Patent Publication Number: US-2023162630-A1

Title: Supporting sheet assembly and apparatus configured to install supporting sheets

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present disclosure is a national phase entry under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/CN2021/074941, filed on Feb. 2, 2021, which claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202020409707.9, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on Mar. 26, 2020 and entitled “Supporting Sheet Assembly and Apparatus Configured to Install Supporting Sheets”, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to the field of flexible screens, in particular to a supporting sheet assembly and an apparatus configured to install supporting sheets. 
     BACKGROUND 
     At present, with the development of display technology, considering the bendable characteristics of a flexible AMOLED, the flexible AMOLED can be selected as the material of a folding screen. 
     The folding screen is the main direction of development of the display technology. Since an external cover of the folding screen is also of a flexible material, the overall strength of the folding screen is insufficient. In order to ensure that the use function of the folding screen is not affected, it is necessary to enhance the strength of the folding screen. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure discloses a supporting sheet assembly and an apparatus configured to install supporting sheets, so as to enhance the strength of a folding screen. 
     In order to implement the above objective, the present disclosure provides the following technical solution. 
     A supporting sheet assembly provided by the present disclosure includes: a plurality of supporting sheets. 
     The supporting sheet includes a supporting sheet body and a nut installed on a side of the supporting sheet body. 
     A protective layer is provided on the side of the supporting sheet body where the nut is installed. An opening is dug in the protective layer at a top part of the nut so as to expose the nut. 
     In an axis direction of the nut, a height of the protective layer is greater than a height of the nut. 
     Since nut(s) is/are installed on the supporting sheet, the surface of the supporting sheet is uneven. The protective layer is provided on the surface of the supporting sheet where the nut(s) is/are installed. Opening(s) is/are dug in the protective layer so as to expose the nut(s). In the axis direction of the nut, the height of the protective layer is greater than the height of the nut. Therefore, when a screen and a whole machine are attached and fixed, the protective layer is reduced in thickness to be basically on the same plane as the top part(s) of the nut(s). Force at the position(s) of the nut(s) and the position(s) without the nut(s) on the supporting sheet is the same. In the automatic attachment working process of the supporting sheets, the problems such as poor attachment and the generation of air bubbles caused by the difference in force between the position(s) of the nut(s) and the position(s) without the nut(s) on the supporting sheet are relieved. By thickening the protective layer and filling gap(s) between the nut(s) and the screen, the attachment process of the supporting sheets on which the nut(s) is/are installed is achieved. Further, the plurality of supporting sheets are disposed in a stacked manner. 
     In a possible implementation, an isolation layer is disposed between two adjacent supporting sheets. 
     In a possible implementation, a thickness of the protective layer is 1.55 mm-1.60 mm. 
     In a possible implementation, a hardness of the protective layer is 45 Hb-55 Hb. 
     In a possible implementation, release force of the protective layer is 3 gf-6 gf. 
     In a possible implementation, the protective layer is made of foam. 
     An apparatus configured to install supporting sheets further provided by the present disclosure includes: an adsorption assembly for adsorbing the supporting sheets disposed in a stacked manner. 
     In a possible implementation, the adsorption assembly includes: a film suction plate for contacting protective layers of the supporting sheets. A plurality of vacuum adsorption holes are provided in a side of the film suction plate facing the supporting sheets. 
     In a possible implementation, the protective layer includes: an opening region on a top part of the nut and a non-opening region. 
     The vacuum adsorption holes are for contacting the non-opening region. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a top-view diagram of a supporting sheet provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    is a side-view diagram of a supporting sheet provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  3    is a side-view diagram of a supporting sheet assembly provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    is a schematic structural diagram of a supporting sheet in an attachment process provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5    is a schematic structural diagram of a film suction plate in an apparatus configured to install supporting sheets, and a supporting sheet provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  6    is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus configured to install supporting sheets provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     The technical solutions of embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely in combination with the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative work shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure. 
     A folding screen is the main direction of development of display technology. In order to strengthen the folding screen, supporting sheets with a supporting function are disposed on the back of the folding screen. Because outer glass of the folding screen is made of flexible glass, the supporting sheets configured for support and reinforcement need to be attached to the back of a non-folding region of the folding screen. Considering that assembly of a whole machine needs fixing, nuts need to be attached to the supporting sheets, and the screen and the whole machine are fixed by the nuts. 
