KR19990004798A - Board Automatic Printing Device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a substrate automatic printing apparatus having a novel configuration.

Although the substrates can be handled by lot in other processes, the substrates can only be processed one by one in the printing process, and since the handling of the weak and printed substrates is difficult, the present invention raises and lowers a plurality of substrates loaded on the cassette means. By making it possible to sequentially input and return to printing by means, the workability and productivity of the flat panel device manufacturing were greatly improved.

Description

Board Automatic Printing Device

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the manufacture of flat panel devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus for automatically printing the substrate.

As is well known, a flat panel device is a thin functional device formed by stacking a functional layer on a substrate. In particular, the flat panel device has been remarkably developed due to the recent expansion of a portable image device.

Flat panel display devices such as LCDs and PDPs used in such portable image apparatuses are mainly manufactured by a printing method. As shown in FIG. 1, a predetermined pattern is formed on a table T on which a substrate P is loaded. It is carried out by passing through the formed mask (M) and pressing the paste (S) with a squeegee (Q) or the like thereon.

However, in order to manufacture a flat panel device, not only a plurality of functional layers are required but also a thick functional layer such as a partition wall is composed of a plurality of repetitive prints, and thus a long time is required for drying or firing one printing layer after printing. And a separate drying device and firing device is required.

That is, the manufacturing process of the conventional flat panel device is made by repeatedly moving the substrate (P) between the printing apparatus, the drying apparatus, and the firing apparatus.

Furthermore, when the mask M installed in the printing apparatus is replaced, a considerable amount of labor is required for setting thereof, and thus, a separate printing apparatus is provided for each pattern to be printed for mass production of the flat panel element.

Accordingly, the manufacturing process of the conventional flat panel device is a very complicated process in which one substrate is frequently reciprocated between a plurality of printing apparatuses, at least one drying apparatus, and a plurality of different baking apparatuses according to a heat treatment process. This also requires the construction of a conveyor means connecting these devices and the complex construction of transfer means for loading / unloading substrates between the device and the conveyor means, and greatly reduces the facility cost and footprint of flat panel device manufacturing. Greatly demands.

Such a substrate manufacturing process is difficult to achieve adequate productivity unless well planned and controlled. In recent years, the adoption of a small amount of various types of production makes the complicated process of moving the substrate P more complicated.

Since the substrate P is made of a weak glass material, it is not only easy to be damaged in this movement process, but also the loading / unloading and movement of the substrate P having a print layer that is not dried has many difficulties. There are also many restrictions on the composition of.

Various conventional problems as described above have made it difficult to mass-produce a flat panel device, thereby greatly increasing the manufacturing labor cost and cost, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic printing device suitable for rapid and inexpensive mass production of a flat panel device. .

1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a general printing apparatus,

2 to 5 are cross-sectional views and plan views showing various embodiments of the printing apparatus of the present invention,

Figure 6 is a perspective view showing one configuration of the cassette means used in the present invention,

Figure 7 is a side cross-sectional view showing one configuration of the lifting means used in the present invention.

Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

P: Substrate

T: table

M: mask

Q: squeegee

1: cassette means

12: support rail

2: means of lifting

21: linear motor

22: support plate

3: substrate feeding means

31A, 31B: Pusher

32: carriage

33: moving plate

35: holder

In order to achieve the above object, the present inventors have reviewed the manufacturing process of the flat panel device as a whole, and have come to the conclusion that the improvement of the printing apparatus is the key to the improvement of the productivity of the entire flat plate manufacturing process.

That is, even if a plurality of substrates are transferred at once, the substrates should be put into the printing apparatus one by one, and then the substrates on which the functional layer is printed should be carefully transferred one by one to the drying and firing apparatus. Drying or firing takes from a few minutes to several hours, so in this case, it is common to feed the substrate in plural units to improve the efficiency of the apparatus (drying furnace or firing furnace).

In other words, the substrate can be processed in a lot of units in another process, but in the printing process, the substrate can only be processed one by one. This problem is not merely a printing process itself, but a combination of a plurality of substrates. The process of dismantling and recombining the prepared lot involves inhibiting the flow of the entire process, which leads to a decrease in the overall productivity.

