JP2012045450A - Coating apparatus and coating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coating apparatus and coating method which can appropriately drop coating liquid.SOLUTION: The coating apparatus 1 includes a dropping part 5 for dropping coating liquid to a dropping opening 14, detection part 15 for detecting a drop of the dropping opening 14, and control part 7 for controlling the coating liquid in accordance with the size of the drop of the dropping opening 14 and the state of dropping.

Description

  The present application discloses a coating apparatus and a coating method.

  As an apparatus for dropping and applying a coating liquid, there is an apparatus that measures the volume of a droplet dropped from a dropping port and controls the discharge pressure and the discharge temperature (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-327905 A JP-A-5-317422 JP 2009-62146 A

  In the case where the coating liquid is dropped and applied, the time from when the coating liquid starts to be fed to the dropping port until the actual dropping starts may be different every time even in the same apparatus. If the timing at which the coating solution is dropped is not known, it is difficult to drop the coating solution at a desired position.

  Then, this application makes it a subject to provide the coating device and the coating method which can drop a coating liquid appropriately.

The present application discloses the following apparatus.
A dropping part for feeding and dropping the coating liquid to the dropping port;
A detection unit for detecting drops at the dropping port;
A control unit that controls the timing at which the dropping unit starts dropping the coating liquid onto the surface to be coated, according to the size of the droplet at the dropping port and the state of the dropping detected by the detection unit;
Coating device.

Moreover, this application discloses the following methods.
The coating liquid is fed to the dropping port and dropped,
Detecting a drop at the dropping port,
Control the timing of starting dropping the coating liquid onto the surface to be coated according to the detected droplet size and dropping state of the dropping port.
Application method.

  A coating liquid can be dripped appropriately.

It is a block diagram of a coating device. It is the figure which showed the application | coating control pen, the jig | tool, and the stand. It is explanatory drawing of a droplet detection sensor. It is a front view of a tubing dispenser. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a tubing dispenser. It is a figure explaining the backflow in a tube. It is a block diagram of a control apparatus. It is a flowchart of the process which a control apparatus performs. It is a figure which shows the backflow in a tube. It is a timing chart of a modification. It is a graph which shows the light reception amount of a modification.

  An external view of the coating apparatus according to the embodiment is shown in FIG. The coating device 1 applies an adhesive to a surface (corresponding to a coated surface) to which a rubber of a cleaner blade (hereinafter referred to as CL blade 2) for cleaning the drum of the printer device is bonded. In the present embodiment, description will be made on the premise that an adhesive is applied to the CL blade 2, but the coating apparatus 1 can also be applied to other objects to be coated.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the coating apparatus 1 includes an automatic transfer robot 3, a coating control pen 4, a tubing dispenser 5 (corresponding to a dropping unit), an operation unit 6, and a control device 7 (corresponding to a control unit). . Since FIG. 1 shows a state when the automatic transfer robot 3 does not hold the application control pen 4, the application control pen 4 is placed on the application control pen stand 8 (hereinafter referred to as position P1). .

  The automatic transfer robot 3 includes a hand 9 that holds the application control pen 4 and an arm 10 that moves the hand 9. The automatic transfer robot 3 can freely move the application control pen 4 by moving the arm 10 or opening and closing the hand 9.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a coating control pen jig 13 having a main body 11 for fixing the coating control pen 4 and a gripping part 12 for gripping the hand 9 of the automatic transfer robot 3 is attached to the coating control pen 4. It has been. The automatic transfer robot 3 can freely move the application control pen 4 by grasping the grip portion 12 of the application control pen jig 13 attached to the application control pen 4.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the application control pen mounting base 8 is configured to place the application control pen 4 in a state in which the dropping port 14 at the tip of the application control pen 4 faces downward. The application control pen cradle 8 includes therein a drop detection sensor 15 (corresponding to a detection unit) for detecting the presence or absence of a drop that hangs down on the dropping port 14 of the application control pen 4 placed. The droplet detection sensor 15 includes a light emitting unit 16 and a light receiving unit 17, and is installed at a position where light emitted from the light emitting unit 16 passes under the dropping port 14 and enters the light receiving unit 17. .

  As shown in the top view of FIG. 3, the drop detection sensor 15 emits laser light having a width of, for example, about 10 mm toward the light receiving unit 17 from the light emitting unit 16. The light receiving unit 17 measures the amount of received laser light emitted from the light emitting unit 16. And the light-receiving part 17 will output a detection signal, if the light-receiving amount measured is below a predetermined threshold value.

