JP3009549U - Surface plate structure in a bonding apparatus for glass substrates for liquid crystal display boards - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Purpose] Even if the upper and lower glass substrates are aligned with marks and the upper and lower glass substrates are inclined or tapered, the sealing material between the glass substrates can be crushed uniformly. , To provide a platen of a bonding apparatus capable of making a gap between upper and lower glass substrates constant. [Structure] A cushioning material 22 is attached to the surface of a linear plate-shaped base plate, and a frame 24 having the same height as the cushioning material is fixed to the base plate along the outer periphery of the cushioning material, and the cushioning material is also provided. A thin plate 23 is attached to the surface of the plate, the peripheral edge of the thin plate is fixed to the upper surface of the frame, and a number of small air intake holes 25 are opened through the base plate, the cushioning material, and the thin plate. The intake hole is attached to the surface of the platen body so as to be connected to the intake means of the platen body in a removable manner.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an improvement of upper and lower surface plates which are provided in a bonding device for glass substrates (upper and lower electrode plates) constituting a liquid crystal display plate.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one in which two glass substrates coated with transparent conductive electrodes are kept at a predetermined distance by using a spacer of several μm, and liquid crystal is enclosed in an inner space defined by a sealing material. Then, the two glass substrates are bonded together without any error by the alignment mark.

By the way, in the pasting of two glass substrates in a conventional pasting apparatus, an alignment mark previously made on the glass substrates is moved to the upper surface plate which moves in the X direction and the Y direction and θ. The lower surface plate that moves in the direction is driven by the detection data of the mark detection means consisting of a microscope and a camera to adjust the movement to perform rough and fine alignment. When the mark alignment is completed, the two glass substrates are pressed. The sealing material is crushed to make the gap between the upper and lower glass substrates constant.

The upper and lower stools in the above-mentioned conventional laminating apparatus are made of a metal material and finished to have a flat surface, but the parallelism of the surfaces of the upper and lower stools has an inclination of a micron unit. The thickness of the upper and lower glass substrates that can be bonded together has a taper of a micron unit, so try to make the gap between the glass substrates of the liquid crystal display plates that are bonded together constant between 5 and 7μ. Even when the upper and lower glass substrates a and b are pressed to crush the sealing material c, the crushing of the sealing material becomes uneven, and the gap between the upper and lower glass substrates becomes uneven. If the gaps between the glass substrates are non-uniform, the completed liquid crystal display panel will be uneven, for example, and will be a defective product.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a cushioning material is attached to the contact surface of the glass substrate in the metal surface plate, whereby the upper and lower glass substrates are pressed through the cushioning material, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-36425 proposes a configuration in which the inclination of the upper and lower surface plates or the taper of the glass substrate is absorbed by the cushioning material so that the sealing material is uniformly crushed.

[0006]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, a cushioning material is attached to the surface of the metal surface plate described above, and the glass surface is directly adsorbed and held on the surface of the cushioning material so that the upper and lower glass substrates can be aligned with each other in the X direction and the lower surface. When the plate is moved in the Y direction and the θ direction respectively, the cushioning material attached to the surface with respect to the horizontal lateral movement of the metal surface plate is attached to the metal surface plate attachment surface side of the cushioning material, The contact resistance causes a shift in the movement with respect to the surface side with which the glass substrate comes into contact, and the cushioning material deforms into a substantially rhombic shape. As a result, the glass substrate does not follow the movement of the surface plate, and it becomes impossible to align the marks on the upper and lower glass substrates. It should be noted that the upper and lower glass substrates can be marked by another machine, and the upper and lower glass substrates, which have completed the mark matching, can be bonded by pressing in the vertical direction.

