JP2012240370A - Apparatus for continuously heating long film - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for continuously heating a long film in which inflow of contaminated air containing dust etc., into a furnace can be prevented without causing trouble in transportation of the long film.SOLUTION: There is provided the apparatus for continuously heating in which hot air fed through an air feeding means having a fan 3, a heater 2, and an air filter 4 such as a HEPA filter (high efficiency particulate air filter) into the furnace 1 is circulated; a portion of the hot air is exhausted through an exhausting means to the outside of the furnace; a continuous heat treatment is applied to the long film 7 which is carried in and out from an opening 9 of the furnace body in the furnace; and the circulated amount of the hot air is composed of the total amount of an air flow rate of the return system which is exhausted to the outside of the furnace without passing through the exhausting means and returned to the air inlet side of the air feeding means and the air flow rate of the air inlet system newly introduced into the air inlet side of the air feeding means. In the continuously heating apparatus, a fine differential pressure gage 13 for detecting a pressure difference between the inside of the furnace and the outside of the furnace is installed in the furnace body, and the air flow rate exhausted with the exhausting means is finely adjusted to a lower air flow rate than the air flow rate of the air inlet system on the basis of the pressure difference detected with the fine differential pressure gage to maintain the inside of the furnace at a fine positive pressure.

Description

  The present invention relates to a continuous heating apparatus for a long film that continuously heats a long film that is continuously carried into the furnace in a processing chamber in the furnace, and in particular, contaminated air containing dust or the like is contained in the furnace. The present invention relates to an improvement of a continuous heating apparatus that can prevent the flow into the inner processing chamber and that does not hinder the conveyance of the long film.

  Long films such as polyimides and polyesters have flexibility and can be easily processed, so they are widely used in industrial fields such as electronic parts, optical parts, packaging materials, vacuum deposition methods, sputtering methods, A technique for forming a film of a metal, an oxide thereof, a nitride, a carbide, an organic substance, etc. on a long film by applying a vacuum film forming method such as an ion plating method or a CVD method has been developed for a long time. In recent years, in the electronics field, various materials used have been increased in density and definition, and high-quality materials have been demanded. Although depending on the type of the long film, the long film contains some moisture and organic solvent, and the metal and its oxidation are formed using the above-described vacuum film-forming methods such as vacuum deposition and sputtering. When a film such as an object is formed on a long film, moisture and organic solvent contained in the long film may diffuse and desorb on the surface of the long film, adversely affecting the film quality. Before forming an oxide film or the like, it was necessary to heat the long film to remove the organic solvent or the like. In addition, after a metal or its oxide is formed, the long film is heat-treated to improve the crystallinity of the metal or the like.

  By the way, the apparatus of patent document 1 which conveys a long film horizontally as a conventional apparatus used for the continuous heat processing of a long film is known, and the continuation which raised the processing capability of the film in this apparatus. As a heating device, one having the structure shown in FIG. 1 has been developed.

  Hereinafter, this type of continuous heating apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the continuous heating apparatus includes a furnace 1 main body having a processing chamber therein, and an opening (film inlet port) provided in the furnace 1 main body for continuously carrying in and out the long film 7 into the processing chamber. And film outlet) 9, supply means for supplying and circulating hot air into the furnace 1, and saturation of volatile components (for example, solvent components removed from the long film) in the furnace 1 are prevented. Therefore, an exhaust means for exhausting a part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 is provided.

  A pipe for supplying and circulating hot air into the furnace 1 (that is, the air supply means) includes a heater 2 for generating heat and a blower (blower) for sending the heat into the furnace 1. 3 and an air filter 4 such as a HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Airfilter) for maintaining cleanliness in the furnace 1, and fresh air outside the furnace 1 is provided on the inlet side of the air supply means. An intake system pipe for taking in air is connected in series, and further, hot air that is exhausted out of the furnace 1 without being passed through the exhaust means and used for circulation is taken into the inlet side of the air supply means. For this purpose, a return system pipe is provided continuously. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 5 denotes a damper attached to the inlet pipe to adjust the intake amount of fresh air, and reference numeral 6 denotes an amount of hot air attached to the return pipe and used for circulation. The damper to be adjusted is shown. Further, a pipe for exhausting a part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 (that is, the exhaust means) includes an exhaust fan 14 for exhausting the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 and a damper 10 for adjusting the exhaust amount of the hot air to be exhausted. Have.

