Apparatus for cleaning and testing precision components of hard drives

Abstract

Apparatus for cleaning, assembling, testing and inspecting contamination sensitive hardware. The apparatus includes an environmental process enclosure having an inner processing chamber, and a carbon dioxide jet spray cleaning system. The enclosure includes a loadlock pass-through having front and rear access doors for providing access to the inner processing chamber. A blower is disposed in the enclosure for circulating purified gas therethrough. A prefilter disposed prior to an inlet of the blower, and a high purity filter and laminar flow screen are disposed in the inner processing chamber. A heater is provided for heating the purified gas and a temperature controller is coupled to the heater for controlling the temperature of the purified gas. A table is disposed in the inner processing chamber upon which contamination sensitive hardware and testing and assembly apparatus may be placed. The carbon dioxide jet spray cleaning system includes a carbon dioxide delivery system for storing liquid carbon dioxide, and a valve assembly coupled to the carbon dioxide tank that is disposed in the inner processing chamber. The valve assembly is coupled to a nozzle and orifice assembly, which produces a spray of gas and solid carbon dioxide that is used to clean the contamination sensitive hardware.