JP2019217427A - Cleaning device and operation method of the cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

To reduce a waste amount of a solvent while preventing reattachment of stain on a cleaning object.SOLUTION: A cleaning device 1 includes: two or more cleaning tanks which includes a first cleaning tank 11 and a second cleaning tank 12 positioned on an upstream side than the first cleaning tank; a cleaning liquid reproduction part 20 which reproduces a cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning tanks and supplies to the cleaning tanks; piping 52 which connects the cleaning liquid reproduction part, and the first cleaning tank and the second cleaning tank; and a controller 30 which controls a flow of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid reproduction part and the piping. The cleaning liquid reproduction part has two operation modes of a concentrating mode in which stain contained in the cleaning liquid is concentrated, and a normal mode without concentration. The controller controls the flow of the cleaning liquid in the piping so that the reproduced cleaning liquid is delivered to the second cleaning tank in the normal mode, and controls the flow of the cleaning liquid in the piping so that the reproduced cleaning liquid is delivered to the first cleaning tank in the concentrating mode.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning device using a plurality of cleaning tanks and a method of operating the cleaning device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been known to clean a precision component such as an optical element using an organic solvent.
Patent Literature 1 describes a cleaning apparatus that uses an organic solvent while reusing the same. In this apparatus, the organic solvent containing dirt accumulated in the distillation regeneration apparatus is heated at regular intervals to reduce the volume, and the organic solvent in which dirt is concentrated is discarded. Thereby, the amount of the solvent to be discarded can be reduced, and the cost for the solvent can be reduced.

JP-A-2002-18370

In the technique described in Patent Literature 1, the distilled organic solvent is returned to the cleaning tank even while the dirt is being concentrated. However, some types of dirt evaporate together with the organic solvent. Such soils are rich in the organic solvent distilled during the concentration of the soils. As a result, there is a possibility that the dirt may adhere to the object to be cleaned.
If not concentrated, the amount of waste of the organic solvent increases, which leads to an increase in cost. Further, unless the organic solvent distilled during the concentration in consideration of the contamination is reused, there is no point in concentration in the first place.

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device and a method of operating the cleaning device that can reduce the amount of solvent waste while preventing reattachment of dirt to a cleaning target.

A first aspect of the present invention includes a cascade-type two or more cleaning tanks, including a first cleaning tank and a second cleaning tank located upstream of the first cleaning tank, and two or more cleaning tanks. A cleaning liquid regeneration unit that regenerates the cleaning liquid supplied from at least one and supplies the cleaning liquid to at least one of the two or more cleaning tanks, the cleaning liquid regeneration unit, the first cleaning tank and the second cleaning tank, and connects the cleaning liquid. A cleaning apparatus comprising: a pipe through which a cleaning liquid regenerated in a section flows; and a controller that controls a flow of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid regenerating section and the pipe.
The cleaning liquid regeneration unit has two operation modes, a concentration mode for concentrating dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside, and a normal mode without concentration, and the controller determines that the regenerated cleaning liquid is in the normal mode in the second mode. The flow of the cleaning liquid in the pipe is controlled so as to be sent to the second cleaning tank, and in the concentration mode, the flow of the cleaning liquid in the pipe is controlled so that the regenerated cleaning liquid is sent to the first cleaning tank.
“Upstream” and “downstream” in the present invention mean upstream or downstream in a cascade system. That is, the object to be cleaned is usually charged into the most downstream cleaning tank and then sequentially charged into the more upstream cleaning tank.

The second aspect of the present invention includes a first cleaning tank, a second cleaning tank located upstream of the first cleaning tank, two or more cleaning tanks of a cascade type, and two or more cleaning tanks. A cleaning liquid regenerating unit that regenerates a cleaning liquid supplied from at least one of the cleaning liquids.
In this method, when the cleaning liquid regenerating unit is concentrating the dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside, the regenerated cleaning liquid is returned to the first cleaning tank, and the cleaning liquid regenerating unit returns the dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside. When is not concentrated, the regenerated washing liquid is returned to the second washing tank.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to the washing | cleaning apparatus of this invention, and the operating method of a washing | cleaning apparatus, the amount of waste of a solvent can be reduced, preventing reattachment of the dirt to a washing | cleaning object.

It is a schematic diagram showing a cleaning device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow of a cleaning liquid in a normal mode. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow of a cleaning liquid in a concentration and disposal mode. It is a schematic diagram which shows the washing | cleaning apparatus which concerns on the modification of this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the washing | cleaning apparatus which concerns on the modification of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the washing tank provided with the reserve tank.

