KR20060076208A - Liquid crystal plate used in liquid crystal injection device - Google Patents

Abstract

When the liquid crystal plate 10 has the groove portion 10D for storing the liquid crystal 20 and injects the liquid crystal in the groove portion into the liquid crystal display panel, the liquid dropping state is avoided in the defoaming step, thereby making it possible to use the expensive liquid crystal material. Makes it possible to raise the The side surface and the bottom surface which form an inner surface of a groove part are processed, and the water repellency reduction site | part 11 which improved hydrophilicity is formed. As a result, the fluidity | liquidity of the liquid crystal in a groove part is made smooth, and the space formation by the bubble inside a liquid crystal is suppressed. On the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate, the entire upper surface 1OU covers the groove inner side upper edge 10E and is formed of a water repellent member, and there is no water repellency reducing portion. Therefore, when the liquid crystal is stored in the liquid crystal plate, the liquid crystal can be sufficiently heightened from the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate.

Liquid crystal, liquid crystal plate, chamber, panel, lifting mechanism

Description

Liquid crystal plate to use for liquid crystal injection device {LIQUID CRYSTAL PLATE USED IN LIQUID CRYSTAL INJECTION DEVICE}

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Explanatory drawing which shows typically an example of the front cross section in the preparation step which stored the liquid crystal in the liquid crystal plate in the conventional liquid crystal injection device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing an example of a front cross section in a step of bringing a liquid crystal plate containing liquid crystal in FIG. 1 into contact with a panel; FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing an example of a side cross section in FIG. 2; FIG.

4 is an explanatory plan view showing an example in which bubbles are generated in the liquid crystal in the defoaming step in the conventional liquid crystal plate to make a space.

FIG. 5 is a plan explanatory diagram schematically showing an example in the step of bringing a liquid crystal plate containing liquid crystal in FIG. 4 into contact with a panel; FIG.

FIG. 6: is explanatory drawing which showed typically one Embodiment of the front cross section in the liquid crystal plate used for a liquid crystal injection device (Example 1). FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing an embodiment of a front cross section in the case where a liquid crystal is stored in the liquid crystal plate of FIG. 6 (Example 1). FIG.

FIG. 8: is explanatory drawing which showed typically one Embodiment of the front cross section in the preparation step which stored the liquid crystal on the liquid crystal plate in the liquid crystal injection device (Example 1). FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing one embodiment of a front cross section in the step of bringing a liquid crystal plate containing liquid crystal in FIG. 8 into contact with a panel; FIG.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing one embodiment of a side cross section in FIG. 9 (Example 1). FIG.

Explanatory drawing which showed typically one Embodiment of the front cross section in the liquid crystal plate used for a liquid crystal injection device (Example 2).

Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

10 Liquid Crystal Plate 20 Liquid Crystal

30 chambers and 31 panels

32 lifting mechanism 33 inlet

110 liquid crystal plate

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal plate used in a liquid crystal injection device. The liquid crystal plate stores the liquid crystal for injection when the liquid crystal is injected into the liquid crystal panel.

As a liquid crystal plate used for the conventional liquid crystal injection device, there exist some which were disclosed by Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 9-54327 (patent document 1), for example.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal plate 110 is used as a container for storing the liquid crystal 20 in the liquid crystal injection apparatus. The liquid crystal plate 110 is made of a liquid-repellent material in Patent Document 1. In general, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is known as a material having a smallest friction coefficient, is used for the liquid crystal plate 110. PTFE is commonly referred to as Teflon (registered trademark). The property of increasing the surface tension of the liquid crystal 20 in contact with the water repellent material and the liquid repellent material possessed by the liquid repellent material is utilized, and the liquid crystal plate 110 stacks the liquid crystal 20 from the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate 110. . The stacked liquid crystals 20 are injected from the injection holes 33 of the panel 31 and filled therein.

Here, the injection method will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 together.

On the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate 110, the liquid crystal 20 is solidified from the upper surface.

