JP2014018786A - Scale removing apparatus and humidifier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a scale removing apparatus for obtaining water from which ions of group 2 elements are removed for a long period of time or in a large amount, and a humidifier with the scale removing apparatus installed thereon.SOLUTION: A scale removing apparatus 1 which is constituted of an external cylinder 2 and an inner cylinder 3 having a central axis identical to each other, and an upper surface and a lower surface closing the cylinders, which has an air hole 16 having a diameter smaller than that of the inner cylinder 3 at the center of the upper surface, a water intake hole 14 having a diameter equal to or smaller than that of the inner cylinder 3 at the center of the lower surface, and an inlet 10 on the entire periphery of a side wall of the external cylinder 2 and an outlet 12 on the entire periphery of a side wall of the inner cylinder 3, and which has granular ion exchange resin 6 filled between the external cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3, is obtained. In addition, a humidifier which has the scale removing apparatus 1 fixed to a tank cap 23 and provided in a water supply tank 17 is obtained.

Description

  The present invention relates to a scale remover that produces water from which scale components have been removed, and a humidifier that vaporizes the water to prevent spraying of the scale in a room and the fixing of the scale to a humidifying filter and tray. It is.

  Conventionally, a humidifier is known that humidifies using water from which scale has been removed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Hereinafter, the humidifier will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 16, the humidifier includes a water supply tank 101, an ion filter 102, a humidifying tray 103, a humidifying module 104, and a blower 110. The water in the water supply tank 101 has a zigzag water passage 106, and passes along the water direction 105 through the ion filter 102 in which the granular strong acid ion exchange resin 107 is filled in the water passage 106.

  At that time, ions composed of Group 2 elements such as calcium ions and magnesium ions contained in water (hereinafter referred to as Group 2 element ions) are captured by the strongly acidic ion exchange resin 107 in the form of exchange with sodium ions, Removed from the water. The water from which the group 2 element ions have been removed goes to the humidifying tray 103 and comes into contact with the humidifying module 104. Water passes through the wall of the moisture permeable tube 108 constituting the humidification module 104 and is sent to the inside of the moisture permeable tube 108.

  Then, it comes into contact with the air sent from the blower 110 along the ventilation direction 109, vaporizes, mixes with the air, and is humidified. Since the group 2 element ions in the water are removed by the ion filter 102, the water in the humidifying tray 103 is dried and the group 2 element ions are concentrated and combined with carbon dioxide in the air and carbonate ions in the water to be insoluble. Can be prevented from adhering to the humidifying tray 103.

  Further, it is possible to alleviate the problem that the group 2 element ions that have permeated the wall surface of the moisture permeable tube 108 become carbonate and clog the wall surface of the moisture permeable tube 108 to reduce the humidification performance.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-89211 (page 12, FIG. 3)

  The ion filter mounted on the humidifier described in Patent Document 1 has a small entrance / exit and a rectangular parallelepiped shape and a rectangular water cross section as can be seen from the figure. Therefore, water does not flow to every corner of the rectangular water flow cross section, so that all of the ion exchange resin filled cannot be used for trapping the Group 2 element ions, and the performance of removing the Group 2 element ions decreases quickly. Have the problem of

  Moreover, since a water flow rate cannot be controlled, it has the subject that the group 2 element ion contained in the water of a water supply tank cannot fully be removed. In addition, when salt water is passed and sodium ions are captured and regenerated, there is a problem that the water flow rate is too high to perform regeneration sufficiently, or a large amount of salt water is required for regeneration.

  Therefore, the scale remover of the present invention aims to maintain the removal rate of the group 2 element ions contained in the water used for humidification high for a long period of time and to regenerate with a small amount of salt water. Is. Further, the humidifier of the present invention aims to prevent the scale from adhering to the humidifying filter and the humidifying tray while maintaining a compact shape, to prevent the deterioration of the humidifying performance and to maintain the cleanliness of the humidifying tray. It is.

