JP3989183B2 - Flat cable manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a flat cable used for a wire harness for automobiles, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a flat cable in which a plurality of copper foils extending in the longitudinal direction are laminated on an insulating base material.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Currently, the movement to modularize automotive electrical components, mainly in Europe and the United States, has evolved from an assembly-type module that combines existing components to an integrated module that integrates functions between auxiliary equipment and units. Finally, it is said that it will eventually move to a fusion module that integrates accessories and units with the wire harness that connects them. When developing this integrated module, flat cables (FFC) using flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) can be mounted with circuit components such as units, auxiliary equipment, and switches, and are lightweight and capable of high-density wiring. Therefore, it is considered to be a favorite of integrated module wiring.
[0003]
A flat cable is usually configured as shown in FIG. That is, the FFC 100 is formed by laminating a conductive pattern 102 made of copper foil on an adhesive material 104 on a base material 101 made of polyester film (PET), polyimide film (PI), etc. A cover lay 103 made of synthetic resin or the like is covered with an adhesive 105.
[0004]
8 and 9 are flowcharts showing the manufacturing process of the FFC 100. FIG. In the pre-process, first, after a leveling process including cleaning of the copper foil surface and the like (S11), a dry film laminating process (S12) for laminating the copper foil and the dry film as the base material is performed. In this laminating process, as shown in FIG. 10, a copper foil 106 is placed on a base material 101 having an adhesive 104 applied thereon, and these are passed through work rolls 301a and 301b of a hot roll apparatus. Is a step of forming a copper-clad laminate 200 by hot roll pressing, heating, pressure bonding and curing. In order to form a wiring pattern on the copper-clad laminate 200 produced through such processes, a resist material is then applied to the surface of the copper foil 106, and then exposure (S13), development (S14), and correction (S14) are performed. ) And etching (S15), a predetermined conductor pattern 102 is formed.
[0005]
In the subsequent step, as shown in FIG. 9, after the surface of the conductor pattern 102 is polished (S21), a coverlay film is laminated to protect the surface of the conductor pattern 102 (S22). As shown in FIG. 11, the coverlay film is laminated by placing a coverlay film 103 with an adhesive 105 applied on the lower surface thereof on a copper clad laminate 201 on which a conductor pattern 102 is formed, In this process, the FFC 100 is formed by hot roll pressing by passing the work rolls 302a and 302b of the hot roll device and heating and press bonding. Thereafter, curing is performed at a predetermined temperature (S23), and the portion of the conductor pattern 102 that is not covered is plated (S24), followed by punching (S25), trim removal (S26), and outer shape removal (S27). The finished product inspection (S28) is performed to complete the FFC 100.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, such an FFC manufacturing method has a problem that there are many manufacturing steps and the cost becomes high. Therefore, as a method for reducing the cost by reducing the manufacturing process, a “hot stamp method” in which a circuit is directly formed on a base material by stamping has been studied. This method is a method of forming a circuit by pressing a copper foil onto a base material with a heating mold having a convex circuit pattern portion. The surface of the copper foil on the resin side is subjected to a roughening treatment. As shown in FIG. 12, fine grains of copper are deposited on the surface of the copper foil. Thereby, the adhesive strength with the resin can be increased without using an adhesive (anchor effect).
[0007]
However, although this method is suitable for manufacturing a relatively small FPC, when a long and large product such as FFC is to be manufactured, a very large mold is required, and as a result, the mold There is a problem that the manufacturing cost makes it difficult to reduce the cost of FFC.
[0008]
The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a flat cable manufacturing method capable of manufacturing a long and large flat cable at low cost.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The flat cable manufacturing method according to the present invention includes a step of drawing a copper foil wound in a roll shape to form a slit in a drawing direction, and a base material for an insulator on the copper foil in which the slit is formed in this step. It is characterized by comprising a step of applying and bonding a hot melt resin, and a step of cutting the copper foil and the base material bonded in this step into a predetermined shape.
[0010]
According to the present invention, a copper foil wound in a roll shape is drawn out, a slit is formed in the drawing direction, and then a hot melt resin is applied to the copper foil as a base material for an insulator, bonded, and appropriately cut By doing so, a flat cable is manufactured, so that a process of attaching the copper foil to the entire surface and etching are not required, and a large press mold is not required.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic side view for explaining the FFC manufacturing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
