Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With work feeding or handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-30
2001-01-23
Sells, James (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With work feeding or handling means
C156S522000, C156S582000, C100S176000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176286
ABSTRACT:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film applying apparatus for applying a film to a surface of a substrate exemplified by a substrate for a printed circuit board or a glass substrate of a liquid crystal display device or a plasma display device by laminating rolls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a process for the manufacture of printed circuit boards used for electronic equipment such as computers, a laminated film consisting of a light-transmissible support film (a synthetic resin film usually represented by polyester), a photosensitive resin layer formed on the support film and a cover film covering the resin layer is applied onto a conductive surface layer of a substrate for a printed circuit board (substrate width being 610 mm usually and 650 mm at most) after the cover film is removed. And then a circuit pattern film is overlaid, and the photosensitive resin layer is exposed for a predetermined period of time via the circuit pattern film and the light-transmissible support film. Subsequently after the light-transmissible support film is removed, the exposed photosensitive resin layer is developed and an etching mask pattern is formed, and then an unnecessary portion of the conductive layer is removed by etching thereby a printed circuit board having circuit board having a predetermined circuit pattern is formed. Also in a process of forming a display cell onto a glass substrate of a liquid crystal display device or a plasma display device, a similar laminated film is applied thereto.
In some film applying apparatus for applying a laminated film as above described, after a cover film is removed by a film separation member, a continuous film wound on a film supply roll is guided to the leading end of a substrate being conveyed by a conveying means, with the photosensitive resin layer located on the substrate side, and after the continuous film is temporarily tacked to the leading end of the substrate by a tacking means movable toward and away from the substrate, the substrate is conveyed by a lamination roll while the film is pressed to the substrate. The application under pressure of the film to the substrate is achieved so that the length of the application of the film is substantially equal to the length of the substrate, and the supplied film is cut into the predetermined length by a film cutting means disposed on or adjacent to the film tacking means.
The film tacking means as disclosed in JP-B 4-9656 for example, is constituted by a main vacuum plate provided with a plurality of suction holes (grooves) for sucking a film on a surface, and a main body of a film tacking member of circular arc shape or triangular shape disposed to the leading end side in the film supply direction of the main vacuum plate, and the film tacking member as a whole is moved toward and away from the substrate so that the operation of film supply and tacking can be performed.
As another pressure bonding system, there is a system of continuous applying type where while a substrate is conveyed at regular intervals in sequence, a laminated film is supplied without cutting continuously along the conveyed substrate in parallel thereto, and both are sent between a pair of laminating rolls rotating and subjected to the thermal pressure bonding.
In the film applying apparatus of continuous applying type, since the laminated film is wound out from a film supply roll and a cover film is continuously separated and sent in the laminating roll direction, after the winding-out leading end portion of the laminated film in the state of the cover film being removed previously is grasped by a pinch roll usually disposed at the outlet side of the laminating roll via the guide roll and the laminating roll at the inlet side of the laminating roll, or after the winding-out leading end portion of the laminated film is temporarily tacked to the leading end of the leading end substrate by the above-mentioned tacking means, the applying work is started.
When the laminated film is pressure-bonded to the substrate by a pair of laminating rolls as above described, the laminating rolls are heated to the predetermined temperature (about 130° C.) by means of the induction heating or the like, and since the heating of the photosensitive resin layer in the laminated film and the thermal pressure bonding to the substrate are performed simultaneously, there is a problem that the laminated film in the applied state to the substrate is subjected to wrinkles, looseness or holding an air therein.
On the contrary, in JP-A 57-198693 or JP-B 2-61024, two-stage film applying method is proposed where in a laminator for a substrate of a printed circuit board, laminating rolls are constituted in two stages, and in the first stage, pressure bonding is performed at a lower temperature than the thermal pressure bonding temperature and preparatory bonding is performed, and at the second stage, pressure is applied at the thermal pressure bonding temperature and the bonding is completed.
Here, in recent years, in the case of a plasma display substrate for example, its size becomes very large being 700 mm×900 mm, 800 mm×1000 mm or the like, and corresponding to this, also touch length of the laminating roll (the axial length of the region pressing the substrate) naturally becomes as long as that exceeding 700 mm or 800 mm.
When the length (span) of the laminating roll is made large in such manner, also the diameter of the laminating roll becomes large.
The laminating roll is usually formed by applying rubber to the outer circumference of the metal roll, and when the film is applied to the substrate, the contact surface with the film is elastically deformed into a plane shape by the pushing-down force.
Here, in any of the case of the continuous applying and the case that the leading end of the film is applied to the substrate by the tacking member, the pair of laminating rolls are rotated and at the standby state to the position spaced from the substrate conveying plane at the “OPEN” state until the leading end of the substrate enters the pressure bonding position, and when the leading end of the substrate is conveyed into the pressure bonding position slightly exceeding the interaxis point of the pair of laminating rolls, the leading end of the substrate is grasped and the “CLOSE” state is produced and the pressure bonding is started.
This prevents that the laminating roll collides with the edge portion at the leading end of the substrate and pushes back the substrate or the outer circumference of the roll is broken. However, when the pair of laminating rolls start the grasping of the substrate and the film, since the rubber lining applied to the outer circumference of the laminating rolls is elastically deformed mainly in the film thickness direction as above described and the deformation in the direction of pushing out an air between the film and the substrate and stretching wrinkles is little, in the range of contacting with the elastically deformed portion at the substrate grasping state, after the applying, the laminated film is liable to wrinkles, looseness or holding an air therein and this problem could not be solved even by the two-stage film applying method as above described.
Therefore when the substrate becomes very large and corresponding to this, the outer diameter of the laminating roll becomes large as above described, the range liable to the air holding or the like as above described naturally becomes large and the area of the pattern exposable region with respect to the total area of the substrate becomes little, and a problem is produced in that the effective area ratio is significantly decreased.
Further in the region liable to the air holding or the like in the film applying apparatus of continuous applying type, in some apparatus, the cover film and the photosensitive resin layer are half-cut in the film width direction at the adjacent position to the end edge of each substrate and the cover film except for the part corresponding between the subs
Kitagawa Kenji
Yamamoto Shigeru
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Sells James
Somar Corporation
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