  In the present embodiment, the threshold value of the amount of light received when the light receiving unit 17 outputs a detection signal is set to a value that is slightly larger than the amount of light received when the drop of adhesive hangs on the dropping port 14. By setting the threshold value of the amount of received light when the light receiving unit 17 outputs the detection signal in this way, for example, a small amount of adhesive ejected from the dropping port 14 is not erroneously detected as a drop. As a result, while the detection signal is output from the light receiving unit 17, it can be grasped as a state in which a drop of adhesive is hanging from the dropping port 14.

Note that the light receiving unit 17 may measure the light shielding amount of the laser light emitted from the light emitting unit 16. In this case, the light receiving unit 17 is set to output an electrical signal if the measured light shielding amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. The threshold value of the amount of light received when the light receiving unit 17 outputs the detection signal is set to a value slightly smaller than the amount of light that is blocked when the adhesive drop is hanging from the dropping port 14.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the tubing dispenser 5 includes a roller 18 and a guide 19 for squeezing the tube by the principle of a tubing pump. The tube 20 sandwiched between the roller 18 and the guide 19 has a suction side connected to a tank filled with an adhesive, and a discharge side connected to the application control pen 4. The tubing dispenser 5 is controlled by the control device 7 to start and stop the motor that drives the roller 18. The tubing dispenser 5 is sometimes called a squeeze pump or a tube pump.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the tubing dispenser 5 squeezes the tube 20 by moving a plurality of pressing rollers 21 provided on the roller 18 from the suction side to the discharge side while pressing the tube 20. . That is, the closed space 22 formed in the tube 20 by the two adjacent pressing rollers 21 moves from the suction side to the discharge side when the roller 18 rotates. The portion released from the compression by the pressure roller 21 is restored from the crushed state to the original state without being crushed by the elasticity (restorability) of the tube 20. Accordingly, the adhesive filled in the closed space 22 is sequentially transferred from the suction side to the discharge side. For convenience of explanation, in FIG. 5, the roller 18 has only three pressing rollers 21, but the number of the pressing rollers 21 is appropriately determined according to the diameter of the rollers 18.

  Here, the tube used for the tubing dispenser 5 is generally a silicon tube that is excellent in heat resistance and cold resistance and can be used in a wide temperature range. This is because it is excellent in gas permeability, ozone resistance, weather resistance, and electrical insulation and is suitable for transferring chemicals. However, silicon-based tubes are not resistant to solutions such as adhesives. Therefore, the tube 20 of the present embodiment uses a Teflon (registered trademark) type. This is because a Teflon tube is resistant to an adhesive and suitable for application of the adhesive.

  However, since the Teflon-based tube 20 is not elastic and hard, the pressing roller 21 may not be able to sufficiently press the tube 20 in some cases. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the adhesive can flow backward from the discharge side to the suction side. When the adhesive flows backward, the adhesive in the application control pen 4 disappears or retreats from the dropping port 14, and the time from when the tubing dispenser 5 is activated until the adhesive is dropped varies. If the timing at which the adhesive drops is not known, it becomes difficult to drop the adhesive at an accurate position.

Therefore, in the coating apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the control device 7 is configured as follows. The configuration of the control device 7 is shown in FIG. The control device 7 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 23.
And a storage device 24 and an input / output interface 25, which are so-called computers, execute the following processing by executing a computer program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

  A processing flow executed by the control device 7 is shown in FIG. When the start button on the operation unit 6 is pressed (S101), the control device 7 activates the drop detection sensor 15 (S102). When the drop detection sensor 15 is activated, a laser beam is emitted from the light emitting unit 16, and it is possible to detect the presence or absence of the adhesive drop hanging from the dropping port 14.

  After operating the drop detection sensor 15, the control device 7 activates the tubing dispenser 5 to start feeding the liquid, and the elapsed time since the activation of the tubing dispenser 5 (hereinafter referred to as a first elapsed time). Is started (S103). When the tubing dispenser 5 is activated, the roller 18 rotates and the adhesive is sent to the application control pen 4.

  The control device 7 determines whether or not the first elapsed time has passed a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as the first set time) (S104). Here, the first set time is a temporal condition (corresponding to the first predetermined time) for capturing an abnormality of the route through which the adhesive flows. For example, when the route through which the adhesive flows is normal This is the time required for adding an offset to the time from when the tubing dispenser 5 is activated until the adhesive flows out from the dripping port 14.

  If no drop is detected even after the first set time has elapsed (S105), the control device 7 stops the tubing dispenser 5 and notifies the operator that there is an abnormality (S109). In addition, when a droplet is detected before the first elapsed time has passed the first set time (S105), the control device 7 determines the elapsed time after the detection (hereinafter referred to as the second elapsed time). Start timing).

