US 5,706,842 A · Balanced rotating spray tank and pipe cleaning and cleanliness verification system

Abstract

A system for cleaning and verifying the cleanliness of the interior surfaces of hollow items, such as small bottles, tanks, pipes and tubes, employs a rotating spray head for supplying a gas-liquid cleaning mixture to the item's surface at a supersonic velocity. The spray head incorporates a plurality of nozzles having diverging cross sections so that the incoming gas-liquid mixture is first converged within the spray head and then diverged through the nozzles, thereby accelerating the mixture to a supersonic velocity. In the preferred embodiment, three nozzles are employed; one forwardly facing nozzle at the end of the spray head and two oppositely facing angled nozzles exiting on opposite sides of the spray head which balance each other, and therefore impart no net side load on the spray head. A drive mechanism is provided to rotate the spray head and at the same time move the head back and forth within the item to be cleaned. The drive mechanism acts on a long metal tube to which the spray head is fixed, and thus no moving parts are exposed to the interior surfaces of the items to be cleaned, thereby reducing the risk of contamination.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A system for cleaning interior surfaces of hollow items including bottles, tanks, pipes and tubes comprising:

a spray head containing a plurality of diverging cross section spray nozzles, each said spray nozzle having an inlet and an outlet with the inlet having an area smaller than the outlet area;
means for supplying a gas-liquid mixture to said spray head;
and
means for rotating said spray head, whereby the spray nozzles accelerate the gas-liquid mixture to a supersonic velocity at the outlet of the nozzles and impinge the mixture on the interior surfaces of a hollow item.

1 more element

A system for cleaning and verifying the cleanliness of interior surfaces of hollow items including bottles, tanks, pipes and tubes comprising:

a spray head containing first and second balanced, oppositely facing diverging cross section spray nozzles for accelerating a gas-liquid cleaning mixture to a supersonic velocity and impinging the same on the interior surfaces of a hollow item, said balanced, oppositely facing nozzles having longitudinal axes parallel to one another, but disposed at an angle relative to a longitudinal axis of said spray head, and having outlet ends disposed on first and second opposite side walls of said spray head, each said spray nozzle having an inlet and an outlet with the inlet having an area smaller than the outlet area, said spray head further including means for converging said gas-liquid mixture prior to entering the inlets of said spray nozzles, whereby convergence of said gas-liquid mixture followed by divergence in said spray nozzles results in acceleration of said gas-liquid mixture to a supersonic velocity at the outlet of the nozzle;
means for supplying a gas-liquid mixture to said spray head;
an extension tube having a first end fixedly attached to an inlet end of said spray head, and a second end rotatably connected to said means for supplying said gas-liquid mixture to said spray head;
and
means for simultaneously rotating and moving said spray head back and forth along a longitudinal axis of a hollow item to be sprayed.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Balanced rotating spray tank and pipe cleaning and cleanliness verification system

Life of this patent

Balanced rotating spray tank and pipe cleaning and cleanliness verification system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22