Patent ID: 7204260

Claim:
An apparatus for cleaning polymeric pieces, comprising: an elongate stationary cleaning bath having a rotary shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning bath and driven by a drive source, the cleaning bath having a water supply port and a drainage port as well as a polymeric piece introduction port at one end and a polymeric piece discharging port at the other end; a screw integral with the rotary shaft rotatable relative to the cleaning bath for advancing water and polymeric pieces in the cleaning bath from the one end to the other end thereof by rotating them within the cleaning bath; and a plurality of stationary plates standing upright from an inner surface of the cleaning bath toward the rotary shaft; and a plurality of rotary plates standing upright from the circumference of the rotary shaft toward the inner surface of the cleaning bath; wherein the rotary plates and the stationary plates are alternatively arranged in the longitudinal direction of the bath to form a labyrinth in order to make the polymeric pieces to deviate their advanced direction by impinging to end surfaces of said rotary plates and said stationary plates and to increase the number of contacts made by the polymeric pieces within the cleaning bath during their advancement.