JP2003187695A - Forming method of separation wall for flat display device, and separation wall forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a forming method of a separation wall for flat display device which can improve dimensional accuracy of the separation wall by preventing the separation wall from unevenness of curing by restraining a scatter of light, and to provide a separation wall forming device. <P>SOLUTION: Absorption, reflection, and scatter of irradiation light at a back side plate S can be restrained owing to a concentration part 39 formed to a light emitting part 19 which makes the light L irradiated from an irradiation part 37 concentrate to the separation wall W. As a result, unevenness of curing is restrained, and curing efficiency and dimensional accuracy of the separation wall W are improved. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a partition forming method and apparatus for a flat display device such as a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as PDP) incorporated in a display terminal device of a computer or a wall-mounted television, and more particularly to the device. , A technique for forming partition walls by irradiating light while discharging the partition material on the back plate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as a method of this kind, there has been known a method for forming barrier ribs for a flat panel display device in which a back wall material for a flat panel display device is irradiated with ultraviolet light while being ejected from a nozzle to cure the barrier rib material. Can be mentioned. At this time, the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light covers almost the entire surface of the back plate including the partition wall.

[0003]

However, the conventional example having such a structure has the following problems. That is, in the conventional method, since the ultraviolet light applied to the back plate is diffusely reflected and the ultraviolet light is not uniformly applied to the partition walls, unevenness in curing occurs in the partition walls, and as a result, the dimensional accuracy of the partition walls is deteriorated. is there.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is intended for a flat display device capable of preventing uneven curing of partition walls and increasing dimensional accuracy by suppressing light scattering. An object of the present invention is to provide a partition forming method and a device thereof.

[0005]

The inventor of the present invention found the above-mentioned cause as a result of earnest research for solving the above-mentioned problems. That is, the area ratio of the partition wall to the back plate is, for example, about 1/4. Therefore, most of the light applied to the entire surface of the back plate is absorbed by the external space, or diffused repeatedly on the back plate and is not effectively used for curing the partition walls. Further, although some of the scattered light may be finally irradiated to the partition walls, it was found that unevenness of curing occurs because the reflection and the like due to the scattering cannot be well controlled. The present invention based on such knowledge is configured as follows.

That is, the invention according to claim 1 is a partition wall forming method for a flat panel display device for irradiating light to a back plate for a flat panel display device while ejecting the partition wall material from a nozzle to cure the partition wall material. It is characterized in that the irradiation light is concentrated on the partition wall.

(Operation / Effect) By concentrating irradiation light such as ultraviolet light or infrared light on the partition walls, it is possible to suppress light absorbed / reflected or scattered by the back plate.
Therefore, it is possible to suppress the unevenness of curing and improve the curing efficiency of the partition wall, and it is possible to improve the dimensional accuracy of the partition wall.

Note that concentrating the irradiation light on the partition wall includes limiting a part of the irradiation light by simply masking it or condensing it by using an optical system.

Specifically, it is preferable to concentrate the irradiation light on the partition wall as follows. That is, claim 2
The invention described in <1> is characterized in that, in the partition wall forming method for a flat panel display device according to claim 1, the light irradiation area for the partition wall is larger than the light irradiation area for the back plate.

(Operation and effect) By making the light irradiation area for the partition wall larger than that of the back plate, it is possible to concentrate the irradiation light on the partition wall as a result. The size of the partition wall formed on the back plate for the flat panel display device is very small, and the accuracy of concentrating the irradiation light is inevitably high. However, it is difficult to concentrate the light with high precision, and even if the irradiation light can be concentrated only on the partition wall, it is not possible to concentrate the irradiation light only on the partition wall while moving the partition wall. difficult. Therefore, the partition wall and a part of the back plate including the base of the partition wall are irradiated with the irradiation light, and the area irradiated to the partition wall is larger than that of the back plate.

In order to concentrate the irradiation light, for example,
There are an optical system of a convex lens system (the invention of claim 3) and a reflective optical system including a reflecting mirror surface (the invention of claim 4).

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a partition wall forming apparatus for a flat panel display device, in which a partition wall material for a flat panel display device is cured by being irradiated with light while being discharged from a nozzle to a rear plate for the flat panel display device. A nozzle for discharging the partition wall material, a mounting table for mounting the back plate, a moving means for relatively moving the nozzle and the mounting table, and a concentrating means for concentrating the irradiation light on the partition wall, The partition wall material is discharged from the nozzle while the moving means is operated to move the nozzle and the back plate relative to each other, and the irradiation light is concentrated on the partition wall via the concentrating means. .

