JPH07116616A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control a rise in the temp. of work surface and enhance the efficiency of vapor cleaning by a method wherein, in a cleaning device provided with a cleaning chamber of air-tight structure and an organic solvent vapor producing tank communicating with the cleaning chamber by piping, a heating medium supply member into which a cooling medium is admitted is further provided at the upper part inside the cleaning chamber. CONSTITUTION:After placing work W into a cleaning chamber 1, a vacuum pump 6 is driven to evacuate the cleaning chamber 1 via a main air release valve Vb. A cooling medium is then admitted into a heating medium supply member 3 via an opening and closing valve V1 and the vapor in a vapor producing tank 4 is introduced into the cleaning chamber 1 via a vapor introducing valve V3 due to pressure difference. Then, the vapor condenses when the surface temp. of the work W is low and drops of dew are formed entirely over the work surface and grow to such an extent as to fall off, thereby cleaning the work. During this time, since a cooling medium is passed through the heating medium supply member 3, the vapor condensation is accelerated, the resulting liquid drops fall onto the work W and the vapor cleaning is continuously effected due to cool work surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device, more specifically, a machine part having a complicated shape to which oil or the like adheres (hereinafter, referred to as
The present invention relates to a cleaning device for steam cleaning a work) with an organic solvent.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a cleaning device of this type, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-113965 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-19358.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8 etc., a cleaning chamber having an airtight structure, an organic solvent vapor generation tank (hereinafter referred to as a vapor generation tank) communicating with the cleaning chamber through a pipe, and a vacuum for exhausting the cleaning chamber. A pump and a pump are known. In this cleaning device, organic solvent vapor (hereinafter referred to as vapor) is supplied from the vapor generation tank into the cleaning chamber.
The supplied steam adheres to the surface of the work stored in the cleaning chamber to form dew, and eventually drops from the surface of the work for cleaning.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional cleaning apparatus, since the steam comes into contact with the surface of the work as described above, the temperature of the work surface gradually rises, and the surface temperature of the work eventually becomes the steam temperature. Since the liquefaction was stopped, the steam cleaning could not be performed any more, and the cleaning time was insufficient, resulting in poor cleaning. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device capable of controlling the temperature rise on the surface of a work by adding a simple mechanism and performing sufficient steam cleaning.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cleaning chamber having an airtight structure, an organic solvent vapor generation tank communicating with the cleaning chamber by a pipe, and In a cleaning device including a vacuum pump for exhausting the inside of the cleaning chamber, a heat medium supply member into which a cooling medium flows is arranged above the cleaning chamber. . According to a second aspect of the present invention, the inside of the organic solvent vapor generation tank is divided into a vapor generation tank and a waste liquid recovery tank, and the two tanks are respectively connected to a cleaning chamber by a pipe. According to a third aspect of the present invention, a cooling medium and a heating medium are selectively supplied to the heating medium supply member.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, which roughly comprises a cleaning chamber 1, a heat medium supply member 3, a steam generation tank 4, and a vacuum pump 6. The cleaning chamber 1 has an airtight structure, has a charging door 2, and
The heat medium supply member 3 is provided above the room.

The heat medium supply member 3 is a fin-structured pipe, and an opening / closing valve V ₁ is provided at the inlet side of the heat medium supply member 3.
Coolant supply pipe P ₁ is also adapted to be flow into the cooling medium pipe P ₄ are connected to the heat medium supply member 3 with the flow control valve Vc on the outlet side has a.

The steam generation tank 4 is disposed below the cleaning chamber 1 and has a heater 5 for heating the organic solvent S therein.
And the upper part communicates with the bottom part of the cleaning chamber 1 via the steam introduction valve V ₃ and the liquid return valve V ₄ .

The vacuum pump 6 exhausts the inside of the cleaning chamber 1 through a pipe P _3, and has an atmosphere opening valve Va and a main exhaust valve V.
It communicates with the inside of the cleaning chamber 1 via the condenser b.

