JPH0522136B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a so-called evaporative humidifier that adds moisture to the air by discharging water vapor.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, humidifiers include evaporative humidifiers that discharge water vapor and spray humidifiers that discharge mist water droplets.

The former type of evaporative humidifier is further divided into a heating steam type that heats water to a temperature close to its boiling point to generate water vapor, and a room temperature evaporative type that evaporates water by blowing air over the water surface at approximately room temperature. It is classified into two types.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) The heating steam type has the advantage of being able to humidify a large amount of water per unit time, but because the water temperature is high, there is a lot of heat dissipation loss, and it takes a long time to start humidifying. They have disadvantages such as being long, easily depositing scales such as potassium oxide, and emitting high-temperature steam, which affects room temperature.

On the other hand, with room temperature evaporation type, the water temperature is close to the outside temperature, so there is less heat loss, the rise time is short, scale is difficult to deposit, and the room temperature is hardly affected as it discharges room temperature steam. However, on the other hand, it has a major drawback of extremely low humidification capacity per hour.

This invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks.

(Means and effects for solving the problems) This invention has been made to achieve the above object, and consists of hollow bottomed cylinders of approximately the same height protruding parallel to each other, and their opening sides facing each other. Connect in sequence,
The interior of the humidifier container is separated into a water part and an air part by a hydrophobic porous membrane made of polymeric material or ceramic material that is integrally formed to have a plurality of convex side sections, and An air supply hole and a discharge hole are provided in the container, and a fan provided near the discharge hole blows air into the air portion to discharge water vapor from the water portion to the air portion through the porous membrane, and a ball tap is provided in the container. An on-off valve is installed on the water supply pipe that communicates the space above the water part of the container with the water supply faucet, allowing the humidifier to operate at a temperature close to room temperature, reducing heat radiation loss, and providing sufficient humidification stress from the start of operation. The humidifier of this invention is a room-temperature evaporator, but it is fundamentally different from conventional room-temperature evaporators. It performs humidification based on its principle and structure, and while maintaining the advantages of the conventional room temperature evaporation type, it overcomes its disadvantages and makes it possible to extremely increase the humidification capacity per hour.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the humidification principle of the humidifier according to the present invention. The water portion 1 and the air portion 2 are made of a hydrophobic porous membrane, that is, a substantially membrane-like material 3 that exhibits hydrophobicity toward water and has many pores with diameters ranging from a fraction of a μm to several tens of μm. It is isolated.

Since the membrane is hydrophobic, no seepage of water through the pores occurs due to capillary action or pressure differences.

Now, at the interface of each hole, if the partial pressure of water vapor in the air in the air section 2a is PA, and the saturated water vapor pressure at the water temperature in the water section 1 is PS, then PA is smaller than PS unless the air in the air section 2a is saturated air. , water vapor is discharged from the water section 1 to the air section 2a in approximately proportion to the differential pressure ΔP. The water vapor discharged into the air section 2a is diffused to the outside 2b of the hole, and is further carried along with the air to the downstream side 2c of the air section by the fan 4.

In this way, the water vapor partial pressure PA at the interface of the air portion 2a is maintained low intermittently, so that water vapor is continuously discharged from the water side to the air side.

In this way, the air on the downstream side 2c becomes continuously humid. By supplying this humidified air on the downstream side a to the outside, a normal temperature evaporation type humidifier is established.

Based on the above principles, room temperature evaporative humidifiers are
First, because it is operated at a temperature close to room temperature, heat loss is small, there is little scale precipitation, the time from the start of operation to when sufficient humidification capacity is demonstrated (rise time) is short, and the temperature of the air in the room is small. In addition to exhibiting the general advantages of the room temperature evaporation method, such as having almost no impact, it is possible to create a pressure difference between the water side and the air side due to the effect of separating the water part and the air part with a hydrophobic membrane. In addition, by forming a membrane in the shape of one or more circular tubes, the contact area between water and air per unit volume can be increased, making it possible to increase the amount of humidification per unit time. For the first time, it has become possible to avoid the drawback of conventional room-temperature evaporative humidifiers, which have low capacity.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the humidifier of the present invention based on the above principle. The water part 1 and the air part 2 are formed by having substantially the same hollow bottomed cylinders projecting in parallel to each other, and having their opening sides sequentially connected to each other so as to have a plurality of convex side sections. They are separated by a hydrophobic porous membrane 3.

This membrane 3 is usually made of a polymeric material or a material such as ceramic.

Note that the cylindrical portion of the membrane 3 may be singular.

Next, the operation will be explained. By operating the fan 4, air flows in through the supply hole 5, and the porous membrane 3
is discharged from the discharge hole 6 through the outer surface of the discharge hole 6.
In this process, water vapor is discharged from the inside of the porous membrane 3 to the outside, so that the air discharged from the discharge holes 6 becomes moist air.

In the figure, 7 is a container, 8 is a ball tap (float switch) for maintaining an appropriate amount of water,
9 is an on-off valve, 10 is a water tap, and 11 is a water supply pipe.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment. The same numbers and symbols are used for the same parts as in FIG. In the figure, a water section 1 and an air section 2 are separated by a plurality of bottomed cylinders formed of a hydrophobic porous membrane 3.
An electric heater 12 is built in the lower part of the water section 1, and promotes the discharge of water vapor by appropriately heating the water.

By pressurizing the water sent from the faucet 10 by the pump 13, the discharge of water vapor is also promoted. The discharged water vapor is carried by the air flowing in from the intake hole 5 and is discharged from the discharge hole 6 by the fan 4.

Note that if a hydrophobic porous material and a general porous material are used in combination, the rigidity of the membrane will be further increased.

(Effects of the Invention) This invention is constructed as detailed above, and since the heater is operated at a temperature close to room temperature, heat radiation loss is small, scale precipitation is small, and sufficient humidification ability is exhibited from the start of operation. It exhibits the general advantages of room-temperature evaporation methods, such as having a short time to rise (rise time) and having little effect on the temperature of the air in the room, as well as separating the water and air areas with a hydrophobic membrane. This effect makes it possible to create a pressure difference between the water side and the air side.

In addition, since the membrane is formed to have multiple bottomed cylinders, the contact area between water and air per unit volume can be increased, making it possible to increase the amount of humidification per unit time. For the first time, it has become possible to avoid the drawback of conventional room-temperature evaporative humidifiers, which have low capacity.

Also, by providing a ball tap on the container, an appropriate amount of water can be maintained at all times.

As described above, according to the present invention, humidification is performed using a principle and structure different from that of the so-called room-temperature evaporation type, and the advantages of the conventional room-temperature evaporation type are maintained while overcoming its disadvantages, resulting in a large humidifying capacity per hour. It can provide a humidifier.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the humidification principle of this invention.
FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing one embodiment of the structure of the humidifier, and FIG. 3 is a side view of another embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Water part, 2... Air part, 3... Hydrophobic porous membrane, 4... Fan, 5... Air supply hole, 6... Discharge hole, 7... Container, 8... Ball tap, 9... ...Opening/closing valve, 10... Water tap, 11... Water supply pipe, 12... Electric heater, 13... Pump.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1 Hollow bottomed cylinders of approximately the same height are protruded in parallel to each other and their opening sides are successively connected to each other and integrally formed to have a plurality of convex side cross sections. The interior of the humidifier container 7 is separated into a water portion 1 and an air portion 2 by a hydrophobic porous membrane 3 made of a polymeric material or a ceramic material, and an air supply hole 5 and a discharge hole 6 are provided in the container 7. A fan 4 provided near the discharge hole 6 blows air into the air section 2 to discharge water vapor from the water section 1 to the air section 2 through the porous membrane 3, and the container 7 is provided with a ball tap 8. Container 7
A humidifier in which an on-off valve 9 is provided in a water supply pipe 11 that communicates a space above a water section 1 with a water supply faucet 10. 2. The humidifier according to claim 1, wherein the water portion 1 is heated by a heating means such as an electric heater 12 . 3. The humidifier according to claim 1, wherein the water section 2 is pressurized by a pressurizing means such as a pump 13 . 4. The humidifier according to claim 1, which is formed by laminating a hydrophobic porous material and a general porous material to form a porous membrane.