EP1226392B1

EP1226392B1 - Working environment room

Info

Publication number: EP1226392B1
Application number: EP00975112A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bo Lindholm
Original assignee: Mobiroom AB
Current assignee: Mobiroom AB
Priority date: 1999-10-29
Filing date: 2000-10-27
Publication date: 2005-02-09
Anticipated expiration: 2020-10-27
Also published as: ATE289043T1; DE60018091T2; WO2001031261A1; SE9903904L; SE9903904D0; SE515063C2; DE60018091D1; EP1226392A1; AU1320901A

Abstract

A working environment room comprises at least four substantially elongate, vertical legs (10, 20, 30, 40) which have a lower end and an upper end, and a ceiling (91) which is joined to the legs (10, 20, 30, 40) at the upper end of the respective legs and which interconnects the legs. Each of the legs (10, 20, 30, 40) supports fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) which are adapted to be driven in at least two operating modes, each fan means being adapted to supply air to the room in a first operating mode and to exhaust air from the room in a second operating mode, and each fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) being individually controllable between said two operating modes for adjustment of the air change of the working environment room.

Description

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a working environment room comprising at least four substantially elongate, vertical legs which have a lower end and an upper end, and a ceiling which is joined to the legs at the upper end of the respective legs and which interconnects the legs.

Technical Background

Air-borne residual products are often generated or emanate in welding, grinding, painting, washing or similar work. For instance, when welding flue gases commonly emanate, when grinding particles of ground-off material usually emanate, when painting solvents and splashes of paint often emanate, and when washing solvents or relatively strong detergents often emanate. In many cases, these residual products are injurious to people or to the environment. Many of the substances are injurious because they are used in high concentrations in the above-mentioned connections.

To solve these problems, use can, for instance, be made of so-called local extractors. Often the local extractor consists of a fan which builds up a negative pressure in a tube or a pipe, whose end is adapted to be located in the vicinity of the area in which the residual product emanates. The end of the tube can, for instance, be positioned immediately above the place where the welding is performed, thereby extracting the flue gas. The fan conducts the air mixed with flue gas to a filter or directly to the outside where the flue gas can be released. If the residual products cannot be let out directly, the air is forced to pass a filter or some other type of cleaning means.

One drawback of local extractors is that their effect is often too "local". If the operation is performed in a large area, many local extractors must be used. Furthermore, relatively powerful fans must be used to create a sufficiently strong suction force for the residual products to be collected to a satisfactory extent.

For some types of work, for instance painting and washing, the opposite is true as concerns the removal of non-desirable substances. In these types of operations, it is desirable to prevent pollutants from entering the working area since they can destroy the final result. Pollutants can, for instance, ruin the paint of cars or other painted steel products.

One way to provide a clean environment for operations that are sensitive to pollutants is to use so-called cleanrooms. In many cases, these cleanrooms are constructed such that a room is made tight and the overall ventilation of the room is controlled so as to obtain a pressure slightly above atmospheric in the room in relation to the ambient air. This positive pressure prevents pollutants in the form of air-borne particles from entering the room and destroying the work result. It is often necessary to build relatively large rooms, since all the work, storage of equipment, etc, must be effected in the room. Furthermore, it is often expensive to build and maintain such a room. In many industries, such rooms are not needed to a sufficiently large extent to justify the investments required.

Today, there are thus two different ways of solving the problem of how to obtain a clean working environment. One of the solutions can deal with the removal of residual products from a working area and the other solution can prevent undesired particles from entering the working area.

For instance, when painting it is desirable to keep out polluting particles at the same time as released solvent fumes and splashes of paint should be removed.

One possible solution would be to arrange a local extractor (with negative pressure) inside a cleanroom (with positive pressure). This solution, however, still suffers from the above-mentioned drawbacks associated with local extractors. In many cases, the dimensions of the working area exceed the capacity of the local extractor. Furthermore, there is a great risk that an operation generating residual products should contaminate the cleanroom. Since cleanrooms often represent a great investment, it is not justifiable to carry out dirty operations in a cleanroom.

Today, there is no solution that satisfactorily solves the problem of how to remove residual products while keeping out polluting particles.

In addition, prior-art solutions to these problems are associated with problems concerning the capacity and the dimensions of the working area (local extractors) or else they require too great investments.

A prior art working environment room according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from US-A-3,302,547.

Summary of the Invention

One object of the invention is to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problems.

Another object of the invention is to provide a working environment room which is flexible so that it can be used in many different applications without necessitating any modification.

These objects are achieved by means of a working environment room which is of the kind stated by way of introduction and which is characterised in that the legs support fan means which are adapted to be driven in at least two operating modes, i.e. supply of air to the room and exhaustion of air from the room, respectively, and that each fans means is individually controllable between said two operating modes for adjustment of the air change of the working environment room.

Since the legs each support a fan means which is individually controllable, it is possible to obtain air flows which are directed in a desired manner through the room. The air can, for instance, be driven in a certain direction by one or more adjacent fan means supplying air and one or more opposed fan means exhausting air. This provides a distinct transport of air from the supply to the exhaustion. Owing to this transport of air, residual products in the form of flue gas or the like can be removed. As the fan means can be individually controlled, it is also possible to provide a positive pressure, or negative pressure if desired, which can block the inflow of dust or other air-borne polluting particles into the working environment room. As a result, the above-mentioned problems are solved. The inventive working environment room solves all the problems stated above. Residual products can be exhausted, pollutants can be kept out and the room can be used for various fields of application without necessitating any modification.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are stated in the dependent claims.

According to a preferred embodiment, each leg supports an air duct which is connected to said fan means and which extends along substantially the entire length of the leg. By means of this design, the air can be supplied or exhausted in different positions along the extension of the leg, at the same time as the positioning of the fan means does not limit the operation.

Preferably, each air duct has at least one main opening provided with a blade damper and facing the interior of the room for air supply or air exhaustion.

Each duct, advantageously, has at least two main openings facing the interior of the room, the two openings being located in different positions along the extension of the leg. As a consequence, it is possible to control the aid flow in a simple manner so that air is exhausted or supplied at different vertical levels in the room. It is also possible to control the air flow so that it follows diagonal lines from the upper ends of the legs at one or more legs and the lower ends at the other legs, which is desirable in many applications in which flue gas forms or similar applications in which it is necessary to remove air-borne contaminants.

The control of the air flow can be further increased by providing each main opening with an individually operable damper.

Moreover, the working environment room advantageously comprises a number of wall elements which are individually movable between a closed position, in which each wall element almost covers the substantially vertical, geometrical plane which is made up by two adjacent legs, and an open position, in which the wall elements are removed from said plane. The walls cause the air change to be controlled even more by the fan means, instead of an air change taking place via the side surfaces of the room. By designing the wall elements so as to be movable between a closed and an open position, the insertion of objects into the room is facilitated irrespective of whether the object or the room is moved.

The air duct in each leg advantageously has two side openings, each of which is directed towards a respective leg of the two adjacent legs. Owing to this design, air curtains form in the planes which are made up by two adjacent legs. These air curtains, in interaction with the walls or alone, prevent, or at least reduce, the air change between the room and the outside via the wall surfaces of the room.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings which, for the purpose of exemplification, show a currently preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view, seen obliquely from below, of the working environment room with the respective individually movable wall elements in a closed position.

Fig. 2 is a view corresponding to that in Fig. 1, the respective wall elements being in an open position.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view, seen obliquely from above, of the working environment room shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a long side view of the working environment room shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a section along the line V-V in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a section along the line VI-VI in Fig. 4.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment

As seen in the Figures, the working environment room has the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped which is defined by four substantially vertical,

elongate legs

10, 20, 30, 40. Between them, the

legs

10, 20, 30, 40 make up two long sides and two short sides. Both the long sides and the short sides can be covered or be left completely open by means of four individually

movable wall elements

50, 60, 70, 80. The

wall elements

50, 60, 70, 80 can, for instance, be some kind of folding walls, louver walls or some other type of wall element that requires little space in its folded position or position open relative to the room, compared with the surface that it covers in its unfolded position or position closed relative to the room.

The four

legs

10, 20, 30, 40 are connected at their upper ends by a rectangular frame construction 90 which supports a ceiling 91. The ceiling 91 can be formed in one piece, but it can also be formed of a number of separate elements 91a-c.

The construction of a leg 20 will be described below. The

other legs

10, 30, 40 are constructed in a corresponding manner. In the description, reference will be made to parts of said leg 20 and in the drawings corresponding reference numerals will be used for corresponding parts of the

other legs

10, 30, 40.

The leg 20 is hollow and thus supports or defines a duct 21 which extends substantially in the entire longitudinal direction of the leg 20. At its upper end, the leg 20 supports a fan 22, which is adapted to supply or exhaust air from the interior of the room.

The fan 22 is frequency controlled and can be controlled so as to conduct air in both directions and in a number of different air transport capacity levels.

The duct 21 has three main openings 23a-c which are spaced-apart and aligned on top of each other along the longitudinal extension of the leg 20. The three main openings 23a-c have equal dimensions and cover almost the entire length of the leg. Each of the main openings 23a-c is provided with a blade damper, which is individually operable in such a manner that it can be adjusted so as to direct an air flow emanating from the respective openings in an optional direction, both as concerns the vertical and the horizontal direction. In case of an inflow of air, the air can be drawn from an optional direction in a corresponding manner. Each of the dampers can also be closed so that the air change through the respective openings is blocked.

Also the side openings 24a-c and 25a-c are provided with dampers corresponding to those of the main openings 23a-c.

In cross-section, the leg 20 has the shape of a quarter of a uniform hexagon. The lines that separate the cross-section of the leg 20 from a hexagon are directed away from the room and the only remaining unbroken edge extends diagonally in the room. The main openings 23a-c are located on said unbroken edge, whereas the side openings 24a-c and 25a-c are situated on the edge faces which are divided in halves and directed towards the

adjacent legs

10 and 40, respectively. The main openings 23a-c and the side openings 24a-c and 25a-c cover substantially the entire side faces in the cross-section of the duct 21, which means that the faces of almost the entire leg 20 which are facing the room consist of openings 23a-c, 24a-c, 25a-c provided with dampers.

As mentioned above, the

other legs

10, 30, 40 are constructed in a corresponding manner and features corresponding to those described above are shown in the drawings.

By providing the legs with the above-described ducts, openings, dampers and fans, it is possible to control the air flow in a number of different ways in the room to manage a number of different situations in various kinds of operations which can be performed in the room.

The air flow can, for instance, be controlled so as to create a draught from the floor on one side of the room to the ceiling on the other, opposite side of the room. It would also be possible to make the draught form a number of diagonals extending parallel to each other horizontally from one corner to the other corner of the room. The air flows can be controlled in an endless number of ways depending on current needs.

It is also possible to build up a positive pressure in the room even if the fans are allowed to cooperate to create a draught in the room. This is achieved by adjusting the fans which supply air to the room in such a manner that they temporarily have a somewhat higher operating capacity than the fans which exhaust air from the room. This mode of operation may, for instance, be suitable when something is to be painted or coated and it is desirable to prevent pollutants from destroying the paint at the same time as paint particles are to be removed to maintain an acceptable working environment.

With a maintained draught through the room, it is also possible to obtain a negative pressure in the room in a corresponding manner by exhausting somewhat more air than what is supplied to the room. This mode of operation can be suitable when it is to be positively ensured that no residual product generated by the operation performed in the room can reach the ambient air.

By using side openings, which are directed in such a anner that the air is supplied or exhausted, with the dampers in a straight position, so that a draught forms along the side surfaces of the room, a kind of air barrier is provided which further blocks the passage of particles between the interior of the room and the ambient air.

At their lower end, the

respective legs

10, 20, 30, 40 support a

wheel

16, 26, 36, 46 which is adapted to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the

leg

10, 20, 30, 40. When the

wheels

16, 26, 36, 46 are in an extended position the entire room can be moved, and when they are in a retracted position the room rests firmly on the base since the

respective legs

10, 20, 30, 40 abut directly against the base.