Based on these observations, the present inventors have been able to perform printing on a lot basis, and thus, the entire productivity of flat panel device manufacturing is possible since the lot can be consistently processed from the first substrate input to printing, drying and firing on a unit basis. We conclude that we will be able to improve significantly.

Accordingly, the automatic printing apparatus of the present invention is configured to handle a single unit, that is, a plurality of substrates horizontally up and down on a cassette means, and handle the cassette means as a unit from substrate feeding to printing, drying and firing.

The table of the printing apparatus includes elevating means for stacking the cassette means to sequentially set the substrates of the cassette means at the printing level, and printing feeding means for feeding and returning the substrate set at the printing level to the printing position.

Then, after being transferred to the cassette means and loaded on the lifting means, when the sequential printing of the plurality of substrates is completed by the lifting and printing input means of the lifting means, the cassette means can be transferred to subsequent processes such as drying and firing again. .

This configuration is not only very suitable for automatic printing, but also it is not necessary to handle the weak substrate on which the printing layer is formed, so that the construction of the transfer means or the conveyor means is very free, and the damage of the substrate in this process is also prevented. Moreover, it is very easy to carry out the whole process by the unit of cassette without additional labor for dismantling and reassembling the lot, and the number of objects of process control is small in terms of production management such as production planning and control. It also facilitates production management.

Accordingly, the present invention is very effective in mass-producing a flat panel device with low manufacturing labor and defect rate, high productivity, and low facility cost.

EXAMPLE

Such specific features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 2, the automatic printing apparatus according to the present invention has a mask M and a squeegee Q installed on a table T, and a cassette means 1 mounted on one side thereof. Is installed.

The plurality of substrates P constituting one lot are accommodated in the cassette means 1, and each of the substrates P is placed on the support rail 12 of the cassette means 1 up and down.

In this embodiment, the substrate feeding means 3 is composed of two pushers 31A and 31B on the left side of the cassette means 1 and on the right side of the mask M, so that the cassette means 1 is moved by the lifting means 2. If one substrate P is located at the printing level, that is, the upper surface level of the table T, the pusher 31A on the left side pushes the substrate P to the lower position of the mask M such as the dotted line, that is, the printing position. When the printing is completed, the pusher 31B on the right side pushes the substrate P again to return to the original position on the cassette means 1.

Then, the elevating means 2 raises and lowers the cassette means 1 by one unit and sets the next substrate P to the printing level to proceed with the printing of the next step, and the printing of all the substrates P by repeating the above process. When is completed, the cassette means (1) is carried out from the lifting means (2) to be transferred to the next process, such as drying and / or baking apparatus.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, instead of the substrate feeding means 3 conveying the substrate P itself, the carriage 32 is composed of a carriage 32 provided with a mask M and a squeegee Q. It enters the upper part of the board | substrate P in the cassette means 1, and performs printing.

This configuration has a disadvantage in that the driving configuration of the carriage 32 and the squeegee Q is somewhat complicated and the number of substrates P stackable on the cassette means 1 is reduced. However, when the substrate P is large, it is difficult to move. Is the proper configuration.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, a part of the upper plate of the table T constitutes the substrate feeding means 3. That is, the upper plate of the printing portion of the table T constitutes the moving plate 33 so that the moving plate 33 is connected to a linear motor 34 including, for example, a ball screw 34a. By entering and exiting the cassette means 1, the substrate P is loaded and returned.

In this structure, in order to feed and return the substrate P, the moving plate 33 needs to be elevated by a slight height relative to the substrate P, which can be achieved by the lifting means 2. That is, in the state where the elevating means 2 places the substrate P slightly above the printing level, when the movable plate 33 enters, the elevating means 2 descends to move the substrate P to the movable plate 33. Put it down. At the next print level, the substrate P is transferred to the substrate 33 by rising again when the moving plate 33 enters while waiting at a lower level.

Accordingly, the elevating means (2) is to perform the ascending and descending of a predetermined range for the input and the plurality of substrates (P) as well as the sequential lifting as much as the pitch (pitch) of the plurality of loaded substrates (P), but this operation According to the configuration of the linear motor (see Fig. 7) to be described later can be achieved simply.

In this embodiment of FIG. 4, there is no fear of occurrence of jamming or scratching of the substrate P when transferring the substrate P as shown in FIG. 3, and there is no structural difficulty in which the printing means itself moves as shown in FIG. 4. It is particularly preferable for the transfer of substrates P of various specifications regardless of the size.

