JP2011072902A - Mechanism of generating bubble, and treatment apparatus employing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mechanism of generating ultrafine bubbles, capable of generating the same by more efficiently dividing bubbles present in a liquid. <P>SOLUTION: The mechanism of generating ultrafine bubbles including a plurality of pipes 153, 154 through which a bubble-containing liquid is transported by pressure, and a colliding member 155 that is connected to the plurality of pipes 153, 154 to cause the bubble-containing liquid transported therethrough by pressure to collide therewith and outputs the colliding liquid, is constructed in such a manner that the bubbles present in the liquid are further finely divided by the collision of the bubble-containing liquid transported by pressure via the plurality of pipes 153, 154 with the colliding member 155. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a bubble generation mechanism suitable for generating very fine bubbles called microbubbles, micronanobubbles, and nanobubbles in a liquid as the size decreases, and a processing apparatus using the same.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been proposed an ultrafine bubble generating device that can stay in water for a long time and generate ultrafine bubbles having a very small diameter and high solubility (Patent Document 1). In this ultrafine bubble generating device, a gas flow is injected into a liquid (water) being pumped so that the fine bubbles are included in the liquid, and the reduced flow nozzle having a fluid guide surface portion in which the liquid containing the fine bubbles gradually spreads. The fine bubbles in the liquid are crushed and spread in a flat plane when they are pumped, and are further broken down by the surface tension to become finer ultrafine bubbles.

JP 2003-245533 A

  By the way, in recent years, it is considered to use a liquid containing these ultrafine bubbles (ultrafine bubbles) for processing such as cleaning of the surface of an object. It is said that the potential at the interface between the ultrafine bubble and the liquid promotes the cleaning effect and oxidation action, and the energy when the ultrafine bubble attached to the object surface bursts contributes to the removal of dirt from the object surface. When a liquid containing ultrafine bubbles is used for the treatment of an object surface as described above, the cleaning effect and the oxidizing action are greater as the total surface area of the ultrafine bubbles contained in the liquid is larger. As shown in FIG. 5, the increase degree of the total surface area of the bubbles contained in the liquid is proportional to the 1/3 power of the number of original bubble divisions, so that fine bubbles can be divided more efficiently. It is desirable to do.

  However, in the above-described ultrafine bubble generating device, when the liquid containing fine bubbles is pumped through the contraction nozzle, the fine bubbles in the liquid are crushed and spread in a plane, and then there is no action from the outside. Therefore, it is difficult to expect efficient division of fine bubbles.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a bubble generation mechanism capable of generating bubbles in a liquid more efficiently by dividing bubbles in a liquid, and uses the bubble generation mechanism. A processing apparatus is provided.

  The bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention collides a plurality of pipes to which a bubble-containing liquid is pumped and the bubble-containing liquid that is coupled to the plurality of pipes and is pumped by the plurality of pipes, and outputs the collision. It becomes the structure which has a collision part.

  With such a configuration, the bubble-containing liquid that is pumped through a plurality of tubes collides at the collision part, so that the bubbles in the liquid are further subdivided by the energy of the collision, and finer bubbles are generated. Will come to be.

  In the ultrafine bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention, each of the plurality of tubular bodies may have a structure in which the bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling.

  With such a configuration, when the bubble-containing liquid that is pumped through each of the plurality of tubes rotates, the flow velocity differs between the portion close to the inner wall of the tube and the portion close to the center thereof. The pressure is biased between the central part of the body and the vicinity of the inner wall. Since the gas that melts in the bubble-containing liquid can be generated as fine bubbles due to this bias in pressure, more bubbles can be divided, resulting in more fine bubbles in the liquid. Be able to generate.

  Further, in the ultrafine bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention, each of the plurality of tubular bodies has a cylindrical shape and has an introduction portion for introducing the bubble-containing liquid along an inner wall. it can.

  With such a configuration, since the bubble-containing liquid is introduced along the inner wall of each tubular body having a cylindrical shape, the bubble-containing liquid introduced into the tubular body can be swung along the inner wall as it is. .

  Moreover, in the fine bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention, the plurality of tubes may include a first tube and a second tube arranged in a straight line.

  With such a configuration, the bubble-containing liquid that is pumped through the first tube and the bubble-containing liquid that is pumped through the second tube collide from the front at the collision portion. It becomes possible to effectively use the energy accompanying the pumping of the gas to divide the bubbles in the other bubble-containing liquid.