The procedure first raises the liquid crystal plate 110 having the liquid crystal 20 in the direction of the panel 31 by using the elevating mechanism 32 in the chamber 30 in a vacuum state. 2 and 3, the lifting mechanism 32 makes the liquid crystal plate 110 contact the panel 31. As shown in FIG. By the contact, a small amount of liquid crystal 20 is introduced into the panel 31 from the injection hole 33 by the capillary phenomenon, and the liquid crystal 20 closes the injection hole 33. Thereafter, the atmospheric pressure in the chamber 30 is returned to atmospheric pressure. Among the changes in the atmospheric pressure, the liquid crystal 20 is sequentially introduced into the panel 31 by using the differential pressure and the capillary effect. As a result, the liquid crystal 20 is filled inside the panel 31.

The conventional liquid crystal plate 110 has liquid repellency on all surfaces including grooves for storing the liquid crystal 20 in the liquid crystal plate 110. Accordingly, the liquid crystal plate 110 of the liquid-repellent material exhibits strong water repellency which stacks the liquid crystal 20 filled in its groove from its upper surface. On the other hand, the liquid crystal 20 on the liquid crystal plate 110 requires a defoaming step of extracting gas mixed therein before contacting the panel 31. By the defoaming process, the gas contained in the liquid crystal 20 goes out to the space outside the liquid crystal 20.

However, since the viscosity of the liquid crystal 20 is high, when the gas leaves the outer space by the defoaming step, the gas grows large and bubbles are easily formed. Moreover, since the bubble is hard to burst, it is coalesced with other bubbles to grow into larger bubbles. In the degassing | defoaming process, the bubble is blown and the operation | movement which removes the gas in the liquid crystal 20 is repeated, and defoaming is performed. However, the moment the bubble bursts, as shown in Fig. 4, a space 21 without liquid crystal 20 is generated at the location. In particular, since the entire inner surface of the groove has water repellency, the liquid crystal 20 in the groove tries to maintain the space 21 generated by its surface tension. The occurrence of this space 21 is called liquid dripping. Since the groove inner surface of the liquid crystal plate 110 has water repellency, it is difficult for the liquid crystal 20 to be diffused, and the liquid dripping state remains even after the degassing step is completed.

In that state, as shown in FIG. 5, when the panel 31 and the liquid crystal plate 110 contact each other, sufficient liquid crystal is required for the panels 31A and 31B in contact with the spaces 21A and 21B in the liquid-dropping state. It is a situation that 20 is not supplied. Alternatively, since the injection port is not blocked by the liquid crystal 20, when the inside of the chamber 30 is returned to atmospheric pressure, gas is mixed in the panel, causing an injection failure state.

In order to avoid such a liquid dripping state conventionally, the liquid dripping part after degassing was further filled, or the liquid crystal more than necessary was previously filled. This countermeasure is associated with an increase in the work process, and also because the excess liquid crystal is charged, the utilization efficiency of the liquid crystal is lowered. As a result, cost increases.

As one of the improvement measures, the liquid crystal plate which raises the use efficiency of an expensive liquid crystal material and enables high-precision supply of a liquid crystal material is disclosed by Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2002-244142 (patent document 2), for example. . This liquid crystal plate is provided with the inclined surface injecting groove which injects a suitable amount of liquid crystal by inclination. The injection groove is formed of a material having good wettability with respect to the liquid crystal material, and covers the other wall surface with a water repellent coating. Therefore, when inject | pouring a liquid crystal from one end, since the bottom face is a material with favorable wettability, an appropriate amount of liquid crystal can be injected into an injection groove with favorable fluidity | liquidity.

However, in this configuration, the structure and control are complicated and need to be simplified.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problem that the use efficiency of expensive liquid crystal material cannot be improved because the liquid dripping state cannot be avoided in the defoaming step.

Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide the liquid crystal plate which can avoid the liquid fall state in a defoaming process, and can raise the utilization efficiency of an expensive liquid crystal material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used in a liquid crystal injection device for injecting liquid crystal into a liquid crystal display panel, and relates to a liquid crystal plate having water repellency on its surface.

In order to avoid a liquid dripping state in a defoaming process, this invention improves hydrophilicity by performing a water repellency reduction process in the inner surface of the groove part which reserves the liquid crystal which a liquid crystal plate has. And the water repellency reduction process is performed on the side surface and the bottom surface which form the groove inner surface, and the liquid crystal plate upper surface has the main feature that the whole surface maintains water repellency.

That is, since the inner surface of the groove is made hydrophilic, the liquid crystal itself reduces the surface tension on the inner surface of the groove to show diffusion. Therefore, the space generated when the bubbles generated in the liquid crystal burst is eliminated by the liquid crystal diffusion in the groove inner surface.

