JP2003146676A - Sintered compact of colored glass and method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sintered compact of colored glass which solves all of various problems which arise in consequence of the light leakage of a glass material used in optical industry, such as reflectors for projectors and ferrules for connection of optical fibers. SOLUTION: Particles of coloring components are embedded into a matrix of a sintered glass compact formed by sitering glass powder, by which the shielding of right is performed with the coloring component particles. A practicable light shielding effect can be exhibited when the sintered glass compact, manufactured by using carbon as black particles and amorphous silica powder of 0.1 to 5 μm in average particle size as a matrix raw material, contains black particles of <=10 μm in average particle size at a volumetric ratio of 0.1 to 30%.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a glass member used in the optical industry, and more specifically, a glass member having a light-shielding property such as a ferrule of an optical fiber connector for connecting a reflector or an optical fiber used in a projector or the like. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A projector is a device utilizing an optical technique for enlarging and projecting characters, figures and images. A projector is roughly classified into a liquid crystal type and a DLP type depending on the type of element used, but both require a light source for illuminating the element.
The light source is composed of a bulb (lamp) and a reflector (reflection container). Since the reflector is made of a translucent glass material, it does not reflect light as it is. Therefore, a reflective film is usually vapor-deposited on the inner surface of the reflector, but it does not reflect all the light from the bulb.
Light is transmitted. As the brightness of the bulb is increased to make the projection screen brighter, on the other hand, the adverse effect of this leaked light on the control electronics and other optical systems inside the projector has recently become a problem. Is strongly required to have a light-shielding property.

Optical fibers that transmit light also have the same problem of leakage light. Connectors are used when interconnecting optical fibers. There is a ferrule as a member that constitutes the connector. Leaked light from the optical fiber is diffusely reflected at the end face of the ferrule that connects the optical fibers and re-enters the optical fibers, which interferes with optical transmission. A photocurable resin is used to connect the optical fibers. Therefore, it is desirable that the ferrule be made of a glass material. There is a strong demand for a glass material that prevents irregular reflection at the end surface of the ferrule and is transparent glass except for the end surface.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the problem of light leakage of a glass material which is frequently used in the optical industry represented by the above-mentioned reflector and ferrule for connecting optical fibers. Provides a novel glass having a function of shielding leakage light with colored particles embedded in a glass matrix.

[0005]

A colored glass sintered body having a structure in which colored component particles are embedded in a matrix of the glass sintered body, wherein the average particle diameter of the colored component particles in a colored area is Is 10 μm or less, and the volume ratio of the coloring component particles is 0.1% or more and 30% or less, a colored glass sintered body.

The colored glass sintered body according to the above, wherein the component constituting the matrix of the glass sintered body is quartz glass.

The colored glass sintered body as described in the above item 1 or 2, wherein the colored component particles are black.

An amorphous glass powder having an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 5 μm and a coloring component powder having an average particle diameter of 0.05 to 10 μm are used, and the volume ratio of the coloring component powder is 0.1% or more. Three
1000-1700 ° C after mixing and molding at a ratio of 0% or less
5. The method for producing a colored glass sintered body according to any one of the above 1 to 4, which is characterized by sintering.

Using a solution or sol solution containing a coloring component in a molded or pre-sintered body of amorphous glass powder having an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 5 μm, the coloring component in the coloring area after sintering is used. The glass is impregnated so that the volume ratio thereof is 0.1% or more and 30% or less, and is sintered at a temperature of 1000 to 1700 ° C., The colored glass according to any one of the above items. Sintered body.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The light-shielding property of a glass material is that a coloring component is embedded in the form of particles in a matrix of a glass sintered body, and the coloring component particles block light transmitted through the glass sintered body. realizable. Generally, a glass material is produced by melting, but a glass sintered body here is produced by forming a glass component powder into a predetermined material shape and sintering it without passing through a melting process. Say glass.

The average particle diameter of the colored particles embedded in the colored area is 10 μm or less, and the amount thereof is about 0.
It is 1 to 30%. More preferably, the average particle size is 5μ.
When it is m or less, the volume ratio is 0.1 to 20%. It is because the sinterability of the glass sintered body is extremely deteriorated or the light shielding property is lacked outside the range.

The colored area means an area of embedded colored particles, for example, when the colored particles are embedded in a matrix of a sintered glass body in a uniformly dispersed state, the colored area is a glass sintered body. When the whole body is shown and colored particles are embedded in a planar or linear shape in, for example, a part of the surface of the glass sintered body, each part becomes a colored area.

The components constituting the matrix of the glass sintered body are not limited in principle. Generally, the glass component composition produced by melting is S that forms the basic network structure of glass.
_{iO 2, B 2 O 3,} P 2 O 5 , etc., to change the nature of the glass enters the hole of network structure _{Na 2 O, K 2 O,} Ca
It is composed of a combination of oxides such as O, etc., which have an intermediate role between the two, such as Al ₂ O ₃ , ZnO, etc., and the combination is infinite.

In the glass sintered body of the present invention, all of the above-mentioned compositions can be basically applied as the matrix component. However, when the glass sintered body is manufactured, the crystallization rate of powder particles during sintering is taken into consideration. However, there are conditions that require a high sintering rate. In order to realize this, it is an essential condition that the glass powder used is made into a fine powder with a small residual stress. When the glass produced by melting is pulverized into fine powder, stress due to pulverization is introduced into fine powder particles in addition to internal stress generated in the cooling process after melting the glass. The glass powder produced in this way is crystallized during sintering and a practical glass sintered body cannot be obtained.
In order to solve this, it is preferable to use fine glass powder prepared by a sol-gel method or a vapor phase method. According to these methods, fine powder can be easily obtained without passing through a melting process or an excessive pulverization process. Therefore, the powder particles have no stress and a glass sintered body can be obtained.

However, as described above, the glass components are multi-components and the combinations thereof are infinite. Therefore, the preparation of glass fine powder by the sol-gel method or the vapor phase method has a wide range of applications as a glass material with added value. If there is no demand, the manufacturing price is not realistic. From this point of view, quartz glass is a single component, and by using the high-purity silicon component exhausted from the silicon semiconductor manufacturing process, relatively inexpensive fine powder prepared by the sol-gel method or the vapor phase method can be obtained. .

In the present invention, the colored particles which impart the light-shielding property to the glass sintered body include red, blue, green and black light absorption represented by a self-luminous substance or pigment which is fluorescently excited and emitted by vacuum ultraviolet light. Shows colored particles of a mold. The self-luminous substance is, for example, PD
The three primary color substances of red, blue and green used in P (plasma display) can be used. Further, as the pigment, for example, the three primary color substances of a color LCD (liquid crystal display), the black substance of a black stripe, and the like can be used. PDP and LCD
In the structure described above, these coloring substance particles are applied to a specific surface on the same glass substrate, but the major difference from the present invention is that these coloring particles are not embedded in the matrix near the surface of the glass substrate. It is in. Therefore, the PDP or LC constructed by using the above three primary colors as the colored particles in the present invention
It goes without saying that the D panel falls within the scope of the present invention.

As described above, the colored particles have a light-shielding property by absorbing light of a specific wavelength, but a reflector or a ferrule can also be provided with the light-shielding property by the same principle. The color that absorbs a wide range of wavelengths is black. Especially, the light emitted from the reflector bulb is close to visible light, that is, white light,
It is preferable to select black, which has a high light-shielding property efficiency at the wavelength of light over the visible range. The component of the black particles is not particularly limited as described above, but can be selected within a range that does not adversely affect the sintering characteristics and crystallization of the glass sintered body. Considering the economical efficiency and the simplicity of the production method described later, preferred black components are titanium compounds such as carbon, silicon carbide, silicon and titanium oxide.

The raw material powder constituting the matrix component of the glass sintered body has an average particle size of 0.1 to 5 μm. A plurality of powders having different average particle diameters within this range can be mixed and used. In order to enhance the sinterability of the glass powder particles, the smaller the average particle diameter is, the more preferable, but if it is too small, the handling up to the molding step becomes very difficult. Therefore, the lower limit is sufficient to be 0.1 μm, and the upper limit is about 5 μm from the viewpoint of sinterability.

A method of molding a powder in which only a matrix component of a glass sintered body or a coloring component having an average particle diameter of 0.05 to 10 μm is mixed in the matrix component in a volume ratio of 0.1 to 30% is used. , Cast molding, press molding, rubber press molding, injection and extrusion molding can be selected in consideration of the final shape and productivity. 1000 compacts
It is preferable to sinter in the temperature range of ˜1700 ° C. When the powder particle size of the matrix component used is small, it is sintered at a low temperature, and when it is large, it is sintered at a high temperature. The heating program at the time of sintering, such as the heating rate and the holding time, may be optimized so that the glass sintered body is not softened and deformed. The atmosphere during sintering may be selected from inert gas, hydrogen and vacuum. Moreover, you may sinter combining these atmospheres. Nitrogen gas can be used in a limited manner as long as the glass component to be sintered does not change to a nitrogen compound. Water vapor and oxygen contained as impurities in the various gas atmospheres may be specified so that crystallization of the glass sintered body does not occur. Vacuum degree is approximately 10 ^-1 Pa
The following is acceptable. More preferably, it is 10 ⁻³ Pa or less.

