KR20150145419A - Roll to roll processing apparatus and method of surface modification of thin film - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a device and a method for modifying a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process. A thin film unrolled from a bobbin is dried and is uniformly and sufficiently cooled to a cooling target temperature in a transferred direction and a depth direction. When an electric heating body directly comes in contact with a surface of the transferred thin film, a part from the surface of the thin film to a particular depth is partially heated through heat conduction, and the partially heated surface of the thin film is physically processed, so a nano-scale shape is imprinted. The surface of the thin film partially heated right after imprinting is cooled, so the nano-scale shape is fixed and rolled through a bobbin and the surface of the thin film is modified through a roll-to-roll process.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a surface modification process for a thin film by a roll-

The present invention relates to a surface modification treatment method of a thin film. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of processing a thin film through a roll-to-roll process so that the surface of the thin film has a changed surface different from the original physical properties.

Thin film films such as polymer series are widely used in various technical fields such as construction materials and the like. Such thin film films have been commercialized by processing the surface to meet various demands such as hydrophilic force and hydraulic power.

A variety of surface processing techniques known in the surface processing of thin film films have been applied, and surface processing has been performed in large quantities by roll-to-roll processing, mainly using printing, masking, or coating techniques.

A surface modification method using a roll-to-roll process requires a plurality of processes, but is capable of continuous processing, and thus is highly productive.

Conventional printing, masking, or coating techniques, however, have complicated processes and low economic efficiency, resulting in an increase in the unit cost of the product.

Though it is expected that the manufacturing cost will be lowered theoretically if the surface is modified by physically processing the surface directly in the manufacturing process of the thin film through the roll-to-roll process. However, the known thin film such as the polymer series is limited to the properties of the material and the tensile strength It has been difficult to carry out surface modification treatment by a conventional physical processing method.

Meanwhile, recent researches have developed a method of forming a nanoscale shape on the surface of a thin film through physical or electrical processing rather than coating, but it is difficult to apply to a roll-to-roll process, which is a prerequisite for manufacturing cost reduction and mass production It has limitations.

Document 1. Korean Registered Patent No. 10-0523989 "Surface Modification Method of Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Film for Food Packaging Material" Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0629360 "A method for modifying the surface of a polyimide film using an ethyleneimine coupling agent, a method for producing a copper-clad laminated film using the same, and a copper-clad laminated film having a two- Document 3: Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2005-0080083 "Method for modifying the surface of a polymer film using a plasma ion implantation method" Document 4: Korean Patent No. 10-0716022 "Use of multifunctional Si-based oligomer / polymer for surface modification of nanoporous silica film" Document 5: Korean Patent No. 10-1135090 "Method for modifying the surface of polarizing plate protective film and method for producing polarizing plate" Document 6: Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2012-0133891 "Method of modifying surface of polarizer protective film"

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,

It is an object of the present invention to provide a surface modification method for forming a nanoscale pattern by directly physically processing the surface of a thin film by a roll-to-roll process.

In order to accomplish the above object, an apparatus for processing a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process according to the present invention comprises: a first bobbin on which a thin film is wound;

A drying furnace for drying the thin film wound on the first bobbin;

A first cooler for cooling at least a portion of the dried thin film to a target temperature;

And a heat transfer member directly contacting the surface of the transferred thin film after being cooled through the first cooler, wherein heat is applied to the surface of the thin film through the heat transfer member, Partially heating and imprinting means for imprinting the nanoscale shape on the surface of the partially heated thin film;

A second cooler for cooling the thin film through the imprint means;

A second bobbin for winding the thin film cooled in the second cooler;

Conveying means for conveying the thin film so that the thin film wound from the first bobbin is wound on the second bobbin via the drying furnace, the first chiller, the partial heater, and the imprint means; And

A first cooling unit, a partial heater, an imprinting unit, or a second cooling unit, depending on the setting, a cooling target temperature of the first cooling unit, a cooling time, a temperature of the heating unit, And a control panel for controlling the conveying means.

