JP3328128B2 - Air shower equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air shower apparatus for removing dust particles attached to a covering such as a human body or a lab coat in a room isolated before entering a clean room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, in the manufacture of semiconductor devices,
To perform a fine processing of 0.1 micron, the cleanliness of the processing chamber is required to be extremely high. In a clean room with such a high degree of cleanliness, not only the number of workers in the clean room room is limited, but also workers entering the room can completely remove dust particles adhering in the air shower room. Only then could they enter the clean room.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional front view for explaining an example of a conventional air shower device, and FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional side view of the air shower chamber of FIG. Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, for example, this type of air shower apparatus includes a plurality of air cleaners that are introduced by a filter 7 into a dust removal chamber 4 and are blown to a worker 10 from both walls of the dust removal chamber 4. , A fluorescent lamp 9 for illuminating the interior of the room, which has a pan car louver 8 as an outlet of the room, an entrance 11 into the front of the room with low cleanliness, and an entrance 12 to the clean room facing the entrance. Dust chamber 4 and dust chamber 4
Worker 10 through the air suction port 5 arranged below the
And a blower 6 for sucking air in the dust removal chamber 4 containing dust particles removed from the filter 7 and for sending the sucked air to the rear side of the filter 7.

The operation of this air shower device is as follows.
When the worker 10 opens the door of the entrance 11 and enters the dust removal chamber 4, the door closes and the sensor of the dust removal chamber 4 detects the worker 10 and the blower 6 operates. As a result, clean air is blown out from the pan curl bar 8 through the filter 7 in a jet form, and the blown clean air is discharged to the worker 10.
To blow off dust particles attached to the worker 10, and after a lapse of a predetermined time, the blower 6 is stopped to complete dust removal. Further, the air in the dust removal chamber 4 containing the dust particles was sucked by the blower 6 from the air suction port 5 below the dust removal chamber 4 and sent to the back side of the filter 7.

[0005]

In the above-described conventional air shower apparatus, the clean air blown out in the form of jets of a plurality of pan curling bars is bathed from both sides of the worker, but the surface of the worker's body is exposed to the clean air. The air hits only in a spot-like manner, and the spot-shaped wind pressure is not uniform as the center is high and goes down to the periphery. For this reason, there are portions where the air does not hit the surface of the worker's body and portions where the air only hits with weak wind pressure. As a result, there is a problem that dust particles remain attached to the surface of the worker's body and enter the clean room as it is, so that cleanliness of the clean room is reduced.

In order to prevent this, a dust removal work specification is provided for the worker, and even if the worker is instructed to change his / her posture when taking an air shower, the work is not necessarily protected due to individual differences. Have difficulty. Therefore, dust particles cannot be completely removed by this method. Further, as another method, a turntable is provided as a means for changing a working posture, and there is also a method of changing a posture by turning a worker by using the turntable, but as long as it is a spot-like air blowing, from a worker's body surface. It is difficult to completely remove dust particles.

As will be described later, it is known that, if the number of circulations of air per hour is increased, the dust removal efficiency of the dust removal chamber is generally increased.
It is difficult to eliminate dust particles in the dust removal chamber at a time / time limit.

[0008] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an air shower device that can more completely remove dust particles adhering to the surface of a human body and a clothing portion.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A feature of the present invention is that a first entrance to a clean room having high cleanliness and a second entrance which can enter from a room having low cleanliness and communicate with the first entrance in one direction. A dust chamber to be closed, the chamber being perpendicular to the first and second entrance surfaces of the dust chamber;
From the inner wall surface in the direction perpendicular to the inner wall surface with uniform wind pressure
Clean air was blown out into the dust removal chamber
An outlet for injecting the air into the entire body of a worker in the dust removal chamber
With a wall member having a large number of meshes and a filter
Air blowing mechanism and on the inner wall surface facing the one inner wall surface
A plurality of suction holes which are provided uniformly and suction the air
A wall member formed by arranging inlets vertically and horizontally and the back of this wall member
It is laid out vertically and horizontally on the side and arranged to some extent
A plurality of pre-filters to remove dust particles
A suction mechanism for an air shower apparatus to obtain Bei a turntable that rotates carrying the workers of the dust chamber.

