KR20220000608U - Plating equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a plating apparatus with high versatility that can be applied to either electrolytic plating or electroless plating, and is suitable for long work pieces.
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a horizontal conveying unit that performs plating pre-treatment while horizontally conveying the long work unwound from the unwinding means, and the form of changing the shape of the long work sent from the horizontal conveying unit from a horizontal state to a vertical state A vertical transfer unit having a change portion, an endless chain transfer mechanism provided with a plurality of transfer clips for holding the upper ends of the long work in a vertical state, and a plating tank for plating the long work in a vertical state; It is characterized in that the winding unit is provided for winding and collecting the long workpiece after plating sent from the vertical conveying unit.

Description

Plating Equipment {PLATING EQUIPMENT}

The present invention relates to a plating apparatus for performing a plating treatment on a long workpiece, and more particularly, to a highly versatile plating apparatus applicable to both electrolytic and electroless plating.

In recent years, many electronic components, such as FPC (Flexible Printed Wiring Board), are used for various electronic devices, such as a smart phone, a mobile phone, and a liquid crystal television, from the request|requirement, such as small size and weight reduction, and thickness reduction.

BACKGROUND ART An electronic component such as an FPC is a substrate in which a conductive material such as copper foil is bonded to an insulating base film, and has an elongated shape (hereinafter, simply referred to as a long work). Such long workpieces are subjected to processing such as plating or etching to manufacture desired electronic components.

In the plating process for such long workpieces, it is known that a long workpiece wound in a roll shape is plated using a plating apparatus called a so-called "roll-to-roll" method or a plating apparatus of a vertical transfer method. Plating or electroless plating is used.

In a roll-to-roll type plating apparatus, a long workpiece is continuously horizontally conveyed through a plating tank through a plurality of rolls to perform a plating treatment on a long workpiece. In addition, the vertical conveying type plating apparatus is a facility with a mechanism to maintain the unwound long work in a vertical state, and to arrange the long work in a vertical state at the center position of the plating tank. is maintained, and the portion of the work lower than the held upper end is vertically conveyed so as to pass through the plating bath to perform plating. Each of these two types of plating apparatus has advantages due to the difference between horizontal conveying and vertical conveying. For this reason, the current situation is that a plating apparatus in which either method is selected is used in consideration of which plating treatment is performed, the electroplating or the electroless plating, and the characteristics of a long work piece. For example, in the case of electroless plating, if the roll-to-roll plating apparatus is a roll-to-roll type plating apparatus, since the rolls are disposed in the plating bath, the rolls may be subjected to the electroless plating treatment. For this reason, in the case of electroless plating, it is difficult to employ|adopt a roll-to-roll method.

Against this background, an object of the present invention is to provide a plating apparatus with high versatility that can be applied to any plating treatment of electrolytic plating or electroless plating, and is suitable for long work pieces.

In order to solve the above problems, the present inventors make the long workpiece horizontal when performing a process for connecting the long workpieces unwound from the unwinding means to each other, and horizontal conveying part in which the long workpieces are horizontal until plating pretreatment. A roll-to-roll type plating apparatus was devised in which the equipment and the equipment of the vertical conveying part for plating the long workpiece in a vertical state were combined. The present invention provides a horizontal conveying unit that performs plating pretreatment while horizontally conveying the long work unwound from the unwinding means, a work shape changing unit that changes the shape of the long work sent out from the horizontal conveying unit from a horizontal state to a vertical state, and a vertical state A vertical conveying unit having an endless chain conveying mechanism provided with a plurality of conveying clips for holding the upper end of a long work made of metal, and a plating tank for plating a vertical long work; It relates to a plating apparatus characterized by comprising a winding unit for winding and collecting a long work piece after plating sent out from the unit.

In the plating apparatus of the present invention, a long workpiece is conveyed in a horizontal state in the portion to be subjected to plating pretreatment. That is, the horizontal conveying unit of the plating apparatus of the present invention adopts a roll-to-roll method. And in the part where the plating process is performed, the vertical conveyance method of making a long workpiece|work in a vertical state and conveying the inside of a plating tank in a vertical state is employ|adopted. For this reason, in the plating apparatus of this invention, the workpiece|work shape change part which changes the shape of a long workpiece|work from a horizontal state to a vertical state is provided between a horizontal conveyance part and a vertical conveyance part.

