JP2012112746A - Electrical apparatus with ion emission function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize decrease of an amount of ions caused by presence of an ion measurement apparatus in measuring the amount of ions emitted in an electrical apparatus with an ion emission function.SOLUTION: The electrical apparatus with an ion emission function is provided with an ion generating device 2 generating ions by discharging in the air, and a draft air duct 1 and an air blower for sending out an air stream containing the ions generated from the ion generating device 2. A bypass passage 3 is formed contiguous to the draft air duct 1, and an ion measurement apparatus 10 and a valve device 6 are arranged in the bypass passage 3. Thus, it is selectable by opening/closing the valve device 6 whether or not making a part of the air stream flowing in the draft air duct 1 flow into the bypass passage 3. The valve device 6 includes an inlet valve 7 and an outlet valve 8. The ion measurement apparatus 10 consists of a collector electrode 11 and a repulsion electrode 12 which are arranged opposite to each other.

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric device with an ion emission function.

  Recently, an increasing number of electrical devices have a function of releasing ions into the air in order to sterilize and deodorize the air. In such an electric device, it is preferable that it is possible to grasp whether ions are generated and how much the generated amount is. An example of an ion measuring apparatus used for such a purpose can be seen in Patent Document 1.

  An ion measuring apparatus described in Patent Document 1 causes ions in the atmosphere to be adsorbed to an ion detection electrode to generate a potential according to the ion concentration in the atmosphere, and the potential generated in the ion detection electrode is a signal amplification circuit. And output as an ion measurement signal.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-4122

  As seen in Patent Document 1, an ion measuring apparatus has a mechanism for attracting positive ions or negative ions to a current collecting electrode (detecting electrode) and measuring the amount of ions by fluctuations in potential caused by the attracted ions. Many. If such an ion measuring device is placed in the air passage and the amount of ions is measured, ions flowing through the air passage are absorbed by the ion measuring device in a considerable proportion. Therefore, the amount of ions to be released into the air is drastically reduced. Also, even when such an ion measuring device is stopped, it should not stop sucking ions in the way that it is electrically cut off by a relay or the like unless the circuit is physically cut off. Has been reported.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and in measuring the amount of ions released in an electrical apparatus having an ion emission function, the reduction in the amount of ions due to the presence of the ion measuring device is minimized. The purpose is to do.

  According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an electrical apparatus with an ion emission function includes an ion generator that generates ions by discharging in the air, and a blower path that sends out an airflow including ions generated by the ion generator. And a bypass passage is formed in the air passage, and the bypass passage is provided with an ion measuring device and a valve device, and a part of the airflow flowing through the air passage is provided in the bypass passage. Whether or not to flow can be selected by opening and closing the valve device.

  Moreover, in the electric apparatus with an ion emission function configured as described above, it is preferable that the valve device includes an inlet valve that opens and closes an inlet of the bypass passage.

  Moreover, in the electric device with an ion emission function having the above-described configuration, it is preferable that the amount of ions delivered from the air passage can be adjusted by opening and closing the valve device.

  Further, in the electrical apparatus with an ion emission function configured as described above, the ion measuring device is configured by a collector electrode and a repulsion electrode that are arranged to face each other, and fluctuations in potential caused by ions attracted to the collector electrode The measurement principle is preferred.

  Further, in the electric device with an ion emission function having the above-described configuration, after opening the valve device and flowing a part of the airflow flowing through the air passage to the bypass passage, one of the current collecting electrode and the repulsion electrode or By setting both polarities, it is preferable to reduce ions having a specific polarity among the ions sent from the air passage.

  In the present invention, when measuring the amount of ions in the air flowing through the air passage, the ion measuring device is arranged in the bypass passage formed in the air passage instead of directly placing the ion measuring device in the air passage. Although ions contained in a part of the flowing air are absorbed by the ion measuring device, ions contained in most of the air flowing through the air passage are released to the outside as they are. For this reason, the rate at which effects such as sterilization and deodorization that are obtained by releasing ions are reduced by measuring the amount of ions is small. Further, if the valve device is closed and no airflow is allowed to flow through the bypass passage, the absorption of ions can be made zero.

It is a conceptual diagram of the electric equipment with an ion emission function according to the present invention. It is a conceptual diagram of the electric equipment with an ion emission function according to the present invention and shows a situation during the measurement of the amount of ions. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass path part of the electric equipment which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass path part of the electric equipment concerning a 1st embodiment, and shows the situation under ion quantity measurement. It is a figure explaining the measurement principle of an ion measuring device. It is a schematic diagram of an ion measurement circuit. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass path part of the electric equipment which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass way part of the electric equipment concerning a 2nd embodiment, and shows the situation under ion quantity measurement. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass path part of the electric equipment which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of the bypass path part of the electric equipment which concerns on 3rd Embodiment, and shows the condition during ion content measurement.

  As the electrical equipment according to the present invention, an air conditioner (not only for home use but also for in-vehicle use), an air purifier, and the like are assumed. A duct-shaped air passage 1 shown in FIG. 1 is provided in a part of the electric equipment. A blower (not shown) is combined with the air passage 1 to form an air flow that blows up the inside of the air passage 1 from the bottom to the top in FIG. The airflow flowing through the blower 1 is finally discharged out of the electric device.

An ion generator 2 is attached to the air passage 1. The ion generator 2 of the embodiment can simultaneously generate positive ions H ⁺ (H ₂ O) _m (m is an arbitrary natural number) and negative ions O ₂ ⁻ (H ₂ O) _n (n is an arbitrary natural number). A possible type is assumed, but is not limited to this type. The ion generator 2 generates positive ions and negative ions by discharging in the air, and the generated ions are released outside the apparatus by riding on the airflow flowing through the air passage 1.

  A bypass path 3 is formed outside the blower path 1. The bypass passage 3 has an inlet 4 and an outlet 5 communicating with the inside of the air passage 1 (see FIGS. 2 and 4). The inlet 4 is on the upstream side of the airflow than the outlet 5.

  The bypass path 3 is opened and closed by a valve device 6. The valve device 6 includes an inlet valve 7 that opens and closes the inlet 4 and an outlet valve 8 that opens and closes the outlet 5. Both the inlet valve 7 and the outlet valve 8 are electrically operated and can be opened and closed by a motor or an actuator (not shown).

  An ion measuring device 10 is disposed in the bypass path 3. The ion measuring apparatus 10 includes a current collecting electrode 11 and a repelling electrode 12 (see FIG. 5) that are arranged to face each other with a space therebetween.

  A control device 13 shown in FIG. 6 controls voltage application to the current collecting electrode 11 and the repulsive electrode 12. The controller includes a central processing unit (CPU) as a central component. The collecting electrode 11 is connected to the A / D input unit 15 of the control device 13 via the amplifier 14, and the repulsive electrode 12 is connected to the D / A output unit 16 of the control device 13.

  Positive ions have a positive potential and negative ions have a negative potential. When it is desired to capture (measure) positive ions, a positive potential is applied to the repulsive electrode 12. Then, according to Coulomb's law, positive ions receive a repulsive force from the repelling electrode 12 and move toward the collecting electrode 11. When the initial potential of the current collecting electrode 11 is set to a negative potential, positive ions are attracted to the current collecting electrode 11. The relationship of potential when capturing (measuring) negative ions is opposite to that of positive ions. FIG. 5 illustrates a situation in which a negative potential is applied to the repulsive electrode 12 and negative ions are directed toward the current collecting electrode 11. The current collecting electrode 11 may be applied with a potential opposite to that of the repelling electrode 12, or may be set to a ground potential (GND potential: ± zero).

  The positive ions or negative ions collected on the current collecting electrode 11 during a certain period of time generate different potentials on the current collecting electrode 11 according to the number of collected ions. By measuring the difference in potential, the amount of ions can be measured.

  A positive ion is a substance having a positive potential, and a negative ion is a substance having a negative potential. When one extra electron is bound to a substance, it becomes a negative ion. When negative ions enter the ion measuring air passage formed between the collecting electrode 11 and the repelling electrode 12, if the repelling electrode 12 is at a negative potential, it receives a repulsive force from the repelling electrode 12, and the collecting electrode If 11 has a positive potential, it receives an attractive force from the collecting electrode 11 and collides with the collecting electrode 11. The negative ions that collide with the current collecting electrode 11 attempt to be electrically neutralized, and one extra electron that the substance has moves to the current collecting electrode 11. Such a phenomenon is referred to as “sucking” in this specification.

  Based on the above measurement principle, the ion measuring apparatus 10 essentially reduces the amount of ions through its measurement behavior. Since the ion measuring apparatus 10 does not stop sucking ions even when it is stopped, if it is arranged in the air blowing path 1, the amount of ions that are going to be useful is reduced drastically by being discharged outside the apparatus. By disposing the ion measuring device 10 in the bypass passage 3 instead of in the blower passage 1, such inconvenience can be avoided and a new effect is also produced. This will be described below.

  The valve device 6 normally closes the inlet 4 and the outlet 5 of the bypass 3 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. The ion measuring device 10 is physically cut off from the airflow flowing through the air passage 1 and cannot measure the amount of ions. In other words, the ion measuring device 10 does not decrease positive ions or negative ions in the airflow.

  When measuring the ion concentration of the airflow flowing through the air passage 1, the valve device 6 is opened as shown in FIGS. Then, a part of the airflow flowing through the air passage 1 enters the bypass passage 3 from the inlet 4, passes through the ion measuring device 10, and returns from the outlet 5 to the air passage 1. Using the air passing through the ion measuring device 10, the ion concentration of the airflow flowing through the air passage 1 can be measured.

  It has been found that when the area of the ion sensing unit of the ion measuring apparatus 10, that is, the current collecting electrode 11 and the repulsive electrode 12, is constant, ions are absorbed in proportion to the air volume. Therefore, ions can be absorbed simultaneously with the measurement of the ion concentration, and the amount of ions discharged from the blower channel 1 can be adjusted. Since the amount of air flowing through the ion measuring device 10 changes depending on the degree of opening of the valve device 6, the amount of ions to be absorbed can be adjusted by adjusting the degree of opening of the valve device 6. Since the ion measuring device 10 absorbs ions only from the airflow flowing through the bypass passage 3, the ions are not absorbed more than necessary. Note that the air passage 1 and the bypass passage 3 are combined to form one space, and there is no change in the amount of air discharged from the air passage 1 even when the valve device 6 is opened.

  The current collecting electrode 11 and the repulsive electrode 12 in FIG. 5 are set to measure negative ions, and a negative potential is applied to the repulsive electrode 12. Both positive ions and negative ions are supplied to the ion measuring air path, positive ions are captured by the repulsive electrode 12, and negative ions are captured by the collecting electrode 11. Thereby, the amount of both positive ions and negative ions can be adjusted. If only negative ions are to be reduced, a positive potential may be applied to both the collecting electrode 11 and the repulsive electrode 12, and if only positive ions are to be decreased, a negative potential may be applied to both the collecting electrode 11 and the repelling electrode 12. .

