JPH08162054A - Area type electron beam irradiation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an area type electron beam irradiation device which is intended to shorten the time required for release for replacement when a filament is broken. CONSTITUTION: This device has a filament device 5 having a plurality of filament mechanisms 51 arranged along the circumference within the internal vertical section of a vacuum chamber, and a rotating mechanism 6 for rotating the filament device 5 around the circumferential center, thereby moving each filament mechanism 51 to a position corresponding to an electron beam irradiation window 7. The rotating mechanism 6 is constituted so as to be operable from the atmospheric side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an area type electron beam irradiation apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in an area type electron beam irradiation apparatus, a filament is arranged in a shield electrode installed inside a vacuum chamber, and electrons emitted from the filament are irradiated with an electron beam irradiated in the vacuum chamber. It is designed to be taken out through the window into the atmosphere.

The conventional configuration will be described with reference to FIG.
Reference numeral 1 is a vacuum chamber, 2 is a tank containing a booster circuit (not shown), and the inside thereof is filled with an insulating gas. 3 is an insulating spacer, which insulates and supports the shield electrode 4 which is a high voltage part with respect to the vacuum chamber 1 which is the ground potential, and which separates the vacuum chamber 1 which is the vacuum region and the tank 2 which is the gas region. There is. The shield electrode 4 is
The electron beam irradiation port 1 is formed in a cylindrical shape and a part of the lower surface is formed.
4 are installed.

Reference numeral 51 denotes a filament mechanism, which is provided inside the shield electrode 4 facing the electron beam irradiation port 14. The series-connected filaments 511 of the filament mechanism 51 are as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. A plurality of filaments 511 are arranged in parallel at equal intervals, and each end of the filaments 511 is sandwiched and fixed using a filament holder 512 and a pressing tool 515 so that the filaments 511 are connected in series. , And is attached to a frame-shaped mounting plate 514 via a frame-shaped insulating plate 513. The mounting plate 514 is used for the electron beam irradiation port 14
Is fixed inside. The filament mechanism 51 is energized from an external power source (not shown) via the introduction terminal 9 and the lead wire 52. Reference numeral 8 is a screen for electron extraction attached to the electron beam irradiation port 14 of the shield electrode 4 via an insulator 15. Reference numeral 7 is an electron beam irradiation window provided at a position facing the electron beam irradiation port 14 below the vacuum chamber 1.

[0005] With the above arrangement, when the filament 511 is heated is energized by a power supply (not shown), from which pops out thermal electrons e ^over the area shape is drawn by screen 8 for an electronic drawer. After that, it is accelerated by the potential difference between the potential of the shield electrode 4 and the potential of the vacuum chamber 1,
It is taken out into the atmosphere through the electron beam irradiation window 7 and is irradiated to an irradiation target (not shown).

[0006]

By the way, in the area type electron beam irradiation apparatus having such a structure, in the structure of the conventional filament mechanism 51 as described above which is used for this, when the filament 511 is broken, It needs to be replaced. However, the filament mechanism 5 attached to the shield electrode 4 by breaking the vacuum of the chamber 1
It is necessary to remove 1 and attach a new filament mechanism 51, and then evacuate the chamber 1 to confirm that the desired degree of vacuum has been reached before performing conditioning. As a result, the workability is poor, and this work takes several hours.

For example, when the apparatus is used to irradiate an electron beam to cure a coating film, and the filament is suddenly cut, all the apparatuses must be temporarily stopped to replace the filament mechanism. There was also a problem that the charged paint and the like was wasted.

According to the present invention, it is not necessary to stop the operation of the apparatus when the filament is cut, facilitating the work for restoration and shortening the time required for replacement.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a filament device having a plurality of filament mechanisms arranged along the circumference of the inside of a shield electrode is made to be rotatable about the center of the circumference. And a rotating mechanism for bringing the rotating mechanism to a position corresponding to the electron beam irradiation port, and the rotating mechanism is operated from the atmosphere side.

[0010]

When the filament breaks, the filament device is rotated by operating the rotating mechanism installed in the gas in the tank by operating from the atmosphere side, and the vacuum state in the vacuum chamber is maintained. Another normal filament mechanism arranged along the circumference inside the shield electrode is rotatably conveyed to a position corresponding to the electron beam irradiation port. As a result, an electric current can be immediately applied to the normal filament to emit thermoelectrons.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal peripheral structure of a shield electrode 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view and FIG. 4 is a wiring diagram. still,
Portions denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 indicate the same or corresponding portions.

As in the conventional case, the filament mechanism 51 is constructed by connecting a plurality of filaments 511 arranged in parallel and supported in series. According to the present invention, in the filament mechanism 51, the filament 511 has the rotating shaft 6 of the rotating mechanism 6.
A plurality (two in the example shown in FIGS. 1 to 4) are provided so that the planes of the filaments 511 arranged in parallel are parallel to the central axis.
The tip of each filament mechanism 51 is connected by a pair of arms 58. The other end is a circular end plate 55
It is fixed to. The end plate 55 includes a circular insulating plate 11
A contactor 53 that is in contact with the conductor 10 that is fixed to the lead terminal 9 and is electrically connected to the lead wire 12 from the introduction terminal 9 is attached.
1 is connected to the filament 511. Contactor 53
Is in the support 59 attached to the end plate 55 and is pushed by the spring 54 so that it can be expanded and contracted for a short distance. Therefore, when the filament device 5 is rotated, it is possible to easily make contact with and separate from the conductor 10. A plurality of filament mechanisms 51 are arranged on the circumference of the inside of the shield electrode, and the filament mechanism 51 is constituted by all of them.

