JPH06309911A - Edge light panel and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the brightness of an edge light panel and enhance the producibility. CONSTITUTION:Irregular reflection patterns 5 are printed at certain intervals on a transcription base 20 consisting of a long stretching roll film of PET resin, and injection molding of a transparent base board 2 is performed in which the patterns 5 are used as the injection surface, and thereby the patterns 5 are transcribed onto the base board 2. By this transcriptional molding, and edge light panel 1 is manufactured. Accordingly the patterns 5 are installed embedded in the base board 2 in such an arrangement that each random reflection unit constitutes a three-dimensional random reflection surface to lead to enlargement of the random reflection area and diffusion of the irregularly reflecting directions, which promotes random reflections of the incident beam of light, to ensure that the brightness of the edge light panel 1 is enhanced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an edge light panel used for various surface light source devices such as a liquid crystal backlight, an illuminated signboard, an illuminated sign, and an illuminating body, and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-621 of the present inventors.
04, JP-A-2-269382, and JP-A-4-218.
No. 089, JP-A-4-234786, etc., this kind of edge light panel generally screens a diffuse reflection pattern as an aggregate of diffuse reflection units on one surface, especially the back surface of a transparent substrate such as acrylic. It is said that.

At this time, the irregular reflection pattern is generally a dot pattern or a line pattern in which the irregular reflection unit is a dot or a line, and the irregular reflection pattern is a light source in the plane from the end face of the edge light panel where the primary light source is provided. The area of the irregular reflection unit is steplessly enlarged so as to increase the irregular reflection amount toward a predetermined position in the separation direction.

[0004]

The edge light panel in which the diffuse reflection pattern is screen-printed on the transparent substrate is often used in various surface light source devices for performing high-luminance and highly uniform surface illumination. .

However, the surface light source device is required to have higher brightness because of, for example, colorization of the liquid crystal display surface and reduction in power consumption of the primary light source.
Due to the degree of perfection of the conventional edge light panel, it is expected that it is not always easy to further improve the brightness thereof. Therefore, instead of the conventional edge light panel, the edge light panel which can realize the further brightness improvement is expected. Is required.

Further, in the conventional edge light panel, since it is necessary to perform screen printing on the transparent substrate, even if it is suitable when it has a considerable area such as A4 and B5, for example, audio In a small surface light source device such as a liquid crystal backlight for a channel display part of a device, screen printing is complicated due to miniaturization of a transparent substrate, and it is not always possible to obtain good productivity.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and a problem to be solved by the invention is to provide a novel edge light panel capable of further improving the brightness in place of the conventional edge light panel. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an edge light panel including the small edge light panel, which can realize the above-mentioned brightness improvement and can improve the productivity thereof, and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0008]

Therefore, the present invention focuses on the relationship between the transparent substrate and the irregular reflection pattern, and disposes the irregular reflection pattern by embedding it on one surface side of the transparent substrate so that the irregular reflection by the conventional screen printing is performed. While the unit is a two-dimensional diffuse reflection surface, the diffuse reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface, which increases the diffuse reflection area.
The diffused light is diffused in the direction of diffuse reflection to further promote diffuse reflection of incident light by the primary light source, and the irregular reflection pattern is embedded in the transparent substrate, preferably by means of molding transfer or in-mold molding. According to the present invention, the productivity of the edge light panel is ensured satisfactorily, that is, in the present invention, the irregular reflection pattern is formed on one surface side of the transparent substrate so that the irregular reflection unit is a three-dimensional irregular reflection surface. Edge light panel (claim 1), wherein a diffuse reflection pattern is embedded on one surface side of the transparent substrate by molding transfer so that the diffuse reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. An edge light panel characterized by being at most (claim 2), a transparent substrate by in-mold molding so that the irregular reflection unit is a three-dimensional irregular reflection surface. An edge light panel (claim 3) characterized in that a diffuse reflection pattern is embedded and disposed on the side surface side, a printing process for printing a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit on a transfer base, and a print diffuse reflection. A molding and transferring step in which a transparent substrate is injection-molded in a mold with the pattern side as an emitting surface, and a print irregular reflection pattern of a transfer base is three-dimensionally embedded and arranged on one surface side of the transparent substrate. A method of manufacturing an edge light panel (claim 4), a printing step of printing a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit on a laminate base, and a transparent substrate is injection-molded in a mold using the printed diffuse reflection pattern as an emission surface. Then, the laminated base is integrally joined to the transparent substrate, and the diffuse reflection pattern is three-dimensionally embedded and embedded on one surface side of the transparent substrate. Relates to a method of manufacturing an edge light panel, characterized by comprising a degree (claim 5) and as a gist of the invention these respectively is obtained by the means of the problem solution.

