The application is a U.S. National Phase Entry of International Application No. PCT/CN2016/072295 filed on Jan. 27, 2016, designating the United States of America and claiming priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201510600075.8 filed on Sep. 18, 2015. The present application claims priority to and the benefit of the above-identified applications and the above-identified applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a sealant coating nozzle and a sealant coating apparatus.
A liquid crystal panel of a Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) mainly comprises: a color filter substrate and an array substrate which are cell-aligned, as well as a liquid crystal layer filled between the color filter substrate and the array substrate.
The process of cell-aligning the color filter substrate and the array substrate that are prepared in advance is called as a “cell-aligning process”. The process comprises: dripping liquid crystal in a display region of one substrate, and uniformly coating sealant in a peripheral region of another substrate using a sealant coating apparatus; after the above processes are completed, cell-aligning the two substrates (opposite to each other), and curing the sealant to attach the two substrates and thus forming a liquid crystal cell.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a sealant coating nozzle, comprising a nozzle cavity, a nozzle opening communicated with the nozzle cavity, deformable inner films located in the nozzle cavity and driving apparatuses configured to drive the deformable inner films to deform in the nozzle cavity, wherein, a volume of the nozzle cavity is reduced by the deformable inner films in a first deformation state to extrude sealant in the nozzle cavity via the nozzle opening, and the volume of the nozzle cavity is increased by the deformable inner films in a second deformation state to suck the sealant at the nozzle opening into the nozzle cavity.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving apparatuses comprise at least an extruding driving apparatus and a sucking driving apparatus.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the nozzle opening is disposed at one end of the nozzle cavity, and an output side of the extruding driving apparatus and a corresponding deformable inner film are disposed at the other end opposite to the nozzle opening in the nozzle cavity; and an output side of the sucking driving apparatus and a corresponding deformable inner film are disposed along the side wall of the nozzle cavity.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the output side of the sucking driving apparatus and the corresponding deformable inner film are disposed close to the nozzle opening.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving apparatuses are bending deformable piezoelectric patches, the deformable inner films are attached to surfaces of the bending deformable piezoelectric patches and are deformed along with deformation of the bending deformable piezoelectric patches.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the sucking driving apparatus is disposed around the side wall of the nozzle cavity.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving apparatuses are linear displacement output stepmotors, and the deformable inner films are connected to output ends of the linear displacement output stepmotors.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving apparatuses are deformable piezoelectric patches, the deformable piezoelectric patches constitute the side wall of the nozzle cavity, the deformable inner films are attached to inside surfaces of the deformable piezoelectric patches and are deformed along with deformation of the deformable piezoelectric patches.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a cross section of the nozzle cavity is an equilateral but unequiangular hexagon.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a sealant coating apparatus, comprising a storage cavity, a power pushing part, at least one connecting conduit, the above described sealant coating nozzle and a control unit, wherein: the connecting conduit is connected to the storage cavity and the nozzle cavity of the sealant coating nozzle, and the connecting conduit is provided with a valve; the power pushing part is configured to push the sealant in the storage cavity into the nozzle cavity via the connecting conduit when the valve of the connecting conduit is opened; and the control unit is in signal communication with the driving apparatuses of the sealant coating nozzle, and is configured to control a deformed state of the deformed inner films of the sealant coating nozzle.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the above described sealant coating apparatus, when the driving apparatuses comprise at least an extruding driving apparatus and a sucking driving apparatus: the control unit is configured to output a first pulse signal to the extruding driving apparatus and periodically control the extruding control apparatus to drive the corresponding deformable inner film to be in the first deformation state; and output a second pulse signal to the sucking driving apparatus and periodically control the sucking control apparatus to drive the corresponding deformable inner film to be in the second deformation state.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the above described sealant coating apparatus, the first pulse signal and the second pulse signal have the same phase and same pulse width, each pulse width of the first pulse signal includes a first level rising stage, a second level rising stage and a first level falling stage which are arranged in sequence, and each pulse width of the second pulse signal includes a third level rising stage corresponding to the first level rising stage and the second level rising stage and a second level falling stage corresponding to the first level falling stage.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the above described sealant coating apparatus, the control unit is further in signal communication with the valve and the power pushing part, and is configured to output a third pulse signal to the valve, periodically controls the valve to open, outputs a fourth pulse signal to the power pushing part and periodically controls the power pushing part to push the sealant in the storage cavity into the nozzle cavity via the connecting conduit when the valve of the connecting conduit is opened, and a pulse interval stage of the fourth pulse signal is not overlapped with pulse interval stages of the first pulse signal and the second pulse signal.
