TW201323812A - Vacuum dry apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a vacuum drying apparatus. Installed in the vacuum drying apparatus according to the present invention are: a supporting pin which supports a substrate to be dried, passes through a housing, and is capable of being raised and lowered; and a sealing means which seals a space between the supporting pin and the portion of the housing through which the supporting pin passes, and which is installed on the outside of the bottom surface of the housing so as not to interfere with the supporting pin. Therefore, the sealing means is not damaged by the supporting pin, thus preventing a leak from a vacuum of a chamber into which an object to be dried is loaded and dried. Accordingly, the reliability of a vacuum drying process is enhanced, and the maintenance and repair of the vacuum drying apparatus are convenient.; Further, since the supporting pin supporting the object to be dried has a fixing pin positioned and fixed at a lower side thereof and a moving pin which is movably installed at an upper side of the supporting pin and on which the object to be dried is loaded and supported, when the object to be dried moves in a state in which the object to be dried is loaded and supported on the moving pin, the moving pin is moved together with the object to be dried. Accordingly, the moving pin is prevented from being damaged by the object to be dried, and the object to be dried is prevented from being damaged by the moving pin, so that product reliability is improved.

Description

Vacuum drying device Field of invention

The present invention relates to a vacuum drying apparatus which dries a solvent contained in a coating liquid applied to a substrate by vacuum.

Background of the invention

Coating a photoresist for a substrate for a flat panel display element such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) display, or an FED (Field Emission Display) Such as coating liquid. Further, in order to apply the coating liquid uniformly to the substrate, a solvent such as a solvent is blended into the coating liquid to be applied.

Although the solvent contained in the coating liquid can be naturally evaporated, it takes a lot of time until the solvent is completely evaporated. Therefore, when the solvent is naturally evaporated, if the coating liquid is applied with any substance, the productivity is lowered. Further, when the solvent contained in the coating liquid is not completely removed, an arbitrary substance is applied to the coating liquid, and when the coating liquid is cured, pores are formed in the coating layer which is hardened by the coating liquid. Therefore, the quality of the substrate is lowered.

For the above reasons, a vacuum drying apparatus has been developed which removes the solvent contained in the coating liquid by forcibly evaporating the coating liquid after the coating liquid is applied to the substrate.

Generally, a vacuum drying apparatus has a lower casing and an upper casing of a chamber in which a device substrate is formed and dried in a sealed space. The aforementioned lower housing is The upper housing is fixedly disposed on the upper side of the lower housing. The chamber may be formed between the lower casing and the upper casing if the upper casing is lowered and sealed to the lower casing.

Further, a plurality of support pins supporting the substrate mounted on the chamber are vertically disposed on the lower side of the lower casing, and the support pins are raised and lowered in a state of penetrating the lower surface of the lower casing. When the substrate is supported by the robot arm and the substrate is loaded into the chamber, the upper end side of the support pin may protrude to the lower surface side of the lower case to support the substrate.

Since the aforementioned support pin is provided to be movable up and down, the aforementioned robot arm can be used to conveniently load the substrate into the aforementioned chamber or unload. Further, if the support pin is provided to be movable up and down, the support pin may be protruded to the lower surface side of the lower casing as needed, and the support pin may protrude to the lower surface side of the lower casing. Reduce the space in the chamber.

In the above-described conventional vacuum drying apparatus, since the support pin penetrates the lower surface of the lower casing, the vacuum of the chamber is leaked through the portion of the lower casing through which the support pin penetrates.

To prevent this, an O-ring or the like is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the support pin to prevent leakage of the vacuum of the chamber. Since the support pin is moved up and down, the O-ring is worn by the movement of the support pin. Thereby, since the vacuum of the chamber may be leaked, there is a disadvantage that the reliability of the vacuum drying step is lowered.

Moreover, since the O-ring must be frequently replaced, there are disadvantages in that a lot of maintenance costs are incurred.

Further, when the substrate is mounted and supported by the support pin, the substrate When swimming, there is a flaw in the support pin due to the movement of the substrate. Since the support pin scrapes the substrate, the substrate may be damaged, so that the reliability of the product is reduced.

Summary of invention

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and an object thereof is to provide a sealing mechanism which does not interfere with a support pin which is arranged to be lifted and supported as a substrate of a dried body, and can be vacuumed. A vacuum drying device with improved reliability in the drying step.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum drying apparatus which can reduce maintenance costs.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum drying apparatus which prevents the support pin from being damaged by the dried body and prevents the dried body from being damaged by the support pin, thereby improving the reliability of the product.