  In order to achieve this object, the scale remover of the present invention comprises an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder that have the same height as the central axis, and an upper surface and a lower surface that block the opening of the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder. An air hole having a diameter smaller than that of the inner cylinder is formed in a central portion of the upper surface, a water intake hole having a diameter smaller than that of the inner cylinder is formed in a central portion of the lower surface, and a side wall of the outer cylinder is divided by a plurality of support columns. An inflow port configured to include a plurality of openings into which a processing liquid containing a scale is introduced, and the processing liquid including a plurality of openings divided by a plurality of support columns on the side wall of the inner cylinder are allowed to flow out. It has an outlet, is filled with granular ion exchange resin between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder, and is provided with a mesh material finer than the ion exchange resin at the inlet and outlet. It achieves its purpose.

  The humidifier of the present invention achieves the initial purpose by providing the scale remover in the water supply tank and behind the lid of the water supply tank.

  The scale remover of the present invention is an inner cylinder in which water entering from the inlet provided on the entire circumference of the outer cylinder side wall passes between the granular ion exchange resins in the central direction, and has the same central axis as the outer cylinder. Exit from the exit all around. Therefore, the entire region filled with the granular ion exchange resin becomes a water passage, and all the water passages have the same length, so that the Group 2 element in water while maintaining a high removal rate for a long time. Ions can be removed.

(A) Top view of the scale remover of Embodiment 1 of the present invention, (b) Side view of the scale remover The block diagram which shows the front cross section of the scale remover in the dashed-dotted line A of Fig.1 (a) The block diagram which shows the upper surface cross section of the scale remover in the dashed-dotted line B of FIG.1 (b) Top perspective view of the scale remover Bottom perspective view of the scale remover FIG. 4 is a perspective sectional view of the scale remover taken along one-dot broken line A in FIG. Configuration diagram showing the outer cylinder Configuration diagram showing the inner cylinder lower surface composite Configuration diagram showing the same lid Configuration diagram showing the sponge body Sectional block diagram which shows the humidifier of Embodiment 2 of this invention. Configuration diagram showing the humidification filter Configuration diagram showing the playback stand Schematic diagram showing a water supply tank made independent on the same regeneration stand The graph which shows the group 2 element ion removal rate of the scale remover of Embodiment 1 of this invention Configuration diagram showing a conventional humidifier

  Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a two-sided view of a scale remover 1 comprising an outer cylinder 2, an inner cylinder lower surface composite 5 in which an inner cylinder 3 and a lower surface 4 are integrated, an ion exchange resin 6, an upper lid 7, and a sponge body 8. 2 is a front cross-sectional view taken along one-dot broken line A, and FIG. 3 is a top cross-sectional view taken along one-dot broken line B in FIG. 4 is a perspective view from above of the scale remover 1 excluding the ion exchange resin 6 and the sponge body 8, FIG. 5 is a perspective view from below, and FIG. It is shown in FIG. Further, FIG. 7 shows a configuration diagram of the outer cylinder 2, FIG. 8 shows a configuration diagram of the inner cylinder lower surface composite body 5, FIG. 9 shows a configuration diagram of the upper lid 7, and FIG. 10 shows a configuration diagram of the sponge body.

  As shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, the scale remover 1 of the present embodiment has a skeleton formed by three parts of an outer cylinder 2, an inner cylinder lower surface complex 5, and an upper lid 7. 5 and the outer cylinder 2 are joined, and an ion exchange resin 6 having a diameter of about 0.3 to 1 mm is filled between the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 having the same central axis as shown in FIGS. ing. The open upper surface is closed with the upper lid 7.

  Further, a sponge body 8 as shown in FIG. 10 is embedded in the inner upper portion of the inner cylinder 3. The sponge body 8 has a three-dimensional network shape and has air permeability and water permeability. The inner lower part of the inner cylinder 3 is vacant so that, for example, the valve may go up and enter the inner cylinder 3. The outer cylinder 2 is hollowed around the entire side wall, leaving the outer cylinder column 9, and this is the water inlet 10.

  Similarly, the inner cylinder 3 is also hollowed around the entire side wall, leaving the inner cylinder column 11, which becomes the water outlet 12. A mesh material 13 having a mesh smaller than that of the ion exchange resin 6 is stretched around the inlet 10 and the outlet 12 so that the ion exchange resin 6 does not spill outside even if water passes therethrough.

