KR100231840B1 - Ultrasonic cleaning machine - Google Patents

Abstract

An ultrasonic cleaner is disclosed. According to the present invention, there is provided a first container, a second container installed in the first container and accommodating a cleaning object, an ultrasonic vibrator causing vibration in the cleaning liquid filled in the second container, and forming air bubbles in the second container. There is provided an ultrasonic cleaner including an air pump, a circulation pump for circulating the cleaning liquid discharged from the first container to the second container, and a filter for filtering particulates contained in the cleaning liquid discharged from the external container. The ultrasonic cleaner according to the present invention not only effectively removes the fine particles from the surface of the cleaning object, but also prevents the fine particles from sticking to the surface of the cleaning object by circulating the cleaning liquid through the filter.

Description

Ultrasonic cleaner

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic cleaner, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic cleaner for removing particulates of a workpiece using ultrasonic vibrations and air bubbles.

In general, during the cutting process, chips are generated in the cutting portion of the material to be cut. Chips come in a variety of forms, which are preferably removed completely to maintain product accuracy. Particularly, in the process requiring precision processing, the chips in the form of fine particles also significantly reduce the precision of the product, and thus need to be completely removed. For example, in an automobile engine, a constant friction occurs between the outer surface of the piston and the inner surface of the cylinder. Chips remaining during the manufacture of the piston and cylinder cause significant damage to the friction surface. Another example may be a manufacturing process of a ball grid array type semiconductor package. The manufacturing process of the BGA semiconductor package includes a step of forming a through hole by drilling a substrate, wherein fine particles that cannot be discriminated with the naked eye remain in a portion where the through hole of the substrate is formed and a portion adjacent thereto. Failure to remove these particulates effectively results in various problems in the plating process, which is a post-process in the finished semiconductor package.

According to the prior art, particulates generated during the cutting process are removed using a cleaning solution that is pressurized or removed by a chemical corrosion method. In the former case, the cleaning liquid is sprayed at a high pressure through the nozzle toward the to-be-cut material to be cut, thereby removing the fine particles remaining on the surface by the force of the fluid flow. The latter is a method of dipping the material to be immersed in a solution that can corrode the particulates or spraying the solution to the material to be eroded. However, these methods have a problem in that the cleaning solution or the corrosion solution cannot effectively remove the fine particles while the consumption is increased.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing another example of a particulate cleaning device according to the prior art, which is a case of using an ultrasonic vibrator.

Referring to the figure, the cleaning liquid 12 is filled in the container 11, and the ultrasonic vibrator 13 is provided in the bottom surface of the container 11. The ultrasonic vibration difference 13 generates vibration of a predetermined frequency in the cleaning liquid 12 in the container 11. Accordingly, when the cutting material 14 is immersed in the cleaning liquid 12, the chips in the form of particulates remaining on the surface of the cutting material 14 are separated from the surface of the cleaning liquid 12 by vibrating force.

The ultrasonic cleaner 10 as described above has the following problems. First, even though the fine particles are effectively separated from the surface of the cutting material 14 by vibration, the separated fine particles become suspended in the cleaning liquid 12. That is, even if the specific gravity of the cutting material 14 is greater than that of the cleaning liquid 12, the fine particles become suspended while the cleaning liquid 12 is causing a slight vibration, which may again stick to the surface of the cutting material 14. This is growing. Furthermore, if the cleaning operation is repeated several times, the amount of fine particles suspended in the cleaning liquid 12 increases, so that the fine particles may stick to the surface of the cutting material 14 unless the cleaning liquid 12 is replaced at an appropriate time. Is very high.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic cleaner that can effectively remove the particles generated after the cutting process.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic cleaner in which fine particles detached from the surface of the material to be cut do not stick to the surface of the material to be cut again.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic cleaner which can use the cleaning liquid for a long time.

1 is a schematic perspective view of an ultrasonic cleaner according to the prior art.

2 is a schematic perspective view of an ultrasonic cleaner according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

11: container 12: cleaning liquid

13: vibrator 14: cutting material

21: outer container 22: inner container

23: cleaning liquid 24: air pump

26: vibrator 27: air pipe

28a, 28b, 28c: circulating pipe 29: pump

30: filter

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, an inner container capable of accommodating the cleaning liquid and the object to be cleaned, an outer container installed outside the inner container to accommodate the cleaning liquid flowing out of the inner container, the inner An ultrasonic vibrator installed in the inner container to vibrate the cleaning liquid contained in the container, an air pump installed to generate air bubbles in the cleaning liquid in the inner container through an air pipe connected to the inner container, the outer container and the inner container A circulation pump installed to circulate the cleaning liquid from the outer container to the inner container through a connected circulation pipe and a filter installed in the flow path to filter the cleaning liquid circulated through the circulation pipe from the outer container to the inner container. Equipped with ultrasonic cleaner Is provided.

According to one feature of the invention, the air bubbles generated from the air pump is generated at a position below the position of the cleaning object contained in the inner container to be floating toward the surface of the cleaning liquid.

