KR20000016847A - Apparatus of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for hardening a sealing material is provide to prevent mismatching in a parallel direction and warping of a substrate by heating and pressing uniformly. CONSTITUTION: The apparatus comprises: (a)a couple of fixed boards inserting a substrate therebetween, and (b)a operating board set opposite with the fixed board and moving in a vertical direction from the fixed board for pressing the substrate. In the apparatus, the fixed boards are a two-storied structure composed of a upper board with a cooling mean and a lower board with a heating mean. A separating means for releasing a contact condition of the two fixed boards is mounted. The operating board has a heating means and a pressing surface thereof is formed by a material with flexibility.

Description

Liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus {APPARATUS OF MANUFACTURING A LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY PANEL}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, and in particular, a manufacturing apparatus for heating and pressing glass substrates with a sealing material of a thermosetting resin to be cured to form a liquid crystal panel having a predetermined interval. It is about.

A liquid crystal panel (LCD) has a spacer having a thickness of several μm between two glass substrates coated with a transparent conductive electrode to hold the glass substrates at predetermined intervals, and the inner side of the two glass substrates partitioned with a sealing material. By enclosing the liquid crystal in the space, the two glass substrates are surely joined by a mark in which the positions are aligned.

In addition, the two glass substrates constituting the liquid crystal panel have the spacers interspersed on one glass substrate, and a sealing material of a thermosetting resin is attached to the inner surface of the other glass substrate (the surface facing one glass substrate). While the upper and lower glass substrates are bonded to each other to align the marks, the upper and lower glass substrates are temporarily fixed so as not to be separated. The pair of glass substrates bonded and temporarily fixed to each other is heated and pressurized to pressurize the sealing material to the particle size of the spacer between the upper and lower glass substrates to cure the sealing material.

The apparatus for curing such a conventional sealing material is to coat at least one substrate of a pair of glass substrates bonded together and temporarily fixed with a flexible material, to depressurize the inside of the container containing the panel or pressurize the container from the outside. In one state, the substrate is fixed. By configuring as described above, pressure can be applied uniformly to the substrate. In the apparatus for pressurizing the substrate with the soluble material, the uniformity of the pressurization is considerably improved as compared with the apparatus using the high rigidity surface plate, and the display accompanying the gap defect is reduced.

In addition, as a heating method, it is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-232420 to arrange heating means on an upper and lower platen in which two pairs of substrates are sandwiched so that the entire surface of the panel can be heated. The high-speed heating and cracking properties were improved compared to the method of heating the panel side by using the heater in (iii).

Moreover, by using one side of the surface plate as a flexible member, it was not possible to prevent a poor degree of the gap between the upper and lower substrates, or to prevent the displacement of the upper and lower substrates in the lateral direction and the bending of the substrate. In particular, when two pairs of panels were installed in parallel in one container for productivity improvement, it was confirmed that the shift in the lateral direction was large.

Moreover, in the apparatus in which the heating means are arranged on the upper and lower platen, the heat is transferred from the upper and lower sides, so that the warpage is reduced. However, a deviation of several micrometers of the upper and lower glass substrates can not be prevented, and this positional accuracy of the liquid crystal Increasing with the performance improvement, the substrate shifted to an unacceptable value. Moreover, in the conventional structure, the experiment revealed that the deviation becomes larger when the two substrates are separated from the center or when a plurality of small substrates are installed side by side, as compared with the case where two pairs of glass substrates are arranged at the center of the surface plate. lost. From these results, the tip force is generated between the surface plate and the substrate, and between the substrate and the substrate due to the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion of the upper and lower plates and the difference of the friction coefficient between the surface plate and the substrate due to the position of the upper and lower plates and the surface plate. It has been found by experiment that the highest force is easily released between the upper and lower substrates to which only the adhesive is bonded by the sealing material, and the deviation occurs between the upper and lower substrates. Further, in the conventional apparatus, it is effective to increase the heat capacity of the vertical heating means in securing cracking properties, but has a problem that the heating and cooling rate is sacrificed. In particular, in the case of a mass production apparatus, a number corresponding to the tact time of the line is prepared. In addition, for process reasons, at least the portion in contact with the substrate needs to be cooled below a certain temperature when the panel is installed in the apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems possessed by the prior art as described above, and an object thereof is to uniformly heat the entire surface of the glass substrate, and also pressurize the glass substrate to act as a uniform distribution load, In addition, to provide a liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus that can quickly cool the surface plate after the heat treatment.

