JPH05297212A - Color filter manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically manufacture a color filter having a colored ink coat excellent in smoothness with a relatively small pressurizing force, or at a relatively high speed. CONSTITUTION:A color filter manufacturing device is provided with a heaing surface plate 31 for supporting a base plate 21 on which a colored ink coat 23 is coated, a heating/pressurizing roller 32 that is arranged so as to be opposite to the surface plate for heating and pressurizing the ink coat, a thin resin film 34 that is interposed between the ink coat and the heating roller, a resin- film feeding roll 35 having a braking device that has been arranged on one side of the heating roller, a torque-motor driven resin-film take-up roll 39 that has been arranged on the other side thereof, and film vertical movement control rollers 37, 38 by which the resin film is kept in such a state that it has been closely brought into contact with the ink coat surface and also the resin film is separated from the ink coat surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus for a color filter used in, for example, a liquid crystal display device,
In particular, it relates to an apparatus for smoothing various patterned colored color ink coatings deposited directly or through other layers on the translucent substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the structure of a color liquid crystal display device, a color filter is arranged on one surface side across a liquid crystal layer. A printing method is one of the methods for manufacturing this color filter. This printing method is a method of printing a colored color ink, which is dispersed in a pigment and a resin solvent, in a predetermined pattern on the surface of a transparent glass substrate, and is a manufacturing method which is low in cost and rich in mass productivity.

That is, in this printing method, a desired pattern of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) colored inks is printed on a transparent glass substrate by an intaglio offset printing machine equipped with a pressure transfer blanket. -Print in a striped pattern. FIG. 11 shows a cross section of the printed and dried state. First, the black light blocking layer 22 is applied in a matrix on the surface of the glass substrate 21. Then, the red colored ink coating R is printed by moving the transfer blanket while rotating it mainly in one group in the region where the light blocking layer 22 does not exist. Then, a green colored ink film G and a blue colored ink film B are printed on the adjacent region group having no light blocking layer. In this way, in the state in which the colored ink coatings 23 of the three primary colors are printed on the glass substrate, as shown in the figure, the coating surface becomes arcuate within the pixels of each color. That is, the film thickness is minimum near the boundary of each colored ink film, and is maximum in the central portion.

If this is left as it is, color unevenness may occur and a high quality color liquid crystal display cannot be obtained. Therefore, it is necessary to smooth the surface of the colored color ink coating 23 as shown in FIG. Conventionally, as one of the methods for smoothing the surface of such an ink film, the surface of the colored ink film is polished and smoothed with a lapping film containing fine particles as disclosed in JP-A-61-3122. There is a way.
As another method, a roller made of rubber or a mirror-finished metal as disclosed in JP-A-63-216028 or JP-A-1-167807,
There is a method of heating and pressurizing to crush the convex portions of the colored ink coating to smooth it.

Furthermore, the colored ink film side of the color filter is directly or through a film which is hard to adhere to the flat plate or a flat platen, and the glass substrate side is pressed by a pressing roller or platen for smoothing. The method is disclosed in JP-A-2-251816 or JP-A-62-280.
No. 805, for example. As shown in FIG. 13, a support plate 25 is placed on a surface plate 24, a film sheet 26 is placed on the support plate 25, and a colored ink film 23 printed on a glass substrate 21 is brought into close contact with the film sheet 26. This is a method of crushing with a pressure roller 27.

[0006]

