JP4839986B2 - Wet cleaning device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wet cleaning apparatus for cleaning a film with a liquid.

Development using a plastic film as a substrate instead of a glass substrate as a substrate for a color filter for a liquid crystal display is in progress. In order to accurately form a thin film such as a color filter or an ITO (indium tin oxide) film on a glass substrate or a film substrate, it is necessary to remove deposits attached to the substrate. As a cleaning apparatus for glass substrates, there is a wet-type apparatus for cleaning with a liquid (for example, see Patent Document 1), but for a film substrate, a dry-type cleaning is performed to remove deposits by blowing gas. ing. There was no apparatus for cleaning the film substrate with liquid.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-241010

  A film wound in a roll shape is unwound, and processing such as thin film formation is performed on the film. However, in the case where deposits are present on the film, even if a thin film is formed at a position where the deposits are present, it becomes a defective product, which is inefficient. Since dry cleaning cannot remove even fine deposits, wet cleaning is necessary to accurately remove film deposits.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a wet cleaning apparatus for cleaning a film with a liquid.

The wet cleaning apparatus of the present invention cleaned the unwinding part (3a) for unwinding the film (2) wound in a roll shape, and the cleaning parts (63a, 63b) for cleaning the film (2) with water . Along with gas, the drying part (63a, 64b) for drying the film (2) and the film (2) washed and dried by the washing part (63a, 63b) and the drying part (63a, 64b) A dry ice cleaning unit (65) for spraying granular dry ice and cleaning the film (2) with the granular dry ice, and the cleaned film (2) in a roll shape and a winding section for winding (11a) to the blown member (67), a turn bar for changing the traveling direction of the film while feeding the gas (67), Serial turn bar (67) is to solve the above problem by blowing dry ice of the particulate with the gas.

The cleaning section that cleans with liquid removes even fine deposits adhered to the film. After washing, since the drying unit for drying the washed film is provided, it can be wound up again in a roll shape. By washing the film with a liquid, the deposits can be removed with high accuracy. Moreover, after performing liquid cleaning and drying, the spraying member sprays granular dry ice, whereby foreign matters such as adhered matter that cannot be removed by liquid cleaning and fixed matter that adheres to the film can be removed. In addition, the water that could not be completely dried in the drying section can be removed with ice. Since the spray member is an air turn bar, a separate spray member is provided.
Therefore, the apparatus can be reduced in size.

  In one embodiment of the wet cleaning apparatus of the present invention, the dry ice cleaning unit (65) is adjacent to the downstream side in the transport direction of the film (2), and there is an adhering matter attached to the film (2). You may provide the test | inspection part (61) which test | inspects. According to this embodiment, by providing the inspection unit, it is possible to confirm whether or not the highly accurate removal of the adhered matter has been performed by inspecting the presence or absence of the adhered matter on the film through liquid cleaning and dry ice cleaning. it can.

  In addition, in the above description, in order to make an understanding of this invention easy, the reference sign of the accompanying drawing was attached in parenthesis, but this invention is not limited to the form of illustration by it.

  According to the present invention, since the film is washed with a liquid, deposits on the film can be removed with high accuracy.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a production system of a liquid crystal display in which a wet cleaning apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention is incorporated. The production system 1 processes a color filter substrate for a liquid crystal display, and the color filter substrate is continuously formed on the web film 2.

  The production system 1 includes an unwinding device 3 for unwinding the web film 2 from the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the web film 2, an ITO film forming device 4 for forming an ITO film 11 on the color filter substrate, and a color filter substrate. A CS forming device 5 that forms column spacers (hereinafter referred to as CS) 21, a cleaning device 6 that cleans the web film 2, and a photo-alignment film forming device 7 that forms a photo-alignment film 22 on the color filter substrate; The sealing agent 24 for sealing the liquid crystal 25 on the color filter substrate, the sealing agent / liquid crystal coating device 8 for applying the liquid crystal 25, a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate 23, and the color filter substrate are bonded together. The alignment bonding apparatus 9 and the film on which the TFT array substrate 23 is bonded from the web film 2 Sequentially includes a cut-out device 10 which cut out over filter substrate, and a winding device 11 for winding the web film 2 was cut out.

  The ITO film forming apparatus 4 includes an inkjet nozzle 40 that forms an ITO film 20 as a functional pattern on a color filter substrate, and a drying unit 41 that dries the ITO film 20. The CS forming apparatus 5 includes a CS dry film unwinding unit 51 for unwinding a CS dry film on which a CS material coating composition layer 50 that is a base of CS 21 that keeps the thickness of the liquid crystal 25 uniform, and a color filter substrate. A CS transfer portion 52 for transferring the CS material coating composition layer 50; an exposure portion 53 for forming CS21 by a photolithography method; a developing portion 54 and a bake portion 55; and an inspection portion 56 for inspecting the formed CS21 Is provided. The cleaning device 6 includes a cleaning unit 60 that cleans the web film 2. The photo-alignment film forming apparatus 7 irradiates the photo-alignment film 22 with ultraviolet rays, an inkjet nozzle 70 that forms the photo-alignment film 22 as a functional pattern on the color filter substrate, a drying unit 71 that dries the photo-alignment film 22, and the photo-alignment film 22. And an ultraviolet irradiating unit 72. The sealing agent / liquid crystal forming apparatus 8 includes an inkjet nozzle 80 for applying the sealing agent 24 and an inkjet nozzle 81 for applying the liquid crystal 25. The alignment bonding apparatus 9 includes a bonding unit 90 that bonds the TFT array substrate 23. In FIG. 1, the web film 2 is continuously conveyed from the unwinding device 3 to the winding device 11 through all the steps, but the web film 2 is once wound up in a roll shape at an appropriate position between the steps. The film roll thus wound may be sent to the next step from another unwinding device.

