JP2008055332A - Method for treating powder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for treating powder, by which problems can be solved when it is necessary to treat powder in a clean room particularly in the presence of a vibration source and which is suitable for drying powder. <P>SOLUTION: The method for treating powder comprises the steps of: charging a raw material being powder in an airtight drying chamber 14; subjecting the thrown raw material to the predetermined treatment to obtain a product; and discharging the obtained product from the airtight drying chamber. The airtight drying chamber 14 is arranged outside the clean room 34. An opening 35a for charging the raw material and another opening 35b for discharging the product are formed on a partition wall 35 of the clean room. The opening 35a for charging the raw material and the opening 35b for discharging the product are respectively communicated in sealed states with a raw material charging port 20 of the airtight drying chamber 14 and a product discharging port 22 by using a bellows sealed joint 36 or a bellows hose 38 to perform the work of charging the raw material and the work of discharging the product through the communicative joints or hoses. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a powder processing method having a novel structure and a powder processing apparatus suitable for the powder processing method.

  The powder treatment includes not only vibration or reduced pressure drying processing mainly exemplified here, but also drying treatment without reduced pressure or vibration, and further, cooling, mixing, pulverization, granulation, and the like.

  As a vibration drying apparatus that is a prototype of a reduced-pressure vibration drying apparatus, Patent Document 1 discloses a powder processing apparatus (vibration drying apparatus) having the following configuration (see claims and the like).

“A cylindrical main body having a jacket installed substantially horizontally, having an inlet and an outlet for powder, and an outlet for discharging gas generated from the powder, and a jacket for flowing a heat medium for heating or cooling the powder; A powder processing apparatus comprising: an elastic support mechanism for the main body, and a vibration generator for suspending the powder by vibrating the main body. "
In addition to the above, as vibration processing apparatuses, there are Patent Documents 2, 3, 4 and the like previously proposed by the applicant of the present application.

  In recent years, in the fields of fine chemicals (especially chemicals and semiconductors), there are cases where both are performed in a clean room when raw materials (processed materials) are input and products (processed products) are discharged. This is from the standpoint of preventing contamination of the raw materials or products with foreign substances or contamination of microorganisms (bacteria, etc.).

In addition, the prior art patent document is used as a search item “summary + claims” as a search for the gazette text of the JPO Electronic Library, and the search formula = (clean room OR slow dust room OR clean room) AND (dryer OR dryer) However, no patent document that discloses or suggests the present invention was searched (as of August 30, 2006).
Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-37944 JP-A-11-153384 JP 11-248349 A JP 2006-95437 A

  However, in the case of the above configuration, it has been found that the following problems exist.

  1) The size of the clean room will increase, and incidental facilities such as air conditioning facilities (including filters) will also require large capacity and capacity.

  2) Especially in the case of a vibration dryer (vibration drying device), since the vibration source exists in the clean room, the removal of wear powder generated from the vibration source from the clean room, the prevention of resonance vibration and the prevention of room noise due to vibration transmission Special measures (equipment / means) are required for such reasons. In addition, the heat load due to heat radiation from the drying device (usually equipped with heating means) is large, and the air conditioning equipment needs to be enlarged accordingly.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a powder drying treatment method capable of solving the problems when it is necessary to perform powder treatment in a clean room, particularly in the presence of vibration. .

  The powder processing method of the present invention solves the above problems by the following constitution (invention specific matter).

A powder processing method in which a raw material that is powder is put into a sealed processing chamber, is subjected to a predetermined process to become a product, and the product is discharged from the sealed processing chamber,
Disposing the sealed processing chamber and its accessories outside the clean room, forming a raw material charging opening and a product discharging opening in the partition of the clean room,
The raw material charging opening and the product discharging opening and the raw material charging port and the product discharging port of the hermetic processing chamber are directly connected to each other by sealing, or are respectively in sealed communication with the charging conductive space and the discharging conductive space, respectively. And
The raw material is charged and the product is discharged through a charging conduction space and a discharging conduction space.

  With this configuration, the clean room can be relatively miniaturized by arranging the sealed processing chamber including its accessories outside the clean room. Therefore, incidental facilities such as air conditioning facilities (including filters) can be relatively small in capacity and capacity.

  When the sealed processing chamber includes vibration generating means, the vibration generating means is disposed outside the clean room, and the powder is processed by blocking vibration transmission from the vibration generating means to the clean room. It is characterized by.

