Coating apparatus – Gas or vapor deposition – Running length work
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-04
2001-12-11
Lund, Jeffrie R. (Department: 1763)
Coating apparatus
Gas or vapor deposition
Running length work
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328806
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The present invention pertains to a device for treating a band-shaped substrate with a gas, wherein the device contains a source for the gas and a pattern carrier that revolves with the same circumferential speed as the substrate, with the side of the pattern carrier that faces away from the substrate being connected to the gas source, and with the pattern carrier containing openings for achieving a defined supply of the gas to the desired regions of the substrate.
Devices of the aforementioned type can serve different purposes. For example, it is possible to carry out a chemical reaction on the substrate by means of the supplied gas or to produce a coating on the substrate. Devices which operate with a gas that is usually referred to as a vapor that condensates on the substrate are broadly utilized. These devices are usually referred to as vaporization devices. Such a vaporization device is, for example, the object of DE 197 34 477. This known vaporization device serves for vapor-depositing oil onto a film to be metallized such that in an ensuing processing step no metal coating is produced within the oil-vaporized regions. In the vaporization device described in this publication, the pattern carrier is realized in the form of a screen cylinder that is driven in a revolving fashion. A stationary oil nozzle that is connected to a vaporization vessel is arranged within this screen cylinder. During the operation of the vaporization device, vapor flows from the oil nozzle against the foil to be coated, namely through the screen cylinder that is in the form of a pattern carrier with the vapor producing a pattern that corresponds to the openings in the pattern carrier on the foil.
This known treatment device, which is in the form of a vaporization device, has a relatively complicated design. Since different patterns frequently need to be applied in the coating of substrates, it is necessary to exchange the respective screen cylinder that serves as the pattern carrier when the pattern needs to be changed. This screen cylinder is a relatively thick-walled and correspondingly heavy component that is particularly complicated to install and remove when processing wide foils, as well as costly with respect to its manufacture. Since one respective pattern carrier is required for each pattern to be produced, the high manufacturing costs represent a significant limitation to the use of treatment devices with such a pattern carrier.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable the production of different patterns as inexpensively as possible for use in the treatment device of the initially mentioned type.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other objects of the present invention can be attained by shaping the pattern carrier in the form of an endless pattern band, and guiding the pattern carrier in revolving fashion by means of several deflection rollers.
A pattern band according to the present invention can be manufactured quite cost-efficiently, as it is formed of a thin-walled band that contains openings. Consequently, various pattern bands for producing different patterns can be provided relatively inexpensively. In addition, the utilization of band-shaped pattern carriers makes it possible to inexpensively adapt the pattern carriers to the desired pattern by producing the desired openings or sealing existing openings with a coating. The pattern band, according to the invention, is suitable for vector graphics (lines) or screen images (pixel). If the treatment device, according to the invention, is used as a coating device, it is particularly advantageous that ultra-thin pattern applications can be achieved with the gas that forms the coating medium, namely while achieving a high resolution, because the openings in the pattern band that serve for the passage of the gas can have very small dimensions. In addition, a rapid adjustment to different pattern repeat lengths and a high processing speed can be attained.
The treatment device, according to the invention, is not limited to the vapor-depositing of oil onto a band-shaped substrate. Instead of using oil in vapor form, it is, for example, also possible to apply a coating medium onto a substrate that either condenses and hardens on the substrate or already reacts with the substrate surface in the gaseous phase, e.g., in order to cause a discoloration of the substrate within certain regions. In this case, the substrate surface may be pretreated or coated such that a targeted reaction of the condensating medium and the substrate surface takes place. The substrate may consist of various types of band-shaped materials, in particular plastic foils or paper.
It is particularly advantageous if the pattern band is formed by a screen foil and provided with a cover for producing regions that are not treated with the gas on the substrate with the substrate directly adjoining the cover during the treatment. Such a pattern band can be manufactured in a particularly cost-efficient fashion. The cover may, for example, be produced by means of a coating. In this case, the screen foil can be initially covered over its entire surface, and openings can be produced at only the desired locations by means of laser light, namely by removing the coating at these locations. Another advantage of the cover can be seen in the fact that the substrate has a shorter distance from the openings in the pattern carrier. Consequently, the pressure of the emerging gas is able to equalize in the gap between the substrate and the pattern carrier that is laterally limited by the cover before the gas completely condensates or reacts on the substrate surface.
When producing a continuous strip-shaped pattern on a substrate, it is advantageous that, according to another additional development of the invention, the pattern band contains at least one opening over its entire circumference with support webs extending through this opening in order to hold together the regions of the pattern band which lie to both sides of the opening.
The support webs do not impair the application of gas within the regions covered by the support webs if they are recessed with respect to the surface of the pattern band on the side of the substrate.
When applying a separating agent onto a substrate or, for example, vapor-depositing a metal on the substrate, the gas source advantageously consists of a vaporization vessel that is heated by an electric heater.
It would be possible in principle to arrange the gas source of the pattern carrier laterally analogous to the vaporization device described in the initially mentioned DE 197 34 477, and to convey the gas underneath the pattern band by means of a line. However, the construction expenditures for the treatment device can be maintained particularly low if the pattern band extends around the gas source, in accordance with one advantageous embodiment of the invention.
Another embodiment of the invention, which is very simple with respect to construction consideration, consists of providing four deflection rollers for deflecting the pattern band. The axes of these four deflection rollers lie in the corners of an imaginary rectangle with the gas source and its outlet being arranged directly underneath the pattern band region situated between the two upper deflection rollers.
An exchange of the pattern band can be carried out very easily without having to remove other components if the substrate is linearly guided on the pattern band between two of the deflection rollers, namely such that it contacts the pattern band region extending between these two deflection rollers.
The pattern band adjoins the substrate in particularly solid fashion such that patterns with sharp contours are produced if the substrate is guided over the underside of a coating roller and the pattern band adjoins the substrate that, in turn, adjoins the coating roller between its two upper deflection rollers.
A condensation of the gas on the pattern band can be easily prevented by guiding the pattern band along a heater. In order to prevent a con
Applied Films GmbH & Co. KG
Lund Jeffrie R.
MacArthur Sylvia R.
Smith , Gambrell & Russell, LLP
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