  In the production system 1 described above, the wet cleaning apparatus according to one embodiment of the present embodiment is used for the cleaning apparatus 6. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the wet cleaning apparatus is configured as a cleaning apparatus 6. The cleaning device 6 of FIG. 2 has the same configuration as the unwinding device 3 in addition to the cleaning unit 60 described above, and an unwinding unit 3a that unwinds the film 2 wound in a roll shape, and an attachment of the cleaned film 2 An inspection unit 61 that performs an inspection to check whether there is a defect such as a scratch on the kimono or the film 2 by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor, not shown, and a label on the film 2 when a defect of the film 2 is detected A labeler 62 to be attached and a take-up unit 11a that has the same configuration as the take-up device 11 and winds the cleaned film 2 in a roll shape are sequentially provided. The film 2 is conveyed between the unwinding portion 3a and the winding portion 11a by a plurality of guide rollers, and receives power from a driving source (not shown).

  The cleaning unit 60 includes a liquid cleaning unit 63a for cleaning with a surfactant, a drying unit 64a for drying the film 2 cleaned with the liquid cleaning unit 63a, and a liquid cleaning for cleaning with water to rinse the surfactant. A unit 63b, a drying unit 64b for drying the film 2 cleaned by the liquid cleaning unit 63b, and a dry ice cleaning unit 65 for spraying granular dry ice together with gas onto the film 2.

  The liquid cleaning sections 63a and 63b are provided with a nozzle pair 66 using a cavitation phenomenon. In the nozzle pair 66, the nozzles 66 a and 66 b are installed to face the front and back surfaces of the film 2. In this embodiment, two sets of nozzle pairs 66 are installed in each of the liquid cleaning units 63a and 63b. The cavitation is a phenomenon in which the liquid becomes bubbles as a result of the pressure of the liquid being reduced by increasing the speed of the liquid by jetting high-pressure liquid and the pressure being reduced to the saturated water vapor pressure.

  FIG. 3 shows a nozzle pair 66 using the cavitation phenomenon. The nozzle 66 a has a liquid reservoir 66 c at a position facing the film 2. The dimensions of the liquid reservoir 66c are a width W of 5 mm and a length L of 1 mm. A gap G of 100 μm exists between the film 2 and the liquid reservoir 66c. On the opposite surface of the film 2, similar nozzles 66b are installed at positions facing each other under the same conditions.

  In the drying sections 64 a and 64 b, an air knife is installed facing the front and back surfaces of the film 2. Air is simultaneously ejected from the front and back surfaces of the film 2 at the same pressure at the positions where the air ejection destinations of the air knife face each other.

  In the dry ice cleaning unit 65, a turn bar 67 is installed to change the traveling direction of the film 2 while feeding gas. The turn bar 67 as a spray member is provided with a plurality of holes on the surface of the turn bar 67, and sprays dry dry granule together with gas onto the film 2. Dry ice particles can be produced by lowering the pressure of liquefied carbon dioxide gas.

  Next, the operation of the cleaning device 6 will be described. The film 2 is unwound and conveyed by the unwinding unit 3a, and is cleaned using the liquid by the plurality of nozzle pairs 66 in the liquid cleaning unit 63a. Inside the liquid reservoir 66c shown in FIG. 3, a jet flow is generated by the liquid being jetted at a high pressure, and the film 2 and the liquid can be cleaned at the contact surface. Since there is little liquid leaking from the space | gap G, the liquid for washing | cleaning can be utilized efficiently. From the front and back surfaces of the film 2, the nozzle pair 66 is simultaneously cleaned at the same pressure at a position where the nozzle pairs 66 face each other, so that the film 2 can be cleaned with liquid without being bent.

  After the cleaning, in the drying unit 64a, high-pressure air is sprayed in a strip shape by an air knife, and the cleaned film 2 is drained.

In this embodiment, a set of cleaning and drying steps is performed twice, and the liquid cleaning unit 63a performs cleaning using a surfactant, and the liquid cleaning unit 63b performs rinsing using water, thereby allowing fine deposits to be formed. Has been removed. The liquid cleaning unit 63b cleans the film 2 by the same operation as the liquid cleaning unit 63a. The drying unit 64b also dries the film 2 by the same operation as the drying unit 64a.