At this time, the control panel controls the cooling target temperature of the first cooler, the cooling time, the temperature of the partial heater, the contact time with the thin film unit section, the conveying speed of the conveying means, One or more of the operating conditions of the means may be preset.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for modifying a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process, the method comprising: winding a thin film from a bobbin;

Drying the thin film;

Uniformly cooling the dried thin film to the cooling target temperature in the transport direction and the depth direction;

After the cooling, the heat transfer member is directly brought into contact with the surface of the transferred thin film to partially heat the surface of the thin film from the surface of the thin film to a certain depth. The surface of the partially heated thin film is physically processed to imprint the nanoscale shape step;

Rapidly cooling the surface of the thin film film so that heat transfer from the partially heated surface of the thin film to the core is blocked shortly after the imprint is made; And

And winding the cooled thin film with a bobbin.

At this time, during the step of physically processing the surface of the partially heated thin film and imprinting the nanoscale shape, the temperature is maintained at a temperature equal to or lower than the softening point by at least the thickness of the opposite surface of the partially heated surface.

According to the present invention,

The surface of the thin film can be physically directly processed by the roll-to-roll process to modify the surface.

Thereby, it is possible to mass-produce easily, and the manufacturing cost can be greatly reduced.

Particularly, according to the method proposed in the present invention, it becomes possible to modify the both surfaces of the thin film to have heterogeneous properties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining a method of surface modification of a thin film according to the present invention in a time-
2 is a view for explaining a property change of the thin film in the surface modification step,
3 is an enlarged photograph of the surface of the polymer produced through the surface modification step,
FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the outline of an apparatus for processing a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "comprising" another element in the description of the invention or in the claims, it is not to be construed as being limited to only that element, And the like.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention disclosed below is directed to a method for processing a surface modification of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process, and can be applied to a known thin film of various materials such as polypropylene and polyethylene.

Hereinafter, a method of modifying the surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process will be described with reference to specific examples.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining a method of surface modification of a thin film according to the present invention in a time-

2 is a view for explaining a property change of the thin film in the surface modification step,

3 is an enlarged photograph of the surface of the thin film produced through the surface modification process.

1, a method of modifying the surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process according to the present invention includes a drying step S1, a thin film cooling step S2, a partial heating and pattern pressing step S3, Cooling and pattern fixing step S4.

In the drying step (S1), the thin film prepared in roll form is dried.

Thin films sometimes absorb excessive moisture during the manufacturing and transporting process, which leads to defects in the processing process, so the thin film is dried prior to processing.

It may be pre-dried in a separate drying oven or it may be dried on the roll-to-roll process equipment.

Thereafter, in the thin film cooling step (S2), the thin film is cooled to a target temperature.

The cooling of the thin film in this way is intended to allow molding to a depth of only a few micrometers in the partial heating and pattern pressing step S3 thereafter.

In the case where sufficient cooling can not be achieved, permanent deformation such as elongation or breakage may occur in the thin film in the partial heating and pattern press step (S3). On the contrary, if excessive cooling is performed, the thin film pattern may not be processed to a desired level have.

2 (a) illustrates a state in which a part of the thin film is uniformly cooled to a target temperature.

Then, in the partial heating and pattern pressing step S3, the surface to be worked of the cooled thin film is partially heated.

The temperature is raised only partially to the depth of several micrometers from the surface of the thin film by conduction by directly contacting the surface of the thin film transferred through the cooling step.

Fig. 2 (b) shows a partially heated state from the surface of the thin film to a depth of several mu m.

In the case of uniformly heating the thin film as a whole, it is difficult to control the workable thickness, and the possibility of breakage and permanent deformation is increased, thereby remarkably lowering the processing reliability, so that partial heating is performed by direct conduction using the heater.

In the case of the polymer thin film, the heat transfer performance is basically low. By using these characteristics, it is possible to form a condition capable of processing only from the surface of the thin film to the depth of several micrometers through the heat transfer through the contact.

