KR100812096B1 - Apparatus and method for glass etching - Google Patents

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide a glass etching apparatus and an etching method capable of reducing the manufacturing cost and processing time due to the miniaturization of equipment by allowing the etching process, the cleaning process, and the drying process to be performed in one bath.

To this end, the present invention is one basal bottom surface is formed to be inclined at an angle; A first pipe connected to one side of a bottom surface of the bath to supply a glass etchant into the bath; A second pipe connected to a side of the bath to selectively supply a cleaning liquid for cleaning the glass and a CDA for drying the glass into the bath; In addition, the glass etching apparatus is connected to the center of the bottom surface of the bath and used to etch and clean the glass, and provides a glass etching apparatus comprising a drain pipe for discharging the etching liquid and the cleaning liquid collected on the bottom surface of the bath.

In addition, the present invention comprises the steps of supplying the etching liquid into the bath through the first pipe connected to the bottom side of the bath; Etching the surface of the glass by inserting the glass into the bath; Discharging the etchant through a drain pipe connected to the bottom of the bath when the glass is etched; Cleaning the surface of the glass by supplying a cleaning liquid into the bath through a second pipe connected to a side of the bath; In addition, the cleaning liquid used for cleaning is discharged to the outside through a drain pipe and the CDA is supplied to the inside of the bath through the second pipe to dry the surface of the glass is made, the steps are all in one bath It provides a glass etching method made in.

Etching Device, Bath

Description

Glass etching apparatus and etching method {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GLASS ETCHING}

1 is a front view of a glass etching apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a side view of the glass etching apparatus according to the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: bath 110: bath bottom surface

120: bubble generator 130: nozzle

200: first pipe 300: second pipe

310: ultrapure water supply valve 320: air supply valve

400: drain pipe

The present invention relates to a glass etching apparatus and an etching method for etching a glass for a liquid crystal display device (LCD), and more particularly, a glass etching apparatus capable of reducing manufacturing costs and shortening processing time by miniaturizing equipment. And an etching method.

In general, an etching apparatus for etching (etching) the glass for a liquid crystal display device includes an etching bath, a quick dump rinse (QDR) bath, and a dry bath. Porous bubble plates that can be produced uniformly are installed.

The conventional glass etching method using such an etching apparatus includes an etching process in an etching bath using hydrofluoric acid (HF), a cleaning step using ultrapure water in a cleaning bath, and a drying step using dry air in a drying bath.

At this time, a plurality of the glass is stacked in the cassette is transferred between each bath. That is, a plurality of glasses are stacked so as to maintain a constant interval in the vertical direction to the cassette, and the above-described process is performed by transferring the stacked cassettes into the respective baths by a transfer means such as a robot arm.

However, such a conventional etching apparatus has to separately include three baths having a complex piping configuration for supplying folic acid, ultrapure water, etc., and thus, it is inevitable to increase the overall size of the equipment and thus increase manufacturing costs.

In addition, when one process is completed, the process takes a lot of time because the glass must be transported for the next process, in particular, there is a problem that the inside of the apparatus is contaminated by the etchant adhered to the glass in the process of transporting the glass.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the manufacturing cost and process due to the miniaturization of equipment by allowing the etching process, the cleaning process, and the drying process to be performed in one bath. It is to provide a glass etching apparatus and an etching method that can reduce the time.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a bath having a bottom surface inclined at an angle; A first pipe connected to one side of a bottom surface of the bath to supply a glass etchant into the bath; A second pipe connected to a side of the bath to selectively supply a cleaning liquid for cleaning the glass and a CDA for drying the glass into the bath; In addition, the glass etching apparatus is connected to the center of the bottom surface of the bath and used to etch and clean the glass, and provides a glass etching apparatus comprising a drain pipe for discharging the etching liquid and the cleaning liquid collected on the bottom surface of the bath.

