JP2889748B2 - Hard substrate coating device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hard substrate coating apparatus used for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel using a glass substrate and for applying a coating liquid such as a photoresist to a hard substrate in a thin and uniform manner. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal plate, there is a process of applying a coating liquid such as a photoresist to a thin and uniform thickness on a hard substrate such as a glass substrate. For example, in the production of a color liquid crystal plate, a transparent electrode is formed on a glass substrate in advance,
After uniformly applying a red color mosaic liquid having the function of a photoresist, the color mosaic corresponding to red is cured by exposure, and a red color mosaic is formed by removing excess liquid. . The same processing is repeated for other colors such as green and blue. When a coating liquid to be a photoresist is applied as described above, it is necessary to strictly control this liquid to a uniform thickness (for example, about 2 μ ± 5%) and to apply the thin liquid. This is because if the thickness of the coating is non-uniform, the light transmittance becomes uneven, which leads to a deterioration in quality.

Conventionally, a spin coater has been used for this coating. In this spin coater, a coating liquid is dropped near a rotation center of a rotated substrate, and the liquid is applied by scattering using a centrifugal force. However, in the method using the spin coater, not only the time and labor efficiency for replacing the substrate are deteriorated, but also the amount of the liquid scattered and discarded increases. For this reason, there was a problem that the cost was increased.

In view of this, it has been considered to use an apparatus (so-called Gieser) for coating a substrate between a pair of upper and lower rollers disposed horizontally. In this device, the lower part of the micro rod bar, which is the lower roller, is immersed in the coating solution, and the substrate is sandwiched between the micro rod bar and the nip roller located above the micro rod bar. It is to be applied.

However, in this case, when the end of the substrate separates from the micro rod bar, the coating liquid remains thick on the substrate due to the surface tension and viscosity of the coating liquid, and tends to be thickly coated near the end of the substrate. This thick-coated part cannot be properly processed in various processing steps such as exposure and cleaning set for a regular coating thickness, and residues such as debris and debris due to unprocessed thick-coated part. In a later step, it was mixed with the coating solution, resulting in a defective product. For this reason, there has been a problem that the yield of products is reduced.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to prevent the formation of a thick coating near the end of a hard substrate when applying a coating solution using a geser, Is to improve the yield.

[0007]

According to the present invention, this object is achieved by sandwiching a hard substrate between a micro rod bar whose lower part is immersed in a coating solution tank and a nip roller arranged above and opposed to the micro rod bar. In the hard substrate coating apparatus for applying a coating solution to the lower surface of the hard substrate,
The hard substrate is transported and the rear edge is
Pauses at a position that has passed a predetermined distance from the rod bar.
Roller conveyor and wait outside the hard substrate in the width direction
The hard base suspended by the roller conveyor
Adjacent to the rear edge of the lower surface of the plate from below and along the rear edge of the hard substrate
A coating liquid wicking means while moving with suction nozzle sucking the coating liquid thickly coated portions remain trailing edge of the hard substrate
Hard substrate coating device according to claim Rukoto equipped, it is achieved by.

[0008] Here, the roller conveyor uses the hard substrate after coating.
While rotating 90 ° around the vertical axis to convey, the suction nozzle
Rotate the roller 90 ° from below one side of this roller conveyor
While facing the one side edge of the hard substrate
Make sure that the suction nozzle absorbs the coating liquid in the thick coating area
It may be.

