Wire cleaning apparatus

Details Wire cleaning apparatus Wire cleaning apparatus

2000-01-11

2001-07-17

Hail, III, Joseph J. (Department: 3723)

Abrading

Accessory

Tool cleaner

C125S016010, C125S016020, C015S104120

Reexamination Certificate

active

06261166

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning a wire of a wire saw useful for slicing ingots or the like to thin wafers.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
After top and tail parts are cut off an ingot produced by a pulling method or the like, the ingot is ground at its periphery, subjected to orientation flat processing and then sliced to wafers of predetermined thickness. Although an inner blade slicer has been used so far for slicing the ingot, it does not well cope with a tendency of enlargement of wafers in diameter. Therefore, a wire saw machine using a piano wire has been recently adopted in response to enlargement of wafers.
A conventional wire saw has three grooved rollers
1
-
3
, one of which (the roller
3
) is coupled to a drive motor
4
, as shown in
FIG. 1. A
wire
5
is pulled out from a reel
6
, passed around the grooved rollers
1
to
3
multiple times and then wound on another reel
7
. A tensioner
8
applies a tension to the wire
8
. Thus, the wire
5
travels in a stretched state along a travel path around the grooved rollers
1
to
3
.
An ingot
9
to be sliced is fixed to a holder
10
using a proper adhesion jig and located at a position between the grooved rollers
1
and
2
. The ingot
9
is sliced to a plurality of wafers by cutting motion of the wire
5
. During slicing, slurry
11
is supplied from a slurry tank
11
through a supply tube
13
to a nozzle
14
, sprayed onto the wire
5
, collected in a pan
15
and then returned to the slurry tank
12
, in order to promote the cutting motion. The slurry
11
is cooled by circulation between the slurry tank
12
and a heat exchanger
16
.
The slurry
11
still adheres onto the wire
5
due to its stickiness, even when the wire
5
after being used for slicing the ingot
9
travels toward the reel
6
or
7
. If the wire
5
together with the slurry
11
is wound as such on the reel
6
or
7
, the slurry
11
scatters in the circumference during winding and causes contamination of a wiring chamber wherein the reels
6
,
7
are located.
There are various members and tools except the reels
6
,
7
in the wiring chamber. For instance, a dancer roller
17
and a traverser
18
for adjusting a winding number of the wire
5
on the reels
6
,
7
and for controlling a tension applied to the wire
5
. Scattering and accumulation of the slurry
11
in such wiring chamber likely induces occurrence of mechanical troubles. In this sense, the wiring chamber shall be kept in a dean state free from scattering and accumulation of the slurry
11
. Unfavorable introduction of the slurry of
11
into the wiring chamber also accelerates abrasion of various rollers located in the wiring chamber.
The slurry
11
can be washed off from the wire
5
by a washer provided at a travelling path of the wire
5
between the slicing chamber and the wiring chamber so as to spray a cleaning liquid to the wire
5
. However, such a washer shall have enough length along the travel path of the wire
5
, in order to sufficiently wash off the slurry
11
by spraying the cleaning liquid to the running wire
5
. As a result, a huge washer is necessitated. In addition, removal of the slurry
11
is insufficient only by spraying the cleaning liquid, so that some residual slurry is involved together with the wire
5
in the reels
6
,
7
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims at provision of a new wire cleaning apparatus without the above-mentioned problems. The newly proposed wire cleaning apparatus uses a centrifugal force for shaking off slurry from the wire. The centrifugal force is generated by repeated reciprocative movement of the wire between multigrooved guide rollers located at a travel path of the wire. Removal of the slurry is well performed due to the effect of the centrifugal force on separation of the slurry from the wire.
The newly proposed wire cleaning apparatus has a couple of multigrooved guide rollers on which the wire is wound several times, a cover to which the multigrooved guide rollers are rotatably attached, and a slurry receiver detachably attached to the cover. A centrifugal force is generated during repeated reciprocative movement of the wire between the multigrooved guide rollers.
Although the slurry is shaken off from the wire by the centrifugal force, removal of the slurry is accelerated by spraying a cleaning liquid at the same time. In order to spray a cleaning liquid, a nozzle or nozzles directed to surfaces of the multigrooved guide rollers are provided at the cover. In such a case, the nozzle or nozzles are preferably on-off controlled in response to a travelling direction of the wire, so as to inhibit introduction of the sprayed cleaning liquid into the slicing chamber.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4578120 (1986-03-01), Chiarella
patent: 5201305 (1993-04-01), Takeuchi
patent: 5628301 (1997-05-01), Katamachi

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