Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit – System includes a load supported by a conveyor portion which...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-28
2001-11-27
Bidwell, James R. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit
System includes a load supported by a conveyor portion which...
C198S346100, C414S222070
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321898
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a display panel transporting apparatus and a display panel transporting unit used in a process of manufacturing a display panel such as a liquid-crystal panel, and in particular, to a display panel transporting apparatus and a display panel transporting unit in which a display panel is moved from a first cassette in which the display panel is housed to a second cassette.
Description of the Prior Art
In general, a display panel is employed as an output display unit of an electric appliance. Of such display panels, a liquid crystal display panel is particularly used as a display of various appliances such as personal computers and word processors due to its advantageous features, for example, low power consumption, a thin contour, light weight, and low power drive of the display.
A liquid crystal panel includes, as shown in a perspective view and a front view of
FIG. 1
, two glass substrates, i.e. a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate
1
and a color filter substrate
2
. Substrates
1
and
2
are fixed onto each other by a seal
3
with a gap of about 5 micrometers (&mgr;m) to 6 &mgr;m. The gap is filled with a liquid crystal. The panel includes a liquid crystal filling hole
4
, namely, seal
3
is not disposed in this region.
A liquid crystal panel of this kind is ordinarily produced through processes shown in FIG.
2
. First, a glass substrate having a large area is passed through a TFT substrate manufacturing process including a rinse process, a dry process, an alignment layer print process, a rubbing process, and a sealing process to produce TFT substrate
1
. On the other hand, another glass substrate of a large area is subjected to a color filter substrate fabricating process including a rinse process, a dry process, an alignment layer print process, a rubbing process, and a spacer distributing process to manufacture color filter substrate
2
.
Subsequently, substrates
1
and
2
are fixed onto each other in a process
7
.
The glass substrate obtained is cut, in a cutting process
8
, into a plurality of liquid crystal panels of display size, e.g., an appropriate size between 12-inch size to 15-inch size. Specifically, surfaces of substrates
1
and
2
are scribed by a diamond cutter and then are shocked to be separated into liquid crystal panels. Each panel is in the contour shown in FIG.
1
.
After the cutting process, the gap of the panel is filled with a liquid crystal material in a filling process
9
as follows. First, a plurality of liquid crystal panels P and a liquid crystal tray
11
filled with a liquid crystal material
10
is placed in a vacuum chamber
12
and then air is exhausted from chamber
12
as shown in FIG.
3
. When chamber
12
is at a sufficiently low pressure, a liquid crystal filling hole
4
of each panel P is placed in material
10
of plate
11
and then chamber
12
is set to an atmospheric pressure. Namely, panels P are placed in material
10
at a low pressure and then the pressure in chamber
12
is increased as above. Therefore, the gap of each panel P is completely filled with material
10
due to capillarity and a pressure difference between panel P and chamber
12
.
When the gap is completely filled with liquid crystal material
10
in process
9
, filling hole
4
of each panel P is sealed by a sealing process
13
. Process
13
includes a wiping process, an ultraviolet (UV) resin coating process, a UV ray radiation process, and the like. A polishing process, a polarizing plate fixing process, and an inspection process are then conducted to finally produce completed products of liquid crystal panels.
In the fabricating line of the processes above, a cassette for liquid panels is employed to store, to transport, and to process panels in cutting process
8
and subsequent processes. In general, the cassettes used are equal in an outer shape for the following reason. Although the liquid panels are of various sizes, when the outer size of cassettes are changed for each type of liquid crystal panels, hindrance may occur in the automation of the production. To mount panels having different sizes in a production line, a holder plate is employed to separate the panels of different sizes in the cassette before the cassette is installed in the line.
However, the liquid crystal panel manufacturing process of the prior art is attended with problems as follows.
As the utilization fields of these panels are increased, the size thereof is required to be increased and it is needed to decrease the gap to guarantee a wide angle of visual field and a high response such as a high display speed. The large-sized panel and the decreased gap size lead to the increase in time in the liquid filling process per unitary number of panels as compared with the other processes. For example, filling process
9
requires a period of time which is about four times to five times that of cutting process
8
or sealing process
13
. Consequently, it is necessary in the panel production line to reduce the time required for filling process
9
.
To improve efficiency in time of process
9
, it can be considered, for example, to increase the number of liquid crystal filling apparatuses, which are generally expensive, or to employ cassettes having a large outer size to resultantly increase the number of panels to be housed in each cassette. The idea above may reduce time used in process
9
, but may also influence the existing processes and the production line depending on cases. Moreover, this idea is not favorable because of the increase in production cost. Actually, it is necessary to improve the production efficiency in the production processes and the production line as a total.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention, which has been devised to remove the problem of the prior art, to provide a display panel transporting apparatus and a display panel transporting unit capable of improving efficiency of production processes and a production line to produce various types of display panels with a large panel size and a reduced gap in one production line even in a display panel production line in which the line is automated and each process uses a standardized cassette.
To achieve the object in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display panel transporting apparatus comprising a loaded cassette supply mechanism for supplying a cassette in which display panels are housed in a longitudinal direction, an empty cassette discharge mechanism for discharging an empty cassette from which display panels are removed, an empty cassette supply mechanism for supplying an empty cassette to which display panels are to be housed, a loaded discharge supply mechanism for discharging a cassette in which display panels are housed, and a display panel transporting unit. The display panel transporting unit includes a removal station disposed at a relay point between the loaded cassette supply mechanism and the empty cassette discharge mechanism for removing display panels and a housing station disposed at the empty cassette supply mechanism and the real cassette discharge mechanism for housing display panels in an empty cassette.
When the display panel transporting apparatus is installed in the vicinity of, for example, a liquid crystal filling apparatus used in a liquid crystal filling process of a liquid crystal panel production line, in an operation to transport a cassette loaded with liquid crystal panels from a cutting process to the filling process, the number of panels which are removed from a first cassette ejected from the cutting process and which are housed in a second cassette to be fed to the filling process can be automatically increased. In an operation to transport a cassette from the filling process to a sealing process, the number of panels which are removed from the second cassette undergone the filling process and which are housed in a third cassette to be fed to the sealing process can be automatically decreased. Additionally, since
Hara Masakatsu
Inoue Yoshiyasu
Bidwell James R.
McGinn & Gibb PLLC
NEC Corporation
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