When the surface portion of the thin film to be subjected to the surface modification treatment is partially heated in this way, the nano shape is imprinted by pressing the heated portion.

FIG. 2 (c) shows a state in which the nano-shaped imprinting is processed through pressing on the surface of the thin film, the partially heated region.

2 (c), it is confirmed that the partially heated portion of the thin film surface is pressed to form fine protrusions on the surface.

On the other hand, according to FIG. 2 (c), it can be seen that, unlike the thin film bottom surface where the cooling state is maintained, the pressed portion is still heated.

In the thin film thus subjected to the heating and pattern press step (S3), heat is transferred to the deep portion due to the temperature difference between the surface and the deep portion.

As the heat moves to the core portion, the thin film has a physical property softened to the core portion, and the permanent stretching due to the tensile force generated due to the characteristic of the roll-to-roll processing or the processing shape of the nanoscale of the surface may be deformed.

In order to prevent such deformation, in the cooling and pattern fixing step S4, the pressed thin film portion is cooled to block the heat of the surface from moving to the deep portion.

For this purpose, the cooling process is rapidly performed on the thin film portion transferred immediately after the pressing.

Fig. 2 (d) shows a state in which the pressed portion is cooled and the temperature difference from the bottom of the thin film is sufficiently reduced.

The method of modifying the surface of a thin film according to the present invention corresponds to a thermo plastic working method and has the advantage of being able to form nanopatterns of various thicknesses on a thin film of various materials through one molding machine.

The present invention is characterized in that physical processing is enabled by forming a tensile holding area on the thin film, and the processing depth is determined by the material of the thin film and the target temperature in the thin film cooling step (S2).

In order to maintain the processing depth precisely, temperature control in the process is important.

First, it is necessary to have a uniform temperature distribution in the thickness direction and the longitudinal direction when the thin film is cooled in the thin film cooling step (S2).

The temperature uniformity in the thickness direction is related to the precision of the imprinted pattern.

On the other hand, the temperature uniformity in the longitudinal direction of the roll is a very important factor in the mass production because it prevents non-uniform processing of the nanopattern depending on the position of the thin film.

On the other hand, the degree of cooling varies somewhat depending on the physical properties of the thin film to be used. The degree of cooling is closely related to the heating process of the subsequent process. The heating depends on the thermal conductivity of the material of the thin film, the heat transfer time (the transport speed of the thin film and the length of the heating zone), the contact heat resistance of the heating surface and the thin film, and the specific heat of the thin film.

The thin film is cooled after being cooled in the thin film cooling step (S2), and is subjected to partial heating and pattern pressing step (S3) on the roll-to-roll processing equipment, while the working surface is heated through contact with the heating element, The remaining section shall be maintained below the softening point temperature.

A sufficient rigidity can be secured by keeping the remaining section in the thickness direction on the back surface of the heated surface at a softening point temperature or lower, thereby preventing the thin film from being deformed by the tensile force required for processing.

That is, it is possible to prevent deformation of the thin film during the partial heating and pattern press step S3. Therefore, a section maintained at a temperature equal to or lower than the softening point must be maintained at a predetermined thickness or more during the partial heating and pattern pressing step S3.

The thickness of the section maintained at the temperature below the softening point correlates with the tensile strength of the material of the thin film and can be set differently depending on the characteristics of the material.

On the other hand, in the partial heating and pattern pressing step (S3), it is aimed to transfer the temperature from the surface of the thin film to the depth of several μm, and it can be set differently depending on the temperature of the heating surface, the contact thermal resistance, and the thermal conductivity and specific heat of the thin film.

According to the present invention as described above, the nanoscale shape can be imprinted on the surface of the thin film in a manner suitable for mass production.

FIG. 3 is a micrograph of a surface of a thin film produced through a surface modification process according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, an example in which a surface modification process apparatus of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process is implemented will be described with reference to specific embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the outline of an apparatus for processing a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process according to the present invention.