[0009]

The coating liquid is applied to the lower surface of the hard substrate by the Gieser, and remains thick on the lower surface of the substrate when the substrate is separated from the Gieser. According to the invention of claim 1, the substrate is a roller conveyor.
A) When the paper is fed a predetermined distance, the trailing edge is
Stopped. While the substrate is stopped, a suction nozzle serving as a coating liquid sucking means is provided on a lower surface of a trailing edge of the substrate outside a width direction of the substrate.
And suck the excess coating liquid in the thickly coated portion.
For this reason, the excess coating liquid in the thick coating portion is removed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the coating is completed.
Hard substrate is 90 ° around vertical axis by roller conveyor
It is rotated and transported. The thick painted part of the hard substrate being transported
The suction nozzle faces the coating liquid from below, and during the movement of the hard substrate
This suction nozzle continuously sucks excess coating liquid in the thick coating area.
I can.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is an overall layout view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
3A to 3C are perspective views of the main part viewed from below, and FIGS.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a glass substrate;
Is a roller conveyor, and the glass substrate 10 is sent from left to right in the figure with the left and right edges of the lower surface thereof placed on rollers of the conveyor 12. Gieser 1 in the middle of the conveyor 12
4 are provided. The gisa 14 includes a microrod bar 16 having a small diameter and a circular cross section, a nip roller 18 having a large diameter facing above the microrod bar 16, and a coating solution tank 20 in which almost the entirety of the microrod bar 16 except the upper portion is contained.

Here, the micro rod bar 16 is formed by winding a thin metal wire tightly around the surface of a rod having a circular cross section, and applying a coating liquid by utilizing a capillary phenomenon caused by a groove between the metal wires. It is.

As shown in FIG. 2, the coating liquid tank 20 has a long and shallow liquid reservoir 22 in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the substrate 10 is fed.
A new liquid is supplied to the liquid reservoir 22 from a liquid supply pipe, and the coating liquid is discharged from a liquid discharge port. The depth of the coating liquid is monitored by a liquid level sensor (not shown) and is constantly controlled.

The micro rod bar 16 is held horizontally so that its upper part is exposed from the liquid. An intermediate portion of the micro rod bar 16 is supported by a backup member 24 from below. This backup member 24
Is made of a hard synthetic resin having excellent slidability, and a semi-circular groove formed on the upper surface thereof along the longitudinal direction abuts against the micro rod bar 16 from below, thereby forming the micro rod bar 1.
6 is to be prevented. The height of the backup member 24 can be finely adjusted from the lower surface of the coating liquid tank 20 by a number of adjusting screws 26 arranged below the backup member 24.

One end (the end on the rear side in FIG. 1) of the micro rod bar 16 protrudes rearward from the coating solution tank 20, and this protruding end is connected to an electric motor (not shown) by a detachable joint. This electric motor is a glass substrate 1
The rotation is controlled so that the feed speed of 0 is equal to the speed of the conveyor 12. The surface of the nip roller 18 is made of conductive rubber, and is held so as to apply a predetermined clamping force to the glass substrate 10 with the glass substrate 10 sandwiched between the nip roller 18 and the micro rod bar 16.

Reference numeral 50 denotes a coating liquid sucking means. This means 50 has a needle-like suction nozzle 52 running behind and parallel to the microrod bar 16. That is, the moving body 54 having the suction nozzle 52 is movable on the guide rail 56. The moving body 54 is wound around pulleys 58 and 60 and
2 connected to the moving wire 64 by the wire 64
Move with. At the time of non-suction, the nozzle 52 stands by at a home position outside the width of the substrate 10 as indicated by a virtual line in FIG.

The needle-shaped nozzle 52 has its home position.
The height of the substrate 10 is set so as to approach the lower surface of the substrate 10 when the substrate 10 moves in the width direction of the substrate 10.
3A to 3C, a pump 66 sucks air from the nozzle 52.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The glass substrate 10 sent from the left to the right in FIG. 2 by the roller conveyor 12 enters between the micro rod bar 16 and the nip roller 18. Since the application liquid in the liquid reservoir 22 is attached to the surface of the micro rod bar 16 by the rotation thereof, the application liquid is applied to the lower surface of the glass substrate 10 with the rotation of the micro rod bar 16. During the coating, a certain amount of the coating liquid R is held at a corner between the entry side of the substrate 10 and the micro rod bar 16 (FIG. 3A). Since the liquid level of the liquid reservoir 22 and the squeezing pressure by the nip roller 18 are controlled to be constant,
The thickness of the liquid applied to the lower surface of the glass substrate 10 can be controlled to be sufficiently thin and with high precision.

