JP2011224522A - Droplet discharge apparatus, and drawing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a droplet discharge apparatus and a drawing method, capable of reliably distinguishing quality of a drawing pattern.SOLUTION: The drawing method includes: a patterning step S10 of drawing a pattern on a workpiece; an identifier drawing step S11 of drawing an identifier for distinguishing each drawing of the pattern; an inspection step S13 of performing quality determination by inspecting the pattern drawn on the workpiece; an inspection result memory step S14 of storing the quality determination result in the inspection step for every identifier; and an inspection result drawing step S16 of drawing a quality determination result after drawing a series of patterns. The quality determination result of the pattern is surely recorded in the workpiece.

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge apparatus and a drawing method for performing drawing by applying a liquid material as droplets onto a workpiece.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a droplet discharge device that discharges a liquid material such as ink as droplets from a droplet discharge head and draws a pattern or the like on a workpiece.
In the droplet discharge device, a long sheet or a roll-shaped film is used as a work in addition to an individual substrate, and a large number of patterns are drawn.
When many patterns are drawn on such a long sheet or a roll-shaped film, marking a defective pattern is performed in order to discriminate between a good product and a defective product (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-38778 A

However, the conventional droplet discharge device requires a marking mechanism for marking a defective pattern, and there is a problem that the device becomes complicated.
Further, the marking is performed with a felt pen or a marking choke, and there is a possibility that the marking is not reliably applied to the workpiece due to drying of the tip of the felt pen or wear of the marking choke.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least a part of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

  Application Example 1 A liquid droplet ejection apparatus according to this application example is a liquid droplet ejection apparatus that draws a plurality of patterns on a workpiece, and ejects liquid droplets onto the workpiece to identify the pattern and the pattern. A droplet ejection head for drawing the image, a camera for imaging the pattern drawn by the droplet ejection head, and an image processing unit for performing image processing based on the image captured by the camera and determining whether the pattern is good or bad And a storage unit that stores the pass / fail determination result determined by the image processing unit for each identifier, and after drawing a series of the patterns, the pass / fail determination result is transferred from the droplet discharge head to the droplet. And drawing on the workpiece.

According to this configuration, after drawing a series of patterns, it is possible to record the pattern pass / fail judgment result using the droplet discharge head used for pattern drawing.
In this way, it is possible to record the quality of a drawn pattern without newly providing a marking mechanism on a work using a droplet discharge head. From this, the droplet discharge device can be configured compactly, and the pattern quality is not marked using a felt pen or marking choke as in the past, so it is reliable regardless of the state of the marking means. The pass / fail judgment result can be recorded.

  Application Example 2 In the droplet discharge device according to the application example described above, it is preferable that the droplet discharge device includes a transport device that transports the workpiece by a roll-to-roll method.

According to this configuration, a roll-to-roll type conveyance device is provided to convey a workpiece such as a roll film to the droplet discharge device.
As described above, it is possible to draw a large number of patterns on a roll-shaped film, and to record a pattern quality determination result on a work using a droplet discharge head after drawing a series of patterns. And the workpiece | work which finished drawing is wound up in roll shape, and when using a workpiece | work in the next process, it can read from the quality determination result of a pattern. From this, it is possible to select a non-defective product based on the pattern quality determination result to enable smooth work flow and improve productivity.

  [Application Example 3] A drawing method according to this application example is a drawing method for drawing a plurality of patterns on a work, in order to distinguish each drawing of the pattern from a pattern drawing process for drawing the pattern on the work. An identifier drawing step for drawing the identifier of the test, an inspection step for inspecting the pattern drawn on the workpiece to determine pass / fail, a test result storage step for storing the pass / fail determination result in the inspection step for each identifier, and a series And an inspection result drawing step of drawing the pass / fail judgment result after drawing the pattern.

According to this drawing method, an identifier for distinguishing each pattern is drawn together with each pattern, the pass / fail judgment result of each pattern is stored for each identifier, and the pass / fail judgment result is recorded on the workpiece after drawing a series of patterns. .
By doing in this way, the marking to the defect pattern which was performed conventionally becomes unnecessary. Further, since marking is not necessary, the problem that marking is not performed when using a felt pen or marking chalk is solved, and reliable recording is possible.

  Application Example 4 In the drawing method according to the application example, it is preferable that the workpiece is a roll-shaped film.

According to this drawing method, it is possible to draw a large number of patterns on a roll-shaped film, and to record a pattern quality determination result on a work after drawing a series of patterns.
And the workpiece | work which finished drawing is wound up in roll shape, and when using a workpiece | work in the next process, it can read from the quality determination result of a pattern. From this, it is possible to select a non-defective product based on the pattern quality determination result to enable smooth work flow and improve productivity.