In addition, the present invention comprises the steps of supplying the etching liquid into the bath through the first pipe connected to the bottom side of the bath; Etching the surface of the glass by inserting the glass into the bath; Discharging the etchant through a drain pipe connected to the bottom of the bath when the glass is etched; Cleaning the surface of the glass by supplying a cleaning liquid into the bath through a second pipe connected to a side of the bath; In addition, the cleaning liquid used for cleaning is discharged to the outside through a drain pipe and the CDA is supplied to the inside of the bath through the second pipe to dry the surface of the glass is made, the steps are all in one bath It provides a glass etching method made in.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention in which the above object can be specifically realized are described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a front view of a glass etching apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a side view of the glass etching apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the glass etching apparatus according to the present invention includes one bath 100, a first pipe 200 for supplying an etchant, a cleaning liquid and a clean dry air. And a second pipe 300 for supplying the drain pipe and a drain pipe 400 for discharging the etching liquid and the cleaning liquid.

The first pipe 200 is connected to one side of the bottom surface 110 of the bath 100 to supply an etchant for etching the glass into the bath 100. To this end, the first pipe 200 is provided with a valve 210 for automatically opening and closing the first pipe 200 by a control signal. Therefore, the etchant whose concentration and temperature are corrected to be suitable for etching before being introduced into the first pipe 200 is supplied into the bath 100 when the first pipe 200 is opened by the valve 210.

The second pipe 300 is connected to the side of the bath 100 and selectively supplies a cleaning liquid for cleaning the glass and CDA for drying the glass into the bath 100. In more detail, the second pipe 300 supplies the cleaning liquid into the bath 100 during the cleaning process of the glass, and supplies the CDA into the bath 100 during the drying process. That is, the cleaning liquid or CDA is selectively supplied into the bath 100 through one second pipe 300. To this end, the second pipe 300 has a cleaning solution supply valve 310 to open the second pipe 300 during the cleaning process so that the cleaning liquid is supplied into the bath 100, and the second pipe 300 during the drying process. The air supply valve 320 for opening the CDA is supplied into the bath 100, respectively. The cleaning solution supply valve 310 and the air supply valve 320 also automatically open and close the second pipe 300 by a control signal, such as the valve 210 installed in the first pipe 200 described above.

As such, when the cleaning solution and the CDA are supplied into the bath 100 through one second pipe 300, the configuration of the pipe can be simplified, thereby reducing the equipment manufacturing cost.

Meanwhile, a plurality of nozzles 130 connected to the second pipe 300 are installed on the inner surface of the bath 100. Therefore, the cleaning liquid and the CDA supplied into the bath 100 through the second pipe 300 during the cleaning and drying process are uniformly sprayed onto the glass surface through the nozzle 130.

The drain pipe 400 is connected to the center of the bottom surface 110 of the bath 100 to be used for etching and cleaning the glass, and then discharges the etchant and cleaning liquid that accumulate on the bath bottom surface 110. Since the etching liquid and the cleaning liquid used in the etching process and the cleaning process are in a contaminated state including foreign substances such as etching materials, when each process is completed, they are quickly discharged to the outside through the drain pipe 400. The bath bottom surface 110 is preferably formed to be inclined in order to quickly discharge the etching liquid and the cleaning liquid through the drain pipe 400.

As such, the etchant discharged to the outside through the drain pipe 400 is reused through the operation of removing foreign substances after being sent to a regeneration tank. Therefore, the etchant is preferably discharged to the outside in a state separated from the cleaning solution. To this end, the drain pipe 400 is separated into a first drain pipe 410 extending from the bath bottom surface 110 to discharge the etching liquid and a second drain pipe 420 to discharge the cleaning liquid.

That is, the etchant is discharged to the outside through the first drain pipe 410, and the cleaning solution is discharged to the outside through the second drain pipe 420. The first and second drain pipes 410 and 420 are also provided with valves 411 and 421 operated by control signals, respectively. Therefore, when the etching liquid is discharged through the first drain pipe 410, the second drain pipe 420 is closed by the valve 421, and when the cleaning liquid is discharged through the second drain pipe 420, the first drain pipe 410 is closed by the valve ( 411).

Meanwhile, a bubble generator 120 is provided below the bath 100. The bubble generating device 120 generates a nitrogen gas bubble to perform uniform etching of the glass by the etching solution during the etching process and to perform efficient glass cleaning by the cleaning solution during the cleaning process.

The glass etching method using the glass etching apparatus according to the present invention configured as described above is as follows.

