KR101759132B1 - Coating machine and coating method - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a coating apparatus which realizes a color filter or the like which is free from unevenness in a large coating area and satisfies the requirement concerning the chromaticity specification and which uniformizes the amount of transmitted light throughout the effective range at a low cost.

There is provided an apparatus for applying a coating material to a coating object with a small amount of droplets by the discharge nozzle in a coating head having a plurality of discharge nozzles, wherein the coating head relatively moves with the object under the control of the controller, In which the coating head is moved in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction to overlap the end portion of the coating region, the coating is carried out so as to overlap the coating region, The discharge amount of the discharge nozzle has a stepwise difference toward the end portion of the application head and uniformly applies the application material to the entire effective area of the object by scanning the application head by at least one round trip.

Description

[0001] COATING MACHINE AND COATING METHOD [0002]

The present invention relates to a coating device and a coating device for discharging a material to be coated, such as a coloring material, by an application head (coating head) having a plurality of discharge nozzles to a coating object supported at a predetermined position in the apparatus ≪ / RTI > In particular, a great effect can be expected, for example, when discharging and filling a multicolor coloring material into the small compartment in which the coating area of the object to be coated is divided into small compartments (referred to as pixels).

As a remarkable progress in image display technology in recent information terminals (information terminals), image display devices (displays) of very high density (high density) are manufactured and put to practical use even on a large screen or a small screen . In such a situation, there is a strong demand for a display that enables high-quality image display at a low cost. There is a color filter as a key device of the display corresponding to such a demand, and various researches are being conducted on the manufacturing method and apparatus of the color filter.

In a conventional coating technique for a manufacturing method and apparatus for manufacturing such a color filter, a coating object (coating material) having a light shielding portion formed in a matrix shape by various materials having a light shielding function on a glass substrate, , A coloring material is filled in a lattice pattern (a coating region "pixel" as a small section) in the matrix-shaped light-shielding portion to realize a function as a color filter.

In recent years, as a method of filling a "pixel" of such a coating object with a coloring material, there has been proposed an ink-jet recording method in which, instead of the conventional coating technique, (primary colors) of coloring materials necessary for realizing a color filter function are formed on an inkjet nozzle formed on an inkjet head on a glass substrate or the like having a light shielding portion formed in a matrix shape as a coating object by a coating device equipped with a jet head A method of manufacturing a color filter by discharging and filling has been proposed.

When a coloring material or the like is discharged and charged by using a coating device equipped with such an ink jet head, a large color filter used for a large screen color liquid crystal TV, a plasma TV or other display device, In the case of a compact color filter used for a display or the like, in order to obtain a color filter by dividing a single substrate into a plurality of substrates, it is necessary to discharge and fill a coloring material or the like to a large number of pixels formed large and wide at a large area of an object to be coated at one time .

In order to quickly and efficiently discharge and charge the coloring material to all the pixels in the production of the color filter as a coating object having such a large area, a plurality of inkjet heads are mounted in a straight line so that the effective application width In the coating device provided with this large ink discharging portion, it is possible to discharge and charge the coloring material to all the pixels such as the glass substrate by a small number of movements in the relative movement of the ink discharging portion and the glass substrate.

Further, in order to complete discharging and charging the coloring material to each pixel in a short time,

1) increasing the amount of ejection at one time from one inkjet nozzle or

2) increase the number of inkjet nozzles corresponding to the pixels (= arrange at a high density).

However, in the method of discharging a large amount of the coloring material at a time in 1), the size of the pixel in the color filter in the vertical and horizontal (horizontal and vertical) dimensions is as small as 100 microns and the height of the separation wall of the matrix- The coloring material overflows from one pixel to adjacent pixels, and if the coloring portions are adjacent to each other, the coloring material is caused to cause " mixed coloring ", and even if the same color is used, (Difference in the amount of transmitted light (transmitted light amount)) of the color filter occurs due to the occurrence of a difference between the color filter and the color filter, so that the low-level coloring material is determined to be inferior in quality or defective.

Therefore, a method of arranging inkjet nozzles at a high density for ejecting a small amount of coloring material in 2) remains as an option.