  For this reason, there is no risk that wear powder, machine oil, etc. generated from the vibration source will scatter or float in the room of the clean room, and special measures are taken to eliminate it, prevent resonance vibration by transmitting vibration, and prevent indoor noise ( The device / means) is not required, and the effect of the present invention becomes remarkable.

  When the sealed processing chamber is a drying processing chamber, the air conditioning equipment can be further downsized, and the effects of the present invention become more remarkable.

  In addition, when the decompression means is provided, the decompression means can also be disposed outside the clean room. Therefore, pressure reducing means such as a compressor is also arranged outside the clean room, and the effect of the present invention becomes more remarkable.

  A powder processing apparatus suitable for each of the above powder processing methods has the following configuration.

1) Provided with a hermetically sealed processing chamber and a clean room for performing predetermined processing of powder,
The sealed processing chamber and its accessories are arranged outside the clean room, and include a raw material inlet and a product outlet.
Forming a raw material input opening and a product discharge opening in the partition of the clean room,
The raw material charging opening and the product discharging opening and the raw material charging port and the product discharging port of the hermetic processing chamber are sealed and communicated with each other by a sealing direct connection or a charging conductive space and a discharging conductive space, respectively. It is characterized by.

  2) In the powder processing apparatus having the above-described configuration, the sealed processing chamber includes a vibration generating unit, and the vibration generating unit is disposed so as to be able to block vibration to the clean room, and the introduction conduction space and the discharge conduction unit. Each of the spaces is formed of a bellows body.

  3) In the powder processing apparatus of each of the above configurations, the sealed processing chamber is a drying processing chamber.

  Next, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments. Here, the explanation will be made mainly by taking the drying treatment by the reduced-pressure vibration and stirring of the powder as an example, but it is not limited to this. Of course, the present invention can be applied to a drying process without auxiliary means such as decompression, vibration, and stirring, and further, the present invention can be applied to a powder process other than the drying process.

  Moreover, each powder processing apparatus of the said patent documents 1-4 is also applicable to this invention.

  (1) Embodiment 1 (FIG. 1): In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a vertical vacuum (vacuum) vibration drying apparatus 12. The basic configuration of the reduced-pressure vibration drying device 12 is the same as that of the “vertical vibration dryer” described in Patent Document 1.

  The reduced-pressure vibration drying device 12 includes a drying chamber (sealed processing chamber) 14 into which an object to be processed (raw material) that is a liquid-containing powder can be charged, vibration generating means 16 for forcibly vibrating the drying chamber 14, and a drying chamber. 14 is provided with a temperature adjusting means 18 for heating and cooling the inside of 14 and a pressure reducing means 19 for reducing the pressure.

  The drying chamber 14 is a vertical type formed of a cylindrical body, and is provided with a raw material input port (processing object input port) 20 at one end on the ceiling side and a product discharge port 22 at the other end on the bottom side, and on the ceiling side. A vacuum suction port 24 is provided at the outer peripheral position. The drying chamber (cylindrical body) 14 is supported (usually four locations) by a plurality (four in the illustrated example) of drying chamber support columns 25 via compression coil springs 26.

  The vibration generating means 16 is formed by attaching a pair of oscillators (vibration motors) 28 arranged at the front and rear to a drying chamber (cylindrical body) 14 via a cylindrical block 30.

  The temperature adjustment means 18 is formed by a temperature adjustment jacket 32 formed on the outer peripheral portion of the cylindrical body, and a heat medium (steam, hot water), a refrigerant (cold water), or the like that can be circulated through the temperature adjustment jacket 32. An electric heater may be wound around a cylindrical body, or a steam serpentine tube may be provided inside to serve as temperature control means (heating means).

  The decompression means 19 is formed by a vacuum suction port 24 and a suction pipe 21 that includes a valve (not shown) and is connected to a compressor (not shown).

  The drying chamber 14 is disposed outside the clean room 34, and the raw material charging opening 35a and the product are formed on the formation wall (partition wall) 35 of the clean room 34 at positions where the raw material charging port 20 and the product discharging port 22 respectively face. A discharge opening 35b is formed.

  The space between the upper wall of the drying chamber 14 and the periphery of the raw material charging port 20 is a conducting space for filling sealed with a bellows-sealed joint (bellows body: discharging conducting space) 36.

  Thus, the raw material (powder) can be charged from the clean room 34 through the bellows sealed joint (bellows body) 36.

