JPH03296475A - Cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve a high cleaning degree without using fluorocarbon by providing a cleaning medium supply means mixing a liquid cleaning medium with the high speed air flow within a cleaning nozzle or an air feed path in a liquid droplet or mist form. CONSTITUTION:A low pressure supply source 2 is constituted of a root blower. Subsequently, the air from the root blower 2 is once introduced into a header 7 through an air feed pipe 6 and subsequently passes through a plurality of hoses 8... to be introduced into the respective cleaning nozzles 4... connected to the leading ends thereof. Further, cleaning water is guided to the respective cleaning nozzles 4 through the hoses 10 of a cleaning medium supply means 5 to be mixed with the air streams flowing through the cleaning nozzles 4.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning industrially manufactured articles without affecting the environment.

[Conventional technology]

In the manufacture of electronic components and precision machinery, a cleaning process is essential to remove dirt that has adhered to articles or products due to processing or chemical treatment. Among such cleanings, it is well known that liquefied chlorofluorocarbon gas or trichlene is conventionally used as a cleaning medium for cleaning that requires a high degree of cleaning. However, as it became clear that the large amounts of fluorocarbon gas consumed in this type of cleaning were involved in the destruction of the ozone layer in the atmosphere surrounding the earth, the use of fluorocarbons was regulated worldwide. This is a trend, and our country is no exception. In addition, even when using trichlene, it has strong volatility, which worsens the working environment.
Another problem is that it is difficult to dispose of it. Therefore, in place of cleaning with fluorocarbons, etc., many electronic components and precision machinery industries are trying to provide a cleaning method that can achieve the same high degree of cleaning as fluorocarbons, etc., without having a negative impact on the global environment. This is an urgent and important issue for Japan's industry, which has traditionally used a large amount of fluorocarbons. Note that there has been a method of using water, preferably pure water, as the cleaning medium and spraying it onto the object as a method of cleaning with a relatively high degree of cleaning while using a cleaning medium other than Freon. However, since this method simply sprays water from a nozzle, there are limits to the degree of cleaning and cleaning efficiency. This invention was devised under the above-mentioned circumstances, and by using a completely new idea, it is possible to achieve a high level of cleaning comparable to that using fluorocarbons without using fluorocarbons, and at the same time, it is possible to achieve a high degree of cleaning without using fluorocarbons. The objective is to provide a cleaning device that can achieve incomparably high cleaning efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical measures. That is, the cleaning device of the present invention includes a low pressure gas supply source,
A cleaning nozzle is connected to the low-pressure gas supply source via a gas transport path and injects the low-pressure gas sent through the gas transport path at high speed and at a large flow rate, and the high-speed gas in the cleaning nozzle or the gas transport path is A cleaning medium supply means for mixing the liquid cleaning medium into the flow in the form of droplets or mist.

[Action and effect]

For example, water can be used as the liquid cleaning medium. Further, the gas sent from the low-pressure gas supply source to the cleaning nozzle through the conveyance path is, for example, air. The cleaning device of the present invention mixes the liquid cleaning medium in the form of droplets or mist into the high-speed gas flow in the cleaning nozzle or the gas conveying path. Alternatively, the atomized liquid cleaning medium has a function of injecting the mixed gas at low pressure and high speed. That is, the cleaning nozzle in the apparatus of the present invention does not inject only liquid or only gas, but rather injects gas mixed with droplet or mist cleaning medium at a gauge pressure of, for example, 0.2 atm. Injects at a low pressure of 1.0 atmospheres and at high speed. The generation of such a low pressure gas flow, for example an air flow, is easily obtained by delivering a low pressure blower, such as a Roots blower, to the cleaning nozzle. Since this air flow is at a low pressure, it is possible to achieve a high speed and a large flow rate. For example, it is not difficult to achieve a flow velocity of 200 meters/second immediately after being ejected from a cleaning nozzle. and,
Since such a very high speed air flow is achieved, by providing a simple liquid supply device somewhere in the gas transport path up to the cleaning nozzle, the liquid thus supplied can be moved at high speed in the gas transport path. It easily becomes droplets or atomized by the turbulent energy or dynamic pressure of the turbulent gas flow. The object to be cleaned is bombarded with a liquid cleaning medium in the form of droplets or mist that is sprayed in an extremely high-speed gas stream from the cleaning nozzle, thereby cleaning the object with an extremely high degree of cleaning without damaging the surface. High cleaning is done. Although such an effect has already been demonstrated by the inventor, the effects of injecting only a liquid cleaning medium onto an object and when only a gas stream is injected onto an object were compared and considered. It will become clear by doing so. In other words, colliding only a liquid cleaning medium onto an object at a rate of, for example, 200 meters/second requires, firstly, a huge pressure generating device, which makes the device itself difficult and expensive to manufacture; Second, even if such a high-speed liquid flow were achieved, if it collided with the object to be cleaned, the object would be destroyed by the enormous kinetic energy of the liquid flow, making cleaning impossible. It exposes the decisive flaw of becoming. For this reason, when cleaning is performed by jetting only liquid, the jetting speed must be kept to a relatively low speed that does not damage the object to be cleaned.