The vacuum drying device of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a body, a casing, a plurality of support pins, a pumping mechanism and a sealing mechanism, the casing being disposed inside the body and forming a dried body to be dried a plurality of support pins; the plurality of support pins are vertically disposed on a lower side of the housing, the upper end side penetrates the housing, enters and exits the chamber, and supports the dried body loaded in the chamber; the pump The feeding mechanism is disposed on one side of the main body, and decompresses the chamber to a vacuum state; the sealing mechanism is disposed on an outer surface of the housing through which the support pin penetrates, does not contact the support pin, and seals the support The pin penetrates the part of the aforementioned casing.

The vacuum drying device of the present invention is configured to support the support pin of the substrate of the object to be dried through the casing and is arranged to be lifted and lowered, and the sealing mechanism between the support pin and the casing portion through which the support pin penetrates is not supported by the support pin. Interference and disposed on the outside of the lower side of the housing. As a result, since the sealing mechanism is not damaged by the support pin, the vacuum for filling the chamber to be dried by the dried body is not leaked. Therefore, the reliability of the vacuum drying step can be improved, and the maintenance work of the vacuum drying device can be simplified.

Further, since the support pin for supporting the object to be dried has a fixing pin that is fixed on the lower side and a floating pin that is located on the upper side and is provided to be movable to support the body to be dried, the support is supported by the dried body. In the state of the pin, when the object is moved by the dry body, the swimming pin and the object to be dried swim together. Therefore, since the floating pin can be prevented from being damaged by the dried body, and the dried body can be prevented from being damaged by the floating pin, the reliability of the product can be improved.

Simple illustration

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the housing portion shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the lower housing and the upper housing shown in Figure 2 .

Figure 4 is a plan perspective view of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the telescopic tube shown in Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 5.

Form for implementing the invention

The detailed description of the present invention, which will be described hereinafter, with reference to the present invention The specific embodiment shown as an example of a specific embodiment. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable the practitioner to practice the invention. It is to be understood that the various embodiments of the invention are different from each other, but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, the specific shapes, specific structures, and characteristics described herein may be made in various embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, it is to be understood that the position or arrangement of the individual components of the embodiments disclosed herein may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the claims, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims. The length, area, thickness and shape of the embodiment shown in the drawings are convenient and may be exaggerated.

Hereinafter, a vacuum drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a perspective view of a vacuum drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a housing portion shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in the figure, the vacuum drying apparatus of the present embodiment includes a main body 110 that forms an outer appearance, and a housing 120 is provided inside the main body 110. A chamber 120a is formed inside the casing 120, and this chamber is a sealed space in which the dried body 50 such as a substrate for a flat panel display element is dried and dried.

A coating liquid such as a photoresist or the like is applied to the dried body 50, and the coating liquid contains a solvent such as a solvent. When the dried body 50 is placed in the chamber 120a, the chamber 120a is depressurized to be in a vacuum state, whereby the solvent contained in the coating liquid applied to the object to be dried 50 is forcibly evaporated due to a pressure difference. .

The housing 120 has a housing 121 fixed to the lower portion of the body 110 and supported under The portion of the body 110 on the upper side of the housing 121 is provided as an upper housing 125 that can be raised and lowered. When the upper casing 125 is lowered, the upper casing 125 and the lower casing 121 are sealingly joined to form a sealed chamber 120a. Further, when the upper casing 125 is raised, the upper casing 125 and the lower casing 121 are separated by a distance, whereby the chamber 120a can be opened. When the chamber 120a is opened, the object to be dried 50 is loaded into or unloaded from the chamber 120a.

The upper casing 125 is lifted and lowered by a first drive mechanism 131 such as a motor or a cylinder fixed to the main body 110. Further, a pumping mechanism 135 is provided on one side of the main body 110, and the pumping mechanism is a vacuum pump or the like for decompressing the chamber 120a to a vacuum state when the chamber 120a is sealed. In order to uniformly dry the dried body 50, the pumping mechanism 135 preferably communicates with the lower surface of the lower casing 121 and the upper surface of the upper casing 125 to decompress the chamber 120a.

When the dried body 50 is placed in the chamber 120a, when the object to be dried 50 comes into contact with the lower surface of the lower portion of the lower casing 121, the object to be dried 50 is supported by a robot arm (not shown), and the object to be dried 50 is placed on the body 50a. When the chamber 120a or the dried body 50 is unloaded from the chamber 120a, there is no space between the dried body 50 and the lower surface of the lower casing 121, which is inconvenient.

Further, when the dried body 50 is placed in the chamber 120a, when the dried body 50 comes into contact with the inner lower surface of the lower casing 121, the pumping mechanism 135 may be prevented from pumping to the lower outer side of the lower casing 121.

Thereby, when the object to be dried 50 is placed in the chamber 120a, a plurality of support pins 140 (refer to FIG. 4) for supporting the object to be dried 50 and the lower surface of the lower casing 121 are provided so as to be movable up and down. .

