JPH0331113B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is mainly used in the manufacturing industry of automobiles, machine tools, etc., and is used to clean mechanical parts, etc. with solvent vapor. This invention relates to improvements to heat pump type steam cleaning equipment.

(Prior Art) A conventional heat pump type steam cleaning device is generally composed of a steam cleaning tank 1, a heat pump 2, a distillation tank 3, etc., as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
The heat pump 2 is configured to recover the heat of condensation of the solvent vapor and heat the solvent liquid.

That is, the steam cleaning tank 1 is formed of a cleaning section 1a in which solvent vapor exists and a storage section 1b for a solvent solution. A heater 5 is provided respectively.

The heat pump 2 is composed of a compressor 2a, a condenser 2b, an expansion valve 2c, an evaporator 2d, etc., and a cooling water circulation pump 7 is interposed in the heat exchange pipe 6 of the evaporator 2d to connect the cooling pipe. Further, a solvent circulation pump 9 is interposed in the heat exchange pipe 8 of the condenser 2b, and the storage section 1b of the steam cleaning tank 1 is connected to each other in an annular manner.

Further, the distillation tank 3 has a gas phase part 3a and a liquid phase part 3b formed therein, and the gas phase part 3a is connected to the cleaning part 1a of the steam cleaning tank 1, and the liquid phase part 3b is connected to the cleaning tank 1. Each of the drain pans 11 is connected to a drain pan 11 disposed below the object to be cleaned 10 in the drain pan 1 .

Thus, the solvent liquid in the steam cleaning tank 1 is heated by the heater 5 or the heat exchange tube 8 of the condenser 2b of the heat pump 2 and evaporated. Further, the generated solvent vapor is cooled by the object to be cleaned 10 and the cooling pipe 4,
Condense. At this time, the condensation heat given to the cooling pipe 4 is recovered by the heat medium of the heat pump via the cooling water 12 and the evaporator 2d, and after being raised in temperature and pressure by the heat pump, it is reused to heat the solvent liquid. Ru. In this way, the solvent solution is heated and condensed by a so-called thermal closed cycle.

On the other hand, the solvent liquid condensed on the outer surface of the object 10 to be cleaned performs a cleaning action while flowing down along the outer surface of the object, and the contaminated solvent liquid after cleaning is transferred to the drain pan 11.
collected above. The collected contaminated solvent solution is subsequently led to the liquid phase portion 3b of the distillation tank 3 and heated by the heater 14. The solvent vapor distilled and purified by heating is returned to the cleaning section 1a, and the cleaning solvent liquid condensed by the cooling pipe 4 is directly returned to the storage section 1b.

In addition, FIG. 3 has a configuration in which the condenser 2b of the heat pump 2 is immersed in the storage part of the steam cleaning tank 1, and is basically the same as the case in FIG. 2. Further, in FIGS. 2 and 3, 15 is a blow valve of the distillation tank 3, which is used for discharging the concentrated contaminated solvent liquid.

The conventional heat pump type steam cleaning device can quickly and reliably clean the object 10 to be cleaned, and has excellent practical effects.

However, the conventional heat pump type steam cleaning apparatus still has many problems that need to be solved as described below.

(1) Since the heat exchange tube 8 and the heat pump condenser 2b are immersed in the storage section 1b of the steam cleaning tank 1, it is extremely inconvenient to inspect the heat transfer surface and the bottom of the tank, and the storage section 1b is structurally difficult to inspect. The volume of is relatively large. As a result, the amount of solvent used increases, the heat capacity increases, and the responsiveness to the cleaning load decreases.

(2) Since the solvent solution in the storage section 1b is circulated and agitated by the circulation pump 9, the storage section 1b
Heat dissipation loss from the tank bottom and tank walls becomes large, deteriorating thermal economy.

(3) Since the heating system for the solvent liquid is three-dimensional heating using the heater 5 in the steam cleaning tank 1, the heater 14 in the distillation tank 3, and the heater pump 2, heating control and heating operations are extremely difficult. Be complicated.

(4) Since the contaminated solvent solution in distillation tank 3 has a high concentration,
Solid matter tends to precipitate on the outer surface of the heater 14,
It is easy to cause a burn-out accident of the heater.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems (1) to (4) in conventional heat pump type steam cleaning equipment, By making it more compact, it is possible to reduce the amount of solvent used, improve load response, and improve thermo-economic efficiency.It also eliminates direct heating of the solvent by an electric heater and centrally heats the solvent by a heat pump. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a heat pump type steam cleaning device that uses heating to facilitate heating operations and prevent heater troubles.

