JPH0441701B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an apparatus for plasma treating continuous elongated materials such as sheet-like materials such as fabrics and films, and yarn materials.

[Prior art and its problems]

Conventionally, recontamination (darkening) due to washing of textile products
SR processing (hereinafter referred to as SR processing) is strongly required for hydrophobic synthetic fibers. The conventional method has been to apply a hydrophilic resin to the fiber surface to make the surface of the hydrophobic fiber hydrophilic and impart SR properties. However, such resin processing methods lack durability against washing during wear. In addition, since it promotes transfer sublimation in which the dye dyed onto the resin attached to the fiber surface is transferred, the color fastness is reduced. Furthermore, since the hydrophilic resins used are generally polyethylene glycol resins or derivatives thereof, the texture of the treated fabrics has many drawbacks, such as a strong waxy feel. Fiber fabrics can be manufactured on an industrial scale without any drawbacks and at low cost.
In particular, there has been a desire to develop a technology that can impart SR properties to synthetic fiber fabrics.

As a way to solve these problems, it has recently been discovered that instead of resin treatment, the fiber surface can be directly hydrophilized by plasma treatment, giving it an excellent SR property equivalent to or better than that of cotton. came.

However, various problems occur with plasma processing apparatuses that can continuously process continuous objects such as sheet-like materials and fibers, and many proposals have been made to improve these problems. Broadly speaking, there are two types: a type in which a sheet-like material is fed out from the atmosphere, introduced into a depressurized processing chamber with a continuous sealing mechanism, and then rolled up again in the atmosphere; There are two types: batch continuous type, which is all carried out in one vacuum container, and continuous type. The former type with a continuous sealing mechanism has the advantage of being able to downsize the vacuum treatment chamber and being easy to work with as it allows you to change the level without releasing the vacuum, but it is not suitable for highly air-containing materials such as textiles. When processing sheet materials,
Volatile substances such as air contained in the sheet cannot be sufficiently removed by the sealing portion alone, and there is a problem in sealing performance when the processing speed increases.

In addition, in the latter batch continuous type processing machine,
Since the feeding means and winding means for sheet-like materials are built into the vacuum processing container, the volume of the vacuum processing container becomes large, and the time required to reach the desired degree of pressure reduction becomes excessive, resulting in a decrease in processing efficiency. has.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The purpose of the present invention is to take advantage of the features of the batch continuous system in which the degree of decompression does not change even during high-speed processing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a plasma processing apparatus for long objects, which allows a reduced pressure processing container to be made compact, and also enables processing of one side and both sides of an object to be processed with the same apparatus, thereby improving processing efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a batch continuous type plasma processing apparatus in which a feeding means 19 and a winding means 20 for a continuous workpiece 23 and a plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in a reduced pressure processing container 1. The feeding means 19 and the winding means 20 are brought into a state in which virtual outer circumferential lines overlap each other when the entire amount of the workpiece 23 is wound up, and the feeding means 19 and the winding means 20 are fed out.
During the winding operation, the feeding means 19 and the winding means 20 are arranged adjacently so that the outer peripheries thereof are not in contact with each other and maintain a clearance, and the area thus arranged adjacently and the plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged facing each other, Furthermore, two or more units of the plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in parallel, and conveyance means 21 consisting of guide rollers or guide bars are arranged at both longitudinal ends of these plasma irradiation means 22, and at least two units of the plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in parallel. Guide rollers or guide bar groups 1 serve as conveyance means 21 at both ends of the plasma irradiation means 22 after the 1st time, and allow the object to be processed 23 to pass through the plasma irradiation means 22 in a U-shape.
7 and a guide roller or guide bar group 15 which are passed in an inverted U shape are arranged in a mixed manner.

In this way, by arranging the feeding means and the winding means so that their virtual circumferential lines overlap each other when the entire amount of the workpiece is rolled up, and by arranging the plasma irradiation means facing each other in that area, these This enables compact arrangement of equipment, thereby making it possible to downsize the vacuum processing vessel. As a result, the time required to bring the degree of pressure reduction to the target pressure can be shortened.

