JP4771772B2 - Laminator - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and a laminator for laminating a film sheet cut from a continuous film (for example, a photosensitive dry film) to a substrate (for example, a printed circuit board).

  A laminator that automatically cuts a continuous photosensitive dry film into a film sheet of a desired length and laminates it on a printed circuit board is known as an auto-cut laminator. First, the tacking member sucks and holds the leading end of the continuous film. Subsequently, the tacking member approaches the substrate, the tip of the continuous film is tacked to the front end of the substrate, and then the tacking member is retracted. A conveyor conveys the substrate and feeds it between a pair of pressure rolls. The continuous film whose tip is temporarily attached to the front end of the substrate is drawn from the supply roll so as to be pulled by the substrate, and is laminated on the substrate by the pressure roll. While the laminating operation is continued, the cutter travels in the lateral direction to cut the continuous film, and a film sheet having a length that matches the dimensions and pasting position of the substrate is formed. The pressure roll continues to rotate without pausing and the rest of the film sheet is laminated onto the substrate.

  If the front end of the continuous film temporarily attached to the front end of the substrate is subjected to a large tension before being sandwiched between the pair of pressure rolls, it will come off. In recent years, the number of thin substrates having a thickness of 0.1 mm or less is increasing as the substrates laminated with a laminator. Such a thin substrate warps even if a slight unbalanced tension is generated at the tip of the temporarily attached film, and cannot smoothly enter between a pair of pressure rolls. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent tension from being applied to the tip of the temporarily attached film until the front end of the substrate is sandwiched between the pair of pressure rolls.

  As one solution, a roller device that gives slack to a continuous film that has been temporarily attached has been considered. However, if the film is given sufficient slack to prevent tension from being applied to the film tip until the front edge of the substrate is sandwiched between a pair of pressure rolls, the slack becomes large and the film is A part of the film may hang down and come into contact. When contacted, the film is wrinkled when the film is pressure-bonded by a pressure roll, or air bubbles are formed between the film and the substrate, and the quality of the product is significantly impaired.

  On the other hand, an apparatus for relaxing the tension applied to the film until the substrate is fed between the pressure rolls without giving a large sag to the film has also been developed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-14736). However, in the case of a thin substrate, as described above, even if a slight unbalanced tension is generated at the front end of the film, it is warped.

  Therefore, it is required that the film with the tip temporarily attached to the substrate hangs down and comes into contact with the substrate without causing substantial tension to be applied to the tip of the temporarily attached film. As a method for this, it is conceivable that the tacking member sucks and holds the continuous film so that the tacking member can follow the transported substrate.

  However, it is difficult to realize this using only one motor as in the prior art. This is because when the rotational force of the motor for rotating the pressure roller is used for the movement of the temporary member via the clutch and the brake, the response speed becomes slow and errors at the start and stop of the movement are likely to occur. In order not to form a large slack in the continuous film and to prevent the tension from being generated, it is necessary to precisely control the movement of the tacking member that holds the continuous film by suction.

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention,
A laminator for laminating a film sheet cut from a continuous film to a substrate,
A temporary attachment member that adsorbs and holds the front end of the continuous film and approaches the substrate, and temporarily attaches the front end of the continuous film to the front end of the substrate
A pair of pressure rolls, and a pair of pressure rolls for laminating the film to the substrate with the substrate temporarily attached to the tip of the continuous film interposed therebetween,
A conveyor for transporting the substrate with the tip of the continuous film attached between the pair of pressure rolls;
A cutter that forms a film sheet by cutting the continuous film while laminating the continuous film on the substrate by the pair of pressure rolls;
With
The tack member is movable toward the substrate by adsorbing and holding the continuous film,
It further comprises an independent driving device capable of precisely controlling the movement of the tack member.
A laminator is provided.

The driving device is preferably a pulse motor.
In order to prevent substantial tension from being applied to the front end of the continuous film until the front end of the substrate is sandwiched between the pair of pressure rolls, the drive device is controlled at a speed at which the tacking member that holds and holds the continuous film is controlled. The first stage of movement towards the substrate can be executable.

  The cutter is movable toward the substrate at the same speed as the tacking member holding the continuous film by suction, and the drive device is directed to the substrate at a controlled speed by the tacking member holding the continuous film by suction. It is assumed that the second stage movement can be performed, and the continuous film is cut in the transverse direction by running the cutter in a direction across the tacking member during the second stage movement. Can be.

  A sensor for detecting an end of the substrate conveyed by the conveyor is further provided, and a signal from the sensor is a time when the tacking member sucks and holds the continuous film and starts moving toward the substrate by the driving device. It can be determined based on.

