Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Fujifilm Corporation

Norio Shibata

Shinsuke Takahashi

Tsunehiko Sato

Mikio Tomaru

Akihiro Suzuki

Naoyoshi Chino

Toshihiro Mandai

Yasuhito Hiraki

Hideo Takeda

Junji Nakada

Keiji Shigesada

Jun Fujinawa

Hiroshi Chikamasa

Takashi Kataoka

Kazunori Komatsu

Yasunori Tanaka

Hideaki Takekuma

Hiromu Ueha

Sato Tsunehiko

Syozo Akiyama

A pattern film forming method includes a step of producing a transfer sheet in which a thin film is formed on a surface of a sheet-shaped material and a step of pressing the thin film against a pattern film formation surface of the substrate with a pressing member having convex portions corresponding to the pattern film from a reverse surface of the transfer sheet opposite to the thin film or a reverse surface of the substrate opposite to the pattern film formation surface to transfer the thin film to the substrate. A pattern film forming apparatus includes a sheet supply device, a pressing device and a substrate transport device. A high-definition pattern film having a desired pattern and a sharp edge can be formed with high productivity.

Pattern film forming method and pattern film forming apparatus

This method forms a patterned film. The method prepares a transfer member having a transfer surface on which asperities are formed in accordance with a film pattern to be formed, performs stripping treatment on surfaces of at least ridges formed on the transfer surface of the transfer member, thereafter forms a thin film formed by a technology of vacuum film formation on the surfaces of the at least ridges formed on the transfer surface of the transfer member and transfers the thin film formed on the surfaces of at least ridges of the transfer member onto a substrate, thereby forming the patterned film on the substrate.

Method of forming patterned films

The coating apparatus and method enable the coating liquid having been scraped-off to be reused without doing any one of the fluid adjusting treatment and the filtering treatment, while maintaining the features of the scraping-off type of extrusion coater, which is suitable for obtaining a uniform and extremely thin coating film. The coating head is provided with two slits: a coating slit and a recovering slit, and the excessive coating liquid having been discharged through the coating slit and applied to the web is scraped-off and recovered through the recovering slit.

Coating method and apparatus

In coating with two slits of a coating slit and a recovering slit, by optimizing the slit clearance of the coating slit and the recovering slit, a coating layer with a very small and even thickness can be obtained. In a coating apparatus in which after a coating liquid is applied to a web to excess through the coating slit, a desired amount of coating liquid is applied to the web by scraping off an excess of coating liquid with a recovering slit, there is provided a slit clearance adjusting device for adjusting the slit clearance of the recovering slit.

Coating apparatus

It is possible to give ultrathin and uniform coating on a flexible web in scraping-off type coating. The distribution of pressure in a web width direction is adjusted by a pressure distribution adjusting device when an excess of coating liquid excessively applied is scraped off by a doctor blade by giving relative pressure to a coating surface of a web and the doctor blade after applying the coating liquid that is more excessive than the desired quantity of the coating liquid on the web by a precoating apparatus while making the web continuously travel.

By optimizing the pressure condition for sucking up an excess of coating liquid with a recovering slit, a coating layer on a web with a very small and even thickness can be obtained. In a coating method using two slits of a coating slit and the recovering slit, a liquid pressure P (MPa) at a suction port of the recovering slit is adjusted in a range of 0.05>P&gE;0. Thus, coating thickness variations in the web width direction of the coating layer formed on the web can be restrained, and score-like coating omission can be prevented from occurring on the coating layer surface.

Coating method

Edge faces with level differences are formed by assembling blocks constructing a coating head, and level difference variances in the width direction of a web are measured by a level difference variance measurement device. Then, the level difference variances are adjusted with reference to measured results, so that the level difference variances can be reduced. Therefore, coating layers can be uniformly formed on the web.

Extrusion-type coating method and apparatus

There is provided a coating method in which an extrusion-type coating head having a plurality of doctor edge surfaces is pressed onto a flexible support laid and running between pass rollers so as to coat the flexible support with a coating composition ejected from a slit, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a lower-layer coating composition so as to have a viscosity of not less than 1 P at rest and a viscosity of not more than 50 cP at a shear rate of 10,000 sec ; excessively applying the lower-layer coating composition to a surface of the support; scraping a surplus of the lower-layer coating composition by the coating head so that a lower layer is formed; and applying an upper-layer coating composition, which is ejected from the slit, onto the lower layer.

A coating apparatus ( ) has a coating head having a front edge surface ( ) and a doctor edge surface ( ). The coating head of the coating apparatus ( ) is pressed onto a flexible support ( ) laid and running between pass rollers ( ) so that the support ( ) can be coated with coating composition. The doctor edge surface ( ) of the coating apparatus ( ) is formed so that the variation rate, in the support width direction, of blade thickness in the support running direction of the doctor edge surface ( ) does not exceed 5%.

An extrusion coating head comprises an upstream side block ( ) and a downstream side block ( ) aligned in the conveying direction, and adjusting mechanism. The upstream and downstream side blocks ( ) respectively have edge surfaces ( ) on which the flexible support ( ) is pressed. The upstream and downstream side blocks ( ) define therebetween a slit ( ) through which a coating composition can be extruded and applied onto the flexible support. The adjusting mechanism adjusts a length (t) of a perpendicular line which is drawn from an upstream end (A) of the edge surface of the downstream side block to a tangential line (L) of the edge surface of the downstream side block which is drawn from a downstream end of the edge surface of the upstream side block, to thereby adjust a distribution of a coating thickness on the flexible support in the width direction.

Extrusion coating head and coating method for flexible support

A method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium includes steps of forming a magnetic layer containing magnetic powder particles on a web-like non-magnetic support being continuously transported in one direction and applying a magnetic field to the magnetic layer by a plurality of magnets in such a manner that an angle of the magnetic field applied to the magnetic layer to the transporting direction of the non-magnetic support in a plane perpendicular to a surface of the magnetic layer and parallel to the transporting direction of the non-magnetic support gradually increases in the transporting direction of the non-magnetic support, thereby orienting the magnetic powder particles in an oblique direction with respect to the surface of the magnetic layer. According to this method, it is possible to orient magnetic powder particles in a desired direction with respect to the surface of a magnetic layer and to manufacture a magnetic recording medium having a high squareness ratio without increasing the size of the apparatus.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing magnetic recording medium

An application method of forming a precoat and at least one type of coat sequentially in a wet condition on an application face of a support with an extrusion type coating head of non-pressurizing type having a front edge,positioned in the upstream with respect to a move direction of the support and a back edge,positioned in the downstream with respect to the support move direction and having an acute-angle tip formed so as to recede in the direction opposite to the support from the tip of the front edge. The difference between values of solubility parameters at application temperature of solvents contained in both the precoat,and the coat,contiguous to the precoat is made 1.5 or less.

Application method

A method and apparatus for removing dust from a base film effectively so that electrostatic charges of the base film are reduced while the cleaning effect is kept high. After a cleaning solvent is applied onto one surface of a base film by a precoater, a rod member is pressed against the base film while the cleaning solvent remains on the base film, so that deposits on the base film are separated and scraped together with the cleaning solvent from the base film by the rod member. Just after the deposits are scraped from the base member, a solvent, of the same kind as the cleaning solvent or a mixture of a solvent of the same kind as the cleaning solvent and an additive mixed thereto, is applied onto the base film while the surface of the base film coated with the cleaning solvent is not exposed to an atmospheric air space.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Norio Shibata