JP3565680B2 - Rubbing roller and rubbing device for liquid crystal substrate - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rubbing device for a liquid crystal substrate, that is, a device for rubbing an alignment film on the surface of a glass substrate with a rotating roller having a cloth adhered to the peripheral surface.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The rubbing step, which is one of the steps of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, is a step of rubbing an alignment film on the surface of a glass substrate with a cloth to form fine grooves for aligning liquid crystal molecules. The apparatus used in this step includes a table for vacuum-sucking the glass substrate, a roller with a cloth stuck on its peripheral surface, a supporting and rotating drive mechanism, and a feed mechanism for relatively moving the table and the roller.
[0003]
The glass substrate to be processed is fixed to a table, the orientation of the glass substrate is determined by a table turning device attached to the table, and a gap (rubbing pressure) with a roller is set by an elevating device. The roller is fixed to the rotating shaft with both ends sandwiched, and the degree of parallelism with the glass substrate surface is set by a tilt device, and the sliding direction is set by a roller turning device. By moving the table or the roller by the feeder in this state, the entire surface of the glass substrate is rubbed.
[0004]
The cloth used for rubbing wears in a short time, and when the cloth is worn, the processing accuracy cannot be maintained. Therefore, the rollers must be replaced frequently. In order to facilitate this exchange, the conventional rubbing device is, as shown in FIG. 5, a roller 72 provided with conical recesses 71 at both end axes, and a conical tip of a drive-side spindle 73 provided at a fixed position. A structure is adopted in which the supporting member 74 is sandwiched and supported by a conical tip 76 of a free-rotating spindle 75 provided so as to be able to advance and retreat in the axial direction opposite thereto.
[0005]
The drive-side spindle 73 and the free-rotation spindle 75 are, of course, rotatably supported by bearings 77, and are provided with a motor 78 that drives the drive-side spindle 73 to rotate.
[0006]
When replacing the roller 72, the receiving table 27 is advanced below the roller 72, the free rotation spindle 75 is retracted, the roller 72 is dropped on the receiving table 27, and the receiving table 27 is moved and carried out. The new roller is placed on the cradle 27 and carried between the spindles 73 and 75, and the free-rotation spindle 75 is advanced, whereby the self-centering action by the fitting of the conical recess 71 and the conical tips 74 and 76 is performed. , Are fixed between the spindles 73 and 75.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Rubbing is a process in which a cloth pasted on the peripheral surface of a roller is line-contacted with a certain width on a glass substrate of a predetermined width, and is processed finely, so the rubbing is performed between the peripheral surface of the cloth and the surface of the glass substrate. The degree of parallelism has a significant effect on the rubbing accuracy and, consequently, the display quality of the liquid crystal panel.
[0008]
On the other hand, the cloth stuck on the roller surface is inevitable to cause undulation in thickness. Therefore, every time the roller is replaced, the parallelism between the table and the peripheral surface of the roller is adjusted, and this adjustment operation requires skilled skills.
[0009]
Conventionally, a glass substrate of about 400 × 500 mm has been used as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal panel. However, productivity has been improved by increasing the size of the panel surface itself and arranging many panels on one substrate and performing simultaneous processing. , Larger substrates have come to be used. However, as the size of the substrate increases, the difficulty of maintaining the parallelism between the surface of the substrate and the surface of the cloth increases at an accelerating rate, and lowers the display quality of the manufactured liquid crystal panel and increases productivity due to an increase in adjustment work load. The problem of reduction occurs.
[0010]
According to the present invention, it is easy to maintain the parallelism between the peripheral surface of the cloth affixed to the roller and the table surface. Therefore, a large-area glass substrate can be rubbed more accurately and efficiently with less work load. The task is to obtain a device.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The rubbing roller of the present invention is mounted on a cylindrical body 53 having a cloth adhered to the outer peripheral surface thereof, and is provided on both inner diameter sides of the cylindrical body via a bearing 55 so as to be rotatable and at least define an axial position inward. It comprises an end member 56 having an outwardly facing cone receiver 57 and a rotation receiver 64 provided at one end of the cylindrical body.
[0012]
A rubbing roller according to a second aspect of the present invention is the rubbing roller having the above-mentioned configuration, wherein the rubbing roller communicates with the inside of the cylindrical body 53 via the inside of the bearing 55, outside the bearing 55 provided at the end of the cylindrical body 53 . A narrow air passage 62 is formed, and at least one of the end members 56 has an opening 58 penetrating in the axial direction.
