JP2001340816A - Washing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To wide a washing range to be washed and improve washing efficiency by making carbon dioxide into dry ice. SOLUTION: A hollow control cover 7 having an opening 11 at the tip part is attached to a nozzle 2. The opening 11 is made to be a flat rectangular shape and an expansive control chamber 12 extended outward is formed in the cover body 19 and a notch 3 is formed in both side parts in the longitudinal direction of the opening 11. The pressure, the speed, the direction, and the jetted shape of carbon dioxide jetted out a jetting outlet 5 of the nozzle 2 are controlled by a control cover 7, and consequently, the area where carbon dioxide jetted out the opening 11 becomes dry ice can be widened to result in enlargement of the washing range to be washed by one step and in the improvement of the washing efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention has a construction in which liquid carbon dioxide is jetted from a discharge port of a nozzle toward an object to be cleaned, and the object to be cleaned is washed with dry ice in which liquid carbon dioxide is made fine. The present invention relates to a cleaning device.

[0002]

For example, when cleaning a silicon wafer or a liquid crystal panel, liquid carbon dioxide pumped from a pump is sprayed from a discharge port of a nozzle toward an object to be cleaned (a silicon wafer or a liquid crystal panel). Then, the object to be cleaned is washed with dry ice that is made into fine particles of liquid carbon dioxide. In this case, when the liquid carbon dioxide is ejected from the discharge port of the nozzle, the liquid carbon dioxide instantaneously expands and vaporizes, thereby releasing heat and being cooled, and as a result, becomes fine dry ice. The object to be cleaned is washed by spraying the ice onto the object to be cleaned.

The discharge port of the nozzle is generally tapered or divergent in cross section, and the shape of carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port is circular. However,
Conventionally, when the outlet is tapered, due to the pressure and speed of the carbon dioxide injected from the outlet, the range of dry ice that contributes to cleaning is limited to a narrow range in the center, The surroundings became gas instead of dry ice. In addition, when the outlet is divergent, the liquid carbon dioxide is efficiently converted into dry ice. However, the diameter of the opening at the tip of the outlet is small, so that the cleaning range is again a narrow spot. Was something. Therefore, there is a problem that the cleaning range that can be cleaned in one step is narrow, and the cleaning efficiency is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning apparatus capable of widening a cleaning range that can be cleaned as dry ice and improving cleaning efficiency. In

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, liquid carbon dioxide is ejected from an outlet of a nozzle toward an object to be cleaned, and the liquid carbon dioxide is atomized. A cleaning device configured to clean the object to be cleaned with dry ice, wherein the nozzle has an opening at a tip end thereof, and has a hollow control cover for controlling an injection mode of carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port. Is provided.

According to the above-described means, the form of the carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port of the nozzle, such as the pressure, speed, direction, and injection shape, is controlled by the control cover. It is possible to increase the area where the carbon dioxide is converted to dry ice. For this reason, the range of dry ice that contributes to cleaning can be increased, and cleaning efficiency can be improved.

In this case, it is preferable that the shape of the opening on the tip end side of the control cover be flat. According to this, since the shape of the dry ice sprayed from the opening of the control cover becomes wider in one direction, the cleaning range that can be cleaned in one step can be further increased,
The cleaning efficiency can be further improved.

[0008] Further, as in the invention of claim 3, it is preferable to form notches with open ends on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the opening in the control cover. According to this, the notch has an effect of preventing a tail (a state in which dry ice particles are gathered and looks like a tail) from being generated when dry ice is ejected from the opening of the control cover. is there.

Further, it is preferable that the control cover has an expansion control chamber for controlling expansion of carbon dioxide immediately after being injected from the discharge port. According to this, since the expansion of the carbon dioxide immediately after being injected from the discharge port is controlled in the expansion control chamber, the amount of dry ice can be increased.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, in FIG. 1, a nozzle 2 is detachably attached to a tip portion of a nozzle head 1 by a nozzle stopper 3. An O-ring 4 for sealing is arranged between the nozzle head 1 and the nozzle 2. A fluid passage 1a is formed inside the nozzle head 1 for passing liquid carbon dioxide pumped from a pump (not shown), and the fluid passage 1a is formed inside the nozzle 2.
A discharge port 5 communicating with a is formed. This outlet 5
Has a circular cross section in this case. Nozzle 2
Is formed as a prism-shaped cover mounting portion 6, and a plastic control cover 7 is detachably mounted on the cover mounting portion 6 by screws 8, for example.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the control cover 7 has a rectangular cylindrical fitting cylinder 9 and the fitting cylinder 9.
The cover body 10 has a hollow shape having a fan-shaped cover body 10 and a flat rectangular opening 11 at the tip end of the cover body 10. It is mounted on the nozzle 2 by fitting to the mounting part 6.

