Metal foil production system

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the field of production equipment, and in particular, relates to a metal foil production system. It comprises: an upstream area for pretreatment; a load area for deposition preparation; and a downstream area for separation; the upstream area, the load area and the downstream area are provided with a conveying device; the carrier comprises a load surface; the upstream area is provided with a pretreatment device for preparing a transition layer on the surface of the load area of ​​the carrier; the load area is provided with a vapor deposition device, the vapor deposition device comprises a generating structure for generating pre-deposited metal and a guiding structure for guiding the pre-deposited metal, the pre-deposited metal generated by the generating structure is guided to the transition layer on the surface of the carrier through the guiding structure, the pre-deposited metal is a gaseous metal and / or a plasma metal; the downstream area is provided with a post-processing device for removing the transition layer. The present invention can realize the efficient and high-quality preparation of electronic-grade ultra-thin metal foil; the preparation process is simple and efficient, and can realize full automation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the field of production equipment, and in particular relates to a metal foil production system. Background Art

[0002] Metal foil is a thin sheet of metal products, such as copper foil, which is usually made of copper and a certain proportion of other metals. The copper content of commercially available copper foil is generally 80 wt% or 90 wt%, corresponding to 80 foil and 90 foil respectively. In the past market environment, its most widely used use is as a decorative material, because it has low surface oxygen characteristics, can be attached to a variety of different substrates, such as metals, insulating materials, etc., and has a wide temperature range of use.

[0003] However, with the development of metal foil, the market has generated a variety of demands. For example, in the field of copper foil, the high-purity electronic-grade copper foil with a copper content of ≥99.7 wt% has been widely used in electronic equipment due to its excellent conductivity and electromagnetic shielding effect. Electronic-grade copper foil is one of the basic materials of the electronics industry. With the rapid development of the electronic information industry, the use of electronic-grade copper foil is increasing. The products are widely used in industrial calculators, communication equipment, QA equipment, lithium-ion copper foil, copper foil sub-batteries, civilian televisions, video recorders, CD players, copiers, telephones, air conditioners, automotive electronic components, game consoles, etc. The demand for electronic-grade copper foil, especially high-performance electronic-grade copper foil, in the domestic and foreign markets is increasing.

[0004] Similarly, copper foil is also an indispensable part of the 5G communication and chip industries that the country is vigorously developing. Compared with conventional electronic-grade copper foil, the copper foil used in chips has higher quality requirements, and it usually needs to reach an ultra-thin and extremely low surface roughness state of about 5 to 8 μm, or even 1 to 3 μm. In addition to the representative copper foil, the demand for various types of ultra-thin metal foils is also increasing. For example, in the fields of catalysts, ultra-thin metal foils also have huge room for development. The traditional calendering and electrolytic methods for the preparation of ultra-thin metal foils can no longer meet the high performance requirements of the above-mentioned fields.

[0005] However, there is currently no equipment or system specifically used for preparing ultra-thin metal foil by vapor deposition. Most of the existing equipment and systems need to be customized and used in combination, resulting in low production efficiency, high cost, and easy to cause unnecessary problems. In particular, in terms of metal foil stripping, there is no dedicated equipment that can efficiently and effectively strip ultra-thin metal foil. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a dedicated equipment that can be used for the production of ultra-thin metal foil. Summary of the invention

[0006] In order to solve the problems that there are currently no perfect and complete equipment and special production system for preparing ultra-thin electronic-grade metal foil by vapor deposition method on the market, resulting in low efficiency and low yield of metal foil produced by such method, the present invention provides a metal foil production system.

[0007] The objects of the present invention are:

[0008] 1. It can be effectively applied to the existing vapor deposition method to prepare metal foil;

[0009] Second, the overall production system has high flexibility and can be prepared in different ways according to needs;

[0010] 3. The material utilization rate is high, which can effectively realize the efficient recycling of materials.

[0011] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions.

[0012] A metal foil production system,

[0013] The system comprises:

[0014] An upstream zone for performing carrier pretreatment;

[0015] A loading zone for depositing a metal foil on a support;

[0016] and a downstream zone for separating the carrier and the metal foil;

[0017] The upstream area, the loading area and the downstream area form an integrated structure or are separately arranged, and are provided with a conveying device capable of conveying the carrier from the upstream area to the loading area and the downstream area in sequence;

[0018] The carrier comprises at least one loading surface for depositing and preparing the metal foil;

[0019] The upstream zone is provided with a pretreatment device for preparing a transition layer on the surface of the carrier's loading zone using the transition material as a raw material;

[0020] The load zone is provided with a vapor deposition device, the vapor deposition device comprises a generating structure for generating a pre-deposited metal and a guiding structure for guiding the pre-deposited metal, the pre-deposited metal generated by the generating structure is guided to the transition layer on the surface of the carrier by the guiding structure, the pre-deposited metal is a gaseous metal and / or a plasma metal;

[0021] A post-processing device for removing the transition layer is provided in the downstream area.

[0022] As a preference,

[0023] The conveying device is a roller structure, or a structure in which a roller and a conveyor belt cooperate.

[0024] As a preference,

[0025] When the conveying device is a roller structure: the conveying device of the roller structure cooperates with the strip-shaped carrier, the roller structure rolls to drive the strip-shaped carrier to move, and the load surface of the carrier is arranged away from the roller structure and faces outward;

[0026] When the conveying device is a structure in which a roller shaft cooperates with a conveyor belt: the carrier is fixedly arranged on the outer surface of the conveyor belt, the conveyor belt drives the carrier to move, and the load surface of the carrier is arranged outward away from the conveyor belt.

[0027] As a preference,

[0028] The pretreatment device is a brush coating structure and / or a spray coating structure and / or a heating device, and at least includes at least one of a brush coating structure and a spray coating structure.

[0029] As a preference,

[0030] The post-processing device is a spraying device and / or a heating device.

[0031] As a preference,

[0032] The generating structure is a vacuum evaporation coating machine, a vacuum sputtering coating machine or a vacuum ion coating machine.

[0033] As a preference,

[0034] The guide structure is provided with an inlet end and an outlet end, and the generating structure is provided with an outlet end;

[0035] The inlet end of the guide structure is connected to the outlet end of the generating structure;

[0036] The outlet end of the guide structure faces the transition layer on the surface of the carrier.

[0037] As a preference,

[0038] The outlet end of the guide structure is provided with a leveling structure;

[0039] The leveling structure is used to level the transition layer.

[0040] As a preference,

[0041] The downstream area is provided with a recovery device, which is used to collect the transition layer material removed by the post-processing device.

[0042] As a preference,

[0043] The system further comprises: a secondary processing device;

[0044] The secondary treatment device is used to concentrate and / or filter the recovered transition layer material to form a transition material for preparing the transition layer;

[0045] The inlet end of the secondary treatment device is connected to the recovery device, and the outlet end is connected to the pretreatment device.

[0046] The beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0047] 1) Ability to efficiently and high-quality prepare electronic-grade ultra-thin metal foil;

[0048] 2) The preparation process is simple and efficient, and can be fully automated;

[0049] 3) Suitable for preparation by new vapor deposition method;

[0050] 4) The material utilization rate is high and can be flexibly adjusted according to preparation requirements. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0051] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the metal foil production system of the present invention;

[0052] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the guide structure.

[0053] In the figure: A upstream zone, B loading zone, C downstream zone, 100 roller, 200 vapor deposition device, 201 generating structure, 202 guiding structure, 2021 guiding structure main body, 2022 slope structure, 2023 leveling structure, 300 pre-treatment device, 400 post-treatment device, 500 carrier, 501 starting end, 502 end, 600 transition layer, 601 transition material, 700 copper foil, 800 recovery device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0054] The present invention is further described in detail below in conjunction with specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings. A person of ordinary skill in the art will be able to implement the present invention based on these descriptions. In addition, the embodiments of the present invention involved in the following description are generally only embodiments of a part of the present invention, rather than all embodiments. Therefore, based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without making creative work should fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0055] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "thickness", "upper", "lower", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "circumferential" and the like indicate positions or positional relationships based on the positions or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on the present invention. In the description of the present invention, "multiple" means at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined, and "several" means one or more.

