JP2000262994A - Ultrasonic washer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic washer in which pipette air is hard to remain and exhibiting strong washing effect on the whole pipette. SOLUTION: The bottom surface 1a of a washing tank 1 in which the pipette is disposed in sideways is inclined. Therefore, since the water surface is moved from one side end part 21a of the pipette 21 to the other end part 21b, the air is not remained in the pipette 21. As the result, the whole of the pipette can be subjected to the ultrasonic wave washing. And since a vibrator 2 is provided at the inclined bottom surface 1a, the ultrasonic wave is made diagonally incident to the water surface and the ultrasonic wave washing power in the washing tank becomes uniform.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic cleaner used for cleaning pipettes such as a female pipette and a hole pipette, and an elongated object to be cleaned such as a glass pipe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when washing a pipette, an ultrasonic washing device for a siphon-type drainage pipette in which an ultrasonic vibrator is installed at the bottom of a vertically long cylindrical washing tank is used. In this washer, a long and thin pipette is placed in a washing tank in an upright state, and ultrasonic waves are irradiated from an ultrasonic vibrator to the upper part of the washing tank. Further, a horizontal ultrasonic cleaner for pipettes is also used, in which a vibrator is installed at the bottom of a horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped cleaning tank, and the pipette is placed horizontally in the cleaning tank.

[0003]

By the way, in ultrasonic cleaning, cavitation and acceleration due to ultrasonic energy in a cleaning liquid act on dirt attached to an object to be cleaned, and the cleaning is performed by crushing or peeling of a dirt layer. Done. However, in the conventional ultrasonic cleaning device for siphon-type drainage pipettes, since the cleaning tank is vertically long and deep, the intensity of the ultrasonic sound field is weak at the upper part of the cleaning liquid that is long from the vibrating part, and the ultrasonic cleaning power is weak. There was a disadvantage. In addition, since the entrance for storing the pipette in the washing tank is at a high position, it is inconvenient to take the pipette in and out.

[0004] On the other hand, the above-mentioned horizontal type ultrasonic cleaner for pipettes does not have the disadvantage that the ultrasonic cleaning power is reduced as described above, but air may remain in the pipette placed next to the pipette. Has the disadvantage that it cannot be completely removed. In particular, in the case of a hole pipette having a spherical liquid reservoir, air may easily remain in the liquid reservoir and dirt may be difficult to remove.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic cleaning device in which air hardly remains in the pipette and which has a high cleaning effect on the entire pipette.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5. FIG. (1) Explained in connection with FIG. 1, the invention of claim 1 is applied to a horizontal ultrasonic cleaner in which a pipette 21 is arranged horizontally along a bottom surface 1a of a cleaning tank 1 to perform ultrasonic cleaning. Then, the bottom 1a of the cleaning tank 1 was inclined, and the ultrasonic transducer 2 was provided on the bottom 1a. The pipette 21 is inclined with respect to the water surface, and the water surface moves from one end of the pipette 21 to the other when water is supplied. Also, ultrasonic waves are obliquely incident on the water surface, and the sound field becomes uniform. (2) Explaining in connection with FIG. 5, the invention of claim 2 is applied to a horizontal ultrasonic cleaner in which a pipette 21 is disposed in a cleaning tank 31 in a horizontal direction to perform ultrasonic cleaning. Arranging member 32 which is arranged to be inclined with respect to the horizontal direction
The above-mentioned object is achieved by providing a and 32b.

[0007] In the section of the means for solving the above-mentioned problems, which explains the configuration of the present invention, the drawings of the embodiments of the present invention are used to make the present invention easy to understand. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. -First Embodiment- Fig. 1 is a view showing a cleaning device main body of an ultrasonic cleaning device according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view and (b) is a cross-sectional view of the cleaning device main body as viewed from a side. It is. In FIG. 1, the left side of the figure is the front of the main body. In the following, left and right in the description indicate the left and right of the drawing. As shown in FIG. 1B, the bottom surface of the cleaning tank 1 is inclined downward to the right (downward of the cleaning device), and a plurality of vibrators 2 are provided below the bottom surface 1a. In the present embodiment, the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is 28 k
Hz and the output is 100 W.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a water supply terminal from which tap water or the like is supplied. The water supplied from the water supply terminal 3 is guided through a pipe 4 to a water supply duct 5 provided at an upper left portion of the cleaning tank 1. The water supply duct 5 is provided with a plurality of holes 6 penetrating the cleaning tank 1 in the vertical direction in FIG. 1A, and water is supplied from these holes 6 so as to jet water into the cleaning tank 1. . In addition, instead of the plurality of holes 6, a slit extending in the illustrated vertical direction is formed in the water supply duct 5,
Water may be ejected from the slit into the cleaning tank 1.

On the other hand, a drain port 7 is provided at the lower right end of the cleaning tank 1.
The drain port 7 is connected to a drain terminal 9 by a pipe 8. An overflow duct 10 is provided on the right side of the cleaning tank 1, and water in the cleaning tank 1 is provided at an upper portion of a right side of the cleaning tank.
Overflows into the overflow duct 10 to define the water level when the washing tank 1 is full. The overflow duct 10 is connected to the drain terminal 9 by a pipe 11. 18 is a sensor for detecting full water,
The signal of the sensor 18 is sent to the control unit 14 and used at the time of a cleaning operation described later.

An electromagnetic valve 12 is provided in the middle of the pipe 4, and an electromagnetic valve 13 is provided in the middle of the pipe 8. The control unit 14 controls the opening and closing of the electromagnetic valves 12, 13 so as to control the opening and closing of the cleaning tank 1. Water supply and drainage is performed automatically. The control unit 14 includes an oscillator (not shown) for driving the vibrator 2.
By performing the opening / closing control and the drive control of the vibrator 2, each step of a predetermined cleaning cycle is automatically executed. The cleaning operation will be described later. 1
5 is a power switch of the ultrasonic cleaner, and 16 is a cleaning start switch. Reference numeral 17 denotes an indicator lamp for turning on / off the display indicating whether or not the washing is being performed. The indicator lamp 17 is turned on during the washing.

When cleaning the pipette, FIG.
As shown in (b), a washing basket 2 made of wire mesh, which is provided so as to be able to be taken in and out of a washing tank 1 of an ultrasonic washing machine.
0, put the pipette 21 horizontally, and
0 is placed on the bottom surface 1a of the cleaning tank 1 for cleaning. In addition,
Wash pipette 21 without basket 20 in washing tank 1
May be directly placed on the bottom surface 1a, but when a large number of pipettes are to be washed together, the use of the basket 20 is more convenient and convenient.

Next, an example of the cleaning operation will be described. In the ultrasonic cleaning device of the present embodiment, by turning on the cleaning start switch 16 shown in FIG. 1, “(water supply) →
The cycle of “(ultrasonic irradiation) → (drainage) → (shower) × 3 times” is automatically performed only for three cycles, and the washing is completed. In this case, in the first cycle, a detergent is put into the washing water to perform ultrasonic cleaning, and in the second and third cycles, cleaning is performed using only water.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a water supply step. The electromagnetic valve 12 is opened and the electromagnetic valve 13 is closed to supply water into the washing tank 1 through the hole 6. The water supplied so as to squirt from the hole 6 accumulates from the right part of the washing tank 1 and the water level changes from W1 to W2 to W3 to W4 (full water) over time.
Rise like. As the water level rises, the tip portion 21a of the pipette 21
, The water in the pipette 21 is discharged from the upper end 21b. Therefore, when the upper end portion 21b of the pipette 21 is submerged below the water surface, all the air in the pipette 21 is exhausted, and no air remains.

Incidentally, the angle α of the bottom surface 1a may be set to such an extent that air remains can be avoided. In particular, it is necessary to set the angle α such that air does not remain in the liquid pool portion of the hole pipette. In general, the angle may be set to about 15 degrees or more.
However, setting the angle α to be larger than necessary is not preferable because it increases the height of the apparatus and lowers the workability.

In the following ultrasonic irradiation step, the electromagnetic valve 12 which has been opened is closed, and each transducer 2 is driven synchronously to irradiate ultrasonic waves. In the ultrasonic cleaning device according to the present embodiment, since the bottom surface 1a is inclined downward to the right, the ultrasonic waves U propagate in the cleaning tank 1 in the upper right direction as shown in FIG. Is reflected. In a conventional device that irradiates ultrasonic waves vertically from the bottom of the cleaning tank toward the liquid surface, the incident wave perpendicularly incident on the liquid surface and the reflected wave overlap to generate a standing wave, and the ultrasonic wave is superposed in the depth direction. The strength of the sonic cleaning power is distributed. Therefore, when the pipette 21 is arranged vertically and washed, uneven washing may occur in the longitudinal direction of the pipette 21. However, in this embodiment, since the ultrasonic waves U are obliquely incident on the water surface, the intensity of the ultrasonic sound field in the cleaning water is made uniform, and effective ultrasonic cleaning without cleaning unevenness is performed. Can be.

In the draining step after the ultrasonic irradiation step, the closed electromagnetic valve 13 is opened and the washing water in the washing tank 1 is discharged from the drain port 7. Next, in the shower process, the solenoid valve 1
Both are opened and drained from the drain port 7 while squirting water from the hole 6. When a predetermined time has elapsed, the solenoid valve 12 is closed to stop water supply and drain only. afterwards,
When the water is completely drained, the electromagnetic valve 12 is opened again to execute the second shower process. Such a shower process is performed three times continuously after the drainage process.

By the way, the contaminants adhering to the pipette are removed from the surface of the pipette by washing and float in the washing water, and the floating contaminants adhere to the pipette surface during the above-mentioned drainage process. Sometimes. In the shower process, by the operation described above,
An operation of washing away contaminants and detergent residues reattached to the pipette 21 with water jetted from the holes 6 is performed. Such a cleaning cycle is continuously performed three times, and a series of cleaning operations is completed. In the present embodiment, the introduction of the above-described shower process, which has not been performed in the conventional ultrasonic cleaning device, allows the contaminants in the cleaning water to be removed from the pipette 21 during the drainage process.
It is possible to perform more effective cleaning without adhering to the surface. Further, since the cleaning operation is automatically performed, the cleaning operation is simplified, and the operation time can be reduced.

Second Embodiment FIG. 5 is a view showing a second embodiment of the ultrasonic cleaner according to the present invention, in which the same parts as those in FIG. Hereinafter, a description will be given focusing on a portion different from FIG. The cleaning tank 31 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a plurality of vibrators 2 are provided below the bottom surface 31a. Stays 32a and 32b are provided on the left and right side surfaces of the cleaning tank 31, and the left stay 32a is mounted at a position higher than the right stay 32b. The bottom surface 31a of the cleaning tank 31 is horizontal like a conventional horizontal ultrasonic cleaner.

When cleaning the pipette 21, FIG.
As shown in (b), the washing basket 20 containing the pipette 21 is placed on the stays 32a and 32b. Also, without using the basket 20, the stays 32a, 32
If the pipette is long enough to be placed on the stay b, the pipette may be placed directly on the stays 32a, 32b. The rest of the configuration and the cleaning operation are the same as in the first embodiment described above, and a description thereof will be omitted.

The stays 32a, 3 having different heights as described above are used.
By placing the pipette 21 on the pipe 2b, the pipette 21 is inclined with respect to the water surface, so that no air remains in the pipette 21 as in the first embodiment, and a similar effect is obtained. Can be.

In the present embodiment, since the pipette 21 is disposed obliquely in the cleaning tank 31, it is possible to prevent the air from remaining in the pipette 21 as in the first embodiment, which is effective. Ultrasonic cleaning can be performed. However,
Since the ultrasonic wave is perpendicularly incident on the water surface, the sound field cannot be made uniform as in the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the cleaning tank 31 is provided with the stays 32a and 32b and the pipette 21 is provided.
Is inclined, but the legs 40a as shown in FIG.
Is used, the pipette 2
1 is inclined with respect to the bottom surface 31a of the cleaning tank 31 (that is, with respect to the water surface), and the same effect can be obtained.

In the above-described second embodiment, the rectangular parallelepiped cleaning tank 31 is arranged horizontally. However, for example, a vertical ultrasonic cleaning device in which a rectangular parallelepiped cleaning tank is vertically disposed is provided, and a vibration is applied to the side surface. It is also possible to provide a probe and irradiate ultrasonic waves in the horizontal direction. In this case, since ultrasonic cleaning is performed by vertically disposing the pipette in the cleaning tank, it is possible to prevent air from remaining in the pipette. However, the cleaning tank, that is, the apparatus becomes large in the height direction, and has the disadvantage that the stability of the apparatus is not good and the workability is poor. In the above-described first and second embodiments, the case where the pipette is cleaned has been described as an example. However, the present invention can be used not only for the pipette but also for cleaning an elongated object to be cleaned.

In the correspondence between the embodiment described above and the elements of the claims, the stays 32a and 32b and the basket 40 constitute an arrangement member.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the pipette is disposed obliquely with respect to the water surface in the cleaning tank, the water surface moves from one end to the other end of the pipette during water supply, and air does not remain in the pipette. As a result, ultrasonic cleaning can be effectively performed over the entire pipette. In particular, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since the bottom surface of the cleaning tank provided with the vibrator is inclined, the ultrasonic waves emitted from the bottom surface of the cleaning tank obliquely enter the water surface. As a result, the ultrasonic cleaning power becomes uniform in the cleaning tank,
More effective ultrasonic cleaning can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a first embodiment of an ultrasonic cleaning device according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view of a cleaning device main body, and (b).
Is a cross-sectional view of the main body of the cleaning device as viewed from the front.

2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating ultrasonic cleaning, in which FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a cleaning basket 20, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state where the basket 20 is placed in a cleaning tank 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a water supply step.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating propagation of ultrasonic waves in a cleaning tank.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a second embodiment of the ultrasonic cleaning device according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view of a cleaning device main body,
(B) is sectional drawing which looked at the washing machine main body from the front.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a washing bucket 40;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 31 Cleaning tank 1a, 31a Bottom surface 2 Vibrator 5 Water supply duct 6 Hole 7 Drain port 10 Overflow duct 12, 13 Solenoid valve 14 Control unit 18 Sensor 20, 40 Cleaning basket 21 Pipette 32a, 32b Stay 40a Leg

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A horizontal ultrasonic cleaner for performing ultrasonic cleaning by arranging a longitudinal direction of an object to be cleaned horizontally along a bottom surface of a cleaning tank, wherein the bottom surface of the cleaning tank is inclined and the bottom surface is inclined. An ultrasonic cleaner, wherein an ultrasonic vibrator is provided. 2. A horizontal ultrasonic cleaner in which a longitudinal direction of an object to be cleaned is disposed sideways in a cleaning tank to perform ultrasonic cleaning, wherein the longitudinal direction of the object to be cleaned is inclined with respect to a horizontal direction. An ultrasonic cleaner comprising an arrangement member to be arranged.