JP4486392B2 - Method and apparatus for welding quartz glass member - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for welding a quartz glass member that can efficiently and easily weld a pair of quartz glass members without using a welding rod.

In general, as a method of welding a pair of quartz glass members, a method of joining quartz glass members by using a welding rod made of quartz glass and melting the welding rod is used. There is an advantage that a quartz glass product can be manufactured easily. However, on the other hand, it is necessary to sufficiently weld the melted material of the welding rod to the welding site, which requires the experience and skill of a skilled worker, and has the disadvantage that the working time becomes long. As a mode of welding the quartz glass member, there are known three types of modes as shown in FIG. 5 depending on a change in the shape of the end face of the welded portion when welding. In other words, the end surfaces of the welded portions of the quartz glass members A and B are the flat surfaces A ₁ and B ₁ (FIG. 5 (a)), and the end surfaces have single-side tapered surfaces A ₂ and B ₂ that face downward in the tip direction. V type (FIG. 5 (b)) and X type (FIG. 5 (c)) having double-sided tapered surfaces A ₃ , A ₄ , B ₃ , B ₄ whose end faces are downward and upward in the tip direction.

In order to overcome the disadvantages in the welding method using a welding rod as described above, a method and apparatus for mechanically joining quartz glass members without using a welding rod has been proposed (Patent Document 1). The conventional method described in Patent Document 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the order of steps of this conventional method, and FIG. 7 is a schematic front view showing an example of the procedure of this conventional method. In this conventional method, first, the joining portions A ₁ and B ₁ of the quartz glass members A and B are brought into contact with each other (step 200 in FIG. 6, (a) in FIG. 7). In this conventional method, the quartz glass members A and B are opposed to each other in the left-right direction (in this case, the burner is in the up-down direction) or in the up-down direction (in this case, the burner is in the left-right direction). Disclosure of the configuration (the burner is also heated in the vertical direction) by disposing the quartz glass members A and B vertically in the left-right direction only by disclosing the configuration (the burner is always only in the horizontal direction). Or there is no suggestion.

Next, the entire joining portion is uniformly heated and melted from both sides of the joining portions A ₁ and B ₁ of the quartz glass members A and B by the burner portions arranged in the horizontal direction [Step 202 in FIG. (B)]. Further, an external force is applied to the quartz glass members A and B, and the entire joining portions A ₁ and B ₁ are pressed and welded via the welded portion D (step 204 in FIG. 6, (c) in FIG. 7), and welded quartz. A glass member _YAB is prepared [(d) of FIG. 7]. In this conventional method, the quartz glass members A and B are pressed against each other by a static external force (not having a speed), so that the joining is finished smoothly in the I-type joining state. In the method of the present invention to be described later, the quartz glass members A and B are pressed together by an external force having a predetermined speed. This is one of the differences between this conventional method and the method of the present invention. For this welding quartz glass Y _AB, if necessary, a heat distortion removal annealed to the welded portion D or the vicinity thereof (step 206 of FIG. 6). Thereafter, the welded quartz glass _YAB is cooled (step 208 in FIG. 6), and the welded quartz glass member _YAB is completed.

The quartz glass member (plate shape) with the technique described in Patent Document 1 above the workpiece gripping means, fixed to the flat, was taking weld form of heating and melting in a state of matching the quartz glass member . However, when both surfaces of the quartz glass member are heated and melted from above and below in a state where the quartz glass member is arranged in a flat shape (horizontally placed), it droops downward due to the weight of the quartz glass member at the melting stage. There was a trend. When welding is performed in a state where it is drooped downward, drooping occurs on the upper surface side of the welding surface, and a corresponding recess is formed, and the flatness of the welded quartz glass member may not be ensured. When such a concave portion is generated, it is necessary to eliminate the concave portion by grinding. However, the concave portion grinding involves a difficult work as compared with the convex portion grinding, which is a serious problem.

  Moreover, in the method of patent document 1 mentioned above, when I type butt welding was performed, it turned out that mixing of a bubble generate | occur | produces inside the welding part of a thick quartz glass member (for example, thickness 12mm). The factors causing the mixing of bubbles are (1) the thickness of the quartz glass member is large, (2) the shape of the end surface of the quartz glass member is flat, that is, the I type, and (3) the base of the end surface of the quartz glass. When the state (skin finish state), that is, when the surface roughness is rough, (4) there is insufficient melting of quartz glass that is influenced by heating. As described above, when bubbles are mixed in the welded portion, optical unevenness exists, which is inappropriate for use as a synthetic quartz glass member for an optical device, for example, an ultraviolet cleaning device.