  On the other hand, the product discharge port 22 of the drying chamber 14 is directly connected to a product recovery pipe 40 via a bellows hose (bellows body) 38. The product recovery pipe 40 holds a sealed connection cylinder 42 attached to the outdoor side of the product discharge opening 35b, and the tip of the product recovery pipe 40 faces the clean room 34. The product discharge port 22 includes an opening / closing valve 23.

  In this way, the processed product can be collected (discharged) in the clean room 34.

  Next, the usage aspect of the said embodiment is demonstrated.

  First, as shown in the figure, the lid 15 of the raw material input port 20 of the drying chamber 14 is opened, and the raw material input chute 44 is inserted into the raw material input port 20 to manually input a predetermined amount. Naturally, the on-off valve 23 of the product discharge port 22 is closed.

  The material charging chute 44 is removed and the lid 15 is closed. Then, the vibration motor 28 of the vibration generating means 16 is started, and the temperature adjusting means 18 and the pressure reducing means 19 are also started to perform a required vibration drying operation.

  When the drying process is completed, the vibration generating means 16, the temperature adjusting means 18 and the pressure reducing means 19 are stopped and the on-off valve 23 is opened, and the product is collected in the product receiving bucket 46.

  After product collection, the on-off valve 23 is closed, the lid 15 is closed again, and the above operation is repeated.

  In the above, since both the raw material input and the product discharge are performed in the clean room 34, foreign materials are not mixed into the raw materials, product foreign materials are mixed, and bacterial contamination does not occur.

  Further, the inlet 20 and the product recovery pipe 40 of the vibration decompression drying apparatus 12 are only exposed to the room of the clean room 34. For this reason, the capacity of the clean room 34 can be made relatively small. In addition, air conditioning equipment for measures against heat radiation generated from the drying apparatus is not required.

  Further, the vibration energy of the vibration generating means 16 is blocked by the bellows sealing joint 36 and the bellows hose 38 and is not transmitted to the floor or wall surface of the clean room 34. This eliminates the need for special seismic isolation or anti-vibration measures in the clean room.

  The vibration decompression drying apparatus 12 disposed outside the room is disposed on the vibration-proof sheet, and further, a groove is provided between the ground where the apparatus is installed and the ground of the clean room to reduce vibration transmission. You can also.

  It is possible to save labor by mechanizing raw material supply and product discharge (recovery) in the above. However, it is necessary to increase the capacity of the clean room, which increases the factors of contamination and contamination.

  (2) Embodiment 2 (FIG. 2): In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a horizontal vacuum vibration drying apparatus 112. The basic configuration of the reduced-pressure vibration drying device 12 is the same as that of the “jet vibration treatment device” described in Patent Document 3.

  The reference numerals of the parts corresponding to those of the first embodiment are given three hundred digits having the same hundreds as the last two digits, and the description thereof is omitted in whole or in part.

  The reduced-pressure vibration drying device 112 includes a drying chamber (sealed processing chamber) 114, vibration generating means 116 for forcibly vibrating the drying chamber 114, temperature adjusting means 118 for heating and cooling the inside of the drying chamber 114, and reduced pressure. A decompression unit 119 is provided.

  The drying chamber 114 is a horizontal type formed of a horizontal cylinder, and includes a raw material inlet 120 and a vacuum suction port 124 on the upper wall, and a product outlet 122 on the bottom wall. The drying chamber support pillars 125 (four in the illustrated example) are supported (usually four locations) via compression coil springs 126.

  The vibration generating means 116 is formed by connecting an oscillating portion 117 having an unbalanced weight to a prime mover 128 via a universal joint 127.

  The temperature adjusting means 118 and the pressure reducing means 119 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  The drying chamber 114 is disposed outside the clean room 134 together with the vibration generating means 116, the decompression means 119, etc., and the raw material inlet 120 and the product outlet 122 are formed in the clean room forming wall (partition wall) 135. It faces the openings 135a and 135b for material input / product discharge.

  In this embodiment, the outer peripheral edge of the clean room forming wall 135 of the manhole / view window openings 135c and 135d, the manhole opening 129 on the outer peripheral wall of the drying chamber, and the peripheral portions of the view window 131 are respectively used for the manhole / view window. For example, each of the bellows sealing joints 136 and 136A is sealed and connected.

  A raw material charging pipe 137 is attached to the raw material charging opening 135a, and the lower end of the raw material charging pipe 137 and the raw material charging port 120 are sealed and connected by a bellows hose 138A.

