JP2006029359A - Cleaning roller and cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning roller and a cleaning device capable of cleaning the surface of a sheet-like member to be cleaned without contaminating the same. <P>SOLUTION: The cleaning roller according to the invention comprises an elastic rubber layer (3) formed on an outer periphery of a metal shaft (2), a cylindrical sheet member (4) of hard material provided on an outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer and a cleaning layer (5) formed on an outside thereof. The sheet member of the hard material acts to prevent occurrence of flexure and is easily and resiliently deformed with respect to pressing force in a direction orthogonal to a roller axis so that the flexure does not occur and a large nip width can be formed with respect to the moving sheet-like member. This allows realization of practical cleaning performance even if adhesion of the cleaning layer is relatively weak. The invention performs a pressure extraction treatment using a solvent after vulcanization and allows use of silicon rubber largely reduced in bleed amount. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning roller, and more particularly to a cleaning roller and a cleaning device suitable for removing foreign matters such as dust and dust attached to the surface of a sheet-like material body such as a printed circuit board film and a photographic film.

  Conventionally, sheet-like members such as printed circuit boards, metal foils, films used for touch panels, photographic films, etc., are finally manufactured when foreign matters such as dust, dust, and dust adhere to the surface. Since the yield of the product to be reduced is reduced, it is transferred to the manufacturing process after the cleaning process. For example, a printed circuit board will be described as an example. A cleaning process is performed before a mask layer, an insulating layer, a conductive layer, and a display layer are formed on the substrate. The reason for this is that when a circuit pattern is printed while foreign matter such as dust or dirt adheres to the printed surface, the printed circuit pattern is broken or a non-printed pattern part is generated, and the printed circuit is finally manufactured. This is because the yield of the substrate decreases. Therefore, the method of cleaning the surface of the sheet-like member is extremely important for improving the yield of the final product.

  Conventionally, as a method for cleaning the surface of a sheet-like member, there is a method of removing foreign matters by liquid cleaning. However, this cleaning method not only has the disadvantage that the cleaning device itself becomes large, but also has a problem in the natural environment because detergents and other chemicals are used. As another cleaning method, a dust removing device using static electricity is also used. However, since many sheet-like members are electrically insulative, static electricity remains on the surface. Therefore, once dust is removed, there is a problem that another dust or dust adheres in the subsequent steps.

  On the other hand, as another cleaning method, there is known a cleaning method in which a cleaning roller having adhesiveness on the surface is used and dust or the like is removed by making contact with a traveling sheet-like member and utilizing the adhesiveness of the cleaning roller. In this cleaning method, the cleaning roller is brought into contact with the surface of the traveling sheet-like member, and the foreign matter is removed simply by being driven and rotated. Therefore, the cleaning device can be directly arranged on the product production line, and the cleaning device can be made compact. In addition, there is an advantage that the cost of the cleaning device is reduced.

  The roller cleaning method described above can be arranged in the middle of the production line, and various advantages are achieved. However, it is difficult to select a material for the adhesive layer of the cleaning roller. For example, when an adhesive roller impregnated with silicon oil is used, the performance of removing foreign matters such as dust and dust is high, but from the cleaning roller to the sheet-like member. The silicon oil is transferred, and on the contrary, a problem of contaminating the surface of the sheet-like member to be cleaned occurs. Similarly, when a cleaning roller having an adhesive layer such as an acrylic adhesive formed on the roller surface is used, there is a problem of contaminating the surface of the sheet-like member.

  Further, in the method of cleaning by pressing the traveling sheet-like member cleaning roller, when a pressing force is applied to both ends of the cleaning roller using a pressing spring or the like, the cleaning roller is bent, and the cleaning roller is bent in the axial direction of the roller. In some cases, a uniform nip width cannot be formed, resulting in poor cleaning.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning roller and a cleaning device that can clean the surface of the sheet-like member to be cleaned without contaminating the surface.
Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning roller that can form a uniform nip width along the roller axial direction, even when used with pressure applied to both ends of the cleaning roller. And providing a cleaning device.