  By the series of processes (S104 to S105) executed by the control device 7, it is possible to capture the presence or absence of an abnormality in the route for feeding the adhesive. That is, if no drop is detected after the first set time has elapsed, the tubing dispenser 5 is out of order, the adhesive is gone, or the tube 20 is clogged, etc. The path may be abnormal due to the cause. When the control device 7 notifies the abnormality, the operator confirms the state of the coating device 1 and corrects the abnormal portion.

  When the droplet detection sensor 15 detects a droplet, the control device 7 determines whether or not the second elapsed time has passed a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as a second set time) (S106). Here, the second set time is a temporal condition (corresponding to the second predetermined condition) for capturing an abnormality in the liquid property of the adhesive. For example, when the viscosity of the adhesive is normal In short, it is a time obtained by adding an offset to the time from when the drop of the adhesive starts dripping to the dropping port 14 until the dropping.

  If a drop has been detected even after the second set time has elapsed (S107), the control device 7 stops the tubing dispenser 5 and notifies the operator that there is an abnormality (S109). ). Moreover, the control apparatus 7 stops the tubing dispenser 5 (S108), when a drop is no longer detected before 2nd elapsed time passes 2nd setting time (S107).

  By the series of processes (S106 to S107) executed by the control device 7, the presence or absence of liquid abnormality of the adhesive can be detected. That is, when the second elapsed time has passed the second set time, if the droplet does not drip, a liquid abnormality due to a cause such as hardening of the adhesive may be considered. When the control device 7 notifies the abnormality, the operator confirms the state of the adhesive and replaces the adhesive as necessary.

  When there is no abnormality in the path through which the adhesive flows or the liquid property of the adhesive and the process executed by the control device 7 proceeds to step S108, the tube 20 is filled with the adhesive. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, even if the adhesive flows backward while the coating apparatus 1 is stopped and the inside of the tube 20 is hollow, the control apparatus 7 executes the process of step S108. At the finished stage, the tube 20 is filled with the adhesive. Therefore, when the tubing dispenser 5 is started again, the adhesive immediately drops from the dropping port 14.

  The control device 7 executes the process of step S108 to stop the tubing dispenser 5, and then controls the automatic transport robot 3 to cause the hand 9 to hold the application control pen 4 (S110).

The control device 7 causes the hand 9 to grip the application control pen 4 and then controls the automatic transfer robot 3 to move the application control pen 4 to the upper side of one end of the CL blade 2 (hereinafter referred to as position P2) (S111). ).

  Next, the control device 7 starts application of the adhesive (S112). That is, the control device 7 activates the tubing dispenser 5 after the application control pen 4 has moved to the position P2. Since the inside of the tube 20 is filled with an adhesive, when the tubing dispenser 5 is activated, the adhesive immediately drops from the dropping port 14 of the application control pen 4. For this reason, an adhesive agent is dripped at an exact position.

  After starting the tubing dispenser 5, the control device 7 controls the automatic transfer robot 3 and moves the application control pen 4 along the CL blade 2 (S113). While the application control pen 4 moves along the CL blade 2, the adhesive continues to drip from the drip port 14.

  When the application control pen 4 moves to the upper side of the other end of the CL blade 2 (hereinafter referred to as position P3), the control device 7 stops the tubing dispenser 5 (S114). Thereby, application | coating of the adhesive agent to CL blade 2 is completed.

  After stopping the tubing dispenser 5, the control device 7 controls the automatic transfer robot 3 and returns the application control pen 4 to the application control pen stand 8 (S115). In addition, you may perform the application | coating to the following CL blade 2 continuously.

  As described above, the adhesive is appropriately applied to the CL blade 2 by executing the series of processes (S101 to S115).

  The first set time and the second set time may be appropriately changed according to the ability of the tubing dispenser 5, the length of the tube 20, and the liquid property of the adhesive. The operation unit 6 is provided with a stop button in addition to the start button, and the operator can stop the coating apparatus 1 at any time. In the above embodiment, the tubing dispenser 5 is used. However, other pumps having a low flow rate, such as a positive displacement pump using a rotational movement such as a gear pump or a reciprocating movement such as a piston pump, can be applied. .

  Hereinafter, modifications of the embodiment will be described.

  In the above embodiment, the transport speed of the automatic transport robot 3 when applying the adhesive and the flow rate of the tubing dispenser 5 are not particularly described, but these may be controlled by the control device 7. That is, for example, the control device 7 adjusts the motor speed of the tubing dispenser 5 according to the viscosity of the adhesive so that the interval at which the adhesive drops is appropriate, or applies the application control pen 4 by the automatic transport robot 3. It is also possible to adjust the moving speed or the timing of starting the movement. In this case, the viscosity of the adhesive may be specified by a sensor that measures the viscosity provided in the coating apparatus 1, or the tubing dispenser 5 is activated and the interval at which drops are dropped is measured by the drop detection sensor 15. You may specify.

