JPH06181953A - Incubator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively mix the dry air and wet air respectively from the dry and wet passages of the humidity control section of an incubator. CONSTITUTION:The dry and wet passages 92 and 93 of the humidity control section of a nursery are laid in directions parallel to each other. In addition, the passages 92 and 93 are provided with an adjusting means 96 for regulating the air flow ratio thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an incubator used to protect premature babies, such as premature babies who are physically immature.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, incubators are used to protect and raise premature babies, such as premature babies who are physically immature in an optimal environment in which the outside air is shut off.

A typical structure of such a conventional incubator is shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the main part of the incubator as seen from the back side. As shown, the upper part of the incubator is surrounded by a transparent hood 1 made of acrylic resin or the like. It is configured in the nursery room 2. Although not shown in the drawings, a bed for laying a baby, a height-adjustable pedestal for placing the bed, and the like are provided in the nursery room 2.

Inside the incubator body 3 below the nursery room 2, there is provided an air adjusting section 4 for adjusting the temperature and humidity of the air circulated in the nursery room 2, respectively. As shown in the figure, the air conditioning unit 4 is composed of a plurality of chambers, and an air merging chamber 5, an air heating chamber 6, and a humidity control unit 7 are arranged in this order from the upstream side. The air merging chamber 5 uses the air filter 51 to remove the air drawn from the nursery room 2.
It is a chamber for mixing with the fresh air sucked from the outside through. The air mixed here is sent to the air heating chamber 6 by the action of the sirocco fins 52, heated to an appropriate temperature by the heater 61 of the air heating chamber 6, and then sent to the humidity controller 7.

As the humidity control section 7, various structures are known, but the structure shown in the figure is most commonly put into practical use. That is, following the air heating chamber 6, two passages 71, 72 arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction are provided,
Humidification water 73 is put in one of the passages 71. Then, the air heated to an appropriate temperature in the air heating chamber 6 flows through the two passages 71 and 72 at an appropriate flow rate ratio by the action of the throttle means described later. At this time, the air flowing through the one passage 71 is humidified by coming into contact with the humidifying water 73, and the air flowing through the other passage 72 is not humidified at all. Therefore, by appropriately adjusting the flow rate ratio of the air in the humidity control unit 7, it is possible to circulate the air having the desired humidity in the nursery room 2.

The above-mentioned nursery room 2 and the air adjusting section 4 constitute a bottom wall of the nursery room 2 and are separated from each other by a partition plate 8 constituting an upper wall of the air adjusting section 4. An air suction port 8 for drawing air from the nursery room 2 into the air adjusting section 4 is provided in the vicinity of one end of the partition plate 8, that is, in a portion forming the upper wall of the air merging chamber 5 of the air adjusting section 4.
1 is provided. On the other hand, in the vicinity of the other end of the partition plate 8,
That is, air is blown into the nursery room 2 from the air adjusting section 4 to a portion which is near the end farthest from the air suction port 81 and constitutes the upper wall of the humidity controlling section 7 of the air adjusting section 4. An air outlet 82 is provided for this purpose. The air suction port 81 and the air outlet port 82 are each formed in a long shape extending substantially orthogonal to the direction from the air outlet port 82 toward the air suction port 81. Then, as shown in the figure, the slider 83 is attached to the air outlet 82.
A diaphragm means is provided. Slider 8
3, an opening 84 is provided, and an air outlet 82 is formed across the two passages 71 and 72 of the humidity control unit 7.
By appropriately shifting the position of the opening 84 which is aligned with, the ratio of the air flow rate flowing through the two passages 71 and 72 of the humidity control section 7 is adjusted.

[0008]

However, the known incubator described above has the following problems.

That is, in the incubator having the above-described structure, the slider 83 provided at the air outlet 82 of the partition plate 8 is slid so that the two passages 71 and 72 in the humidity controller 7 of the air adjusting unit 4 are slid. The humidity of the air circulated in the nursery room 2 is adjusted by changing the flow rate ratio of the air flowing through. For example, the opening 84 of the slider 83
Is moved to one of the passages 71 of the humidity controller 7,
The maximum humidified air is supplied into the nursery room 2, and when the air is moved to the other passage 72 side, the air that is not humidified at all is supplied into the nursery room 2. And
When the opening 84 of the slider 83 is moved to an intermediate position between them, that is, a position across the two passages 71 and 72 of the humidity controller 7, the opening 84 is moved to the respective passages 7.
A flow rate ratio substantially proportional to the area ratio of openings at 1, 72 is obtained.