  Application Example 5 In the drawing method according to the application example, it is preferable that the inspection result drawing step is a step of drawing the identifier of the defective pattern.

  According to this drawing method, since the pass / fail judgment result draws a defective identifier, the work use area can be small, and the area of the work that is not related to the product can be minimized.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a droplet discharge device according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional perspective view showing the configuration of the droplet discharge head according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is an electrical control block diagram of the droplet discharge device in the embodiment. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a procedure of a drawing method according to the embodiment. The schematic plan view explaining drawing on the workpiece | work in embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings used for the following description, the ratio of dimensions of each member is appropriately changed so that each member has a recognizable size.
(Embodiment)

In the present embodiment, an example of a droplet discharge device that uses UV curable ink (hereinafter referred to as UV ink) and performs drawing by discharging ink (liquid material) as a droplet onto a work such as a film by an inkjet method. explain.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of a droplet discharge device according to the present embodiment.
The droplet discharge device 1 includes a transfer device 40 that transfers a workpiece W, a stage 45 that sucks and fixes the workpiece W, a droplet discharge head 50 that discharges UV ink as droplets, and UV that irradiates ultraviolet light. A lamp 60 and a camera 70 that captures the drawn pattern are provided.
The conveyance device 40 is a roll-to-roll type conveyance device, and a film-form workpiece W is wound around a material supply roller 41 that supplies the workpiece W, and a material removal roller that winds up the processed workpiece W and removes the material. 42 and conveyance rollers 43 a to 43 f that convey the workpiece W between the material supply roller 41 and the material removal roller 42.

A stage 45 is disposed between the transport roller 43c and the transport roller 43d at an intermediate position of the transport device 40.
The stage 45 is connected to a negative pressure generation source (not shown), and is configured so that the workpiece W can be sucked from a plurality of suction holes (not shown) formed in the stage 45 and can be held flat. .

Disposed above the stage 45 is a droplet discharge head 50 that discharges UV ink as droplets onto the workpiece W and draws a pattern.
The droplet discharge head 50 is fixed to a carriage 46 having a main scanning axis and, in some cases, a sub-scanning axis orthogonal to the main scanning axis, and is configured to draw a predetermined pattern on the surface of the workpiece W.

Further, a UV lamp 60 is provided on the downstream side of the stage 45 for irradiating the UV ink discharged onto the workpiece W with ultraviolet light and curing it.
Further, a camera 70 that captures a pattern for inspecting the drawn pattern is provided on the downstream side of the UV lamp 60.

In this way, while the workpiece W is conveyed from the material supply roller 41 to the material removal roller 42, pattern drawing, UV ink curing, and pattern inspection are continuously performed to obtain a large number of patterns.
The workpiece W is a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film or polycarbonate film having a thickness of about 50 μm.

Next, the configuration of the droplet discharge head 50 will be described in detail.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional perspective view showing the configuration of the droplet discharge head.
The droplet discharge head 50 includes a plurality of nozzles 55 in a nozzle plate 56, a pressure chamber 53 communicating with an opening of each nozzle 55, a vibration plate 52 constituting one wall surface of the pressure chamber 53, and a deformation of the vibration plate 52. A piezoelectric element 51 such as PZT and a common ink chamber 54 for feeding a liquid material such as ink into each pressure chamber 53 are provided.

  The diaphragm 52 is formed of a thin plate that can be elastically deformed, and is in contact with the tip of the piezoelectric element 51. With such a configuration, when the piezoelectric element 51 contracts, the diaphragm 52 bends upward and the pressure chamber 53 expands, the liquid material in the common ink chamber 54 flows into the pressure chamber 53. When the piezoelectric element 51 expands after the elapse of a predetermined time, the diaphragm 52 returns to its original state, and the pressure chamber 53 contracts, the liquid material in the pressure chamber 53 is compressed and droplets are ejected from the opening of the nozzle 55. . At this time, it is possible to draw a predetermined character, mark, image, or the like on the work depending on from which of the many nozzles 55 formed in the droplet discharge head 50 the droplet is discharged.

Next, a control system of the droplet discharge device will be described.
FIG. 3 is an electric control block diagram of the droplet discharge device.
The droplet discharge device 1 includes a control device 10 that controls the operation of the device. The control device 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 that performs various arithmetic processes as a processor, and a memory 12 as a storage unit that stores various information.

  The transport device 40, the stage drive device 30, and the carriage drive device 31 are connected to the CPU 11 via the input / output interface 13 and the data bus 14. Further, a head drive circuit 32, a UV lamp control circuit 33, and a camera drive device 34 are also connected to the CPU 11 through the input / output interface 13 and the data bus 14.

