Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Kunihiko Uzawa

Masamichi Hijino

Mitsuo Goto

Masahiro Itakura

Michio Shirai

The nonaqueous solvent employed in drying as a final step of cleaning is regenerated. The nonaqueous solvent is contacted with a separation fluid having low compatibility with the nonaqueous solvent and high compatibility with a hydrophilic solvent to cause the hydrophilic solvent contained in the nonaqueous solvent to be absorbed in the separation fluid, thereby regenerating the nonaqueous solvent. When the hydrophilic solvent is an alcohol, a low-molecular-weight silicone compound and demineralized water may be used as the nonaqueous solvent and the separation fluid, respectively, in which the silicone compound can be regenerated to a purity of 99.0 to 99.8% so that the silicone compound can be recycled for use in the drying.

Nonaqueous solvent regenerating apparatus for use in cleaning

A cleaning and drying solvent is disclosed which has excellent cleaning power and drying property and finds uses as a hand-cleaning agent, a precise cleaning agent and a drying agent for industrial parts. Since it does not contain halogens causing the depletion of the ozone layer, it is available as a solvent replacing freon. The cleaning and drying solvent is composed of a siloxane compound, in particular, hexamethyldisiloxane, an azeotropic or azeotrope-like composition of hexamethyldisiloxane and a lower alcohol, or a mixture of hexamethyldisiloxane and each of ketones, carboxylic esters, low molecular saturated hydrocarbons and low molecular alcohols.

Growing community of inventors

Machida, Japan

Kunihiko Uzawa