JPH10277916A - Rubbing roller and rubbing device of liquid crystal substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a device which can set parallelism of the outer surface of textile roller with the table surface on the rubbing device of liquid crystal substrate correctly and easily. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a cylinder 53 of which outer surface is pasted with textile, an end member 56 with a cone receiver 57, facing to the outside, which is attached on a bore side in both ends of the cylinder through a bearing 55 so that it can rotate freely and fixing at least an axial direction position to the inside, and a rotation receiver 64 installed in an end of the cylinder. Preferably, a narrow air passage 62 connected to the inside of the cylinder 53 through inside of the bearing 55 is formed, and at least either one side of the end member 56 is constructed to provide with an air absorbing port penetrating to an axial direction. Even when the eccentricity and the tilt of a roller 52 are caused by catching dust between the cone receiver 57 and the tip of the cone 66, as the eccentricity and the tilt are static, they can be corrected easily by the adjustment of elevating amounts of a table and the adjustment of tilt amounts adjusting means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rubbing device for a liquid crystal substrate, that is, a device for rubbing an alignment film on the surface of a glass substrate with a rotating roller having a cloth adhered to the peripheral surface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A rubbing step, which is one of the steps of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, is a step of rubbing an alignment film on the surface of a glass substrate with a cloth to form fine grooves for aligning liquid crystal molecules. The apparatus used in this step includes a table for vacuum-sucking the glass substrate, a roller with a cloth stuck on its peripheral surface, its support and rotation drive mechanism, and a feed mechanism for relatively moving the table and the roller.

A glass substrate to be processed is fixed to a table, the direction of the glass substrate is determined by a table turning device attached to the table, and a gap (rubbing pressure) with a roller is set by an elevating device. The roller is fixed to a rotating shaft with both ends sandwiched, and the degree of parallelism with the glass substrate surface is set by a tilt device, and the sliding direction is set by a roller turning device. By moving the table or the roller by the feeder in this state, the entire surface of the glass substrate is rubbed.

[0004] The cloth used for rubbing wears in a short time, and if the cloth is worn, the processing accuracy cannot be maintained. Therefore, the rollers must be replaced frequently. In order to facilitate this replacement, the conventional rubbing device is, as shown in FIG. 5, a roller 72 provided with conical recesses 71 at both end axes, and a conical tip of a driving spindle 73 provided at a fixed position. A structure is employed in which the supporting member 74 is sandwiched and supported by a conical tip 76 of a free-rotating spindle 75 which is provided so as to be capable of moving forward and backward in the axial direction.

The driving spindle 73 and the free rotation spindle 75 are rotatably supported by bearings 77, and a motor 78 for rotating the driving spindle 73 is provided.

When replacing the roller 72, the roller 72
, The free rotation spindle 75 is retracted, and the roller 72 is dropped on the pedestal 27.
Move and unload. The new roller is placed on the pedestal 27 and carried between the spindles 73 and 75, and the free-rotation spindle 75 is advanced to thereby form the conical recess 71.
The spindles 73 and 75 are fixed between the spindles 73 and 75 by the self-centering action by the fitting of the conical tips 74 and 76.

[0007]

Rubbing is a process in which a cloth adhered to a peripheral surface of a roller is brought into line contact with a glass substrate having a predetermined width in a certain width, and is a fine processing.
The degree of parallelism between the peripheral surface of the cloth and the surface of the glass substrate has a significant effect on the rubbing accuracy and thus on the display quality of the liquid crystal panel.

On the other hand, it is difficult to avoid undulation in the thickness of the cloth stuck on the roller surface. Therefore, every time the roller is replaced, the parallelism between the table and the peripheral surface of the roller is adjusted, and this adjustment operation requires skilled skills.

As a glass substrate of a liquid crystal panel, a conventional 4
Although a size of about 00 × 500 mm was used, a larger substrate was required due to an increase in the size of the panel surface itself and a demand for improved productivity by arranging many panels on one substrate and performing simultaneous processing. It is being used. However, as the size of the substrate increases, the difficulty of maintaining the parallelism between the substrate surface and the cloth surface increases at an accelerated pace, resulting in a decrease in the display quality of the manufactured liquid crystal panel and an increase in productivity due to an increase in adjustment work load. The problem of reduction occurs.

According to the present invention, it is easy to maintain the parallelism between the peripheral surface of the cloth affixed to the roller and the table surface, so that a large-sized glass substrate can be rubbed more accurately and efficiently with less work load. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a device capable of performing such operations.

[0011]

A rubbing roller according to the present invention comprises a cylindrical member 53 having a cloth adhered to an outer peripheral surface thereof, and a rotatable and at least inwardly rotating shaft on both inner diameter sides of the cylindrical member via bearings 55. It comprises an end member 56 having an outwardly facing cone receiver 57 mounted in a defined direction and a rotation receiver 64 provided at one end of the cylindrical body.

