KR100408534B1 - Cutting method of non-metal material and cutting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for cutting a nonmetallic material such as glass, wherein the nonmetallic material is heated to expand and then cooled to generate a crack in the material to cut the nonmetallic material. In the nonmetallic material to be cut before heating and expanding, an auxiliary crack is formed at least in the portion where the cutting starts and in the portion where the cutting ends in the desired direction of the cutting. Formation of the auxiliary crack is preferably made by irradiation of a laser beam.

In addition, an auxiliary cracker for forming an auxiliary crack coincident with the cutting direction on at least an edge portion of the nonmetallic material to be cut, a heating optic for heating the nonmetallic material by irradiating a heating beam along a line to be cut, and the heating optics Provided is a non-metallic material cutting device comprising a quencher which quenches a portion heated by a mechanism to generate cracks.

If the above non-metallic material cutting method and cutting device are used, the scribe line is formed in a straight line along the direction of the auxiliary crack in the edge portion, so that the non-metallic material can be cut smoothly, and the crack is completely broken by the auxiliary crack. It can be formed to improve the cutting speed.

Description

CUTTING METHOD OF NON-METAL MATERIAL AND CUTTING APPARATUS}

The present invention relates to a method of cutting nonmetallic materials, in particular glass, and apparatus thereof.

Recently, in manufacturing a TFT-LCD display module, it is necessary to cut the glass of the original plate to fit the size of each module after the sealing process of the cell process. Recently, many methods for using a laser beam have been attempted to cut such glass.

A conventional glass cutting method using such a laser beam will be described.

1 shows such a conventional apparatus and method.

In the figure, 1 is the glass to be cut, and 2 is the initial cracker for making the scribe line 8 in the desired direction by drawing a micro-crack at the end of the glass 1, ie where the scribe line 8 begins. (initial cracker).

3 is an optical mechanism for irradiating the heating beam 4 to the glass 1. 5 is a quencher, which is a refrigerant injector for injecting cold water or the like to rapidly cool a portion heated by the heating beam 4. 6 is an optical mechanism for irradiating a pair of facing brake beams 7.

The method of cutting the glass 1 using the above apparatus will be described.

The glass 1 placed on the work table on the mechanism in the conveyance mechanism (not shown) is moved in the direction of the arrow in the drawing, that is, to the right by the drive mechanism of the work bench.

First, the initial cracker 2 descends to the position where the glass 1 is placed and scratches the place where the scribe line 8 of the glass 1 starts to generate micro cracks. On the other hand, the optical apparatus 3 is positioned above the glass 1 to irradiate the heating beam 4 continuously at a predetermined position of the glass 1 to heat the glass 1. The quencher 5 is positioned at a predetermined distance from where the heating beam 4 is irradiated to inject a coolant or the like into the glass 1 heated by the heating beam 4.

Since the glass 1 in which the refrigerant is injected by the quencher 5 is heated and then rapidly cooled, so-called vertical cracks are generated in the glass 1 to generate a scribe line 8. This scribe line 8 is created along the direction of the microcracks generated by the initial cracker 2.

Behind the quencher 5 is an optical device 6, such as the optical device 3, is irradiated with a pair of brake beams 7 on both sides of the scribe line 8 to heat the glass 1, (1) is cut off.

As such, the crack 1, ie, the scribe line 8 is cut off, but the scribe line 8 is not completely straight. That is, as shown in Fig. 2, the phenomenon in which the first and the last is not straight but curved in the scribe line 8 of the glass 1 appears (the so-called edge effect). In the drawing, the scribe line 8 forms a straight line in a section b, that is, a center portion of the scribe line 8 of the glass 1, but an edge effect in which the scribe line 8 is bent in the sections a and c. Appears.

Due to this edge effect, the glass 1 was not cut straight and the yield of the product was not good.

This phenomenon has not been solved so far, which is also a reason why it is not widely used despite the excellent laser cutting method for cutting glass and the like.

The phenomenon of the edge effect described above has been considered to be an influence of an irregular heat transfer situation and a complex stress field in the edge portion.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for rapidly and completely cutting a non-metallic material, in particular, glass, in a straight line, which is not affected by a stress field and does not exhibit an edge effect at an edge portion. .

