Patent ID: 8206508

Claim:
A wet treatment method for treating a to-be-treated and deformable or damageable work face of a supplied workpiece, the work face having been previously worked-on so as to have one or more pre-specified capabilities or functionalities defined by said previous working-on on the work face, the method comprising: creating in a liquid containing tank containing one or more host liquids, a thermal gradient extending substantially vertically between first and second spaced apart locations of the one or more host liquids, wherein the created thermal gradient includes respective and successive first, second and third temperature zones having respective and successively increasing first, second and third temperatures as well as respective first, second and third pressures, at least one of the first and second temperatures being a critical temperature (Tcrit) at and below which a predetermined first and rapidly condensable vapor condenses when subject to the respective first or second pressure of the corresponding first or second temperature zone, the third temperature being greater than the critical temperature and being a temperature at which the first and rapidly condensable vapor does not rapidly condense when at the third pressure; disposing the work face of the supplied workpiece at an exposure location between the first and second spaced apart locations or at the first location, the exposure location coinciding with or being above a respective location of the thermal gradient where the critical temperature (Tcrit) is present; and subjecting the work face of the supplied workpiece to a first upwelling flow of one or more of the host liquids, the first upwelling flow flowing up at least through the third temperature zone so as to encounter the one or the other of the first or second temperature zone having said critical temperature, wherein the first upwelling flow includes fully thermally collapsible bubbles or partially thermally collapsible bubbles that contain the first rapidly condensable vapor, wherein the fully thermally collapsible bubbles or partially thermally collapsible bubbles collapse as they rise with the first upwelling flow and encounter the temperature zone having said critical temperature, and wherein the deformable or damageable work face of the supplied workpiece is not functionally deformed or functionally damaged by exposure at its exposure location to energies unleashed by collapse of the fully thermally collapsible bubbles or partially thermally collapsible bubbles that rise with the first upwelling flow to encounter the temperature zone having said critical temperature, said functional deformation or functional damage being ones that, if either occurs, substantially degrades or destroys at least one of the pre-specified one or more capabilities or functionalities of the worked-on work face.