For example, let us consider a case where the timing of dropping of the drops, the start / stop of the tubing dispenser 5 and the movement of the application control pen 4 by the automatic transfer robot 3 are in a timing chart as shown in FIG. For example, when the droplet detection sensor 15 detects a droplet three times, the control device 7 stops the tubing dispenser 5 (S108). Then, when the time interval (T1, T2) is acquired after the drop is dropped, the average value (T _AVE ) is calculated. Next, the control device 7 activates the tubing dispenser 5 after moving the application control pen 4 to the position P2 (S112). Here, the control device 7 starts moving the application control pen 4 from the position P2 to the position P3 after the _TAVE time has elapsed since the tubing dispenser 5 was activated. If it does in this way, an adhesive agent will be dripped at CL blade 2 without leaking.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, the 1st setting time and the 2nd setting time were the values predetermined beforehand. However, these may be changed as appropriate based on inputs from various sensors provided in the coating apparatus 1 and a predetermined map. For example, the first set time and the second set time are the motor speed of the tubing dispenser 5, the viscosity of the adhesive, the length of the tube 20, the elapsed time from the last stop of the coating device 1 to the start of this time, etc. It may be increased or decreased accordingly.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, the drop detection sensor 15 outputs a detection signal according to whether the light reception amount is below a predetermined threshold value. However, the coating apparatus 1 may adjust various control amounts according to the amount of received light. For example, the control device 7 changes the rotation speed of the roller 18 of the tubing dispenser 5 according to the amount of light received from the drop detection sensor 15 or changes the moving speed of the application control pen 4 when the adhesive is applied. You may change it. These control amounts may be changed not only according to the amount of received light detected by the drop detection sensor 15 but also according to, for example, the time interval at which drops are dropped.

  For example, consider a case where the change in the amount of light received by the light receiving unit 17 is as shown in FIG. When the rotation speed of the roller 18 is the same, the liquid feeding amount per unit time is constant. For this reason, for example, the viscosity of the adhesive is low, so that the droplet does not increase in size and drops immediately (case 2), compared with the case where the viscosity is appropriate and the size of the droplet is appropriate (case 1). , Drops dripping frequently. Therefore, for example, the control device 7 slows the rotation speed of the roller 18 or starts moving the application control pen 4 from the position P2 to the position P3 according to the magnitude of the amount of received light detected by the light receiving unit 17. Or the movement speed of the application control pen 4 from the position P2 to the position P3 is increased. In this way, the adhesive is appropriately applied to the CL blade 2.

1 .. Application device 2. CL blade 4 Application control pen 5 Tubing dispenser 7 Control device 14 Drop port 15 Drop detection sensor

Claims (7)

A dropping part for feeding and dropping the coating liquid to the dropping port;
A detection unit for detecting drops at the dropping port;
A control unit that controls the timing at which the dropping unit starts dropping the coating liquid onto the surface to be coated, according to the size of the droplet at the dropping port and the state of the dropping detected by the detection unit;
Coating device. When the control unit changes to a state in which no droplet is detected after the detection unit detects a droplet of a predetermined size after the dropping unit starts liquid feeding, the control unit applies the coating liquid to the dropping unit. To start dripping,
The coating apparatus according to claim 1. The control unit has a first time to be satisfied when a passage through which the coating liquid is fed is normal after an elapse of time from when the dropping unit starts feeding the liquid until the detection unit detects a drop. If the predetermined condition is satisfied, the dropping portion starts dripping the coating liquid onto the surface to be coated.
The coating device according to claim 1 or 2. The control unit should satisfy an elapsed time from when the detection unit detects a droplet during liquid feeding to when it changes to a state where it does not detect the liquid when the coating solution is normal. If the second predetermined condition is satisfied, the dripping part starts dripping the coating liquid onto the coated surface,
The coating apparatus as described in any one of Claim 1 to 3. The control unit moves the dripping port onto the surface to be coated in a state where the liquid feeding to the dripping unit is stopped, and then restarts the liquid feeding to the dripping unit, so that the coating liquid is supplied to the dripping unit. Start dripping onto the coated surface,
The coating apparatus as described in any one of Claim 1 to 4. The dripping part is
An elastic tube forming at least a part of a path for feeding the coating liquid to the dropping port;
In accordance with a command from the control unit, a roller that squeezes the elastic tube toward the dropping port side,
The coating apparatus as described in any one of Claim 1 to 5. The coating liquid is fed to the dropping port and dropped,
Detecting a drop at the dropping port,
Control the timing of starting dropping the coating liquid onto the surface to be coated according to the detected droplet size and dropping state of the dropping port.
Application method.

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