  And in this continuous heating apparatus, the hot air cleaned through the air filter 4 of the air supply means is circulated and supplied into the processing space defined by the upper punching plate 12 and the lower punching plate 11 in the furnace 1. The long film 7 carried into the processing space is heated with the supplied hot air.

  In recent years, the number of wiring films using extremely thin and flexible flexible films is increasing in electronic devices. In continuous heat treatment corresponding to flexible films, flexible films are easily deformed by heat. Therefore, a flexible film (long film) is usually conveyed by applying a low tension (tension).

  By the way, the circulation amount of the hot air supplied into the furnace 1 by the above air supply means is determined by the intake amount of fresh air (inlet air amount) and the return hot air amount (return air amount) (that is, the input air amount). However, as the amount of hot air exhausted by the exhaust means increases, the pressure inside the furnace 1 becomes lower than the pressure outside the furnace 1 and the inside of the furnace 1 is negative. As the inside of the furnace 1 becomes negative pressure, contaminated air containing dust and the like flows into the processing space from the openings (film inlet and outlet) 9 of the long film 7, and this contaminated air causes In some cases, dust or the like may adhere to the long film 7.

  And, dust or the like adheres to the flexible film (long film), or the dust or the like adheres to the metal wiring circuit of the processed wiring film, which causes a wiring short circuit, which is a quality problem. It was.

  In order to avoid such a problem, when continuous heating of a long film is performed using the continuous heating apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the damper 10 of the exhaust means is squeezed to reduce the exhaust air volume, so that the exhaust air volume is less than that. A method is adopted in which the damper 10 is fixed (that is, the exhaust air volume is fixed at a constant value) under the condition that the exhaust air volume is slightly reduced, and the long film is continuously heated.

  However, even if the damper 10 is squeezed to fix the exhaust air volume, when the continuous heat treatment of the long film is continued, the pressure outside the furnace 1 (for example, a continuous heating device is installed). The pressure inside the furnace may fluctuate over time, and the pressure inside the furnace 1 becomes negative with respect to the pressure outside the furnace 1 before long. The outside of the furnace 1 (the room where the continuous heating device is installed) There is a problem that contaminated air containing dust and the like flows from the openings (film inlet / outlet) 9.

  In this case, a method is conceivable in which the damper 10 is squeezed to greatly reduce the exhaust air volume and increase the intake air volume. However, the furnace 1 from the furnace 1 through the opening (film inlet / outlet) 9 can be considered. The amount of air that flows outside (inside the room) increases, and due to the amount of air, the long film transported in the vicinity of the opening (film inlet and outlet) 9 shakes and flutters to the film. There has been another problem that stable film transportation becomes difficult unless a strong tension is applied.

  And when a strong tension (tension) is applied to the heated long film, the long film easily stretches and stress remains in the film, and the film warps when it is made into a final product. Will cause a new problem.

JP 2002-18970 A JP 2008-185388 A

  The present invention has been made paying attention to such problems, and the problem is that the contaminated air containing dust and the like can be prevented from flowing into the processing chamber in the furnace, and the long film An object of the present invention is to provide a continuous heating apparatus that does not hinder the conveyance of the sheet.