In order to achieve the above object, a technical means of the present invention is to seal two glass substrates through a spacer, heat and press in an overlapping state, and a seal made of a thermosetting resin disposed between the two substrates. In a liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus for hardening ash, one fixed surface to which a pair of glass substrates, which are aligned and temporarily fixed, is fitted, and the surface of the surface facing the fixed surface is wide or It consists of a movable plate which is narrowly changed and pressurized by the pressing means, and the fixed plate has a two-layer structure in which cooling means is embedded in an upper layer member close to the glass substrate, and a heating means is provided in the far lower layer member. A separating mechanism is provided for releasing contact between the upper and lower member, and the movable table is of hollow structure provided with heating means. The backboard and the pressing surface correspond to the members having flexibility.

As the fixed surface plate, a member having a high rigidity and high thermal conductivity, such as a metal plate or a graphite plate, can be used. However, the member directly contacting the glass substrate is limited to a member having a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of the glass substrate. In the fixed plate divided into two upper and lower layers, cooling means is embedded in the upper layer member closer to the glass substrate. The cooling means is preferably water-cooled, and therefore, an upper layer member is provided with a passage for piping a cooling pipe.

In addition, by providing a heating means in the lower layer member far from the glass substrate, crack heating is possible by heat conduction.

The movable plate has a low rigid soluble member embedded in one side of a frame having a rectangular insulated function in a planar shape, and a heating member is incorporated in the hollow portion partitioned by the soluble member and the frame. Indirect heating is performed to reduce the temperature distribution of the entire apparatus, thereby improving the cracking properties of the glass substrate. Examples of the soluble member constituting the movable table include a film having a coefficient of thermal expansion equivalent to that of a low rigid graphite or glass substrate, such as glass fiber cloth impregnated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). have.

Further, since the heating means is an auxiliary heater, it is not necessary to control the temperature of the upper and lower heaters in the same way as in the conventional example, and it is preferable to set the temperature close to the heating means attached to the fixed table. Moreover, as the heating means, a rubber heater part reflecting plate having a small heat capacity is preferable. On the side where the temperature of the heating means mounted on the fixed plate rises, the reflecting plate reflects heat from the fixed plate to the reflecting plate, thereby suppressing the output of the rubber heater to the minimum and contributing to energy saving.

As such a reflecting plate, an aluminum plate or a metal mirror coating material coated with gold or silver may be mentioned.

Moreover, as a separation mechanism which separates the joining surface of the lower layer member and the upper layer member in a fixed surface plate, the mechanism using an eccentric force, or the mechanism by the cylinder which used hydraulic pressure and pneumatic pressure is mentioned.

According to the above means, the movable surface has a hollow structure, and the pressing surface in contact with the glass substrate is composed of a flexible member having a low rigidity by the fixed surface plate, and the rigid surface has a rigid difference between the pressing surface of the fixed surface plate and the movable surface plate. The flexible member with low rigidity of the movable plate is in close contact with the glass substrate and is given a uniform distribution load, and the space between the upper and lower glass substrates is formed uniformly.

The fixed table has a two-layer structure of upper and lower layer members, and a cooling means is provided in the upper layer member close to the substrate, and a heating means is provided in the lower layer member far from the substrate, so that rapid cooling and rapid heating are possible. Done. In addition, since the above-mentioned two-layer fixed table is configured to be attached and detached by a separating mechanism freely, after heating and pressurizing, the upper and lower members are separated and the upper member is cooled, resulting in good cooling efficiency. When the next panel is set and a thermal history is applied, the temperature distribution on the panel is not adversely affected.