  In the above configuration, water containing group 2 element ions enters the scale remover 1 from the inlet 10 provided on the entire circumference of the outer cylinder 2 and travels toward the outlet 12 provided on the entire circumference of the inner cylinder 3. Go from the top toward the center. And it passes through the area | region where the ion exchange resin 6 between the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 was filled so that the clearance gap between the granular ion exchange resins 6 might be sewn.

  The ion exchange resin 6 has therein a sulfonic acid group that retains sodium ions by ionic bonds, and when contacted with water, group 2 element ions such as calcium ions and magnesium ions contained in the water are converted into sulfonic acid groups. Instead, the sodium ions originally retained are released.

  With such a mechanism, it is possible to obtain water from which Group 2 element ions that cause insoluble salts such as calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate are removed. The water from which the group 2 element ions have been removed then exits from the outlet 12 provided on the entire circumference of the inner cylinder 3 and enters the inside of the inner cylinder 3, and is further led to a water intake hole 14 provided on the lower surface 4. The

  By the way, the amount that the ion exchange resin 6 per unit amount can capture the Group 2 element ions is limited, and after the limit amount has been captured, sodium ions are supplemented by passing a high-concentration sodium chloride aqueous solution, It is necessary to desorb group 2 element ions. This is called playback. Moreover, since the water used for regeneration contains a large amount of group 2 element ions, it is necessary to discard the water without using it for humidification.

  Here, the ion exchange resin 6 between the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 was filled in order to maximize the trapping amount of the group 2 element ions or to regenerate all of the filled ion exchange resin 6 to the maximum. It is necessary to have a structure in which all the areas become water passages and all the water passages have the same length.

  As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the scale remover 1 of the present embodiment extends from the inlet 10 provided on the entire circumference of the side wall of the outer cylinder 2 along the water flow direction 15 to the central direction where the outlet 12 exists. Pass water. Here, since the central axes of the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 are the same, the length of the water flow path to the outlet 12 is the same regardless of which inlet 10 provided in the entire circumference of the outer cylinder 2 is entered. At the same time, the entire region filled with the ion exchange resin 6 becomes a water passage.

  Therefore, water can be evenly passed through all the ion exchange resins 6 filled between the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3. Therefore, it is possible to maintain the high removal performance of the Group 2 element ions for a long period of time, and to regenerate until all the ion exchange resins 6 exhibit the capturing ability of the Group 2 element ions to the maximum.

  Further, for example, when water is put into a sealed container and the water intake hole 14 is directed to the outside of the container and the scale remover 1 is covered with the scale remover, even if the container is turned upside down, the inside of the container becomes negative pressure. There is no water inside. By putting outside air into the container through the air holes 16 communicating with the inside of the inner cylinder 3, water can be taken out while passing through the scale remover 1.

  A sponge body 8 provided on the inner upper portion of the inner cylinder 3 is provided to reduce the speed at which air enters the container. By doing so, the speed at which water passes through the scale remover 1 is reduced, and the scale remover 1 can obtain high removal performance of the Group 2 element ions.

  Although not shown in the figure, it is dipped in a hydrophilic paint, for example, an aqueous emulsion of a resin obtained by copolymerizing ethylene vinyl alcohol and vinyl acetate, or a thin aqueous solution of sodium silicate (water glass). Thus, a hydrophilic film is provided on the surface of the sponge body 8.

  Since the sponge body 8 also plays a role of guiding the water coming out from the outlet 12 to the lower intake hole 14 through the surface, the surface can be made hydrophilic by making the surface hydrophilic so that the water can be transferred smoothly. Can be taken out.

  As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the mesh material 13 is provided on the entire circumference of the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 so as not to peel off. For example, the mesh material 13 may be welded to the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 by melting with heat. Incidentally, in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, only a part of the mesh material 13 is shown for easy understanding of the inside.

  The mesh material 13 can be knitted with fine fibers such as polyester, nylon, and polypropylene. The material of the outer cylinder 2, the inner cylinder lower surface composite 5, and the upper lid 7 may be selected as long as the strength and corrosion resistance are maintained, but as a representative, polypropylene, polycarbonate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polystyrene, polyethylene Plastics such as terephthalate can be used.

  Moreover, when using the scale remover of this invention in the tank sealed with water, it is easy to let water flow in the lower part of the scale remover in the height direction. This is because the lower the water pressure, the longer the water passage time until the water surface drops and the water flow ends, and the lower the scale remover. Therefore, by making the lower half of the mesh material provided at the inlet and outlet finer than that of the upper half, the water resistance of the lower half is increased, and the upper half and the lower half are easier to pass. The difference can be reduced. By doing in this way, the water flow nonuniformity in the upper and lower sides can be improved, and the removal performance of the Group 2 element ions can be enhanced.

(Embodiment 2)
In order to open the water supply valve 21 while making the water supply tank 17 self-supporting in FIG. 11, the block diagram of the humidifier which consists of the water supply tank 17, the humidification tray 18, the humidification filter 19, and the air blower 20 is shown in FIG. FIG. 13 shows a configuration diagram of the regeneration stand 22, and FIG. 14 shows a configuration diagram of the water supply tank 17 made independent on the regeneration stand 22.

  The water supply tank 17 includes a tank lid 23 and a scale remover 1 attached to the back of the tank lid 23. A screw groove B24 is provided on the inner side of the circumferential portion of the tank lid 23, and the water supply tank 17 can be opened and closed by twisting it over a water supply tank 17 body similarly provided with the screw groove B24.

  Further, the scale remover 1 is provided with a thread groove C25, which can be attached to and detached from the tank cover 23 by twisting against the thread groove C25 provided on the back side of the tank cover 23. The tank lid 23 to which the scale remover 1 is attached is opened, water is poured into the water supply tank 17, the tank lid 23 is closed, the water supply tank 17 is turned upside down, and is attached to the humidifier as shown in FIG.

  Here, the water supply valve 21 provided in the tank lid 23 has a valve spring 26 and a rubber valve 27 and is closed unless pushed, so that water does not leak even if the water supply tank 17 is turned upside down. The water supply tank 17 is supported by the tray support 29 and is self-supporting in the humidifier. After mounting the water supply tank 17 on the humidifier, the tray protrusion 28 provided on the humidifier contacts the valve tip 30 provided on the water supply valve 21 to push the water supply valve 21 open.

  Then, water is supplied to the humidifying tray 18 to the same position as the mouthpiece 37 by the principle of the Marriott bottle. The water supplied to the humidifying tray 18 is sucked up by the humidifying filter 19 in which a cylindrical nonwoven fabric 31 obtained by rolling a nonwoven fabric having air permeability as shown in FIG.

  The water sucked up by the cylindrical nonwoven fabric 31 is vaporized in contact with the air that enters from the air suction port 33 through the cylindrical nonwoven fabric 31 and passes through the cylindrical nonwoven fabric 31. The air containing water vapor is smoothly sucked into the blower 20 downstream of the orifice 35 along the ventilation direction 34 and blown out from the air outlet 36 to humidify the surroundings.

  Here, all the water in the water supply tank 17 passes through the inlet 10 provided on the entire circumference of the outer cylinder 2 side wall of the scale remover 1, exits from the outlet 12 provided on the entire circumference of the inner cylinder 3 side wall, and passes through the water supply valve 21. It is supplied to the humidifying tray 18. At this time, the water passes through the scale remover 1 by the pressure due to its own weight and is supplied to the humidifying tray 18.

  Then, air enters the water supply tank 17 from the water supply valve 21 through the air hole 16 so as to fill the volume of water that has disappeared from the water supply tank 17. The water in the water supply tank 17 is supplied to the humidifying tray 18 until the water surface touches the mouthpiece 37 provided on the tank lid 23 to block the passage of air. When the water in the humidifying tray 18 is humidified and the water level drops, the water is supplied from the water supply tank 17 to the humidifying tray 18 until the water surface touches the mouth opening 37 again.

  The water in the water supply tank 17 passes through the scale remover 1 to remove the group 2 element ions contained therein, and then is supplied to the humidifying tray 18 and sucked up by the humidifying filter 19. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the group 2 element ions from being combined with carbonate ions to become insoluble salts and stick to the humidifying tray 18 or the humidifying filter 19.

  Insoluble salts such as calcium carbonate require a lot of labor to remove once they stick. Moreover, it sticks between the fibers of the cylindrical nonwoven fabric 31 and inhibits the water from being sucked up. For this reason, the humidifier causes a decrease in the humidifying ability, but the humidifier according to the present embodiment solves this problem by providing the scale remover 1 of the present invention. Further, since the scale remover 1 is mounted on the back of the tank lid 23 and stored in the main body of the water supply tank 17, a place for installing the scale remover 1 can be omitted. As a result, the humidifier can be reduced in size.

  There is a limit to the amount of group 2 element ions that can be captured and removed by the scale remover 1, and after reaching the limit, the ions were captured by slowly passing a high concentration, for example, 50 g / L sodium chloride aqueous solution. Group II element ions can be released and replaced with sodium ions.

  The scale remover 1 can thus be regenerated in order to capture and remove the Group 2 element ions again. The aqueous sodium chloride solution used for regeneration contains a large amount of desorbed group II element ions, so it should not be used for humidification in a humidifier. Therefore, at the time of regeneration, it is necessary to remove the scale remover 1 from the humidifier and perform it at another place.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 13, the regeneration stand 22 has a regeneration stand projection 38 for pushing the valve tip 30 to open the water supply valve 21 in the center, and a regeneration stand support 39 for supporting the water supply tank 17 so as to be independent. I have. Then, the sodium chloride aqueous solution is put into the water supply tank 17, the tank lid 23 with the scale remover 1 is closed, the top and bottom of the water supply tank 17 are turned upside down, and placed in a drainable place such as a sink sink or sink sink. Stand on the table 22.

  The water supply valve 21 is opened by being pushed by the regeneration stand projection 38 of the regeneration stand 22, and the aqueous sodium chloride solution in the water supply tank 17 is passed through the scale remover 1 and simultaneously drained into the drain of the sink. . At the same time, air enters the water supply tank 17 from the water supply valve 21 through the air hole 16.

  In this way, water is passed through the scale remover 1 until the aqueous sodium chloride solution in the water supply tank 17 is completely exhausted. When all the water has passed, the tank lid 23 is opened, and the inside of the water supply tank 17, the tank lid 23, and the scale remover 1 are rinsed with water. Thereafter, tap water for humidification is put into the water supply tank 17, and the tank lid 23 is covered with the water and set in the humidifier.

  As described above, the humidifier of the present invention simply covers the water supply tank 17 containing the sodium chloride aqueous solution with the tank cover 23 to which the scale remover 1 is mounted, and then simply sets the scale remover 1 on the self-regeneration stand to easily scale. The remover can be regenerated.

  The scale remover 1 shown in the first embodiment was actually made, and the removal performance of the group 2 element ions was evaluated using the water supply tank 17 and the humidifying tray 18 shown in the second embodiment.

  In the test, artificial hard water in which 1.10 g of calcium chloride dihydrate, 0.63 g of magnesium sulfate heptahydrate and 0.78 g of sodium chloride were dissolved in water to make 1 liter was used. This artificial hard water is 1000 ppm in terms of American hardness (hereinafter referred to as hardness).

  Artificial hard water was put into a water supply tank having a capacity of 3.8 L, and the scale was removed with a tank lid 23 to which the scale remover 1 was fixed. Then, the water supply tank 17 was turned over and installed in the humidifying tray 18. The artificial hard water flows to the humidifying tray 18 after passing through the scale remover 1 and is stored. And the water surface reaches the beak and the water flow stops. The water hardness of the humidifying tray 18 after the water flow stopped was measured, and the group 2 element ion removal rate was determined by the following equation.

Group 2 element ion removal rate (%) = (1-water hardness of the humidifying tray 18 / water hardness of the water supply tank 17) × 100
There are two types of scale removers 1 used in the evaluation: “H60” having a height of 60 mm and “H30” having a height of 30 mm. In both cases, the inner diameter of the outer cylinder 2 is 64 mm, the outer diameter of the inner cylinder 3 is 28 mm, and the mesh material 13 is provided on the inner periphery of the outer cylinder 2 and the outer periphery of the inner cylinder 3. The results are shown in FIG.

  The vertical axis of the graph of FIG. 15 is the group 2 element ion removal rate, and the horizontal axis is the number of days used. Here, the number of days used is a value obtained by the following formula, assuming that the hardness of tap water used for humidification is 100 ppm and the amount of tap water used for one day is 4L.

Number of days used (day) = 1000 ppm / 100 ppm × Amount of artificial hard water passed (L) / 4L
As a result, H30 is 16.5 days compared with the number of days until the Group 2 element ion removal rate becomes 67%, even though the filling amount of ion exchange resin is ½ of H60. Was 19 days, and H30 was found to correspond to 0.87 times H60. This indicates that it is easier to pass water evenly when the height is reduced to about half of the outer cylinder diameter without unevenness in the vertical direction.

  In addition, the size of the mesh material in the height direction described in the first embodiment is made smaller in the lower half than in the upper half. Well, it can be said that the height should be ½ or less of the outer cylinder diameter in order to further improve the removal performance of the Group 2 element ions.

  As described above, the scale remover of the present invention can supply water from which Group II element ions such as calcium ions and magnesium ions have been removed for a long period or in large quantities, and is useful as a device for preventing the generation of insoluble salts. is there. In addition, the humidifier of the present invention provides a humidifying tray that is clean and does not require much maintenance, and always exhibits a high humidifying capacity. Therefore, it can be expected to be used as a humidifying device in a living space, for example.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Scale remover 2 Outer cylinder 3 Inner cylinder 4 Lower surface 5 Inner cylinder lower surface composite body 6 Ion exchange resin 7 Upper lid 8 Sponge body 9 Outer cylinder support | pillar 10 Inlet 11 Inner cylinder support | pillar 12 Outlet 13 Mesh material 14 Water intake hole 15 Water flow direction 16 Air hole 17 Water supply tank 18 Humidification tray 19 Humidification filter 20 Blower 21 Water supply valve 22 Regeneration stand 23 Tank lid 24 Screw groove B
25 Thread groove C
26 Valve spring 27 Valve 28 Tray projection 29 Tray support 30 Valve tip 31 Cylindrical non-woven fabric 32 Filter frame 33 Air suction port 34 Ventilation direction 35 Orifice 36 Air blowout port 37 Opening 38 Reproduction stand projection 39 Reproduction stand support

Claims (7)

It consists of an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder that have the same height as the central axis, and an upper surface and a lower surface that block the opening of the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder.
An air hole having a diameter smaller than that of the inner cylinder is formed at the center of the upper surface.
A water intake hole having a diameter smaller than that of the inner cylinder is formed at the center of the lower surface.
On the side wall of the outer cylinder, an inflow port configured to flow in a treatment liquid containing a scale, which includes a plurality of openings divided by a plurality of support columns,
On the side wall of the inner cylinder, there is an outlet that is configured by a plurality of openings divided by a plurality of support columns and allows the processing liquid to flow out,
A scale remover, wherein a granular ion exchange resin is filled between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder, and a mesh material finer than the ion exchange resin is provided at the inlet and the outlet. The scale remover according to claim 1, further comprising a sponge body inside the inner cylinder. The scale remover according to claim 2, wherein the sponge body has hydrophilicity. The scale remover according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the size of the mesh material in the height direction is made finer in the lower half than in the upper half. The scale remover according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the height is not more than half of the outer cylinder diameter. A water supply tank having a tank cover provided with a water supply valve, and a humidifying tray, wherein the scale remover according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is fixed to the tank cover and provided in the water supply tank. Humidifier. The humidifier according to claim 6, further comprising a regeneration base in which the water supply tank is self-supporting and is fixed to the water supply valve and always opens the water supply valve.

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