Patent ID: 8141567

Claim:
A processing apparatus comprising: a tank configured to store water; a vapor generating unit connected to the tank and configured to turn the water supplied from the tank into vapor; a processing chamber, connected to the vapor generating unit, in which vapor supplied from the vapor generating unit is used to remove residues from a workpiece by temperature and impact of the vapor; a cooling unit connected to the processing chamber and configured to cool waste liquid with the residues dissolved ejected from the processing chamber to precipitate the residues as solids; a separating unit connected to the cooling unit, the separating unit being configured to separate the solids; a filtering unit connected to the separating unit through a first valve provided between an inlet side of the filtering unit and an outlet side of the separating unit, and connected to the tank through a second valve provided between an outlet side of the filtering unit and an inlet side of the tank, the filtering unit being configured to trap the solids to pass water into the tank; and a cleaning mechanism including a filter cleaning tank storing a processing liquid for removing the solids trapped by the filtering unit, the filter cleaning tank being connected to the filtering unit through a third valve provided between the inlet side of the filtering unit and the filter cleaning tank and through a fourth valve provided between an outlet side of the filtering unit and the filter cleaning tank.