Apparatus and process for cleaning a work piece

Abstract

Apparatus and process for cleaning the surface of a work piece include a first cleaning station for scrubbing a work piece and a second cleaning station for cleaning the pad used to scrub the surface of the work piece. The pad is cleaned during the “dead time” during which a first clean work pieces is unloaded and a subsequent dirty work piece is loaded into the first cleaning station. During the dead time the cleaning pad, mounted on a support stand that controls the cleaning pad, pivots from the first work piece cleaning station to the second pad cleaning station. The cleaning pad is lowered into the pad cleaning station and is brought into contact with a beater bar against which the pad surface is rotated. During the rotation the pad surface is washed with a cleaning fluid of the same composition as used to clean the work piece surface. By using the same composition, the cleaning pad remains saturated with the cleaning fluid and each subsequently cleaned work piece experiences the same cleaning environment. Rotating the cleaning pad against the beater bar in the presence of the cleaning fluid removes particulates that might otherwise scratch or contaminate a subsequently cleaned work piece. Following cleaning of the cleaning pad, the pad pivots back to a position over a work piece positioned in the first work piece cleaning station. Because the pad was cleaned with the same composition used to clean a work piece, controlled cleaning of a work piece can begin immediately without waiting for the cleaning fluid on the pad to reach the right composition.