JPH0640400B2 - Disk cleaning device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a disk cleaning device suitable for cleaning magnetic disks, optical disks, and the like.

[Prior Art] In recent years, with the development of computers and audio equipment, the demand for magnetic disks and optical disks has increased rapidly, and along with this, stable supply of high-quality magnetic disks and optical disks has been required. .

For example, an optical disc, after being manufactured by injection molding,
Although it is cleaned to remove dirt such as oil and chips adhering to it, it has a large storage capacity, so even a small amount of dirt will adversely affect its performance and make it unsuitable as a product. I will end up. Therefore, when cleaning it,
It is necessary to improve the cleaning accuracy and maintain a higher degree of cleanliness.To do this, it is first necessary to uniformly clean both sides of the disc to eliminate uneven cleaning, and due to poor drying after cleaning. It is also necessary to quickly and surely remove and dry the cleaning liquid in order to eliminate stains and the like.
Furthermore, in order to eliminate the contamination of the disc by manual work and to improve the working efficiency, it is also necessary to consistently and automatically perform the processes from the supply of the disc to the cleaning, drying and unloading.

Such a problem also applies to the magnetic disk.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device capable of automatically cleaning a disc with high accuracy and efficiency.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the cleaning apparatus of the present invention is provided with a supply unit for supplying the discs one by one, and is arranged adjacent to the supply unit so that the discs are placed in the center hole. A support rotary shaft that is supported vertically by an engaging inner peripheral chuck means and rotates, and a pair of rotatable and swingable brushes that clamp and clean the disk supported by the support rotary shaft from both sides; A cleaning section provided with a cleaning solution supply nozzle for supplying a cleaning solution to a cleaning section by the brush, the disk is disposed adjacent to the cleaning section, and is vertically supported by an inner peripheral chuck means that engages with the center hole of the disk. A drying unit provided with a supporting rotary shaft for rotating and a spray nozzle for spraying a gas for draining water on both sides of the disk supported by the supporting rotary shaft, and a dry disk disposed adjacent to the drying unit. Carry The present invention is characterized by further comprising: a carrying-out section for receiving and carrying out from the sending means, and a carrying means which is movably arranged between the above-mentioned parts and which carries the disk by vertically supporting the disk by an outer circumference chucking means that abuts the outer circumference. Is.

[Operation] The disks taken out one by one from the container in the supply unit and supplied to the transfer unit are sequentially transferred by the transfer unit to the respective steps of the cleaning unit and the drying unit, and after being subjected to predetermined cleaning and drying. Is stored in a container at the carry-out section.

In the cleaning unit, when the disk is delivered to the support rotary shaft, the disk is clamped from both sides by a pair of brushes, and cleaning is performed by rotation of the disk and rotation and swing of both brushes. A cleaning liquid is supplied to the part from a nozzle. At this time, since the disk is supported vertically and the brushes are pressed against both surfaces thereof, both surfaces can be uniformly washed.

In the drying section, the disk supported by the supporting rotary shaft is rotated at a high speed, and the gas is sprayed from both sides of the disk to dry the disk.

Thus, when the disc is dried, the disc is supported in the vertical direction and rotated, so that the water is drained on both sides of the disc very well and uniformly.
The remaining water content is removed by the gas jet from the jet nozzle, so that the drying is performed very quickly and surely.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a machine body of a cleaning apparatus, and a supply unit 2 for an uncleaned disk 8 inside the machine body 1 and first and second cleaning units for cleaning the supplied disk. 3,
4, a drying unit 5 for drying the washed disc, and a carry-out unit 6 for taking out and storing the dried disc are formed in a horizontal row, and the disc from the supply unit 2 is provided in front of each of these units 2 to 6. A transport unit 7 is provided for sequentially feeding the first cleaning unit 3 and the subsequent units.

The supply unit 2 is a conveyor 11 for transferring a container 10 in which a large number of discs 8 are vertically housed in the central axis direction of the discs 8 at a constant pitch, and is attached to a cylinder 13 so as to be vertically movable, and a central hole of the discs 8 8a (see FIG. 4) is provided with a supply arm 12 that can be inserted and engaged.
Is configured to lift the disks 8 in the container 10 one by one.

