JPH1125854A - Roller hearth type continuous kiln for plasma display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a roller heath type continuos kiln for plasma display panel capable of easily conducting kiln maintenance, such as removal of impurities attached to the surface of a muffle or removal of broken pieces of a glass substrate from the inside of the muffle. SOLUTION: This roller hearth continuous kiln has a treatment chamber H partitioned with a muffle. The treatment chamber is formed into a muffle structure with a top plate 11, a bed plate 14, and a sidewall of an inner plate 11 structure each made of heat resistant steel, the top plate and the bed plate are detachably attached to the sidewall part, most of a top wall part 1 and most of a bed wall part 2 are formed in separable structures, and detachably attached to the sidewall part on the outside of the kiln, and electric heaters 17a, 17b are arranged in the top wall part within the kiln and the bed wall part within the kiln.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for firing partitions and the like for a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as "PDP").

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art PDP manufacturing processes include a process of firing a large number of partition walls formed on at least one of the opposing glass substrates or a process of temporarily firing a sealing agent applied to one outer edge of the glass substrate. Firing process. For example,
The baking of the partition walls is performed by powder glass or the like (a mixture of a PbO.B ₂ O ₃ -based low-melting glass powder and a special ceramic powder)
In addition, a paste obtained by adding a vehicle in which a resin binder is dissolved in a solvent and kneading the mixture is applied several times on a glass substrate by a screen printing method to form a partition having a predetermined height, and left for a predetermined time to perform leveling. 1 at 100-150 ° C
Dry for 0-15 minutes. Thereafter, the temperature is raised at a rate of 5 to 15 in order to decompose organic substances contained in the paste in a firing furnace.
The temperature is raised to a firing temperature (550 to 580 ° C.) at a rate of ° C./minute, and the temperature is maintained for about 10 minutes to fire the partition walls. Then 2-15 ° C /
The cooling is performed at a cooling rate of one minute. As this firing furnace, a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace has been put to practical use. This roller hearth type firing furnace is composed of a heating zone having a muffle structure, a slow cooling zone, and a cooling zone having a water-cooled jacket configuration, and the processing chambers of the heating zone and the slow cooling zone correspond to the cleaning of the furnace. The muffle (ceiling plate, hearth plate, both side plates) is made of heat-resistant glass, and each plate is arranged at a predetermined interval from the furnace inner wall. In addition, the said heating zone is normally comprised from a heating zone, a heating zone, and a baking zone.

[0003]

During the baking treatment of the partition walls and the like, the organic matter such as the resin binder in the paste reacts with the air and is removed by heat and oxidative decomposition. Impurities adhere to the muffle surface. For this reason, it is necessary to periodically remove these impurities to clean the muffle surface. In addition, when the glass substrate is broken in the furnace during the firing process, it is necessary to remove the broken material from the furnace. However, in the conventional roller hearth type continuous firing furnace, since the muffle forming the processing chamber such as the heating zone is made of heat-resistant glass, it is necessary to prevent breakage of the heat-resistant glass. Must be carefully performed, and the workability is poor and the work time is lengthened. Further, since the muffle forming the side plate is provided at a predetermined interval from the inner wall of the furnace, there has been a problem that the furnace width is correspondingly increased. Therefore, although the present invention has a muffle structure in the processing chamber such as a heating zone, it is easy to remove impurities attached to the inner surface of the muffle, and when the glass substrate is broken in the processing chamber, the broken pieces are muffled. PDP that can be easily removed without damage
It is an object to provide a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for use. It is another object of the present invention to provide a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for PDP with higher productivity.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for a plasma display panel having a processing chamber partitioned by muffles, wherein the processing chamber is made of a heat-resistant steel ceiling. A muffle structure comprising a plate, a hearth plate made of heat-resistant steel, and a side wall of a heat-resistant steel inner plate structure. Most of the furnace hearth and the hearth wall are separated, and these are detachably attached to the furnace outer side wall, respectively, and electric heaters are arranged on the furnace inner ceiling wall and the furnace hearth wall. . Further, the space between the ceiling plate and the hearth plate is divided into an upper processing chamber and a lower processing chamber by two heat-resistant steel partition plates, and an electric heater is provided in a space formed between the two partition plates. And a hearth roller disposed in each of the upper and lower processing chambers.

