JPH02308126A - Method and apparatus for producing liquid crystal optical element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the liquid crystal optical element having uniform quality and large area at a high yield by impregnating and applying a liquid crystal material onto a flexible substrate and laminating a counter substrate thereon, then subjecting the substrates to a bending deformation treatment. CONSTITUTION:The liquid crystal material is intermittently applied on the substrate 27 with transparent electrodes exclusive of a protective film 21 by a head 5 for impregnating and coating. The applied liquid crystal film is dried by a hot wind dryer 29 and the counter substrate 35 is laminated on the above- mentioned substrate by laminating rolls 23a, 23b. Further, the substrates are heated by a heating furnace 24 having IR heaters and fan and are applied with the bending deformation by cooling rolls 25 for orientation, by which the orientation treatment is executed. The optical element is then taken up by a take-up roll 3. The liquid crystal optical element having the uniform quality and large area is easily obtd. at the high yield in this way.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element used in a liquid crystal display element, a liquid crystal memory element, a liquid crystal acoustic element, etc. This invention relates to manufacturing equipment.

[Conventional technology]

Various methods have been proposed for manufacturing liquid crystal optical elements with high productivity. For example, the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-75817 involves offset printing a liquid crystal onto a substrate, and then pressing a counter substrate. It is used to fabricate elements. However, in the case of ferroelectric liquid crystal devices, etc., the cell thickness must be extremely small (several μm or less), so using offset printing methods, it is difficult to create a thin film, and the film quality is not satisfactory. However, since this method does not use bending orientation in the orientation process, there is a problem in that productivity is poor.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The present invention aims to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element that can easily manufacture a liquid crystal optical element with uniform quality and a large area with good productivity and a high yield. The present invention also provides an apparatus for manufacturing the liquid crystal optical element.

[Means to solve the problem]

The inventors of the present invention have conducted intensive research to solve the above problem, and as a result, the objective was achieved by impregnating and coating a flexible substrate with a liquid crystal material, laminating the opposing substrate, and subjecting it to bending deformation. The present inventors have discovered that the present invention is possible and have completed the present invention.

That is, the present invention includes a step of applying a liquid crystal material impregnated into an impregnable member onto a flexible substrate, a step of laminating the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and a counter substrate, and a step of bending and deforming the obtained laminate. The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element, which comprises a step of alignment treatment.

First, a liquid crystal material impregnated into an impregnable member is applied onto a flexible substrate. This flexible substrate can be used without particular limitation as long as at least one of the substrates is made of a transparent material, and either a long substrate or a sheet substrate can be used. Specifically, crystalline polymers such as -axially or biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate.

A substrate made of a plastic such as an amorphous polymer such as polysulfone or polyethersulfone, a polyolefin such as polyethylene or polypropylene, or a polyamide such as polycarbonate or nylon is used. It is preferable to provide a transparent electrode on this flexible substrate in advance. As this transparent electrode, a NESA film coated with tin oxide,
An ITO film or the like made of tin oxide and indium oxide is used. These electrodes can be manufactured using various known methods such as sputtering, vapor deposition, printing, coating, plating,
Using an adhesive method or a suitable combination of these methods,
It can be provided on the substrate.

As the liquid crystal material, a polymer liquid crystal, a low molecular liquid crystal, or a mixture of a plurality of these can be used.

In order to obtain a liquid crystal optical element having high-speed response to changes in electric field and high contrast, it is preferable to use a ferroelectric liquid crystal material. Adhesives, other non-liquid crystal resins, thinners, pleochroic dyes, and the like may be added to the liquid crystal material, if necessary.

The application of the liquid crystal material to the substrate is carried out, for example, in a solution state in which the liquid crystal material is dissolved in a solvent such as methylene chloride, chloroform, toluene, xylene, tetrahydrofuran, methyl ethyl ketone, dimethyl acetamide, or dimethyl formamide, or at a temperature at which the liquid crystal material exhibits an isotonic phase. This is carried out by impregnating an impregnating member with the liquid crystal material in a molten state that has been heated to a temperature of 100.degree.