1 is a view showing a conventional device for cutting glass;

2 is a view showing a scribe line in the related art;

3 illustrates an apparatus of one embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a view showing one configuration of the auxiliary cracker in the above embodiment;

5 is a view showing a cross section of a glass in which an auxiliary crack is formed by the auxiliary cracker;

6 is a view showing a scribe line according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

1, 11: glass 2: initial cracker

3, 6: optical mechanism 4, 14, 19: heating beam

5, 15, 151: quencher

7, 17, 171: brake beams 8, 18: scribe lines

12: secondary cracker

In the case of laser thermal shock cracking cutting, the advancement of the microcracks is generated where heat gradients are urgent. At this time, due to the anisotropic heat transfer phenomenon and the complex stress field in the glass edge portion, the microcracks cannot be advanced in the intended direction but are generated in an irregular direction, that is, as shown in FIG. The heat applied is absorbed and transferred through the glass. Section b with an isotropic heat transfer structure allows for heat transfer under uniform conditions. This means a straight forward advance of the microcracks.

On the other hand, as shown in the drawing near the edge it is in contact with the air, another heat transfer medium. This means contact with an object having a very low heat transfer rate. Eventually, the heat that has been transferred can no longer be transferred elsewhere in the same environment. This poorly transferred heat will remain near the glass edge. For this reason, thermal gradient distortion occurs at the glass edge portion, which eventually leads the crack propagation direction to a direction different from the conventional linear propagation direction.

In order to remedy these problems, it was conceived that the microcracks with good linearity can be generated by generating a stress concentration factor called an auxiliary crack to be located in front of the microcracks.

Here, the auxiliary crack means a groove formed on the surface of glass or the like along a line (scribing line) to form a crack prior to generating a crack to form glass or the like and having a shallower depth than the crack. Such a groove may be formed using a mechanical device, but is preferably formed by using an optical device such as irradiating a laser beam due to problems such as cleanliness.

The secondary cracks lead to an irregular crack advancing direction of the glass edge portion in the intended straight direction. That is, the auxiliary crack serves to control the advancing direction of the microcracks in the same direction as its own direction by forming a stress concentration factor (notch) on the glass surface. Auxiliary cracks are created at least 2-3 cm long at the beginning and end of the cut. As a result, the cutting is free from the effect of the edge effect, and the intended precise straight line cutting is possible.

This auxiliary crack is also effective for improving the cutting speed. As described above, stress concentration factors are generated on the glass surface to make micro cracks easier to produce, and also have an effect on reliable full cutting of glass.

The present invention provides a method of cutting a non-metallic material for solving the above problems, in the method of cutting a non-metallic material by heating and expanding the non-metallic material and then cooling to generate a crack in the material, the heating and expansion In the non-metallic material to be cut before, it is characterized in that the auxiliary cracks are formed in a desired direction of cutting in at least a portion where the cutting starts and a portion where the cutting ends.

On the other hand, it is preferable that this auxiliary crack is formed by irradiation of a laser beam.

In addition, the cutting device according to the present invention, the auxiliary cracker for forming an auxiliary crack in the at least the edge portion of the non-metal material to be cut and coincide with the cutting direction, and heating for heating the non-metallic material by irradiating a heating beam along the line to be cut And a quencher which generates a crack by quenching the portion heated by the optical optics and the heating optics.

In addition, the auxiliary cracker is characterized by forming an auxiliary crack by irradiating a laser beam.

In addition, it is preferable to further include a brake optical mechanism for heating the non-metallic material by irradiating the brake beam to the cracked portion.

(Example)

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

3 is a view showing one device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 12, an apparatus for generating an auxiliary crack in an edge portion of glass to be separated as an auxiliary cracker is illustrated. The reason for generating the auxiliary crack in the edge portion is to advance the crack in the straight direction also in the edge portion of the glass as described above. In glass cutting using a laser, the stress field at the edge is very complicated. Therefore, when the auxiliary crack is first generated at the edge portion, the crack advances along the direction based on the auxiliary crack. As a result, the desired straight line can be cut.

The configuration of this secondary cracker 12 consists of a laser mechanism of the beam for the generation of the secondary cracks. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the configuration of the auxiliary cracker 12 is a beam collimator or expander for adjusting a laser source, a diameter of a laser beam, or the like for crack generation. And a mirror for transmitting the laser beam and a lens for changing the shape of the transmitted beam into a desired shape.

For the generation of secondary cracks, Nd: YAG laser (1064, 532, 355, 266nm or Eximer laser-255nm) of less than 1064nm should be used to realize smaller beam spot. On the other hand, considering that the absorption rate of glass shows a high absorption rate of 95% or more in the wavelength range of 300 nm or less, in order to use such laser power efficiently, a laser source of 355 nm or less is used in a small and compact system. For the configuration of 1064, 532nm wavelength band laser is effective.

