JP3314010B2 - Environmental device with external air curtain - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an environmental device in which an internal environment whose environmental conditions are adjusted is partitioned by an air flow of an air curtain flowing from one side to the other side to maintain an internal environment. The present invention relates to an environmental device that needs to maintain environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity for an internal sample or article, such as an environmental test device or a showcase that can be used with a door or the like opened.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an operation type environmental test apparatus or an open showcase which is an environmental apparatus using an air curtain, a structure shown in FIG. 3 is generally used (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-193385, and See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 60-151072). In such an apparatus, AA 'or BB' is additionally provided as an air curtain for maintaining the internal environment of the test chamber 2 or the like when the door 4 is opened. Further, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG.

However, for example, AA 'and BB
In the refrigeration equipment provided with the air curtain of '
Since the flow tube of the air curtain of ′ spreads on the lower side, a part of the cool air escapes in the direction of arrow D on the lower side, and the surrounding air is sucked in the direction of arrow E on the upper side. As a result, there arises a problem that a large amount of heat enters the outside air and a problem that frost on the air-conditioning unit increases due to moisture brought in from the outside air. On the other hand, if the outside air blowing device C is provided, the amount of air exchange between the inside and the outside can be suppressed to some extent. However, since such a device includes a mechanical part such as a blower, if the device is mounted on the front surface of the door 4, there is a problem that the internal transparency is impaired.
There is a problem that the flow of cold air escaping in the direction may be accelerated.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and reliably reduces the amount of outside air and the amount of heat entering the inside without affecting the transparency and operability of the inside. It is an object of the present invention to provide an environmental device which has a large energy saving effect.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is directed to an air curtain of an air curtain in which an internal opening whose environmental condition is adjusted flows from one side to the other side. separated by and in the environment apparatus where the environment is maintained, and the air suction unit having a suction port to the outer portion of the other side of the periphery of the opening, so that it can suck the air from the air intake portion The air suction unit is provided on the outside of the air suction unit so that air can be discharged from the other side in the direction of the one side.
And an air discharging portion arranged in parallel .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above, the intake port has an outer wall surface protruding from the periphery.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an example of the structure of a main body of an environmental test apparatus called a normal operation type as an example of an environmental apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The main body of the environmental test apparatus includes a heat insulating wall 1, a test chamber 2 which is an interior where environmental conditions are adjusted, an opening 3, and a transparent door 4 made of glass or the like which covers this and is slidable up and down. Inner duct 5 for circulating cool air, outer duct 6, perforated plates 5 a and 5 b for forming a part of inner duct 5 and allowing air to flow into and out of test chamber 2 as substantially parallel flows as shown by arrows, inner duct 5 The evaporator 7 arranged in the inside, the blowers 8, 9 arranged in the inner and outer ducts to circulate cool air and driven to rotate by the motor 8a,
And so on.

[0008] The opening 3 is partitioned by the airflow of the outer air curtain A-A 'flowing from one side A to the other side A'. In addition, environmental maintenance in the test room 2 and an outer air curtain AA ′ and an inner air curtain BB ′ are provided.
These maintain the internal environment. In addition, the outer duct 6 for forming the outer air curtain A-A 'is not provided with an evaporator for directly cooling the air circulating in the outer duct 6, but the air curtain A-A' Since BB 'mixes to some extent and exchanges heat, the outer air curtain AA' also becomes sufficiently low-temperature cold air. However, a suitable cooler may be provided in the outer duct.

Although not shown in the drawings, the environmental test apparatus includes a structure for supporting the apparatus at a high position below the main body to facilitate operation, and a refrigerant for the evaporator 7. An operation control panel, a power supply unit, and the like for performing a start-up / stop and control of machinery, a temperature control in the test chamber 2, and the like are provided as necessary.

As a feature of the present invention, an external air curtain device 10 is provided. The device 10 is provided outside the lower front heat insulating wall 1a on the A ′ side of the periphery of the opening 3 and has an air suction unit 11 and an air discharge unit 12. In the present embodiment, the air suction portion 11 includes an air inlet 11b having an outer wall surface 11a protruding from the front lower heat insulating wall 1a. When the outer wall surface 11a protrudes from the intake port 11b in this manner, it is possible to suppress the air that deviates to the outside of the air curtain A-A 'as described later, and to make the flow of the exhaust air from the air exhaust unit 12 smooth. There is an effect that can be maintained. However, from the viewpoint of operability and the like, the outer wall surface 11a
May be made as high as the front lower heat insulating wall 1a.

The air discharge portion 12 is in communication with the lower portion thereof so that air can be sucked from the air suction portion 11, and in this embodiment, the outer wall surface 11a is used as a common member to form the air suction portion 11.
It is installed side by side. And a blower 1 as an air supply means
2a, and is formed so that air can be discharged in the direction of one side A, that is, in the opposite direction from the other side A ', which is opposite in blowing direction to the air curtain AA'. In this air discharge direction, it is desirable that the air discharged from the air discharge unit 12 be maintained in the reverse direction for as long as possible thereafter. Therefore, in this example, a rectifying unit 12b formed of a slit, a honeycomb, or the like is provided at the outlet portion. . Note that the air discharge unit 12
Although not shown, it is desirable to form it with a suitable heat insulating material so as to have heat insulating properties.

FIG. 2 shows the state of the air curtain effect when the above-described environmental test apparatus is operated. FIG. 2A shows the state when the external air curtain apparatus 10 is operated.
(B) shows the state of the air flow when this is removed. When a sample W of an electronic device or the like to be subjected to an environmental test is put into the test room 2, the blowers 8 and 9 are operated, and a refrigerator (not shown) is operated to send a refrigerant to the evaporator 7. Cold air circulates under the temperature condition of. Such a temperature condition can be arbitrarily set, for example, from about 5 ° C. to about −40 ° C. The room temperature is adjusted to the set temperature by switching the capacity of the refrigerator or controlling the output of a temperature adjusting heater (not shown) which is usually provided.

When performing a test while manipulating the sample W,
As shown in the figure, the door 4 is opened to an appropriate opening, and the inside and outside are sealed by an air curtain effect. Here, suppose that FIG.
Assuming that the external air curtain device 10 is detached as shown in (b), an air flow as shown is formed by the air curtain AA ′. In other words, while cool air is blown out from one side A at a high flow velocity and from a small cross-sectional area, the cross-sectional area of the flow tube increases as the flow proceeds in the direction A 'on the other side. As a result, as shown in the left part of the figure,
With the external pressure as the reference value 0, a pressure gradient is formed in which the upper part has a negative pressure and the lower part has a positive pressure. Then, in the positive pressure portion on the A 'side, the flow tube protrudes outside the front lower heat insulating wall 1a against the external pressure, and the internal cold air of the flow rate Q flows out. You.

Such replacement of air between the inside and outside is increased when the inside air has a low temperature and a higher density than the outside air, or when there is a partial pressure difference in steam contained in the inside and outside air. As a result, the internal temperature distribution is disturbed by the outside air, wasteful power is consumed by the infiltration heat, and when the test chamber is operated at a low temperature condition of 0 ° C. or less, frost is formed on the evaporator 7 and continuous. Problems such as hindered driving and falling snow in the test room due to moisture in the outside air also occur.

On the other hand, if the external air curtain device 10 of the present invention is mounted and operated, the state of the air curtain as shown in FIG. That is, the air of the air curtain A-A 'flows substantially the same as in the case of (b) above, but the internal cold air of the flow rate Q of the portion of the flow tube protruding outside the front lower heat insulating wall 1a is The air is substantially recovered from the air inlet 11 b of the attached air curtain device 10 into the air suction part 11. Then, the air is blown upward from the bottom in the opposite direction to the line A-A 'by the blower 12a of the air discharge unit 12 that is in communication with the blower via the rectifying unit 12b. This air flows as shown in the figure, and from the flow balance, a substantial portion of the air having a flow rate Q is drawn into the negative pressure portion of the air curtain A-A '. On the other hand, the air discharge unit 1
Outside air is mixed into the portion near the second outlet at a high flow rate by the flow rate q, and blown air having the same flow rate q as this is discharged to the outside.

Due to the effect of the air curtain state, the amount of outside air and the amount of heat brought into the environment test apparatus can be extremely reduced. That is, assuming that the air temperature of the air curtain AA ′ and the air temperature of the outside air are t and t ₀ , respectively, as shown in FIG.
When is not used, the amount of heat H ′ invading the inside by the replacement of the inside and outside air becomes H ′ ≒ kQ (t ₀ −t) ---- (1). In this case, the flow rate Q is all the amount of intrusion of external air. Note that k is the product of the specific heat of air and the density.

However, when the external air curtain device 10 is used as shown in FIG.
H ≒ kQ [(t + Δt) -t] = kQΔt --- (2) Here, Δt is an external air intake amount q or a temperature rise due to heat absorption in the external air curtain device 10.

Comparing equations (1) and (2), FIG.
In (a), suppose that q = Q / 2, and the air discharging unit 12
H becomes 1/2 of H 'even if Q and q of the air blown out from are completely mixed. In addition, the amount of outside air entering is 1 /
It becomes 2. However, since the distance of the blown air is short, the outside air having the flow rate q and the air curtain air having the flow rate Q are not sufficiently mixed, so that a large amount of the outside air component is discharged to the outside air side, and a large amount of the internal air component is sucked into the inside. H is considerably smaller than H ', taking into account the fact that H is usually much smaller than half of the mainstream Q, and the outside air intrusion is also much smaller than 1/2. Value.

The effect of the air curtain is theoretically as described above. However, in practice, the degree of the effect varies depending on various conditions such as the flow rate of each part of the air curtain and the opening / closing height of the door. According to an experimental example performed by the inventors, the temperature in the test chamber: -40 ° C Ambient temperature: about 30 ° C Door opening height: 125 mm Air curtain air blowing flow rate (m / s): AA ′ In the operating state of −−0.5 BB ′ −− 0.8, when an external air curtain to which the present invention is applied is used, the air blowing velocity Vc = 1 m
/ S (state as shown in FIG. 2 (a)) and when Vc = 0 as non-use (state close to FIG. 2 (b))
Are about 240 kcal / hr and 450 kcal / hr, respectively.
kcal / hr. Therefore, by applying the present invention, a result was obtained that the amount of invading heat can be reduced to about 1/2. The amount of outside air entering correspondingly decreased slightly from this ratio. In addition, since the heat insulating material is not used in the external air curtain device used in this experiment, it is expected that the amount of invading heat will be further reduced if appropriate heat insulation is applied.

In this embodiment, the outer wall surface 11a of the air suction portion 11 is projected slightly higher than the front lower heat insulating wall 1a. However, with such a size, the operability of the internal sample is not affected. Was. On the other hand, since no device or the like is attached to the door 3, the transparency from the outside and the operability of the door are good. By the way, in the case where a mere outside air blowing device as in the related art is provided in place of the external air curtain device 10 of the present invention, all the blowers inhale the outside air, and the outside air blown out by the blower and the air curtain A-A. Needless to say, since a large turbulence occurs between the air and the two, and the two are mixed, a large amount of outside air is brought into the environmental test apparatus, and the amount of invading heat cannot be reduced so much.

In the above description, the direction in which air is blown out from the air discharge section 12 is set to a direction directly above, but this may be slightly inclined inward. Further, instead of the external air curtain device 10 being fixedly arranged with respect to the front lower heat insulating wall 1a, a mechanism capable of adjusting the angle and the separation distance may be interposed. Further, it may be formed so as to be movable up and down so that the height of the intake port 11b can be adjusted.

In the above, an example of an environmental test apparatus provided with two systems of air curtains, AA 'and BB', has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to an apparatus having one system of air curtains. Of course, it can be applied. Further, in addition to the environmental test apparatus, the present invention can be widely used for an apparatus using an air curtain, such as an open showcase. Although FIG. 1 illustrates the operation type environmental test apparatus in which the door slides up and down, the present invention can of course be applied to an apparatus in which the door slides left and right and an apparatus without the door.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the other part of the periphery of the opening part partitioned by the air curtain, which is the downstream side of the air flow of the air curtain, is provided. Since the air suction portion provided with the air intake port on the outside is provided, the air that has a cross-sectional area of the flow tube that is large downstream of the air curtain and deviates to the outside can be sucked into the air suction portion through the air intake port. . Since the air discharge section is provided so as to communicate with the air suction section so that air can be sucked from the air suction section, the air of the air curtain sucked by the air suction section can be discharged again.

This discharge direction is from the other side to one side, that is, the direction opposite to the flow of the air curtain, and therefore, is toward the upstream side of the air curtain. In addition, since the air discharging section includes the air feeding means, the air can be discharged at an appropriate speed. As a result, this air can be sucked into the negative pressure portion upstream of the air curtain. That is, it is possible to cause the air discharge portion to act as an air curtain outside the opening.

In this case, on the opposite side of the opening in the air discharge portion, outside air is sucked in at a low pressure portion of the air discharge portion, but the amount is small, and most is sucked into the negative pressure portion of the air curtain. Is released to the outside again. As a result, the air that has come out of the air curtain is sucked into the air suction section, discharged from the air discharge section via the air supply means, and most of the air is sucked again into the negative pressure section of the air curtain, and is discharged to the air curtain. Since the merging is performed, the amount of invading outside air and the invading heat associated therewith can be significantly reduced. In addition, the degree of cleanness inside the environmental device can be maintained, and the energy saving can be greatly improved.

Further, since the air intake section and the air discharge section are provided outside the downstream side of the air curtain, there is no door provided for closing the opening. As a result, when the door is made of a transparent material such as glass as in an operation-type environmental test device or a show case, the transparency is not hindered.

According to the invention of claim 2, in addition to the above,
Since the air inlet has an outer wall surface protruding from the periphery of the opening, it prevents air curtain air from deviating to the outside and can be effectively introduced into the air inlet, and is discharged from the air outlet. In this way, the turbulence of the air flow can be eliminated, the air curtain effect of the air discharged from the air discharge portion can be further improved, and the amount of invading outside air and the invading heat can be further reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall structure of an operation type environmental test apparatus which is an example of an environmental apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are explanatory diagrams showing a state of an air curtain effect in the above-described device, and FIGS. 2A and 2B show a state in which an external air curtain device is attached and detached, respectively.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a schematic structure of an environmental test apparatus provided with a conventional air curtain device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a Front lower heat insulating wall (the other side of the periphery of the opening) 2 Test chamber (inside) 3 Opening 11 Air intake 11a Outer wall 11b Inlet 12 Air exhaust 12a Blowers (air supply means) A, B One side A ', B' The other side A-A 'Outside air curtain (air curtain) BB' Inside air curtain (air curtain)

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI // B01L 1/00 B01L 1/00 B (56) References JP-A-5-44964 (JP, A) JP-A-3-117874 (JP) JP-A-63-169435 (JP, A) JP-A-62-124475 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F24F 9/00 G01N 17/00 G01R 31/00 G01R 31/26 G01R 31/30 B01L 1/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An environmental device in which an internal opening whose environmental conditions are adjusted is partitioned by an air flow of an air curtain flowing from one side to the other side to maintain an internal environment. an air suction portion having a suction port to the outer portion of the other side, from the other side with the air supply means to conduct the air suction portion to allow intake air from said air intake portion in the direction of the one side So that air can be exhausted
An environmental device comprising: an air discharge unit provided in parallel with the air suction unit on the outside of the air suction unit . 2. The environmental device according to claim 1, wherein the intake port has an outer wall surface protruding from the periphery.