JP2006264161A - Cleaning method of flow casting die - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To clean a flow casting die without using special cleaning equipment and disassembling it by, in doing so, inserting a cloth-clad tool into the slit and wiping and cleaning the tip of the slit while the casting die remains assembled. <P>SOLUTION: The flow casting die 31 used for manufacturing a film is cleaned. The cloth 101 of the cleaning tool 102 is impregnated with a neutral surfactant. The cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 of the casting die 31. The 5 mm range from the tips of the slit surfaces 111, 112 and the lands 113, 114 are wiped and cleaned. Then a new cloth 101 is impregnated with pure water. The cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 to wipe and clean while removing the neutral surfactant. Further a new cloth 101 is soaked with dichloromethane. The cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 to wipe and clean while removing the pure water. Then the solvent composing the dope is continuously fed to the flow casting die 31 to clean the dope passage. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a casting die cleaning method, and more particularly to a casting die cleaning method preferably used in a solution casting method.

  A TAC film formed from cellulose ester, particularly cellulose triacetate (hereinafter referred to as TAC) having an average degree of acetylation of 58.0% to 62.5%, has a toughness and flame retardancy. It is used as a film support. Moreover, since the TAC film is excellent in optical isotropy, it is used as a protective film for a polarizing plate of a liquid crystal display device whose market is expanding in recent years.

The TAC film is usually produced by a solution casting method. The solution casting method can produce a film having excellent physical properties such as optical properties as compared with other production methods such as a melt casting method. In the solution casting method, a polymer solution (hereinafter referred to as a dope) is prepared by dissolving a polymer in a mixed solvent containing dichloromethane or methyl acetate as a main solvent. The dope is cast on a support by forming a casting bead from a casting die to form a casting film. After the cast film has a self-supporting property on the support, it is peeled off from the support as a film (hereinafter, this film is referred to as a wet film), dried and wound up as a film (for example, (Refer nonpatent literature 1.).
Japan Society for Invention and Innovation Public Technical Bulletin No. 2001-1745

  Conventionally, when the casting die is washed, the solvent is circulated inside the casting die. In this case, the dope adhering to the casting die can be removed, but the insoluble material brought in from the chip or the like remains without dropping. Therefore, the remaining dirt causes a surface failure during the production of the film. Therefore, the dirt adhering to the inside of the casting die is forcibly removed by polishing after disassembling the casting die. In this case, since the casting die is assembled again after polishing, in order to obtain a desired film, if the casting die is not finely adjusted, another new failure (for example, the width direction of the film) It may also be a factor in inducing thickness unevenness.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a casting die cleaning method for cleaning a casting die without disassembling the casting die and preventing a surface failure of the film.

  As a result of intensive studies by the present inventor, when washing a casting die used in the solution casting method, a neutral detergent (neutral surfactant) is used to remove the casting die before the conventional circulation washing. By wiping and cleaning the slit tip, and then wiping and cleaning the slit tip with water, it is possible to prevent surface failure of the film due to dirt inside the casting die without disassembling the casting die. I found it. It has also been found that the cleaning effect of the casting die is further enhanced by performing wiping cleaning with an organic solvent after wiping cleaning with water.

  The casting die cleaning method of the present invention is used in a solution casting method. In the casting die cleaning method in which a dope is cast from the slit, the tip of the slit is wiped and washed with a neutral surfactant. Later, the tip of the slit is washed with water.

It is preferable that the tip of the slit is further cleaned by wiping with an organic solvent. The slit inner surface is a slit inner surface up to 5 mm upstream from the lip which is the tip of the slit;
The land is preferably the lip surface. In the case where the casting die is still assembled, it is preferable to insert a base material covered with a cloth into the slit and wipe and clean the tip of the slit. The surface of the slit tip is preferably made hydrophobic. The contact angle of the surface of the slit tip is preferably 83 ° or more.

  The present invention also includes a solution casting method using a casting die cleaned by the casting die cleaning method.

  According to the casting die cleaning method of the present invention, the tip of the slit is wiped with a neutral surfactant in the casting die cleaning method used in the solution casting method and casting the dope from the slit. After cleaning, the tip end of the slit is wiped and cleaned, so that the casting die can be cleaned without disassembling the casting die, so the cleaning time for the casting die can be greatly reduced. .

  According to the casting die cleaning method of the present invention, when the casting die is cleaned, the casting die is still assembled, and the base material covered with a cloth is formed in the slit. Inserting and wiping and cleaning the tip of the slit allows the casting die to be cleaned without using special cleaning equipment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments listed here.

  First, as shown in FIG. 1, a dope manufacturing process 10 is performed. The dope 11 is obtained by the dope manufacturing process 10. Next, a film manufacturing process 12 is performed using the dope 11. The film 13 is obtained by the film manufacturing process 12. Further, when the casting die used in the film manufacturing process 12 is contaminated, a casting die cleaning process 14 is performed.

[material]
In the present embodiment, cellulose acylate is used as the polymer, and triacetyl cellulose (TAC) is particularly preferable as the cellulose acylate. Of the cellulose acylates, those in which the substitution degree of the acyl group with respect to the hydrogen atom of the hydroxyl group of cellulose satisfies all of the following formulas (I) to (III) are more preferable. In the following formulas (I) to (III), A and B represent the substitution degree of the acyl group with respect to the hydrogen atom of the hydroxyl group of cellulose, A represents the substitution degree of the acetyl group, and B represents 3 to 3 carbon atoms. 22 is the substitution degree of the acyl group. In addition, it is preferable that 90 mass% or more of TAC is a particle | grain of 0.1 mm-4 mm.
(I) 2.5 ≦ A + B ≦ 3.0
(II) 0 ≦ A ≦ 3.0
(III) 0 ≦ B ≦ 2.9
The polymer used in the present invention is not limited to cellulose acylate.

  Glucose units having β-1,4 bonds constituting cellulose have free hydroxyl groups at the 2nd, 3rd and 6th positions. Cellulose acylate is a polymer obtained by esterifying some or all of these hydroxyl groups with an acyl group having 2 or more carbon atoms. The degree of acyl substitution means the ratio of the hydroxyl group of cellulose esterified at each of the 2-position, 3-position and 6-position (100% esterification has a substitution degree of 1).

The total acylation substitution degree, that is, DS2 + DS3 + DS6 is preferably 2.00 to 3.00, more preferably 2.22 to 2.90, and particularly preferably 2.40 to 2.88. Further, DS6 / (DS2 + DS3 + DS6) is preferably 0.28 or more, more preferably 0.30 or more, and particularly preferably 0.31 to 0.34. Here, DS2 is the degree of substitution of the hydroxyl group at the 2-position of the glucose unit with an acyl group (hereinafter also referred to as “degree of acyl substitution at the 2-position”), and DS3 is the degree of substitution of the hydroxyl group at the 3-position with an acyl group (hereinafter, referred to as “acyl group”). DS6 is the substitution degree of the hydroxyl group at the 6-position with an acyl group (hereinafter also referred to as “acyl substitution degree at the 6-position”).

  Only one type of acyl group may be used in the cellulose acylate of the present invention, or two or more types of acyl groups may be used. When two or more kinds of acyl groups are used, it is preferable that one of them is an acetyl group. When the sum of the substitution degrees by the hydroxyl groups at the 2nd, 3rd and 6th positions is DSA, and the sum of the substitution degree by an acyl group other than the acetyl group at the 2nd, 3rd and 6th hydroxyl groups is DSB, the value of DSA + DSB is More preferably, it is 2.22 to 2.90, and particularly preferably 2.40 to 2.88. The DSB is 0.30 or more, particularly preferably 0.7 or more. Further, 20% or more of DSB is a substituent at the 6-position hydroxyl group, more preferably 25% or more is a substituent at the 6-position hydroxyl group, more preferably 30% or more, and particularly 33% or more is a 6-position hydroxyl group. It is preferable that it is a substituent. Furthermore, the cellulose acylate having a substitution degree of 6-position of cellulose acylate of 0.75 or more, further 0.80 or more, and particularly 0.85 or more can be mentioned. With these cellulose acylates, a solution having a preferable solubility (dope) can be produced. In particular, in a non-chlorine organic solvent, a good solution can be produced. Furthermore, it is possible to produce a solution having a low viscosity and good filterability.

  Cellulose, which is a raw material for cellulose acylate, may be obtained from either linter cotton or pulp cotton, but is preferably obtained from linter cotton.

