JPS6132135B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a conductive substrate having electrostatically uniformly dispersed small spheres of lubricant.

In manufacturing metal cans, etc., metal storage,
It is often necessary to apply a small amount of lubricant to the surface of the metal stock (eg, sheet, strip, etc.) before sending the metal stock to subsequent forming operations, such as passing the metal stock through various forming dies. Failure to apply lubricant prior to such forming operations can cause severe scratches and scuffs on the die, rendering it unusable for continued use. Additionally, failure to apply lubricant often causes the finished product to be distorted and defective for other reasons well known in the art. Also, since metal surfaces are often treated with appropriate decorative effects, it is often desirable to apply a lubricant to the decorative metal surfaces immediately after the surface decoration process. Here, a lubricant is necessary for the manufacturer to pass the decorative plate or material through the forming die in order to punch and form the material without scratching the die or creating defects in the manufactured product. In all cases, it is important to have good control over the amount of lubricant and to distribute it uniformly over the metal surface, as excessive and/or uneven lubrication often gives rise to attendant problems well known in the art. is necessary. For example, excessive wax lubrication not only results in material loss, but also tends to accumulate on the surface of the forming die and/or cause the lubricated stock to "stick" or "stick" upon mutual contact.

In the past, the usual method of applying lubricants on common metal surfaces in the form of flat sheets, strips, etc. was simple and involved passing the material through a solvent bath saturated with organic lubricating components. Upon exiting the bath, the solvent evaporates leaving the organic lubricating component as a thin film on the metal surface. The main disadvantages of this conventional method are the clearly hazardous and often toxic conditions near such workplaces due to solvent spray, the considerable expense of preparing solvent solutions and supplying the large quantities of solvent used, and the disadvantages well known in the art. This is another related drawback.

Accordingly, there have been repeated attempts to improve conventional solvent bath technology. However, for a variety of reasons, such attempts were ultimately unsuccessful when subjected to practical tests under real working conditions, and as a result, lubrication of such metal substrates today still relies primarily on expensive and dangerous solvents. Although bath techniques and/or other less expensive and less hazardous attempts have been made, they generally do not provide the desired lubrication.

Now, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain lubricated metal substrates in a way that has not been possible to date, but which is inexpensive and inherently safer than the prior art, while at the same time providing better lubrication results. I can do it. The die surface is kept clean, less lubricant is required per unit area, and the tendency of the lubricated stock to stick or stick together is reduced.

Many prior attempts utilize electrostatic deposition techniques to apply the necessary lubricants to metal substrates. A metal manufacturing plant made an expensive investment in electrostatic equipment designed to lubricate metal substrates, but eventually abandoned the equipment in favor of conventional solvent bath or direct spray techniques. and/or
It is well known that the conclusion that "electrostatic" lubricating devices are likely to work just as well in the absence of static electricity as in the presence of static electricity is well known.

An evaluation of prior known electrostatic lubrication method attempts in light of the present invention shows that such prior attempts do not adequately take into account the detailed physical and electrical processes to be attempted, and that appropriate methods It seems that it does not provide.

Of course, as is well known, the purpose of electrostatic deposition or precipitation is to charge the moving particles to an electrical polarity opposite to that of the conductive collecting electrode, so that the moving particles are is attracted to the conductive collector electrode by electrostatic attraction.

Many prior electrostatic lubrication efforts generally attempt to accomplish this goal by: These are: (1) generating lubricant particles of such large dimensions that significant gravitational forces affect particle motion and (or creating local excesses of lubricant); and (2) all particles are electrically charged. (3) physically propelling the particles at a significant velocity through an ionization zone between two charged electrodes so that they are not uniformly charged, or at least not all uniformly charged; (3) electrical insulation in addition to the surrounding air; Physically propelling charged particles toward a vertically moving metal strip, etc. within an enclosed vertically upright metal housing (usually grounded to equipotential potential with the metal strip) that may or may not contain a body. and (4) a "repelling" electrode charged to the same polarity as the particles deposits within a large deposition area creating an electric field that drives the particles (if charged) towards the metal strip. To transport the uncharged particles vertically upwards, one can provide a second wide upward airflow, or rely on so-called "polarization" effects.