Further, when the worker gets on the turntable, the air blowing mechanism and the suction mechanism operate, and the turntable rotates at a predetermined number of rotations so that the worker enters the first entrance. When facing the surface and stopping,
It is desirable to stop the air blowing mechanism and the suction mechanism .

[0011]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional front view showing an air shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, this air shower apparatus uniformly cleans air from one side wall surface of the dust removal chamber 4 in a direction perpendicular to the surface.
It has an air blowing mechanism 3 for blowing the air blown out into the whole body of the worker 10 and a plurality of suction ports uniformly provided on the other side wall surface facing one side wall and for sucking air. The apparatus includes a suction mechanism 1 and a turntable 13 on which an operator 10 of the dust removal chamber 4 is mounted and rotated.

[0013] Air blowing mechanism 3 includes a wall member having a plurality of Firutae <br/> Remen bets were laid on one side, with transmitted through the air passage 14 are arranged side by side in a matrix on the back side of the wall member coming air into clean air through the wall member of the filter blower to uniformly blow the air to the dust chamber 4
It consists of a plurality of units. In addition, the suction mechanism 1 includes a wall member formed with a plurality of suction ports for sucking air arranged vertically and horizontally, and a plurality of dust members arranged vertically and horizontally on the back side of the wall member and removing dust particles of a certain size. And the element of the pre-filter 2.

The turntable 13 includes a platform on which the worker 10 rides, a sensor embedded in the platform for detecting the weight of the worker 10 when riding, and a clutch for rotating and stopping the turntable 13 based on the detection of the sensor. Brake 1
5 and a motor 16 for rotating the turntable 13.

Next, the operation of the air shower device will be described. First, when the worker 10 enters the dust removal chamber 4 from the entrance from the low clean room and rides on the table of the turntable 13, the sensor embedded in the table operates to rotate the turntable 13 at about 2 to 4 rotations per minute. Start spinning at speed. At the same time, the air blowing mechanism 3 and the suction mechanism 1 operate, and clean air flows as indicated by arrows, and strikes the entire body of the worker 10 at a uniform wind pressure. Since the worker 10 is rotated by the turntable, dust particles adhered so as to be scraped from the head to the feet are removed and scattered by the flow of air having the uniform wind pressure. Then, the scattered dust particles ride on the flow of air and are sucked into the corresponding suction ports of the suction mechanism 1 as shown by arrows. The sucked-in dust particles are assisted or passed by the filter of the suction mechanism 1 depending on their diameter.

The air containing dust particles that has passed through the filter of the suction mechanism 1 is sent to the back side of the air blowing mechanism 3 through the blowing path 14 by the blower 6, and the air pressure is increased by the blower of the air blowing mechanism 3 and is reduced by the filter. Dust particles are removed. Then, the clean air from which the dust particles have been removed flows uniformly into the dust removal chamber 4. In this way, the flow of air is made uniform and circulated, so that the worker 10 rotating at a constant wind pressure can be exposed to air. After the predetermined rotation, the turntable 1
3 stops and the air blowing mechanism 3 and the suction mechanism 1
Operation also stops.

When the turntable 13 stops, the direction of the table of the turntable 13 is controlled to stop by the on / off operation of the clutch brake 15 so that the worker 10 faces the entrance of the clean room. That is, it is possible to remove dust while maintaining the posture when the worker 10 enters the turntable 13 from the entrance from a room with low cleanliness, and then open the door of the clean room with the posture as it is to enter the room.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the correlation between the number of air circulations per unit time and the cleanliness. As shown in FIG. 2, if the number of times of the air circulation cycle described above is large, the cleanliness of the dust removal chamber 4 is improved. However, as in the conventional case, since the suction port is located below the dust removing chamber and has a narrow opening, the air flow resistance is large and the number of air circulations is limited. On the other hand, in the air shower device according to the present invention, since the air blowing mechanism 3 and the suction mechanism 1 are disposed so as to face each other, the flow of air is in one direction, so that the air resistance is small. Are facing each other, a large amount of air can be circulated in one circulation, so that the number of times of air circulation can be improved.

For example, when the number of circulations of air is calculated ignoring the conductance, in the conventional example, for example, it is assumed that the outlet of the pan curler has a diameter of 35 mm and the wind speed at that time is 20 m / sec. Assuming that the effective volume of the dust removing chamber is 2 cubic, ignoring the conductance, the air volume Q1 blown out from the 22 pan curlers provided on the left and right is Q1 = (0.035 / 2) ² × 3.14.
× 20 × 60 × 60 × 22 = 1523 (m ³ / h), and the number of circulations N1 is N1 = Q1 / V = 1523/2 = 7
It becomes 62 times / hour.

On the other hand, in the air shower device of the present invention,
Assuming that the blowing wind speed is V2 m / sec, the blowing air volume Q2 is Q2 = 1 × 2 × V2 × 60 × 60 = 7200V
2 and the number of circulations N2 is N2 = Q2 / V = 7200
V2 / 2 = 3600 V2 times / hour. In other words, the blowing air velocity is 0.2 m / sec, 720 times /
Time. With high cleanliness in a general clean room,
This air circulation is several hundred times. For example, if the wind speed is set to 0.3 m / sec, the number of circulations is 1080 times / hour, which is a sufficient number for removing dust particles.

[0021]

As described above, the present invention relates to a filter and a wall member which are arranged on one side of a dust removal chamber and have a large number of mesh-shaped outlets for blowing clean air at a uniform wind pressure in one direction. An air blowing mechanism comprising: a suction mechanism having a wall member facing the wall member at a distance, being disposed on the other side surface of the dust removal chamber, and having a plurality of suction ports formed uniformly in the surface. To form a flow of air with a constant wind pressure in one direction in the dust removal chamber, and apply the air flow uniformly to a human body and clothes while rotating a worker in the dust removal chamber, thereby attaching the air to the human body and clothes. There is an effect that dust particles can be completely removed and the cleanliness of the clean room is not reduced.

Also, the air blowing mechanism and the suction mechanism are opposed to each other, so that the air flow path is linear, and the flow rate of air blow-in and suction-out is increased, thereby increasing the number of times air is circulated to the dust removal chamber. Therefore, there is an effect that the dust removal efficiency can be improved and the dust removal time can be shortened.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional front view showing an air shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph relatively showing a correlation between the number of air circulations per unit time and cleanliness.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional front view for explaining an example of a conventional air shower device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional side view of the air shower room of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Suction mechanism 2 Pre-filter 3 Air blowing mechanism 4 Dust removal chamber 5 Air suction port 6 Blower 7 Filter 8 Pan curl bar 9 Fluorescent lamp 10 Workers 11, 12 Entrance 13 Turntable 14 Blast path 15 Clutch brake 16 Motor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-5-272788 (JP, A) JP-A-5-288380 (JP, A) JP-A-62-183894 (JP, A) JP-A-60-183 144545 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model Hei 6-73630 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A closed dust-removal chamber having a first entrance to a high-purity clean room and a second entrance that can enter from a low-purity room and communicates with the first entrance in one direction; A uniform wind pressure is applied from one inner wall surface in a direction perpendicular to the first and second entrance surfaces of the dust removal chamber.
Blowing clean air vertically onto the inner wall surface into the dust removal chamber
Out and blow the air out of the workers in the dust removal chamber.
A wall member that has a large number of mesh-shaped outlets for the whole body
An air blowing mechanism comprising a filter, and the one inner wall
Uniformly provided on the inner wall surface facing the surface and
A wall formed by arranging a plurality of suction ports for sucking air vertically and horizontally
When it is laid vertically and horizontally on the back side of the material and this wall member
Multiple processes that remove dust particles of a certain size
Air shower device comprising a suction mechanism and a record filter that obtain Bei a turntable that rotates carrying the workers of the dust chamber. 2. The air blowing mechanism and the suction mechanism operate when the worker gets on the turntable,
When the turntable is the operator and the rotation of the predetermined rotational speed is stopped and facing the first inlet surface, wherein
The air shower device according to claim 1 , wherein the air blowing mechanism and the suction mechanism are stopped.