As one of such methods, in Patent Document 1, a plurality of small ink jet heads are arranged and arranged at the same angle in a horizontal width with a small number of nozzles, and are mounted on the supporting means. The effective array density of the ink jet nozzles in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction of the application device is increased and the pitch between the nozzles is set to a pixel (referred to as a filter element) And the pitch between the adjacent pixels, and the like, thereby realizing the arrangement density of the ink-jet nozzles necessary for discharging and filling the coloring material in the pixels.

As a result, the same application width can be realized and the size of the ink jet head in the scanning direction can be reduced as compared with a case in which one large ink jet head having a large number of nozzles is inclined at the same inclination angle in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction , And as a result, the total scanning distance of the device is shortened as compared with the scanning distance required for the same application, thereby shortening the manufacturing time.

In Patent Document 2, as a countermeasure for eliminating color unevenness or streaking unevenness in the color filter in accordance with a discharge amount deviation between nozzles provided in individual ink jet heads, there is a method in which an ink jet head is connected in a straight line, The heads are moved so as not to overlap in the scanning direction, and are arranged in parallel so that their end portions overlap each other to form one long nozzle array (long nozzle array).

A plurality of such long nozzle arrays are prepared, and each of the long nozzle arrays is moved in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction, and the connecting (overlapping) portions of the long nozzle arrays are moved so as not to overlap with the scanning direction, And a plurality of nozzles for scanning are provided.

As a result, since the coloring material is discharged and charged from one nozzle of the plurality of inkjet heads to one pixel, the variation in discharge amount in the nozzles of the inkjet object is reduced, thereby suppressing the occurrence of color unevenness or streaking unevenness.

Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-273884

Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3925525

However, with respect to the method of Patent Document 1, it is inevitable that a slight deviation occurs in the discharge amount between a plurality of ink jet heads (such as a liquid droplet discharge head) as disclosed in Patent Document 2, For example, in a pixel in which a coloring material is ejected and filled in a certain ink jet head (a liquid material (liquid material) is applied), the color becomes darker in a pixel where the coloring material is discharged and filled in another inkjet head Or the like, which causes color unevenness in the panel.

The inventors of the present invention paid attention to the amount of the coloring material discharged from each of the inkjet nozzles while finding the cause of variation in the discharge amount. As a result, the amount of ink ejected from each inkjet nozzle is influenced by the ejection of the adjacent inkjet nozzles, and the amount of the ejected coloring material is 5 to 10 %, And it was confirmed that the amount of transmitted light (transmitted light amount) and the color unevenness were large.

In order to avoid such an influence by the method of Patent Document 2, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of long row of nozzle arrays and arrange them in parallel in several layers so as to discharge and charge the coloring material in one pixel from many ink jet heads, It is not economical or practical to include as many as the number of primary colors used in the filter.

Further, the inventors of the present invention have found that the tolerance of the "chromaticity", which is an evaluation scale, is not more than a specified value in order to reduce the difference in transmitted light amount and the color unevenness from the experience of producing own color filters including conventional coating techniques And the tolerance of the " chroma " as the color filter is 3/1000 in the entire effective area. In order to realize the tolerance of the " chroma ", the coating amount variation amount of the coloring material discharged / It was confirmed that the allowable value was 3% or less.

An object of the present invention is to realize a coating apparatus and method capable of discharging and filling a coloring material in a pixel so as to satisfy the specification of the color filter so as to avoid color unevenness or striped unevenness.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,

An apparatus for applying a coating material (coating material) with a very small amount of droplets to an object to be coated by an application head having a plurality of discharge nozzles (discharge nozzles) , By control of the control device

In the step of applying the coating material to the object and applying an area of the effective width or more of the coating head relative to the object,

The application head is moved in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction (scanning direction) so as to perform overlapping application in which the end portion of a part of the application region is overlapped,

The discharge amount of the discharge nozzle in the overlapping portion has a stepwise difference toward the end portion of the application head,

Characterized in that the coating material is uniformly applied to the entire effective area of the object by scanning the application head with at least one reciprocating motion.

And the width of the overlapping region is at least three or more pixels wide at the coating region of the discharge nozzle which is located at both ends of the entire discharge nozzle at least in the application head and whose discharge amount is relatively small.