In the present invention, the diffuse reflection pattern means a pattern exhibiting a predetermined pattern which is set to artificially promote diffuse reflection of incident light by the primary light source with dots or lines as a diffuse reflection unit. For example, a random reflection pattern is not included in the irregular reflection pattern so that the predetermined pattern cannot be artificially exhibited.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings showing the following embodiments. In FIG. 1 to FIG. Diffusion sheet made of milky white polyester sheet, 11 is 188 μm laminated on the back side
Reflective sheet made of milky white polyester sheet
A primary light source 12 is a cold cathode tube having a narrow width, which is provided on one end surface of the cold cathode tube.

The edge light panel 1 includes a transparent substrate 2 and a diffuse reflection pattern 5 in which a diffuse reflection unit 6 is embedded on the front surface side of one side of the transparent substrate 2, that is, the back surface side in this example so as to form a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. It is equipped with and.

The transparent substrate 2 is made of an acrylic transparent resin thinned to, for example, 1.5 mm and has a thickness of, for example, 11.8 mm ×
It has a relatively small area of 7.5 mm and is small, and the irregular reflection pattern 5 changes the positional relationship of the dot area of the irregular reflection unit 6 from the incident end face 3 on the primary light source 12 side toward a predetermined position in the in-plane direction. However, the area is maximized in the vicinity of the reflection end surface 4 on the non-light source side, and the dot area is symmetrically reduced toward the reflection end surface 4 without any step.

The irregular reflection pattern 5 in the edge light panel 1 of the present embodiment is embedded and disposed on one surface side of the transparent substrate 2 by molding transfer. Therefore, in the irregular reflection pattern 5, each irregular reflection unit 6 is transparent. It is embedded in the transparent substrate 2 so as to be flush with the back surface of the substrate 2, and at this time, each diffuse reflection unit 6 is embedded.
Are each formed into a three-dimensional spherical or hill-like shape in the thickness direction of the transparent substrate 2.

The manufacturing method of the edge light panel 1 thus constructed will be described below.
A printing process of printing the irregular reflection pattern 5 by the three-dimensional irregular reflection unit 6 on the transfer base 20, and the transparent substrate 2 is injection-molded in the mold 21 using the irregular reflection pattern 5 as the ejection surface, and the irregular irregular reflection pattern 5 of the transfer base 20 is printed. And a molding transfer step of three-dimensionally imprinting and embedding the transparent substrate 2 on one surface side of the transparent substrate 2.

As the transfer base 20, a long roll film made of PET resin having, for example, peelability and heat resistance is used, and the irregular reflection pattern 5 is printed with a large number of the same patterns intermittently in the longitudinal direction of the transfer base 20. I am doing it. This printing is performed, for example, by adding a very small amount of a release agent and using a transfer ink containing a white pigment, for example, by screen printing or letterpress printing so that the maximum thickness is about 10 μm to 50 μmm. is there.

At this time, the irregular reflection unit 6 of the irregular reflection pattern 5
Is cured on the transfer base 20 in the above-mentioned spherical or hill-like three-dimensional shape. Therefore, it is preferable that the transparent substrate 2 is injection-molded by using this as the injection surface to form one side surface of the transparent substrate 2. It is possible to perform molding transfer in which the irregular reflection pattern 5 is embedded and arranged.

