KR100720742B1 - Metal coating device and method of coating metal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a metal material coating apparatus and a coating method. The coating apparatus, the chamber; A vacuum pump for forming a vacuum in the chamber; A supporting part for fixing the object to be coated in the internal space; A first deposition unit for depositing a raw material source having the same material as that of the coated object on the coated object; And a second deposition part forming a metal coating layer on the base coating layer. In addition, the coating method includes a step of preparing a vacuum after mounting the coating object in the chamber; A surface to be coated surface improvement step of treating the surface of the surface to be coated inside the chamber suitable for deposition; A base coating layer forming step of depositing a coating material having the same material as that of the coating object on the surface of the coating object; And a metal coating layer forming step of depositing a metal material on the base coating layer.

According to the present invention made as described above, in order to coat the metal on the coated material, a material source of the same material as the material to be coated is deposited in advance and a desired metal material is deposited thereon, and the deposition of the material source is finished. By starting the deposition of the metal material before it is started, the metal vapor particles are mixed with the source source particles to start the deposition, so that the metal coating layer can be firmly maintained on the coated material, and also no chemicals are used. The operation is as simple as there is no emission of water and all the processing takes place on one machine.

Description

Metal coating device and method of coating metal

1 is a view showing for explaining the basic principle of the metal material coating method according to an embodiment of the present invention

2 is a perspective view of a metal material coating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration and operation of the metal material coating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a graph showing a metal material coating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

11: Coating device 13: Vacuum chamber

13a: casing 15: door

17: rotating drum 19a, 19b: vacuum pump

21a: first shutter 21b: second shutter

51: ion generating unit 51a: power supply

51b: gas supply pipe 51c: plasma generator

51d: electric field generator 53: argon ion

55: coating object 55a: coating surface

57: synthetic resin evaporation source 57a: power supply

57b: Heater 57c: Synthetic Resin Source

57d: source chamber 57e: exit

59: synthetic resin particles 61: metal evaporation source

61a: power source 61b: metal source

61c: ion generator 61d: gas supply pipe

63: metal particles 65: internal space

The present invention relates to a metal material coating apparatus and a coating method.

As a means for imparting a metallic texture to a product molded from a synthetic resin, electroless plating using a chemical reaction and an electroplating method using electrical conductivity obtained by electroless plating have been performed. The electroplating is to plate the synthetic resin product once more coated with a metal film on the surface of the non-electroplating, so that the electroless plating layer and the electroplating layer laminated on the synthetic resin product has its characteristics.

Whatever the method of plating, a large amount of toxic chemicals is used for plating. These chemicals not only generate toxic gases during the plating process, but also leave heavy metal waste solutions of high concentration after plating is completed. In addition, a large amount of chemicals are washed out during the washing process to wash the plated products, and most of the washing water is discarded as it is, which greatly damages the surrounding soil or groundwater environment. As such, the plating industry uses a lot of toxic chemicals, so the environmental load is large.

Due to various problems with the plating method, a vacuum deposition metal coating method has been developed to replace the plating method. Vacuum deposition is a coating method of heating and evaporating a metal, which is a raw material source to be used for coating, in a vacuum environment and depositing the evaporated metal particles on a coating object.

However, this also has a problem that the coating layer is peeled off over time due to the lack of adhesion of the coating layer, there is a hassle such as to roughly process the surface of the surface to be coated or to use an adhesive to increase the adhesive strength before the operation.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, in order to coat the metal on the coating material to deposit a raw material source of the same material as the material to be coated on the surface of the coated material in advance and depositing a metal material thereon, Since the deposition of the metal material is started before the deposition is completed, the metal vapor particles are mixed with the raw material source particles to start the deposition so that the metal coating layer can be firmly maintained on the coated material, and no chemical is used at all. There is no emission of pollutants, and all processes are performed in one equipment, and the purpose is to provide a coating device and a coating method for the metal material.