Therefore, the mark aligning operation performed before the upper and lower glass substrates are bonded together cannot be performed by the bonding apparatus equipped with the surface plate to which the above-mentioned cushioning material is attached. For this purpose, the upper and lower glass substrates are marked with a different device, and the two glass substrates that have completed the mark matching are temporarily fixed with a resin adhesive or the like so that they do not slip. In this state, the above-mentioned bonding device is hung to carry out the bonding. Therefore, in the above-mentioned device, there is an inconvenience that the mark matching work and the bonding work must be performed by different devices, and the work of temporary fixing is necessary to move from the mark matching process to the next bonding process. There are problems such as becoming important.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the above-described conventional techniques, and its purpose is to align the marks on the upper and lower glass substrates and the upper and lower glass substrates. It is an object of the present invention to provide a surface plate of a bonding apparatus capable of uniformly crushing the sealing material between the glass substrates to make the gap between the upper and lower glass substrates constant even if the glass substrate is inclined or tapered.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The technical means taken by the present invention to achieve the above object is to attach a cushioning material to the surface of a linear plate-like base plate, and to provide the same height as the cushioning material along the outer periphery of the cushioning material. The frame body is fixed to the base plate, and a thin plate is attached to the surface of the cushioning material, and the peripheral edge of the thin plate is fixed to the upper surface of the frame body, and the base plate, the cushioning material, and the thin plate are further extended. A large number of small air intake holes are opened, and the air intake holes are attached to the surface of the metal platen body by communicating with the air intake means of the platen body.

The above-mentioned base plate uses a metal flat plate that does not warp or bend, and examples of the cushioning material to be attached to the base plate include synthetic resin plates (for example, silicon sponge plates) and rubber plates. The thin plate to be attached to the surface of the buffer material is a metal thin plate having a thickness of 30 μ to 100 μ (for example, a stainless thin plate), preferably a 50 μ stainless steel plate, or a synthetic resin thin plate having a high Young's modulus (for example, a polycarbonate thin plate), etc. Are listed.

At each corner of the buffer structure plate, which is formed by joining and integrating the base plate, the buffer material, and the thin plate, which is attracted and held by the surface of the metal surface plate main body by a suction force, there is a see-through portion for aligning the marks on the glass substrate. Set up.

[0012]

[Action]

 According to the above means, the cushioning material is attached to the surface of the linear plate-shaped base plate, and the frame body having the same height as the cushioning material is fixed to the base plate along the outer periphery of the cushioning material, Moreover, by attaching a thin plate to the surface of the cushioning material and fixing the peripheral edge of the cushioning plate to the upper surface of the frame body, the cushioning material and the thin plate are integrated, and only the cushioning material with respect to horizontal and horizontal movements. It will no longer be transformed into a diamond shape. In addition, a large number of small air intake holes are opened through the buffer structure plate in which the three members are integrated, and these air intake holes are attached to the surface of the metal surface plate body by connecting them to the air intake means of the surface plate body. The glass substrate is suction-held by the vacuum suction force generated in the suction holes. Therefore, the glass substrate is adsorbed and held on the surface of the buffer structure plate, and the glass substrate moves together with the metal surface plate main body (relaxation structure plate) to enable the alignment work of the alignment marks.

In addition, the buffer structure plate in which the base plate, the buffer material, and the thin plate, which are bonded and held on the surface plate, are bonded and integrated has a buffer function, so that the glass substrate is pressed through the buffer action, and thus the glass substrate is pressed. The taper and inclination of the substrate are absorbed by the cushioning material, the sealing material is uniformly crushed, and the gap between the upper and lower glass substrates becomes constant.

[0014]

【Example】

 An embodiment in which the surface plate according to the present invention is used as an upper surface plate on the movable base plate side will be described below with reference to the drawings. The bonding apparatus A includes a machine frame 1 and a lower side in the machine frame 1. It consists of a fixed base plate 2 that is fixed and a movable base plate 3 that is arranged above the fixed base plate 2. On the fixed base plate 2, there is a lower surface plate 4 that holds and holds the lower glass substrate a. An upper surface plate 5 for adsorbing and holding the upper glass substrate b is provided below the movable base plate 3.

