Coating processes – Centrifugal force utilized
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-14
2003-04-29
Beck, Shrive P. (Department: 1762)
Coating processes
Centrifugal force utilized
C427S356000, C427S358000, C118S052000, C118S104000, C118S107000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06555162
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a coating layer forming apparatus for forming a coating layer on a surface to be coated of a part and a method to form the coating layer.
More particularly, it relates to a coating layer forming apparatus for obtaining a coating layer improved in dimensional accuracy of a sliding surface and a lubricating effect of a sliding surface of a piston etc. and a method to form a coated layer.
BACKGROUND ART
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 8-173893 discloses a coating layer forming apparatus and a method to form a coated layer. An explanation will be given of the coating device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 8-173893 with reference to FIG.
1
.
A coating device
100
shown in
FIG. 1
is provided with a coating container
101
above a base material
104
. The coating container
101
is filled with a coating solution
102
. Below the coating container
101
at the two ends of the base material
104
is arranged a shaft bearing support plate
103
for rotatably supporting the base material
104
. The shaft bearing support plate
103
was mounted on it a not shown drive motor. The drive motor makes the base material
104
rotate in the illustrated clockwise arrow direction R.
Since the coating solution
102
flows out from a nozzle of the coating container
101
, the coating surface
105
of the base material
104
made to rotate by the not illustrated drive motor is coated on its entire surface as if being wrapped by it along with the rotation. To level the thickness of coating solution
102
coated on the surface to be coated
105
, a blade
106
set to an inclined angle &thgr; of 135° with respect to a tangential direction of rotation of the base material
104
is provided at the surface to be coated
105
.
A front end
106
a
of the blade
106
is held at a clearance of 100 &mgr;m from the coating surface
105
. Further, the front end
106
a
of the blade
106
is formed into a stepped portion so as to become thinner. The blade
106
is fixed to a block
107
. The excess amount of the coating solution
102
coated on the base material
104
is collected by the blade
106
and made to flow downward via an inclined surface of the blade
106
while the not shown drive motor makes the base material
104
rotate five to six times at 200 rpm. A solution receiving mechanism
108
for accommodating excess amount of the coating solution flowing down from a rear end of the blade
106
is provided.
The coating device
100
is simply structured and operates by a simple principle, but suffers from the following disadvantages.
Since the coating solution
102
accommodated in the coating container
101
is made to drop from the nozzle of the coating container
101
on to the coating surface
105
of the rotating base material
104
by the free-fall dropping method, the amount dropped changes in accordance with the amount and viscosity of the coating solution
102
accommodated. Therefore, to prevent insufficient coating, a large amount of the coating solution
102
is made to drip on to the coating surface
105
of the substrate
104
and the excess amount of the coating solution is removed by the blade
106
and stored in the solution receiving mechanism
108
, but the amount of the coating solution
102
consumed becomes large—which is uneconomical.
If a large amount of coating solution
102
is deposited on the coating surface
105
of the substrate
104
, it cannot be fully removed by the blade
106
, a coating of a uniform thickness cannot be formed, and it becomes difficult to improve the quality of the coating by reducing the speed of the substrate
104
. If the speed of the substrate
104
is increased, the time for forming the coating becomes longer and the productivity is lowered.
The blade
106
is attached inclined so as to guide the excess coating solution
102
to the solution receiving mechanism
108
along its surface, the blade
106
is inclined to a blunt angle &thgr;=135° with the rotating coating surface
105
of the substrate
104
. That is, the blade
106
only scrapes off the excess coating solution
10
of the surface of the coating surface
105
of the substrate
104
. The coating solution
102
, however, has viscosity, so the amount of the coating solution removed by the blade
106
changes in accordance with its viscosity. The thickness of the remaining coating solution on the coating surface
105
also changes in accordance with the viscosity. In this way, the quality of the coating film has a large dependence on the viscosity.
As apparatuses other than the above coating layer forming apparatus, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-26081 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-147189 disclose a screen printing method to coat material on a piston or other members. In a screen printing apparatus, however, the thickness of coated layer of the coating material becomes thin. To form a coating layer obtaining a sufficient sliding function, repeated coating is necessary. Therefore, there are problems that multiple coating is required, the number of steps in the process is increased, an increase in the coating facilities becomes necessary, and that the process of production becomes expensive.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a coating layer forming apparatus able to minimize the amount of the coating solution coated and to improve the accuracy of thickness of the coating layer formed by the coating solution and a method of formation thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a coating layer forming apparatus able to improve the quality and the dimensional accuracy of the coated layer by a coating blade even if the coating accuracy for coating the coating solution on the coating surface of a part is insufficient and a method of formation thereof.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a coating layer forming apparatus able to improve the accuracy of thickness and quality of the coated layer regardless of the viscosity of the coating solution and a method of formation thereof.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a coating layer forming apparatus able to improve the production efficiency of the formation of the coating layer and minimize the amount of the coating solution used and a method of formation thereof. Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a coating layer forming apparatus able to simplify the configuration of the coating layer forming apparatus and a method of formation thereof.
The coating layer forming apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises; a support portion for supporting in attachable, detachable and alignmentable manner, two ends of a part on which a coating layer is to be formed; a rotatingly support device having a rotation drive portion for making said part supported by the support portion rotate; a feeder for feeding a coating solution to a surface to be coated of the part supported by the support portion; a layer forming device having a coating former inclined at an angle (&thgr;) of 30° to 70° with respect to a tangential direction of rotation of said coating solution fed from the feeder to the coating surface and having a front end held at a clearance of a coating solution thickness from the coating surface; and a coating removing means for removing the amount of the coating solution deposited on the coating former of the layer forming device from the coating former.
The coating layer forming apparatus of the present invention explained above coats the coating solution coated on the coating surface by the layer forming device, while making the outer diameter of the coating layer uniform. At this time, even if the coating solution is coated nonuniformly on the coating surface, since the coating solution accumulated as the excess coating solution at the triangularly shaped space between the coating former and the coating surface of the part flows
Satoh Masato
Takimoto Kouichi
Yasuda Kiyoshi
Beck Shrive P.
Crockford Kirsten A.
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
NOK Kluber Co., LTD
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