TWI531671B - A cooling system with a plate cooling function - Google Patents

Description

Coating system with tray cooling function

The present invention relates to a coating system, and more particularly to a coating system having a tray cooling function.

At present, the application of vacuum coating technology is becoming more and more extensive. The 3C industry is coated with electro-magnetic interference (EMI) coating on the casing of portable 3C electronic products, or even optically coated on transparent lenses. The optical lens industry of film) must use vacuum sputtering equipment; among them, the continuous multi-chamber coating system has high speed, high output, excellent plating quality and large The advantages of reducing the production cost and the like have been widely applied to the process of a large number of coatings. The continuous continuous multi-cavity coating system sequentially comprises at least three regions: a feed cavity region, a coating cavity region, and a discharge cavity region; wherein a plate to be plated is placed in a transfer A carrier on the unit is transported between the cavity or the cavity, and a discharge finished product is printed on the surface of one of the objects to be plated.

Referring to Figure 1, the new patent case of Taiwan M258101 Approved Announcement No. discloses an automated submersible internal recirculation device 1 that is applied to a company. The continuation multi-cavity coating system 14 includes a front lifting device 11 , a rear lifting device 12 , and a return mechanism module 13 disposed under the continuous multi-cavity coating system 14 . The front lifting device 11 and the rear lifting device 12 are respectively disposed at an input end 141 and an output end 142 of the continuous coating system 14; wherein the front lifting device 11 and the continuous multi-cavity coating system 14 The rear lifting device 12 defines a closed loop together with the reflow mechanism module 13.

When a carrier disk 10 carrying a material to be plated (not shown) is After performing a coating process in the continuous multi-cavity coating system 14, it is moved from the output end 142 of the continuous coating system 14 to the rear lifting device 12, and after the object to be plated is removed, The lifting device 12 drives the carrier plate 10 downward through a pressure cylinder, and the carrier plate 10 is driven to move toward the front lifting device 11 via the return mechanism module 13 to be positioned on the front lifting device 11 After a new object to be plated is placed on the disk 10, the front lifting device 11 is displaced upward by a pressure cylinder to re-import the carrier plate 10 into the input end 141 of the continuous coating system 14.

However, the carrier tray 10 on which the object to be plated is placed is in the continuous type When the coating process is performed in the multi-cavity coating system 14, a large amount of high-temperature heat energy is accumulated due to a plasma environment inside. Therefore, once the carrier tray 10 repeatedly passes through the closed loop, and the high temperature heat accumulates a large amount of high-temperature heat energy in the environment, the temperature of the carrier tray 10 and the object to be plated thereof is likely to be too high. Therefore, the quality of the coating is damaged.

According to the above description, the structure of the coating system is improved to solve The problem of heat dissipation in the coating system is a problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coating system having a tray cooling function.

Therefore, the coating system of the invention having a tray cooling function comprises: a carrier, a coating station, a reflow device, and a cooling device. The carrier includes a disk body and a phase change substance, and a sealed space for filling the phase change substance is formed inside the disk body. The coating station includes an inlet end and an outlet end. The carrier can enter the coating station from the inlet end to perform a coating process, and the outlet end moves out of the coating station. The reflow device includes a transfer unit disposed outside the coating station, the transfer unit moving the carrier along a transport path from the exit end of the coating station toward the inlet end of the coating station. The cooling device is disposed on the transport path of the transport unit. In the present invention, the phase change material is capable of absorbing a thermal energy accumulated in the coating process from the disk body as a latent heat required for at least a portion of the phase change material to be melted from a solid state into a liquid state. And the phase change substance has a melting point of between 18 ° C and 95 ° C; the cooling device is capable of absorbing the thermal energy from the phase change material such that at least a portion of the phase change material solidifies from the liquid state into the solid state.

The effect of the present invention is that by utilizing the improvement of the carrier, the latent heat of fusion required by the phase change material itself is utilized to absorb the heat energy from the disk body, and the high heat accumulated on the carrier during the coating process can be carried away. Warm energy to improve the quality of the coating, and the use of the cooling device to absorb from the phase change substance This heat energy will solve the heat dissipation problem in the coating system.