One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a cleaning device 1 of the present embodiment. The cleaning apparatus 1 includes two cleaning tanks, a cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 connected to the cleaning tank, and a controller 30 that controls each unit of the cleaning apparatus 1.

  The cleaning tank includes a first cleaning tank 11 in which an uncleaned object is stored, and a second cleaning tank 12 in which the object to be cleaned primarily cleaned in the first cleaning tank 11 is stored. The two cleaning tanks 11 and 12 are so-called cascade-type cleaning tanks, and include surplus tanks 11a and 12a, respectively. The cleaning liquid overflowing in the upstream second cleaning tank 12 flows into the surplus tank 12a, and flows into the downstream first cleaning tank 11 through the pipe 13. Unused fresh cleaning liquid is supplied to the second cleaning tank 12 from a supply source (not shown) as needed.

The object to be cleaned is, for example, an optical element such as a lens, and is immersed in the cleaning liquid D in each cleaning tank while a plurality of objects to be cleaned are accommodated in a basket 101 formed of metal or the like. An ultrasonic source 15 is attached to each of the cleaning tanks 11 and 12, and the object to be cleaned is cleaned by applying ultrasonic waves generated by the ultrasonic source 15 to the object to be cleaned immersed in the cleaning liquid.
As the cleaning liquid D, an organic solvent can be used. As the organic solvent, for example, a hydrocarbon solvent or a glycol solvent, a bromine solvent, a chlorine solvent, a fluorine solvent, or the like is preferable.

The cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 of the present embodiment is a cleaning liquid regenerating device for removing dirt in the cleaning liquid by distillation, and its basic structure and operation principle are known.
The cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 and the surplus tank 11a of the first cleaning tank 11 are connected by a pipe 51, and the cleaning liquid D overflowing in the first cleaning tank 11 is supplied to the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20. A solenoid valve 61 is attached to the pipe 51.
The cleaning liquid distilled in the cleaning liquid regeneration section 20 is sent to the second cleaning tank 12 through the pipe 52. The pipe 52 has a branch pipe 52a, and the branch pipe 52a is connected to the first cleaning tank 11. An electromagnetic valve 62 is attached to the branch pipe 52a. An electromagnetic valve 63 is attached to the pipe 52 downstream of the branch pipe 52a.

The controller 30 can be configured by a single computer or a combination of a computer, a logic circuit, and software. The controller 30 includes a user interface such as a touch panel, a keyboard, and buttons, and can input a user's instruction. The controller 30 is connected to the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 and the electromagnetic valves 61, 62, 63, and controls the operation of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 and the open / close state of each of the electromagnetic valves 61, 62, 63 based on the input instruction. .
The connection mode of the controller 30 is not particularly limited as long as the control signal can be transmitted to the above-described units. Therefore, each of the units may be connected by wire or wirelessly. The controller 30 may not be an independent unit but may be a part of another unit such as the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20.
Further, the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 may switch the open / close state of the electromagnetic valve according to a signal received from the controller 30, and the state of the electromagnetic valve may be displayed on the controller 30. In this case, since the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 opens and closes the electromagnetic valve, it can be said that the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 shares some functions of the controller.

The operation at the time of using the cleaning apparatus 1 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. This operation includes the cleaning method of the present embodiment.
The user puts the object to be cleaned put in the basket 101 into the first cleaning tank 11 containing the cleaning liquid D, and ultrasonically cleans the object to be cleaned. After the primary cleaning in the first cleaning tank 11, the basket 101 is moved to the second cleaning tank 12, and the object to be cleaned is similarly subjected to the secondary cleaning. The object to be cleaned after the secondary cleaning is moved out of the cleaning device 1 for a post-process such as rinsing or drying.

  When the cleaning of the new object to be cleaned is continued, dirt contained in the cleaning liquid D in each cleaning tank increases. The dirt is more contained in the cleaning liquid D in the first cleaning tank 11.

In a normal operation (normal mode), the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 takes in the cleaning liquid D in the first cleaning tank 11 and heats it at a temperature higher than the boiling point of the cleaning liquid and lower than the expected boiling point of the dirt. Distill.
FIG. 2 shows the flow of the cleaning liquid in the normal mode. When the controller 30 opens the electromagnetic valve 61, the cleaning liquid in the surplus tank 11 a flows into the cleaning liquid regenerating section 20 through the pipe 51. The flowing washing liquid is distilled in the washing liquid regeneration unit 20. The distilled cleaning liquid is returned from the pipe 52 to the second cleaning tank 12.
The controller 30 opens the solenoid valve 63 and closes the solenoid valve 62 in the normal mode. Therefore, the cleaning liquid distilled in the normal mode is selectively sent to the second cleaning tank 12.
The supply of the cleaning liquid in the normal mode may be performed continuously or intermittently. When the operation is performed continuously, the solenoid valve 61 is always opened. When the cleaning is performed intermittently, the electromagnetic valve 61 is opened only when the cleaning liquid in the first cleaning tank 11 is taken in.

