JPH07225073A - Low-temperature gas generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always stably supply low-temperature gas without causing blocking a tube, etc., even if moisture, carbon dioxide gas in the air is solidified to form the gas by mixing the air with liquefied gas or evaporated liquefied gas and cooling the mixture. CONSTITUTION:The low-temperature gas generator comprises a buffer tank 1, an air introducing unit 2 for introducing the air into the tank 1, a cooling gas introducing unit 3 for introducing liquefied gas or its evaporated gas into the tank 1 and a low-temperature gas exhausting unit 4 for exhausting the low-temperature gas prepared in the tank 1. The tank 1 is partitioned by a partition member 5, and metal fiber cotton material 7 having high thermal conductivity is filled in partitioned chambers 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a low-temperature gas which is made into a low-temperature gas by mixing air with a liquefied gas or a vaporized liquefied gas to cool it, and at the same time, the low-temperature gas can be stably discharged. It relates to a generator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Low temperature gas is used in various fields such as cooling of a surface to be polished and treatment of rheumatism. In this case, a low temperature gas of about -100 ° C to 0 ° C is often required.

The low temperature gas can be obtained by mixing compressed air with a liquefied gas or a liquefied gas obtained by evaporating the liquefied gas. The use of compressed air is also advantageous in terms of cost reduction.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-199857 discloses an apparatus for generating a dry and cool gas stream for cold treatment of rheumatism. This device has a container for containing a low-boiling liquefied gas and a flexible hose connected to the container and having a replaceable treatment nozzle for discharging vaporized gas. It has only a storage capacity, a controllable electric heating device for vaporizing the liquefied gas near its bottom and a flexible hose connected to the container by a controllable electric heating section.

The embodiment of this publication and FIG. 1 show a mechanism for providing a blower for introducing indoor air into all the apparatuses after the treatment is completed. However, this blower is for removing the residual liquefied nitrogen in the apparatus.

JP-A-3-49860 discloses a storage tank for liquefied gas, a polishing or polishing tool, and a heat-insulated connection hose for connecting the storage tank and the tool. A glazing or polishing device is shown which is continuously fed into the working range of the tool when the tool is driven.

The claim 2 of this publication shows a mode in which a plurality of storage tanks are connected to the main tank, and the claim 3 claims that the storage tank and the tool are Between or between the main tank and the storage tank,
An embodiment is shown in which a mixing tank for supplying cooling gas and compressed air is arranged.

[0008]

As described above, a low temperature gas can be obtained by mixing the compressed air with the liquefied gas or the liquefied gas obtained by evaporating the liquefied gas. The gas may solidify at low temperatures and block pipes and the like.

In order to avoid such troubles, water and carbon dioxide in the air should be removed as much as possible in advance. However, since it is difficult to completely remove them, the operation time of low temperature gas blowing is long. If this happens, blockage will eventually occur in the pipes, nozzles, and the like.

According to the present invention, when air is mixed with a liquefied gas or a vaporized liquefied gas to cool it into a low-temperature gas, even if moisture or carbon dioxide in the air solidifies, the piping or the like may be blocked. It is an object of the present invention to provide a low-temperature gas generator capable of constantly and stably supplying low-temperature gas.

[0011]

The low temperature gas generator of the present invention comprises a buffer tank (1), an air introducing section (2) for introducing air into the buffer tank (1), and the buffer tank (1).
It is a device equipped with a cooling gas introduction part (3) for introducing liquefied gas or its evaporated gas into it, and a low-temperature gas discharge part (4) for discharging the low-temperature gas prepared in the buffer tank (1). A partition member inside the buffer tank (1).
In addition to partitioning with (5), each partitioned room (6) is filled with a cotton-like material (7) made of metal fiber having good thermal conductivity.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

The low temperature gas generator of the present invention comprises a buffer tank (1), an air introducing section (2) for introducing air into the buffer tank (1), and a liquefied gas or its vaporization in the buffer tank (1). Cooling gas introduction part (3) for introducing gas,
And a low temperature gas lead-out section (4) for leading out the low temperature gas prepared in the buffer tank (1).

As the buffer tank (1), a cylindrical vertical tank made of stainless steel or the like is preferably used.

The air introduction part (2) is for introducing air into the buffer tank (1), and the air introduction part (2)
(2) is preferably connected via a dryer (9) to a compressor (8) for air compression. Dryers Here (9)
A PSA type, a heating PSA type, a membrane type, a refrigerating type, etc. are adopted as the dry type (9), and moisture and carbon dioxide gas in the air are considerably removed by this dryer (9).

The cooling gas introduction part (3) is a buffer tank.
(1) for introducing a liquefied gas or its evaporative gas, and this cooling gas introduction part (3) is preferably through a heating means (11) for heating the liquefied gas, Liquefied gas source
Connected to (10). Here, as the heating means (11), for example, a heating type such as a heater type, a heat exchange type, or an atmospheric heating type is adopted. As the liquefied gas source (10), for example, a tank filled with liquefied gas is used. Although liquefied nitrogen is most suitable as the liquefied gas, liquefied air can be used.

The low temperature gas outlet (4) is a buffer tank.
This is for deriving the low temperature gas prepared in (1). A hose such as a heat-insulated flexible hose is connected to the low-temperature gas outlet (4), and a nozzle (14) is provided at the tip of the hose. A solenoid valve or a flow meter can be attached to the low temperature gas outlet (4) as required.

In the present invention, the inside of the buffer tank (1) is partitioned by the partition member (5), and the partitioned chambers (6) each have a cotton-like material (7) made of a metal fiber having good thermal conductivity. )
To fill. This is the greatest feature of the present invention.

As the cotton-like material (7) made of metal fiber having good thermal conductivity, the cotton-like material of stainless steel fiber is most suitable.
It may be a cotton-like material made of fibers such as gold, silver, copper and aluminum.

Buffer tank (1) with partition member (5)
The number of partitions (that is, the number of chambers (6)), the arrangement of partition members (5), the apparent density of the cotton-like material (7) in the buffer tank (1), etc. The temperature, the amount of introduction, the concentration of water and carbon dioxide in the introduced air, the temperature and the amount of the liquefied gas or its vaporized gas from the cooling gas introduction part (3) are taken into consideration to set the optimum value.

In this case, the buffer tank (1) is of a vertical type, and the partition members (5) are alternately provided on the buffer tank (1) to partition into three or more chambers (6), and the lowermost chamber (6) )
To the cooling gas inlet (3) and the middle chamber (6) to the air inlet.
(2) It is particularly desirable to provide the low temperature gas outlet (4) in the uppermost chamber (6).

In addition to the above, a controller and a temperature sensor for temperature control and pressure control are installed in the apparatus of the present invention.

The low-temperature gas generator of the present invention is useful as a device for generating and supplying low-temperature gas used in various fields such as cooling of a surface to be polished, rheumatism treatment, and cosmetics.

[0024]

In the present invention, the air introduced into the buffer tank (1) is mixed with the cooling gas also introduced into the buffer tank (1), and the temperature is about -170 ° C to 0 ° C, especially- It is a low temperature gas of about 50 ° C to 0 ° C. At that time, water and carbon dioxide remaining in the air solidify, but the buffer tank (1) is filled with a cotton-like material (7) made of metal fiber with good thermal conductivity, And a buffer tank
Since the inside of (1) is partitioned by the partition member (5), the solidified product is promoted to be precipitated by the cotton-like material (7) while passing through each partitioned chamber (6), and the solidified product is surely there. Captured by. Therefore, there is no possibility that the pipes, nozzles, etc. located downstream of the buffer tank (1) will be blocked.

Then, even if the solidified substance adheres to the cotton-like material (7),
Since the cotton-like material (7) consists of an infinite number of fine channels, the low-temperature gas passes through the fine channels other than the solidified substance-attached points, and flows into the minute flow until the solidified substance adheres to a considerable part of the cotton-like substance (7). The road is never blocked. Therefore, the device of the present invention can be used for a long time.

The solidified matter adhered to the cotton-like material (7) is heated by the heating means (11) for heating the liquefied gas by introducing air from the air introduction section (2) when the apparatus is stopped. The evaporative gas of the liquefied gas is introduced from the cooling gas introduction part (3),
The gas can be removed in a short time by flowing a gas at 10 to 100 ° C. into the buffer tank (1). Since the cotton-like material (7) is made of metal fibers having good thermal conductivity, heat is well transferred to the solidified material, and the solidified material is easily gasified and removed.

[0027]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be further described with reference to examples.

Example 1 FIG. 1 is an apparatus diagram showing an example of a low temperature gas generator of the present invention.

<Device Structure> The buffer tank (1) is composed of a cylindrical vertical tank made of stainless steel.

The inside of the buffer tank (1) is partitioned by three partition members (5) which are alternately arranged to form four chambers (6). In each chamber (6) in the buffer tank (1), a cotton-like material made of stainless steel having a thickness of 40 to 50 μm as an example of the cotton-like material (7) is about 0.
It is filled with an apparent density of 05g / cm3.

An air inlet (2) is provided on the side wall of the second chamber (6) from the bottom of the buffer tank (1). This air inlet (2) is a PSA dryer (9). ) Via a compressor (8) for air compression.

A cooling gas introduction part (3) is provided on the side wall of the first chamber (6) from the bottom of the buffer tank (1), and the cooling gas introduction part (3) is liquefied. It is connected to a liquefied nitrogen container as an example of a liquefied gas source (10) via a heater as an example of a heating means (11) for heating a gas.
The heating means (11) and the liquefied gas source (10) are connected by a heat-insulated flexible hose (12).

A low temperature gas outlet (4) is provided on the side wall of the chamber (6) on the fourth surface from the bottom (that is, the first from the top) of the buffer tank (1). A flexible hose (13) is connected to (4), and a nozzle (14) for ejecting low temperature gas is provided at the tip of the flexible hose (13).

(15) is a temperature sensor, a buffer tank
(1) The gas temperature of the space near the cold gas outlet (4) of the first chamber (6) from the top is measured. (16) is a controller, which controls the opening and closing of the valve of the air introduction section (2) based on the temperature measurement data of the temperature sensor (15) to control the temperature of the low temperature gas derived from the low temperature gas derivation section (4). The temperature is kept constant.

<Operation> In the air sent from the compressor (8), moisture and carbon dioxide are considerably removed in the dryer (9), and the air is introduced into the buffer tank (1).
It is introduced into the second room (6) from below.

On the other hand, the liquefied nitrogen of the liquefied gas source (10) is heated by the heater (heating means (11)) via the flexible hose (12) to be evaporated, and is discharged from the bottom of the buffer tank (1) to 1
Introduced in room (6).

The cooling gas introduced into the first chamber (6) from the bottom enters the second chamber (6) from the bottom and is mixed with the air introduced into the chamber (6) to form a low temperature gas. Become. Since the temperature of the gas due to the evaporation of liquefied nitrogen is -196 ° C to -170 ° C, moisture and carbon dioxide in the air solidify, but the solidified product is a cotton-like material filled in the buffer tank (1). Captured in (7).

The low-temperature gas after mixing was stored in the third chamber from the bottom.
(6) And then into the room (6) on the 4th floor from the bottom,
In these chambers (6), solidified substances are also captured, and in a state in which virtually no solidified substances are contained, they pass through the low temperature gas outlet (4) and the flexible hose (13) from the nozzle (14) toward the target object. Erupted.

[0039]

In the low temperature gas generator of the present invention,
Since a method of forming low temperature gas by mixing air with liquefied gas or vaporized liquefied gas to cool it is used, the amount of expensive liquefied gas used can be reduced.
Mixing air is also advantageous in terms of preventing oxygen deficiency when a low temperature gas is applied, because oxygen is mixed in the low temperature gas that is discharged.

Then, the inside of the buffer tank (1) is partitioned by a partition member (5), and each partitioned chamber (6) is filled with a cotton-like material (7) made of a metal fiber having good thermal conductivity. As a result, the method of mixing air and liquefied gas is adopted, but there is no risk of clogging pipes or the like even if the moisture or carbon dioxide in the air solidifies, so that the temperature is always stable. Gas can be supplied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a device diagram showing an example of a low-temperature gas generator of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (1) ... buffer tank, (2) ... air introduction part, (3) ... cooling gas introduction part, (4) ... low temperature gas derivation part, (5) ... partition member, (6) ... chamber, (7) ... Cotton, (8) ... Compressor, (9) ... Dryer, (10) ... Liquefied gas source, (11) ... Heating means, (12) ... Flexible hose, (13) ... Flexible hose, (14) … Nozzle, (15)… Temperature sensor, (16)… Controller

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A buffer tank (1), said buffer tank
(1) An air introduction section (2) for introducing air into the inside, a cooling gas introduction section (3) for introducing a liquefied gas or its evaporated gas into the buffer tank (1), and the buffer tank (1)
A device equipped with a low-temperature gas discharge part (4) for discharging the low-temperature gas prepared inside the buffer tank (1) is partitioned by a partition member (5), and each chamber (6) is partitioned. A low-temperature gas generator characterized by being filled with a cotton-like material (7) made of metal fiber having good thermal conductivity. 2. The lowermost chamber, wherein the buffer tank (1) is of a vertical type and the partition member (5) divides it into three or more chambers (6).
The cooling gas inlet (3) is provided in (6), the air inlet (2) is provided in the middle chamber (6), and the low temperature gas outlet (4) is provided in the uppermost chamber (6). The low-temperature gas generator according to claim 1. 3. The low temperature gas generator according to claim 2, wherein the partition members (5) are alternately provided in the buffer tank (1) to form three or more chambers (6). 4. The air introduction part (2) is connected to a compressor (8) for air compression via a dryer (9), and the cooling gas introduction part (3) is a heating means (for heating liquefied gas). The low-temperature gas generator according to claim 1, which is connected to a liquefied gas source (10) via 11).