The water repellency reducing treatment includes groove surface treatment such as corona discharge treatment, blasting treatment and polishing treatment. Or the process of providing an unevenness | corrugation, a linear line, a circular line, etc. are contained, for example.

In addition, when the liquid crystal plate has a coating with a water repellent material on the underlying metal surface, the water repellency reducing treatment is performed by leaving a coating on the underlying metal surface or creating a new coating so as not to expose the underlying metal. It is preferable.

An object of the present invention is to avoid bubble generation in a liquid crystal stored in a liquid crystal plate made of a water repellent material. In order to realize the object, the water-repellent reduction process is performed to the side surface and the bottom surface which correspond to the inner surface of the groove part of the liquid crystal plate which stores a liquid crystal. As a result, the compact structure of the conventional liquid crystal injection device is not impaired.

The water-repellent material is a material with a small coefficient of friction, and Teflon (registered trademark) is the smallest coefficient of friction found to date. Teflon (registered trademark) is made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) of fluororesin under the trade name, but is now generally referred to as fluororesin. Therefore, of course, other fluorine resins are also used. Moreover, although water repellency is inferior somewhat, polypropylene etc. other than a fluororesin are used, for example.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawings are schematically exaggerated for easy understanding of the invention, and the relative dimensions of the configurations differ from the actual ones.

Example  One

Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the cross section of Example 1 of the liquid crystal plate used for the liquid crystal injection device by this invention.

The liquid crystal plate 10 shown in FIG. 6 has a rectangular shape, and the material is Teflon (registered trademark) of a water repellent material. The liquid crystal plate 10 has a channel-shaped groove 10D on its upper surface. The groove portion 10D is rectangular and has a space without a lid.

As shown in FIG. 6, the groove portion 10D forms side and bottom surfaces forming the groove inner surface as the water repellent reducing portion 11. The hydrophobicity reduction site | part 11 improves hydrophilicity, for example by a corona discharge process. Corona discharge treatment is used for surface modification of molded articles, etc. in many fields.

On the other hand, the groove inner side upper edge 10E forming the upper surface opening portion at the side of the groove portion 10D is covered with Teflon (registered trademark) by the upper surface 10U of the liquid crystal plate 10. However, since the inner surface of the groove 10D is hydrophilically treated, bubble growth in the groove 10D is hindered.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory cross-sectional view when the liquid crystal 20 is stored in the groove portion 10D of the liquid crystal plate 10 of FIG. 6. In the upper surface 10U of the liquid crystal plate 10, since the upper surface entire surface including the groove inner surface upper edge 10E of the groove portion 10D is water repellent, the liquid crystal 20 stored in the groove portion 10D is upward. To form a sufficient height.

8-10 is a figure compared with the conventional one about the liquid crystal injection apparatus at the time of using the liquid crystal plate 10 which concerns on this invention for easy understanding.

8 shows a lifting mechanism 32 in which a liquid crystal display panel 31 having an injection hole 33 and a liquid crystal plate 10 storing liquid crystals 20 on the upper surface thereof are arranged in the chamber 30 in a vacuum state. Is shown. As shown in FIG. 8, Teflon (registered trademark) is used for the liquid crystal plate 10 in a container in which the liquid crystal 20 is stored in the liquid crystal injection device. For this reason, the property which enlarges the water repellency of the liquid crystal plate 10 which a liquid repellent material has, and the surface tension of the liquid crystal 20 in contact with a liquid repellent material is utilized. That is, the liquid crystal plate 10 solidifies the liquid crystal 20 from the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate 10 by its water repellency and surface tension of the liquid crystal.

Even if the defoaming step is performed in this state, as described above, since the water-repellent reduction portion 11 corresponding to the side and bottom forming the groove 10D inner surface of the liquid crystal plate 10 is hydrophilic, the liquid crystal 20 inside Bubble space or bubble does not occur in.