  The acyl group having 2 or more carbon atoms of the cellulose acylate of the present invention may be an aliphatic group or an aryl group and is not particularly limited. These are, for example, cellulose alkylcarbonyl esters, alkenylcarbonyl esters, aromatic carbonyl esters, aromatic alkylcarbonyl esters, and the like, each of which may further have a substituted group. Preferred examples of these include propionyl, butanoyl, pentanoyl, hexanoyl, octanoyl, decanoyl, dodecanoyl, tridecanoyl, tetradecanoyl, hexadecanoyl, octadecanoyl, iso-butanoyl, t-butanoyl, cyclohexanecarbonyl, oleoyl, benzoyl , Naphthylcarbonyl, cinnamoyl group and the like. Among these, propionyl, butanoyl, dodecanoyl, octadecanoyl, t-butanoyl, oleoyl, benzoyl, naphthylcarbonyl, cinnamoyl and the like are more preferable, and propionyl and butanoyl are particularly preferable.

  Solvents for preparing the dope include aromatic hydrocarbons (eg, benzene, toluene, etc.), halogenated hydrocarbons (eg, dichloromethane, chlorobenzene, etc.), alcohols (eg, methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol, Diethylene glycol, etc.), ketones (eg, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, etc.), esters (eg, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, propyl acetate, etc.) and ethers (eg, tetrahydrofuran, methyl cellosolve, etc.). In the present invention, the dope means a polymer solution or dispersion obtained by dissolving or dispersing a polymer in a solvent.

  Among these, halogenated hydrocarbons having 1 to 7 carbon atoms are preferably used, and dichloromethane is most preferably used. One kind of alcohol having 1 to 5 carbon atoms in addition to dichloromethane from the viewpoint of physical properties such as solubility of TAC, peelability of cast film from the support, mechanical strength of the film, and optical properties of the film It is preferable to mix several kinds. 2 mass%-25 mass% are preferable with respect to the whole solvent, and, as for content of alcohol, 5 mass%-20 mass% are more preferable. Specific examples of the alcohol include methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, n-butanol and the like, but methanol, ethanol, n-butanol or a mixture thereof is preferably used.

  By the way, recently, for the purpose of minimizing the influence on the environment, studies have been conducted on the solvent composition when dichloromethane is not used. For this purpose, ethers having 4 to 12 carbon atoms, carbon atoms A ketone having 3 to 12 carbon atoms, an ester having 3 to 12 carbon atoms, and an alcohol having 1 to 12 carbon atoms are preferably used. These may be used in combination as appropriate. For example, a mixed solvent of methyl acetate, acetone, ethanol, and n-butanol can be mentioned. These ethers, ketones, esters and alcohols may have a cyclic structure. A compound having two or more functional groups of ether, ketone, ester, and alcohol (that is, —O—, —CO—, —COO—, and —OH) can also be used as the solvent.

  The details of cellulose acylate are described in paragraphs [0140] to [0195] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464. These descriptions are also applicable to the present invention. The same applies to additives such as solvents and plasticizers, deterioration inhibitors, UV absorbers (UV agents), optical anisotropy control agents, retardation control agents, dyes, matting agents, release agents, release accelerators, etc. The details are described in paragraphs [0196] to [0516] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464.

[Dope manufacturing process]
The dope manufacturing process 10 which manufactures dope using the said raw material first is demonstrated. First, the solvent is sent from the solvent tank to the dissolution tank. Next, the TAC contained in the hopper is fed into the dissolution tank while being measured. The required amount of the additive solution is fed from the additive tank to the dissolution tank. In addition to the method of sending the additive as a solution, for example, when the additive is liquid at normal temperature, it can be sent to the dissolution tank in the liquid state. Further, when the additive is solid, a method of feeding into the dissolution tank using a hopper or the like is also possible. When a plurality of types of additives are added, a solution in which a plurality of types of additives are dissolved can be placed in the additive tank. Alternatively, a solution in which an additive is dissolved can be put in each of a plurality of additive tanks, and sent to the dissolution tank through independent pipes.

  In the above description, the order of putting into the dissolution tank is the solvent (used in the meaning including the case of the mixed solvent), TAC, and additive, but is not limited to this order. For example, a preferred amount of solvent can be fed after the TAC is metered into the dissolution tank. The additive does not necessarily need to be put in the dissolution tank in advance, and can be mixed in a mixture of TAC and a solvent (hereinafter, these mixtures may also be referred to as a dope) in a later step.

  The dissolution tank is provided with a jacket that wraps around its outer surface and a first stirrer that is rotated by a motor. Furthermore, it is preferable that the 2nd stirrer rotated by a motor is attached to the dissolution tank. The first stirrer is preferably provided with anchor blades, and the second stirrer is preferably a dissolver type eccentric stirrer. Then, the temperature of the dissolution tank is adjusted by flowing a heat transfer medium between the dissolution tank and the jacket, and the preferred temperature range is -10 ° C to 55 ° C. By appropriately selecting and using the types of the first stirrer and the second stirrer, a swelling liquid in which TAC is swollen in a solvent is obtained.

  The swelling liquid is sent to the heating device by a pump. The heating device is preferably a jacketed pipe, and further preferably has a configuration capable of pressurizing the swelling liquid. By using such a heating device, the dope 11 is obtained by dissolving the solid content in the swelling liquid under heating conditions or under pressure heating conditions. Hereinafter, this method is referred to as a heating dissolution method. In this case, the temperature of the swelling liquid is preferably 50 ° C to 120 ° C. Moreover, the cooling dissolution method which cools a swelling liquid to the temperature of -100 degreeC--30 degreeC can also be performed. TAC can be sufficiently dissolved in a solvent by appropriately selecting the heating dissolution method and the cooling dissolution method. After the dope is brought to about room temperature with a temperature controller, the impurities contained in the dope are removed by filtration with a filtration device. The filtration filter used in the filtration device preferably has an average pore diameter of 100 μm or less. The filtration flow rate is preferably 50 L / hr or more. The dope 11 after filtration is sent to a stock tank 21 in the film production line 20 of FIG. 2 and stored therein.

  By the way, as described above, the method of once preparing the swelling liquid and then using the swelling liquid as a dope increases the time required as the concentration of TAC is increased, which may be problematic in terms of manufacturing cost. . In that case, it is preferable to prepare a dope having a concentration lower than the target concentration and then perform a concentration step for obtaining the target concentration. When using such a method, the dope filtered by the filtration device is sent to the flash device, and a part of the solvent in the dope is evaporated in the flash device. The solvent gas generated by the evaporation is condensed by a condenser (not shown) to become a liquid and recovered by a recovery device. The recovered solvent is regenerated and reused as a solvent for preparing a dope by a regenerator. This reuse is effective in terms of cost.

  Further, the concentrated dope is extracted from the flash device by a pump. Furthermore, it is preferable that a bubble removal process is performed to remove bubbles generated in the dope. As this defoaming method, various known methods are applied, for example, an ultrasonic irradiation method. The dope is then sent to a filtration device to remove foreign matter. In addition, it is preferable that the temperature of dope at the time of filtration is 0 degreeC-200 degreeC. Then, the dope 11 is sent to the stock tank 21 and stored.

  By the above method, the dope 11 having a TAC concentration of 5% by mass to 40% by mass can be manufactured. More preferably, the TAC concentration is from 15% by mass to 30% by mass, and most preferably from 17% by mass to 25% by mass. The concentration of the additive (mainly a plasticizer) is preferably in the range of 1% by mass or more and 20% by mass or less when the total solid content in the dope is 100% by mass. In addition, from the [0517] paragraph of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464 about the raw material in the solution casting method which obtains a TAC film, the raw material, the additive dissolution method and addition method, the filtration method, and the dope production methods such as defoaming [0616] The paragraph is detailed. These descriptions are also applicable to the present invention.

[Film production process]
Next, the film manufacturing process 12 which manufactures a film using the dope 11 obtained above is demonstrated. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the film production line 20. However, the present invention is not limited to the film production line as shown in FIG. The film production line 20 includes a stock tank 21, a filtration device 30, a casting die 31, a casting band 34 stretched around rotating rollers 32 and 33, a tenter dryer 35, and the like. In addition, an ear clip device 40, a drying chamber 41, a cooling chamber 42, a winding chamber 43, and the like are arranged.

  An agitator 61 that is rotated by a motor 60 is attached to the stock tank 21. The stock tank 41 is connected to the casting die 31 via the pump 62 and the filtration device 30.

