Patent ID: 8584312

Claim:
A cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object to be cleaned by allowing a cleaning medium contained in the cleaning apparatus and caused to fly by an air flow to collide with the object to be cleaned, comprising: a cleaning tank in which the cleaning medium is caused to fly by the air flow and which has an opening configured to allow the object to be cleaned to pass through; a cleaning medium accelerating part provided at a bottom part of the cleaning tank and configured to inject the air flow to cause the cleaning medium to fly; a suction part including suction ducts configured to remove dust or a deposit included in the air in the cleaning tank, a suction pipe configured to carry the air and/or the deposit sucked by the suction ducts and a suction apparatus configured to suck the air and/or the deposit in the cleaning tank through the suction pipe; a hollow elongated member configured to have substantially the same inner diameter as a diameter of the opening of the cleaning tank, connected outside the opening of the cleaning tank, and configured to form a movement path for the object to be cleaned; a cleaning medium returning part configured to return the cleaning medium stagnant in the hollow elongated member into the cleaning tank; a holding part having a holder configured to hold the object to be cleaned and to move through the hollow elongated member to hold the object in the cleaning tank, the holding part configured to rotate the object around a rotational axis of the object; and a scraper member configured to seal a space formed between the hollow elongated member and the holding part and between the hollow elongated member and the object to be cleaned to prevent leak of the cleaning medium out of the apparatus, the scraper member being in a vicinity of the holder such that the scraper member is in contact with inner surfaces of the hollow elongated member, the scraper member including a brush configured to collect the cleaning medium that leaks into the hollow elongated member and to deposit the cleaning medium that leaks into the hollow elongated member into the cleaning tank, wherein in an opening in a side wall of the cleaning tank opposite the hollow elongated member, there is located either a second hollow elongated member also connected outside the opening of the cleaning tank and configured to have substantially the same inner diameter as the diameter of the opening of the cleaning tank and to form a movement path for the object to be cleaned, or a portable mechanism connected outside the opening of the cleaning tank and configured to deform by a deforming amount with respect to a movement direction of the object to be cleaned.