TWI486215B - Bubble generator for glass etching apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Bubble generator for glass etching apparatus

The present invention relates to a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus, and more particularly to a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus which is capable of generating fine bubbles for etching glass.

Currently, a variety of flat panel displays, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), electroluminescent displays (ELDs), and vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs), have been developed. Among these displays, although liquid crystal displays have various disadvantages, liquid crystal displays are still most actively developed due to their good image quality and low power consumption.

Portable TVs (TVs) and notebook computers, which are currently used in the market, still have many problems to be solved. In particular, since portable televisions and notebook computers are often carried by users, the degree of reduction in the size or weight of liquid crystal displays is considered to be a key success factor for the development of liquid crystal displays. In order to reduce the size or weight of the liquid crystal display, various methods can be employed. However, due to the structure or state of the art, there is a limit to reducing the weight or size of the necessary components of the liquid crystal display. However, as technology advances, there has been room to reduce the weight of glass (glass substrate) which is the most basic component of liquid crystal displays. In particular, glass is the most important component among the components constituting the liquid crystal display. Therefore, research and development to reduce the weight of glass is underway.

Reducing the weight of the glass means reducing the thickness of the glass. When the glass When the thickness is reduced, the glass system becomes brittle. In addition, when the glass is roughened, the rough glass system causes a significant defect in the image quality of the liquid crystal display. From this point of view, it is very difficult and important to smooth the glass.

In order to reduce the thickness of the glass, i.e., the weight, the method of immersing the glass in a container containing an etching solution and causing the surface of the glass to be etched by the etching solution is currently the most widely used. However, this method has a problem in that the surface of the glass is not uniformly etched, and the impurities generated in the etching process adhere to the surface of the glass, resulting in a rough surface of the glass.

In order to solve such problems, a method has been proposed in which glass is vertically arranged in an etching bath containing an etching solution (for example, hydrofluoric acid (HF)) and bubbles are blown through the perforated plate to etch the surface of the glass.

However, there is a problem in the etching method using bubbles that when moving to the upper end of the etching bath, a bubble is increased in combination with the surrounding bubbles, and thus a vortex is induced in the etching groove to cause the glass to be twisted. When the glass is twisted by the eddy current, the glass system may become brittle and it is difficult to uniformly etch the glass.

In view of the above, the present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems occurring in the prior art, and the present invention provides a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus comprising a gas feed tube mounted on an etching a plurality of holes on the outer surface of the gas feed pipe to discharge the fed gas; a plurality of orifices fixedly inserted into the holes of the gas feed pipe and each of the orifice seats has a fine hole connected to each of the holes; And a plurality of bubble generating filters coupled to the upper surface of each of the orifice holders and generating bubbles for glass etching in the etching grooves.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus uniformly generates microbubbles having a size in micrometers in an etching bath by using a bubble generating filter. Therefore, the problems of the prior art (i.e., the increase in size due to bubble bonding, the initiation of eddy currents in the etching bath and the distortion of the glass due to eddy currents) can be avoided in advance. In addition, the glass is subjected to stable and uniform etching by microbubbles.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the <RTI

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the similar numbering of the similar elements and the description of the same elements will not be repeated.

Fig. 1 shows the structure of a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bubble generator for the glass etching apparatus includes a gas feed pipe 100, a plurality of orifice holders 200, and a plurality of bubble generation filters 300.

The gas feed pipe 100 is formed into a hollow cylindrical pipe type, and the gas feed pipe 100 is installed under an etching tank (not shown) containing hydrofluoric acid (HF), and the gas is Feed tube 100 provides a plurality of holes 110 thereon The surface is used to discharge the gas that is fed.

The gas fed into the gas feed pipe 100 contains nitrogen or clean dry air (CDA). When a storage box (not shown) for stacking a plurality of glasses is introduced into the etching bath, the gas is fed into the gas feed tube 100 by a gas injection portion 120 formed at an opposite end of the gas feed tube 100. in. For this end, each of the gas injection portions 120 is coupled to a separate gas feed line 500 that is fed with nitrogen or CDA from a gas feed source (not shown).

The gas feed tube 100 is preferably made of an elastomeric material, for example, a polymer based material such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) so that the gas feed tube 100 is not impacted externally or Damaged during the manufacturing process of the etching bath.

In addition, the gas feed tube 100 can be sized according to the size of the etching bath, and the number of the holes 110 and the spacing between the holes 110 can also be adjusted according to the volume of the feed gas.

Figure 2 shows a structure in which a plurality of gas feed lines are secured to a pair of frames in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

At least two gas feed tubes 100 can be mounted below the etched tank as needed. In this aspect, as shown in FIG. 2, the gas injection portion 120 formed at the opposite ends of each of the gas feed pipes 100 is preferably fixedly coupled to the pair of frames 400. In this manner, when the gas injection portions 120 of the gas feed pipes 100 are fixedly coupled to the pair of frames 400, the gas feed pipes 100 can be quickly installed in the etching grooves or self-etching grooves. Separation. In detail, when the pair of frames 400 are mounted in the etching groove, All of the gas feed tubes 100 can be quickly installed in the etch bath. In contrast, when the pair of frames 400 are separated from the etching bath, all of the gas feed tubes 100 can be quickly separated from the etching bath.

