JP2001127147A - Heat treating carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a heat treating carrier in which a heat treatment is made at a uniform temperature in a state that sheet glass substrates are stacked. SOLUTION: In a heat treating carrier for use in heat treating sheet glass substrates 18, the carrier comprises a base 2; a plurality of support stands 11 which are formed in a rectangular framed manner, and are detachably stacked at a predetermined interval 19 on the base; and a sheet member 14 which is provided at four corner parts of this support stand, and supports movably the four corner parts of the glass substrate.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier for heat treatment used to hold an object to be processed when the object is heat-treated.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a solar cell module, as is well known, a transparent conductive film is formed on a glass substrate as an object to be processed, and a semiconductor layer and a back surface electrode are sequentially formed on the transparent conductive film. The semiconductor layer is electrically sealed by a resin sealing member mainly composed of ethylene vinyl acetate-copolymer or the like.

In manufacturing a solar cell module having such a structure, annealing (heat treatment) is performed at various stages in order to improve its performance. For example, if a transparent conductive film is formed on a glass substrate, before the semiconductor layer is formed on the transparent conductive film, the transparent conductive film is formed to reduce the resistivity of the transparent conductive film or eliminate oxygen defects. The formed glass substrate is annealed.

In addition, after patterning a semiconductor or electrode layer formed on a glass substrate with a laser or the like, the purpose is to recover distortion or deterioration of the film formation or processing, or to seal these semiconductor layers. At the time of sealing with the stopper member, the sealing member is heated to promote a chemical reaction to perform cross-linking, and at the same time, the semiconductor layer is sealed by pressing under atmospheric pressure. However, an annealing process is performed thereafter to improve the wraparound and adhesion of the sealing member.

When a glass substrate on which a transparent conductive film is formed is annealed, it is required that a large number of glass substrates can be annealed simultaneously in order to improve the processing efficiency.

[0006]

When a large number of glass substrates are annealed at the same time, the glass substrates can be uniformly heated without a temperature difference, and the glass substrates can be damaged by thermal expansion accompanying a rise in temperature. You must not invite them.

According to the present invention, when a large number of plate-like workpieces are subjected to heat treatment, the workpieces are processed so that temperature unevenness does not occur and damage is not caused by thermal expansion due to temperature rise. An object of the present invention is to provide a carrier for heat treatment which can be held.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment carrier used for heat-treating a plate-like object to be processed. A heat treatment, comprising: a plurality of support bases that can be stacked at possible and predetermined intervals; and support parts provided at four corners of the support base and movably supporting the four corners of the object to be processed. For the carrier.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plate member constituting the support portion is provided at each of the four corners of the support table, and the upper and lower surfaces of the plate member are detachably fitted to each other. 2. The heat treatment carrier according to claim 1, wherein an upper cylindrical member and a lower cylindrical member having a size to be provided are provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a lubricating member having heat resistance is provided on an upper surface of the plate-like member to support a lower surface of a corner of the member to be processed. 2
The carrier for heat treatment described above.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the base is provided with an upper support member on the upper surface for fitting to the lower tubular member of the support base, and the lower surface is fitted on the upper tubular member of the support base. 3. A lower supporting member, comprising:
The carrier for heat treatment described above.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the support pedestals are detachably stacked at predetermined intervals, so that a heat circulation path at the time of heat treatment is secured between the workpieces supported by each support pedestal. Therefore, it is possible to uniformly heat the processing object supported by each support table without unevenness in temperature, and to further prevent the damage due to thermal expansion by movably supporting the processing object on the support portion of the support table. it can.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plate member is provided at each of the four corners of the support base, and the upper cylindrical member and the lower cylindrical member are large enough to be detachably fitted to the upper and lower surfaces of the plate member. By providing the cylindrical member, the support base can be detachably stacked with a simple configuration.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the heat-resistant lubricating member is provided on the upper surface of the plate-like member of the support base, the object to be processed can be smoothly thermally expanded. This can prevent the workpiece from being damaged.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the upper support member and the lower support member to which the lower tubular member and the upper tubular member of the support base are detachably fitted are respectively mounted on the upper surface and the lower surface of the base. With this arrangement, it is possible to stack a plurality of bases on which the support base is stacked on the upper surface.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The heat treatment carrier 1 of the present invention shown in FIG.
Has a base 2. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the base 2, which has four pairs of horizontal members 3. The four horizontal members 3 are arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals, two by two each.