There is no particular limitation on the mechanism of the workpiece shape change part in the plating apparatus of the present invention, but when changing a long workpiece from a horizontal state to a vertical state, wrinkles or creases do not occur. For example, by sequentially passing two rollers inclined at 45°, a long workpiece in a horizontal state (0°) can be changed to a vertical state (90°).

According to the plating apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to employ either electrolytic plating or electroless plating as a plating method. In the case of electroplating, an electrolytic plating process is made possible by providing an energizing mechanism in a transport clip that holds the upper end of a long work piece and placing an electrode in the plating tank. On the other hand, in the case of performing electroless plating, a longer plating time is required compared to electroplating. This can be achieved by increasing the length of the plating bath. Even in the case of this electroless plating, in the plating apparatus of the present invention, since the long workpiece is vertical during the electroless plating process and the inside of the plating tank is transported in the vertical state, it is possible to perform the electroless plating treatment only on the long workpiece becomes

The plating apparatus of this invention installs two sets of plating tanks in parallel to make it possible to move horizontally and vertically in the vertical conveying direction, and control the lifting and lowering of the stepless chain conveying mechanism to change the plating tanks used for plating. It is preferable to do Plating solution concentration changes due to plating treatment In this case, by controlling the lifting and lowering of the stepless chain transfer mechanism, lifting and detaching the long work from the plating tank, and horizontally moving the plating tank into which the new plating liquid is put, it is possible to efficiently perform the work accompanying the plating liquid exchange. In addition, in the plating apparatus of the present invention, it is also possible to separately install a plating solution adjusting tank, etc., and to circulately supply a new plating solution or a plating solution concentration adjusting solution, etc. put into the plating solution adjusting tank, to the plating tank to control the plating solution concentration.

According to the plating apparatus of the present invention, when plating treatment is performed on a long workpiece, either plating treatment of electrolytic plating or electroless plating can be applied.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a top schematic diagram of the plating apparatus of this embodiment.
Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of a horizontal conveyance section of the plating apparatus of the present embodiment.
Fig. 3 is a schematic side view of a vertical conveying section of the plating apparatus of the present embodiment.
Fig. 4 is a schematic side view of a winding portion of the plating apparatus of the present embodiment.

A preferred embodiment of the plating apparatus of the present invention will be described below. 1 to 4 show a schematic plan view (Fig. 1) of the plating apparatus according to the present embodiment, and schematic side views (Figs. 2 to 4) of each part of the plating apparatus shown in Fig. 1 .

The plating apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is comprised by the horizontal conveyance part 1, the workpiece|work shape change part 2, the vertical conveyance part 3, and the winding-up part 4. As shown in FIG. Moreover, in the plating apparatus shown in this embodiment, it was made possible to carry out the plating process of two long workpieces simultaneously. In this horizontal conveyance part 1, a long workpiece|work is sent out from the long workpiece|work W attached to the unwinding means 10, and plating pre-processing is performed by passing through a roll in a horizontal state. As a plating pretreatment, it is designed so that alkali degreasing 11, soft etching and water washing 12, and air knife drying 13 may be performed sequentially (FIG. 2). In addition, in the plating apparatus shown in this embodiment, although the horizontal conveyance part, the vertical conveyance part, and the winding part are not arrange|positioned in a straight line, it is also possible to arrange|position these in a straight line, and arrangement|positioning according to the apparatus installation space is possible.

The long work W after the air knife drying 13 of the horizontal conveyance unit 1 is sent out to the work shape change unit 2 . The workpiece shape changing unit 2 is provided with special rollers 20 , 21 . The special roller 20 is installed in a state inclined by 45 degrees from the horizontal plane, and the special roller 21 is installed in a state inclined by 45 degrees further from the inclined surface of the special roller 20 . The long workpiece W sent out in a horizontal state from the horizontal conveyance part 1 passes through the special rollers 20 and 21, and the shape is changed from a horizontal state to a vertical state. Moreover, in these special rollers 20 and 21, the conveyance state of the elongate workpiece|work W is controlled by the EPC (edge position controller) sensor.