1 is a cut-away front view showing an embodiment of the manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing the structure of the movable table.

3 is a plan view showing the arrangement of the separation mechanism for separating the upper and lower layer members of the fixed table.

4 is an explanatory view showing the operation of the separation mechanism by the eccentric shaft, (a) shows a state where the upper layer member is in contact with the lower layer member, and (b) shows a state where the upper layer member is moved upward by the separation mechanism. Indicates.

(Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawing)

1 ‥‥ Fixed plate 1a ‥‥ Upper layer member

1b ‥‥ Lower layer member 2 ‥‥ Moving table

3 ‥‥ Separation mechanism 4 ‥‥ Cooling means

5 ‥‥ Heating means 10 ‥‥ Heating means (movable plate side)

a, b ‥‥ glass substrate

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Below, one Example of this invention is described based on drawing.

Fig. 1 shows an outline of a liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus, and puts and heats and presses a pair of glass substrates which are aligned and temporarily fixed to each other. Pressurized and thermoset as shown in the drawing, 1 is a fixed table having a two-layer structure of upper and lower layer members, 2 is a movable table disposed to face upward of the fixed table 1, and 3 is a fixed table ( It is a separation mechanism for separating the joining state of the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b constituting 1) in the vertical direction.

The fixed surface plate 1 is a pair of glass substrates comprising two sheets of a liquid crystal panel. The flat plate 1 is a rectangular flat upper layer member 1a and lower layer member 1b. The cooling water pipe of the cooling means 4 is inserted into the upper layer member 1a in contact with the glass substrate, and the heater of the heating means 5 is inserted into the lower layer member 1b. The above-described upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b are provided with heating means 5 inserted and placed in the lower layer member 1b while keeping the opposing surfaces (bonding surfaces) in contact with each other when heating and pressing the glass substrate. Heat is transferred to the upper layer member 1a so as to effectively heat the glass substrate.

In addition, the joining surfaces of the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b may each be formed into a flat surface, and may be configured so that the entire surface contacts each other, or the bonding of either the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b. A concave portion may be formed on the surface except for its surroundings, and the heat of the lower layer member 1b may be transmitted to the upper layer member 1a through the air layer of the concave portion. When such a recess is formed, the cracking property and flatness of the fixed surface plate 1 can be improved. Moreover, even if the contact between the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b improves the flatness, the contact resistance is large, and it is difficult to increase the cracking property in thermal balance. To this end, instead of increasing the flatness, a cushioning and good thermal conductivity film, such as a graphite fiber film, is placed between the upper layer member 1a and the lower layer member 1b.

The upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b are provided with springs 6 at various positions around the upper layer member 1a and the lower layer member 1b so as to always maintain a stable contact state. By the action of the spring 6, the graphite fiber film sandwiched between the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b is compressed, and the gap between the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b is filled to obtain cracking properties. Lose.

Also, around the upper surface of the upper layer member 1a in contact with the glass substrate of the fixed surface plate 1, the pair of glass substrates (a) and (b) paired with two sheets placed on the upper surface of the fixed surface plate 1 are Place and fix frame 7 to enclose it. The frame 7 is made to have the same thickness as the total thickness of the glass substrates a and b. An O-ring 8 is attached to the outside of the frame 7, and the movable plate 2 to be described later is attached. When lowered and brought into contact with the glass substrate, the closed space is partitioned by the fixed table 1, the movable table 2 and the O-ring 8, and the internal space is configured to allow vacuum exhaust through the passage 9. have.

The movable plate 2 disposed above the fixed plate 1 has a flexible member on one opening surface (lower surface) of the rectangular frame 2a having a larger thermal insulation function than the fixed plate 1 described above. The pressure plate 2b which consists of these is installed and comprised. As the pressure plate 2b, a glass cloth impregnated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is used as a sheet having a thermal expansion rate similar to that of a glass substrate and also having flexibility. In addition, when static electricity is a problem, it is preferable to use glass cloth of impregnated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) containing carbon.