The material of the casting die 31 is preferably precipitation hardening type stainless steel, and its thermal expansion coefficient is preferably 2 × 10 ⁻⁵ (° C. ⁻¹ ) or less. And what has corrosion resistance substantially equivalent to SUS316 in the forced corrosion test with the electrolyte aqueous solution can be used as the material of the casting die 31 and further immersed in a mixed solution of dichloromethane, methanol and water for 3 months. Even if it has corrosion resistance that does not cause pitting (perforation) at the gas-liquid interface, it is used. Furthermore, it is preferable to manufacture the casting die 31 by grinding a material that has passed one month or more after casting. This prevents the dope 11 from flowing uniformly in the casting die 31 and prevents streaks and the like from occurring in the casting film described later. The finishing accuracy of the liquid contact surface of the casting die 31 is preferably 1 μm or less in terms of surface roughness, and the straightness is preferably 1 μm / m or less in any direction. The slit clearance of the casting die 31 can be adjusted in the range of 0.5 mm to 3.5 mm by automatic adjustment. About the corner | angular part of the liquid-contacting part of the lip | tip end of the casting die 31, the R shall be 50 micrometers or less over the whole width. Moreover, it is preferable that the shear rate in the casting die 31 is adjusted to be 1 (1 / sec) to 5000 (1 / sec). The casting die cleaning process 14 for cleaning the casting die 31 will be described in detail later.

  The width of the casting die 31 is not particularly limited, but is preferably 1.1 to 2.0 times the width of the film as the final product. Further, it is preferable to attach a temperature controller (not shown) to the casting die 31 so that the temperature during film formation is maintained at a predetermined temperature. The casting die 31 is preferably a coat hanger type. Further, it is more preferable that thickness adjusting bolts (heat bolts) are provided at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the casting die 31 and the casting die 31 is provided with an automatic thickness adjusting mechanism using a heat bolt. The heat bolt is preferably formed into a film by setting a profile according to the amount of pump 62 (preferably a high precision gear pump) according to a preset program. Further, feedback control may be performed by an adjustment program based on a profile of a thickness meter (for example, an infrared thickness meter) not shown in the film production line 20. The thickness difference between any two points in the width direction of the product film, excluding the casting edge portion, is adjusted within 1 μm, and the difference between the minimum value and the maximum value in the width direction thickness is adjusted to 3 μm or less. Preferably, adjusting to 2 μm or less is more preferable. Moreover, it is preferable to use the one whose thickness accuracy is adjusted to ± 1.5 μm or less.

More preferably, a cured film is formed at the lip end of the casting die 31. A method for forming the cured film is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include ceramic coating, hard chrome plating, and a nitriding method. In the case of using ceramics as the cured film, it is preferable to use a ceramic that can be ground, has a low porosity, is not brittle, has good corrosion resistance, has good adhesion to the casting die 31, and does not have adhesion to the dope 11. Specific examples include tungsten carbide (WC), Al ₂ O ₃ , TiN, Cr ₂ O _{3 and the} like, and WC is particularly preferable. The WC coating can be performed by a thermal spraying method.

  In order to prevent the dope flowing out to the slit end of the casting die 31 from locally drying and solidifying, it is preferable to attach a solvent supply device (not shown) to the slit end. In this case, a solvent for solubilizing the dope (for example, a mixed solvent of 86.5 parts by mass of dichloromethane, 13 parts by mass of acetone, and 0.5 parts by mass of n-butanol) is used at both ends of the casting bead and at the end of the die slit. And it is preferable to supply to the periphery vicinity of the three-phase contact line which external air forms. Supplying at 0.1 mL / min to 1.0 mL / min to each one side of the end is preferable in order to prevent mixing of foreign matters into the cast film. In addition, as a pump which supplies this liquid, it is preferable to use a pump with a pulsation rate of 5% or less.

  A casting band 34 is provided below the casting die 31 so as to span the rotating rollers 32 and 33. The rotating rollers 32 and 33 are rotated by a driving device (not shown), and the casting band 34 travels endlessly with the rotation. The casting band 34 is preferably one that can move at a moving speed of 10 m / min to 200 m / min. Further, in order to set the surface temperature of the casting band 46 to a predetermined value, it is preferable that the heat transfer medium circulation device 63 is attached to the rotary rollers 32 and 33. The casting band 34 is preferably one whose surface temperature can be adjusted to -20 ° C to 40 ° C. A heat transfer medium flow path (not shown) is formed in the rotating rollers 32 and 33 used in the present embodiment, and the heat transfer medium maintained at a predetermined temperature passes through the flow path. The temperatures of the rotary rollers 32 and 33 are maintained at a predetermined value.

  The width of the casting band 34 is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to use a casting band 34 having a range of 1.1 to 2.0 times the casting width of the dope 11. Further, it is preferable that the length is 20 m to 200 m, the thickness is 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm, and the surface roughness is polished to be 0.05 μm or less. The casting band 34 is preferably made of stainless steel, and more preferably made of SUS316 so as to have sufficient corrosion resistance and strength. Moreover, it is preferable to use the thickness unevenness of the entire casting band 34 of 0.5% or less.

It is also possible to use the rotating rollers 32 and 33 directly as a support. In this case, it is preferable that the rotation can be performed with high accuracy so that the rotation unevenness is 0.2 mm or less. In this case, it is preferable that the average roughness of the surfaces of the rotary rollers 32 and 33 is 0.01 μm or less. Therefore, the surface of the rotating roller is subjected to chrome plating or the like so as to have sufficient hardness and durability. In addition, it is necessary to suppress the surface defects of the support (the casting band 34 and the rotating rollers 32 and 33) to the minimum. Specifically, there is no pinhole of 30 μm or more, and the number of pinholes of 10 μm or more and less than 30 μm is 1 / m ² or less, and the number of pinholes of less than 10 μm is preferably ² / m ² or less.

  The casting die 31, the casting band 34 and the like are accommodated in the casting chamber 64. The casting chamber 64 is provided with a temperature control facility 65 for keeping the internal temperature at a predetermined value, and a condenser (condenser) 66 for condensing and recovering the volatile organic solvent. A recovery device 67 for recovering the condensed and liquefied organic solvent is provided outside the casting chamber 64. Further, it is preferable that a decompression chamber 68 for controlling the pressure of the back surface of the casting bead formed from the casting die 31 to the casting band 34 is disposed, and this is also used in this embodiment. .

  Air blowing ports 70, 71, 72 are provided near the peripheral surface of the casting band 34 in order to evaporate the solvent in the casting film 69. Further, a wind shielding plate 73 is provided at the air blowing port 70 in the vicinity of the casting die 31 in order to suppress the surface variation of the casting film 69 due to the drying air being blown onto the casting film 69 immediately after casting. It is preferable.

  The crossover portion 80 is provided with a blower 81, and the ear-cutting device 40 downstream of the tenter dryer 35 is used for finely cutting the waste at the side end portion (referred to as an ear) of the cut film 13. Crusher 90 is connected.

  The drying chamber 41 is provided with a number of rollers 91, and an adsorption / recovery device 92 for adsorbing / recovering the solvent gas generated by evaporation is attached. In FIG. 2, the cooling chamber 42 is provided downstream of the drying chamber 41, but a humidity control chamber (not shown) may be provided between the drying chamber 41 and the cooling chamber 42. A forced static elimination device (static elimination bar) 93 for adjusting the charged voltage of the film 13 to a predetermined range (for example, −3 kV to +3 kV) is provided downstream of the cooling chamber 42. In FIG. 2, an example in which the forced static elimination device 93 is on the downstream side of the cooling chamber 42 is illustrated, but the configuration is not limited to this installation position. Furthermore, in this embodiment, a knurling roller 94 for applying knurling to both edges of the film 13 by embossing is appropriately provided downstream of the forced static eliminating device 93. Further, a winding roller 95 for winding the film 13 and a press roller 96 for controlling the tension at the time of winding are provided in the winding chamber 43.

  Next, an example of a method for producing the film 13 using the film production line 20 as described above will be described below. The dope 11 is always made uniform by the rotation of the stirrer 61. The dope 11 may be mixed with additives such as a plasticizer and an ultraviolet absorber even during the stirring.