[0013]
The rubbing device according to the present invention includes a roller support mechanism A for supporting the rubbing roller, a roller drive mechanism B for rotating the rubbing roller, a table 22 for fixing the glass substrate, and a feed moving mechanism C for the table or roller support mechanism A. comprising a roller support mechanism a includes a fixed-side and movable-side support shaft 41, 49 which can advance and retreat in the axial direction with respect to the moving side includes a conical end 66 to the tip cross facing the fixed-side support shaft 41 and 49 A roller support frame 38 that can swing about a pivot shaft 37 that intersects with the table 22 and that is parallel to the surface of the table 22; a tilt amount adjusting unit 51 that adjusts the swing angle of the roller support frame 38 about the pivot shaft 37; In the rubbing apparatus provided with the above, the fixed-side support shaft 41 is non-rotatably fixed to the roller support frame 38, and the movable-side support shaft 49 is Nonrotatably is axially movably mounted, b over La drive mechanism B is driven ring with rotation transmitting end 63 facing the distal end side of the support shaft which is rotatably mounted on the outer periphery of the fixed-side supporting shaft 41 43 is provided. The rubbing device according to the present invention includes the rubbing roller according to claim 1 mounted between the fixed-side and movable-side support shafts 41 and 49, and a rotation receiver 64 of the rubbing roller is attached to the rotation transmission end 63 of the drive ring 43. The glass substrate fixed to the table 22 is rubbed by rotating the rubbing roller by engaging.
[0014]
A rubbing device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the rubbing device having the above-described configuration, wherein at least one of the support shafts 41 and 49 is provided with an air suction hole 68 opened at the tip thereof and communicated with an air suction source. The rubbing device according to the fifth aspect is provided with air suction holes 67 and 68 in which the fixed-side support shaft 41 opens on the inner diameter side of the rotation transmitting end 63 of the drive ring 43 and communicates with an air suction source. Things.
[0015]
[Action]
The rubbing process is performed by attaching the rubbing roller according to the first or second aspect of the present invention to the rubbing device according to the third, fourth or fifth aspect of the present invention, and performing the same procedure as in the related art.
[0016]
In the apparatus of the present invention, the rubbing roller 52 is supported at both ends by the non-rotating support shafts 41 and 49, and only the cylindrical body 53 rotates by receiving the rotational force from the drive ring 43 via the rotation receiver 64 and the rotation transmitting end 63. . The end members 56 of the rubbing roller also do not rotate.
[0017]
In the rubbing process, fine grooves are formed by rubbing a glass substrate with a cloth, so that fine dust is generated. If this dust is caught between the roller cone receiver 57 and the conical end 66 of the support shaft when replacing the roller, the roller 52 will be slightly eccentric. In the conventional means in which the two spindles 73 and 75 rotate, the fluctuation of the parallelism and the fluctuation of the gap between the cloth peripheral surface and the substrate glass surface due to the eccentricity occur periodically with the rotation of the roller 52. Even if the adjustment is made, the error cannot be canceled.
[0018]
On the other hand, according to the means of the present invention, even if dust or the like is trapped between the cone receiver 57 and the cone tip 66 and the eccentricity or inclination of the roller 52 occurs, the eccentricity or inclination is static. The adjustment can be canceled by adjusting the amount of elevation of the table and adjusting the tilt amount adjusting means 51 provided in the roller support mechanism. Therefore, the allowable range of the accuracy adjustment is widened and the adjustment work is facilitated, and the accuracy obtained by the adjustment is also increased. Further, since there is no positional fluctuation caused by rotation, machining can be performed more accurately.
[0019]
In the case where the rubbing roller according to the second aspect is mounted on the rubbing device according to the fourth aspect, when the lubricating oil sealed in the bearing interposed in the roller is scattered, the lubricating oil is scattered by the airflow passing through the bearing. Since the oil can be discharged through the inside, there is no possibility that the lubricating oil of the bearings 55 and 55 will be scattered in the processing area, and a higher quality liquid crystal panel can be obtained.
[0020]
Further, when rubbing is performed by mounting the rubbing roller according to claim 1 or 2 on the rubbing device according to claim 5, even if dust is generated due to contact and separation between the rotation receiver 64 and the rotation transmitting end 63, Since the dust is discharged by the air flow, the generation of the dust can be further reduced, and a higher quality liquid crystal panel can be obtained.
[0021]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
2 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention. The rubbing device of the embodiment has a rectangular base 1 and a gate-shaped support frame 2 erected on the right side of the upper center of the base. At the center of the base 1, two fixed rails 3 extending in the left-right direction are provided. A carriage 4 is movably provided on the fixed rail 3, and a nut member 5 provided on the lower surface of the carriage 4 is screwed into a screw rod 6 mounted between the fixed rails 3. The screw rod is driven forward and reverse by a feed motor 7 built in the base 1.