The lower end of the support pin 140 is disposed on the lower housing The lifting plate 150 on the lower side of 121. Therefore, the lifting plate 150 is raised and lowered, and the support pin 40 is also raised and lowered. The upper end side of the support pin 140 penetrates through the through hole 122 (refer to FIG. 4) formed under the lower casing 121, and can enter and exit the chamber 120a and support the dried body 50 loaded in the chamber 120a.

The support plate 160 is fixed to a portion of the body 110 on the lower side of the lift plate 150, and a second drive mechanism (not shown) such as a motor or a cylinder for lifting the lift plate 150 is provided on the support plate 160.

Since the support pin 140 is disposed to be movable up and down, the support pin 140 can be protruded to the lower surface side of the lower casing 121 as needed. As a result, the space of the chamber 120a can be reduced as compared with the configuration in which the support pin 140 protrudes to the lower surface side of the lower casing 121.

Since the support pin 140 penetrates the through hole 122, the vacuum of the chamber 120a may leak between the outer circumferential surface of the support pin 140 and the inner circumferential surface of the through hole 122. To prevent this, a sealing mechanism is provided on the lower outer side portion of the lower casing 121 in which the through hole 122 is formed.

The sealing mechanism will be described with reference to Figs. 3 to 5 . 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the lower casing and the upper casing shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a plan perspective view of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the telescopic pipe shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the sealing mechanism is provided by a telescopic tube 170 that covers the support pin 140 at the central portion side, the upper side is sealed to the lower surface of the lower housing 121, and the lower side is sealed to the lifting plate 150 for bonding. And can be extended and lowered by the lifting plate 150. At this time, the support pin 140 is not in contact with the telescopic tube 170, and the telescopic tube 170 does not interfere with the movement of the support pin 140.

In this way, since the support pin 140 is located inside the extension tube 170, the extension The inside of the shrinkable tube 170 is sealed and maintained in a vacuum state similarly to the chamber 120a. As a result, the portion between the support pin 140 and the through hole 122 can be sealed.

In order to more stably seal between the extension tube 170 and the lower housing 121 and between the extension tube 170 and the lifting plate 150, the O-ring 181 can be interposed between the extension tube 170 and the lower housing 121, and the O-ring 185 (refer to FIG. 6). ) can be interposed between the telescopic tube 170 and the lifting plate 150.

Further, a placement path 171 into which the O-ring 181 is inserted and placed may be formed on the upper end surface of the extension tube 170, or a placement path 175 in which the O-ring 185 is inserted and placed on the lower end surface of the extension tube 170 may be formed. (Refer to Figure 6).

The vacuum drying device of the present embodiment is provided such that the support pin 140 is sealed to the outer side of the lower casing 121 so as to cover the support pin 140, and the telescopic tube 170 can be lifted and lowered by the support pin 140. That is, since the support pin 140 and the extension tube 170 do not interfere with each other even if the support pin 140 is moved up and down, the support tube 140 does not cause damage to the extension tube 170. Thus, the portion between the support pin 140 and the through hole 122 can be completely sealed.

The dried body 50 is mounted and supported by the support pin 140. On the other hand, when the support pin 140 is fixed, the support pin 140 may be damaged by the movement of the dried body 50, or the dried body 50 may be damaged by the support pin 140.

In order to prevent this, the support pin 140 of the vacuum drying apparatus of the present embodiment is formed to be able to swim with the object to be dried 50 when the object to be dried 50 swims. The support pin 140 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 5.

As shown, the support pin 140 has a fixing pin 141 on the lower side and a floating pin 145 on the upper side.

The lower end side of the fixing pin 141 is fixed to the lower side of the telescopic tube 170, and the upper end The side of the part is formed as a flat plane. The lower end side of the floating pin 145 is formed into a flat plane, and is provided to be slidable on the upper end surface of the fixing pin 141, and the upper side penetrates the through hole 122 (see FIG. 4), and the support dried body 50 is mounted on the upper end.

At this time, the upper end side of the fixing pin 141 and the lower end side of the floating pin 145 are covered by the sleeve 191 and supported, and the spherical body 193 is formed on the upper end surface of the fixing pin 141 and the lower end surface of the floating pin 145 which are formed to face each other. between. Further, a gap is formed between the outer peripheral surface of the lower end surface of the floating pin 145 and the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve 191. Thus, the floating pin 145 can slide on the fixing pin 141.

A guiding member 195 is disposed on the upper surface of the telescopic tube 170, and the floating pin 145 penetrates the guiding member 195. The guiding member 195 guides the lifting movement of the flying pin. At this time, a gap is formed between the inner circumferential surface of the guiding member 195 and the outer circumferential surface of the floating pin 145. The gap between the inner circumferential surface of the guiding member 195 and the outer circumferential surface of the floating pin 145 allows the sliding of the floating pin 145. Further, in order to allow the sliding of the floating pin 145, a gap is formed between the inner circumferential surface of the through hole 122 and the outer circumferential surface of the floating pin 145.

