Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – With means to vibrate or jiggle discharge – By electric transducer
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-23
2001-06-05
Morris, Lesley D. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
With means to vibrate or jiggle discharge
By electric transducer
Reexamination Certificate
active
06241162
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus for ultrasonically cleaning articles with a shower of cleaning liquid and associated ultrasonic waves.
It is well known that an ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus uses a shower of cleaning liquid to ultrasonically clean a liquid crystal display, a semiconductor wafer or other articles. One such apparatus is shown in
FIGS. 7 and 8
. As shown, a conventional ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus
20
includes a cylindrical casing
21
, and a nozzle
22
mounted to the downstream end of the casing
21
. An ultrasonic vibratory element or ultrasonic transducer
23
of a circular disk is oriented to face the upstream end of the nozzle
22
. An inlet port
24
is formed in the lateral periphery of the casing
21
to receive a cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid fed through the inlet port
24
is discharged or spouted from the downstream end of the nozzle
22
.
The nozzle
22
has an outlet port
22
a
. The outlet port
22
a
has a hollow circular upper section
22
a
1
, of a fixed diameter, and a conical lower section
22
a
2
tapered from the upper section
22
a
1
toward its downstream end. One objective of this design is to provide a strong stream of the cleaning liquid as spouted through the downstream end of the nozzle
22
. Another objective is to focus ultrasonic waves to a given focal point by allowing some of the ultrasonic waves emitted by the ultrasonic transducer
23
to pass straight through or along the axis of the outlet port
22
a
and causing the other ultrasonic waves to be reflected within the lower section
22
a
2
before they exit from the downstream end of the nozzle
22
. This increases the intensity of ultrasonic energy and enables more effective cleaning of articles placed on such a focal point.
Reference numeral
25
denotes three bolt holes (two of them are shown in
FIG. 7
) formed in the lateral periphery of the casing
21
to secure the ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus
20
in place. Referring specifically to
FIG. 8
, the ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus
20
is secured to a suitable support by bolts
26
. A feed pipe
27
is coupled to the inlet port
24
to feed a cleaning liquid thereto. An adapter
28
is attached to the upper end of the casing
21
to feed electric power to the ultrasonic transducer
23
. The adapter
28
has a cord
28
a
connected to an ultrasonic generator (not shown).
In the apparatus
20
of
FIG. 7
, ultrasonic waves are focused to a point downstream of the nozzle after they propagate from the ultrasonic transducer. This arrangement enables effective cleaning of an article when placed on that point, but requires fine adjustment of the distance between the article and the tip of the nozzle. This adjustment is cumbersome, and satisfactory cleaning can not be effected on a constant basis unless such fine adjustment is made.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus which eliminates the need to finely adjust the distance between a tip of a nozzle and articles to be cleaned and which facilitates positioning of articles relative to the tip of the nozzle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides an ultrasonic shower cleaning apparatus for ultrasonically cleaning an article. The apparatus comprises a casing having an upstream end, a downstream end and a lateral periphery, the casing including an inlet port formed in the lateral periphery through which a cleaning liquid is introduced thereinto; a nozzle mounted to the downstream end of the casing and having an upstream end and a downstream end, the nozzle including an outlet port of a substantially right circular cylindrical shape which has a fixed diameter and extends axially through the nozzle, the outlet port being communicated with the inlet port; and an ultrasonic transducer of a circular disk shape mounted within the casing and oriented to face the upstream end of the nozzle, the ultrasonic transducer being operable to emit ultrasonic waves toward the upstream end of the nozzle. The nozzle has an upstream end face and an outer edge, wherein the upstream end face of the nozzle is cone-shaped so as to be tapered in a direction toward the downstream end of the nozzle from the outer edge of the nozzle to the outlet port at a predetermined angle. In the apparatus thus constructed, an article placed in front of the nozzle is cleaned with cleaning liquid and ultrasonic waves spouted from the outlet port at the downstream end of the nozzle.
With this arrangement, a cleaning liquid, after fed into the casing through the inlet port, enters the upstream end of the outlet port. The cleaning liquid is then ejected through the downstream end of the outlet port. Simultaneously, ultrasonic waves propagate from the ultrasonic transducer. Some of the ultrasonic waves are directly and axially transmitted through the outlet port without any reflection within the outlet port. As such, these ultrasonic waves will not be focused to any point. The other ultrasonic waves are repeatedly reflected between a face of the ultrasonic transducer and the cone-shaped upstream end face of the nozzle before the other ultrasonic waves enter the outlet port, and the other ultrasonic waves are then repeatedly reflected within the outlet port, thereafter the other ultrasonic waves are ejected through the downstream end of the outlet port. Many of these reflected ultrasonic waves will not be focused since the outlet port has a cylindrical shape with a fixed diameter. In other words, a column stream of cleaning liquid as formed through the outlet port can be irradiated over the entire area thereof with the ultrasonic waves. This eliminates the need for fine adjustment of the distance between the tip of the nozzle and an article to be cleaned.
In a preferred embodiment, a guide mechanism is arranged on the lateral periphery of the nozzle for directing a flow of the cleaning liquid fed through the inlet port to an entrance of the outlet port as a uniform flow. This uniform flow allows the cleaning liquid to form a column stream ejected from the downstream end of the outlet port. Advantageously, as the column stream has a substantially uniform density, the column stream is efficiently irradiated with ultrasonic waves. This improves the cleaning effect.
In one embodiment, the guide mechanism includes a plurality of axially spaced annular flanges. The annular flanges may conveniently be provided by forming annular grooves around the nozzle.
One of the annular flanges which is located closest to the ultrasonic transducer forms the upstream end face of the nozzle. When ultrasonic waves propagate from the ultrasonic transducer, some of the ultrasonic waves are reflected from the upstream end face of the nozzle. Some other ultrasonic waves are transmitted through the annular flange. The flange has a thickness so that standing waves exist within the annular flange to effectively reflect the ultrasonic waves.
Preferably, the thickness of the flange is approximately one-fourth of the wavelength of the ultrasonic waves which are transmitted through the flange. This design brings about a reduction in the thickness of the annular flanges, resulting in the size and weight of the nozzle being reduced.
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patent: 4326553 (1982-04-01), Hall
patent: 4834124 (1989-05-01), Honda
patent: 4844343 (1989-07-01), Kurokawa et al.
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patent: 5154347 (1992-10-01), Vijay
patent: 5368054 (1994-11-01), Koretsky et al.
patent: 5449502 (1995-09-01), Igusa et al.
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patent: 62-159800 (1987-07-01), None
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patent: 5-200370 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 2521730 (1996-08-01), None
Suzuki Hironobu
Takahashi Norihisa
Takahashi Seigo
Kaijo Corporation
Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP
Morris Lesley D.
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