The method of embedding the colored particles in the matrix of the glass sintered body is selected according to the intended use of the finally obtained colored glass sintered body. For example, when coloring the reflector itself, the powder of the matrix component and the powder of the coloring substance may be mixed in advance as described above, molded, and sintered. In the case of coloring a part of the surface of the glass sintered body, for example, after molding the glass matrix component into a ferrule shape, a solution or sol solution containing a coloring component in a sufficiently dried or pre-sintered molded body is applied to the ferrule. After impregnation of the short face portion and sintering, a ferrule of a glass sintered body in which only the short face portion is colored is obtained.

As a solution or sol liquid containing a coloring component, a commercially available color ink, a metal alkoxide, various sol liquids or an aqueous or non-aqueous slurry in which a pigment is highly dispersed can be prepared and used. For example, if the coloring component is black,
As the sol solution, a commercially available titanium oxide sol solution, a phenol solution or the like is used. In particular, an organic solution such as phenol decomposes into carbon during sintering. When quartz glass is selected as the glass matrix component and this molded product is impregnated with the phenol resin solution and then sintered, the carbon produced from the phenol resin during the sintering process reacts with the silica component of the matrix depending on the impregnation amount and the sintering temperature. Then, it changes into carbon, silicon, and silicon carbide. Thus, the coloring component in the finally obtained glass sintered body may be a product reacted in the sintering process.

As the impregnating means, a dipping method, a brush coating method, a spraying method or the like can be appropriately selected. When the coloring component is finely formed on the surface of the glass sintered body, it may be sprayed onto the surface of the molded body by inkjet. The sprayed solution containing the coloring component instantly penetrates into the interstices between the particles forming the molded body. When this is sintered, a colored glass sintered body in which the coloring component is embedded in the form of particles is obtained.

[0023]

EXAMPLES An example for clarifying the present invention will be shown below. (Example 1) An amorphous silica powder was used as a matrix component, and carbon powder and a phenol resin liquid were used as coloring components to prepare a colored glass sintered body. The results are shown in Table 1.

[0024]

[Table 1]

[0025]

Industrial Applicability As described above, the colored glass sintered body according to the present invention has the following industrial advantages. It is possible to construct a projector that prevents light leaking from the reflector bulb and does not adversely affect peripheral electronic systems and optical systems. Stable optical transmission is possible by absorbing the leaked light only on the short side of the ferrule and preventing the scattering due to the leaked light. Besides, it can be used for coloring transparent glass used in the optical industry such as PDP and LCD panel.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kanji Takagi             1-3-8 Kodaira, Arita-cho, Nishimatsuura-gun, Saga Prefecture               Koran Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yuuhi Hiwatari             1-3-8 Kodaira, Arita-cho, Nishimatsuura-gun, Saga Prefecture               Koran Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Sumihiko Kurita             114 of 91 Miyano, Yamauchi-cho, Kishima-gun, Saga Prefecture F-term (reference) 2H036 QA17 QA20                 4G014 AH00                 4G062 AA01 AA15 BB02 CC01 DA08                       MM02 MM04 NN05 PP11

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A colored glass sintered body having a structure in which colored component particles are embedded in a matrix of the glass sintered body, wherein the average particle diameter of the colored component particles in the colored area is 10 μm or less. A colored glass sintered body, characterized in that the volume ratio of the colored component particles is 0.1% or more and 30% or less. 2. The colored glass sintered body according to claim 1, wherein the component constituting the matrix of the glass sintered body is quartz glass. 3. The color component particles are black.
Alternatively, the colored glass sintered body according to 2. 4. An amorphous glass powder having an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 5 μm and a coloring component powder having an average particle diameter of 0.05 to 10 μm, wherein the volume ratio of the coloring component powder is 0.1. % Or more, 3
1000-1700 ° C after mixing and molding at a ratio of 0% or less
The method for producing a colored glass sintered body according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that 5. A solution or sol solution containing a coloring component is used in a molded body or a pre-sintered body of an amorphous glass powder having an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 5 μm, and the solution in a colored area after sintering is used. The impregnation is performed so that the volume ratio of the coloring component is 0.1% or more and 30% or less, and sintering is performed at a temperature of 1000 to 1700 ° C. Colored glass sintered body of.