First, after pulling out the copper foil 2 wound around the roll 1, a slit having a predetermined width is formed in the copper foil 2 with a slitter 4 having upper and lower rotary blades (S1). FIG. 3 is a view of the copper foil 2 drawn from the roll 1 as viewed from above. The slitter 4 divides the copper foil 2 into a plurality of ribbon-like copper foils 9 by forming slits 5 corresponding to a predetermined circuit pitch in the copper foil 2. The plurality of copper foils 9 move on the work table 3. At this time, the work table 3 itself may move the copper foil 9 adsorbed by the vacuum by a belt conveyor method, or the work table 3 moves on the work table 3 by winding the copper foil 9 with a winding roll (not shown). You may make it let it. In any case, the hot melt resin 7 is applied from the hot melt applicator 6 to the upper surface of the copper foil 9 in the process of moving on the work table 3 (S2). It is desirable that the hot melt resin 7 to be applied has a heat resistance that melts at a relatively low temperature and can withstand a high temperature of 120 ° C. After cooling this, the hot melt resin 7 is similarly applied to the copper foil 9 on the opposite surface and cut to the required length with the cutter 8 (S3), and the FFC as shown in FIG. 4 is completed (S4). ). The FFC has a main body portion 13 having a hot melt resin 7 as a base material, a conductor pattern made of a plurality of copper foils 9 formed in the longitudinal direction, and a coverlay made of the hot melt resin 7 formed thereon, and both ends thereof. And a land portion 14 where the copper foil 9 is exposed at a portion where the coverlay is removed.
[0013]
According to this configuration, since the FFC can be manufactured without using any mold, not only the mold cost is not required, but also the restrictions when removing the outer shape are eliminated, so that the cost can be greatly reduced. It becomes.
[0014]
FIG. 5 is a schematic side view for explaining the FFC manufacturing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, instead of hot melt resin, a resin film is laminated on copper foil. That is, the copper foil 9 drawn from the roll 1 and having slits formed by the slitter 4 and the base film 22 made of a resin such as PET or PEN drawn from the roll 21 are stacked on the work table 3, and the hot press 23 Adhere and laminate them together. With respect to the hot press 23, the adhesive may not be used at all and may be adhered only by the anchor effect of the copper foil, or the adhesive may be applied and adhered. Further, the hot press may be a roll-like one that is continuously pressed.
[0015]
FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view for explaining the FFC manufacturing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the copper foil 2 is cut in the feeding direction by the cutter 31, and the surface of the divided copper foil 9 is rotated by 90 ° by the rollers 32 and 33, respectively. Align so that they are arranged at intervals. Thereafter, hot-melt resin is applied and base film is laminated.
[0016]
According to this embodiment, in addition to the effects described above, no wasteful portion of the copper foil 2 is generated, so that the processing cost can be greatly reduced.
[0017]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the copper foil wound in a roll shape is drawn out to form a slit in the drawing direction, and then hot melt resin is applied to the copper foil as an insulating base material. binding Te, and since so as to produce a flat cable by suitably cutting, pasting the copper foil, the process is not required, such as etching, it does not require the press mold large. For this reason, there exists an effect that a flat cable can be manufactured cheaply without being restrict | limited to a magnitude | size.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic side view for explaining a flat cable manufacturing method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a manufacturing process of the flat cable.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the copper foil in a state during the manufacturing process of the flat cable.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the flat cable.
FIG. 5 is a schematic side view for explaining a flat cable manufacturing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a plan view for explaining the flat cable manufacturing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a plan view, a transverse sectional view, and a longitudinal sectional view of a flat cable.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a pre-process in a conventional flat cable manufacturing process.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a post-process in a conventional flat cable manufacturing process.
FIG. 10 is a schematic side view for explaining a conventional flat cable manufacturing method.
FIG. 11 is a schematic side view for explaining a conventional flat cable manufacturing method.
FIG. 12 is a view showing micrographs of the copper foil surface before and after the roughening treatment.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,21 ... Roll, 2,9 ... Copper foil, 3 ... Work table, 4 ... Slitter, 5 ... Slit, 6 ... Hot melt applicator, 7 ... Hot melt resin, 8, 31 ... Cutter, 22 ... Base film.

Claims (1)

A step of drawing a copper foil wound in a roll shape to form a slit in the drawing direction;
A step of applying and bonding a hot melt resin as a base material of an insulator to the copper foil in which slits are formed in this step;
And a step of cutting the copper foil and the base material combined in this step into a predetermined shape.

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