JPH04246366A - Oxygen concentrating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the oxygen concentrating device of a pressure fluctuation adsorption type with small noise. CONSTITUTION:A backflow preventive means 6 is provided on a suction side conduit means 7 of a compressed air supplying means 3 for supplying compressed air to an adsorption bed 1 or an opening is provided on the pipe side part around the front end of the suction side conduit means 7, by which the oxygen concentrating device with the small noise is obtd.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an oxygen concentrator for obtaining oxygen-enriched gas from air, and provides an oxygen concentrator particularly suitable for medical use.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Medical oxygen concentrators are used at home or in hospitals, near the patient's bedside, even at night, so low noise is an essential requirement. Two types of oxygen concentrators have been developed: a membrane type oxygen concentrator using an oxygen selective permeation membrane and an adsorption type oxygen concentrator using an adsorbent that selectively adsorbs oxygen or nitrogen. In general, compared to membrane-type oxygen concentrators that use a vacuum pump or the like, adsorption-type oxygen concentrators that use a compressor or the like tend to generate a higher level of noise, and countermeasures against this noise have been desired.

[0003] Generally speaking, measures to reduce noise include sealing the noise source with a sound insulating wall, preventing vibration of the noise source to reduce structure-borne sound, and pasting sound-absorbing material on the inner wall surface to attenuate the sound. Methods are known.

However, the pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator has a source of large noise such as a compressor, and the amount of cooling air required to cool it together with the accompanying electric motor is relatively large. Due to the necessity of open flow paths and the exhaust noise of compressed oxygen and air generated during the desorption process, it is extremely difficult for commonly used noise reduction measures to be sufficiently effective. It was difficult.

For example, it is difficult to completely seal off a noise source, and in order to improve the sound insulation properties of the sound insulation wall, it is necessary to increase the mass of the sound insulation wall, but if the wall thickness is increased more than necessary, the weight of the device increases. The size increases, which is undesirable. Additionally, if the sound coming from the air inlet and outlet becomes louder than the sound that passes through the walls, the noise level of the entire device will be determined by the sound coming from the cooling air flow path, and the sound insulation will not be effective. .

[0006] Also, when attaching sound absorbing material to the inner wall of the air flow path, if the cross-sectional area of the flow path is narrowed too much and the flow resistance increases too much, the amount of air flowing will decrease, resulting in insufficient cooling of the pump, etc. This may cause inconvenience. Therefore, it has been extremely difficult to maintain a predetermined oxygen concentrating performance and take sufficient noise countermeasures without increasing the size of the oxygen concentrator, especially in pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrators.

[0007]

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The purpose of the present invention is to correct the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide less noise than conventional oxygen concentrators without substantially increasing the size or reducing the function of the concentrator. An object of the present invention is to provide a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator.

[0008]

[Structure of the Invention] As a result of intensive research to achieve the above object, the present inventor has discovered that noise occurs in the air suction side conduit means of compressed air supply means such as a compressor in a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator. We have also discovered that providing a specific function to prevent noise from leaking outside the conduit means is very effective in reducing the noise of the entire device, and have arrived at the present invention.

That is, the present invention provides a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator equipped with an adsorption bed and a compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed. The present invention provides an oxygen concentrator characterized in that the suction side conduit means of the supply means is equipped with a backflow prevention means.

The oxygen concentrator of the present invention has one adsorption bed, and the compressed air supply means is a compressor means, and the compressor means has the function of supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed. This includes those that have both the function of discharging gas from the adsorption bed.

The present invention also provides a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator equipped with an adsorption bed and compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed. The present invention provides an oxygen concentrator characterized in that an opening is provided on the side of the tube around the tip of the suction side conduit means of the supply means.

Further, the present invention provides a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator equipped with an adsorption bed and compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed. The present invention includes an oxygen concentrator characterized in that the suction side conduit means of the air supply means is equipped with a backflow prevention means, and the suction side conduit means is equipped with a silencer means.

[0013] According to the present invention, the silencer means is provided with an opening on the side of the pipe around the distal end of the suction side conduit means, or a filter is provided at the distal end of the suction side conduit means. This includes an oxygen concentrator.

[0014] The present invention will be explained in more detail below using figures as necessary. The oxygen concentrator of the present invention is of a pressure fluctuation adsorption type (hereinafter sometimes abbreviated as PSA type), in which pressure is applied to an adsorption bed filled with an adsorbent capable of selectively adsorbing oxygen or nitrogen. This is a device that obtains a gas with an increased oxygen concentration by supplying air that has been removed and selectively adsorbing specific components, and then reducing the pressure of the adsorption bed to cause desorption. Such oxygen concentrators typically include an adsorption bed, a compressed air supply means driven by an electric motor, fan means for producing a flow of atmospheric air to cool the motor and the compressed air supply means, and an adsorption bed and compressed air supply means. The main components are a conduit means for connecting the pipes to allow compressed air to flow into the adsorption bed, and an automatic valve means equipped thereon for controlling pressure fluctuations during adsorption and desorption.

[0015] The number of adsorption beds may be one or two or more, but in the case of a small-sized oxygen concentrator for medical use, the number of adsorption beds is preferably two or less, and the number of adsorption beds is particularly desirable. Further, a compressor is usually used as the compressed air supply means, but a blower type may be used depending on the case. Further, as the fan means, it is preferable to use another fan means in addition to the fan normally attached to the compressor itself, since the compressor etc. can be reliably cooled. Further, the automatic valve means is for controlling the adsorption/desorption cycle of the adsorption bed, and a two-type, three-type, or four-type automatic valve means is used. The automatic valve means is preferably a direct current excited solenoid valve, an alternating current excited solenoid valve, an air actuated automatic valve, a pilot actuated solenoid valve, etc., and among them, a frequently excited solenoid valve, an air actuated automatic valve, and a pilot actuated solenoid valve. Actuated solenoid valves have a slow movement of the iron core, have a long life, and generate little noise during operation, so they are more preferable in terms of noise reduction, and DC-excited solenoid valves are particularly practical.

A feature of the oxygen concentrator of the present invention is that the air suction side conduit means of the compressed air supply means such as a compressor is equipped with a specific functional section for preventing or reducing noise generation.

[0017] As an example of the functional part, there is an embodiment in which the air suction side conduit means is provided with a backflow prevention means. A preferred example of such a backflow prevention means is a check valve means. Another specific example is an automatic opening/closing valve means that is controlled in advance to close immediately before backflow of air occurs in the air suction side conduit means to prevent it from occurring.

As an example of the oxygen concentrator of the present invention,
For example, a one-column type pressure as shown in FIG. 1 can be mentioned. That is, in FIG. 1, air pressurized by a compressor 3 is sent to the adsorption bed 1, and nitrogen is selectively adsorbed in the adsorption bed 1, so that the oxygen concentration is 9.
Concentrated oxygen gas that has been increased to about 0% is stored in a cushion tank 2, the pressure is adjusted to be reduced by a pressure regulating valve 9, bacteria are removed by a sterilization filter 10, and then the flow rate is adjusted to a predetermined flow rate by a flow rate setting device 11. Oxygen-enriched gas, further humidified by a humidifier 12, is delivered to the patient via conduit means and a nasal cannula (not shown for convenience). After completing the adsorption process for a predetermined time, the solenoid valve 8 is closed and at the same time the flow paths of the solenoid valves 4 and 5 are switched to form a flow path as shown in FIG. By using the adsorption bed 1 as a depressurizer, the pressure inside the adsorption bed 1 is reduced and the desorption operation is carried out for a predetermined period of time. In this manner, a series of pressure fluctuation adsorption operations is repeatedly performed while controlling the electromagnetic valves 4, 5, and 8 by a control means (not shown for convenience) such as a microcomputer.

In the oxygen concentrator shown in FIG. 1, when poppet type solenoid valves are used as the solenoid switching valves 4 and 5, which are considered to have excellent durability and less trouble due to foreign matter getting caught, When the electromagnetic valves 4 and 5 switch the flow paths from the adsorption process to the desorption process, the suction side conduit means 7 and the high pressure side, that is, the adsorption bed 1, are temporarily brought into communication with each other, and air is drawn from the high pressure side. A phenomenon occurs in which the air flows back toward the suction side conduit means 7, and this temporary air backflow phenomenon generates periodic peculiar noise, which may cause discomfort to the patient using the oxygen concentrator. Understood.

[0020] The present invention takes special countermeasures against noise caused by backflow in the air inlet conduit means of the compressor, which was not originally expected to occur and no special countermeasures were taken against the noise. This is what I did. In the example shown in FIG. 1, a check valve 6 is provided in the middle of the suction side conduit means 7 as a special noise countermeasure.

[0021] Furthermore, it is preferable that the exhaust side conduit means 13 is provided with silencer means, if necessary. Furthermore, the fan 14 is used to cool the compressor, but the cooling air flow path may be provided with a partition plate, or the compressor and fan, which are the sources of noise, may be housed in a box to muffle the noise. It is desirable to take noise reduction measures such as Note that this noise-muffling box is usually constructed of a steel plate with a thickness of about 1 mm and a sound-absorbing material on the inside, but even if the thickness of the iron plate is reduced to about 0.4 mm, it will still be able to sufficiently muffle the sound. Since it has been found that this effect can be obtained, it is desirable to use such thin metal plates such as iron plates to reduce noise and weight.

[0022] Even in cases other than those shown in Fig. 1, the present invention can effectively function as a noise reduction measure in cases where a backflow phenomenon occurs to the suction side conduit means of the compressor, which is not originally intended for gas to flow.

Furthermore, since the gas backflow into the suction side conduit means of the compressor is temporary and pulse-like, it is effective to prevent noise generation due to the pulsed flow in the suction side conduit means. Providing a special silencer means is also useful as a noise reduction measure.

As an example of such special silencer means, at the tip of the suction conduit means, one, preferably a plurality of openings are provided in the side of the tube near the tip, and more preferably the tip is sealed. One way to do this is to stop the pulsed gas flow from directly escaping, and use it as an air inlet. For example, there may be a combination of a tip seal and two or more openings on the tube side, or a combination of a tip opening and one or more openings on the tube side. Note that it is desirable to provide a sound absorbing material inside the sealing portion at the tip to better absorb the energy when a pulsed gas flow hits.

A specific example of another silencer means is to install a filter means at the tip of the suction side conduit means. It is preferable that the filter means has the function of removing foreign matter from the air to be taken in and extending the life of the solenoid valve and compressor.

In the oxygen concentrator of the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned backflow prevention means, the suction side conduit means of the compressor is equipped with such a special silencer means.
A preferred embodiment is one with a higher noise reduction effect.

[0027]

According to the present invention, in a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator using a compressor's compressed air supply means, a low-noise type oxygen concentrator can be used even when gas backflow occurs in the suction side conduit means of the compressor. The superior benefits that oxygen concentrators can provide are obtained. Particularly, when a backflow prevention means is provided, a significant effect is achieved in reducing noise.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart of a preferred embodiment of the oxygen concentrator of the present invention.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator comprising an adsorption bed and a compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed, wherein the compressed air supply means comprises: An oxygen concentrator characterized in that the suction side conduit means is equipped with a backflow prevention means. 2. The adsorption bed is one unit, and the compressed air supply means is a compressor means, and the compressor means has the function of supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed and discharging gas from the adsorption bed. 2. The oxygen concentrator according to claim 1, wherein the oxygen concentrator has both functions. 3. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator comprising an adsorption bed and a compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed, wherein the compressed air supply means An oxygen concentrator characterized in that an opening is provided on the side of the tube around the tip of the suction side conduit means. 4. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator comprising an adsorption bed and a compressed air supply means driven by the power of an electric motor for supplying compressed air to the adsorption bed, wherein the compressed air supply means is An oxygen concentrator, characterized in that the suction side conduit means is equipped with a backflow prevention means, and the suction side conduit means is equipped with a silencer means. 5. The silencer means is provided with an opening on the side of the pipe around the tip of the suction side conduit means,
5. The oxygen concentrator according to claim 4, further comprising a filter at the tip of said suction side conduit means.