JPH0857026A - Steam sterilizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To sharply shorten the drying time by sealing a room, discharging the heated steam, the condensed water, and the gas contained in the heated steam in the room, then raising the room temperature with the air dried by a cold trap for drying. CONSTITUTION: When a room 12 is to be sterilized, heated steam is fed into the room 12 from a boiler 1. When the set sterilization time elapses after a thermometer detects that the room 12 reaches the sterilization temperature, valves 2, 3 are closed, and the sterilization work is completed. A cold trap 18 and a vacuum pump 20 are operated, the heated steam and the condensed water are recovered, and the room 12 is quickly dried. When the air not recovered by the cold trap 18 is discharged, the room 12 is made to be the vacuum state, and the condensed water stuck on the wall is quickly evaporated. Air is cooled by the cold trap 28, it is sterilized by a heater 29 after moisture is removed, and the dry air cooled by a cooler 30 is guided into the room 12 via a valve 6 to complete drying.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is to rapidly heat a compartment requiring sterilization, such as an operating room or an intensive care unit in a hospital, with steam to sterilize it, and then immediately move the compartment under high temperature and high humidity. The present invention relates to a steam sterilizer capable of returning to a normal use state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, sterilization of a hospital operating room which requires sterilization is performed by steam heating. Drying and cooling of the room after sterilization work are left in a natural state for normal use. The condition (room temperature, humidity 40-60%) has been restored. For this reason, in the sterilization work using a large amount of steam, there is a problem that it takes a long time to bring the chamber into a use state.

For this reason, it is conceivable to dry the room after the sterilization work by injecting dry air for the cooling and cooling. However, a large amount of steam is used for the sterilization work, and a large amount of condensed water remains in the chamber. In this case, it takes time to discharge the condensed water, which increases the drying time, and in order to shorten the drying time,
Since it is necessary to introduce a large amount of dry air into the room, there is a problem that the facility for producing this dry air becomes large-scale. Also, in the conventional drying using dry air, the air temperature is lower than the room temperature, so the heat in the room is used to evaporate the condensed water and raise the temperature of the air. There is a problem that the speed is low and the drying time is long.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention makes it possible to quickly bring the temperature of the sterilized compartment to normal temperature after the sterilization work, and keep the humidity in the compartment in a normal use state. It is an object of the present invention to provide a steam sterilizer that can be dried and dried by shortening the time required until it reaches a certain level.

[0005]

Therefore, the steam sterilizer of the present invention has the following means. (1) After the sterilization work, a first cold trap for discharging the heated steam remaining in the sealed compartment and the condensed water from the heated steam from the inside of the compartment was provided. (2) A vacuum pump was provided to discharge the gas contained in the heated steam that was replaced with the air in the compartment during the sterilization operation and remaining in the compartment to the outside of the compartment. (3) After discharging the warmed steam, condensed water, and gas by the first cold trap and vacuum pump, the condensed water remaining in the compartment is removed, and the compartment is dried to the humidity of the normal use condition. Therefore, a second cold trap for dehumidifying the dry air introduced into the compartment was provided. (4) In order to sterilize the dry air introduced into the compartment, a heater for heating the dry air was provided. (5) A cooler for cooling the dry air after the heat sterilization introduced from the heater to room temperature was provided.

[0006]

In the steam sterilizer of the present invention, (1) when the sterilization work is completed, the air in the closed compartment in which the sterilization work has been performed is replaced with the heated steam used for the sterilization. Moreover, the inside of the compartment is heated to high temperature by heated steam. The water vapor in this compartment and the condensed water that is condensed from the water vapor and is not collected in the tank during the sterilization work and adheres to the walls and remains in the compartment is discharged from the compartment by the first cold trap. Also, when these are discharged,
Since the heat of vaporization due to the evaporation of condensed water is removed from the inside of the compartment, the temperature inside the compartment drops.

(2) The air (gas) that cannot be discharged by the first cold trap and remains inside the compartment is discharged outside the compartment by the vacuum pump. The vacuum pump sucks the air in the compartment to lower the pressure, so that the condensed water remaining in the compartment is further evaporated, and the temperature in the compartment is further lowered to the room temperature or lower.

(3) After discharging steam, condensed water, and gas in the compartment by the first cold trap and the vacuum pump of the above (1) and (2), dehumidification is performed by the second cold trap and the heating device is used. Sterilized and cooled to the temperature of the compartment in use with a cooling device, dry air is introduced into the compartment, and the temperature inside the compartment, which has dropped to below room temperature, is raised to room temperature and remains slightly inside the compartment. The condensed water to be dried can be dried, and the temperature and humidity in the compartment can be quickly brought to the usage state.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the steam sterilizer of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the steam sterilizer of the present invention. Indoor 12 as a compartment
However, when used in a normal state, the valves 2 to 6 and the valve 22 are closed, the valves 7 and 8 are opened, and the air conditioner 1
1, the room 12 is air-conditioned. The air conditioner 11 is controlled by the thermometer 9 and the hygrometer 10 to keep the room 12 at the set temperature and humidity.

When sterilizing the room 12, the air conditioner 1
1 is stopped and valves 7 and 8 are closed. Next, the boiler 1 is operated, and when steam is generated, the valve 2 is opened, the heated steam is supplied to the room 12, and the valves 3 and 22 are opened and the valve 24 is closed. The air in the room 12 is discharged through the valve 3. The steam-containing air discharged through the valve 3 is cooled by the heater 15 and the cooler (with tank) 16 after sterilization to condense the steam,
It is discharged to the outside air. Further, the condensed water condensed in the cooler 16 is discharged to the outside by opening the valve 17. Most of the condensed water in the room 12 where the heated steam has condensed passes through the valve 22 and accumulates in the tank 23. Condensed water stored in the tank 23 opens the valve 24, sterilizes it with the heater 25, and cools it with the cooler 2.
After cooling at 6, it is discharged.

On the other hand, the temperature inside the room 12 is raised by the heated steam that replaces the air inside the room. After the thermometer 13 detects that the temperature of the room 12 has reached the sterilization temperature, the heated steam is supplied to the room 12 during the sterilization time set by the timer 14. After the set sterilization time has elapsed, the valves 2 and 3 are closed and the sterilization work is completed.

After the sterilization work is completed, the cold trap 18 as the first cold trap and the vacuum pump 20 are operated, and the indication value of the pressure gauge 21 for indicating the pressure in the cold trap 18 is 0.1 Torr or less. After confirmation, the valve 22 is closed and the valve 4 is opened. Condensed water that has condensed from the heated steam during the sterilization work and dropped into the room 12 is collected in the tank 23, and since the air in the room 12 is almost entirely replaced with the heated steam, the room 12 is heated. Since the steam and the condensed water adhering to the wall and the like and only a small amount of air are present, the cold trap 18 collects the heated steam and the condensed water, so that the room 12 is rapidly dried.

Further, the air which cannot be collected by the cold trap by the vacuum pump 20 is exhausted into the chamber 12, and the condensed water adhering to the wall or the like is rapidly evaporated.
At the time of evaporation of this condensed water, the temperature of the room 12 is drastically lowered in order to remove the heat of evaporation. Further, the pressure in the room 12 also decreases.

In order to promote the condensation / condensation of the heated steam in the cold trap 18 and reduce the amount of unrecovered steam in the cold trap 18, a flow rate control valve 19 is provided and a pressure gauge (with a control function) 21 is used. The pressure of the cold trap 18 is controlled so as to have a predetermined pressure change, and the gas in the steam that cannot be recovered by the cold trap 18 is
It is discharged to the outside air by the vacuum pump 20. It should be noted that this pressure control is not necessary if the water vapor can be directly discharged to the outside air.

By confirming that the room temperature has become room temperature or lower, or the rate of decrease of the room pressure has decreased, it can be judged that the drying by the cold trap 18 is completed, and the valve 4 is turned on. It is closed to complete the drying by exhausting the first cold trap 18 and the vacuum pump 20.

After completion of drying by collecting steam and condensed water in the cold trap 18, the valve 6 is opened and the intake fan 2 is opened.
The outside air as dry air is introduced into the room 12 by 7.
The introduced dry air is cooled by a cold trap 28 as a second cold trap to completely remove water in the air, sterilized by a heater 29, cooled by a cooler 30 and then passed through a filter 32, It is made to flow into the room 12.

The temperature of the air flowing into the room 12 is maintained at a constant temperature (normal temperature: 20 to 30 ° C.) by controlling the amount of cooling water with a thermometer (with control function) 31. Further, the amount of air introduced into the room 12 is kept at a constant value by the pressure gauge (with a control function) 34 and the flow rate control valve 33 so that the rate of pressure increase in the room 12 becomes constant. The valve 5 is opened by confirming that the pressure inside the room is higher than the atmospheric pressure by the pressure gauge 34. Next, when the indoor temperature becomes near room temperature, the valves 5 and 6 are closed, the fan 27 and the like are stopped, and the introduction of outside air is stopped. By the above operation, the drying of the room 12 by the dry air and the temperature rise are completed.

After the sterilization work including the sterilization work, the drying by exhaust air, the drying by dry air, and the temperature rise is completed, the valves 7 and 8 are opened, the air conditioner 11 is operated, and the room is returned to the normal state. To be done.

FIG. 2 shows changes in room temperature and room pressure during normal cycle, sterilization work, drying by exhaust, drying by dry air, temperature rise and normal cycle one cycle of sterilization operation. The vertical axis shows the room temperature and pressure and the horizontal axis shows the progress of the sterilization operation.

[0020]

As described above, according to the steam sterilizer of the present invention, the interior of the room is hermetically sealed by the structure shown in the claims, and the warm steam inside the room is provided by the first cold trap and the vacuum pump. , The condensed water, and the gas contained in the heated steam are discharged, and then the indoor temperature is raised by the dry air by the second cold trap, and the drying is performed by removing the slightly remaining condensed water. The drying time can be greatly shortened as compared with the case of drying only by sterilizing and introducing dry air.

Further, although the compartment is dried with dry air, the facility for producing this dry air can be of a simple and small scale.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a steam sterilizer of the present invention,

FIG. 2 shows the room temperature during sterilization operation according to the embodiment of FIG.
It is a figure which shows the change of indoor pressure, FIG.2 (A) shows the change of indoor temperature, FIG.2 (B) shows the change of indoor pressure, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Boiler 2 to 8 Valve 9 Thermometer 10 Hygrometer 11 Air Conditioner 12 Indoor 13 Thermometer 14 Timer 15 Heater 16 Cooler 17 Valve 18 Cold Trap 19 Flow Control Valve 20 Vacuum Pump 21 Pressure Gauge 22 Valve 23 Tank 24 Valve 25 Heater 26 Cooler 27 Fan 28 Cold trap 29 Heater 30 Cooler 31 Thermometer 32 Filter 33 Flow control valve 34 Pressure gauge

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A steam sterilizer for injecting warm steam into a compartment requiring sterilization to sterilize the compartment, and discharging the warm steam and the condensed water of the warm steam injected into the compartment. A first cold trap, a vacuum pump for discharging the gas remaining in the compartment, and a second cold trap for dehumidifying the dry air introduced into the compartment,
A steam sterilizer comprising: a heater for heat-sterilizing the dry air, and a cooler for cooling the dry air that has been heat-sterilized.