Patent Publication Number: US-2013240465-A1

Title: Carrier Tray of Liquid Crystal Panel

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal display manufacture, and in particular to a carrier tray of a liquid crystal panel used in a manufacture process of liquid crystal displays. 
     2. The Related Arts 
     A thin-film transistor (TFT) comprises a backlight module, a liquid crystal panel, and a front bezel. In the manufacture process of a liquid crystal display module, various jigs and fixtures are used, of which a carrier tray for liquid crystal panel is an important one. A conventional liquid crystal panel tray comprises a bearing device and a positioning device set at a center of the tray. The bearing device comprises two parallel and opposite walls between which a distance is set to correspond to the width of a product. The liquid crystal panel tray is mounted on a moving mechanism to receive a backlight module to be placed thereon. A liquid crystal panel is then disposed on the backlight module. The liquid crystal panel tray carries the liquid crystal panel to each workstation of a manufacture line to carry out corresponding operations. In a securing workstation, an operator needs to apply bolts to secure a bezel to the backlight module. Since the conventional liquid crystal panel tray is of a planar configuration, it often occurs that bolts may unexpected fall and roll out of the tray during the operation of tightening the bolts and this causes damage and loss of the bolts. The quantity of bolts used in the securing operation is quite great, and thus having bolt rolling out of the tray affects the 6S and also increases the expense of bolt, leading to economic loss. Since the liquid crystal panel tray is constantly moved along the manufacture line, once a bolt falls into equipment of the manufacture line would cause malfunction and fault of the equipment. This certainly increases the expense of maintenance and, in addition, shutting down the manufacture line greatly lowers the throughput of the manufacture line. 
     To handle such a problem, Chinese Patent Publication No. CN201072475 discloses a tray with bolt recovery feature, which comprises a bearing device and a positioning device and further comprises an anti-skid piece arranged along a circumference of the tray. Although adopting such a tray may, to some extents, preventing bolts from falling out of the tray, but the bolts may get dispersed inside the tray, making it hard for recovery. Especially for a large-sized tray that is used in assembling a large-sized liquid crystal display device, recovering the bolts that scatter around the tray one by one would cause a great waste of working hour. Apparently, further improvement is desired for the liquid crystal panel tray. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An objective of the present invention is to provide a carrier tray of a liquid crystal panel, which has a simple structure and can facilitate recovery of bolt to effectively lower down cost. 
     To achieve the objective, the present invention provides a carrier tray of a liquid crystal panel, which comprises: a tray body and magnetic sidewalls arranged along a circumference of the tray body. 
     The tray body comprises a bottom plate, and the magnetic sidewalls are mounted to edges of the bottom plate. The bottom plate comprises a support surface, which is concave. 
     The support surface comprises a concave curved surface. 
     The carrier tray of a liquid crystal panel further comprises a magnetic member, which is mounted at a bottom location of the concave support surface. 
     The magnetic member is made of a magnet or a magnetic material. 
     The magnetic sidewalls are made of magnets or magnetic materials. 
     The tray body further comprises a bearing device, which is mounted on the support surface of the bottom plate. 
     The bearing device is fixed to the bottom plate by bolts. 
     The tray body further comprises a positioning device, which is mounted on the support surface of the bottom plate. 
     The positioning device is fixed to the bottom plate by bolts. 
     The efficacy of the present invention are that the present invention provides a carrier tray for a liquid crystal panel, which comprises a support surface having edges along which magnetic sidewalls are arranged and the support surface comprises a concave surface having a bottom location at which a magnetic member is mounted. In assembling a liquid crystal module, during a bolt tightening operation, a bolt that drops can roll toward the bottom location of the concave surface to be attracted and held by the magnetic member or a bolt may drop to edges of the concave surface and is attracted and held by the magnetic sidewalls, thereby preventing the bolt from dropping or falling into the equipment of the manufacture line to cause malfunctioning of the equipment and avoiding the maintenance expense and loss of throughput due to such malfunctioning, and at the same time improving the 6S of a clean room. After the manufacture, the bolts that are lost can be recovered for subsequent use thereby reducing waste and lowering manufacture cost. 