In order to achieve the above object, the metal material coating apparatus of the present invention, the chamber providing an internal space; A vacuum pump for forming a vacuum in the inner space of the chamber; A support part installed in the inner space to fix and support the object to be coated; A first deposition part forming a base coating layer by depositing a raw material source of the same material as the material to be coated on the coated surface of the object to be fixed to the supporting part; Initiating the operation before the operation of the first deposition unit starts, depositing a metal material on the base coating layer formed by the first deposition unit to allow the metal material particles to penetrate between the raw material source particles, thereby causing the metal material particles and the raw material source particles. Is laminated in a mixed state, and after the operation of the first depositing unit is continued, the second coating unit for depositing and forming a metal coating layer made of metal material particles on the base coating layer by continuing the drive for a required time, the chamber, the base coating layer is By accelerating impingement of inert gas ions on the coating surface to be deposited, the kinetic energy of the inert gas ions is improved to make the coating surface suitable for deposition, and the inert gas ions are continuously deposited on the deposition layer even during the deposition process of the base coating layer and the metal coating layer. The ion generating unit to be irradiated is characterized in that the further provided.

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In addition, the supporting part is a rotating drum rotatable about the central axis of rotation, and the coated object is fixed to the periphery of the rotating drum, characterized in that it revolves around the central axis of rotation by the rotation of the rotating drum.

In addition, the first deposition unit; A heater installed at one side of the chamber and an outlet opened therein to accommodate the raw material source, and open to the surface of the coated material so that steam particles of the raw material source melted by the heater can move to the surface of the coated object and be deposited. And a shutter which is installed to be opened and closed between the outlet of the casing and the object to be coated and passes raw material source vapor particles from the casing to the object to be coated during deposition.

In addition, the second deposition unit; A metal source made of a metal material to be deposited on the base coating layer, a sputtering portion for rapidly colliding inert gas ions toward the metal source to evaporate metal particles from the metal source, and a position capable of opening and closing between the metal source and the coated object And a shutter for passing the metal vapor particles from the metal source to the coated object.

In addition, the metal material coating method of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of preparing a vacuum in the chamber after mounting the coating to be coated in a chamber having an internal space; The surface to be coated is improved by making the surface of the coating surface suitable for deposition by injecting an inert gas into the chamber and ionizing it at the same time and accelerating the inert gas ions obtained thereon to the surface to be coated. An improvement step; A base coating layer forming step of depositing a coating material having the same material as that of the coating object on the surface of the coating object; Start before the end of the base coating layer forming step and continue after completion of the base coating layer forming step, by depositing a metal material on the base coating layer to allow the metal material particles to penetrate between the source source particles of the base coating layer being formed And a metal coating layer forming step of allowing the raw material source particles and the metal material particles to be stacked in a mixed state and continuing after completion of the base coating layer forming step to form a metal coating layer made of metal material particles on the base coating layer. do.

In addition, the step of proceeding during the base coating layer forming step and the metal coating layer forming step, characterized in that it further comprises a gas ion irradiation step of continuously irradiating the inert gas ions to the base coating layer and the metal coating layer.

In addition, the coated object is characterized in that the synthetic resin.

Hereinafter, one embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view showing for explaining the basic principle of the metal material coating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Basically, the metal material coating method according to the present embodiment first improves the coating surface of the synthetic resin coating to be suitable for deposition (the improvement in the present description includes the concept of removing various foreign matters attached to the coating surface). And then depositing the synthetic resin of the same material on the coated material and starting the deposition of the metal material before the deposition of the synthetic resin is finished so that the synthetic resin and the metal material are deposited on the coated material for a predetermined time. Finishing the resin deposition first and continuing the metal coating for the required time. It also includes the process of generating inert gas ions and accelerating impingement on the coating to enhance deposition of the deposit on the coating.

