JP2021067596A - Glass substrate selection device and glass substrate selection method - Google Patents

Abstract

To select a glass substrates with a glass substrate inspection device equipped with deformation imparting means that causes local bending not only at edges of a glass substrate to be put into a color filter manufacturing process but also on the entire surface.SOLUTION: An inspection device includes, in a test unit, stress loading means for displacing and bending a mounted glass substrate, by individually controlling support height for supporting and mounting a rectangular glass substrate with a plurality of support pins and a substrate lifter, by an instruction from a control unit based on information in a manufacturing condition database that stores inspection conditions for selecting the glass substrate.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention is for eliminating defective glass substrates that do not meet the quality standards required in the color filter manufacturing process used for color liquid crystal display devices, selecting normal glass substrates, and putting them into the color filter manufacturing process. The present invention relates to a device for sorting glass substrates and a method thereof.

The glass substrate used for the color filter substrate used in the color liquid crystal display device is supplied after cutting a large glass plate formed by a known method into a rectangle having a predetermined size.

There are many defects such as scratches and chips on the end face of the glass substrate as it is cut, and when mechanical or thermal stress is applied to the plate glass in the subsequent transfer process or heat treatment process. , These defects can cause damage. Therefore, the end face of the glass substrate is usually subjected to finish processing such as polishing and chamfering, but even if these processing is performed, it is extremely difficult to remove all the fine scratches and chips formed on the end face. Yes, harmful defects that can cause damage can remain.

In the extraction of defects by imaging the edge of the glass substrate using a camera, it is not possible to withstand the mechanical or thermal stress that actually acts on the glass substrate in the transfer process, heat treatment process, etc., and that is the starting point. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether or not the glass substrate is a "harmful defect" that leads to breakage. Therefore, by causing bending deformation at the end portion including the end face so that the end face of the side to be inspected of the glass substrate is curved, only those having harmful defects are damaged and sorted from the glass substrate. There is a proposal related to the inspection method of doing. (See Patent Document 1)
On the other hand, after the glass substrate is put into the color filter manufacturing process, the manufactured color filter (intermediate product) is inspected by an inspection device that detects defects in each process, and a non-defective product / defective product is selected according to the defect detection result. There is also a proposal for the purpose of making a judgment, correcting defective products according to the degree of defects, and then re-injecting them into the manufacturing process for reuse. (See Patent Document 2)

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-20291 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-128207

In recent years, the size of the display device has increased, and the glass substrate introduced into the manufacturing process of the color filter has a larger glass substrate because a plurality of color filters are impositioned on one glass substrate. When such a glass substrate is damaged in the manufacturing apparatus, it takes a long time to remove the fragments from the apparatus, and the production efficiency is significantly lowered. For this reason, it is necessary to prevent the glass substrate from breaking in the process, but there is an idea that the one that may break is not put in, and conventionally, defects in the peripheral part of the glass have been found. However, when examining the large glass substrates for color filters for display devices that were broken during the process, it was found that the origin of the breakage was not at the edges of the glass substrate but at the center of the glass substrate.

For this reason, in order to detect defects that cause damage to the glass substrate for large color filters, if rollers are arranged so as to bend and deform the vicinity of the center of the glass substrate for large color filters, the device becomes large and the installation area becomes large. There was a problem.

On the other hand, in the inspection device that detects defects from the image data after imaging the surface of the glass substrate for large color filters with a camera and converting it into image data, let's inspect the entire surface of the glass substrate for large color filters for minute defects. If this happens, the inspection time will increase, and the time required to manufacture the total large color filter substrate will increase.

In view of these problems, the present invention examines the presence or absence of defects that cause damage to the central portion of the glass substrate of the large-sized glass substrate for a color filter to be put into the manufacturing process of the color filter before the process is put into the glass. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for sorting substrates.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is an apparatus for sorting glass substrates to be put into a color filter manufacturing process, and at least a transport unit for transporting the glass substrates and sorting of the glass substrates. In order to perform the test, a support pin having a pin for holding the glass substrate, an elevating mechanism for changing the height for holding the glass substrate, a load sensor for measuring the load applied to the pin, and a grip portion for gripping the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate. The height of the support pin and the substrate lifter to control a test unit having a substrate lifter having an elevating mechanism for changing the height of holding the glass substrate and a test unit for performing a test for selecting the glass substrate. Information transmission, reception of the measured value of the load sensor, instruction means for transmitting the transfer information of the glass substrate tested to the transfer unit, and whether the glass substrate is a normal product or not based on the measured value of the load sensor. It is a glass substrate sorting apparatus including a control unit having a determination means for determining whether or not the product is a non-defective product.