In FIG. 9, the liquid crystal plate 10 is raised in the direction of the panel 31 by using the elevating mechanism 32 in the chamber 30 in the vacuum state from the state of FIG. 8, and the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate 10 is separated from the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate 10. The state in which the lower surface of the panel 31 is in contact is shown. The liquid crystal 20 rises from the top surface of the liquid crystal plate 10. The injection port 33 of the panel 31 is located at the center of the groove portion 10D (FIG. 6) of the liquid crystal plate 10. Therefore, by the contact, a small amount of liquid crystal 20 obtains a capillary phenomenon and enters into the panel 31 from the injection hole 33. In this state, no space is formed inside the liquid crystal 20. Therefore, the injection failure of the liquid crystal 20 such that gas is mixed inside the panel 31 does not occur. Thereafter, while returning the atmospheric pressure in the chamber 30 to atmospheric pressure, the liquid crystal 20 is sequentially introduced into the panel 31 by using the differential pressure and the capillary effect. As a result, the liquid crystal 20 is filled inside each of the panels 31.

FIG. 10 is a side explanatory diagram of a plurality of panels 31 viewed from the side of the cross-sectional explanatory diagram seen from the front of FIG. 9.

Since such a structure is adopted, the liquid crystal panel 20 is not formed inside the groove portion 10D (FIG. 6) of the liquid crystal plate 10 during the above-described operation without generating bubble growth and space generation in the liquid crystal 20. 31 can be charged inside. Therefore, the liquid dripping state at the time of liquid crystal injection can be avoided. Thereby, the utilization efficiency of an expensive liquid crystal material can be improved further.

In the above description, the corona discharge treatment for improving the hydrophilicity as the water repellency reduction treatment is performed on the side surfaces and the bottom surface forming the groove portion inner surface. However, the unevenness may be generated on the surface of the groove portion by blasting treatment, polishing treatment or the like. The generation of the unevenness includes a process of applying a straight line, a circular line, or the like.

Example  2

Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In Embodiment 2 of FIG. 11, the liquid crystal plate 10 is coated with Teflon (registered trademark) 10A on the surface of the base metal 12. As the base metal 12, aluminum, stainless steel (SUS), or the like is usually used. In liquid crystal, contact with metal causes contamination. Therefore, the above-described water repellency reduction treatment needs to be carried out so as not to expose the underlying metal 12 at least on the side where the liquid crystal touches, that is, the side and bottom that form the groove inner surface.

Therefore, when the liquid crystal plate has a coating with a water repellent material on its underlying metal surface, a treatment is performed in which the underlying metal is not exposed. For example, when performing water repellency reduction | restoration process by the uneven | corrugated generation | occurrence | production of the groove part surface, such as a blasting process and a grinding | polishing process, a process like leaving a coating by a water repellent material on the base metal surface, for example is performed. Alternatively, the surface subjected to the water repellency reduction treatment is subjected to a new coating treatment by a water repellency reduction treatment such as, for example, corona discharge, which does not expose the underlying metal.

Other components are the same as those shown in FIG. 6, and thus description thereof will be omitted.

By employing such a configuration, it is very helpful for the durability of the liquid crystal plate.

By carrying out the water repellency reduction treatment on the side and bottom of the groove portion of the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate upper surface of the water repellent material, the bubble growth in the stored liquid crystal can be easily suppressed. Therefore, in the injection device of a viscous liquid having a high surface tension, such as a liquid crystal, it can be applied to applications in which bubble generation is indispensable, such as injection from an injection port by capillary action or the like.

In the present invention, a liquid-dropping state can be avoided in the defoaming step, and a liquid crystal plate capable of increasing the utilization efficiency of an expensive liquid crystal material is provided.

Claims (5)

In the liquid crystal injection apparatus which injects a liquid crystal into a panel inside, and has a water repellency on the surface, The groove portion for storing the liquid crystal has hydrophilicity on the side surface and the bottom surface forming the inner surface thereof to have hydrophilicity, and the upper surface of the upper surface of the liquid crystal plate maintains water repellency. The liquid crystal plate characterized by the above. The method of claim 1, A surface including a corona discharge treatment, a blasting treatment, or a polishing treatment is applied to a surface to be subjected to the water repellency reduction treatment. The method of claim 1, A liquid crystal plate characterized by a process of applying irregularities including various linear lines to a water repellent surface corresponding to a surface to be treated with the water repellency reduction treatment. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, When the liquid crystal plate has a coating with a water repellent material on the underlying metal surface, the water repellency reducing treatment is a treatment which does not expose the underlying metal such as leaving the coating on the underlying metal surface. Liquid crystal plate. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, When the liquid crystal plate has a coating with a water repellent material on a base metal surface, the water repellency reducing treatment is a new coating treatment such as not exposing the base metal.

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