JPH0314736B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a film strain relief device, and more particularly to a film strain relief device used in a laminator for attaching a film to a panel.

For example, laminators have been known that press-bond a continuous photosensitive dry film onto a panel such as a glass-epoxy copper-clad laminate while cutting it one after another. In such a laminator, when trying to press-bond a film to a new panel, as shown in FIG. The leading end of the film 1 is pressed against the front end to temporarily attach it. Thereafter, the temporary attachment member 2 stops its suction operation and moves rearward as shown in FIG. (In addition,
Since the structure of the laminator is generally vertically symmetrical, only the upper portion is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. ) A slack roller device 4 for giving slack to the film 1 is actuated by a piston cylinder device 5. The slack roller device 4 has a roller 6 at one end that supports and guides the film 1 and is rotatable around a horizontal axis, and an arm 8 whose other end is pivotally connected to a fixed side plate 7 by a horizontal shaft member. The piston cylinder device 5 has a lower end of the cylinder pivotally connected to the fixed side plate 7, and an upper end of the piston rod to the intermediate portion of the arm 8. Therefore, when the piston cylinder device 5 operates, the slack roller device 4 moves to the first position.
It can be pivoted between the position shown and the position shown in FIG. The slack roller device 4 is moved from the position shown in FIG. 1 to the position shown in FIG. 2 during tacking by the tacking member 2, and pulls out the film from the film supply roll 9. When the tacking operation is completed and the tacking member 2 stops its suction operation and moves rearward, the film below the roller 6 slackens significantly as shown in FIG. The reason why the film 1 is greatly sagged in this way is that the panel 3 is conveyed and the pressure roll 10
This is to prevent the front end of the temporarily attached film from coming off from the panel 3 due to large tension being applied to the film 1 until it is sandwiched between the panels.

However, in the upper portion of the laminator, if the film 1 is allowed to slacken as much as necessary, the film 1 may end up hanging down on the panel 3 as shown in FIG. If the film 1 were to come into contact with point A on the panel 3, air bubbles and wrinkles would occur in the film 1 when it was crimped by the crimping roll 10, which would significantly impair the quality of the product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional slack roller devices.

According to the present invention, as an alternative to the conventional slack roller device for slackening the film, the film is slackened below the roller 6 until the panel to which the film is tacked is clamped between pressure rolls. A film tension relieving device is provided for relieving the tension applied to the film without causing any damage to the film.

The film tension relieving device according to the present invention includes a first arm provided at one end with a roller that supports and guides the film and is rotatable around a horizontal axis;
a second arm pivotally connected to the intermediate portion of the first arm by a horizontal shaft member, and the other end of which is pivotally connected to the fixed member by a second horizontal shaft member; a swinging mechanism for swinging the arm around the second horizontal shaft member, and the first arm is configured to rotate the film supported by the roller with respect to the axis of the first horizontal shaft member. A moment in the opposite direction is applied, which is slightly larger than the moment generated by the resultant force of the force due to the weight and the force due to the weight on the roller side, and a moment is applied between the first arm and the second arm due to the resultant force. said first arm in a direction in which said first arm pivots about the axis of said first horizontal shaft member in response to a resulting moment;
A stop device is provided to prevent excessive pivoting of the arm.

As will be described in detail later, the film tension relieving device according to the present invention uses a first arm to absorb the tension that is generated in the film below the roller when the panel after tacking the film is conveyed toward the pressure roll. can be relaxed by pivoting.
Therefore, when using the film tension relief device according to the present invention, there is no need to leave the film under the rollers slack after the film is tacked, and therefore there is no possibility of the slack film coming into contact with the panel. Therefore, there is no need to worry about air bubbles or wrinkles forming on the film during crimping.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The film tension relief device 11 shown in FIG. 3 includes a first arm 12 and a second arm 13. As shown in FIG. A roller 14 is provided at one end of the first arm 12, and the roller 14 supports and guides the film 1 and is rotatable around a horizontal axis. One end of the second arm 13 is pivotally connected to the middle part of the first arm 12 by a horizontal shaft member 15, and the other end is pivotally connected to a fixed member such as a side plate of a laminator by a horizontal shaft member 16. has been done. first arm 1
2 can pivot around the horizontal shaft member 15 with respect to the second arm 13, but the movement of the first arm 12 that attempts to pivot further counterclockwise from the state shown in FIG. This is prevented by a stopper device (not shown) provided between the first arm 12 and the second arm 13. The stopper device may include, for example, a pin member attached to one of the first arm 12 or the second arm 13, and a pin engagement member attached to the other arm. A piston rod tip 18 of a piston cylinder device 17 is pivotally attached to the intermediate portion of the second arm 13, and a lower cylinder end (not shown) of the piston cylinder device 17 is pivotally attached to a fixed member. The second arm 13 can therefore pivot about the horizontal member 16 between an inclined position as shown in FIG. 3 and a horizontal position as shown in FIG. Can be done.