In addition, the first and second units provided adjacent to the supply unit 2
The cleaning units 3 and 4 are configured to clean the disk 8 by using a detergent and pure water as cleaning liquids, and have the same configuration. That is, each of the cleaning chambers 15 is provided so as to be separated from the others, and the disk 8 is placed in the cleaning chamber 15.
A support rotary shaft 16 for vertically supporting and rotating the disk, a brush mechanism 17 for cleaning the disk 8, and a cleaning liquid supply nozzle 18 for supplying a cleaning liquid such as detergent or pure water to the cleaning portion are arranged. .

The support rotary shaft 16 has a bearing member 20 on the rear wall 15a of the cleaning chamber 15.
The support rotary shaft 16 is supported horizontally by a rear end portion of the support rotation shaft 16 so as to project into a drive chamber 21 defined behind the cleaning chamber 15 and is connected to a motor 22 by a belt 23. In addition, the tip end of the support rotary shaft 16 is shown in FIGS.
As is clear from the figure, a chuck part 24 is formed in which a plurality of claws 24a can be expanded and contracted in the radial direction of the rotary shaft 16, and the chuck part 24 is inserted into the central hole 8a of the disk 8 to expand. As a result, the disk 8 is supported.

On the other hand, the brush mechanism 17 is a cylinder attached to the bottom wall of the cleaning chamber 15, as is clear from FIGS. 4 and 5.
A support base 27 that can be raised and lowered by 25 is provided, and a swing base 29 is rotatably mounted around a pivot 28 on the support base 27 that is guided to move up and down by the guide rods 26, 26. Drive motor on support base 27 via swing link 31 to support base 29
Two guide rods 34, 34 for movably supporting the pair of brush arms 33, 33 are provided between the bearing members 32, 32 which are connected to the rocking table 29 and are erected on the rocking base 29, and between them. And a brush rotation drive shaft 42 positioned in parallel with the brush arm 33, so that these brush arms 33, 33 can be moved in the contact and separation directions along the guide rods 34, 34 by the cylinders 35, 35. ,further,
To each brush arm 33, 33, a brush shaft 37, 37 equipped with a disk-shaped brush 36, 36 is rotatably mounted, and an intermediate drive shaft 38, 38 for driving the brush shaft 37, 37 is mounted. The brush shafts 37, 37 and the intermediate drive shafts 38, 38 are connected by belts 39, 39, and the intermediate drive shafts 38, 38 and the drive shaft 42 are connected by gears 40a, 40b, respectively. The shaft 42 is connected by a belt 43 to a motor 41 fixed to the swing base 29.

Therefore, after the brush arms 33, 33 are moved by the cylinders 35, 35 to adjust the facing distance between the brushes 36, 36, the motors 30 and 41 are driven to rotate and swing the brushes 36, 36. You will be cleaning the disc.

The brushes 36, 36 are configured by attaching a large number of wiping pieces 36b made of a sponge-like member or a fibrous member to the opposing surfaces of the substrates 36a, 36a.

Further, in the first cleaning unit 3 using detergent, the nozzles 18 and 18 are diagonally above the disk 8 supported by the support rotary shaft 16 in the disk surface, as shown in FIG. In the second cleaning section 4 using only pure water, as shown in FIG. On the other hand, it is arranged diagonally above in the axial direction, and pure water is supplied from both of them at high pressure.

The drying unit 5 disposed adjacent to the second cleaning unit 4 has a drying chamber 46 which is partitioned from the other, and a disk is provided in the drying chamber 46.
A support rotary shaft 47 that vertically supports and rotates the disk 8 to shake off the water adhering to the disk 8, and a spray nozzle 48 that sprays a draining gas (for example, nitrogen gas) on both surfaces of the rotating disk 8. 48 is provided.

Since the support rotary shaft 47 has the same structure as the support rotary shaft 16 in the cleaning units 3 and 4, reference numerals obtained by adding 30 to the reference numerals in the cleaning units 3 and 4 are given to corresponding portions of the configuration related thereto. Is attached and the description thereof is omitted.

On the other hand, the jet nozzles 48, 48 are respectively arranged so as to be movable in the radial direction of the disk 8, and thereby the disk 8
The gas can be jetted over the entire surface.

In the figure, reference numeral 55 denotes a drying chamber for removing dust in the drying chamber 46.
It is a clean unit for keeping 46 in a highly clean state.