2‧‧‧Package

21‧‧‧ disk body

22‧‧‧ phase change substances

3‧‧‧ coating station

301‧‧‧ entrance end

302‧‧‧export end

31‧‧‧Loading cavity

32‧‧‧Sputter chamber

33‧‧‧Unloading the cavity

34‧‧‧Transportation agency

341‧‧‧Servo motor

342‧‧‧Roller

4‧‧‧Reflow device

41‧‧‧Transfer unit

411‧‧‧ bracket

412‧‧‧Transfer components

413‧‧‧Transport module

414‧‧‧Servo motor

42‧‧‧Sensor unit

43‧‧‧Front lift unit

44‧‧‧ rear lift unit

5‧‧‧Cooling device

51‧‧‧heat plate

511‧‧‧ entrance

512‧‧‧Export

513‧‧‧Cooling channel

52‧‧‧ drive parts

53‧‧‧fan

54‧‧‧Cooling liquid

X‧‧‧Orientation

Other features and effects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a front elevational view showing an automated submersible internal reflow device disclosed in Taiwan No. M258101 Approved Publication No.; 2 is a top plan view showing a first embodiment of the coating system with tray cooling according to the present invention; and FIG. 3 is a front cross-sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 2, illustrating a first embodiment of the first embodiment. a coating station, a reflow device, a cooling device, a front lifting unit, and a rear lifting unit; FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a carrier of the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is a top plan view illustrating the A reflow device and a cooling device of the first embodiment; FIG. 6 is a front elevational view showing a state of use of the carrier of the first embodiment in contact with the cooling device; FIG. 7 is a temperature versus time relationship; FIG. 8 is a graph showing the temperature change of the carrier in the first embodiment of the cooling device during a cooling process; FIG. 8 is a graph showing the solidification ratio versus time, illustrating the carrier of the first embodiment. The cooling device performs a change in the solidification ratio of the cooling process; FIG. 9 is a perspective assembled view illustrating a reflow device and a cooling device of a second embodiment of the coating system with tray cooling according to the present invention; FIG. 10 is a temperature a relationship diagram of time, illustrating a temperature change of the tray of the second embodiment in a cooling process performed by the cooling device; Figure 11 is a graph showing the solidification ratio versus time, illustrating the change in the solidification ratio of the carrier of the second embodiment to the cooling device during the cooling process.

Before the present invention is described in detail, it should be noted that in the following description, similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Referring to Figures 2, 3 and 4, a first embodiment of a coating system having a tray cooling function comprises a carrier 2, a coating station 3, a reflow device 4, and a cooling device 5.

The carrier 2 includes a disk body 21 and a phase change substance 22, and a sealed space 20 in which the phase change substance 22 is filled is formed inside the disk body 21. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the disk body 21 is made of an aluminum alloy; the phase change material 22 can be absorbed from the disk body 21 in a coating process in the coating station 3. The accumulated thermal energy is used as at least a portion of the latent heat required to melt the phase change material 22 from a solid state into a liquid state, and the phase change substance 22 has a melting point of between 18 ° C and 95 ° C; in addition, the cooling device 5 The thermal energy can be absorbed from the phase change material 22 such that at least a portion of the phase change material 22 solidifies from the liquid to the solid state.

It is worth noting that the disk body 21 is deformed in order to avoid volume expansion of the phase change material 22 upon melting. Therefore, the sealed space 20 of the disk body 21 needs to be greater than or equal to the volume occupied by the phase change material 22 in the liquid state. It should be added here that the heat storage capacity of the phase change substance 22 in an endothermic process is Between 134 kJ/kg and 250 kJ/kg, and the endothermic process includes a phase transition from the solid state to the liquid state. The phase change substance 22 is one selected from the group consisting of an organic material and an inorganic material.

More specifically, the organic material is a hydrocarbon, and the hydrocarbon is an alkane selected from C ₁₆ to C ₅₀ , such as a wax of a C ₃₀ to C ₅₀ alkane (wax) ). In general, the phase change material 22 (i.e., the aforementioned C ₁₆ to C ₅₀ alkane) 22 occupies 80% to 90% of the sealed space 20 in the solid state.

Further, the inorganic material is selected from a composition containing a crystalline hydrates (M _n H ₂ O) and an additive, or a molten salt. Specifically, the crystalline hydrated salt may be sodium sulfate decahydrate (Na ₂ SO ₄ ‧10H ₂ O), sodium acetate trihydrate (C ₂ H ₃ NaO ₂ ‧3H ₂ O), or ammonium aluminum sulfate dodecahydrate (NH ₄ Al(SO ₄ ) ₂ ‧12H ₂ O); the molten salt may be sodium nitrate (NaNO ₃ ) or potassium nitrate (KNO ₃ ). It should be additionally noted here that the additive in the composition is used to reduce the amount of volume change generated by the crystalline hydrated salt during the melting process.