[0056] In the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", "connected", "fixed" and the like should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral one; it can be a mechanical connection, an electrical connection, or communication with each other; it can be a direct connection, or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, it can be the internal connection of two elements or the interaction relationship between two elements, unless otherwise clearly defined. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0057] Unless otherwise specified, the raw materials used in the examples of the present invention are all commercially available or available to those skilled in the art; unless otherwise specified, the methods used in the examples of the present invention are all methods known to those skilled in the art.

[0058] Unless otherwise specified, the embodiments of the present invention use copper foil production as a representative example to illustrate metal foil production, and the copper foil production system is the metal foil production system claimed to be protected by the present invention, and is described as a copper foil production system to match the copper foil production description.

[0059] Example

[0060] A kind of Figure 1 The copper foil 700 production system shown specifically includes:

[0061] conveyor, upstream zone A, loading zone B and downstream zone C;

[0062] The upstream area A, the load area B and the downstream area C form an integrated structure or are arranged separately;

[0063] The conveying device can transport the carrier 500 from the upstream area A to the loading area B and the downstream area C in sequence;

[0064] The specific use purpose of the copper foil 700 production system of the present invention is to improve the defect that the existing equipment cannot be effectively applied to the preparation of copper foil 700 by vapor deposition method, so as to realize the preparation of ultra-thin electronic grade copper foil 700 by efficient vapor deposition method;

[0065] The vapor deposition method (PVD) requires a carrier 500 for deposition. The carrier 500 is usually a metal aluminum or anodized aluminum plate / strip, etc., and has at least one side for carrying the growing copper foil 700. The produced copper foil 700 is in the form of a sheet or a strip. In order to be suitable for carriers 500 of different materials and forms, and to adapt to the preparation of copper foils 700 of different forms, the conveying device of the present invention adopts a roller 100 as the main body, and can be selectively used in conjunction with a conveyor belt structure;

[0066] If it is necessary to prepare a strip copper foil 700, a roller 100 is used in combination with a strip aluminum alloy carrier 500. Figure 1 As shown, the strip-shaped carrier 500 can be continuously in a ring shape or connected in an intermittent traction manner to form a structure similar to the carrier 500 as a "conveyor belt", which works continuously and realizes the vapor deposition preparation of the strip-shaped ultra-thin electronic-grade copper foil 700;

[0067] If it is necessary to prepare a thin copper foil 700 of a regular sheet or characteristic shape, a structure in which the roller 100 cooperates with a conveyor belt can be provided, and a carrier 500 that meets the expected shape of the copper foil 700 is fixedly arranged on the outer surface of the conveyor belt, moves with the conveyor belt, and the copper foil 700 is prepared on the carrier 500;

[0068] This embodiment uses a roller 100 structure in conjunction with an endless aluminum alloy belt as a carrier 500 , and for the convenience of subsequent description, the carrier 500 on the upstream area A side is the starting end 501 , and the carrier 500 on the downstream area C side is the ending end 502 .

[0069] As for the upstream area A, the present invention is also improved on the basis of the traditional PVD method for preparing the copper foil 700. The traditional PVD method for preparing the copper foil 700 is to directly deposit and grow the copper foil 700 on the surface of the carrier 500. After the upstream area A is set in the technical solution of the present invention, a transition layer 600 is first prepared on the surface of the copper foil 700 in the upstream area A to facilitate the subsequent demolding and separation to obtain the product copper foil 700. Specifically, the transition layer 600 is prepared using transition materials 601 such as PMMA, starch and elemental iodine;

[0070] And a pretreatment structure for preparing the transition layer 600 is provided in the upstream area A;

[0071] The pretreatment structure is specifically a spraying structure, a brushing structure and a heating device, or a combination of the two, and can be adjusted according to actual needs;