According to another feature of the invention, the cleaning liquid filled in the inner container flows to the outer container by overflowing the upper end of the inner container.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

2 shows a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic cleaner according to the present invention as a perspective view.

Referring to the drawings, the ultrasonic cleaner 20 of the present invention includes an outer container 21, an inner container 22 installed inside the outer container 21, and a cleaning liquid 23 filled in the inner container 22. Ultrasonic vibrator 26 to generate a vibration of a predetermined frequency in the), an air pump 24 to cause air bubbles 25 in the inner container 22, between the outer container 21 and the inner container 22 Cleaning pipes flowing through the mild pipes 28a, 28b and 28c forming the flow paths, the filter 30 for filtering the fine particles contained in the cleaning liquid 23, and the circulation pipes 28a, 28b and 28c. It includes a pump 29 for pressurizing.

The material to be cut 24 is held in the cleaning liquid 23 filled in the inner container 22, and the cleaning liquid 23 of the inner container 22 vibrates under the action of the ultrasonic vibrator 26. The cleaning liquid 23 should always be able to flow from the inner container 22 to the outer container 21. In the embodiment shown in the figure, both the outer container 21 and the upper part of the inner container 22 are in an open state, and thus, the cleaning liquid 23 overflowing from the inner container 22 passes through the upper part of the outer container 21. It can flow into the outer container 21. As shown in the figure, the inner container 22 is installed inside the outer container 21 having a larger volume.

The material to be cleaned 24 is kept in the cleaning liquid 23 inside the inner container 22, so that the cleaning operation proceeds. By the action of the ultrasonic vibrator 26, the fine particles remaining on the surface of the cutting material 24 can be released therefrom. An air pipe 27 is connected to the bottom of the inner container 22, and an air pump 24 is connected to the air pipe 27. A large amount of air is injected through the air pipe 27, whereby a large amount of air bubbles 25 are generated in the inner container 22. The air bubbles 25 move upward from the bottom of the inner container 22. In this case, it is preferable that the connection position of the air pipe 27 is lower than the position at which the cutting material 24 is accommodated in the inner container 22, and the air pipe 27 is connected to the bottom of the inner container 22. More preferred. In other embodiments, a plurality of air pipes 27 may be provided, in which case the effect will be further increased.

The separation of the fine particles by the ultrasonic vibrator 26 and the air bubbles 25 by the air pump 24 are generated. The fine particles adhere to the surface of the air bubbles 25 by the surface tension, so that the cleaning liquid filled in the inner container 22 floats to the surface. As described above, since the cleaning liquid of the inner container 22 is always overflowed and flows to the outer container 21, the fine particles floating on the upper surface move to the outer container 21.

The washing liquid flowing into the outer container 21 passes through the filter 30 through a circulation pipe 28a connected to one side of the outer container 21. Since the filter 30 is provided with a filter member capable of filtering the fine particles contained in the cleaning liquid, the cleaning liquid flowing through the filter 30 to the circulation pipe 28b will not contain the fine particles. The cleaning liquid is then pressurized by the pump 29, and the pressurized cleaning liquid flows out to the inner container 22 through the circulation pipe 28c. That is, not only the cleaning liquid is always supplied to the inner container 22 by the action of the circulation pipes 28a, 28b, 28c and the pump 29, but the cleaning liquid overflowed through the upper portion of the inner container 22 is the outer container 21. The circulation state that can flow into is maintained.

The ultrasonic cleaner according to the present invention not only effectively removes the fine particles from the surface of the cleaning object, but also prevents the fine particles from sticking to the surface of the cleaning object by circulating the cleaning liquid through the filter. In addition, even in the repeated washing operation, the cycle for changing the cleaning liquid becomes long, and stable and reliable cleaning operation can be performed.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, this is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art may realize that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible. I can understand. In particular, although the present invention has been described by way of example of substrate fabrication of a BGA semiconductor package, it will be appreciated that it may be used when trying to remove particulates from other material to be cut. Therefore, the true scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the appended claims.

Claims (3)

An inner container capable of accommodating a cleaning liquid, an inner container capable of accommodating a cleaning object, an outer container installed outside the inner container to accommodate a cleaning liquid flowing out of the inner container, and a vibration in the cleaning liquid contained in the inner container An ultrasonic cleaner installed in the vessel, an air pump installed to generate air bubbles to the cleaning liquid in the inner container through the air pipe connected to the inner container, and the cleaning liquid through the circulation pipe connected to the outer container and the inner container And a circulation pump installed to circulate from the outer container to the inner container, and a filter installed in the flow path of the cleaning liquid to filter the cleaning liquid circulated through the circulation pipe from the outer container to the inner container. The ultrasonic cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the air bubbles generated from the air pump are generated at a position below the position of the cleaning object contained in the inner container and float toward the surface of the cleaning liquid. The ultrasonic cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning liquid filled in the inner container flows to the outer container by overflowing an upper end of the inner container.

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