It is preferable to perform this application intermittently on desired parts of the substrate.In order to apply the liquid crystal material on the substrate intermittently, an impregnating application head having an impregnating member impregnated with the liquid crystal material is used intermittently. The impregnating member is brought into contact with the substrate by moving the impregnating member up and down periodically, or by periodically moving the impregnating member about a fixed point located at a fixed position from the substrate.

The impregnable member used here can be any material that can be impregnated with a solution or molten liquid crystal material, such as a cloth-like, felt-like, brush-like or paper-like material made of fibers, or a porous sponge-like material. There may be.

Next, the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and the counter substrate are laminated together. If the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and the counter substrate are both long objects such as rolls, the lamination is done in two steps.
It is preferable to use a pair of laminating rolls made of book rolls.

Preferably, at least one of the two rolls can be heated.

In addition, if the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and the counter substrate are long and the other is single-sheet, or both are single-sheet, the laminate will consist of one flat plate and one roll. It is preferable to use a laminator. In this laminator, lamination is performed by moving the pressure position between the flat plate and the roll in one direction. At this time, it is preferable that the temperature of at least one of the flat plate or the roll can be controlled and heated.

The laminating speed here is preferably 0.1 to 50 m/min, particularly preferably 0.5 to 10 m/min.

The pressurizing pressure is preferably O~5 kg/cil! , particularly preferably 1 to 2 kg/cd. The temperature during lamination is preferably within the range of room temperature +10°C to clearing point (transition temperature of the liquid crystal material from the liquid crystal phase to the isotonic phase) +20°C,
Particularly preferably, the range is from room temperature +15°C to clearing point +5°C.

Next, the laminate obtained in the above step is subjected to an orientation treatment by bending and deforming. The bending deformation is preferably performed by a set of rolls consisting of at least one roll. The laminate is passed between the rolls of the set of rolls, either alone or sandwiched between belts, etc., so that the laminate or the belts, etc. that sandwich it are in close contact with the outer periphery of the rolls alternately on the front and back sides.

At this time, it is preferable that at least one roll is temperature controllable and can be heated.The direction in which the bending deformation is applied may be a direction inclined from the longitudinal direction of the substrate, if necessary. When using the same as a substrate, it is preferable that the orientation direction is tilted by approximately a tilt angle from the stretching direction.

The present invention also provides a means for transporting a flexible substrate, a means for applying a liquid crystal material impregnated with an impregnating member onto the transported flexible substrate, and a substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and a counter substrate. The present invention provides an apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element, which comprises means for laminating and means for aligning the obtained laminate by bending and deforming it.

The constituent means of the manufacturing apparatus of the present invention will be explained below.

(1) Means for conveying a flexible substrate The means for conveying a flexible substrate is for conveying the flexible substrate to the next coating process, lamination process, and alignment process, and is used for feeding rolls and An automatic substrate feeding device consisting of a flexible substrate take-up roll is preferably used.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a long substrate supply system. A roll-shaped long substrate 1 is used as a flexible substrate, and the automatic substrate feeding device feeds out the long substrate 1 with a roll 2.
and a take-up roll 3. The drive is performed by a take-up roll 3, and it is preferable that the feed roll 2 is provided with a brake or a drive motor in order to adjust the tension of the long substrate l.Also, the impregnation coating process and other processes (for example, the lamination process, (orientation process, etc.), the take-up roll 3 may not be used, and one or more pairs of drive rolls 4 may be added between each process for conveyance. 5 is an impregnation coating head.

Here, the feeding speed V of the elongated substrate 1 depends on the film thickness of the target liquid crystal material, so it is adjusted as appropriate. In addition to constant speed,
It may be changed continuously, stepwise, or intermittently as necessary. Also, if the substrate is provided with a protective film on one or both sides, a winding roll for the protective film is provided near the feeding roll. It's okay.