[0072] Specifically, the brushing structure and the spraying structure are necessary structures, and at least one of the two is required. The present invention adopts a spraying structure, which can be used to spray PMMA saturated solution, starch saturated solution, iodine vapor, etc., and is suitable for spraying liquid or gaseous transition material 601. The brushing structure is used to brush liquid transition material 601, such as PMMA saturated solution, starch saturated solution, etc. The heating device can be selectively added, and usually a thermal resistance wire can be directly adapted to be set at the nozzle of the spraying structure to heat the sprayed material. On the one hand, the dissolution stability or gaseous stability of the spraying material can be maintained, and on the other hand, the subsequent drying rate of the liquid spraying material on the surface of the carrier 500 can be increased to achieve efficient drying and curing to form a transition layer 600. According to the test, when a thin layer is sprayed (spraying thickness ≤ 0.3 mm), the liquid transition material 601 sprayed at a room temperature above 25°C can be basically dried naturally, while at a lower temperature or when the sprayed transition material 601 is thicker, a heating device is required to improve the use effect;

[0073] In this embodiment, the upstream area A is only provided with a spraying structure for spraying the liquid transition material 601;

[0074] A stable transition layer 600 can be formed on the surface of the carrier 500 after passing through the upstream area A, which is conducive to orderly demoulding and separation to obtain the copper foil 700.

[0075] In the load area B, the load surface of the carrier 500 running to the load area B has formed a complete transition layer 600, so the copper foil 700 can be deposited and grown in the load area B in a conventional PVD method;

[0076] Specifically, the load area B is provided with a vapor deposition device 200, and the vapor deposition device 200 includes at least two parts: a generating structure 201 and a guiding structure 202;

[0077] The generating structure 201 adopts conventional PVD equipment, such as a vacuum evaporation coating machine, a vacuum sputtering coating machine, or a vacuum ion coating machine;

[0078] This embodiment uses a vacuum evaporation coating machine, which forms copper vapor, and the outlet of the vacuum evaporation coating machine is connected to the inlet of the guide structure 202. The formed copper vapor enters the guide structure 202 through the outlet of the vacuum evaporation coating machine and the inlet of the guide structure 202. Finally, the guide mechanism guides the copper vapor to the surface of the carrier 500, releases the copper vapor through the outlet of the guide structure 202, and deposits and grows the copper foil 700 on the surface of the transition layer 600 on the carrier 500.

[0079] Although conventional PVD equipment can achieve similar deposition growth effects alone, it is not suitable for the remaining structures of the present invention and cannot maintain the continuity of the production process. In addition, due to the setting of the transition layer 600, the conventional straight-line type is easy to damage the transition layer 600 with poor thermal stability in the remaining parts, while the setting of the guide structure 202 can form an effective buffer. In addition, the outlet end of the guide structure 202, i.e. Figure 2 The upper opening of the guide structure body 2021 is set as a slope structure 2022, the high side of the slope structure 2022 faces the starting end 501 of the carrier 500, that is, the upstream area A, and the low end faces the end 502 of the carrier 500, that is, the downstream area C. Because the growth of the copper foil 700 will bring about a change in thickness, the above structure can more effectively ensure the uniformity of the deposition growth of the copper foil 700 and the flatness of the outer side, and can effectively avoid the problems of damage to the copper foil 700 caused by close-range scratches or a decrease in copper vapor utilization rate caused by long-range scratches.

[0080] Furthermore, a leveling structure 2023 is provided on the high side of the slope structure 2022. In this embodiment, the leveling structure 2023 is specifically a pressure roller, which is directly pressed on the surface of the transition layer 600, and can further improve the flatness of the transition layer 600 before the copper vapor is deposited and grown.

[0081] Specifically, the downstream zone C is used for the post-processing device 400 for removing the transition layer 600. The post-processing device 400 is specifically a spraying device and / or a heating device, depending on the transition material 601 used in the pre-processing device 300. For example, PMMA and starch can be simply dissolved by solvent spraying, and finally the copper foil 700 can be naturally demolded and separated under the action of gravity, while the transition layer 600 of elemental iodine can be sublimated by a heating device. After removing the transition layer 600, the copper foil 700 naturally falls off, and the product can be recovered. After removing the transition layer 600 and separating the copper foil 700, the carrier 500 can be Figure 1 As shown by the arrow pointing from the end 502 to the starting end 501, the upstream area A is re-entered to prepare the covering of the transition layer 600 to achieve efficient cyclic preparation. Compared with the existing conventional tearing method, the device of the present invention can be more effectively adapted to the PVD method for preparing the copper foil 700, and can prepare the copper foil 700 very efficiently, while ensuring a higher product yield and good rate.

