JPS61250429A - Humidifier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the moisture passage resistance to improve the fumidifying capability by employing a compound porous sheet as base material for a hollow-structured unit, said porous sheet comprising a water-repellent, high polymer, porous sheet that prohibits the passage of water but allows the passage of water vapor and a permeable fabric that allows the passage of both water and vapor, which are overlaid one upon another. CONSTITUTION:Water is supplied to the hollow space in the hollow-structured unit 5 that allows the passage of water vapor, and air blown to the hollow-structured unit 5 is humidified by adding water vapor passing through the hollow-structured unit 5 to it. As the base material, a compound porous sheet 1 is employed which comprises a water-repellent, high polymer, porous sheet that prohibits the passage of water but allows the passage of water vapor, and a permeable fabric that allows the passage of both water and vapor. The thickness of the porous sheet is more than 10mum for practical reasons, but is desirably less than 100mum to improve the humidifying performance and reduce the moisture passage resistance. The inner side of the hollow- structured unit 5 is made of the permeable fabric and the outer side made of the compound porous sheet 1. Since said fabric acts to protect and reinforce the surface of the hollow-structured unit 5, it can be a substitute for a spacer. In this manner, the humidifying capability is significantly improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Applications] The present invention relates to a humidifier that uses a natural evaporation method using hot air or the like, but has greatly improved humidification capacity.

[Conventional technology]

From the perspective of energy conservation, modern living spaces are becoming more insulated and airtight, and more advanced air conditioning is required. Air conditioning elements include temperature control, humidity control, and control of harmful air components. As for temperature control, various heating and cooling methods have been put into practical use and are currently in a satisfactory state.However, as for humidity control and control of harmful air components, there is still nothing fully satisfactory.

Regarding humidifiers, there are natural evaporation type, electric heating type, water spray type, and ultrasonic type, but natural evaporation type has low humidifying capacity, electric heating type has high running cost, and water spray type has low humidification efficiency. Become lower and larger. Furthermore, the ultrasonic method has drawbacks such as high initial cost and short life.

Therefore, we have repeatedly investigated ways to greatly improve the humidification capacity of natural evaporation humidifiers, which have the lowest initial cost and running cost and are the most practical.

In the natural evaporation method, in order to maximize the area for water evaporation,
Efforts are being made to increase the surface area of water through capillary force by using a bat-shaped container with a large opening or by soaking the bottom end of a woven hydrophilic fiber cloth in water.

If water were to be sliced into several thicknesses and arranged in multiple layers vertically, the area for water evaporation could be greatly increased. As a result of repeated research on how to hold water vertically in several slices of thickness, we found that
A porous sheet made of a hydrophobic polymer is used to form a hollow structure with an internal thickness of several nanometers, and the sliced water is stored in this hollow part, thereby retaining water in any space. We have previously discovered that water can evaporate freely. (Japanese Patent Application No. 59-026741) As mentioned above, we have found a humidifier that uses natural evaporation but has a large humidifying capacity (Japanese Patent Application No. 59-02674).
1 specification), for example, in order to downsize, a high-performance product with a significantly improved humidification ability was required.

Therefore, a natural evaporation type humidifier (hereinafter abbreviated as a moisture permeable membrane humidifier) uses a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer (hereinafter abbreviated as a moisture permeable membrane) that prevents the passage of water and allows water vapor to pass through. ), the material resistance (hereinafter abbreviated as moisture permeation resistance) that the moisture permeable membrane exhibits against the permeation of water vapor.
In addition, we modeled the complex-shaped pore structure of the moisture-permeable membrane as a collection of bent capillaries, and calculated the relationship between the humidifying capacity of the moisture-permeable membrane humidifier, the moisture permeation resistance of the moisture-permeable membrane, and the pore structure. We clarified the relationship and found a moisture permeable membrane with optimal moisture permeation resistance and pore structure. (Special topic 1986-026824
[Problem to be solved by the invention] The moisture permeable membrane that can improve the performance of the moisture permeable membrane type humidifier described above has a low moisture permeation resistance, and its pore structure has a high porosity. However, since the pores are densely distributed throughout the membrane, the mechanical strength is poor. Furthermore, if the film thickness is increased in order to improve mechanical strength, there is a problem in that the moisture permeation resistance increases in proportion to the film thickness.

This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it has a low moisture permeation resistance and a porous structure to achieve the low moisture permeation resistance, and also has excellent mechanical strength. 1. The purpose of the present invention is to find a moisture-permeable membrane with high performance and provide a high-performance moisture-permeable membrane type humidifier with greatly improved humidification capacity.

[Means for solving problems]

The humidifier of the present invention supplies water to a hollow part of a hollow structure through which water vapor can pass, and humidifies the air blown into the hollow structure by impregnating the water vapor that has passed through the hollow structure. As the material for the hollow structure, we used a composite porous sheet in which a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer that prevents water from passing through and allows water vapor to pass through, and a breathable cloth that allows water and vapor to pass through. It is something.

[Function] In this invention, the breathable fabric that allows water and water vapor to pass through provides the mechanical strength of the composite porous sheet. It is sufficient to have two functions: moisture permeability and moisture permeability.
Even if the porous sheet has a high porosity and pores are distributed in a high density, the film thickness can be made thin, so the moisture permeation resistance of the composite porous sheet can be made small. As a result, a high-performance humidifier with improved humidification capacity can be obtained.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, this invention will be explained based on the drawings. Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an embodiment of the hollow structure according to the present invention. Porous sheet (moisture permeable membrane), (21 is a spacer, (3) is a water supply port, (4)
is a water outlet, (5) is a hollow structure, arrows (a) represent the water supply direction, and (b) represent the water discharge direction.

As the porous sheet material of the hydrophobic polymer according to the present invention, for example, polyethylene, propylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, -recarbonate, polyester resin, fluororesin, etc. are used. It prevents water vapor from passing through and allows water vapor to pass through.

The breathable fabric according to this invention may be any fabric that allows water and steam to pass through freely, such as vegetable fibers, chemical fibers, etc.
Woven or non-woven fabrics such as fibers and metal fibers are used. From the viewpoint of reinforcing the porous sheet, which is responsible for the mechanical strength, the thickness is preferably 2001IXn or more, and practically 50
011m or less is suitable.From the viewpoint of processability, for example, synthetic fiber cloth such as bori ester is easy to use.

The composite porous sheet is made by overlapping the above-mentioned porous sheet and cloth by partially point-joining them. If the entire surface is bonded, the holes will be closed, so in order to prevent the moisture permeation resistance from decreasing too much, point bonding is performed at intervals of, for example, 5ff or 10.

In this example, a coarse cloth (woven fabric or non-woven fabric) with a thickness of n is used as a spacer (21), both sides of this cloth are covered with a composite porous sheet (1), and a water supply port (3 ) and the end portions except for the discharge port (4) were glued or heat-sealed to form a hollow structure (5).

Note that the inside of the hollow structure (5) is a composite porous sheet (1
), this fabric functions as a spacer, facilitates water supply, and serves as a spacer substitute.

The composite porous sheet according to the present invention has a moisture permeability resistance of 2>E.
4h-cmHg/Kg or less is suitable because the amount of humidification and humidification increases greatly as described later, and 2h-cmHg/Kg or less is suitable.
A range of Hg/Kg or less is more desirable.

There is a moisture permeable cup method specified in JIS-20208 as a method for evaluating the water vapor permeability of a non-porous polymer membrane. The moisture permeability resistance of the air layer in contact with both sides of the porous sheet is greater than the moisture permeation resistance of the porous sheet, and the moisture permeation resistance cannot be accurately measured using the moisture permeable cup method. Therefore, the inventors previously proposed a method for measuring the moisture permeation resistance of a porous sheet. [Reference: Takaran.

Others; Collection of Chemical Engineering Papers vol. 3 Fh 5 P, 510
513 (1977)) He also proposed a method for quantifying the pore structure by modeling the complex-shaped pore structure of a porous sheet using a collection of bent capillaries as shown in Figure 2.

[Reference: Takaran, et al.; Collection of Chemical Engineering Papers vol. 1.5 Nn
4P, 391-396 (1979)) By the above method, the moisture permeation resistance and average pore diameter (r()' of various moisture permeable membranes)
In addition to measuring the average curvature (1 mmIJc/l') and the number of holes per car height area (n□), we used these moisture permeable membranes to prototype a humidifier with a membrane area of 1.Orrr, which will be described later. We measured the amount of humidification and examined the correlation between them in detail.

As a result, it was revealed that there is a clear correlation between the amount of humidification and the moisture permeation resistance as shown in the characteristic diagram of FIG. However, the amount of humidification by a humidifier depends on the wind speed, humidity, and humidity of the blown air. The measured values in Figure 3 are at a wind speed of 2p1, approximately 40°C, and a relative humidity of approximately 20%, and are used to measure the warm air coming out of the heater when used as a humidifier. The vertical axis represents the amount of humidification (cc/h), and the horizontal axis represents the moisture permeation resistance (h-cmHg/'Kg). Note that the characteristic curve showing the relationship between the amount of humidification and moisture permeation resistance shifts upward because the amount of humidification increases when the wind speed or humidity increases, and shifts downward because the amount of humidification decreases when the relative humidity increases. As you can see from the figure, the moisture permeation resistance is 4h-cmH
g/'Kg or less is preferable because the amount of humidification increases significantly. The amount of humidification in a permeable membrane humidifier is proportional to the membrane area. Therefore, this value is suitable for a humidifier with a preferable membrane area of about 1.0rrI in order to make it thin and compact, and it is suitable for a humidifier with a preferable membrane area of about 1.0rrI, and is preferable as the humidification amount for a standard room of 6 to 8 tatami mats.
00 cc/h or more can be secured.

Here, the moisture permeability resistance per unit area (RHzo) is defined as the value obtained by dividing the thickness of the moisture permeable membrane by the moisture permeability coefficient (PH26) as shown in the following equation.

Rago; U'P Hto (
i) The moisture permeability coefficient (P, ,) is determined by the pore structure of the porous membrane, so for porous membranes with the same pore structure, the moisture permeation resistance (P, ) is determined by the pore structure of the porous membrane.
R[20) is proportional to the film thickness.

For example, in order to commercialize a moisture-permeable membrane type humidifier, reliability of the moisture-permeable membrane is important, and in order to obtain the necessary minimum mechanical strength, a membrane thickness of 200 gm or more is required.

When the film thickness is 200 gn or more, the moisture permeability resistance is 4h-cmHg/
In order to keep it below Kg, the moisture permeability coefficient should be 5×10-' K
g/m2, h2, cmHg or higher.

The moisture permeability coefficient of a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer is generally 10.
~10 Kg/m, h, cmHg,
Although there are some porous sheets that satisfy the above values, such porous sheets have a high porosity and pores are densely distributed throughout the membrane, resulting in poor mechanical strength.

On the other hand, the film thickness is 11. Moisture permeability per medium area of a composite porous sheet made by laminating a porous sheet with a moisture permeability coefficient P H2O (1) and a membrane thickness 12, and a moisture permeability coefficient Pago (21). For example, water passes through the former. A porous plate that can prevent moisture and allow water vapor to pass through (combined with water testability and moisture permeability),
If we think of the latter as a breathable fabric that allows water and steam to pass through;
PH211(1) is 10 to 10-Kg/m, h,
cmHg, and PH2o (21 is 10 to 10
Kg/m, h, cmHg range. Therefore P
It is possible to reduce the overall moisture permeation resistance R- by giving mechanical strength to a fabric with a large nzo and by reducing 11 of a porous sheet with a small pHzo. As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, the reliability of the moisture permeable membrane can be improved without significantly increasing the amount of humidification by the humidifier. The thinner the porous sheet 11 is, the more preferable it is, and in order to achieve this effect, it is preferably 100 gn or less.

Therefore, the thickness of the porous sheet is practically 10I! m or more, to improve humidification performance and reduce moisture permeation resistance.
00 ltn or less is desirable.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a plate-type humidifier which is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (6) is a water tank located above the hollow structure (6) and supplies evaporated water. And the arrow (
c) represents the direction in which air is introduced, and b) represents the direction in which air is taken out. In this example, the moisture permeation resistance of the moisture permeable membrane is 4h −c
mHg/Kg or less, the amount of humidification is greatly increased, and the hollow structure (5) is folded into 1N layers with a space for dry air passage to form a rectangular parallelepiped shape. However, since the area for water evaporation has been greatly increased, the humidification capacity has been dramatically improved. In addition,
Although not shown in the figure, in order to maintain the shape of the hollow structure (5), a corrugated spacer, for example made of plastic, is inserted into the space of the stacked hollow structures to reinforce it.

Note that the outer side of the hollow structure (6) is the composite porous sheet (1
), this fabric captures and reinforces the surface of the hollow structure (5), and thus serves as a substitute for the spacing material.

During humidification operation, the water outlet (4) is closed.
Water is supplied from the water tank (6) to the hollow part of the hollow structure (5) through the water supply port (3) and is held therein. By blowing dry air into the space of the hollow structure (5) from the e-+ direction, water vapor passes through the composite porous sheet (moisture permeable membrane) and is evaporated and contained in the air, and the humidified air becomes ) direction (. Evaporated water is replenished from the tank (6) at any time.The water outlet (4) can be opened when not in use for a long period of time to drain water or to let water flow. It is used to remove limescale.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a spiral type humidifier according to another embodiment of the present invention. ) is rolled into a honeycomb-like cylindrical shape through a corrugated spacer (7), and in addition to increasing the humidifying capacity of the composite porous sheet as shown in Fig. 4, it also reduces water evaporation despite its small volume. The area has been greatly increased, and the humidification capacity has been dramatically improved. Humidified air is obtained by blowing dry air while supplying water from the water tank (6).

The hollow structure (5) and the spacer (7) may be glued together,
You can also use a composite porous sheet cloth as described above.Although it is not shown in the diagram, a water outlet can be provided by passing a pipe through the center. I can do it.

[Example 1] Film thickness: 100-1, moisture permeability coefficient: 5 x 10 Kg/m
, h, polyethylene porous sheet with cmHl<, film thickness of 200 cape, moisture permeability coefficient of 4 x 10 Kg/m,
h, cmHg polyethylene nonwoven fabrics are superimposed, 1
Point fusion was performed at cm intervals. The moisture permeability resistance of the resulting composite porous sheet was 2.8 h-cmHg/Kg.
Met. Using this composite porous sheet as a moisture permeable membrane,
It was cut into a strip with a width of 223 cm and a length of 5° and 1 m.

Next, cut a piece of nonwoven fabric with a thickness of 4 mm, a width of 10 mm, and a length of 5.0 m, cover it with the above porous membrane as a spacer, and heat-seal the side where the two porous membranes overlap using a heat sealer. I arrived. Next, there is a diameter of 6M on both ends.

A hollow structure as shown in FIG. 1 was prepared by heat-sealing the porous membrane while inserting a 5 cm long polyethylene tube. In order to prevent water leakage from the interface between the polyethylene tube and the porous plate, adhesive was used for sealing as necessary.

Next, a plate-type humidifier as shown in FIG. 4 was manufactured using a wavy spacer made of polyethylene. In order to reduce pressure loss during ventilation, the wave height of the wavy spacing material was set to 6 fl, and the pitch was set to 9.
It was set as M. The membrane area of the humidifier is approximately 1.0! It became If.

Next, the humidifier was attached to the front of the heat exchanger of the fan coil unit through which wet water at 50°C was flowed, and humid air at about 40°C was blown. The amount of humidification depends on the wind speed; the amount of humidification when the wind speed is 1 m/8 is 560 ccA, and when the wind speed is 2n1/s
The humidification amount increased to 650 cc/h.

[Example 2] Film thickness is 50 units, moisture permeability coefficient is 5 x 10 Kg/m,
h, cmHg polyethylene porous sheet and film thickness 2
00 houses, moisture permeability coefficient 4 x 10 Kg/m, h, c
mHg polyethylene nonwoven fabrics were overlapped and point fused at 1 cm intervals. The moisture permeation resistance of the resulting composite porous sheet was measured and found to be 1.8 h-cmHg/Kg. This composite porous sheet is used as a moisture permeable membrane with a width of 2
It was cut into strips of 2 cm and 5.1 m in length.

A hollow structure was produced in the same manner as in Example 1.

Next, a plate-type humidifier as shown in FIG. 4 was manufactured using a wavy spacer made of polyethylene.

The membrane area of the humidifier was approximately 1.0 Go.

Next, the humidifier was attached to the front of the heat exchanger of the fan coil unit through which wet water at 50°C was flowed, and warm air at about 40°C was blown. The amount of humidification is 710cc/h at a wind speed of 1 mis.
, 2 m7s and 820 cc/h.

[Example 3] Using the same composite porous sheet moisture permeable membrane as in Example 2, a width of 1
2011, and cut into a strip having a length of 10.1 m to produce a hollow structure in the same manner as in Example 1.

Next, a spiral type humidifier as shown in FIG. 5 was manufactured using a polyethylene wavy spacer having a wave height of 6 fl and a pitch of 9 n.

The membrane area of the humidifier was approximately 1.0 yd.

Next, the humidifier was attached to the front of the heat exchanger of a fan coil unit through which hot water of 50°C was flowed, and warm air of about 40°C was blown. The amount of humidification is 720cc/h m at a wind speed of 1 mis.
It was 830 cc/h at 2 rr%s. When the membrane area was the same, the humidification amount of the plate type humidifier and the spiral type humidifier was almost the same.

[Example 4] Film thickness: 50 gm, moisture permeability coefficient: 8 x 10 Kg
/m, h.

cmHg and a porous sheet of polyvinyl chloride with a film thickness of 1
50ffn, moisture permeability coefficient 5 x 10-'Kg/m, h
, cmHg polypropylene group fabrics were overlapped and bonded at 13 intervals using an adhesive. The moisture permeability resistance of the resulting composite porous sheet was measured.1. Oh, cmHg
/Kg. This composite porous membrane was used as a moisture permeable membrane and cut into a strip having a width of 12 cm and a length of 10.1 m to produce a hollow structure in the same manner as in Example 1.

Next, a spiral humidifier was produced in the same manner as in Example 3.

The membrane area of the humidifier was approximately 1.0 mm.

Next, the humidifier was attached to the front of the heat exchanger of the fan coil unit through which wet water at 50°C was flowed, and warm air at about 40°C was blown. The amount of humidification is 1000cc/h at a wind speed of 1ml/s.
It was 1200 cc/h at 21V/I. When the pore characteristics and moisture permeability characteristics of porous membranes were the same, the amount of humidification was the same as desired even if the membrane materials were different.

The moisture permeable membrane used in the above examples was lined with a woven or nonwoven fabric, so it had excellent mechanical strength and improved workability.

Furthermore, the humidifier according to the present invention has the structure shown in FIG.
When used independently as a humidifier, it can also be used in combination with an air blower such as a fan or blower.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, water is supplied to the hollow part of a hollow structure through which water vapor can pass, and the air blown into the hollow structure is humidified by being impregnated with the water vapor that has passed through the hollow structure. In what you do.

As the material for the hollow structure, a composite porous sheet 7 is made by laminating a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer that prevents the passage of water and allows the passage of water vapor, and a breathable cloth that allows the passage of water and vapor. By using this, a composite porous sheet can be made with excellent mechanical strength and low moisture permeation resistance.
This has the effect of providing a high-performance humidifier with greatly improved humidification capacity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure m1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an embodiment of the hollow structure according to the present invention, Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a model of the shape of the pores in the porous sheet according to the present invention, and Figure 3 is a characteristic diagram showing the correlation between the moisture permeation resistance and the amount of humidification of the porous sheet according to the present invention, FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 shows a humidity sensor of another embodiment. FIG. In the figure, (1) is a composite porous sheet (moisture permeable membrane) made by laminating a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer and breathable cloth;
(21 is a spacer, (3) is a water supply port, (4) is a water outlet, (5) is a hollow structure, (6) is a water tank, (7
) represents the wavy spacing material, (a) represents the water supply direction, ←) represents the water discharge direction, (c) represents the air introduction direction, and ni) represents the air supply direction. In addition, in the figures, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) In a device that supplies water to a hollow part of a hollow structure through which water vapor can pass, and humidifies the air blown into the hollow structure by impregnating the water vapor that has passed through the hollow structure,
As the material for the hollow structure, we used a composite porous sheet in which a porous sheet of hydrophobic polymer that prevents water from passing through and allows water vapor to pass through, and a breathable cloth that allows water and vapor to pass through. A humidifier characterized by: (2) The humidifier according to claim 1, wherein the composite porous sheet is a porous sheet and a breathable cloth that are overlapped by partially point-bonding them. (3) The humidifier according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the porous sheet has a thickness of 10 to 100 μm. (4) The humidifier according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the inside of the hollow structure is made of a porous sheet and the outside is made of breathable cloth. (5) The humidifier according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the inside of the hollow structure is made of breathable cloth and the outside is made of a porous sheet. (6) The hydrophobic polymer of the porous sheet material is polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride,
6. The humidifier according to claim 1, wherein the humidifier is made of one of polyvinylidene chloride, polycarbonate, polyester, and fluororesin.