JPH05109126A - Cooler for optical disk - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the cooling time so as to shorten the production time and to prevent the adhesion of dust, etc., to a disk surface by forcibly cooling a clear substrate. CONSTITUTION:A clear substrate 6 held within a stepped hole 5a of an index 5 for rotation of a revolving shaft 11 is held from the standby position below the index 5 by inserting a pin 15 of a top end plate 14 of the shaft 11 into the central hole of the substrate 6 and is lifted into a air flow unit 7. While the substrate 6 is kept rotated in this state in the direction opposite from the direction of air flow via the shaft 11, the air is blown from a nozzle 8 to cool the substrate 6. The dust removed during this cooling is surely discharged from a discharge port 10 by the combined flow of the air blow and the discharge air.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disk cooling device which is used in a manufacturing process of an optical disk as an optical recording medium and cools a clear substrate after injection molding.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the above optical disc, a reflective film is formed on the information recording surface of a clear substrate injection-molded by an injection molding machine, for example, by sputtering or aluminum vapor deposition, and the clear substrate is naturally cooled. For example, it was manufactured by cooling to about room temperature (23 to 25 ° C.), and then forming a protective film of an ultraviolet curable resin or the like on the reflective film.

Here, for the natural cooling of the injection-molded clear substrate, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, a plurality of clear substrates 1 are serially integrated and stored in a stocker 2, and the stocker 2 is stored. This is done by arranging them side by side on a stock shelf of the trolley 3 and leaving them for a certain period of time.

As described above, the reason why the clear substrate 1 after injection molding is cooled to about room temperature is to form a reflective film on the clear substrate 1 when the temperature of the clear substrate 1 is high (for example, 50 ° C. or higher). When the protective film is formed on the reflective film, the viscosity of the ultraviolet curable resin, which becomes the protective film, decreases and the ultraviolet curable resin falls into the grooves provided on the surface of the disk substrate, which causes spin coating. In addition, radial streaks may form on the surface of the disk substrate, resulting in defective products.

When the clear substrate is molded by injection molding, the temperature of the clear substrate immediately after being taken out from the injection molding machine is usually 90 to 95 ° C., so that the disk substrate is kept at about room temperature when forming the protective film. In order to reduce the temperature, it is necessary to cool the clear substrate in advance.

[0006]

However, when the clear substrate is naturally cooled as described above, not only the loss of production time is large, but also the rate of dust and the like adhering to the surface of the reflective film increases. However, there is a problem in that it causes performance defects due to pinholes and the like, and causes appearance defects due to dust, fine projection defects, and the like.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disk cooling device capable of efficiently cooling a clear substrate to reduce the loss of production time and improving the production yield. To do.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a substrate holding portion for holding and holding a clear substrate after injection molding, and a rotation index for intermittently rotating a predetermined angle, and this rotation. At least one air blow unit provided corresponding to the stop position of the substrate holding portion of the index, and a transport member for transporting the clear substrate on the rotary index into the air blow unit. The blow unit includes a casing formed to flow cooling air and a nozzle for blowing air provided in the casing, and the casing has a substrate opening for taking a clear substrate into the casing. And an exhaust port for exhausting the air blown from the nozzle.

[0009]

Operation: The clear substrates after injection molding are sent one by one to the substrate holding unit of the rotation index and held on them. The rotation index is intermittently rotated, for example, by 45 ° and stopped at a position corresponding to the air blow unit.
At this time, the transfer member operates to hold the clear substrate held on the rotation index and carry it into the air blow unit through the substrate introduction opening. The clear substrate in the air blow unit is preferably cooled by applying static elimination air blown from a nozzle. The clear substrate cooled for a predetermined time is returned to the original substrate holding unit of the rotation index and is rotationally moved to the next stop position of the rotation index. Preferably, a plurality of the air blow units are provided, and in this case, the same operation is repeated at the next stop position, and the cooled clear substrate at the rotation index discharge position is conveyed to the next step.

[0010]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. First, the clear substrate is molded by injection molding. At this time, the temperature of the clear substrate immediately after being taken out from the injection molding machine is usually about 90 to 95 ° C.

Therefore, the static electricity is blown while rotating the clear substrate to forcibly cool it to about 23 to 40 ° C. This cooling is performed using the cooling device 4 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, for example. ..