The long work W in a vertical state is sent to the vertical conveying unit 3, and the vertical long work W is sent to the vertical conveying unit 3 by the conveying clip 302 of the endless chain conveying mechanism 30 The upper end of W) is gripped (FIG. 3). This stepless chain transfer mechanism 30 combines an endless chain 301 with a sprocket connected to an AC servomotor for driving, and the transfer clips 302 are arranged on the endless chain 301 at regular intervals. there is. This endless chain 301 is maintained on a rail (not shown) capable of controlling the positional accuracy of the vertical and horizontal directions, and a part thereof can be shifted up and down (or left and right). Moreover, in order to respond to the case where pulsation generate|occur|produces in the long workpiece|work conveyed vertically, the auxiliary drive (not shown) is provided in the rail. And this endless chain conveying mechanism 30 is equipped with the lifting mechanism, and the whole endless chain conveying mechanism is movable up and down.

A processing facility for electroless plating is provided below the long work W by which the upper end part was gripped by the clip 302 for transport (FIG. 1). This treatment facility is in the order of the vertical conveying direction: pickling (31), Pd catalyst treatment (32), electroless Ni plating treatment tanks (33, 33'), electroless Au plating treatment tank (34), rust prevention treatment tank ( 35), an air knife 36, and a dryer 37 are provided. Although the illustration is abbreviate|omitted, the water washing|cleaning is provided at the necessary location between each process.

In the Pd catalyst treatment 32, pre-dip, Pd activation treatment, and post-dip are performed. In addition, the Ni plating tanks 33 and 33' were designed to have a long plating tank length in the vertical conveying direction in order to secure the treatment time of the electroless Ni plating. The Ni plating tank 33 and the Ni plating tank 33' are arranged in parallel, and horizontal movement (direction of both arrows in Fig. 1) is possible perpendicular to the vertical conveying direction.

The long workpiece W subjected to the electroless Ni plating treatment is transferred to the electroless Au plating treatment tank 34 and subjected to electroless Au plating treatment, and sealing treatment is performed with an organic treatment agent in the rust prevention treatment tank 35 . And it is sent out to the winding-up part 4 through the air knife 36 and the drying 37.

The long workpiece W subjected to electroless Ni-Au plating in the vertical conveying unit 3 has the same structure as the workpiece shape changing unit 2 provided between the horizontal conveying unit 1 and the vertical conveying unit 3 . By passing through the shape change part 2', it becomes a horizontal state from a vertical state, and it is conveyed to the winding-up part 4 . The long workpiece in a horizontal state passes through a plurality of rolls and is wound on the winding roll 40 . Also in this winding part 4, the conveyance state of the elongate workpiece|work W is controlled by the EPC (edge position controller) sensor.

Using the plating apparatus shown in this embodiment, electroless Ni-Au plating was performed using a commercially available electroless Ni plating solution and an electroless Au plating solution. As a long work piece, an FPC having a width of 250 mm and a total thickness of 90 µm (conductive metal 35 µm, base film 55 µm) was used. The conveying speed was adjusted in accordance with the target plating thickness in the range of 300 mm to 3,000 mm/min. As a result, it was possible to perform the electroless Ni-Au plating treatment on the FPC of the long work without causing problems such as wrinkles or plating unevenness. In addition, in the plating apparatus of this embodiment, although it is set as the structure which can process two sets (two pieces) of long workpieces, it is also possible to set it as the structure which processes one set (one piece) long workpieces.

1 Horizontal transfer unit
2 Work shape change part
3 vertical transfer unit
4 winding
10 Unwinding means
11 Alkaline degreasing
12 Soft Etching and Washing
13 Air Knife Drying
20, 20', 21, 21' special rollers
30 stepless chain transfer mechanism
301 stepless chain
302 carry clip
31 pickling
32 Pd catalyst treatment tank
33, 33' electroless Ni plating tank
34 Electroless Au plating tank
35 Anti-rust treatment tank
36 Air Knife
37 dry
40 winding rolls

Claims (2)

a horizontal conveying unit that performs plating pretreatment while horizontally conveying the long workpiece unwound from the unwinding means;
A work shape changing unit that changes the shape of a long work sent from the horizontal conveying unit from a horizontal state to a vertical state;
A vertical transfer unit having an endless chain transfer mechanism provided with a plurality of transfer clips for holding the upper ends of the long work in a vertical state, and a plating tank for plating the long work in a vertical state;
A plating apparatus comprising: a winding unit for winding and collecting a long work piece after plating sent out from the vertical conveying unit. According to claim 1,
Two plating tanks are installed in parallel so that they can move horizontally and vertically in the vertical conveying direction.
A plating apparatus capable of replacing a plating tank in which plating is performed by controlling the lifting and lowering of the stepless chain conveying mechanism.

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