[0082] Furthermore, in order to improve the utilization rate of the material by the overall device, the present invention is also provided with a recovery device 800 and a secondary processing device;

[0083] The recovery device 800 is arranged in the downstream area C, and can adopt a basin-shaped structure or a vacuum structure, respectively corresponding to collecting the liquid transition layer 600 material and the gaseous transition layer 600 material formed after removal. The recovered transition layer 600 material is transported to the secondary treatment device through a pipeline. The secondary treatment device can be a conventional filtering tank and / or a concentrating tank. In this embodiment, PMMA is selected as the transition material 601, so the post-treatment device 400 adopts a spraying device to dissolve and remove PMMA by spraying toluene, and the basin-shaped recovery device 800 receives the recovered toluene dissolved with PMMA. The solution is transported to the secondary treatment device through a pipeline. The secondary treatment device of this embodiment adopts a common industrial concentration tank. After concentration, a saturated PMMA solution is re-formed, which is supplied to the pretreatment device 300 as a transition material 601 through a pipeline. The pipelines connected at both ends of the secondary treatment device are provided with a one-way valve to ensure that the flow direction can be set as expected and to avoid the backflow problem. In theory, a PMMA material recycling rate of nearly 100% can be achieved. After four months of trial operation, the weekly recycling rate of PMMA in the system described in this embodiment can reach more than 98%.

Claims

1. A metal foil production system, characterized in that: The system comprises: An upstream zone for performing carrier pretreatment; A loading zone for depositing a metal foil on a support; and a downstream zone for separating the carrier and the metal foil; The upstream area, the loading area and the downstream area form an integrated structure or are separately arranged, and are provided with a conveying device capable of conveying the carrier from the upstream area to the loading area and the downstream area in sequence; The carrier comprises at least one loading surface for depositing and preparing the metal foil; The upstream zone is provided with a pretreatment device for preparing a transition layer on the surface of the carrier's loading zone using the transition material as a raw material; The transition material is iodine; The pretreatment device is a brush coating structure and / or a spray coating structure and / or a heating device, and at least comprises at least one of a brush coating structure and a spray coating structure; The load zone is provided with a vapor deposition device, the vapor deposition device comprises a generating structure for generating a pre-deposited metal and a guiding structure for guiding the pre-deposited metal, the pre-deposited metal generated by the generating structure is guided to the transition layer on the surface of the carrier by the guiding structure, the pre-deposited metal is a gaseous metal and / or a plasma metal; A post-processing device for removing the transition layer is provided in the downstream area; The post-processing device is a spraying device and / or a heating device; The system further comprises: a secondary processing device; The secondary treatment device is used to concentrate and / or filter the recovered transition layer material to form a transition material for preparing the transition layer; The inlet end of the secondary treatment device is connected to the recovery device, and the outlet end is connected to the pretreatment device.

2. A metal foil production system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The conveying device is a roller structure, or a structure in which a roller and a conveyor belt cooperate.

3. A metal foil production system according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the conveying device is a roller structure: the conveying device of the roller structure cooperates with the strip-shaped carrier, the roller structure rolls to drive the strip-shaped carrier to move, and the load surface of the carrier is arranged away from the roller structure and faces outward; When the conveying device is a structure in which a roller shaft cooperates with a conveyor belt: the carrier is fixedly arranged on the outer surface of the conveyor belt, the conveyor belt drives the carrier to move, and the load surface of the carrier is arranged outward away from the conveyor belt.

4. A metal foil production system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The generating structure is a vacuum evaporation coating machine, a vacuum sputtering coating machine or a vacuum ion coating machine.

5. A metal foil production system according to claim 1 or 4, characterized in that: The guide structure is provided with an inlet end and an outlet end, and the generating structure is provided with an outlet end; The inlet end of the guide structure is connected to the outlet end of the generating structure; The outlet end of the guide structure faces the transition layer on the surface of the carrier.

6. A metal foil production system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The outlet end of the guide structure is provided with a leveling structure; The leveling structure is used to level the transition layer.

7. A metal foil production system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The downstream area is provided with a recovery device, which is used to collect the transition layer material removed by the post-processing device.

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