More specifically, the molding transfer step is performed by a transfer base 2 in which a diffuse reflection pattern 5 is printed in a pair of male and female dies 21.
Positioning step of interposing 0 in a intermittent feed manner and positioning at the position of irregular reflection pattern 5, mold clamping step of clamping a pair of male and female dies 21 in the positioned state, and transparent substrate 2 in the mold clamped state This is composed of an injection cooling step of injecting and supplying the acrylic resin and cooling it, and a mold opening and taking-out step of subsequently opening the mold 21 and taking out the edge light panel 1.

In the edge light panel 1 of this example,
Each diffuse reflection unit 6 of the diffuse reflection pattern 5 forms a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface, which enlarges the diffuse reflection area and diffuses the diffuse reflection direction, thereby increasing the diffuse reflection of the incident light by the primary light source 12 to improve the brightness. Will be done.
In addition, since the transparent substrate 2 is injection-molded as described above, each diffuse reflection unit 6 that is flush with the back surface thereof is made into a smooth mirror surface by the transfer base 20 made of PET resin, so that the edge light panel 1 having a mirror surface as a whole is formed. Therefore, the reflectivity of the incident light in the edge light panel 1 is improved, and in particular, the incident light reaching the diffuse reflection unit 6 is prevented from being emitted to the outside from the diffuse reflection unit 6. The brightness is improved.

The edge light panel 1 of this example can improve the brightness by 20 to 30% with respect to the edge light panel in which the same diffuse reflection pattern is screen-printed on the transparent substrate of the same thickness.

The production of the edge light panel 1 of this example is suitable for automation and has a good yield and high productivity.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the edge light panel 1. In this example, the edge light panel 1 is in-molded so that the irregular reflection unit 6 is a three-dimensional irregular reflection surface as described above. This is an example in which the irregular reflection pattern 5 is embedded and arranged in the transparent substrate 2 by molding. At this time, the manufacturing method is printing by printing the irregular reflection pattern 5 by the three-dimensional irregular reflection unit 6 on the laminate base made of an acrylic film. The process and the transparent substrate 2 made of acrylic resin are injection-molded in the mold with the printed diffuse reflection pattern 5 as the emission surface, the laminate base is integrally joined to the transparent substrate 2, and the diffuse reflection pattern 5 is three-dimensionally formed on the transparent substrate 2. The edge light panel 1 is obtained by including an in-mold molding step of encapsulating and embedding the edge light panel.

By using a resin having the same composition as that of the transparent substrate 2 for the laminated base, the laminated base forms the diffuse reflection pattern 5 from the back side and forms a part of the transparent substrate 2 itself. In the enclosed state, 5 is embedded in a spherical or hill shape in the thickness direction of the transparent substrate 2 in the vicinity of the back surface.

The in-mold molding of this example may be carried out according to the molding transfer process described above. However, the laminate base of the long roll film is cut into a mold and supplied, and if necessary. Accordingly, it is different in that the acrylic resin is similarly injection-supplied after vacuum absorption or vacuum molding in a mold.

The edge light panel 1 of the present example also realizes the improvement in brightness and has high productivity.

Although the illustrated example is constructed as described above, in the present invention, the diffused reflection pattern is embedded in the transparent substrate so that the diffused reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. Although the productivity tends to decrease compared to molding, it is possible to use a method such as casting of transparent resin with the diffuse reflection pattern on the upper surface side, or imprinting of diffuse reflection substances such as ink on the fine holes along the diffuse reflection pattern of the transparent substrate. It is also possible, for example, one surface of the transparent substrate,
In particular, it is also possible to use a printing method and a coating method in which a transparent resin such as acrylic resin is applied to the surface of the irregular reflection pattern after printing the irregular reflection pattern on the back surface by an ordinary method.

The diffuse reflection unit is defined as a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface when the dot is a polygonal shape such as a rectangular or rectangular cube, and when the line is a line, a rectangular or semicircular cross section. It may be in the shape of a sardine, the shape of a kamaboko, etc., and need not be limited to a particular shape.

In the case where the irregular reflection pattern is embedded in the transparent substrate by in-mold molding and disposed, it is preferable that the laminate base has reflectivity so as to also serve as a reflection sheet. Not,
It is essential that the laminated base is made of the same transparent material as the transparent substrate.

