JPH07293972A - Environmental apparatus with rotation control type dehumidifier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform energy conservation under the control of humidity of an environmental tester having a humidifier. CONSTITUTION:An air conditioning room 2 has a blower 3, a heater 4, an evaporator 5 of a refrigerator, and a humidifier 6. An inlet of a testing chamber 1 has a temperature sensor 7 and a humidity sensor 8. Part of the air in the chamber 1 is passed through a dehumidifier 12 having a rotor 121 to be driven by a motor 122 to form a bypass dehumidifying line. Detection signals of the temperature and humidity sensors are introduced to a temperature and humidity regulator 14, which generate heating and humidifying outputs to control temperature and humidity of the air to be fed to the chamber 1. A control factor of a humidifying amount in the regulator 14 is oscillated to a speed controller 15 for controlling a rotating speed of the motor 122. Thus, necessary dehumidifying amount can be obtained without altering a structure of the dehumidifier, and humidifying energy can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an object to be tested in an environmental chamber,
An environmental testing device that puts in the objects to be treated and maintains or changes the humidity in the environment room at least to create the desired environmental conditions,
The present invention relates to environmental devices such as constant temperature / humidity devices and heat treatment devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as a conventional environmental test apparatus for maintaining the temperature and humidity in a test chamber at a predetermined value, a bypass for returning a part of the air in the test chamber to a dehumidifier to dehumidify it and then returning it to an air-conditioned room By providing a dehumidifying system and a humidifier in the air-conditioned room and controlling the amount of humidification in the humidifier, the mixed air of dehumidified air and humidified air is supplied to the test room with an appropriate humidity. There is a type that keeps the humidity of the target humidity. In this case, the dehumidifying capacity of the dehumidifier should be determined by considering the moisture load of water vapor and minute water droplets (hereinafter referred to as "moisture") generated from the DUT or introduced by ventilation and the temperature and humidity conditions of the test room. It was set. That is, the maximum dehumidifying capacity of the dehumidifier has been set on the basis of the time when the moisture load is large and the temperature and humidity inside the test chamber are kept low. As a result, in the conventional environmental test equipment, when the humidity set in the test room is relatively high and the generated water load is small, the dehumidifying capacity of the dehumidifier becomes excessive, and therefore the rehumidification amount by the humidifier is increased. It increased and wasted energy for humidification.

On the other hand, in order to suppress such an increase in the re-humidification amount, a method of switching the output of the regenerative heater of the dehumidifier or switching the circulating air amount may be used. However, even if such a method is used, the dehumidifying capacity is 10
Since it decreased only from 0% to about 60%, sufficient energy saving operation could not be performed. Further, since the dehumidifier has a characteristic that the dehumidifying capacity increases as the moisture load in the intake air increases, the rehumidification amount increases, especially in a large environmental test device.
A great deal of energy was lost. Further, in the method of switching the circulating air volume to the dehumidifier, the air volume balance in the dehumidifier changes, so it is necessary to adjust the opening degree by a damper in the dehumidifier, which makes the dehumidifier complicated and costly.

As the dehumidifier alone, the amount of regenerated air is increased in response to an increase in the rotor rotation speed to make the regeneration capacity of the rotor's regeneration zone follow the rotation speed, and a purge zone is provided immediately after regeneration to process the dehumidifier. If the absolute humidity of the inlet dehumidified air becomes large, the rotor rotation speed will be increased to increase the dehumidification capacity, and the dehumidification will be performed even if the absolute humidity of the inlet dehumidified air becomes large. There has been proposed a device capable of maintaining efficiency without being significantly reduced (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-38214).

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems in the prior art and to provide an environmental device that saves energy in humidity control including a dehumidifier.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention introduces a gas in an environmental chamber into the dehumidifying area of a dehumidifier having a dehumidifying area and a regenerating area during one rotation of a rotor. In an environmental device that controls the humidity condition of the environmental chamber by controlling the humidification amount of the humidifier, which comprises a dehumidification system and a humidifier that are returned to the air-conditioned room after dehumidification, and corresponds to the control element that controls the humidification amount. Rotor control means for controlling the rotation speed of the rotor is provided.

[0007]

The dehumidifier of the environmental device of the present invention forms the dehumidifying area and the regenerating area during one rotation by the rotation of the rotor. In such a dehumidifier, when the rotation speed of the rotor is slow, the dehumidifying portion of the rotor is sufficiently regenerated in the regeneration region, but the amount of treated gas to be processed becomes excessive in the dehumidifying region, and therefore, in the downstream side of the dehumidifying region. The dehumidifying ability is greatly reduced, and the dehumidifying ability as a whole is low. On the other hand, when the rotation speed of the rotor is fast, except for the case where the amount of regenerated air is increased or a purge zone is provided, a normal dehumidifier has insufficient regeneration in the regeneration region and insufficient temperature drop in the dehumidification region. Deteriorates the dehumidifying ability.
Therefore, the dehumidifier has a rotation speed of the rotor (hereinafter referred to as "optimum speed") that maximizes the processing capacity. Then, on the lower speed side or the higher speed side than the optimum speed, the dehumidifying ability decreases corresponding to the decrease or increase of the rotation speed. As a result, such a relationship between the rotation speed and the dehumidifying capacity can be utilized for the humidity control of the environmental device, and the present invention utilizes such characteristics of the dehumidifier.

The environmental device also includes a dehumidifying system and a humidifier that introduce gas in the environmental chamber into the dehumidifying area of the dehumidifier to dehumidify the gas and then return it to the air conditioning chamber, and control the humidifying amount of the humidifier. This controls the humidity conditions in the environmental room. That is, in this control, dehumidification is performed with a dehumidifier until the humidity is lower than the target humidity condition of the environment room, the insufficient humidity is supplemented with a humidifier, and the humidity amount is controlled to set the environment room. Control to humidity.

The environmental device further has a rotor control means for controlling the rotation speed of the rotor of the dehumidifier corresponding to the control element for controlling the humidification amount. Here, as the control element for controlling the amount of humidification, for example, the temperature and relative humidity of the environment room to be set as a target (hereinafter, "humidity" means relative humidity), the set value of humidity and the measured value There are deviation, a humidification output which is a final control signal for controlling the humidification amount of the humidifier, a target value of the humidification output, and the like.

For example, when the set temperature and humidity of the environment room are both low, it is necessary to reduce the humidification amount of the humidifier, so this set temperature and humidity is one of the control elements for controlling the humidification amount.
Is one. When both the set temperature and humidity are low, it is necessary to remove a large amount of water in the dehumidified body by the dehumidifier, so that the dehumidifying ability of the dehumidifier must be increased. The rotor control means is a control element and controls the rotation speed of the rotor corresponding to the set temperature and humidity of the environment chamber which has such a relationship with the dehumidifying ability.

As the rotation speed, for example, an optimum speed or a speed higher than the optimum speed can be selected. As a result, when the set temperature / humidity is low, if the speed close to the optimum speed corresponding to this is selected, the dehumidifier exerts the dehumidifying capacity close to the maximum, so that the set temperature / humidity can be maintained. At the same time, since the set humidity is low, the humidifying amount of the humidifier is small. When increasing the set temperature and humidity, the rotation speed of the rotor is correspondingly increased. When the set temperature and humidity are high, the required amount of dehumidification is small, and when the rotation speed of the rotor is high, the dehumidification capacity is low. Therefore, the required dehumidifying amount and the dehumidifying ability of the dehumidifier are balanced, and excessive dehumidification is prevented. As a result, the amount of re-humidification by the humidifier does not increase, and it is possible to prevent unnecessary increase of humidification energy.

The same applies when another humidification amount control element such as the deviation between the set value of humidity and the measured value is selected. As described above, in the environmental device of the present invention, in addition to controlling the humidifier, the rotor control means is provided, and the dehumidifying ability is controlled by utilizing the dehumidifying ability characteristic with respect to the normal rotation speed of the dehumidifier. It is possible to stay within.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration including a temperature / humidity control system of an environmental testing device which is an example of an environmental device. The environment test apparatus includes a test room 1 as an environment room and an air-conditioning room 2, and the air-conditioning room 2 has a blower 3 that circulates air between the two rooms, a heater 4, and a refrigerator 5a to send a refrigerant. Evaporator 5
And a humidifier 6, a temperature sensor 7 and a humidity sensor 8 are provided at the entrance of the test chamber 1, and a partition plate 9 and a wind direction guide 10 are provided between the chambers. Part of the air in the test chamber 1 is introduced into the dehumidifier 12 via the damper 11, and the dehumidified air is returned to the inside of the air conditioning chamber 2 via the damper 13 to form a dehumidification system.

In such an environment testing apparatus, since the circulating air is cooled by the evaporator 5 of the refrigerator 5a in order to realize a low temperature environment, the air cooled by passing through the evaporator 5 is usually below the dew point. Since the temperature becomes, the circulating air is also dehumidified by the evaporator 5. Therefore, in such a device, the dehumidifier 12 is used to keep the temperature inside the test chamber 1 at a temperature and humidity condition within a certain limit, or to generate a large amount of water in the test chamber or bring it into the test chamber. It is provided as an auxiliary dehumidifier. However, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to an environmental device that does not dehumidify the circulating air depending on the cooling device such as the evaporator 5.

The detection signals of the temperature and humidity sensors 7 and 8 are introduced into the temperature / humidity controller 14 of the environmental testing device, and the heating output which is a control signal for controlling the heating amount and the humidifying amount of the heater 4 and the humidifier 6 from this. And the humidification output are transmitted to the respective control units 4a and 6a, and the electric power applied to the heating heater 4 and the humidifier heater 6b is controlled. And test room 1
The temperature and humidity of the air sent to is controlled. As the humidification output, for example, in the temperature / humidity controller 14, the humidity sensor 8
The deviation between the measured value of and the set humidity set by the temperature / humidity controller 14 is calculated, and 0-100 at a constant time corresponding to the calculated value.
Send% output. The control output of the temperature / humidity controller 14 is
It is also transmitted to the rotation speed controller 15 for controlling the rotation speed of the rotor drive motor 122 that drives the rotor 121 of the dehumidifier 12.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic structure of the dehumidifier 12. As the rotor 121 rotates, the dehumidifier 12 has a dehumidifying area 121a for about 3/4 rotation and a regenerating area 121b for about 1/4 rotation in one rotation, and as shown in FIG. The dehumidified air in 1 is dehumidified in the dehumidifying area 121a. Regenerating air heated by a heater (not shown) as shown by an arrow A in FIG.
When the portion that has passed through the dehumidifying area enters the regenerating area 121b, the dehumidifying function is regenerated. As shown in FIG. 1, the rotor 121 is rotation-controlled by a rotation speed controller 15 as a rotor control unit that controls the rotation speed of the rotor 121 in accordance with a control element that controls the humidification amount of the humidifier 6. The control element for controlling the amount of humidification is transmitted from the temperature / humidity controller 14 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows an example of dehumidification characteristics of the dehumidifier 12. The dehumidifying capacity of the dehumidifier 12 is as shown in the figure.
Changes to a maximum rotation speed at a portion near a relatively low rotation speed, and tends to decrease as the rotation speed increases. The dehumidifying capacity depends on the water content of the dehumidified air at the inlet of the dehumidifier, and as shown in the figure, the dehumidifying capacity increases as the water content increases.

FIGS. 4 to 8 show control examples in the case of controlling the rotation speed of the rotor 121 corresponding to the control element for controlling the humidification amount. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the control elements are set values of temperature and humidity in the test chamber 1 and the rotational speed control of the rotor is performed stepwise. In this control, the temperature / humidity signal set by the temperature / humidity controller 14 is transmitted to the rotation speed controller 15 (see FIGS. 1 and 2), and the controller 15 preliminarily divides the rotation speed into four stages based on the signal. Any one of them is selected, and the rotor drive motor 122 is controlled to rotate at the rotation speed. The number of rotations in four stages is, for example, 100% to 25%
Until the dehumidifying capacity gradually decreases, the number of rotations becomes higher. In the region where the temperature and humidity are the highest and the fourth rotational speed or higher, the dehumidifying amount required only by the dehumidifying effect of cooling the circulating air by the evaporator 5 can be obtained, so that it is not necessary to operate the dehumidifier 12. . Therefore, the rotor 12 is stopped, the dehumidifier is turned off, and its dehumidification capacity is set to 0.
To

When the test chamber 1 is set to a low temperature and a low humidity, the amount of water load removed increases, and therefore a large dehumidifying capacity is required. In this case, a low rotation speed is selected so that the dehumidifying capacity is high, and the dehumidifying system air is sufficiently dehumidified so that the dehumidification is slightly excessive. The humidifier 6 is controlled so that the rehumidification amount is small, as in the normal control. And
The target temperature and humidity in the test chamber 1 are maintained.

On the other hand, when the temperature and humidity inside the test chamber are high, the required dehumidification amount is small. In this case, select a large number of rotations that provides low dehumidification capacity, dehumidify the dehumidification system air to a small extent so that it will be slightly dehumidified, and re-humidify it with the humidifier as in the above. Maintain the temperature and humidity within 1. Therefore, since a large amount of dehumidification as in the conventional case is not performed, waste of humidifying energy due to a large amount of rehumidification is prevented.

As in this embodiment, the rotor 1 is set according to the set temperature and humidity.
By controlling the number of rotations of 2 and changing the dehumidifying capacity, it is possible to secure a necessary dehumidifying amount and prevent loss of useless humidifying energy due to excessive dehumidification. In addition, when the set temperature and humidity as the humidification control element is used in this way, the temperature and humidity controller 1
Since the setting signal in 4 can be used as it is, the rotation speed of the rotor can be easily controlled.

FIG. 5 shows a humidity measurement value SV as a control element.
An example of using the difference between the set value PV and the set value PV, that is, the deviation is shown.
In controlling the rotor based on this deviation, the + -threshold values of the deviation are set to A and B, respectively, and the rotational speed of the rotor 121 is controlled so that the deviation falls within this range.

First, it is judged from the set temperature and humidity conditions whether the dehumidifier 12 needs to be operated or not (S-1), and the operating conditions such that only the evaporator 5 of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 can sufficiently dehumidify are selected. If so, the rotation of the rotor 121 is stopped (S-2). When performing the dehumidifying operation by the dehumidifier 12, the rotor control is started (S-3) and the timer is reset (S).
-4) Compare the deviation pv-sv with the threshold A (S-
5) If the deviation is larger than the threshold value, it is determined that the actual measurement value is larger than the set value of the humidity and it is necessary to increase the dehumidification capacity, and it is the minimum rotation speed that is the maximum rotation speed of the rotor 121. If not, the number of rotations is lowered by one step (S-6, 7). On the other hand, at this time, since the deviation is +, the humidification output also decreases, so that even if the dehumidification capacity is increased, useless humidification energy does not increase.

If the deviation pv-sv is less than the threshold value A, it is compared with the negative threshold value B (S-8). If the deviation is less than B, the measured value is smaller than the set value of humidity. Therefore, it is determined that the dehumidifying capacity needs to be reduced, and if the rotor 121 does not reach the maximum rotational speed that is the minimum rotational speed, the rotational speed is increased by one step (S-9, 10). At this time, since the deviation is negative, the humidification output is increased, but this is to obtain the necessary amount of humidification, and the humidification energy is saved by the amount by which the dehumidification capacity is decreased due to the increase in the rotation speed of the rotor.

If the deviation is between the threshold values AB, the test room 1
Since the humidity inside is stable near the target value, the rotation speed of the rotor is not changed and is maintained as it is. After performing such a series of judgment and control, it is judged whether or not the control cycle has timed out (S-11), and if the time has expired, the timer is reset and the following flow is executed again (S-4). . In addition, when the rotor has already reached the maximum or minimum number of revolutions and it cannot be made higher or lower than that,
The number of rotations does not change.

Since the deviation between the measured value and the set value is calculated in the temperature / humidity controller 14 to generate the control output of the humidifier, the result is directly used,
The rotation speed of the rotor can be easily controlled. Further, according to this control, the rotational speed of the rotor and the humidification output move in the same target direction and at the same time, so that the deviation can be corrected quickly in accordance with the humidity condition in the test chamber 1.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the humidification output itself corresponding to the humidification amount of the humidifier 6 is used as the control element. Also in this example, the same control as in FIG. 5 is performed. Therefore, description of similar judgment and operation parts will be omitted. In controlling the rotor by the humidification output, the lower and upper thresholds of the humidification output are set to C and D, respectively, and the rotation speed of the rotor 121 is controlled so that the humidification output falls within this range. The humidification output is compared with the lower limit threshold value C (S-5). If this value is less than or equal to the threshold value C, the humidity inside the test chamber 1 is high and the humidification is not necessary, and it is necessary to improve the dehumidification capacity. It is determined that the rotation speed of the rotor 121 is reduced by one step (S-6,
7). As a result, even if the amount of dehumidification increases, the humidification output is reduced, so that useless humidification energy does not increase.

If the humidification output is not below the threshold value C, it is judged whether it is above the threshold value D (S-8). If it is above D, the humidification output is large and unnecessary humidification is performed. It is determined that the rotor 121 is rotating, and the number of rotations of the rotor 121 is increased by one step (S
-10). As a result, the amount of dehumidification of the dehumidifier 12 decreases, the humidification output also decreases, and the humidification energy can be saved.

If the deviation is between the threshold values CD, the humidification output is within the range of the target proper value, and the requirements for both controllability and saving of humidification energy are substantially satisfied. The numbers will remain the same.

Since the humidification output as a control element is transmitted from the temperature / humidity controller 14 to the controller of the humidifier, the rotation speed of the rotor can be easily controlled by sending it to the rotation speed controller 15 as it is. it can. According to this control, the humidification output is directly controlled within the proper range, so that the humidification energy can be surely saved.

In the above, the humidifier 12 is controlled by various control elements.
7 shows an example of controlling the rotor 121 in a stepwise manner. However, in order to control the rotational speed of the rotor more accurately and further reduce the humidification energy, as shown in FIG. 7, PI, PD, P
A PID rotation speed controller 15 ′ is provided as an example of a controller for performing more advanced control of the ID and the like, and a control system is provided in which a control element is fed back from the temperature / humidity controller 14.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic control flow in the case of such a control system. When the rotor control is started, it is determined whether the humidification output is between the set value EF (S-1). If the humidification output is outside the set value EF, the rotor rotation speed is PID-controlled to output the rotation speed output (S- 2 and 3), the number of rotations of the rotor is changed to be within the set value range (S-4). If the rotation speed is within the set range, the rotation speed is maintained as it is (S-
5).

In the above example, the temperature / humidity setting range, the deviation between the measured value of the temperature / humidity and the set value, and the humidification output are illustrated as the control elements, and an example is shown in which these are used as the control elements independently. It is also possible to use a control element other than this or to perform control by incorporating a plurality of these. For example, in FIG. 8, the target humidification output can be set and divided according to the temperature / humidity setting range, and an element of the deviation between the measured value of temperature / humidity and the set value can be added during this control.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, by providing the rotor control means and combining the control of the humidifier and the rotation speed control of the rotor of the dehumidifier, the necessary dehumidification amount is secured and the humidification energy is increased. Can be reduced. According to such rotor control, it is not necessary to switch the regeneration heater of the dehumidifier or change the circulating air volume, so that the structure of the dehumidifier does not become complicated. Further, since the control element for controlling the amount of humidification is used for the speed control by the rotor control means, it is not necessary to provide special detection means or calculation means for control, and the energy saving of the environmental device can be easily achieved at low cost. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an environment test apparatus of an example.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a dehumidifier of the above device.

FIG. 3 is a curve diagram showing a characteristic example of a dehumidifier.

FIG. 4 shows an example of rotation speed control of a dehumidifier rotor of the above apparatus, (a) is a curve diagram of the relationship between temperature and humidity and the rotation speed, and (b) shows the relationship between the rotation speed and the dehumidification capacity.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another control example of the dehumidifier rotor of the above apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing still another control example of the dehumidifier rotor of the above apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing still another control example of the dehumidifier rotor of the above apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the above control example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Test Room (Environmental Room) 2 Air Conditioner 6 Humidifier 12 Dehumidifier 15 Rotation Speed Controller (Rotor Control Means) 15 'Rotation Speed Controller (Rotor Control Means) 121 Rotor 121a Dehumidification Area 121b Regeneration Area

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A dehumidifying system and a humidifier, wherein a rotor rotates, and a dehumidifier having a dehumidifying area and a regenerating area during one rotation introduces gas in an environmental chamber into the dehumidifying area to dehumidify and then returns to the air-conditioned room. In an environmental device for controlling a humidity condition of the environmental chamber by controlling a humidification amount of the humidifier, rotor control means for controlling a rotation speed of the rotor is provided corresponding to a control element for controlling the humidification amount. Environmental device characterized by the above.