  Accordingly, the present inventors have developed a welding method that overcomes the above-mentioned problems by heating, melting, and welding the quartz glass member for the purpose of welding that raises the weld surface of the thick quartz glass member. Therefore, as a result of intensive research, the present invention has been achieved.

  In the present invention, there is no generation of recesses or bubbles in the welded portion of the quartz glass member, and therefore optical non-uniformity does not occur, and the quartz glass member can be easily welded without using a welding rod, An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for welding a quartz glass member that can be suitably used for an optical device.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the method for welding quartz glass members of the present invention is a welding method using an apparatus for welding end faces of a pair of opposing quartz glass members, and one quartz glass member is placed in a vertical state. A stationary support means that supports the other quartz glass member in a vertically placed state, a movable support means that is provided so as to be able to contact and separate from the fixed support means, and a relative relationship between the pair of quartz glass members. A quartz glass member welding apparatus comprising a burner means provided between the fixed support means and the movable support means so as to heat and melt a welded portion which is an end surface facing the quartz glass member. uniformly heated by the burner unit and a step of opposing the vertically at predetermined intervals, the welded part is an end of the quartz glass member from both sides of the welded section A step of melt, a step of welding the molten is an end welded part of the pair of quartz glass member against and press fit by a predetermined pressing force, consists, raised the welded portion of the welded quartz glass member A method of welding a quartz glass member in which a convex portion is formed, the step of dispersing thermal distortion by heating and softening a welded portion of the fused quartz glass member and its vicinity by the burner means In addition, after the welded quartz glass member is cooled, the raised convex portion is ground and flattened. As the pressing force used in the method of the present invention, an external force may be applied from both directions, but it is preferable to use an external force from one direction having a predetermined speed.

  In the method of the present invention, it is preferable that the quartz glass member is abutted and pressed so as to form a raised convex portion in the welded portion of the fused quartz glass member.

  In the method of the present invention, it is preferable to further carry out a step of dispersing thermal strain by heating and softening the welded portion of the fused quartz glass member and its vicinity.

The apparatus for welding quartz glass members of the present invention is an apparatus used for welding end faces of a pair of opposing quartz glass members , and an apparatus for carrying out the above-described method for welding quartz glass members of the present invention. A fixed support means for supporting one quartz glass member in a vertically placed state, and a quartz glass member for supporting the other quartz glass member in a vertically placed state, and provided so as to be able to contact and separate from the fixed support means. It consists of a movable support means and a burner means provided between the fixed support means and the movable support means so as to heat and melt the welded portions which are the opposite end surfaces of the pair of quartz glass members. It is characterized by.

  It is preferable that a pair of straight burners is used as the burner means, and the burner means is provided in a state parallel to the welded portion of the quartz glass member and positioned on both sides thereof.

  The burner means is preferably installed so that it can move in the vertical direction and can be inclined at an arbitrary angle.

  According to the method of the present invention, there is no generation of recesses or bubbles in the welded portion of the quartz glass member, so that optical unevenness does not occur, and the quartz glass member can be simply welded without using a welding rod. Thus, the effect that the obtained fused quartz glass member is suitably used as a quartz glass member for an optical device is achieved. The apparatus of the present invention is effectively used for carrying out the method of the present invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the illustrated examples are illustrative only, and various modifications can be made without departing from the technical idea of the present invention. .

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a quartz glass member welding apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a quartz glass member welding apparatus according to the present invention. The welding apparatus 10 has a fixing support means 14 that supports the first quartz glass member A. Reference numeral 16 denotes a first base constituting the fixed support means 14. On the upper surface of the first base 16, there are provided first lower supports 18a and 18b and first auxiliary receivers 18c and 18d that support the lower portion of the first quartz glass member A. Reference numerals 20a and 20b denote first upper supports that support the upper portion of the first quartz glass member A.

22 is a movable support means for supporting the second quartz glass member B, and is provided so as to be opposed to and separate from the fixed support means 14. Reference numeral 26 denotes a second base constituting the movable support means 22. Rails 28 are laid in the longitudinal direction on the upper surface of the second base 26, and a movable table 30 is slidably attached to the rails 28, 28 in the longitudinal direction. On the upper surface of the movable base 30, second lower supports 32a and 32b and second auxiliary receivers 32c and 32d for supporting the lower part of the second quartz glass member B are provided. Reference numerals 34a and 34b denote second upper supports that support the upper part of the second quartz glass member B. The above-mentioned support tools 18a, 18b, 20a, 20b, 32a, 32b, 34a, 34b are maintained in mechanical static accuracy, and are supported by supporting preliminarily sized quartz glass members A, B. The end surfaces A ₁ and B _{1 that} are parts are configured to face each other on the same line.