The pressing plate 2b makes the edge of the sheet constituting the pressing plate 2b stand up along the outer surface of the frame 2a, and presses the upright edge portion with the sheet fixing bracket 11, 11) is attached by fixing with a screw (12). In addition, the pressing plate 2b is loosely fixed to be installed so that the central portion thereof is slightly stretched downward.

Moreover, the heating means 10 is accommodated in the position above the inside of the movable surface plate 2, ie, the pressing plate 2b inside the frame 2a. The performance required for the movable table 2 is the relationship between the plane cracking and the upper and lower temperatures of the fixed plate 1. Therefore, it is preferable to provide the heating means 10 which does not generate | occur | produce temperature rise and fall in the pressure plate 2b. In such a structure, as shown in FIG. 2, the rubber heater part reflecting plate with high plane cracking property and small heat capacity is hold | maintained above the pressing plate.

The rubber heater part reflecting plate 10 is a reflecting plate 10b attached to the lower surface of the silicon heater 10a, and reflects heat from the upper layer member 1a of the fixed surface plate 1 to the reflecting plate 10b. The output of the rubber heater 10a can be suppressed to the minimum, contributing to energy saving. As the reflecting plate 10b, an aluminum plate or a flat plate subjected to metal mirror coating may be mentioned.

The movable surface plate 2 constructed as described above is suspended from the support member 13, and the pressing plate 2b is brought into contact with the O-ring of the fixed surface plate 1 by moving the support member 13 downward.

Separation mechanism 3 for separating the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b constituting the fixed surface plate 1 from the contact state uses an eccentric shaft 14, respectively, on the left and right sides of the fixed surface plate 1. The two units are provided at the same distance from the center in the front-rear direction, and the separating mechanism is operated simultaneously to lift the upper layer member 1a upward from the contact with the lower layer member 1b.

The separating mechanism 3 holds the eccentric shaft 14 in the housing 15 so as to be rotatable through the bearing 16, and the front end side of the eccentric shaft 14, that is, the lower surface of the upper layer member 1a. The bearing 16 'is attached to the supporting part, and the proximal end of the eccentric shaft 14 is connected to the output shaft of the rotary cylinder 17 by the coupling 18, and the eccentric shaft ( 14) is configured to rotate. By the rotation of the eccentric shaft 14, the upper layer member 1a is lifted up by the dimension L through the bearing 16 ', and the contact with the lower layer member 1b is separated.

The driving source for rotating the eccentric shaft 14 of the separating mechanism 3 is not limited to the above-described rotary cylinder (air actuator), but may be an electric motor. In addition, the upper and lower layer members 1a and 1b are supported by a guide column or the like so that the relative positional relationship between the two and the lower layer members 1a and 1b does not deviate during operation of the above-described separation mechanism 3.

Next, the operation of the above-described manufacturing apparatus will be described. The glass substrates (a) and (b), which are paired with two sheets temporarily fixed and aligned in a state of being opened as far as the movable plate 2 is lifted upward with respect to the fixed plate 1, are fixed plate (1). ) Is placed on the upper surface of the upper layer member 1a. Next, the movable plate 2 is lowered and the platen plate 2b of the plate plate is brought into contact with the O-ring 8 to form a closed space with the platen plate 2b, the O-ring 8, and the upper layer member 1b. Then, the inside of the waste space is evacuated through the passage 9 of the fixed table 1. As a result, the pressing plate 2b of the movable plate 2 is deformed and adhered to conform to the glass substrate a, and the glass substrates a and b are pressed. In this state, when the heating means 5 of the fixed surface plate 1 and the heating means 10 of the movable surface plate 2 are operated, the fixed surface plate 1 conducts heat from the lower layer member 1b to allow the upper layer member 1b to operate. The glass substrates (a) and (b) are heated by heat transfer, and the sealing material between the glass substrates (a) and (b) is compressed and fixed to a predetermined interval in the same manner as before. At this time, the glass substrates (a), (b) and the fixed plate 1 and the pressing plate 2b of the movable plate 2 also thermally expand together with heating, but the coefficient of thermal expansion of the fixed plate 1 and the pressing plate 2b The shift can be controlled because it is almost the same as the glass substrate. In the above heating, when the heating means 10 of the movable table 2 is a heater reflecting plate, the heat from the fixed plate 1 is reflected by the reflecting plate 10b to contribute to the heating of the glass substrate a. Therefore, the output of the heater of the heating means 10 itself can be suppressed to the minimum.