Furthermore, two or more units of plasma irradiation means are arranged in parallel, and at least a group of guide rollers or guide bars are used as conveyance means at both ends of the second and subsequent plasma irradiation means to cause the object to be processed to pass through the plasma irradiation means in a U-shape. Because of the mixed arrangement of guide rollers or guide bars that pass through in an inverted U shape,
By selectively using both of these guide rollers or guide bar groups, it becomes possible to use them properly for single-sided processing and double-sided processing of the workpiece, and processing efficiency can be further improved.

As the plasma irradiation means used in the present invention, any conventionally known means can be used, but it is preferable to arrange two plate-shaped cathodes facing each other and arrange a plurality of rod-shaped anodes between them. It is better to have a structure that

Further, in the present invention, objects to be treated with plasma include fabrics such as woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, non-woven fabrics, and webs; sheet-like objects such as films, foils, and paper;
Alternatively, composites of these, fabrics or sheets coated with resin, and yarns such as spun yarns and filament yarns can be used.

The objects to be treated used in the present invention include fabric-like objects such as woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, non-woven fabrics, and webs, films,
Sheet-like materials such as foil and paper, or composites of these,
Alternatively, these fabrics or sheet-like materials coated with resin or the like, or yarn materials such as spun yarn or filament yarn, etc., can be used.

The present invention integrates a feeding means, a winding means, a conveying means, and a plasma irradiation means for the object to be treated in one vacuum processing container, and thereby performs the vacuum processing. The volume inside the container is minimized to make it more compact, thereby saving energy, improving work efficiency, and increasing processing efficiency. Furthermore, when processing a long object, there are cases where plasma irradiation is performed only on one side of the long object,
The structure is such that it is possible to freely select whether to perform it on both sides at the same time.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a plasma processing apparatus for long objects according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a plasma processing section. In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, 1 is a reduced pressure processing container, 12, 13
is a movable door that constitutes a part of the reduced pressure processing container 1. 8 and 9 are paths of the long object to be processed 23, path 8 shows the case where only one side of the object 23 to be processed is processed, and path 9 shows the case where both sides are processed.

The reduced pressure processing container 1 is connected to a reduced pressure pump 10 via an exhaust pipe 14, and is maintained at a reduced pressure of about 10 ^-3 Torr, and the object to be processed 23 is subjected to low temperature plasma treatment under this reduced pressure.

The workpiece 23 is wound up as a feeding roll 2 on a rotating shaft 4 constituting a feeding means 19, and from that state is wound up on a rotating shaft 5 forming a winding means 20 via a path 8 or 9. It is wound up into a roll 3 and completed. These objects to be processed 23 are transported by a drive motor 11 using a rotating shaft 4 and/or
Or by driving 5. The conveyance means 21 for the long workpiece 23 is composed of guide rollers, guide bars, etc., and some or all of these are also connected to the motor 11 via an appropriate transmission system.
It can be rotated by

Here, the rotating shafts 4 and 5 are arranged so that when the entire amount of the workpiece 23 is wound around each shaft, their virtual circumferential lines overlap each other, and their outer circumferences do not come into contact with each other during the feeding and winding operations. They are placed close together. Thereby, the volume of the reduced pressure processing container 1 can be reduced, and the preparation time required to reach a predetermined degree of reduced pressure can be shortened.

The plasma irradiation means 22 includes two plate-shaped cathodes 6, 6; 6'6' disposed opposite to each other,
Each of the plurality of anodes 7, 7' disposed between the two cathodes 6, 6; 6'6' constitutes an electrode. In the present invention, this electrode unit is 2
More than one unit can be provided.

By adopting such an electrode configuration, it is possible to efficiently utilize low-temperature plasma generated by discharge, and it is also possible to reduce the volume occupied by the electrodes to a minimum. Furthermore, by employing such electrodes, it becomes possible for the first time to arrange the electrodes such that both sides of the object to be processed 23 can be processed at once within one reduced-pressure processing container 1.

Here, in order to further increase the discharge efficiency, the surface area (total area of the surface corresponding to the anode) of the plate-shaped cathodes 6, 6' which are arranged opposite to each other is the same as that of the rod-shaped anode 7,
It needs to be larger than the total surface area of 7′,
Stable discharge can be performed by preferably setting the ratio to 1.5 times or more, more preferably 2.5 times or more.