The apparatus 100 for processing a surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process according to the present invention shown in FIG. 4 is a device for executing a process for surface modification of a thin film through the roll-to-roll process, 110, a first cooler 120, a partial heater 130, an imprint means 140 and a second cooler 150.

The surface modification apparatus 100 of the thin film film further includes a first bobbin 101 on which the thin film 1 is wound and a second bobbin 120 for winding the thin film 1 on which the surface modification process is completed do.

The thin film (1) wound on the first bobbin (101) is conveyed to the drying furnace (110).

The drying furnace 110 preferably further comprises an inlet through which the unwound thin film 1 is fed and an outlet through which the dried thin film 1 is discharged and a drying oven And a blowing duct 111 for blowing air.

In the drying furnace 110, the drying step S1 as described above is performed.

Excessive moisture absorbed by the thin film (1) is removed during the passage through the drying furnace.

On the other hand, the thin film 1 having passed through the drying furnace 110 is transferred into the first cooler 120 as shown in FIG.

The first cooler 120 preferably has a chamber structure in which the flow of the outside air is shut off, and cools the thin film 1 transferred to the inside to a set target temperature.

The target temperature is set differently depending on the material of the thin film and the processing depth.

In the first cooler 120, the thin film cooling step S2 as described above is performed, and the portion transferred to the inside of the chamber of the thin film 1 is uniformly cooled sufficiently to the target temperature.

When the thin film 1 is cooled through the first cooler 120, the thin film 1 is transferred to the partial heater 130.

The partial heater 130 has a heat transfer body 131 having a wide contact area.

When the thin film 1 is transferred into the partial heater 130, the heat transfer member 131 is brought into close contact with the surface of the thin film 1 to partially heat the processed portion of the thin film 1.

The heat transfer member 131 may have the form of a roller so that the thin film 1 can be partially heated by the direct conduction of heat at the same time as the thin film 1 is conveyed. In this case, the surface of the thin film 1 can be heated while being tightly adhered to the thin film 1.

The temperature is partially raised from the surface of the thin film to the depth of several micrometers by conduction, and then the surface of the thin film 1 partially heated through the imprint means 140 is pressed without delay to physically imprint the nano-shape.

The imprint means 140 processes the surface modification by pressing the surface of the thin film 1 at a predetermined pressure.

The partial heating and pattern pressing step S3 as described above is executed through the partial heater 130 and the imprint means 140. [

4, the partial heater 130 and the imprinting unit 140 are separately formed. However, the partial heater 130 and the imprinting unit 140 may be formed in a single unit so that the surface of the thin film is partially heated and pressed to form a nano pattern. As shown in FIG.

On the other hand, immediately after the nano-shaped imprint is completed, the thin film 1 is transferred to the second cooler 150 without delay.

The second cooler 150 preferably blows cool air to cool the surface of the thin film film 1 imprinted with the nano shape to block the heat of the surface from moving to the deep part.

The cooling and pattern fixing step S4 as described above is performed through the second cooler 150 so that permanent deformation of the thin film 1 or nanoscale processing of the surface due to the tensile force generated by the roll- It is possible to prevent deformation of the shape.

The thin film 1 having passed through the second cooler 150 is wound around the second bobbin 120.

The transfer means 104 transfers the thin film to the second bobbin 102 through the drying furnace 110, the first cooler 120, the partial heater 130, and the imprint means 140, The thin film is transported to be wound with the film.

On the other hand, the operator uses the control panel 103 to control the cooling target temperature, the cooling time, the temperature of the heating element 131, the unit section contact time of the heating element 131 and the thin film You can set one or more of them.

The control panel 103 controls at least one of the first cooler 120, the partial heater 130, the imprinting unit 140, or the conveying unit 104 according to the setting of the operator.

The control panel 103 controls the cooling target temperature of the first cooler 120, the cooling time, the temperature of the partial heater 130 and the contact time with the thin film unit section according to the material and depth of the thin film, The conveyance speed of the conveying means 104, and the operating condition of the imprinting means 140. [0064]

The operator can process the surface modification of the thin film having various materials and thicknesses by simply selecting one of the presets preset according to the material and the processing depth of the thin film wound on the bobbin.