However, in the structure in which the humidity is adjusted by moving the opening 84 of the slider 83, the nursery room 2
The position where the air is blown inside changes each time.
For this reason, the air flow distribution flowing through the nursery room 2 changes, and as a result, it becomes difficult to control the temperature especially near the infant. In particular, in recent years, cases of treating extremely premature infants such as premature infants are increasing, and in this case, even a delicate temperature change may cause a danger.

On the other hand, such a diaphragm means is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 19144 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-13129, it may be possible to provide it at a place other than the air outlet 82 to the incubator 2, for example, at the outlet of the humidity controller 7. In this case, the air outlet 82 is always fully opened, and the air whose air flow ratio is controlled is introduced into the incubator 2 through the passages 71 and 72 through the air outlet 82. However, even in this case, the passage 71
The humidified air from the main air inlet 82 is introduced into the incubator 2 mainly through one half of the air outlet 82 (the upper right half of FIG. 4), and the non-humidified air from the passage 72 is mainly discharged from the air outlet 82. Since it is introduced into the incubator 2 from a half portion (half on the lower left side in FIG. 4), the airflow distribution in the incubator 2 becomes uneven. Moreover, when the air flow rate ratio of the two passages 71 and 72 changes, the flow velocity of each air branch flow passing through the air outlet 82 changes, so that the air flow distribution in the incubator 2 changes. Therefore, even in this case, the temperature distribution in the incubator 2 changes somewhat.

[0012] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an incubator capable of solving the above-mentioned problems of the conventional incubator with a relatively simple structure.

[0013]

The above-mentioned problems can be solved by the present invention as follows.

That is, in the incubator according to the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the humidity control section 7 following the temperature control section (for example, the air heating chamber 6) of the air adjusting section 4 is arranged in the vertical direction. It is composed of two passages 92, 93 arranged in parallel and separated from each other by a partition plate 95.
The water 94 for humidification is arranged inside.

The passages 92 of the humidity controller 7 are
The air discharged from the air outlets 92b and 93b of 93 is supplied to the nursery room 2 through the air outlet 82.

The two passages 92 of the humidity controller 7 are
93 (for example, the air outlet 9 of the two passages 92, 93)
2b, 93b or air inlets 92a, 93a) are provided with adjusting means such as adjusting fins 96 for adjusting the air flow ratio of these two passages 92, 93.

[0017]

In the incubator of the present invention, the air flowing from the temperature control section 6 of the air adjusting section 4 into the humidity control section 7 is operated by the adjusting means 96 so that the two air passages 92 are arranged in parallel in the vertical direction. 93 at a predetermined flow rate ratio, in which case the air branch stream flowing through one of the passages 92 is not humidified at all, and the air branch stream flowing through the other passage 93 is humidified by contacting with the humidifying water 94. And is discharged from the humidity controller 7. The air discharged from the humidity controller 7 is supplied into the nursery room 2 through the air outlet 82.

At this time, in the present invention, the humidity controller 7
The air outlets 92b, 93b of the two passages 92, 93 are arranged vertically with respect to each other, and the air outlets 82 extend substantially orthogonal to the direction from the air outlets 82 toward the air suction port 81. State (hereinafter referred to as "landscape")
Therefore, the unhumidified air partial flow and the humidified air partial flow are mixed well before and after passing through the air outlet port 82.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, parts corresponding to those of the conventional structure described in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 2, the incubator of this embodiment is
Like the conventional example of FIG. 4, it has a nursery room 2 surrounded by a hood 1 made of acrylic resin or the like, and a plurality of chambers are provided inside the incubator body 3 below the nursery room 2. An air conditioning unit 4 is provided. However, in the present embodiment, the humidity control section 7 of the air adjusting section 4 is constituted by a humidity control box 9 which can be attached to and detached from the incubator body 3 as shown in the drawing. By mounting the humidity control box 9 on the incubator main body 3, as shown in FIG. 1, the space in the downstream region of the air conditioning unit 4 is divided, and the air heating chamber 6, the humidity control unit 7, and Each air mixing chamber 10 is formed. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 5 is an air merging chamber similar to that of the conventional structure shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the humidity control box 9
Is made of synthetic resin or the like into a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and is formed by combining an upper half portion 90 and a lower half portion 91 with each other. A horizontal partition plate 95 is provided between the upper half portion 90 and the lower half portion 91.
As shown in FIG.
The inner space of is divided into two upper and lower passages 92 and 93. The air inlets 92a, 93 of the passages 92, 93 are provided on the pair of wide side surfaces of the humidity control box 9 which face each other.
a and air outlets 92b, 93b are respectively formed, and these air inlets 92a, 93a and air outlets 92b, 9 are formed.
3b is configured to form one continuous opening in a state where the upper half portion 90 and the lower half portion 91 are combined with each other. In addition, each air inlet 92a, 9
3a and each of the air outlets 92b and 93b are provided with a partition plate 9 respectively.
They are separated from each other by 5.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the upper half portion 90 of the humidity control box 9 is provided with a projection 97 extending from the upper surface to the rear. And humidity control box 9
As shown in FIG. 1, the protrusions 97 are provided on the lower surface of the partition plate 8 and the sealing protrusion 85 and the rear side of the incubator body 3 when the is attached to the incubator body 3. The inner space of the incubator main body 3 is divided by closely adhering to the wall surface.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the lower half portion 91 of the humidity control box 9 is configured as a water tank for containing the water 94 for humidification, in which the direction of air flow is set. A number of guide plates 98 for controlling are arranged along the air flow direction.

The partition plate 95 of the humidity control box 9 is provided with adjusting fins 96 at the air inlets 92a and 93a, and the air flowing through the two passages 92 and 93 is operated by operating the adjusting fins 96. The flow rate ratio is adjusted. As shown, the adjusting fin 96 has an inverted cross section, and is fixed to the rotating shaft 99 at the center thereof. The rotating shaft 99 is rotatably supported by the bearing portion of the partition plate 95, and the operation knob portion 100 is fixed to the tip thereof.

As shown in FIG. 2, an opening 31 for inserting the humidity control box 9 is formed in the front surface of the incubator body 3, and a bottom wall surface aligned with the opening 31 is
A continuous guide protrusion 32 for guiding the insertion operation of the humidity control box 9 is formed. In addition, in FIG.
Reference numeral 33 is a water temperature controller for heating the humidifying water 94 in the humidity control box 9. Although not shown in the figure, the heater embedded in the bottom wall of the incubator body 3 controls the humidifying water 94 to an appropriate temperature. It is to heat. Also, reference numeral 34
Is a display panel for displaying various information such as temperature and humidity in the nursery room 2.

Next, the operation of the incubator having the above-described structure according to this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the air drawn into the air conditioning section 4 from the nursery room 2 through the air suction port 81 provided near one end of the partition plate 8 joins the air conditioning section 4 with air. After being mixed with fresh air introduced from the outside in the chamber 5, it is sent to the air heating chamber 6. The air heated to a predetermined temperature in the air heating chamber 6 has a humidity controller 7 formed by mounting the humidity control box 9 at a predetermined position in the incubator body 3 as shown in FIG. Will be introduced to.

At this time, the operating knob 100 shown in FIG. 3 is operated from the outside of the incubator to rotate the adjusting fin 96 of the humidity adjusting box 9 so that the air flow rate ratio between the two passages 92 and 93 is increased. Adjust. That is, in FIG. 1, when the adjusting fin 96 is rotated to the maximum in the clockwise direction, the upper plate-shaped portion of the inverted fin-shaped adjusting fin 96 comes to the position of closing the air inlet 92 a of the upper passage 92. At this time, the air from the air heating chamber 6 passes through the upper passage 9 of the humidity control box 9.
2, the lower passage 93 containing the humidifying water 94
Only flows into. Therefore, in this case, the maximum humidified air is sent out from the humidity controller 7. On the contrary, when the adjusting fin 96 is rotated to the maximum in the counterclockwise direction, the lower plate-shaped portion of the adjusting fin 96 blocks the air inlet 93a of the lower passage 93, so that the air from the air heating chamber 6 is removed. Air flows into only the upper passage 92. Then, the air that is not humidified at all is sent out from the humidity controller 7. Further, when the adjusting fin 96 is fixed at the intermediate position, air flows through the two passages 92 and 93 at a rate according to the rotating position of the adjusting fin 96 due to the difference in flow resistance. Therefore, in this case, the air humidified to the desired humidity can be obtained by mixing the two air split streams later.

In this embodiment, the air inlet 93 of the so-called wet passage 93 containing the humidifying water 94 is used.
Since the a and the air outlet 93b are provided at positions of the wide side surfaces of the rectangular parallelepiped humidity control box 9 which face each other and also face each other, and each opening portion is configured to be relatively wide, the wet passage 93 is formed. The flow resistance of the air flow flowing therethrough can be made relatively small, so that the air flow can be smoothly introduced into the wet passage 93.
Further, since the airflow flows laterally from the wide air inlet 93a to the wide air outlet 93b, its moisture absorption efficiency is improved, and thus the air flow path is obstructed by a baffle plate as in the conventional case. It is not necessary to disturb the air flow by providing, and it is possible to sufficiently humidify even during a relatively short stroke.

Further, in this embodiment, since the humidifying water 94 is heated by the heater (not shown), the humidification in the wet passage 93 can be performed more effectively.

The air exiting the humidity control box 9 goes through an air mixing chamber 10 formed on the downstream side of the humidity control box 9 as shown in FIG. 8
It is sent from 2 to the nursery room 2. In this case, the air outlets 9 of the two passages 92, 93 of the humidity control box 9 are shown as shown.
The reference numerals 2b and 93b are formed on the vertical wall of the humidity control box 9 so as to be vertically arranged. On the other hand, the air outlet 82 that connects between the air mixing chamber 10 and the nursery room 2 is
It is provided in the part of the partition plate 8 forming the upper wall of the air mixing chamber 10 and is horizontally long. Therefore, the air flow discharged from each of the passages 92 and 93 is
After being mixed to some extent in 0, it is supplied into the nursery room 2 from the air outlet 82. Particularly, in this embodiment, the air outlets 92b and 93b of the passages 92 and 93 of the humidity control box 9 are provided.
Are arranged vertically with respect to each other, and
The air outlet 82 is horizontally long. Therefore, even if there is vertical unevenness between the unhumidified air from the passage 92 and the humidified air from the passage 93, the unhumidified air is a half of the vertically divided air blow port 82 (air blow). The slit air) having a half width of the outlet 82) and the humidified air are about to be supplied into the nursery room from the other half. Therefore, the unhumidified air and the humidified air are sufficiently mixed before and after passing through the narrow one-half portion and the other half portion, so that the unevenness between the two is eliminated, and therefore, as in the conventional case, The mixing is more effective than the horizontally arranged ones.

The embodiments described above can be variously modified within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, the humidity control unit 7 in the above embodiment does not have to be composed of the removable humidity control box 9, and may be formed integrally with the incubator body 3. Further, it is also possible to make only the wet passage of the humidity controller 7 detachable.
Further, in the above embodiment, the adjusting means for controlling the air flow rate ratio of the two passages 92, 93 of the humidity control section 7 is provided at the inlet portion of each passage 92, 93, but it is provided at the outlet portion or the like. Is also good. Further, the adjusting means may be constituted by other restricting means such as a slider instead of the adjusting fin 96 as in the above-mentioned embodiment. Further, in the above embodiment, the upper side of the humidity control box 9 is the so-called dry passage 92, and the lower side is the wet passage 93.
It is also possible to reverse this.

[0033]

According to the present invention, the dry passage and the wet passage forming the humidity control portion of the air conditioner of the incubator are arranged vertically in parallel with each other, and the air outlet is provided from this air outlet. It has a longitudinal shape extending substantially orthogonal to the direction toward the air suction port. For this reason, the unhumidified air flowing through the dry passage of the humidity control unit and the humidified air flowing through the wet passage are sufficiently mixed before and after passing through the longitudinal air outlet, so that the unhumidified air and the humidified air are humidified. The unevenness between the air and the air is sufficiently eliminated. Therefore, since there is no unevenness in the air flow distribution in the nursery room as in the conventional case, it is possible to safely treat even a weak and fairly sensitive premature infant.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the incubator shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a humidity control box of the incubator shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional incubator seen from the back side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Nursery room 3 Incubator body 4 Air conditioner 7 Humidity controller 8 Partition plate 9 Humidity control box 81 Air suction port 82 Air blowout port 92 Passage 93 Passage 92a Air inlet 93a Air inlet 92b Air outlet 93b Air outlet 96 Adjusting fin

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Kazuo Matsubara 3-18-15 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo Atom Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A nursery room for accommodating a child, an air adjusting section provided inside the incubator body below the nursery room, and a partition between the air adjusting section and the nursery room. A partition plate is provided, and an air suction port is provided in the vicinity of one end of the partition plate, and an air outlet is provided in the vicinity of the other end of the partition plate. The nursery room and the air adjusting section are in communication with each other, and the air outlet is formed in a longitudinal shape extending substantially orthogonal to the direction from the air outlet toward the air suction port, The air sucked from the nursery room to the air conditioning section through the mouth passes through the temperature control section and the humidity control section of the air conditioning section, respectively, and then is circulated to the nursery room through the air outlet. In the structured incubator, The humidity control unit subsequent to the temperature control unit of the air conditioning unit has two passages that are vertically arranged in parallel with each other and separated from each other, and one of the passages has humidification water inside. Is provided, and the humidity control unit has the above-mentioned 2
The air discharged from the air outlets of the two passages is configured to be supplied to the nursery room through the air outlets, and the air flow rate ratio of the two passages is set to the two passages of the humidity control unit. An incubator characterized by being provided with an adjusting means for adjusting.