The invention according to claim 2 is a manufacturing condition database including information on the type of the glass substrate, test conditions for selecting the glass substrate, and an inspection result for storing the test results for each glass substrate tested. The glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the glass substrate sorting device is connected to a database and transmits / receives data to / from the control unit.

The invention according to claim 3 is a method for sorting a glass substrate using the glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit instructs and determines at least the following procedure. A characteristic method for selecting glass substrates.
(1) The height of the tip of the support pin and the grip portion of the substrate lifter is set to a predetermined initial position. (2) The glass substrate is placed on the support pin and the substrate lifter, and the load sensor measures the weight and transmits it to the control unit.
(3) The outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate is gripped by the grip portion of the substrate lifter.
(4) The height of the grip portion is made higher than the tip of the support pin.
(5) The height of the grip portion is returned to the initial position.
(6) If the measured values of all the load sensors are the same as the values measured in (2), it is judged as a normal product.

The invention according to claim 4 is a method for sorting a glass substrate using the glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit instructs and determines at least the following procedure. A characteristic method for selecting glass substrates.
(1) The height of the tip of the support pin and the grip portion of the substrate lifter is set to a predetermined initial position. (2) The glass substrate is placed on the support pin and the substrate lifter, and the load sensor measures the weight and transmits it to the control unit.
(3) The outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate is gripped by the grip portion.
(4) The tip of the support pin is made higher than the grip portion.
(5) The height of the tip of the support pin is returned to the initial position.
(6) If the measured values of all the load sensors are the same as the values measured in (2), it is judged as a normal product.

By the operation of holding the edge portion of the glass substrate of the present invention and deforming the central portion, it is possible to eliminate the glass substrate for a large color filter that may be damaged before it is carried in during the manufacturing process of the color filter. Since the glass substrate is less damaged during the manufacturing process, the color filter manufacturing process is less likely to be interrupted, and there is no downtime for collecting the broken glass, which has the effect of greatly improving production efficiency. can get.

The block diagram which shows the schematic structure of the glass substrate sorting apparatus by this invention. The explanatory view which shows the lift pin and the support pin which holds a glass substrate in a glass substrate sorting apparatus. Explanatory drawing which shows the outline of the test part which is a main part of a glass substrate sorting apparatus. The explanatory view of an example of the glass substrate sorting operation performed by the glass substrate sorting apparatus of this invention. The explanatory view of another example of the glass substrate sorting operation performed by the glass substrate sorting apparatus of this invention. The figure which showed the flow of glass substrate selection.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The glass substrate sorting apparatus 1 of the present invention sorts the procured glass substrate before putting it into the manufacturing process prior to the manufacture of the color filter.

As for the glass substrate 10 to be sorted by the glass substrate sorting apparatus 1 of the present invention, the entire surface of the glass substrate 10 is cleaned in advance in the same manner as in the manufacturing process of the color filter substrate, and then it is appropriately specified for each glass substrate. A barcode pattern was formed directly on the glass substrate 10 by the apparatus.

This barcode contains a unique number for the glass substrate 10 generated by a production control system (not shown). Further, although a barcode is used in the present invention, a QR code (registered trademark) or the like may be used. Further, although the cord is formed directly on the glass substrate, a label on which a barcode or QR code (registered trademark) is printed may be attached.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a glass substrate sorting apparatus according to the present invention.

The glass substrate sorting device 1 includes a control unit 100, a test unit 200, a transport unit 300, a manufacturing condition database DB1, and an inspection result database DB2.

The control unit 100 further includes at least an instruction means 110 and a determination means 120 in order to control the sorting operation of the glass substrate 10.

When the instruction means 110 of the control unit 100 transmits the information of the glass substrate 10 for which the sorting test is performed to the manufacturing condition database DB1 which is a part of the above-mentioned production control system, the information is determined in advance for each product in the manufacturing condition database DB1 and stored in the manufacturing condition database DB1. The test conditions are sent to the control unit 100, and further to the test unit 200 and the transport unit 300.