First, referring to FIG. 1A, it can be seen that the argon ions 53 generated in the ion generator 51 are accelerated toward the coated object 55 and collide with the coating surface 55a of the coated object 55. The coating is made of synthetic resin and is a product to be coated on the surface of the metal. The ion generator 51 is a known device for ionizing argon gas supplied from the outside using plasma. It also includes an electric field generator (51d in FIG. 3) for providing kinetic energy to the argon ion (53).

In any case, the argon ion 53 is accelerated by the electric field to hit the coating surface 55a to remove foreign substances on the coating surface 55a as well as to further modify the coating surface 55a as needed. In this way, by argon ions collide with the coating surface 55a, the coating surface 55a can be improved to be suitable for deposition.

When the improvement of the coating surface 55a is completed through the above process, the ion generating unit 51 is controlled to reduce the kinetic energy of argon ions. The reduced energy argon ions continue to be investigated until the deposition of the metal evaporation source described below is complete.

Subsequently, a process of depositing a synthetic resin on the coated surface of the coated object 55 is performed. At this time, the synthetic resin to be deposited is the same as the material of the material to be coated 55 as described above. In addition, there may be various methods of deposition, but according to the present embodiment, the synthetic resin particles 59 are deposited on the coating surface 55a by boiling and evaporating the synthetic resin source in the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 with a heater.

Even while the synthetic resin particles 59 generated from the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 are deposited on the coating surface 55a, argon ions of the lowered kinetic energy are irradiated onto the synthetic resin irradiation layer, and the deposited synthetic resin particles 59 are coated. The deposition layer is compacted so as to be in close contact with (55). The synthetic resin layer deposited on the coating surface 55a is a base coating layer to more firmly fix the metal coating layer to be described later. In other words, the synthetic resin layer serves as a binder for bonding the coating object 55 and the metal coating layer to each other.

When the deposition of the synthetic resin particles is made as desired, the temperature of the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 is reduced to reduce the flow amount of the synthetic resin particles 59 directed to the coated object 55 and the metal evaporation source 61 is operated. The metal evaporation source 61 is a known vapor deposition apparatus for generating and evaporating metal material particles from a metal source through a known sputtering method.

The metal material particles 63 generated from the metal evaporation source 61 are squeezed into or stacked on the particles of the synthetic resin particles 59 which are first deposited. The metal material particles 63 stacked thereon come into contact with the metal material particles 63 interposed between the synthetic resin particles 59 and form a layer. In particular, while the deposition of the metal material particles 63 is performed, the argon ions 53 continue to chop the metal material particles 63 as shown in FIG. 1E to maintain the metal deposition layer firmly.

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of a metal material coating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration and operation of the metal material coating apparatus.

2 and 3, the metallic material coating apparatus 11 according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a vacuum chamber 13 having an internal space 65 having a predetermined volume, which can be opened and closed by a door 15, and an arrow. It is mounted in the A direction and mounted to the vacuum chamber 13, and includes the ion generating unit 51 toward the inner space 65 of the vacuum chamber 13, the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 and the metal evaporation source 61. .

In addition, a first shutter 21a is installed between the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 and the inner space 65, and a second shutter 21b is provided between the metal evaporation source 61 and the inner space 65. have. The first and second shutters 21a and 21b are opened and closed by slidingly moving in the direction of arrow o or the opposite direction (arrow c direction).

With reference to Figure 3 will be described in more detail the configuration of the metal material coating apparatus 11 according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 3, a rotating drum 17 is provided inside the vacuum chamber 13. The rotating drum 17 is a cylindrical member axially rotated in the direction of the arrow z or vice versa by a separate driving means, and its outer circumferential surface is the ion generator 51, the synthetic resin evaporation source 57, and the metal evaporation source. Opposite 61 and are in close proximity. The rotating drum 17 may have a polygonal cross section or may take the form of a cylinder.

On the outer circumferential surface of the rotating drum 17, the object to be coated 55 to be coated with a metal material is fixed. The coated object may have various materials and shapes, and may be, for example, a synthetic resin product for imparting a metallic texture.

