JPH04357823A - Heat treating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a compact entire line associated with an apparatus for heat-treating a glass substrate, etc. CONSTITUTION:In a heat-treating apparatus 5, a heater 10 is disposed at a center, and a rising/falling mechanism 20 and a handier unit 30 are disposed at an upstream side of the heater 10. In the heater 10, a case 11 of a box state are divided into a plurality of stages, hot plates 12,... are disposed from the top to a third stage from the top, and a cooling plate 13 is disposed in a lowermost stage as a cooler 14. A delivery unit 50 for delivering a glass substrate W is provided between the unit 30 and the plate 12 in each stage of the heater 10.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus for forming a film by heating a coating solution applied to the surface of a glass substrate, for example, after drying it.

0002

[Prior Art] The present applicant has proposed an apparatus for continuously and efficiently manufacturing liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-9168.
I proposed it as No. 4 earlier. This apparatus has a structure in which a glass substrate input section is provided in the upstream section, and a coating device, a vacuum drying device, a backside cleaning device for glass substrates, and a heating section are sequentially arranged downstream of this input section.

Since the processing time in the heating section is longer than the processing time at other stations, a plurality of hot plates are arranged in the heating section along the conveying direction, and a crank-like conveying device is used to transfer the glass substrates. By sequentially transferring the hot plates onto multiple hot plates, the processing time at other stations can be matched.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, when a plurality of hot plates are arranged in the conveyance direction in order to improve time efficiency by combining processing times, the entire apparatus becomes large and there is a disadvantage in terms of space. arise.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention arranges a plurality of hot plates in the vertical direction instead of arranging the plurality of hot plates in the conveyance direction.

[0006]

[Operation] The plate-shaped workpiece that has been conveyed to the heating section is sent by the handler unit above one of the plurality of hot plates arranged in the vertical direction and is heated, and when the heating treatment is completed, it is heated again. It is taken out by the handler unit and sent to a cooling section, etc.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a plan view of a film forming line incorporating a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same heat treatment apparatus, FIG. 3 is a view taken along arrow A-A in FIG. 2, and FIG. 2 is a view taken along the line B--B in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a view taken along the line C--C in FIG.

The film forming line has an upstream section on the left side of FIG. 1, an input section 1 for a rectangular glass substrate W as a plate-shaped object to be processed, and a coating section 1 on the downstream side of this input section 1. A device 2 is disposed, and a reduced pressure drying device 3, a backside cleaning device 4 for glass substrates W, and a heat treatment device 5 according to the present invention are disposed downstream of this coating device 2. From the input section 1 to the heat treatment device 5, the glass substrate W is transported with the lower surface of the glass substrate W supported by a transport device 6.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, the heat treatment apparatus 5 has a heating section 10 in the center, an elevating mechanism 20 and a handler unit 30 arranged upstream of this heating section 10, and a glass substrate disposed downstream. A conveyance device 40 is provided that delivers the W while supporting the lower surface thereof.

The heating section 10 has a box-shaped case 11.
The interior is divided into multiple stages (four stages in the illustrated example), with hot plates 12 arranged in the top three stages, and a cooling section 14 with a cooling plate 13 arranged in the lowest stage.

Further, a delivery unit 50 is provided in each stage of the heating section 10 to deliver the glass substrate W between the handler unit 30 and the hot plate 12. This delivery unit 50 has a pulse motor 51 fixed to the back of the case 11 as shown in FIGS. Bars 54, 54 are attached so as to form an H shape, and a pin 55 is fixed to the bar 54, passing through the hole formed in the hot plate 12 from below.

By driving the pulse motor 51, the pin 55 moves up and down, and its tip emerges and retracts from the hole formed in the hot plate 12. That is, when the pins 55 rise, the glass substrate W placed on the hot plate 12 is lifted, and when the pins 55 fall, the glass substrate W is placed on the hot plate 12. In particular, when placing the glass substrate W on the hot plate 12, the heating speed of the glass substrate W is controlled by temporarily stopping the pulse motor 51 just before the glass substrate W contacts the hot plate 12. This makes it possible to set optimal heating conditions.

[0013] Also, a handler unit 3 is installed in the cooling section 14.
A transfer unit 56 is provided to transfer the glass substrate W between the glass substrate 0 and the cooling plate 13, and the transfer unit 56 moves pins 58 up and down using a pulse motor 57 attached to the top surface of the base.

On the other hand, the elevating mechanism 20 includes a slider 23 mounted on a vertical ball screw 22 rotated by a motor 21.
A lifting plate 24 is attached to the upper end of the slider 23, and a pair of parallel ball screws 25 and 26 are arranged on the lifting plate 24, and the handler unit 30 is supported on these ball screws 25 and 26. It's forcing me.