When the substrate 10 separates from the geser 14, a part of the coating liquid R accumulated between the substrate 10 and the micro rod bar 16 adheres to the substrate 10 due to surface tension or viscosity of the liquid. It becomes the thick coating portion S (FIG. 3B).

The substrate 10 is transported by a roller conveyor 12.
When the trailing edge comes above the miracle of movement of the nozzle 52, the roller conveyor 12 stops the substrate 10 . Then, the moving body 54 starts moving. , The substrate entering a thick coating portion S of the rear end of the result this nozzle 52 is a substrate 10 of
10 moves in the width direction. During this time, the coating liquid in the thick coating portion S is sucked by the nozzle 52 by the negative pressure of the pump 66 (FIG. 3C).

In the above embodiment, the substrate 10 is stopped and only the nozzle 52 is moved. However, the operation may be reversed and only the substrate 10 is moved. For example, it can be configured as a coating liquid sucking means 50A shown in FIG. That is, after applying the coating liquid on the lower surface of the substrate 10, the substrate 10 is rotated by 90 ° around a vertical axis to transport the substrate,
The thick coating portion S can be moved above the nozzle 52A.

Alternatively, the nozzle may be relatively moved along the rear edge of the substrate 10 while moving the substrate 10 and the nozzle together.

[0024]

[Effect of the Invention] The invention of claim 1, as described above, after coating
Suspend the hard substrate, and then lower the suction nozzle
Move the suction nozzle in the width direction of the substrate
Since Ru <br/> blotting excess coating liquid thickly coated portions can be the trailing edge of the substrate, thereby improving the product yield by removing the thick coating portion.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, after the coating,
While rotating the substrate 90 ° about a vertical axis and transporting it,
During the transfer of the substrate rotated by 90 °, the coating liquid in the thick coating portion
Suction nozzle faces from below and sucks excess coating liquid
As a result, the same effect as the first aspect of the invention can be obtained.
Can be

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall layout diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the main part viewed from below.

3A to 3C are explanatory diagrams of operation.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Glass substrate 12 Roller conveyor 14 Geyser 16 Micro rod bar 18 Nip roller 50, 50A Application liquid suction means 52, 52A suction nozzle S Thick coating part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masafumi Ozaki 1005 Koizono, Ayase-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Fuji Mai Chromaix Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-3-151082 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 59-144203 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B05C 1/00-1 / 16

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hard substrate is sandwiched and sent between a micro rod bar whose lower part is immersed in a coating liquid tank and a nip roller opposed to and disposed above the micro rod bar. In a hard substrate coating apparatus for applying a coating liquid, the hard substrate is transported and the hard substrate is
The back edge is a predetermined distance from the micro rod bar
A roller conveyor for temporarily stopping at the position where the
Wait outside the hard substrate in the width direction and use the roller conveyor
Approaching the trailing edge of the hard substrate suspended from below
It has a suction nozzle that sucks the coating liquid of the thick coating portion remaining on the rear edge of the lower surface of the hard substrate while moving along the rear edge of the hard substrate.
One hard substrate coating device according to claim Rukoto a coating liquid wicking means. 2. A hard substrate is sandwiched and sent between a micro rod bar whose lower part is immersed in a coating liquid tank and a nip roller facing above the micro rod bar, so that the lower surface of the hard substrate is In a hard substrate coating apparatus for applying a coating liquid, a vertical axis is applied to the hard substrate after the coating liquid is applied.
A roller conveyor that rotates around 90 ° and conveys it.
The hard roller rotated 90 ° from below one side of the roller conveyor
It faces one side edge of the substrate from below while the hard substrate is being transported.
Suction that absorbs the coating liquid of the thick coating part remaining on one side edge of the lower surface
Hard substrate coating device according to claim Rukoto a coating liquid wicking means having a nozzle.