In addition, the present invention makes it possible to significantly improve load response and thermal economy by using a new steam generation tank with a structure that purifies the solvent by using a difference in specific gravity in place of the conventional distillation tank 3. The present invention provides a heat pump type steam cleaning device.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention includes a steam cleaning tank 1 having a cooling pipe 4 and a drain pan 11 in a cleaning section 1a; 16b, and both weirs 23, which communicate the liquid phase portion of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a with the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c at the lower part thereof by a submerged weir 24 disposed therein.
A steam generation tank 16 divided into a cleaning liquid flow part 16d between 24; and a drain pan 11 to a concentrated liquid chamber 16
A conduit 32 for recovering contaminated solvent liquid led to the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of a; and a conduit 25 for recovering clean solvent liquid led from the bottom of the steam cleaning tank 1 to the clean liquid chamber 16b.
and; a pipeline 26 for supplying solvent vapor led from the steam generation tank 16 to the steam cleaning tank 1; an evaporator 2d for cooling the solvent 12 flowing in the cooling pipe 4, and a cleaning liquid chamber 16.
The refrigerant tank 17 includes a heat pump including a condenser 2b for heating the cleaning solvent solution b; and a refrigerant tank 17 having a heater 31 interposed in a refrigerant passage 20 extending from the cooling pipe 4 to the evaporator 2d.

(Function) The contaminated solvent solution collected on the drain pan 11 disposed in the steam cleaning tank 1 after washing the articles is transferred to the pipe line 3.
2 to the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a of the steam generating tank 16. Concentrate chamber 16
The contaminated solvent liquid in the contaminated solvent liquid collection part 16c of a is separated according to its concentration, the contaminated solvent liquid has a lower specific gravity and collects near the liquid surface, and the clean solvent liquid is collected at the bottom of the contaminated solvent liquid collection part 16c. It accumulates in

The relatively clean solvent liquid separated by the difference in specific gravity flows from the contaminated solvent liquid recovery part 16c through the sink weir 24 to the clean liquid overflow part 16d, and is caused to flow from the overflow weir 23 into the clean liquid chamber 16b. Therefore, the contaminated solvent liquid 13 does not enter the cleaning liquid chamber 16b due to the submerged weir 24, and only the cleaning liquid separated therefrom is supplied and stored. The clean solvent in the clean liquid chamber 16b is then transferred to the pipe line 21.
is sent to the condenser 2b of the heat pump 2 through
heated. The solvent in a gas-liquid mixed state heated in the condenser 2b is sent through the pipe 22 into the steam generation tank 16, where gas-liquid separation is performed, and then only the solvent vapor passes through the pipe 26 and flows into the steam cleaning tank 1. taken back inside.

Further, the cleaning solvent liquid condensed in the cooling pipe 4 is transferred to the tank 1.
The liquid is collected from the bottom through the conduit 25 into the cleaning liquid chamber 16b.

On the other hand, the heat of condensation of the solvent vapor condensed in the cooling pipe 4 is transferred to the heat medium of the heat pump 2 via the refrigerant 12 and the evaporator 2d, and is compressed and heated to the condenser 2b. Heating of the solvent solution takes place.

Further, when the device is started up or when the load suddenly increases, the auxiliary heater 31 of the water tank 17 is activated to increase the amount of heat given to the heat medium of the heat pump 2, thereby supplementally supplying the amount of heat for heating the solvent solution.

In the present invention, heating of the solvent solution is performed centrally only by the heat pump 2, so that the heating operation is extremely simplified. Furthermore, since the contaminated solvent solution is purified using the difference in specific gravity of the solvent solution, energy consumption is significantly reduced compared to distillation purification.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a heat pump type steam cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, and the same reference numerals are used for the same components as in FIGS. 2 and 3.

In the figure, 1 is a steam cleaning tank, 2 is a heat pump, 16 is a steam cleaning tank, and 17 is a refrigerant tank (water tank).

The steam cleaning tank 1 has a small volume liquid reservoir 18 formed at the bottom of the tank, and the entire space inside the tank except for the liquid reservoir 18 forms a cleaning section 1a filled with solvent vapor.

In addition, a cooling pipe 4 is installed on the upper tank wall of the steam cleaning tank 1.
The inlet end of the cooling pipe 4 is connected to a heat pump evaporator by a conduit 19 with a cooling water circulation pump 7 interposed therebetween, and the outlet end of the cooling pipe 4 is connected to a conduit 20 with a tank 17 interposed therebetween. 2d heat exchange tube 6
connected to. Further, a drain pan 11 is arranged in the center of the steam cleaning tank 1, and an object 10 to be cleaned, such as a mechanical part, is placed above the drain pan 11.

The heat pump 2 includes a compressor 2a and a condenser 2.
It is composed of an expansion valve 2c, an evaporator 2d, etc., and the heat exchange pipe 6 of the evaporator 2d is connected to the cooling pipe 4 via the pipes 19 and 20 as described above, and to the condenser 2.
The heat exchange pipes 8 b are connected to a steam generation tank 16, which will be described later, via pipes 21 and 22, respectively.

