Patent Application
20220344077
This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. CN202110463054.1 filed on Apr. 27, 2021 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of manufacturing flexible flat cable, and more particularly, to a hot pressing machine and method for continuously hot pressing the flexible flat cable.
In the prior art, during production of a flexible flat cable, it is necessary to clamp the conductor of the flexible flat cable between two insulating layers and fill insulating glue between the two insulating layers to fix the conductor and the insulating layer together. In order to cure the insulation glue while holding the conductor in place, the flexible flat cable needs to be heated and pressurized (hereinafter referred to as “hot pressing”). Curing the insulating glue requires the flexible flat cable to stand for a long time, usually half an hour, which makes it difficult to carry out continuous hot pressing on the flexible flat cable in an automatic way. The longer the curing time, the longer the travel distance of the automatic production line, and the larger the size of the hot pressing machine is required to accommodate the longer travel distance of the automatic production line. This not only leads to the high manufacturing cost of the hot pressing machine, but also to the large floor area of the hot pressing machine, which is not expected by the manufacturers of flexible flat cables. Therefore, at present, the flexible flat cable can only be hot pressed manually.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a hot pressing machine for continuously hot pressing a flexible flat cable includes a plurality of hot pressing units arranged at intervals along a feeding direction of the flexible flat cable. A central controller of the machine is operably connected to the plurality of hot pressing units and is configured to control the plurality of hot pressing units to synchronously hot press the flexible flat cable located in the plurality of hot pressing units.
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying Figures, of which:
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
According to a general concept of the present invention, there is provided a hot pressing machine for continuously hot pressing a flexible flat cable. The hot pressing machine comprises of: a plurality of hot pressing units arranged at intervals along a feeding direction of the flexible flat cable; and a central controller operably connected to the plurality of hot pressing units and configured to control the plurality of hot pressing units to synchronously hot press the flexible flat cable located in the plurality of hot pressing units.
The number of hot pressing units 101 is not limited to four. The number of hot pressing units 101 can be set according to the actual needs of the length of the flexible flat cable 200, the curing time of the insulating adhesive, the floor area, etc., that is, the number of hot pressing units 101 can be more than four or less than four. These discrete hot pressing units 101 should be the same, have the same operating parameters and can realize the same operating functions. By setting a plurality of discrete and identical hot pressing units 101, it is possible to avoid designing the hot pressing machine 100 as a single large and complex machine, so that the automation of continuous hot pressing of the flexible flat cable 200 can be realized with a simple mechanical structure.
In order to unify the operation of the hot pressing unit 101, the central controller (not shown in the figure) of the hot pressing machine 100 is operably connected to the plurality of hot pressing units 101 and is configured such that the plurality of hot pressing units 101 synchronously hot press the flexible flat cable 200 located in each of the plurality of hot pressing units 101. The flexible flat cable 200 is divided into a first part 201 and a second part 202 arranged alternately at intervals from each other, as shown in
In order to ensure that all parts of the flexible flat cable 200 can be hot pressed, the spacing along the feeding direction D between adjacent hot pressing units 101 is usually equal to or slightly less than the length along the feeding direction D of a single hot pressing unit 101, so that the length of the second part 202 is equal to or slightly less than the length of the first part 201. This ensures that the adjacent section between the first part 201 and the second part 202 can always be hot pressed.
As shown in
In order to ensure that all parts of the flexible flat cable 200 can be hot pressed, each of the first reverse roller 104 and the second reverse roller 105 is separated from the adjacent hot pressing unit 101 by a distance equal to half the length of the second part 202. That is, a distance between the first reverse roller 104 and the hot pressing unit 101 adjacent to the first reverse roller 104 is equal to half the length of the second part 202; and a distance between the second reverse roller 105 and the hot pressing unit 101 adjacent to the second reverse roller 105 is equal to half the length of the second part 202.
As shown in
The hot pressing controller 1012 is also configured to adjust the control curve by adjusting one or more of the following parameters: preheating time, curing time, cooling time, curing temperature, etc.
The method for continuously hot pressing the flexible flat cable 200 based on this principle includes:
feeding the flexible flat cable 200 into the hot pressing machine 100, which includes a plurality of hot pressing units 101 arranged along the feeding direction D of the flexible flat cable 200 and spaced from each other;
synchronously hot pressing the first part 201 of the flexible flat cable 200 located in each of the plurality of hot pressing units 101 with the plurality of hot pressing units 101;
after performing synchronous hot pressing on the first parts 201, moving the second parts 202 of the flexible flat cable 200 between two adjacent hot pressing units 101 in the plurality of hot pressing units 101 into the corresponding hot pressing units 101 to perform synchronous hot pressing on the second parts 202; and
removing the flexible flat cable 200 from the hot pressing machine 100.
The step of feeding the flexible flat cable 200 comprises feeding the flexible flat cable 200 is fed into the hot pressing machine 100 through the input roller 102 located at the input side 300 of the hot pressing machine 100. Subsequently, the flexible flat cable 200 moving toward the output side 400 enters the hot pressing machine 100 in a direction opposite to the feeding direction D through the first reverse roller 104 located at the output side 400 of the hot pressing machine 100, and travels to the input side 300. Next, the flexible flat cable 200 moving toward the input side 300 enters the hot pressing machine 100 along the feeding direction D through the second reverse roller 105 located at the input side 300 of the hot pressing machine 100, and travels to the output side 400. Finally, the flexible flat cable 200 is output from the hot pressing machine 100 through the output roller 103 located at the output side 400 of the hot pressing machine 100.
In the step of synchronously hot pressing the first parts 201 and/or the second parts 202, the pressure applied by the hot pressing plate 1011 of the hot pressing machine 100 is controlled based on a predetermined control curve describing the relationship between temperature and time.
In addition, those areas in which it is believed that those of ordinary skill in the art are familiar, have not been described herein in order not to unnecessarily obscure the invention described. Accordingly, it has to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrative embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.
It should be appreciated for those skilled in this art that the above embodiments are intended to be illustrated, and not restrictive. For example, many modifications may be made to the above embodiments by those skilled in this art, and various features described in different embodiments may be freely combined with each other without conflicting in configuration or principle.
Although several exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
As used herein, an element recited in the singular and proceeded with the word “a” or “an” should be understood as not excluding plural of the elements or steps, unless such exclusion is explicitly stated. Furthermore, references to “one embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, embodiments “comprising” or “having” an element or a plurality of elements having a particular property may include additional such elements not having that property.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202110463054.1 | Apr 2021 | CN | national |