Such conventional methods were characterized by not exhibiting expected performance in actual manufacturing environments. The present invention has been shown to perform very satisfactorily in a practical manufacturing environment. Although all of the reasons for this notable success are not yet understood or fully appreciated, the following attributes of the invention are believed to be important to varying degrees for its improved performance. ing. Namely, (1) a method is provided for forming substantially uniform particles of liquid lubricant, the majority of which are uniformly sized with an average diameter on the order of 1 micron, and the resulting cloud of particles ( (a spherical body due to liquid surface tension) is carried entirely by air, and the resulting particle motion is independent of the gravitational force acting on it.

(2) providing a completely non-conductive enclosure that generally eliminates electrostatic forces that tend to attract lubricant particles toward the enclosure wall rather than toward the conductive substrate as desired; (3) (4) maintaining a charged plasma of surrounding gas molecules within a non-conductive enclosure by applying a high voltage difference between an electrode and a conductive metal substrate rather than between two sets of electrodes; The airborne cloud is moved or swept into the plasma zone where double ion collisions charge the relatively large spherules in a fairly slow charging process that eventually becomes nearly constant as steady state is approached. (5) This process is performed under steady state conditions. Since the efficiency is almost 100%, the rate of coverage of the metal surface depends primarily on the amount of spheres fed into the plasma and the speed of movement of the metal substrate (i.e. residence time in the non-conductive coating chamber). (6) the non-conductive coating chamber is divided into longitudinal sections to control laterally uniform coating on the metal substrate; (7) an individually controllable particle generator is provided for each section; associated with such longitudinal section and providing communication between the particle generator and the vessel section of the coating chamber by means of special transversely extending flow conduits; (8) complete lubrication of the metal substrate; (9) Many other features will be apparent from the detailed description below.

Of course, there are many more differences between the present invention and conventional electrostatic lubrication methods, as will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, all known conventional electrostatic lubricant application methods necessarily apply the lubricant to the metal strip in a vertical direction. Such a vertical orientation was considered necessary. Among other things, it was necessary to use gravity to collect excess lubricant and return it to the particle generator for reuse. However, with the present invention no special orientation of the metal strips is required. In fact, the preferred embodiment of the invention described below utilizes the horizontal orientation of the metal substrate.

None of the conventional and well-known methods of lubricating moving metal strips, sheets, etc. using electrostatic precipitation actually deposits microscopic lubricant particles onto a conductive substrate with high efficiency in a real production line environment. It is believed that random distribution is not possible. Also, there is no prior attempt to provide the simple and economical precipitation method described herein.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate, such as a sheet, strip, etc., in which lubricant particles are uniformly distributed.

Accordingly, the present invention relates to a substrate having uniformly dispersed lubricant particles. In embodiments, the lubricant, which is preferably solid at room temperature, is heated to liquefy. The liquid lubricant is then sheared into an airborne mist of droplets within the air supply orifice and directed downwardly toward the liquid supply below. The large droplets are filtered out of the air stream by gravity, bubbles, airflow forces, and inertial effects, leaving only a cloud of very small, nearly uniformly sized spherical particles, the majority of which have an average diameter of 1 micron. degree, and is almost independent of gravity. This cloud is moved or swept towards a longitudinally partitioned enclosure, preferably a non-conductive enclosure having a plurality of electrodes therein. Corona discharge from the electrodes caused by the voltage difference maintained between the electrodes and the metal substrate turns the atmosphere within the enclosure into a plasma of ions, ie, the surrounding gas into charged molecules. The spherical mist or cloud of lubricant is introduced into the plasma as a moving lamellar cloud, causing each particle to move randomly and collide with ions in the plasma, thus removing electrical charge from relatively small ions. get. Due to the relatively slow random motion and uniform small size of the particles, they all eventually experience a nearly uniform maximum charge, creating an electrostatic force that uniformly dispersing the particles onto a conductive substrate passing through a chamber;
A uniform, substantially random distribution of lubricant spheres is formed on at least one surface of the conductive substrate. In a preferred embodiment, the lubricant spheres solidify to a solid state before being dispersed onto the metal surface. The uniformity of the distribution of the spheres on the conductive substrate is such that the particles are uniformly small and also adhere strongly to the conductive substrate, while at the same time having a uniform maximum sufficient to repel each other and prevent particle coalescence. It is warranted to move fairly slowly around the non-conductive chamber long enough to pick up a charge. moreover,
The longitudinal partitions of the non-conductive enclosure prevent non-random movement of the sphere relative to the plane of the conductive substrate. Since this process is approximately 100% efficient, the rate of application of the small lubricant spheres on the conductive substrate is only a function of the amount of particles delivered to the chamber and the relative velocity of the substrate (i.e. residence time within the enclosure). do.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, the claims, and the accompanying drawings.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which shows a side elevational view of an apparatus for producing the product of the present invention. As shown, the lubrication system includes a longitudinally partitioned non-conductive settling chamber 51 preferably formed from a plastic material such as polypropylene. The settling chamber 51 has an upper part 53 above a plane 55 through which the conductive substrate passes;
It also includes a lower portion 57 located below plane 55. A plurality of laterally extending electrodes or wires 59 forming a grid on each side of the substrate are charged to a common potential with respect to the conductive substrate and transverse to the direction of movement of the conductive substrate through the lubrication system. To position. The electrodes are placed on both sides of the substrate at a suitable distance, e.g.
They are spaced 3 inches apart from the conductive substrate and spaced apart from each other. An alternating current voltage is preferably applied to the individual wires 59 to heat the wires and thus prevent lubricant from building up on the wires. A schematic diagram of such a heating device is shown in FIG.