That is, the invention according to claim 1
Hot air supplied into the furnace via the air supply means having a blower, a heater and an air filter circulates, and part of the hot air is exhausted from the inside of the furnace to the outside of the furnace via the exhaust means, and the furnace body The long film carried into the furnace from the film carry-in port and carried out from the film carry-out port to the outside of the furnace is subjected to continuous heat treatment with hot air in the treatment chamber in the furnace, and the circulation amount of the hot air is A return air volume that is exhausted from the inside of the furnace to the outside of the furnace without passing through the means and returned to the inlet side of the air supply means, and newly introduced from the outside of the furnace to the inlet side of the air supply means. In the continuous heating device for long films composed of the total amount of airflow of the inlet system
A fine differential pressure gauge that detects the pressure difference between the inside of the furnace and the outside of the furnace is provided in the furnace body, and the air volume exhausted by the exhaust means based on the pressure difference detected by the fine differential pressure gauge is finely adjusted to be less than the air volume of the inlet system. Then, the inside of the furnace is maintained at a slight positive pressure.

The invention according to claim 2
In the continuous heating apparatus of the long film which concerns on invention of Claim 1,
The exhaust means is composed of an exhaust fan driven by a rotational speed variable motor and an inverter control device for controlling the rotational speed of the motor,
The invention according to claim 3
In the continuous heating apparatus for a long film according to the invention of claim 1 or 2,
The processing chamber in the furnace has a processing space defined by an upper punching plate provided on the upper side of the furnace and a lower punching plate provided on the lower side of the furnace, and the processing chamber is interposed via the upper punching plate. The hot air is introduced into the processing space, and the hot air in the processing space is exhausted to the outside of the furnace through the lower punching plate, and is arranged in a row near each of the upper punching plate and the lower punching plate in the processing space. The long film is conveyed in the processing space through a plurality of upper roller groups and lower roller groups alternately.

According to the continuous heating device for a long film according to the present invention,
A fine differential pressure gauge that detects the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the furnace is installed in the furnace body, and based on the pressure difference detected by the fine differential pressure gauge, the air volume exhausted by the exhaust means is finely adjusted to be less than the air volume of the inlet system. The inside of the furnace is maintained at a slight positive pressure.

  Therefore, since the inside of the furnace is maintained at a slight positive pressure, contaminated air containing dust and the like outside the furnace (for example, the room where the continuous heating device is installed) enters the furnace from the openings constituting the film inlet and outlet. Because the long film that is transported in the vicinity of the opening by the wind that flows out to the outside of the furnace due to the fine positive pressure does not sway with the flutter, without flowing into the inside, Since it is possible to transport the film stably without applying strong tension (tension) to the film, and since there is no need to apply strong tension (tension) to the film, there is no stress remaining inside the film. It is possible to solve the problem that the film warps when it is done.

Explanatory drawing of the continuous heating apparatus of the elongate film which concerns on the prior art example which raised processing capacity. Explanatory drawing of the continuous heating apparatus of the long film which concerns on this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the continuous heating apparatus for a long film according to this embodiment is a furnace 1 main body having a processing chamber inside, and a continuous film 7 is provided in the furnace 1 main body. An opening (film carry-in port and film carry-out port) 9 for carrying in and out, and an air supply means for supplying and circulating hot air into the furnace 1, and a volatile component (for example, In order to prevent saturation of the organic solvent component removed from the long film by the heat treatment) and the like, exhaust means for exhausting a part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1, and the furnace 1 and the furnace provided in the main body of the furnace 1 1 is provided with a fine differential pressure gauge 13 for detecting a pressure difference from the outside (for example, a room in which the apparatus is installed).

  First, piping (not shown) for supplying and circulating hot air into the furnace 1 (that is, the air supply means) includes a heater 2 for generating heat and a blower for sending the heat into the furnace 1. (Blower) 3 and an air filter 4 such as a HEPA filter for maintaining the cleanliness in the furnace 1, in order to take in fresh air outside the furnace 1 to the inlet side of the air supply means In addition, a return pipe for taking in hot air that is exhausted out of the furnace 1 without passing through the exhaust means and used for circulation is provided on the inlet side of the air supply means. System piping is connected.