As the material of each roll, rubber, plastic, metal, or the like can be suitably used. Metal is preferable from the viewpoint of durability, and when a pair of drive rolls is provided as an auxiliary, it is preferable that at least one of them is made of rubber to prevent slippage.

When the flexible substrate to be used is a single wafer substrate, a substrate feeding device system consisting of a conveyor belt is preferably used.
- The automatic substrate feeding device shown in FIG. 2(a) consists of a belt 7 for conveying the single substrate 6 and a clip 8 for fixing the substrate.

The sheet substrates 6 are placed side by side on a conveyor belt 7, and the conveyor belt 7 is sequentially moved for each coating to be supplied to a coating device. The single wafer substrate 6 being moved must not be fixed to the conveyor belt 7 (
However, it is preferable that at least the sheet substrate 6 during coating is fixed to the conveying belt 7 with a substrate fixing clip 8 so that it does not move on the belt when it comes into contact with the impregnating member during coating. The automatic substrate feeding apparatus shown in FIG. 2(B) is composed of a conveying belt 7 and a belt folding roll 10, and a sheet substrate 6 is fed onto a coating base 11.

The single substrate 6 supplied onto the coating base 11 is attached to a positioning metal fitting 12 and a small belt 1 for fixing the substrate and carrying it out to the next process.
3, and after being coated with liquid crystal material, it is carried out to the next process by a small carry-out belt 13.

The material of the belt used in these device systems may be rubber, plastic, or metal.

The conveyance speed V is set sequentially and intermittently for each application.

The substrate may be placed at an angle with respect to the conveyor belt if necessary. In addition to the above-mentioned methods, vacuum, adhesive, or other methods may be used to fix the substrate during coating or conveyance.

(2) Means for applying the liquid crystal material impregnated in the impregnating member onto the flexible substrate The liquid crystal material is applied to the flexible substrate transported by the transport means using the application means to form a film.

An intermittent coating device and a liquid supply amount variable device for controlling the amount of liquid crystal material supplied to the impregnating member of the coating device, which are preferably used as the coating means, will be described below.

(2) Intermittent coating device It is preferable to apply the liquid crystal material impregnated in the impregnable member onto the flexible substrate by intermittent coating in accordance with the desired coating width. Therefore, it is preferable to use an intermittent coating device in which the substrate and the impregnable member are in contact or non-contact, so that application or non-coating can be arbitrarily selected during impregnation coating. In order to The impregnating member is brought into and out of contact with the substrate intermittently by moving the impregnating member periodically.

FIG. 3 is an example of an intermittent coating device system.

FIGS. 3(a) and 3(a)' show an apparatus that performs intermittently coating by upper and lower heads. When the substrate is a roll-shaped long object, the moving speed V of the substrate is as shown in FIG. 3(a).
When the impregnation coating head 5 is moved up and down with respect to the long substrate 1 supported by the auxiliary roll 14 in accordance with the desired coating width, a coating film 9 of the desired width is obtained. In addition, when the substrate is a single-sheet substrate, as shown in FIG. 3(a)', the base 1 is
The impregnating coating head 5 is applied to the sheet substrate 6 supported by the substrate 1.
By moving up and down, a coating film 9 of a desired width can be obtained.

Further, FIG. 3(b) and FIG. 3(b)' show an apparatus for intermittently coating the top and bottom of the substrate. If the substrate is a roll-shaped elongated object, an auxiliary roll that can be moved up and down with respect to the impregnating coating head 5 according to the moving speed V of the substrate and the desired coating width, as shown in FIG. 3(b). The long substrate 1 supported by 15 is moved up and down.

In addition, when the substrate is a sheet material, as shown in FIG. The single wafer substrate 6 supported by the wafer is moved up and down. Further, FIG. 3(C) shows an apparatus that performs intermittent coating by periodically moving the spatula 5 for impregnation coating. Whether the substrate is a long one or a single sheet, move the impregnation coating head 5 around a fixed point at a fixed position from the substrate according to the moving speed V of the substrate or the impregnation coating head and the desired coating width. The impregnating member 16 is brought into contact with and out of contact with the substrate intermittently through periodic movement. The periodic motion of the impregnation coating head 5 may be a reciprocating motion or a rotational motion.

