Defoaming method and device
AssigneeToyo Seikan Kaisha, Ltd.
InventorKen Takenouchi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided are a deforming method and device that use laser-induced breakdown. The provided method and device make it possible to shorten the focal distance, thereby improving laser beam convergence, and increase the utilization efficiency of sound waves that contribute to defoaming. Pulsed laser light is focused and irradiated into a space inside an acoustic waveguide (4), thereby generating pulsed sound waves from the illumination point (7). The pulsed sound waves propagate down the acoustic waveguide as plane waves, then propagate beyond an open end (16) as spherical waves, and break up a foam outside the open end of the acoustic wave guide.
Claims12
A defoaming method comprising:
- irradiating a pulse laser beam to a condenser;
- condensing the pulsed laser beam and irradiating the laser beam through a laser beam entrance hole in an acoustic waveguide into an internal space of the acoustic waveguide so as to generate pulsed sound waves originating from an illumination point within the acoustic waveguide where the laser beam is focused as an originating sound source;
- propagating the pulsed sound waves in a direction from a closed end of the wave guide toward an open end of the wave guide;
- destroying foam on a surface of a liquid located directly below the open end of the acoustic waveguide by the pulsed sound waves propagating through the acoustic waveguide.
A defoaming device that condenses a pulsed laser beam and generates pulsed sound waves from an illumination point as a sound source,
- the device comprising in combination:
- a pulsed laser beam oscillation device;
- a condensing optical system that condenses the pulsed laser beam oscillated by the pulsed laser beam oscillation device;
- and
- an acoustic waveguide that has a laser beam entrance hole through which the pulsed laser beam irradiates via the condensing optical system, and configured in such a way that the illumination point where the laser beam is focused is located inside the acoustic waveguide, the acoustic waveguide having a closed end and an open end and configured in such a way that the pulsed sound waves propagate from the illumination point as originating the sound source in a direction from the closed end to the open end,
- the open end of the acoustic waveguide being configured so as to emit the pulsed sound waves to a liquid surface having foam thereon located directly below the open end of the acoustic waveguide and thereby defoaming the liquid surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.