  An unillustrated pipe for exhausting a part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 (that is, the exhaust means) is driven by a variable speed motor, and the exhaust fan 14 for exhausting the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 and the motor. The pressure difference signal between the inside of the furnace 1 and the outside of the furnace 1 detected by the above-mentioned fine differential pressure gauge 13 is inputted to the inverter control apparatus 15 and this pressure is controlled. Based on the difference signal, the inverter control device 15 is operated to control the rotational speed of the motor, thereby finely adjusting the exhaust air flow rate of the exhaust fan 14 to be smaller than the air flow rate of the intake system. It is configured to maintain a positive pressure. An example of the above-described fine differential pressure gauge 13 is the fine differential pressure gauge described in Patent Document 2.

  The processing chamber in the furnace 1 has a processing space defined by an upper punching plate 12 provided on the upper side in the furnace and a lower punching plate 11 provided on the lower side in the furnace. The hot air is uniformly introduced into the processing space through the upper punching plate 12, and the hot air in the processing space is uniformly exhausted outside the furnace through the lower punching plate 11.

  Further, in the vicinity of the upper punching plate 12 and the lower punching plate 11 in the processing space, a plurality of upper roller 8 groups and lower roller 8 groups are respectively arranged in a row as shown in FIG. The long film 7 carried into the processing space from the (film carry-in port) 9 is carried out of the processing space from the opening (film carry-out port) 9 via the upper roller 8 group and the lower roller 8 group alternately. The long film 7 is continuously heated by the purified hot air supplied into the processing space via the air filter 4 of the air supply means.

  In this case, the continuous heating device according to this embodiment is configured such that the long film 7 is meandered and conveyed in the processing space via the upper roller 8 group and the lower roller 8 group alternately. Compared with the apparatus described in Patent Document 1 in which a long film is transported horizontally in the processing space, it has an advantage that the processing capability of the film is enhanced.

  The air filter 4 for maintaining the cleanliness in the furnace 1 is appropriately selected according to the target cleanliness from widely used conventional filters, for example, an ULPA filter (Ultra Low Penetoration Airfilter), Examples include HEPA filters (High Efficiency Particulate Airfilter), MEPA (Medium Efficiency Particulate Airfilter), and special filters (ULPA / HEPA filters that can be used in high-temperature atmospheres, prefilters / HEPA / medium performance filters, etc.).

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 5 is a damper attached to the inlet piping to adjust the intake amount of fresh air, and reference numeral 6 is attached to the return piping to adjust the amount of hot air supplied for circulation. In the case of performing continuous heating of the long film 7 using the apparatus according to this embodiment, the dampers 5 and 6 are squeezed to obtain the above intake amount (that is, the air volume of the intake system). The amount of hot air supplied for circulation (that is, the amount of air in the return system) is fixed.

  And according to the continuous heating apparatus which concerns on this embodiment, the fine differential pressure gauge 13 which detects the pressure difference between the said furnace 1 and the furnace 1 outside is provided, and the furnace detected with this fine differential pressure gauge 13 A pressure difference signal between the inside of the furnace 1 and the outside of the furnace 1 is input to the inverter control device 15, and the inverter control device 15 is operated based on this pressure difference signal, and the exhaust air volume of the exhaust fan 14 is changed to the air volume of the intake system (fixed value). The furnace 1 is finely adjusted so as to be smaller, thereby maintaining the inside of the furnace 1 at a slightly positive pressure.