The inner space 65 between the rotating drum 17 and the vacuum chamber 13 casing 13a is maintained at the minimum pressure required by the two vacuum pumps 19a and 19b. In some cases, a plurality of different vacuum pumps may be installed in addition to the two vacuum pumps.

The internal space 65 is maintained at an appropriate vacuum during the synthetic resin deposition process and the sputtering process, which will be described later, for example, to allow the synthetic resin particles to completely reach the coated object without colliding with other gas particles, and also irradiated with the metal source 61b. Argon ions are prevented from colliding with other gases and losing kinetic energy.

One side of the vacuum chamber 13 is provided with an ion generating unit (51). The ion generating unit 51 serves to ionize argon gas provided from the outside through the gas supply pipe 51b into the plasma.

The ion generator 51 is a power supply 51a, a plasma generator 51c that receives electric power from the power source 51a to induce plasma, and a gas supply pipe that supplies argon gas to the plasma generator 51c side. 51b and an electric field generator 51d for emitting argon ionized by plasma to the inner space 65 side.

The electric field provided by the electric field generator 51d is controlled by a separate controller (not shown). That is, the k-direction kinetic energy of argon ions generated by the ion generator 51 is controlled by controlling the amount of power supplied from the power source 51a.

Therefore, the argon ions (53 in FIG. 1) generated from the plasma generator 51c are coated to pass in front of them (by adjusting the intensity of the electric field) for the purpose of improving the coating surface of the coated object 55. Can collide with 55 with very large kinetic energy. The purpose of improving the surface of the coated surface is as described with reference to Figure 1a.

Meanwhile, the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 is heated by the power supply 57a for supplying electricity, the heater 57b connected to the power supply 57a and generating heat, and heated by the heater 57b to boil and evaporate therein. And a source chamber 57d for receiving the synthetic resin source 57c. The outlet 57e of the source chamber 57d is a cylinder through which the synthetic resin particles in a vapor state are discharged, and is spaced a predetermined distance from the coated object 55.

In addition, a first shutter 21a is provided between the outlet 57e of the source chamber 57d and the rotary drum 17. The first shutter 21a is a blocking plate that is slidably moved in the direction of the arrow o and is blocked by being moved in the opposite direction, and controls the movement time of the synthetic resin particles moving from the source chamber 57d to the coated object 55 side. By controlling the amount of the synthetic resin particles to pass through.

Before opening the first shutter 21a and starting the synthetic resin particles toward the coated object 55, the vacuum pumps 19a and 19b must form a vacuum in the inner space 65.

Synthetic resin particles discharged through the outlet (57e) of the source chamber (57d) is deposited on the surface of the coating material 55 passing through the front to form the base coating layer.

The metal evaporation source 61 is a device according to the known principle of physical vapor deposition (PVD), and in particular, the metal source is evaporated through a sputtering process. In order to drive the metal evaporation source 61, in particular, gas ions must exist around the metal evaporation source 61. For this purpose, ionization of the argon gas supplied through the gas supply pipe 61d and appropriately control the intensity of the electric and magnetic fields are performed. To control the degree of metal deposition.

The metal evaporation source 61 is a power supply 61a for supplying electric power, and an ion generator 61c receiving electric power from the power supply 61a and ionizing argon gas introduced from the outside through a gas supply pipe 61d. And a plate-shaped metal source 61b provided in front of the ion generator 61c. The metal source 61b is a metal plate made of a metal to be coated, such as aluminum or chromium or silver or gold, and is spaced apart from the rotating drum 17 by a predetermined distance.

The ion generator 61c incorporates a plasma generator to ionize argon gas using the induced plasma. In addition, an electric field generator (not shown) is installed inside the ion generator 61c. The electric field generator serves to accelerate the collision of argon ions toward the metal source 61b so that the metal material particles protrude from the metal source 61b.

