JPS6316476B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an FPC in which a circuit is printed on a tape-like workpiece, such as a film made of polyimide resin.
This invention relates to an apparatus for partially plating (flexible printed circuits).

Continuously applying partial plating to tape-shaped workpieces is an extremely difficult technique. Although there are methods of continuously supplying masks and recovering them after plating, or methods of applying a mask coating to the tape in advance, there are problems in terms of stability and cost.

Therefore, when plating a tape-shaped workpiece continuously, most of the surfaces have been plated. However, in the case of full-surface plating, unnecessary parts are also plated, which poses a problem in terms of resource conservation.Also, when plating several different metals on the same tape, the plating layers become laminated, which is inconvenient. There were cases where this occurred.

In view of these inconveniences, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can continuously apply partial plating to a tape-shaped workpiece.

The continuous plating device for tape-shaped workpieces of the present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. It consists of a processing cleaning device 4, a first buffer section 5, a partial plating device 6, a second buffer section 7, a cleaning device 8 after plating, a drying device 9, and a winding device 11. The tape-like workpiece 12 for all plating in this example is FPC,
As shown in FIG. 3, there are perforations 14 on both sides of the film, and a section 1 that is to become a circuit board.
2a are successively arranged at predetermined intervals. A printed wiring section 12b has already been printed on this workpiece 12, and a portion 13a to be tinned for bonding an IC chip protrudes into the hole 13. Such a workpiece 12 is wound around a reel 1 with a separation film sandwiched therebetween, and when the workpiece feeding device 2 is driven to pay out the workpiece 12 from the reel 1, the separation film is wound onto the reel 15.

A workpiece 12 unreeled from a reel 1 is sent to a plating pretreatment cleaning device 4 via a dancer roller. The dancer roller 3 slides up and down to apply a predetermined back tension to the workpiece, detects the lower end and the upper end, and starts and stops the workpiece supply device. The pretreatment cleaning device consists of a plurality of tanks, and the workpiece is fed at a predetermined speed by a continuous workpiece feeder 16, guided by a large number of rollers 20, and passed through each tank. Treatment, washing with water by dipping or spraying, etc. are performed sequentially. The workpiece that has been subjected to plating pretreatment and cleaning enters the first buffer section 5.

The first buffer section 5 includes a vertical guide rail 21 and a buffer roller 2 that moves up and down along the guide rail.
2, the next-stage partial plating device 6 is provided with an intermittent feed device 17, and the workpiece is fed by a feed roller having a pawl that engages with the perforation 14. During plating, the workpiece intermittent feeding device 17 is inactive and the workpieces in the partial plating device are stopped, but the workpieces in the pretreatment cleaning device 4 and the cleaning device 8, which are provided before and after the partial plating device 6, are not operated. Workpieces are continuously fed by the continuous feeding devices 16 and 18. Therefore, when the intermittent feeding of the work in the partial plating device 6 is completed, the roller 22 is at position A in FIG. 4, but as the work is fed by the continuous work feed device 16 during plating, the roller 22 gradually descends. ,
When the Mesa processing is completed, the roller 22 almost reaches the position B, and when the roller 22 reaches the position B, the limit switch _LS1 is activated. By the operation of this limit switch LS ₁ , the workpiece intermittent feeder 17
The pulse motor 22 is activated and rotates by a predetermined set pulse to rapidly feed the workpiece, and the roller 22 rises until it reaches position A and stops. As a result, the partial plating device 6 is supplied with a workpiece having a predetermined number of partial plating sections for the next plating process.

When the roller 22 continues to rise and reaches position C due to some abnormality, the limit switch _LS2 is activated to stop all feeders and issue an alarm to notify of the abnormality. On the other hand, when the workpiece (film) is cut, the roller 22 falls and activates the limit switch _LS3 , which similarly stops the operation and generates an alarm.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plating liquid tank 25 made of plastic is provided on the underframe 24, and plating liquid guide holes are provided in the upper part of the tank 25, corresponding to each partial plating section of the workpiece, as shown in FIG. A workpiece support 27 having 26 is fixed. The inside of the plating liquid tank 25 is divided into a first tank 25a and a second tank 25b by a partition wall 29.
A nozzle 28 is fixed to the partition wall 29 facing each guide hole 26, and is inserted into each guide hole 26. A lower masking plate 30 is fixed on the support stand 27 and has holes 30a in the parts of the workpiece to be plated, and covers the other parts.
Above the work support stand 27 is a work holding stand 31.
is provided to be moved up and down by an air cylinder 32 (FIG. 4), and an upper masking plate 33 having holes 33a corresponding to the holes 30a of the lower masking plate 30 is fixed to the lower side of the holding table. The holes 30a and 33a of the masking plate correspond to the partial plating sections of the workpiece, and the holes 30a and 33a are used during masking.
Only the part of the workpiece is exposed. Furthermore, masking plate 3
0 and 33 are made of a poor conductor material such as elastic silicone rubber.

Inside the frame 24 is a pump 34 as shown in FIG.
is provided, the plating liquid is sent from the tank 35 through the pipe 36 into the first tank 25a of the plating liquid tank 25,
The liquid is ejected from each nozzle 28.
The plating liquid passes through the hole 13 provided in the center of the workpiece, reaches the opposite side of the workpiece, and reaches the upper masking plate 3.
3 and falls into the second tank 25a. The plating liquid in the second tank is in the hole 37 and in the return chamber 3.
8. Return to tank 35 through return pipe 39.

