Chemistry: electrical and wave energy – Apparatus – Electrolytic
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-11
2001-01-16
Valentine, Donald R. (Department: 1741)
Chemistry: electrical and wave energy
Apparatus
Electrolytic
C204S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174418
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic plating apparatus for continuously plating a planar article such as a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to effect plating onto a plurality of planar articles, the articles are mounted one by one to a frame member connected to a cathode by a fastener. The articles are removed one by one after the completion of plating. This method is time-consuming, which leads to the reduction in efficiency of the plating work.
Therefore, recently, to avoid the fastening work of the articles to the frame member, a method is proposed in which the articles are continuously and individually fed into a plating bath one by one, and are shifted in the horizontal direction in the plating bath to thereby continuously perform the plating work with a high efficiency.
However, the articles to be plated have a variety of sizes. In order to uniformly plate any one of the variety of articles, it is necessary to finely adjust the plating conditions such as an arrangement of electrodes, an adjustment of a plating liquid surface, a current density and the like. This becomes a very difficult problem.
Accordingly, the present inventors try to stand the planar articles in a vertical direction in advance, continuously feed the articles to the plating bath through slits formed liquid-tightly on the wall of the plating liquid bath to perform the continuous plating work and to discharge the articles through the slits formed liquid-tightly on the opposite side in order to solve the above-noted defect.
In order to deliver the planar articles in the vertical direction within the plating liquid bath, as shown in
FIG. 10
, a lower edge of each planar article
3
held in the vertical position is laid on a rail
2
having a V-shaped cross-section extending in a vertical direction to the paper in a central bottom portion of the plating liquid bath
1
. The article
3
is moved by drive rollers
4
′ while both surfaces thereof are being clamped by a plurality of vertical rotational rollers shown typically at
4
including the drive rollers
4
′. Incidentally, in
FIG. 10
, reference numeral
5
denotes an anode, numeral
6
denotes a shield plate for preventing the turbulence of the current, and numeral
7
denotes a cylinder for moving the electrode
5
up and down.
FIG. 11
is a side elevational view mainly showing a part of the rotational rollers
4
. Out of the plurality of rotational rollers
4
, for example, a central roller thereof is forcibly rotated as the drive roller
4
′ so that the planar articles
3
are delivered within the plating liquid bath in order to be plated by utilizing its frictional force.
However, the number of kinds of the planar articles which is represented by the printed circuit board is large, and the sizes are different from each other. Accordingly, in the case where the articles are held in the vertical direction, the heights thereof are different from each other. Accordingly, even if the movement of the drive rollers
4
′ and the rotational rollers
4
are pursuant to the most standard heights, in some cases, the feed of the articles may not be performed smoothly relative to the articles having the different heights. Also, it is necessary to cause the current as the cathode to flow between the cathode of the articles and the anode within the plating liquid bath, if the contact is not well performed, the plating is worse. Furthermore, the factor of the automatic continuous plating apparatus is to readily perform the maintenance or repair.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, in a continuous plating apparatus in which a planar article, to be plated, laid vertically on a rail provided within the plating liquid bath is delivered while being clamped on both sides by vertical rotating rollers including a drive roller disposed on both sides along the rail, it is characterized in that an upper end of the drive roller is arranged to be slanted forwardly. It is preferable that the slant of the drive roller is in the range of 1 to 10°.
The planar article to be plated is connected to a cathode. A part of the above-described rotational rollers and drive rollers is an electric feeding roller. The cathode is formed by the contact between the electric feeding roller and the article to be plated. The current is allowed to flow between the cathode and an anode within the plating bath so as to perform plating work on the surface of the article. In this case, in order to make better the contact between the electric feeding roller and the article to be plated, it is preferable that a pressure in a direction to depress the electric feeding roller to the article to be plated clamping surfaces is supplied to the electric feeding roller. Also, the surface of the electric feeding roller is made of film material that is harder than the subject plated film. In addition, a means for peeling the plated layer adhered to the electric feeding roller surface is brought into contact with the surface of the electric feeding roller. An unnecessary plate is scraped out of the surface of the electric feeding roller. Thus, the adverse affect of the plated surface of the article to be plated is obviated. The shape of the rotational rollers or the drive rollers may be a single cylindrical shape. However, it is possible to take a discontinuous cylindrical shape or a discontinuous flat tablet shape. The positions of the roller elements in each roller are shifted in the adjacent rollers whereby it is possible to broaden the surface area of the planar article when the latter is plated. Thus, it is possible to obtain a more stable plated film.
In the automatic plating apparatus, a single long rail is mounted over a full length of the plating bath. On both sides of the rail, a number of shafts that may be rotatable and extend vertically with feeding rollers fixed thereto are provided. In addition, these feeding rollers and the shafts are disposed in the plating liquid. Accordingly, it is difficult to perform the maintenance work therefor. In case of breakdown of these components, it is necessary to remove the plating liquid from the plating bath for the maintenance work and to again fill the plating liquid into the plating bath after the completion of the maintenance work. Thus, there is a problem that it takes a long time to perform the maintenance or repair work.
Therefore, according to the present invention, the rail within the plating bath is provided by dividing into a suitable length, and rotatable shafts to which feeding rollers including the drive rollers provided on both sides of the divided rails are fixed may be elevated and lowered together with the divided rails. Thus, the above-described problem is solved. Then, in order to avoid the scratch of the article to be plated; each divided rail has a convexly curved upper edge, which contacts first with the planar article being conveyed. Thus, it is possible to obviate the fear that the article to be plated to be delivered is scratched and stepped at the convexly curved upper edge of the forward divided rail of the joints between the divided rails. This is available for the smooth delivery as well as with the slant of the drive rollers. Also, the joints of the divided rails are stepped up and down so that the adjacent divided rails support each other to eliminate the steps in the delivery direction.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5226964 (1993-07-01), Meuche
patent: 5529625 (1996-06-01), Knudsen
patent: 5772765 (1998-06-01), Hosten
patent: 5827410 (1998-10-01), Hosten
patent: 10-273799 (1998-10-01), None
Flynn ,Thiel, Boutell & Tanis, P.C.
Valentine Donald R.
LandOfFree
Continuous plating apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Continuous plating apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Continuous plating apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2555809