The upper fog generator 61 is in the preferred embodiment divided into a plurality of laterally arranged fog generators, each associated with a respective compartment within the settling chamber 51.
Each section of the mist generator 61 includes a reservoir 63 containing a lubricant that is dispersed onto the upper surface of the conductive substrate. Preferably, the lubricant is solid at room temperature, so a heating element 65 is placed in the reservoir to heat the lubricant into liquid form. As will be explained in detail below, a supply of air or other suitable gas is connected to a bench lily atomizer 67 located in the upper portion of the fog generator. The flow of pressurized air into the bench lily creates a pressure drop at the top of the feed line 69 which causes liquid lubricant to be drawn into the bench lily where it is sheared into individual droplets. The droplets then fall downward into the reservoir 63 where the larger droplets are returned to the bath of liquid lubricant. The remaining droplets in the mist travel through a baffle filtration device (see FIG. 7) into an air outlet in the upper part of the fog generator and then through channel 71 to settling chamber 51. The baffle filters out relatively large particles, and only particles of sufficiently small dimensions, for example on the order of 10 microns or less in diameter, with the majority on the order of 1 micron, are transferred into the settling chamber. The movement of the small spherical particles is very slow and during this movement process the particles solidify and dry, thus becoming hard solid spheres. Particles are deposited in a cloud shape in the sedimentation chamber 51.
and is distributed almost uniformly over the entire width of each longitudinal partition area of the chamber.

The second group of horizontally arranged fog generating devices 73 is located below the direction 55 through which the conductive substrate passes. The second group of fog generators each includes a reservoir 74 containing a lubricant applied to the underside of the conductive substrate. Heater 75 keeps the lubricant in liquid form. The bench lily atomizer 77 is located at the top of the reservoir and includes a bench lily through which pressurized air passes. As the pressurized air passes through the bench lily, liquefied lubricant is drawn through the feed line 79 and sheared into droplets by the air passing through the throat of the vent lily. Larger droplets fall downwards and are returned to the liquid bath, while smaller particles, which are not affected by gravity, flow into the lower portion 57 of settling chamber 51 through a zigzag path 81 defined by a pair of buttful filters. . These particles move very slowly into the settling chamber 57 and therefore solidify in the case of preferred lubricants which are solid at room temperature due to their low heat capacity. Due to the particle movement into chamber 57 and its small size, each particle acquires a strong charge, ie a relatively large charge to mass ratio. Therefore, the particles not only tend to be randomly distributed before being charged, but also randomly and uniformly distributed across the conductive sheet passing through the chamber after being charged. Therefore, the solid spheres are distributed almost uniformly on the conductive substrate.

The air supply device for shearing the liquid lubricant at the throats of the bench lilies 67 and 77 is an air filter 8.
3 to the lubricating device. After passing through an air filter 83, the air passes through an air pressure regulating valve 85 to upper and lower air flow distributors 87 and 89.
flows into each of them. Airflow distributors 87 and 89
The air connected to each is regulated by metering valves 91 and 93, respectively. Thus, for example, all air entering the air flow distributor 87 is regulated by the metering valve 91. Air entering the airflow distributor 87 is connected to each of the six distribution pipes 95 via normally configured throttle valves (not shown). Each of these tubes is connected to a separate upper fog generator 61. Further, the air flow connected to the lower distributor 89 is regulated by a metering valve 93, and the distributor 89 communicates air to each of the plurality of distribution pipes 99 via a throttle valve. Each throttle valve is manually adjusted (not shown) to regulate airflow into tube 95. Tubes 99 communicate pressurized air to a plurality of individual fog generating devices 73 located below the substrate passing through the lubricating device.

