Patent Publication Number: US-2018037401-A1

Title: Tray and packaging device for display panel

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The application claims the priority to and the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201620848624.3, filed on Aug. 5, 2016 and entitled “tray and packaging device for display panel”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to the field of packaging device for a display panel technology, in particular, to a tray and a packaging device for a display panel. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In the field of liquid crystal display technology, in order to prevent the image quality of a display panel from being affected by static electricity, a shielding layer is usually plated on the front surface of the display panel. When the display panel is packed in the tray; the back surface of the display panel usually faces the bottom of the tray, and the front surface is facing upward. 
     However, because the adhesion force between the shielding layer and the display panel is usually small, stacked trays each packed with a display panel may cause damage to the display panel during transportation or oscillation experiment. For example, as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the shielding layer may easily separate from the front surface of the display panel  02  due to the friction between the back surface of the upper layer tray  01  and the front surface of the display panel  02  in the lower layer tray  01 , which results in damage to the display panel. 
     In order to avoid the above problems, As shown in  FIG. 3 , one of the solutions in the related art is that an elastic backing plate  002  made from elastic material is provided on the upper surface of the display panel  001 . Compared to the tray  003 , the elastic backing plate  002  has a low hardness, a greater elasticity, when the elastic backing plate  002  contacts with and slides on the front panel of the display panel  001 , the resulting friction is small, which reduces wear on the elastic backing plate  002 . 
     SUMMARY 
     The embodiments of the present disclosure provide the following technical solution, so as to achieve an effect of the present disclosure. 
     In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a tray includes a body; a first groove formed in the body for accommodating an elastic backing plate, the shape of the first groove matches the outer contour shape of the elastic backing plate; and a second groove formed in the body for accommodating a display panel, and located within a bottom edge of the first groove so as to form a step at the position where the first groove is connected with the second groove. 
     In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a packaging device for display panel includes a tray and an elastic backing plate. The tray includes a body; a first groove formed in the body for accommodating an elastic backing plate, the shape of the first groove matches the outer contour shape of the elastic backing plate; and a second groove formed in the body for accommodating a display panel, and located within a bottom edge of the first groove so as to form a step at the position where the first groove is connected with the second groove. The elastic backing plate is accommodated in the first groove of the tray. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in embodiments of the present disclosure or in related art, drawings to be used in the descriptions of the embodiments or the related art will be briefly introduced below. Apparently, the drawings in the following description are only for some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings may be obtained based on these drawings by those skilled in the art without paying creative effort. 
         FIG. 1  is a structural schematic diagram of a tray packed with a display panel according to the related art; 
         FIG. 2  is a structural schematic diagram of a plurality of trays packed with a display panel shown in  FIG. 1  being stacked; 
         FIG. 3  is a structural schematic diagram of a packaging device for a display panel according to the prior art; 
         FIG. 4  is a front view of a tray according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  is a top view of the tray as shown in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a structural schematic diagram of a packaging device for a display panel according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The technical solutions in embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in embodiments of the present disclosure, and it will be apparent that the described embodiments are merely part of the embodiments of the present disclosure and not all of the embodiments. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without making creative work are within the scope of the present disclosure. 
     In the description of the present disclosure, it is to be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms “center”, “upper”, “down”, “front”, “rear”, “left”, “right”, “vertical” “top”, “bottom”, “inside”, “outside”, etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, which is only for the purpose of facilitating the description and simplifying of the description, but not an indication or a hint that the indicated device or element must have a specific orientation, constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore can not be construed as limitations to the present disclosure. In the present disclosure described above, unless otherwise indicated, “a plurality of” means two or more. 
     With reference to  FIGS. 4 and 5 ,  FIGS. 4 and 5  show an exemplary embodiment of the tray of the present disclosure, which includes a body  10 , a first groove  1  and a second groove  2  both formed in the body. The second groove  2  is located within a bottom edge of the first groove  1  so as to form a step  11  at the position where the first groove  1  is connected with the second groove  2 . The second groove  2  is used for accommodating a display panel, and the first groove  1  is used for accommodating an elastic backing plate. The shape of the first groove  1  matches the contour shape of the elastic backing plate. 
