JP2000301048A - Method and device for arraying minute bodies - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the method and device for arraying minute bodies by which a lot of minute bodies can closely be arrayed uniformly in the height direction with high efficiency to an object on which adhesive materials are arranged. SOLUTION: This device for arraying minute bodies B on an object 71, on which adhesive materials 72 are arranged, is provided with a minute body feeding means 23 for feeding the minute bodies B onto the adhesive materials 72 of the object 71, an aligning means 30 acting as aligning the fed minute bodies B at almost prescribed height and integrally provided with the feeding means 23, and an arranging means 4 for pressing the minute bodies B aligned at the almost prescribed height W to arrange them at prescribed height W1 with respect to the object 71.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an arrangement apparatus and an arrangement method for arranging a large number of microscopic objects on an object on which an adhesive is arranged.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A substrate for a screen (described later) used in a rear projector or the like has a structure in which a large number of glass beads are arranged on an optical glass plate (glass substrate) via an adhesive. In the manufacturing process of such a screen substrate, the worker presses the beads against the adhesive while wearing gloves so that the beads are arranged without gaps. The quality of the arrangement is checked by each worker based on visual observation.

[0003]

However, in such a checking method, the results of the check tend to vary among operators, and it is difficult to keep the arrangement of beads constant. In particular, it was difficult to arrange beads at a uniform height on an optical glass plate. Accordingly, there has been a growing demand for automating the bead arranging process.

In order to meet such demands, recently, glass beads having a necessary amount are supplied at once from a supply means to the vicinity of an end of a glass plate on which an adhesive material is arranged (here, coated), and the supplied glass beads are supplied to the glass plate at once. A method has been proposed in which a squeegee arranged separately from the means attempts to uniformly arrange the adhesive surface.

[0005] However, such a method involves a single-wafer processing (processing of one glass plate at a time), and thus has a problem of low productivity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to improve the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to uniformly arrange a large number of microscopic objects on an object on which an adhesive material is arranged, without any gaps, with uniform height and efficiency. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for arranging microscopic bodies and an apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies, which can be arranged in a uniform manner.

[0007]

The method for arranging microscopic objects according to the present invention is directed to a method for arranging microscopic objects on an object on which an adhesive material is disposed, wherein the method comprises the steps of: A step of supplying the microscopic object on the material by a microscopic object supply means, and a step of aligning the supplied microscopic objects to a substantially predetermined height by an alignment means provided integrally with the microscopic object supply means And a step of pressing each of the aligned minute bodies by an arrangement means to set the height of the minute bodies in the object to a predetermined height.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for arranging microscopic objects, wherein the microscopic objects are arranged on an object on which an adhesive material is arranged. The micro-body supply means and the function of aligning each of the supplied micro bodies to a substantially predetermined height, the alignment means provided integrally with the micro-body supply means, and the aligned micro bodies Arranging means for pressing the minute body in the object to a predetermined height.

According to the present invention, when arranging the minute objects on the object on which the adhesive material is arranged, the minute object supply means supplies the minute objects on the adhesive material, and the aligning means. Is integrated with the supply means, and aligns the supplied minute bodies on the adhesive material of the object at a substantially predetermined height using a squeegee or the like. Then, an arrangement means such as a pressing roll presses each of the minute bodies arranged at the substantially predetermined height, and uniformly sets the height of each minute body to the predetermined height.

[0010] According to the present invention, since the supply means and the alignment means are integrated, the supply means supplies a predetermined amount from the storage section so that a large number of minute bodies are continuously supplied to the object. At the same time, said aligning means being such that these microscopic bodies are leveled over the entire object. For this reason, the minute bodies can be arranged on the adhesive material of the object at almost uniform height with high efficiency without any gap.

[0011]

In the present invention, it is preferable that the micro-body supplying means and the arranging means are relatively movable with respect to the object, and the arranging means is provided upstream of the arranging means.