As described above, when the gas feed tubes 100 are secured by the pair of frames 400, the frames 400 provide therein a plurality of chambers 410 that are coupled to the gas feed tubes. a gas injection portion 120 at the opposite end of 100 to enable gas to be fed into the gas feed tubes 100, and each of the frames 400 provides at least one hole 420 in an outer surface of each of the frames 400, the outer surface It is connected to a gas feed line 500. Thus, in this configuration, the gas feed tubes 100 are secured by the pair of frames 400, and the gas system stored in the gas feed source is passed through the gas feed lines 500 and the holes 420. The chambers 410 formed in the frame 400 are fed. The gas system introduced into the chambers 410 is fed to the gas feed pipes 100 by the gas injection portions 120.

The orifice holders 200 are fixedly inserted into the holes 110 of each of the gas feed tubes. In detail, each of the orifice holders 200 is fixed by inserting and welding a lower portion thereof into a hole 110 of the gas feed tube to a depth of about 3 mm. Obviously, the orifice holder 200 can be forcibly placed or screwed onto the bore 110 of the gas feed tube. In this manner, the method of coupling the orifice mount 200 to the bore 110 of the gas feed tube can be a varied choice.

Fig. 3 shows the detailed structure of an orifice holder and a bubble generating filter in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, a fine hole 210 connected to the hole 110 of the gas feed pipe is provided in the orifice seat 200. Therefore, the gas is fed The nitrogen gas or CDA of the feed pipe 100 is introduced into the pores 210 of the orifice holder 200. The pores 210 are preferably formed to have a diameter of 0.1 mm to 10 mm. However, the diameter of the pores may vary as needed.

The bubble generating filter 300 is coupled to an upper surface of the orifice holder 200, and bubbles for glass etching are generated in the etching bath. In particular, the bubble generating filter 300 is made of a material having a pore size of a micro unit, such as polyethylene (PE) having a pore size of 0.1 μm to 100 μm. Therefore, when the bubble generating filter 300 is coupled to the upper surface of the orifice holder 200, the gas system introduced into the pores 210 of the orifice holder 200 passes through the bubble generating filter 300 having a pore size of 0.1 μm to 100 μm, and It is discharged to an etch bath containing HF. Thereby, countless microbubbles are generated in the etching bath containing HF, and the surface of the glass is etched by the microbubbles.

Since the bubbles generated in the etching bath are generated by the bubble generating filter 300 having a pore size of a micro unit, each of the bubbles has an extremely small size in units of micrometers. Therefore, the problems of the prior art (i.e., the increase in size due to bubble bonding, the initiation of eddy currents in the etching bath and the distortion of the glass due to eddy currents) can be avoided in advance. In addition, the glass is subjected to stable and uniform etching by microbubbles.

Fig. 4 shows a plurality of cavities formed in an upper portion of an orifice holder in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 4, a cavity 220 is formed in the upper portion of the orifice holder 200 to diffuse the gas introduced through each of the pores 210. The cavity 220 is spatially connected to the pore 210. When the bubble generation filter 300 is When coupled to the orifice holder 200, the upper surface of the cavity 220 is covered by the bubble generating filter 300.

Therefore, the gas system passing through the narrow pores 210 and introduced into the relatively spacious cavity 220 is diffused in the cavity 220, and then the upper surface of the filter 300 is generated by the bubbles, so that the microbubbles can be continuously and throughout the The bubble generating filter 300 is surface-generated. In other words, the cavity 220 increases the contact area of the gas with the bubble generating filter 300 to cause the microbubbles to be more efficiently generated by the bubble generating filter 300.

The cavity 220 can be formed by various shapes, such as the funnel type of FIG. 4(a), the cylindrical type of FIG. 4(b), and the fourth (c) combination of a funnel and a cylinder having a wide cross-sectional area in the fine hole. type.

While the present invention has been shown and described with respect to the specific exemplary embodiments thereof, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art It is implemented within the scope of the invention as defined by the scope of the patent application.

100‧‧‧ gas feed pipe

110‧‧‧ hole

120‧‧‧ gas injection department

200‧‧‧ hole mouth

210‧‧‧Pore

220‧‧‧ Cavity

300‧‧‧ bubble generation filter

400‧‧‧Frame

410‧‧‧ chamber

420‧‧‧ holes

500‧‧‧ gas feed line

Fig. 1 shows the structure of a bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a structure in which a plurality of gas feed lines are secured to a pair of frames in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows the detailed structure of an orifice holder and a bubble generating filter in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates a plurality of cavities formed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In the upper part of the socket.

100‧‧‧ gas feed pipe

110‧‧‧ hole

120‧‧‧ gas injection department

200‧‧‧ hole mouth

300‧‧‧ bubble generation filter

500‧‧‧ gas feed line

Claims (4)

A bubble generator for a glass etching apparatus, comprising: a gas feed pipe installed under an etching groove and having a plurality of holes on an outer surface of the gas feed pipe to discharge the fed gas a plurality of orifice holders fixedly inserted into the holes of the gas feed tube and each of the orifice holders having pores communicating with the respective holes; and a plurality of bubble generating filters coupled to the respective orifice holders A bubble for glass etching is generated on the surface and in the etching bath; wherein each of the orifice holders includes a cavity in an upper portion of each of the orifice holders to diffuse a gas introduced through each of the pores. The bubble generator according to claim 1, wherein the pores formed in each of the orifice holders have a diameter of 0.1 mm to 10 mm. The bubble generator according to claim 1, wherein each of the bubble generating filters is made of polyethylene (PE) having a pore size of 0.1 μm to 100 μm. The bubble generator of claim 1, wherein the cavity is in communication with each of the pores, and when the bubble generating filter is coupled to each of the orifice holders, one of the upper surfaces of the cavity is each The bubble generation filter is covered.