JP2508005B2 - Continuous diffusion bonding equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an improvement of a diffusion bonding apparatus, which is capable of continuously performing from the loading of the materials to be bonded to the cooling after the bonding. It is suitable for joining plate-shaped materials.

[Conventional technology]

Diffusion bonding, which is one of the methods for joining materials such as metals, metals and ceramics, or ceramics,
The smooth bonding surfaces are brought into contact with each other, kept at a high temperature, and bonded by mutual diffusion of atoms.

In this diffusion bonding, the finishing accuracy of the surface of the material to be bonded and the thickness and properties of the oxide film have a great influence on the bondability, and a material having a large atomic diffusion coefficient and a low recrystallization temperature can be bonded more easily.

In recent years, research has been conducted to insert an insert material of an appropriate material into a cleaned joint surface for the purpose of improving joint strength.
For example, a film is coated by sputtering, followed by heating and pressing for diffusion bonding.

For this reason, the diffusion bonding apparatus conventionally used is provided with a loading / unloading chamber 02 for loading / unloading the material W to be bonded, which is adjacent to the diffusion bonding chamber 01, as shown in FIG. 5, for example. A three-chamber structure in which a cleaning / coating chamber 03 is provided adjacent to 02 is adopted. And, while the gate valves 04, 05 for maintaining the sealed state between the respective chambers are provided, the respective chambers 01,
02 and 03 are connected to an exhaust device (not shown) so that the inside is kept in a high vacuum state. In addition, each room 01, 02, 03
A transport carriage 06 for transporting the materials W to be joined is provided in the lower part of the, and is driven by a chain with a dock.

In the diffusion bonding chamber 01, a pair of rams 07 for pressing are provided and a heater 08 for heating is provided.

In the loading / unloading chamber 02, manipulators 09 that move vertically are installed vertically, and a manipulator 010 that moves horizontally is installed laterally.

In the cleaning / coating chamber 03, an ion beam gun 011 for cleaning is mounted on the upper part, and a sputtering device 012 for coating is installed on the lower part, and a manipulator 013 for rotating and moving the material W to be bonded thereto. Is attached to the side, and a manipulator 014 that moves in the vertical direction is installed on the bottom.

Therefore, in the diffusion bonding, the material W to be bonded is
After loading into the individual loading / unloading chamber 02 and evacuating the inside thereof, the gate valve 05 leading to the cleaning / coating chamber 03 is opened, and the carrier truck 06 loads the cleaning / coating chamber 03 into the cleaning / coating chamber 03, and the gate valve 05 is closed.

Then, by manipulator 013 and manipulator 014,
One bonded material W is moved below the ion beam gun 011 and the bonded surface is cleaned by irradiation with an ion beam.
The cleaned material W to be bonded is inverted and positioned above the target of the sputtering apparatus 012, and the clean surface is coated with a predetermined film.

In the same manner, after cleaning and coating another material W to be joined, the gate valve 05 is opened and the loading / unloading chamber 02
, The gate valve 05 is closed, and the joint surfaces are overlapped with the manipulator 09,010.

Next, the gate valve 04 leading to the diffusion bonding chamber 01 is opened, the material W to be bonded is loaded by the transport carriage 06, and the gate valve 04 is closed by positioning it above the moving lower ram 07.

After that, the ram 07 is raised and the material W to be bonded is sandwiched between the upper ram 07 and the upper ram 07 to be pressurized and simultaneously heated by the heater 08 to perform diffusion bonding.

After the joining is completed, the material W to be joined is dropped onto the transport carriage 06, cooled, and then taken out from the carry-in / out chamber 02, whereby the whole process is completed.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In such a diffusion bonding apparatus, the material W to be bonded is in the loading / unloading chamber.
Since 02 is used to carry in, out, and superimpose back and forth, the route is complicated, there are many unnecessary movements, and productivity is low.

Further, since the material W to be joined is conveyed from the loading / unloading chamber 02 to the cleaning / coating chamber 03 and then returned to the loading / unloading chamber 02 again before joining, only one set of materials W can be joined at one time. The work efficiency is low.