The cleaning efficiency is significantly lower than when using the cleaning nozzle of the apparatus of the present invention. Next, even if only gas is blown onto the object at an extremely high speed, it can only be a blow, and no cleaning effect can be expected from the liquid cleaning medium. The cleaning device of the present invention achieves high-quality cleaning as described above, and even if water is used as the liquid cleaning medium, it exhibits a cleaning effect that is no inferior to conventional cleaning using Freon. In addition, the cleaning nozzle of the device of the present invention uses a low-pressure, high-speed gas flow to spray a liquid or mist liquid cleaning medium toward the target object, so the gas flow can be made into a large flow rate and the cross-sectional area of the jet can be increased. It is also extremely efficient. Furthermore, since the gas conveyance path to the cleaning nozzle only needs to be configured for low pressure, the device is lighter, simpler, Low cost.

[Explanation of Examples]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a cleaning device 1 of the present invention. As described above, the cleaning device 1 of the present invention includes a low pressure gas supply source 2, a low pressure gas supply source 2 connected to the gas conveyance path 3, and a low pressure gas sent through the gas conveyance path 3. It has a cleaning nozzle 4 that sprays liquid at high speed and a large flow rate, and cleaning medium supply means 5 that mixes liquid cleaning medium in the form of droplets or mist into the cleaning nozzle 3 or the high-speed gas flow in the gas transport path. As shown in FIG. 1, in this example, the low-pressure supply source 2 is constituted by a Roots blower. Or, the gas conveyance path 3 is
The gas from the roof blower 2 is first introduced into the header 7 via the air pipe 6, and then a plurality of hoses 8...
Each cleaning nozzle 4 connected to its tip via...
It is configured so that it can be introduced into the room to further improve cleaning efficiency. Further, in this example, the cleaning medium supply means 5 includes a hose l.