The coating station 3 includes an inlet end 301 and an outlet end 302. The carrier 2 carries a material to be plated (not shown), and can enter the coating station 3 from the inlet end 301 to perform the coating process, and is removed from the coating station 3 by the outlet end 302. More specifically, the coating station 3 sequentially has a loading cavity 31 including the inlet end 301, a sputtering cavity 32 for performing the coating process, and a sputtering cavity 302 including the outlet end 302. The cavity 33 is unloaded.

It should be noted in detail that the carrier 2 is in the sputtering chamber. The high-temperature plasma formed in the coating process in 32 accumulates a large amount of high-temperature heat energy on the object to be plated and the carrier 2 . This high temperature thermal energy is directly transferred by the phase change substance 22 via the disk body 21 to the phase change material 22 as the heat required for the phase change material 22 in the endothermic process. Since the endothermic process includes the phase change from the solid state to the liquid state, and the phase change substance 22 needs to absorb a large amount of latent heat to perform a phase change, the heat absorbed by the endothermic process will be much larger than that of the disk body 21. The heat absorbed. Therefore, the carrier 2 of the first embodiment of the present invention itself has a function of cooling; that is, the high-temperature thermal energy of the disk body 21 of the carrier 2 has been absorbed by the phase change substance 22 first. Thereby, the disk body 21 itself and the object to be plated achieve the effect of cooling. However, the phase change material 22 needs to be cooled, and the carrier 2 can be recycled into the coating station 3 for the next coating process, as described in detail below.

Referring again to FIG. 3 and referring to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the reflow device 4 includes a transfer unit 41, a sensing unit 42, a front lift unit 43, and a rear lift unit 44. The transfer unit 41 is disposed outside the coating station 3 to move the carrier 2 along a transport path from the exit end 302 of the coating station 3 toward the inlet end 301 of the coating station 3. The transport unit 41 has a bracket 411 and a transport assembly 412 mounted to the bracket 411. The transport assembly 412 has a pair of spaced apart transport modules 413 and a servo motor 414 that drives the transport modules 413. The transport unit 41 supports and moves the carrier 2 by the pair of transport modules 413, and the cooling device 5 is located between the pair of transport modules 413. The sensing unit 42 is disposed on the bracket 411 of the transmitting unit 41 . In the first embodiment of the present invention, the pair of transport modules 413 are respectively a circulating conveyor belt; the sensing unit 42 is a proximity switch capable of detecting and positioning.

In the first embodiment of the invention, the reflow device 4 and the Cooling devices 5 are disposed below the coating station 3 (as shown in Figure 3). The front lifting unit 43 and the rear lifting unit 44 of the reflow device 4 are respectively disposed adjacent to a front end and a rear end of the conveying unit 41. The front lifting unit 43 is adjacent to the inlet end 301 of the loading chamber 31 of the coating station 3, and the tray 2 removed from the front end of the conveying unit 41 is introduced into the inlet end 301 of the coating station 3. The rear lifting unit 44 is adjacent to the outlet end 302 of the unloading chamber 33 of the coating station 3, and the carrier 2 removed from the outlet end 302 of the coating station 3 is introduced into the rear end of the conveying unit 41. It should be noted that the first embodiment of the present invention is described by taking the reflow device 4 and the cooling device 5 both under the coating station 3; however, those skilled in the art should know The reflow device 4 and the cooling device 5 are all disposed outside the coating station 3, and are not limited to the device below the coating station 3.

Referring again to Figures 5 and 6, the cooling device 5 is disposed in the transfer The transmission path of the unit 41 is mounted on the bracket 411 and has a heat dissipation plate 51 and a driving member 52 for driving the heat dissipation plate 51 to be displaced up and down. The heat sink 51 has an inlet 511, an outlet 512, and a cooling passage 513 extending from the inlet 511 to the outlet 512 for supplying a cooling fluid 54. The cooling fluid 54 can be comprised of pure water, ammonia, methanol, acetone, heptane, or a combination thereof.

