The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical display device. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical display device which allows for eliminating a linear deformation generated on a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer at a time of detecting a front edge of a sheet of optical functional film peeled from a carrier film by decreasing initial speed in laminating a sheet of optical functional film with a rectangular panel.
In recent years, in a manufacturing scene of optical display devices, a manufacturing apparatus and a method of Roll-to-Panel (RTP) are employed (for example, Patent Document 1). In the RTP method, generally, an optical display device is manufactured as follows. First, a band of optical film laminate having a predetermined width is fed from a roll. The band of optical film laminate is configured as including a band of carrier film, a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on one of opposite surfaces of the carrier film, and an optical film supported on the carrier film via the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer. The optical film may be a single-layered or multi-layered film. On the band of optical film laminate fed from the roll, slit lines are continuously formed in a width-wise direction to form sheets of optical functional film between adjacent slit lines.
Among the sheets of optical functional film continuously supported on the carrier film, generally, the sheets which do not have defect or defects are peeled with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer from the carrier film by a peeling means arranged near a laminating position, and fed to the laminating position. Each of the sheets of optical functional film reached to the laminating position is laminated with a face to be laminated of a corresponding panel member separately conveyed to the laminating position by a laminating means having a pair of upper and lower lamination rollers.
At the peeling means having a tip end facing the laminating position, a carrier film side of the optical film laminate is covered on the tip end of the substantially wedge-shaped peeling means. The sheet of optical functional film is peeled together with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer from the carrier film as the carrier film covered on the peeling means is folded over and conveyed to a direction substantially opposite to a conveying direction of the sheet of optical functional film being conveyed toward the laminating position. In the present specification, a position of the apparatus where the sheet of optical functional film is peeled from the carrier film is referred as a peeling position, and the peeling position exists near the tip end of the peeling means.
In such RTP system, the sheet of optical functional film on the carrier film may be fed to the laminating position with the panel member, with its posture deviated from the ideal one. In this case, it is necessary to laminate the panel member with the sheet of optical functional film after correcting (also referred as “aligning”) the posture of the panel member depending on a deviation condition of the sheet of optical functional film. In order to determine the posture of the sheet of optical functional film required for this correction, a front edge of the sheet of optical functional film before lamination is detected by taking an image thereof using an imaging means such as an optical camera, for example. In detecting the front edge, it is preferable to detect it when a front part, in the conveying direction, of the sheet of optical functional film is peeled from the carrier film and the front edge is between the peeling position and the laminating position (for example, Patent Document 2). In the present specification, a length of the sheet of optical functional film peeled from the carrier film for detecting the front edge is referred as a head-out length.
In the apparatus having a configuration in which the front edge of the sheet of optical functional film is detected when the front edge is at a detecting position between the peeling position and the laminating position, the sheet of optical functional film is peeled by the head-out length, and when the front edge reaches the detecting position, the conveyance of the carrier film is stopped. At this point, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is peeled together with the sheet of optical functional film from the carrier film, from the front edge to a position corresponding to the head-out length, and from such position to a rear edge, it is in a state still laminated to the carrier film.
When the conveyance is stopped in such head-out state, a linear deformation is generated on a surface of the carrier film side of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer at a part corresponding to the peeling position when being stopped.
The present invention aims to provide a method for manufacturing an optical display device which allows for appropriately correcting a linear deformation generated on a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer when laminating an optical functional film with a panel member without sacrificing time necessary for laminating a sheet of the optical functional film with the panel member as the best one can.
In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides, in one aspect thereof, a method for manufacturing an optical display device from a band of optical film laminate including a carrier film, a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on one of opposite surfaces of the carrier film and a plurality of sheets of optical functional film continuously supported on the carrier film via the pressure-sensitive adhesive layers by peeling the sheet of optical functional film together with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer from the carrier film of the band of optical film laminate, and laminating the peeled sheet of optical functional film with a corresponding one of panel members at a laminating position.
The method comprises steps of peeling the sheet of optical functional film together with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer from the carrier film by conveying the carrier film, with the carrier film being folded over at a tip end of a peeling body arranged at a position facing the laminating position, and when the sheet of optical functional film is peeled by a predetermined head-out length from a front edge, stopping conveyance of the carrier film for detecting the front edge. When the conveyance of the carrier film is stopped for detecting the front edge, that is, when the sheet of optical functional film is stopped in a head-out state, the linear deformation as shown in
The present invention further comprises steps of, after the detection of the front edge, conveying the carrier film for making the front edge of the sheet of optical functional film proceed to the laminating position, and laminating the sheet of optical functional film with the panel member.