[0022]
On the upper surface of the carriage 4, the support frame 2 side is an ascending surface 8 having a high inclination angle θ, and two moving rails 9 extending toward the support frame are fixed to the ascending surface 8. On the moving rail 9, an elevator 12 having a downward surface 11 having a low inclination angle θ on the opposite side of the support frame is slidably provided, and a nut member 13 provided on the lower surface of the elevator 12 is provided between the moving rail 9. It is screwed into the mounted screw rod 14. A driven gear 15 is fixed to an end of the screw rod 14 on the support frame side. The driven gear 15 is connected to a driving gear 17 of a lifting motor 16 built in the carriage 4 by an intermediate gear 18.
[0023]
A vertical rotation shaft 19 is provided at the center of the upper surface of the lift table 12, and a bevel gear (not shown) is fixed to a lower end of the rotation shaft 19. This bevel gear meshes with a bevel gear fixed to a drive shaft of a turning motor 21 provided on a side surface of the lift. A rectangular turning table 22 is fixed to the upper end of the rotating shaft 19. A number of through holes 23 in the thickness direction are opened on the upper surface of the turning table, and four immersion holes of the knock pin 24 are opened. The through holes 23 communicate with each other at their lower ends. After the communication, the through holes 23 are connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) so that the glass substrate to be rubbed is sucked to the table.
[0024]
A receiving stand 27 is provided on the transport rail 25 with a slider 26 interposed therebetween, and a receiving device 28 having a recess at the center of the upper surface of the receiving stand is fixed. When the rubbing roller 52 to be described later is replaced, the receiving table 27 advances on the transport rail toward the support frame, receives the rubbing roller that falls, and carries it out of the support frame.
[0025]
The outer ring 33 of the slewing bearing 32 hangs from the center of the top plate 31 of the support frame 2, and a horizontal plate 36 is fixed to the lower surface of the inner ring 34 of the slewing bearing. The support frame is provided with a clamp device 35 for fixing the inner ring. A roller support frame 38 is swingably held at the center of the horizontal plate 36 via a horizontal pivot pin 37. At one end of the roller support frame 38, a fixed support table 39 facing the center side is provided. On the fixed support table 39, a support shaft 41 and a drive motor 42 are provided. The drive motor 42 is connected to a drive ring 43 rotatably provided on the outer periphery of a support shaft 41 via a bearing 40 by a belt 44.
[0026]
A horizontal guide 47 is provided at the other end of the roller support frame, and a movable support 48 is provided on the horizontal guide 47 so as to be able to advance and retreat toward the fixed support 39. The movable support base 48 is provided with a support shaft 49, and both support shafts 41 and 49 are on the same horizontal line. At the other end of the roller support frame, an elevating block 46 screwed to the ball screw 45 is provided. The ball screw 45 is driven to rotate by a servomotor 51 mounted on the horizontal plate 36, and the roller support frame 38 is pivoted. Fine rotation around the support pin 37 is performed.
[0027]
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a rubbing roller mounted on a rubbing device. The rubbing roller 52 has a cylindrical body 53 to which a cloth is stuck on the outer peripheral surface. A bearing 55 is provided on a flange 54 protruding inside both ends of the cylindrical body 53. A ring-shaped end member 56 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the bearing 55, and the inner peripheral surface of the end member is a conical receiver 57 that opens outward. An opening 58 is formed inside the cone receiver 57. A bearing retaining ring 59 having a ring-shaped concave groove is fixed to both ends of the cylindrical body 53, and a bearing retaining ring 59 having a ridge is fixed to the outer end surface of the end member 56. The groove and the ridge of both stoppers are loosely fitted to each other to form a zigzag labyrinth 62. The stop ring 59 on the right side in the figure is provided with a claw 64 extending in the axial direction, and this claw 64 meshes with a claw 63 provided on an end surface of the drive ring 43 on the rubbing roller side. A labyrinth 65 is also provided on the drive ring 43 on the side opposite to the rubbing roller.
[0028]
The distal end of the fixed-side support shaft 41 has a conical end 66 shaped to fit into the conical receiver 57, and a radial through hole 67 is provided at a position slightly retreated from the conical end 66. The through hole 67 communicates with one end of a shaft hole 68 passing through the axis of the support shaft 41, and the other end of the shaft hole 68 opens at the base end surface of the support shaft 41, and is connected to a vacuum pump through a suction pipe (not shown). It is connected to the.