Referring again to Figures 3, 5 and 6, specifically, carrying the The high temperature heat energy accumulated on the disk body 21 and the object to be plated by the carrier 2 of the object to be plated (not shown) when the sputtering chamber 32 of the coating station 3 performs the coating process is directly The phase change material 22 absorbs and melts the phase change material 22 into the liquid. After the coating process is completed, the carrier 2 is sequentially transferred to the outlet end 302 of the unloading cavity 33 and the rear lifting unit 44 through a conveying mechanism 34 inside the coating station 3, so that the carrier 2 is The object to be plated on is removed. The carrier 2 after the surface has been emptied is subsequently introduced into the transport path of the transport unit 41 from the rear end of the transport unit 41 of the reflow device 4 through the rear elevating unit 44 to continue the transport via the reflow device 4. Assembly 412 is delivered to the cooling device 5. When the carrier 2 is transferred to the heat dissipation plate 51 of the cooling device 5 and adjacent to the sensing unit 42, the sensing unit 42 can generate a signal to control the servo motor 414 to stop rotating, and the cooling device 5 The driving member 52 drives the heat dissipation plate 51 to be displaced upward to contact the carrier 2, and the cooling device 5 performs a cooling process on the phase change substance 22 in the carrier 2 to make at least a portion of the phase change substance 22 The liquid is solidified into the solid state. After the cooling process is completed, the driving member 52 drives the heat dissipation plate 51 to move downward to away from the carrier 2, and the servo motor 414 re-rotates to drive the pair of conveying modules 413 to drive the carrier 2 away from the cooling. The device 5 is configured to sequentially transport the carrier 2 along the transport path to the front end of the transport unit 41 and the front lift unit 43 to place a new object to be plated on the cleaned carrier 2 (not shown), the inlet end 301 of the loading chamber 31 introduced into the coating station 3 is re-transferred into the sputtering chamber 32 through the transfer mechanism 34 of the coating station 3 to perform the coating process. As shown in FIG. 2, the transport mechanism 34 can employ a servo motor 341. The majority of the scroll wheel 342 is driven. Since the transport mechanism 34 is a well-known technique and is not an improvement point of the present invention, it will not be described herein.

In order to further confirm that the heat dissipating plate 51 of the cooling device 5 used in the first embodiment of the present invention enables at least a portion of the phase change material 22 to solidify from the liquid state into the solid state, the disk of the carrier plate 2 is numerically simulated here. The temperature change diagram (see FIG. 7) and the solidification ratio change diagram of the body 21 and the phase change substance 22 during the cooling process (see FIG. 8). In the first embodiment of the present invention, when simulating FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, the phase change substance 22 is simulated under the condition of n- 18 alkane (C ₁₈ H ₃₈ ), and the initial temperature condition is set as the disk body 21 from the outlet. The calculation begins when the end 302 is removed. As is apparent from the simulation results of Fig. 7, it is confirmed that the heat radiating plate 51 also continues to absorb the heat energy from the disk body 21 and the phase change material 22, so that the temperature of the disk body 21 and the phase change material 22 gradually decreases. It can be seen from the simulation results shown in FIG. 8 that the phase change substance 22 gradually solidifies from the liquid state into the solid state, and completely solidifies into the solid state after about 13 minutes, so that the heat dissipation plate 51 does have a heat dissipation effect on the carrier disk 2. .

Referring to FIG. 9, a second embodiment of a coating system having a tray cooling function of the present invention is substantially the same as the first embodiment, except that the cooling device 5 has at least one disposed on the bracket 411. A fan 53 is provided in place of the heat sink 51 and the driving member 52 of the first embodiment. In the second embodiment of the present invention, six fans 53 are taken as an example for illustration.

In order to further confirm the fan 53 of the cooling device 5 used in the second embodiment of the present invention, at least a portion of the phase change substance 22 can be solidified from the liquid state into the solid state, and the carrier plate 2 is also numerically simulated here. of The temperature change diagram (see FIG. 10) and the solidification ratio change diagram (see FIG. 11) of the disk body 21 and the phase change substance 22 during the cooling process. As is apparent from the simulation results of Fig. 10, it was confirmed that the fan 53 can surely absorb the heat energy from the disk body 21 and the phase change substance 22, so that the temperature of the disk body 21 and the phase change substance 22 gradually decreases. From the simulation results shown in Fig. 11, it is known that the disk body 21 continues to transfer thermal energy to the phase change substance 22 in the first 3 to 4 minutes due to the higher temperature (~31 ° C) to continuously melt the phase change substance 22 to cause solidification. In addition to the decrease in ratio, the phase change material 22 of the second embodiment of the present invention gradually solidifies from the liquid state into the solid state after cooling for 4 minutes, and completely solidifies into the solid state after about 22 minutes, so the fan 53 does The carrier 2 produces a heat dissipation effect.