The speed of movement of the tacking member by the driving device can be set based on the substrate transport speed by the conveyor.
The temporary attachment member may be attached to a support member, and the drive device may move the support member.

  The drive device may be configured to move the tacking member by driving a chain which is a chain and has the support member suspended at its end.

  According to the present invention, the movement of the tacking member for adsorbing and holding the continuous film is performed by a precision-controllable driving device separately from the driving of the pressure roll and the conveyor, so that the substrate is fed between the pair of pressure rolls. At this time, the temporary attachment member can be reliably moved such that no large slack is formed in the continuous film and no tension is generated.

Therefore, the film is not pulled before the front end of the substrate enters between the pair of pressure rolls, and the temporary attachment is not removed, and the thin substrate is not warped.
It is also possible to finely adjust the moving speed of the tacking member with respect to the substrate transfer speed.

  When the chain that transmits the force of the drive device to the tacking member is always stretched by suspending heavy objects at both ends, the play between the links in the chain is eliminated. Good accurate force transmission is guaranteed.

  1 to 4 show schematic side views of a laminator according to the present invention in the order of operation. In the laminator shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the lower half of the structure is not shown, and the side plate on the near side is removed to make the inside easier to see.

  A plate-like support member 2 that can move up and down is attached to each of the pair of side plates 1 of the laminator. The support member 2 is suspended from the end of the chain 3. Therefore, the entire chain 3 is always stretched, and play between the links constituting the chain 3 is removed.

  The chain 3 is driven by a drive device (see FIG. 5) in the form of a motor 4 rotating the shaft 6 of the sprocket 5. This motor 4 is an independent drive device different from the drive device for the conveyor for substrate conveyance and the drive device for the pressure roll, which will be described later, and can be precisely controlled independently.

  By suspending heavy objects at both ends of the chain 3, the play between the links of the chain 3 is automatically removed and no slack is generated, so that the operation of the motor 4 is reliably performed by the support members 2 and 2 '. Is transmitted with good responsiveness. Conventionally, a loop-shaped chain is used, and a heavy object is suspended at an intermediate portion thereof, so that a sag occurs on the return side where no load is applied. Therefore, it was necessary to add a tension device to remove this slack and to operate it periodically. According to the present invention, both the conventional tensioning device and the labor for operating it are unnecessary.

  The motor 4 is preferably a pulse motor whose start, stop, and rotation speed can be precisely controlled. As shown in FIG. 5, when the motor 4 rotates, the upper support member 2 and the lower support member 2 ′ attached to the chain 3 wound around the sprockets 5, 7, and 8 are brought close to or separated from each other. Move up and down to In FIG. 5, only a part of the support members 2 and 2 ′ is illustrated, and the connection between the support members 2 and 2 ′ and the chain 3 is schematically illustrated. As will be described later, the motor 4 can cause the support members 2, 2 ′ and the tack members 10, 10 ′ to execute the first-stage movement and the second-stage movement.

  A temporary attachment member 10 is attached between the pair of support members 2 via a drive device in the form of an air cylinder 9. The outer end of the cylinder portion of the air cylinder 9 is pivotally attached to the support member 2, and the tip of the rod portion of the air cylinder 9 is attached to each side end portion of the temporary member 10. In FIG. 5, in order to easily understand that the support members 2, 2 ′ and the tack members 10, 10 ′ can be moved together by the operation of the motor 4, the support members 2, 2 ′ are explained. The air cylinder 9 that connects the tacking members 10 and 10 'is not shown.

  By operating the air cylinder 9, the tacking member 10 can move along the curved slot 11 formed in the support member 2. The tacking member 10 has a suction surface on which a plurality of suction holes 12 are formed.

  A continuous film 14 is provided between the pair of side plates 1 in the form of a supply roll 13. The suction surface of the tacking member 10 can be guided while sucking and holding the front end or the intermediate portion of the continuous film 14 drawn from the supply roll 13 or by lightly sucking the intermediate portion of the continuous film 14.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the board | substrate 16 conveyed by the roller conveyor 15 to the position (temporary attachment station) just before a laminator is stopped there. The tacking member 10 that sucks and holds the leading end of the continuous film 14 approaches the substrate 16 by extending the rod of the air cylinder 9. The temporary attachment member 10 temporarily attaches the front end of the continuous film 14 to the front end of the substrate 16 in cooperation with the lower temporary attachment member 10 ′.