A rubbing roller according to a second aspect of the present invention is the rubbing roller having the above structure, wherein the bearing 55 is provided between the bearing 55 and the end member 56 outside the bearing 55 provided at the end of the cylindrical body 53. A narrow air passage 62 communicating with the inside of the cylindrical body 53 is formed through the end member 5.
6 has an air suction port 58 penetrating in the axial direction.
It is provided with.

The rubbing device according to the present invention includes a roller support mechanism A for supporting the rubbing roller, a roller drive mechanism B for rotating the rubbing roller, a table 22, and a feed moving mechanism C for the table or roller support mechanism A. ,
The roller support mechanism A is a rubbing device having a fixed side and a movable side support shaft 41, 49 in which the movable side is provided with a conical end 66 at the opposing ends and the movable side is able to advance and retreat in the axial direction with respect to the fixed side. The shaft 41 is a roller support frame 38
The movable side support shaft 49 is fixed to the roller support frame 38 so as to be non-rotatable and axially movable, and the roller support frame 38 is supported by the support shafts 41 and 49.
Tilt amount adjusting means 5 which can swing about a pivot shaft 37 that intersects with the table 22 and is parallel to the surface of the table 22, and adjusts the swing angle of the roller support frame 38 around the pivot shaft 37.
1 and the roller driving mechanism B includes a fixed-side support shaft 41
And a drive ring 43 having a rotation transmitting end 63 that is rotatably mounted on the outer periphery of the support shaft and faces the distal end side of the support shaft.

A rubbing device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the rubbing device having the above-described structure, wherein at least one of the support shafts 41 and 49 has an air suction hole 68 opened at the tip thereof and communicated with an air suction source. In the rubbing device according to the fifth aspect, the fixed-side support shaft 41 is opened on the inner diameter side of the rotation transmitting end 63 of the drive ring 43 and has the air suction holes 67 and 68 communicated with the air suction source. It is equipped.

[0015]

The rubbing process is carried out in the same manner as in the prior art by mounting the rubbing roller according to the first or second aspect of the present invention on the rubbing device according to the third, fourth or fifth aspect of the present invention.

In the apparatus of the present invention, the rubbing roller 52
Are held at both ends by non-rotating support shafts 41 and 49, and only the cylindrical body 53 is rotated by receiving a rotational force from the drive ring 43 via the rotation receiver 64 and the rotation transmitting end 63. The end members 56 of the rubbing roller also do not rotate.

In the rubbing processing, fine grooves are formed by rubbing a glass substrate with a cloth, so that fine dust is generated. If this dust gets caught between the roller cone receiver 57 and the conical end 66 of the support shaft when replacing the roller, the roller 52 will be slightly eccentric. Both spindles 73, 7
In the conventional means in which the roller 5 rotates, the fluctuation of the parallelism between the cloth peripheral surface and the surface of the substrate glass and the fluctuation of the gap caused by this eccentricity occur periodically with the rotation of the roller 52. The error cannot be canceled.

On the other hand, according to the means of the present invention, the cone receiver 57 is provided.
The dust or the like is trapped between the
Even if the eccentricity or inclination occurs, since the eccentricity or inclination is static, the eccentricity or inclination can be canceled by adjusting the elevation amount of the table and adjusting the tilt amount adjusting means 51 provided in the roller support mechanism. Accordingly, the allowable range of the accuracy adjustment is widened and the adjustment operation is facilitated, and the accuracy obtained by the adjustment is also increased. Further, since there is no positional change caused by rotation, machining can be performed more accurately.

In a case where the rubbing roller according to the second aspect is mounted on the rubbing device according to the fourth aspect, when the lubricating oil sealed in the bearing interposed between the rollers is scattered, the lubricating oil flows through the bearing. Can be discharged through the inside of the roller, so that the bearings 55, 55
There is no risk that the lubricating oil will scatter in the processing area, and a higher quality liquid crystal panel can be obtained.

Further, the rubbing device according to the fifth aspect has a first aspect.
Also, when rubbing is performed by mounting the rubbing roller described in 2 above, even if dust is generated due to contact and separation between the rotation receiver 64 and the rotation transmitting end 63, the dust is discharged by the air flow, so that the dust is discharged. Can be further reduced, and a higher quality liquid crystal panel can be obtained.

[0021]

FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 show an embodiment of the present invention. The rubbing device of this embodiment has a rectangular base 1 and a gate-shaped support frame 2 erected on the right side of the center of the upper surface of the base. Two fixed rails 3 extending in the left-right direction are provided at the center of the base 1. A carriage 4 is movably provided on the fixed rail 3, and a nut member 5 provided on the lower surface of the carriage 4 is screwed into a screw rod 6 mounted between the fixed rails 3. Screw rod is base 1
The motor is driven forward and reverse by a feed motor 7 built therein.