[0012] Further, a squeegee provided integrally with the minute body supply means may be used as the aligning means, and the minute body supply means may include a storage section for accumulating the minute bodies, and the storage section storing the minute bodies from the storage section. A supply unit for sequentially supplying the body onto the adhesive material, and the supply unit is preferably provided with the alignment means.

[0013] It is preferable that the minute body supply means continuously supplies a large number of minute bodies to the object, and the aligning means arranges these minute bodies to the whole object.

It is preferable that the position of the aligning means is adjusted so that the supply amount of the minute body is controlled.

The arranging means has a roller for pressing the minute body, and removes unnecessary minute bodies from the object other than the minute bodies arranged on the adhesive by the arranging means. Preferably, a removing means is provided.

It is preferable that a moving means for moving the object with respect to the minute body supplying means, the aligning means, the arranging means and the removing means is provided.

[0017] The removing means preferably comprises a high-pressure fluid supply source for blowing off unnecessary fine particles, and a suction means for suctioning the blown fine particles.

It is preferable that the minute body is a bead of a minute spherical body, the object is a light-transmitting substrate, and the adhesive is light-transmitting.

In the present invention, the shape of the above-mentioned light-transmitting substrate (flat lens) for a screen, which will be described later, is mainly a flat plate, but may have a somewhat curved surface. These are generally referred to as “plane type”. Also,
The above-mentioned adhesive material and minute body are transparent, but may not necessarily be completely transparent as long as they can transmit most of the intended light. It is used in the sense including the degree of transparency. Further, the above-mentioned “micro spherical body” refers to a spherical body having at least a substantial part on the light incident side and having a lens effect, and does not have to be a perfect spherical body.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the arrangement device of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part thereof, and FIG. 3 is a front view showing the entire arrangement device. 3 is a plan view of the arrangement device of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the arrangement device of FIG.

First, referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, the structure of the apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies will be schematically described. As shown in FIG.
An alignment unit 30, an arrangement unit 40, a removal unit 50, a movement unit 60, and the like are provided.

The frame 10 is for holding the above-mentioned remaining elements, and includes a caster 1a for moving on the floor F, a stopper 10b for fixing the movement, and the like. Each component is sequentially arranged at an intermediate position in the height direction of the frame 10.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view showing the vicinity of the micro-body supply source 20, micro-body supply means 23, alignment means 30, arranging means 40, removing means 50 and the like shown in FIG.

In FIG. 6, FIG. 4 and FIG. 3, the supply means 23 of the microscopic object has a role of supplying beads B as shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. The micro body supply source 20 has a bead accommodating section 21, a nozzle 22, and the like. A large number of beads B accommodated in the bead accommodating section 21 are stored in the storage section 23a of the microscopic body supply means 23 via the nozzle 22, and further supplied from the supply section 23b.
Is supplied to the adhesive 72 on the substrate 71 on the moving table 70 via the. Alignment means 30 is integrally attached to the minute body supply means 23 as described below.

The alignment means 30 has a so-called squeegee section 31 which is preferably used in screen printing or the like. The aligning means 30 is integrally disposed on the downstream side of the minute body supply means 23 (downstream along the moving direction of the moving table 70). The squeegee part 31 is moved by an arrow Z by height adjusting means 32 such as a gap adjusting screw.
Height can be adjusted in the direction. This squeegee part 3
By adjusting the height of No. 1 in the direction of the arrow, the bead layer BL of the bead B can be made substantially uniform in thickness W.
This can be realized more reliably because the supply amount of beads can be controlled by the storage unit described later. In this embodiment, the thickness of the bead layer is, for example, 0.2 to 0.5.
mm.

An arrangement means 40 is provided downstream of the alignment means 30. It has a vertical movement means 41 and a pressure roller 42, and the operation of the vertical movement means 41 allows the pressure roller 42 to move in the direction of the arrow Z (vertical direction) to be positioned. The pressing roller 42 moves the bead layer BL, which has been set to a substantially thickness W, with the arrow Z by the alignment means 30.
2, the bead layer BL is moved from W to a predetermined thickness W.
1 (W1 <W) is forcibly set and arranged. The pressing by the pressing roller 42 is preferably repeated several times.