Furthermore, since the manipulators 013 and 014 are cleaned and coated in a single chamber so that they can be used for cleaning and coating, dust scattered by the irradiation of the ion beam may adhere to the coating film, resulting in a decrease in the bonding strength of diffusion bonding. There is a problem of causing a decrease.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the related art, and a continuous diffusion welding device capable of performing high quality and high efficiency welding by continuously performing each process required for diffusion bonding in one direction. Is to provide.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a front chamber for accommodating a plurality of sets of materials to be welded, a clean room for cleaning the bonding surface of the materials to be transferred conveyed from the front chamber, and a cleaned room. A coating chamber that coats the bonding surface of the bonding material with an insert material for diffusion bonding, a diffusion bonding chamber that superimposes the bonding surfaces of the coated materials to be bonded by hot pressing, and a diffusion bonding target material A rear chamber for cooling the material is sequentially arranged according to a diffusion bonding process, and a gate valve capable of opening and closing between the front chamber and the cleaning chamber and between the diffusion bonding chamber and the rear chamber is provided. In addition to connecting with a connecting path, the cleaning chamber and the coating chamber and between the coating chamber and the diffusion bonding chamber are connected by a connecting passage provided with a roller-type sealing mechanism through which a material to be matched can pass in a sealed state. While doing It is characterized in providing the atmospheric adjustment device for holding the respective chamber in a non-oxidizing atmosphere.

[Work]

The front chamber, the clean room, the coating chamber, the diffusion bonding chamber, and the rear chamber, which perform the necessary processing for diffusion bonding, are arranged in the diffusion bonding process order, and the communication passage with the gate valve that can be opened and closed and the material to be bonded is sealed. It is designed to be connected by a connecting path equipped with a roller type seal mechanism that can pass through in a state, and while maintaining each chamber in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, the materials to be welded are sequentially conveyed to perform continuous diffusion bonding. ing.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 relate to an embodiment of the continuous diffusion bonding apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view and FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view.

This continuous diffusion bonding apparatus 40 has a five-chamber structure in which each process required for diffusion bonding is divided into five chambers.
1, a clean room 2, a coating room 3, a diffusion bonding room 4, and a rear room 5 are arranged in order, and each room is connected by a gate valve 6 that can be opened and closed and can be sealed, or a connection path 8 equipped with a roller type seal mechanism 7. I am doing it.

Further, a vacuum exhaust device is connected to each of the chambers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 as an atmosphere adjusting device 9 for maintaining the inside in a non-oxidizing atmosphere so that it can be maintained in a high vacuum state.

Further, a conveying roller 10 is installed below each of the chambers 2 to 5 and each of the connecting paths 8 so that the materials W to be joined are sequentially conveyed by being driven by an electric motor or the like (in FIG. 2). The transport rollers are omitted in.).

The front chamber 1 is provided with a door 11 having a sealing function on an upper part thereof, and a pantograph-type lifting device 12 for mounting and lifting a material W to be joined is installed therein and at a side portion thereof. A pusher 13 is provided for pushing out the material W to be joined on the lifting device 12 onto the transport roller 10.

In the clean room 2, an ion beam gun 14 is provided below the transport roller 10 in order to manufacture the bonding surface of the material W to be bonded.

The coating chamber 3 has a resistance heating type, a high frequency heating type, or an electron beam type as a coating device 15 for coating a film serving as an insert material for diffusion bonding on the clean surface of the material W to be bonded that has been cleaned in the cleaning room 2. An evaporation source device such as a formula is installed.

In the diffusion bonding chamber 4, a coated material W to be bonded is formed.
A reversing device 16 for alternately reversing the materials W to be bonded is placed to overlap the bonding surfaces of, and a pair of rams 17 for pressurizing at the time of diffusion bonding are arranged vertically in front of it.
A heater 18 is provided around the ram 17 for heating. Then, a pusher 19 that moves horizontally to the left and right is provided to transfer the material W to be welded transferred by the reversing device 16 onto the ram 17, and in the horizontal direction forward and backward to transfer it to the rear chamber 5, which is the next chamber. A moving pusher 20 is provided.
Further, between the reversing device 16 and the pressurizing ram 17, there is provided an anti-adhesion plate supply device 22 for supplying the anti-adhesion plate 21 in order to prevent joining of a plurality of sets of materials W to be joined.

As shown in the sectional structure of FIG. 3, the reversing device 16 has an outer peripheral surface of a rotary cylinder 25 rotatably supported on a guide roller 24 mounted on a pedestal 23. It is possible to reverse by engaging a ring gear 26 attached to the portion with a pinion 27 driven by an electric motor or the like not shown. Elevating frames 29 that are raised and lowered by the raising and lowering cylinders 28 are provided inside the rotating cylinder 25 so as to face each other, and a plurality of support rollers 30 that support the workpiece W are attached to the surfaces of the respective raising and lowering frames 29. It is adapted to be driven by an electric motor (not shown) or the like.