Next, a mechanism for positioning and holding down the workpiece on the support stand 27 will be explained. Guide rollers 40 and 41 provided at the entrance and exit sides of the plating section are elastically supported by springs so as to be movable up and down. Since both the front and rear rollers have the same structure, the front roller will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. The roller 40 (or 41) is rotatably supported on a cantilever shaft 42, and the base of the shaft 42 is supported by a support base 43a so as to be vertically slidable by a guide rod 44a or the like. The support base 43a is urged upward by a spring (not shown), and the upper plate 43 is held in the raised position by a stopper 42a.
On the other hand, a positioning table 45 is provided below the workpiece,
Above it are provided two conical positioning projections 46 which engage the perforation of the workpiece.

The workpiece is rapidly fed intermittently by a predetermined machining length by the intermittent feeder 17, but when the workpiece is fed, the holding table 31 is in the upper position shown by the chain line in FIG. 5, and therefore the rollers 40 and 41 are also raised. in position.
In this position, the workpiece is above the projection 46 and is therefore fed without engaging the projection. When the workpiece is sent to the partial plating device by a predetermined length, the holding table 31 is lowered by the operation of the air cylinder 32, and the upper plate 4 is moved by the arm 44.
3 is pushed downward, and the rollers 40 and 41 descend. As a result, the workpiece also descends, and one pair of its perforation engages with the positioning protrusion 46. Since the protrusion 46 has a conical shape, misalignment of the workpiece is corrected and the upper and lower masking plates 3
3 and 30, the workpiece is clamped as shown by the solid line in FIG. The holding table 31 is provided with a negative electrode connection end 47 at the tip of the arm 48, which is brought into pressure contact with the common electrode 50 (FIG. 3) of the workpiece 12 by a spring when the holding table 31 is lowered, and the negative side electrode connection end 47 on the workpiece is The printed part is used as a negative electrode. on the other hand,
Each nozzle 28 is made of an inert metal such as platinum and is connected to a positive power source through a conductive wire 51 to serve as a positive electrode.

Next, the pump 34 is operated to send plating liquid, and the plating liquid is supplied to the print side of the workpiece 12 held by the upper and lower masking plates 30 and 33 through the hole 13, and the positive electrode and the negative electrode are connected to each other. By applying current during this period, plating, for example, tin plating, is applied to the holes 30a and 33a of the masking plate and the plating portion 13a of the printed wiring portion exposed in the hole 13 of the workpiece.

When the plating process is completed, the holding table 31 rises, and accordingly the rollers 40 and 41 also rise, and the workpiece 12 moves away from the protrusion 46 and becomes free. Subsequently, the intermittent feed device 17 is operated to rapidly feed the workpiece 12 and send it to the second buffer section 7.

The second buffer section has the same structure as the first buffer section, and the buffer roller 52 is moved from position D in FIG. Note that the plating process is completed before the rollers 22, 52 of the buffer section reach positions B and D, and the intermittent feeding device 17
reach the B and D positions, and the limit switch
It is activated when LS ₁ and LS ₄ operate together and issue a signal. Since the continuous feed device 18 is continuously feeding, the roller 52 gradually rises from the E position, and the workpiece is sent to the cleaning device 8. The workpiece is washed there, further dried in a drying device 9, and passed through a dancer roller 10 to a winding device 11. In the winding device, a separation film is provided from a reel 53, and is wound together with the separation film onto a reel 54 to complete the processing.

As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform continuous and partial plating on a tape-shaped workpiece without stopping it, thereby saving resources. The above embodiment is an example in which the printed wiring part is exposed in a hole provided in the film of the workpiece, and that part is to be plated. When plating is to be performed, the plating liquid may be configured to circulate and flow over the plating surface.

Continuously performing two or more types of plating, such as gold plating and tin plating, can be achieved by inserting a pair of partial plating device and cleaning device into the processing line, making it easy to change processes. I can deal with it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view showing the entire apparatus embodying the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, Fig. 3 is a plan view showing a part of a tape-shaped work, and Fig. 4 is a partial plating apparatus. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view showing a part of the partial plating device, and FIG. 6 is a needle perspective view showing a workpiece positioning portion. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Reel, 2... Work supply device, 3... Dancer roller, 4... Pretreatment cleaning device, 5... First buffer section, 6... Partial plating device, 7... Second buffer section, 8
... Washing device, 9... Drying device, 10... Dancer roller, 11... Winding device, 12... Workpiece, 13... Hole,
15... Reel, 16, 18... Workpiece continuous feeding device, 17... Intermittent feeding device, 20... Roller, 21...
Guide rail, 22... Buffer roller, 25... Plating liquid tank, 26... Plating liquid guide hole, 28... Nozzle,
29... Partition wall, 30... Lower masking plate, 31... Work holding stand, 32... Air cylinder, 33... Upper masking plate, 37... Hole, 38... Return chamber, 39... Return pipe, 40, 41... Roller, 42... Shaft, 43...Top plate, 44...Arm, 46...Protrusion, 48...Arm, 50...Common electrode, 52...Roller, 54...Reel.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A work supply device that has a reel wound with a tape-like work in which a large number of parts plating sections are provided at predetermined intervals, and that sequentially feeds out the work, and a work that continuously feeds the work. A first washing device which carries out washing as a pre-plating treatment and a second washing device which carries out washing after plating, each having a continuous feeding device.
a cleaning device; a workpiece intermittent feeding device that intermittently feeds the workpiece by a predetermined length; a masking member that exposes only a partial plating section of the workpiece and covers the others; and the portion exposed from the masking member. A plating liquid circulation device consisting of a plating liquid flow path including a plating section, a tank and a pump, and a pipe line including the flow path, and an electrode device that provides a potential difference between the plating liquid and the partial plating section of the workpiece. a partial plating device having: a buffer section provided between the plating device and the first or second cleaning device; a drying device for drying the workpiece after final cleaning; and a workpiece for winding up the dried workpiece. A continuous plating device for a tape-shaped workpiece, comprising a winding device.