  The cleaning roller according to the present invention is composed of a metal shaft, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft, a cylindrical sheet member having rigidity and provided on the outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer. A cylindrical member that can be elastically deformed in a direction perpendicular to the cylindrical member, and a cleaning layer that is formed on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member and is made of an adhesive rubber material.

  As a result of various experiments and analyzes conducted by the inventor on the cleaning roller, when a silicon rubber material that has been subjected to oil extraction treatment after vulcanization of silicon rubber is used for the cleaning layer, the adhesiveness is impregnated with oil. Although it is slightly lower than the cleaning roller, it has been found that the cleaning roller has sufficient practicality as a cleaning roller for a traveling sheet-like member. That is, a silicone rubber material appropriately impregnated with silicone oil can exhibit strong adhesiveness. However, when the cleaning roller comes into contact with the traveling sheet-like member, there occurs a problem that the silicon oil impregnated in the cleaning roller is transferred to the sheet-like member side. On the other hand, as a result of various experiments on the cleaning performance of the cleaning roller using the silicon rubber that has been subjected to the silicon oil extraction removal process as a cleaning layer, the present inventor found that the adhesiveness was slightly reduced, but between the traveling sheet-like member It has been found that a cleaning performance that satisfies the practicality can be obtained by setting the contact time of a relatively long time, that is, by forming a nip between the traveling sheet-like member and the cleaning roller. That is, the cleaning performance of a cleaning roller using silicon rubber subjected to silicon oil extraction treatment as a cleaning layer was tested by changing the nip width formed between the sheet-like member to be cleaned and the cleaning roller. In the case of the cleaning roller having a short nip width, that is, when the sheet-like member and the cleaning roller are in line contact, the cleaning performance is low, and the cleaning performance satisfying practicality cannot be obtained. On the other hand, when a relatively strong pressing force is applied between the sheet-like material body and the cleaning roller using a pressure spring, and the nip width is gradually increased, the cleaning performance increases as the nip width increases. It was confirmed that the cleaning performance that can sufficiently satisfy the practicality is exhibited in the case of a large nip width. According to this experimental result, if a relatively large nip width is obtained by lowering the hardness of the entire cleaning roller, even a cleaning roller mainly made of silicon rubber subjected to oil extraction processing can be used as a cleaning roller. It will be fully practical.

Here, as a result of performing various experiments and analyzes by the inventor as the silicon oil extraction treatment, it has been found that the solvent immersion treatment under high pressure conditions is extremely effective. It is necessary to add a non-functional silicone oil to ordinary silicone rubber in order to adjust the resin viscosity before vulcanization, the rubber hardness after vulcanization, or the elastic modulus. In this case, as a silicone oil to be added, a cyclic siloxane having a relatively low polymerization degree represented by the formula (CH ₃ ) ₂ SiO _n (where n is about 3 to 30), dimethyl silicone oil, methylphenyl silicone oil A non-functional silicone oil such as methyl hydrogen silicone oil is generally used. The silicone rubber added with this silicone oil was vulcanized and tested as a cleaning roller. Most of the silicone oil transferred from the cleaning roller to the sheet-like material body side was low-polymerized siloxane, non-functional silicone oil, etc. Of unreacted oligomers. Of these components, the low-polymerization degree siloxane and the non-functional silicone oil can be removed relatively easily by forced heat treatment at 180 to 220 ° C. However, it cannot be completely removed even by forced heating treatment, and a practical problem that contaminates the sheet-like material to be cleaned has been pointed out.

In order to solve this problem, the present inventor conducted various experiments and analyses. As a result, it was found that the solvent immersion treatment under high pressure conditions is extremely effective for extracting and removing unreacted oligomers. For example, by immersing the vulcanized roller in a solvent such as toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, etc. and pressurizing the container to 3-50 kg / cm ² , the solvent penetrates deeply into the silicon rubber, so that the remaining unreacted Reaction oligomers can be extracted.