     In the tray according to the present disclosure, the display panel may be placed in the second groove  2 , and then the elastic backing plate may be placed in the first groove  1 . Because the second groove  2  is defined within the bottom edge of the first groove  1 , and the shape of the first groove  1  matches the contour shape of the elastic backing plate, the edge of the bottom surface of the elastic backing plate may be supported by the step  11  between the first groove  1  and the second groove  2 . The inner wall of the first groove  1  may prevent the elastic backing plate from shaking horizontally relative to the first groove  1  during shaking of the whole tray, and the edge of the bottom surface of the elastic backing plate is always located on the step  11 , thus the friction between the edge of the elastic backing plate and the display panel in the second groove  2  may be avoided, thereby the possibility of the shielding layer peeling off from the display panel may be reduced. 
     In the above-described embodiment, the first groove  1  may be of a square shape, a circular shape; a triangular shape or any other shape, the shape of the first groove  1  is not limited. 
     The second groove  2  may be of a square shape, a circular shape, a triangular shape or any other shape, the shape of the second groove  2  is not limited. 
     The embodiment as shown in  FIG. 4 , since the back surface of the display panel faces the bottom of the second groove  2 , and the back surface of the display panel always planar and smooth, moreover, the bottom of the second groove  2  is plane, when the back surface of the display panel are in direct contact with the bottom of the second groove  2 , the gap between the display panel and the second groove  2  is small. Furthermore, if liquid infiltrates into and blocks the gap, air may not enter the gap between the display panel and the bottom of the second groove  2 , thus when the display panel will be taken out from the second groove  2 , the atmospheric pressure acting on the upper surface of the display panel will prevent the display panel from being taken out of the display panel, which increases the difficulty for removing the display panel from the second groove  2 . In order to avoid this problem, for example, as shown in  FIG. 4 , a plurality of protrusions  3  are disposed on the bottom of the second groove  2 , which is used for supporting the display panel. The display panel is supported at a certain height above the bottom of the second groove  2  by the plurality of protrusions  3 , which prevents direct contact between the back surface of the display panel and the bottom of the second groove  2 . 
     There are spaces between the adjacent protrusions  3 , and the air may enter into the spaces, thereby the atmospheric pressures acting on both the upper and lower surfaces of the display panel may be approximately equal. Since there is no atmospheric resistance acting on the display panel, the difficulty of removing the display panel from the second groove  2  will be decreased. 
     In one embodiment, the protrusion  3  may be of a square shape, a triangular prism shape; a cylinder shape or any other shape, and the shape of the protrusion  3  is not limited. 
     Besides, the number of the protrusion  3  is 2, 3, or 4 and so on, it is not limited. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , in order to avoid the effect of static electricity on the display panel, for example, the protrusions  3  may be made from antistatic material having antistatic effect, by which the protrusions  3  may prevent static electricity from affecting the display panel. 
     Specifically, the protrusions  3  may be made from EPE (Expandable Polyethylene), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), or the protrusions  3  may be made from other antistatic material, and it is not limited. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , there are three solutions. The first solution is that the protrusions  3  may be laid directly on the bottom of the second groove  2 . The second solution is that the protrusions  3  may be connected to the bottom of the second groove  2  by a connecting structure. The third solution is that the protrusions  3  may be formed integrally with the second groove. In the case of using the first solution described above, the protrusions  3  on the second groove  2  may be movable and drop or be misplaced easily. In the case of using the second solution, the connecting of the protrusions  3  and the second groove  2  is a complicated process, which leads to low mounting efficiency, further results in high complexity and low efficiency of manufacturing the tray. In order to avoid this problem, for example, the plurality of protrusions  3  may be formed integrally with the bottom of the second groove  2 , and the plurality of the protrusions  3  are located on fixing positions of the bottom of the second groove  2  respectively, which is beneficial to avoiding the drop or misplaced of the protrusions  3  and does not need to connect the protrusions  3  and the second groove  2 . Thereby manufacturing difficulty may be decreased and efficiency may be improved. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , in order to prevent the display panel from shaking back and forth in the direction parallel to the bottom surface of the second groove  2  in the second groove  2 , thereby decreasing the friction between the display panel and the elastic backing plate. For example, the shape of the second groove  2  may match the contour shape of the display panel, thus the side wall of the second groove  2  may prevent the display panel from shaking back and forth in the direction parallel to the bottom surface of the second groove  2 , then decreasing the possibility of generating friction between the display panel and the elastic backing plate. 