First, when the first pipe 200 is opened by the valve 210 to supply an etchant having a corrected concentration and temperature into the bath 100, the glass is introduced into the bath 100 to perform an etching process. At this time, the bubble generating device 130 installed below the bath 100 generates nitrogen gas to uniformly etch the glass. In general, a plurality of glasses are stacked in a cassette (not shown) and transferred into the bath 100, but for the convenience of description, it is assumed that only one glass is transferred into the bath 100.

Subsequently, when the etching process is completed, the etchant accumulated on the bath bottom surface 110 in the state containing the etching material is discharged through the drain pipe 400. At this time, since the first drain pipe 410 is opened by the valves 411 and 421 and the second drain pipe 420 is closed, the etchant is discharged to the outside through the first drain pipe 410.

When the discharge of the etching liquid through the first drain pipe 410 is completed, the second pipe 300 is opened by the cleaning liquid supply valve 310, and the cleaning liquid is supplied into the bath 100. Thus, the cleaning liquid supplied into the bath 100 is sprayed onto the glass surface by the nozzle 130 to clean the glass. Meanwhile, during the cleaning process by the cleaning liquid, the bubble generator 130 installed under the bath 100 generates nitrogen gas in the same manner as the etching process to help uniform cleaning of the glass.

When the cleaning process is completed, the cleaning liquid accumulated on the bath bottom surface 110 is discharged through the second drain pipe 400. At this time, since the valve is adjusted so that the first drain pipe 410 is closed and only the second drain pipe 420 is opened, the cleaning liquid is discharged to the outside through the second drain pipe 420.

Thereafter, the second pipe 300 is opened by the air supply valve 320 so that the CDA is supplied into the bath 100 to dry the surface of the glass.

The glass etching apparatus and the etching method according to the present invention have the following effects.

First, in the present invention, since the glass etching process, the cleaning process, and the drying process are all made in one bath, the glass does not need to be transported as in the related art. Therefore, the process can be simplified and the production time can be increased by more than 2 times by shortening the process time. In addition, since the cleaning process proceeds immediately after the etching process, there is an effect that the quality of the product can be improved by shortening the time that the etching liquid is on the glass.

Second, the present invention not only requires one bath for the process progress, but also has the effect of reducing the manufacturing cost by miniaturizing the equipment by allowing the cleaning solution and the CDA to be supplied into the bath through the same pipe.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (6)

One bath having a bottom surface inclined at an angle; A first pipe connected to one side of a bottom surface of the bath to supply a glass etchant into the bath; A second pipe connected to a side of the bath to selectively supply a cleaning liquid for cleaning the glass and a CDA for drying the glass into the bath; A bubble generating device formed under the bath to generate nitrogen gas bubbles to enable uniform etching of the glass immersed in the etching liquid and uniform cleaning of the glass by the cleaning liquid; And, And a drain pipe connected to the center portion of the bottom surface of the bath and used for etching and cleaning the glass, and then discharging the etchant and the cleaning liquid accumulated on the bottom surface of the bath. The method of claim 1, And a cleaning liquid supply valve for supplying the cleaning liquid and an air supply valve for supplying the CDA in the second pipe. The method of claim 1, The inner side of the bath is connected to the second pipe glass etching apparatus, characterized in that the nozzle for spraying the cleaning liquid and CDA to the glass is installed. The method of claim 1, The drain pipe extends from the bottom surface is a glass etching apparatus, characterized in that separated into the first drain pipe for discharging the cleaning liquid, the second drain pipe for discharging the etching liquid. delete Supplying an etchant into the bath through a first pipe connected to one side of the bottom of the bath; When the glass is introduced into the bath and immersed in the etchant, generating nitrogen gas bubbles in the bubble generator formed at the bottom of the bath to uniformly etch the surface of the glass; Discharging the etchant through a drain pipe connected to the bottom of the bath when the glass is etched; When the cleaning liquid is supplied into the bath through the second pipe connected to the side of the bath, generating a nitrogen gas bubble in the bubble generator to uniformly clean the surface of the glass; And,  And draining the cleaning liquid used for the cleaning to the outside through the drain pipe and supplying CDA to the bath through the second pipe to dry the surface of the glass, all of which are performed in one bath. Glass etching method.

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