[0029]
Hereinafter, the operation of the rubbing device will be described. The rubbing roller 52 is supported by the receiving stand 27 and is conveyed immediately below the support frame. The movable support 48 is moved toward the fixed support 39, and the conical ends 66 of the support shafts 41 and 49 provided on both supports are fitted into the conical receiver 57 of the rubbing roller. As a result, the rubbing roller 52 is nipped by the roller support frame 38 via the bearing 55 and floats from the receiving table 27. The preparation is completed by retracting the cradle 27. The glass substrate 69 is vacuum-sucked on the upper surface of the swivel table 22, and the elevation motor 16 and the swivel motor 21 are driven to determine the height and direction of the swivel table. The glass substrate is moved toward the support frame 2 by driving the feed motor 7. The horizontal bearing 36 is turned to a desired angle by rotating the swing bearing, and the rubbing roller 52 is rotated by the drive motor 42. The glass substrate is rubbed by a rubbing roller, and a fine groove in one running direction is formed on the upper surface thereof. With the rotation of the rubbing roller, lubricating oil is scattered from the bearings 55, 55, and dust is generated. The oil and dust are discharged outside the machine through the through hole 68 of the support shaft, so that the oil and dust are not scattered on the glass substrate.
[0030]
If the rubbing roller cloth is worn, replace the rubbing roller. After confirming that the carriage 4 has returned to the home position, the slewing bearing is rotated to make the rubbing roller 52 orthogonal to the transport rail 25. Next, the receiving table 27 is advanced directly below the rubbing roller, and the moving-side support shaft 49 of the roller support frame is retracted. As a result, the rubbing roller is disengaged from both support shafts 49, and the end member on the opposite side is also disengaged from the support shaft. Return the cradle holding the rubbing roller to the home position and replace it with a new rubbing roller.
[0031]
The receiving table 27 is advanced, a new rubbing roller is placed immediately below the roller support frame, and the moving-side support shaft is advanced. The conical tip 66 of the support shaft is fitted in the conical recess 71 of the end member, and the rubbing roller is nipped by the support shafts 41 and 49 on both sides while slightly moving to the right. At this time, dust may enter the fitting portion and the axes of the two support shafts and the rubbing roller may be shifted. In this case, the servo motor 51 is driven to move the elevating block 46 up and down so that the axis of the rubbing roller is parallel to the upper surface of the glass substrate, and rubbing is started again.
[Brief description of the drawings]
1 is a cross-sectional view of a rubbing roller and a supporting mechanism thereof. FIG. 2 is a side view of a rubbing device. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a rubbing device. FIG. 4 is a front view of a rubbing device. Sectional view of support mechanism [Description of reference numerals]
22 Rotating Table 37 Pivot Pin 38 Roller Support Frame 41 Support Shaft 43 Drive Shaft 49 Support Shaft 51 Servo Motor 52 Rubbing Roller 53 Cylindrical Body 55 Bearing 56 End Member 57 Conical Receiver 58 Opening 62 Labyrinth 63 Claw 64 Claw 66 Cone End 67 Penetration Hole 68 Shaft hole A Roller support mechanism B Roller drive mechanism C Feed mechanism

Claims (5)

A cylindrical body (53) having a cloth adhered to an outer peripheral surface thereof, and an outer side which is rotatably mounted on both inner diameter sides of the cylindrical body via bearings (55) and has at least an inner axial position defined. A rubbing roller comprising: an end member (56) having a conical receiver (57); and a rotation receiver (64) provided at one end of the cylindrical body. Axially outwardly of the bearing which is provided at an end portion of the cylinder (53) (55), communicating with the interior of the cylinder (53) via the bearing (55), a narrow air passage (62) is formed, The rubbing roller according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the end members (56) has an opening (58) penetrating in the axial direction. A roller supporting mechanism (A) for supporting the rubbing roller, a roller driving mechanism (B) for rotating the rubbing roller, a table (22) for fixing the glass substrate, and a feed moving mechanism (A) for the table or roller supporting mechanism (A). C), the roller support mechanism (A) has a conical end (66) at the opposing ends thereof, and the fixed side and the movable side support shaft (41, A roller support frame (38) intersecting with the support shafts (41 , 49) and swinging around a pivot shaft (37) parallel to the surface of the table (22) ; and a roller support frame (38). in the pivot shaft (37) rubbing apparatus and a tilt amount adjusting means (51) for adjusting the swinging angle around,
The fixed-side support shaft (41) is non-rotatably fixed to the roller support frame (38), and the movable-side support shaft (49) is non-rotatably and axially movably mounted on the roller support frame (38) . It includes a chromatography La drive mechanism (B) drive ring with rotatably mounted rotation transmitting end facing the front end side of the support shaft to the outer periphery (63) of the fixed support shaft (41) (43) 3. A rubbing apparatus, wherein the rubbing roller according to claim 1 or 2 is mounted between the fixed-side and movable-side support shafts (41, 49) to rub the glass substrate . The rubbing device according to claim 3, wherein at least one of the support shafts (41, 49) is provided with an air suction hole (68) opened at a tip thereof and communicated with an air suction source. The fixed-side support shaft (41) has an air suction hole (67, 68) opened to the inner diameter side of the rotation transmitting end (63) of the drive ring (43) and communicated with an air suction source. The rubbing device according to 3 or 4.

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