The transport device 40 controls the feed and stop of the workpiece in the roll-to-roll system, and the stage driving device 30 controls the vertical movement of the stage 45 and the suction and release of the workpiece.
The carriage driving device 31 controls the movement of the carriage 46 and can move and stop the carriage 46 to a desired position.

  The head drive circuit 32 is a circuit that drives the droplet discharge head 50 to discharge droplets. The UV lamp control circuit 33 controls lighting of the UV lamp 60, and the camera driving device 34 controls scanning and imaging of the camera 70.

  The memory 12 is a concept including a semiconductor memory such as a RAM and a ROM, and an external storage device such as a hard disk and a CD-ROM. Functionally, a storage area for storing the program software 15 in which the operation control procedure in the droplet discharge device 1 is described is set. Further, a storage area for storing the discharge position data 16 that is the coordinate data of the discharge position is also set. A storage area for storing the inspection result data 17 of the pattern drawn on the work is also set.

The CPU 11 performs control for discharging droplets to a predetermined position of the work in accordance with the program software 15 stored in the memory 12. In order to realize the drawing operation, the discharge operation unit 20 that performs control for discharging and drawing droplets from the droplet discharge head 50 is provided.
The discharge calculation unit 20 includes a stage control unit 21 that controls the movement of the stage 45, a carriage control unit 22 that controls the movement of the carriage 46, and a discharge control unit 23 that performs calculations related to the droplet discharge of the droplet discharge head 50. Have
Further, the CPU 11 includes an image processing unit 24 that performs image processing on a pattern captured by the camera 70 and determines whether the pattern is good or bad.

Next, a drawing method for drawing a pattern by discharging droplets from a droplet discharge head onto a work using the droplet discharge apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure of the drawing method according to this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view for explaining drawing on the workpiece. The drawing procedure will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 according to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S10, UV ink is ejected as droplets from the droplet ejection head, and a pattern P is drawn on the workpiece W (pattern drawing step).
Next, in step S11, a barcode 80 is drawn as an identifier corresponding to each pattern P drawn by drawing UV ink from the droplet discharge head (identifier drawing step).
In step S10 and step S11, as shown in FIG. 5A, the workpiece W such as a film is sequentially conveyed in the direction of the arrow S, and the same pattern P is continuously drawn on the workpiece W. Then, a barcode for distinguishing each pattern P is drawn in the vicinity of each pattern P.

The pattern P and the barcode 80 may be drawn by drawing the barcode 80 after drawing the barcode 80 first, or drawing the barcode 80 while drawing the pattern P. These drawing procedures are preferably set so that the drawing can be efficiently performed by arranging the pattern P and the barcode 80.
Further, instead of the bar code 80, any other identifier can be used as long as it can distinguish individual patterns P such as numerals, marks, symbols, and patterns.

Next, in step S <b> 12, UV light is irradiated from above the pattern P and barcode 80 on which the workpiece W has been conveyed and drawn.
Since the drawn pattern P and barcode 80 are UV ink, polymerization is started upon receiving ultraviolet light, the UV ink is cured, and the pattern P and barcode 80 are fixed on the workpiece W.

Subsequently, in step S13, the cured pattern P is inspected (inspection process).
Specifically, the camera disposed on the pattern P with the workpiece W conveyed picks up the pattern P, the image processing unit performs image processing based on the picked-up image, and the quality determination of the pattern P is performed.
At this time, the camera also captures a bar code, and in step S14, the pass / fail judgment result of the pattern P corresponding to the bar code is stored in the memory (inspection result storing step).

Next, in step S15, it is determined whether or not a predetermined number of patterns has been drawn. If the number is smaller than the predetermined number, the process returns to step S10 to continue drawing the pattern P.
When the drawing of the predetermined number of patterns is completed, the process proceeds to step S16, and the pass / fail judgment result is drawn on the work W (inspection result drawing step). This drawing is performed using a droplet discharge head on which a pattern P is drawn. Then, the quality determination result is fixed to the workpiece W by irradiating UV light from the UV lamp.

In this way, the quality determination result of the pattern P is recorded after drawing a series of patterns P. As shown in FIG. 5B, the pass / fail judgment result 82 is drawn on the work W, and here, a barcode 80 as an identifier corresponding to the defective pattern P is drawn.
The inspection result may be drawn by either an identifier corresponding to a defective product or an identifier corresponding to a non-defective product, but it is preferable to draw an identifier for a defective product with a small number of drawings. In this way, the area of the work W to be used can be reduced, the area of the work W that is not related to the product can be minimized, and the amount of UV ink used can be reduced.

