Abrading – Abrading process – Utilizing fluent abradant
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-16
2002-05-14
Hail, III, Joseph J. (Department: 3723)
Abrading
Abrading process
Utilizing fluent abradant
C451S075000, C051S302000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06386949
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleansing/scraping technique for cleansing surfaces of a desired body, for example, from a large one such as a car, a railway vehicle, an aircraft, a building wall, or the like, to a relatively small one such as tableware, or the like, of stains adhering thereto, or for scraping adhesive matters such as a label, a coating, etc. adhering to a surface of an article. Particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for forming a cleansing/scraping media flow blasted from a nozzle toward a surface to be treated. Such cleansing/scraping media include media for a cleansing operation or a scraping operation, and media for both the cleansing operation and the scraping operation.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. Hei. 11-74627, 11-239395 and 11-239396, which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As background-art cleansing methods, there are generally carried out a method of applying detergent liquid to the surface of a subject to be cleansed, rubbing the surface with a brush or the like and rinsing the surface with water, or a method of spraying high pressure water or steam onto the surface of a subject to be cleansed to thereby cleansing or scraping dirt or adhesive matter adhering to the surface. There is also known a method in which a low pressure gas flow carrying droplet-like or mist-like fluid is sprayed and then cleansing is performed by a blast flow having a high speed and a large sectional area (Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 5-86274). Further, there is known a method in which a soluble powder-like substance such as sodium acid carbonate or the like is added to fluid, and the pressured fluid is sprayed, so that cleansing is carried out with a physical cleansing operation based on an impact action of the soluble powder-like substance material (Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 8-168729). In addition, there is known a dry blast apparatus for high speed blasting of a low pressure air flow carrying a polishing/cleansing material (Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 1-60392).
In the background art in which a high pressure fluid or low pressure gas flow carrying droplet-like or mist-like fluid is sprayed to carry out cleansing, however, a blast flow of the high pressure fluid or the droplet-like or mist-like fluid is prevented from reaching a surface to be cleansed by a thin film layer formed on the surface to be treated, so that the cleansing operation is lowered. Moreover, in the case of using the low pressure gas flow, it is necessary, as a prerequisite, to supply a large quantity of gas. Therefore, a pressure gas generator having a low- pressure and large-quantity discharge performance such as a Roots blower or the like was used as a background-art pressure gas generator. That is, there was a problem that the degree of freedom to select the kind of the pressure gas generator was small, the size of an apparatus tended to be large, and further the diameter of a gas supply pipe from the pressure gas generator to a mixer became large.
Further, in the cleansing method where powder of sodium hydrogen carbonate or the like is added to fluid, and the fluid is sprayed for cleansing, gas is not added to the cleansing/scraping media flow aggressively. Therefore, it was difficult technologically to form a blast flow which was uniform, stable and large in its sectional area.
Still further, since the dry blast means easily damaged a surface to be treated, the dry blast means was difficult to be applied to the case where cleansing was performed merely to remove stains adhering to the surface.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing background-art technological circumstances.
It is an object of the present invention to improve such a cleansing operation in the background art more greatly.
It is another object of the present invention to develop a cleansing/scraping technique effective in the operation of scraping adhesive matter adhering to a surface of a subject as well as in the operation of cleansing the surface. In that case, it is another object of the present invention to provide a mixture flow formation technique in which a more excellent mixture flow as the base of the cleansing/scraping operation is formed so that a superior cleansing/scraping operation can be ensured.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved cleansing/scraping technique in which various treatment modes, for example, a mode chiefly having a cleansing operation, a mode chiefly having a scraping operation, or a mode formed of a combination of the both, can be selected in accordance with necessity.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a technique for forming a cleansing/scraping media flow, in which a desirable kind of apparatus such as a turbo blower, or reciprocating or rotating compressor or the like other than a Roots blower can be selected as the above-mentioned pressure gas generator effectively in miniaturizing the external shape as an apparatus or a gas supply pipe reaching a mixer, and a cleansing/scraping media flow which is uniform, stable and large in its blast flow sectional area can be obtained easily.
The present invention commonly employs, as a basic configuration, such a technical means comprising the steps of: connecting a pressure fluid supply means to a mixer so as to blast fluid at a high speed in the mixer; supplying gas and powder to a flow of the fluid to thereby form a mixture flow composed of the gas, the fluid like droplets and the powder; and blasting the mixture flow from a nozzle at a high speed to thereby spray the mixture flow onto a surface to be treated, so that impact actions held by the powder and the droplet-like fluid as cleansing/scraping media are given to the surface to be treated so as to carry out a cleansing/scraping operation. As described above, the present invention has a configuration in which a pressure fluid supply means is connected to a mixer so as to blast fluid at a high speed in the mixer, and gas and powder are supplied to a flow of the fluid. Accordingly, large kinetic energy of the high speed fluid flow is used for catching the gas or powder in the fluid flow so that a superior mixture flow composed of the droplet-like fluid, powder and gas can be formed. Then, the mixture flow is blasted from a nozzle at a high speed, and the powder contained in the mixture flow breaks a thin film layer of the fluid formed on a surface to be treated, reaches the surface to be treated, and gives an impact action to the surface directly. As a result, the impact action of the powder simultaneously cooperates with the impact action of the droplet-like fluid blasted at a high speed so that the cleansing/scraping operation is improved.
The internal space of the mixer may be divided into an upstream space and a downstream space by a partition wall having a small hole, so that fluid is blasted at a high speed into the upstream space on the upstream side of the partition wall, gas is supplied to the upstream space to thereby form a droplet-like fluid flow, and powder is supplied to the downstream space on the downstream side of the partition wall to thereby form a mixture flow of the gas, the droplet-like fluid and the powder, the mixture flow being blasted at a high speed from a nozzle.
In that case, when gas is supplied to the upstream space on the upstream side of the partition wall, a large quantity of gas may be supplied through a pressure gas supply means. Likewise, when powder is supplied to the downstream space on the downstream side of the partition wall, a large quantity of gas together with the powder may be supplied through a pressure gas supply means. Then, the large quantity of gas functions as carrier gas, which is extremely effective in forming a large-diameter and high-speed blast flow when the mixture flow composed of the droplet-like fluid and the powder as cleansing/scraping media is
Hagiwara Koichi
Kishimoto Kazuo
Nakano Hiroyuki
Watanabe Jiro
Hail III Joseph J.
Ojini Anthony
Shibuya Kogyo Co. Ltd.
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