JPH0438468B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an improvement in a solvent cleaning device for cleaning various articles using various organic solvents such as chlorine-based and alcohol-based solvents.

(Prior art) In the above-mentioned solvent cleaning, low boiling point organic solvents such as trichlorethylene are used, so the vapor is scattered into the atmosphere and has an unfavorable effect on the human body and equipment in the factory. It is known that Therefore, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-43315, some measures have been taken, such as surrounding the cleaning equipment with a high outer wall or using an air curtain to prevent the solvent vapor from scattering. It has been difficult to completely prevent the solvent from flowing out or from adhering to the object to be treated and evaporating outside. Especially in recent years, fluorocarbon-based solvents have been used to clean electronic parts.
Its emission into the atmosphere has become a major problem as it threatens to destroy the ozone layer surrounding the earth.

As a means of solving such problems,
As shown in Publication No. 115676, a cleaning device that allows solvent and its vapor to be taken in and out of a cleaning tank equipped with a sealable lid, and prevents solvent vapor from exiting the system, has been proposed and put into practical use. There is. However, this device has a drawback that it cannot be used for cleaning mass-produced products because the entire cleaning process is carried out within a single cleaning tank, so the throughput is low.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) The present invention solves these conventional problems,
Capable of continuously cleaning large amounts of processed materials,
Moreover, it was completed with the aim of creating a solvent cleaning device that can completely prevent solvent vapor from scattering into the atmosphere.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a plurality of cleaning tanks surrounded by an internal casing with an open top inside a sealed external casing, and has lids on both sides of the cleaning tanks. A tank-shaped inlet chamber and an outlet chamber are provided that are sealed against the internal space and the inside is depressurized, and a transport mechanism for the processed material is provided on the ceiling of the outer casing, and an inlet that is depressurized is provided on the side wall of the outer casing. This chamber is characterized by being provided with a door through which the workpiece can be directly loaded into the chamber from the outside, and a door through which the workpiece can be taken out directly from the depressurized exit chamber to the outside.

(Embodiments) Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to illustrated embodiments.

In the figure, 1 is a rectangular parallelepiped-shaped external casing that is sealed against the outside air, and 2 is its internal space. An inner casing 3 whose upper portion is open to the inner space 2 is provided inside the outer casing 1, and a plurality of cleaning tanks 4 are provided inside the inner casing 3. The cleaning tank 4 includes a liquid cleaning tank 4a in which the object to be treated is immersed in the cleaning liquid in the container 5 for cleaning, and a liquid cleaning tank 4a in which the solvent at the bottom is heated to 78°C, for example.
A steam cleaning tank 4b for cleaning the processed material with steam generated by heating the material to the boiling point of the water is appropriately arranged, and cooling pipes 6 are provided on the inner wall surface of the steam cleaning tank 4b and the inner wall surface of the internal casing 3, respectively. , 7 are attached to prevent the solvent from flowing upward as much as possible.

On both sides of the inner casing 3 and inside the outer casing 1, there are provided an inlet chamber 8 and an outlet chamber 9 in the form of a tank, which can be depressurized by a vacuum pump. Lids 10 and 11 for sealing these chambers against the internal space 2 are pivotally mounted on the upper surfaces of these inlet chambers 8 and outlet chambers 9, and as shown in FIG. It has a structure that allows it to be opened backwards. The side wall of the external casing 1 also has a door 14 for directly charging the processed material from the external conveyor 13 into the tank-shaped inlet chamber 8 from the side wall, and a door 14 for directly charging the processed material from the external conveyor 13 into the tank-shaped inlet chamber 9 . from its side wall to the external conveyor 1
A door 16 is provided for direct access to 5. Although not shown, these doors 14 and 16 also have a structure that allows them to be opened and closed automatically.

Furthermore, a conveying mechanism 17 for the object to be processed is provided on the ceiling of the external casing 1. The transport mechanism 17 includes a crank arm 19 that is rotated in a horizontal plane by a motor 18, and a yoke 22 that is connected to the crank arm 19 via a link 20 and reciprocates on a fixed rail 21. Also, on the beam 23 is a shaft 26 rotated by a motor 24 and a reducer 25.
is supported, and lifting tables 29, 29 are attached to the lower ends of chains 28, 28, which are wound around sprockets 27, 27 near both ends thereof, so as to be able to rise and fall freely.
A horizontal beam 30 is supported above so as to be slidable in the horizontal direction. A flanged roller 30a protruding from the upper center of the horizontal beam 30
is fitted to the vertical guide rail 22a at the center of the yoke 22, so when the crank arm 19 rotates, the yoke 22 can move horizontally between the positions shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. can.
Further, when the elevator tables 29, 29 are raised and lowered by the rotation of the shaft 26, the horizontal beam 30 supported slidably thereon can also be raised and lowered between the positions shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. The horizontal beam 30 is structured to be able to move freely by a combination of vertical movements. Container hangers 32, which are opened and closed by cylinders, are attached to both sides of the central portion of the horizontal beam 30. These container hangers 32 are attached to the containers 5 in the first and second cleaning tanks.
The purpose is to check the water as shown in Figure 2 and to transfer it to the rear cleaning tank while raising it as shown in Figure 1.The vertical movement at this time is sufficient to clear the height of the partition wall of the cleaning tank 4. Since this is sufficient, the vertical movement of the horizontal beam 30 by the chains 28, 28 is sufficient. Furthermore, container hangers 34, 34, which are opened and closed by cylinders 33, are provided at both ends of the horizontal beam 30. Since the purpose is to transfer the container 5 from the casing 3 to the outlet chamber 9, a sufficient vertical stroke is required. For this purpose, the container hangers 34, 34 at both ends are attached to a trolley 36 that can be raised and lowered along a guide rail 35 suspended from the horizontal beam 30, and the trolley 36 is raised by a motor 37 and a chain 38. As a result, the structure is such that the container 5 can be raised to the height shown in FIG. 1 by combining the vertical stroke of the horizontal beam 30 and the vertical stroke of the trolley 36. Note that the structure of the conveyance mechanism 17 is not limited to this, and any mechanism may be adopted as long as it can convey the container 5 to the inlet chamber 8, each cleaning tank 4, and the outlet chamber 9 in this order. can.