The dope 11 is sent to the filtration device 30 by the pump 62 and filtered there, and then cast from the casting die 31 onto the casting band 34. The driving of the rotating rollers 32 and 33 is preferably adjusted so that the tension generated in the casting band 34 is 10 ⁴ N / m to 10 ⁵ N / m. Further, the relative speed difference between the casting band 34 and the rotating rollers 32 and 33 is adjusted to be 0.01 m / min or less. The speed fluctuation of the casting band 34 is preferably 0.5% or less, and the meandering in the width direction that occurs when the casting band 34 makes one rotation is preferably 1.5 mm or less. In order to control this meandering, a detector (not shown) for detecting the positions of both ends of the casting band 34 is provided, and based on the measured value, feedback control is performed on a position controller (not shown) of the casting band 34, More preferably, the position of the casting band 34 is adjusted. Further, it is preferable to adjust the casting band 34 immediately below the casting die 31 so that the vertical position fluctuation accompanying the rotation of the rotary roller 33 is 200 μm or less. The temperature of the casting chamber 64 is preferably set to −10 ° C. to 57 ° C. by the temperature control equipment 65. The solvent evaporated inside the casting chamber 64 is recovered by the recovery device 67 and then regenerated and reused as a dope preparation solvent.

  A casting bead is formed from the casting die 31 to the casting band 34, and a casting film 69 is formed on the casting band 34. The temperature of the dope 11 at the time of casting is preferably −10 ° C. to 57 ° C. Further, in order to stabilize the casting bead, the back surface of the casting bead is preferably controlled to a desired pressure value by the decompression chamber 68. The back surface of the bead is preferably decompressed in the range of −2000 Pa to −10 Pa than the front surface. Further, it is preferable that a jacket (not shown) is attached to the decompression chamber 68 and the temperature is controlled so that the internal temperature is kept at a predetermined temperature. The temperature of the decompression chamber 68 is not particularly limited, but is preferably set to be equal to or higher than the condensation point of the organic solvent used. In order to keep the shape of the casting bead desired, it is preferable to attach a suction device (not shown) to the edge portion of the casting die 31. The edge suction air volume is preferably in the range of 1 L / min to 100 L / min.

  The casting film 69 moves as the casting band 34 travels. At this time, drying air is applied to the casting film 69 through the air blowing ports 70, 71, 72 to promote evaporation of the solvent. The surface of the casting film 69 may fluctuate due to the blowing of the dry air, but the wind shielding plate 73 suppresses the fluctuation. The surface temperature of the casting band 34 is preferably −20 ° C. to 40 ° C.

  After the casting film 69 has self-supporting properties, the casting film 69 is peeled off from the casting band 34 while being supported by the peeling roller 75 as a wet film 74. The amount of residual solvent at the time of stripping is preferably 20% by mass to 250% by mass based on the solid content. Thereafter, the transfer section 80 provided with a large number of rollers is conveyed, and the wet film 74 is fed into the tenter dryer 35. In the transfer part 80, the drying of the wet film 74 is advanced by sending the drying air of desired temperature from the air blower 81. FIG. At this time, the temperature of the drying air is preferably 20 ° C to 250 ° C. In the transition section 80, it is also possible to apply a draw tension to the wet film 74 by making the rotation speed of the downstream roller faster than the rotation speed of the upstream roller.

  The wet film 74 sent to the tenter dryer 35 is dried while being conveyed by being gripped by clips at both ends thereof. Moreover, it is preferable to divide the inside of the tenter dryer 35 into temperature zones and adjust the drying conditions appropriately for each of the zones. It is also possible to stretch the wet film 74 in the width direction using the tenter dryer 35. Thus, it is preferable to stretch at least one direction between the casting direction and the width direction of the wet film 74 by 0.5% to 300% with the crossover 80 and / or the tenter dryer 35.

  The wet film 74 is dried to a predetermined residual solvent amount by the tenter dryer 35 and then sent to the downstream side as the film 13. Both ends of the film 13 are cut at both edges by the edge-cutting device 40. The cut side end portion is sent to the crusher 90 by a cutter blower (not shown). The crusher 90 pulverizes the film side end portion into a chip. Since this chip is reused for dope preparation, this method is effective in terms of cost. In addition, although it can also abbreviate | omit about the cutting process of this film both ends, it is preferable to carry out in any one from the said casting process to the process of winding up the said film.

  The film 13 from which both ends have been removed is sent to the drying chamber 41 and further dried. Although the temperature in the drying chamber 41 is not specifically limited, It is preferable that it is the range of 50 to 160 degreeC. In the drying chamber 41, the film 13 is conveyed while being wound around a roller 91, and the solvent gas generated by evaporation here is adsorbed and recovered by an adsorption recovery device 92. The air from which the solvent component has been removed is blown again as dry air inside the drying chamber 41. The drying chamber 41 is more preferably divided into a plurality of sections in order to change the drying temperature. In addition, if a preliminary drying chamber (not shown) is provided between the ear opener 40 and the drying chamber 41 and the film 13 is preliminarily dried, the film temperature is prevented from rising sharply in the drying chamber 41. The shape change of the film 13 can be further suppressed.

  The film 13 is cooled to approximately room temperature in the cooling chamber 42. A humidity control chamber (not shown) may be provided between the drying chamber 41 and the cooling chamber 42, and air adjusted to a desired humidity and temperature can be blown onto the film 13 in the humidity control chamber. It is preferable. Thereby, generation | occurrence | production of the curling of the film 13 and the winding defect at the time of winding can be suppressed.

  Moreover, the charged voltage while the film 13 is conveyed is made into the predetermined range (for example, -3 kV- + 3 kV) by the forced static elimination apparatus (static elimination bar) 93. Although FIG. 2 illustrates an example provided on the downstream side of the cooling chamber 42, the position is not limited thereto. Furthermore, it is preferable to provide a knurling roller 94 and to impart knurling to both edges of the film 13 by embossing. In addition, it is preferable that the unevenness | corrugation of the knurled location is 1 micrometer-200 micrometers.

  Finally, the film 13 is wound up by the winding roller 95 in the winding chamber 43. At this time, it is preferable to wind the sheet while applying a desired tension with the press roller 96. More preferably, the tension is gradually changed from the start to the end of winding. The film 13 to be wound is preferably at least 100 m in the longitudinal direction (casting direction). Moreover, it is preferable that the width | variety of the film 13 is 600 mm or more, and it is more preferable that they are 1400 mm or more and 1800 mm or less. The present invention is also effective when it is larger than 1800 mm. The present invention is also applied when manufacturing a thin film having a thickness of 15 μm or more and 100 μm or less.

  In the solution casting method of the present invention, when casting the dope, two or more kinds of dopes can be simultaneously laminated or sequentially laminated. Furthermore, you may combine both casting. When performing simultaneous lamination and co-casting, a casting die to which a feed block is attached may be used, or a multi-manifold casting die may be used. It is preferable that at least one of the thickness of the layer on the air surface side and the thickness of the layer on the support side is 0.5% to 30% of the thickness of the entire film of the film composed of multiple layers by co-casting. Furthermore, when performing simultaneous lamination co-casting, it is preferable that the high-viscosity dope is wrapped with the low-viscosity dope when the dope is cast from the die slit to the support. Moreover, when performing simultaneous lamination | stacking co-casting, it is preferable that the dope which contact | connects an external field has a larger alcohol composition ratio than an internal dope among the casting beads formed from a die slit to a support body.

  From casting die, decompression chamber, support structure, co-casting, peeling method, stretching, drying conditions for each process, handling method, curl, winding method after flatness correction, solvent recovery method, film recovery method The details are described in paragraphs [0617] to [0889] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464. These descriptions are also applicable to the present invention.

[Casting die casting process]
As shown in FIG. 3, the casting die cleaning step 14 uses a base material 100 that is made of a flexible material that has excellent solvent resistance such as Teflon (registered trademark). As a material of the base material 100, Newlite (trade name), Delrin (registered trademark), or the like is also preferably used. And the washing | cleaning instrument 102 is comprised from the cloth (for example, product made from cotton etc.) 101 which covers the base material 100 and is excellent in wiping and cleaning.

  FIG. 3 shows the tip of the casting die 31. A slit 110 is formed at the tip of the casting die 31. Slit surfaces 111 and 112 forming the slit 110 are provided facing each other. Moreover, the flat part called the lands 113 and 114 is formed in the slit front-end | tip. In the present invention, the slit front end means that including slit surfaces 111 and 112 and lands 113 and 114 having a length L1 (mm) from the slit front toward the upstream side. In addition, the preferable range of length L1 (mm) is 3 mm or more and 15 mm or less, Most preferably, it is 5 mm.

