Abstract:
A method for mounting a protective film ( 11 ) on a screen ( 13 ) comprises these steps: providing a protective film and a screen having shape and area approximately equal to that of the protective film; holding the screen; aligning the protective film with the screen; and mounting the protective film on the screen.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention generally relates to methods for mounting protective films onto screens, particularly to a method for mounting a protective film onto a screen without causing wrinkles. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    Nowadays, portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are widely used. Most of these portable electronic devices contain screens made of glass or hard plastics. However, the aforementioned materials are fragile, which may typically shatters into many pieces upon an impacted with an object, and the broken pieces may sputter and damage the nearby persons. 
         [0005]    Protecting film is widely used to prevent the broken screens from sputtering. The protecting film is mounted on the screens via glue. If a screen is broken into pieces, the protecting film mounting thereon will keep the broken pieces in place, thus prevented it from shattering. 
         [0006]    A typical method for mounting the protective film onto the screen comprises two main steps: mounting a piece of protective film having an area larger than that of a screen onto the screen; and cutting off a redundant portion of the protective film. 
         [0007]    However, in the typical mounting method, the shearing force caused by the cutting step is prone to cause wrinkles generated on the mounted protective film. Furthermore, the cut portion of the protective film is wasted. 
         [0008]    Therefore, a new method for mounting protective film onto screen is desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    In one embodiment thereof, a method for mounting a protective film on a screen comprises these steps: providing a protective film and a screen having shape and size approximately equal to that of the protective film; holding the screen; aligning the protective film with the screen; and mounting the protective film on the screen. 
         [0010]    Other novel features will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]    Many aspects of the method for mounting protective film onto screen can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the method for mounting protective film onto screen. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a protective film mounted onto a screen in accordance with the method of the present embodiment; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged view of a portion of the protective film shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of mounting the protective film shown in  FIG. 1  onto the screen held in a fixture in accordance with the method of the present embodiment; 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a diagram of a vacuum absorber and an adjusting apparatus used in accordance with the method of the present embodiment; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart of the method of the present embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0017]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , a method in accordance with a present embodiment for mounting a protective film onto a screen of a portable electronic device, such as a mobile phone or a laptop, is provided. The method includes these steps as follows. 
         [0018]    First, a protective film  11  and a screen  13  are provided. Referring to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , the protective film  11  includes a base layer  111  and a gluing layer  112  spreading on the base layer  111 . The base layer  111  is made of plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The gluing layer  112  is made of glue such as acrylate. The screen  13  is made of transparent materials, such as glass or plastic, etc. The shape and size of the screen  13  are approximately equal to that of the protective film  11 . 
         [0019]    Second, a fixture  20  for holding the screen  13  is provided. Also referring to  FIG. 3 , the fixture  20  defines a recess  21  corresponding to the screen  13  therein, and the screen  13  is held in the recess  21 . 
         [0020]    Third, the protective film  11  is aligned with the screen  13 . This step includes these substeps as follows: 
         [0000]    (1) The protective film  11  is absorbed and moved by a vacuum absorber  30 . The vacuum absorber  30  has at least one suction member  31 . The vacuum absorber  30  is turned on, and the suction member  31  is moved to the base layer  111  of the protective film  11  until the protective film  11  is absorbed on the suction member  31 . In this way, the protective film  31  can be moved without being scraped and contaminated.
 
(2) The protective film  11  is aligned with the screen  13  contained in the recess  21 . Also referring to  FIG. 4 , an adjusting apparatus  40  is used to adjust the position of the protective film  11 . The adjusting apparatus  40  includes a processor  41  controlling the vacuum absorber  30  and a scan module  42  electronically connected to the processor  41 . The position of the protective film  11  and the screen  13  is defined by its coordinates. The scan module  42  scans both the absorbed protective film  11  and the held screen  13  with laser to obtain the positions of the absorbed protective film  11  and the held screen  13 . The processor  41  compares the differences in coordinates of the protective film  11  and the screen  13 . Thus, the difference between the position of the protective film  11  and the screen  13  is calculated and stored in the processor  41 . The processor  41  then controls the vacuum absorber  30  to move the suction member  31  according to the calculated difference between the positions of the protective film  11  and the screen  13 . In this way, the absorbed protective film  11  is accurately aligned with the screen  13 .
 
         [0021]    Fourth, the protective film  11  is mounted on the screen  13 . The protective film is placed onto the screen  13  and the gluing layer  112  of the protective film  11  is kept in tight contact with the screen  13 . Next, the vacuum absorber  30  is turned off, thus the protective film  11  adheres to the screen  13 . The protective film  11  is then equably pressed towards the screens  13  by typical tools (not shown), such as a grinding wheel, and the gluing layer  112  glues the protective film  11  to the screen  13 . Finally, the protective film  11  is mounted on the screen  13 . 
         [0022]    Additionally, the protective film  11  can be heated for improving liquidity and gluing strength of the gluing layer  112  when the protective film  11  is being pressed/mounted on the screen  13 . A proper heating temperature is about 30° C.-50° C. A proper heating time is about 5-10 minutes. 
         [0023]    Understandably, compared to the aforementioned typical method, the method of the present embodiment can omit the step of cutting the protective film  11  after mounting the protective film  11  on the screen  13 . In this way, the mounted protective film  11  is prevented from being wrinkled by the shearing force caused in the cutting step. Since none of the portion of the protective film  11  is cut off, the total area of the protective film  11  can be decreased, and the producing cost is also decreased 
         [0024]    It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the invention.