Next, the operation of the cleaning apparatus having the above construction will be described. First, the charging door 2 is opened, the work W on the mounting table 8 is charged into the cleaning chamber 1, and the charging door 2 is closed.
Then, the vacuum pump 6 is driven and the main exhaust valve Vb
After opening the cleaning chamber 1 to 10 Torr or less, the main exhaust valve Vb is closed, and at the same time, the opening / closing valve V ₁ and the flow rate adjusting valve Vc are opened to flow the cooling medium into the heat medium supply member 3. To do. Then, by opening the vapor introduction valve V ₃ and the liquid return valve V ₄ , the vapor generated in the vapor generation tank 4 is introduced from the vapor introduction valve V ₃ into the cleaning chamber 1 by a pressure difference. Since the surface temperature of the work W is low, the introduced steam is condensed, and this condensation grows over the entire surface of the work and is dropped to clean the steam.

By the way, when the steam adheres to the surface of the work W, the surface temperature of the work W also gradually rises, the work temperature becomes equal to the steam temperature, and the saturated steam pressure and the pressure in the cleaning chamber 1 are equal to each other. If equal, the steam cleaning becomes impossible (prior art), but the cooling medium is flowing into the heat medium supply member 3, and the temperature of the heat medium supply member 3 is always kept lower than the steam temperature. Therefore, the steam introduced into the cleaning chamber 1 touches the heat medium supply member 3 and is liquefied, and the droplets are dropped on the work W. Since the droplets cool the surface temperature of the work W below the steam temperature, the steam cleaning is continued. Further, the work W is the heat medium supply member 3
Since the so-called shower cleaning is added by the liquid droplets from, the cleaning effect is further improved. The cleaning room 1
The organic solvent S dripping on the bottom of the liquid returns to the inside of the vapor generation tank 4 from the liquid return valve V ₄ .

As described above, when the surface of the work W is sufficiently cleaned, the on-off valve V ₁ is closed to stop the supply of the cooling medium to the heat medium supply member 3, while the steam cleaning chamber 1 is used.
The supply to the inside is continued to heat the work W by steam. After steam heating for a predetermined time, the steam introducing valve V ₃
After closing the liquid return valve V ₄ and the liquid return valve V ₄ respectively, the main exhaust valve Vb is opened and the vacuum pump 6 is operated to reduce the pressure in the cleaning chamber 1 to dry the work W. The vapor sucked from the cleaning chamber 1 is liquefied by the condenser 7, regenerated, and reused.

When the drying process is completed, the operation of the vacuum pump 6 is stopped, the main exhaust valve Vb is closed, the atmosphere opening valve Va is opened to restore the pressure in the cleaning chamber 1, the charging door 2 is opened, and the work W is opened. The work W is taken out and the cleaning of the work W is completed. Thereafter, the next work W is washed in the same process as described above. In all of the above steps, the cleaning chamber 1 is kept warm by the heater 9.

In the above embodiment, since the organic solvent S liquefied in the cleaning chamber 1 is returned to the steam generation tank 4, the temperature of the heating organic solvent is lowered, the heating efficiency is poor, and the stable supply of steam is not possible. Sometimes there is not. Therefore,
As shown in FIG. 2, the steam generation tank 4 is divided into two tanks,
One may be separated into the steam generation tank 4A and the other into the waste liquid recovery tank 4B so that the heating efficiency in the steam generation tank 4A is improved and the stable supply of steam is performed. In addition, the same parts as those in FIG. In addition, the upper part of the waste liquid recovery tank 4B is connected to the vacuum pump 6 via the opening / closing valve V _7.
It is communicated with the pipe P ₃ in order to reduce the pressure in the tank so as to improve the recovery efficiency of the waste liquid.