  The cloth 101 is impregnated with a neutral surfactant. The neutral surfactant is not particularly limited. Further, the concentration is not particularly limited, but it is preferably 30% by weight or more and 60% by weight or less from the viewpoint of detergency and ease of washing.

  The cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 and the tip of the slit is wiped and cleaned together with the lands 113 and 114 while adjusting the position so that the cloth 101 contacts the slit surfaces 111 and 112. Although the wiping cleaning time is not particularly limited, it is preferably 30 minutes or more and 120 minutes or less. If it is less than 30 minutes, the slit tip may not be sufficiently cleaned. Further, even if the cleaning is performed for more than 120 minutes, the cleaning performance is not particularly improved, so that time loss may occur.

  Next, the cloth 101 is replaced with a new one, and the cloth is impregnated with water. In the present invention, it is preferable to use pure water to prevent impurities such as rust from being generated in the casting die 31. A cleaning instrument 102 in which water 101 is impregnated with water is inserted into the slit 110, and wiping and cleaning are performed while removing the neutral surfactant adhering to the slit tip. The wiping cleaning time is preferably 10 minutes or more and 40 minutes or less. If it is less than 10 minutes, the neutral surfactant may not be sufficiently removed and washed. Moreover, when it exceeds 40 minutes, it will cause time loss.

  As a result of intensive studies by the present inventors, it has been found that the cause of the deterioration of the surface condition of the film 13 is the slit tip of the casting die 31. Therefore, the effect of the present invention can be obtained by cleaning only the length L1 (normally 5 mm) and the lands 113 and 114 from the slit tips, that is, the tips of the slit surfaces 111 and 112.

  In the present invention, the slit tip of the casting die 31 is cleaned by wiping with the neutral surfactant and the pure water, and is preferable as the casting die 31 used in the subsequent film manufacturing process 12. It is. However, it is more preferable to remove the pure water. After the new cloth 101 is impregnated with the organic solvent, the cleaning tool 102 is assembled, and the cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 in the same manner as the previous method, and the slit surfaces 111 and 112 and the lands 113 and 114 are wiped and cleaned. The wiping cleaning time is preferably 10 minutes or more and 40 minutes or less. The organic solvent to be used is not particularly limited, but it is particularly preferable to use methyl acetate.

  By performing the wiping and cleaning, the slit surfaces 111 and 112 and the lands 113 and 114 become hydrophobic. As an index of hydrophobicity, a contact angle measured by a dynamic contact angle (measurement method using pure water by an FTA dynamic contact angle measuring device) is used. By performing the casting die cleaning method of the present invention, the contact angle of the tip of the casting die 31 is 83 ° or more, and it is possible to make it more than 88 ° by further selecting the cleaning conditions.

  The following two points are particularly cited as features of the casting die cleaning method according to the present invention. The first is that it is not necessary to clean the entire liquid flow path of the casting die. When the casting die is used in the film manufacturing process 12 by cleaning only 5 mm and the lands 113 and 114 upstream from the tip of the slit, that is, the tips of the slit surfaces 111 and 112, the resulting film 13 is formed into a planar shape. What is superior is to be obtained. The second point is that cleaning can be performed with the casting die 31 assembled using a simple cleaning tool 102. In a conventional casting die cleaning method, the casting die is disassembled and foreign matter adhering thereto is removed by polishing. Then, since the casting die was assembled and finely adjusted so that the desired casting could be performed, cleaning of the casting die usually required 3 to 4 days. However, in the casting die cleaning process 14 of the present invention, the cleaning time can be greatly reduced to 60 minutes to 90 minutes.

  After performing the casting die cleaning method, the casting die 31 is cleaned according to a conventional method. In this case, the casting die is washed by continuously feeding a solvent, particularly preferably a mixed solvent constituting the dope, to the casting die 31 to wash the dope flow path of the casting die 31. The washing time is not particularly limited, but is preferably 2 hours or more and 6 hours or less.

[Performance / Measurement method]
(Curl degree / thickness)
The performance of the wound cellulose acylate film and the measuring method thereof are described in paragraphs [0112] to [0139] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464. These are also applicable to the present invention.

[surface treatment]
It is preferable that at least one surface of the cellulose acylate film is surface-treated. The surface treatment is preferably at least one of vacuum glow discharge treatment, atmospheric pressure plasma discharge treatment, ultraviolet irradiation treatment, corona discharge treatment, flame treatment, acid treatment or alkali treatment.

[Functional layer]
(Antistatic, hardened layer, antireflection, easy adhesion, antiglare)
At least one surface of the cellulose acylate film may be undercoated.

  Furthermore, it is preferable to use the cellulose acylate film as a base film as a functional material provided with another functional layer. The functional layer is preferably provided with at least one layer selected from an antistatic layer, a cured resin layer, an antireflection layer, an easy adhesion layer, an antiglare layer and an optical compensation layer.

The functional layers preferably contain at least one surfactant 0.1mg / m ² ~1000mg / m ² containing. Further, the functional layers preferably contain at least one sort of plasticizers in the 0.1mg / m ² ~1000mg / m ² containing. Further, the functional layers preferably contain at least one sort of matting agents in the 0.1mg / m ² ~1000mg / m ² containing. Further, the functional layers preferably contain at least one sort of antistatic agents 1mg / m ² ~1000mg / m ² containing. In addition to the above, the method for applying a surface-treated functional layer for realizing various functions and properties on the cellulose acylate film is described in detail in paragraphs [0890] to [1087] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464. It also includes the conditions and methods. These are also applicable to the present invention.

(Use)
The cellulose acylate film is particularly useful as a polarizing plate protective film. Usually, two polarizing plates each having a cellulose acylate film bonded to a polarizer are bonded to a liquid crystal layer to produce a liquid crystal display device. However, the arrangement of the liquid crystal layer and the polarizing plate is not limited, and various known arrangements can be employed. Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464 describes in detail TN type, STN type, VA type, OCB type, reflection type, and other examples of liquid crystal display devices. This method can also be applied to the present invention. The application also describes a cellulose acylate film provided with an optically anisotropic layer and a cellulose acylate film provided with antireflection and antiglare functions. Furthermore, the use as an optical compensation film is also described as a biaxial cellulose acylate film imparting moderate optical performance. This can also be used as a polarizing plate protective film. These descriptions are also applicable to the present invention. Details are described in paragraphs [1088] to [1265] of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-264464.

  Moreover, the cellulose triacetate film (TAC film) excellent in an optical characteristic can be obtained with the manufacturing method of this invention. The TAC film can be used as a polarizing plate protective film or a base film for a photographic photosensitive material. Furthermore, it can also be used as an optical compensation film for improving the viewing angle dependency of a liquid crystal display device for television applications. In particular, it is effective for applications that also serve as a protective film for a polarizing plate. Therefore, it is used not only for the conventional TN mode but also for the IPS mode, OCB mode, VA mode, and the like. Moreover, you may comprise a polarizing plate using the said film for polarizing plate protective films.

[Experiment 1]
Next, examples of the present invention will be described. The formulation for preparing the polymer solution (dope) used for film production is shown below.

[composition]
Cellulose triacetate (substitution degree 2.84, viscosity average polymerization degree 306, water content 0.2% by weight, viscosity 6% by weight in dichloromethane solution 315 mPa · s, average particle diameter 1.5 mm with standard deviation 0.5 mm Some powders) 100 parts by mass dichloromethane (first solvent) 320 parts by mass methanol (second solvent) 83 parts by mass 1-butanol (third solvent) 3 parts by mass plasticizer A (triphenyl phosphate) 7.6 parts by mass Plasticizer B (diphenyl phosphate) 3.8 parts by mass UV agent a: 2 (2′-hydroxy-3 ′, 5′-di-tert-butylphenyl) benzotriazole 0.7 part by mass UV agent b: 2 ( 2'-hydroxy-3 ', 5'-di-tert-amylphenyl) -5
Chlorbenzotriazole 0.3 parts by mass Citric acid ester mixture (citric acid, monoethyl ester, diethyl ester, triethyl ester mixture) 0.006 parts by mass fine particles (silicon dioxide (average particle size 15 nm), Mohs hardness about 7) 0. 05 parts by mass

[Cellulose triacetate]
The cellulose triacetate used here has a residual acetic acid content of 0.1% by mass or less, a Ca content of 58 ppm, a Mg content of 42 ppm, a Fe content of 0.5 ppm, free acetic acid of 40 ppm, It contained 15 ppm of sulfate ion. The degree of substitution of the acetyl group with respect to the hydrogen at the 6-position hydroxyl group was 0.91. Further, 32.5% of all acetyl groups were acetyl groups in which the hydrogen of the hydroxyl group at the 6-position was substituted. Moreover, the acetone extraction part which extracted this TAC with acetone was 8 mass%, and the weight average molecular weight / number average molecular weight ratio was 2.5. The obtained TAC has a yellow index of 1.7, a haze of 0.08, a transparency of 93.5%, a Tg (glass transition temperature; measured by DSC) of 160 ° C., and a crystallization calorific value of It was 6.4 J / g. This TAC is synthesized using cellulose collected from cotton as a raw material. In the following description, this is called cotton raw material TAC.