  When the cleaning of the object to be cleaned is further continued, the contamination in the cleaning liquid D further increases. As a result, in the normal mode, it becomes difficult to sufficiently remove dirt from the cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid regenerating section 20 removes dirt by distillation, but when the concentration of dirt exceeds a certain level, the cleaning liquid vaporizes including a part of the dirt.

  When the user determines from the cleaning result or the like that the regeneration of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 is not sufficient, the user instructs the controller 30 to switch the mode using the user interface. The controller 30 that has received the instruction changes the operation mode of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 from the normal mode to the concentration disposal mode (concentration mode).

The concentration and disposal mode is a mode for evaporating the liquid component of the cleaning liquid to reduce the amount of the cleaning liquid and discarding the same.
FIG. 3 shows the flow of the cleaning liquid in the concentration and disposal mode. The controller 30 switches the operation mode of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20, closes the electromagnetic valve 61, and stops taking the cleaning liquid from the first cleaning tank 11. Further, the solenoid valve 63 of the pipe 52 is closed, and the solenoid valve 62 is opened. As a result, the cleaning liquid vaporized and cooled during the concentration disposal mode is returned to the first cleaning tank 11 through the branch pipe 52a.
During the concentration and disposal mode, the intake of the cleaning liquid is stopped, so that the amount of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 decreases with time and the concentration of the dirt increases. That is, the stain of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 is concentrated.

When the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 is concentrated and reduced to a predetermined amount or less, the controller 30 causes the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 to discard the concentrated cleaning liquid, and ends the concentration and disposal mode. The operation mode of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 switches to the normal mode.
At the end of the concentration and disposal mode, the cleaning liquid vaporized and cooled during the concentration and disposal mode still remains in the pipe 52 and the branch pipe 52a from the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 to the electromagnetic valve 62. The controller 30 operates the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 in the normal mode for a certain period of time without changing the open / close state of the solenoid valve, and removes the cleaning liquid remaining in the pipe 52 and the branch pipe 52a with the distilled cleaning liquid generated in the normal mode. Extrude. When the distilled washing liquid generated in the normal mode is sufficiently sent to the branch pipe 52a, the controller 30 closes the solenoid valve 62 and opens the solenoid valve 63.

FIG. 4 shows another example of a pipe through which the regenerated cleaning liquid flows. In FIG. 4, the pipe 52e through which the cleaning liquid flows is configured to be short in both the normal mode and the concentration and disposal mode. Thereby, the above-mentioned "certain time" can be shortened.
For example, when the capacity of the pipe 52 shown in FIG. 1 is 3 L and the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 sends out the cleaning liquid regenerated in the normal mode at a pace of 1 L / min, the above-mentioned “certain time” is approximately 3 minutes. By making the piping 52 e short as shown in FIG. 4, the “certain time” can be greatly reduced, and the less-dirty cleaning liquid regenerated in the normal mode can be quickly supplied to the second cleaning tank 12. If the pipe 52e is incorporated in the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20, the "constant time" may be set to zero, that is, the electromagnetic valves 62 and 63 may be switched immediately after the concentration and disposal mode ends.

  The cleaning liquid vaporized and cooled during the concentrated waste mode contains a larger amount of dirt than the cleaning liquid distilled in the normal mode. Conventionally, the cleaning liquid vaporized and cooled during the concentration disposal mode is returned to the second cleaning tank as in the normal mode. Since the second cleaning tank is a tank for performing the secondary cleaning, an allowable amount of dirt is limited from the viewpoint of preventing reattachment of dirt. As a result, the concentration of the cleaning liquid to be discarded cannot be sufficiently increased. As a result, a large amount of the cleaning liquid is discarded, thereby increasing the running cost of the apparatus.

Here, the inventor focused on the first cleaning tank 11. In the first cleaning tank 11, an uncleaned object to be cleaned is supplied, and the object to be cleaned cleaned in the first cleaning tank 11 is further cleaned in the second cleaning tank 12 on the upstream side. The upper limit of the allowable amount of dirt in the cleaning liquid can be set much higher than that of the second cleaning tank 12. Therefore, by returning the cleaning liquid in the concentrated waste mode to the first cleaning tank 11, the upper limit value of dirt in the returned cleaning liquid can be greatly increased, and the cleaning quality of the object to be cleaned cleaned in the second cleaning tank 12 can be improved. The effect can be minimized.
According to the study by the inventor, the present invention has succeeded in reducing the waste amount of the cleaning liquid in the concentrated waste mode to one fifth of the conventional amount without affecting the cleaning quality. Since the organic solvent used as the cleaning liquid is not inexpensive, the effect of reducing the running cost by this is extremely large.