The latter method out of the above has the advantage that a substantially uniform pressure is applied to the entire surface of the colored ink film surface, and the entire surface is likely to be uniformly smoothed.
However, since the pressing pressure is applied through the glass substrate on which the colored ink film is formed, it is necessary to keep the pressing force to a relatively small pressure within the range where the glass substrate is not damaged. In particular, when pressure is applied by the press roller, the glass substrate is likely to be damaged, so it is necessary to keep the pressure to a lower level. The method of applying pressure by applying a flat surface plate on the glass substrate is convenient because it does not easily damage the substrate, but the pressing force to obtain the necessary and sufficient crushing amount over the entire surface is a large value. I will end up. Therefore, according to these methods, gaps that cannot be crushed easily remain between the color ink coatings. When such a gap is left, when assembled as a liquid crystal display device, voids or bubbles are formed on the bonding surface with another substrate such as a thin glass plate for electrode formation or a polarizing plate glass, or glass is parallel and even. Sticking becomes impossible. Further, when an ITO film (indium-tin oxide film) which is a transparent conductive film is formed on the colored ink film attached to the filter substrate directly or through an overcoat layer by sputtering or the like. In addition, if the surface of the colored ink coating film has irregularities, the sputter-formed coating film becomes insufficient in the thick portion of the coating film, or the sputtered coating film is not formed and disconnection is likely to occur. Thus, the manufacturing and characteristics of the color liquid crystal display device are likely to be hindered. Furthermore, the light diffusion phenomenon due to the unevenness of the surface of the colored ink coating film impairs the transparency and causes other optical loss and the like. To completely eliminate such a gap between the colored ink coatings, a higher pressing pressure is required, or a considerably long pressing time is required. This is a problem in production efficiency because the temperature control and the viscosity control of the colored ink coating become complicated. Also,
It is effective in itself to interpose a film that does not easily adhere between the surface plate and the colored ink coating, but the air present in the recesses between the colored ink coatings tends to remain locally, and the bubbles cause the colored ink coating to remain. There may be inconveniences such as the formation of cavities in the inside, unevenness on the surface, or streaky unevenness due to forced air discharge. Furthermore, when the film is peeled from the colored ink coating surface, it is not easy to peel the colored ink coating surface so that wrinkles and lines are not generated. Thus, while the conventional manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus have considerable advantages, they have the above-mentioned points to be improved.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a color filter having a colored ink film having excellent smoothness automatically at a relatively small pressing force or at a relatively high speed.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a heating platen for supporting the back surface side of a light-transmitting substrate having a colored color ink film attached thereto, and a heating platen arranged so as to face a substrate supporting portion of the heating platen. A heating / pressurizing roller is provided so as to rotate while heating and pressurizing the ink film on the substrate surface, and is supplied between the ink film on the substrate surface supported by the heating platen and the heating / pressurizing roller. A thin resin film, a resin film supply roll which is arranged on one side of the heating roller and has a braking device, and a resin film winding which is arranged on the other side of the heating pressure roller and driven by a torque motor. The take-up roll and the ink film surface on the substrate are kept in close contact with the resin film for a predetermined period of time, and thereafter, a film is movably provided to separate the resin film from the ink film surface. An apparatus for manufacturing a color filter and a beam vertical movement control roller.

[0009]

According to the color filter manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a color ink film surface having excellent smoothness with a relatively small pressure. In particular, after smoothing the entire surface of the ink film, the resin film is automatically peeled off from the entire surface of the smoothed ink film, so that the ink film surface is automatically smoothed without causing wrinkles or lines. An excellent color ink film surface can be obtained.

[0010]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. First, the configuration of this manufacturing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. A heating platen 31 is placed on a transport device (not shown), and a glass substrate on which the colored ink film 23 of the color filter 20 is printed on the heating platen.
21 will be posted. Glass substrate 21 and colored ink coating 22
Is heated by the heating platen 31. A heating / pressurizing roller 32 is arranged above the color filter 20 so as to be vertically movable by an air cylinder 33 as indicated by an arrow Fa and rotatably as indicated by an arrow Fb. Then, the resin film 34 is supplied and interposed between the color filter 20 and the heating / pressurizing roller 32, and is conveyed as shown by an arrow Fc. for that reason,
A resin film supply roll 35 and an idle roller 36 are arranged on one side of the heating / pressurizing roller 32. The resin film supply roll 35 has a braking device 36.
A first film vertical movement control roller 37, a second film vertical movement control roller 38, and a resin film take-up roll 39 are arranged on the other side of the heating and pressing roller 32. The first film vertical movement control roller 37 includes one rotatable roller and an air cylinder 40 for controlling the vertical movement of the roller as indicated by arrow Fd. The second film vertical movement control roller 38 is provided with two rotatable contact rollers and an air cylinder 41 for controlling the vertical movement of the rollers, as shown by an arrow Fe. Further, the resin film take-up roll 39 is driven by a torque motor 42 which is sequence-controlled as described later. The second film vertical movement control roller 38 has a function of feeding the film to the winding roll 39 by winding a resin film between two rotatable contact rollers. The first and second film vertical movement control rollers 37, 38 have their air cylinders 40, 4 at the stage where they have finished smoothing the ink coating surface of the color filter 20.
1 has a function of being lifted upward as shown by a dotted line, preventing the resin film 34 from sagging and peeling the resin film from the ink coating surface at a stretch.

The main state of smoothing the colored ink film surface of the color filter using this apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. First, it is a square with a side of 30 cm and a thickness of 1.1.
A light blocking layer 22 made of chromium was formed in a matrix on one surface of a transparent glass substrate 21 of mm. Next, after cleaning the surface of the substrate, using an intaglio offset printing machine, a colored ink mainly composed of an epoxy resin varnish containing a pigment and a solvent was used, and a stripe-shaped colored ink film was formed according to an intaglio cell pattern using an intaglio plate. 23 was printed on the substrate surface. The colored ink film 23 was formed by sequentially printing three primary colors of red (R), green (G) and blue (B). Then, since each of the colored ink coatings R, G, and B has viscoelasticity, a portion in the vicinity of the center, which is slightly biased toward the rear end side in the printing direction, has a mountain-like shape. The film thickness near the top is 4 to 5 μm.