The step of laminating the sheet of optical functional film with the panel member comprises laminating from the front edge to a predetermined position upstream of the head-out length on the sheet of optical functional film with the panel member at a first lamination speed being as the maximum speed, and laminating at least a part from the predetermined position to a rear edge of the sheet of optical functional film with the panel member at a second lamination speed faster than the first lamination speed. The linear deformation generated on the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer in the step of detecting the front edge may be appropriately corrected by laminating the sheet of optical functional film with the panel member up to the predetermined position which is a position on the upstream side of where the deformation exists at the first speed slower than the second speed. The phrase, the linear deformation is “appropriately corrected” in the present specification refers not only a state where the linear deformation of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is completely corrected (a state where a height of the deformation is zero), but also a state where the deformation is corrected to an extent that it may not be recognized as defect or defects on an image of the optical display device in an inspection of a post-process.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the predetermined position is a position spaced for 50 mm to 200 mm from the front edge of the sheet of optical functional film, the first lamination speed is 2 mm/second to 100 mm/second, and waiting time from when the conveyance of the carrier film for detecting the front edge is stopped to when the conveyance of the carrier film is restarted after detection is 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
In the following, embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
The continuous manufacturing device 1 operates as in the followings. First, a band of optical film laminate F′ is fed from a roll 11. The optical film laminate F′ is made by laminating the band of optical functional film F′ on the band of a carrier film F3 via the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2. Then, slit lines CL which depth reaches to the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 are formed on the optical film laminate F′ in a width-wise direction of the optical film laminate F′ at a slitting part 15 comprising a cutter provided on the way in a conveyance channel (this operation is also referred as “half-cut”). The optical film laminate F is thus made by forming slit lines CL on the optical film laminate F′. In another embodiment, an optical film laminate with preliminarily formed slit lines CL may also be used. In this case, the slitting part 15 is unnecessary.
The optical film laminate F is fed to a laminating part 20 via feed rollers 13 and 17 which feed films, dancing rollers 14 and 18 which adjust feeding speed of the films, a removing part (not shown) which removes sheets of optical film laminate having defect or defects etc. as needed.
On the other hand, the panel member W, which is an adherend to which the sheet of optical functional film F1 is laminated, is fed one by one from a magazine (not shown), where a plurality of panel members W, for example, are contained, and conveyed by a conveying means 30 such as a roller conveyer, for example. Posture of the panel member W is detected by a panel position detecting means 33 at an aligning part 32, and after the posture is corrected (aligned) depending on a deviation condition of the sheet of optical functional film F1, the panel member W is fed to the laminating part 20.
At the laminating part 20, the sheet of optical functional film F1 is peeled together with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 from the carrier film F3 by a peeling means 21. The peeled sheet of optical functional film F1 is laminated with the panel member W by lamination rollers 23 and 24. The carrier film F3, after the sheet of optical functional film F1 and the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 are peeled therefrom, is wound by a winding means 40. A panel laminate P, in which the sheet of optical functional film F1 is laminated with the panel member W, is carried out from the laminating part 20 by the conveying means 30.
Next, operations at the laminating part 20 are described with reference to
The laminating part 20 comprises, as shown in
As shown in
Next, as shown in
In the present specification, a position on the apparatus where the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 is separated from the carrier film F3 near the tip end 22 of the peeling means 21 is referred as a peeling position RP, and a length of the sheet of optical functional film F1 from the front edge FA to a position corresponding to the peeling position RP is referred as a head-out length d1. In the continuous manufacturing apparatus 1, distance from the tip end 22 of the peeling means 21 to the laminating position 26 is often designed to be generally about 20 mm to about 50 mm so that any hanging of the peeled sheet of optical functional film F1 may not be generated. Therefore, the head-out length d1 of the sheet of optical functional film F1 for detecting the front edge FA is set shorter than 50 mm, and it is preferable to set the length shorter than 20 mm.