(Operation / Effect) The partition material is discharged from the nozzle while being relatively moved by the moving means. At that time, the irradiation light is concentrated on the partition wall by the concentrating means. Therefore, the method according to claim 1 can be suitably implemented.

The device inventions according to claims 6 to 8 can preferably carry out the method inventions according to claims 2 to 4.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. <First Embodiment> FIGS. 1 to 3 relate to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic structure of a partition forming device for a flat panel display, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a light irradiation unit.

Back plate S for flat panel display such as PDP
Is a glass substrate, for example, and is mounted on the mounting table 1. A pair of guide rails 5 (only one is shown in the figure) is provided on the base 3 located below the mounting table 1. A slide member 7 is slidably fitted on the guide rail 5. In this way, the mounting table 1
Are movable in the left-right direction in FIG.

A motor 9 is mounted on the upper surface of the base 3 with its axis of rotation facing sideways. A screw shaft 11 is connected to the rotating shaft of the motor 9, and a connecting piece 13 attached to the lower surface of the mounting table 1 is screwed onto the screw shaft 11. Therefore, by operating the motor 9, the mounting table 1 is moved in the left-right direction together with the connection piece 13.

The motor 9 corresponds to the moving means in the present invention.

A discharge unit 15 for discharging the partition wall material is provided upright near the left end of the mounting table 1 in the state where the mounting table 1 is located at the initial position shown in the figure, and near the center of the base 3. Has been done. The discharge unit 15 includes a nozzle 17 and a light irradiation unit 19, and is attached to a frame 20 provided on the base 3 so as to straddle the mounting table 1. The light irradiation section 19 is provided behind the nozzle 17. The nozzle 17 is attached in an inclined posture with its tip end facing the destination of the rear plate S so that the partition wall material can be easily maintained in the cross-sectional shape of its discharge port.

In this apparatus, the partition wall material is discharged from the nozzle 17 when the mounting table 1 moves to the left from the initial position shown in FIG. 1, but the light irradiation section 19 discharges the partition wall. The material is irradiated with light to accelerate the curing.

As shown in FIG. 2, the nozzle 17 has a plurality of discharge ports 17a arranged in a line in the direction of the paper surface of FIG. In this embodiment, each ejection port 17a is formed in a trapezoidal shape having a height direction in the moving direction of the mounting table 1. Further, the length of the short side and the arrangement pitch P1 are
Examples are about 30 μm and about 150 μm. The shape of the ejection port 17a is not limited to such a trapezoidal shape, and various shapes such as a rectangular shape and an elliptical shape can be adopted.

A supply pipe 23 having a check valve 21 disposed therein is connected to the nozzle 17 so as to communicate therewith. This supply pipe 23 is
While the upper pipe 23a is connected to the pump 25,
A branch pipe 23 b that branches from the upper pipe 23 a above the check valve 21 is connected to the partition material tank 27 so as to communicate therewith.
The partition material tank 27 stores an ultraviolet light curable partition material containing a UV curable resin in a binder. Branch pipe 23
An opening / closing valve 29 is attached to b. Further, the motor 9, the pump 25, and the opening / closing valve 29 described above are comprehensively controlled by the control unit 31.

The partition wall material discharge mechanism configured as described above operates as follows. First, the pump 25 is suctioned with the on-off valve 29 opened to suck the partition material into the upper pipe 23a. At this time, the check valve 21 prevents the partition wall material remaining in the nozzle 17 from being pulled back. Next, the pump 25 is discharged while the on-off valve 29 is closed, the partition material sucked into the upper pipe 23a is pushed out through the check valve 21, and the partition material is supplied to the nozzle 17. By repeating such a series of operations, the partition wall material is continuously discharged from the discharge port 17a of the nozzle 17.

The above-mentioned light irradiating section 19 has an optical fiber 3
3 is connected. The optical fiber 33 is connected to the ultraviolet light source 35. The ultraviolet light from the ultraviolet light source 35 is irradiated from the light irradiation unit 19 toward the mounting table 1 through the optical fiber 33.

The above-mentioned light irradiation unit 19 is constructed as shown in FIG. A radiating section 37 that radiates irradiation light including ultraviolet light guided through the optical fiber 33 in the lateral direction of FIG.
And a concentrating portion 39 for concentrating the light emitted from 7 on the partition wall. The radiation part 37 has a radiation surface 3 formed on the lower surface.
The light from the optical fiber 33 is radiated in a substantially rectangular shape in plan view through 7a. The concentrated portion 39 includes a frame body 41, an opening portion 43 formed in the lower surface of the frame body 41, and a lens 45 fitted in the opening portion 43.

It should be noted that instead of fitting the lens 45 in the opening 43, a microlens may be integrally formed in conformity with the opening 43.

A plurality of openings 43 are formed according to the width and pitch of the partition walls W formed on the back plate S. The lens 45 attached to each opening 43 is configured by an optical system such as a convex lens or a convex rod lens having a major axis side in the length direction of the partition wall. The irradiation range of the light emitted from the entire emission surface 37a of the emission unit 37 is first limited by the frame 41, and the irradiation range is divided by the lenses 45 as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. Is limited to a narrow range including. It is preferable that the irradiation light L for curing has a larger irradiation area with respect to the partition wall W in plan view than that of the back plate S.

The frame 41 and the lens 45 described above correspond to the concentrating means in the present invention.

Next, with reference to FIG. 4, the partition wall forming process by the apparatus configured as described above will be described. FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing the partition wall forming process.

First, the back plate S is placed on the mounting table 1, and the back plate S is fixed to the mounting table 1 by suction or the like. Further, the ultraviolet light source 35 is turned on in advance so that the ultraviolet light has a stable output, and the ultraviolet light is irradiated from the light irradiation unit 19.

Next, while the motor 9 is rotating at a constant speed, the control unit 31 controls the pump 25 and the opening / closing valve 29 as described above to continuously discharge the partition wall material M _W from the nozzle 17. . Then, the mounting table 1 moves leftward from the initial position of FIG. 1 at a constant speed. As a result, the plurality of partition wall materials M _W discharged from the nozzle 17 are piled up on the upper surface of the back plate S so as to form linear partition walls W.

At this time, the partition wall material M _W (partition wall W) discharged from the nozzle 17 is irradiated with the condensed irradiation light L for curing to be cured. As described above, by first curing immediately after the ejection, it is possible to suppress the sagging of the partition material W _M immediately after the ejection, and it is possible to stably maintain the shape of the partition W. Further, since the irradiation area ratio of the irradiation light L for curing is set as described above, the irradiation light L that has to be irradiated to the partition wall W over the entire partition wall W while being relatively moved is slightly displaced. Even if it does, there will be no problem in curing.

As described above, in this embodiment, the irradiation light is concentrated on the partition wall W by the optical system 19, so that the light absorbed / reflected by the back plate S or scattered can be suppressed. Therefore, the curing unevenness of the partition wall W can be suppressed, the curing efficiency of the partition wall W can be improved, and the dimensional accuracy of the partition wall W can be improved.

After the partition wall W is formed in this manner, the back plate S is removed from the mounting table 1 and fired at a temperature of 500 to 600 ° C. by a separate firing device. By this, the partition wall W
A back plate S for a flat panel display having the above is completed.

<Second Embodiment> A second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the light irradiation unit, and FIG. 6 is a view of FIG. 5 viewed from the A direction. The rest of the configuration is the same as that of the above-mentioned first embodiment, and therefore its explanation is omitted.

The light irradiating section 19 is located at the upper side of the radiating section 3.
7 is provided with a flat reflecting mirror 51 that reflects the irradiation light from the emitting surface 37a of the emitting surface 37a obliquely upward, and a concave reflecting mirror 53 that collects the reflected light from the flat reflecting mirror 51 and reflects it obliquely downward. Equipped with reflective optics. The concave reflecting mirror 53 corresponding to the concentrating means in the present invention only concentrates the irradiation light when viewed from the A direction, and does not concentrate the irradiation light in the direction orthogonal to the A direction (FIG. 5). Thereby, the irradiation light L for curing is concentrated on the partition W as much as possible,
The back plate S is not irradiated.

Although not shown, the radiation surface 37a
Of the irradiation light having a rectangular shape in plan view radiated from the other parts, light other than the light reflected by the flat reflecting mirror 51 is not used by being shielded by the frame body of the light irradiation unit 19.

Even with such a structure, the above-mentioned first
It is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the embodiment and to obtain the same effect.

<Third Embodiment> A third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the light irradiation unit. The rest of the configuration is the same as that of the above-mentioned first embodiment, and therefore its explanation is omitted.