  In the cleaning apparatus and the cleaning method of the present embodiment, after the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20 switches from the concentration and disposal mode to the normal mode, the distilled cleaning liquid is continuously returned to the first cleaning tank 11 for a certain period of time. As a result, it is possible to reliably prevent the cleaning liquid generated in the concentration and disposal mode remaining in the pipe 52 from flowing into the second cleaning tank 12, and to prevent a reduction in cleaning quality.

  The cleaning apparatus and the cleaning method according to the present embodiment change the operation program of the cleaning liquid regeneration unit by appropriately adding pipes and valves to a general cleaning apparatus including a cleaning liquid regeneration unit and a plurality of cascade-type cleaning tanks. It can be performed very simply without any major investment.

  As described above, each embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. It is possible to make various changes or to delete.

Some of the modifications of the present invention will be described below.
The cleaning apparatus 1A of the modification shown in FIG. 5 includes a third cleaning tank 113 and a fourth cleaning tank 114 between the first cleaning tank 11 and the second cleaning tank 12, and has a total of four cascade cleaning tanks. . The present invention can be suitably applied to the cleaning apparatus having such a configuration.
In the cleaning apparatus 1A, the cleaning tank for sending the cleaning liquid distilled and regenerated in the normal mode may be located upstream of the cleaning tank for returning the cleaning liquid distilled in the concentrated waste mode, and the third cleaning tank 113 and the fourth cleaning tank 114 may be used. It may be. Similarly, the washing tank that returns the washing liquid distilled in the concentration and waste mode may be any downstream side of the washing tank that sends the washing liquid distilled and regenerated in the normal mode, and the third washing tank 113 and the fourth washing tank 114 There may be. However, since the dirt concentration of the cleaning liquid regenerated in the concentration and disposal mode is relatively high, it is most preferable to return the cleaning liquid to the first cleaning tank 11 where the cleaning liquid is most likely to be contaminated. As long as the above-mentioned rules are maintained, both the cleaning liquid distilled and regenerated in the normal mode and the cleaning liquid distilled in the concentrated waste mode may be sent to a plurality of cleaning tanks.
A set of a branch pipe 52b and a solenoid valve 64 connected to the third cleaning tank 113 and a set of a branch pipe 52c and a solenoid valve 65 connected to the fourth cleaning tank 114 are connected to the pipe 52 of the cleaning device 1A. Therefore, if the electromagnetic valves 64 and 65 are configured to be openable and closable by the controller 30, the cleaning tank into which the cleaning liquid is sent from the cleaning liquid regeneration unit 20 can be set freely.
Although the number of cleaning tanks of the cleaning apparatus 1A is four, the number of cleaning tanks may be three or five or more.

Each cleaning tank in the cleaning apparatus may include a spare tank for suitably adjusting the state of the cleaning liquid.
FIG. 6 shows an example of the first cleaning tank 11A including the preliminary tank 151. A pipe 152 is provided in the surplus tank 11a. The opening at the tip of the pipe 152 is located in the preliminary tank 151. An electromagnetic valve 61 is attached to a pipe 51 connecting the preliminary tank 151 and the cleaning liquid regenerating unit 20. The first cleaning tank 11A and the preliminary tank 151 are connected by a circulation pipe 171 provided with a pump 172 and a filter 173. In the preliminary tank 151, a cooling pipe 181 through which a refrigerant passes and a heating pipe 182 through which a heating medium passes are arranged. With this configuration, the temperature of the cleaning liquid stored in the preliminary tank can be adjusted to a desired temperature.
The cooling pipe 181 and the heating pipe 182 are examples, and another cooling device or a heating device may be attached to the spare tank.

  The cleaning liquid adjusted to a desired temperature in the preliminary tank 151 is pumped up by the pump 172, filtered by the filter 173, and supplied to the first cleaning tank 11A through the pipe 171. The cleaning liquid to be regenerated is supplied from the preliminary tank 151 to the cleaning liquid regenerating section 20. As described above, the cleaning liquid can be circulated between the first cleaning tank 11A and the preliminary tank 151 while suitably maintaining the temperature of the cleaning liquid.

