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STREAMLINE III Main Process Steps

Introduction | Concept | Main Process Steps | Technical Data | Literature

1 Injection Molding
Two equal and qualified DVD R injection molding machines including DVD R molds, take-out robots and temperature control units are used.

2 Cooling System
All substrates are brought to ambient process temperature and humidity in a cooling conveyor for further processing in the dye coating unit.

3 Substrate Conditioning
The cooling unit, with air supplied from an independent climate unit, acts as a conditioning station to ensure the layer 0 substrates are thermally conditioned for the dye coating process.

4 Dye Coating Unit
The dye coating unit of the STREAMLINE III can be equipped with up to 6 process stations for the application of a layer of organic recording material onto each grooved polycarbonate substrate.

5 Take-out
There is one three-arm transfer handling system to transport the substrates from the conveyor
to the dye inspection unit, to the sample take-out position and laser marker unit, and back to the conveyor.

6 Drying Unit
To remove residual solvent from the condensed and air-dried dye film, the inspected dye coated substrates are fed into the drying unit.

 7 Sputtering Unit
For the deposition of a thin reflecting film (metal layer) onto the dye coated substrates, the high rate sputter unit SINGULUS V with patented SMART Cathode® is used.

8 Edge Cleaning Station
Removes residual dye on the edge of the dye coated and metallized layer 0 substrates.

9 Transfer Conveyor
One transfer conveyor transports the blank layer 1 substrates to the bonding unit.

10 Bonding Unit
Bonding takes place on a four-position turntable, where the bonding material is dispensed onto the metallized and edge-cleaned information side substrates.

11 UV-Curing Station
In the UV-curing station, the discs are exposed to ultraviolet radiation to cure the bonding material by means of a radical polymerization reaction.

12 Final Cooling Conveyor
An eight-position conveyor is applied to cool each DVD R after UV-curing to ensure that the discs
are in thermal equilibrium when they reach the following final quality control system.

13 Inline Quality Inspection System
A two-step inline quality inspection system is integrated in the STREAMLINE III. This concept includes the intermediate inspection of the dye coated layer 0 substrates and the final inspection of the finished DVD R.