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize coating with less unevenness of color on the entire surface of the effective area of the object to be coated, uniform application of the coating material, and no occurrence of linear stripe unevenness due to variation in coating amount in accordance with the scanning direction of the application head .

The present invention can be applied to a glass substrate for a color filter as a coating object and an ink jet head having a plurality of nozzles as an application head head by using an apparatus and a method for producing a color filter using three color inks of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) Will be described below.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a color filter manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view showing a main part of a color filter manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view showing an example of arrangement of an ink- 4 is a plan view for explaining the arrangement of inkjet nozzles.

In these drawings, the three axes of the orthogonal coordinate system are X, Y and Z, the XY plane is the horizontal plane, the Z axis direction is the vertical direction, and the rotation direction about the vertical axis is the? Direction. Further, the front side of the paper surface in Fig. 1 is referred to as an upstream side, and the rear side of the paper is referred to as a downstream side. In Fig. 2, the right side upstream of the paper surface and the left side of the paper surface are downstream. The operation for moving from the upstream to the downstream is referred to as a first movement operation, and the operation for moving from the downstream to the upstream is referred to as a second movement operation.

1, a color filter manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the present invention includes a base 2, an adsorption stage 3, a coating gantry (coating gantry) An ink ejection unit 5, a camera gantry 6, an alignment camera 7, a scan camera 8, a substrate transfer robot 7, (Substrate transport robot) 9, a control device 10, and the like.

The base 2 is a base for supporting the main constituent parts of the color filter manufacturing apparatus 1 (for example, the adsorption stage 3, the coating gantry 4, the camera gantry 6, etc.) ), And is mainly composed of stone (stone). The construction of the stone is to minimize deformation due to temperature changes.

The adsorption stage 3 has a sufficient flatness (as shown in Fig. 2) so as to mount a glass substrate (K substrate) on which a light shielding portion (matrix) (Placement surface) 31 securing the flatness (flatness) of the base 2, and is made of stone in the same manner as the base 2. The mounting surface 31 is provided with a plurality of suction holes 32 connected to a suction pump not shown in the drawings for applying a minus pressure to a glass substrate and a plurality of lift pins and a lift pin 34 is provided in the lift pin hole 33 so as to be movable up and down. The glass substrate K is transported onto the lift pins 34 by the substrate transport robot 9 and is transported by the negative pressure from the suction holes 32 after the lift pins 34 are gently lowered And is fixed to the placement surface.

Further, the adsorption stage 3 can be driven to rotate in the &thetas; direction by the stage rotation driving means not shown in the figure.

The application gantry 4 has a gate shape having a size capable of passing over the adsorption stage 3 and has two pillar portions 41 which are installed upright with at least the adsorption stage 3 interposed therebetween, And a horizontal rim portion (42) bridged between the two support portions (41). The application gantry 4 is supported on the base 2 so as to be able to travel in the X-axis direction by a pair of first linear motors 43 in a state where the gantry 4 is over the adsorption stage 3. A pair of first linear motors 43 are installed parallel to each other along both ends of the base 2 along the X axis.

The horizontal rim portion 42 is formed by a servo motor mechanism 44 constituted by a linear motor or a ball screw driven mechanism provided in each of the two support portions 41 It is possible to move up and down in the Z-axis direction. In the horizontal frame portion 42, the ink discharge portion 5 is provided so as to be able to travel in the Y-axis direction by the second linear motor 45. [ The second linear motor 45 is installed in the horizontal frame portion 42 along the Y direction.

The ink discharging portion 5 according to one example of the arrangement of the ink jet head shown in Fig. 3 is for applying any one of the coloring materials of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) Although not shown, the ink discharge portions 5 for applying different coloring materials are also provided in parallel.

In the example of Fig. 3, the ink ejecting portions 5 for each of the RGB colors constitute one column by five stages in which five ink jet heads 51 are arranged in parallel, The inkjet head 51 is divided into two tiers in three stages and two stages, and the tanks are arranged in six rows in a zigzag pattern.

4 is a diagram for explaining the relationship of the arrangement pitch (P) in which the respective inkjet nozzles 52 are arranged in parallel with one inkjet head 51, that is, adjacent to the inkjet head 51 . As shown in the drawing, the inkjet nozzles 52 provided in the inkjet head 51 are arranged such that each of the five inkjet nozzles 52 of the five inkjet heads 51 forming the heat is arranged at a pitch P And is disposed at an offset position.

