DE3725007A1 - Multiplate press for producing laminates under low pressure - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a multiplate press for producing laminates under low pressure having a multiplate device which has a plurality of plates, which are arranged vertically one above the other, for the respective reception of a stack of sheets between adjacent plates, respectively adjacent plates being movable with respect to one another and the multiplate device being arranged in a sealed-off low pressure chamber which preferably has an inlet and outlet, which can preferably be closed off by means of a door, for loading and unloading the stack of sheets and/or the laminates, an inflatable seal being preferably arranged in each case around the inlet and outlet apertures, which, in the condition in which the doors are closed, is to be made to engage with the door after inflation, the seals not engaging with the door in question in the non-inflated condition. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a multi-plate press for Manufacture of laminates under negative pressure.

For the production of laminates such as ins especially used for electrical circuits it is known from US-PS 39 60 635 and 42 34 373, a stack of sheet-like or thin-layered (possibly  by impregnation or the like. pretreated) material to press between a pair of plates under negative pressure. A single pair of plates is used. A Seal is between the peripheral sections of the Panels arranged around a sealed intermediate create space in which a stack of sheets under sub pressure can be pressed into a laminate. This out In this respect, education and working methods have been an advantage exposed when she allowed the laminate to press under reduced pressure and thus one greater precision of the laminate obtained Obtain thickness while maintaining an undesirable air Inclusion in the laminate in the form of bubbles through the bottom pressure is prevented. With this previously known device however, is only a single stack of sheets at a time to press. Accordingly, there is laborious work involved associated with the seal each time a Attach or stack sheets to make a laminate to have to remove when removing the laminate, so that this device for making large laminate quantities is unsuitable.

This also applies if the seal mentioned above technology is used in a multi-plate press, such as it is disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,396,451, each two adjacent plates by means of a seal create a sealed space. Because actually the inconvenience of the entrance can be seen Written prior art multiplied when they is applied to a multi-plate press, because the An number of steps to attach and remove you tion elements grows accordingly. It is also at such a multi-plate press with a separate  Seal for each pair of adjacent plates most likely that there are critical differences to the extent of the negative pressure for different plate pairs or sealed intermediate created between them comes so that the laminates to be produced differently sized negative pressure are manufactured and accordingly differences in their characteristic properties have shafts.

The object of the present invention is accordingly based on the well-known presses for making lami naten under vacuum while avoiding its disadvantages to improve, and to create a press with which at the same time a larger number of laminates among the same vacuum conditions in a single work is to produce a run.

This object is achieved according to the invention by the characterizing features of claim 1. With this Training can be seen several stacks of sheets the same in time under the same negative pressure in a single area press to laminate.

The sealed chamber preferably has an inlet, through which several stacks of sheets between each adjacent plates of the multi-plate device are to be loaded, as well as an outlet for unloading the ferti laminates from the chamber. The inlet and the Outlet preferably provided with doors that in sealing A reached with the circumference of the inlet or outlet if the doors are closed. Is preferred the inlet and the outlet each with an inflatable  Seal provided around the scope of the concerned Opening extends and with a source of one under pressure standing fluid is connected. If the Doors are closed, the inflatable seals inflated by the pressurized fluid and thus in sealing contact with the corresponding door brought to an effective vacuum seal of the To achieve chamber. To the seals when opening the doors disengaging them will create pressure from the deflated seals so that the doors are closed are open, while in the closed state there is an effect same vacuum seal is present.

The sealed chamber is preferably with multiple sub pressure connections or ventilation openings that are distributed around the walls of the chamber, so that the air inside the chamber after several or essentially all directions from the chamber can be suctioned off. Such a construction leads to gentle air currents that in turn cause it not to an unwanted and harmful leakage of Resin or the like from the sheet material or the ge manufactured laminates comes.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in subclaims.