The conductive substrate is fed into the lubrication system via a powered friction roller drive and then into a belt drive 1.
29 passes through the lubricating device along plane 55. The substrate exits the outlet end 103 of the lubricator and rides on the outlet friction roller drive. The substrate to be lubricated may be in the form of an individual sheet, a coil that unwinds as it passes through the lubricator and then is wound at the exit end of the lubricator, an endless strip in a strip manufacturing environment, or as an expert in the field. any other suitable shape as may be acceptable. The lubricating device itself is of relatively small size and can be easily moved to change situations by retracting the support 107 and supporting the lubricating device on rollers 109, as shown. As shown to approximate scale in the drawings, the lubricating device in Figure 1 has an overall width of approximately 172.7 cm (68 inches), a height from the floor to the metal plate passage line of approximately 114.3 cm (45 inches),
The total length is approximately 248.9cm (8ft2inch).

If the conductive thin plate does not pass through the lubricating device,
A blower 111 located at the outlet end of the lubricating device is operative and connected to an outlet chamber 113 located at the outlet end of the chamber 51 around the upper and lower parts of the plane 55 through which the substrate passes. The blower collects the lubricated spheres and filters them from the surrounding air so that the substrate is in the sedimentation chamber 51.
Of course, no balls of lubricant are deposited on the substrate at such times. Of course, it should be understood that when the conductive substrate passes through the settling chamber 51, almost all the particles are electrostatically dispersed onto the substrate and therefore the blower 111 will not operate when the lubricating device is in normal operation. .

Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which shows a plan view of a lubricating apparatus producing the article of the invention, partially cut away. The settling chamber 51 is made of a suitable plastic material.
A plurality of zones or chambers are longitudinally divided or partitioned by longitudinally extending partitions 52. Electrodes, or corona discharge wires 59, extend transversely to the longitudinally oriented chamber. A plurality of fog generators 61 are provided at the inlet end of the settling chamber, each associated with a separate section or chamber of the settling chamber 51. Each fog generator has an individual air flow distribution pipe 95
(see FIG. 3) to supply air to their associated bench lily atomizers 67 and to drive the sheared lubricant droplets downward into the sump 63 located below. In the preferred embodiment, each fog generator is actually four controllable bench lily atomizers 115-118 with air delivered through tube 95.
has. As will be understood below, each bench lily generates a fine ball of lubricant that moves into the settling chamber 51. By partitioning the settling chamber 51 as shown, the swirling flow of air and lubricant particles from one side of the chamber to the other is prevented, so that the spheres of lubricant randomly and uniformly fall onto the conductive substrate. to be distributed. moreover,
Since the entire chamber housing is electrically non-conductive, the charged lubricant particles are free to move within the chamber without being attracted to the housing. For this,
The particles in the chamber are electrically charged so that they gain sufficient charge to be accelerated toward the substrate.

On the inlet side of the lubricating device, the electrically conductive substrate is transferred to the sedimentation chamber 51 via a friction roller 121 driven by an electric motor 119 via a chain drive 123.
sent within. On the exit side of the lubricating device, a second group of frictionally driven rollers 125 driven by an electric motor 127 pulls the conductive substrate out of the lubricating device.
Preferably, the friction roller 125 is driven at a faster speed than the inlet friction roller 121 to provide additional momentum to the substrates passing through the lubrication device and to facilitate stacking as individual metal plates are lubricated. When the conductive substrate passes through the lubricating device, in particular the settling chamber 51,
The base body is driven by a chain drive device 13 by an electric motor 127.
1 is supported and guided by a plurality of belts 129 driven through 1. Each belt 129 is relatively thin so that only a small portion of the total surface of the conductive substrate passes through the lubricating device.
9 and thus the lubricant is not distributed only over a small portion of the total surface area of the substrate.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 3 and 4, which illustrate in detail the individual upper fog generators 61 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. With particular reference to FIG. 3, each individual fog generator includes a reservoir portion 63 at the bottom. The reservoir preferably contains a lubricant that is in a solidified state at room temperature. Therefore, the conventional heater 65
Located near its bottom inside. The heat generating device is suitably energized in a conventional manner to maintain the lubricant in a liquid state during operation of the lubrication system. A plurality of bench lily sprayers 67 are located at the top of the reservoir. Pressurized air or other suitable gas is delivered to each of the bench lily atomizers from an associated distribution pipe 95 through a distribution passage 96. Furthermore, a plurality of feed pipes 6
9, through which the liquefied lubricant is drawn upwards into the Benchlily atomizer. In the preferred embodiment, each fog generating device has four Bench Lily atomizers and two feed lines, each feed line supplying liquid lubricant to the two Bench Lily atomizers shown in FIG. The bench lily sprayer may be of conventional construction, but is preferably of the same construction as the bench lily sprayer described in Scholes and Dollar, supra. A coarse airflow control device 88 is provided on the bench lily sprayer;
Cut off the airflow if necessary. As mentioned above, the lubricant is preferably in a solidified state at room temperature and therefore a heating element 66 is provided in the upper part 65 of the fog generator 61 so that the lubricant moves upwardly through the feed line 69. Keeps the lubricant in liquid form as it flows into the Benchlily sprayer.