And the inkjet nozzles 52 at the ends of the adjacent rows are arranged at the pitch P from the inkjet nozzles 52 at the other end of the row.

That is, even between the inkjet nozzles 52 of the inkjet head 51 constituting the individual rows, in order to secure the application width, the widths of the two end portions linearly adjacent to the scanning direction (scanning direction) All of the ink jet heads 51 are arranged at the pitch P between them.

Thereby, the ink-jet nozzles 52 are present due to the arrangement of the pitches P, which are required to be seamless throughout the effective coating width.

1, after the alignment camera 7 and the scan camera 8 are adjusted at the measurement reference position on the base 2, the alignment camera 7 and the scan camera 8 are fixed to the camera gantry 6, An alignment mark (refer to Fig. 5) attached to the substrate K is read and a difference from the reference point is measured to calculate an angular difference in the XY plane of the glass substrate K on the base 2 , And by rotating the suction table 3 based on the calculation result, the origin correction (original point correction) of the glass substrate can be achieved from the alignment of the glass substrate K and the positional information of the pixel arrangement of the glass substrate.

It is more preferable that the camera gantry 6 mounts and supports a scan camera 8 for detecting and measuring coloring materials deposited on the glass substrate K. The scan camera 8 is a camera gantry (6) so as to reciprocate in the Y and Z directions.

In addition, by employing the two-dimensional CCD camera in place of the scan camera 8, it is possible to calculate the liquid droplet landed on the glass substrate K by calculating the area from the diameter of the surface of the glass substrate K, It is possible to calculate the volume of the droplet by gradually raising to the step so as to calculate the area of each droplet, so that the discharge amount of the coloring material can be measured and calculated with high precision for each inkjet nozzle ejecting the coloring material.

Next, the operation of the color filter manufacturing apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described with reference to Figs. 5 to 8. Fig. Fig. 5 is a pixel arrangement image of a glass substrate K to be formed by a color filter, and Figs. 6 (A) and 6 (B) are flowcharts showing a schematic operation of the color filter manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention 7 is a view showing an example of selection of an inkjet nozzle having a stepwise difference in the amount of application, and Fig. 8 is a graph showing an example of the selection of an inkjet nozzle in a pixel near the boundary of the effective application width of the ink discharge portion 5, FIG. 4 is an image drawing showing a stepwise difference in discharging / charging amount of the coloring material with respect to one color, and being filled by discharging two times.

As shown in Fig. 5, on the surface of the glass substrate K on which a color filter is to be formed, a black matrix (back matrix) BM and an alignment mark M1, which are matrix-shaped light- Are formed in advance. "R", "G", and "B" in the drawing indicate pixels corresponding to respective target colors of red, green, and blue.

In the color filter manufacturing apparatus 1, the adsorption stage 3 is in a non-adsorption state, the application gantry 4 is in an uppermost position, the ink discharge section 5 is in a non-discharge state, The most downstream position. The description will proceed in a state in which the glass substrate K is placed on the movable support stage (movable support stage) 93 of the substrate transport robot 9. [

The operation is controlled under the control of the control device 10, except when there is a special description.

(Glass substrate loading step (S1))

The substrate transport robot 9 drives the movable support 93 to transport the glass substrate K just above the suction stage 3. [ The lift pins 34 are raised from the lift pin holes 33 from the placement surface 31 of the attraction stage 3 of the base 2 and the substrate transport robot 9 moves the movable support 93 slowly And the glass substrate K is placed on the tip end portion of the lift pin 34 by lowering it. After the glass substrate K is loaded on the lift pins 34, the substrate carrying robot 9 evacuates the movable support 93.

The attraction stage 3 is configured such that the lift pins 34 pivotally supporting the glass substrate K are lowered so that the glass substrate K is lowered to reach the placement surface 31, A negative pressure is generated in the vacuum suction hole 32 so that the glass substrate K is adsorbed and supported by the negative pressure on the placement surface 31.

(Glass substrate positioning (step S2))

After the absorption of the glass substrate K by the adsorption stage is completed, the first linear motor 43 moves the alignment camera 7 above the alignment mark M1.