The technical idea of the present invention has been described through several embodiments.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described above from the description of the present invention. Further, although not explicitly shown or described, those skilled in the art can make various modifications including the technical idea of the present invention from the description of the present invention Which is still within the scope of the present invention. The above-described embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings are for the purpose of illustrating the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

The present invention can be applied to the field of manufacturing and processing thin film.

1: Thin film
101: 1st bobbin
102: 2nd bobbin
103: Control panel
104: conveying means
110: drying furnace
111: blowing duct
120: first cooler
130: partial heater
131:
140: Imprint means
150: second cooler

Claims (8)

A first bobbin 101 from which a thin film is wound;
A first cooler (120) for cooling at least a part of the rolled thin film to a target temperature;
And a heat transfer member 131 that is in direct contact with the surface of the transferred thin film after being cooled through the first cooler 120. The heat transfer member 131 is cooled by applying heat to the surface of the thin film through the heat transfer member 131 A partial heater 130 for partially heating a predetermined thickness from the surface of the thin film;
Imprint means 140 for imprinting the nanoscale shape on the surface of the thin film partially heated from the surface through the partial heater 130 by a predetermined thickness;
A second cooler (150) for cooling the thin film passed through the imprint means (140); And
A second bobbin (102) for winding the thin film cooled in the second cooler (150);
A transfer means for transferring the thin film so that the thin film wound from the first bobbin 101 is wound on the second bobbin 102 via the first cooler 120, the partial heater 130 and the imprint means 140 104); And
It is possible to set at least one of a cooling target temperature of the first cooler 120, a cooling time, a temperature of the heat transfer member 131, and a unit section contact time of the thin film and the heat transfer member 131, The apparatus for processing a surface of a thin film by means of a roll-to-roll process comprising a cooler (120), a partial heater (130), an imprint means (140) or a control panel (103) for controlling the conveying means (104). The method according to claim 1,
And a drying furnace (110) for drying the thin film wound on the first bobbin (101)
The transfer means 104 transfers the thin film passed through the drying furnace 110 to the first cooler 120 through a roll-to-roll process. The method according to claim 1,
The control panel 103 controls the cooling target temperature of the first cooler 120, the cooling time, the temperature of the partial heater 130 and the contact time with the thin film unit section according to the material and depth of the thin film, A transfer speed of the transfer means (104), and an operation condition of the imprint means (140). Releasing the thin film from the bobbin;
Uniformly cooling the transferred thin film to a target temperature;
After the cooling, the heat transfer member is directly brought into contact with the surface of the transferred thin film to partially heat the surface of the thin film from the surface of the thin film to a certain depth. The surface of the partially heated thin film is physically processed to imprint the nanoscale shape step;
Cooling the surface of the thin film that is partially heated immediately after imprinting; And
And winding the cooled thin film into a bobbin. 5. The method of claim 4,
Before the step of uniformly cooling the thin film to the target temperature after the step of winding the thin film from the bobbin,
And drying the thin film. ≪ Desc / Clms Page number 20 > 5. The method of claim 4,
In the step of partially heating the film to a certain depth from the surface of the thin film, the transfer speed of the thin film according to at least one of thermal conductivity of the thin film material, contact thermal resistance between the heating surface and the thin film, A method of modifying the surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process in which the temperature is determined. 5. The method of claim 4,
In the step of physically processing the surface of the partially heated thin film to imprint the nanoscale shape,
A method of modifying the surface of a thin film through a roll-to-roll process in which the processing depth is determined by the material temperature of the thin film and the cooling target temperature in the step of cooling the thin film. 5. The method of claim 4,
A step of performing physical processing of the surface of the partially heated thin film to impregnate the shape of the nanoscale so that a temperature of at least a thickness equal to or more than the threshold value is maintained from the opposite side surface of the partially heated surface to a temperature below the softening point, / RTI > The method for modifying the surface of a thin film through <

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