  After the film 2 is cleaned and dried, the dry ice cleaning unit 65 performs dry ice cleaning. Foreign matter such as deposits of the film 2 that cannot be removed by the liquid washing parts 63a and 63b and fixed matters that are fixed to the film 2 are removed from the film 2 by spraying dry ice particles and colliding them. Further, the water that could not be completely dried by the drying unit 64b is removed as ice by contacting with dry ice. Since dry ice is vaporized, no subsequent steps such as drying are required.

  The inspection unit 61 is provided with a CCD sensor (not shown), and inspects for defects such as foreign matter and scratches on the film 2 through liquid cleaning and dry ice cleaning. If a defect is found, the labeler 62 attaches a label to the defective portion and processes the film while avoiding the defective portion in the next step.

  The film 2 with the label attached to the defective portion is wound up by the take-up portion 11a to become a roll, and is used by avoiding the portion where the label is attached in the next step.

  In addition, although the suitable form of this invention was demonstrated, this invention is not limited to the form mentioned above, It can implement with a various form. For example, in the present embodiment, an example in which a wet cleaning apparatus is used as the cleaning apparatus 6 has been described. However, the apparatus may be used as a part of a system like the production system 1 without using a single apparatus configuration. The production system 1 includes an unwinding device 3, a cleaning unit 60, and a winding device 11, and has a wet cleaning device.

  In the present embodiment, the liquid cleaning units 63a and 63b and the drying units 64a and 64b have been described with respect to the wet cleaning apparatus provided with two liquid cleaning units and two drying units. However, the present invention is not limited to this, for example, the liquid cleaning unit And one drying section may be provided one by one, or three or more liquid washing sections or drying sections may be provided. The number of the liquid washing section and the drying section may be different, and the number is not limited.

  The liquid cleaning unit 63a performs cleaning using a surfactant, but instead of this, cleaning using water may be performed. In the liquid cleaning unit, cleaning may be performed with an arbitrary liquid according to the film conditions.

  An arbitrary number of air knives of the drying units 64a and 64b may be installed in accordance with the conditions for cleaning the film 2. Although the air knife demonstrated the example installed in the front and back of the film 2 facing each other, it is not limited to this, For example, you may provide support members, such as a board and a roller, as an air knife facing. Further, instead of the air knife, drying with hot air may be performed.

  The dimensions of the nozzles 66a and 66b are not limited to the present embodiment, and the width W, the length L, and the gap G may have arbitrary dimensions according to the design and conditions. The cleaning power can be controlled by changing the gap G or the pressure of the liquid. Further, the number of nozzle pairs 66 may be arbitrarily set according to the cleaning conditions. The nozzles 66a and 66b have been described as the nozzle pair 66 that is installed opposite to each other on the front and back surfaces of the film 2. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a support member such as a plate or a roller is provided as an opposite of the nozzle 66a. May be.

  In the dry ice cleaning unit 65, the example in which the turn bar 67 is used as the spray member has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the spray member may be provided on the front and back surfaces of the film 2, Moreover, the structure which sprays dry ice particles may be sufficient. Gas and dry ice particles may be sprayed using a slit type nozzle or a perforated plate nozzle provided with a plurality of holes in the plate material as the spray member, and these nozzles may be swingable.

  Instead of the CCD sensor of the inspection unit 61, for example, a sensor using laser reflection may be used, and the inspection means may be arbitrarily selected.

  In the labeler 62, the example in which the label is attached to the defective portion of the film 2 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the position information of the defective portion may be stored in the IC tag, or the barcode may be used. Good. Thereby, a film can be processed avoiding a location with a defect at the next process. Any means may be used as long as the defective portion of the film 2 can be recognized in the next step.

1 is a schematic view of a production system in which a wet cleaning apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention is incorporated. Schematic which shows the structure of one form of the wet cleaning apparatus as a cleaning apparatus. The figure which shows the structure of the nozzle pair of a liquid washing | cleaning part.

Explanation of symbols

1 Production System 2 Web Film (Film)
3a Unwinding part 6 Cleaning device (wet cleaning device)
11a Winding unit 60 Cleaning unit 61 Inspection unit 63a, 63b Liquid cleaning unit 64a, 64b Drying unit 65 Dry ice cleaning unit 67 Turn bar (spraying member)

Claims (2)

The unwinding part for unwinding the film wound in a roll, the washing part for washing the film with water , the drying part for drying the washed film, and the washing part and the drying part washed and dried. The film has a blowing member for spraying granular dry ice together with gas, and a dry ice cleaning unit for cleaning the film with the granular dry ice, and winding the wound film into a roll comprises a part, the,
The wet cleaning apparatus , wherein the spray member is a turn bar that changes a traveling direction of the film while feeding gas, and the turn bar sprays the granular dry ice together with the gas .   2. The wet according to claim 1, further comprising an inspection unit that inspects for the presence or absence of deposits adhering to the film adjacent to the dry ice cleaning unit on the downstream side in the conveyance direction of the film. Cleaning device.

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