Then, the instruction means 110 of the control unit 100 transmits the test result to the inspection result database DB2, and the inspection result database DB2 stores the test result.

The test unit 200 has a substrate lifter 21 and a support pin 22 for supporting the glass substrate 10. In the glass substrate sorting device 1 of the present invention, when the glass substrate is inspected, bending stress is applied to the glass substrate 10 by raising and lowering the elevating mechanisms 21a and 22a of the substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22, respectively. .. In this embodiment, by lifting the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10 by the test unit 200, bending stress is applied by the own weight of the glass substrate 10.

The inspection condition data is the height of the support pin operating part, the support pin required for the operation of the lift pin operating part, and the lift pin, and this inspection condition data is determined in advance for each product and is a manufacturing condition database. It is stored in DB1.

The transport unit 300 has a mechanism for carrying in and out the glass substrate 10 to be sorted into the test unit.
FIG. 2 shows the structure of the substrate lifter 21 and the holding pin 22. By moving the substrate lifter 21 and the holding pin 22 up and down, the test unit 200 of the glass substrate sorting apparatus 1 can hold the glass substrate 10 or apply bending stress to the glass substrate 10.

The substrate lifter 21 shown in FIG. 2A is arranged and fixed to the base 25 of the test unit 200 of the glass substrate sorting apparatus. The substrate lifter 21 includes a grip portion 21b that grips the glass substrate 10 and an elevating mechanism 21a that moves the grip portion 21b in the vertical direction.

The support pin 22 shown in FIG. 2B is also arranged and fixed to the base 25 of the test unit 200. The support pin 22 is provided with a load sensor 22b that measures the load applied to the pin 22c and the pin 22c for supporting the glass substrate at its tip and outputs digitally, and moves the pin 22c and the load sensor 22b in the vertical direction. The elevating mechanism 22a is provided.

3A and 3B show a schematic view of a test unit 20 which is a main part of the glass substrate sorting apparatus 1, FIG. 3A shows a side view, and FIG. 3B shows a plan view.
Since the test unit 200 shown in FIG. 3A supports the glass substrate 10, the substrate lifter 21 is located at the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10, and the support pin 22 is located inside the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10. It is arranged in the position of. Here, the portion called the outer peripheral portion is generally in a range of about several centimeters from the end face of the glass substrate of the glass substrate 10.

FIG. 3B shows the arrangement of the substrate lifter 21 and the support pins 22. Eight substrate lifters 21 (shown in a quadrangle) are arranged on the outer peripheral portion, and six support pins 22 are arranged in the plane. (Illustrated in a circle) is arranged.
The arrangement locations and the number of these substrate lifters 21 and support pins 22 are not limited to those shown in the drawings and can be appropriately set according to the size of the substrate 10.

Further, the arrangement position may be changed according to the size of the substrate 10. Further, the substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22 are carried in and out by adjusting a part of the height so that the glass substrate 10 does not fall from the substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22 to provide a space in the glass substrate 10. It is also possible to put in the transportation equipment used for.

FIG. 4 shows the procedure of the sorting test in which the glass substrate 10 is performed by the test unit 200.

FIG. 4A shows a state in which the glass substrate 10 is carried into the test unit 200.

Before the glass substrate is carried in, the substrate lifter 21 and the elevating mechanisms 21a and 22a of the support pins 22 are operated according to the set values transmitted from the control unit 100 so that the glass substrate 10 can be held horizontally. Then, the heights of the tips of the glass substrate gripping portion 21b and the pin 22c are raised and lowered so as to be the initial values.

As a sorting test, FIG. 4B shows that the grip portion 21b grips the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10 from the state of FIG. 4A, and then the grip portion 21b is lifted upward by the elevating mechanism 21a to support the glass substrate 10. This indicates that the pin 22 has been separated from the pin 22. At this time, the support pin 22 was not moved, but if the stroke for raising the grip portion is insufficient, the support pin 22 may be lowered downward. This elevating operation may be determined in advance from the dimensions and thickness of the glass substrate 10, the elevating mechanism 21a of the substrate lifter 21, the operating range of the elevating mechanism 22a of the support pin, and the like.