A combination of a motor and gear, a piston using oil or air pressure, or an electromagnetic type are used to move the roll or base that supports the substrate or the impregnation coating head up and down, or to rotate the impregnation coating head. Various types such as the above can be used.

■Liquid supply amount variable device When performing intermittent coating, make sure that the liquid crystal material solution or melt does not drip from the impregnating member when not coating.
It is preferable to make the amount of liquid supplied to the impregnable member variable during non-coating.

FIG. 4 is an example of a liquid supply amount variable device.

FIG. 4(a) shows a variable internal pressure type liquid supply amount variable device.

An internal pressure adjustment hole 17 is provided in the upper part of the impregnating coating head 5, which has an impregnating member 16 provided at one end of a cylindrical container, and a valve for variable air flow rate is provided in the internal pressure adjustment hole 17, or the internal pressure adjustment hole 1
A tube is drawn from 7, and an external small pump is used to adjust the internal pressure and change the amount of liquid supplied to the impregnating member. FIG. 4(b) shows a liquid supply amount variable device using a constant discharge method. A fixed quantity dispenser 19 is connected to the impregnation coating head 5, and liquid is supplied directly to the impregnating member from the fixed quantity dispenser. The liquid is supplied by discharging the amount necessary for one application at once, or, if the application area is large, by discharging the amount necessary for one application in multiple doses. A commercially available metered dispensing device (dispenser) can be suitably used.

(3) Means for laminating a substrate coated with a liquid crystal material and a counter substrate The method for laminating a substrate coated with a liquid crystal material and a counter substrate described above to form a laminate includes, for example, Examples include an apparatus that laminates a substrate coated with a liquid crystal material and a counter substrate while pressing them together using at least a pair of laminating rolls. At this time, there is no particular restriction on the material of the laminating rolls, but if one of the pair of laminating rolls is a metal roll and the other is a rubber roll, slips are less likely to occur (laminating can be carried out suitably.In addition, at least one of the pair of laminating rolls is heated It is preferable that you can.

Further, when at least one of the two substrates used is a sheet material, a combination of at least one plate and at least one roll is preferably used instead of a pair of rolls. The roll or flat plate is moved to move the pressure position between the flat plate and the roll in one direction. At this time, it is preferable that at least one of the rolls or the plate can be heated. It is preferable that the opposing substrate side is heated while laminating so as to reduce the viscosity of the surface of the coating film of the liquid crystal material, since the surface of the coating film becomes smoother.

(4) Means for orienting a laminate by bending and deforming the obtained laminate is subjected to an alignment process by this alignment means to become a liquid crystal optical element.

As means for the orientation treatment, an apparatus that performs the orientation treatment using shear stress caused by bending deformation is suitably used with good productivity. This orienting device is composed of at least one orienting roll. The laminate is brought into close contact with the surface of a roll, either alone or held between belts, etc., and subjected to bending deformation and orientation treatment.

At this time, it is preferable that at least one roll is temperature controllable. When using two or more rolls, the first roll applies bending deformation while heating the laminate, and the second and subsequent rolls It is best to cool it down.

Heating of the laminate may be performed by a heating device instead of using rolls, and there are no particular restrictions on the material of the orientation rolls.
Metal is preferred in terms of durability.

The shape is not particularly limited and is appropriately set depending on the size of the element and the like.

(5) Cutting device The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element of the present invention is provided with a cutting device for cutting the device as necessary. With this cutting device, a liquid crystal optical element of an appropriate size can be obtained.

When a continuous substrate such as a long substrate is used for at least one of the substrates, the substrates are laminated and then cut to form elements. The cutting device may be provided either before or after the alignment process.