  FIG. 6 shows the branch pipe 52a and the electromagnetic valve 62 similar to those in FIG. 1, but when the cleaning tank has a spare tank, the location where the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid regeneration unit is sent can be changed as appropriate. For example, the regenerated cleaning liquid may be sent to the preliminary tank 151, or may be sent to the pipe 152 or the pipe 171.

  The preliminary tank shown in FIG. 6 is an example of a preliminary tank for performing temperature control. Other examples include a closed tank having a vacuum pump and an eductor and having a closed structure. Since this cleaning tank can deaerate the cleaning liquid, it is suitable for performing ultrasonic cleaning. Naturally, a configuration capable of performing both deaeration and temperature adjustment may be employed. A configuration in which the spare tank does not have a special cleaning liquid adjusting function and only circulates the cleaning liquid with the cleaning tank may be employed.

  Of course, spare tanks may be provided in the second washing tank 12, the third washing tank 113, and the fourth washing tank 114. In a plurality of washing tanks, a washing tank having a spare tank and a washing tank not having a spare tank may be mixed.

In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which the user inputs the timing at which the mode is switched between the normal mode and the concentration disposal mode to the controller. Instead, a configuration in which the normal mode and the concentration and disposal mode are automatically switched may be adopted.
Examples of the control parameter that the controller refers to in the switching determination include a cleaning time of the object to be cleaned and an amount of the object to be cleaned. As the specific example of the former, the time during which the basket was located in the first cleaning tank (the time from sinking the basket to lifting it), as the specific example of the latter, the number of baskets that were washed, Each can be exemplified. By configuring each part of the cleaning device so that the controller can acquire and store the information, the cleaning liquid regenerating part can be set to the normal mode and the concentrated waste mode at a predetermined cycle without a user inputting an instruction from a user interface. Can be repeated.

1, 1A Cleaning apparatus 11, 11A First cleaning tank 12 Second cleaning tank 20 Cleaning liquid regeneration unit 30 Controller 52 Piping 62, 63, 64, 65 Solenoid valve D Cleaning liquid

Claims (10)

A first cleaning tank, including a second cleaning tank located upstream of the first cleaning tank, two or more cascading cleaning tanks,
A cleaning liquid regeneration unit that regenerates the cleaning liquid supplied from at least one of the two or more cleaning tanks and supplies the cleaning liquid to at least one of the two or more cleaning tanks;
The cleaning liquid regenerating unit, a pipe that connects the first cleaning tank and the second cleaning tank, and through which the cleaning liquid regenerated in the cleaning liquid regenerating unit flows.
A controller for controlling the flow of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid regeneration unit and the pipe,
With
The cleaning liquid regeneration unit has two operation modes, a concentration mode for concentrating dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside, and a normal mode without concentration.
The controller is
In the normal mode, the flow of the cleaning liquid in the pipe is controlled so that the regenerated cleaning liquid is sent to the second cleaning tank,
In the concentration mode, control the flow of the cleaning liquid in the pipe so that the regenerated cleaning liquid is sent to the first cleaning tank,
Cleaning equipment. The first cleaning tank is located on the most downstream side of the two or more cleaning tanks,
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The second cleaning tank is located on the most upstream side of the two or more cleaning tanks,
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The cleaning liquid is supplied to the cleaning liquid regeneration unit only from the first cleaning tank,
The cleaning device according to claim 2. The pipe has a plurality of valves,
The controller controls the flow of the cleaning liquid in the pipe by controlling the opening and closing of the plurality of valves,
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The controller, in the concentration mode, stops supplying the cleaning liquid to the cleaning liquid regeneration unit,
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The controller, after the end of the concentration mode, holds the flow of the cleaning solution in the pipe for a fixed time without changing,
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The cleaning liquid regeneration unit regenerates by distilling the cleaning liquid.
The cleaning device according to claim 1. The cleaning liquid contains any of a hydrocarbon solvent, a glycol solvent, a bromine solvent, a chlorine solvent, and a fluorine solvent.
The cleaning device according to claim 1. A first cleaning tank and a second cleaning tank positioned upstream of the first cleaning tank, two or more cleaning tanks of a cascade type, and supplied from at least one of the two or more cleaning tanks. A cleaning liquid regenerating unit that regenerates the cleaning liquid, and a method of operating a cleaning device including:
When the cleaning liquid regenerating section is concentrating the dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside, return the regenerated cleaning liquid to the first cleaning tank,
When the cleaning liquid regenerating section has not concentrated the dirt contained in the cleaning liquid remaining inside, the regenerated cleaning liquid is returned to the second cleaning tank,
How to operate the cleaning device.

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