The alignment camera 7 photographs the alignment mark M1 and transfers the obtained image data (image data) to the control device 10 and performs image processing on the transferred image data to obtain coordinates And the angle difference in the XY plane on the base 2 of the glass substrate K and the origin position of the glass substrate K are calculated and corrected.

The angular difference of the glass substrate K corrects the angular difference of the glass substrate K by driving and controlling the stage rotation driving means not shown in the figure.

(Preparation for application (step (S3)))

The first linear motor 43 moves the application gantry 4 to match the ink discharge portion 5 to the application start position on the upstream side in the glass substrate K. [ Subsequently, the servo motor mechanism 44 rotates the ink ejection unit 5 so that the interval between the ejection orifice of the inkjet nozzle 52 and the surface of the glass substrate K becomes a minute interval of about 0.25 mm to 1.0 mm, .

Next, the application operation will be described in detail.

(Coloring material application (step S4))

A series of operations for applying the coloring material of the desired color to all the pixels gs in the glass substrate K of the color filter manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the present invention are as shown in FIG. , A Y-axis movement that moves to an adjacent coating compartment, and a second movement movement that moves upstream in the downstream direction as shown by a large arrow in Fig. 8B The coloring material is discharged from the ink jet head 51 onto the glass substrate K and filled therein, thereby completing the application operation.

This will be described in more detail below.

(Application by the first movement operation)

And drives the application gantry 4 to the first movement operation by driving the first linear motor 43. [ Thus, the ink ejecting portion 5 moves while maintaining a small gap between the ejection port of the inkjet nozzle 52 and the surface of the glass substrate K, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 8A. The control device 10 sends a command to the ink discharge portion 5 to discharge a predetermined amount of coloring material of a predetermined color at a predetermined timing to the pixel gs to be coated. An appropriate amount of coloring material is applied to each pixel gs of the black matrix BM of the glass substrate K (see steps S42 and S43 in Fig. 6B).

8A, the charged amount of the pixel to which the coloring material is applied by the ejection of the coloring material from the inkjet nozzle 52 of the inkjet head 51 by the command of the control device 10, There is a stepwise difference toward the end portion in order to judge by the density of black and white in the application width of the ink discharge portion 5 in the overlapping application region. Is not applied in the drawing but is applied substantially simultaneously so that the other colors are the same.

(Y-direction shift of the ink ejection portion after completion of the first movement operation application)

The application gantry 4 is moved on the glass substrate K to the end of the predetermined coating effective area or to the moving end of the application gantry 4 by the driving of the first linear motor 43 and is stopped.

Thereafter, the second linear motor 45 is driven to move the ink discharge portion 5 in the Y direction.

This amount of movement is determined by scanning at least the area including the pixel to be coated with a stepwise difference in discharge amount by the scanning of the second movement operation at least in the effective application width W and discharging and supplementing the coloring material, The ink discharge portion 5 is moved in the Y direction to a position where the ink discharge portion 5 is filled.

(Application by the second movement operation)

And drives the application gantry 4 to the second movement operation by driving the first linear motor 43 (step S41). Thus, as shown by the arrows in Fig. 8B, the ink ejection portion 5 is moved from the upstream side to the downstream side in such a manner that the ejection port of the inkjet nozzle 52 and the surface of the glass substrate K are smile And is moved while maintaining an interval.

The control device 10 sends a command to the ink discharge portion 5 to discharge the coloring material of a predetermined color to the pixel gs to be a predetermined amount to be applied at a predetermined timing. The total amount becomes a predetermined amount for all the effective pixels including the region gs in the black matrix BM of the glass substrate K, that is, an area having a stepwise difference The coloring material is applied (see steps S42 and S43 in Fig. 6B).

Thus, a predetermined amount of coloring material can be charged to all the pixels by one reciprocal scanning from upstream to downstream.

The first linear motor 43 moves the application gantry 4 to the position of the base 2 on the side of the base 2 on the upstream side of the glass substrate K (YES in step S44) ) To the origin X of the X axis to stop the travel.

Thereafter, the second linear motor 45 is driven to return the ink discharging portion 5 to the initial position and the process is terminated (see step S45).

