Background
Conventionally, a plating apparatus and a plating method are known in which a long sheet material is supplied with power by being brought into contact with a power supply roller and is subjected to plating treatment. For example, patent documents 1 and 2 disclose techniques for applying plating to a plating material in a plating solution in a plating tank by feeding the plating material in a direction along a direction in which the plating material is transported from a feeding roller provided in a half-air space ahead of the plating tank in the transport direction.
As a conventional example, in a plating apparatus shown in fig. 6, when a long sheet as a material to be plated is conveyed between a take-up side roller (not shown) and a take-up side roller (not shown) by a cathode roller 54 in a half space and the long sheet passes through each of a plurality of plating tanks 50, the long sheet is supplied with power from the cathode roller 54 to perform an electro-plating process.
The plating apparatus is provided with a conveyance roller and a cathode roller 54, and each rotating shaft extends in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the long sheet, and conveys the long sheet in the conveyance direction while contacting the surface of the long sheet. Further, each cathode roll 54 of the plating apparatus is connected to one conductor bar 52 (cathode) connected to a rectifier, and each anode 56 is connected to a corresponding rectifier.
Documents of the prior art
Patent document
Patent document 1: japanese laid-open patent publication No. 53-87941
Patent document 2: japanese unexamined patent publication No. 63-183192
Problems to be solved by the invention
However, the techniques disclosed in patent documents 1 and 2 have a problem that plating failure is likely to occur when the resistance of the plating material is large (for example, international publication WO 2016/143714). In the conventional plating apparatus, the cathode roll 54 is connected to one conductive rod 52 (cathode) in each plating tank, and therefore, the electric power supplied from each rectifier to the anode of each plating tank easily flows to a portion having low downstream resistance, and thus, power unevenness occurs, and a problem arises in adhesion of a metal thin film such as copper to a long sheet on which a nickel metal film has been formed.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a plating apparatus and a plating method that can appropriately perform a plating treatment even when the electrical resistance of a long sheet as a material to be plated is large, and can obtain a long sheet on which a nickel or nickel alloy film has been formed, which has been subjected to a high-quality plating treatment, while improving the adhesion of a metal thin film such as copper to the surface of the long sheet.
Disclosure of Invention
According to the present invention, there is provided a plating apparatus comprising 2 or more plating tanks, each plating tank being provided with a power supply connected to a return lead of a cathode roller and a power supply connected to an anode, wherein the plating tanks are configured to supply power to a long sheet as a material to be plated from the cathode roller while the long sheet is kept conveyed by the cathode roller supported by a bearing between a take-up roller and is conveyed while being immersed in a plating solution in a plating tank provided with the anode.
According to the present invention, even when the resistance of the plating material is large, the plating treatment can be appropriately performed. Further, the adhesion of the metal thin film to the surface of the long sheet on which the nickel or nickel alloy film is formed can be improved. Further, a plated material subjected to a high-quality plating treatment can be obtained.
Preferably, the cathode roller is located upstream of the plating tank in the conveyance direction of the elongated sheet, and the distance from the upstream inlet of the plating tank is 150mm or less. Preferably a plating apparatus, wherein the cathode roll has elasticity.
Preferably, the cathode roller supplies power to the long sheet in a predetermined range at both ends thereof. Preferably, the plating device is provided with a pressing mechanism for pressing the long sheet against the cathode roller to increase a contact area between the long sheet and the cathode roller. Further, it is preferable that the pressing mechanism has a pressing roller for pressing the long sheet against the cathode roller, and the pressing roller has elasticity.
Preferably, the cathode roller is rotated by a resistance force with respect to the long sheet without applying a rotational driving force to the long sheet in accordance with conveyance of the long sheet.
Further, it is preferable that the plating apparatus of the present invention is used to perform a plating process on a long sheet on which a seed layer having a film resistance value of 1 Ω/sq or more has been formed. Preferably, the plating method is a plating method for plating an elongated sheet having a nickel or nickel alloy film of 200nm or less using the plating apparatus of the present invention.
Detailed Description
Embodiments of a plating apparatus and a plating method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view showing an embodiment of a plating apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic front view showing an embodiment of the plating apparatus of the present invention, wherein (a) is a schematic front view showing a structure including a cathode roll and the like in the vicinity of a plating tank to which copper strike plating is applied, and (b) is a schematic front view showing a structure including a cathode roll and the like in the vicinity of a plating tank to which copper plating is applied in a subsequent process.
Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view of a cathode roll in an embodiment of the plating apparatus according to the present invention. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the appearance of pinholes when power is supplied from the cathode roll, (a) shows the appearance of pinholes when power is supplied from a general cathode roll, and (b) shows the appearance of pinholes when power is supplied from the cathode roll in the embodiment of the plating apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic front view showing another embodiment of the plating apparatus according to the present invention, including a cathode roll in the vicinity of a plating tank to which copper strike plating is applied.
Further, with respect to the reference numeral, 10 denotes a plating apparatus, 12 denotes a take-up side roll, 14 denotes a take-up side roll, 16 denotes a cathode roll, 18 denotes an elongated sheet, 20 denotes a plating liquid, 22 denotes an anode, 24 denotes a plating tank (strike), 26 denotes a power supply, 28 denotes a power supply range, 30 denotes a pressing mechanism, 32 denotes a driven cathode roll, 34 denotes a post-process plating tank, 50 denotes a plating tank, 52 denotes a conductive rod, 54 denotes a cathode roll, 56 denotes an anode, 58 denotes a cylinder, and 60 denotes a pressing roll.
First, as shown in fig. 1, in the plating apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, while maintaining conveyance of the long sheet 18 as a material to be plated by the cathode roll 16 supported by a bearing between the take-out roll 12 and the take-up roll 14, the long sheet 18 is conveyed in a plating tank (strike) 24 provided with an anode 22 while the long sheet 18 is immersed in the plating solution 20, and power is supplied to the long sheet 18 by the cathode roll 16 to plate the long sheet 18, and the cathode roll 16 is positioned on the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the long sheet 18 with respect to the plating tank (strike) 24, and the distance from the upstream inlet of the plating tank (strike) 24 is set to a range of 150mm or less.
Next, this embodiment will be described in detail. In the present embodiment, electroless plating is used to plate the surface of a long material to be plated with nickel or a nickel alloy as a conductive metal in advance, thereby producing a long sheet 18 on which a nickel or nickel alloy film as a conductive metal seed layer has been formed. In the electroless nickel plating treatment or the electroless nickel alloy plating treatment, a seed layer of nickel or a nickel alloy having conductivity of about 10 to 300nm is generally formed, but a thin film of nickel or a nickel alloy of 200nm or less is preferable. The seed layer preferably has a film resistance value of 1 Ω/sq or more.
Next, the plating device 10 of the present embodiment conveys the long sheet 18 between the delivery-side roller 12 and the take-up-side roller 14 in the horizontal direction by the cathode roller 16 supported by a bearing. When the long sheet 18 is subjected to the copper strike plating process, the power is supplied to the long sheet 18 by the cathode roller 16 while the long sheet 18 is conveyed in a plating tank (strike) 24 in which an anode 22 is provided, while being immersed in the plating solution 20.
Thereby, the long sheet 18 can be subjected to copper strike plating treatment (electroplating treatment). In the plating apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, the cathode roll 16 is positioned upstream of the plating tank (strike) 24 in the conveyance direction of the long sheet 18, and the distance from the upstream inlet of the plating tank (strike) 24 is set to be 150mm or less (preferably, 50mm to 120 mm).
In the structure of a general plating apparatus, the cathode roll in the impact plating process is disposed at a position of about 200mm to 300mm before the plating tank in view of workability and maintainability, but if the cathode roll 16 is set to a range of 150mm or less (preferably, 50mm to 120 mm) as in the present embodiment, the distance from the plating tank is shorter than usual, and therefore, power can be appropriately supplied to the long sheet 18 having a large resistance and having a nickel metal film formed thereon. Further, there is no need to increase the power supply.
The cathode roll 32 in the plating treatment (copper plating range in fig. 1) in the post-process of the present embodiment is disposed at a position of about 200mm in front of the plating tank 34. This is because the electrical resistance of the long sheet 18 on which the nickel metal film has been formed is reduced by the strike plating treatment in the preceding process, and therefore the distance between the cathode roll 32 and the plating bath 34 does not need to be shortened. In addition, the structure of the plating treatment in the subsequent process is not limited in any way.