The invention is illustrated below continue with reference to a drawing purifies. It shows:  

Fig. 1 is a front view of a device according to the Invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device;

Fig. 3 is a side view of a sealed chamber with an inlet door;

Fig. 4 is a side view showing one side of the inlet door with its sliding mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a side view showing the opposite side of the inlet door with the sliding mechanism for the door;

Fig. 6 is a cross-section through a seal provided on the sealed chamber door;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of some laminate backing, as well as this particular traction means;

Figure 8 is a schematic plan view of the sealed chamber (in a reduced view) with an evacuation system connected to it. and

Fig. 9 is a schematic front view of the abge compacted chamber ge in a representation Mäss Fig. 8.

Figs. 1 and 2 show an apparatus according to the invention for producing a laminate under reduced pressure for electric tric circuits or other uses. Before the device consists of a charging station A , a main press station B , an auxiliary press station C and an Ent loading station D , which are arranged in the order mentioned along a transport line L.

The charging station A has a loading frame 10 with a number of vertically superposed floors 11 , which are supported by a cylinder 12 and are movable up and down by this. The loading frame 10 is raised in steps from its lowermost position to the uppermost position, with each of these steps comprising a stack consisting of sheet-like or thin-layer material from an adjacent conveyor (not shown) arranged upstream of the loading station A to the corresponding level of Floor 11 is given, namely together with a plate-shaped carrier 2nd The carrier 2 , which can only be seen in Fig. 7, is used through the entire transport line to carry the sheet or layer stack as well as the resulting laminate 1 . It consists of heat-resistant, stainless steel, is compatible with the pressure plates used in station C and has hooks 3 at its ends. Downstream of the loading rack 10 is a Einstoßeinrichtung 20 is arranged, which the transport line L is longitudinally movable back and forth to the carrier 2 to run into each level of the charging stand 10 with Einstoßenden 21 of Einstoßeinrichtung 20 forward, and the sheet stack for found on the carriers 2 Main press station B to move forward.

The main press station B has a multi-plate press 30 and a sealed chamber 40 which surrounds or encloses the main part of the press 30 . The multi-plate press 30 has a plurality of vertically one above the other arranged plates 31 which are arranged between an upper frame plate 32 and a lower frame plate 33 . The lower frame plate 33 is connected to tappets 36 of various cylinders 35 , so that they can thereby be driven or moved up and down. The plates 31 are provided in order to receive the sheet 2 located on the supports 2 from the charging station A between two mutually adjacent plates. The plates 31 are movably supported by a frame 34 to compress the sheet stack at a suitable pressure between neighboring plates 31 when the lower frame plate 33 is pressed upward. During this pressing process, heat is supplied in individual plates 31 through lines 39 from various collectors 38 in order to press the stack of sheets into laminates at a suitable elevated temperature.

The sealed chamber 40 is surrounded by opposite side walls 41 and end walls 42 and is provided with a ceiling 43 on its upper side and a bottom 44 on its lower side. Abutting walls of chamber 40 are sealingly connected to each other to make chamber 40 airtight. The upper end of each cylinder 35 extends through the bottom 44 into the interior of the chamber 40 in sealed engagement therewith so that the plunger or piston rod 36 of each cylinder 35 , that is to say the movable part thereof, is arranged overall within the sealed chamber 40 . With the interior of the sealed chamber 40 is a vacuum pump 4, which evacuated the air from the sealed chamber 40 to a predetermined negative pressure value, for example. To 100 Torr (66 cmHg), so that the production of the laminate may take place under vacuum.