The cutting device includes, for example, a device for feeding out the laminate and a cutter. When cutting perpendicular to the flow direction, it is easy to change the feed rate intermittently and synchronize the cutter movement with it to cut when the feed stops, or if the cutter is fed at a constant speed, the cutter can be changed at the feed rate. Cut while moving repeatedly at the same speed. Other conventional polymer sheet cutting equipment can be used.

Next, an example of an apparatus that continuously performs each of the above steps will be described.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a manufacturing apparatus in which the two substrates used are continuous substrates such as roll-shaped elongated substrates.

Impregnating coating, laminating, and bending orienting treatments can be performed continuously. The line is operated at a constant speed V. The transparent electrode-attached substrate 27 is fed out from the feeding roll 2 . At this time, the substrate protective film 21 is wound up on a protective film take-up roll 22 provided near the feeding roll 2.
A liquid crystal material is intermittently applied to 7 using an impregnation coating head 5. A melt or solution of the liquid crystal material is supplied to the impregnating head 5 from a metering dispenser 19 in conjunction with the movement of the impregnating head 5 . The applied liquid crystal film is dried in a hot air dryer 29. Next, a counter substrate 35 with the substrate protection film 21 removed is placed on the dried liquid crystal film on a laminating roll 2.
3a and 23b are laminated together. It is further heated by a heating furnace 24 equipped with an infrared heater and a blower, subjected to bending deformation by an orientation cooling roll 25 for orientation treatment, and then wound up by a winding roll 3.

The auxiliary roll 14 may be appropriately provided at a necessary position.

Thereafter, it is cut into a required size to obtain a desired liquid crystal optical element.

Next, we will explain an example of the manufacturing equipment when one of the two substrates used is a continuous substrate and the other is a pre-cut single-wafer substrate.
As shown in the figure.

The line is operated at a constant speed V. The coating process is the same as the apparatus shown in Fig. 5. Intermittent coating is performed using a flexible substrate with a transparent electrode 2.
7 side can be performed by moving the intermittent coating substrate moving roll 30 up and down within the roll moving hole 31. Here, a single wafer substrate is used as the counter substrate. The counter substrate 35 is conveyed by the conveyor belt 7 at a speed close to the line speed V, passes through the auxiliary table 33, and is laminated onto the coating film of the liquid crystal material on the flexible substrate with transparent electrodes 27 by the laminating rolls 23a and 23b. . This laminate is manufactured using the same principle as the apparatus shown in FIG.
The book is orientated by a cooling roll 25 for orienting the book. Further, the adhesive is cured by a UV lamp 36 and wound up by a winding roll 3. Thereafter, it is cut into a required size to obtain a desired liquid crystal optical element.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a manufacturing apparatus in which both of the two substrates used are single wafer substrates. Figure 7(a) is an overall view of this device, and the details of the application section and lamination section are shown in Figure 7(a).
Fig. 7), Fig. 7(C), and Fig. 7(d).

The transparent electrode-attached flexible substrate 27 placed on the coating/laminate conveyor belt 37 is fixed to the coating/laminate conveyor belt 37 by a substrate fixing clip 8 . The board fixing clip 8 has a mechanism that automatically releases it at the belt folding roll 10 in front of the board slide 41.

Further, the coating/laminate conveyor belt 37 is folded back by the belt folding roll 10 and returns to the conveyor belt drive roll 40 (FIG. 7(a)), at a conveyance speed v of the coating/laminate conveyor belt 37.

changes intermittently, and when it is stationary, the impregnating application spatula 5
The flexible substrate 27 with transparent electrodes is coated and laminated by a laminating roll 38 (Fig. 7). In the coating and laminating parts, the flexible substrate 27 with transparent electrodes is made of aluminum and is provided under the conveyor belt 37 for coating and laminating. It is supported by a flat plate 39. The impregnation coating head 5 is provided with an internal pressure regulating valve 49 (FIG. 7(C)), and the supply of the counter substrate in the laminate section is carried out by a substrate adsorption flat plate 51 (FIG. 7(4)).
A vacuum suction hole 52 is provided in the substrate suction flat plate 51 so that the counter substrate 35 can be suctioned. The substrate adsorption flat plate 51 is moved to the laminate part by the movable part 53 while adsorbing the counter substrate 35, and the transparent electrode-attached flexible substrate 2 is moved by the lamination roll 38 provided at the tip.
A counter substrate 35 is laminated onto the coating film 9 of liquid crystal material on the liquid crystal material 7 .