The

fan systems

11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32, 41, 42 in the

legs

10, 20, 30, 40 can also be supplemented with air ducts 92 in the frame construction 90 that interconnects the

legs

10, 20, 30, 40 and supports the ceiling 91. These air ducts 92 can communicate with the other parts of the

ventilation system

11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32, 41, 42 of the room. The ducts 92 are provided with a number of openings 93 which can be provided with dampers.

According to another preferred embodiment, the room is intended to be used in a connection where a number of working stations are successively arranged. In this case, it may, for instance, be sufficient that the two long sides have removable walls. Thus, use can be made of one or both of the short side walls to hang up tools and the like. If the working stations are located along an existing wall, it is also conceivable to replace one of the walls with a sealing or the like abutting against the fixed wall.

It will be understood that a number of modifications of the described embodiments of the invention are feasible within the scope of the invention, which is defined in the appended claims.

The room can also have a shape other than rectangular, and for instance be square, but it can also have more corners and other more complicated shapes. The arrangement of fans in the legs ensures good ventilation also when other shapes are used.

The treatment of the air entering or leaving the room depends on in what connection and for what purpose the room is used. In some cases, the air change is sufficient, while in other cases some kind of filtration may be necessary.

The room can be used indoors as well as outdoors. In case of outdoor use, the ventilation means can, for instance, also serve as a hot-air source to supply heat but also to create a draught in the room.

Claims

A working environment room comprising
at least four substantially elongate, vertical legs (10, 20, 30, 40) which have a lower end and an upper end, and
a ceiling (91) which is joined to the legs (10, 20, 30, 40) at the upper end of the respective legs and which interconnects the legs, characterised in that each of the legs (10, 20, 30, 40) supports fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) which are adapted to be driven in at least two operating modes, each fan means being adapted to supply air to the room in a first operating mode and to exhaust air from the room in a second operating mode, and
that each fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) is individually controllable between said two operating modes for adjustment of the air change of the working environment room.
A working environment room as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that each leg (10, 20, 30, 40) supports an air duct (11, 21, 31, 41) which is connected to said fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) and which extends along substantially the entire length of the leg (10, 20, 30, 40).
A working environment room as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that each air duct (11, 21, 31, 41) has at least one main opening (13, 23, 33, 43) provided with a damper and facing the interior of the room.
A working environment room as claimed in claim 2 or 3, characterised in that each duct (11, 21, 31, 41) has at least two main openings (13a-c, 23a-c, 33a-c, 43a-c) facing the interior of the room, the two openings being located in different positions along the extension of the leg (10, 20, 30, 40).
A working environment room as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that each main opening (13a-c, 23a-c, 33a-c, 43a-c) is provided with an individually operable damper.
A working environment room as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a number of wall elements (50, 60, 70, 80) which are individually movable between a closed position, in which each wall element almost covers the substantially vertical, geometrical plane which is made up by two adjacent legs, and an open position, in which the wall elements are removed from said plane.
A working environment room as claimed in any one of claims 2-6, characterised in that the duct (11, 21, 31, 41) in each leg (10, 20, 30, 40) has two side openings (14-15, 24-25, 34-35, 44-45) each of which is directed towards a respective leg of the two adjacent legs.
A working environment room as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that the side openings (14-15, 24-25, 34-35, 44-45) have an extension in the longitudinal direction of the legs (10, 20, 30, 40) substantially from the upper to the lower end of the leg.
A working environment room as claimed in claim 7 or 8, characterised in that each of the side openings (14-15, 24-25, 34-35, 44-45) is divided in the longitudinal direction of the leg (10, 20, 30, 40) into at least two side openings (14a-c, 15a-c, 24a-c, 25a-c, 34a-c, 35a-c, 44a-c, 45a-c), which are placed on top of each other in the longitudinal direction of the leg.
A working environment room as claimed in any one of claims 7-9, characterised in that the side openings (14a-c, 15a-c, 24a-c, 25a-c, 34a-c, 35a-c, 44a-c, 45a-c) are provided with dampers.
A working environment room as claimed in claim 10, characterised in that the dampers are operable individually.
A working environment room as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising operating means (16, 26, 36, 46) which are arranged at the lower ends of the legs and with the aid of which the working environment room is movable.
A working environment room as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the fan means (12, 22, 32, 42) are frequency-controlled fans.