JPH08224413A - Air filter and air conditioner provided with air filter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an air filter capable of surely collecting dust in the air and washing with water, and an air conditioner provided with the air filter. CONSTITUTION: The air filter is constituted so as to have a fiber member 23 formed by coating the outer surface of a resin fiber 25 with a silicone resin or fluororesin 27. Since the silicone resin collects dust in contact therewith by the adhesive power, the dust quantity to be collected and the range of the size of dust to be collected are increased and collecting effect is enhanced. And, since the adhesive power of the silicone resin is recovered even after washing, the collecting effect is enhanced again after washing. On the other hand, since the fluororesin is easily electrified, it is capable of electrically attracting dust. And, the property being easily electrified is recovered by drying after washing. Then, the air filter is used any number of times by washing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air filter which collects and cleans dirt from indoor air and an air conditioner equipped with this air filter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an indoor unit of an air conditioner is provided with an air filter for filtering dust in the air. As a conventional air filter of this type, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-5
In Japanese Patent No. 5169, there is disclosed a net filter for filtering out large dust, a charging net arranged on the back surface thereof, and an activated carbon net arranged on the back surface thereof.

In the mesh filter, dust in the air is easily collected by forming a mesh having a small hole diameter.

Further, in the charging net, fine dust floating in the air is generated by aerosol (particle size 0.001 μm).
.About.100 μm), and most of them are said to be charged. Therefore, the Coulomb force or the inductive force provides a dust collection effect that the range of the amount of dust collected and the size of dust collected is widened. It is a thing.

[0005]

However, in the above conventional air filter, the mesh filter is
It is a structure that collects dust in a mesh with a small hole diameter to clean the air, but even dust with a diameter larger than the hole diameter of the mesh will pass through the mesh, or even if it once hits the mesh, it will slip through. However, there is a problem in that dust cannot be reliably collected. Particularly, in the case of knitting resin material fibers, there is a problem that the surface is slippery and dust cannot be collected reliably.

Further, in the charging net, as the charging material is used for a longer period of time, in particular, as the period of use in a hot and humid environment becomes longer, the charge retention rate decreases.
In particular, if the surface comes into contact with water, the charged state cannot be maintained. For this reason, the air filter made of a charged material cannot be washed with water and is therefore thrown away.

The present invention provides an air filter which can reliably collect dust in the air and can be washed with water, and an air conditioner equipped with this air filter.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is provided with an air filter having a fiber member in which the outer surface of a resin fiber is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin. Is.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the outer surface of the resin fiber is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin, and the charged fiber member is provided in the air filter.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, an air conditioner is provided with an air filter having a fiber member in which the outer surface of resin fiber is coated with silicone resin or fluororesin.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the air conditioner is provided with an air filter having silicone resin or fluororesin coated on the outer surface of the resin fiber and having a charged fiber member.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the invention, when the silicone resin is coated, since the silicone resin has adhesiveness, the adhesive force reliably collects the dust that comes into contact with the fiber member. If the adhesive strength of the fibrous material decreases due to the adhesion of dust, wash the air filter to remove the dust, and the adhesiveness of the silicone resin will be restored, and the amount of dust collected and the size of the dust collected will fall within the range. The dust collection effect of widening can be enhanced again. Therefore, it can be washed with water many times before use. On the other hand, when the fluororesin is coated, since the fluororesin is easily charged, dust can be attracted electrically and dust can be electrically collected. Then, after washing with water, the property of being easily charged is restored by drying.

In the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the invention described in claim 1, since the fiber member is further charged, in addition to the adhesive property of the silicone resin or the easily charged property of the fluororesin. It is also possible to obtain a dust collecting effect by charging. Therefore, the dust in the air can be collected more reliably. Moreover, by washing with water, the adhesive property of the silicone resin or the property of the fluororesin which is easily charged can be restored, and when the charge is attenuated by washing with water, the charge can be restored again by enclosing it with a conductor.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the air conditioner is provided with the air fill according to the above-mentioned first aspect, it is possible to clean the indoor air while achieving air conditioning. If the air filter is taken out from the air conditioner and washed as necessary, the adhesive property or the property of being easily charged is restored, like the air filter according to claim 1.
Since the dust collection effect can be enhanced again, it can be washed with water many times before use.

According to the invention described in claim 4, since the air conditioner is configured to include the air fill described in claim 2, it is possible to clean the indoor air while achieving air conditioning. If necessary, the air filter can be taken out of the air conditioner and washed to restore the adhesive property or the property of being easily charged, and by wrapping it with a conductor, the charge can be restored again. .

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an air filter 17 according to this embodiment.
The air conditioner 5 provided with is shown.

The air conditioner 5 is provided with a heat exchanger 9 into which a refrigerant is introduced, a blower 11 and an air purifier 3 in a unit 7, and a suction port 13 is provided on the front and the upper part of the unit 7. An outlet 15 is formed on the diagonally lower side of the front surface. An air filter 17 according to the embodiment of the present invention is arranged as a pre-filter at the suction port 11 so as to collect relatively large dust in advance before the air purifier 3. . The air purifier 3 includes a charging filter element and a deodorizing filter element, and electrically collects fine dust by using Coulomb attractive force and also removes odor. Further, the blower outlet 15 is provided with vertical blades 19 and horizontal blades 21 so as to guide the air after heat exchange.

The air filter 17 is, as shown in FIG.
The fibrous member 23 is knitted into a knitted structure so as to be formed in a net shape, and the fibrous member 23 forming the mesh collects dust having a diameter larger than the diameter of the mesh. The fiber member 23 is attached to a filter frame (not shown).

As shown in the cross section of FIG. 3, each fiber member 23 has a resin fiber 25 as a core material, and the outer surface of the resin fiber 25 is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin 27.

The resin fiber 25 is not particularly limited as long as it is a resin material, whether it is a synthetic resin or a natural resin. For example, a synthetic resin such as polyester, polypropylene or vinylidene chloride is used. To be

The reason why the silicone resin is used is that it has an adhesive property that can be restored by washing with water. Due to such adhesiveness, when used as an air filter, the dust collection effect due to adhesion can be enhanced. On the other hand, the reason why the fluororesin is used is that it has a property of being easily charged and that the property of being easily charged is restored by drying after washing with water.

Silicone resin or fluororesin 27
The resin fiber 25 may be directly coated, or the air filter 17 is formed by knitting the resin fiber 25 in a stitch shape, and then the entire stitch is coated with the silicone resin or the fluororesin 27. It may be.

Another embodiment is shown in FIG. 4. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the outer surface of the resin fiber 25 is coated with silicone resin or fluororesin 27 and is charged. In this embodiment, the outer surface is charged with a positive charge. Incidentally, the charging can be carried out by a normal corona discharge, and it is also possible to carry out a negative charge if necessary.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the air in the room sucked through the suction port 13 passes through an air filter 17 as a pre-filter to collect dust, and then passes through an air purifier 3 to further Collect dust and odor. After that, heat is exchanged in the heat exchanger 31 to be conditioned to cool air or warm air, and then the conditioned air is blown into the room from the air outlet 15 through the fan 11.

In the air filter 17, when air passes through the mesh, dust particles larger than the mesh are collected.
In this case, since the silicone resin coated on the surface of the fiber member 23 forming the mesh has an adhesive property, the adhesive force reliably catches the contacting dust and collects the dust from the passing air. Further, since the dust once collected is adhered, it is hard to come off and a high dust collecting effect can be obtained. Furthermore, when the fluororesin is coated, the fluororesin is easily charged, so dust can be attracted electrically. Then, after washing with water, the property of being easily charged is restored by drying.

On the other hand, the air filter 17 becomes dirty,
When the adhesive force of the fiber member is lowered due to the adhesion of dust, the air filter 17 is washed with water to remove the dust, and the adhesive property of the silicone resin or the easily charged property of the fluororesin is restored, and the dust collecting effect is again obtained. Can be increased. Therefore, it can be washed with water many times before use.

Further, as shown in another embodiment in FIG. 4, it is preferable to charge the fiber member 23 of the air filter 17. In this case, among the dust particles existing in nature, fine dust particles floating in the air are aerosol (particle size 0.00
1 μm to 100 μm), and most of them are said to be charged, and such dust is collected by a clonal force or an inductive force with respect to a positive or negative charge. Even when the fibrous member 23 is charged as described above, when the air filter 17 is washed with water, the adhesive property of the silicone resin or the easily chargeable property of the fluororesin can be restored, and when the charge is attenuated by washing with water, the conductive property is obtained. If it is wrapped in a body (conductive foil), the charge will be restored again.

The electrification after washing with water is performed by the air filter 17
By wrapping the whole or the fibrous member 23 with the aluminum foil, the charge is restored and the fiber member 23 can be reused. That is, when the air filter 17 is washed with water, ions (O 2) of water (H 2 O)
H-) neutralizes the positive charge of the fiber member and the surface is not charged. However, when wrapped in aluminum foil,
Since H-ions adhere to the aluminum foil, if the aluminum foil is removed from the air filter 17 or the fiber member 23 as it is, OH-ions are collected together with the aluminum foil and a positive charge is applied to the surface of the fiber member 23 of the air filter 17. It is presumed that it appears again.

As described above, according to the air filter 17 of this embodiment, it is possible to take out only the air filter 17 and wash it with water many times for use. Moreover, even after washing with water, it is possible to obtain a dust collecting effect in which the range of the amount of collected dust and the size of the dust to be collected is widened (fine dust can be removed) as in the first state.

Here, the air filter 17 according to the embodiment.
For the above, a test was performed in comparison with the conventional example, and the results will be described.

Comparative experiments were carried out on the air filter 17 coated with silicone resin (of the present invention) and the air filter not coated with silicone resin (of the conventional example). This experiment used a fiber waste called cotton hunter. Within a certain period of time, 0.3 to 0.43 g / m 2 (grams / square meter) of fiber waste was collected in the conventional example, but 3.5 to 5.2 g / m 2 (grams / m 2) in the present invention. (Sqm) of fiber waste was collected. Therefore, it was confirmed that the present application collects about 10 times as much fiber waste as the conventional one.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, as the resin fiber 25, a hollow fiber may be used, or the same effect can be obtained by using a resin fiber 25 in which a core material such as a copper wire is enclosed.

The charge can be restored after washing with water by using a conductive foil such as SUS (stainless steel) instead of the aluminum foil.

[0036]

According to the invention described in claim 1, when the silicone resin is coated on the outer surface of the resin fiber,
Since the contact dust can be collected by the adhesive force, it is possible to enhance the dust collecting effect that the range of the amount of collected dust and the size of the collected dust is widened. Further, since the adhesive force of the silicone resin is restored even after washing with water, the dust collecting effect can be enhanced again after washing with water. Therefore, the air filter can be washed with water many times before use. Also,
When the fluororesin is coated, the fluororesin is easily charged, so dust can be attracted electrically. Then, after washing with water, the property of being easily charged is restored by drying.

According to the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the invention described in claim 1, in addition to the fact that the fiber member is charged, in addition to the adhesive property of the silicone resin or the easily charged property of the fluororesin. Thus, it is possible to obtain a dust collecting effect by charging.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the air conditioner has an air fill coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin on the outer surface of the resin fiber. Therefore, the indoor air can be cleaned while air conditioning is achieved. You can

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the outer surface of the resin fiber is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin and is provided with a charged air fill, when the silicone resin is coated, the adhesion of the silicone resin is adhered. It is possible to achieve air cleaning and air conditioning that combines the dust collection effect due to the above, or when the fluororesin is coated, the dust collection effect due to the easily charged nature of the fluororesin and the dust collection effect due to charging.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an air conditioner used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a part of an air filter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the fiber member of the air filter shown in FIG. 2 is cut along line AA.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a fiber member of an air filter according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Air conditioner 17 Air filter 23 Fiber member 25 Resin fiber 27 Silicone resin or fluororesin

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An air filter comprising a fiber member having an outer surface of a resin fiber coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin. 2. An air filter characterized in that an outer surface of a resin fiber is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin and has a charged fiber member. 3. An air conditioner provided with an air filter having a fiber member in which a resin resin outer surface is coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin. 4. An air conditioner comprising an outer surface of a resin fiber coated with a silicone resin or a fluororesin and an air filter having a charged fiber member.