Reference numeral 36 denotes a third base, which is provided between the first base 16 and the second base 26. On the upper surface of the third base 36, a burner holding member 40 for holding the burner means 38 comprising a pair of straight burners 38a, 38b is installed. The burner means 38 is provided so as to be parallel to and located on both sides of the welded portions A ₁ and B ₁ of the quartz glass members A and B. The burner holding member 40 is installed such that it can move up and down and the tilt angle can be adjusted. Therefore, the burner means 38 can be moved in the vertical direction and can be tilted at an arbitrary angle.

With the configuration described above support, the welding portion of the first silica glass member A which is supported on the fixed support means 14 which is secured in the mechanical precision, i.e. the one end face A ₁ and the mechanical precision movable support means 22 which is secured in the weld site of the second silica glass member B, that is the end surface B ₁ of the other side were melted by the flame F, F of the burner means 38, the welded part a _1, B ₁ was molten fixing the movable support means 22 support means 14 direction to have a predetermined speed welding site B ₁ is moved to the welding site a ₁ to butt and press adjustment (collide) can be welded by Rukoto. At this time, a raised protrusion C is formed in the welded part by abutting and pressing with an external force (external force from one direction having a predetermined speed) that causes the welded parts A ₁ and B ₁ to collide (see FIG. 3 and FIG. 4).

  If necessary, the thermal strain can be dispersed by softening and heating the welded portion of the welded quartz glass member using the burner means 38. With a straight heating device (a pair of straight burners for quartz glass members) positioned at an arbitrary tilt angle, the welded part and its vicinity (the burner movable range part) are close to the softening point of quartz glass. By heating up to, it is possible to disperse the thermal strain caused by welding, and the generation of cracks in the welded quartz glass member is eliminated. In general, annealing is performed in an annealing furnace after welding. In the annealing process, the entire quartz glass member is heated to near the softening point to remove strain (annealing). There was an inconvenience of loss of sex. However, by using this straight heating device, there is an advantage that a welded quartz glass member can be obtained in a state in which flatness similar to the mechanical accuracy set for the fixed support means 14 and the movable support means 22 is secured. is there.

  Next, a method for welding a quartz glass member according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 with reference to the welding apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the process sequence of the method for welding quartz glass members according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a schematic front view showing an example of the procedure of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows the same procedure as FIG. It is an upper surface schematic diagram shown.

  First, a pair of quartz glass members A and B are placed vertically with a predetermined interval [Step 100 in FIG. 2, (a) in FIGS. 3 and 4]. That is, one quartz glass member A is vertically supported by the fixed support means 14, and the other quartz glass member B is vertically supported by the movable support means 22. By moving the quartz glass member B supported by the movable support member 22, the quartz glass members A and B can be placed vertically with a predetermined interval.

Next, the welded portions A ₁ and B ₁ of the quartz glass members A and B are uniformly heated and melted using the burner means 38 [Step 102 in FIG. 2, (b) and (c) in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4]. By moving the quartz glass member B supported by the movable support member 22, the molten welded portions A ₁ and B ₁ are brought into contact with each other at a predetermined speed, and are pressed into a pressed state, and project to the outer peripheral surface. welded in a state of forming the raised convex station C, a quartz glass member a, by welding a B to create a weld quartz glass member W _AB [step 104 of FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 (d) (e) ]. The embodiments of the butt above, the description has been given of the case of moving only the quartz glass member of the other side, in which both of the quartz glass member may be moved.

For this welding quartz glass member W _AB, optionally, dispersing the thermal distortion by heat softening the weld portion and its vicinity with the burner unit 38 (step 106 in FIG. 2). Thereafter, the welded quartz glass _WAB is cooled (step 108 in FIG. 2). Although there is no particular limitation on the method of cooling, the weld quartz glass member W _AB it is sufficient to cool naturally left in the atmosphere. The grinding the convex portion C of the cooling weld quartz glass _{W AB} as a flat (step 110 in FIG. 2), to complete the welding quartz glass member _{W AB} (step 112 in FIG. 2). Thus quartz glass member W _AB thus obtained is not contaminated foam on the welded parts, therefore, there is no occurrence of optical unevenness, an optical device, offering excellent example ultraviolet cleaning apparatus for a quartz glass member or the like Has performance.