The air passageway or orifice of the example bench lily atomizer is on the order of 0.05 inch in diameter, so that even if the relative amount of air entering the fogging device 61 is small, it will still flow through the nozzle to the bench lily. The velocity of air entering the throat of the atomizer is extremely high. Therefore, the pressure in the throat of the bench lily nozzle is sufficiently reduced to draw a sufficient amount of lubricant upwardly into feed line 69 to continuously shear the lubricant into fine droplets. In large size bench lilies, it is desirable to actually force pump liquid lubricant into the orifice to increase particle production from the orifice. The droplet is then forced downward into the reservoir 63 by the force of the air flowing down the throat of the bench lily and by gravity. Large droplets that remain liquid fall into the lubricant bath in the reservoir, while fine droplets of diameter 20 microns or less, preferably less than 10 microns, form a cloud of particles in the upper portion of reservoir 63. , that is, forming a fog. These fine droplets form a first buttful 68 and a second buttful 70.
by moving around the upper part 65 of the fog generator.
into the air outlet box 72 located at. Since the buffles 68 and 70 disperse the airflow and fine lubricant droplets, their distribution across the width of the fog generator is substantially uniform and random in nature. Additionally, the buffles 68 and 70 allow relatively large droplets, which have a greater momentum than smaller particles, to be unable to pass through the refraction path through the buffles and instead strike the buffles and fall into the bath. remove. The fine small diameter droplets that move upwardly and enter the box 72 have small dimensions such that they move upwardly substantially independently of gravity. The inventor has determined that only about 5% to 10% of the droplets formed by the Bench lily sprayer 67 are of sufficiently small size that they travel upwardly past the butthole and into the box 72.
It has been found that the remaining droplets fall back into the liquid lubricant bath. After moving into the box 72, the particles move downwardly through a passage 71 leading into the upper part 53 of the settling chamber 51. As the droplet travels through passageway 71, it remains substantially liquid.
However, in the case of preferred lubricants that are solidified at room temperature, due to their low heat capacity, the droplets solidify and dry when flowing into the settling chamber, thereby taking on the characteristics of a round solid bearing. Droplet is chamber 51
, forming a cloud of randomly distributed lubricant spheres within it, but are not attracted to the metal substrate they pass through until the droplets have a sufficiently large charge. The movement of the cloud of lubricant balls into the chamber 51 is facilitated by a relatively small flow of air passing through the bench lily 67 and into the upper part of the reservoir 63. As mentioned above, the electrode, ie the corona discharge wire 59, located within the chamber 51 ionizes the atmosphere within the chamber due to the voltage maintained between the electrode and the metal substrate, thereby causing the ionized air around the electrode 59 to ionize. generates a plasma of surrounding gas molecules. On the other hand, this ionized atmosphere moves into the room and repeatedly collides with the fine but relatively large spherical particles of the lubricant, giving them an almost uniform maximum charge, which causes the charged lubricant particles to is attracted to the conductive substrate passing through it and is uniformly and randomly distributed thereon.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 5 and 6, which illustrate one of the mist generating devices located beneath a conductive substrate passing through the lubricating device. As shown, each of the lower fog generators includes a reservoir 74 containing liquefied lubricant by a heating element 75 of conventional construction. Above the reservoir 74, there are a plurality of bench lily sprayers 77 inside.
A mist forming portion 78 is located.
Pressurized air is delivered to each of the bench lily atomizers 77 via distribution pipes 99, as shown in FIG.
Additionally, a pair of feed conduits 79 are provided with one end extending downwardly into the lubricant bath and the other end associated with two
It communicates with the passageway that leads to the throat of each bench lily.
A second heating element 80 is located within the upper portion of the fog generator to maintain the lubricant in liquid form as it flows into and out of the bench lily atomizer 77.