In the opposite end walls 42 inlet and outlet openings 45 are formed (of which only one opening can be seen in the drawing) in order to feed the sheet stack to the press 30 and to be able to load it into the sealed chamber 40 or so that it can to transfer the held laminate to the auxiliary press station C. The inlet and outlet openings 45 are to be closed by doors 50 and 51, respectively, which are slidably supported on the outer sides of the opposite end walls 42 . Since the doors 50 and 51 are of identical design, only the inlet door 50 with the associated parts is shown in FIGS . 3 to 5. As can be seen in these drawing figures, the entrance door 50 is slidably held at its upper end by an upper rail 46 such that it is loosely engaged with a guide projection 55 in a groove of the upper rail 46 , while the lower end of the door 50 rests on a lower rail 47 . On the end wall 42 of the chamber 40 , a door drive 52 is arranged adjacent to the upper rail 46 with a horizontally extending actuating rod 53 , at the distal end of which the upper end of the door 50 is fastened by means of a tab 54 . The actuating rod 53 is supplied with energy by the door drive 52 , which can be an electric motor or a hydraulic cylinder, in order to move the door between an open position and a closed position. A collar 56 projects from the lower end of the door 50 , on which rollers 57 are arranged, which are in rolling engagement with the lower rail 47 . The lowermost end portion of the collar 56 is also in rolling engagement with a series of guide rollers 48 , each of which is attached to the lower rail 47 and rotatable about a vertical axis.

Both the inlet opening and the outlet opening 45 are completely surrounded by an inflatable seal 60 which is arranged along a U-shaped holder 64 on the outside of the corresponding end wall 42 of the chamber 40 in order to seal it when the doors 50 and 51 are closed . The inflatable seal 60 , which can be designed, for example, as it is marketed under the name "Inflato-seal" by the company Japan Bulker KK, consists of an elastomer, namely an essentially quite angled hollow cross-sectional shape with a solid bottom 61 , an elastic head bead 62 and a flange 63 which extends laterally from the bottom 61 according to FIG. 6. The seal 60 is held by the holder 64 , the flange 63 being clamped between an insert 65 and the bottom 64 of the holder, so that only the head bead 62 is elastically deformable to provide a sealing engagement with the corresponding door 50 or 51, respectively cause. The holder 64 , which holds the seal 60 is attached to the ent speaking end wall 42 by rivets which extend through openings 66 of the insert 65 and the bottom of the holder 64 .

The interior of the inflatable seal 60 communicates with a compressed air source (not shown) via a control means (also not shown) so that it can be inflated by a fluid or the fluid can be released from the seal. If the seal is inflated by inflowing air, for example to 1.5 to 2.0 kg / cm ² , the head bead 62 is brought into sealing engagement with the corresponding surface of the closed door 50 or 51 , via the outside of the end wall 42 to completely seal the chamber 40 . Before opening the doors 50 and 51 , the seal 60 is vented under appropriate pressure reduction in order to disengage from the door 50 and 51 and to create a sufficiently large free space that enables the door 50 and 51 to be opened . As can not be seen in detail from the drawing, the holder 64 consists of four straight segments and four angular corner segments and extends in a rather angular arrangement over the roller length of the seal 60 .

As can be seen from FIGS. 8 and 9, the chamber 40 is provided on its side walls 41 with a plurality of ventilation openings 49 , which are connected to the vacuum pump 4 via lines 4 a . The vent openings 49 are distributed horizontally (see FIG. 8) and vertically (see FIG. 9) in such a way that the air inside the sealed chamber 40 is essentially uniformly through the vent openings 49 in flows directed in all corresponding directions is sucked off, resulting in a diverging or well-regulated gentle air flow within the chamber 40 during evacuation. This has been found to be extremely effective in order to prevent that an undesirable outflow of resin or the like occurs at the edge regions of the sheet-shaped or layered or possibly pre-impregnated material (when using so-called prepregs) during the production of the laminate .

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2, it should be noted that the auxiliary press station C , to which a batch of laminates formed is fed from the main press station B , is of identical design to the multi-plate press 30 and therefore one Has a plurality of superposed plates 71 , which are arranged between an upper frame plate 72 and a lower frame plate 73 . Each laminate is ejected together with its carrier 2 from the multi-plate press 30 to the corresponding level of the auxiliary press station C when the pusher 20 is moved forward and enters new stacks of sheets into the multi-plate press 30 from the loading frame 10 . At the auxiliary pressing station C , each laminate is held between two adjacent plates 71 without being subject to additional positive pressure, and is cooled down by cold water circulating in the plates.