  Therefore, the contaminated air containing dust and the like outside the furnace 1 does not flow into the furnace 1 from the opening 9 constituting the film carry-in port and the carry-out port, and the furnace is caused by the fine positive pressure. Since the long film 7 transported in the vicinity of the opening 9 is not shaken by the wind that flows in a very small amount to the outside, the film 7 can be transported stably without applying strong tension (tension) to the film 7. Furthermore, since it is not necessary to apply a strong tension to the film 7, no stress remains in the film 7, so that the problem that the film 7 is warped when it is made into a final product is solved. Has the advantage of

  Examples of the present invention will be specifically described below.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the continuous heating device for a long film according to this embodiment has a furnace 1 main body having a processing chamber inside, and a continuous long film 7 provided in the processing chamber provided in the furnace 1 main body. An opening (film inlet / outlet) 9 for carrying in and out, air supply means for supplying and circulating hot air at 200 ° C. in the furnace 1, volatile components etc. in the furnace 1 Exhaust means for exhausting part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 to prevent saturation, and the inside of the furnace 1 and outside the furnace 1 (for example, the apparatus according to the embodiment was installed) And a micro differential pressure gauge 13 for detecting a pressure difference from the room.

  First, a pipe (not shown) for supplying and circulating hot air of 200 ° C. in the furnace 1 (that is, the air supply means) includes a 30 kW heater 2 for generating heat and hot air of 200 ° C. in the furnace 1. 11 kW blower 3 and an air filter 4 such as a HEPA filter for maintaining cleanliness in the furnace 1. The inlet side of the air supply means is outside the furnace 1. An intake system piping for taking in fresh air (saturation of volatile components in the furnace 1 can be prevented) is continuously provided, and further, an exhaust means is provided on the inlet side of the supply means. Instead, a return system pipe for taking in hot air exhausted out of the furnace 1 and used for circulation is connected.

An unillustrated pipe for exhausting a part of the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 (that is, the exhaust means) is driven by a variable speed motor, and the exhaust fan 14 for exhausting the hot air to the outside of the furnace 1 and the motor. The inverter control device 15 for controlling the rotational speed of the furnace 1 is configured such that the pressure difference signal between the inside of the furnace 1 and the outside of the furnace 1 detected by the fine differential pressure gauge 13 is input to the inverter control device 15. It has become. Based on this pressure difference signal, the inverter control device 15 is operated to control the rotational speed of the motor, whereby the exhaust air volume of the exhaust fan 14 is less than the air volume (4 m ³ / min) of the intake system shown below. The inside of the furnace 1 is finely adjusted (4 m ³ / min−α) so as to be maintained at a slightly positive pressure (the pressure inside the furnace 1 is, for example, 10 Pa higher than that outside the furnace 1). In this embodiment, “digital fine differential pressure gauge EMD-8 manufactured by Yamamoto Electric Co., Ltd.” is applied as the fine differential pressure gauge 13.

  The processing chamber in the furnace 1 has a processing space defined by an upper punching plate 12 provided on the upper side in the furnace and a lower punching plate 11 provided on the lower side in the furnace. The hot air is uniformly introduced into the processing space through the upper punching plate 12, and the hot air in the processing space is uniformly exhausted outside the furnace through the lower punching plate 11.

  Further, in the vicinity of the upper punching plate 12 and the lower punching plate 11 in the processing space, a plurality of upper roller 8 groups and lower roller 8 groups are respectively arranged in a row as shown in FIG. The long film 7 carried into the processing space from the (film carry-in port) 9 is carried out of the processing space from the opening (film carry-out port) 9 via the upper roller 8 group and the lower roller 8 group alternately. The long film 7 is continuously heated by the purified hot air supplied into the processing space through the air filter 4 such as the HEPA filter of the air supply means. Yes.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 5 is a damper attached to the inlet piping to adjust the intake amount of fresh air, and reference numeral 6 is attached to the return piping to adjust the amount of hot air supplied for circulation. In the case where the long film 7 is continuously heated using the apparatus according to the embodiment, the dampers 5 and 6 are squeezed to reduce the intake amount (that is, the air volume of the intake system) to 4 m ³ / min. (The amount of hot air circulated is fixed to 20%) and the amount of hot air supplied for circulation (that is, the amount of return air) is fixed to 16 m ³ / min (corresponding to 80% of the amount of hot air circulated). As a result, the circulation rate of hot air is set to 20 m ³ / min.

