JP2006349341A - Continuous heat treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensive heat treatment device of simple constitution capable of coping with a large-sized treating object, capable of obtaining high in-plane temperature distribution precision, and capable of reducing design manhours. <P>SOLUTION: This continuous heat treatment device is provided with a one, or two or more of heat treatment zone(s), and a cycled type conveyer 3 for conveying the treated object P, and is constituted to temporarily stop the treated object within the heat treatment zone(s). A pair of upper and lower heaters 5, 6 is arranged in the at least one heat treatment zone to heat the treated object P between the both heaters 5, 6. The heater 5 installed in an upper part has a plurality of heating units 7 juxtaposed longitudinally, the heater 6 installed in a lower part has a plurality of heating units 8 juxtaposed laterally, the cycled type conveyer 3 is installed in the vicinity of the upper heater 5, and a temperature control means is provided in every of heating units 7, 8 to control a temperature. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a continuous furnace that reflows or heats and cools a plate-like object such as a glass substrate, a semiconductor substrate, or a printed board and a film or member for forming an insulating, conductive or mask formed thereon. The present invention relates to a heat treatment method and a subsequent heat treatment apparatus.

  In this specification, front, rear, left, and right refer to the traveling direction of the object to be processed.

  As a conventional continuous heat treatment apparatus, for example, there is a continuous furnace described below. The continuous furnace is divided into a plurality of heat treatment zones, and each heat treatment zone is formed by a heating device with an electric heating element arranged inside the furnace wall, and is adjusted to a different temperature for each heat treatment zone. The

  Among the heating devices, in the heat treatment zone where it is necessary to precisely adjust the temperature distribution of the workpiece and obtain a uniform in-plane temperature distribution, for example, there are nine heating units on the ceiling and the hearth in the front, back, left and right respectively. Each of the heating units is arranged in total, and the temperature is controlled for each heating unit to adjust the temperature distribution of the workpiece.

  In the conventional continuous furnace, since 18 units in total are controlled, the configuration of the control system becomes complicated, the number of design steps increases, and the furnace becomes expensive.

  Further, there is a limit to the minimum size of the heating unit that can be manufactured, and it may be difficult to obtain a small heat treatment apparatus using nine of these.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus that can cope with an increase in the size of an object to be processed, has high in-plane temperature distribution accuracy, has a simple configuration, is inexpensive, and has a small number of design steps. Furthermore, it aims at providing the heat processing apparatus which can also be reduced in size.

  The continuous heat treatment apparatus of the present invention includes one or two or more heat treatment zones and a tact type conveyance device for tact-conveying the object to be treated, and the object to be treated is temporarily stopped in the heat treatment zone. In a continuous heat treatment apparatus in which a pair of upper and lower heating devices are arranged opposite to each other in one heat treatment zone and heats an object to be processed between the two heating devices, a plurality of heating units in which heating devices installed on the upper side are arranged in the front-rear direction The heating device installed at the bottom has a plurality of heating units arranged in the left-right direction, and the tact type transport device is installed near the heating device at the top, and temperature control is performed for each heating unit A temperature control means is provided.

  According to the continuous heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to satisfactorily adjust the temperature distribution in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction of the workpiece by simple control.

  Further, according to the continuous heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, the temperature distribution in the front-rear direction of the object to be processed is adjusted by a plurality of heating units arranged in the front-rear direction, and the left-right direction of the object to be processed by the plurality of heating units arranged in the left-right direction. Since the temperature distribution in the direction can be adjusted, the number of heating units necessary for adjusting the temperature distribution of the workpiece can be reduced.

  Therefore, the heat treatment apparatus has a simple configuration, is inexpensive, and requires fewer design steps. Furthermore, since the number of necessary heating units is reduced, it is possible to reduce the size of the heat treatment apparatus.

  Moreover, according to the continuous heat processing apparatus of this invention, since a tact type conveyance apparatus is used, a to-be-processed object can be heated with high in-plane temperature distribution accuracy.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the continuous heat treatment apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the heat treatment apparatus (1) includes a square tube furnace body (2) and a transfer apparatus (3) in the furnace, and the workpiece (P) is disposed in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. It is heat-treated while being transported in a horizontal posture. In addition, the conveying apparatus (3) is not shown in FIG.

