JPH0767923A - Incubator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To apply clean heating and humidification with no danger of discharging contaminated microbes or the like by providing a humidifying unit having a humidifying module made of hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes and a water storage section in an incubator main body. CONSTITUTION:The outside air introduced through an air inlet 3 is filtered by a filter 4, passes through a heater 6 and a humidifying unit 7 installed in an air passage 8, and is adjusted at the proper temperature and humidity. The adjusted air is fed into a hood 1 through the air passage 8. The air in the hood 1 is again fed into the air passage 8 in an incubator main body 2 to form a circulation path. The humidifying unit 7 has a humidifying module made of hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes and a water storage section. The air flowing into the hood 1 is brought into no contact with the water storage portion, the danger of the infiltration of contaminated microbes into the air circulation path caused by the contaminated microbes at the water storage section is prevented, and clean heating and humidification can be applied.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an incubator for maintaining an environment necessary for a prematurely physically unborn baby such as a low birth weight baby.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional incubator introduces external air from an air inlet of a main body, filters the air introduced by a filter installed in the air inlet, and further needs a heater and a humidifier to require it. The temperature and humidity are adjusted and used as the circulating air in the air passage and hood of the incubator body. As the humidifying means, methods such as steam humidification and vaporization type humidification using a humidifying pad are used.

[0003]

However, in the steam type humidifier and the vaporization type humidifier using the humidifying pad, the water flowing into the hood and the air flowing into the hood are in direct contact with each other, which causes microbial contamination in the water storing section. There is a risk that contaminated microorganisms will enter the air circulation path.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an incubator capable of performing clean heating and moistening without the risk of releasing contaminated microorganisms and the like.

[0005]

The gist of the present invention comprises a hood and an incubator main body for accommodating a baby body inside, and a humidifying module and a water storage which are composed of a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane inside the incubator main body. The incubator is provided with a humidifying unit having a section.

Since the incubator of the present invention uses a humidifying module composed of a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane, air flowing into the water storage portion and the hood does not come into direct contact with each other, which causes microbial contamination in the water storage portion. There is no danger of invading contaminated microorganisms into the air circulation path, and clean heating and humidification can be performed.

The incubator of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing a configuration of a main part of an incubator according to the present invention. The incubator of the present invention has an air inlet 3, a filter 4, a fan 5, a heater 6, a humidifying unit 7 and an air passage 8.

The external air introduced from the air introduction port 3 is filtered by the filter 4 and then passes through the heater 6 and the humidifying unit 7 installed in the air passage 8 to be adjusted to an appropriate temperature and humidity.

Next, the conditioned air is sent to the hood 1 through the air passage 8. In addition, the air in the hood 1 constitutes a circulation path through which the air is again sent to the air flow path 8 in the incubator body 2.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the humidifying unit 7. The humidifying unit 7 has a humidifying module 10 made of a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane 11 and a water storage section 9.

The hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane used in the incubator of the present invention includes, for example, polyolefin hollow fibers such as polyethylene, polypropylene and poly-4-methylpentene-1, and hollow fluorine such as polyvinylidene fluoride and polytetrafluoroethylene. As long as it is hydrophobic and has a microporous structure such as a thread, it can be used without particular limitation.

The membrane morphology and membrane performance of the microporous hollow fiber may be appropriately selected according to the desired characteristics of the apparatus depending on the use of the apparatus incorporating the same and the size of the space for humidity control. . The inner diameter of the microporous hollow fiber does not have a great resistance to gas permeation in the hollow portion, for example. 2
It is preferably 0 μm or more. 20 considering the miniaturization of the device
It is preferably about 0 μm or less.

The pore diameter in the membrane wall of the hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane 11 can be appropriately selected so that water does not enter the gas passage side due to the water pressure in the water storage section. The porosity is preferably 30% or more so as not to have a large resistance to water vapor transmission, and preferably 90% or less in consideration of strength.

Further, those having a very large open space with a porosity of 30 to 90% and a surface area of 20 to 80 m ² / g have a contact area between water and gas through the hollow fiber membrane. It is more preferable in that a large and efficient generation of steam can efficiently obtain a saturated state of steam in the hollow portion of the hollow fiber. Further, the thickness of the hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane 11 is set to 200 in order not to have a great resistance to permeation of water vapor.
In consideration of strength, it is preferably 5 μm or more.

[0015]

The present invention will be described with reference to the following examples. Example 1 A polyethylene hollow fiber membrane having an outer diameter of 380 μm, an inner diameter of 270 μm, and a thickness of 55 μm was used, and the membrane area was 0.3 m ² , 0.
15 m ^2, was manufactured humidifying unit as shown in FIG. 2 such that 0.05 m ^2.

Next, water was poured into the water storage section 9 and the inner surface of the polyethylene hollow fiber membrane 11 was used as the liquid phase contact surface. Further, a humidifying unit was constructed in which external air was introduced by the fan 5 and the outer surface of the polyethylene hollow fiber membrane 11 was used as a vapor-phase contact surface.

The results are shown in Table 1. Considering the hood content, a sufficient amount of humidification was shown. The hood 1 was not attached, and the external air temperature and humidity were controlled at 23 ° C and 35% (RH).

[0018]

[Table 1]

[0019]

The incubator of the present invention uses a humidifying module composed of a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane as a humidifying means.
The air flowing into the water storage part and the hood does not come into direct contact,
Clean heating with no risk of invading contaminated microorganisms into the air circulation path caused by microbial contamination in the water storage
Wet can be done.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an example of an incubator of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a humidifying unit 7 in FIG.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Hood 2 Incubator body 3 Air inlet 4 Filter 5 Fan 6 Heater 7 Humidification unit 8 Air flow path 9 Water storage section 10 Humidification module 11 Hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A humidifying unit comprising a hood and an incubator main body for accommodating a baby body inside, and a humidifying unit having a water storage section and a humidifying module made of a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane is provided inside the incubator main body. Characterizing incubator.