[0005]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A roller hearth type continuous firing furnace (hereinafter, referred to as an RH type firing furnace) T for a PDP shown in the figure generally includes a heating zone A, a heating zone B, a firing zone C, a slow cooling zone D, and a rapid cooling zone E. Each of the processing chambers H from the temperature-raising zone A to the slow cooling zone D has a muffle structure, and hearth rollers R are provided at predetermined intervals in upper and lower two stages inside an RH type firing furnace T, The glass substrate W that constitutes the PDP is up and down 2
They are fired simultaneously in rows.

Further, the heating zone A and the heating zone B in which impurities adhere to at least the inner surface of the muffle 10 or the glass substrate W is apt to be broken have a cross-sectional structure shown in FIGS. In the figure, the sintering zone C and the slow cooling zone D have the same configuration. That is, a part of the ceiling wall part 1 (hereinafter, referred to as a separated ceiling wall part 1a) and a part of the hearth wall part 2 (hereinafter, referred to as a separated hearth part 2a) constituting the heating zone A and the heating zone B, It is detachable from the furnace side wall 3 for each predetermined block.

More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 3, 6, and 7, the separated ceiling wall 1a is separated upward from the furnace side wall 3 by a hanging metal fitting 4, and the separated hearth 2a is Floor 2
A lifter table 6 that moves on a roller conveyor 5 laid below is separated downward from the furnace side wall 3. The separated ceiling wall 1a and the separated hearth 2a are attached to the furnace side wall 3 by detachable attachment members 7 such as bolts and nuts.

The muffle 10 comprises an inner plate 11, a ceiling plate 1
2. A hearth plate 14, which is a heat-resistant steel plate, preferably an oxidation-resistant heat-resistant steel such as 253MA manufactured by Sandvik Co., Ltd.
And so on.

The inner plate 11 extends along the inner surface of the furnace side wall 3 and its upper and lower ends are bent outward to separate the separation ceiling wall 1a and the separation furnace floor wall 2a. It extends outwardly in position. Ceiling board 12 and hearth board 1
4, as shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 6 and FIG.
1 together with bolts 13.

In this embodiment, two partition plates 15 are mounted in two steps on a receiving bracket 16 provided on the inner plate 11 at a predetermined interval between the ceiling plate 12 and the hearth plate 14. Is to be placed. Separated ceiling wall 1
a, electric heaters 17a, 17b, 17c are respectively disposed between the separation hearth 2a and the two-stage partition plate 15, and the hearth roller R is provided between the ceiling plate 11 and the partition plate 15;
The end portions are arranged between the partition plate 15 and the hearth plate 14 so that the end portions protrude outside from the furnace side wall portion 3. further,
As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 5, gas supply means 18 such as cooling air is provided in the processing chamber H.
And an exhaust means 19 for exhausting the atmosphere inside the furnace to the outside of the furnace.

Next, a method of firing the partition walls for PDP using the RH type firing furnace T having the above-described configuration will be described. First, the above-mentioned paste is printed on a glass substrate W by a screen printing method or the like to form a partition, and 100 to 150 ° C.
For 10 to 15 minutes. Next, the dried glass substrate W is loaded into the loading section of the RH type firing furnace T, and the glass substrate W is sequentially conveyed to the extraction side by the hearth roller R, during which the partition walls are fired.

That is, the glass substrate W charged into the RH-type firing furnace T is heated at 5 to 15 ° C. in the heating zone A and the heating zone B.
It is heated to a firing temperature (500 to 600 ° C.) at a heating rate of / min. During this time, the resin binder in the partition wall is mainly thermally and oxidatively decomposed in the temperature increasing zone A, most of which is vaporized, and discharged out of the furnace together with the clean air supplied into the processing chamber H. The clean air is air having a dew point of about −10 ° C. in a cleanliness class 7 indicated by JIS B9920. Then, the glass substrate W is held in a sintering zone C (500 to 600 ° C.) for a predetermined time (5 to 30 minutes) to sinter the partition walls, cooled in the subsequent slow cooling zone D and rapid cooling zone E, and discharged out of the furnace. Will be.

