Method for carrying out edge etching and strengthening of OGS (one-glass-solution) touch panel with one-time film lamination

Disclosed is a method for carrying out edge etching and strengthening of an OGS (One-Glass-Solution) touch panel with one-time film lamination. After a prepared large glass sheet has been subjected to a first strengthening treatment, a plurality of touch control circuits and peripheral frames of black, white, or other colors associated with the touch control circuits are laid on a surface of the large glass sheet. Afterwards, an upper lamination film and a lower lamination film are respectively laminated on surfaces of the large glass sheet with a plurality of preservation zones and cutting zones defined therein and are subjected to film cutting to form cut lines. The cutting zones of the upper lamination film and the lower lamination film are peeled off along the cut lines. Then, the large glass sheet is cut into a plurality of small glass cells along the cut lines of the cutting zones. Side edges of the small glass cells are then subjected to etching and strengthening. During the etching and strengthening of the side edges, the small glass cells are also subjected to edge smoothening and edge flattening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for etching and strengthening a side edge of an OGS (One-Glass-Solution) touch panel, and in particular to a method for carrying out edge etching and strengthening of an OGS touch panel with one-time film lamination.

2. The Related Arts

Touch screens have very wide applications, such as tablet computers, mobile phones, notebook computers, tourist guide systems, and vending machines. Such an interface is convenient and requires no additional input device and is straightforward for general users so that the market thereof is still expanding and various novel styles have been proposed. According to the operation principles that are employed to detect the touch points, the touch screens are classified as resistive screens, capacitive screens, optic type screens, and wave type screens, among which the capacitive screens are most widely used in the current market.

A conventional touch screen is composed of two electrically conductive layers between which spacers and electrodes are arranged. The top layer is often a plastic sheet of polyesters that has inner surface on which an electrically conductive metal layer is formed, while the bottom layer is a glass substrate carrying an electrically conductive material. Formed between and spacing the glass substrate and the polyester sheet is another layer that is a tiny spacer layer made up of smaller plastic spacers made of polyester and forms a plurality separation lines. The separation lines extend on the glass substrate to define an X-axis, while a Y-axis is formed on the polyester sheet. When a point of a finger or a stylus applies a force to the touch screen, an electronic controller arranged beside the electrically conductive layers detects the X-axis and Y-axis coordinates of the touch point and a response is made on the screen.

The mainstream of the current touch screen market is OGS (One/Single Glass Solution), which is also referred to as Touch on Lens. The OGS touch panels have advantages of cost and manufacture and satisfy the demands of electronic technology products for being light-weighted, thin, and compact for the outside appearance thereof. The international manufacturers of mobile phones and tablet computers all start to use it one after one.

The OGS touch panel is generally structured by combining a touch glass sheet with a protective glass sheet to form a single glass sheet, wherein touch sensors are directly formed on the protective glass sheet, so that the touch function that is provided by the touch glass sheet and the strength that is provided by the protective glass sheet are integrated on the same single glass sheet.

The OGS touch panel comprises multiple electrically conductive layers coated on an inner surface of the protective glass sheet to reduce the amount of glass used, simplify a lamination process of touch control modules, and thus improve the yield rate of manufacture. In addition to the reduction of cost, most importantly, the glass sheets used can be made relatively light-weighted, thin, and small, having a substantial reduction of thickness and weight as compared to the two-glass-sheet structures, so as to better suit the needs of the touch screen market and also enhance light transmittance, and posing no issue of necessary modification of the existing manufacturing processes for LCD panels, and allowing for production in a small-volume large-variety manner. The OGS touch panels are superior, in respect of material and software and hardware manufacturing techniques, to the conventional two-glass-sheet-laminated substrates (G/G type) and glass-film laminated substrates (G/F type).

However, the OGS touch panels still suffer certain issues of manufacturing processes thereof, which should be properly handled. For example, a major difficult of the OGS manufacturing process is how to eliminate edge defects of glass sheets. A conventional manufacturing process is such that an OGS touch panel, after being subjected to cutting, is laminated with a protective film and is then subjected to a strengthening operation. However, in such a conventional way of manufacturing, it needs to perform several times of film replacement. This requires substantial facility and manpower for film replacement and the cost is high. Further, problems, such as scratches, contamination, surface damages of glass sheets, and damages of circuits, may occur during the replacement of the films.

Cutting the reinforced glass sheets in the manufacturing processes in generally difficult for the reinforced glass sheets have hardness higher than the regular glass sheets. This may cause high wear of the cutting tools. Thus, the expense of cutting is high and the yield rate is low. Further, it often occurs that the cutting processes cause cracking and breaking in edges of the reinforced glass sheets, leading to capillary and tiny fractures. Such fractures greatly lower the strength of the glass sheet. A solution that is commonly adopted in some manufacturing processes is to first cut and then reinforce, and afterwards, film lamination and etching are carried out. Such a solution still suffers a low efficiency and a high expense for mass production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above-discussed drawbacks of the conventional manufacturing processes of OGS touch panels, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a method for carrying out edge etching and strengthening of an OGS touch panel with one-time film lamination, in which manufacturing of a touch panel is carried out with a one-time operation of film lamination film.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method, in which after a prepared large glass sheet has been subjected to a first strengthening treatment, a plurality of touch control circuits and peripheral frames associated with the touch control circuits are laid on a surface of the large glass sheet. Afterwards, an upper lamination film and a lower lamination film are respectively laminated on surfaces of the large glass sheet with a plurality of preservation zones and cutting zones defined therein and are subjected to film cutting to form cut lines. The cutting zones of the upper lamination film and the lower lamination film are peeled off along the cut lines. Then, the large glass sheet is cut into a plurality of small glass cells along the cut lines of the cutting zones. Side edges of the small glass cells are then subjected to etching and strengthening.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, during the etching and strengthening of the side edges of the small glass cells, tiny fractures and unrecognizable cracking in the side edges of the glass sheet can be removed from the small glass cells so as to also achieve edge smoothening and edge flattening for the small glass cells.

