Stephen Robert Carter

US Patent:

51259796, Jun 30, 1992

Filed:

Jul 2, 1990

Appl. No.:

7/548323

Inventors:

Eugene A. Swain - Webster NY
Stephen R. Carter - Tucson AZ
Stuart A. Hoenig - Tucson AZ

Assignee:

Xerox Corporation - Stamford CT

International Classification:

B08B 700

US Classification:

134 7

Abstract:

A cleaning process involving expanding carbon dioxide from an orifice into a thermally insulated chamber to form small carbon dioxide particles, retaining the small carbon dioxide particles in the insulating chamber until the small carbon dioxide particles agglomerate into large snowflakes, entraining the large snowflakes in a high velocity vortex of inert gas to accelerate the large snowflakes and directing a stream of the inert gas and accelerated large snowflakes against the surface of a substrate to be cleaned. This process may be carried out with apparatus including means to direct a stream of small carbon dioxide snow particles into an expansion chamber, means to agglomerate the small carbon dioxide particles into large carbon dioxide snowflakes in the expansion chamber, and means to accelerate the large snowflakes with a high velocity inert gas stream.