According to the present invention, in the case of applying the coloring material to the color filter, the application of the coating is performed in such a manner that the coating head is scanned by overlapping the end portion of a part of the coating region to be a target by moving in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction, The dispensing amount of the nozzle can be uniformly applied to the entire effective area of the object by the scanning of the application head by at least one reciprocation by making a stepwise difference toward the end of the application head.

It is preferable that the width of the overlapped region in this case is at least the width of the application region of the discharge nozzle which is located at both ends of all the discharge nozzles in the ink discharge portion and in which the discharge amount is relatively small and /

Next, a structure for uniformly coating the entire area of the coated region by the coating apparatus of the present invention will be described on the basis of examples.

(Example 1)

As an embodiment of the present invention, in a pixel having a width of 180 mu m and a length of 530 mu m that can accommodate a representative high-density TV receiver of a size of 37 inches, in a single reciprocating scan of the coating gantry 4 on which the ink discharging portion 5 is mounted The coating head is moved in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction so as to overlap the end portions (four pixels in the present embodiment) of a part of the coating region, and the discharge amount of the discharging nozzles in the overlapping portions is set to A predetermined amount of coloring material is discharged and charged to all the pixels of the effective region as the color filter in the application region with a stepwise difference toward the end portion.

In this case, since the coloring material of each of the three colors is applied to the pixel of the above-mentioned size of more than one million by minute droplets, the density corresponding to the density of the inkjet nozzles 52 is required. The ejection amount of one coloring material (droplet) from one inkjet nozzle 52 is set to 30 pl (pico liter), the arrangement density of the inkjet nozzles 52 is set to 1800 dpi, , A total of 1500 pL of the coloring material is discharged and filled in the lattice pattern (= pixel) of the glass substrate K on which the matrix-shaped light shielding portion is formed on the glass substrate K to produce a color filter.

The effective application width of the ink discharge portion 5 is set to be equal to 1/2 of the width W of the effective area of the color filter in the ink discharge portion, And / or at least a width dimension of at least three pixels.

The pitch P of the inkjet nozzles 52 of 1800 dpi is 14.11 mu m but the pitch of 14.11 mu m is the sum of the dimensions of the members constituting the inkjet nozzles 52 by the basic inkjet method in the current state, It is difficult to realize this by the single ink-jet head 51. Here, the pitch of 14.11 mu m is realized by five (single stage) ink jet heads 51. [

That is, the interval between the inkjet nozzles 52 formed on one inkjet head 51 is 70.56 mu m (360 dpi), which is five times 14.11 mu m.

Each of the inkjet nozzles 52 in the five inkjet heads 51 is arranged in such a manner that the inkjet nozzles 52 are shifted by 14.11 m in pitch.

The arrangement of the inkjet nozzles 52 at the end portions of the rows is also a continuous arrangement with an interval of 14.11 mu m, thereby ensuring the application width and the arrangement density of the ink discharge portions 5. [

As for the discharge and filling of the coloring material in the pixel gs, the liquid droplet of the coloring material discharged from the ink-jet nozzle 52 rides on the separation wall of the matrix-shaped light-blocking portion formed on the substrate, The amount of charge of the two pixels gs deviates from a predetermined amount or overrides the separation wall and mixes with the coloring material of the adjacent pixel gs to generate a mixed color, Response becomes important.

The inventors of the present invention confirmed in advance that the droplet of the coloring material discharged from the inkjet nozzle 52 was measured in advance and that the average diameter of the droplet flying in flight with the substrate was 40 μm. From the edge of the ink jet nozzle 52 in the range of 490 m in the long side direction of the pixel gs and 140 m in the short side direction of the pixel gs from the horizontal and vertical rims of the coloring material, The ejection of the coloring material is controlled so as to emit and land the droplets of the coloring material. Hereinafter, the application of any one of RGB to one color will be described.

In order to land a droplet in a range of 140 mu m in the short side direction of the pixel, the relative positional relationship between the scanning (moving) speed of the coating gantry 4 and the pixel gs for landing the coating gantry 4 and the coloring material The ejection timing of the coloring material can be set by the ink ejection mechanism. Therefore, the speed of the application gantry is set within a range in which productivity is allowed as a range for maintaining precision.