Further, a transparent substrate or a laminate base having the same material as that of the transparent substrate is made of another material other than acrylic resin, such as polycarbonate, and the irregular reflection pattern is made uniform in the conventional edge light panel. In carrying out the present invention, including forming a pattern with measures, a diffuse reflection unit, a diffuse reflection pattern, an edge light panel, a molding transfer used as a preferable one, an in-mold molding, a printing step used in the manufacturing method, molding Each specific material, shape, structure, size, quantity, and addition to these in the transfer process, the in-mold molding process, etc. can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the invention. It is not necessary to limit to the specific examples described above.

[0029]

As described above, the present invention is characterized in that the irregular reflection pattern is embedded on one surface side of the transparent substrate so that the irregular reflection unit is a three-dimensional irregular reflection surface. In Claim 2, the irregular reflection unit is 3
The irregular reflection pattern is formed by embedding the irregular reflection pattern on one surface side of the transparent substrate by molding transfer so as to form a three-dimensional irregular reflection surface.
Since the diffuse reflection pattern is embedded in one surface of the transparent substrate by in-mold molding so as to form a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface, the diffuse reflection area is enlarged and the diffuse reflection direction is diffused. The edge light panel capable of improving the brightness can be provided by promoting diffuse reflection of incident light by the primary light source, and in addition to this, in addition to this, a small one, Furthermore, it is possible to provide an edge light panel which can improve productivity including a special shape having a curved surface or an uneven surface.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a printing step of printing a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit on a transfer base, a transparent substrate is injection-molded in a mold with the print diffuse reflection pattern side as an emission surface, and the print irregular reflection of the transfer base is performed. And a molding transfer step of three-dimensionally embedding and arranging the pattern on one surface side of the transparent substrate, wherein the laminate base prints a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit. And the printing process, the transparent substrate is injection-molded in the mold using the printed diffuse reflection pattern as the emission surface, the laminate base is integrally joined to the transparent substrate, and the diffuse reflection pattern is three-dimensionally enclosed on one surface side of the transparent substrate. It is characterized by comprising an in-mold molding step of arranging it in an embedded manner, which is suitable for automating the manufacture of the edge light panel capable of realizing the above-mentioned brightness improvement. And, it is possible to provide a manufacturing method with improved productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid crystal backlight.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing a model relationship between a transparent substrate and a diffuse reflection pattern.

FIG. 3 is a process chart showing a method for manufacturing an edge light panel.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a mold in a mold opening / extracting process showing a model relationship between a transfer base and an edge light panel.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view showing a modeled relationship between a transparent substrate and a diffuse reflection pattern according to another example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Liquid crystal backlight 1 Edge light panel 2 Transparent substrate 5 Diffuse reflection pattern 6 Diffuse reflection unit 20 Transfer base 21 Mold

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An edge light panel, wherein a diffuse reflection pattern is embedded and disposed on one surface side of a transparent substrate so that the diffuse reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. 2. An edge light panel, characterized in that a diffuse reflection pattern is embedded and disposed on one surface side of a transparent substrate by molding transfer so that the diffuse reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. 3. An edge light panel, characterized in that a diffuse reflection pattern is embedded and disposed on one surface side of a transparent substrate by in-mold molding so that the diffuse reflection unit is a three-dimensional diffuse reflection surface. 4. A printing step of printing a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit on a transfer base, and a transparent substrate is injection-molded in a mold with the print diffuse reflection pattern side as an emission surface to make the print diffuse reflection pattern of the transfer base transparent. 3 on one side of the board
A method of manufacturing an edge light panel, comprising a molding transfer step of arranging transfer embedding in a three-dimensional manner. 5. A printing step of printing a diffuse reflection pattern by a three-dimensional diffuse reflection unit on a laminate base, and a transparent substrate is injection-molded in a mold using the printed diffuse reflection pattern as an emission surface,
And an in-mold molding step of integrally bonding the laminate base with the transparent substrate and encapsulating the diffuse reflection pattern on one surface side of the transparent substrate in a three-dimensional manner. Method.