This laminate, ie, unoriented element 43, slides on the substrate slide 41 and is placed on the element delivery and orientation belt 42.

The conveyance speed of the element delivery/orientation belt 42, that is, the orientation speed v2 is constant. At this time, the orientation substrate installation angle θ
is variable, and the unoriented elements 43 can be delivered by tilting onto the element delivery/orientation belt 42. This unoriented element 43 is sandwiched between an auxiliary belt 44 for alignment processing and sent to an alignment processing section. The alignment processing section is the same as the apparatus shown in FIG. At this time, the tension of the element delivery/orientation belt 42 and the alignment processing auxiliary belt 44 can be adjusted by moving the tension adjustment roll 45 up and down within the roll movement hole 31. The obtained orientation-treated element 48 is a sheet product and does not require cutting.

Although preferable examples of the method and apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element of the present invention have been described above in relatively concrete terms, the invention is not necessarily limited to the above examples.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily manufacture a liquid crystal optical element of uniform quality and a second area with good productivity and high yield.

〔Example〕

Example 1 A ferroelectric liquid crystal element was manufactured using the apparatus shown in FIG.

A liquid crystal material was obtained by mixing a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal having the structure and characteristics described below with the adhesive described below.

Liquid crystal part Mn -3000 [g Niglass state, S-011: chiral smectic C phase, S@A: smectic A phase, Iso: Tokichi phase] Adhesive Oil-converted shell epoxy main material: Epicoat 834 Hardening agent: QX-11 Main agent: Curing agent = 60:40 (wt%) Liquid crystal part: Adhesive -70:30 (overlapping %) Also, the substrate is a PES board with ITO (FST-1351 manufactured by Sumitomo Bakelite ■) with a thickness of 100 μm and a width of 280 I. Using.

Using a 10% by weight solution of the above liquid crystal material in dichloromethane, 2.7 cc was sent from the metering dispenser 19 to the rad 5 for impregnation coating for each coating. The impregnating coating head uses Kanebo's Bertalin cut into a width of 251 mm as an impregnating member, and approximately 4 mm is applied onto the substrate 25 for each coating.
It was applied in a length of 0C1l.

After winding up with a winding roll 3, the adhesive material was cured for about 30 minutes, and the element was cut out to obtain a 25C11X40CII liquid crystal optical element. The film thickness of the liquid crystal portion was approximately 23 μm.

Here, the laminating roll 23a is made of rubber and has a diameter of 80 cm.
The laminating roll 23b is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 80m and a width of 300m.The orientation cooling roll 25 is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 80cm and a width of 300m.The auxiliary roll 14 is chrome-plated. It was made of polished iron and had a diameter of 40m+ and a width of 300mm. Also,
Line speed is v=12m/min, laminating roll 23b
temperature T of -40°C, temperature T of heating furnace 24 =85°C,
Temperature T of the two orientation cooling rolls 25, -76°C, T,
-70°C, the drying temperature of the hot air dryer 29 is T.

The temperature was -40°C.

Contrast measured under crossed nicols: ±5v
A good value of 46 was obtained by applying . Furthermore, no color unevenness due to contrast or thickness unevenness was observed throughout the device.

Example 2 A ferroelectric liquid crystal element was manufactured using the apparatus shown in FIG.

A liquid crystal material was obtained by mixing a mixed liquid crystal of a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal and a low-molecular ferroelectric liquid crystal having the structure and characteristics described below with the adhesive described below.

