JPH0791642B2 - Surface treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a surface treatment apparatus, and in particular, to the surface of a long cylindrical or cylindrical object to be treated such as a rod or a pipe, which is sprayed or plated in a vacuum atmosphere. The present invention relates to an apparatus for performing processing such as (vapor deposition, sputtering, ion plating), laser irradiation, and ion implantation.

[Prior Art] FIG. 4 shows a configuration of a conventional vacuum vapor deposition apparatus. In this apparatus, an evaporation material c is formed on the outer peripheral surface of a rod-shaped workpiece b in a vacuum chamber a.
Is a device for coating. First, the object d to be processed is supported by the chuck d of the supporting device in the vacuum chamber a, and is rotated around the axis. In this state, the evaporation material c in the crucible f supported by the hollow beam e is evaporated by the irradiation of the electron beam g from the electron gun, and the beam e is processed.
Horizontally move in the longitudinal direction. As a result, the object to be processed b
The outer peripheral surface of is uniformly coated with the evaporation material c. In the figure, h is a lid of the vacuum chamber a, and i is a sealing material that hermetically seals the space between the beam e and the vacuum chamber a.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In this way, the evaporation material c is coated,
When processing a long workpiece b, it is necessary to lengthen the beam e as well. However, since the high voltage cable for the electron gun and the cooling pipe for cooling the crucible f are built in the beam e, if the beam e is lengthened, the total weight of the beam e increases significantly, and as a result, the beam e There has been a problem that the driving device for horizontally moving e must be upsized, and the beam e is largely bent to shorten the life of the sealing material i.

Further, even if the output of the electron gun is increased to increase the evaporation rate of the evaporation material c in order to increase the processing speed, if the beam e is horizontally moved at a high speed correspondingly, the evaporation material c in the crucible f will be increased.
The liquid surface fluctuates and the droplets scatter to cause an overflow. That is, since the moving speed of the beam e cannot be increased so much, the coating takes time and the productivity is low.

Further, when the object b to be processed is attached to the chuck d of the supporting device, the object b to be processed is loaded into the vacuum tank a by a crane or the like with the lid h of the vacuum tank a opened. Therefore,
The processing is batch processing, and the exhaust operation in the vacuum chamber a is required each time, so that the productivity is further reduced and the quality of the coating varies.

Thus, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to provide a surface treatment apparatus capable of treating a long workpiece with a simple structure with high productivity and high quality.

[Means for Solving Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the surface treatment apparatus of the present invention has an evaporation source or an irradiation source on the outer peripheral surface of a long cylindrical or cylindrical object to be treated under a vacuum atmosphere. In a surface treatment apparatus for performing treatments such as thermal spraying, plating, ion implantation, laser irradiation, etc., the evaporation source or irradiation source is fixed, and the object to be processed is axially transferred while being rotated around its axis. Therefore, the rotary transfer means is provided which sandwiches the outer peripheral portion of the object to be processed, is provided so as to be inclined in mutually opposite directions from the axial direction of the object to be processed, and has at least a pair of engaging members that rotate in the same direction. It is a thing.

[Operation] By fixing the evaporation source or irradiation source and performing the processing while transferring the object to be processed in this way, the conventional restrictions due to the fluctuation or overflow of the liquid surface of the evaporation material are eliminated, and the evaporation rate Also, the moving speed of the object to be processed can be increased to improve the productivity.

Further, in order to move the evaporation source and the irradiation source, it is necessary to move the high-voltage cable and the cooling pipe together, and the device for that becomes large, but in the method of moving the object to be treated like the present invention, Transfer means with a simple structure is sufficient.

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the structure of a surface treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This apparatus performs vacuum deposition as a surface treatment. A cleaning chamber 3 is arranged following the front seal chambers 1 and 2, and a vapor deposition chamber 4 is arranged in connection with the cleaning chamber 3. Further, rear sealing chambers 5 and 6 are sequentially connected to the vapor deposition chamber 4. Each of the chambers 1 to 6 is partitioned from each other by a partition wall 9 having a narrowed portion 8 having a diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the object 7 to be processed.
~ 15 are connected. Further, the narrowed portion 8 of each partition wall 9, the inlet 16 of the front seal chamber 1 and the outlet of the rear seal chamber 6
Each 17 has a door (not shown) that can be opened and closed.

In the front seal chambers 1 and 2 and in the rear seal chambers 5 and 6, a transport roll 18 is provided, and in the cleaning chamber 3 and the vapor deposition chamber 4, rotatable free rolls 19 are provided.
Further, a carry-in roll 20 is provided in front of the front seal chamber 1, and a carry-out roll 21 is provided in the rear of the rear seal chamber 6.