In order to clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiments of the disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described in the following; it is obvious that the described drawings are only related to some embodiments of the disclosure and thus are not limitative of the disclosure.
1—air conduit; 2—storage cavity; 3—nozzle; 4—pipeline; 11—nozzle cavity; 21—nozzle opening; 31, 32a, 31b—deformable inner films; 41, 41a, 41b—bending deformable piezoelectric patches; 5a, 5b—linear displacement output stepmotors; 8—power pushing part; 9—connecting conduit; 10—valve; 12—stepmotor; 13—deformable piezoelectric patch; 14—sealant coating nozzle; 101a—first pulse signal; 101b—second pulse signal; 101d—fourth pulse signal.
In order to make objects, technical details and advantages of the embodiments of the disclosure apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiment will be described in a clearly and fully understandable way in connection with the drawings related to the embodiments of the disclosure. It is obvious that the described embodiments are just a part but not all of the embodiments of the disclosure. Based on the described embodiments herein, those skilled in the art can obtain other embodiment(s), without any inventive work, which should be within the scope of the disclosure.
One deficiency in the above process is that when the above sealant coating apparatus is used for coating sealant, a sealant throwing phenomenon often occurs, i.e., the sealant is dripped into a display region of the substrate, resulting in poor product.
In order to avoid the sealant throwing phenomenon in the sealant coating process and improve a product yield, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a sealant coating nozzle and a sealant coating apparatus.
In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure more apparent, the embodiments are listed below to describe the present disclosure in detail.
The sealant coating nozzle provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure comprises a nozzle cavity, a nozzle opening communicated with the nozzle cavity, deformable inner films located in the nozzle cavity and driving apparatuses configured for driving the deformable inner films to deform in the nozzle cavity. A volume of the nozzle cavity is reduced by the deformable inner films in a first deformation state to extrude the sealant in the nozzle cavity via the nozzle opening, and the volume of the nozzle cavity is increased by the deformable inner films in a second deformation state to suck the sealant on the nozzle opening into the nozzle cavity.
In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the deformation state of the deformable inner films in the nozzle cavity can be controlled by controlling the driving apparatuses. When the deformable inner films are in the first deformation state, the volume in the nozzle cavity is reduced, pressure intensity is increased, and the sealant is extruded via the nozzle opening; when the deformable inner films are in the second deformation state, the volume in the nozzle cavity is increased, the pressure intensity is reduced, and the sealant at the nozzle opening is sucked back. Therefore, the sealant will not be dripped on the substrate, such that the sealant throwing phenomenon is avoided and the product yield is improved.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving apparatuses comprise at least an extruding driving apparatus and a sucking driving apparatus. An output side of the extruding driving apparatus and a corresponding deformable inner film are disposed at the bottom of the nozzle cavity, and an output side of the sucking driving apparatus and a corresponding deformable inner film are disposed along the side wall of the nozzle inner cavity.
When the sealant in the nozzle cavity needs to be extruded, the deformable inner film corresponding to the extruding driving apparatus is controlled to be in the first deformation state to extrude the sealant; when the sealant in the nozzle cavity needs to be sucked, the deformable inner film corresponding to the sucking driving apparatus is controlled to be in the second deformation state to suck the sealant. Since the extruding and sucking of the sealant are performed by different driving apparatuses, only extrusion correction is needed for a pulse signal output from the extruding driving apparatus, such that precision of an extruded volume of the sealant is improved.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the output side of the sucking driving apparatus and the corresponding deformable inner film are disposed close to the nozzle opening. Therefore, the sucking effect of the sealant on the nozzle opening is improved.
For example, the sucking driving apparatus is disposed around the side wall of the nozzle cavity. Due to such arrangement, the volume of the nozzle cavity is changed more uniformly, and it is favorable to improve the sucking precision of the sealant on the nozzle opening and further improve the sucking effect.