  On the other hand, when a pressure contact force is applied between the traveling sheet-like member and the cleaning roller and an adhesive material having a relatively high hardness is used for the cleaning layer, the following problems occur.

  When the oligomer extraction process is performed on the vulcanized silicon rubber, the hardness of the silicon rubber becomes relatively high. For this reason, when the silicon rubber layer is directly formed on the metal shaft, the amount of elastic deformation as the cleaning roller is small, and there is a problem that a sufficient nip width cannot be formed. As a method for solving this problem, it is assumed that the thickness of the silicon rubber is set to be thick and the cleaning roller is pressed against a sheet-like material body to be cleaned using a pressing means such as a pressing spring. However, when a hard rubber roller is pressed against the pressure spring via a pressure spring, the cleaning roller itself is bent, and it is difficult to form a nip having a uniform width along the roller axis direction. That is, the nip width at both ends of the cleaning roller is large and the nip width at the center is small, and it is impossible to maintain uniform cleaning performance over the entire length of the roller.

  In order to solve this problem, in the present invention, the cleaning roller has a three-layer structure, and each function required for the cleaning roller is divided into three layers. That is, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer made of, for example, urethane foam is provided as the first layer formed on the metal shaft. Due to the elastic deformability of the elastic rubber layer, a large nip width is formed for the entire roller. Then, an adhesive cleaning layer is formed as the outermost layer, and the surface of the sheet-like material body is cleaned using the adhesive force of the cleaning layer.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, a cylindrical sheet member having rigidity such as polyethylene, Teflon (registered trademark), nylon, and polyester is provided between the elastic rubber layer and the cleaning layer, and in a direction perpendicular to the roller axis. A cylindrical member capable of elastic deformation is interposed. A cylindrical body constituted by a sheet-like member having rigidity hardly displaces or deforms even when a stress directed in the sheet surface acts. Therefore, even if the pressure springs are attached to both ends of the cleaning roller, the stress component that causes the bending is absorbed by the rigid cylindrical body. As a result, even if a stress component that causes the bending due to the crimping force is applied, the deformation due to the bending force hardly occurs. On the other hand, since this cylindrical body can be elastically deformed in a direction perpendicular to the roller axial direction, it is elastically deformed in the direction orthogonal to the axial direction together with the inner elastic rubber layer according to the pressure contact force, and is uniform along the roller axial direction. Nip width can be formed. As described above, by interposing the hard cylindrical sheet-like member between the cleaning layer and the elastic rubber layer, a nip having a sufficiently large and uniform width can be formed with almost no bending. A cleaning roller is realized.

  Furthermore, the surface of the cleaning roller is required to have a mirror surface or flatness close to this. In other words, when unevenness is formed on the roller surface, a portion that does not come into contact is generated between the traveling sheet-like member and the surface of the cleaning roller, and uniform cleaning performance cannot be obtained. Therefore, for example, when urethane foam is used as the elastic rubber layer and the cleaning layer is formed directly on the urethane foam, irregularities are formed on the roller surface, and the practical cleaning performance cannot be exhibited. In order to solve this problem, in the present invention, a cylindrical body is interposed between the elastic rubber layer and the cleaning layer, and the surface of the cylindrical body is close to a mirror surface with almost no unevenness. If the cleaning layer is formed directly on the body, a cleaning roller having a mirror surface with a mirror surface or high flatness close to this can be realized.

