JPH04330978A - Ultrasonic cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accelerate cleaning by providing a cylindrical ultrasonic vibrator using as a roller guiding a flexible sheet in a cleaning solution to be close between the vibrator and the flexible sheet with wide area facing to allow ultrasonic energy to act on the flexible sheet. CONSTITUTION:The vibrator 4 is made cylindrical and used as the guide roller 3a guiding the flexible sheet 5 such as photographic film. And the cylindrical vibrator 4 vibrates so as to repeat shrinking and swelling in radial direction by impressed alternate voltage of resonance wave length to the vibrator 4 to generate ultrasonic wave, which is transferred to the flexible film 5 directly or through the cleaning solution 2. Thus, energy of ultrasonic wave remarkably effectively acts on the flexible sheet and cleaning is accelerated.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention allows flexible sheets such as photographic film or cloth to be passed through a cleaning liquid and irradiated with ultrasonic waves to the flexible sheets in the cleaning liquid. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic cleaning device that dissolves adhering dirt such as chemicals into a cleaning liquid or removes it.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Flexible sheets that require cleaning include photographic film and photographic paper in developing and printing equipment, flexible electronic circuit boards in flexible electronic circuit board manufacturing equipment, and cloth for clothing.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the conceptual structure of a conventional ultrasonic cleaning device for photographic film. This device consists of a cleaning tank 1, guide rollers 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, a vibrator 7, a diaphragm 8, and an oscillator 9. Cleaning tank 1
Water is stored as cleaning liquid 2 in . The guide rollers 3a to 3d freely rotate around their shafts as the photographic film 5 is conveyed. The vibrator 7 is made of PZT. The vibrating device 9 applies an alternating current voltage at the resonant frequency of the vibrator 7 to the vibrator 7, and excites the vibrator at the resonant frequency. The diaphragm 8 bends and vibrates in response to the elastic vibrations of the vibrator 7 and projects ultrasonic waves into the cleaning liquid 2 . The photographic film 5 is wound up in the direction of the arrow, carried into the cleaning liquid 2, and carried out.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional ultrasonic cleaning device shown in FIG.
Since the ultrasound is emitted internally, the ultrasound has almost no directionality. Therefore, the ultrasonic energy emitted from the diaphragm 8 is widely diffused within the cleaning liquid 2. Only the ultrasonic waves that contribute to the cleaning action reach the surface of the photographic film 5, and the other ultrasonic energy is wasted as it is converted into thermal energy within the cleaning liquid 2. As described above, the conventional ultrasonic cleaning device shown in FIG. 2 has poor energy efficiency, and as a result, it is necessary to increase the size of the oscillating device 9 and the vibrator 7, or to reduce the transport speed of the photographic film 5 to improve the photographic performance. The time during which the film 5 stays in the cleaning liquid 5 has to be increased. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic cleaning device with excellent energy efficiency.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The ultrasonic cleaning device of the present invention has an ultrasonic vibrator in a cleaning liquid, the ultrasonic vibrator has a cylindrical shape, and has a roller that guides a flexible sheet. It also serves as a roller, or is housed coaxially within the roller. Further, the ultrasonic cleaning device of the present invention has an ultrasonic vibrator in the cleaning liquid, and the ultrasonic vibrator is a plate body curved like a gutter, and the ultrasonic wave is emitted from the concave side of the plate body. The flexible sheet may be conveyed at a position where the flexible sheets are converged.

[0006]

[Operation] The ultrasonic cleaning apparatus of the present invention employs the above-mentioned means in order to efficiently make the energy radiated from the ultrasonic vibrator reach the surface of the flexible sheet of the object to be cleaned. By having the roller that guides the flexible sheet serve as the ultrasonic transducer, or by housing the transducer coaxially within the roller, the transducer and the flexible sheet are closest to each other and are wide. Because they face each other in area, the ultrasonic energy radiated from the transducers acts on the flexible sheet extremely efficiently, promoting cleaning. Further, even if the transducer is a gutter-like plate and the ultrasonic waves emitted from the transducer are focused on the surface of the flexible sheet, the ultrasonic energy can be efficiently used for cleaning the flexible sheet.

[0007]