The steam generation tank 16 has an overflow weir 23 inside.
It is divided into a concentrate chamber 16a and a cleaning liquid chamber 16b by
On the side, there is a slip weir 2 with a through hole 24a in the upper part.
4 is vertically disposed from above, and divides the liquid phase portion of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a into a contaminated solvent liquid recovery part 16c and a clean liquid flow part 16d communicating with this at the lower part. The cleaning liquid chamber 16b of the steam generation tank 16 divided by the overflow weir 23 is connected to the inlet side of the heat exchange pipe 8 of the condenser 2b through a pipe line 21 in which a solvent circulation pump 9 is interposed. Furthermore, the bottom of the cleaning liquid chamber 16b is communicated with the liquid reservoir 18 of the steam cleaning tank 1 through a communication pipe 25.

On the other hand, the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16 of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a
c, a pipe line 32 connected to the drain pan 11;
and a gas-liquid mixing tube 22 connected to the heat exchange tube 8 of the condenser 2b.

A funnel body 27 is disposed in the vicinity of the solvent liquid level of the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of the concentration chamber 16a in a state buried in the liquid, and a pipe 28 and a valve 2
The lower part of the funnel body is led out of the concentrate chamber 16a through the funnel 9. Note that 30 is a blow valve for the solvent liquid in the concentrate chamber 16a.

The refrigerant tank 17 provided in the pipe line 20 provides the cooling water 12, which is a refrigerant, with an auxiliary amount of heat necessary at the time of startup or high load, and is equipped with an electric heater or a steam heater 31.

Next, the operation of the heat pump type steam cleaning device will be explained.

Solvent vapor generated in the steam generation tank 16 is supplied to the cleaning section 1a of the steam cleaning tank 1 through the solvent steam pipe 26. The solvent vapor in the cleaning section 1a is applied to the object 1 to be cleaned.
0 and the cooling pipe 4, and the cooling pipe 4
The condensed cleaning solvent liquid is stored in the liquid reservoir 18 and then flows into the cleaning chamber 16b of the steam generation tank 16 via the communication pipe 25.

On the other hand, the contaminated solvent liquid 13 that condensed on the outer surface of the object to be cleaned 10 and flowed down while cleaning it along the surface of the object is received in the drain pan 11 and then passed through the conduit 32 into the concentrated liquid chamber 16a. be led to. However, since the concentrated contaminated solvent liquid has a lower specific gravity than the cleaning liquid, the solvent liquid in the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a is separated according to its degree of concentration, and the solvent liquid with low purity is separated. The liquid will accumulate on the surface of the liquid, and the highly concentrated solvent will accumulate on the bottom.

As a result, the cleaning solvent liquid passes under the submerged weir 24 and enters the cleaning liquid overflow part 16d, and is further advected from the overflow weir 23 into the cleaning liquid chamber 16b, and the liquid level in the concentration chamber 16a is The contaminated solvent liquid accumulated in the vicinity is appropriately discharged out of the system by controlling the opening and closing of the valve 29 based on detection of the specific gravity or boiling point of the solvent liquid (the specific gravity of the contaminated solvent liquid decreases and the boiling point increases).

The heat of condensation of the solvent vapor condensed in the cooling pipe 4 is
The cooling water 12 which is being circulated by the pump 7 through the cooling pipe 4 is supplied to the heat exchange pipe 6 of the evaporator 2d.
It is recovered by the heat medium of the heat pump 2 via the heat pump 2. Further, at startup or under high load, the auxiliary heater 31 in the water tank 17 is activated to provide the required amount of heat to the cooling water 12, thereby supplying a predetermined amount of supplementary heat via the heat pump 2.

The heat medium from which the heat of condensation has been recovered is compressed and heated in the heat pump 2 system, and in the condenser 2b, the cleaning solvent liquid flowing through the heat exchange tube 8 is heated by the circulation pump 9. The high-temperature solvent in a gas-liquid mixed state heated by the heat exchange tube 8 is returned to the solvent liquid in the concentrate chamber 16a through the pipe line 22, where the solvent gas and liquid are separated.

The solvent vapor separated in the concentrate chamber 16a and the solvent vapor in the cleaning liquid chamber 16b advected through the through hole 24a are transferred to the cleaning section of the steam cleaning tank 1 through the solvent vapor pipe 26 as described above. It is supplied into 1a.

In the above embodiment, the liquid reservoir 18 is formed at the bottom of the steam cleaning tank 1. Of course, the liquid may be collected.

In addition, in this embodiment, the contaminated solvent liquid is discharged to the outside using the funnel body 27, but it is also possible to arrange an oblong tray in the concentrated liquid chamber, or to attach a drain pipe to the outer wall of the tank. Contaminated solvent liquid near the liquid surface may be discharged through.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the tip of the gas-liquid mixing tube 22 is inserted into the solvent liquid in the concentrated liquid chamber 16a, but the gas-liquid mixture is ejected into the space above the liquid surface to form a gas-liquid mixture. Separation is also an addition.