     However, the supporting sheets with the nuts installed have a large gap between the nuts and the supporting sheets, so that in a feeding process, the supporting sheets can only be fed one by one to avoid the nuts installed on the supporting sheets from being damaged by jacking. Meanwhile, in the feeding process, a film suction plate needs to be slotted for receding according to the position and thickness of the nuts, but there will be deviations in the actual feeding, an area of a slotted region needs to be larger than an area of a region occupied by the nut, that is, it is possible that there are two or more nuts in one slotted region, the contact area between the film suction plate and the supporting sheet will be reduced, resulting in a decrease in the suction force of the film suction plate to the supporting sheet, and the supporting sheet is prone to falling off in the feeding. 
     In an attaching process, since it is necessary to apply an external force to the supporting sheet during attachment to attach the supporting sheet to the screen, in order to avoid damage to the nut(s) on the supporting sheet in the process of applying the external force to the supporting sheet, the process of attaching the supporting sheet in a way of avoiding the nut(s) by a roller is adopted. That is, the external force is applied to the supporting sheet by the roller, and the roller completely avoids the nut(s) on the supporting sheet, so that when the roller applies the external force on the supporting sheet, the nut(s) is/are completely unstressed, and consequently uneven force on the screen is caused and poor mold printing occurs, and problems such as bulging on the front of the attached screen caused by air bubbles after attachment due to incomplete exhaust also exist. 
     As shown in  FIG.  1    and  FIG.  2   , embodiments of the present disclosure provide a supporting sheet assembly  100 , including: a plurality of supporting sheets  110 . 
     The supporting sheet  110  includes: a supporting sheet body  111  and nuts  112  installed on one side of the supporting sheet body  111 . 
     A protective layer  113  is provided on the one side of the supporting sheet body  111  where the nuts  112  are installed. Openings  114  are dug in the protective layer  113  at top parts of the nuts  112  so as to expose the nuts  112 . 
     In an axis direction of each nut  112 , a height of the protective layer  113  is greater than a height of the nut  112 . 
     It should be noted that, since the nuts  112  are installed on the supporting sheet  110 , the surface of the supporting sheet  110  is uneven. The protective layer  113  is provided on the surface of the supporting sheet  110  where the nuts  112  are installed. The openings are dug in the protective layer so as to expose the nuts. In the axis direction of each nut  112 , the height of the protective layer  113  is greater than the height of the nut  112 . Therefore, when the screen and a whole machine are attached and fixed, each protective layer is reduced in thickness to be basically on the same plane as the tops of the nuts. Force at the positions of the nuts  112  and the positions without the nuts  112  on each supporting sheet  110  is the same. In the automatic attachment working process of the supporting sheets  110 , the problems such as poor attachment and the generation of air bubbles caused by the difference in force between the positions of the nuts  112  and the positions without the nuts  112  on each supporting sheet  110  are reduced. By adoption of thickening the protective layers  113  and filling gaps between the nuts  112  and the screen, the attachment process of the supporting sheets  110  on which the nuts  112  are installed is achieved. 
     As shown in  FIG.  3   , since the surface of the supporting sheet  110  with the nuts  112  are uneven and in the feeding process, the supporting sheet with the nuts installed has a large gap between the nuts and the supporting sheet, in the feeding process, the supporting sheets can only be fed one by one, so as to avoid the nuts from being damaged by jacking. This gap will cause the problem of increasing the feeding difficulty. In order to solve the low single-sheet feeding efficiency, the plurality of supporting sheets  110  are disposed in a stacked manner. 
     When the plurality of supporting sheets  110  are disposed in a stacked manner, considering that the adjacent supporting sheets  110  cannot stick to each other, an isolation layer  120  is disposed between every two adjacent supporting sheets  110  to avoid sticking. 
     For example, a thickness of each protective layer  113  is designed according to actual needs. The thickness of each protective layer is 1.55 mm-1.6 mm, which may be: 1.55 mm, 1.56 mm, 1.57 mm, 1.58 mm, 1.59 mm or 1.60 mm. A thickness of the nuts on the supporting sheet is 1.45 mm-1.5 mm, e.g.: 1.45 mm, 1.46 mm, 1.47 mm, 1.48 mm, 1.49 mm or 1.50 mm. For example, a height difference between each protective layer  113  and the corresponding nuts  112  is X mm. X may be: 0.05 mm-0.15 mm. X may be for example 0.05 mm, 0.1 mm or 0.15 mm, and the specific value is to be selected according to the actual situation. 