On the upper surface of the carriage 4, the support frame 2 side is an upward surface 8 having a high inclination angle θ, and two moving rails 9 extending toward the support frame side are fixed to the upward surface 8. On the moving rail 9, an elevator 12 having a downward surface 11 having a low inclination angle θ on the side opposite to the support frame is slidably provided.
The nut member 13 provided on the lower surface of the screw 2 is screwed to a screw rod 14 mounted between the moving rails 9. A driven gear 15 is fixed to an end of the screw rod 14 on the support frame side, and the driven gear 15 is connected to a driving gear 17 of an elevating motor 16 built in the carriage 4 by an intermediate gear 18.

A vertical rotary shaft 19 is provided at the center of the upper surface of the lift 12, and a bevel gear (not shown) is fixed to a lower end of the rotary shaft 19. The bevel gear meshes with a bevel gear fixed to a drive shaft of a turning motor 21 provided on a side surface of the lift. A rectangular turning table 22 is fixed to the upper end of the rotating shaft 19. A number of through holes 23 in the thickness direction are opened on the upper surface of the turntable, and four immersion holes of the knock pin 24 are opened. Through hole 23
Are connected to each other at their lower ends, and are connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) after the communication, so that a glass substrate to be rubbed is sucked to a table.

A receiving table 27 is provided on the transport rail 25 via a slider 26, and a receiving tool 28 having a recess at the center of the upper surface of the receiving table is fixed. When the rubbing roller 52 to be described later is replaced, the receiving table 27 advances on the transport rail toward the support frame, receives the rubbing roller that falls, and carries it out of the support frame.

From the center of the top plate 31 of the support frame 2, the swing bearing 3
The second outer ring 33 is suspended, and a horizontal plate 36 is fixed to the lower surface of the inner ring 34 of the slewing bearing. The support frame is provided with a clamp device 35 for fixing the inner ring.
A roller support frame 38 is swingably held at the center of the horizontal plate 36 via a horizontal pivot pin 37. At one end of the roller support frame 38, a fixed support table 39 facing the center side is provided. The fixed support table 39 is provided with a support shaft 41 and a drive motor 42. The drive motor 42 is connected to a drive ring 43 rotatably provided on the outer periphery of a support shaft 41 via a bearing 40 by a belt 44.

A horizontal guide 47 is provided at the other end of the roller support frame, and a movable support 48 is provided on the horizontal guide 47 so as to be able to move toward and away from the fixed support 39. The movable support base 48 is provided with a support shaft 49, and both support shafts 41 and 49 are on the same horizontal line. The other end of the roller support frame is provided with an elevating block 46 screwed to the ball screw 45. The ball screw 45 is driven to rotate by a servo motor 51 mounted on the horizontal plate 36, and the roller support frame 38
Is slightly rotated around the pivot pin 37.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a rubbing roller mounted on a rubbing device. The rubbing roller 52 has a cylindrical body 53 to which a cloth is stuck on the outer peripheral surface, and a bearing 55 is provided on a flange 54 protruding inside both ends of the cylindrical body 53. A ring-shaped end member 56 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the bearing 55, and the inner peripheral surface of this end member is
The cone receiver 57 is opened outward. An opening 58 is formed inside the cone receiver 57. A bearing retaining ring 59 having a ring-shaped concave groove is fixed to both ends of the cylindrical body 53, and a bearing retaining ring 59 having a ridge is fixed to the outer end surface of the end member 56. The groove and the ridge of both stoppers are loosely fitted with each other to form a zigzag labyrinth 62. The retaining ring 59 on the right side in the figure is provided with a claw 63 extending in the axial direction.
3 is engaged with a claw 64 provided on an end face on the rubbing roller side. A labyrinth 65 is also provided on the drive ring 43 on the side opposite to the rubbing roller.

The distal end of the fixed-side support shaft 41 has a conical end 66 that fits into the conical receiver 57, and a radial through hole 67 is provided at a position slightly retreated from the conical end 66. The through hole 67 is formed in an axial hole 68 passing through the axis of the support shaft 41.
The other end of the shaft hole 68 opens at the base end surface of the support shaft 41, and is connected to a vacuum pump via a suction pipe (not shown).

