing can be reduced, and rubbing can be performed uniformly with high accuracy.

Further, in the present invention, since the belt is wound between a pair of rollers arranged in the vertical direction and travels in the vertical direction, the rubbing is performed with the liquid crystal standing upright. It is. Therefore, by setting the liquid crystal substrate upright in this way, the dust generated when rubbing the liquid crystal falls down and adheres to the liquid crystal surface, or entangles the dust and rubs the liquid crystal. This eliminates the occurrence of extra groove streaks in the liquid crystal, and enables uniform rubbing with high precision.

[0010] Further, since the dust falls downward as described above, it is possible to collect the dust by installing a dust collecting device below the liquid crystal substrate.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a rubbing device according to the present invention. The rubbing device includes a belt driving device 1 for rotating a rubbing cloth belt at a constant speed, a liquid crystal holding device 2 for fixing and holding a liquid crystal substrate, a work table feeding device 3 for bringing the liquid crystal substrate into contact with the rubbing cloth belt, and a backup plate. 4 is provided.

The belt driving device 1 has a pair of rollers 11 and 12 rotatably disposed at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction, and is rotatably wound between the rollers 11 and 12. And an endless belt 13. In this case, the one roller 12 is a drive roller, and this roller 12 is connected to a drive motor 15 via a drive belt 14. When the motor 15 is driven, the roller 12 The endless belt 13 rotates in the vertical direction integrally therewith. In addition, the other roller (subordinate roller) 11 also rotates.

Here, a rubbing cloth is adhered to the outer surface of the endless belt 13. The rubbing cloth may be made of any material that can polish the surface of the liquid crystal in order to make the orientation of the liquid crystal constant. For example, a rubbing cloth can be used.

The liquid crystal holding device 2 includes a work table 21 supported by a ball screw 31 of a work table feeding device 3 described later. The lower end of a liquid crystal substrate angle adjusting cylinder 22 is rotatably connected to a first leg 21a of the work table 21 supported by the ball screw 31 by a pin 23. The rod 24 supported so that the work table 2
1 and projecting obliquely upward.
The upper end of the liquid crystal holding member 25 has a pin 2
6 are connected rotatably. The other end of the back surface of the liquid crystal holding member 25 is rotatably connected to an upper portion of a support 27 fixed on the work table 21 by a pin 28. Then, the liquid crystal holding member 25 is rotated by 90 ° as shown in FIG. 3 by rotating the cylinder 22 and moving the rod 24 in and out of the cylinder 22 by a driving device (not shown). It is held in a horizontal state or a vertical state.

Here, the inside of the liquid crystal holding member 25 is evacuated by a vacuum device (not shown), and the liquid crystal LC is sucked and held on the surface of the holding member 25.

In the drawing, reference numeral 21b denotes the ball screw 31.
The second leg is supported by the second leg.

The work table feeding device 3 gives a linear motion to the work table 21 by rotating the bearings 33 and the ball screws 31 supported by the bearings 34 by the work table feeding servo motor 32. Liquid crystal holding member 2 of work table 21
5 allows the liquid crystal substrate LC held and fixed to be brought into contact with the rubbing cloth of the endless belt 13. The degree of contact of the liquid crystal substrate LC with the rubbing cloth is as follows.
The use of the ball screw 31 can be performed with high accuracy.

The backup plate 4 is disposed inside the endless belt 13 so as to be in contact with the inner surface of the belt 13. In the rubbing state as shown in (1), it is provided so as to face the liquid crystal LC.

As shown in FIG. 2, a dust collecting device 5 is provided below the position of the liquid crystal LC when the liquid crystal LC is rubbed, thereby collecting dust w generated when the liquid crystal LC is rubbed. It is possible to do. The dust is assisted to fall downward by the air supplied from above the liquid crystal substrate, and is sucked and collected by the suction device 41 installed below.