 The inside of the rectangular cylindrical furnace body (2) is divided into, for example, five heat treatment zones, and the upper wall and the lower wall of the three heat treatment zones on the inlet side are each composed of one heating unit ( 4). The upper wall of the two heat treatment zones on the outlet side is formed by a heating device (5) composed of three heating units (7) arranged in front and back, and the lower wall is formed by arranging three heating units (8) on the left and right. It is formed by the configured heating device (6). The dimension in the front-rear direction of the heat treatment zone, that is, the heat treatment zone length is at least larger than the dimension in the same direction of the workpiece.

  The transfer device (3) is a tact type, for example, a known walking beam type transfer device in which an object to be processed moves to the next heat treatment zone at a constant cycle, and is a pair of moving beams (3a) and a pair of moving beams (3a). And a fixed beam (3b). Then, the moving beam (3a) moves upward to lift the workpiece (P) on the fixed beam (3b). Next, after the moving beam (3a) moves forward, it moves downward to place the workpiece (P) on the fixed beam (3b). Then, the moving beam moves backward. The transfer device (3) repeats the above procedure every predetermined time to transfer the workpiece (P) forward. In this case, the moving distance of the object to be processed (P) per tact is equal to the heat treatment zone length, and the object to be processed (P) is transported so as to temporarily stop at the center of each heat treatment zone. The tact time is determined based on the temperature profile required by the workpiece (P) and the temperature distribution accuracy.

 The heating device (5) is composed of three units (7) as described above. The unit (7) includes a heating wire (7b) embedded in the furnace surface side of the heat insulating material (7a), a thermocouple (7f) for measuring the furnace temperature, a temperature controller (7e), and power adjustment A container (7d) and a power source (7c). These are known ones and will not be described.

 The unit (8) of the heating device (6) that constitutes the lower wall of the two heat treatment zones on the outlet side has the same configuration as the unit (7) of the heating device (5) that constitutes the upper wall. The code | symbol corresponding to a part is attached and description is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the heat treatment apparatus (1) having the above configuration, the workpiece (P) is heat-treated as follows.

  The workpiece (P) is transported forward by the transport device (3) and passes through the five heat treatment zones. The object to be processed (P) is heated to an appropriate temperature in each heat treatment zone while being tucked forward. In the three heat treatment zones on the inlet side, the workpiece (P) between the two heating devices (4) is heated by a pair of upper and lower heating devices (4) that are configured as a single unit as a whole.

  Between the heating device (5) and the heating device (6) in the two heat treatment zones on the outlet side where high temperature distribution accuracy is required, it is covered by the thermocouple (7f) of each unit (7) of the upper heating device (5). The furnace temperature distribution in the front-rear direction on the upper surface side of the processed object (P) is measured, and the power supplied to the heating wire (7b) is adjusted based on this temperature, and the furnace in the front-rear direction of the object to be processed (P) Heating is performed to optimize the internal temperature distribution. At the same time, the temperature distribution in the left-right direction of the bottom surface of the workpiece (P) is measured by the thermocouple (8f) of each unit (8) of the lower heating device (6), and the heating wire ( The electric power supplied to 8b) is adjusted and heated so that the furnace temperature distribution in the left-right direction of the workpiece (P) is optimized.

  The configuration of the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention is not limited to that of the above embodiment. For example, instead of controlling each unit arranged in the front-rear direction or in the left-right direction independently, one of the units is the main, the other unit is the sub, and the sub unit is controlled based on the control of the main unit. May control the unit. Also, the control of the slave unit includes adjustment of the output ratio by manual volume. In addition, the pair of the heating apparatus comprised by the unit may be distribute | arranged to all the heat processing zones.

  If higher accuracy is required for the temperature distribution, the number of units constituting the heating device may be increased. The conveying device may be any device that can heat the workpiece from both the upper and lower sides. Even if the workpiece is large, it can be handled by increasing the number of units.

  Moreover, in addition to the heating apparatus which makes a pair, another heating apparatus may be provided.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the heat treatment apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

(1) Continuous heat treatment equipment
(3) Tact type transfer device
(5) (6) Heating device
(7) (8) Heating unit
(7d) (8d) Power regulator
(P) Workpiece

Claims (1)

1 or 2 or more heat treatment zones and a tact type conveying device for tact-conveying the object to be processed, the object to be processed temporarily stops in the heat treatment zone, and at least one heat treatment zone is provided with a pair of upper and lower In a continuous heat treatment apparatus in which heating devices are arranged to face each other and heat an object to be processed between both heating devices,
The heating device installed at the top has a plurality of heating units arranged in the front-rear direction, the heating device installed at the bottom has a plurality of heating units arranged in the left-right direction, A continuous heat treatment apparatus, characterized in that it is installed near the apparatus and provided with temperature control means for controlling the temperature for each heating unit.

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