LIQUID COATER

Abstract: A liquid coater which includes a mist feed tube (5) for feeding oil mist into an airtight container (2), an air hose (10) for feeding air into the airtight container (2) and a mist conveyor pipe (11) for conveying the oil mist pressurized by air inside the airtight container (2) to the outside of the container. Therefore, droplets and large mist particles can be trapped inside the container from the mist feed tube (5), and the mist can be conveyed at a high speed. The liquid coater has excellent applicability. The mist feed tube (5) has a double tube structure comprising an air tube (7) in which air flows, and an oil tube (6) which extends in the air tube (7) and in which the oil flows. The distal end of the oil tube (6) is positioned more inward than the distal end of the air tube (7), so that the oil mist can be fed by a simple construction.

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a liquid coater that applies liquid to target objects by delivering mists (liquid minute particles) in a container. Particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid cater that applies a cutting oil to a cutting edge of a machine tool such as a machining center, a grinding machine, or a lathe. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method, for applying such a liquid coater in a cutting process. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, oil has been applied to target objects such as workpieces and tools in order to improve machining accuracy and to extend tool life in machining. In a method of applying liquid oil directly toward target objects, an excessive amount of oil has been applied and it has taken time to remove extra oil, thus decreasing productivity. Furthermore, since the extra oil floats up around a coater, a countermeasure for preventing a working environment from getting worse has been necessary. When applying oil in a drop-state, machining can be conducted with a very small (minimum necessary) amount of oil, thus not only improving machining accuracy and productivity, but also leading to the improvement of a working environment and the simplification of a plant. An example of coaters that can apply oil in a drop-state is proposed in Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application Jikkai Hei 5-92596. However, in an oil feeder mentioned above, it has been necessary to provide a casing for an oil dropping part, a passage for a high-speed gas, a Venturi nozzle and the like in a mist generating section. In addition, since an oil tank has been constructed individually, the configuration has been complicated. US-A-4 421 798 describes an apparatus for coating recorded discs with a lubricant. In this arrangement, a baffle is provided in an atomizer chamber and dividing the atomizing chamber into an entrance section and an exit section. The lubricant injected from the atomizer flows downwardly at the entrance section and flows upwardly in the exit section. This is because the baffle causes heavy lubricant droplets to pass downwardly to the bottom of the chamber allowing only light lubricant droplets to be lifted to the outlet opening. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Object of the present invention is to provide a liquid coater excellent in fast-response that can generate fine mists with a simple configuration by simplifying the configuration of a mist generating section and that can convey the mists at a high speed by providing a gas feed passage. The problems mentioned above can be solved by the present invention. In order to attain the object mentioned above, the liquid coater of the present invention comprises: a mist feed nozzle for feeding mists into a container; a gas feed passage for feeding gas into the container; and a mist conveying passage for conveying the mists pressurized by the gas inside the container to the outside of the container. The container is a reservoir for collecting liquid for generating mists and a liquid pump is connecting the collected liquid to the container and to the mist feed nozzle. The mist feed nozzle is arranged so that mists are injected from the mist feed nozzle toward an inner-wall side face of the container so that mists can circulate along the inner-wall side face of the container. According to the invention, droplets and large mist particles fed from the mist feed nozzle can be trapped inside the container and therefore only fine mist particles can be conveyed to the outside of the container. The fine mist particles do not adhere on the wall surface of the conveying passage easily. Therefore, it is easy to convey the fine mist particles. In addition, the conveying speed at which the fine mist particles are conveyed can be accelerated by the gas fed from the gas feed passage. Consequently, the mist conveyance is excellent in fast-response and the mists can be conveyed at a high speed. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, the liquid can be circulated efficiently. Since the injected mists circulate along the inner-wall side face, a centrifugal force is strongly applied to large mist particles and droplets injected together with the mists. Therefore, the mists and the droplets adhere to the inner-wall side face easily, thus preventing the large mist particles and the droplets from flowing into the mist conveying passage. It is preferable that a discharge part with a narrowed tip is connected to the end of the mist conveying passage. When such a discharge part is connected, flow velocity increases at the discharge part, thus enlarging the particle size of the fine mists and changing the fine mists into droplets. Consequently, these large mist particles and droplets can be applied to target objects and therefore it is easy to make liquid adhere to the target objects. It is preferable that the mist feed nozzle has a double tube structure comprising a gas tube in which gas flows and a liquid tube in which liquid flows that extends inside the gas tube, and the end of the liquid tube is positioned inward compared to the end of the gas tube. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, mists can be generated with a simple configuration. It is preferable that mists are generated at a space between the end of the liquid tube and the end of the gas tube by mixing a liquid discharged from the liquid tube and a gas flowing inside the gas tube. It is preferable that a gas flow-regulating valve is connected to the gas feed passage. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, the mist conveying speed can be regulated. It is further preferable that liquid for generating mists is collected in the container and flows into a liquid pump connected to the container, and the liquid discharged from the liquid pump goes through the mist feed nozzle and is fed as mists into the container. It is preferable that a mist intake of the end of the mist conveying passage faces to the surface of the collected liquid. It is also preferable that the distance between the mist intake of the mist conveying passage inside the container and the surface of the collected liquid can be regulated. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, the size of mist particles flowing into the mist conveying passage can be regulated. It is preferable that the liquid pump is integrated with the container at the bottom of the container. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, a small-size coater can be obtained. It is preferable that the container is formed in a cylindrical shape. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, it is easy to circulate mists. It is preferable that the end of the mist conveying passage inside the container is provided almost at the center in the horizontal direction of the container. Since a mist conveying passage is arranged as mentioned above, fine mist particles gathering at the center can be conveyed. It is further preferable that a partition in which a flow-through hole is formed is provided in the horizontal direction of the container, the container is divided into an upper part and a lower part by the partition, a liquid reservoir is provided below the partition, and the mist feed nozzle, the gas feed passage, and the mist conveying passage are provided above the partition. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, since the liquid surface is not disturbed in the liquid reservoir, mists with a stable mist-particle size can be conveyed. Moreover, it is preferable that an air passage is provided at a part of the partition in the vertical direction and the air passage enables the gas in the upper part and the lower part to be circulated. According to such a liquid coater as mentioned above, since oil can be dropped promptly at the time of refueling, the coater can be started quickly. The present invention is also directed to a method comprising: attaching a liquid coater to an oil feeder of a machine tool, supplying mists toward a cutting edge; and cutting an object to be processed, wherein the liquid coater comprises: a mist feed nozzle for feeding mists into a container; a gas feed passage for feeding gas into the container; and a mist conveying passage for conveying mists pressurized by the gas inside the container to the outside of the container, wherein liquid for generating mists is collected in the container, the liquid flows into a liquid pump connected to the container, and the liquid discharged from the liquid pump goes through the mist feed nozzle and is fed as mists into the container. The above cutting method