The end plate 55 of the filament device 5 is fixed to one end of a rotating shaft 61 which is a part of the rotating mechanism 6. The rotary shaft 61 coincides with the center of the circumference, and the filament device 5 rotates around the circumference. Further, the rotary shaft 61 extends over the gas region and the vacuum region through the introduction terminal flange 16 fixed to the shield electrode 4 via the sealing material 18 described later, but is in the introduction terminal flange 16. Since the shaft seal 17 and the rotary shield are shielded, the gas in the gas region does not enter the vacuum region.

The sealing material 18 is cylindrical and has an insulating spacer 3 which insulates the vacuum chamber 1 from the shield electrode 4 and separates the vacuum portion of the vacuum chamber 1 from the gas portion of the tank 2. Supported.

The other end of the rotary shaft 61 is connected to a pulse motor 62 for rotating the filament device 5. A motor controller 63 for controlling this, including the pulse motor 62, is inside the tank 2 (high potential side), and an operating mechanism such as the control panel 13 is outside the vacuum chamber 1 (ground potential side). . The control panel 13 and the motor controller 63 are connected by an optical fiber 66, and the control signal p is transmitted and received via the optical fiber 66. The driving power source for the pulse motor 62 and the motor controller 63 is obtained from the tertiary winding 65 which is the secondary side wiring of the filament transformer 64.

The filament transformer 64 located on the ground potential side in order to generate a thermoelectron by passing an electric current through the filament mechanism 51 is connected to the conductor 10 fixed to the insulating plate 11 via the lead-in terminal 9 and the lead wire 12. linked.

The filament mechanism 51 is for area beams, and the filament device 5 in which a plurality of the filament mechanisms are integrated is cantilevered by the rotating shaft 61.
Therefore, the filament support plate 56 is attached to the tip of the filament mechanism 51, and the end ring 5 described later is used.
Since it contacts the inside of 7, the filament device 5 is prevented from hanging down. Further, since the end ring 57 is attached to the bottom portion inside the shield electrode 4, and the filament support plate 56 is in contact with the inside of the end ring 57, when the filament device 5 is rotated, it slides smoothly. You can do it.

With the above construction, when the filament 511 in the filament mechanism 51 being used breaks, the control board 13 is operated, and the control signal p is sent from there through the optical fiber 66 to the motor controller 63, and then the motor control is performed. A drive signal is sent from the device 63 to the pulse motor 62. As a result, the pulse motor 62 rotates, and along with the rotation of the rotating shaft 61, the filament device 5 connected to one end of the rotating shaft 61 also rotates at the same time.

A contactor 53 fixed to the end plate 55 and electrically connected to the filament mechanism.
Are pushed by the spring 54 as described above. Since the contactor 53 and the conductor 10 are in a positional relationship where they collide with each other when the filament device 5 rotates, when the filament device 5 is rotated and the filament mechanism 51 is switched, the contactor 53 of the filament mechanism 51 is expanded and contracted by the expansion and contraction of the spring 54. Will get on and off the conductor 10. Therefore, the conductor 10 and the contact 53 can be easily detached / contacted, and the electrical switching can be smoothly performed. Here, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the number of the filament mechanisms 51 is two has been described, but as shown in FIG. 5, the filament device 5 may be composed of three or more filament devices 5. Even in that case, each filament mechanism 51 is arranged on the circumference inside the shield electrode, and the filament device 5 is rotated by operating the rotating mechanism 6 from the atmosphere side.
It goes without saying that switching 1 is the same as in the previous embodiment.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the pulse motor 62 is used to rotate the filament device 5, but in place of this, another controllable motor such as a rotary solenoid may be used. .

[0021]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a filament device in which a plurality of filament mechanisms are integrated is provided, and a rotating mechanism for rotating the filament mechanism is selectively operated by operating from the atmosphere side. Since the new filament mechanism can be brought to the position corresponding to the electron beam irradiation port, it is possible to shorten the time for exchanging the filament mechanism each time the filament is cut, and to reduce the vacuum chamber Since the opening is not required, the workability is not suppressed at all.

[0022]

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an AA ′ arrow view in FIG. 1 when two filament mechanisms 51 are attached in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a filament device 5 according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an arrow view of the present invention in which three filament mechanisms 51 are attached.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a configuration of a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a filament mechanism 51.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the filament mechanism 51.

[Explanation of symbols]

4: the shield electrode 5: Filament device 6: Rotation mechanism 7: electron beam irradiation window 13: control panel 51: Filament mechanism 511: Filament e ^over: thermionic

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of filament mechanisms, each of which has a plurality of filaments arranged in parallel and connected in series, and which emits thermoelectrons in an area-like manner, are provided inside a shield electrode, and a plurality of filament mechanisms are arranged in a circumferential direction of the shield electrode. A rotation for rotating the filament device around the center of the circumference so that the filament device arranged along the line and each filament mechanism of the filament device are conveyed to a position corresponding to the electron beam irradiation port provided in the shield electrode. An area type electron beam irradiation apparatus comprising a mechanism and an operation mechanism arranged on the atmosphere side for remotely operating the rotation mechanism.