In operation, as pressurized air is forced into the throat of the Bench Lily atomizer, lubricant is drawn upwardly through feed line 79 and into each Bench Lily atomizer. The lubricant is then sheared into droplets and placed in reservoir 7 by aerodynamic forces and gravity acting on the droplets.
It is driven downward to the upper part of 4. The large droplets, which typically represent 90-95% of the total droplets formed, fall back into the lubricant bath, but are preferably small in diameter.
The remaining droplets, which are less than 10 microns, move past the baffle 82 and around the second buffle 84 into the passageway 86. Buffles 82 and 84 randomly distribute droplets across the width of the fog generator while reducing the speed of droplet movement as the droplets move out of reservoir 74. moreover,
The baffle filters large particles from the mist, thereby reducing the average size of particles moving into chamber 51.
The passageway 86 has a large exit area to further reduce the velocity of the droplets so that the droplets enter the settling chamber 5.
As it flows into the lower part 57 of 1, its motion becomes practically drifting, and the droplets form a cloud of slowly moving, randomly distributed solid spheres of lubricant. These small dry spheres of lubricant are then ionized and randomly distributed onto the substrate as it passes through the settling chamber.

A coarse control 88 regulates the airflow through the throat of each bench lily atomizer 77. Thus, for example, if it is desired to cut off one or more atomizers, the controller 88 can simply be turned to cut off the airflow through the bench lily. This control device is provided in addition to the precision control device for the individual fog generators. These and/or similar controls may be operated manually or automatically to control the air supply to the orifices, i.e. the pressure or flow restriction, and/or the number of orifices activated, thereby Adjusts the amount of lubricant balls created per hit and sent to the application chamber.

Reference is now made to FIG. 7, which shows the inlet end of a lubricating device producing a product according to the invention. As shown,
An electric motor 119 is fixed to the side of the lubricating device and drives a plurality of friction rollers 121 via a chain drive device 123. The friction roller 121 is used to apply solid particles of lubricant to the surface of the conductive substrate.
Draw the conductive substrate into the lubrication device. The belt drive has a plurality of belts 129 driven by an electric motor 127 at the other end of the lubrication system. Belt 129 therefore supports the conductive substrate as it passes through the lubricating device, and also supports the substrate as it passes through the settling chamber 5.
1 to help transport the substrate. The belts each pass under the lubricating device and then rise in the direction indicated by the arrows and then enter and pass through the settling chamber 51. At the top of the lubricating device, a plurality of mist generators are provided, located next to each other, to generate small solid spherical droplets that are dispersed onto the conductive substrate. A plurality of distribution pipes 95 conduct pressurized air from the distributor box 87 to the individual fog generators 61 . Air flow to the distributor box 87 is regulated by a throttle valve 91. Also shown is an air filter 83 that filters the air sent to each Bench lily sprayer.

Reference is now made to FIG. 8, which shows the outlet end of a lubricating system producing the product of the present invention. As shown, an electric motor 127 drives a plurality of friction rollers 125 that pull the metal substrate out of the settling chamber 51. Furthermore, the electric motor 127 has a chain drive 131 and a shaft 132.
A plurality of drive belts 129 are driven through the drive belt.
The drive belt moves outwardly from settling chamber 51, moves downwardly as indicated by the arrow, and then passes beneath the lubricator to the forward end of the lubricator as shown in FIG. As mentioned above, these belts guide the conductive substrate through the settling chamber.

Furthermore, if the conductive substrate does not pass through the lubricating device, the spheres of lubricant flowing into the settling chamber 51 will not be attracted to the surface due to the non-conductive structure of the settling chamber 51. Therefore, a blower 111 is provided to transport the spherical particles of lubricant from the chamber 51 to the exhaust pipe 112.
and into a suitable collection container. It is understood that the blower 111 is not used when the conductive substrate passes through the settling chamber 51, since nearly all the fine spherical particles of lubricant formed are randomly distributed on the substrate as it passes. Should. Such a blower is therefore not necessary during normal operation of the lubrication system.