As described above, according to the droplet discharge device 1 of the present embodiment, the quality determination result of the pattern P can be recorded on the workpiece W using the droplet discharge head 50 after drawing a series of patterns P.
As described above, the quality of the pattern P drawn without newly providing a marking mechanism can be recorded on the workpiece W using the droplet discharge head. Accordingly, the droplet discharge device 1 can be configured in a compact manner, and the pattern P is not marked with a felt pen or a marking choke as in the prior art. It is possible to reliably record the quality determination result.

Further, in order to transport a work such as a roll film to the droplet discharge device 1, a roll-to-roll type transport device 40 is provided.
In this way, a large number of patterns P can be drawn on a roll-shaped film, and the quality determination result of the pattern P can be recorded on the workpiece W using the droplet discharge head 50 after the series of patterns P is drawn.
And the workpiece | work W in which drawing was complete | finished is wound up in roll shape, and can be read from the quality determination result of the pattern P, when using the workpiece | work W in the following process. From this, it is possible to select a non-defective product based on the pass / fail judgment result of the pattern P to enable a smooth flow of the workpiece W, and to improve productivity.

Furthermore, according to the drawing method of the present embodiment, a bar code 80 for distinguishing each pattern P is drawn together with each pattern P, and the pass / fail judgment result of each pattern P is stored for each bar code 80. After the pattern P is drawn, the pass / fail judgment result is recorded on the work W.
By doing in this way, the marking to the defect pattern P which was performed conventionally becomes unnecessary. Further, since marking is not required, the problem that marking is not performed when using a felt pen or marking chalk is solved, and reliable recording is possible.

Moreover, according to the drawing method of this embodiment, many patterns P can be drawn on a roll-shaped film, and the quality determination result of the pattern P can be recorded on the workpiece W after drawing a series of patterns P.
And the workpiece | work W in which drawing was complete | finished is wound up in roll shape, and can be read from the quality determination result of the pattern P, when using the workpiece | work W in the following process. From this, it is possible to select a non-defective product based on the pass / fail judgment result of the pattern P to enable a smooth flow of the workpiece W, and to improve productivity.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Droplet discharge apparatus, 10 ... Control apparatus, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... Memory as a memory | storage part, 13 ... Input-output interface, 14 ... Data bus, 15 ... Program software, 16 ... Discharge position data, 17 ... Test result Data: 20 ... Discharge calculation unit, 21 ... Stage control unit, 22 ... Carriage control unit, 23 ... Discharge control unit, 24 ... Image processing unit, 30 ... Stage drive device, 31 ... Carriage drive device, 32 ... Head drive circuit, 33 ... UV lamp driving circuit, 34 ... camera driving device, 40 ... conveying device, 41 ... feed roller, 42 ... removing roller, 43a to 43f ... conveying roller, 45 ... stage, 46 ... carriage, 50 ... droplet ejection Head, 51 ... piezoelectric element, 52 ... vibrating plate, 53 ... pressure chamber, 54 ... common ink chamber, 55 ... nozzle, 56 ... nozzle plate, 60 ... UV Amplifier, 70 ... camera, 80 ... bar code as an identifier, 82 ... quality determination result, P ... pattern, W ... workpiece.

Claims (5)

A droplet discharge device for drawing a plurality of patterns on a workpiece,
A droplet discharge head for discharging a droplet onto the workpiece and drawing the pattern and an identifier for distinguishing the pattern;
A camera for imaging the pattern drawn by the droplet discharge head;
An image processing unit that performs image processing based on an image captured by the camera and performs pass / fail determination of the pattern;
A storage unit that stores the pass / fail determination result determined by the image processing unit for each identifier,
A droplet discharge apparatus, wherein after the series of the patterns are drawn, the pass / fail judgment result is drawn on the workpiece by discharging droplets from the droplet discharge head. The droplet discharge device according to claim 1,
A droplet discharge device comprising a transfer device for transferring the workpiece by a roll-to-roll method. A drawing method for drawing a plurality of patterns on a workpiece,
A pattern drawing step of drawing the pattern on the workpiece;
An identifier drawing step of drawing an identifier for distinguishing each drawing of the pattern;
An inspection process for inspecting the pattern drawn on the workpiece to determine pass / fail,
Inspection result storage step for storing the pass / fail judgment result in the inspection step for each identifier,
After drawing a series of the patterns, an inspection result drawing step for drawing the pass / fail judgment result;
The drawing method characterized by including. The drawing method according to claim 3,
The drawing method, wherein the workpiece is a roll-shaped film. The drawing method according to claim 3 or 4,
The drawing method, wherein the inspection result drawing step is a step of drawing the identifier of the defective pattern.

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