The carry-out section 6 disposed adjacent to the drying section 5 receives the dried disk 8 from the transport section 7 and sequentially stores it in the container 56, like the case of the supply section 2. Above container 5
Conveyor 57 that moves 6 by a fixed pitch and cylinder 59
And a storage arm 58 that can be inserted into and engaged with the center hole 8a of the disk 8 so as to be vertically movable.

Thus, the supply unit 2, the first and second cleaning units 3, 4, the drying unit 5, and the unloading unit 6 are arranged at regular intervals, that is, the supply arm 12 and the supporting rotary shafts 16, 16, 47. And the storage arm 58 are arranged at equal distances.

The transport unit 7 that sequentially transports the disk 8 supplied from the supply unit 2 to the cleaning units 3 and 4, the drying unit 5, and the unloading unit 6 is arranged in front of each of the units 2 to 6 so as to cross each other. On the rails 61, 61, a number of transporting means 62, which is one less than the number of these sections 2 to 6, are movably arranged at equal intervals, and the transporting means 62 are reciprocally driven by a cylinder 63. The transport means 62 is configured as follows. That is, the support plate 67 is fixed on the base 65 movably attached to the rails 61, 61 via the sliding pieces 68, and the transfer head 69 is attached to the rod of the cylinder 68 attached to the support plate 67. A guide rod 70, whose movement is guided by the support plate 67, is attached to the rear surface of the transfer head 69, and a grooved roller type for holding the outer periphery of the disk 8 in the vertical direction on the front surface of the transfer head 69. The plurality of holding pieces 71 are attached so that the holding intervals can be adjusted widely.

Next, the operation of the cleaning device having the above structure will be described.

In the supply unit 2, when the container 10 accommodating the unwashed work 8 in the vertical direction is moved by the conveyor 11 to the supply arm 12 side by one pitch, the supply arm 12 is located at the end of the center hole of the disk 8. And then the supply arm 12 is lifted by the cylinder 13 so that the disk 8 is
Only one can be lifted. At this time, each conveying means 62 stands by at the position shown in FIG.

Next, the transport head 69 of the transport means 62 moves forward by the operation of the cylinder 68, and the sandwiching piece 71 sandwiches the outer periphery of the disk 8 in the vertical direction, so that the supply arm 12 moves the disk.
It slightly descends to the position where the locking to 8 is released, and the transport head 69 retracts to the original position accordingly. This operation is carried out all at once by the respective conveying means 62. Therefore, the first
In the second cleaning units 3 and 4, the disk 8 supported by the supporting rotary shaft 16 and subjected to a predetermined cleaning is further dried in the drying unit 5.
In the above, the disks 8 dried by being supported by the support rotary shaft 47 are delivered to the corresponding transporting means 62.

Subsequently, the above-mentioned respective conveying means 62 are simultaneously advanced by the cylinder 63 by one interval thereof, and the held discs are held.
Pass each 8 to the next process. At this time, when the disk 8 is delivered to both the cleaning sections 3 and 4 and the drying section 5, the transfer head 69 moves forward by the cylinder 68, and the chuck section 24 at the tip of the supporting rotary shafts 16 and 47 is inserted into the center hole 8a of the disk 8. The chuck portions 24, 54 expand at the position where the
At the same time as supporting the disk 8, the holding piece 71 of the transfer means 62 opens the disk 8, and the transfer of the disk 8 to the unloading section 6 is performed by moving the transfer head 69 forward and moving the disk 8
At the position where the storage arm 58 is inserted into the center hole 8a of the
It is done by opening 8. And storage arm 5
When 8 receives the disk 8, the storage arm 58 moves into the cylinder 59.
Then, the disk 8 is moved down to accommodate the disk 8 at a predetermined position in the container 56. After that, when the storage arm 58 moves away from the disk 8 by moving the container 58 by a certain pitch, the storage arm 58 rises again and stands by at the delivery position.

In the first and second cleaning units 3 and 4 to which the disk 8 has been delivered, the brush mechanism 17 standing by in the downward direction is lifted by the operation of the cylinder 25 and swings the rotating disk 8 while rotating. A pair of brushes 36, 36 are sandwiched from both sides for cleaning. At this time, the detergent or pure water is supplied from the nozzle 18 to the cleaning portion. During this cleaning, the disk 8 is supported in the vertical direction and the brushes 36, 36 are pressed against both surfaces thereof, so that both surfaces can be cleaned uniformly.