(1-1) Dope preparation In a 4000 L stainless steel dissolution tank having stirring blades, the plurality of solvents were mixed and stirred well to obtain a mixed solvent. In addition, as each raw material of a solvent, that whose water content is 0.5 mass% or less was used. Next, TAC flaky powder was gradually added from the hopper. The TAC powder is placed in a dissolution tank and initially stirred under a condition of stirring a dissolver type eccentric agitator that stirs at a peripheral speed of 5 m / sec and a stirrer having an anchor blade on the central shaft at a peripheral speed of 1 m / sec. Dispersed for minutes. The temperature at the start of dispersion was 25 ° C., and the final temperature reached 48 ° C. Further, the additive solution prepared in advance was adjusted so that the amount of the additive tank was fed, and the whole was sent to 2000 kg. After finishing the dispersion of the additive solution, the high speed stirring was stopped. Then, the peripheral speed of the anchor blade was set at 0.5 m / sec, and the mixture was further stirred for 100 minutes to swell the TAC flakes to obtain a swelling liquid. Until the end of swelling, the inside of the dissolution tank was pressurized to 0.12 MPa with nitrogen gas. The inside of the dissolution tank at this time was kept in a state where there was no problem in terms of explosion prevention because the oxygen concentration was less than 2 vol%. The amount of water in the swelling liquid was 0.3% by mass.

(1-2) Dissolution / filtration The swelling liquid was sent to a pipe with a dissolution tank jacket. The swelling liquid was heated to 50 ° C. with a jacketed pipe, and further heated to 90 ° C. under a pressure of 2 MPa to completely dissolve. The heating time at this time was 15 minutes. Next, the temperature of the dissolved liquid was lowered to 36 ° C. with a temperature controller, and the solution was passed through a filtration device having a filter medium having a nominal pore diameter of 8 μm to obtain a dope (hereinafter referred to as a dope before concentration). At this time, the primary pressure in the filtration device was 1.5 MPa, and the secondary pressure was 1.2 MPa. The filters, housings and pipes exposed to high temperatures were made of Hastelloy (trade name) alloy and had excellent corrosion resistance, and were equipped with a jacket for circulating a heat transfer medium for heat insulation and heating.

(1-3) Concentration / Filtration / Defoaming / Additive The dope before concentration thus obtained is flash-evaporated in a flash apparatus at 80 ° C. and normal pressure, and the evaporated solvent is recovered by a condenser. did. The solid content concentration of the dope 11 after the flash was 21.8% by mass. The condensed solvent was recovered with a recovery device to be reused as a dope preparation solvent. After regenerating with a regenerator, the solution was sent to a solvent tank. Distillation and dehydration were performed in the recovery device and the regeneration device. The flash tank of the flash device was provided with a stirrer (not shown) having an anchor blade on the stirring shaft, and the dope 11 flashed at a peripheral speed of 0.5 m / sec was stirred and defoamed. The temperature of the dope 11 in this flash tank was 25 ° C., and the average residence time of the dope 11 in the tank was 50 minutes. The dope 11 was collected and the shear viscosity measured at 25 ° C. was 450 Pa · s at a shear rate of 10 (sec ⁻¹ ).

  Next, bubbles were removed by irradiating the dope 11 with weak ultrasonic waves. After that, it was passed through a filtration device while being pressurized to 1.5 MPa using a pump. In the filtration apparatus, first, a sintered fiber metal filter having a nominal pore diameter of 10 μm was passed, and then a sintered fiber filter having a same pore diameter of 10 μm was passed. Respective primary pressures were 1.5 MPa and 1.2 MPa, and secondary pressures were 1.0 MPa and 0.8 MPa. The dope temperature after filtration was adjusted to 36 ° C., and the dope 11 was sent and stored in a 2000 L stainless steel stock tank 21. The stock tank 21 has a stirrer 61 having an anchor blade on the central axis, and was constantly stirred at a peripheral speed of 0.3 m / sec. In addition, when the dope was prepared from the dope before concentration, no problem such as corrosion occurred at all in the wetted part of the dope.

  Moreover, the mixed solvent A with 86.5 mass parts of dichloromethane, 13 mass parts of acetone, and 0.5 mass part of 1-butanol was produced.

(1-4) Discharge / Previous Addition / Casting / Bead Decompression A film 13 was manufactured using the film manufacturing line 20 shown in FIG. The dope 11 in the stock tank 21 was sent to the filtration device 30 with a high-precision gear pump 62. The gear pump 62 has a function of increasing the pressure on the primary side of the pump 62. The inverter pump performs feedback control on the upstream side of the gear pump 62 so that the pressure on the primary side becomes 0.8 MPa, and the liquid is sent. . A gear pump 62 having a volume efficiency of 99.2% and a discharge rate variation rate of 0.5% or less was used. The discharge pressure was 1.5 MPa. Then, the dope 11 that passed through the filtration device 30 was fed to the casting die 31.

  The casting die 31 was cast by adjusting the flow rate of the dope 11 at the outlet of the casting die 31 so that the width of the casting die 31 was 1.8 m and the thickness of the dried film 13 was 80 μm. The casting width of the dope 11 from the discharge port of the casting die 31 was 1700 mm. The casting speed was 65 m / min. In order to adjust the temperature of the dope 11 to 36 ° C., a jacket (not shown) is provided on the casting die 31 and the inlet temperature of the heat transfer medium supplied into the jacket is set to 36 ° C.

  The casting die 31 and the piping were all kept at 36 ° C. during film formation. The casting die 31 was a coat hanger type die. The casting die 31 was provided with thickness adjusting bolts at a pitch of 20 mm and equipped with an automatic thickness adjusting mechanism using a heat bolt. The heat bolt can set a profile corresponding to the liquid feed amount of the gear pump 62 by a preset program, and is fed back by an adjustment program based on a profile of an infrared thickness meter (not shown) installed in the film production line 20. The thing which has the performance which can also be controlled was used. In the film excluding the edge 20 mm, the thickness difference between two arbitrary points 50 mm apart was within 1 μm, and the thickness variation in the width direction was adjusted to 3 μm / m or less. The overall thickness was adjusted to ± 1.5% or less.

  In addition, a decompression chamber 68 for decompressing this portion was installed on the primary side of the casting die 31. The degree of decompression of the decompression chamber 68 is adjusted so that a pressure difference of 1 Pa to 5000 Pa is generated before and after the casting bead, and this adjustment is made according to the casting speed. At that time, the pressure difference on both sides of the casting bead was set so that the length of the casting bead was 20 mm to 50 mm. The decompression chamber 68 was provided with a mechanism that can be set to a temperature higher than the condensation temperature of the gas around the casting portion. Labyrinth packings (not shown) were provided on the front and back surfaces of the beads at the die discharge port. Also, openings were provided at both ends of the die discharge port of the casting die. Further, an edge suction device (not shown) for adjusting the disturbance of both edges of the casting bead was attached to the casting die 31.

(1-5) Casting Die As the material of the casting die 31, precipitation hardening type stainless steel having a thermal expansion coefficient of 2 × 10 ⁻⁵ (° C. ⁻¹ ) or less was used. This had a corrosion resistance substantially equal to that of SUS316 in a forced corrosion test with an aqueous electrolyte solution. Further, even when immersed in a mixed solution of dichloromethane, methanol and water for 3 months, it had corrosion resistance that did not cause pitting (opening) at the gas-liquid interface. The finishing accuracy of the wetted surface of the casting die 31 was 1 μm or less in terms of surface roughness, the straightness was 1 μm / m or less in any direction, and the slit clearance was adjusted to 1.5 mm. About the corner | angular part of the liquid-contacting part of the lip | tip end of the casting die 31, what was processed so that R might be set to 50 micrometers or less over the full width of a slit was used. The shear rate of the dope 11 inside the casting die 31 was in the range of 1 (1 / sec) to 5000 (1 / sec). Further, a WC (tungsten carbide) coating was performed on the lip end of the casting die 31 by a thermal spraying method to provide a cured film.

