Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Process – Repairing – converting or salvaging
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-28
2003-10-14
Ramsey, Kenneth J. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Process
Repairing, converting or salvaging
Reexamination Certificate
active
06632113
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to, in order to protect the global environment, a method of disassembling for scraping a flat panel display constituted by airtightly joining via a frame with frit glass or the like two substrates, i.e., a face plate (front glass substrate) and rear plate (rear glass substrate) mainly containing glass, a method of reusing a flat panel display, separating and recovering lead as a hazardous metal element among metal elements used for the flat panel display, and effectively reusing other noble metal elements and rare-earth elements, a method of dismantling an image forming apparatus welded with frit glass and recycling its face plate and rear plate, a method of recovering and reusing a spacer, a method of recovering fluorescent substances from a flat display apparatus or CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) for emitting light by irradiating a fluorescent substance-coated portion with an electron beam or ultraviolet ray, a display apparatus manufacturing method, an image display apparatus suitable for dismantling, disassembly, and reuse, a residual hazardous metal amount inspection apparatus for inspecting a hazardous metal amount contained in a waste or the like, and a fluorescent substance recovery method and apparatus in a flat display panel.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, most of scrapped home appliances are shredded, valuables such as metals are recovered, and the remainders are disposed of as industrial wastes to a “least controlled landfill site” where the wastes are merely buried in a dug hole.
In recent years, a shortage of the capacity of disposal sites poses a serious problem, and environmental pollution by hazardous substances also poses a serious problem. For example, the cathode ray tube of a television uses a large amount of lead-containing glass. According to trial calculation by the Environment Agency, lead contained in scrapped cathode ray tubes amounts to 20,000 t every year, and most of lead is buried in least controlled landfill sites. However, rainwater naturally permeates in least controlled landfill sites, and these sites are not equipped with any drainage facility. It is being recognized that lead as a hazardous substance may diffuse.
Under these circumstances, conventional processing methods must be reconsidered. As for the cathode ray tube of a television, studies of shredding cathode ray tube glass into cullets (small glass pieces) and reusing them for cathode ray tubes have been made by Association for Electric Home Appliances. Of these studies, a system of extracting a cathode ray tube from a television main body and shredding the cathode ray tube into glass cullets has been developed (see, e.g., “Electrotechnology”, January, 1997).
A method of recovering glass as cullets is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 61-50688. There is also known a method of shredding cathode ray tube glass into cullets (small glass pieces) and reusing them for cathode ray tubes (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-193762). A method of separating a cathode ray tube into a face plate and funnel in accordance with materials, and shredding them into cullets is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 05-185064. Further, a method of separating a cathode ray tube into a face plate and funnel, peeling fluorescent substances and a black mask from the face plate, and recycling the face place is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-037509.
To reuse cathode ray tube glass, the glass must be separated into panel glass and lead-containing funnel glass. This is because, if lead is mixed in panel glass by a predetermined amount or more, a browning phenomenon occurs, and the lead-containing glass cannot be reused as a raw material of the panel glass. For this reason, a cathode ray tube is separated into a panel and funnel. For this purpose, there are proposed a method of defining a position to cut a cathode ray tube (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-115449), and a method of melting frit glass which joins a panel and funnel, thereby separating the panel and funnel (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-45198).
As a technique of separating a funnel and panel welded with frit glass, a technique of separating a funnel and panel using thermal distortion in heat treatment is known as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 5-151898, 7-029496, 9-200654, and 9-200657.
In recent years, studies for applying cold cathode elements have enthusiastically been done. Known examples of the cold cathode elements are surface-conduction type electron-emitting elements, field emission type electron-emitting elements, metal/insulator/metal type electron-emitting elements. Compared to a thermionic cathode element, the cold cathode element can emit electrons at a low temperature. The cold cathode element does not require any heater, is simpler in structure than the thermionic cathode element, and can form a small element. Even if many elements are arranged on a substrate at a high density, problems such as thermal melting of the substrate hardly arise. In addition, the response speed of the thermionic cathode element is low because it operates upon heating by a heater, whereas the response speed of the cold cathode element is high.
Of cold cathode elements, surface-conduction type electron-emitting elements have a simple structure, can be easily manufactured, and allow forming many elements in a wide area. As disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 64-31332 filed by the present applicant, a method of arranging and driving many elements has been studied.
As applications of surface-conduction type electron-emitting elements, e.g., image forming apparatuses such as an image display apparatus and image recording apparatus, charge beam sources, and the like have been studied.
Particularly as applications to image display apparatuses, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 2-257551 and 4-28137, an image display apparatus using a combination of a surface-conduction type electron-emitting element and a fluorescent substance which is irradiated with an electron beam to emit light has been studied. The image display apparatus using a combination of a surface-conduction type electron-emitting element and fluorescent substance is expected to exhibit more excellent characteristics than other conventional types of image display apparatuses. For example, this image display apparatus is superior to a recent popular liquid crystal display apparatus in that the image display apparatus does not require any backlight because of self-emission type and that the view angle is wide.
A method of driving many field emission type electron-emitting elements arranged side by side is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,895. A known application of FE type electron-emitting elements to an image display apparatus is a flat display reported by R. Meyer et al. [R. Meyer: Recent Development on Micro-tips Display at LETI”, Tech. Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Micro-electronics Conf., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)].
An application of many metal/insulator/metal type electron-emitting elements arranged side by side to an image display apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 3-55738.
Of these image forming apparatuses using electron-emitting elements, a thin flat display is space-saving and lightweight, and receives a great deal of attention as a substitute for a cathode ray tube type image display apparatus.
The interior of the airtight container in the image forming apparatus is kept at a vacuum of about 10
−6
Torr. As the display area of the image display apparatus increases, the airtight container requires a means for preventing a rear plate and face plate from being deformed or destructed by the difference between internal and external pressures of the airtight container. If the rear plate and face plate are made thick, this increases the weight of the image display apparatus, and generates distor
Kobayashi Shin
Kobayashi Toyoko
Miura Naoko
Motoi Taiko
Noma Takashi
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Ramsey Kenneth J.
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