The present invention provides plasma irradiation means 22 as described above.
In this configuration, the long workpiece 23 is
Single-sided and double-sided processing can be performed selectively. As shown in FIG.
Conveying means 2 are provided at both ends of the plasma irradiation means 22 that initially processes the workpiece 23 fed out from 9.
A guide roller group 16 is provided as 1, and 2
At both ends of the plasma irradiation means 22 to be processed, guide roller groups 15 and 17 are provided as a conveying means 21.
is located. In such an arrangement, 2
Of the two guide roller groups provided in the second plasma irradiation means 22, the guide roller group 17 forms a U-shaped path for the workpiece 23 with respect to the plasma irradiation means 22, and the guide roller group 17 The roller group 15 forms an inverted U-shaped path. In this way, the second plasma irradiation means 2
By providing two types of guide roller groups 15 and 17 in 2, a path 8 is formed when only one side of the workpiece 23 is subjected to plasma treatment, and a path 9 is formed when both sides of the object 23 are subjected to plasma treatment. .

In other words, in the present invention, the plasma irradiation means 2
A plurality of guide roller groups 1 are provided at both ends of the electrode 2.
5, 16, and 17 are provided, and the guide roller group 16 provided on the first electrode (placed on the left side of the figure) remains in the same state regardless of whether the long workpiece 23 is processed on both sides or on one side. Pass it through so that it forms a letter. On the other hand, in the second electrode (disposed on the right side of the figure), a guide roller group 17 used when performing single-sided processing and a guide roller group 15 used when performing double-sided processing are provided in a mixed manner.
The object to be processed that exited the first (previous) electrode is then
When inserting into the second (rear) electrode, if it is single-sided processing, it can be carried out by passing the rear electrode in a U-shape between the guide rollers 17 in the same way as the front electrode using the path 8. . In addition, when performing double-sided processing, route 9 is used to transfer the object 2 to be processed.
3 is guided from the upper end of the front electrode to the lower end of the rear electrode, and from there is passed through the electrode in an inverted U-shape using a guide roller 15.

In the present invention, switching between the routes 8 and 9 may be performed manually, but for example, a guide means such as a guide chain is attached to a group of guide rollers of the conveyance means 21 so as to follow the routes 8 and 9, respectively. If these guide chains are provided, the workpiece can be automatically switched by guiding the workpiece to these guide chains.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the decompression processing container can be made compact while taking advantage of the features of the batch-continuous type device, so that the time required to bring the degree of decompression to a predetermined pressure can be shortened. . Furthermore, processing efficiency can be improved because the same apparatus can be used selectively for both single-sided processing and double-sided processing of the workpiece.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of a plasma processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a plan view thereof. FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view showing the plasma irradiation part of the apparatus of the present invention. 1... Decompression processing container, 2... Feeding roll, 3...
... Winding roll, 4 ... Rotating shaft, 5 ... Rotating shaft,
6, 6'... cathode, 7, 7'... anode, 8... (for single-sided processing) pass, 9... (for double-sided processing) pass, 1
5, 16, 17... Guide roller group, 19...
Feeding means, 20... winding means, 21... conveyance means, 22... plasma irradiation means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A batch continuous type plasma processing apparatus in which a feeding means 19 for a continuous object to be processed 23, a winding means 20, and a plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in a reduced pressure processing container 1, the feeding means 19 and the winding means 20 are brought into a state in which the virtual outer circumferential lines of the workpiece 23 are overlapped with each other when the entire amount of the workpiece 23 is wound up, and the outer circumferences of the feeding means 19 and the winding means 20 are overlapped with each other during feeding and winding operations. They are arranged adjacently so as to maintain a clearance in a non-contact state, and the areas thus arranged adjacently and the plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged facing each other, and furthermore, two or more units of the plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in parallel, and these plasma irradiation means 22 are arranged in parallel. Conveying means 21 each consisting of a guide roller or a guide bar are disposed at both ends of the irradiation means 22 in the longitudinal direction, and
The transport means 21 at both ends of the plasma irradiation means 22 after the second one from the feeding means 19 include a guide roller or guide bar group 17 and an inverted U-shape for causing the object to be processed 23 to pass through the plasma irradiation means 22 in a U-shape. A plasma processing apparatus for long objects characterized by a mixed arrangement of guide rollers or guide bar groups 15 that are passed through in a letter shape.