  The tip of the slit was cleaned with a cleaning tool 102 in which the casting die 31 was made of Teflon (registered trademark) on the substrate 100 and the cloth 101 was made of gold. Wiping and cleaning were performed in a range where the length L1 (mm) was 5 mm from the slit tip toward the upstream side. First, the cloth 101 was impregnated with a neutral surfactant (50% by weight). Then, the cleaning tool 102 was inserted into the slit 110 and the position of the cloth 101 in contact with the slit surfaces 111 and 112 was adjusted, and the slit tips were wiped and cleaned together with the lands 113 and 114 for 60 minutes.

  Next, the cloth 101 was replaced with a new one, and the cloth was impregnated with pure water. Then, the cleaning instrument 102 was inserted into the slit 110 and wiped and cleaned for 30 minutes while removing the neutral surfactant adhering to the slit tip. Furthermore. After the new cloth 101 is impregnated with methyl acetate, which is an organic solvent, the cleaning tool 102 is assembled, and the cleaning tool 102 is inserted into the slit 110 in the same manner as the previous method, and the slit surfaces 111 and 112 and the lands 113 and 114 are inserted. Wipe and wash for 30 minutes. The contact angle of the slit tip of the casting die 31 measured by the dropping method was 90 °.

  Then, the mixed solvent having the same ratio as the mixed solvent constituting the dope was continuously fed to the casting die 31 for 6 hours to wash the dope flow path of the casting die.

  Further, in order to prevent the dope 11 flowing out from being locally dried and solidified, the mixed solvent A for solubilizing the dope 11 is discharged from both sides of the casting bead to the discharge port of the casting die 31. Each 0.5 ml / min was supplied to the interface with the outlet. The pulsation rate of the pump supplying the mixed solvent was 5% or less. Further, the pressure on the back side of the casting bead was lowered by 150 Pa from the front side by the decompression chamber 68. A jacket (not shown) was attached to make the internal temperature of the decompression chamber 68 constant at a predetermined temperature. A heat transfer medium adjusted to 35 ° C. was supplied into the jacket. The edge suction device can adjust the edge suction air volume so as to be in the range of 1 L / min to 100 L / min, and in the present embodiment, this is in the range of 30 L / min to 40 L / min. Adjusted appropriately.

(1-6) Metal Support A stainless steel endless band having a width of 2.1 m and a length of 70 m was used as the casting band 34 as a support. The casting band 34 was polished so that the thickness was 1.5 mm and the surface roughness was 0.05 μm or less. The material is made of SUS316 and has sufficient corrosion resistance and strength. The thickness unevenness of the entire casting band 34 was 0.5% or less. The casting band 34 was driven by two rotating rollers 32 and 33. At that time, the tension in the transport direction of the casting band 34 was adjusted to 1.5 × 10 ⁵ N / m ² . The relative speed difference between the casting band 34 and the rotating rollers 32 and 33 was adjusted to be 0.01 m / min or less. At this time, the speed fluctuation of the casting band 34 was set to 0.5% or less. Further, both end positions of the casting band 34 were detected and controlled so that the meandering in the width direction of one rotation was limited to 1.5 mm or less. The positional fluctuation in the vertical direction between the die lip tip and the casting band 34 immediately below the casting die 31 was set to 200 μm or less. The casting band 34 was installed in a casting chamber 64 having wind pressure fluctuation suppressing means (not shown). The dope 11 was cast on the casting band 34 from the casting die 31.

As the rotating rollers 32 and 33, those capable of feeding a heat transfer medium therein were used so that the temperature of the casting band 34 could be adjusted. A 5 ° C. heat transfer medium was passed through the rotary roller 33 on the casting die 34 side, and a 40 ° C. heat transfer medium was passed through the other rotary roller 32 for drying. The surface temperature of the central part of the casting band 34 immediately before casting was 15 ° C., and the temperature difference between both side ends was 6 ° C. or less. The casting band 34 preferably has no surface defects, has no pinholes of 30 μm or more, has no pinholes of 10 μm to 30 μm, 1 pin / m ² or less, and ² pinholes of less than 10 μm / Those with m ² or less were used.

(1-7) Casting Drying The temperature of the casting chamber 64 was kept at 35 ° C. using the temperature control equipment 65. The casting film 69 formed from the dope 11 cast on the casting band 34 was first fed with drying air flowing parallel to the casting film 69 to dry the casting film 69. The overall heat transfer coefficient from the dry air to the cast film 69 was 24 kcal / (m ² · hr · ° C.). As for the temperature of the drying air, 135 ° C. drying air was blown from the upstream air blowing port 70 above the casting band 34. Further, 140 ° C. dry air was blown from the air blowing port 71 on the downstream side, and 65 ° C. dry air was blown from the air blowing port 72 below the casting band 34. The saturation temperature of each drying wind was around -8 ° C. The oxygen concentration in the dry atmosphere on the casting band 34 was kept at 5 vol%. In order to maintain this oxygen concentration at 5 vol%, the air was replaced with nitrogen gas. Further, in order to condense and recover the solvent in the casting chamber 64, a condenser (condenser) 66 was provided, and the outlet temperature thereof was set to -10 ° C.

For 5 seconds after casting, a wind shielding plate 73 is installed so that the dry wind does not directly hit the casting bead and the casting film 69, and the static pressure fluctuation in the vicinity of the casting die 31 is suppressed to ± 1 Pa or less. . When the solvent ratio in the casting film 69 reached 50% by mass on the dry basis, the film was peeled off from the casting band 34 as a film (hereinafter referred to as a wet film) 74 while being supported by the peeling roller 75. The solvent content on the basis of the dry weight is a value calculated by {(xy) / y} × 100, where x is the film weight at the time of sampling and y is the weight after drying the sampling film. It is. The stripping tension is 1 × 10 ² N / m ^2, and the stripping speed (stripping roller draw) is 100.1% to 110% with respect to the speed of the casting band 34 in order to suppress stripping failure. Adjusted appropriately in range. The surface temperature of the peeled wet film 74 was 15 ° C. The drying speed on the casting band 34 was an average of 60% by mass / min on a dry basis. The solvent gas generated by the drying was condensed and liquefied by a condenser 66 at −10 ° C. and recovered by a recovery device 67. The recovered solvent was adjusted so that the water content was 0.5% or less. The drying air from which the solvent was removed was heated again and reused as drying air. The wet film 74 was conveyed through the roller of the crossing section 80 and sent to the tenter dryer 35. In the crossover 80, 40 ° C. dry air was blown from the blower 81 to the wet film 74. In addition, a tension of about 30 N was applied to the wet film 74 while being transported by the roller of the crossing section 80.

(1-8) Tenter Transport / Drying / Ear Cutting The wet film 74 sent to the tenter dryer 35 is transported in the drying zone of the tenter dryer 35 while being fixed at both ends with clips, and during this time, the drying wind Dried. The clip was cooled by supplying a heat transfer medium at 20 ° C. The clip was conveyed by a chain, and the speed fluctuation of the sprocket was 0.5% or less. Further, the interior of the tenter dryer 35 was divided into three zones, and the drying air temperature in each zone was set to 90 ° C., 110 ° C., and 120 ° C. from the upstream side. The gas composition of the drying air was set to a saturated gas concentration at −10 ° C. The average drying speed in the tenter dryer 35 was 120% by mass / min on a dry basis. The conditions of the drying zone were adjusted so that the residual solvent amount in the film 13 was 7% by mass at the outlet of the tenter dryer 35. In the tenter dryer 35, the film was stretched in the width direction while being conveyed. When the width of the wet film 74 before stretching was 100%, the film was stretched so that the width after stretching was 103%. The stretch ratio (tenter driven draw) from the peeling roller 75 to the entrance of the tenter dryer 35 was 102%.

  The stretching ratio in the tenter dryer 35 is 10% or less in the difference between the actual stretching ratios at any two points at a position 10 mm or more away from the biting start position by the clip, and any two at 20 mm. The difference in the stretching ratio of points was 5% or less. Further, the ratio of the length from the clip clamping start position to the clamping release position with respect to the length from the inlet to the outlet of the tenter dryer 35 was 90%. The solvent evaporated in the tenter dryer 35 was condensed and liquefied at a temperature of −10 ° C. and recovered. A condenser (condenser) was provided for condensation recovery, and the outlet temperature was set to -8 ° C. The condensed solvent was reused after adjusting the water content to 0.5% by mass or less. And it sent out from the tenter type dryer 35 as the film 13.