  A preferred embodiment of the cleaning roller according to the present invention is characterized in that the thickness d of the cleaning layer is set in the range of 0.05 ≦ d ≦ 1 mm. When the cleaning layer is made of a rubber material having a relatively high hardness, the roller as a whole is difficult to elastically deform when the cleaning layer is thick. On the other hand, if the thickness of the cleaning layer is too thin, a problem occurs in durability. Considering this point, as a result of various endurance experiments conducted by the present inventor, a problem occurs when the thickness of the cleaning layer is 50 μm or less from the viewpoint of durability and mechanical strength. On the other hand, when the thickness of the cleaning layer exceeds 1 mm, a strong pressure-bonding force for securing a necessary nip width is required, which exceeds the limit of the deflection amount of the entire roller. From this experimental result, the thickness of the cleaning layer of the cleaning roller of the present invention is set to 50 μm or more and 1 mm or less.

The manufacturing method of the cleaning roller according to the present invention includes a metal shaft, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft, and a rigid cylindrical sheet member formed on the outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer. In manufacturing a cleaning roller having a cylindrical member elastically deformable in a direction perpendicular to the roller axial direction and a cleaning layer formed on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member,
Preparing a roller base having an elastic rubber layer and a cylindrical sheet member formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft;
Applying liquid silicon to the outer periphery of the roller base;
Vulcanizing a roller coated with liquid silicon;
Performing a pressure treatment in a state where the vulcanized roller is immersed in a solvent, and extracting and removing unreacted oligomers;
And a step of drying the roller from which the oligomer has been extracted and removed. Since the surface of the rigid cylindrical sheet member is close to a mirror surface with almost no unevenness, the adhesive cleaning layer can be easily formed by applying liquid silicon. In addition, since the vulcanization temperature of liquid silicon is about 100 ° C., it does not adversely affect each underlying layer.

  In the present invention, the cleaning roller has a three-layer structure, a thick elastic rubber layer is formed on the metal shaft, an adhesive thin cleaning layer is formed as the outermost layer, and rigidity is provided between the cleaning roller layer and the elastic rubber layer. Since the sheet-like member cylindrical body is interposed, a cleaning roller having a large nip width can be realized without contaminating the surface of the traveling sheet-like member. Particularly, since a cylindrical sheet member made of a hard material is interposed between the elastic rubber layer and the cleaning layer, a uniform and large nip width can be formed along the roller axial direction.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an example of a cleaning roller according to the present invention. The cleaning roller 1 has a metal shaft 2, and a thick elastic rubber layer 3 is formed on the metal shaft 2. The elastic rubber layer 3 is made of an elastically deformable rubber material having a relatively low hardness, and can be made of, for example, foamed urethane, silicon rubber, foamed silicon rubber, EPDM rubber, CR rubber, or natural rubber. A cylindrical body 4 made of a rigid cylindrical sheet member is provided on the elastic rubber layer 3. This cylindrical body 4 can be comprised with the cylindrical sheet | seat member of synthetic resin materials, such as nylon, a polypropylene, polyester, polyethylene, a fluororesin film, for example. Since this cylindrical sheet member 4 has rigidity, when it is formed in a cylindrical shape, it can be elastically deformed freely in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction. On the other hand, even if a pressing force is applied to both ends of the roller, it is difficult to be displaced in the roller axial direction, so that almost no bending occurs.