The cover body 10 has a spherical expansion control chamber 12 (FIG. 1) that bulges outward on the side of the fitting cylinder 9.
(See (a)), and gradually narrows from the expansion control chamber 12 to the opening 11 at the distal end. As shown in FIG. 2, the opening 11 has a width A1 in the longitudinal direction that is sufficiently larger than one side dimension B1 of the fitting cylinder 9 and a thickness A2 perpendicular to the longitudinal direction having a fitting dimension A2. The portion 9 is formed to be smaller than one side dimension B1. Further, in the cover main body 10, cut-out portions 1 each having an open front end are provided on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the opening 11.
3 are formed. Further, a V-shaped portion 14 is formed at the tip of both sides (upper and lower surfaces in FIG. 2) of the cover main body 10 on the side orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the opening 11 so as to form a wide open V-shape. Have been.

In the above configuration, in order to clean an object to be cleaned (silicon wafer or liquid crystal panel), liquid carbon dioxide pumped from a pump is ejected from the discharge port 5 of the nozzle 2 toward the object to be cleaned. Then, the carbon dioxide injected into the cover main body 10 of the control cover 7 instantaneously expands to become finely divided dry ice, and the dry ice is injected from the opening 11 to the object to be cleaned. The object to be cleaned is cleaned.

At this time, the control mode of the control cover 7 controls the injection mode of the carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port, such as the pressure, speed, direction, and injection shape, and thereby the carbon dioxide injected from the opening 11 of the control cover 7. The area where carbon becomes dry ice can be increased. Particularly in this case, since the expansion control chamber 12 is formed in the cover main body 10,
The expansion control chamber 12 controls the expansion of carbon dioxide. Also, since the shape of the opening 11 in the control cover 7 is formed in a flat rectangular shape, the opening 11
The shape of the dry ice (carbon dioxide) injected from the nozzle is also flat. For this reason, the range of dry ice that contributes to cleaning can be increased, and the cleaning range that can be cleaned in one step can be increased, and cleaning efficiency can be improved.

Further, in this case, cutouts 13 each having an open end are formed on both sides of the opening 11 in the control cover 7 in the longitudinal direction.
Has an effect of preventing the occurrence of a tail (a state in which dry ice particles are gathered to form a tail) when dry ice is injected from the opening 11 of the control cover 7.

FIGS. 5 to 7 show a second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the shape of the control cover. That is, the control cover 20 includes a rectangular tubular fitting tubular portion 9, a cover main body portion 21 extending in a fan shape from the fitting tubular portion 9, and a flat rectangular opening at the tip end of the cover main body portion 21. 22 and is fitted to the nozzle 2 by fitting the fitting tubular portion 9 to the cover mounting portion 6 of the nozzle 2.

The cover body 21 has an expansion control chamber 1 such as the control cover 7 of the first embodiment, which expands outward.
2 are not formed, and the notch 13 and the V-shaped part 14 like the control cover 7 of the first embodiment are not formed at the tip of the cover body 21.

Even when the control cover 20 having such a configuration is used, the control mode of the control cover 20 controls the pressure, speed, direction, and injection shape of the carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port 5 of the nozzle 2. Accordingly, substantially the same operation and effect as those of the first embodiment can be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be modified or expanded as follows. Cover body 1 in control covers 7 and 20
The length of 0, 21 or the opening angle in a fan shape or the degree of expansion of the expansion control chamber 12 can be changed according to the injection pressure of the liquid carbon dioxide from the discharge port 5, the width to be washed, and the like. . Also, the discharge port 5 of the nozzle 2 is
The shape is not limited to the tapered shape, and may be a divergent shape.

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the cleaning apparatus of the present invention, by providing the control cover on the nozzle, the pressure, velocity, direction and shape of the carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port can be improved. The spraying mode is controlled by the control cover, so that the area where carbon dioxide becomes dry ice can be increased. This makes it possible to increase the range of dry ice that contributes to the cleaning, thereby improving the cleaning efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention, in which (a)
Is a cutaway side view with the control cover attached to the nozzle,
(B) is a cross-sectional plan view of the same state.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a control cover alone.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a control cover.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the control cover.

FIG. 5 is a view corresponding to FIG. 2, showing a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view of the control cover.

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the control cover.

[Explanation of symbols]

In the drawing, 1 is a nozzle head, 2 is a nozzle, 5 is a discharge port,
7 is a control cover, 10 is a cover body, 11 is an opening,
Reference numeral 12 denotes an inflation control chamber, 13 denotes a notch, 20 denotes a control cover, 21 denotes a cover body, and 22 denotes an opening.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning apparatus having a structure in which liquid carbon dioxide is ejected from a discharge port of a nozzle toward an object to be cleaned, and the object to be cleaned is cleaned with dry ice formed by atomizing the liquid carbon dioxide. A cleaning device having a hollow control cover having an opening at a front end thereof and controlling a mode of injection of carbon dioxide injected from the discharge port. 2. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the opening on the distal end side of the control cover is flat. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 2, wherein cutouts having an open front end are formed on both sides of the opening in the control cover in the longitudinal direction. 4. The cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control cover has an expansion control chamber for controlling expansion of carbon dioxide immediately after being injected from the discharge port.