In addition, the laser operating model TEM00 mode is used to make the shape of the laser beam perfect Gaussian. The laser frequency can be used to vary from 10HZ up to 30KHZ. The higher the frequency, the narrower the interval to be irradiated onto the glass 11, thereby producing a good scribe line. However, the higher the frequency, the smaller the output. Irradiation of the laser beam for forming the auxiliary crack is preferably continuous for easy propagation of the microcracks. This is because the tighter the spacing of the auxiliary cracks, the more straight the propagation of the microcracks and the easier the propagation. However, if the laser beam is continuous, that is, the frequency is high, the energy seems to decrease. Therefore, it is necessary to find the optimum frequency by adjusting the interval for irradiating the laser beam.

It was found experimentally that when the cutting speed was 300 mm / s as in the present embodiment, the best crack was generated when the frequency of the laser beam was 10 KHz to 35 KHz. This applies to both cases where the laser wavelength is 266 nm and 355 nm.

In addition, the lens of the wavelength band is used to realize the desired beam spot.

We also use beam expanders to create smaller beam spots.

The primary heating beam 14 is irradiated by the same optical mechanism as that of the auxiliary cracker 12, and is generally elliptical centering on the scribe line 18 for heating efficiency. It is not limited to.

On the other hand, the optical device for irradiating the primary heating beam 14 is composed of a laser source (mirror source), a mirror (Mirror) and a lens. The choice of laser source should be determined by the properties of the material to be separated. In general, glass has a property of absorbing 100% of the laser in the 10.6 탆 near infrared wavelength range. Therefore, in the case of glass, a CO 2 laser of 10.6 mu m is used as the laser source. In addition, the laser operation model TEM00 mode is used to make the profile of the laser beam a perfect Gaussian.

On the other hand, the lens uses a lens of 10.6㎛ wavelength band to implement the desired beam shape. In this case, a complex structured lens may be used to easily form a desired beam shape.

On the other hand, there is a need for a drive system for controlling the movement of the work table and the optical apparatus on which the glass 11 is placed. Operation is basically computer controlled. Various driving forms can be taken to achieve the desired functionality. One way is to fix the optics (lenses, mirrors, etc.) and move the workbench (TFT-LCD glass) to X, Y, θ.

Another method is to fix the workbench (TFT-LCD glass) and move the optics to X, Y, θ.

In addition, the glass can be separated by moving the working table in the X, θ-axis direction and the optical mechanism in the Y-axis direction in the form of a compromise between the two methods.

In addition, the cutting speed can be improved by mounting a plurality of laser optical instruments that play the same role.

For example, when two sheets of the glass 11 are stacked and cut, the optical apparatuses 3 and 6 and the quencher 15 and 51 may be arranged under the work table, and the upper and lower glass 11 may be cut from both sides. Cutting at the same time can increase the processing speed.

15 in the figure is the first quencher.

The laser beam patterned by the lens is absorbed by the glass 100%. At this time, the temperature of the glass rises up to the thermal strain point. If the temperature rises rapidly, the glass generates high thermal gradient due to a sudden temperature difference. The first quencher 15 is used to generate such a sudden temperature difference. The first quencher 15 is usually implemented in the form of a nozzle.

In addition, as the quenching material injected from the first quencher 15, He, He + water, N 2, water + air and the like may be used. These materials are materials with relatively large specific heat values and heat capacities.

On the other hand, the quenching material sprayed by the primary quencher 15 should be completely removed from the glass surface after performing the role. The reason is that in the TFT-LCD glass, the quenching substance remains as foreign matter on the glass surface may be a fatal defect in the process of the TFT-LCD glass. Therefore, a quench material remover is needed to remove the residue of the quench material. At this time, the physical force that can be used as a remover may be generated by pneumatic (vaccum, dry air, etc.). That is, the residue of the quenching material may be removed by a blower or vacuum adsorption.

17 is a brake beam irradiated by the optical mechanism. The optical mechanism is the same as that of the optical apparatus 3 described above. The primary brake beam 17 irradiates beams on both sides of the scribe line 18 to heat the glass 11. The heated glass 11 expands and the glass 11 splits around the scribe line 18 formed by cracking by the expansion force.

19 is a secondary heating beam similar to the primary heating beam 14. However, the shape is substantially fan-shaped unlike the first heating beam 14. This is adjusting the shape of both beams so as to irradiate the glass 11 with the primary brake beam 17 and the secondary heating beam 19 simultaneously by one optical device. In other words, the primary brake beam 17 and the secondary heating beam 19 are adjusted to have a substantially annular shape. The beam coming from the laser source forms a predetermined shape through the lens to irradiate the glass 11. However, not all beam shapes can be processed with lenses alone. Therefore, a mask is needed to block part of the beam and transmit part of the beam to form a constant shape. However, as shown in FIG. 3, when the shapes of the primary brake beam 17 and the secondary heating beam 19 are adjusted, the shape of the mask may be simplified, and thus the manufacturing may be easy.

