JPH0631099U - Ion generator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a compact and robust ion generator that can be manufactured at low cost, can be easily attached. A plate-shaped ion generating electrode 12 having a plurality of saw teeth 12a, a counter electrode 14, a casing 20 holding both electrodes, and a high voltage generating circuit board for applying a high voltage between both electrodes. An ion generator 10 having 50,
The ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14 are integrally arranged on the outer surface 20a of the casing so that the ion generating electrode 12 is positioned perpendicular to the counter electrode 14, and the high voltage generating circuit is further provided in the casing 20. The substrate 50 is placed.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an ion generator for ionizing air, and more particularly to an ion generator having an integral structure.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Ionized air has the effect of maintaining the freshness of food, and for this reason, ion generators that generate ions are conventionally arranged in refrigerators or food storages. This ion generator applies high voltage generated in a high voltage generating circuit between opposing electrodes to ionize air.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In the above conventional ion generator, a needle-shaped electrode is mainly used as one electrode (ion generation electrode) in order to efficiently generate ions. This needle-shaped electrode is difficult to manufacture because it is formed by implanting a needle in the metal base, which has been a factor in increasing the cost of the ion generator. This ion generator also positions the ion generating electrode and the other electrode (planar electrode) with a holding member, and applies the voltage generated in the high voltage generating circuit to these electrodes via a lead wire. Was. For this reason, it was necessary to mount the electrodes and the high-voltage generating circuit board separately when connecting them to a refrigerator, etc., and to connect them with lead wires, which made it difficult to carry out the mounting work in a small refrigerator. . Moreover, since the electrodes and the high-voltage generating circuit board are attached to different places, they occupy a large area. Furthermore, the electrodes attached to the inside of the refrigerator are not firmly fixed, only positioned by the holding member, and are damaged if the user accidentally hits the dishes when the user tries to store the food in the refrigerator. There was also a problem that it was easy to cause. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a compact and robust ion generator which can be manufactured at low cost, can be easily attached.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention applies a high voltage between a plate-shaped ion generating electrode having a plurality of saw teeth, a counter electrode, a casing holding both electrodes, and both electrodes. An ion generating device having a high-voltage generating circuit board for, wherein the ion generating electrode and the counter electrode are positioned on an outer surface of the casing, and the ion generating electrode is positioned perpendicular to the counter electrode. And the high-voltage generating circuit board is arranged in the housing.

[0005]

[Action]

 In the ion generating device configured as described above, the ion generating electrode has a saw-tooth shape, so that it can be easily formed. In addition, the ion generation electrode and the counter electrode are integrally arranged on the outer surface of the housing, and the high-voltage generation circuit board is arranged inside the housing. Robust configuration.

[0006]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an ion generator 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. Here, FIG. 1 is a plan view of the ion generator 10, FIG. 2 is a side view of the ion generator 10 of FIG. 1 seen from the arrow B side, and FIG. 3 is a side view seen from the arrow A side. The ion generating device 10 is mainly composed of a casing 20 containing a high-voltage generating circuit board, an ion generating electrode 12 integrally attached to an outer surface 20 a of the casing 20, and a counter electrode 14. Formed as. The counter electrode 14 is attached substantially parallel to the bottom surface 20b of the housing, and the ion generating electrode 12 having a plurality of saw teeth 12a is substantially parallel to the side surface 20a of the housing 20 and the counter electrode 14 is provided with the saw teeth 12a. Are mounted so that they are oriented. The ion generating electrode 12 is formed by punching a nickel plate, and the counter electrode 14 is formed by embedding a metal in the dielectric ceramics. These manufacturing methods will be described in detail later.

The counter electrode 14 made of a dielectric ceramic is firmly sandwiched by holders 16A and 16B in order to protect it from an impact from the outside, and is fixed outwardly from the housing 20. On the other hand, the ion generating electrode 12 is positioned via an ion generating electrode holding member 22 made of an insulating material so as to be substantially parallel to the housing outer surface 20a of the ion generating device. It is attached with a boss 24 and a pin 26. The space gap length between the tip of the ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14 is set to 4 mm in this embodiment. This is because when the space gap is 2 mm or less, spark discharge is more likely to occur and ion generation sharply decreases. On the contrary, when the space gap is 20 mm or more, the voltage required for ion generation must be 15 KV or more, and the power supply must be designed. This is because it will be difficult. The reason for this will be described in more detail later. In this embodiment, the ion generator 10 having the above-mentioned integral structure is arranged and fixed at a predetermined location of a refrigerator, so that the ion generator 10 is mounted in the refrigerator.

Next, a method for manufacturing the ion generating electrode 12 of this embodiment will be described. The ion generating electrode 12 is formed by punching out a metal plate having a thickness of about 70 μm to 500 μm and mainly made of nickel. Regarding the thickness of the electrode 12 for ion generation, the thinner the radius of curvature at the tip of the electrode, the higher the efficiency of ion generation. For example, an ion generation electrode having a thickness of 1000 μm can obtain an ion generation amount about three times that of a thin electrode having a thickness of 70 μm. On the other hand, if the ion generating electrode is too thin, mechanical strength will be a problem. Therefore, in this embodiment, the nickel plate having a thickness of about 70 μm to 500 μm is used. Similarly, the tips of the saw teeth 12a are set at an angle of 45 ° or less so that the radius of curvature at the tip of the electrode is reduced and the ion generation efficiency is increased.

FIG. 4 shows another example of the ion generating electrode. In this example, the ion generating electrode 15 is formed by nickel-plating a stainless steel plate having the illustrated shape. Even with such a configuration, it has sufficient durability against electrode wear, as will be described later.

Next, a method of manufacturing the counter electrode 14 of this embodiment, which is formed by integrally molding ceramics and metal, will be described with reference to FIG. First, a fluid slurry is prepared based on alumina powder, and alumina green sheets 28 and 30 having a thickness of 0.5 mm are formed from the slurry. Next, the tungsten powder is slurried to form a metallized ink, which is printed on the alumina green sheet 30 by a normal screen printing method to form the planar electrode 32. Then, the alumina green sheets 28 and 30 are thermocompression bonded. At this time, through holes 34 are formed in the alumina green sheets 28 and 30 for drawing out the terminals of the planar electrode 32. The layered material thus formed is fired in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at 1400 ° C to 1600 ° C to complete the counter electrode 14.

In the example described with reference to FIG. 5, which shows another example of the counter electrode in FIG. 6, the planar electrode 32 made of metal is configured to be embedded in the ceramics. In particular, a metallic planar electrode 38 is attached to the lower surface of the ceramic plate 36, and the lower surface of the planar electrode layer 38 is exposed to the atmosphere. This counter electrode has a one-layer structure in which a sheet metal electrode 38 is printed and fired on an aluminum green sheet. This can also be formed on fired alumina by a so-called secondary meta method. is there.

FIG. 7 shows a high voltage generating circuit board 50 to which the counter electrode 14 is integrally attached. The opposite electrode 14 has its end side portion 14a superposed on the end side portion 50a of the high voltage generating circuit board 50, and screws 42A and 42B are inserted into the through holes 34 and fixed to screw holes (not shown) of the high voltage generating circuit board 50. It is installed by doing. At the same time, the screws 42A and 42B electrically connect the metal sheet electrode 32 inside the counter electrode 14 to a printed wiring (not shown) connected to the secondary side terminal of the transformer 44. It It should be noted that this electrical connection can be made with lead wires instead of the screws 42A and 42B.

Next, the circuit configuration of the high voltage generation circuit board 50 will be described with reference to FIG. The high voltage generation circuit board 50 of this embodiment is connected to a commercial AC power source of 60 Hz or 50 Hz in a refrigerator, and applies a high voltage required for ion generation between the ion generation electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14. Let The commercial AC voltage of 100 V is regulated in potential by a circuit composed of a Zener diode ZD1, a transistor TR1 and a diode D3, and a half wave length of the AC voltage in the forward direction with respect to the diode D1 passes through the diode D1 and a capacitor. It is applied to C1 to charge the capacitor C1. Then, when the voltage goes in the opposite direction to the diode D1, another capacitor C2 is charged, and when this voltage reaches a value that triggers the trigger gate of the thyristor SCR1, the thyristor SCR1 is energized and charged as described above. A current starts to flow from the capacitor C1 and forms a current path consisting of the capacitor C1, the thyristor SCR1 and the primary side of the transformer 44, whereby a high voltage is generated on the secondary side of the transformer 44. The secondary side terminal 44a of the transformer 44 is connected to the ion generating electrode 12, and the secondary side terminal 44b is connected to the counter electrode 14 via the printed wiring on the high voltage generating circuit board 50 as described above. The applied voltage shown in FIG. 9 is applied between both electrodes. The attenuation amplitude of the voltage shown in the figure is a waveform formed by the time constant of the capacitance of the capacitor C1 and the inductance of the transformer 44.

Next, the result of the operation test of the ion generator 10 having the above-described configuration will be described. When the ion generator 10 was operated and the number of ions at a position 5 cm away from the ion generator 10 was counted by a measuring device, it was found that there were 150 negative ions / cm ³ in the normal atmosphere. It was confirmed that the number increased to 50,000 / cm ³ . In this example, positive ions were generated at the same time as the Masnas ions in order to apply an alternating voltage between the ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14, but the number of positive ions was about 200 / cm ³ .

At present, it has been found that the effect of maintaining the freshness of food is mainly brought about by negative ions, but in the present embodiment, in order to apply an AC voltage by interposing dielectric ceramics between both electrodes, It was found that a large number of negative ions were generated compared to positive ions, and the desired effect of the ions was obtained.

Next, the relationship between the gap length between both electrodes and the amount of generated ions will be described with reference to FIG. This figure uses an ion generating electrode with five needle-shaped electrodes and a counter electrode in which a 10 × 30 mm tungsten electrode is embedded in alumina ceramics, and a voltage of 8.5 KVpp (60 Hz) is applied between both electrodes. The relationship between the amount of generated ions and the gap length of the electrode space when applied is shown. When the gap length is made smaller, the amount of ions generated increases. However, when this gap is made smaller, the discharge characteristic is about 3 mm. From the corona discharge that is effective for the generation of ions, it is not suitable for the generation of sparks. Move to. Therefore, the gap length cannot be made too small. On the other hand, the larger the gap, the smaller the amount of ions generated. Therefore, in order to secure the required amount of generated ions, it is necessary to increase the applied voltage as the gap is increased. Then, a voltage of 15 KV or more is required, which makes it difficult to design a power supply. From the above results, it was found that the gap length of about 2 to 20 mm is appropriate.

Next, the material of the ion generating electrode will be described with reference to FIG. 11, which compares the durability of stainless steel and nickel. This test was also carried out by a measuring instrument for counting the number of ions described above at a position 5 cm away from the ion generator 10. For both stainless steel and nickel, the number of negative ions is about the same as about 5000 / cm ³ after 1000 hours have passed. As the gap between them becomes larger, the tip of the electrode becomes dull. For this reason, the amount of negative ions generated gradually decreased, and after 10,000 hours, the amount of generated negative ions became about 30,000 / cm ³ and decreased by nearly 40%. On the other hand, the electrode using nickel shows almost no decrease in the amount of ions generated even after 10,000 hours. From this test result, it was revealed that the electrode made of nickel excels in durability as compared with the electrode made of stainless steel. The durability shown in the above test results can also be obtained by plating a metal plate made of another material with nickel, and the ion generation electrode of the present invention reduces the manufacturing cost. For the purposes described above, it is also possible to use the nickel-plated plate of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows an arrangement example of the ion generator 10 in a refrigerator. In this example, the ion generating device 12 shown in FIG. 3 is rotated counterclockwise by 90 °, and the ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14 attached to the outer surface 20a of the ion generating device housing 20 are connected to each other. The ion generator 10 is attached to the inside of the refrigerator so that is located at the top. The ion generator 10 of the present embodiment can be appropriately arranged according to the situation such as the installation place.

Although a commercial AC power source is used as a power source in the above-described embodiments, the present proposal can use a rectified AC power source or a DC power source such as a battery. In this case, a negative high voltage is applied to the ion generating electrode side to generate negative ions. The applied voltage is, for example, about 5 KV when the space gap between the electrodes is 10 mm 2. When a DC voltage is applied, spark discharge is more likely to occur than when an AC voltage is applied as described above, so it is desirable to set a large space gap. Further, it is preferable to use a metal planar electrode as the planar electrode.

In this embodiment, since the counter electrode 14 and the high voltage generating circuit board 50 are mechanically and electrically integrated with each other by the screws 42A and 42B, the transformer 44 on the high voltage generating circuit board is the electrode. There is no need for wiring work with a lead wire that is electrically connected to. Further, when the ion generator 10 is assembled, the counter electrode 14 and the high-voltage generating circuit board 50 that are integrated can be incorporated into the housing 20, so the work is simple. In addition, in the present embodiment, an example in which the ion generator 10 is arranged in a food storage such as a refrigerator in order to utilize the food freshness-retaining effect of ionized air has been described. There is also an effect of promoting the health of the human body, and in order to make use of this, it is also suitable to attach the ion generating device 10 of the present embodiment to the compartment or bathroom of an automobile.

[0021]

[Effect of device]

 Since the present invention has the configuration described above and the tip of the ion generating electrode is formed in a sawtooth shape, the ion generating electrode can be manufactured inexpensively and easily. Further, since the ion generating electrode and the counter electrode are integrally arranged on the outer surface of the housing, and the high voltage generating circuit board is further arranged in the housing, the ion generating device of the present invention is refrigerated. It can be easily installed in the cabinet and the entire device can be made compact and robust.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an ion generator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the ion generator of FIG. 1 viewed from the arrow B side.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the ion generator of FIG. 1 viewed from the arrow A side.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an ion generating electrode according to another embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a counter electrode of an example.

6 is a side view of a counter electrode according to another embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a high voltage generating circuit board according to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of the high voltage generating circuit board shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a waveform diagram of the voltage applied between the ion generating electrode and the counter electrode.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the relationship between the electrode gap length and the amount of generated ions.

FIG. 11 is a graph showing the durability of the ion generating electrode.

FIG. 12 is a side view showing an example of arrangement of the ion generator shown in FIG. 1 in a refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Ion Generator 12 Ion Generation Electrode 14 Counter Electrode 20 Ion Generator Housing 28 Alumina Green Sheet 30 Alumina Green Sheet 32 Planar Electrode 44 Transformer 50 High Voltage Generation Circuit Board

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A plate-shaped ion generating electrode having a plurality of saw teeth, a counter electrode, a casing for holding the both electrodes, and a high voltage generating circuit board for applying a high voltage between the both electrodes. An ion generating device having, wherein the ion generating electrode and the counter electrode are integrally arranged on an outer surface of the casing so that the ion generating electrode is positioned perpendicular to the counter electrode, An ion generator, wherein the high voltage generating circuit board is arranged in the housing. 2. The ion generator according to claim 1, wherein the counter electrode and the high-voltage generating circuit board are integrally connected.