If the apparatus according to the present invention is used, the amount of generated ions can be known from the set air volume, the degree of opening / closing of the valve device 6, and the measurement level of the ion measuring device 10. For example, in a measurement circuit using a resistance of 1 GΩ (gigaohm), when the electrode area is 1 cm ² , the circuit amplification is 10 times, and the output is 1 mV, the ion amount can be generally calculated by the following equation.
Number of ions N = (1 / 1.6022) * 10 ^ 19 / (10 ^ 9 * 10 * 10 ^ 3)
= 624,000 (per second)

  Actually, the number of ions hitting the electrode of the ion measuring apparatus 10 per second varies depending on the degree of opening and closing of the air passage and the air volume. That is, the measurement level measured in a state where the set air volume and the degree of opening and closing are determined is the amount of ions absorbed, that is, the amount of generated ions. However, since the ion generation amount obtained here is the amount absorbed by the ion measuring device 10, it is actually determined outside the electric device in a state where the valve device 6 is closed (a state where the ion amount is not measured). Correlation with the amount of ions measured at the place is taken, and from the level measured by the ion measuring device 10, the amount of ions discharged from the electrical device can be found from the correlation.

  As understood from the above, when it is desired to adjust only the ion amount without changing the air volume of the airflow flowing through the air passage 1, the object can be achieved by opening the valve device 6 when the ion measurement is not performed. it can.

  When the structure of the blower is specified, the air volume becomes constant when the motor rotates at a predetermined rotational speed. The wind blown out by the blower passes through the inside of the electric equipment and is discharged from the blower outlet to the outside. The ion measuring device 10 exists inside the electric device, and the amount of ions can be measured by opening the valve device 6 and passing a wind containing ions through the ion measuring device 10. Regardless of how it opens, the amount of air released outside the aircraft remains the same. When the valve device 6 is closed, the amount of ions contained therein is increased without changing the amount of air released outside the device, and when the valve device 6 is opened, the ions contained therein without changing the amount of air discharged outside the device. The amount can be reduced. At the same time, the amount of ions can be measured.

  Regarding the measurement of the amount of ions, a control for measuring the amount of ions when a predetermined time elapses after activation of the ion generator 2 mounted on an electric device such as an air conditioner or a predetermined value during operation of the ion generator 2 is performed. A control for periodically measuring the amount of ions every time, a control for measuring the amount of ions when the operation mode is switched, and the like can be considered. When adjusting the amount of positive ions or negative ions, the amount of ions is measured in parallel with the operation.

  When the valve device 6 is opened, by controlling the polarity of the repelling electrode 12 and by controlling the polarity of the current collecting electrode 11 in addition to the repelling electrode 12, one of positive ions and negative ions released outside the apparatus. Or both amounts can be adjusted. When the ion measuring device 10 is a type that has only a collecting electrode without a repulsive electrode, a positive polarity that is released to the outside of the apparatus by applying a potential of the opposite polarity to the polarity of the ion to be reduced to the collecting electrode. The amount of one or both of ions and negative ions can be adjusted.

  When it is desired to reduce many negative ions, the valve device 6 is opened widely and a positive potential (for example, 5 V) is applied to the repulsive electrode 12.

  When a small amount of positive ions is desired, the valve device 6 is opened small and a negative potential (for example, −5 V) is applied to the repulsive electrode 12.

  When it is desired to reduce both positive ions and negative ions to a normal level, the valve device 6 is opened moderately and a ground potential (GND potential: ± zero) is applied to the repulsive electrode.

  It is also possible to carry out the quantitative adjustment of positive ions and negative ions as described above by sequentially switching them in time series.

  In principle, the adjustment of the amount of ions in a conventional electric device with an ion emission function is performed by changing the air volume or changing the discharge voltage. However, as described above, the present invention changes both the air volume and the discharge voltage. It is possible to adjust only the ion amount without any problems.

  7 and 8 show a second embodiment of the bypass path 3. Here, the valve device 6 for opening and closing the inlet 4 and the outlet 5 is constituted by a single bimetal 17. As is well known, the bimetal 17 is a laminate of two types of metal plates having different coefficients of thermal expansion, and is used as a drive mechanism for a device such as a thermostat. One side of the bimetal 17 functions as the inlet valve 7 and the other side functions as the outlet valve 8.

  A ceramic heater 18 is combined with the bimetal 17. The ceramic heater 18 can adjust the amount of heat generated by controlling the amount of current, and is often used in electrical equipment as a relatively safe heater.

  The bimetal 17 maintains a shape without warping as shown in FIG. 7 when no current flows through the ceramic heater 18, and closes the inlet 4 and the outlet 5. When a current is passed through the ceramic heater 18 to generate heat, the temperature of the bimetal 17 rises and warps as shown in FIG. As a result, the inlet 4 and the outlet 5 are opened, and a part of the airflow flowing through the air blowing path 1 is taken into the bypass path 3.

  The temperature of the ceramic heater 18 that is energized also changes depending on the air volume of the airflow that flows through the air blowing path 1. For this reason, it is necessary to obtain the relationship between the value of the current flowing through the ceramic heater 18, the opening degree of the valve device 6, and the air volume by experiments. In addition, it is also possible to comprise the valve apparatus 6 using a shape memory alloy instead of a bimetal.

  9 and 10 show a third embodiment of the bypass path 3. Although the valve apparatus 6 is comprised by the bimetal 17 similarly to Embodiment 2, the point which made the exit 5 small and abolished the exit valve 8 differs from Embodiment 2. FIG.

  If the outlet 5 is large, the airflow flowing through the air blowing path 1 is caught in the bypass path 3 from the outlet 5, and there is a fear that ions are sucked up by the ion measuring device 10. Therefore, a valve is indispensable for the large outlet 5. If the outlet 5 is made smaller, the air flow is not caught in the bypass passage 3 from there, and there is no need to provide a valve. For this reason, in 3rd Embodiment, the bimetal 17 was able to be reduced in size compared with 2nd Embodiment.

  When a current is passed through the ceramic heater 18 to generate heat and the temperature of the bimetal 17 is raised, the bimetal 17 warps and the inlet 4 opens as shown in FIG. Thereby, since the airflow which enters the bypass path 3 from the inlet 4 and passes through the ion measuring device 10 and returns to the airflow path 1 from the outlet 5 is formed, the amount of ions can be measured from the airflow.

  In any embodiment from the first embodiment to the third embodiment, in addition to opening and closing of the valve device 6, a change in the air flow rate or a change in the discharge voltage of the ion generator 2, or both are performed simultaneously. Can do. This makes it possible to finely adjust the ion amount.

  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 can be widely used for electric devices with an ion emission function.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air supply path 2 Ion generator 3 Bypass path 4 Inlet 5 Outlet 6 Valve apparatus 7 Inlet valve 8 Outlet valve 10 Ion measuring apparatus 11 Current collection electrode 12 Repulsion electrode

Claims (5)

An ion generator that generates ions by discharging in air;
A blower passage and a blower for sending an airflow containing ions generated by the ion generator;
A bypass passage is formed in the air passage,
The bypass path includes a valve device and an ion measuring device disposed therein,
Whether or not to flow a part of the airflow flowing through the air flow path to the bypass path can be selected by opening and closing the valve device.   The electrical apparatus with an ion emission function according to claim 1, wherein the valve device includes an inlet valve that opens and closes an inlet of the bypass passage.   The electric device with an ion emission function according to claim 1, wherein the amount of ions delivered from the air passage is adjustable by opening and closing the valve device.   2. The ion measuring apparatus includes a collecting electrode and a repelling electrode arranged to face each other, and a fluctuation in potential caused by ions attracted to the collecting electrode is used as a principle of measuring an ion amount. 4. An electric device with an ion emission function according to any one of 3 above.   The valve device is opened and a part of the airflow flowing through the air passage is caused to flow through the bypass passage, and then sent from the air passage according to the polarity setting of one or both of the collecting electrode and the repulsion electrode. The electrical device with an ion emission function according to claim 4, wherein ions having a specific polarity are reduced among the ions.

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