Peeling process development for thin flexible webs

Abstract

Many consumer products are manufactured from continuous media. When the media is thin and flexible, it is referred to as a web. Webs are typically manufactured by extrusion or casting; however, for some applications, a coating process onto a sacrificial carrier web, followed by a peeling process, provides a more robust means to achieve the functional requirements of thin webs. One example of this is with the protective cover sheet for LCD polarizers. Conventional casting is impractical because of the thickness and tear- sensitivity of the preferred support material. The coating and peeling processes, however, are not without their own problems. This paper describes work aimed at developing a robust coating and peeling process for the manufacture of protective cover sheets for LCD polarizers. First, we describe the general process method. Next, we focus our discussion on the development of the web peeling process and review in detail the peeling imperfections, such as ripping and tearing defects, that negatively impacted our ability to successfully peel the thin webs from the carrier webs. Web handling findings from this work will also be shared.