JP2002239518A - Peeling method and device by heating of superposed liquid crystal panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a reuse or recycle of a rare metal such as indium by peeling-off from a liquid crystal panel and to realize a dividing treatment of the liquid crystal panel. SOLUTION: It is made possible that a sealing agent is thermally decomposed and is simply peeled-off by retaining the liquid crystal panel at an atmosphere of 400-700 deg.C for about 10 minutes. Unburned carbon is not remained in the case where an atmosphere is only in an air, however, an exhaust gas is generated. When the inside of a thermal decomposition device is made to an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen, unburned carbon is remained. In the case where a peeling off is executed at any of atmospheres, it can be applied to the peeling off of the liquid crystal panel for the purpose of recovering a rare metal, particularly indium. The liquid crystal panel may be thermally decomposed as such and may be pulverized in order to enhance a handling property.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for separating a pair of panels in a liquid crystal panel, in which a liquid crystal material is sealed. The present invention also relates to a pair of panel peeling devices enclosing a liquid crystal material used in the peeling method.

[0002]

In recent years, notebook personal computers have been widely used instead of cathode ray tube display devices used in desktop personal computers. Many liquid crystal panels have been used. In addition, since a large amount of information is displayed on a mobile phone or a desk calculator, the size of the display device itself has been increased. In the field, there has been a remarkable technological advancement in recent years, and all devices are being updated with a very short life.

[0003] Therefore, it is clear that a liquid crystal panel which has just been discarded as industrial waste will also be a serious environmental problem unless it is discarded in consideration of environmental problems.

[0004] Reuse and recycling of possible materials have been strongly shouted.
This is because the components of liquid crystal panels contain rare metals, such as indium, which are rare in nature, and it is expected that the disposal of liquid crystal panels as industrial waste will result in material shortages in the near future. Is done. The present invention has been made to enable reuse and recycling of possible materials by peeling the liquid crystal panel in order to avoid the adverse effects.

[0005]

2. Description of the Related Art A liquid crystal panel has a structure in which a liquid crystal material is sandwiched between a pair of a color filter substrate and an array substrate. Has a hermetically sealed structure, but the pair of color filter substrates and the array substrate are bonded very firmly. Sometimes it is difficult to peel off the rare and useful material of defective products in the manufacturing process because it is firmly adhered with a sealant.
Was virtually not done.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object,
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for separating a pair of liquid crystal panels in which a liquid crystal material is sealed, wherein the liquid crystal panel is separated by holding the liquid crystal panel body in a high-temperature atmosphere.

The ambient temperature is 400 ° C. or more and 700 ° C. or less.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the liquid crystal panel is held in an air atmosphere or an inert gas atmosphere as a medium for holding the liquid crystal panel at a high temperature.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for peeling a pair of liquid crystal panels enclosing a liquid crystal material, wherein a mechanism capable of holding a liquid crystal panel contained in a tray in a high-temperature air or inert gas atmosphere is provided. It is characterized by the following.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A liquid crystal panel has a structure in which a liquid crystal material is sandwiched between a pair of color filter substrates and an array substrate, and its periphery is sealed with a strong sealing agent such as epoxy resin to fill a gap in the liquid crystal panel. Although the liquid crystal material has a sealed structure, the pair of color filter substrates and the array substrate are bonded very firmly. Accordingly, it has been difficult to separate the pair of color filter substrates and the array substrate of the liquid crystal panel.

In the present invention, the liquid crystal panel is operated at a temperature of 400.degree.
By maintaining the atmosphere at 0 ° C. for about 10 minutes, the sealant was thermally decomposed and easily peeled off. When the atmosphere is mere air, no unburned carbon remains, but exhaust gas is generated. If the inside of the pyrolysis apparatus is set to an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen, unburned carbon remains. Regardless of which atmosphere is used for peeling, the present invention can be applied to peeling of a liquid crystal panel for the purpose of recovering rare metals, particularly indium.

The liquid crystal panel may be thermally decomposed as it is, or may be crushed to improve handling.