The operation of the lubrication system for producing the product of the invention will be described with reference to FIG. 9, which briefly shows a portion of the lubrication system for producing the product of the invention. Conductive substrate 50 made of suitable materials such as, for example, aluminum, iron, steel, copper, tin and various alloys thereof.
are guided through the lubrication system, in particular through the settling chamber 51, by a plurality of belts 129 spaced apart over the width of the lubrication system. For example, the base speed is 13.7m/min (45ft/
passing through the lubrication system at a suitable speed, such as from 300 ft/min (min) to over 300 ft/min (91.4 m/min). When the substrate enters the settling chamber 51, the slots passing through the chamber 51 for accommodating the belt 129 and the substrate 50 are proportioned to contain substantially all of the spherical particles of the desired lubricant within the settling chamber 51. small. As the substrate passes through the lubricator, pressurized air is directed to each of the distribution pipes 95 and 99 associated with the upper and lower fog generators 61, respectively. The pressurized air is then directed through the bench lily atomizer 67 to an upper fog generator which draws liquid or liquefied lubricant upwardly into the feed line 69 and into the throat of the bench lily 67. The droplets thus formed are forced downwardly into the upper portion of the reservoir 63 and the majority of the droplets fall into the lubricant bath. However, a 5% to 10% fraction of the total droplets are
8 and 70 (see Figure 3) and travels upwardly into an outlet airflow box 72 located in the upper part of the fog generator. Batsuful is
It acts as a filter to remove larger droplets while passing smaller droplets into box 72.
In addition, the baffle and air outlet box 72 slows the movement of small lubricant particles and distributes them uniformly and randomly across the width of the fog generator. The mist then passes from the outlet box 72 to the channel 71 in a generally liquid state where the droplets end. The droplet is placed in the chamber 5 above the substrate 50.
3, if it is solidified at room temperature, it solidifies into small, hard, spherical lubricant particles with a diameter between 1 and 10 microns (often around 1 micron), and the particles enter the particle chamber. 53 to form a particle cloud that is distributed substantially uniformly over the entire width of each compartment in the upper part of settling chamber 51.

At the same time, the grid of interconnected electrodes is properly charged to the substrate, so that sufficient corona current is provided to ionize the surrounding atmosphere and to dissociate particles moving into the room from any coatings already attached to the substrate. Overcoming space charge effects imposed by relative concentrations. The atmospheric charge surrounding the electrode 59 forms a plasma,
On the one hand, the plasma charges the relatively large lubricant particles in the same way as in the chamber. The particles continue to move randomly around the chamber as they continue to become electrically charged. When the particles are sufficiently charged,
That is, when the particles have a relatively large maximum ratio of charge to mass, they are attracted to the surface of the substrate 50 and dispersed in a substantially uniform, random distribution. Because the particles are small and therefore have small momentum, they tend to repel each other as they move within the room. Therefore, coalescence of the particles does not occur and the particles tend to separate from each other after being attracted to the substrate. This ensures a generally random distribution of particles on the substrate.

A second group of fog generators 73 is provided on the lower side of the base 50.
This produces a plurality of lubricant droplets as described above, the majority of which fall back into the lubricant bath in reservoir 74. However, lubricant droplets with sufficiently small dimensions, i.e. diameters in the range of 1 micron and 10 microns (often on the order of 1 micron), are not affected by gravity and the filter
2 and 84 (see Figure 5) and into an exit chamber 86 of sufficiently large dimensions to slow the movement of the particles, the buttfuls 82 and 84 direct the particles over the entire width of the fog generator. Distribute randomly. The resulting cloud of spherical lubricant particles moving into the lower portion 57 of the settling chamber 51
1 to form a cloud of particles that is substantially uniformly distributed over the entire lateral width of each compartment within the cell. After colliding with the plasma generated by the grid 59 of the electrode, the particles become charged to the same polarity as the grid in the upper part 53 of the chamber, thus attracting the sphere to the substrate 50. As the particles pass through the settling chamber 51,
Randomly and uniformly distributed over the entire width of the base 50.

Referring to FIG. 10, there is shown a photograph of a portion of a substrate after solid spheres of lubricant have been dispersed on its surface, magnified 1000 times. As can be seen, the solidified droplets are randomly distributed on the surface of the substrate, and each particle is attached to the substrate 5.
Since each particle is charged with the same polarity when attracted to zero, they do not particularly coalesce. The substrate shown in the photograph is a tin plate that passed through the settling chamber 51 at 91.4 m/min (300 ft/min). In addition, 1.4m ³ /hr (50ft
³ /hr) of fogging air is sent to each fogging device and then into settling chamber 51.