     For example, a weight of a single supporting sheet  110  is 45 g. In the feeding process stage, in order to solve the problem of low single-sheet feeding efficiency of the supporting sheets, the supporting sheet assembly  100  is fed in a stacked manner. Taking a number  100  of supporting sheets as an example, the stress on the bottommost supporting sheet  110  is about 45 N, and the deformation of the protective layer  113  due to the stress is Y mm. In order to ensure that the laminated sheets are not damaged by the nuts  112  by jacking, X&gt;Y is required. 
     As shown in  FIG.  4   , in the attaching process with a roller  300 , when a hardness of the roller  300  is 40 Hb and the roller attaching pressure is 0.1 Mpa, the deformation amount of the protective layer  113  is Z mm. In order to ensure that the supporting sheet  110  is stressed evenly to avoid poor mold printing, the deformation amount of the protective layers  113  is Z≈X under the pressure of 0.1 Mpa. To sum up, a value of X is set based on the actual situation of the deformation Y of the protective layer  113  caused by the stress in the feeding process and the deformation amount Z of the protective layer  113  in the attaching process with the roller  300 . 
     In addition, a hardness of the protective layer  113  is 45 Hb-55 Hb, e.g.: 45 Hb, 50 Hb or 55 Hb. Release force of the protective layer  113  is 3 gf-6 gf, e.g.: 3 gf, 4 gf, 5 gf or 6 gf. The hardness of the protective layer  113  is adjusted according to actual needs. The hardness selected above is to ensure that the nuts on the supporting sheets will not be damaged by jacking in the feeding process stage and force at the positions of the nuts  112  and the positions without the nuts  112  on the supporting sheets  110  is the same in the attachment process stage, so that the problems such as poor attachment and the generation of air bubbles caused by the difference in force between the positions of the nuts  112  and the positions without the nuts  112  on the supporting sheets  110  are relieved. By adoption of thickening the protective layers  113  and filling the gaps between the nuts  112  and the screen, the attachment process of the supporting sheets  110  on which the nuts  112  are installed is achieved. 
     For example, the protective layers  113  are made of foam, and have a series of characteristics such as elasticity, light weight, fast pressure-sensitive fixing, convenient use, free bending, ultra-thin volume, and reliable performance. Thus, the nuts on the supporting sheets are better protected. 
     As shown in  FIG.  5   , an apparatus configured to install supporting sheets further provided by the present disclosure includes: an adsorption assembly for adsorbing the supporting sheets  110  disposed in a stacked manner. The adsorption assembly includes: a film suction plate  200  in contact with protective layers  113  of the supporting sheets  110 . A plurality of vacuum adsorption holes  210  are provided in a side of the film suction plate  200  facing the supporting sheets  110 . Each protective layer  113  includes: opening region(s)  113   b  on top part(s) of nut(s)  112  and non-opening region(s)  113   a . The vacuum adsorption holes  210  are in contact with the non-opening region(s)  113   a . By designing each protective layer  113  according to the positions of the openings, the vacuum adsorption holes  210  are not provided in the opening region(s)  113   b  so as to prevent the supporting sheets  110  from falling off due to vacuum breaking. 
     As shown in  FIG.  6   , the supporting sheets  110  disposed in a stacked manner are transported to the film suction plate  200  in the adsorption assembly by a jacking mechanism  400 . The film suction plate  200  adsorbs the supporting sheets  110  disposed in a stacked manner. For example, the jacking mechanism  400  may be any device with a lifting function, such as a cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder. 
     The adsorption assembly completes the adsorption of the supporting sheet  110  and transfers the supporting sheet  110  to a conveying mechanism  500 . For example, the conveying mechanism  500  may be any device with a conveying function such as a belt or a conveying roller, which will not be repeated here. The supporting sheet  110  moves to the attachment process in the movement direction of the conveying mechanism  500 . A roller  300  exerts an external force on the supporting sheet  110 . The roller  300  completely acts on the protective layer of the supporting sheet  110 , so that the roller  300  applies the external force on the protective layer of the supporting sheet  110  to attach the supporting sheet to a screen  600 . 
     Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the embodiments of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. In this way, if these modifications and variations of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure and equivalent technologies thereof, the present disclosure is also intended to include these modifications and variations.