JP2659520B2 - Die coater having coating member - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention has a coating member for applying a coating liquid to a processing material having "uneven thickness", "warpage" and "undulation" so that a coating film has a uniform thickness. About die coater.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, "undulation" has been performed using a die coater.
In order to apply the coating liquid to the processing material having a warp or “sludge”, if the processing material is a flexible long material, the processing material is supported by a backup roll, If the material is a short material, the back surface of the surface to be coated with the processing material is sucked to correct "swell" or "sludge" so that the distance between the processing material and the nozzle portion of the die coater is kept constant. As a result, the coating liquid was applied to the processing material with a uniform thickness.

However, even if the processing material is supported by a high-precision backup roll or the back surface of the surface to which the processing material is applied is sucked, "thickness unevenness" of about several μm is corrected on the surface of the processing material. Exist without. This "thickness unevenness" hardly causes a problem because the shading does not easily appear in the coating film when the thickness of the coating film is 20 μm or more. there were.

When the processing material is a rigid body (for example, a thick glass plate), it is supported by a backup roll, or the back surface of the surface to be coated is suctioned to correct "undulation" or "warpage". Since the processing material cannot be processed, the processing material remains to have "thickness unevenness", "warpage", and "undulation", and the distance between the processing material and the nozzle of the die coater cannot be kept constant. There is a problem that the coating liquid cannot be applied.

As means for solving the above problems, there is a die coater described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-16214. A coating member is provided in the vicinity of the nozzle of the die coater, and the coating liquid is filled in the coating member and then discharged from the coating member, and the coating liquid is applied to a processing material disposed below the coating member. It is supposed to. In the above die coater, the "sleigh" of the processing material composed of a rigid body,
When there is "undulation" and "thickness unevenness" of the processing material itself, it is said that the coating member is deformed by its own weight along with "thickness unevenness" and the like, so that the coating material can always be uniformly applied to the processing material.

[0006]

However, in the die coater having the above structure, the coating liquid is filled in the coating member, so that the weight of the coating liquid is added to the weight of the coating member. It cannot be elastically deformed according to the "thickness unevenness" of the processing material. Therefore, there has been a problem that the coating liquid cannot be uniformly applied to the processing material, and the occurrence of shading of the coating film cannot be prevented.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has a uniform thickness of a coating film on a flexible or rigid processing material having “uneven thickness”, “warpage”, and “undulation”. It is intended to provide a die coater that performs coating so that

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an application member made of a sheet having elasticity and flexibility and having a predetermined width and having liquid permeability is bent into two to be bent. It is characterized in that a space is formed therebetween, and the overlapped end of the sheet is clamped and fixed to a slit of a die coater.

[0009]

In the die coater having the coating member having the above structure,
The bent portion opposite to the clamped and fixed end portion is arranged in contact with the conveyed processing material. The coating liquid supplied to the die coater at a predetermined pressure passes through the slit, propagates from the end of the sheet having liquid permeability to a fine gap of the sheet by capillary action, and bends without being filled in the space. Discharge from the part.

When a coating liquid is applied to a flexible or rigid processing material having "uneven thickness", "warpage", and "undulation", the coating member has elasticity due to the presence of a space portion. Increase / decrease of material thickness (uneven thickness),
The processing material is elastically deformed in response to a change in the surface shape of the processing material due to “slewing” or “undulation”, and the pressure balance between the coating liquid supporting the coating member and the coating member is maintained.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a die coater 1 having an application member according to the present invention. The die coater 1 includes a die body 2 and a coating member 3. The die body 2 is formed by integrally connecting blocks 4 and 5 which can be divided into right and left with bolts (not shown).
A manifold 7 is formed on the contact surface 6 along the application width direction. Further, a slit 9 is formed in the contact surface 6 from the manifold 7 to the tip of the lip 8.

A coating liquid supply hole 10 communicating with the manifold 7 is formed substantially at the center of the right block 5 in the width direction. The coating liquid supply hole 10 is connected to a coating liquid tank 11 via a pipe 12, and a coating liquid 14 is supplied from the coating liquid tank 11 to the manifold 7 by a micro ceramic pump 13 provided in the pipe 12. It has become. In order to supply the coating liquid to the die coater 1 at a constant rate, the flow rate is controlled not only by the microceramic pump 13 but also by connecting a valve to a gear pump or a commonly used pump.

Here, the coating member 3 which is a feature of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG.
Is formed by bending an elastic and flexible liquid-permeable sheet 15 having a width substantially equal to that of the slit 9 into two so as to draw an arc, and forming a space 16 between the sheets 15. The overlapping end 18 of the sheet 15 is clamped and fixed to the distal end of the slit 9 by left and right blocks 4 and 5.