  Furthermore, in the fine bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention, the first tube body has a structure in which the first bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling, and the second tube body is formed at the collision portion. The second bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling so that the second bubble-containing liquid swirling in the direction opposite to the swirling direction collides with the first bubble-containing liquid from the first tube body. It can be set as the structure which has a structure.

  With such a configuration, the first bubble-containing liquid pumped through the first tubular body and the second bubble-containing liquid pumped through the second tubular body swirl in opposite directions at the collision portion. However, since the collision occurs from the front, the energy accompanying the pumping of the bubble-containing liquid can be used more effectively for dividing the bubbles.

  The processing apparatus according to the present invention includes any one of the bubble generation mechanisms described above, a pressure supply mechanism that pressurizes and supplies a bubble-containing liquid to each of the plurality of tubes in the bubble generation mechanism, and the bubble generation mechanism. And a mechanism for applying a bubble-containing liquid obtained by the collision portion to the surface of the object to be processed.

  With such a configuration, when the bubble-containing liquid is pressurized and supplied to the plurality of tubes in the bubble generating mechanism, the bubble-containing liquid is pumped through the plurality of tubes, and the plurality of tubes are pumped. Collide at the collision part, and the bubbles in the liquid are further subdivided by the energy of the collision. And the bubble containing liquid used as the liquid containing the bubble further finely divided by the bubble subdivision is given to the surface of a to-be-processed object, and the said surface is processed with the said bubble containing liquid.

  According to the bubble generating mechanism according to the present invention, the bubbles in the bubble-containing liquid that are pumped through each of the plurality of tubes are subdivided by the addition of external energy due to the collision of the bubble-containing liquid from the other direction. As a result, the bubbles in the liquid can be more efficiently divided by the external energy to generate finer bubbles.

  Moreover, according to the processing apparatus which concerns on this invention, it becomes possible to process the surface of a to-be-processed object with the bubble containing liquid by which the finer bubble was produced | generated by such a bubble production | generation mechanism.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the substrate cleaning apparatus which is a processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the bubble production | generation mechanism used for the board | substrate cleaning apparatus shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing showing the cross section in the surface which passes along AA of the 1st tubular body in the bubble production | generation mechanism shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the other structural example of a bubble production | generation mechanism. It is a correlation diagram which shows the relationship between the division | segmentation number of the bubble in a liquid, and the total area ratio of the bubble in the liquid.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  A substrate cleaning apparatus which is a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is configured as shown in FIG. This substrate cleaning apparatus cleans the surface of a glass substrate used for a liquid crystal display with a cleaning liquid containing fine bubbles, for example.

  In FIG. 1, one end of the transmission pipe 12 is connected to the discharge port of the liquid storage tank 11 in which the cleaning liquid W (for example, pure water) is stored, and the other end of the transmission pipe 12 is connected to the pump 14. Connected to the input port. A gas (for example, nitrogen gas) from the gas supply unit 13 is jetted and supplied to a predetermined portion up to the pump 14 of the delivery pipe 12. A transmission pipe connected to the output port of the pump 14 branches into a first branch pipe 15a and a second branch pipe 15b. The first branch pipe 15 a and the second branch pipe 15 b are connected to the bubble generation mechanism 20. Although the detailed structure of the bubble generation mechanism 20 will be described later, the feed pipe 16 extending from the bubble generation mechanism 20 is connected to the nozzle head 30 via the on-off valve 18a. A plurality of nozzles are formed in the nozzle head 30, and the glass substrate 100 as an object to be cleaned (object to be processed) is disposed so as to face the plurality of nozzles of the nozzle head 30. The glass substrate 100 may be placed on a turntable installed facing the nozzle head 30 or may be moved below the nozzle head 30 at a predetermined speed by a transport mechanism. Further, the bypass feed pipe 17 branched from the front of the opening / closing valve 18a of the delivery pipe 16 extending from the bubble generating mechanism 20 extends to the liquid storage tank 11 via the opening / closing valve 18b.

  The detailed structure of the bubble generation mechanism 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 together with FIG.