On the other hand, the restriction on the landing position in the direction of the long side of the pixel (the long side direction) is that the ink jet nozzle 52 passing over the width of 490 mu m in the long side direction of the target pixel gs discharges / It is necessary. Therefore, the inkjet nozzle 52 passing through the range of 490 mu m is controlled so as to issue an operation command of ejection and application.

The number of the inkjet nozzles 52 falling within the width of 490 占 퐉 in the pixel region where the coloring material can be discharged and filled becomes 34 because the arrangement pitch of the inkjet nozzles 52 is 14.11 占 퐉.

The amount by which the coloring material is discharged and filled into the pixel gs by the 34 ink-jet nozzles 52 is 1500 pl as a total amount as described above. In the present invention, a predetermined total amount is filled by discharging and filling the coloring material twice (four pixels in this embodiment) of the pixels gs twice. The discharge amount of the coloring material to the pixel gs to be charged divided into two circuits is 20, 40, 60, and 80%, respectively, which have a stepwise difference with respect to the predetermined charging amount, and 80, 60, A case in which two discharging and charging amounts of the pixel gs to be subjected to the charge by the amount of 20% are combined and charged will be described in detail.

In this embodiment, the amount of discharge from the individual inkjet nozzles 52 is not controlled, so that the adjustment of the amount of charge with a stepwise difference in the amount of charge of the coloring material by the two discharging of the coloring material is performed by the inkjet nozzle 52). 7, 14, 20, and 27 ink-jet nozzles 52 are appropriately dispersed as shown in FIG. 7, and the number of ink-jet nozzles 52 from the ink- And discharging / charging the battery.

More specifically, selection of the nozzles ejected from these 34 inkjet nozzles is shown in FIG. 7

1) A total of 7 pieces of 5 pieces. Group A

2) In addition to 1), select 1 nozzle from 1), and total 14 nozzles. This group

3) Select nozzle by reversing the nozzle selected in 2). A total of 20. This group C

4) Selection of nozzle by reversing nozzle selected in 1). Total of 27. D group

As a result,

In the first movement operation (one scan from the upstream to the downstream in the X direction), inkjet nozzles of group A, group B, group C, and group D are ejected from the end of the inkjet head A predetermined amount (1500 pl) is discharged to other pixels, and the ink discharging portion 5 is moved from the upstream side to the downstream side in the X direction by the movement of the application gantry 4 And ejected and filled from the inkjet nozzle 52 to which the print command is given to move to the end of the area to be coated (FIG. 8A).

And then the ink discharging portion 5 is moved in the Y direction. This amount of movement is the amount by which the width of the pixel gs having a stepwise difference with the application amount of at least four coloring materials is shifted to the overlapped position. After the ink discharging portion 5 is moved in the Y direction, the coating gantry 4 is scanned from the downstream side to the upstream side in the X direction.

In the second movement operation (scanning from the downstream side to the upstream side in the X direction), the ejection / charge amount having a stepwise difference with the predetermined amount (1500 pl) of the coloring material to be applied is supplemented to the four pixels of the overlapping portion, And discharges a predetermined amount (1500 pl) to the other pixels. Specifically, in the first movement operation, the supplementary discharging / charging is performed for each pixel coated by the nozzle selection of the A, B, C, and D groups, for the pixels coated in the A group, for the D group, The coloring material is ejected from the ink-jet nozzle 52 which receives the control command so that the nozzles of the group C of the coated group, the group B of the coated group C, and the group A of the coated group D, Charge. The four pixels for overlapping application are coated with a predetermined amount (1500 pl) of the coloring material to be applied by reciprocating scanning in this way, and the entire effective area is uniformly coated as shown in FIG. 8B.

8 shows a state in which one color has been applied, but a pixel of another color is likewise coated with a coloring material.

It is preferable that the inkjet nozzles 52 are appropriately dispersed as shown in Fig. 7 because the setting of the coloring material discharge amount having such a stepwise difference is preferable because the influence of the operation by the adjacent inkjet nozzles 52 is eliminated This is because discharging of a more stable coloring material can be realized by independently operating the individual inkjet nozzles 52 so as to discharge them as much as possible.