The operation of the rubbing device will be described below. The rubbing roller 52 is supported by the receiving stand 27 and is conveyed immediately below the support frame. The movable support 48 is moved to the fixed support 39, and the conical ends 66 of the support shafts 41 and 49 provided on both supports are fitted into the conical receiver 57 of the rubbing roller. As a result, the rubbing roller 52 is nipped by the roller support frame 38 via the bearing 55 and floats from the receiving table 27. The cradle 27 is moved backward to complete the preparation. The glass substrate 69 is vacuum-sucked on the upper surface of the swivel table 22, and the elevation motor 16 and the swivel motor 21 are driven to determine the height and direction of the swivel table. The glass substrate is moved toward the support frame 2 by driving the feed motor 7. The slewing bearing is rotated to rotate the horizontal plate 36 to a desired angle, and the driving motor 42 rotates the rubbing roller 52. The glass substrate is rubbed by a rubbing roller, and a fine groove in one running direction is formed on the upper surface thereof. With the rotation of the rubbing roller, the bearings 55, 5
5 scatters lubricating oil and generates dust. Since this oil and dust are discharged outside the machine through the through hole 68 of the support shaft,
Oil and dust do not scatter on the glass substrate.

When the cloth of the rubbing roller is worn, the rubbing roller is replaced. After confirming that the carriage 4 has returned to the home position, the slewing bearing is rotated to make the rubbing roller 52 orthogonal to the transport rail 25. Next, the receiving table 27 is advanced directly below the rubbing roller, and the moving-side support shaft 49 of the roller support frame is retracted. As a result, the rubbing roller is disengaged from both support shafts 49, and the end member on the opposite side is also disengaged from the support shaft. Return the cradle holding the rubbing roller to the home position and replace it with a new rubbing roller.

The receiving table 27 is advanced, a new rubbing roller is placed immediately below the roller support frame, and the movable support shaft is advanced. The conical tip 66 of the support shaft is fitted into the conical recess 71 of the end member, and the rubbing roller is nipped by the support shafts 41 and 49 on both sides while slightly moving to the right. At this time, dust may enter the fitting portion and the axes of the two support shafts and the rubbing roller may be shifted. In this case, the servo motor 51 is driven to move the elevating block 46 up and down so that the axis of the rubbing roller is parallel to the upper surface of the glass substrate.
The rubbing process is started again.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a rubbing roller and a supporting mechanism thereof.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a rubbing device.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a rubbing device.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a rubbing device.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional rubbing roller and its supporting mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 22 Swivel table 37 Pivot pin 38 Roller support frame 41 Support shaft 43 Drive ring 49 Support shaft 51 Servo motor 52 Rubbing roller 53 Cylindrical body 55 Bearing 56 End member 57 Cone receiver 58 Opening 62 Labyrinth 63 Claw 64 Claw 66 Cone end 67 Penetration Hole 68 Shaft hole A Roller support mechanism B Roller drive mechanism C Feed mechanism

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cylindrical body (53) having a cloth adhered to the outer peripheral surface thereof, and the cylindrical body is mounted on bearings (55) on both inner diameter sides of both ends by defining a rotatable and at least inward axial position through bearings (55). A rubbing roller comprising: an end member (56) having a conical receiver (57) directed outward; and a rotation receiver (64) provided at one end of the cylindrical body. 2. A bearing (5) provided at an end of a cylindrical body (53).
A narrow air flow path (62) communicating with the inside of the cylindrical body (53) via the inside of the bearing (55) is formed between the bearing and the end member (56) outside the end member (56), and the end member (56) At least one of the air suction ports is provided with an air suction port (58) penetrating in the axial direction.
The rubbing roller as described. 3. A roller support mechanism for supporting a rubbing roller, and a roller drive mechanism for rotating the rubbing roller.
(B), a table (22), and a feed moving mechanism (C) for the table or roller supporting mechanism (A), and the roller supporting mechanism is provided.
(A) is a rubbing device having a fixed side and a movable side support shaft (41, 49) which are provided with conical ends (66) at opposite ends thereof and which are movable on the movable side in the axial direction with respect to the fixed side. The fixed-side support shaft (41) is non-rotatably fixed to the roller support frame (38), and the movable-side support shaft (49) is non-rotatably and axially movable mounted on the roller support frame (38). The support frame (38) intersects with the support shafts (41, 49) and is swingable about a pivot shaft (37) parallel to the surface of the table (22). A tilt amount adjusting means (51) for adjusting a swing angle about the shaft (37) is provided, and the roller drive mechanism (B) is rotatably mounted on the outer periphery of the fixed-side support shaft (41). A rubbing device comprising a drive ring (43) having a rotation transmitting end (63) facing the front end of the rubbing device. 4. An air suction hole (6) having at least one of the support shafts (41, 49) opened at the tip thereof and communicated with an air suction source.
The rubbing device according to claim 3, further comprising (8). 5. A fixed support shaft (41) is connected to said drive ring (43).
The rubbing device according to claim 3 or 4, further comprising an air suction hole (67, 68) opened on the inner diameter side of the rotation transmitting end (63) of the first air passage and connected to an air suction source.