In the above description, when the steam cleaning is finished, the flow of the cooling medium into the heat medium supply member 3 is stopped, but the liquefaction continues until the heat medium supply member 3 reaches the same temperature as the steam temperature. However, it is not possible to move to the next steam heating step, and that much time is wasted. Therefore, in order to save this waste of time, as shown in FIG. 3, the heating medium supply member 3 is further provided with a heating medium supply pipe P ₂ for supplying steam or hot air as a heating medium and an on-off valve V ₂ . Side by side,
When the steam cleaning is completed, the opening / closing valve V ₂ is immediately opened and the opening / closing valve V ₁ is closed to immediately raise the temperature of the heat medium supply member 3 to the steam temperature or higher to stop the liquefaction of the steam. Good.

Further, a heating means (not shown) such as a heater is attached to the cooling medium supply pipe P ₁ without providing the heating medium supply pipe P ₂ , and when the steam cleaning is completed, the cooling medium is supplied by the heating means. You may make it heat. Furthermore, FIG.
When the supply of the cooling medium is stopped, an on-off valve V ₆ branched by a pipe is provided on the primary side of the flow rate adjustment valve Vc, and the on-off valve V ₁ is closed to stop the supply of the cooling medium as shown in Alternatively, the on-off valve V ₆ may be opened to discharge the cooling medium in the heat medium supply member 3 to shorten the temperature rising time of the heat medium supply member 3. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, a porous plate 10 such as a wire mesh is installed below the heat medium supply member 3,
The droplets may be uniformly dropped onto the work W, or a bypass exhaust pipe P ₅ having an opening / closing valve Vd for exhausting the inside of the cleaning chamber 1 may be provided on the secondary side of the main exhaust valve Vb. Alternatively, the opening / closing valve Vd may be opened at the time of steam cleaning and steam heating, and the vacuum pump 6 may be driven so that the steam in the cleaning chamber 1 forms a unidirectional flow.

[0016]

As is apparent from the above description, claim 1
In the invention, in the steam cleaning step, since the cooling medium is supplied to the heat medium supply member arranged in the cleaning chamber, the organic solvent vapor is liquefied by the heat medium supply member and dropped on the work, and the surface of the work by the steam is liquefied. In order to suppress the temperature rise,
The cleaning time can be arbitrarily adjusted as compared with the conventional cleaning device, and any work can be sufficiently cleaned. Moreover, in addition to the conventional vapor cleaning, the liquefied solvent dropped from the heat medium supply member is also cleaned, so that so-called shower cleaning is also performed, and the cleaning effect can be significantly improved compared to the conventional one. . According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the low temperature liquefied organic solvent is not mixed in the steam generating tank, the heating efficiency of the organic solvent is improved, the steam generation is stabilized, and the cleaning effect can be improved. According to the invention of claim 3, since the temperature of the heat medium supply member is rapidly switched from the low temperature to the high temperature, it is possible to shift from the steam cleaning to the steam heating step which is the next step in a short time, and to shorten the cleaning processing time. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing another embodiment of the heat medium supply member.

FIG. 4 is a view showing another embodiment of the heat medium supply member.

5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a modified example of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Washing room, 2 ... Charging door, 3 ... Heat medium supply member, 4 ... Steam generation tank, 4A ... Steam generation tank, 4B ... Waste liquid recovery tank,
5 ... Heater, 6 ... Vacuum pump, Vb ... Main exhaust valve, V ₃ ...
Vapor introduction valve, V ₄ ... Liquid return valve, S ... Organic solvent, W ... Work.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device comprising an airtight cleaning chamber, an organic solvent vapor generation tank communicating with the cleaning chamber through a pipe, and a vacuum pump for exhausting the cleaning chamber, wherein a cleaning chamber is provided above the cleaning chamber. A cleaning device comprising a heat medium supply member into which a cooling medium flows. 2. The organic solvent vapor generation tank is divided into a vapor generation tank and a waste liquid recovery tank, and the two tanks are respectively connected to a cleaning chamber by a pipe. Cleaning equipment. 3. The cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a cooling medium and a heating medium can be selectively supplied to the heating medium supply member.