JP2006289169A - Air cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air cleaner ensuring a sufficient area of the filter unit capturing fine dust from the air after capturing of coarse dust with a cyclone system and allowing assembling in a relatively thin type. <P>SOLUTION: A filter unit 20 is arranged within an air cleaner 1 so as to make the dust-capturing surface vertical, and its front surface is covered with a front panel 11. A cyclone dust-collector 40 is arranged on the back surface of the front panel 11 so as to stand in line with the filter unit 20. Indoor air is first sucked into the cyclone dust collector 40, and, after separation of coarse dust P, supplied to the filter unit 20. There is provided a dust box 43 receiving coarse dust P in the lower part of the dust collector 40, and the dust box 43 is removable from the side of the air cleaner 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an air cleaner that removes contaminants such as dust and tobacco smoke from indoor air.

  In modern life, various kinds of fine particles that affect health, such as pollen and dust, enter the house through openings in various places. For this reason, the need for air purifiers is increasing year by year.

  The air cleaner circulates room air and collects dust and contaminants floating in the air with a filter. There are various levels of objects floating in the air, and the usual structure is to collect them step by step in order from the largest. Of these, the level called “coarse dust” such as cotton dust was often collected by a net-like “prefilter”.

If the air purifier is used for a long period of time, coarse dust accumulates on the filter, and bad odor is generated, or the dust collecting ability decreases due to an increase in ventilation resistance. For this reason, it was necessary to clean the filter in accordance with the degree of coarse dust accumulation, and in some cases to replace the filter. Therefore, the idea of collecting coarse dust with a cyclone device has been born in order to reduce the trouble of cleaning the filter. The example of the air cleaner provided with the cyclone apparatus in patent document 1 can be seen.
JP 2002-349918 A (page 3 to page 4, FIGS. 1 to 3)

  In the air cleaner described in Patent Document 1, the upstream cyclone device swirls air around the vertical axis, and the downstream dust collecting means is configured so that the dust collecting surface is horizontal. Located below. Since the cyclone device overlaps the dust collecting means, the area of the dust collecting means depends on the planar projection area of the cyclone device and cannot be made very large. Nevertheless, since the dust collecting means is arranged horizontally, the air purifier requires a considerable depth, which hinders efficient use of the floor. In addition, it is a shape that is difficult to adapt to use on a wall.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in an air cleaner that collects coarse dust in the air by a cyclone method, the area of the filter unit that collects fine dust from the air after coarse dust collection is reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air purifier that can be sufficiently secured and can be formed in a relatively thin shape, and has a structure that does not cause a sense of incongruity even when used in a wall-mounted manner.

  (1) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a blower that circulates room air, a filter unit that is arranged in a circulating airflow of the room air, and traps dust in the air on a vertical dust trapping surface; In the air purifier having a front panel that covers the front surface of the filter unit, a cyclone dust collecting unit that pretreats the air purified by the filter unit in a form arranged next to the filter unit on the back surface of the front panel. It is characterized by the arrangement of the device.

  According to this configuration, air that has been pretreated by the cyclone dust collector and does not contain coarse dust can be supplied to the filter unit. As a result, coarse dust accumulates on the filter unit and a bad odor is generated, or the filter unit is lined up next to the cyclone dust collector.Therefore, a sufficient dust collection area regardless of the plane projection area of the cyclone dust collector. Can be secured. And it is possible to comprise the whole air cleaner thinly, and it becomes possible to use a floor efficiently. Further, since the cyclone dust collector is provided on the back surface of the front panel normally provided in the air cleaner, there is no sense of incongruity in design, and the room atmosphere is not impaired even when used in a wall-mounted state.

  (2) Moreover, the present invention is characterized in that, in the air cleaner having the above-described configuration, the cyclone dust collecting device has a dust box at a lower portion, and the dust box is detachable from a side surface of the air cleaner.

  According to this configuration, by taking out the dust box, the coarse dust collected by the cyclone dust collector can be easily discarded without contaminating the hands. Further, since the dust box is detachable from the side of the air cleaner, it is not necessary to provide an opening for putting in and out the dust box in front of the front panel, and the design of the front panel is not impaired.

  According to the present invention, an air cleaner capable of efficiently using the floor by configuring the whole thinly by sufficiently arranging the area of the filter unit by devising the arrangement of the cyclone dust collector and the filter unit. Can provide. Moreover, since the cyclone dust collector is provided on the back surface of the front panel normally provided in the air cleaner, there is no sense of incongruity in design, and the atmosphere of the room is not impaired even when used in a wall-mounted state.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is a front view of the air cleaner, FIG. 2 is a top view of the air cleaner, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the air cleaner, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 3, and FIG. It is -B sectional drawing.

  The outer shell portion of the air purifier 1 is mainly composed of a main body 10 in which a flat box is vertically set up and a front panel 11 detachably attached to the front surface of the main body 10. A filter unit housing recess 12 is formed on the front side of the main body 10 (see FIG. 4), and a filter unit 20 having a structure in which a deodorizing filter 21 and a dust collecting filter 22 are stacked in the front and rear is housed therein. The deodorizing filter 21 adsorbs odor components in the air with activated carbon or the like, and the dust collection filter 22 filters fine dust in the air. The filter unit 20 is held in the filter unit housing recess 12 so that the dust capturing surface is vertical. A front panel 11 covers the front opening of the filter unit housing recess 12 to form a filter unit front space 13.

  A blower 30 that sucks air through the filter unit 20 is installed behind the filter unit housing recess 12. The blower 30 includes a fan casing 31 formed inside the main body 10, a sirocco fan 32 disposed inside the fan casing 31, and an electric motor 33 that rotates the sirocco fan 32. An air outlet 34 of the fan casing 31 opens on the upper surface of the main body 10. A lattice-shaped grille 35 (see FIG. 2) is provided at the air outlet 34.

  The front panel 11 protrudes further to the left side than the filter unit housing recess 12, and the cyclone dust collecting device 40 is arranged on the back surface of this portion so as to be arranged next to the filter unit 20. The cyclone dust collecting device 40 has a cylindrical shape with the vertical axis, and a ventilation chamber 41 communicating with the filter unit front space 13 is formed at the top, and a swirl chamber 42 is formed below the ventilation chamber 41. A dust box 43 is disposed at the bottom.

  The swirl chamber 42 is for swirling air around a vertical axis, and a suction port 44 for introducing room air is provided on the side surface in a tangential direction of the inner peripheral surface. An exhaust cylinder 45 is disposed at the center of the swirl chamber 42. The exhaust cylinder 45 is a cylindrical frame with a net-like filter 46 stretched, and the inside thereof communicates with the ventilation chamber 41. The lower end of the exhaust cylinder 45 is closed with a disc 47. An annular slit 48 is formed between the peripheral edge of the disc 47 and the inner peripheral surface of the swirl chamber 42.

  The dust box 43 has a knob 49 on its side surface, and can be pulled out to the left side of the air purifier 1 by pulling it.

  The operation of the air cleaner 1 is as follows. When the blower 30 is driven, a negative pressure is generated inside the swirl chamber 42, and room air is sucked from the suction port 44. The airflow of the room air enters the swirl chamber 42 and then swirls around the vertical axis along the inner peripheral surface of the swirl chamber 42. The coarse dust P contained in the room air is separated from the air by the centrifugal force at that time, falls into the dust box 43 from the slit 48, and is received by the dust box 43. Thereby, the coarse dust P in the airflow can be collected in the dust box 43 without being adsorbed by the filter unit 20.

  The airflow swirling in the swirl chamber 40 gradually moves toward the center and is sucked into the exhaust pipe 45. At this time, even if the coarse dust P remains in the airflow, it is captured by the net filter 46. The airflow sucked into the exhaust pipe 45 enters the ventilation chamber 41 and enters the filter unit front space 13 from there. The air that has entered the filter unit front space 13 passes through the filter unit 20 and is sucked into the blower 30. In the process, odorous components in the air are adsorbed by the deodorizing filter 21 and fine dust is collected by the dust collecting filter 22. The air cleaned by the filter unit 20 is blown out from the outlet 34. As a result, the airflow is circulated into the room from the suction port 44 horizontally and blown upward from the blowout port 34.

  If the operation of the air cleaner 1 is continued, the coarse dust P gradually accumulates in the dust box 43. When the amount of accumulated coarse dust increases, the operation of the air purifier 1 is stopped, the dust box 43 is taken out, and the coarse dust P inside is discarded. The emptied dust box 43 is set in the air cleaner 1 and the operation is resumed. Note that at least a part of the dust box 43 is preferably made of a transparent material so that the amount of coarse dust accumulated can be seen at a glance, and the inside can be seen through.

  If used for a long time, the filter unit 20 is clogged with fine dust. In such a case, the front panel 11 is removed and the filter unit 20 is taken out and cleaned or replaced with a new filter unit 20.

    Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

    The present invention is widely applicable to air cleaners, air conditioners, electric ceramic fan heaters, petroleum fan heaters and the like that purify indoor air.

Front view of air purifier Top view of air purifier Vertical section of air purifier AA sectional view of FIG. BB sectional view of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air cleaner 10 Main part 11 Front panel 13 Filter unit front space 20 Filter unit 30 Blower 40 Cyclone dust collector 41 Ventilation chamber 42 Swivel chamber 43 Dust box 44 Suction port 45 Exhaust pipe 46 Net-shaped filter 47 Disc 48 Slit 49 Knob

Claims (2)

Air provided with a blower that circulates indoor air, a filter unit that is disposed in a circulating airflow of the indoor air, and that traps dust in the air with a vertical dust trapping surface, and a front panel that covers the front surface of the filter unit In the purifier,
An air cleaner, wherein a cyclone dust collector for pre-treating air to be purified by the filter unit is arranged on the back surface of the front panel in a form side by side with the filter unit.   The air cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the cyclone dust collecting device has a dust box at a lower portion, and the dust box is detachable from a side surface of the air cleaner.

Images