As shown in
In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the bending deformable piezoelectric patches 41 are not limited to specific types, for example, common ceramic piezoelectric patches can be adopted. The bending deformable piezoelectric patches 41 have two deformation states, i.e., a bending arching state and a reset state. The deformation state of the deformable inner films 31 is consistent with that of the bending deformable piezoelectric patches 41. The volume of the nozzle cavity 11 is reduced by the deformable inner films 31 in the first deformation state, i.e., the bending arching state as shown in
Since the wall hanging resistance of the piezoelectric patches to the sealant is relatively large, in order to reduce the wall hanging resistance of the sealant, the deformable inner films 31 may be a thin film with high lubricity and low adhesion, such as teflon. The deformable inner films 31 can be attached or plated to the surfaces of the piezoelectric patches 41.
As shown in
As shown in
During sealant coating, high precision is required on the extruded volume of the sealant. In the present embodiment, the extruding and sucking of the sealant are respectively performed by different driving apparatuses, only extruding corrections are needed for the pulse signal output from the driving apparatus and the sucking correction is not needed, and compared with the embodiment as shown in
In another embodiment, as shown in
As shown in
For example, the side wall of the nozzle cavity 11 is an equilateral but unequiangular hexagonal side wall. By adopting the equilateral inner retracting design, the change of the volume in the nozzle cavity 11 is more uniform, such that the sucking precision of the sealant at the nozzle opening is improved and the sucking effect is further improved.
As shown in
The connecting conduit 9 is connected to the storage cavity 2 and the nozzle cavity 11 of the sealant coating nozzle 14, and the connecting conduit 9 is provided with a valve 10; the power pushing part 8 is configured to push the sealant in the storage cavity 2 into the nozzle cavity 11 via the connecting conduit 9 when the valve 10 of the connecting conduit 9 is opened; and the control unit is in signal communication with the driving apparatuses of the sealant coating nozzle 14, and is configured to control a deformed state of the deformed inner films of the sealant coating nozzle 14.
The sealant coating apparatus as shown in
In the present embodiment, one connecting conduit 9 is disposed. In other embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the sealant coating apparatus of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit controls the deformation state of the deformable inner films in the nozzle cavity by controlling the driving apparatuses. When the deformable inner films are in the first deformation state, the volume of the nozzle cavity is reduced and the sealant is extruded via the nozzle opening; when the deformable inner films are in the second deformation state, the volume in the nozzle cavity is increased, the intensity of pressure is reduced, and the sealant on the nozzle opening is sucked back. By adopting the sealant coating apparatus to coat the sealant, the sealant will not be dripped on the substrate, such that the sealant throwing phenomenon is avoided and the product yield is improved.
For example, with respect to the sealant coating apparatus as shown in
The extruding and sucking of the sealant are performed by respective driving apparatuses; only extrusion corrections are needed for the first pulse signal output to the extruding driving apparatus, such that the precision of the extruded volume of the sealant is improved.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the first level rising stage and the second level rising stage (stage t1-t2) of the first pulse signal 101a, the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41a is bent and arched to extrude the sealant, meanwhile, the bending deformable piezoelectric path 41b is slowly deformed to generate certain buffering to the rapid reduction of the volume in the nozzle cavity, such that a stable sealant extruding rate of the nozzle is ensured; in the first level falling stage of the first pulse signal 101a (stage t2-t3), the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41a and the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41b are rapidly reset, and the sealant on the nozzle opening is sucked under the main action of the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41b.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit is further in signal communication with the valve and the power pushing part, and is configured to output a third pulse signal to the valve, periodically open the valve, output a fourth pulse signal (referring to the fourth pulse signal 101d in
One working circulation process of the sealant coating apparatus as shown in
The valve 10 is opened, the power pushing part 8 pushes the sealant in the storage cavity 2 into the nozzle cavity 11 through the connecting conduit and then the valve 10 is closed;
The height of the sealant coating nozzle 14 relative to the substrate is adjusted;
The bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41a generates bending arching deformation to extrude the sealant, wherein in this process, the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41b also generates slow bending arching deformation to keep a sealant extruding rate of the nozzle stable;
After a single extruding of the sealant is finished, the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41b is reset, such that the sealant is sucked from the nozzle opening 21, and the bending deformable piezoelectric patch 41a is also reset (
The above are only the model implementation ways of the present disclosure, and not used to limit the scope of protection of the present disclosure, the scope of protection of the present disclosure is determined by the attached claims.
The present application claims the priority of the Chinese Patent Application No. 201510600075.8 filed on Sep. 18, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference as part of the disclosure of the present application.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2015 1 0600075 | Sep 2015 | CN | national |
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PCT/CN2016/072295 | 1/27/2016 | WO | 00 |
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WO2017/045330 | 3/23/2017 | WO | A |
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