A door 31 having a sealing function is provided in the rear chamber 5 so that the product after the joining is completed can be carried out. Also,
In the rear chamber 5, a cooling device (not shown) for cooling the joined materials W after joining is provided, and is constituted by, for example, an inert gas circulation type such as argon or nitrogen gas.

Among these chambers 1 to 5, a roller type seal mechanism 7 is provided in the connecting passage 8 connecting the clean chamber 2 and the coating chamber 3 and the coating chamber 3 and the diffusion bonding chamber 4.
A seal can be made even while the material W to be joined is passing.

This roller type seal mechanism 7 has a lower casing 32 attached to the connecting path as shown in the sectional structure of FIG.
And a seal roller on the opposite side of the upper casing 33.
34 and 35 are arranged, and the upper seal roller 35 is supported by a slide plate 37 fitted in a recess 36 formed in the upper casing 33, and can be moved up and down. 38 is a rod of the cylinder.

Therefore, the material W to be joined, which is conveyed while being sandwiched by the upper and lower seal rollers 34 and 35, is sent to the next chamber through the connecting path in a sealed state.

Next, the diffusion bonding by the continuous diffusion bonding device 40 configured as above will be described.

First, the door 11 of the antechamber 1 is opened, and a plurality of sets of materials W to be joined are placed on the elevating device 12 by a crane or the like, and then the door 11 is closed and the atmosphere adjusting device 9 is used to perform the above 1, cleaning chamber 2, coating The chamber 3 and the diffusion bonding chamber 4 are evacuated.

After that, the gate valve 6 of the connecting path 8 is opened, the material W at the uppermost stage is pushed out by the pusher 13, placed on the transport roller 10, and sent to the clean room 2 of the next chamber.

The material W to be bonded sent to the cleaning chamber 2 is cleaned at the bonding surface by irradiation of an ion beam such as hydrogen or argon from the ion beam gun 14 during transportation by the transportation roller 10. Then, when the material W to be joined approaches the next connecting path 8, a signal from a position detection switch (not shown) pulls up the upper seal roller 35 of the roller type seal mechanism 6 and sandwiches it between the upper and lower seal rollers 34, 35. It is conveyed to the coating chamber 3 which is the next chamber in a state of being sealed with.

Therefore, dust and the like floating in the clean chamber 2 do not enter the coating chamber 3 even while the material W to be joined passes through the connecting path 8.

The material W to be welded sent to the coating chamber 3 is coated on the cleaned lower surface with the evaporation material from the coating device 15 while being conveyed in the coating chamber 3, and then is transferred to the next via the roller type seal mechanism 7. It is sent to the diffusion bonding chamber 4 of the chamber.

When the material W to be welded sent to the diffusion bonding chamber 4 is accommodated in the reversing device 16, the supporting roller 30 is stopped and then the reversing device 16 is stopped.
The supporting frame 29 descends by the elevating cylinder 28 located on the upper side of 16, and the joined material W is sandwiched between the supporting rollers 30, and the rotating cylinder 25
Is rotated and inverted so that the coating surface of the material W to be bonded faces upward. Then, the lifting cylinder 28 located on the upper side of the reversing device 16 is contracted, and the height of the conveying roller 10 is adjusted by the lifting cylinder 28 located on the lower side to support rollers.
It is located in front of the pusher 19 by driving 30.

After that, the material W to be joined whose bonding surface is upward is placed on the pressing ram 17 by the pusher 19, and the lower processing ram 17 is lowered by the thickness of the material W to be joined.

The next material W to be bonded is processed in parallel with the processing of the material W to be bonded, and the material W to be bonded, which has been coated, is placed on the reversing device 16. Is conveyed to the front of the pusher 19 while keeping the lower surface as the lower surface, and is pushed onto the pressurizing ram 17 by the pusher 19 to be overlapped with the material W to be joined in front.

After a set of materials W to be bonded is superposed in this way, an adhesion prevention plate 21, for example, a graphite plate, is supplied in front of the pusher 19 by the adhesion prevention supply device 22 and placed on the materials W to be bonded on the ram 17. Keep it.

In the same manner, a plurality of sets of materials W to be joined are all processed and stacked on the pressing ram 17. During this stacking, the material to be welded W
The pressurizing ram 17 is sequentially lowered every time one sheet of the sheet is placed, and the adhesion preventing plate 21 is stacked for each set of the joined materials W.