Further, in this embodiment, the solvent liquid is circulated to the condenser 2b by the circulation pump 9, but by immersing the condenser 2b into the cleaning liquid chamber 16b of the steam generation tank 16, the heating of the solvent liquid can be prevented. It is also possible to do so.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the present invention, the steam generation tank 16 is separately provided, and the interior of the steam cleaning tank 1 is only the cleaning section 1a. As a result, there is no need for a large-capacity solvent storage section at the bottom of the tank as in conventional steam cleaning tanks, making it possible to downsize the cleaning tank 1 and reduce heat dissipation from the bottom of the cleaning tank.

In addition, since the solvent liquid is heated only by the heat pump 2 and is not heated by an electric heater or the like, there is no burnout of the heater due to the precipitation of solids in the solvent, and heating of the solvent liquid is centralized. This greatly facilitates heating operations and heating control.

Furthermore, in the present invention, a small steam generation tank is provided independent of the steam cleaning tank 1, and here the high temperature solvent gas-liquid mixture heated by the heat pump 2 is separated into gas and liquid, and the specific gravity of the solvent liquid is The difference is used to separate the contaminated solvent solution and the clean solvent solution. As a result, not only can the steam cleaning tank 1 be significantly downsized as described above, but the power cost can be reduced compared to solvent solution purification using the distillation method, and the steam generation tank 16 can be relatively small. Heat losses and solvent requirements are significantly reduced.

In addition, a tank 17 equipped with an auxiliary heater is installed in the cooling pipe 4 system of the steam cleaning tank 1, and the heater 31 provides an auxiliary amount of heat to the refrigerant 12 such as cooling water when starting up the device or when the cleaning load suddenly increases. Therefore, the device can be started quickly, has high responsiveness to load fluctuations, and there is no fear of burnout of the heater.

As mentioned above, the present invention has excellent practical utility.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a heat pump type steam cleaning apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 2 and 3 are system diagrams of a conventional heat pump type steam cleaning device. 1...Steam cleaning tank, 1a...Cleaning section, 1b...
Storage part, 2... Heat pump, 2a... Compressor,
2b... Condenser, 2c... Expansion valve, 2d... Evaporator, 4... Cooling pipe, 6... Evaporator heat exchange tube, 7...
...Cooling water circulation pump, 8...Condenser heat exchange pipe, 9
...Solvent liquid circulation pump, 10...Object to be cleaned, 11
...Drain pan, 12...Cooling water (refrigerant), 1
6... Steam generation tank, 16a... Concentrate chamber, 16b
...Cleaning liquid chamber, 16c...Contaminated solvent liquid recovery section, 1
6d...Cleaning liquid flow part, 17...Refrigerant tank, 1
8...Liquid reservoir, 19,20,21...Pipeline, 22...
... Gas-liquid mixing pipe, 23 ... Overflow weir, 24 ... Slip weir, 25 ... Communication pipe (cleaning solvent liquid recovery section pipe),
26...Solvent vapor pipe (pipe line for supplying solvent vapor),
27...Funnel, 29...Control valve, 31...Heater, 32...Pipe line for collecting contaminated solvent liquid.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A steam cleaning tank 1 having a cooling pipe 4 and a drain pan 11 in the cleaning section 1a; the interior is divided into a concentrated liquid chamber 16a and a cleaning liquid chamber 16b by an overflow weir 23;
Further, the liquid phase portion of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a is divided into a contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c and a clean liquid flow section 16d between the two weirs 23 and 24 communicating with this at the lower part by a sink weir 24 provided therein. Steam generation tank 16
; A conduit 32 for collecting contaminated solvent liquid led from the drain pan 11 to the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a;
6b for recovering the cleaning solvent; a pipe 26 for supplying solvent vapor led from the steam generation tank 16 to the steam cleaning tank 1; 2d and a condenser 2b that heats the cleaning solvent liquid in the cleaning liquid chamber 16b; and a refrigerant tank 17 having a heater 31 interposed in the refrigerant passage 20 extending from the cooling pipe 4 to the evaporator 2d. Heat pump type steam cleaning equipment. 2. Claim 1 using a steam generation tank 16 that can freely discharge the solvent near the liquid level in the contaminated solvent liquid recovery section 16c of the concentrated liquid chamber 16a to the outside of the tank 16.
The heat pump type steam cleaning device described in 2. 3. The heat pump type steam according to claim 1, which uses a steam generation tank 16 that causes a gas-liquid mixture of solvent heated in the condenser 2b of the heat pump 2 to flow back into the solvent liquid in the concentrated liquid chamber 16a. cleaning equipment.