Further, in the drying unit 5, the disk 8 supported by the support rotation shaft 47 is drained by being rotated at high speed, and at the same time, a gas such as nitrogen is ejected from the jet nozzle 48 moving in the radial direction of the disk 8. Moisture that has been sprayed onto both sides of the disk 8 is blown off, and the drying of the disk 8 becomes more complete.

When the disk 8 is dried, the disk 8 is supported in a vertical direction and is rotated, so that the water is drained on both sides of the disk 8 very well and uniformly, and the gas from the jet nozzle 48 is discharged. Since the remaining water is removed by the injection of, the drying can be performed very quickly and reliably. Particularly, in the case of an optical disc, a groove 8b may be formed as shown in FIG. 4 at the time of molding, and it is difficult to completely remove water retained in the groove 8b only by rotation. Even such water in the groove 8b can be completely removed by the gas from the injection nozzle 48.

The number of the cleaning units 3 and 4 can be increased or decreased as necessary.

The series of operations described above is automatically controlled by a microcomputer.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention having the above configuration, the effects listed below can be expected.

(1) Since the disc is supported in the vertical direction for cleaning and drying, both sides of the disc can be uniformly cleaned and dried, and uneven cleaning and uneven drying can be eliminated.

(2) The disk is rotated at a high speed and is dried by spraying gas on both sides of the disk, so that the cleaning liquid can be removed and dried quickly and reliably, and stains due to poor drying after cleaning can be eliminated. It is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence.

(3) Since the process from the supply of the disc to the cleaning, drying, and unloading is automatically performed consistently, the contamination of the disc due to manual work can be eliminated and the work efficiency can be improved.

(4) In the cleaning unit and the drying unit, the disc is chucked inside the center hole, and in the transporting unit, the outer periphery is chucked, so that the disc is transferred between the transporting unit and the cleaning unit and the drying unit. Not only can the chuck means be simply and smoothly performed without causing positional competition between the chuck means, but in the cleaning section, since the chuck means does not interfere with brush cleaning by chucking at the inner circumference, the cleaning mechanism is There are few restrictions when incorporating, it is possible to easily realize simplification of the mechanism and reliable cleaning, and also in the drying section, by chucking the disk at the inner circumference and rotating it around its axis, Compared to the case of supporting multiple points on the outer periphery with rollers to rotate, the disk can be rotated at a higher speed with a simple and compact mechanism, and moreover, Since jack means is not an obstacle to water splashing radially, or rebounded water hitting the roller as in the case of chucking the periphery with rollers,
It is possible to avoid the inconvenience of creating stains by adhering to the roller and rewetting the disc.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The drawing is the same plan view, FIG. 3 is the same side view, FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of the brush mechanism, and FIG. 5 is a partial side view thereof. 2 …… Supply section, 3,4 …… Washing section, 5 …… Drying section, 6 …… Unloading section, 8 …… Disk, 10,56 …… Container, 16,47 …… Supporting rotary shaft, 18 …… Cleaning liquid supply nozzle, 36 ... brush, 48 ... spraying nozzle, 62 ... transport means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A supply unit for supplying discs one by one, and a support rotary shaft arranged adjacent to the supply unit for vertically supporting and rotating the discs by an inner peripheral chuck means engaging with the center hole. And a cleaning unit provided with a pair of rotatable and swingable brushes for cleaning the disk supported by the supporting rotary shaft from both sides, and a cleaning liquid supply nozzle for supplying a cleaning liquid to a cleaning site by the brushes. A support rotary shaft which is disposed adjacent to the cleaning unit and which vertically supports and rotates the disc by an inner peripheral chuck means that engages in the center hole, and both sides of the disc supported by the support rotary shaft. A drying unit provided with a spray nozzle for spraying a gas for draining water, an unloading unit disposed adjacent to the drying unit for receiving and unloading a dried disk from a transport unit, and movably arranged between the above units. Setting And a transporting means for transporting the disk in a vertical direction by an outer circumferential chucking means that abuts on the outer circumference.