The vacuum drying apparatus of the present embodiment borrows a space between the ball 193 between the floating pin 145 and the fixing pin 141, the outer circumferential surface of the lower end surface of the floating pin 145, and the inner circumferential surface of the sleeve 191, and the inner circumference of the guiding member 195. The gap between the surface and the outer peripheral surface of the floating pin 145 and the gap between the inner peripheral surface of the through hole 122 and the outer peripheral surface of the floating pin 145 allow the floating pin 145 to slide on the fixed pin 141.

In this manner, when the dried body 50 is supported by the upper end portion of the floating pin 145 and is moved by the dried body 50, the floating pin 145 can be slid by the dried body 50. Thereby, the swimming pin 145 can be prevented from being damaged by the dried body 50, The dried body 50 can be prevented from being damaged by the floating pin 145.

The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains without departing from the spirit of the invention. And changes. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

50‧‧‧Dry body

110‧‧‧ body

120‧‧‧shell

120a‧‧‧室

121‧‧‧ Lower housing

122‧‧‧through holes

125‧‧‧Upper casing

131‧‧‧1st drive mechanism

135‧‧‧ pumping mechanism

140‧‧‧Support pin

141‧‧‧fixed pin

145‧‧‧Travel pin

150‧‧‧ lifting plate

160‧‧‧support plate

170‧‧‧ telescopic tube

181,185‧‧‧O-ring

191‧‧‧Sleeve

193‧‧‧ sphere

195‧‧‧Guiding components

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the housing portion shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the lower housing and the upper housing shown in Figure 2 .

Figure 4 is a plan perspective view of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the telescopic tube shown in Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 5.

50‧‧‧Dry body

110‧‧‧ body

120‧‧‧shell

120a‧‧‧室

121‧‧‧ Lower housing

125‧‧‧Upper casing

135‧‧‧ pumping mechanism

Claims (10)

A vacuum drying device, comprising: a body; a housing disposed inside the body and forming a chamber for drying the dried body; the plurality of support pins are vertically movable in the foregoing a lower side of the casing, the upper end side penetrates the casing, enters and exits the chamber, and supports the dried body loaded in the chamber; a pumping mechanism is disposed on one side of the body to reduce the chamber And the sealing mechanism is disposed on the outer surface of the casing through which the support pin penetrates, and is not in contact with the support pin, and seals a portion of the casing through which the support pin penetrates. The vacuum drying device of claim 1, wherein the housing comprises a lower housing and an upper housing, the lower housing being fixed to the body and forming a through hole through which the support pin penetrates and supporting the seal The mechanism is configured to be supported by the body of the upper portion of the lower casing to be lifted and lowered, and separated from the lower casing by the lifting or lowering, or coupled to the lower casing. The vacuum drying device of claim 2, wherein a lower surface of the lower casing is provided with a lifting plate supporting the lower end portion of the support pin, and the sealing mechanism is provided by a telescopic tube. The pipe system is arranged to cover the aforementioned support pin, and the upper side is sealed and coupled to the lower part The lower side of the casing is sealingly coupled to the lifting plate, and the lifting plate is extended and lowered to expand and contract. The vacuum drying device of claim 3, wherein the O-ring is interposed between the telescopic tube and the lower housing and between the telescopic tube and the lifting plate. A vacuum drying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the support pin supporting the object to be dried is allowed to swim together with the object to be dried. The vacuum drying device of claim 5, wherein the support pin has a fixing pin and a floating pin, and the lower end side of the fixing pin is fixed to the telescopic tube, and the lower end of the floating pin is on the upper end of the fixing pin. The upper side is inserted through the through hole, and the upper end portion is mounted to support the dried body. The vacuum drying apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the upper end side of the fixing pin and the lower end side of the floating pin which are opposed to each other are sleeve-covered and supported. The vacuum drying device of claim 7, wherein the upper end portion of the fixing pin and the lower end portion of the floating pin are formed in a flat plane opposite to each other, and the upper end surface of the fixing pin and the floating pin Between the end faces, a sphere is interposed between them. A vacuum drying apparatus according to claim 8, wherein a guide member for guiding the lifting movement of the floating pin is formed on the upper surface of the telescopic tube, and the support pin is lifted and lowered through the guiding member. The vacuum drying device of claim 9, wherein the inner circumferential surface of the through hole and the outer peripheral surface of the floating pin, the guiding structure A gap is formed between the inner circumferential surface of the member and the outer circumferential surface of the floating pin, and between the outer circumferential surface of the lower end surface of the floating pin and the inner circumferential surface of the sleeve.