  In the bubble generating mechanism 20, a cylindrical first tube body 21 and a second tube body 22 are arranged in a straight line, and the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22 are collided with a collision tube 25 ( The structure is connected at the collision part). The first tube body 21 is provided with an introduction tube 23 so as to protrude from a cylindrical outer wall portion opposite to the collision tube 25 side. As shown in FIG. 3, the introduction pipe 23 extends along a plane P <b> 1 that is in contact with the outer wall peripheral surface of the first pipe body 21 that is parallel to the plane Po that passes through the center O of the first pipe body 21. Similarly to the first tube body 21, the second tube body 22 is provided with an introduction tube 24 so as to protrude from the cylindrical outer wall portion on the opposite side to the collision tube 25 side. As shown in FIG. 3, the introduction tube 24 is provided in the first tube body 21 with respect to the center O of the first tube body 21, that is, the plane Po passing through the center of the second tube body 22. It arrange | positions so that it may become symmetrical with the introduction pipe | tube 23. FIG. The collision tube 25 that connects the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22 is a cylindrical tube body that communicates with the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22 and extends in the extending direction. An outlet pipe 26 is provided so as to be orthogonal to the vertical axis.

  A first branch pipe 15a branched from the pump 14 is connected to the introduction pipe 23 provided in the first pipe body 21, and a bubble that is pressurized and supplied by the pump 14 through the first branch pipe 15a. The contained cleaning liquid W is introduced into the first tube body 21 from the introduction tube 23. In addition, a second branch pipe 15b branched from the pump 14 is connected to the introduction pipe 24 provided in the second pipe body 22, and is pressurized and supplied by the pump 14 through the second branch pipe 15b. The bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is introduced into the second tube 22 from the introduction tube 24. The outlet pipe 26 provided in the collision pipe 25 is connected to the transmission pipe 16 following the nozzle head 30, and the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W that has come out from the collision pipe 25 through the outlet pipe 26 passes through the transmission pipe 16. Then, it is supplied to the nozzle head 30.

  Next, the operation of the substrate cleaning apparatus having the above-described structure will be described.

  First, the on-off valve 18a provided on the delivery pipe 16 extending from the bubble generating mechanism 20 to the nozzle head 30 is closed, and the on-off valve 18b provided on the bypass delivery pipe 17 is opened. By driving the pump 14 in this state, the cleaning liquid W from the liquid storage tank 11 flows through the transmission pipe 12 toward the input port of the pump 14. In the process, the gas from the gas supply unit 13 is jetted and supplied to the cleaning liquid W in the transmission pipe 12, and the cleaning liquid W flowing through the transmission pipe 12 becomes a bubble-containing cleaning liquid W in which fine bubbles are mixed and pumped. 14 is drawn. Then, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W discharged from the pump 14 is pressurized and supplied to the first tube body 21 of the bubble generating mechanism 20 through the first branch pipe 15a, and the bubble is generated through the second branch pipe 15b. Pressure is supplied to the second tube 22 of the mechanism 20.

  The bubble-containing cleaning liquid W supplied under pressure to the first tube body 21 of the bubble generating mechanism 20 is introduced into the first tube body 21 through the introduction tube 23 as shown in FIG. At this time, since the introduction pipe 23 extends along the surface P <b> 1 in contact with the outer wall peripheral surface of the first pipe body 21, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is cylindrically formed from the introduction pipe 23. 21 is introduced along the inner wall. The bubble-containing cleaning liquid W introduced into the first tube body 21 along the inner wall is pumped through the first tube body 21 toward the collision tube 25 while turning (see the spiral arrow in FIG. 3). The In addition, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W supplied under pressure to the second tube 22 of the bubble generating mechanism 20 is swirling while colliding with the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W supplied under pressure to the first tube 22. It is pumped toward 25.

  The swirl direction with respect to the pumping direction of the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W (first bubble-containing cleaning liquid) pumped through the first tubular body 21 and the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W (second bubble-containing cleaning liquid) pumped through the second tubular body 22 The swiveling direction with respect to the pumping direction is the same. However, since the pumping directions are opposite to each other, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W that is pumped while turning the first tubular body 21 and the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W that is pumped while rotating the second tubular body 22 are: In the collision tube 25, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W swirling in opposite directions collides from the front. Due to the energy of the collision, the bubbles in the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W in the collision tube 25 are subdivided to generate finer bubbles.

  Further, in each of the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22, as shown in FIG. 3, when the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W turns, the flow velocity in the peripheral region Eo becomes larger than the central region Ei. Therefore, the fluid pressure in the peripheral region Eo is lower than the fluid pressure in the central region Ei. As a result, the gas melted in the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W in the peripheral region Eo appears as fine bubbles. Accordingly, when the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is pumped while rotating in each of the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22, fine bubbles gradually increase in the liquid, and more in the collision tube 25. Many fine bubbles are divided, and as a result, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W output from the collision tube 25 contains more fine bubbles.