In addition, as shown in fig. 1, in the present embodiment, 2 or more plating tanks (strike) 24 are provided, and 2 or more post-process plating tanks 34 are also provided. Further, a power source 26 is disposed in each plating tank (strike) 24, and the anodes 22 are connected to return wires of the cathode rolls 16. In the post-process plating tank 34, a power supply is also provided, and the anodes are connected to return leads of the driven cathode roll 32, respectively, but are omitted in this figure. In the two cathode rolls 16 shown in the figure, the cathode roll 16 on the upstream side is not connected to the power supply 26, but is naturally connected.
As shown in fig. 6, in the conventional plating apparatus, the return leads of the cathode rolls 54 corresponding to the respective plating tanks 50 are connected to one conductive rod 52 connected to an external rectifier (not shown), and the anodes 56 are connected to the respective rectifiers. In the case of such a configuration, the electric power supplied from each rectifier to each anode 56 tends to flow to a portion having a low downstream resistance, and the electric power varies, so that various problems arise in the adhesion of copper to the long-sized sheet on which the nickel metal coating is formed upstream.
On the other hand, as in the present embodiment, since the return leads of the cathode roll 16 and the anode 22 of each plating tank (strike) 24 and post-process plating tank 34 are individually connected to the power sources 26, the appropriate power supply can be performed without generating power unevenness, and the adhesion of copper to the nickel metal film-formed long sheet 18 is improved.
Next, as shown in fig. 5, the plating device 10 according to the present embodiment is provided with a pressing mechanism 30, and the pressing mechanism 30 presses the long sheet 18 against the cathode roller 16 from the upper side and the lower side, respectively, to increase the contact area between the long sheet 18 and the cathode roller 16. By increasing the contact area between the long sheet 18 and the cathode roller 16, the power supply from the cathode roller 16 can be performed more appropriately.
Specifically, the pressing mechanism 30 is configured by a cylinder 58 and a pressing roller 60, and the upstream cathode roller 16 is configured by driving the cylinder 58 so as to press the long sheet 18 to the cathode roller 16 from above by the pressing roller 60. The downstream cathode roller 16 is driven by the cylinder 58 to press the long sheet 18 from below to the cathode roller 16 by the pressing roller 60. Further, by providing the cathode roller 16 with elasticity, the contact area between the long sheet 18 and the cathode roller 16 can be further increased, and the foreign matter involved in pressing and the scratch of the long sheet 18 due to friction can be suppressed from occurring. Further, it is preferable that the pressing roller 60 also have elasticity.
Next, as shown in fig. 2(a), the plating device 10 according to the present embodiment is a mechanism that rotates with the conveyance of the long sheet 18 due to frictional resistance between the cathode roller 16 and the long sheet 18 without applying a rotational driving force to the cathode roller 16. With this configuration, even in the extremely thin long sheet 18, the possibility of a failure occurring in the seed layer of the long sheet 18 or the underlying metal film during conveyance can be reduced to a very low level. In the plating process in the subsequent process of the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 2(b), a rotational driving force is applied to the driven cathode roller 32, which is one of the conveyance powers of the long sheet 18. In addition, the structure of the plating treatment in the subsequent process is not limited in any way.
In the plating apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the cathode roller 16 is configured to supply power to the elongated sheet 18 in a predetermined range (power supply range 28) at both ends. In a general roll plating apparatus, when a long sheet is separated from a cathode roll which is mostly configured as a power supply range, sparks are generated, and a plurality of pinholes are generated in the surface of the long sheet.
However, if the configuration is such that the long sheet 18 is fed only in the predetermined range (feeding range 28) at both ends as in the present embodiment, sparks are not generated in important portions of the long sheet 18, and as a result, the plating process for the long sheet 18 of high quality can be performed. In the present embodiment, the power feeding ranges 28 are each set to a range of about 10mm from the end. For reference, fig. 4(a) discloses a state of pinholes occurring in the surface of a long sheet in a general roll plating apparatus, and fig. 4(b) discloses a state of pinholes occurring in the surface of a long sheet in the plating apparatus in the present embodiment.
Description of the reference numerals
10 plating device
12 roll out side roller
14 take-up side roll
16 cathode roll
18 strip-shaped sheet
20 plating solution
22 anode
24 coating tank (strike)
26 power supply
28 supply range
30 pressing mechanism
32-drive type cathode roll
34 post-process plating tank
50 plating tank
52 conductive rod
54 cathode roll
56 anode
58 cylinder
60 pressing roller shaft