The movable base plate 3 arranged above the fixed base plate 2 is engaged with the guide rails 7 fixed to the four support columns 6 constituting the machine frame 1 and slidable in the vertical direction. It is mounted so as to be movable up and down via a movable base plate 3, and two hanging rods 9 are arranged and erected on the upper surface of the movable base plate 3 in a substantially rectangular plane shape, and the upper ends of the hanging rods 9 are connected by a connecting plate 10. A spring 12 is elastically mounted between the horizontal rod 11 and the connecting plate 10 on the hanging rod 9 which is connected and penetrates the horizontal rod 11 passed between the columns 6, so that the movable base plate 3 is at its own weight. It is supported not to descend to bottom dead center. Further, an air cylinder 13 is used as a drive source for forcibly pushing down and pressurizing the movable base plate 3, and the air cylinder 13 is fixed to the horizontal rod 11 by being suspended and fixed at the tip of the expansion rod 13 '. The plate 3 is pressed.

The lower surface plate 4 mounted on the fixed base plate 2 includes a lower member 14 that slides on the fixed base plate 2 in the Y direction, and an upper member 15 that is mounted on the lower member 14 and horizontally rotates. The lower member 14 is slidably supported via an engaging body 17 that engages with two parallel guide rails 16 fixed upright on the fixed base plate 2. The upper member 15 rotatably supported by the lower member 14 is supported via a bearing 18.

The upper platen 5, which is attached to the lower side of the movable base plate 3 so as to be movable and adjustable in the X direction, includes a metal platen body 19 having a rectangular planar shape, a base plate 21, a cushioning material 22, and a thin plate. 23 and the buffer structure plate 20 integrally joined together. The cushioning structure plate 20 is formed by sticking a cushioning material 22 made of silicon sponge having a predetermined thickness (for example, 3 mm) on the surface of a base plate 21 made of a flat metal plate without warping and bending, leaving the outer peripheral edge of the base plate 21. A frame 24 having the same height as the cushioning material 22 is fixed to the base plate 21 along the outer periphery of the cushioning material 22 at the outer peripheral edge portion thereof, and a thin plate 23 is attached to the surface of the cushioning material 22. The outer peripheral edge of the thin plate 23 is formed by being fixed to the upper surface of the frame body 24 with an adhesive.

The thin plate 23 to be attached to the surface of the cushioning material 22 is a stainless thin plate having a plate thickness of 30 μ to 100 μ, preferably 50 μ, and is molded into substantially the same shape as the base plate 21, and the peripheral edge of the thin plate 23 is formed. It is fixed to the upper surface of the peripheral edge 20 of the platen body 19 with an adhesive. A large number of suction holes 25 having a small diameter (for example, 3φ) are formed in the thickness direction while the base plate 21, the cushioning material 22, and the thin plate 23 are joined and integrated. Note that the arrangement of the suction holes is not limited to the illustrated form, and the point is to set so that the suction force is evenly generated on the surface of the thin plate 23.

Further, the buffer structure plate 20 in which the above three members are integrally joined is provided with a see-through portion 26 for aligning the marks of the upper and lower glass substrates a and b at each corner. Incidentally, the above-mentioned total of four see-through parts 26, each of which is two on a diagonal line, make a pair, and one set is used for the rough alignment mark and the other set is used for the fine alignment mark.

Next, a description will be given of the bonding of the glass substrates by the bonding apparatus A equipped with the above-mentioned surface plate. The lower glass substrate a is placed on the lower surface plate, and the upper surface of the lower surface plate 5 is placed on the upper side. This glass substrate b is sucked and held by the suction force generated by the suction holes 25 arranged in the thin plate 23, and the movable base plate 3 to which the upper surface plate 5 is attached is pushed down by the action of the air cylinder 13 so that the upper glass substrate b is moved. The lower surface plate 4 is brought into contact with the surface of the lower glass substrate a, and in that state, the upper surface plate 5 is moved in the X direction and the lower surface plate 4 is moved in the Y direction and the θ direction according to the detection data of the mark detecting means including the microscope and the camera. Adjust to adjust the upper and lower glass substrates roughly and finely. The above-mentioned mark alignment is performed by the see-through part 26 provided at the corner of the upper surface plate 5.