Liquid crystal part Liquid crystal A Mn -3000 Liquid crystal B H3 Liquid crystal A: Liquid crystal B = 30 Near 0 (mol%) Adhesive Cememex Super Y-862-1 manufactured by Cemedine ■ (UV curable adhesive) Liquid crystal part: Adhesive -80 :20. (% by weight) Furthermore, the same ITO-coated PES substrate as in Example 1 was used as the substrate.

A 15% by weight solution of the above liquid crystal material in dichloromethane was applied intermittently in the same manner as in Example 1. 1.8 cc of the solution was applied for each application, and a length of 401 cm was applied with a width of 25 cs. The same impregnating member as in Example 1 was used.

Immediately after the orientation treatment, UV light was irradiated using a metal halide lamp 36 to cure the adhesive. When the device was cut out after winding, the film thickness of the coated material was 2.1 μm.

Here, the laminating roll 23a is made of rubber and has a diameter of 80 m.
The laminating roll 23b is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 80 m and a width of 300 mm.The heating roll 32 is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 80 mm and a width of 300 m.The orientation cooling roll 25 is chrome-plated. The moving roll 30 for intermittent coating is made of iron and has a diameter of 80 m and a width of 300 m.The moving roll 30 for intermittent coating is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 40 m and a width of 3.
00IIIl, the driving roll 34 for conveying the counter substrate is made of rubber and has a diameter of 50 m and a width of 300 gm, and the auxiliary roll 14 is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 40 m and a width of 300 gm.
1 was used. In addition, the auxiliary stand 33 was made of aluminum whose surface was treated with Teflon to prevent slipping.

In addition, the line speed is v = 3 m/min, laminating roll 2
Temperature T of 3b = 45° C1 Temperature 'r of heating roll 32
z=as°C Temperature T of the 12 alignment cooling rolls 25,
=81"C, T, =55'C.

The contrast under crossed nicols was 55 with an application of ±5 μ at room temperature, and there was no unevenness in contrast or coloring over the entire device.

Example 3 A ferroelectric liquid crystal element was manufactured using the apparatus shown in FIG.

A liquid crystal material was obtained by mixing a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal having the structure and characteristics described below and a dichroic dye described below.

Liquid crystal part Mn = 5300 (Cry: crystal phase) Dichroic dye Further, as the substrate, uniaxially stretched PET (Daicel Chemical Industries ■CELEC-K) with a thickness of 100 μm and a width of 200 CI was used.

A 10% by weight solution of the above liquid crystal material in chloroform was used for coating. Here, as the impregnating member, a Jujo Kimberly Crew with a width of 180 mm was used. The head for impregnation coating 5 is equipped with an internal pressure regulating valve 49, and has a structure that prevents liquid from dripping from the head for impregnation coating. Next, it was laminated and subjected to orientation treatment. The film thickness was 2.5 μm.

Here, the laminating roll 38 is made of silicone rubber with a diameter of 20 mm and a width of 400 mm, the heating roll 32 is made of chrome-plated iron with a diameter of 80 mm and a width of 300 mm, and the cooling roll 25 for orientation is made of chrome-plated iron. Diameter 80a
m, width 300 mm, belt folding roll 10 is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 40 cm, width is 300 mm, tension adjustment roll 45 is made of chrome-plated iron and has a diameter of 4
The auxiliary roll 14 was made of chrome-plated iron and had a diameter of 4Qm and a width of 300III11.

In addition, the conveyance speed for coating and laminating v, = 2 m/min, O
Intermittent switching of m/min, orientation speed v, = 8 m/min, temperature T of laminating roll 38, = 50°C 1 temperature Tt of heating roll 32 = 100°C 12 cooling rolls 2 for orientation
The temperature T of No. 5 was set to 90°C, and T4 = 82°C. Further, the alignment substrate installation angle θ was set to θ=22.5”.