Unlike the first and second embodiments described above, this embodiment does not use the lens 45 and the concave reflecting mirror 53, but simply spreads light emitted from the emitting surface 37a into a rectangular shape in plan view. Just mask. Specifically, a mask member 57 having an opening 55 having a predetermined shape is fitted into each opening 43 of the frame 41.

Since the opening 55 of the mask member 57 is simply formed with a through hole, the irradiation light cannot be concentrated. However, although the light utilization efficiency is lower than in the first and second embodiments described above, the emission surface 3
By limiting the light emitted from 7a, the irradiation to the back plate S is suppressed as much as possible. The opening 55 is used for irradiation light L for curing.
As shown in FIG. 7, the irradiation is performed so as to be limited to only the partition wall W and a small area of the back plate S that is around the bottom of the partition wall W.

Instead of fitting the mask member 57, an opening may be formed directly on the bottom surface of the frame 41.

According to this embodiment, the same effects as those of the above-described embodiments can be obtained. Further, it is possible to omit a relatively complicated optical system having the configuration as illustrated in the first and second embodiments. Therefore, it can be configured relatively easily and the cost can be suppressed.

The present invention is based on the above-mentioned first to third aspects.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiment of the example, but can be modified as follows.

(1) Instead of curing with ultraviolet light, a means for curing by irradiating infrared light may be provided, and curing may be achieved with heat.

(2) The mounting table 1 may be fixedly arranged without moving and the discharge unit 15 may be moved.

(3) Rather than forming all the partition walls by one relative movement by the nozzle 17 having a plurality of discharge ports 17a, a plurality of nozzles having discharge ports smaller than the required number of partition ports are used to make a plurality of times. The partition wall may be formed over the entire surface of the back plate S by moving relative to each other.

[0048]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the irradiation light such as ultraviolet light or infrared light is concentrated on the partition wall so that the irradiation light is absorbed or reflected by the back plate, It is possible to suppress scattering. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the unevenness of curing and improve the curing efficiency of the partition wall, and it is possible to improve the dimensional accuracy of the partition wall.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a partition forming device for a flat panel display according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a view of the nozzle as viewed from below.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a light irradiation unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing a partition wall forming process.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a light irradiation unit according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a view of FIG. 5 viewed from the direction A.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a light irradiation section according to a third example.

[Explanation of symbols]

S ... Rear plate 1 ... Mounting table 3 ... Base 9 ... Motor (moving means) 15 ... Discharge unit 17 ... Nozzle 17a ... Discharge port 19 ... Light irradiation section 31 ... Control section 33 ... Optical fiber 37 ... Radiating section 37a ... Radiating surface 39 ... Concentrating part 41 ... Frame (concentrating means) 43 ... Opening 45 ... Lens (concentrating means) W ... Partition L ... Irradiation light M _W for curing ... Partition material

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A partition wall forming method for a flat panel display device, comprising: irradiating light onto a rear plate for a flat panel display device while ejecting partition wall material from a nozzle to cure the partition wall material; A method for forming a partition wall for a flat panel display device, comprising: 2. The partition wall forming method for a flat panel display device according to claim 1, wherein a light irradiation area for the partition wall is larger than a light irradiation area for the back plate. . 3. The partition forming method for a flat display device according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation light is concentrated by an optical system of a convex lens system. 4. The method for forming partition walls for a flat panel display device according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation light is concentrated by a reflective optical system including a reflective mirror surface. Partition forming method. 5. A partition wall forming apparatus for a flat panel display device, wherein a back wall plate for a flat panel display device is irradiated with light and cured while discharging the partition wall material from a nozzle. A mounting table for mounting a face plate, a moving means for relatively moving the nozzle and the mounting table, and a concentrating means for concentrating the irradiation light with respect to the partition wall. The moving means is operated to operate the nozzle and the nozzle. A partition forming device for a flat panel display device, characterized in that the partition wall material is discharged from the nozzle while the rear plate is relatively moved, and the irradiation light is concentrated on the partition through the concentrating means. 6. The barrier rib forming device for a flat panel display according to claim 5, wherein the concentrating means makes a light irradiation area of the barrier rib larger than a light irradiation area of the back plate. Partition formation device. 7. The partition forming device for a flat display device according to claim 5, wherein the concentrating means includes an optical system of a convex lens system. . 8. The partition forming device for a flat panel display according to claim 5, wherein the concentrating means includes a reflective optical system including a reflective mirror surface. Partition formation device.