In addition, the second shutter 21b may be opened and closed between the coated object 55 and the metal source 61b. The second shutter 21b controls the movement of the metal material particles in the vapor state generated from the metal source 61b to the coated object 55, and the deposition amount of the metal coating layer may be adjusted according to the opening time. As described above, a vacuum must be formed in the inner space 65 before the argon ions are generated to operate the metal evaporation source 61.

It will be described a method of coating a metal material using a metal material coating apparatus configured as described above.

The metal material coating method according to the present embodiment includes a preparation step, an improved surface to be coated, a base coating layer forming step, a metal coating layer forming step, and a vacuum releasing step.

First, the preparation step, a vacuum forming process for providing a vacuum environment in the internal space 65 by using the vacuum pump (19a, 19b), and the rotating drum 17 (in the arrow z direction of FIG. Drum rotation step of rotating at a predetermined rotational speed).

Subsequently, the surface improvement step of the coated object is to ionize the argon gas supplied from the outside through the ion generator 51, and appropriately grow the kinetic energy of the ionized argon ions to the side to be coated (55 in FIG. 3). By accelerating in the direction of arrow k of FIG. 3 to impinge on the coated surface of the coating, it is a process of removing foreign matters such as moisture or oil components that may be attached to the coated surface to make it more suitable for deposition. (Zone A of FIG. 4).

In this way, by argon ions collide, various foreign matters on the surface of the coated object 55 can be removed, and further, when the kinetic energy of the argon ion is further increased, the surface of the coated object 55 can be modified in a dragged state. have. The coated material is a synthetic resin.

The base coating layer forming step is a step of depositing a synthetic resin of the same material as the target to be coated 55. In the base coating layer forming step, the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 is operated to heat the synthetic resin source 57c contained in the source chamber 57d to generate a synthetic resin particle in a vapor state, and the first shutter 21a. It is to include a synthetic resin deposition process to open the synthetic resin particles to be deposited on the coating (55).

In particular, by controlling the ion generating unit 51 before the synthetic resin deposition process to reduce the kinetic energy of the argon ion irradiated in the arrow k direction. (B zone in FIG. 4) Thus reducing the kinetic energy of argon ions is intended to prevent argon ions from destroying the deposited base coating layer. If the argon ion does not reduce the kinetic energy of the argon ion (maintaining the same kinetic energy as the region A of FIG. 4), the argon ion may destroy the base coating layer.

In addition, continuing to provide the argon ions in a state of reducing the kinetic energy, as described through (c) of FIG. 1, by arranging the base coating layer within the limit that does not destroy the base coating layer, inducing stronger bonds will be.

The degree of deposition of the base coating layer deposited through the base coating layer forming step is controlled by controlling the opening time of the first shutter 21a.

On the other hand, while the synthetic resin evaporation source 57 is operated to form the base coating layer (zone D of FIG. 4), the metal coating layer forming step is started.

The metal coating layer forming step is a step of depositing a metal coating layer on top of the base coating layer by operating a metal evaporation source (61 in FIG. 3). The principle that the metal evaporation source 61 generates the metal material particles in the vapor state is the same as in the conventional sputtering process. In particular, the second shutter 21b is opened while the metal material particles are generated by the metal evaporation source 61.

As the metal coating layer forming step is started, the synthetic resin particles and the metal material particles in the vapor state are simultaneously deposited. (E region of FIG. 4) Since the deposition of the metal material particles is performed while the base coating layer is being deposited, the synthetic resin particles and the metal material particles are very intricately intertwined and intimately bonded to each other as described with reference to FIG. 1 (d). Maintain your relationship.

Since the synthetic resin particles are the same material as the to-be-coated material 55, they are integrally formed with the to-be-coated material 55 by compaction by argon ions at the same time of deposition and maintain a very strong bond. As described above, if the synthetic resin particles and the metal particles are intricately intertwined to maintain a close bond with each other, the metal material particles are strongly bound to the coated object 55.

While performing the metal coating layer forming step, low energy argon ions are continuously irradiated (D zone in FIG. 4) to continuously dope the deposition layer so that no gaps occur between the metal material particles and the synthetic resin particles.