  An adhesive cleaning layer 5 is formed on a cylindrical body 4 made of a cylindrical sheet member. This cleaning layer 5 can be made of silicon rubber from which low-polymerization degree siloxane and non-functional silicone oil have been extracted and removed. In addition, when silicon oil may transfer, it can be composed of a silicon oil impregnated material. This cleaning layer 5 may be a low hardness rubber material or a high hardness rubber material. However, in the case of a high-hardness rubber material having a JIS hardness exceeding about 30 °, the thickness is preferably about 100 μm to 1 mm. The reason for this is that, since only the surface characteristics of the cleaning layer are important, by reducing the thickness of the cleaning layer, a roller that is easily elastically deformed even when the cleaning layer has a high hardness can be obtained. This is because the nip width can be formed.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a cleaning device using the cleaning roller shown in FIG. It is assumed that the surface of the sheet-like member 10 traveling in the direction of the arrow is cleaned. The sheet-like member to be cleaned is applied to a printed circuit board, various films, or a metal foil. A pair of cleaning rollers 1 a and 1 b are arranged so as to sandwich the sheet-like member 10. These cleaning rollers are the cleaning rollers shown in FIG. The cleaning rollers 1a and 1b are brought into pressure contact with each other by attaching crimp springs (not shown) to both ends thereof. Due to this pressure contact force, a nip width is formed between the cleaning rollers 1a and 1b and the sheet-like member, and foreign matters such as dust and dirt adhering to the sheet-like member pass through the nip by the adhesive force of the cleaning roller, Transfer to the cleaning roller side. When a pressure contact force acts between the cleaning rollers, the elastic rubber layer 3 is deformed so as to be thin, and the cylindrical body 4 is also elastically deformed at the same time, so that a large nip width is formed. Note that the pressure contact force acting on both ends of the roller generates an acting force opposite to each other in the axial direction of the roller due to the bending, but the acting force is absorbed by the rigid cylindrical body, so that the bending hardly occurs. As described above, the cleaning roller of the present invention has a large nip width without being bent due to elastic deformation of the elastic rubber layer and the cylindrical body, and can transfer dust and dirt to the cleaning roller side.

  The collection roller 20 is disposed so as to contact the cleaning roller 1a. This collection roller has a metal shaft, a cylindrical paper tube made mainly of wood fibers, and a thin adhesive silicon rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the paper tube, and is disposed inside the paper tube. The paper tube is rotatably supported by the shaft.

  Foreign matter adhering to the sheet-like member 10 to be cleaned is transferred to the cleaning roller side by the adhesive force of the cleaning rollers 1a and 1b. Since the foreign matter is further transferred to the collection roller 20, the collection roller 20 is replaced with a new collection roller after a predetermined period has elapsed. As a result, the cleaning roller can be kept clean at all times. The paper tube roller is extremely useful from the standpoint of maintenance because of its significantly low cost.

  Next, a method for manufacturing a cleaning roller according to the present invention will be described. First, the metal shaft 2 is prepared, and an elastic rubber layer of urethane foam is attached to the outer periphery thereof with an adhesive. Next, for example, a nylon cylindrical sheet member is prepared and mounted on the elastic rubber layer. Next, liquid silicon is applied onto the cylindrical body by a spray method. Then, it arrange | positions in the heating furnace of a 100 degreeC temperature atmosphere, and performs a vulcanization process. Since liquid silicon can be vulcanized at low temperatures, it does not adversely affect the underlying urethane or nylon.

Next, an oligomer extraction process is performed. The roller after the vulcanization treatment is immersed in a container containing a solvent such as toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone. The container is pressurized to 3-50 kg / cm ² . During this pressurization, the solvent penetrates to the inside after the silicon. Therefore, not only the oligomers near the surface but also the oligomers such as unreacted low-polymerization siloxane inside the silicone rubber are extracted into the solvent, and almost the silicone rubber. Silicon oil removal processing can be performed on the whole.
Thereafter, a drying process such as natural drying or heat drying is performed to complete the cleaning roller subjected to the extraction process. In addition, the solvent immersion treatment can be performed after the heat treatment after the vulcanization.

Next, regarding the bleed amount (oil oozing amount) of the silicon rubber layer used for the cleaning roller of the present invention, the silicon rubber subjected to the extraction process of the present invention and the rubber material for other cleaners shown as a comparative example The results of comparative experiments on the bleed amount will be described. As comparative examples, butyl rubber cleaner, LTV silicon rubber cleaner, and HTV silicon rubber were used. The test conditions are as follows.
(1) Prepare a sample in a cylindrical shape with a diameter of 20 mm and a height of 10 mm, and surround the sample with oil collecting paper.
(2) The sample is sandwiched between molds so that 50% compression is applied.
(3) Leave in an oven at 70 ° C for 3 days.
(4) The amount of bleed was determined from the difference in rubber weight before and after the test. The test results are shown below

Sample Bleed amount (mg)
Silicone rubber according to the present invention 1.8
Butyl rubber cleaner 14.8
LTV Silicon Cleaner 33.0
HTV Silicone rubber 10.3

As is clear from the above test results, it has been found that the silicon rubber subjected to the extraction treatment according to the present invention has a sufficiently reduced bleed amount and has sufficient utility as a cleaner.