Under crossed nicols, the contrast was 40 with ±5v applied. In addition, when using a guest-host mode using only one polarizing plate, a good result with a contrast of 18 was obtained. Almost no color unevenness or contrast unevenness was observed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a liquid crystal optical element with uniform quality and a large area. Further, according to the liquid crystal optical element manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, it becomes possible to easily manufacture the above liquid crystal optical element with high productivity and high yield.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a long substrate supply system. FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are schematic diagrams showing an example of a single wafer substrate supply system. FIGS. 3(a) and 3(a)' are schematic diagrams showing an example of an apparatus that performs intermittent coating using the upper and lower parts of the head. FIGS. 3(b) and 3(b)' are schematic diagrams showing an example of an apparatus for intermittently coating the top and bottom of a substrate. FIG. 3(C) is a schematic diagram showing an example of an apparatus for performing intermittent coating by periodically moving an impregnation coating head. Figure 4 (
a) is a schematic diagram showing an example of a variable internal pressure type liquid supply amount variable device; FIG. 4(b) is a schematic diagram showing an example of a liquid supply amount variable device using a constant discharge method. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a manufacturing apparatus in which two substrates used are continuous substrates such as roll-shaped elongated substrates. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a manufacturing apparatus in which one of the two substrates used is a continuous substrate and the other is a pre-cut single wafer substrate. FIG. 7(a) is a schematic diagram showing the entire example of the manufacturing apparatus when both of the two substrates used are single-wafer substrates, and FIG. 7(b) and FIG. 7(b)
and Fig. 7 (the crests are schematic diagrams showing details of the coating part and laminating part in Fig. 7(a). - Explanation of symbols

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A step of applying a liquid crystal material impregnated into an impregnable member onto a flexible substrate, a step of laminating the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and a counter substrate, and a step of laminating the obtained laminate. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element, which comprises a process of alignment treatment by bending deformation. 2. The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 1, wherein the flexible substrate or the counter substrate is a long piece or a sheet piece. 3. The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal material impregnated in the impregnating member is intermittently applied onto the flexible substrate. 4. The liquid crystal material impregnated into the impregnating member is brought into contact with the substrate by intermittently moving up and down the impregnating head having the impregnating member, or by applying the impregnating head around a fixed point located at a fixed position from the substrate. 4. The method of manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 3, wherein the impregnating member is intermittently applied onto the flexible substrate by periodically moving the impregnating member and bringing the impregnating member into contact with the substrate. 5. The liquid crystal optical element according to claim 3, wherein the liquid crystal material is intermittently applied onto the flexible substrate by bringing the impregnating member into intermittently contact with the substrate by moving the flexible substrate or a support member for the substrate up and down. manufacturing method. 6. Means for transporting a flexible substrate, means for applying a liquid crystal material impregnated with an impregnating member onto the flexible substrate, and means for laminating the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and a counter substrate. and a means for orienting the obtained laminate by bending and deforming it. 7. Claim 6, wherein the means for laminating the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and the counter substrate comprises at least one pair of rolls.
A manufacturing apparatus for the liquid crystal optical element described above. 8. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the at least one pair of rolls is temperature controllable. 9. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 6, wherein the means for laminating the substrate coated with the liquid crystal material and the counter substrate comprises at least one flat plate and at least one roll. 10. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 9, wherein the temperature of at least one flat plate or at least one roll is controllable. 11. Claim 6, wherein the flexible substrate conveyance means comprises a flexible substrate payout roll and a flexible substrate take-up roll.
A manufacturing apparatus for the liquid crystal optical element described above. 12. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 6, wherein the means for transporting the flexible substrate is a transport belt. 13. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 6, comprising a coating means having means for controlling the amount of liquid crystal material impregnated into the impregnable member. 14. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 6, wherein the means for orienting the laminate by bending and deforming it comprises at least one roll. 15. The apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal optical element according to claim 14, wherein the temperature of at least one roll is controllable. 16. Claims 6, 9, 11, 12, 13 further comprising a substrate cutting means before or after the lamination process.
or 14. The liquid crystal optical element manufacturing apparatus according to 14.