The removing means 50 is provided immediately downstream of the arranging means 40, and includes a vacuum source 51, a high-pressure fluid supply source 52,
A suction tube 53 and the like are provided. The suction tube 53 is substantially perpendicular to the moving table 70, and is connected to the vacuum source 51. The nozzle 55 of the high-pressure fluid supply source 52 is arranged to be inserted obliquely downward in the middle of the flared portion 54 of the suction pipe 53.

The high-pressure fluid supply source 52 supplies excess beads unnecessary for the formation of the bead layer, that is, the remaining beads B other than the beads B having the bead layer BL formed by the pressing roller 42 of the arranging means 40, to the high-pressure air. It is for blowing away. The blown beads B are supplied to the vacuum source 51.
Can be removed to the outside (in the direction of arrow Z1) via the suction tube 53.

The moving means 60 is a device for moving the moving table 70 in the direction of the arrow X (leftward) at a predetermined speed. The motor 61 drives one end of an electric belt 64 via pulleys 62 and 63. The other end of the electric belt 50 is attached to another pulley 65. When the motor 61 operates, the electric belt 64
Is moved at a predetermined speed in the arrow X direction.

Next, the substrate 71 will be described with reference to FIGS. The substrate 71 is a light-transmitting screen substrate and is made of, for example, plastic or glass. On the substrate 71, an adhesive 72 is disposed entirely. The layer of the adhesive material 72 is a resin layer having high translucency (transparency). One adhesive surface of the adhesive material 72 is adhered to the surface of the substrate 71, and the other adhesive surface is exposed to the atmosphere to bead B. It is the part that sticks. As the adhesive 72, for example, a double-sided adhesive tape having a high transmittance such as an acrylic material is preferable. Also, a UV (ultraviolet) curable adhesive is preferable.

The beads B are microspherical beads,
For example, glass beads having a diameter of several tens μm.

It is preferable that a plurality of micro-sources 20 are arranged along the depth D direction of the frame 10 as shown in FIGS. The pressure roller 42
Also, it is preferable that a plurality are arranged along the depth direction D in FIG. Further, it is preferable that the removing means 50 is also provided along the depth direction D. Each of these components includes a substrate 7 placed on the moving table 70.
1 (a width along the depth direction D).

Next, the operation of the above-described device for arranging minute objects will be described. The operation of the device for arranging minute objects will be described by taking as an example a case where a screen having no light directivity is manufactured.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a transparent adhesive 72 is disposed (covered here) on the upper surface of a substrate 71. The back surface of the substrate 71 is placed on the moving table 70 as shown in FIG. 6, and is firmly fixed to the moving table 70 by suction fixing means 74, for example, by vacuum suction.

Next, beads are arranged on the adhesive 72. First, beads are supplied from the supply source 20 of the microscopic objects through the nozzle 22 to the storage part 23a of the supply means 23, and the beads are stored. Next, these beads are supplied to the surface of the adhesive material 72 on the substrate 71 by a predetermined amount from the narrowed lower end portion (that is, the supply portion 23b) of the storage portion 23a of the supply means 23, and the beads are loaded on the adhesive material 72 by its own weight. Pressed.

At the same time, the thickness of the bead layer is controlled by the squeegee part 31 of the alignment means 30 provided integrally with the supply means 23. That is, the moving table 70
When the moving means 60 operates and starts moving at a predetermined speed in the arrow X direction, the squeegee section 31 of the alignment means 30
Forms a bead layer BL having a substantially thickness W on the adhesive material 72 while arranging the aggregate of the beads B on the substrate 71. That is, the squeegee part 31 is on the fixed side, and the moving table 70 and the substrate 71 move in the arrow X direction.
The bead layer BL is formed to have a substantially constant thickness. At this time, the beads B are supplied little by little from the storage part 23a,
Since this is performed by the squeegee 31, squeezing can be continuously performed to the target thickness W without clogging.