FIG. 4C shows a case where the glass substrate 10 is broken by lifting the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10, and the substrate lifter 21 is further returned to the same position as in FIG. 4A, and the glass substrate gripping portion 21b Indicates a state in which the gripping state of the glass is released.

FIG. 5 shows a test mode of another glass substrate 10, and FIG. 5 (a) shows an example of a test in which the central portion of the glass substrate is raised to apply bending stress. Similar to 4 (a), the glass substrate 10 is carried in and held horizontally, but the position for holding the glass substrate 10 is set higher than that in FIG. 4 (a).

Next, in FIG. 5B, the substrate lifter 21 is lowered so that the central portion of the glass substrate 10 is higher than the outer peripheral portion, and the height of the support pin 22 is appropriately adjusted according to the arranged position. .. By doing so, the glass substrate 10 can be bent with the central portion raised.

An example of the glass substrate sorting flow is shown in FIG.

When the control device 100 is instructed to start the sorting work, the test conditions of the test to be performed at the time of sorting are called from the manufacturing condition database DB1 (S01). At this time, it is assumed that the information on the glass substrate 10 is included in the instruction to start the sorting work.

The test conditions include the weight information of the glass substrate 10, the designation of the sensor used in the test, the lifting amount of the substrate lift, which is the test condition, and the speed.

Among the test conditions called from the manufacturing condition database DB1, in order to mount the glass substrate 10, an instruction value with the tips of the substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22 having the same support height is sent from the control unit 100 to the test unit 200. Further, it is sent from the test unit 200 to each of the elevating mechanism 21a and the elevating mechanism 22b. Then, the elevating mechanism 21a and the elevating mechanism 22b operate so as to have a height of an initial value for supporting the glass substrate 10 in a horizontal state based on the indicated value. Further, at this time, since the glass substrate 10 has not been carried into the test unit 200, it is confirmed that the measured value of the load sensor 22b is zero, and the process proceeds to the next stage (S02).
Next, the glass substrate 10 is placed on the substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22 in the test unit 200 by the transport unit 300 (S03). Since the glass substrate 10 is given a unique number so that it can be individually identified, a code reading device (not shown) is used immediately before the glass substrate sorting device 1 is loaded. After reading the unique number, it is carried into the test unit 200. Further, the information of the code provided on the read glass substrate 10 is sent to the control device 100.

When the glass substrate 10 is placed, the weight value sensed by the load sensor 22b of the support pin 22 is sent to the control unit 100, and when the control unit 100 confirms that the substrate is normally placed, the test unit 200 Is sent to, and the glass substrate gripping portion 21b grips the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate 10 (S04).

On the other hand, when it cannot be confirmed that the glass substrate 10 is normally placed, the glass substrate 10 is taken out by the transport unit and placed again. If this placement fails several times in a row, it will be treated as a defective board and will be paid out as described later.

Next, in order to apply bending stress to the glass substrate, the substrate lifter 21 or the support pin 22 is moved up and down at the elevating amount and speed of the test conditions called from the manufacturing condition database DB1 in (S01) to execute the test ( S05).

The substrate lifter 21 and the support pin 22 (height of the tip) are returned to the initial value positions (S06).

Numerical data of the weight detected by the load sensor 22b provided on each support pin 22 is transmitted to the control unit 100, and the determination means 120 is based on the sent numerical data whether the glass substrate 10 tested is normal or abnormal. (Whether it is cracked) is determined (S07).

When the glass substrate 10 is broken as shown in FIG. 4C, the broken glass substrate 10'falls from the support pin 22, and the output value of the load sensor 22b at that portion becomes zero, so that the glass substrate 10 is broken. This can be easily detected by the determination means 120. Further, by examining the distribution of the load sensor 22b whose output value becomes zero, it is possible to determine to that extent. Further, even if the glass substrate 10 is cracked, the output value of each load sensor 22b changes from that before the test, so that the determination means 120 can determine that the glass substrate 10 is cracked even if it does not fall from the support pin 22.

If the glass substrate 10 is not broken, the output of the load sensor 22b will be in the same state as before the start of the test (FIG. 4A). Therefore, the determination means is based on the output of the load sensor 22b transmitted to the control unit 100. As a result of the above test in which the glass substrate 10 is determined not to be broken in 120, the glass substrate 10 determined to be normal without being broken is a glass substrate in which the glass substrate 10 is put into the manufacturing process of the color filter by the transport unit 300. It is transported to a receiving place (not shown) (S08).