When rubbing liquid crystal using the above-described liquid crystal rubbing apparatus, first, the cylinder 22 and the rod 24 are rubbed.
Is driven to bring the liquid crystal holding member 25 into the horizontal state shown in FIG. In this state, the vacuum device is operated, and the liquid crystal holding member 2
5 is evacuated, and the liquid crystal LC is adsorbed and held on the surface.
Next, the cylinder 22 and the rod 24 are driven, and the liquid crystal L
The liquid crystal holding member 25 that adsorbs C is held in a vertical state as shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. On the other hand, the drive motor 15 is driven to rotate the roller 12 via the belt 14 to make the endless belt 13 run around. Further, the servo motor 32 is driven to feed the ball screw 31 by a predetermined distance, and the liquid crystal holding member 25 is advanced toward the belt 13 integrally therewith, and the liquid crystal LC is brought into contact with the rubbing cloth of the belt 13 so that the liquid crystal LC is discharged. Rubbing is performed, whereby the liquid crystal forms many thin lines in the running direction of the belt 13 due to the tip of the bristle of the rubbing cloth, and the alignment film of the liquid crystal is oriented in a certain direction.

Therefore, according to the above method, when the liquid crystal is brought into contact with the rubbing cloth of the belt 13, the belt 13 is supported from the inside by the backup plate 4.
Does not bend in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the liquid crystal,
Vibration of the driving roller 12 is not directly transmitted to the liquid crystal during liquid crystal rubbing, and rubbing can be performed with high accuracy and uniformity.

In the rubbing operation of the liquid crystal,
The running speed of the belt 13 is 0.5 to 50 m / min.
The speed is preferably 30 m / min, whereby the above-mentioned effect is reliably achieved.

Further, in the above method, the liquid crystal surface is rubbed while being held in a vertical state, so that dust and the like from the rubbing cloth generated at this time fall down and hardly adhere to the liquid crystal surface. High precision and uniform rubbing is performed. Note that dust and the like are collected in the dust collector as described above,
Removed.

Further, after the liquid crystal is rubbed as described above, the ball screw is retracted to separate the liquid crystal from the rubbing cloth, and the cylinder 22 and the rod 24 are driven so that the liquid crystal holding member 25 is in a horizontal state, and the liquid crystal is rubbed. The vacuum state of the holding member 25 is released, and the rubbed liquid crystal is removed from the liquid crystal holding member 25.
However, since the liquid crystal can be attached to and detached from the liquid crystal holding member 25 in a state where the liquid crystal holding member 25 is horizontal, the operability is good.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified. For example,
In the above-described embodiment, the vacuum suction plate is used to fix the liquid crystal substrate, but the method is not limited as long as the liquid crystal substrate is fixed so as not to move. In addition, a cylinder is used to flip the liquid crystal substrate from horizontal to vertical, but since it is oriented horizontally to improve workability,
The method is not particularly limited. Further, the work table is moved by the ball screw in order to bring the liquid crystal substrate into contact with the rubbing cloth belt. In other words, any other method can be adopted as long as the work table can be contacted with high accuracy. Other configurations may be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0027]

According to the present invention, as described above, the liquid crystal substrate can be rubbed with high accuracy and uniformity by rubbing the rubbing cloth in a belt shape and rubbing the liquid crystal substrate in an upright state. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a rubbing device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a case where a dust collecting device is installed in the rubbing device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the movement of a liquid crystal holding member of the rubbing device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a main part of a conventional rubbing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Belt drive device 2 Liquid crystal holding device 3 Work table feed device 4 Backup plate 11 Roller 12 Roller 13 Endless belt 14 Drive belt 15 Drive motor 21 Work table 21a First leg 21b Second leg 22 Liquid crystal substrate angle adjusting cylinder 23 Pin 24 Rod 25 Liquid crystal holding member 26 Pin 27 Support 28 Pin 31 Ball screw 32 Servo motor 33 Bearing 34 Bearing LC Liquid crystal substrate w Dust 41 Suction machine

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pair of rollers are rotatably arranged at a predetermined interval in a vertical direction, and an endless belt having a liquid crystal polishing rubbing cloth on an outer surface is run between the two rollers so as to run. A liquid crystal rubbing method comprising rubbing a liquid crystal by bringing a liquid crystal into contact with a rubbing cloth of the endless belt while running the belt. 2. An endless belt which is rotatably disposed between said two rollers and rotatably disposed between said two rollers and has a liquid crystal polishing rubbing cloth on an outer surface thereof. A liquid crystal holding member that is provided outside the belt and holds the liquid crystal to contact the liquid crystal with the rubbing cloth; and a liquid crystal holding member is provided inside the belt facing the liquid crystal holding member, and the liquid crystal is applied to the rubbing cloth. A backup plate that supports the belt when contacted,
A liquid crystal rubbing device, wherein the liquid crystal is rubbed by pressing the liquid crystal against a rubbing cloth of the belt while running the belt.