It is a diagrammatic sectional view showing an example of a cleaning roller according to the present invention. It is a diagrammatic sectional view showing an example of a cleaning device by the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cleaning roller 2 Metal shaft 3 Elastic rubber layer 4 Cylindrical body 5 Cleaning layer 10 Sheet-like member 20 Collection | recovery roller

Claims (9)

  A metal shaft, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft, and a rigid cylindrical sheet member provided on the outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer and elastically deformed in a direction perpendicular to the roller axis A cleaning roller comprising: a cylindrical member capable of being formed; and a cleaning layer formed on an outer periphery of the cylindrical member and made of a sticky rubber material.   2. The cleaning roller according to claim 1, wherein the cylindrical sheet member constituting the cylindrical member is formed of a cylindrical sheet member that is not easily deformed in the sheet surface and is elastically deformable in a direction perpendicular to the sheet surface. A featured cleaning roller.   3. The cleaning roller according to claim 1, wherein the elastic rubber layer is made of foamed urethane rubber, and the cleaning layer is made of a silicon rubber material subjected to an oligomer extraction process.   The cleaning roller according to claim 3, wherein the oligomer is extracted by being immersed in a solvent and extracted and removed under high pressure conditions.   5. The cleaning roller according to claim 3, wherein a thickness d of the cleaning layer is set in a range of 0.05 ≦ d ≦ 1 mm.   The cleaning roller according to claim 1, wherein a surface of the cylindrical sheet-like member is formed in a mirror shape. It consists of a metal shaft, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft, and a rigid cylindrical sheet member formed on the outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer, and elastic in the direction perpendicular to the roller axial direction. In manufacturing a cleaning roller having a deformable cylindrical member and a cleaning layer formed on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member,
Preparing a roller base having an elastic rubber layer and a cylindrical sheet member formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft;
Applying liquid silicon to the outer periphery of the roller base;
Vulcanizing a roller coated with liquid silicon;
Performing a pressure treatment in a state where the vulcanized roller is immersed in a solvent, and extracting and removing unreacted oligomers;
And a step of drying the roller from which the oligomer has been extracted and removed. A cleaning roller that is in contact with the traveling sheet-like material to be cleaned and is driven to rotate as the sheet-like material travels, and a recovery roller that is in contact with the cleaning roller and collects foreign matter adhering to the surface of the cleaning roller. In a cleaning device comprising a roller and a pressure contact means that is pressed against the sheet-like material body running on the cleaning roller, and transferring foreign matter attached to the surface of the sheet-like material body to the cleaning roller side,
The cleaning roller is composed of a metal shaft, an elastically deformable elastic rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the metal shaft, and a rigid cylindrical sheet member formed on the outer periphery of the elastic rubber layer and orthogonal to the roller axis. A cylindrical member that is elastically deformable in a direction to be formed, and a cleaning layer that is formed on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member and has adhesiveness,
The collection roller has a metal shaft, a cylindrical paper tube mainly formed of wood fiber, and a collection rubber layer formed on the outer periphery of the paper tube, provided on the outer periphery of the metal shaft.
A cleaning device, wherein the cleaning layer of the cleaning roller and the recovery rubber layer of the recovery roller are made of silicon rubber that has been subjected to an extraction process for removing low-polymerization degree oligomers.   9. The cleaning device according to claim 8, wherein the cleaning layer has the low polymerization degree oligomer extracted and removed by a high pressure solvent extraction process.

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