Abstract: A flat panel display spacer metering apparatus comprises a motor-driven rotatable disc, having a plurality of cavities distributed around a first surface of the disc. As the disc is rotated, its cavities are filled with spacers from a storage and fill device, configured as a hollow cylinder installed in a bore of a metering block. To facilitate transfer of spacer elements stored in the storage cylinder into cavities in the disc, an axially biased plunger continuously pushes the spacer elements against the first surface of the disc. As a result, whenever rotation of the disc exposes one or more of its cavities to the open end of the cylinder, spacers are forced into and fill the cavities. As the disc is further rotated and successive ones of its cavities are filled with spacers, the filled cavities are brought into alignment with a spacer element ejection head. The ejection head continuously directs a fluid, such as dry nitrogen gas against the cavity-containing surface of the disc.

Abstract: A passive electro-optic display cell comprises two glass plates each of which is covered with a protective layer, for example of silicon dioxide, on which are fixed conductive electrodes composed, for example, of indium oxide. A bonding layer is placed between each plate so treated and an alignment layer which aligns the molecules of a liquid crystal within the cell, this bonding layer being produced from a transparent organic substance, for example a silane or an aluminate. The alignment layers are composed of a polymerizable material, for example a polyimide. A sealing frame which surrounds the liquid crystal between the plates is likewise composed of a polymerizable material, for example a formaldehyde phenolic resin. A copolymerization of the sealing frame and the two alignment layers is obtained, so that these three elements form a casing which encloses the liquid crystal and protects it against contamination and from external influences.