After forming the colored ink film 23, 85
The solvent was removed by drying at a temperature in the range of ˜105 ° C. where thermosetting of the colored ink coating did not occur. This solvent removal amount is
The amount of the solvent initially added to the colored ink is 60% or more, and more preferably 80% or more. When the amount of solvent removed is 60% or less, bubbles may flow in due to foaming due to evaporation of the solvent when the colored ink film is smoothed later. Next, the glass substrate 21 of the color filter 20 that had been printed and dried was placed on the heating platen 31 with the colored ink film 23 facing upward. Heating surface plate 31
The heater 31a is embedded in the
The temperature is set in the range of to 105 ° C. The heating platen 31 is provided with a vacuum chuck (not shown) for sucking the glass substrate. Similarly, the heating / pressurizing roller 32 has a built-in heater, and its surface temperature is 80 to 105
The temperature is set in the range of ° C. This heating pressure roller 32
Has a diameter of 12 cm and a surface JIS-A hardness of 80,
It is a silicon rubber having a surface roughness Ra of 0.1 μm or less.
The hardness of the roller surface depends on the hardness of the resin component in the colored ink coating, but is preferably 40 or more and 90 or less. When the hardness is lower than 40, it becomes difficult to smooth the surface roughness of the ink film to 0.1 μm or less. If the hardness is higher than 90, the glass substrate is likely to be damaged. The resin film 34 has a thickness in the range of 30 to 80 μm, for example, 50 μm and is made of polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter referred to as PET). Release agent
34b is applied to a thickness of 1 μm or less, for example, several thousand angstroms.

Then, the colored ink film 23 of the color filter 20 is heated from above and below to a temperature near the softening point and is crushed by the heating and pressing roller 32 at a predetermined pressure. In this colored ink film, a resin film 34 is interposed between the colored ink film and the heating / pressurizing roller, and the striped colored ink film is continuously smoothed in the pattern direction, that is, in the longitudinal direction thereof. Be converted. In this smoothing step, the resin film 34 is arranged in an oblique direction with a predetermined angle with respect to the surface of the colored ink coating film to be smoothed, whereby the air present in the depressions of the colored ink coating film 23 is
While being extruded smoothly, the ink film is smoothed by the heating and pressing roller 32.

On the rear side after being smoothed by the heating and pressing roller, the colored ink film in which the resin film 34 is smoothed
It is designed to maintain a close contact with the surface of 23a. As a result, the colored ink coating surface is kept warm to prevent uneven temperature, and wrinkles and streaky traces are not generated on the coating surface in the subsequent peeling step. The pressure (linear pressure) applied by the heating / pressurizing roller 32 is 10 to 15 Kg / c.
m, and the feed rate was in the range of 15 to 30 cm / min.

Next, the order of smoothing by this apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. First, as shown in FIG.
The glass substrate 21 on which the colored color ink film 23 of the color filter 20 was printed was vacuum-adsorbed on the heating platen 31 and preheated to proceed as shown by an arrow Fg. This heating platen
The roller 32 and both film vertical movement control rollers 37 and 38 are at the upper position until the heat roller 31 reaches below the heating and pressing roller 32. Then, at a time point A (see FIG. 9, the same applies hereinafter) when the heating platen 31 approaches the front of the heating roller 32,
The take-up roll 39 is rotationally driven to convey the resin film 34 to the right in the figure. Thereby, the unused release agent surface of the resin film faces the colored ink film 23 to be smoothed.

Next, at time B when the heating platen 31 reaches below the heating and pressing roller 32, as shown in FIG. 4, the heating roller 32 and both film vertical movement control rollers 37 and 38 are moved to their original positions. From the point C, the heating / pressurizing roller 32 rotatably moves while crushing the colored ink film 23 at a predetermined pressure as shown by an arrow Fa, and smoothes the surface of the colored ink film. In the meantime, the resin film 34 moves to the right in the figure along with the movement of the heating platen 31 and the rotation of the heating / pressurizing roller 32. Appropriate tension is applied to the resin film 34 by the braking device 36 of the feed roll 35 and the torque motor 42 of the winding roll 39 to absorb the thermal expansion of the film and prevent slack from occurring. ing. On the side of the feed roll 35, the bubbles existing between the colored ink film surface and the resin film are smoothed while being pushed backward, that is, toward the feed roll side. This smoothing process corresponds to FIG.

Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the entire surface of the colored ink film is smoothed. The film vertical movement control roller 37 keeps the resin film in close contact with the smoothed ink film surface until the entire surface is smoothed.

Next, the colored ink film 23 on the glass substrate surface
After the entire surface has been smoothed, at the time point indicated by D, both film vertical movement control rollers 37, 38 are pushed up by the air cylinder as indicated by arrows Fd, Fe, as shown in FIG. As a result, the resin film 34 is strongly pulled obliquely upward from one end of the colored ink coating surface to the other end on the heating and pressing roller side, and peeled from the entire surface of the smoothed ink coating surface. When the peeling speed of the resin film is controlled so as to be in the range of 2 seconds to 50 seconds for a distance of 1 m in the direction of peeling of the colored ink film surface, streak-like marks are formed on the smoothed colored ink film surface. Good results were obtained without exception.

In this way, at the time point G after the resin film has been peeled off, as shown in FIG. 7, both film vertical movement control rollers 37, 38 are lifted and returned to their original positions, and at the same time, the heating / pressurizing roller 32 is used. To complete the smoothing. The smoothed color ink coating 13 had a thickness of 2.8 μm. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the heating platen 31 is returned to its original state, the smoothed color filter is removed, and the smoothing process of the next color filter is performed. Such an operation is automatically controlled by a well-known sequence control device using a microcomputer. Then, mass production can be performed at a relatively high processing speed. The color filter thus smoothed is heated at 200 to 250 ° C. for several hours to thermally cure the colored ink film. Further, an ITO film to be a counter electrode of the liquid crystal display device is formed on the colored ink film directly or through an overcoat layer.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the heating platen 31 is fixed without being moved, and the heating and pressing roller 32 disposed above the heating platen 31 is rotationally moved to smooth the colored ink film on the glass substrate. It is a device that does. In this smoothing step, the resin film 34 is scarcely wound around the winding roll 39 and is trampled by the heating and pressing roller 32. Then, with respect to the smoothed colored ink film surface, the film vertical movement control roller 37 is positioned on the extension of the surface of the colored ink film so that the film is kept in close contact with the film surface. ing. After the smoothing treatment of the entire surface is finished, the resin film is pulled in an oblique direction from one end of the colored ink coating surface to the other end on the side of the heating / pressurizing roller so as to be instantaneously peeled off, as in the above-described embodiment. It is configured.

The pattern of the colored ink film is not limited to a stripe pattern, and may be a regular array pattern in which pixels of each color are rectangular, and in that case, the heating roller is rotated in the longitudinal direction of the color pixels to smooth it. Moreover, it is desirable to peel the resin film in that direction. Alternatively, it may be a pattern of square or circular color pixels.

[0022]

As described above, according to the manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a color ink film surface having excellent smoothness with a relatively small pressing force. In particular, after smoothing the entire surface of the ink film, the resin film is automatically peeled off from the entire surface of the smoothed ink film, so that the ink film surface is automatically smoothed without causing wrinkles or lines. An excellent color ink film surface can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a main part in a smoothing process by the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the initial stage showing the operation of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing a state in a step subsequent to FIG.

5 is a schematic side view showing a state in a step subsequent to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing a state in a step subsequent to FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view showing a state in a step subsequent to FIG.

8 is a schematic side view showing a state in a step subsequent to FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a continuous operation of each member in the steps shown in FIGS.

FIG. 10 is a schematic side view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state after printing the coloring ink of a general color filter.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state in which the colored ink coating is smoothed.

FIG. 13 is a schematic side view showing an example of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 ... Translucent substrate, 23 ... Colored color ink film, 31 ... Heating platen, 32 ... Heating roller, 34 ... Resin film, 35 ... Resin film conveying device, 37, 38 ... Film vertical movement control roller.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A heating platen for mechanically supporting a back surface side of a light-transmissive substrate having a colored color ink film adhered to one surface thereof directly or via another layer, and a substrate support of the heating platen. And a heating / pressurizing roller which is disposed so as to face the ink surface on the substrate surface so as to rotate while heating and pressurizing the ink film on the substrate surface, and the ink film on the substrate surface supported by the heating platen. A thin resin film supplied between the pressure roller, a resin film supply roll which is disposed on one side of the heating and pressure roller and has a braking device, and a resin film supply roll which is disposed on the other side of the heating roller. And a resin film take-up roll driven by a torque motor, and a state in which the resin film is adhered to the ink film surface on the substrate is maintained for a predetermined time, and then the resin film is peeled from the ink film surface. Manufacturing apparatus of a color filter characterized by comprising a movably provided film vertical movement control roller in order.