The present invention relates to an ejector for generating a negative pressure at a suction port by spraying compressed air from a nozzle to a diffuser and ejecting the compressed air from an ejecting port of the diffuser, and particularly relates to an ejector provided with a muffler for reducing exhaust noise from the ejecting port.
A vacuum generating apparatus adapted to generate a negative pressure by utilizing the flow of compressed air is referred to as “ejector”. This ejector has: a nozzle for focusing the compressed air, then diffusing and ejecting the compressed air; and a diffuser coaxially aligned with the nozzle. By supplying compressed air from the nozzle to the diffuser to cause the air to flow toward an ejecting port provided in a downstream portion of the diffuser, a negative-pressure region is formed around a distal-end portion of the nozzle. If a suction port is open in this negative-pressure region, the negative pressure is generated at the suction port because of the viscosity of air.
As one example of an ejector based on this operation principle, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, an ejector attached to a pneumatic apparatus assembled with a vacuum regulator and a vacuum filter is known. The ejector of this type is adapted to supply a large amount of negative-pressure air, and has a tandem diffuser to increase the flow rate of intake air.
On the other hand, as one ejector which is used for attracting and carrying a small electronic component such as several-mm square of semiconductor chip, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, an ejector incorporated in a block is known. In the ejector of this type, a solenoid valve for vacuum generation, which controls the supply of compressed air to a nozzle of the ejector, and a solenoid valve for vacuum break, which controls the supply of compressed air for vacuum break when an electronic component is detached from an attracting tool, are assembled in the block.
In either of the ejectors of the above types, a muffler is provided so as to reduce exhaust noise caused by air discharged from an ejecting port, in other words, an exhaust port of a diffuser to the outside.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-194000
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-262351
By mounting an ejector on a vacuum attracting apparatus for attracting a small electronic component, it is possible to cause a suction port to generate a negative pressure by supplying compressed air to the ejector, and possible to detach the electronic component from an attracting tool by breaking the vacuum by compressed air. When the ejector is utilized for generating vacuum, large exhaust noise is caused by the ejector in comparison with the case in which vacuum is supplied from a vacuum pump disposed at a position away from the vacuum attracting apparatus.
Particularly, in a manifold type collectively provided with a plurality of vacuum attracting apparatuses respectively having ejectors, total exhaust noises caused by a plurality of ejecting ports are larger than exhaust noise caused by one ejector.
In a conventional ejector block incorporated with an ejector, which is often used to reduce exhaust noise caused by the ejector block, an exhaust opening formed at a lowermost stream portion of an exhaust flow channel is closed by a silencing member composed of porous material, so that a ventilation resistance is applied to the exhaust air to be discharged to the outside. However, the vacuum degree of negative-pressure air and the intake flow rate of negative-pressure air cannot be sufficiently ensured unless the volume of the exhaust air from the ejecting port is increased in the ejector; therefore, a method of applying ventilation resistance to the exhaust air has a limitation in improving the silencing effect while ensuring the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate. This is for a reason that, when the ventilation resistance of the exhaust flow channel is increased by disposing the silencing member at the exhaust opening so as to interrupt the flow of air from the ejecting port, the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the negative-pressure air are reduced.
So, the cause of the exhaust noise in the ejector was studied. Since the ejecting port of the diffuser in the ejector is composed of a diffusion hole, air ejected from this portion flows toward the downstream while being expanded in the radially outward direction. As a result, the noise from the ejecting port is diffused radially outward, and the noise caused by straight air at the center part of the exhaust ejection flow is conceived to be smaller than the noise caused by the diffusion air. The flow of the center part of the exhaust ejection flow does not includes many noise components, while it is believed that the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the generated negative-pressure air largely depend on the flow of the center part of the exhaust ejection flow. Based on this point of view, an ejector capable of reducing the exhaust noise of the ejector has been developed.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce exhaust noise from an ejector while maintaining the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the negative-pressure air by the ejector.
An ejector according to the present invention comprises: an ejector block formed with an ejector housing hole which communicates with an air supply port at a base end thereof; a nozzle arranged on a base end side of the ejector housing hole, and adapted to focus compressed air from the air supply port, diffuse and eject the focused air; a diffuser arranged on a downstream side of the nozzle in the ejector housing hole, the diffuser being formed with an ejecting port for discharging air ejected from the nozzle and air flowed from a suction port, the diffuser and the nozzle constituting an ejector; a muffler main body having a cylindrical portion covering the ejecting port and a distal-end wall portion integrally formed with one end of the cylindrical portion, the muffler main body is formed with a silencing chamber into which air discharged from the ejecting port flows; a cylindrical silencing member arranged in the cylindrical portion; and an exhaust opening provided so as to face the ejecting port at the distal-end wall portion and coaxially aligned with the ejecting port.
In the ejector according to the present invention, a silencing gap may be formed between the silencing member and an inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical portion. In the ejector according to the present invention, the nozzle may be within the range of 0.5 to 1.0 mm in inner diameter, and the silencing member may be within the range of 20 to 50 mm in length. In the ejector according to the present invention, the nozzle may be within the range of 0.5 to 1.0 mm in inner diameter, and the exhaust opening may be within the range of two to four times of the nozzle in inner diameter.
According to the present invention, air ejected from the ejecting port of the diffuser in the ejector flows toward the downstream while being expanded radially outward, and diffusion air, which is a main element of noise generation, is silenced by the cylindrical silencing member. On the other hand, since the flow at the center part of an exhaust ejection flow having small noise generating elements is discharged from the exhaust opening to the outside, and by discharging the center airflow from the exhaust opening, the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the generated negative-pressure air can be sufficiently ensured. Therefore, it is possible to reduce exhaust noise from the ejector while maintaining the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the negative-pressure air by the ejector.
Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail on the basis of the drawings. As shown in
The ejector block 11 is formed with an ejector housing hole 18. As shown in
As shown in
The diffuser 22 has: a base-end side suction portion 22a fitted onto the outer side of the distal-end portion 21b of the nozzle 21; and a distal-end side ejecting part 22b. The ejecting part 22b is formed with: a guiding hole 27 into which compressed air flows from the diffusion hole 26 of the nozzle 21; and a diffusion hole 28 which communicates with the guiding hole 27 and which has an inner diameter gradually increased toward the distal-end face, and the opening of the diffusion hole 28 serves as an ejecting port 29 for ejecting air. The suction portion 22a of the diffuser 22 is formed with a suction port 30 which communicates with a sucking space between the distal-end of the nozzle 21 and the guiding hole 27 of the diffuser 22. This suction port 30 communicates with the negative-pressure joint 13.
By supplying compressed air to the air supply port 23 from the air-pressure supply source 15, the compressed air passes through the focusing hole 25 of the nozzle 21 and is ejected toward the guiding hole 27 of the diffuser 22 from the diffusion hole 26. The air ejected from the diffusion hole 26 is mixed with air between the diffusion hole 26 and the guiding hole 27, that is, air of the suction port 30, and is ejected together with the mixed air from the diffusion hole 28 of the diffuser 22. As a result, negative-pressure air is supplied from the suction port 30 to the attracting tool 17 which is connected by the negative-pressure piping 16, and an electronic component such as a semiconductor chip can be attracted and carried by the attracting tool 17.
As shown in
In order to remove foreign matters in air flowing through the negative-pressure piping 16 toward the suction port 30, as shown in
In order to reduce the exhaust noise caused by airflow which is ejected from the ejecting port 29 of the ejector 20, a muffler 41 is attached to the end face 11b of the ejector block 11. The muffler 41 has a muffler main body 42 which is composed of: a cylindrical portion 42a which is attached to the end face 11b of the ejector block 11 by, for example, screws; and a distal-end wall portion 42b which is integrated with a distal-end of the cylindrical portion 42a. The muffler main body 42 is formed with a silencing chamber 43. The distal-end portion of the diffuser 22 is projecting in the muffler main body 42, and a cylindrical holder 44 is attached to the distal-end portion of the diffuser 22.
A cylindrical silencing member 45 is disposed in the muffler main body 42, one end portion of the silencing member 45 is supported by the holder 44, and the other end of the silencing member 45 is supported by a projecting portion 46 provided to the distal-end wall portion 42b. The silencing member 45 is formed of material having air permeability such as porous material or fibrous material. A silencing gap 47 is provided between the silencing member 45 and the cylindrical portion 42a, and the exhaust noise permeated through the silencing member 45 is silenced by the silencing gap 47.
The distal-end wall portion 42b is formed with an exhaust opening 48 which faces the ejecting port 29 and is coaxially aligned with the ejecting port 29. The axial airflow of the center part of air ejected into the silencing chamber 43 from the ejecting port 29 of the diffuser 22 is discharged to the outside without any change from the exhaust opening 48. On the other hand, the diffusion airflow flown into the silencing chamber 43 from the ejecting port 29 and then diffused radially outward collides with the silencing member 45, and its noise is absorbed by the silencing member 45. The noise of the diffusion airflow permeated through the silencing member 45 is silenced by the silencing gap 47.
In order to attract an electronic component by the attracting tool 17, the ejector 10 for supplying negative-pressure air to the negative-pressure actuation apparatus such as the attracting tool 17 is required to supply negative-pressure air having the vacuum degree and flow rate necessary for attraction to the attracting tool 17. The ejector 10 is preferable to have not only the desired vacuum degree and intake flow rate but also low exhaust noise caused by air ejected from the ejecting port of the diffuser 22.
In a conventional muffler provided in an ejector, a silencing member is embedded in an exhaust flow channel for guiding, to an exhaust opening, air ejected from a diffuser. Such a conventional muffler has limitations for reducing exhaust noise while supplying, to the attracting tool, the negative-pressure air having the vacuum degree and flow rate necessary for attraction of an electronic component.
As shown in the drawings, by causing the exhaust opening 48 to face the ejecting port 29 of the diffuser 22, the axial airflow at the center part of the air ejected from the ejecting port 29 into the silencing chamber 43 is discharged to the outside without any change from the exhaust opening 48. It has been conventionally known that, when the airflow is discharged from the ejecting port 29 to the outside without changing its attitude (direction) in this manner, exhaust noise would be increased. However, it was found that, by discharging the center part of the straight airflow to the outside via the exhaust opening 48 and by diffusing the remaining air in the radially outward direction and then discharging it to the outside, the exhaust noise caused by the airflow discharged from the exhaust opening 48 to the outside can be reduced while ensuring the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the negative-pressure air. However, it was found that the inner diameter “D” of the exhaust opening 48 largely affects the vacuum degree and the flow rate of the generated negative-pressure air; and if the inner diameter “D” of the exhaust opening 48 is excessively small, the desired vacuum degree and the flow rate cannot be ensured.
Conditions under which the exhaust noise of the air discharged from the exhaust opening 48 can be reduced while obtaining desired values of the vacuum degree and the flow rate of the negative-pressure air to be supplied to the negative-pressure actuation apparatus such as the attracting tool 17 was found. In the ejector 10 used for attracting an electronic component such as semiconductor chip, the flow rate of the negative-pressure air supplied to the attracting tool 17 largely depends on a nozzle diameter “d” which is set by the inner diameter of the focusing hole 25 of the nozzle 21. When the nozzle diameter “d” is within a range of about 0.5 to 1.0 mm, a sufficient flow rate can be ensured for the negative-pressure air supplied to the negative-pressure actuation apparatus which is used in an assembly production line of electronic components.
Therefore, in three types which have nozzle diameters “d” of d=0.5 mm, d=0.7 mm, and d=1.0 mm, the vacuum degree and the intake flow rate of the negative-pressure air and the sound absorption performance were measured with the longitudinal size “L” of the silencing member 45 and the inner diameter “D” of the exhaust opening 48 being changed. An ejector having the nozzle diameter “d” of d=0.5 mm is referred to as “05 type”, an ejector having the nozzle diameter “d” of d=0.7 mm is referred to as “07 type”, and an ejector having the nozzle diameter “d” of d=1.0 mm is referred to as “10 type”.
From
From these results, it was found that silencing performance is improved when the size “L” is increased; however, when the size “L” is set to 50 mm or higher, the ejector 10 is increased in size; and, when the size “L” is within the range of 20 to 50 mm, silencing performance can be ensured in all of the three types. As shown in
As shown in
From this measurement, it was found that the vacuum degree of the negative pressure obtained by the ejector is sufficient when the inner diameter “D” is equal to or larger than 1 mm in the 05 type, the inner diameter “D” is equal to or larger than 1.5 mm in the 07 type, and the inner diameter “D” is equal to or larger than 2 mm in the 10 type. Specifically, it was found that the necessary vacuum degree is obtained by setting the inner diameter “D” to two times equal to or larger than the nozzle inner diameter “d”.
From the measurements shown in
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within a range not departing from the gist thereof. For example, the nozzle inner diameter is not limited to the above three types, and various diameters can be employed. The solenoid valve block 31, the filter 38, and other members are attached to the ejector block 11; however, these members may be disposed to be separated from the ejector block 11.
This ejector may be applied to an apparatus for attracting and carrying a small electronic component.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2011-069125 | Mar 2011 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2011/069464 | 8/29/2011 | WO | 00 | 9/26/2013 |