(Function) In the device configured as described above, first, the lid 10 of the tank-shaped inlet chamber 8 is closed, the pressure inside the inlet chamber 8 is reduced by a vacuum pump (not shown), and the solvent vapor is sufficiently exhausted before being opened to the outside. Door 14 in the side wall of casing 1
is opened, and the material to be treated in the container 5 is directly charged into the entrance chamber 8 from the outside. At this time, even if the door 14 is opened, the solvent vapor will not leak outside. Next, after closing the door 14, the lid 10 of the tank-shaped entrance chamber 8 is opened as shown by the dashed line in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the horizontal beam 30 is lowered to check the container 5 in the entrance chamber 8 with the container hanger 34 at the left end, and then raised to the position shown in FIG. Transfer to
Liquid cleaning is performed in the liquid cleaning tank 4a, and steam cleaning is performed in the steam cleaning tank 4b.
The container 5 is transferred between each cleaning tank using a horizontal beam 30.
This is done by the container hanger 32 using the lifting and lowering strokes of the container hanger 32 as described above. The container 5 that has reached the final cleaning tank 4 in this way is transferred to the outlet chamber 9 by the container hanger 34.
At the same time, the lid 11 covers the upper opening of the tank-shaped outlet chamber 9 to cover the inside of the outlet chamber 9 with the outer casing 1.
It is sealed against the internal space 2 of. Next, if the inside of the tank-shaped outlet chamber 9 is depressurized by a vacuum pump, the boiling point of the solvent will be lowered, so that the solvent attached to the object being heated in the steam cleaning tank 4b will quickly vaporize. It is removed together with the air in the outlet chamber 9. Therefore, even if the side door 16 of the depressurized outlet chamber 9 is opened and the container 5 containing the object to be treated is taken out directly to the outside, the risk of solvent vapor scattering into the atmosphere can be completely eliminated. Note that the solvent vapor exhausted from the inlet chamber 8 and the outlet chamber 9 can be almost completely recovered by a processing device (not shown).
Further, in the present invention, since the inner casing 3 is provided within the outer casing 1, the concentration of solvent vapor in the inner space 2 can be lowered, and the advantage is that scattering of solvent vapor into the atmosphere can be more reliably prevented. There is.

The process described above is performed continuously using a large number of containers 5 as shown in the figure, and the takt time is within 30 seconds, even considering the time for exhausting the inlet chamber 8 and outlet chamber 9. It is possible to proceed with the process. Therefore, the solvent cleaning apparatus of the present invention can quickly clean a very large amount of objects to be treated.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention completely prevents harmful solvent vapor from leaking to the outside by cleaning the inside of the double-walled casing. The inlet chamber and the outlet chamber, which are tank-shaped and whose interiors are depressurized, are provided with lids that can seal their interiors against the internal space of the casing, and the objects to be treated are directly connected between the depressurized inlet and outlet chambers and the outside. By providing doors for loading and unloading the workpieces, it is possible to reliably prevent the scattering of solvent vapor when loading and unloading the workpieces. Therefore, according to the solvent cleaning apparatus of the present invention, a large amount of objects to be treated can be efficiently cleaned without scattering solvent vapor into the atmosphere. Therefore, the present invention greatly contributes to the development of industry as a solvent cleaning device that eliminates the problems of the conventional methods.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing the container in a lowered state, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a partially cutaway left side view. 1... External casing, 2... Internal space, 3...
...Internal casing, 4...Cleaning tank, 8...Inlet chamber, 9...Outlet chamber, 14, 16...Door, 17...
Conveyance mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A plurality of cleaning tanks 4 are provided inside the sealed external casing 1 and surrounded by an internal casing 3 with an open top, and the internal space 2 is sealed with lids 10 and 11 on both sides. A tank-shaped inlet chamber 8 and an outlet chamber 9 whose interior is depressurized
A transport mechanism 17 for the workpiece is provided on the ceiling of the outer casing 1, and a door 14 is provided on the side wall of the outer casing 1 to allow the workpiece to be directly charged from the outside into the depressurized inlet chamber 8. A door 1 through which the processed material can be taken out directly from the depressurized outlet chamber 9 to the outside.
6. A solvent cleaning device characterized by comprising: