General description

It is difficult to remove liquid contaminants that are trapped in gaps.This volume describes the pre-treatment method for cleaning residual liquid contaminants in the gaps.

Explanation

(1)Example of contaminants that are difficult to remove

・If you clean small components by stacking them or clean LCD components with two pieces of glass substrate glued together, the capillary action causes foreign particles, chemical liquid, or cleaning solution that were present in the process to enter into the products from the gaps. These contaminants are difficult to remove.
・If you dry the product with liquid contaminants left in the gaps, the product may turn out to be defective since it leaves stains on it.
・If you blow the contaminants using an air gun, the liquid ends up being transferred to the surrounding area or being splashed onto another item to leave stains.
・As you see, the residual contaminants in gaps may be often difficult to be isolated in the subsequent cleaning process.

(2)How to remove residual liquid from narrow gaps

・The strong air-blow method does not usually remove the liquid contaminants trapped in gaps completely. (Fig.1)
・On the other hand, a suction method using strong airflow (removal by suction) can eliminate liquid contaminants trapped in gaps effectively when appropriate conditions and hardware are selected.In addition, this method hardly causes a secondary harm. (Fig.2)
・To use the removal by suction, it is important to select an appropriate positional relationship (distance, direction, and so on) for the suction nozzle and the workpiece to be cleaned.
・It is also necessary to adopt a mechanism to trap the liquid contaminants that have passed the suction nozzle.