If both beams are irradiated simultaneously as described above, one optical device can be used and not only a mask can be simply used, but also heating efficiency is better than that of a separate one.

151 serves as a second quencher with the same mechanism as the first quencher 15.

171 serves as the secondary brake beam and plays the same role as the primary brake beam 17.

The cutting method of the glass by the cutting device which has the above structure is demonstrated.

First, the glass 11 to be cut is placed on the workbench. The robot etc. which are not shown are used for this mounting work.

The worktable on which the glass 11 is mounted is moved in a straight line to the right in FIG. 3 by a drive mechanism (not shown). When the work table, that is, the glass 11 starts to move, the laser beam is irradiated from the auxiliary cracker 12 to generate auxiliary cracks in the glass 11. At this time, the cross section of the auxiliary crack formed in the glass 11 is shown in FIG. Irradiation of the laser beam for the generation of such an auxiliary crack may be over the entire length of the glass, or at least at the edge portion of the glass.

Subsequently, the primary heating beam 14 irradiated by the optical instrument heats the glass 11 about the cutting line.

In this way, the glass 11 is sprayed with water, He, etc. from the first quencher 15, and is rapidly cooled to form cracks. This crack is formed in a certain direction under the influence of the auxiliary crack by the auxiliary cracker 12 and the temperature difference formed by the beam and the quencher.

The primary brake beam 17 is irradiated to both sides of the scribe line 18 having the cracks formed thereon. The glass 11 irradiated with the primary brake beam 17 expands, and this force causes the crack to be completely formed or at least a deeper crack.

Subsequently, the secondary heating beam 19 is irradiated along the scribe line 18. The glass 11 heated by the second heating beam 19 is rapidly cooled by a coolant such as cold water jetted by the second quencher 151, thereby forming secondary cracks. That is, deeper cracks are formed, which makes cutting easier.

On the other hand, the secondary heating beam 19 may be irradiated simultaneously with the primary brake beam 17. Irradiation at the same time is carried out by one optical device, which simplifies the whole apparatus and is advantageous in terms of heating efficiency.

The glass 11 in which the secondary crack is formed by the secondary quencher 151 continues to be irradiated with the secondary brake beam 171 so that the brake is completely completed.

On the other hand, in the method of cutting the glass 11, it is not necessary to necessarily adopt all the above processes.

That is, auxiliary cracking-primary heating-primary quenching may be sufficient, the method of adding a secondary heating or secondary quenching to this may be sufficient, or it can also add adding a primary brake to the said method. It is also good to use only the secondary brake, and in some cases, add a primary brake.

In addition, the said cutting method may be made not only about the upper surface of the glass 11 but the lower surface. In other words, when two pieces of glass 11 are stacked and cut on a workbench, the two pieces of glass can be cut in one step by scribing and breaking from below. Therefore, twice as much glass can be processed at the same time.

As described above, in the present invention, a scribe line having good straightness is formed by irradiating a laser to at least the edge of the glass to be cut to form an auxiliary crack (see Fig. 6). Therefore, there is an effect that can cut the glass straight in the subsequent cutting process.

In addition, since the secondary crack is formed, there is an effect of increasing the subsequent cutting speed. In other words, it can be cut at a speed (300mm / s) more than 30% higher than before.

Due to such effects, laser cutting methods, which have not been widely applied despite their superiority, have been adopted for cutting substrates such as glass.

Claims (5)

A method of cutting a nonmetallic material by heating and expanding the nonmetallic material, followed by cooling to generate a crack in the material, In the non-metallic material to be cut prior to the heating and expansion, at least a portion at which the cutting starts and a portion where the cutting is finished to form an auxiliary crack in a desired direction for cutting. Non-metallic material cutting method characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The formation of the auxiliary crack is made by irradiation of a laser beam. Non-metallic material cutting method characterized in that. An auxiliary cracker which forms an auxiliary crack in at least the edge portion of the nonmetallic material to be cut, the auxiliary crack being coincident with the cutting direction; Heating optics for heating non-metallic materials by irradiating a heating beam along a line to be cut, Quenching to generate a crack by quenching the heated portion by the heating optics Non-metal material cutting device, characterized in that made. The method of claim 3, The auxiliary cracker irradiates a laser beam to form an auxiliary crack Non-metal material cutting device, characterized in that. The method according to claim 3 or 4, The brake optical mechanism for heating the non-metallic material by irradiating the brake beam to the cracked portion Non-metal material cutting device further comprises.