In addition, if the deposition of the base coating layer is completed during the metal coating layer forming step, the first shutter 21a is completely blocked. When the first shutter 21a is blocked, only metal material particles are deposited to form a full metal coating layer on the surface of the coated object 55. When the coating layer of the desired metal is sufficiently deposited on the coated object 55 through the metal coating layer forming step, all the deposition processes are completed by blocking the second shutter 21b.

The vacuum inside the vacuum chamber 13 is then released and the door 15 is opened to collect the worked product.

4 shows a graph showing a method of adding the argon ions, the synthetic resin particles, and the metal material particles to the coated material.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated in detail through the specific Example, this invention is not limited to the said Example, A various deformation | transformation is possible for a person with ordinary knowledge within the scope of the technical idea of this invention.

According to the present invention made as described above, in order to coat the metal on the coated material, a material source of the same material as the material to be coated is deposited in advance and a desired metal material is deposited thereon, and the deposition of the material source is finished. By starting the deposition of the metal material before it is started, the metal vapor particles are mixed with the source source particles to start the deposition, so that the metal coating layer can be firmly maintained on the coated material, and also no chemicals are used. The operation is as simple as there is no emission of water and all the processing takes place on one machine.

Claims (5)

A chamber providing an internal space; A vacuum pump for forming a vacuum in the inner space of the chamber; A support part installed in the inner space to fix and support the object to be coated; A first deposition part forming a base coating layer by depositing a raw material source of the same material as the material to be coated on the coated surface of the object to be fixed to the supporting part; Initiating the operation before the operation of the first deposition unit starts, depositing a metal material on the base coating layer formed by the first deposition unit to allow the metal material particles to penetrate between the raw material source particles, thereby causing the metal material particles and the raw material source particles. And a second deposition portion for depositing and forming a metal coating layer made of metal material particles on the base coating layer by continuing to drive for a required time after the operation of the first deposition portion is mixed in the mixed state. In the chamber, by accelerating impingement of inert gas ions on the coating surface on which the base coating layer is to be deposited, the kinetic energy of the inert gas ions is improved to make the coating surface suitable for deposition, and during the deposition process of the base coating layer and the metal coating layer, Metal material coating apparatus further comprises an ion generator for continuously irradiating the inert gas ions. The method of claim 1, The supporting part is a rotating drum rotatable based on a central axis of rotation, The coating material is fixed to the periphery of the rotating drum is a metal material coating apparatus, characterized in that revolving around the central axis of rotation by the rotation of the rotating drum. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The first deposition unit; A heater installed at one side of the chamber, A casing having a raw material source therein, the casing having an outlet open to the surface of the coated object so that vapor particles of the raw material source melted by the heater can move to the surface of the coated object and be deposited; And a shutter which is installed to be opened and closed between the outlet of the casing and the object to be coated and passes raw material source vapor particles from the casing toward the object to be coated during deposition. Preparing a vacuum in the chamber after mounting a coating object to be coated in a chamber having an inner space; The surface to be coated is improved by making the surface of the coating surface suitable for deposition by injecting an inert gas into the chamber and ionizing it at the same time and accelerating the inert gas ions obtained thereon to the surface to be coated. An improvement step; A base coating layer forming step of depositing a coating material having the same material as that of the coating object on the surface of the coating object; Start before the end of the base coating layer forming step and continue after completion of the base coating layer forming step, by depositing a metal material on the base coating layer to allow the metal material particles to penetrate between the source source particles of the base coating layer being formed And a metal coating layer forming step of allowing the raw material source particles and the metal material particles to be stacked in a mixed state and continuing after completion of the base coating layer forming step to form a metal coating layer made of metal material particles on the base coating layer. Metal material coating method. The method of claim 4, wherein A metal material coating method further comprising a gas ion irradiation step of continuously irradiating the base coating layer and the metal coating layer with the inert gas ions as the step proceeds during the base coating layer forming step and the metal coating layer forming step. .

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