     For better understanding of the features and technical contents of the present invention, reference will be made to the following detailed description of the present invention and the attached drawings. However, the drawings are provided for the purposes of reference and illustration and are not intended to impose undue limitations to the present invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The technical solution, as well as beneficial advantages, will be apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment of the present invention, with reference to the attached drawings. In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a top plan view of a carrier tray of liquid crystal panel according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of an assembly of a bottom plate and sidewalls of the carrier tray of liquid crystal panel according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     To further expound the technical solution adopted in the present invention and the advantages thereof, a detailed description is given to a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the attached drawings. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the present invention provides a carrier tray of a liquid crystal panel, which comprises: a tray body  10  and magnetic sidewalls  20  arranged along circumferential edges of the tray body  10 . The tray body  10  comprises a bottom plate  100 , a positioning device  102 , a bearing device  103 , and a magnetic member  104 . 
     The bottom plate  100  is of for example a rectangular shape and comprises a support surface  110 . The support surface  110  is a concave curved surface so that parts, such as bolts (not shown), falling onto the bottom plate  100  are subjected to gravity to roll to a central location of the concave support surface to easy retrieval. 
     The sidewalls  20  are mounted to edges of the bottom plate  100  and are of magnetism by being made of magnets or other magnetic materials. During a bolt tightening operation of assembling process of liquid crystal module, bolts falling around the circumference of the bottom plate  100  are held by being magnetically attracted by the magnetic sidewalls  20  so as to prevent the bolts from falling to the ground or falling into the nearby equipment. 
     The bearing device  103  is mounted on the support surface  110 . The bearing device  103  is fixed to the bottom plate  100  by bolts or screws. In assembling the liquid crystal module, a backlight module (not shown) is positioned on the bearing device  103 . 
     The magnetic member  104  is arranged at the center of the support surface  110  and is made of magnets or other magnetic materials to show magnetism in order to magnetically attract and thus hold bolts that rolls to the central location of the support surface  110 . The magnetic member  104  has a height that is smaller than or substantially equal to height of the bearing device  103  to avoid undesired interference with bearing of the backlight module. Preferably, the height of the magnetic member  104  is smaller than that of the bearing device  103 . The magnetic member  104  is mounted at a bottom location of the concave support surface  110 . 
     The positioning device  102  is fixed on the bottom plate  100  by bolts or screws and comprises positioning bars  205 ,  207 , which include S-side (source drive side) positioning bars  205  and G-side (gate drive side) positioning bars  207 . Through holes (not shown) are formed in the S-side positioning bars  205  and the G-side positioning bars  207  at predetermined locations. The S-side positioning bars  205  are used to fix a product at a position in X-direction (horizontal direction) and the G-side positioning bars  207  are used to fix the product at a position in Y-direction (vertical direction). These predetermined locations are determined according to length and width of the product and the determination is made by first pacing the product on the bearing device  103  of the tray, followed by measuring lengthwise and width-wise edge dimension and making the through holes in the S-side positioning bars  205  and the G-side positioning bars  207 . When the tray are put into use, S-side positioning blocks (not shown) and G-side positioning blocks (not shown) are respectively set on the S-side positioning bars  205  and the G-side positioning bars  207 . The S-side positioning blocks and the G-side positioning blocks each have a side facing the backlight module and forming a pawl (not shown) for better holding the product and thus ensuring the position of the product on the tray is fixed and not variable. 
     The embodiment illustrated above is one of the preferred embodiments according to the present invention. In practical applications, based on the size of the bottom plate, the support surface may be formed by adjoining a plurality of concave curved facets each of which has a bottom location at which a magnetic member is mounted so that bolts that fall into the tray can be held in the concave curved facets. 
     In summary, the present invention provides a carrier tray for a liquid crystal panel, which comprises a support surface having edges along which magnetic sidewalls are arranged and the support surface comprises a concave surface having a bottom location at which a magnetic member is mounted. In assembling a liquid crystal module, during a bolt tightening operation, a bolt that drops can roll toward the bottom location of the concave surface to be attracted and held by the magnetic member or a bolt may drop to edges of the concave surface and is attracted and held by the magnetic sidewalls, thereby preventing the bolt from dropping or falling into the equipment of the manufacture line to cause malfunctioning of the equipment and avoiding the maintenance expense and loss of throughput due to such malfunctioning, and at the same time improving the 6S of a clean room. After the manufacture, the bolts that are lost can be recovered for subsequent use thereby reducing waste and lowering manufacture cost. 
     Based on the description given above, those having ordinary skills of the art may easily contemplate various changes and modifications of the technical solution and technical ideas of the present invention and all these changes and modifications are considered within the protection scope of right for the present invention.