The sheet 15 may be appropriately selected depending on the thickness of the coating film.
In the case of coating a thin film having a thickness of 0 μm or less, by using a sheet made of a cloth having the specifications shown in Table 1, a smooth coated surface having no streaks on the coating film surface and excellent in appearance can be obtained.

[0015]

[Table 1]

The diameter of the space 16 is 3.0 mm.
And a gap α between the tip lip portion 8 and the processing material 19.
Is preferably about 2.0 to 2.5 mm. As described above, if the gap α is provided smaller than the space 16,
The space 16 is easily elastically deformed by the coating liquid discharged from the bent portion 17, and not only does the coating liquid stably support the coating member 3, but also if the thickness of the processing material 19 increases or decreases, etc. The material 16 is elastically deformed in accordance with the surface shape of the processing material 19, so that the pressure balance can be kept constant and the amount of the coating liquid to be discharged can be kept constant.

Next, a die coater 1 having the above-mentioned coating member
The operation of applying the photoresist liquid 14 to the processing material 19 made of a glass plate by using the following will be described. Processing material 19 conveyed at a predetermined speed in the horizontal direction (direction of arrow a)
The die coater 1 is disposed on a vertical line perpendicular to the above, and the bent portion 17 of the coating member 3 is brought into contact with the processing material 19 from above.

A photoresist liquid 14 is quantitatively supplied to the die coater 1 from the coating liquid tank 11 by a microceramic pump 13 at a constant pressure. The photoresist liquid 14 spreads inside the manifold 7, passes through the slit 9, and is transmitted from the end 18 of the sheet of the coating member 3 to the minute gap of the sheet by capillary action, and the space 16
The liquid is discharged from the bent portion 17 without being filled with the liquid.

As described above, since the space 16 is not filled with the photoresist liquid 14, the weight of the coating member 3 is light. Therefore, the coating member 3 can easily handle the processing material 1.
9 follows the surface shape of the coating material d even when the portion 20 having the “thickness unevenness” of the processing material 19 is conveyed. The thickness is always uniform. In addition, the photoresist liquid 1
If the microceramic pump 13 is adjusted so that the supply amount and discharge amount of the photoresist solution 4 are equal, the photoresist solution 14
Can be completely prevented from accumulating in the space 16. Also,
By appropriately combining the photoresist liquid 14 supplied to the die coater 1 and the transport speed of the processing material 19, a coating film having a desired thickness can be obtained.

Similarly, even when the processing material 19 has “undulations” or “warpages”, the space 16 is elastically deformed in accordance with the surface shape of the processing material 19, and the coating film is always formed. The photoresist liquid 14 is applied so that the thickness of the photoresist is uniform.

If the surface of the liquid-permeable sheet 15 on the space 16 side (the surface of the sheet 15 not in contact with the processing material 19) is coated with an elastic material such as a resin material, the photoresist liquid 14 Irrespective of the supply amount and the discharge amount, the intrusion of the photoresist solution 14 into the space 16 can be completely prevented, so that there are no restrictions on the application speed and the supply amount of the photoresist solution 14, and the range of application conditions can be reduced. Spreads. Further, the coating member 3 has improved durability by being coated. Furthermore, if the elasticity of the sheet 15 having liquid permeability is changed by adjusting the amount of resin to be coated, the range of application conditions can be further widened.

[0022]

As is apparent from the above description, in the die coater having the coating member according to the present invention, since the coating liquid is not filled in the space of the coating member, the weight of the coating member is reduced. No loss of elasticity. Therefore, even when the processing material has “thickness unevenness”, “undulation”, and “warp”, the space of the application member is elastically deformed in accordance with the surface state of the processing material, so that the coating film The coating liquid is applied so that the thickness becomes uniform.

As described above, it is possible to apply a coating liquid to a flexible or rigid processing material having "uneven thickness", "undulation" and "sludge" so that the thickness of the coating film becomes uniform. it can. Therefore, even when the thickness of the coating film is very thin, such as 10 μm or less, it is possible to obtain a coating film excellent in appearance without generation of shading.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a use state of a die coater having an application member according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Die coater, 3 ... Coating member, 7 ... Manifold, 8
... lip, 9 ... slit, 10 ... coating liquid supply hole, 11 ... coating liquid tank, 13 ... micro ceramic pump, 14 ... coating liquid (photoresist liquid), 15 ... sheet, 16 ... space, 17 ... bending part, 18 ... end, 19 ... processing material, d ...
Coating film.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An application member comprising a liquid-permeable sheet having a predetermined width having elasticity and flexibility is bent into two to form a space between the sheets,
A die coater having an application member, wherein the overlapped ends of the sheets are clamped and fixed to slits of the die coater.