     In order to carry the tray easily by hand, for example, as shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the opening end of the first groove  1  extends outward to form a handheld portion  4 . It is convenient to carry the tray by holding the handheld portion  4 . 
     In order to reduce the weight of the tray for easy transport, for example, the tray is made from plastic material, which has a light weight compared to metal, thereby reducing the overall weight of the tray and facilitating transportation of the tray packed with the display panel. 
     In order to improve the forming efficiency of the tray, for example, the tray may be formed by injection molding. The injection molding process is simple, and the production time is short, which helps to improve the forming efficiency of the tray. 
     In particular, the tray may be made from PET. The PET is a commonly used material, and easy to produce. 
     In order to avoid the effect of static electricity on the display panel, for example, the resistance value of the tray is in the range of 10 6 ˜10 11 . When the resistance value of the tray is in this range, the insulation performance and electrical conductivity of the tray are both reasonable. That is, the static electricity generated by the friction between the tray and the display panel may be conducted outward the tray, and the tray can have a certain insulation property from static electricity outside the tray, to prevent static electricity outside the tray from affecting the display panel. 
     With reference to  FIG. 6 ,  FIG. 6  shows an exemplary embodiment of the packaging device for a display panel according to present disclosure. The packaging device for a display panel includes a tray  100  described in any one of embodiments above, and an elastic backing plate  200  disposed in the first groove  1  of the tray. 
     Since the tray  100  used in the packaging device for a display panel is the same as the above described tray in embodiments of the present disclosure, thereby both of the tray and the packaging device for display panel can solve the same technical problems, and achieve the same technical effects. 
     Wherein, the elastic backing plate  200  may be made from rubber, sponge or foam, etc., and it is not limited. 
     In particular, the elastic backing plate  200  may be made from EPE, EPE is a commonly used material for packing electronic device, and easy to produce. 
     In order to avoid the effect of static electricity on the display panel  300 , for example, The resistance value of the elastic backing plate  200  is in the range of 10 6 ˜10 11 . When the resistance value of the elastic backing plate  200  is in this range, the insulation performance and electrical conductivity of the elastic backing plate  200  are both reasonable. That is, the static electricity generated by the friction between the elastic backing plate  200  and display panel  300  may be conducted outside the tray  100 , and the insulation of the tray  100  can have a certain insulation property from static electricity outside the tray  100 , to prevent static electricity outside the tray  100  from affecting the display panel  300 . 
     The tray and the packaging device for a display panel of the present disclosure, the display panel may be placed in the second groove, the elastic backing plate may be placed in the first groove. Because the second groove is defined within the bottom edge of the first groove, and a step is formed between the first groove and the second groove, and the shape of the first groove matches the contour shape of the elastic backing plate, the edge of the bottom surface of the elastic backing plate may be supported on the step between the first groove and the second groove. During shacking of the tray, the inside wall of the first groove may prevent the elastic backing plate from shacking relative to the first groove, and the edge of the bottom of the elastic backing plate may always be supported on the step, avoiding the friction between the edge of the elastic backing plate and the display panel in the second groove, therefore the possibility that the shielding layer falls off from the display panel decreases. 
     In the description of this specification, specific features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. 
     The above described embodiments are only the specific embodiments of the present disclosure, but the scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Within the technical scope disclosed in this disclosure, any variation or substitution easily anticipated by those skilled in the art are intended to be within the protection scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the protection scope of the present disclosure should be based on the protection scope of the claims.