  In order to slightly sag the vicinity of the front end of the continuous film 14 temporarily attached to the front end of the substrate 16, a slack imparting device 17 is used. The slack imparting device 17 has one end 18 pivoted to the side plate 1 and the other end supporting the end of the guide roller 19 of the continuous film 14 at the other end, and the outer end of the cylinder portion pivoted to the side plate 1. It has an air cylinder 21 pivotally attached to the middle part of the arm 20 at the tip of the rod part.

  During the tacking operation, the rod portion of the air cylinder 21 is shortened, and the guide roller 19 at the tip of the arm 20 moves obliquely downward. Then, the continuous film 14 is pulled out from the supply roll 13.

  When the tacking operation is completed, the suction operation of the tacking member 10 is stopped, and the suction holding of the tip of the continuous film 14 on the suction surface is released. As shown in FIG. 2, the rod of the air cylinder 9 is shortened, and the tacking member 10 is retracted away from the substrate 16. Further, the support member 2 also moves to the upper position. By operating the sag imparting device 17 during the tacking operation, a sagging portion (sag) 22 is generated near the front end of the continuous film 14 released from the tacking member 10, as shown in FIG. 2a. The size of the sag 22 must be such that it does not sag on the substrate 16 before the continuous film 14 is laminated to the substrate 16.

  Next, the conveyor 15 is operated, and the substrate 16 is fed between the pair of pressure rolls 23 and 23 '. As the substrate 16 advances, the sag 22 becomes smaller. If the slack 22 is completely eliminated, tension is applied to the tip of the continuous film 14, and as a result, the continuous film 14 may be detached from the substrate 16. Further, when the substrate 16 is thin, the substrate 16 is pulled by the continuous film 14 and warps in either the upper or lower direction, so that it may be difficult to enter between the pair of pressure rolls 23 and 23 '.

  Therefore, immediately before the slack disappears and tension is applied to the tip of the film 14, that is, at the time shown in FIGS. 3 and 3a, the temporary film 10 is sucked and held by the tacking member 10, and at the same time, the motor 4 is driven. The support member 2 supporting the tacking member 10 is moved toward the substrate 16 (first stage movement).

  The time at which the tacking member 10 holds the continuous film 14 by suction and the motor 4 starts the first stage movement of the support member 2 and the tacking member 10 can be determined by various methods. For example, the time point may be a time point after a predetermined time has elapsed since the substrate 16 with the film tip temporarily attached passes a predetermined position, or a time point when the substrate 16 reaches a predetermined position. In these cases, a sensor for detecting the position of the front end or the rear end of the substrate 16 may be provided, and the time point may be determined based on a signal from the sensor. In any case, in determining the time point, the amount of film sag near the leading edge of the film is taken into consideration.

  By making the speed of the first stage movement of the support member 2 and the tacking member 10 the same as or slightly faster than the conveyance speed of the substrate 16, it is substantially at the tip of the continuous film 14. It is possible to surely avoid application of excessive tension. For example, the first stage movement speed of the support member 2 and the tack member 10 may be set to be 0.3 to 0.5 percent faster than the conveyance speed of the substrate 16. The first stage movement of the supporting member 2 and the tacking member 10 for the purpose of preventing tension from being applied to the front end of the continuous film 14 is at least the front end of the substrate 16 and the pair of pressure rolls 23 together with the front end of the continuous film 14. , 23 'and so on.

As described above, the tacking member 10 has a function as a film tension suppressing unit, in addition to the function of temporarily tacking the front end of the film to the front end of the substrate 16.
After the front end of the substrate 16 is sandwiched between the pressure rolls 23 and 23 ′ as shown in FIGS. 4 and 4a, the suction force of the tacking member 10 is weakened and the state of holding the continuous film 14 is released. The movement of the support member 2 and the tacking member 10 in the first stage is stopped. Thereafter, the continuous film 14 travels while being guided by the suction surface of the tacking member 10 and is laminated on the substrate 16.

  Next, the continuous film 14 is cut into a length that matches the dimensions of the substrate 16 and the film attachment position. The continuous film 14 is cut while the support member 2 and the tacking member 10 perform the second-stage movement toward the substrate 16. On the guide bar extending between the pair of support members 2, a cutter 24 that can run along the width direction of the continuous film 14, that is, the direction crossing the tacking member 10 is provided. Therefore, the cutter 24 can move toward the substrate 16 at the same speed as the support member 2 and the tacking member 10. A cutter backup member 26 that receives the blade 25 of the cutter 24 while adsorbing and holding the film 14 when the film is cut also extends between the pair of support members 2.