Further, in the cleaning chamber 3, two sets of the rotary transfer device 22 and the ion gun are installed.
In the vapor deposition chamber 4, two sets of rotary transfer devices 22 and evaporation sources 24 are provided. Incidentally. The evaporation source 24 is an electron gun 25,
It is composed of a crucible 26 and an evaporation material 27. Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the rotary transfer device 22 has drive shafts 29 and 30 which are respectively inclined from the central shaft 28 of the object 7 by an angle θ in opposite directions, and these drive shafts 29 are also provided.
And a pair of columnar engaging members 31 and 32 that rotate in the same direction at the same speed. Further, the distance between the drive shafts 29 and 30 and the inclination angle θ are adjustable.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

First, the vacuum pump 10 to 10 with the doors of the inlet 16 of the front seal chamber 1 and the outlet 17 of the rear seal chamber 6 closed and the doors provided in the narrowed portions 8 of each partition wall 9 opened.
15 is activated, and the pressure in each chamber 1 to 6 is exhausted to the level of 10 ^-6 Torr. Next, the door 16 of the inlet 16 of the front seal chamber 1 is opened, the object 7 to be processed is carried into the front seal chamber 1 by the carry-in roll 20, and the object 7 to be processed is further conveyed to the front seal chamber 18 by the transfer roll 18. It is sent to the rotary transfer device 22 in the cleaning chamber 3 via 2.

A force as shown in FIG. 3 acts on the workpiece 7 sandwiched by the pair of engaging members 31 and 32 rotating in the rotary transfer device 22 at the contacts O ₁ and O ₂ . That is, the engaging member
At the contact point O ₁ with 31, a force F ₁ acts in the rotation direction of the engaging member 31, and this force F ₁ is a component force F _{2 in the} direction of the central axis 28 of the workpiece 7.
And the component force F _{3 in the} direction perpendicular to this. On the other hand, at the contact point O ₂ with the engaging member 32, force is applied in the rotating direction of the engaging member 32.
F ₄ acts, and this force F ₄ is decomposed into a component force F _{5 in the} direction of the central axis 28 and a component force F _{6 in the} direction orthogonal thereto. Where each engaging member
Since the inclination angles θ of 31 and 32 are equal and inclined in opposite directions, the component forces F ₃ and F ₆ are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, that is, the workpiece 7 rotates about the central axis 28. It becomes a couple to let. Further, the remaining component forces F ₂ and F ₅ have the same magnitude in the same direction and serve as thrust for moving the workpiece 7 in the direction of the central axis 28. Therefore, the object 7 is conveyed while rotating on the free roll 19.

The workpiece 7 thus transported is irradiated with ions such as argon by the ion gun 23 in the cleaning chamber 3 to clean its surface. Further, the object to be processed 7 is conveyed to the vapor deposition chamber 4 by the rotary transfer device 22, and the vaporization material 27 is vapor-deposited by the evaporation source 24 while rotating and moving.

The object 7 to be vapor-deposited is transported by the transport rolls in the rear seal chambers 5 and 6, and is discharged from the discharge port 17.

The carrying speed by the carry-in roll 20, the carry roll 18, and the carry-out roll 21 and the carry speed by the rotary transfer device 22 are adjusted to the same speed, and the carry-in, the surface treatment, and the carry-out of the object 7 are continuously performed. To be done.

Further, although air flows through the gap between the narrowed portion 8 of each chamber and the object to be processed 7 passing therethrough, each chamber is constantly evacuated by the vacuum pumps 10 to 15 and the front seal chambers 1 and 2 and the rear portion. The seal chambers 5 and 6 are differentially evacuated so that the pressure gradually decreases toward the cleaning chamber 3 and the vapor deposition chamber 4, so that the vapor deposition chamber 4 has a pressure of 10 ^-5 Torr and the cleaning chamber 3 has a pressure of 10 ^-2 Torr. The table is maintained at an appropriate pressure.

Further, the ratio of the conveyance speed of the workpiece 7 to the rotation speed in the rotary transfer device 22 can be adjusted by changing the inclination angle θ of the engaging members 31 and 32. Further, as the engaging member, a belt or a rope can be used instead of the columnar member.

When the object to be processed is a hollow one such as a pipe, blind plugs are provided at both ends of the material to be processed so that the material can be treated in the same manner as a solid rod.

Although the vacuum vapor deposition apparatus has been described in the above embodiment,
The present invention is not limited to this, and is widely applied to a sputtering device, an ion plating device, a thermal spraying device, a laser irradiation device, an ion implantation device, etc., which processes a long workpiece in a vacuum atmosphere.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects are exhibited.

(1) Since the process is performed with the evaporation source fixed, there is no restriction due to the fluctuation or overflow of the liquid surface of the evaporation material, and the evaporation rate and the moving speed of the object to be processed can be increased to improve the productivity.

(2) Since continuous treatment is possible instead of batch treatment, the productivity is further improved, and the surface treatment chamber is always kept in a constant atmosphere to obtain a high-quality product without variations.

(3) The object to be processed can be rotated and transferred simultaneously with a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the structure of a surface treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are a plan view and a side view of a rotary transfer apparatus used in the embodiment, respectively. The figure is a block diagram of a conventional example. In the figure, 7 is an object to be treated, 22 is a rotary transfer device, and 24 is an evaporation source.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A surface treatment apparatus for performing treatment such as thermal spraying, plating, ion implantation, laser irradiation, etc. from an evaporation source or an irradiation source in a vacuum atmosphere on the outer peripheral surface of a long cylindrical or cylindrical object to be treated, The evaporation source or irradiation source is fixed, and the object to be processed is transferred in the axial direction while rotating around its axis, so that the outer peripheral portion of the object to be processed is sandwiched and the object to be processed is axially separated from each other. A surface treatment apparatus comprising: a rotation transfer means having at least a pair of engaging members which are provided so as to be inclined in opposite directions and rotate in the same direction.