  The bubble-containing cleaning liquid W coming out from the collision pipe 25 through the outlet pipe 26 is returned from the transmission pipe 16 to the liquid storage tank 11 through the bypass transmission pipe 17. In the process of circulating the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W in the liquid storage tank 11 from the transmission pipe 12 through the bubble generation mechanism 20, the transmission pipe 16, the bypass transmission pipe 17 and the liquid storage tank 11, As described above, the bubbles in the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W are repeatedly divided and become extremely fine bubbles (called microbubbles, micronanobubbles, and nanobubbles as the size decreases).

  Then, when the on-off valve 18b provided on the bypass pipe 17 is closed at an appropriate timing and the on-off valve 18a provided on the pipe 16 is opened, extremely fine bubbles from the bubble generating mechanism 20 are contained. The bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is supplied to the nozzle head 30 through the delivery pipe 16. Then, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is ejected from each nozzle of the nozzle head 30 toward the glass substrate 100. Thereby, the surface of the glass substrate 100 is cleaned with the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W.

  According to the bubble generating mechanism 20 in the substrate cleaning apparatus as described above, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W that is pumped through each of the first tube body 21 and the second tube body 22 is bubble-containing cleaning liquid from the other direction. Since energy from the outside due to the collision of W is added to be subdivided, bubbles in the cleaning liquid W are more efficiently divided by energy from the outside to generate finer bubbles in the cleaning liquid W. Will be able to. Then, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W is repeatedly passed through the bubble generation mechanism 20 so that more and more fine bubbles are contained in the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W.

  According to the substrate cleaning apparatus having such a bubble generation mechanism 20, the glass substrate 100 is made of the bubble cleaning liquid W that contains a large number of extremely fine bubbles and can be expected to have a high cleaning effect and oxidation action. The surface of the can be cleaned.

  In the example described above, the bubble generating mechanism 20 has two tubes (first tube 21 and second tube 22) arranged in a straight line, but the two tubes are: It does not have to be on a straight line. However, from the viewpoint that the energy generated by the collision of the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W from the two directions becomes larger, the two tubes are arranged in a straight line, and the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W from the two directions collides from the front. It is preferable to configure as described above.

  The bubble generating mechanism 20 can also be configured such that three or more tubes are joined to the collision tube 25. In this case, the bubble-containing cleaning liquid W from three or more directions collides with the collision pipe 25. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of bubble generating mechanisms 20a, 20b, 20c having the same structure as the bubble generating mechanism 20 described above may be connected.

  As described above, the bubble generation mechanism according to the present invention has an effect that bubbles in a liquid can be more efficiently divided to generate ultrafine bubbles, so-called microbubbles and micronanobubbles. It is useful as a bubble generation mechanism that generates extremely fine bubbles called nanobubbles in a liquid.

  In addition, the processing apparatus according to the present invention using such a bubble generation mechanism treats an object to be processed with a bubble-containing liquid that contains a very fine bubble and can be expected to have a high cleaning effect and oxidation action. Therefore, it is useful as a processing device such as a cleaning device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Liquid storage tank 12 Feed pipe 13 Gas supply part 14 Pump 15a 1st branch pipe 15b 2nd branch pipe 16 Feed pipe 17 Bypass feed pipe 18a, 18b On-off valve 20 Bubble generation mechanism 21 1st pipe body 22 1st pipe body 22 2 pipe bodies 23, 24 Introducing pipe 25 Collision pipe 26 Outlet pipe 30 Nozzle head 100 Glass substrate (object to be processed)

Claims (6)

A plurality of tubes through which the bubble-containing liquid is pumped;
A bubble generating mechanism including a collision unit coupled to the plurality of pipes and configured to collide and output a bubble-containing liquid pumped by the plurality of pipes.   The bubble generating mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of tubes has a structure in which the bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling.   3. The bubble generating mechanism according to claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of pipe bodies has a cylindrical shape and has an introduction portion that introduces the bubble-containing liquid along an inner wall.   The bubble generating mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plurality of tubes include a first tube and a second tube arranged in a straight line. The first tube has a structure in which the first bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling,
In the second tubular body, the second bubble-containing liquid swirling in the direction opposite to the swirling direction collides with the first bubble-containing liquid from the first tubular body at the collision portion. The bubble generating mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the second bubble-containing liquid is pumped while swirling. A bubble generation mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
A pressure supply mechanism that pressurizes and supplies a bubble-containing liquid to each of the plurality of tubes in the bubble generation mechanism;
A processing apparatus having a mechanism for applying a bubble-containing liquid obtained by the collision portion in the bubble generating mechanism to a surface of an object to be processed.

Images