  In the example of FIGS. 3 and 4, the case where the welded portion of the quartz glass members A and B is the I type [FIG. 5A] is described, but other modes, that is, the V type [FIG. )], X type [FIG. 5 (c)] Needless to say, the present invention can be similarly applied to the case where the end face of the welded portion is chamfered. In particular, in the case of the X-type, for example, even in the case of a quartz glass member having a thickness of 12 mm (tip end surface 4 mm), a burner flame hits the center of the tip, and melting by the burner flame easily occurs. Similarly, the chamfered portion of the end face is exposed to a burner flame at a 45 degree face, and the dissolution is further increased as compared with the I type. In other words, compared to the I type, the X type has better efficiency of the spot or width of the burner flame, affects the melting, and increases the solubility of the end face of the quartz glass member. There is an advantage that it is easy to operate. Further, when performing the welding operation on the X-type quartz glass member, if the speed of the butt collision is increased, the width and height of the raised convex portion of the welded portion are larger than those of the welded portion of the I-type quartz glass member. can do.

It is an isometric view explanatory drawing of the welding apparatus of the quartz glass member which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows one example of the process order of the welding method of the quartz glass member which concerns on this invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a front schematic diagram which shows one example of the procedure of the welding method of the quartz glass member which concerns on this invention, (a) is the state which faced the quartz glass member vertically with a predetermined space | interval, (b) is a quartz glass member. The state where the welded part is heated with a flame, (c) is the state where the welded part of the quartz glass member is melted, (d) is the state where the fused welded part of the quartz glass member is abutted, (e) is ( A state where the quartz glass member is further pressed from the state of a) to form a convex portion is shown. FIG. 4 is a schematic top view showing the same procedure as in FIG. 3. It is explanatory drawing which shows the aspect of the welding of a quartz glass member, (a) shows I type, (b) shows V type, and (c) shows the X type aspect, respectively. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process order of the joining method of the conventional quartz glass member. It is a front schematic diagram which shows one example of the procedure of the joining method of the conventional quartz glass member.

Explanation of symbols

10: welding apparatus, 14: fixed support means, 16: first base, 18a, 18b: first lower support, 20a, 20b: first upper support, 22: movable support, 26: second base 28: Rail, 30: Movable stand, 32a, 32b: Second lower support, 34a, 34b: Second upper support, 36: Third base, 38a, 38b: Straight burner, 38: Burner means, 40 : Burner holding member, A, B: Quartz glass member.

Claims (5)

It is a welding method using an apparatus for welding the end faces of a pair of opposing quartz glass members, and a fixed support means for supporting one quartz glass member in a vertically placed state, and supporting the other quartz glass member in a vertically placed state. The movable support means provided so as to be able to come in contact with and away from the fixed support means and the welded portions which are the opposite end faces of the pair of quartz glass members can be heated and melted. Using a quartz glass member welding device comprising a burner means provided between the means and the movable support means, and placing the quartz glass member in a vertical position at a predetermined interval; and the quartz glass member a step of uniformly heating and melting by the burner means welded part is an end elevation from both sides of the welded part, an end which melted the pair of quartz glass member soluble in A method of welding a quartz glass member, wherein a portion is abutted and pressed together by a predetermined pressing force and welded to form a raised projection on a welded portion of the welded quartz glass member. , Further comprising a step of dispersing thermal strain by heating and softening the welded portion of the welded quartz glass member and the vicinity thereof by the burner means, and after the welded quartz glass member is cooled, the swell A method for welding a quartz glass member, characterized in that the convex portion is ground and flattened.   2. The method for welding a quartz glass member according to claim 1, wherein the pressing force is an external force from one direction having a predetermined speed. 3. An apparatus for carrying out the method for welding quartz glass members according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the quartz glass members are used for welding end faces of a pair of opposing quartz glass members. A fixed support means for supporting the other quartz glass member in a vertically placed state, a movable support means for supporting the other quartz glass member in a vertically placed state so as to be opposed to and away from the fixed support means, and the pair of quartz Welding of a quartz glass member comprising a burner means provided between the fixed support means and the movable support means so as to heat and melt the welded portions which are opposite end faces of the glass member apparatus. 4. The quartz glass according to claim 3, wherein the burner means is a pair of straight burners, and is provided in a state in which the burner means is parallel to an end face which is a welded portion of the quartz glass member and located on both sides thereof. Member welding equipment.   The quartz glass member welding apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the burner means is movable in the vertical direction and can be inclined at an arbitrary angle.

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