In the above-mentioned processing step, as described above, mainly in the temperature raising zone A, the resin binder in the partition walls is heat and heat.
Most impurities (oxidants) generated by oxidative decomposition at this time
Is discharged out of the furnace together with the clean air, but it is necessary to remove a small amount by adhering to the surface of the muffle 10.
Further, the glass substrate W is broken by the hearth roller R during the transfer in the furnace, and it is necessary to remove the broken pieces. In this case, after removing the attachment member 7 that attaches the separation ceiling wall 1a or the separation hearth 2a to the furnace side wall 3,
The separated ceiling wall 1a is detached by a crane using the hanging bracket 4, and the separated hearth wall 2a is lifter table 6
Remove with. Thereafter, the ceiling plate 12 or the hearth plate 1
After removing the bolts 13 for attaching 4 to the furnace side wall 3, the ceiling plate 12 and the hearth plate 14 are removed, and further, the partition plate 15 is taken out of the furnace to clean or remove broken pieces.

In the above embodiment, the case where the muffle structure of the processing chamber H is divided by the two partition plates 15 and 15 and the hearth roller R is provided in two stages to process the glass substrate W has been described. 15. Intermediate electric heater 1
Needless to say, the hearth roller R may be formed as one stage without the 7c.

[0015]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, most of the ceiling wall and the hearth wall of the furnace constituting the processing chamber can be easily removed from the furnace body (furnace side wall). Since the separation ceiling wall and separation hearth wall can be formed and the muffle has a separation structure, removal of impurities and broken glass fragments attached to the muffle can be performed efficiently by removing these. In addition, since the muffle component is made of heat-resistant steel instead of glass as in the related art, it is easy to handle without being damaged during the removal operation. Further, since the side wall of the muffle is constituted by the side wall of the inner plate structure, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to install the inside of the furnace side wall at a predetermined interval, and the furnace width can be reduced accordingly. Further, when two partition plates are provided in the muffle, a heater is arranged between the partition plates to form two processing chambers, and a roller hearth is provided in each of the processing chambers. Thus, the productivity can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for a display panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a heating zone in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged side view of the temperature rising zone in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged detailed view of a heating zone in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 5;

[Description of Signs] A: heating zone, B: heating zone, C: firing zone, D: slow cooling zone, E
... Quenching zone, H ... Treatment room, R ... Heath roller, T ... Roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for display panel, W ... Glass substrate, 1 ... Ceiling wall, 1a ... Separated ceiling wall, 2 ... Heart floor wall, 2a ... Separated ceiling wall, 3 ... furnace side wall, 4 ... hanging bracket, 6 ... lifter table, 7 ... mounting member, 10 ... muffle, 11 ... inner plate, 12 ... ceiling plate, 14 ... furnace plate, 15
... partition plates, 17a, 17b, 17c ... electric heaters.

Claims (2)

[Claims] In a roller hearth continuous firing furnace for a plasma display panel having a processing chamber partitioned by a muffle, the processing chamber is formed of a heat-resistant steel ceiling plate, a heat-resistant steel hearth plate, and a heat-resistant steel inner plate structure. A side wall and a muffle structure, the ceiling plate and the hearth plate are detachably attached to a furnace side wall portion inside the furnace, and the ceiling wall portion and the hearth wall portion of the furnace are separated from each other. A roller hearth type continuous firing furnace for a plasma display panel, characterized in that the heater is removably attached to an outer side wall and an electric heater is disposed on a furnace inner wall and a furnace hearth wall. 2. The space between the ceiling plate and the hearth plate is divided into an upper processing chamber and a lower processing chamber by two heat-resistant steel partition plates, and the space formed between the two partition plates is electrically heated. 2. The roller hearth type continuous heat treatment furnace for a plasma display panel according to claim 1, wherein a heater is provided, and hearth rollers are provided in the upper and lower processing chambers.