The major technical feature of the present invention is that the films, after laminated, is kept to the end of the process of the method, wherein before a glass sheet is cut, a one-time operation of film lamination is carried on the glass sheet and then cutting of a specific way is carried out so as to keep the lamination films within predetermined preservation zones, allowing them to be further used in the subsequent operations.

The present invention provides a method for carrying out edge etching and strengthening of an OGS touch panel with one-time film lamination, which eliminates the needs of replacing the lamination films in each step so as to simplify the process, reduce the risks of scratching the touch panel glass and contamination during the replacement of the films, and also save the facility cost and processing time necessary for multiple times of film lamination.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference toFIGS. 1-11,FIG. 1is a flow chart showing a method according to the present invention andFIGS. 2-11are schematic views demonstrating the flow of the method ofFIG. 1.

To perform the method according to the present invention, a large glass sheet1is first prepared (Step101). The large glass sheet1comprises a first surface11and a second surface12(as shown inFIG. 2), wherein the first surface11provides a user operation surface of a touch control function after a product associated therewith has been completed and the second surface12provides a circuit laying surface.

Referring to Step102, afterwards, the large glass sheet1is subjected to a first strengthening treatment. To carry out the strengthening treatment, any one of known chemical strengthening processes and physical strengthening processes can be used to increase the glass hardness of the large glass sheet1. Taking a chemical strengthening process as an example, generally, the large glass sheet1is subjected to a treatment for exchange of ions of sodium and potassium in a high temperature of 450 to 500 degrees Celsius in order to increase glass hardness.

Referring to Step103andFIGS. 3 and 4, after the completion of the first strengthening treatment, a plurality of touch control circuits2and peripheral frames3associated with the touch control circuits2are laid on the second surface12of the large glass sheet1. The peripheral frames3can be peripheral frames of black, white or other colors.FIG. 3is a perspective view showing the large glass sheet1of the present invention with the plurality of touch control circuits2and peripheral frames3having been laid on the second surface12.FIG. 4is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A ofFIG. 3.

Referring to Step104andFIG. 5, an upper lamination film4and a lower lamination film5are respectively laminated on the first surface11and the second surface12of the large glass sheet1. The upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5are respectively attached to and cover the first surface11and the second surface12of the large glass sheet1. The upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5are made of materials that are resistant to acid corrosion to prevent scratch of the glass surfaces and provide etch protection of the glass sheet in the subsequent operations.

Referring to Step105andFIG. 6, after completion of film lamination of the large glass sheet1, a plurality of preservation zones41and cutting zones42are defined in the upper lamination film4of the large glass sheet1according to boundaries of the touch control circuits2and the peripheral frame3. In other words, the preservation zones41are defined to comprises areas that cover the touch control circuits2and the peripheral frame3, while the cutting zones42are areas between the touch control circuits2. Further, a plurality of preservation zones51and cutting zones52are defined in the lower lamination film5of the large glass sheet1.

Referring to Step106andFIG. 7, a tool of one of laser, stamping, and cutting die is used to cut along the cutting zones42so as to carry out film cutting of the cutting zones42,52of the upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5to thereby form cut lines43,53in the cutting zones42,52.

Referring to Step107andFIG. 8, afterwards, a film peeling operation is performed to peel off the cutting zones42,52of the upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5along the cut lines43,53, while leaving the plurality of preservation zones41of the upper lamination film4and the plurality of preservation zones51of the lower lamination film5respectively on the first surface11and the second surface12of the large glass sheet1.

Referring to Step108andFIG. 9, after the completion of film peeling, the large glass sheet1is cut, along the cut lines of the cutting zones42, into a plurality of small glass cells1a.FIG. 10is a cross-sectional view showing one of the small glass cells1a.

Referring to Step109, the small glass cells1aare each subjected to operations of edge grinding and drilling. Afterwards, in Step110, etching and strengthening are applied to side edges of the small glass cells1a. During the operations of etching and strengthening of the side edges of the small glass cells1a, tiny fractures and unrecognizable cracking in the side edge of the glass sheet can be removed. Thus, for the small glass cells, this presents an effect of second strengthening treatment, edge smoothening, and edge flattening.

Finally, in Step111, after the completion of etching and strengthening, the upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5are removed.FIG. 11is a cross-sectional view showing one of the small glass cells1afrom which the upper lamination film4and the lower lamination film5have been removed.