  The raw material input pipe 137 is formed of a hopper portion 137a and a straight pipe portion 137b, and an open / close valve 133 is attached between the upper end hopper portion 137a and the straight pipe portion 137b.

  On the other hand, the product discharge port 122 of the drying chamber 112 and the product discharge pipe 140 attached to the closing plate of the product discharge opening 135 b of the basement ceiling wall (ground) 134 of the clean room 134 are connected via a bellows hose 138. Yes. The product discharge pipe 140 is formed of a lower end trumpet portion 140a and a discharge straight pipe portion 140b, and an open / close valve 133A is attached to the discharge straight pipe portion 140b.

  The usage mode of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except that the raw material is charged through the raw material charging pipe 237.

  (3) Embodiment 3 (FIG. 3): In this embodiment, a vertical stirring and drying apparatus is applied to the present invention.

  The reference numerals of the parts corresponding to those in the first embodiment are given two-digit three-digit numbers in which the last two digits are the same, and the description thereof is omitted in whole or in part.

  The vertical vacuum stirring and drying device 212 heats and cools the inside of the drying chamber (sealed processing chamber) 214, the mixing and stirring means (vertical stirring device) 216 provided in the drying chamber 214, and the drying chamber 114. A temperature adjusting means 218 and a pressure reducing means 219 for reducing the pressure are provided.

  The drying chamber 214 is a vertical type formed of a vertically placed cylindrical body, and is provided with a raw material input port (processing object input port) 220 and a vacuum suction port 224 on the upper wall, and a product discharge port 222 at the lower end of the side wall. ing.

  The temperature adjustment means 218 and the pressure reduction means 219 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  The drying chamber 214 is disposed outside the clean room 234 together with the mixing and stirring means 216, the decompression means 219, etc., and the raw material inlet 220 and the product outlet 222 are raw materials formed on the forming wall 235 of the clean room 234. It faces the input / product discharge openings 235a, 235b.

  The outer peripheral edge of the clean room forming wall (partition wall) 235 of the raw material input opening 235a and the peripheral portion of the raw material input port 220 on the upper wall of the drying chamber (sealing treatment chamber) 214 are the bellows sealing joint 236 for raw material input. Sealed and connected.

  The product discharge opening 235b can be opened and closed by a cylinder-type lid 250, and a product collection chute 248 is attached to the lower end side of the product discharge opening 235b and can be collected by a product receiving bucket 246. ing. Here, the reason why the product discharge opening and the product discharge port are directly attached is that the stirring means (stirring device) does not substantially vibrate.

  The raw material input pipe 237 is attached via a hermetic lid 239 of the raw material input opening 235a. In addition, the raw material input pipe 237 is configured such that a hopper portion 237a and a straight pipe portion 237b are connected by an on-off valve 233.

  The usage mode of this embodiment is as follows.

  The on-off valve 233 of the raw material input pipe 237 is opened, and a predetermined amount of raw material is manually input to the raw material input port 220 via the hopper 237a. Naturally, the cylinder type opening / closing lid 250 of the product discharge port 222 is closed.

  The on-off valve 233 of the raw material input pipe 237 is closed. Then, the drive motor 228 of the stirring device 216 is started, and the temperature adjusting means 218 and the decompression means 219 are also started to perform a required stirring and drying operation.

  When the operation is completed, the stirring means 16, the temperature control means 18 and the decompression means 19 are stopped, the cylinder type opening / closing lid 250 of the product discharge port 222 is opened, and the product is collected in the product receiving bucket 246.

  After the product recovery, the cylinder type opening / closing lid 250 is closed, and the opening / closing valve 233 of the raw material charging pipe 237 is opened again, and the above operation is repeated.

  (4) Embodiment 4 (FIG. 4): In this embodiment, a horizontal stirring and drying apparatus is applied to the present invention.

  The reference numerals of the parts corresponding to those of the third embodiment are attached with three-digit numbers of three hundreds with the last two digits being the same, and the description thereof is omitted in whole or in part.

  The horizontal vacuum agitation dryer 312 heats and cools the interior of the drying chamber (sealed treatment chamber) 314, the horizontal mixing and stirring means (horizontal agitator) 316 provided in the drying chamber 314, and the drying chamber 314. A temperature adjusting means 318 and a pressure reducing means 319 for reducing the pressure are provided.