A counterweight 19 is provided at the end of the first arm 12 opposite to the roller 14 . Considering the total moment of the first arm 12 with respect to the axis of the horizontal shaft member 15, the weight of the counterweight 19 is a slight moment in the clockwise direction when no tension other than gravity is applied to the film 1. Set the value so that it works. That is, in such a state, the horizontal shaft member 15 is caused by the resultant force of the weight of the film portion below the roller supported by the roller 14 and the force due to the weight of the first arm 12 on the roller side (including the weight of the roller 14). A moment acts in a counterclockwise direction with respect to the axis of The weight of the counterweight 19 is determined so as to slightly exceed the moment.

The film strain relief device 11 according to the invention operates as follows. First, during film tacking (see FIG. 1), the film tension relief device 11 is moved from a horizontal position to an inclined position as shown in FIG. . When tacking the film, as shown in FIG. 1, the tacking member 2 attracts the leading end of the film 1 and pulls it toward the panel 3, so a large tension is applied to the film 1.
The first arm 12 is subjected to a large overall counterclockwise moment with respect to the axis of the horizontal shaft member 15. The pivoting of the first arm 12 due to this large moment is limited by the aforementioned stopper device, and the first arm 12 is moved further counterclockwise relative to the second arm 13 than the position shown in FIG. There is no pivoting.

Next, during temporary attachment of the film, the piston cylinder device 17 is shortened to return the second arm 13 to the horizontal position.

When the film tacking is completed, the tacking member 2 stops its suction operation and moves rearward (see FIG. 2). At this time, the tension on the film below the roller 14 is released, so the first arm 12 pivots clockwise around the axis of the horizontal shaft member 15 relative to the second arm 13. , the slack of the film 1 which tends to hang down below the roller 14 is lifted upward. The pivoting of the first arm 12 stops with a small tension in the film below the roller 14, resulting in the position shown in FIG.

Next, when the panel 3 to which the film is temporarily attached is conveyed toward the pressure roll 10, the film 1
is pulled with a small tension. In response to this small tension, the first arm 12 pivots counterclockwise as shown by the arrow in FIG. 4 to prevent any further tension from being applied to the film. After the panel 3 and the film 1 are sandwiched between the pressure rolls 10, the first arm 12 becomes horizontal and is again in a straight line with the second arm 13.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the invention.
This embodiment does not use a counterweight, but instead uses a spring 20. spring 20
is a tension coil spring disposed between the bracket 21 provided on the second arm 13 and the first arm 12;
Similarly to 9, a clockwise moment is applied to the first arm 12. The strength of the spring 20 is determined in the same manner as the weight of the counterweight 19 in the first embodiment. The installation location, installation method, type, etc. of the spring may be different as necessary. Further, a spring and a counterweight may be used together.

As described above, unlike the conventional slack roller device, the film tension relieving device according to the present invention is capable of relieving the tension of the film while preventing the film from hanging on the panel after tacking. This can prevent the formation of air bubbles and wrinkles.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are schematic side views of a laminator using a conventional slack roller device. FIGS. 3 and 4 are side views showing an embodiment of the film tension relief device according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a side view showing another embodiment of the invention. 11...Film tension relief device, 12...First
arm, 13... second arm, 14... roller, 15, 16... horizontal shaft member, 19... counterweight, 20... spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first arm provided at one end with a roller that supports and guides the film and is rotatable around a horizontal axis;
a second arm having one end pivotally connected to the intermediate portion of the first arm by a first horizontal shaft member and the other end pivotally connected to the fixed member by a second horizontal shaft member; a swinging mechanism for swinging the second arm around the second horizontal shaft member, the first arm is supported by the roller with respect to the axis of the first horizontal shaft member. A moment in the opposite direction is applied between the first arm and the second arm, which is slightly larger than the moment generated by the resultant force of the weight of the film and the weight of the roller. A stopper device is provided for preventing excessive pivoting of the first arm in a direction in which the first arm pivots about the axis of the first horizontal shaft member in response to a moment caused by the resultant force. A film tension relief device characterized in that: 2. Claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the moment in the opposite direction is provided by a force due to the weight of a counterweight provided at the other end of the first arm. The film tension relief device described in . 3. The film tension relief device according to claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the moment in the opposite direction is provided by a spring whose one end is attached to the first arm. .