When the mark alignment is completed as described above, the movable base plate 3 is further pushed downward, the upper and lower glass substrates are pressed to crush the seal material c, and both are bonded together. At this time, the upper platen 5 has the cushioning material 22 attached to the base plate 21 as described above, the thin plate 23 is further attached to the surface of the cushioning material 22, and the edge of the thin sheet 23 is fixed to the frame 24 surrounding the cushioning material. Since it has the shock-absorbing structure plate 20 on the surface, the upper glass substrate b is pressed by the shock-absorbing material, so that even if the upper and lower glass substrates have uneven thickness (taper), The unevenness is absorbed by the buffer structure of the upper surface plate 5, and a uniform distributed load acts on the upper glass substrate b, and the sealing material c is uniformly crushed, and as a result, the gap between the upper and lower glass substrates is constant. Therefore, high-precision bonding is achieved.

[0022]

[Effect of device]

 Since the surface plate structure used in the device for laminating a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display according to the present invention is configured as described above, the upper and lower glass substrates are pressed through the buffer structure, and the glass substrate plate is thereby pressed. It is possible to absorb the uneven thickness (taper) and crush the sealing material uniformly. Therefore, it becomes possible to provide a surface plate of a bonding apparatus capable of realizing highly accurate bonding with a uniform gap between the upper and lower glass substrates. Moreover, since the peripheral edge of the thin plate attached to the surface of the cushioning material is fixed to the frame that is fixed to the base plate, there is no concern that the cushioning material will deform into a substantially rhombus even if the surface plate is moved in the horizontal direction. It moves together with the surface plate. Therefore, the glass substrate to be sucked and held can be made to follow the movement of the surface plate, and as a result, it is possible to perform the mark alignment of the upper and lower glass substrates at the same time, and the mark alignment and bonding work can be performed continuously. It becomes possible to do it.

Further, when the transparent portions are provided at the respective corners of the surface plate as in claim 2, it is possible to perform the mark alignment of the upper and lower glass substrates before the bonding by the surface plate, After the completion of the mark alignment, pressing can be applied as it is, and the attachment can be performed with a uniform load distribution. Therefore, it is possible to provide a surface plate capable of continuously performing mark matching and bonding while absorbing unevenness in plate thickness.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a laminating apparatus equipped with a surface plate according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view showing a cushioning structure board constituting a surface plate.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along line (3)-(3) of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a bonding operation of glass substrates by the above-mentioned platen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A ... Laminating device 2 ... Fixed base plate 3 ... Movable base plate 4 ... Lower surface plate 5 ... Upper surface plate 19 ... Metal surface plate body 20 ... Buffer structure plate 21 ... Base plate 22 ... Buffer material 23 ... Thin plate 24 ... Frame 25 … Suction hole 26… Transparent part

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Kiyoo Katagiri 2-9 Kandanishikicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Shin-Etsu Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A surface plate provided in a device for laminating a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display plate, wherein a cushioning material is attached to the surface of a base plate having a linear flat plate shape, and the cushioning material is provided along the outer periphery of the cushioning material. A frame body having the same height as the cushioning material is fixed to the base plate, and a thin plate is attached to the surface of the cushioning material, and the peripheral edge of the thin plate is fixed to the upper surface of the frame body. , And a plurality of small air intake holes are formed through the thin plate, and the air intake holes are connected to the air intake means of the surface plate main body on the surface of the metal surface plate main body so as to be detachably attached. Construction. 2. At each corner of the rectangular surface plate,
2. A platen structure in a device for laminating a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display plate according to claim 1, further comprising a see-through portion for aligning marks on the glass substrate.