World's First Rib Repair System for Plasma Display Panels

NTN Corporation has successfully developed a commercial product version of its “Rib Repair System” device that corrects any manufacturing faults in the rib barrier separating the individual phosphor elements in plasma display panels (PDP's).

In PDP, ribs are used to seal the special gases into individual spaces on the screen, and a voltage is applied across electrodes to make specific phosphor elements emit light. However, defects in the ribs can result in unwanted side effects such as mixed colors from the phosphors themselves, light leaking into adjoining spaces, etc.

Higher rates of PDP production have resulted in more frequent quality problems. The cost of disposing of faulty PDP's and reductions in overall productivity have created the demand for a device capable of correcting rib faults. However, making a defective rib the same thickness as a normal rib and the high precision required in the machining of the rib upper surface had proved so difficult that until now, no progress was made towards a practical rib repair device.

The NTN “Rib Repair System” is a patented new product developed to eliminate these problems by using a special corrective paste and deposition coating technology.

In the NTN repair process, the corrective paste is applied with a custom-shaped pin and is repeatedly baked by a laser. After the corrective paste is deposited and hardened to form a rib of the required height, the rib width is aligned by laser cutting, and any excess paste is scraped away. Super-precise fine machining of the rib upper surface is repeatedly performed using an air-bearing spindle until the defective rib is corrected.

FEATURES

1. Contains all functions needed for rib correction, from applying the paste through baking and forming.
2. Handles PDP substrates to a maximum of 70 inches.
3. Super-precise fine machining of the rib upper surface by using an air bearing spindle to achieve the required high precision.