The ear-cutting device 40 cuts off both ends of the film 13 within 30 seconds from the exit of the tenter dryer 35. Ears 50 mm on both sides were cut with an NT-type cutter, and the cut ears were blown to a crusher 90 with a cutter blower (not shown) and crushed into chips of about 80 mm ² on average. This chip was used again as a raw material for dope production together with TAC flakes as a raw material for dope preparation. The oxygen concentration in the drying atmosphere of the tenter dryer 35 was kept at 5 vol%. Note that the air was replaced with nitrogen gas in order to maintain the oxygen concentration at 5 vol%. Prior to drying at a high temperature in a drying chamber 41 described later, the film 13 was preheated in a predrying chamber (not shown) supplied with 100 ° C. drying air.

(1-9) Post-drying / static elimination The film 13 was dried in the drying chamber 41 at a high temperature. The drying chamber 41 was divided into four sections, and drying air of 120 ° C., 130 ° C., 130 ° C., and 130 ° C. was supplied from a blower (not shown) from the upstream side. The transport tension of the film 13 by the roller 91 was set to 100 N / m, and the film was dried for about 10 minutes until the residual solvent amount finally reached 0.3% by mass. The wrap angle of the roller 91 (film winding center angle) was 90 degrees and 180 degrees. The material of the roller 91 was made of aluminum or carbon steel, and hard chrome plating was applied to the surface. The roller 91 has a flat surface shape and a blasted matte surface. All film position fluctuations due to the rotation of the roller 91 were 50 μm or less. The roller deflection at a tension of 100 N / m was selected to be 0.5 mm or less.

  The solvent gas contained in the drying air was adsorbed and recovered using an adsorption recovery device 92. The adsorbent used here was activated carbon, and desorption was performed using dry nitrogen. The recovered solvent was reused as a dope preparation solvent with the water content adjusted to 0.3 mass% or less. The drying air contains plasticizers, UV absorbers and other high-boiling substances in addition to the solvent gas, so these were removed by a cooler and pre-adsorber to be removed by cooling and used for recycling. And adsorption / desorption conditions were set so that VOC (volatile organic compound) in the outdoor exhaust gas was finally 10 ppm or less. Moreover, the solvent amount collect | recovered by a condensation method among all the evaporation solvents was 90 mass%, and most of the remainder was collect | recovered by adsorption collection.

  The dried film 13 was conveyed to a first humidity control chamber (not shown). A drying air of 110 ° C. was supplied to the transition part between the drying chamber 41 and the first humidity control chamber. Air having a temperature of 50 ° C. and a dew point of 20 ° C. was supplied to the first humidity control chamber. Further, the film 13 was conveyed to a second humidity control chamber (not shown) that suppresses the curling of the film 13. In the second humidity control chamber, air of 90 ° C. and humidity 70% was directly applied to the film 13.

(1-10) Knurling and Winding Conditions The film 13 after humidity control was cooled to 30 ° C. or lower in the cooling chamber 42 and then subjected to ear cutting at both ends again with an ear cutting device (not shown). The forced charge removal device (charge removal bar) 93 was installed so that the charged voltage of the film 13 during conveyance was always in the range of −3 kV to +3 kV. Further, knurling was applied to both ends of the film 13 by a knurling roller 94. The knurling is applied by embossing from one side of the film 13, the width for applying the knurling is 10 mm, and the knurling is applied by the knurling roller 94 so that the height of the irregularities is 12 μm higher than the average thickness of the film 13. The pressure was set.

  Then, the film 13 was conveyed to the winding chamber 43. The winding chamber 43 was kept at a room temperature of 28 ° C. and a humidity of 70%. Inside the winding chamber 43, an ion wind static elimination device (not shown) was also installed so that the charged voltage of the film 13 was −1.5 kV to +1.5 kV. The product width of the film (thickness 80 μm) 82 thus obtained was 1475 mm. The diameter of the winding roller 95 was 169 mm. The tension pattern was such that the winding start tension was 300 N / m and the winding end was 200 N / m. The total winding length was 3940 m. The fluctuation range of winding deviation at the time of winding (sometimes referred to as oscillating width) was ± 5 mm, and the winding deviation period with respect to the winding roller 95 was 400 m. The pressing pressure of the press roller 96 against the winding roller 95 was set to 50 N / m. The temperature of the film 13 at the time of winding was 25 ° C., the water content was 1.4% by mass, and the residual solvent amount was 0.3% by mass. The average drying rate was 20% by mass / min on the basis of the dry weight throughout the entire process. Moreover, there was no winding looseness and wrinkles, and no winding slip occurred in the impact test at 10G. The roll appearance was also good. And although the film 13 was continuously manufactured for 12 hours, the film surface shape was excellent to the last.

  The film roll of the film 13 was stored in a storage rack at 25 ° C. and 55% RH for 1 month and further examined in the same manner as described above. As a result, no significant change was observed. Further, no adhesion was observed in the roll. Further, after the film 13 was formed, no peeling residue of the casting film 69 formed from the dope was observed on the casting band 34.

  Next, the casting die 31 was washed by the previous method. The contact angle was 88 °. And although the film 13 was continuously manufactured for 12 hours, the film surface shape was excellent to the last. Further, the casting die 31 was washed by the above method. The contact angle was 90 °. And although the film 13 was continuously manufactured for 12 hours, the film surface shape was excellent to the last.

  Then, the casting die 31 was washed by the previous method. The contact angle was 89 °. And although the film 13 was continuously manufactured for 12 hours, the film surface shape was excellent to the last. As described above, the casting die was washed four times and the film was produced. The average value of the contact angle of the casting die 31 was 89 °, and all the films were excellent in surface shape.

[Experiment 2]
In Experiment 2 as a comparative example, the casting die was cleaned using cyclohexanone instead of the neutral surfactant. Thereafter, a film was produced. In the first cleaning of the casting die 31, the contact angle was 79 °. Using this casting die, a film was continuously produced for 12 hours. From the time when 12 hours passed, deterioration of the film surface condition could be visually confirmed.

  Next, the casting die 31 was washed by the previous method using cyclohexanone. The contact angle was 80 °. And although the film 13 was manufactured continuously for 12 hours, after 12 hours passed, deterioration of the film surface condition could be confirmed. Further, the casting die 31 was washed by the previous method using cyclohexanone. The contact angle was 82 °. And although the film 13 was manufactured continuously for 12 hours, after 12 hours passed, deterioration of the film surface condition could be confirmed.

  The casting die 31 was washed by the previous method using cyclohexanone. The contact angle was 79 °. And although the film 13 was manufactured continuously for 12 hours, after 12 hours passed, deterioration of the film surface condition could be confirmed. As described above, the casting die was washed four times and the film was produced. The average value of the contact angle of the casting die 31 was 88 °, and the deterioration of the surface condition was recognized during the production of any film.

  The casting die cleaning method according to the present invention is an equipment for continuously feeding a solution, and can be applied to cleaning an instrument having a discharge port for discharging the solution.

It is process drawing of the washing | cleaning method of the casting die which concerns on this invention. It is the schematic of the film manufacturing line which uses the casting die which concerns on this invention. It is the schematic for demonstrating the washing | cleaning method of the casting die which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

12 Film Manufacturing Process 13 Film 14 Casting Die Cleaning Process 20 Film Manufacturing Line 31 Casting Die 100 Base Material 101 Cloth 102 Cleaning Tool 110 Slit 111, 112 Slit Surface 113, 114 Land L1 Tip Length

Claims (6)

In a casting method for casting a die that is used in a solution casting method and casts a dope from its slit,
After wiping and cleaning the tip of the slit with a neutral surfactant,
A casting die cleaning method, characterized by wiping and cleaning the tip of the slit with water.   2. The casting die cleaning method according to claim 1, further comprising wiping and cleaning the tip of the slit with an organic solvent. The tip of the slit is
An inner surface of the slit up to 5 mm upstream from the lip which is the tip of the slit;
A land which is the lip surface;
The casting die cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein the casting die is cleaned. When the casting die remains assembled,
Insert a substrate covered with a cloth into the slit,
4. The casting die cleaning method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a tip portion of the slit is wiped and cleaned.   5. The casting die cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein a surface of the slit tip is made hydrophobic. 6. The casting die cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein a contact angle of a surface of the slit tip is set to 83 [deg.] Or more.

Images