However, at this point, since the thickness W of the bead layer BL is not exactly uniform, the next pressure roller 42
To make it uniform. That is, the pressure roller 42 of the arrangement means 40 presses each bead B of the bead layer BL in the direction of arrow Z2. Thereby, the bead layer BL has a thickness W1.
(W1 <W).

After passing through the pressure roller 42, the substrate 71 having the bead layer BL is sent to a removing step to remove excess beads. For example, as shown in the figure, it is preferable that high pressure air is blown from the high pressure fluid supply source 52 of the removing means 50 to the bead B side on the adhesive 72 to blow off excess beads B not adhering thereto from the substrate 71. The blown-off beads may be operated by activating the vacuum source 51 and sucked and stored in a predetermined storage unit via the suction pipe 73.

The screen substrate S composed of the substrate 71, the plurality of beads B aligned with the adhesive 72, and the coating material 76 and the black light shielding material 77 as shown in FIG. Covered. The substrate S thus produced can be used as a screen for a so-called rear projector as shown in FIG. 9 by arranging a Fresnel lens (not shown) on the light incident side.

This rear projector includes a light projecting unit 100, and light 110 including image information from the light projecting unit 100 is transmitted to the mirror 1
The light is reflected by the mirror 20 and the mirror 130 and projected on the screen S. The projected information can be displayed without light directivity by the action of the beads B.

The screen S can also be used as a screen for projecting image information of the rear projector 200 as shown in FIG.

As is apparent from the above, in this embodiment, beads are continuously supplied to the substrate provided with the adhesive material through the supply means, and the supplied beads are aligned with the alignment means integrated with the supply means. 30, the bead layer BL having a substantially constant thickness is formed on the adhesive material evenly.
Can be effectively formed on the adhesive. Moreover, since the arrangement means such as the pressure roller is provided on the downstream side, the bead layer can be formed with a uniform thickness. The embodiment of the present invention adopts the above-mentioned method if the substrate 71
This is because if the method of supplying beads at one time to the entire surface of the adhesive material 72 is adopted, it is impossible to arrange the adhesive material 72 without gaps. Further, according to the present invention, since the bead material can be appropriately replenished from the microparticle supply source to the microparticle supply means, the bead can be continuously filled, and a long substrate or an endless transparent film substrate can be filled. Stable arrangement is possible for materials.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the pressure-sensitive adhesive may be applied directly on the substrate, or an ultraviolet-curable resin may be applied to control the amount of ultraviolet light to be irradiated to bring the ultraviolet-curable resin into a semi-cured state. it can.

The extra beads can be eliminated by inverting (turning over) the entire substrate. The screen substrate S can be used as a screen for another type of flat display in addition to the screen for the rear projector described above.

[0046]

As is apparent from the above, according to the present invention, the microscopic object for supplying the microscopic object on the adhesive of the object to arrange the microscopic object on the object on which the adhesive is disposed. Body supply means, and an action of aligning the supplied minute bodies at substantially a predetermined height; and an alignment means provided integrally with the minute body supply means, and pressing each aligned minute body. Thus, since the arrangement means for setting the height of the minute body in the object to a predetermined height is used, a large number of minute bodies can be continuously arranged at a uniform height without any gap with high efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of the arrangement device.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the entire arrangement device.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the arrangement device.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the arrangement device.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a central portion of the arrangement device.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an example of a screen manufactured according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing an example in which beads are arranged on an adhesive material of a substrate.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a rear projector using a screen obtained by the micro-body arrangement device of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a view showing another example of a rear projector using a screen obtained by the micro-array device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 20: supply source of the minute body, 23: supply means of the minute body, 23
a: storage unit, 23b: supply unit, 30: means for aligning minute objects, 31: squeegee unit, 40: means for arranging minute objects, 42
... pressure roller, 50 ... means for removing excess beads, 60 ...
Moving means, 70: moving table, 71: substrate (object)
72: adhesive material, B: beads, BL: bead layer, W: thickness of bead layer, W1: predetermined thickness of bead layer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hirotaka Ito 6-7-35 Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo F-term in Sony Corporation (reference) 4F042 AA02 AB03 CC03 CC09 DD06 EC03

