Patent ID: 8418946

Claim:
A crusher for crushing a silicon lump, comprising: a cylinder case for defining the space of a cylinder bore; a piston which is stored in the cylinder bore in such a manner that it slidably move between a first position which is one end of the cylinder bore and a second position which is the other end of the cylinder bore; a blocking member which is fixed in the cylinder case to define the other end of the cylinder bore; a release path for making the other end of the cylinder bore open to the air; elastic urging means for elastically urging the piston to the first position; a rod member which extends from the piston toward the other end of the cylinder bore and projects from the cylinder bore through the blocking member; a hammer head which is fixed onto the projecting end portion of the rod member; a compressed air source; communication means interposed between the one end of the cylinder bore and the compressed air source; and control valve means which is provided on the communication means and selectively switches the cylinder bore between an operation mode in which the cylinder bore is communicated with the compressed air source and a non-operation mode in which the one end of the cylinder bore is made open to the air, wherein when the control valve means is switched to the non-operation mode, the piston is elastically urged to the first position by the elastic urging action of the elastic urging means and when the control valve means is switched to the operation mode, the piston is driven to the second position by compressed air supplied to the one end of the cylinder bore from the compressed air source in defiance of the elastic urging action of the elastic urging means.