EXAMPLES Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples. FIG. 1 is a sectional view conceptually showing a first embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment includes a cleaning tank 1, a guide roller 3a,
3d, and a vibrator 4. The object to be cleaned in this embodiment is a photographic film 5, and the photographic film 5 is carried into and taken out of the cleaning liquid 2 by being wound up in the direction of the arrow in the figure by a winding mechanism (not shown). The vibrator 4 has a cylindrical shape and also serves as a guide roller for guiding the photographic film 5. The vibrator 4 is made of vinylidene fluoride with electrodes. Vinylidene fluoride is an electrostrictive resin and has excellent moldability. The resonant frequency of this vibrator 4 is 400 KHz, and by applying an AC voltage of this resonant frequency to the vibrator 4, the cylindrical vibrator 4 vibrates by repeating contraction and expansion in the radial direction, and emits ultrasonic waves. The ultrasonic waves are transmitted to the photographic film 5 either directly or via the cleaning liquid 2. Contaminants such as chemicals adhering to the surface of the photographic film 5 are dissolved into the cleaning liquid 2 by the action of ultrasonic waves, and the surface is cleaned.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view conceptually showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the vibrator 6 is made of a plate curved like a gutter. The vibrator 6 is made of vinylidene fluoride. The resonant frequency of the vibrator 6 is 400 KHz. The vibrator 6 is
An alternating current voltage having the resonance frequency is applied to the cleaning liquid 2, causing elastic vibration that expands and contracts in the thickness direction, and emits ultrasonic waves that converge in a beam shape into the cleaning liquid 2. The photographic film 5 passes through the position where the ultrasonic waves are most focused. Therefore, the energy of the ultrasonic waves emitted from the vibrator 6 efficiently contributes to the cleaning action of the photographic film 5. Note that since this embodiment uses a vibrator with a high resonant frequency of 400 KHz, the thickness of the vibrator 6 may be thin and molding of the vibrator 6 is easy.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view conceptually showing a third embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment includes three cylindrical vibrators in the embodiment of FIG. Vibrator 4a, 4b, 4c
also serves as a guide roller for the photographic film 5. The embodiment of FIG. 3 has more vibrators than the embodiment of FIG. 1, and the contact area between the photographic film 5 and the vibrators is also wider. Therefore, the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 can wash the photographic film 5 faster than the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view conceptually showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment includes three vibrators in the embodiment of FIG. Oscillators 6 arranged parallel to each other
a, 6b, and 6c focus ultrasonic waves on the photographic film 5 between the guide rollers 3b and 3c. This example of FIG.
Since more vibrators are provided than in the embodiment of FIG. 2, the photographic film 5 can be washed faster than in the embodiment of FIG.

Although an oscillation device for applying an alternating current voltage at the resonant frequency of the vibrator to the vibrator is not shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the vibrator in each figure is equipped with an oscillation device (not shown). An output alternating voltage is applied via the conductor and the slider. Furthermore, in the vibrators in the embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 4, not only vinylidene fluoride but also PZT and other electrostrictive materials and piezoelectric materials can be used as electromechanical transducers. however,
Vinylidene fluoride has excellent processability, so 200~4
A vibrator with a high frequency of 00KHz can be easily manufactured. The reason why a higher frequency than the conventionally used 20 KHz to 100 KHz was adopted in the above embodiments is that it was found from experiments that a higher frequency is superior in cleaning effect. Furthermore, although the cylindrical vibrator in FIGS. 1 and 3 is in direct contact with the photographic film 5, a cylindrical roller is formed of plastic or the like that transmits ultrasonic waves, and the cylindrical vibrator shown in FIGS. The structure in which the cylindrical vibrator 3 is fitted may be replaced with the vibrator shown in FIG. 1 or 3. In the embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 4, photographic film is shown as the object to be cleaned, but photographic paper, flexible electronic circuit boards, cloth, and various other flexible sheets can also be cleaned by the apparatus of the present invention. Furthermore, as mentioned above, there are two types of cleaning: one is to elute contaminants such as chemicals into the cleaning liquid, and the other is to remove deposits such as dust into the cleaning liquid.The present invention applies to both of these cleaning modes. Useful.

0012

As described above in detail with reference to the embodiments, according to the present invention, an ultrasonic cleaning device with excellent energy efficiency can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view conceptually showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view conceptually showing a conventional ultrasonic cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Cleaning tank 2 Cleaning liquid 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d Guide rollers 4, 4a
, 4b, 4c cylindrical vibrator 5 photographic film 6, 6a, 6b, 6c trough-like curved plate vibrator 7
Flat transducer 8 Diaphragm 10, 10a, 10b, 10c Ultrasonic wave

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning tank for storing a cleaning liquid; a sheet conveying means for advancing a long flexible sheet such as a plastic film, cloth, etc. in the longitudinal direction to continuously carry it into and out of the cleaning liquid; an ultrasonic transducer installed in the cleaning liquid for emitting ultrasonic waves into the cleaning liquid; Does it also serve as
Or an ultrasonic cleaning device characterized by being housed coaxially within the roller. 2. A cleaning tank for storing a cleaning solution; a sheet conveying means for advancing a long flexible sheet such as a plastic film, cloth, etc. in the longitudinal direction to continuously carry it into and out of the cleaning solution; and an ultrasonic transducer installed in the cleaning liquid to emit ultrasonic waves into the cleaning liquid, the ultrasonic transducer being a plate body curved in the shape of a gutter, and the flexible plate on the concave side of the gutter-shaped curved plate body. A portion of the flexible sheet faces the concave surface, and the portion of the flexible sheet facing the concave surface is transported at or near a position where the ultrasonic waves emitted from the concave surface are most converged. Sonic cleaning device.