The rare metal indium is recovered by dissolving and extracting the liquid crystal panel after thermal decomposition and peeling using an acid solution such as hydrochloric acid. This technique is used in the etching step which is one of the liquid crystal panel manufacturing steps. It is an applied and well-known technique.

By recovering a material such as indium which is a rare metal in nature by this method, it is possible to prevent a shortage of material and resources expected to occur soon beforehand.

[0015]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall view of the embodiment. The liquid crystal panel A to be discarded is sent to the liquid crystal panel tray packing table 1 and inserted into the tray 4 sequentially. The tray 4 holding the liquid crystal panel A is placed in a pyrolysis chamber 5 in the pyrolysis apparatus 2 shown in FIG.
Insert The pyrolysis device 2 uses a burner 6 to
Is supplied through a blower 7 as air or an inert gas such as nitrogen (not shown). The temperature in the pyrolysis chamber 5 in the pyrolysis apparatus 2 is 400 ° C. to 7 ° C.
The valve is controlled with respect to the flow rate of the exhaust gas so as to reach 00 ° C., and the temperature is controlled through the exhaust gas transport line 8 and the exhaust gas return line 9 and held for about 10 minutes. The excess exhaust gas is sent to an exhaust gas processing step 35.

In the liquid crystal panel A in which the sealant is thermally decomposed, the substrate is warped by heat and spontaneously separates. After burner 6 stops,
The temperature of the atmosphere in the pyrolyzer 2 is cooled by air or an inert gas sent from the blower 7, and when the temperature falls below a certain temperature, the entire tray 4 is taken out from the pyrolysis chamber 5 in the pyrolyzer 2 and the tray is removed. It is sent to the indium recovery step 36 through the carrier 3.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment in which the liquid crystal panel A is crushed. The liquid crystal panel A is sent and put into the receiving hopper 21. The liquid crystal panel A of the receiving hopper 21 is sequentially placed on the conveyor 27 from the bottom and put into the hopper 28 of the primary crusher 22 where it is crushed. The crushed liquid crystal panel A is put into the liquid crystal panel transport tray 31 on the transfer device A23 located thereunder. When the liquid crystal panel transport tray 31 becomes full, the liquid crystal panel transport tray 31 is loaded into the thermal decomposition device 2 as described above. The operation conditions of the thermal decomposition device 2 here are carried out under the same conditions as in the case where the crushing is not performed. When the sealant of the liquid crystal panel A is thermally decomposed and the temperature in the furnace of the thermal decomposition device 2 falls to a certain temperature, the liquid crystal panel transport tray 31 is again mounted on the transfer device B25 and sent to the indium recovery step. .

[0018]

According to the present invention, when the liquid crystal panel is discarded, the liquid crystal panel is held in a high-temperature air or an inert gas atmosphere, so that the periphery of the liquid crystal panel is extremely strongly bonded with a strong sealing agent such as an epoxy resin. By easily peeling off a pair of color filter substrate and array substrate, and disposing of the liquid crystal panel as industrial waste, it is possible to recover metal indium, which is rare in nature, which is thought to cause material shortage in the near future. In addition, it has become possible to prevent shortages of resources and materials.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a liquid crystal panel peeling device.

FIG. 2 is a pyrolysis apparatus 2

FIG. 3 is an overall view of a crushed liquid crystal panel peeling apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List A Liquid crystal panel 1 Liquid crystal panel tray filling table 2 Pyrolyzer 3 Tray transport table 4 Tray 21 Receiving hopper 22 Primary crusher 23 Transfer device A 25 Transfer device B 27 Conveyor 28 Hopper 31 Liquid crystal panel transport tray 35 Exhaust gas treatment step 36 Indium recovery process

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for separating a pair of liquid crystal panels enclosing a liquid crystal material, wherein the liquid crystal panel is separated by holding the liquid crystal panel body in a high-temperature atmosphere. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ambient temperature is 400 ° C. or more and 700 ° C. or less. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the atmosphere is air or an inert gas. 4. An apparatus for separating a pair of liquid crystal panels enclosing a liquid crystal material, comprising a mechanism capable of holding the liquid crystal panels together with the tray in a high-temperature air or inert gas atmosphere. apparatus.