  While the support member 2 and the tacking member 10 move at substantially the same speed as the continuous film 14, the cutter 24 travels along the width direction of the film 14, that is, the direction crossing the tacking member 10. 14 is cut into a film sheet having a predetermined length. When the film is cut, the continuous film 14 may be adsorbed and held not only by the cutter backup member 26 but also by the tacking member 10.

  The speed of the second stage movement of the supporting member 2 and the tacking member 10 when the film is cut needs to be the same as the speed of the first stage movement when preventing the tension from being applied to the tip of the continuous film 14. Absent.

  A signal from a sensor that detects the position of the front end or the rear end of the substrate 16 may be used to determine when the motor 4 starts the second-stage movement of the support member 2 and the tacking member 10.

  The continuous film 14 is cut at a stage near the end of the laminating operation so that the rear end of the film sheet formed by cutting the continuous film 14 does not hang down on the substrate 16. When the cutting of the film is completed, it is desirable that the rear end of the film sheet is located near the film guide member 27 having the suction surface. When the cutting of the film is completed, the motor 4 stops the second stage movement of the support member 2 and the tack member 10.

It is a schematic side view of one Example of the laminator by this invention, the lower half of a structure is abbreviate | omitting illustration, and the side plate of the near side is removed and it is easy to see the inside. Each component shows a state in which the film tip is temporarily attached to the substrate. It is a figure similar to FIG. 1, and each component has shown the state which has slackened the continuous film temporarily attached to the board | substrate. The figure which expands and shows the state of the sagging film front end in FIG. FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and each component shows a state immediately before the tacking member sucks and holds the continuous film and the support member starts moving toward the substrate. The figure which expands and shows the state of the film front end which sagged almost in FIG. FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and each component shows a state in which the temporary attachment member holds the continuous film by suction and the support member moves toward the substrate. The figure which expands and shows the state of the film front end pinched | interposed between the pressure rolls with the front end of the board | substrate in FIG. The figure which showed typically the structure where the support member to which the temporary attachment member was attached was suspended by the edge part of the chain stretched around the sprocket, and was driven by the motor.

Explanation of symbols

1 side plate, 2 support member, 3 chain, 4 motor, 5, 7, 8 sprocket, 6 sprocket shaft, 9 air cylinder, 10 tacking member, 11 curved slot, 12 suction hole, 13 continuous film supply roll, 14 continuous film, 15 roller conveyor, 16 substrate, 17 slack imparting device, 18 one end of arm, 19 guide roller, 20 arm, 21 air cylinder, 22 slack, 23 pressure roll, 24 cutter, 25 cutter blade, 26 cutter backup Member, 27 Film guide member.

Claims (7)

A laminator for laminating a film sheet cut from a continuous film to a substrate,
A temporary attachment member that adsorbs and holds the front end of the continuous film and approaches the substrate, and temporarily attaches the front end of the continuous film to the front end of the substrate
A pair of pressure rolls, and a pair of pressure rolls for laminating the film to the substrate with the substrate temporarily attached to the tip of the continuous film interposed therebetween,
A conveyor for transporting the substrate with the tip of the continuous film attached between the pair of pressure rolls;
A cutter that forms a film sheet by cutting the continuous film while laminating the continuous film on the substrate by the pair of pressure rolls;
With
The tack member is movable toward the substrate by adsorbing and holding the continuous film,
An independent drive device capable of precisely controlling the movement of the tack member ;
In order to prevent substantial tension from being applied to the front end of the continuous film until the front end of the substrate is sandwiched between the pair of pressure rolls, the drive device is controlled at a speed at which the tacking member that holds and holds the continuous film is controlled. The first stage of movement toward the substrate is enabled,
Laminator.   The laminator according to claim 1, wherein the driving device is a pulse motor. The cutter is movable toward the substrate at the same speed as the tacking member that sucks and holds the continuous film, and the drive device controls the tacking member that sucks and holds the continuous film at a controlled speed. A second stage of movement that moves toward the substrate can be performed, and the cutter cuts the continuous film in the transverse direction by running in the direction across the tacking member during the movement of the second stage. The laminator according to claim 1 , wherein the laminator is adapted to do so. A sensor for detecting an end of the substrate conveyed by the conveyor is further provided, and the time when the tacking member sucks and holds the continuous film and starts moving toward the substrate by the driving device is from the sensor. The laminator according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the laminator is determined on the basis of the signal. The laminator according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein a speed of movement of the tacking member by the driving device is set based on a conveyance speed of the substrate by the conveyor. The laminator according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the tacking member is attached to a support member, and the driving device moves the support member. The laminator according to claim 6 , wherein the driving device is configured to move the tacking member by driving a chain which is a chain and has the support member suspended at an end thereof.

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