It is worth mentioning that the invention has the plating function of the tray cooling function. The membrane system can be batch, inline, index, cluster, or roll. In each coating system, the inlet end 301 and the outlet end 302 can be spaced apart or at the same location. In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , a continuous coating system is provided, and the inlet end 301 and the outlet end 302 are spaced apart from each other for illustrative purposes, but not limited thereto.

In summary, the present invention has a coating system for carrying a tray cooling function. By the improvement of the carrier 2 of each embodiment, the latent heat of fusion required by the phase change substance 22 itself is utilized to absorb the heat energy from the disk body 21, and can be carried away in the plating process to accumulate in the object to be plated. And the high temperature thermal energy on the disk body 21 to improve the coating quality; on the other hand, the disk body 21 of each embodiment and the phase change substance 22 in the disk body 21 of the embodiments are performed by the cooling device 5 of the embodiments. Cooling process to solve heat dissipation problems in the coating system Therefore, the object of the present invention can be achieved.

However, the above is only an embodiment of the present invention, when The scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, that is, the simple equivalent changes and modifications made by the present invention in the scope of the invention and the patent specification are still within the scope of the invention.

2‧‧‧Package

21‧‧‧ disk body

22‧‧‧ phase change substances

411‧‧‧ bracket

413‧‧‧Transport module

51‧‧‧heat plate

52‧‧‧ drive parts

Claims (10)

A coating system with a tray cooling function, comprising: a carrier tray comprising a disk body and a phase change substance, the disk body having a sealed space filled with the phase change substance; a coating station including an inlet And a discharge end, the tray can enter the coating station from the inlet end to perform a coating process, and the exit end is removed from the coating station; a reflow device includes a transfer unit disposed outside the coating station The transfer unit moves the carrier along a transport path from the exit end of the coating station toward the inlet end of the coating station; and a cooling device disposed on the transport path of the transfer unit; wherein the phase change The substance can absorb thermal energy accumulated in the coating process from the body of the disk as latent heat required for at least part of the phase change material to be melted into a liquid state from a solid state, and the melting point of the phase change substance is between 18 Between ° C and 95 ° C; and wherein the cooling device is capable of absorbing the thermal energy from the phase change material such that at least a portion of the phase change material solidifies from the liquid to the solid state. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 1, wherein the phase change substance is one selected from the group consisting of an organic material and an inorganic material, the organic material is a hydrocarbon, and the hydrocarbon The class is a monoalkane selected from C ₁₆ to C ₅₀ . The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 1, wherein the sealed space of the disk body needs to be greater than or equal to the volume occupied by the phase change material in the liquid state. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 1, wherein the conveying unit has a bracket and a conveying assembly mounted on the bracket, the conveying assembly has a pair of spaced conveying modules and a driving unit The servo motor of the transport module, the transport unit supports and moves the carrier by the pair of transport modules, and the cooling device is located between the pair of transport modules. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 4, wherein the pair of conveying modules is a circulating conveyor belt. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 4, wherein the reflow device further comprises a sensing unit, the sensing unit is disposed on the bracket of the transport unit, and the carrier is transferred to the cooling When the device is adjacent to the sensing unit, the sensing unit can generate a signal to control the servo motor to stop rotating, and the cooling device cools the phase change substance in the carrier. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 6, wherein the cooling device is mounted on the bracket, and has a heat dissipation plate and a driving member for driving the displacement of the heat dissipation plate, the heat dissipation plate has an inlet, An outlet, and a cooling passage extending from the inlet to the outlet for supplying a cooling fluid, the driving member driving the heat sink to be displaced upward to contact the cooling tray when the carrier is transferred to the heat sink Carrier. A coating system having a tray cooling function according to claim 6, wherein the cooling device is mounted to the bracket and has at least one fan. A coating system having a tray cooling function according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the cooling device is disposed below the coating station. The coating system with a tray cooling function according to claim 9, wherein the reflow device further comprises a front lifting unit and a rear lifting unit respectively adjacent to a front end and a rear end of the conveying unit, the front lifting and lowering The unit is adjacent to the inlet end of the coating station, and the tray removed from the conveying unit is introduced into the inlet end of the coating station, and the rear lifting unit is adjacent to the outlet end of the coating station, and the coating station is from the coating station. The carrier that is removed from the outlet end is introduced into the transfer unit.