When the last materials W to be joined are stacked, the pressing ram 17
Is lowered to position all the materials W to be joined in the heater 18, and then pressure is applied while heating to perform diffusion bonding.

At the time of this diffusion bonding, since the adhesion prevention plate 21 such as a graphite plate is sandwiched between the materials W to be bonded of each set, the bonding of each set is prevented.

After the completion of the diffusion bonding, the material W to be bonded is pushed out onto the conveying roller 10 by the pusher 20 with the gate valve 6 in front of the diffusion bonding chamber 4 opened and sent into the rear chamber 5 which is in a vacuum state in advance. The gate valve 6 is closed.

In the rear chamber 5, the material W to be welded is cooled by a cooling device (not shown), and after cooling, the door 31 is opened to be taken out of the device, and all steps are completed.

In the above example, the ion beam gun was installed in the clean room and the bonding surface was cleaned with the ion beam, but it may be cleaned with a sputtering device using glow discharge, and the cleaning may be performed continuously. Anything that can be cleaned is acceptable.

Further, the coating device installed in the coating chamber may be a sputtering device or an ion plating device, and the coating material may be appropriately selected depending on the material to be bonded, and various materials such as nickel, boron, silicon, etc. are used.

Further, in order to prevent adhesion, instead of the graphite plate, graphite powder may be sprinkled thinly.

In addition, a heating chamber is provided between the front chamber and the cleaning chamber to facilitate cleaning, or a preheating chamber is provided between the reversing device and the pressure ram (hot press) in the diffusion bonding chamber to perform diffusion bonding. The heating time may be shortened.

Further, the device is not limited to the case where a vacuum exhaust device is used as the atmosphere adjusting device, and an apparatus may be provided so that an atmosphere of an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen or a reducing gas atmosphere such as hydrogen is a non-oxidizing atmosphere.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention as specifically described with reference to the above embodiment, the front chamber, the cleaning chamber, the coating chamber, the diffusion bonding chamber, and the rear chamber for performing the processing necessary for the diffusion bonding are sequentially arranged, and each chamber is arranged. Since the connection is made by a connection path that can be opened and closed and sealed, it is possible to carry out diffusion bonding while continuously feeding in one direction from the loading of the materials to be joined to the unloading after the joining, and the productivity is greatly improved.

In addition, each process can be performed by sending the materials to be bonded in one direction, so multiple sets of materials to be bonded can be diffusion bonded at one time, and the bonding work can be performed more efficiently and the processing time can be greatly shortened compared to the conventional device. Becomes

Further, since the clean room and the coating room are separated from each other, there is no contamination such as dust scattered by the cleaning adhered to the coating film, the bonding strength is improved, and the quality is improved.

Further, since the connection path is provided with a mechanism for opening and closing and sealing, it is possible to continuously seal and continuously process the materials to be joined.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 relate to an embodiment of the continuous diffusion bonding apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view, FIG. 2 is a plane sectional view, FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an inversion device, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a roller type seal mechanism, and FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of a conventional device. 1 ... Front room, 2 ... Washing room, 3 ... Coating room, 4
…… Diffusion bonding chamber, 5 …… Rear chamber, 6 …… Kate valve, 7
...... Roller type seal mechanism, 8 ...... connecting path, 9 ...... atmosphere adjusting device, W ...... Material to be joined.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A front chamber for accommodating a plurality of sets of materials to be joined, a cleaning chamber for cleaning the joining surface of the materials to be joined conveyed from the front chamber, and a joining surface of the cleaned materials to be joined. A coating chamber that coats the insert material for diffusion bonding, a diffusion bonding chamber that superimposes the bonding surfaces of the coated materials to be joined by hot pressing, and a rear chamber that cools the diffusion-bonded material. Are sequentially arranged according to a diffusion matching process, and the front chamber and the clean chamber and the diffusion bonding chamber and the rear chamber are connected by a connection path having a gate valve that can be opened and closed and can be sealed. In addition, while connecting the cleaning chamber and the coating chamber and between the coating chamber and the diffusion bonding chamber by a connection path including a roller-type sealing mechanism through which the material to be bonded can pass in a sealed state,
A continuous diffusion bonding apparatus, which is provided with an atmosphere adjusting device for maintaining each of these chambers in a non-oxidizing atmosphere.