The laminates are then transported to an unloading frame 80 of the unloading station D by actuating an unloader 90 which has a number of vertically aligned pull ends 91 , as shown schematically in FIG. 7. The unloader 90 moves backwards through the unloading frame 80 to the auxiliary pressing station C , where each of the pull ends 91 engages one of the end hooks 3 of a carrier 2 carrying a laminate 1 . Then, the unloader 90, the Entladegestells moved forward to the laminates 1 to the beams 2 at respective levels to retain 80, and continues to move to above the unloading rack 80 out upstream. It should be noted that the other end hook 3 of the carrier 2 is used to be pushed by the push-in end 21 of the Einoßein device 20 during the loading process of the sheet stack into the multi-plate press 30 from the loading frame 10 before.

Reference symbol list:

1 laminate
2 carriers (for 1 )
3 hooks (of 2 )
4 vacuum pump
4 a lines
10 loading frame
11 floors (out of 10 )
12 cylinders
20 push-in device
21 push-in ends (of 20 )
30 Multi-plate press
31 plates (from B)
32 upper frame plate (from B)
33 lower frame plate (from B)
34 frames
35 cylinders
36 plungers
38 collectors
39 lines
40 chamber
41 sidewalls (of 40 )
42 end walls (of 40 )
43 blanket
44 bottom
45 outlet opening (in 42 )
46 upper rail
47 bottom rail
48 leadership roles
49 vents (out of 40 )
50 door (inlet)
51 door (outlet)
52 door operator
53 operating rod
54 tab
55 Leadership
56 collar
57 rolls
60 seal
61 floors (of 60 )
62 head bead (of 60 )
63 flange (of 60 )
64 holders (for 60 )
65 use
66 through openings
71 plates (from C)
72 upper frame plate (from C)
73 lower frame plate (from C)
80 unloading rack
90 unloaders
91 Zugends (out of 90 )

A charging station
B main press station
C auxiliary press station
D unloading station
L transport line

Claims (4)

1. Multi-plate press for producing laminates under negative pressure, characterized by a multi-plate device ( 30 ) with a plurality of plates ( 31 ) arranged vertically one above the other for receiving a stack of sheets between adjacent plates ( 31 , 31 ), wherein at least one plate ( 31 ) is movable relative to the plate ( 31 ) adjacent to it in order to press a sheet stack between the adjacent plates ( 31 , 31 ) to form a laminate ( 1 );
a hermetically sealed chamber ( 40 ) in which the multi-plate device ( 30 ) is arranged;
and vacuum means ( 4 ) for generating vacuum inside the chamber ( 40 ). 2. Press according to claim 1, characterized in that the sealed chamber ( 40 ) has an inlet ( 45 ) and an outlet ( 45 ) through which adjacent plates ( 31 ) of the multi-plate device ( 30 ) with a sheet stack are to be loaded or the finished laminate ( 1 ) is to be discharged from the chamber ( 40 ), the inlet ( 45 ) and the outlet ( 45 ) each being provided with a door ( 50 and 51 ) which, when closed, in sealing engagement with the circumference of the corresponding inlet ( 45 ) or outlet ( 45 ) are to be kept. 3. Press according to claim 2, characterized in that the inlet ( 45 ) and the outlet ( 45 ) are each provided with an inflatable seal ( 60 ) which at one end on the circumference of the inlet ( 45 ) and the outlet ( 45 ), wherein the inflatable seals ( 60 ) are each connected to a source of pressurized fluid so that they are inflatable to have their other outer end in sealing engagement with the inlet and outlet ( 45 , 45 ) when they are supplied with pressure medium and the other end is to be disengaged from the corresponding door ( 50 or 51 ) when the pressurized fluid is released from the seal ( 60 ). 4. Press according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the chamber ( 40 ) is provided with a plurality of ventilation openings ( 49 ) for creating the negative pressure, which are distributed over the walls ( 41 , 41 ) of the chamber ( 40 ) , so that the air inside the chamber ( 40 ) in several or substantially all directions is to be extracted from the chamber ( 40 ).