is characterized in, that the end of the mist feed nozzle is arranged so that mists are injected from the mist feed nozzle toward an inner wall side face of the container so that mists circulate along the inner wall side face of the container. It is preferable that a discharge part with a narrowed tip is connected to the end of the mist conveying passage. When such a discharge part is connected, flow velocity increases at the discharge part, thus enlarging the particle size of fine mists and changing the fine mists into droplets. Consequently, these large mist particles and droplets can be applied to target objects and therefore it is easy to make liquid adhere to the target objects. According to such method as mentioned above, since generated mists circulate along the inner-wall side face, a centrifugal force is strongly applied to large mist particles and droplets injected together with the mists. Therefore, the mists and the droplets adhere to the inner-wall side face easily, thus preventing the large mist particles and the droplets from flowing into the mist conveying passage. It is also preferable that the mist feed nozzle has a double tube structure comprising a gas tube in which gas flows and a liquid tube in which liquid flows that extends inside the gas tube and an end of the liquid tube is positioned inward compared to an end of the gas tube. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic view showing an oil feeding system in a liquid coater according to Examples 1 and 2. Fig. 2 is a view showing an arrangement of a tube for oil mists in FIG. 1 and an oil pump. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a primary portion of a liquid coater according to Example 1 being no part of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a view showing another example of a tube for oil mists. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a primary portion of a liquid coater according to an embodiment (Example 2) of the present invention. Example 1 In this example, a liquid coater is used as an oil feeder for a machine tool. FIG. 1 shows a schematic oil feeding system in which oil fed from an oil pump is supplied to a machine tool via the oil feeder. An arrow a, b, and c indicate an oil flowing direction, an air flowing direction, and a mist conveying direction, respectively. A mist feed tube 5 is formed of an air tube 7 and an oil tube 6 extending inside the air tube 7. Oil fed from an oil pump 4 and air fed from an air source 8 are formed into mists by the mist feed tube 5 and the mists are fed to an airtight container 2. Air from the air source 8 is fed to the airtight container 2 through an air hose 10 via an air flow-regulating valve 9. A mist-conveying pipe 12 is used for conveying mists in the airtight container 2 to the outside. For example, the mist-conveying pipe 12 can be attached to an oil supply part S of the machine tool as shown in this figure. In the oil supply part S, the mist particles are changed to large mist particles or oil droplets and they are directed toward a cutting edge T. FIG. 2 shows the mist feed tube 5 and the oil pump 4 shown in FIG. 1 that are attached to each other. A pump part 41 of the oil pump 4 is provided for sucking up collected oil. One end of the oil tube 6 is connected to the pump part 41. One end of the air tube 7 is connected to the oil pump 4 by a mounting bracket 44. An air passage is inside the air tube 7 but outside the oil tube 6. This air passage is connected to an air passage 43 at an opening part 43a and the air passage 43 is connected with the air source 8. The mist feed tube 5 has a double structure formed of the air tube 7 and the oil tube 6 extending inside the air tube 7. This example will be explained further in detail with reference to FIG. 3 as follows. FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of a primary portion of a liquid coater being presented for explanatory reasons only and being no part of the present invention. In an airtight container 2, an oil mist feed port 2a, an air feed port 2b, and an oil mist outlet 2c are formed. A mist feed tube 5 is provided at the oil mist feed port 2a. The mist feed tube 5 is connected to the oil pump 4 and is arranged so that the end of the mist feed tube 5 is located inside the airtight container 2. In the end of the mist feed tube 5 inside the airtight container 2, the end of the oil tube 6 is located inward compared to the end of the air tube 7 by a length A. The length A is preferably about 20-40mm. The space indicated by this length A forms a nozzle part 5a. At the nozzle part 5a, oil that flows from the oil pump 4 through the oil tube 6 in the direction shown by an arrow a and is discharged from the end of the oil tube 6 and air flowing through the air tube 7 in the direction shown by an arrow b are mixed to form oil mists and the oil mists are fed into the airtight container 2. An air hose 10 is provided to the air inlet 2b. One end of the air hose 10 is connected to the air source 8 (FIG. 1) via the air flow-regulating valve 9 (FIG. 1), and the other end is located inside the airtight container 2. The air hose 10 is provided with the air flow-regulating valve 9. Air flowing inside the air hose 10 in the direction shown by an arrow b is fed into the airtight container 2. In the airtight container 2, a mist-conveying pipe 11 is oriented in the vertical direction. The mist intake 11a that is the lower end of the mist-conveying pipe 11 faces to the liquid surface of collected oil. The mist intake 11a is spaced from the liquid surface by a distance B. A mist-conveying pipe 13 is connected to the upper end of the mist-conveying pipe 11. This mist-conveying pipe 13 is connected to a mist-conveying pipe 12 at the oil mist outlet 2c. The mist conveying pipe 12 is piped toward an outside oil supply part S. It will be explained as follows how the coater operates while oil mists flow into the airtight container 2 from the nozzle part 5a and are spouted to the outside of the coater. The oil mist particles fed from the nozzle part 5a have various sizes from small to large. Not only a mist-state oil but also a drop-state oil is fed. Mists and oil droplets drop from the nozzle part 5a due to gravity. Compared to the fall velocity due to gravity of large mist particles and oil droplets, the fall velocity due to gravity of fine oil mists is slow and the fine oil mists stay longer inside the airtight container 2. The fine oil mists are defined as smoke-like mists capable of drifting in the air. The inside of the airtight container 2 is pressurized by an air pressure from the nozzle part 5a and an air pressure from the air hose 10. Therefore, the fine oil mists that do not reach to the bottom of the airtight container 2 and that are remaining in the airtight container 2 are susceptible to the pressurization and move in the direction shown by an arrow d. Then the fine oil mists flow through the mist intake 11a and are conveyed into the mist-conveying pipe 11. Large oil mist particles and oil droplets drop to the bottom of the airtight container 2 quickly and are not susceptible to the air pressure. Therefore, these large oil mist particles and oil droplets do not easily flow into the mist-conveying pipe 11. The oil mists flow through the mist-conveying pipe 11 and are conveyed to the mist-conveying pipe 13 and the mist-conveying pipe 12 sequentially. The oil mists conveyed through each conveying pipe are fine oil mists as mentioned above and therefore can be conveyed at a high speed and the oil mists do not adhere easily to the wall surfaces of the pipes. Consequently, the fine mists can go through the conveying pipes in a short time, even if there is a long distance to an object on which oil is supplied and the conveying pipes are long. After going through the outside mist-conveying pipe 12, the oil mists pass through the discharge part whose diameter is narrowed down, thus increasing the velocity. Therefore, the particle size of the oil mists is enlarged, or the oil mists are changed to oil droplets depending on how narrow the diameter of the discharge part is set. As mentioned above, the particle size of the oil mists is changed or the oil mists are changed into oil droplets. The reason is that when the fine oil mists, i.e. the smoke-like oil mists that drift in the air are discharged without changing the particle size, most of the fine oil mist particles do not adhere to the object on which oil should be supplied. FIG. 3 shows an example in which the oil mists after flowing through as mentioned above are spouted from a tool 14 having an outlet. The tool 14 is attached to, for example, a spindle (not shown in the figure) of a machining center connected to the mist-conveying pipe 12. Since oil mists having an enlarged particle size or oil droplets are spouted from the end of the tool 14, they adhere to workpieces easily. Consequently, the workpieces can be processed smoothly. The oil mists flowing into the spindle from the mist-conveying pipe 12 have a fine particle size as mentioned above. Therefore, the oil mists are not susceptible to the centrifugal force caused by the spindle that rotates at a high speed, thus preventing the spindle from being blocked. It is preferable that the pressure of the air flowing inside the air hose 10 is set to be the same as that of the air flowing inside the tube 5 for the oil mists. When the height B of the intake 11a changes, the particle size of the oil mists that can be taken into the inside mist-conveying pipe 11 also changes. Therefore, by changing the inside mist-conveying pipe 11 to other pipes having various lengths, the height B of the intake 11a can be adjusted, thus regulating the particle size of the oil mists taken in. At the bottom of the airtight container 2, oil that is collected in advance or that has dropped from the nozzle part 5a is collected. Depending on the amount of this collected oil, the flowing condition of the oil mists flowing out from the outside mist-conveying pipe 12 changes. Therefore, the particle size of the oil mists also can be regulated by increasing the amount of the oil fed from the outside or by changing the size of the airtight container 2. Each mist-conveying pipe may be integrated to form one pipe. Similarly, in this case, the height B of the intake 11a can be changed by replacing the pipe. The outside mist-conveying pipe 12 is not limited to one pipe. A plurality of pipes may be provided. In this case, the intermediate oil mist outflow pipe 13 should be branched into a plurality of pipes. A mist feed tube 50 shown in FIG. 4 is different from an example shown in FIG. 2. An air tube 51 is forked and ports 50a and 50b are formed. An oil tube 52 is inserted into the air tube 51 from the port 50a. Thus, the mist feed tube 50 has a double wall structure. The oil tube 52 is connected to an oil pump. The port 50b is connected to an air source. The oil feeder of the present example can be used in any machine tools when the oil feeder is connected to an oil tank in which oil is collected via an oil pump. Example 2 FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of a primary portion of an oil feeder according to an embodiment of (Example 2) of the present invention. An airtight container 22 has a body that is formed in a cylindrical shape. An oil pump 31 is connected to the bottom of the airtight container 22 by arranging pipes. At an intermediate part of the airtight container 22, a partition 23 is arranged in the horizontal direction. The airtight container 22 is divided into an upper part and a lower part by the partition 23. In the part below the partition 23, an oil chamber 24 in which oil is collected is formed. In the part above the partition 23, an oil mist chamber 25 in which oil mists circulate is formed. A mist feed port 22a, an air feed port 22b, and an oil feed port 30 are formed in the top panel of the oil mist chamber 25. In the oil mist inlet 22a, a mist feed tube 26 is arranged toward the oil mist chamber 25. In the air feed port 22b, an air hose 29 that is connected to an air source 8 directly via an air flow-regulating valve 9 is arranged. Further, an oil mist outlet 22c is formed at the center of the top panel of the oil mist chamber 25. In the oil mist outlet 22c, an oil mist-conveying pipe 32 is directed toward the oil mist chamber 25 in the vertical direction, and a mist-conveying pipe 33 that supplies oil mists to an outside tool 36 is provided. The mist feed tube 26 has a double structure in which an oil tube 27 is formed inside an air tube 28 like the mist feed tube 5 shown in FIG. 2. The tube 26 for oil mists is piped to the oil pump 31. The opening part of a mist feed nozzle 26a is directed toward the inner-wall side face of the oil mist chamber 25. The position of the mist feed nozzle 26a is set so that injected oil mists can circulate along the inner-wall side face. It is preferable that the end of the oil tube 27 is located inward compared to the outlet 26a by about 20-40mm. The space between the end of the oil tube 27 and the outlet 26a is a nozzle part 26b. At the nozzle part 26b, oil that flows out from the oil tube 27 and air that flows out from the air tube 28 are mixed to form oil mists. These oil mists are injected into the oil mist chamber 25 from the outlet 26a. The oil pump 31 has the same shape and pipe arrangement as those in the oil pump 4 in Example 1. Oil collected inside the airtight container 22 is fed to the oil pump 31. Therefore, the air hose 29 also is piped to the oil pump 31. The opening part of the outlet 29a of the air hose 29 is directed toward the inner-wall side face of the oil mist chamber 25 as that of the mist feed nozzle 26a. The position of the outlet 29a is set so that injected air can circulate along the inner-wall side face. A flow-through hole 23a is formed at the center of the partition 23. Oil fed from an oil feed port 30 goes through the flow-through hole 23a and drops into the oil chamber 24. Further, since a pipe-like air passage 35 goes through a part of the partition 23, air can flow between the oil chamber 24 and the oil mist chamber 25. The principle in which oil and air are fed from the oil pump 31 to form oil mists and then the oil mists flow into the airtight container 22 is the same as that in Example 1. Therefore, a detailed explanation is omitted. The oil pump 31 is connected to the bottom of the airtight container 22, and the airtight container 22 and the oil pump 31 are integrated. Therefore, the oil feeder 21 can be made small. Most oil sucked up by the oil pump 31 is injected into the oil mist chamber 25 in a mist state from the mist feed nozzle 26a of the tube 26 for oil mists. It will be explained as follows how the oil feeder operates while oil mists are fed into the oil mist chamber 25 and are discharged to the outside of the feeder. Oil mists injected from the mist feed nozzle 26a circulate along the inner-wall side face of the oil mist chamber 25. Similarly, air injected from the outlet 29a of the air hose 29 also circulates along the inner-wall side face of the oil mist chamber 25. The oil mists fed from the mist feed nozzle 26a have various particle sizes from small to large. Not only a mist-state oil but also a drop-state oil is fed. Most of the large oil mist particles and oil droplets drop due to gravity. A part of the oil mists circulating along the inner-wall side face adheres to the inner-wall side face due to the influence of the centrifugal force caused by the circulation. According to the principle of the centrifugal force, the larger the particle size of oil mists is, the easier the oil mists adhere to the inner-wall side face. The inside of the oil mist chamber 25 is pressurized by an air pressure from the nozzle part 26b and an air pressure from the air hose 29. Therefore, the oil mists circulating inside the oil mist chamber 25 are conveyed into the inside oil-mist-conveying pipe 32. As mentioned above, large oil mist particles and oil droplets drop due to gravity or adhere to the inner-wall side face due to the influence of the centrifugal force. Therefore, most of the oil mists conveyed into the inside oil-mist-conveying pipe 32 are smoke-like fine oil mists capable of drifting in the air. As shown in FIG. 5, it is preferable that the inside oil-mist-conveying pipe 32 is arranged at the center of the airtight container 22. The reason is that large oil mist particles and oil droplets drop due to the gravity or adhere to the inner-wall side face due to the influence of the centrifugal force before reaching to the center of the oil mist chamber 25 and therefore are prevented from reaching to the center. The operation after conveying oil mists into the oil mist-conveying pipe 32 is the same as in Example 1. FIG. 5 shows an example in which the circulated oil mists are spouted out from a tool 36 provided with a discharge opening. The tool 36 is attached to, for example, a spindle (not shown in the figure) of a machining center connected to the mist-conveying pipe 12. Oil mists having an enlarged particle size or oil droplets are spouted out from the tip of the tool 36. Therefore, the oil mists or the oil droplets adhere to workpieces easily, and thus the workpieces can be processed smoothly. Generally, the oil pump 31 does not operate continuously but operates intermittently. Oil mists and air injected into the oil mist chamber 25 tend to disturb the surface of oil at the bottom of the oil mist chamber 25. When the oil surface is disturbed, oil droplets are formed. The oil droplets flow into the mist-conveying pipe in some cases. In the present example, the oil chamber 24 and the oil mist chamber 25 are divided by the partition 23. Therefore, oil mists circulate mainly in the oil mist chamber 25, thus preventing the oil in the oil chamber 24 from being disturbed. Thus, stable oil mists can be supplied even at the time of starting the oil pump. Oil refueled from the oil feed port 30 passes the flow-through hole 23a in the partition 23 and is collected in the oil chamber 24. When the air pressure of the oil chamber 24 is applied to the flow-through hole 23a, the oil circulates slowly, thus delaying the oil feed accordingly Such delay delays the start of the operation of the oil feeder 21. Therefore, in the present example, the air passage 35 through which the oil chamber 24 and the oil mist chamber 25 communicate is provided. Consequently, the air in the airtight oil chamber 24 can be circulated into the oil mist chamber 25 and therefore oil can be fed without delay at the time of refueling oil, thus quickening the start of the oil feeder 21. As mentioned above, the liquid coater of the present invention can generate fine mists with a simple configuration by simplifying the structure of the mist generating part and can convey the mists at a high speed by providing a gas feed passage. Therefore, the liquid coater is excellent in fast-response. Thus, the liquid coater can be utilized as an oil feeder for feeding a cutting oil to a cutting edge of a machine tool such as a machining center, a grinding machine, or a lathe.

Claims: A liquid coater, comprising: a mist feed nozzle (26a) for feeding mists into a container (22); a gas feed passage for feeding gas into the container (22); and a mist conveying passage (32, 33) for conveying mists pressurized by the gas inside the container (22) to the outside of the container (22), the container (22) being a reservoir for collecting liquid for generating mists and a liquid pump (31) is connecting the collected liquid in the container to the mist feed nozzle (26a), characterized in, that the end of the mist feed nozzle (26a) is arranged so that mists are injected from the mist feed nozzle (26a) toward an inner wall side face of the container (22) so that mists can circulate along the inner wall side face of the container(22). The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein a discharge part with a narrowed tip is connected to an end of the mist conveying passage (32, 33). The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein the mist feed nozzle (26a) has a double tube structure comprising a gas tube (28) in which gas flows and a liquid tube (27) in which liquid flows that extends inside the gas tube (28), and an end of the liquid tube (27) is positioned inward compared to an end of the gas tube (28). The liquid coater according to claim 3, wherein mists are generated at a space between the end of the liquid tube (27) and the end of the gas tube (28) by mixing a liquid discharged form the liquid tube (27) and a gas flowing inside the gas tube (28). The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein a gas flow-regulating valve (9) is connected to the gas feed passage. The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein a mist intake of the mist conveying passage (32, 33) faces the surface of the collected liquid. The liquid coater according to claim 6, wherein the distance between the mist intake of the mist conveying passage (32, 33) inside the container (22) and the surface of the collected liquid can be adjusted. The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein the liquid pump (31) is integrated with the container (22) at the bottom of the container (22). The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein the container (22) is formed in a cylindrical shape. The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein the end of the mist conveying passage (32, 33) inside the container (22) is provided almost at the center in the horizontal direction of the container (22). The liquid coater according to claim 1, wherein a partition (23) in which a flow-through hole (23 a) is formed is provided in the horizontal direction of the container (22), the container (22) is divided into an upper part and a lower part by the partition (23), a liquid reservoir is provided below the partition (23), and the mist feed nozzle (26a), the gas feed passage, and the mist conveying passage (32, 33) are provided above the partition (23). The liquid coater according to claim 11, wherein an air passage (35) is provided at a part of the partition (23) in the vertical direction and the air passage (35) enables gas in the upper part and the lower part to be circulated. A method, comprising: attaching a liquid coater (1) to an oil feeder of a machine tool, supplying mists toward a cutting edge; and cutting an object to be processed, wherein the liquid coater (1) comprises: a mist feed nozzle (26a) for feeding mists into a container (22); a gas feed passage for feeding gas into the container (22); and a mist conveying passage (32, 33) for conveying mists pressurized by the gas inside the container (22) to the outside of the container (22), wherein liquid for generating mists is collected in the container (22) , the liquid flows into a liquid pump (31) connected to the container (22), and the liquid discharged from the liquid pump (31) goes through the mist feed nozzle (26a) and is fed as mists into the container (22) characterized in, that the end of the mist feed nozzle (26a) is arranged so that mists are injected from the mist feed nozzle (26a) toward an inner wall side face of the container (22) so that mists circulate along the inner wall side face of the container (22). The method according to the claim 13, wherein a discharge part with a narrowed tip is connected to an end of the mist conveying pass age (32, 33). The method according to claim 13, wherein the mist feed nozzle (26a) has a double tube structure comprising a gas tube (28) in which gas flows and a liquid tube (27) in which liquid flows that extends inside the gas tube (28), and an end of the liquid tube (27) is positioned inward compared to an end of the gas tube (28).

Inventors: HATTORI HIROSHI, HATTORI, HIROSHI, HATTORI, Hiroshi, c/o Fuji Koeki Co., Ltd
Applicants: FUJI BC ENGINEERING CO LTD, FUJI BC ENGINEERING CO., LTD.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: B05B7
IPC codes: B23Q11, B05B7