After molding by the above-mentioned heating and pressing, the heating means 5 of the fixed table 1 and the heater of the heating means 10 of the movable table 2 are separated, and the above-mentioned closed space is returned to atmospheric pressure and operated. The platen 2 is moved upwards to take out the molded article (bonded glass substrate) on the fixed platen 1. After the removal, the cooling means 4 of the upper layer member 1a of the fixed surface plate 1 is operated to cool the fixed surface plate 1, but the lower layer on which the upper layer member 1a having the cooling unit 4 is heated. When cooling in the state in contact with the member 1b, the time required for cooling to a predetermined temperature becomes long, the heat loss becomes very large, the cooling efficiency is deteriorated, and the productivity is greatly affected.

In this way, the present apparatus allows the fixing table of the upper and lower two-layer structure to be freely separated by the separating mechanism, so that the upper layer member 1a and the lower layer member 1b are separated during the cooling after the heating molding, and the lower layer member 1b. The upper layer member 1a can be cooled in the state which eliminated the heat influence of (). By the above operation, the surface temperature of the upper layer member 1a on which the next glass substrate is placed can be quickly cooled below a predetermined temperature, and when the next glass substrate is set to apply thermal history, It is possible to prevent the temperature distribution from being dispersed.

On the other hand, during heating, the upper layer member 1a and the lower layer member 1b are brought into contact with each other, and the operation of elastically setting the temperature profile of the glass substrate by the cooling capability of the upper layer member 1a is also possible.

In the liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, according to the configuration of claim 1, the entire surface of the glass substrate can be uniformly heated, and the pressure of the glass substrate can also be applied as a uniform distribution load, and after the heat treatment, The surface plate on the side where the glass substrate is placed can be quickly cooled below a predetermined temperature.

Further, according to the configuration of claim 2, when the glass substrate is heated by the upper and lower heating means, the lower side heat can be reflected by the reflecting plate to effectively act on the glass substrate, so that the heater provided on the movable surface side has a small heat capacity. It may be used, and the apparatus which can contribute to energy saving can be provided.

Moreover, the shift | offset | difference by thermal expansion at the time of heating can be controlled by the structure of Claim 3 and Claim 4.

Claims (4)

In the liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus which opposes two glass substrates through a spacer, heats and presses in an overlapping state, and hardens the sealing material which consists of thermosetting resins arrange | positioned between the two sheets, It consists of a fixed surface plate on which two pairs of temporarily fixed glass substrates are fitted, and a movable surface plate that is pressurized by a pressing means to change the distance between the surface plate and wide or narrow the surface plate. The fixed plate has a two-layer structure in which a cooling means is embedded in an upper layer member close to a glass substrate, a heating means is installed in a far lower member, and a separation mechanism for separating the contact state between the upper and lower layer members. And the movable table has a hollow structure with heating means, and the glass substrate and the corresponding pressing surface are made of a material having flexibility. A liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim. 2. The liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movable plate has a heater part reflecting plate embedded therein. The liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flexible pressing member of the movable plate is a soluble film having a coefficient of thermal expansion equivalent to that of a glass substrate. 3. The liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the soluble pressing member of the movable plate is a soluble film having a coefficient of thermal expansion equivalent to that of a glass substrate.