  The drying chamber 314 is a horizontal type formed of a horizontal cylinder, and includes a raw material input port 320 and a vacuum suction port 324 on the upper wall, and a product discharge port 322 on the lower end of the side wall.

  The temperature adjustment means 318 and the pressure reduction means 319 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  The drying chamber 214 is disposed outside the clean room 334 together with the mixing and stirring means 314, the decompression means 319, etc., and the raw material input port 320 and the product discharge port 322 are input to the raw material input formed on the forming wall 335 of the clean room 334. It faces the product / product discharge openings 335a, 335b.

  The outer peripheral edge of the clean room forming wall (partition wall) 335 of the raw material input opening 335a and the product discharge opening 335b and the peripheral portion of the raw material input port 320 on the outer peripheral wall of the drying chamber are respectively for raw material input and product discharge. Sealing connection is made by bellows sealing joints (bellows bodies) 336 and 336A to form a conducting space for discharge and a conducting space for discharge.

  The raw material charging port 320 includes a lid (not shown), and can open and close the lid to input the raw material from the raw material charging chute 344.

  Further, the product discharge port 322 includes an on-off valve 333 so that the product can be discharged naturally. Further, below the product discharge port 322, a product recovery pipe 340 having an upper end funnel 340a is held via a closing plate 352a of the inverted bottomed cylindrical body 352.

  The usage mode of this embodiment is that the raw material charging chute 344 is used to input into the drying chamber 314 and the product recovery pipe 340 is used for recovery, except that the vacuum vibration drying device is replaced with a vacuum stirring drying device. Basically the same as in the first embodiment.

It is a schematic sectional drawing of Embodiment 1 which applied this invention to the vertical vacuum vibration drying apparatus. It is a schematic sectional drawing of Embodiment 2 which applied this invention to the horizontal type | mold decompression vibration drying apparatus. It is a schematic sectional drawing of Embodiment 3 which applied this invention to the vertical vacuum stirring drying apparatus. It is a schematic sectional drawing of Embodiment 4 which applied this invention to the horizontal reduced pressure stirring drying apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

12, 112 Vacuum vibration drying device 212, 312 Vacuum stirring drying device 14, 114, 214, 314 Processing chamber (drying chamber)
16, 116 Vibration generating means (vibration motor)
19, 119, 219, 319 Pressure reducing means 20, 120, 220, 320 Raw material inlet 22, 122, 222, 322 Product outlet 34, 134, 234, 334 Clean room 35, 135, 235, 335 Clean room forming wall (partition wall)
35a, 135a, 235a, 335a Raw material input opening 35b, 135b, 235b, 335b Product discharge opening 36, 136, 136A, 236, 336, 336A Bellows sealing joint (bellows body)
38, 138, 138A bellows hose (bellows body)

Claims (6)

A powder processing method in which a raw material that is powder is put into a sealed processing chamber, is subjected to a predetermined process to become a product, and the product is discharged from the sealed processing chamber,
Disposing the sealed processing chamber and its accessories outside the clean room, forming a raw material charging opening and a product discharging opening in the partition of the clean room,
The raw material charging opening and the product discharging opening and the raw material charging port and the product discharging port of the sealed processing chamber are directly connected to each other, respectively, or sealed with a charging conductive space and a discharging conductive space, respectively. Let them communicate
The powder processing method, wherein the raw material is charged and the product is discharged appropriately through the charging conductive space or the discharging conductive space.   When the sealed processing chamber includes vibration generating means, the vibration generating means is disposed outside the clean room, and the powder is processed by blocking vibration transmission from the vibration generating means to the clean room. The powder processing method according to claim 1.   3. The powder processing method according to claim 1, wherein the sealed processing chamber is a drying processing chamber. Equipped with a sealed processing chamber and a clean room that perform predetermined processing of powder,
The sealed processing chamber and its accessories are arranged outside the clean room, and include a raw material inlet and a product outlet.
Forming a raw material input opening and a product discharge opening in the partition of the clean room,
The raw material charging opening and the product discharging opening and the raw material charging port and the product discharging port of the hermetic processing chamber are sealed and communicated with each other by a sealing direct connection or a charging conductive space and a discharging conductive space, respectively. The powder processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.   The sealed processing chamber is provided with vibration generating means, and the vibration generating means is disposed so as to be able to block vibration to the clean room, and the introduction conductive space and the discharge conductive space are each formed of a bellows body. The powder processing apparatus according to claim 4.   6. The powder processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the sealed processing chamber is a drying processing chamber.

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