After the front edge FA is detected by the front edge detecting means 25, driving of the winding means 40 is restarted. When the carrier film F3 is started to be conveyed again along with the restart of the driving of the winding means 40, rest part of the sheet of optical functional film F1 which has been headed out is peeled together with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 from the carrier film F3. As shown in
With the front edge FA of the sheet of optical functional film F1 (more specifically, a front edge of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 corresponding to the front edge FA) being contacted with the panel member W by the face to be laminated, the sheet of optical functional film F1 and the panel member W are pressed by the lamination rollers 23 and 24, and the sheet of optical functional film F1 and the panel member W are laminated along with rotations of the lamination rollers 23 and 24 (
When the conveyance is stopped with the sheet of optical functional film F1 being headed out by the head-out length d1, and the detection of the front edge FA is being performed (
In the present invention, the above problem can be solved in laminating the sheet of optical functional film F1 with the panel member W by correcting the deformation D of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer which is generated during the waiting time for detecting the front edge FA. Specifically, in the present invention, the deformation D of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer can be corrected by laminating a part from the front edge FA of the sheet of optical functional film F1 to at least a predetermined position FC (refer to
The length d2 from the front edge FA to the predetermined position FC is set to be longer than the head-out length d1 of the sheet of optical functional film F1 at the time of detecting the front edge FA. That is, the predetermined position FC on the sheet of optical functional film F1 is a position upstream (at a rear edge FB side) of the head-out length d1 of the sheet of optical functional film F1 in the conveying direction. It is preferable that the predetermined position FC is at a position spaced for at least 50 mm from the front edge FA of the sheet of optical functional film F1, considering each of diameters of the lamination rollers 23 and 24, and size of the face to be laminated which is formed by deformation of the lamination rollers 23 and 24 at the time of lamination. On the other hand, it is sufficient if the predetermined position FC is at a position spaced for at most 200 mm from the front edge FA of the sheet of optical functional film F1, even when the head-out length d1 of the sheet of optical functional film F1 is long.
It is considered that the deformation D of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is appropriately corrected by being pressed with a pressing force in laminating the sheet of optical functional film F1 with the panel member W using the lamination rollers 23 and 24. Therefore, from a standpoint of correcting the deformation of the pressure-sensitive adhesive, the slower first lamination speed v1 is preferable so that the pressing force may be applied for a long time on the deformed part, but if it is too slow, time required for lamination becomes long, and production volume of the optical display device per unit time becomes less. In the present invention, it is preferable that the first lamination speed v1 is 2 mm/second to 100 mm/second such that the deformation D may be corrected to an extent that it may not be recognized as defect/defects on an image displayed in the optical display device in an inspection of a post-process. If the first speed v1 is set faster than 100 mm/second, the pressing force by the lamination rollers 23, 24 may be released from the deformed part before the deformation D of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is appropriately corrected. However, depending on a thickness of the optical functional film F1, since there may be a case where no defect is recognized on the image even when lamination is performed at a speed faster than 100 mm/second, it is preferable that the first speed v1 is determined based on a relationship with the thickness of the film F1.
As shown in
Examples and Comparative Examples of the present invention are described in the followings.
It is found from
Examples 1, 3 to 7 are inspection results of when a film (F1+F2) consisting of the optical functional film F1 and the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer F2 having a total thickness of 135 μm is laminated with the panel member W, and Example 2 is an inspection result when a film (F1+F2) having a thickness of 175 μm is laminated with the panel member W, and no linear deformation D of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer was visually recognized in any of them.
Comparative Examples 1, 2 and 5 are results when the film (F1+F2) having the same thickness as that of Examples 1, 3 and 7 is used, and Comparative Examples 3 and 4 are results when the film (F1+F2) having the same thickness as that of Example 2 is used. As shown in Comparative Examples 1 and 3, when the lamination from the front edge FA to the rear edge FB is performed at an identical fast speed (200 mm/second), the linear deformation D of the pressure-sensitive layer F2 was recognized. In addition, as shown in Comparative Examples 2, 4 and 5, when the length d2 from the front edge FA to the predetermined position FC is the same as the head-out length d1 (20 mm or 50 mm), the linear deformation D of the pressure-sensitive layer F2 was recognized even if the lamination up to the predetermined position FC was performed at low speed (50 mm/second).
Further, Reference Example is a result when a visual inspection similar to that of Comparative Example is performed using a film (F1+F2) having a thickness of 280 μm. With a film having such level of thickness, it is found as that the linear deformation D is not recognized even if the lamination is performed at a fast speed from the front edge FA.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2016-076285 | Apr 2016 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2017/010611 | 3/16/2017 | WO | 00 |