JP2002014329A - Air cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air cleaner having a more inexpensive display part. SOLUTION: The display part 5 of the air cleaner has a structure of a transmissive liquid crystal display panel 11 and a back light device 12 attached with a light diffusing film 13 laminated on the back face of the panel. The light diffusing film 13 reflects external light A and transmits the light B from the back light with high transmittance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air purifier and, more particularly, to an improvement of an indicator thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, a transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) has been used as a display for displaying operation information and the like of an air purifier. The transflective LCD can be used as a reflective LCD using extraneous light, and can also be used as a transmissive LCD using a backlight. In a usage environment with appropriate brightness, the display content can be viewed even when the backlight is not turned on. When the backlight is turned on, the display content can be emphasized by light emission of the display panel. That is, such an LCD has both an energy saving effect and a rich expressive power.

[0003]

However, in such a transflective LCD, the amount of light is greatly attenuated when the backlight is transmitted. Therefore, in order to obtain sufficient illuminance, the amount of light from the backlight light source is increased. There is a need to. For this reason, there is a problem that the backlight light source must be made large or the applied voltage must be increased, resulting in high cost. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an air purifier having an inexpensive indicator.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an air purifier having a display capable of visually recognizing display contents by extraneous light and visually recognizing display contents by a backlight.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an air purifier having a display unit for displaying operation information, filter replacement information, and the like. The display unit has a liquid crystal display panel, and a backlight device disposed on the back side of the liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal display panel uses a light transmission type panel, and the backlight device has a light source. An air purifier comprising: a light guide plate for guiding light to the back surface of a liquid crystal display panel; and a light diffusion film for diffusing light laminated on the surface of the light guide plate.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the light diffusion film is a light transmission film that transmits light so that light guided to the light guide plate is diffused toward the liquid crystal display panel.
2. The air purifier according to claim 1, wherein a surface of the light diffusion film (a surface that contacts the liquid crystal display panel) has a surface light diffusion layer capable of reflecting light coming from the liquid crystal display panel side. According to the first aspect, since the light transmission type panel is used for the liquid crystal display panel, the light transmittance of the liquid crystal display panel is good, and even if a light source having a small amount of light is used for the backlight device, display is performed on the liquid crystal display panel. The visibility of the displayed contents does not deteriorate.

According to the first and second aspects, even when illumination by the backlight device is not performed, light incident from the front side of the liquid crystal display panel can be reflected by the light diffusion film on the surface of the backlight device. The liquid crystal display panel can also be used as a reflection type liquid crystal display using extraneous light.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an overall configuration of an air purifier 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The air purifier 1 has a main body housing 2 and a front panel 3 fitted to a front surface of the main body 2. A motor (not shown) and a blower fan rotated by the motor are provided in the main body housing 2.
Air is drawn in from the front panel 3 by the blower fan,
After being cleaned, the air is blown from the blow grill 4 on the upper surface of the main body housing 2. The air is mainly cleaned by the ionization / dust collection unit 6 housed in the main body housing 2.

An indicator 5 is provided below the front surface of the main housing 2. The display 5 is for displaying an operation state, a filter replacement time, and the like. FIG. 2 is an illustrative sectional view for explaining the structure of the display 5 of the air purifier according to one embodiment of the present invention. The display 5 has a transmissive liquid crystal display panel 11 and a backlight device 12 having a light diffusing film 13 laminated on the rear surface thereof. Although not shown, the backlight device 12 includes a light source and a light guide plate.

When the light source is not turned on, the extraneous light A is applied to the surface of the light diffusion film 13, that is, the light diffusion film 1.
3 is reflected by the surface in contact with the transmissive liquid crystal display panel 11. Therefore, the display content of the transmission type liquid crystal display panel 11 can be visually recognized by the reflected light. When the light source is on, the backlight light B transmitted through the light guide plate of the backlight device 12 passes through the light diffusion film 13 and
The display contents of the transmission type liquid crystal display panel 11 can be visually recognized.

At this time, the amount of the backlight light B does not greatly attenuate as in the case of transmitting through the transflective liquid crystal display panel. Therefore, it is not necessary to increase the light amount of the backlight light source, so that the display unit can be inexpensive. With such an inexpensive configuration, the same performance as a high-cost transflective liquid crystal display panel can be obtained. FIG. 3 shows the light diffusion film 1
FIG. 4 is an illustrative sectional view for explaining an example of the structure of FIG. The light diffusion film 13 is formed, for example, by roughening the surface light diffusion layer 1 on the surface of a polyester film 14 as a base material.
5 is formed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the switching of display when such a display is used. The air purifier 1 is provided with a control unit (not shown) constituted by a microcomputer or the like, and the control unit receives a detection output of a dirt detection sensor (not shown). Based on this detection output, the operation mode, display contents of the display,
The display style of the display is determined. The controller determines whether the air is clean based on the detection output (S1). When it is determined that the air is clean, a step of turning off the backlight (S5) is executed. If the backlight has been turned on by that time, the backlight is turned off. If the backlight has been turned off by then, the backlight remains off. Is maintained.

If it is determined that the air is not clean,
The operation is started in a mode according to the degree of air contamination (S
2) Then, the backlight of the display unit is turned on (S)
3). Accordingly, the display unit displays the operation mode and at the same time, the liquid crystal display panel emits light, so that the user is alerted to the start of the operation and can easily recognize the operation state correctly. Next, it is determined whether or not a time t (for example, about several minutes) has elapsed since the backlight was turned on (S4). If t hours have not passed,
The same determination step is executed again (S4). If the time t has elapsed, the backlight is turned off (S5). Only when the driving mode is changed, the user needs to be alerted. Therefore, if the backlight is turned on for a short time (t time), the purpose is achieved. That is, when there is no change in the operation state, the energy saving effect can be obtained by turning off the backlight. Since the display unit 5 of the air purifier of the present invention also functions as a reflection type liquid crystal display panel using extraneous light, the display contents can be checked if necessary even when the backlight is off.

[0014] Instead of turning off the backlight,
The number of light sources of the backlight may be reduced so that the liquid crystal display panel emits light light. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified within the scope of the claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an overall configuration of an air purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative sectional view for explaining the structure of a display device of the air purifier according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an illustrative cross-sectional view for explaining a structure of a light diffusion film used for a display of an air purifier according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing switching of display of the air purifier of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air purifier 5 Display 11 Transmissive liquid crystal display panel 12 Backlight device 13 Light diffusion film 14 Polyester film 15 Surface light diffusion layer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H088 EA22 HA28 HA30 KA30 MA20 2H091 FA31Z FA41Z LA30 MA10 4D058 NA02 NA07 NA08 NA10 PA11 SA01

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An air purifier (1) having a display unit (5) for displaying operation information, filter replacement information, and the like, wherein the display unit (5) includes a liquid crystal display panel (11); A backlight device (12) disposed on the back side of the liquid crystal display panel (11); a light transmission type panel is used for the liquid crystal display panel (11); An air purifier comprising: a light guide plate for guiding light to a back surface of a liquid crystal display panel; and a light diffusion film (13) for diffusing light laminated on a surface of the light guide plate. 2. The light-diffusing film (13) is a light-transmitting film that transmits light so that light guided to the light guide plate is diffused toward the liquid crystal display panel (11). 2. The air purifier according to claim 1, wherein the surface (the surface in contact with the liquid crystal display panel) has a surface light diffusion layer (15) capable of reflecting light coming from the liquid crystal display panel side.