That is, the handler unit 30 consists of a pair of upper and lower arms 31, 32, each of which has a
2 are screwed into the ball screws 25 and 26 via nut members 31a and 32a, and by rotating the ball screws 25 and 26 individually, they can independently move forward and backward relative to the heating section 10.

The arms 31 and 32 enter and leave each stage of the heating section 10 through openings 11a formed on the side surface of the case 11, and Teflon pads 33 are attached to the upper surfaces of the arms 31 and 32. are doing.

In the above, the glass substrate W set in the input section 1 is sent to the coating device 2 by the conveyance device 6, and in this coating device 2, the coating liquid is dropped onto the glass substrate W from the nozzle 2a, and then the spinner is applied. The handler unit 30 rotates and uses centrifugal force to uniformly spread the coating liquid onto the upper surface of the glass substrate W, and then passes through the vacuum drying device 3 and the backside cleaning device 4 to the glass substrate W, which is waiting at a position below the heat treatment device 5. It is placed on the arm 31 of.

Next, the handler unit 30 is raised to the height of a predetermined step of the heating section 10 by the lifting mechanism 20, and the ball screw 25 is further rotated to move the arm 31 on which the glass substrate W is placed to a predetermined height through the opening 11a. It faces above the hot plate 12 on the tier.

Then, the pulse motor 51 of the transfer unit 50 is driven to raise the pin 55 through the hot plate 12, and the glass substrate W is received at the tip of the pin 55.

Thereafter, the arm 31 is pulled out of the heating section 10, the pulse motor 51 is rotated in the opposite direction to lower the pin 55, and the glass substrate W is placed on the hot plate 12. At this time, as described above, predetermined heating conditions can be set by operations such as stopping the pulse motor immediately before placement.

In this way, in order to load the glass substrates W into each stage of the heating section 10, the handler unit 30 repeatedly moves up and down by the lifting mechanism 20.
When descending, the glass substrate W that has been heated is placed on the arm 32 and descends.

That is, except when a glass substrate W is first loaded, each stage of the heating section 10 already contains a previously loaded glass substrate W, so no untreated glass substrate W can be loaded. Before inserting the arm 31 into the heating section 10,
The processed glass substrate W is lifted from the hot plate 12 in advance by the transfer unit 50, the empty arm 32 is placed under the lifted glass substrate W, and the processed glass substrate W is placed on the arm 32. Place it on the heating section 1
After the treated glass substrate W is pulled out, the arm 31 on which the untreated glass substrate W is placed is inserted into the heating section 10.

Then, the arm 32 on which the processed glass substrate W is placed and the arm 31 that is empty after feeding the unprocessed glass substrate W into the heating section 10 are lowered together, and the arm 31 is loaded with a new one. A glass substrate W is placed on the arm 32.
further advances and transfers the processed glass substrate W onto the cooling plate 13 of the cooling section 14 via the transfer unit 56.

In the embodiment, each stage of the heating section functions as an individual heating section. The method of use, such as heat treatment with a plate, is arbitrary. Further, the position of the cooling unit is also arbitrary; for example, the cooling plate may be placed at the top.

[0025]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
The heating section of the device that heat-processes plate-shaped objects such as glass substrates has multiple levels in the vertical direction, and each level is equipped with a hot plate, and a handler unit at each level allows the plate-shaped objects to be taken in and out. Therefore, for example, the total length of a film forming line incorporating a heat treatment device can be shortened without reducing time efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Fig. 1] A plan view of a film forming line incorporating a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention.

[Figure 2] Front view of the heat treatment equipment

[Figure 3] A-A direction arrow view in Figure 2

[Fig. 4] B-B direction arrow view in Fig. 2

[Fig. 5] C-C direction arrow view in Fig. 2

[Explanation of symbols]

2... Coating device, 5... Heat treatment device, 10... Heating section, 12
...Hot plate, 13...Cooling plate, 14...
Cooling unit, 20... Lifting mechanism, 30... Handler unit,
50, 56... Delivery unit, 51, 57... Pulse motor, 55, 58... Pin, W... Plate-shaped processed object.

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A heat treatment apparatus that heats a plate-shaped workpiece for a predetermined period of time and then carries it out. A lifting mechanism is arranged, and a handler unit that can go in and out of each stage of the heating section is attached to this lifting mechanism, and a plate-shaped workpiece is placed between the handler unit and the hot plate in each stage of the heating section. A heat treatment device characterized by being provided with a delivery and delivery unit. 2. A cooling section equipped with a cooling plate is provided below the lowest hot plate of the heating section, and the handler unit is composed of a pair of arms that move forward and backward independently, one arm being untreated. A claim characterized in that the plate-shaped workpiece is fed into each stage of the heating section, and the other arm takes out the plate-like workpiece after processing from each stage of the heating section and sends it into the cooling section. Item 1. The heat treatment apparatus according to item 1.