On the other hand, the broken substrate may be carried out by the transport unit 300, but it may not be possible to recover the broken small pieces of the glass substrate 10'. In that case, if the broken glass substrate 10'remains on the plurality of support pins 22, the broken glass substrate 10'is placed on the support pins 22 by changing the tip height of some of the support pins 22. The support pin 22 may be raised or lowered so as to be dropped from the glass.

In addition to this, the broken glass substrate 10'that has fallen to the base 25 has a structure that allows it to gather in one place with the force of falling from the support pin, or the time when the test is not performed. Equipment may be provided to collect the glass substrate 10'that has been broken into small pieces.

Further, since the substrate determined to be improperly mounted in S03 can be conveyed by the conveying unit 300, it is returned to the place where the substrate is stored, or moved to another place where the substrates for separate confirmation are collected.

Next, the control unit 100 stores the board information, the determination result, and the data obtained from each load sensor in the inspection result database DB2 (S09).

Next, the control unit 100 determines whether or not the glass substrate 10 to be sorted next remains. (S010) When it is determined that the glass substrate 10 to be sorted remains, the next glass substrate 10 is put into the glass substrate sorting device 1 and the processes of S02 to S09 are repeated.

If the result of checking the remaining number of the glass substrates 10 to be sorted by the control unit 100 is zero, the sorting work of the glass substrates is completed (S011).

1 Glass substrate sorting device 10 Glass substrate 21 Substrate lifter 21a Elevating mechanism 21b Glass substrate gripping portion 22 Support pin 22a Elevating mechanism 22b Load sensor 22c Pin 25 Base 100 Control unit 110 Instruction means 120 Judgment means 200 Testing unit 300 Transport unit DB1 Manufacturing conditions Database DB2 test result database

Claims (4)

A device that sorts glass substrates to be used in the color filter manufacturing process.
at least,
The transport unit that transports the glass substrate and
In order to perform a selection test of the glass substrate, the pin holding the glass substrate, the support pin having the lifting mechanism for changing the height for holding the glass substrate, the load sensor for measuring the load applied to the pin, and the outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate are gripped. A test unit having a grip portion and a substrate lifter having an elevating mechanism for changing the height of holding the glass substrate.
In order to control the test unit that conducts the test for sorting the glass substrate, the height information of the support pin and the substrate lifter is transmitted, the measured value of the load sensor is received, and the glass substrate tested on the transport unit is performed. A control unit having an instruction means for transmitting the transfer information of the glass substrate and a determination means for determining whether the glass substrate is a normal product or a defective product from the measured value of the load sensor.
A glass substrate sorting apparatus comprising. It is connected to the manufacturing condition database including the type information of the glass substrate, the test conditions for selecting the glass substrate, and the inspection result database for storing the test results for each glass substrate on which the test is performed. The glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the glass substrate sorter is characterized by transmitting and receiving. A method for sorting a glass substrate using the glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit instructs and determines at least the following procedure.
(1) The height of the tip of the support pin and the grip portion of the substrate lifter is set to a predetermined initial position. (2) The glass substrate is placed on the support pin and the substrate lifter, and the load sensor measures the weight and transmits it to the control unit.
(3) The outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate is gripped by the grip portion of the substrate lifter.
(4) The height of the grip portion is made higher than the tip of the support pin.
(5) The height of the grip portion is returned to the initial position.
(6) If the measured values of all the load sensors are the same as the values measured in (2), it is judged as a normal product. A method for sorting a glass substrate using the glass substrate sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit instructs and determines at least the following procedure.
(1) The height of the tip of the support pin and the grip portion of the substrate lifter is set to a predetermined initial position. (2) The glass substrate is placed on the support pin and the substrate lifter, and the load sensor measures the weight and transmits it to the control unit.
(3) The outer peripheral portion of the glass substrate is gripped by the grip portion.
(4) The tip of the support pin is made higher than the grip portion.
(5) The height of the tip of the support pin is returned to the initial position.
(6) If the measured values of all the load sensors are the same as the values measured in (2), it is judged as a normal product.

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