Figure 11 shows that solid spherical particles of dried lubricant were distributed almost randomly in the product of the present invention.
This is a photograph of the surface of a tin substrate magnified 1000 times. To manufacture the item shown in this photo,
The tin base is 91.4m/min in the photo in Figure 10.
(300ft/min), but the speed was 13.7m/min (45ft/min).
ft/min) through the settling chamber 51. Therefore, the distribution of solid spheres on the surface of the substrate is quite dense. However, it is noted that in each case no coalescence of the particles occurs and the particles are distributed randomly and uniformly over the surface area shown in the photograph. It can be seen that the small particles in the photograph (the majority of the particles) are on the order of 1 micron in diameter, while the few large particles in the photograph are on the order of 4 or 5 microns in diameter.

The number of particles per unit area dispersed on the surface of the substrate depends primarily on the number of fine solid particles transferred into the chamber 51 and the relative velocity of the substrate through the settling chamber (and hence its residence time). It should be understood that the proportion of substrate area coated also relates to the size of the particles and/or the weight (in milligrams) of particles deposited on a unit area of the substrate. Therefore, for a given weight of lubricant deposited on a unit area of the substrate, a particle with a diameter of 1 micron will cover twice the area of a particle with a diameter of 2 microns, and a particle with a diameter of 4 microns will cover twice the area of a particle with a diameter of 4 microns. The area covered by the particles is four times the area covered by the particles. It can therefore be seen that by reducing the size of the solid particles deposited on the substrate, significant savings can be made in the amount of lubricant for a desired coverage ratio of the substrate. This allows the size of the spherical droplets to be adjusted by the structure of the buttful and bench lily atomizer in the fog generator, so that only small particles with a diameter of 10 microns or less, the majority of which are around 1 micron, pass into the settling chamber 51. That's the reason.

Although the invention has been disclosed in terms of illustrative embodiments, it will be appreciated that modifications to the preferred embodiment may be made within the scope of the claims that follow, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a preferred embodiment of a lubricating system for producing the product of the present invention; FIG.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the preferred embodiment of the lubrication device shown in FIG. 3; FIG.
4 is a partial plan view of the embodiment of the upper fog generator shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the embodiment of the lower fog generator, and FIG. 6 is a partial plan view of the embodiment of the upper fog generator shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a partial plan view of an embodiment of the apparatus; FIG.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the outlet end of a preferred embodiment of the lubricating device for producing the product of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the process for applying fine lubricant particles to a conductive substrate; FIG. The figure shows a tin plate running at 91.4m/min (300ft/mi).
n) to generate a mist which passes through the lubricating device and slowly moves into the non-conductive settling enclosure;
Density and nearly uniform distribution of solid spheres of lubricant on a tin plate conductive substrate formed when 1.4 m ³ /hr (50 ft ³ /hr) of air is introduced into the fog generator of the device shown in the figure. The photograph showing this and Figure 11 show that the board is moving at 13.7m/min.
The lubricant deposited on the tin plate when air passed through the lubricating device at a speed of 45 ft/min and was introduced into the fog generator of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 at a rate of 1.4 m ³ /hr (50 ft ³ /hr). This is a photograph showing a solid ball. In the figure; 50... Conductive substrate, 51... Sedimentation chamber, 52... Partition, 59... Electrode, 61, 7
3...Fog generator, 63, 74...Reservoir, 65,
75, 80... heating element, 67, 77, 115,
116,117,118... Bench lily sprayer,
68,70,82,84...Batsuful, 69,7
9...Feed pipe line, 72...Air outlet box, 83...
...Air filter, 85...Air pressure control valve, 87,8
9... Air flow distributor, 88... Air flow coarse control device, 91, 93... Metering valve, 109... Roller,
111...Blower, 112...Exhaust pipe, 113...
...Exit chamber, 119, 127...Electric motor, 121,
125... Friction roller, 123, 131... Chain drive device, 129... Belt drive device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A surface having a relatively uniform distribution of discrete lubricant particles, the particles substantially repelling each other by being electrically charged to the extent necessary to repel each other. spaced apart and effective on the surface in an amount of no more than about 323 milligrams per square meter (about 30 milligrams per square foot) and less than about 10 percent of the area of the surface due to uniform distribution of the lubricant particles. A substrate, characterized in that it provides a lubricant and forms a layer of air adjacent to the surface by the spaces interposed between the particles. 2. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the discontinuous lubricant particles have a substantially spherical shape and are non-flowable at room temperature. 3. A substrate according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the majority of the particles have an average diameter of about 1 micron. 4. The substrate according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the substrate is a coil of a metal plate. 5. Substrate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the lubricant particles are a natural or synthetic dielectric material.