As described above, according to the present invention,

The filling of the coloring material with respect to some pixels gs is made to have a stepwise difference in discharge amount and the charging amount of the pixel having such a stepwise difference by the overlapping scanning of the part of the pixels gs by one round trip or more In addition to compensating the ejection amount, the ejection amount having a stepwise difference is ejected and filled by an ink-jet nozzle selected from a dispersed position in one pixel range, so that, when ejected simultaneously by a plurality of adjacent ink-jet nozzles, It is possible to uniformly apply the coloring material to the application region having the width equal to or greater than the application width of the application head, avoiding an adverse effect that the discharge amount generated in the ink-jet nozzle of the application head is relatively smaller than the other.

That is, there is no deviation in the discharge amount from the individual inkjet nozzles,

Quot; chromaticity " which is an evaluation scale of the color filter is set to a target within 3/1000 of the entire effective area,

It is possible to realize uniform coating free from color irregularities in the entire effective area of the color filter and without streaking irregularity even in the scanning direction of the ink discharge portion.

In the present embodiment, an example in which the entire coated area is coated by one reciprocal scanning is described. However, in the case where the coating width is large, discharging / charging with such a stepwise difference It is obvious that the system can cope with this problem.

In the above example, the application gantry 4 is moved in the X direction with respect to the suction table 3, but the application gantry 4 may be fixed and the suction table 3 may be moved It is possible.

Although application examples of a color filter of a glass substrate used in a liquid crystal display device or the like have been described above as a typical application example of the application device, the device may be used in an apparatus for applying a coloring material or a coating material to another planar member Applicable.

1 is a perspective view showing a color filter manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a plan view showing a main part of a color filter manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

3 is a schematic view of a plane showing an example of the arrangement in the ink-jet head.

4 is a plan view for explaining the arrangement of inkjet nozzles.

5 is an image diagram of a pixel array of a glass substrate.

6 is a flowchart showing an operation outline of the color filter manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is an example of inkjet nozzle selection with a stepwise difference in application amount.

Fig. 8 is an image drawing applied with a stepwise difference in the pixels in the vicinity of the boundary in the application region.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

1: Color filter manufacturing apparatus (coating apparatus)

4: Gantry application

5:

51: Inkjet head

52: Inkjet nozzle

gs: pixel (place to be coated)

K: glass substrate (substrate)

X direction (scanning direction)

Y direction (direction orthogonal to the scanning direction)

Claims (4)

An apparatus for applying a coating material (coating material) with a very small amount of droplets to an object to be coated by an application head having a plurality of discharge nozzles (discharge nozzles) , By control of the control device In the step of applying the coating material to the object and applying an area of the effective width or more of the coating head relative to the object, The coating head is moved in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction (scanning direction) to perform overcoating in which the end portion of the coating region to be the object is overlapped in the effective width range of the coating head , Wherein a filling amount of the coating material for one pixel has a stepwise difference toward the end portion of the coating head while allowing the positions of the discharge nozzles selected for discharging among the plurality of discharge nozzles to be dispersed, Wherein the coating material is uniformly applied to the entire effective area of the object by scanning of the application head at least one round trip. The method according to claim 1, It is preferable that the width of the overlapping region is at least the width of the application region of the discharge nozzle which is located at both ends of the entire discharge nozzles in the application head and which is difficult to be influenced by the discharge from the adjacent nozzles, (3) pixels or more. A method of applying a coating material to a coating object by a coating head having a plurality of discharge nozzles as a minute droplet by the discharge nozzle, In the step of applying the coating material to the object and applying an area of the effective width or more of the coating head relative to the object, The coating head is moved in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction to perform overcoating in which the end portion of the coating region to be the object is overlapped in the effective width range of the coating head , Wherein a filling amount of the coating material for one pixel has a stepwise difference toward the end portion of the coating head while allowing the positions of the discharge nozzles selected for discharging among the plurality of discharge nozzles to be dispersed, Wherein the coating material is uniformly applied to the entire effective area of the object by scanning at least one reciprocating head. The method of claim 3, wherein It is preferable that the width of the overlapping region is at least at both ends of the entire discharge nozzles in the application head and is not easily affected by discharge from the adjacent nozzles so that the width of the application region of the discharge nozzle having a relatively small discharge amount and / ≪ / RTI >

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