Claims (26)

[Claims] 1. A method for arranging microscopic objects for arranging microscopic objects on an object on which an adhesive is disposed, wherein the microscopic object supplying means supplies the microscopic objects on the adhesive of the object. And a step of aligning each of the supplied minute bodies to a substantially predetermined height by an aligning means provided integrally with the minute body supply means; and pressing the aligned minute bodies by an arrangement means. Setting the height of the microscopic object in the object to a predetermined height. 2. The method for arranging microscopic objects according to claim 1, wherein said microscopic object supply means and said arranging means are relatively movable with respect to said object. 3. The method for arranging microscopic objects according to claim 2, wherein said aligning means is provided upstream of said arranging means. 4. The method for arranging small objects according to claim 1, wherein a squeegee provided integrally with said small object supply means is used as said alignment means. 5. The micro-body supply means has a storage unit for accumulating the micro-body, and a supply unit for sequentially supplying the micro-body from the storage unit onto the adhesive material. The method for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 1, wherein an aligning means is provided. 6. A method for continuously supplying a large number of microscopic objects to the object by the microscopic object supply means, and arranging these microscopic objects on the entire object by the alignment means.
The method for arranging microparticles according to claim 1. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the aligning unit is adjusted so that the supply amount of the minute body is controlled. 8. The method for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 1, wherein said arrangement means has a roller for pressing said microscopic bodies. 9. The method for arranging minute objects according to claim 1, wherein unnecessary minute objects other than the minute objects arranged on the adhesive material by the arranging means are removed from the object. 10. The micro object supply means,
The method for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 9, wherein the microscopic body is moved with respect to the aligning unit, the arranging unit, and the removing unit. 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the removing means includes a high-pressure fluid supply source for blowing off unnecessary fine particles, and a suction means for sucking the blown-off fine particles. 12. The method for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 1, wherein beads of microspherical bodies are used as the microscopic bodies. 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein a transparent substrate is used as the object, and the adhesive is transparent. 14. An apparatus for arranging small objects on an object on which an adhesive material is arranged, comprising: a minute object supply means for supplying the small objects on the adhesive material of the object; An operation of aligning each of the supplied microscopic bodies to a substantially predetermined height, an aligning means provided integrally with the microscopic body supply means, and pressing the aligned microscopic bodies to form the object And a arranging means for setting the height of the microscopic body to a predetermined height. 15. The apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 14, wherein the apparatus can move relatively to the object. 16. The apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 15, wherein said aligning means is provided upstream of said arranging means. 17. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the aligning means is a squeegee provided integrally with the minute body supply means. 18. The minute body supply means has a storage section for accumulating the minute bodies, and a supply section for sequentially supplying the minute bodies from the storage section onto the adhesive material. 15. The apparatus for arranging microscopic objects according to claim 14, further comprising an aligning means. 19. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said microscopic object supply means continuously supplies a large number of microscopic objects to said object, and said aligning means arranges said microscopic objects to the whole object.
A micro-arraying device according to claim 1. 20. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the alignment unit is adjusted in position so that a supply amount of the minute body is controlled. 21. The apparatus for arranging small objects according to claim 14, wherein the arrangement means has a roller for pressing the small objects. 22. The apparatus for arranging small objects according to claim 14, further comprising a removing unit that removes unnecessary minute objects from the object, other than the minute objects placed on the adhesive material by the placing unit. . 23. The micro object supply means, comprising:
23. The apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 22, further comprising a moving unit for moving the aligning unit, the arranging unit and the removing unit. 24. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the removing unit includes a high-pressure fluid supply source that blows off unnecessary minute objects, and a suction unit that sucks the blown-off minute objects. 25. The apparatus for arranging microscopic bodies according to claim 22, wherein the microscopic bodies are microspherical beads. 26. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the object is a translucent substrate, and the adhesive is translucent.