The cleaning water is introduced to each cleaning nozzle 4 through the cleaning nozzle 4 and mixed with the air flow flowing inside the cleaning nozzle 4. FIG. 2 shows details of the cleaning nozzle 4. A nozzle head 12 having a venturi-shaped reduced diameter portion is integrally connected to the front end of the cylindrical nozzle body 11, and the air introduction hose 8 described above is connected to the rear end of the nozzle body 11. A pipe 13 connected to a cleaning liquid supply hose 10 is inserted into the nozzle body 11 slightly upstream of the nozzle head 12 . While flowing low-pressure, high-speed air from the hose 8 to the cleaning nozzle 4, the hose I
When cleaning water is introduced from O or pipe 13, this cleaning water is immediately split into fine liquid or mist by the turbulent energy of the air flowing at high speed through nozzle body 11 or nozzle head 12, and is then discharged from cleaning nozzle 4. This results in the jetting out of droplets or mist of cleaning water or mixed high-velocity air. Note that a Roots blower is suitable as the low-pressure air supply source 2, and the gauge pressure of the air flow generated by this blower is 0.2 atm to 1.0 atm, preferably about 0.5 atm. be driven. In addition, the cleaning nozzle 4
It has been confirmed that the flow velocity of the air blown out from can reach 200 meters/second. By spraying the cleaning liquid in the form of droplets or mist onto the object to be cleaned using this extremely high-speed, large-flow air flow, extremely high cleaning quality can be achieved. Since the particles themselves are fine particles, there is no problem of damaging the surface of the object. In particular, when cleaning resin molded electronic parts, even dirt strongly adhered to the surface due to static electricity can be effectively removed. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that by adjusting the amount of cleaning liquid mixed into the air flow from the cleaning nozzle, even particles generated during resin molding can be effectively removed by droplets hitting the article at high speed. When a Roots blower generates an air flow with a pressure of about 0.5 atm, the temperature of the air flow inside the cleaning nozzle is raised to 60'C to 80°C during its steady operation. It can also be said that the temperature of the cleaning water droplets that come into contact with the air is also raised, which further increases the cleaning effect. This is the same reason why washing clothes with hot water is easier to remove stains than washing them with cold water. The washing water is sent by a pump (not shown), or water from a water pipe is directly introduced into the header pipe 9, and is passed through a hose 10 which is branched into a number corresponding to the number of washing nozzles 4. The cleaning nozzle 4 is configured so as to be guided to each cleaning nozzle 4. At this time, as mentioned above, the static pressure inside the cleaning nozzle 4 is 1 atm or less, so the tap water supplied with a water pressure of at least approximately 1 atm is supplied to the cleaning nozzle through the flow rate control valve (path shown). 4, tap water can be introduced into the cleaning nozzle 4 without any problem. 3 and 4 show a second embodiment of the cleaning device of the present invention. In this second example, the cleaning medium supply means 6 is provided in the middle of the gas conveying path 3 that connects the low pressure gas supply source 2 and the cleaning nozzle 4. As shown in FIG. 3, a cleaning water tank 1 is connected to the IR section in the air supply pipe 14 as a gas conveyance path via a flow rate control valve 15.
The lower part of the tank 16 is connected to the upper part of the tank 16, and a pressure introduction pipe 17 that branches off from the upstream part of the air supply pipe 14 is connected to the upper part of the tank 16. A pipe line I9 from a cleaning water supply source (not shown) is connected to the top of the cleaning water tank 16 via an on-off valve and a flow control valve 18. Further, a level meter 20 using a float, for example, is provided inside the cleaning water tank 16, and by operating the above-mentioned flow rate control valve 18 in conjunction with this level meter, the amount of water in the cleaning water tank 16 can be adjusted. It is constructed so that the amount of washing water is kept constant. Here, as the low pressure gas supply source 2, a roots blower is used as in the first embodiment described above. During operation, the cleaning tank 16 is kept airtight,
Therefore, by introducing the static pressure of the air supply pipe 14 into the cleaning tank 16 through the pressure introduction pipe 17, the gas phase pressure within the cleaning tank 16 becomes the same pressure as the static pressure of the air supply pipe 14. Therefore, when the flow rate control valve 15 is opened, the cleaning water in the tank flows down into the air supply pipe 4 due to its own weight. Since a high-speed air flow is generated in the air pipe 14 at a low pressure (0.5 to 1.0 atmospheres) sent from the Roots blower, the cleaning water flowing down from the cleaning water tank 16 as described above is The turbulent energy of the airflow flowing at high speed inside the air pipe 14 instantly breaks it up into fine droplets or mist, and thus the high-speed air mixed with droplets or mist of cleaning water becomes the tip of the air pipe 14. cleaning nozzle 4
It will be sprayed from. Note that the cleaning nozzle 4 in this example has an opening with a slightly tapered and reduced diameter, and also has an opening with a long rectangular shape according to the shape of the object to be cleaned, as shown in FIG. It can be made into various shapes such as. In addition, in this example, since a Roots blower is used as a low-pressure gas supply source, the pressure inside the air pipe and the gas phase pressure inside the tank are both 1 atm or less, so tap water is directly supplied to the cleaning water tank 16. By introducing this, it is possible to introduce cleaning water into the tank without intervening any other special pump means. The water pressure of public tap water is
This is because the pressure is approximately 1 atmosphere. In addition, in Fig. 3, the reference numeral 2
Reference numeral 1 denotes a reverse ratio valve for preventing cleaning water remaining in the air pipe 14 from flowing back toward the blower when the device is stopped, and reference numeral 22 denotes a reverse ratio valve for preventing cleaning water remaining in the air pipe 14 from flowing back toward the blower, and reference numeral 22 denotes a reverse ratio valve for preventing cleaning water remaining in the air pipe 14 from flowing back toward the blower. 1 shows an additive supply pipe for introducing additives to the wash water tank 16. FIG. 5 shows an example in which a single blower is used to operate a plurality of cleaning nozzles 4 in a mechanism similar to the second example shown in FIG. 3 above. That is, in this example, air from blower 2 or header 2
3, the air is sent to the cleaning nozzle 4 at the tip of the air supply pipe 14, which is divided into multiple pipes. Each of the air pipes 14 and
··It is connected to the. In addition, the pressure introduction pipe 17, which is separated upward from the header 23, is connected to the upper part of the cleaning water tank I6, and applies a pressure equal to the pressure inside the air supply pipe to the gas phase inside the tank.
This is similar to the example shown in FIG. In this example as well, each air pipe 1
The cleaning liquid flowing down from the cleaning water tank 16 is mixed in the form of droplets or mist into the high-speed air flow flowing through the cleaning nozzle 4, and the cleaning liquid in the form of droplets or mist is mixed in from each cleaning nozzle 4. High-speed, low-pressure air is injected. As described above, according to the cleaning device of the present invention, extremely high degree of cleaning can be achieved by using the unique method of spraying fine droplets or mist of cleaning liquid in an ultra-high-speed gas flow. . Furthermore, since the cleaning liquid in the form of droplets or mist is injected toward the object using a low-pressure, high-speed gas flow, the cross-sectional area of the jet can be increased with a large flow rate of the gas flow, and the cleaning efficiency is extremely high. Furthermore, since the gas conveyance path to the cleaning nozzle only needs to be configured for low pressure, compared to using high pressure air generated using a compressed air generator such as a compressor,
There is also the additional effect that the device is lightweight, simple, and low cost. Of course, the scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. In particular, the cleaning medium supply means may be modified in various ways other than the embodiment. For example, in order to promote atomization of the cleaning liquid, it is conceivable to provide a venturi section in the gas conveyance path, and to discharge the cleaning liquid into the gas flow whose flow velocity is further increased in this section. Further, in the embodiment, a case has been described in which the water pressure of tap water is used as the force for feeding the cleaning water, but it is of course possible to send the cleaning water to the air pipe through a pump. The liquid cleaning medium is not limited to a specific one, and may be selected as appropriate depending on the object to be cleaned, such as tap water, pure water, or water with additives added thereto. Note that the concept of cleaning here includes not only washing away dirt adhering to the surface of an article with liquid, but also the use of the kinetic energy of droplets to remove, for example, particles generated during molding of a molded article.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the cleaning device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of its cleaning nozzle, FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram of a second embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a modification of the nozzle, and is an overall configuration diagram of a modification of the second embodiment. 1...Cleaning device, 2...Low pressure gas supply source, 3...
Gas conveyance path, 4...Cleaning nozzle, 5...Cleaning medium supply means, 14...Air supply pipe.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A low-pressure gas supply source, a cleaning nozzle connected to the low-pressure gas supply source via a gas conveyance path and injecting the low-pressure gas sent through the gas conveyance path at high speed and at a large flow rate; and the cleaning nozzle. Alternatively, a cleaning device comprising a cleaning medium supply means for mixing a liquid cleaning medium in the form of droplets or mist into the high-speed gas flow in the gas transport path.