On the other hand, in the embodiment shown in Figure 5 is a dashed line on the table (T) by the holder (35) operated by the actuator (36) from both sides of the cassette means 1 enters and grips the substrate (P) The substrate P is transferred to a printing position indicated by.

This configuration requires that the substrate P entrance and exit side of the cassette means 1 is open and the size of the substrate P is limited, but in the case of mass production of a relatively small substrate P, the fastest movement of the substrate P is achieved. It is a possible structure.

Fig. 6 shows a configuration of a cassette means 1 suitable for use in the above apparatus of the present invention. The cassette means 1 is capable of supporting the substrate P on each pair of support rails 12 by providing a plurality of pairs of support rails 12 on a frame 11 which is basically a hexahedron. The upper side of the frame 11 is provided with a handle (13) to apply a manpower or mechanical force is used for transfer or transfer.

On the other hand, when the cassette means 1 is used only for automatic printing, all other surfaces except for the right side of the substrate P, for example, the right front side of FIG. It is also preferred that the support be made of plates.

However, in order to input into a heat treatment process such as a drying or baking apparatus with a plurality of substrates P loaded on the cassette means 1, a pair of supports each of which faces are open and the support of the substrate P is also a space therebetween. Consisting of the rails 12 is preferred for uniform heat treatment. In this case, the detachment of the substrate P may be easily prevented by the provision of some protrusions (not shown). Accordingly, the cassette means 1 is most preferably composed of a cage made of only a skeleton, that is, a cage.

On the other hand, Fig. 7 shows one preferred configuration of the elevating means 2.

In general, a pulley method using a wire and a pulley may be the simplest as the structure of lifting and lowering an object having a considerable weight in a certain distance range, but the cassette means 1 is a pitch unit of the loaded substrate P. In order to implement the embodiment of FIG. 4 or FIG.

To this end, the lifting means 2 is preferably composed of a linear motor 21, the linear motor 21 is a screw 21b and a ball holder (21c) that is rotated by the drive motor 21a The ball screw 21 is configured to move the ball holder 21c relative to the screw 21b by the rotation of the screw 21b by the drive motor 21a.

The lifting means 2 supports the support plate 22 supporting the cassette means 1, the bracket 23 supporting the support plate 22, and the ball screw 21, and the ball screw 21 up and down. Which has a vertical post 24.

In order to prevent sagging of the support plate 22 in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in FIG. 7), it is preferable that the ball holder 21c of two or sufficiently long lengths is coupled to the bracket 23.

On the other hand, the lifting means 2 shown for the uniform lifting in the left and right directions (the front and rear direction in FIG. 7) of the support plate 22 are arranged in pairs on both sides of the support plate 22 or on both sides of the support plate 22. It is preferable to arrange a pair of guide means (not shown) and to have the lifting means 2 shown in the center of the support plate 22.

As described above, according to the present invention, the substrate can be automatically printed sequentially on a lot basis in a printing apparatus, so that the entire processing process of the substrate can be performed on a lot basis, thereby improving the productivity of flat plate device manufacturing, and in the manufacturing process, The difficulty of handling and damage can be prevented and the workability can be greatly improved.

Claims (7)

In the apparatus for printing a substrate provided with a mask and a squeegee on the table, A cassette means in which a plurality of substrates are horizontally stacked vertically; Lifting means for supporting the cassette means for lifting and lowering the plurality of substrates one by one to sequentially set the print level of the table; A substrate feeding means for feeding and returning the substrate set at the printing level to a printing position of the table; Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that it comprises. The method of claim 1, The substrate feeding means comprises two pushers located on both sides of the cassette means and the table. Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The substrate feeding means includes a carriage that mounts the mask and the squeegee to enter and exit the cassette means. Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The substrate feeding means includes a moving plate which is a part of the upper plate of the table and a linear motor for moving the moving plate into and out of the cassette means. Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The substrate feeding means has two holders that enter from both sides of the cassette means. Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The cassette means includes a plurality of pairs of support rails that support both sides of the substrate and have a space therebetween. Substrate automatic printing device characterized in that. The method of claim 1, wherein the lifting means, A support plate for supporting the cassette means; A post extending perpendicular to the table, A linear motor installed in the post, And a bracket for coupling the support plate to the linear motor.