And according to the continuous heating apparatus which concerns on this Example, the fine differential pressure gauge 13 which detects the pressure difference between the said furnace 1 and the outside of the furnace 1 is provided, The furnace 1 detected with this fine differential pressure gauge 13 A pressure difference signal between the inside and the outside of the furnace 1 is input to the inverter control device 15, and the inverter control device 15 is operated based on this pressure difference signal, and the exhaust air volume of the exhaust fan 14 is changed to the air volume (4 m ³ / min of the intake system). ) Fine adjustment (4 m ³ / min−α) is performed so as to reduce the pressure, thereby maintaining the inside of the furnace 1 at a slightly positive pressure (the pressure inside the furnace 1 is 10 Pa higher than the pressure outside the furnace 1).

  Therefore, the contaminated air containing dust and the like outside the furnace 1 does not flow into the furnace 1 from the opening 9 constituting the film carry-in port and the carry-out port, and the fine positive pressure (in the furnace 1) Since the long film 7 transported in the vicinity of the opening 9 is not shaken by the wind that flows out to the outside of the furnace 1 due to the pressure being 10 Pa higher than the pressure outside the furnace 1, the film 7 The film 7 can be transported stably without applying a strong tension (tension), and since there is no need to apply a strong tension (tension) to the film 7, no stress remains in the film 7. The problem that the film 7 warps when made into a product is also solved.

  According to the continuous heating apparatus according to the present invention, contaminated air containing dust or the like does not flow into the furnace from the openings constituting the film carry-in port and the carry-out port, and is transported in the vicinity of the opening. Since the long film to be swayed does not shake, the film can be stably conveyed without applying a strong tension. Therefore, it has industrial applicability used for heat treatment of resin films, engineering plastic films and the like.

1 furnace 2 heater 3 blower
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 4 Air filter 5 Intake system damper 6 Return damper 7 Long film 8 Roller group 9 Opening part 10 Exhaust system damper 11 Lower punching plate 12 Upper punching plate 13 Fine differential pressure gauge 14 Exhaust fan 15 Inverter control device

Claims (3)

Hot air supplied into the furnace via the air supply means having a blower, a heater and an air filter circulates, and part of the hot air is exhausted from the inside of the furnace to the outside of the furnace via the exhaust means, and the furnace body The long film carried into the furnace from the film carry-in port and carried out from the film carry-out port to the outside of the furnace is subjected to continuous heat treatment with hot air in the treatment chamber in the furnace, and the circulation amount of the hot air is A return air volume that is exhausted from the inside of the furnace to the outside of the furnace without passing through the means and returned to the inlet side of the air supply means, and newly introduced from the outside of the furnace to the inlet side of the air supply means. In the continuous heating device for long films composed of the total amount of airflow of the inlet system
A fine differential pressure gauge that detects the pressure difference between the inside of the furnace and the outside of the furnace is provided in the furnace body, and the air volume exhausted by the exhaust means based on the pressure difference detected by the fine differential pressure gauge is finely adjusted to be less than the air volume of the inlet system. And the continuous heating apparatus of the long film characterized by maintaining the inside of a furnace at a fine positive pressure.   2. The continuous heating device for a long film according to claim 1, wherein the exhaust means comprises an exhaust fan driven by a rotational speed variable motor and an inverter control device for controlling the rotational speed of the motor. .   The processing chamber in the furnace has a processing space defined by an upper punching plate provided on the upper side of the furnace and a lower punching plate provided on the lower side of the furnace, and the processing chamber is interposed via the upper punching plate. The hot air is introduced into the processing space, and the hot air in the processing space is exhausted to the outside of the furnace through the lower punching plate, and is arranged in a row near each of the upper punching plate and the lower punching plate in the processing space. The long film according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the long film is conveyed in the processing space through a plurality of upper roller groups and lower roller groups alternately. Continuous heating device.

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