That is, the cooling device 4 is provided with a disk-shaped rotation index 5 which rotates intermittently in one direction by 45 °, and the upper portion of the periphery of the rotation index 5 is a clear substrate 6 ( (See FIGS. 2 and 3) A stepped hole 5a (see FIG. 4) is provided as a total of eight substrate holding portions, each having a diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter and a lower diameter smaller than the diameter of the clear substrate 6. .. Accordingly, by dropping the substrate 6 into the stepped hole 5a at the substrate loading position T of the rotation index, the clear substrate 6 is held by the rotation index 5 and intermittently conveyed by 45 ° with this rotation. Has been like.

Further, an air blow unit 7 is arranged at an upper position corresponding to each of the four stop positions along the rotation direction of the rotation index 5 of the stepped hole 5a.
As a result, the clear substrate 6 held by the rotation index 5 is successively conveyed to the lower side of the four air blow units 7, and after being sequentially cooled here as described below,
At the discharge position D of the rotation index 5, it is conveyed to the next step of forming a reflective film.

The air blow unit 7 has a casing C having a modified oval cross section, and inside the casing C, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a nozzle 8 for discharging air is provided. The disk substrate 6 is housed so as to be eccentrically arranged with respect to the center of the disk substrate 6, a partition plate 9 is arranged on the side of the center of the nozzle 8, and an exhaust port 10 is provided behind the nozzle 8. It is provided. on the other hand,
Below each air blow unit 7, there is arranged a vertically movable rotary shaft 11 as a substrate carrying member that supports the clear substrate 6 from the lower side of the stepped hole 5a and lifts it up to carry it into the casing C. ing.

As a result, the clear substrate 6 held in the stepped hole 5a of the rotary index 5 is moved from the standby position below the rotary index 5 of the rotary shaft 11 to the rotary shaft 11.
The pin 15 of the upper end plate 14 is held by being inserted into the center hole of the clear substrate 6, and this is lifted up into the air blow unit 7. In this state, air is blown from the nozzle 8 while rotating the clear substrate 6 in the direction opposite to the direction of the air flow (air blowing direction) via the rotary shaft 11.
The dust removed while cooling the clear substrate 6 is surely exhausted from the exhaust port 10 by the combined air flow of air blow and exhaust. After air blowing for 3 seconds, the rotary shaft 11 descends and moves to the standby position, and the cooled clear substrate 6 is held in the stepped hole 5a as the original substrate holding portion.

In this case, by stopping at each stop position for 6 seconds and performing air blowing for 3 seconds, that is, in a short time such as 30 seconds, the clear substrate 6 at about 90 to 95 ° C. is cooled to room temperature such as 23 to 40 ° C. Since the clear substrate 6 can be cooled to a certain degree and the dust or the like does not adhere to the surface of the clear substrate 6 after cleaning, the production yield can be improved.

As shown in FIG. 4, the nozzle 8 may be provided on the opposite side of the exhaust port 10 with the clear substrate 6 interposed therebetween. Furthermore, the air blow unit 7 has
An opening 12 for letting the clear substrate 6 into and out of the unit
However, when the separator plate 13 is fixed to the rotary shaft 11 and the rotary shaft 11 is raised to position the clear substrate 6 in the air blow unit 7, the separator plate 13 opens the opening 12 Block the
It is also possible to prevent outflow of blow air and inhalation of contaminated air.

Then, a reflective film is formed on the information recording surface of the clear substrate 6 cooled to about room temperature as described above by, for example, sputtering or aluminum vapor deposition.
Thereafter, a protective film made of an ultraviolet curable resin or the like is formed on the reflective film by, for example, spin coating or the like to manufacture an optical disc.

At this time, as described above, since the clear substrate 6 is cooled to about room temperature in advance, it is possible to subsequently form the protective film without further cooling after forming the reflective film.

[0020]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure,
By forcibly cooling the clear substrate, this cooling time is shortened, and eventually the production time is shortened.
There is an effect that dust and the like can be prevented from adhering to the surface of the disk as much as possible, and the production yield can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a cooling device.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the air blow unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional front view of the same.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional front view showing another example of the air blow unit.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional clear substrate cooling carriage.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 ... Cooling device 5 ... Rotation index 6 ... Clear substrate 7 ... Air blow unit 8 ... Nozzle 10 ... Exhaust port 11 ... Rotating shaft

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A substrate holding part for placing and holding a clear substrate after injection molding, the rotating index being intermittently rotated by a predetermined angle, and provided corresponding to a stop position of the substrate holding part of this rotating index. At least one air blow unit and a transport member for transporting the clear substrate on the rotation index into the air blow unit, and the air blow unit is a casing formed to flow cooling air. A nozzle provided in the casing for blowing air, the casing having a substrate opening for taking a clear substrate into the casing, and an exhaust port for exhausting the air blown from the nozzle. An optical disk cooling device comprising: