Cleaning device and cleaning method

Abstract

A cleaning device for removing a deposit adhering to an object to be cleaned is disclosed. The cleaning device includes a cleaning chamber forming a space for housing multiple cleaning media shaped like flakes; a circulating air-flow generating unit configured to generate a circulating air flow to cause the cleaning media to fly and repeatedly collide with the object in the cleaning chamber and thereby to remove the deposit adhering to the object; and a cleaning medium recycling unit configured to suction and remove the deposit adhering to the cleaning media that have collided with the object and thereby to recycle the cleaning media. The pencil hardness of the cleaning media is greater than the pencil hardness of the deposit.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]A certain aspect of the present invention relates to a cleaning device and a cleaning method for removing a deposit adhering to an object using solid cleaning media.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Generally, in a soldering process, a viscous liquid called “flux” is sprayed onto a substrate to improve the wettability of solder. The flux adheres to a printed circuit board (PCB) or a jig called “pallet” for holding the PCB because of the heat of solder. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the adhering flux from the pallet.[0003]The pallet is now widely used in soldering processes and is made of an epoxy resin containing glass fibers. Since the pallet is repeatedly used for soldering processes, the flux accumulates to form a thick layer and becomes difficult to remove.[0004]Meanwhile, manufacturers of office equipment such as copiers and laser printers are actively engaged in recycling activities to achieve a resource recycling society. In the recycling activities, the manufac...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0092]Since the cleaning medium M is shaped like a flake, the amount of material used for the cleaning medium M is small. This in turn makes it possible to reduce the effects on the environment and the running costs of a cleaning device.

[0093]This advantage is not provided by related-art abrasive materials used in abrasive blasting or related-art abrasive media used in barrel polishing.

[0094]A cleaning device according to an aspect of the present invention has a configuration suitable for cleaning an object by circulating flake-like cleaning media M with an air flow.

[0095]As described above, a cleaning device using flake-shaped cleaning media can effectively and efficiently clean an object (or a part) with a complex shape.

[0096]When the object 4 is being cleaned with the flying cleaning media M, a negative pressure is formed in the cleaning chamber 6 and therefore a strong laminar air flow flows into the cleaning chamber 6 through the gap 22 between the laminar flow forming unit 19 and the holding unit 3. The laminar air flow pushes back the cleaning media M trying to get into the gap 22 and thereby prevents the cleaning media M from being ejected out of the cleaning chamber 6. Also, the flow path formed by the gap 22 is long enough to attenuate the flying speed of the cleaning media M. Therefore, even if a few cleaning media M enter the gap 22, they are decelerated and finally pulled back into the cleaning chamber 6 and do not get out of the cleaning device 1.

[0097]When the cleaning media M are caused to fly to clean the object 4, air is jetted intermittently from the cleaning medium accelerating nozzles 11 by alternately opening and closing the control valve 13. Intermittently jetting air from the cleaning medium accelerating nozzles 11 causes the difference between the pressure in the cleaning chamber 6 and the external pressure to increase at certain timings and thereby makes it possible to more effectively pull the cleaning media M back into the cleaning chamber 6.

Problems solved by technology

Since the pallet is repeatedly used for soldering processes, the flux accumulates to form a thick layer and becomes difficult to remove.

However, when photosensitive drums are recycled as raw materials, it is necessary to produce base tubes again from the raw materials.

Therefore, this method is not preferable in terms of energy consumption, effects on the environment, and production costs.

When a remover is used to remove a photosensitive layer of a photosensitive drum or a flux adhering to a pallet, the remover cannot be used repeatedly because resin dissolved in the remover may adhere again to the base tube or the pallet.

Therefore, this method is not preferable in terms of recycling costs.

Also, disposal of the remover where a deposit such as a coating or a flux is dissolved may cause another environmental problem.

Further, there is a safety problem when a highly-flammable solvent is used for the remover.

Therefore, these methods require much energy and high costs for the disposal of the waste liquid and the drying process.

Also, with these methods, pallets and base tubes may be deformed during the cleaning process.

Although the proposed cleaning device is effective for removing a deposit of particles such as toner or dust, it is not highly effective for removing a film-like deposit covering an object.

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