The four transverse members 3 are connected and fixed by a pair of connecting members 4 provided with a longitudinal middle part in a direction orthogonal to the transverse member 3. A contact plate 5 is provided on the outer surfaces of the pair of lateral members 3 located outside, with which the end surfaces of the connecting member 4 abut. That is, the pair of outer lateral members 3 and the connecting member 4 are positioned by the backing plate 5. The horizontal member 3 and the connecting member 4 are formed by a square pipe.

As shown in FIG. 3, an upper support member 6 made of a square pipe is provided on the upper surfaces of the four transverse members 3 at both ends in the longitudinal direction.
And a lower support member 7 also made of a square pipe is provided on the lower surface.

A plurality of supports 11 are removably stacked on the base 2 at predetermined intervals. As shown in FIG. 4, the support base 11 includes a pair of horizontal rods 12a.
And a vertical rod 12b in a rectangular frame shape.
A rectangular plate-like member 14 is attached and fixed to the upper surface of the corner of the frame 13.

As shown in FIG. 7B, an upper cylindrical member 15 is fixed to the upper surface of one end of the plate member 14 located outside the frame 13, and the lower surface is fixed to the lower surface. A lower tubular member 16 also having a rectangular tubular shape is fixed.

A heat-resistant lubricating member 17 made of, for example, asbestos is attached and fixed to the upper surface of the other end of the plate-like member 14 with an adhesive or the like. Then, a rectangular glass substrate 18 used for a solar cell module as a plate-like object to be processed is bonded to the lubricating member 17 at its four corners, as shown by a chain line in FIG. Supported.

The four corners of the glass substrate 18 are
With this, it is possible to slide with relatively low frictional resistance. A transparent conductive film (not shown) is formed on one surface of the glass substrate 18 to a predetermined thickness by means such as sputtering.

As shown in FIG. 7B, the upper tubular member 1
The outer dimension of 5 is set slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the lower tubular member 16. Further, the upper tubular member 15
Is set longer than the length of the lower cylindrical member 16. The length dimension of the lower cylindrical member 16 is set sufficiently longer than the height dimension of the horizontal rod 12a and the vertical rod 12b forming the frame 13.

When a plurality of supports 11 are stacked, the lower tubular member 16 of the upper support 11 is detachably fitted to the upper tubular member 15 of the lower support 11. The lowermost support base 11 is stacked by detachably fitting the lower cylindrical member 16 to the upper support member 5 provided on the upper surface of the horizontal member 3 of the base 2. The length of the upper support member 6 and the lower support member 7 of the base 2 is set sufficiently longer than the length of the upper tubular member 15 and the lower tubular member 16 of the support base 11. .

As a result, the plurality of support tables 11 are stacked vertically at predetermined intervals 19 as shown in FIG. Since the length dimension of the lower cylindrical member 16 is set sufficiently longer than the height dimension of the horizontal rod 12a and the vertical rod 12b of the frame 13, the horizontal rod 12a and the vertical rod 12b are stacked. The vertical gap 19 of the support base 11 is not closed.

The carrier 1 for heat treatment in which a plurality of supports 11 are stacked on the base 2 can be stacked as shown in FIG. That is, the base 2 of the heat treatment carrier 1 to be stacked on the upper tubular member 15 of the uppermost support base 11.
By fitting the lower support member 6, a plurality of heat treatment carriers 1 can be detachably stacked.

The two heat treatment carriers 1 thus stacked are placed in an annealing furnace (not shown), and an annealing process is performed in a nitrogen atmosphere at a temperature of about 450 ° C. for about 30 minutes.

During the annealing process, a gap 19 is formed between the plurality of support bases 11 according to the length of the upper cylindrical member 15 provided on the upper surface of the plate member 14 of the frame 13. Have been.

For this reason, in the annealing furnace, a circulation path of hot air is secured between the supports 11, so that the glass substrates 18 supported on the supports 11 of the two stacked heat treatment carriers 1 are substantially removed. Heat treatment can be performed at a uniform temperature.

When the support 11 and the glass substrate 18 are heated, they expand with different coefficients of thermal expansion. At this time, the glass substrate 18 is supported in a state where the four corners are easily slid by the lubrication member 17 provided on the support base 11.

Therefore, the glass substrate 18 is mounted on the support 1
On the other hand, since the glass substrate slides smoothly in accordance with the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion, the corners of the glass substrate 18 supported by the support table 11 are not chipped. Moreover, since the lubricating member 17 has heat resistance, there is no risk of heat loss at an early stage.

When the heat treatment for a predetermined time is completed, the two heat treatment carriers 1 stacked are taken out of the annealing furnace. Then, the annealed glass substrate 18 is transported to the next step.

The plurality of support bases 11 are stacked such that an upper tubular member 15 and a lower tubular member 16 provided on a plate-like member 14 are detachably fitted to each other. Therefore, each support base 11 can be stacked by a simple operation of positioning the support base 11 on the lower support base 11 and lowering it. Conversely, the stacked supports 11 can be removed only by a simple operation of raising the upper support 11.

That is, the upper cylindrical member 15 is
Since the support base 11 can be stacked with a simple configuration of providing the support member 11 and the lower cylindrical member 16, not only can the operation for stacking and the operation for removal be performed easily and quickly, but also the robot Can also be automated using.

The support base 11 can be stacked on the base 2, and the other bases 2 can be stacked on the uppermost support base 11. That is, a plurality of heat treatment carriers 1 can be stacked.

For this reason, by stacking a plurality of bases 2 on which a plurality of support stands 11 are stacked according to the height of the annealing furnace, it is possible to heat-treat a large number of glass substrates 18 at one time. In the steps before and after the heat treatment, each base 2 can be handled.

That is, in order to simultaneously heat-treat a large number of glass substrates 18, a large number of support bases 11 are mounted on one base 2.
Are stacked, the height dimension becomes too high, and handling in the process before and after the heat treatment is inconvenient.
By stacking a plurality of bases 2 stacked at a height at which 1 is not inconvenient to handle, the bases 2 can be handled as one unit in the process before and after the heat treatment, so that the handling is facilitated. Can be achieved.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the carrier for heat treatment of the present invention can be used not only for annealing a glass substrate of a solar cell module, but also for annealing other plate-shaped objects. Obviously, it can be used for heat treatment other than treatment.

[0040]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a rectangular frame-shaped support for supporting an object to be processed can be removably stacked on a base at predetermined intervals.

Therefore, the heat circulation path at the time of the heat treatment is secured by the gap formed between the supports, so that the object to be processed supported on each support can be uniformly heated without causing temperature unevenness. Further, by movably supporting the object on the support portion of the support base, the object can be prevented from being damaged by thermal expansion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plate member is provided at each of the four corners of the support base, and an upper tubular member and a lower tubular member sized to be detachably fitted to the upper and lower surfaces of the plate member. And a member.

Therefore, the support bases can be removably stacked with a simple structure.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a lubricating member having heat resistance is provided on the upper surface of the plate member of the support base.

Therefore, even if the coefficient of thermal expansion between the support base and the object to be processed is different, thermal expansion of the object to be processed is performed smoothly, so that damage to the object due to thermal expansion can be prevented. .

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the upper support member and the lower support member to which the lower tubular member and the upper tubular member of the support base are detachably fitted respectively on the upper surface and the lower surface of the base. Provided.

Therefore, it is possible to stack a plurality of bases on which the support bases are stacked on the upper surface, so that a large number of workpieces can be processed at one time at the time of heat treatment. It can be handled separately for each stand.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a state in which two carrier apparatuses for heat treatment according to an embodiment of the present invention are stacked.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the base.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the base.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the support base.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state where the support bases are stacked.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the corners of the stacked support bases.

FIG. 7A is a plan view of a plate-like member of a support base,
(B) is a side view similarly.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Base 6 Upper support member 7 Lower support member 11 Support base 14 Plate member (support portion) 15 Upper cylindrical member 16 Lower cylindrical member 17 Smooth member

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A heat treatment carrier used for heat-treating a plate-like workpiece, comprising: a base; and a plurality of rectangular frames, which are detachably mounted on the base and stacked at predetermined intervals. And a support portion provided at four corners of the support and movably supporting the four corners of the object to be processed. 2. A plate-like member constituting the support portion is provided at each of the four corners of the support table, and an upper and lower surfaces of the plate-like member are detachably fitted to each other. The heat treatment carrier according to claim 1, wherein a cylindrical member and a lower cylindrical member are provided. 3. The heat-treating lubricating member according to claim 2, wherein a lubricating member having heat resistance is provided on an upper surface of said plate-shaped member to support a lower surface of a corner of said member to be processed. Career. 4. The base is provided with an upper support member fitted on a lower tubular member of the support base on an upper surface, and a lower support member fitted on an upper tubular member of the support base on a lower surface. The heat treatment carrier according to claim 2, wherein the carrier is provided.