KR101613708B1 - Light Emitting Diode Incubator - Google Patents

Abstract

[0001] The present invention relates to an LED culture apparatus, and more particularly, to an LED culture apparatus comprising an incubator body having a culture space in which an object to be cultured can be received and cultivated, An incubator door rotatably coupled to an upper portion of the main body to open and close the culture space; A light source part including a plurality of unit illumination modules arranged in a vertical direction inside the incubator body to provide light to the object to be cultured and having a plurality of LED packages along a longitudinal direction; A steering unit coupled to the unit lighting module to adjust a traveling direction of light emitted from the unit lighting module; A sensing unit installed in the incubator body for measuring environmental information of the culture space and outputting measured environmental information; A power supply unit for supplying power to the light source unit and the steering unit; And a control unit for receiving environmental information output from the sensing unit and controlling operations of the light source unit and the steering unit.
The LED incubator according to the present invention is advantageous in that light can be uniformly and intensively supplied regardless of the position of the object to be cultivated by selectively transmitting the light emitted from the light source.

Description

Light Emitting Diode Incubator

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an LED incubator, and more particularly, to an LED incubator having an improved culture environment and a light intensity and temperature control structure of microalgae.

Recently, a variety of microorganism-based agricultural and livestock farming methods have been developed and widely used. The microorganism-based farming and livestock farming method cultivates lactic acid bacteria and various other photosynthetic bacteria and feeds them to soil or feeds livestock, To prevent diseases that may occur and to reduce the amount of dirt and odors generated in the agricultural and livestock production process. Especially, microalgae among microorganisms are used for production of live fishery products and bio-energy.

These microalgae grow by performing photosynthesis using light and carbon dioxide as energy sources. The culture apparatus is capable of culturing the microalgae under a constant light and temperature condition. The microalgae are mixed with the medium and water and cultured in a microalgae incubator. When microalgae are cultured in a microalgae incubator, strong light should be illuminated while maintaining the temperature inside the incubator at about 33 ° C to 35 ° C.

In the conventional microalgae incubator, the inside of a culture room, which is opened and closed by a door, is divided into a plurality of culture spaces by shelves, and lamps as a light source are provided on the side walls of the culture spaces. In each culture space, microorganisms, This mixed transparent culture pack is accommodated. A machine room for installing a cooling device such as a compressor is formed in the lower part of the incubator main body. The cool air generated from the cooling device is guided to the cold air discharge opening formed in the inner wall of the culture room in the heat insulating space between the outer wall of the incubator main body and the inner wall of the culture room A cool air duct is formed. A heater for raising the temperature inside the culture chamber is provided in the heat insulating space between the outer wall of the incubator body and the inner wall of the culture chamber.

Conventional microalgae incubator having such a configuration satisfies the light source necessary for microalgae culture with the light of the lamp that emits light in the incubation room and controls the operation of the cooling device and the heater to maintain the temperature of the incubation room at about 33 ° C to 35 ° C.

In such a conventional microalgae incubator, although the inside temperature of the incubation room to be maintained is a relatively high temperature, the size of the entire incubator can not be made compact because a cooling device is used for raising the temperature and maintaining a constant temperature, There is a problem that the electric power consumption is large and the product price is expensive.

In addition, a relatively large transparent culture pack in which a microalgae microorganism and a medium and water are mixed is used, and this culture pack has difficulties such as transportation and washing.

Further, since the lamp is provided on the side wall of the culture chamber, there is a problem that light can not be uniformly transmitted throughout the culture space. As a result, there is a problem that the microalgae culture period is increased due to the insufficient amount of light, poor microalgae growth occurs, and the density of the cultured photosynthetic bacteria is lowered. In order to solve this problem, a reflection layer is coated on the side wall, but a lamp must be additionally installed on each side wall for smooth light supply.

KR 10-0420448 B1 KR 10-2008-0072006 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems as described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for uniformly and intensively emitting light regardless of the position of an object to be cultivated, It is an object of the present invention to provide an LED incubator capable of providing light.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an LED cell incubator comprising: an incubator main body having a culture space in which an object to be cultured can be received and cultivated; An incubator door rotatably coupled to an upper portion of the main body to open and close the culture space; A light source unit including a plurality of unit illumination modules arranged in a vertical direction on an inner side of the incubator body to provide light to the object to be cultured and having a plurality of LED packages along a longitudinal direction; A steering unit coupled to the unit lighting module to adjust a traveling direction of light emitted from the unit lighting module; A sensing unit installed in the incubator body for measuring environmental information of the culture space and outputting measured environmental information; A power supply unit for supplying power to the light source unit and the steering unit; And a control unit for receiving environmental information output from the sensing unit and controlling operations of the light source unit and the steering unit.

The steering unit may include an extension rib which is coupled to both ends of the unit illumination module and has slidable sliding grooves formed along the longitudinal direction thereof and a plurality of unit ribs formed on one side of the extension rib to rotatably support the unit illumination module A lifting rod extending in a vertical direction corresponding to a placement direction of the unit lighting module; a fastening pin fastened to penetrate through the sliding groove of the lifting rod and the extending rib; And a driving cylinder for moving the lifting rod upward and downward.

And a rotation reflector rotatably installed on an edge side of the incubator body and reflecting the light traveling toward the edge side of the incubator body toward the center side of the incubator body, And a rotation driving unit coupled to a lower portion of the rotating body to rotate the rotating body.

Wherein the sensing unit includes an illuminance sensor for measuring the illuminance of the culture space, and when the illuminance measured by the illuminance sensor is out of the set reference illuminance range, the illuminance of the culture space is within the reference illuminance range, And the operation of the steering unit are interlocked or controlled independently of each other.

The LED incubator according to the present invention is advantageous in that light can be uniformly and intensively supplied regardless of the position of the object to be cultivated by selectively transmitting the light emitted from the light source.

1 is a perspective view of an LED incubator according to the present invention;
2 is a cross-sectional view of the LED incubator shown in Fig.
3 is a cross-sectional view showing an operating state of the LED incubator shown in Fig.
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the combination of the light source unit and the steering unit of the LED incubator shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a rotation reflector of the LED incubator shown in FIG. 1; FIG.
6 is a block diagram showing components of an LED incubator according to the present invention.
7 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment of an LED incubator according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, an LED incubator 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 to 6 show an LED incubator 1 according to the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 6, an LED cell incubator 1 according to the present invention includes an incubator main body 10; An incubator door 20; A light source unit 30; A steering part (40); A sensing unit 50; A power supply unit 60; And a control unit (70).

The incubator main body 10 is formed therein with a culture space 11 having an open top so as to accommodate and cultivate an object to be cultivated. The incubator main body 10 is formed in a rectangular box shape with its top opened, and an incubator door 20 is rotatably coupled to the top thereof. The bottom of the incubator main body 10 has a structure in which a plurality of holes are formed so that water or air can pass through.

The incubator door 20 closes the culture space 11 formed in the incubator body 10 or opens the closed state and is rotatably coupled to the upper part of the main body 10. One side of the incubator door 20 is provided with a handle 21 which can be gripped by a user. One side of the incubator door 20 is fixed to the incubator main body 10 and the other side thereof is coupled to the incubator door 20, A rotation preventing link 25 for preventing the rotation of the incubator main body 10 from being rotated beyond a predetermined range is provided.

The light source unit 30 includes a plurality of light sources 30 arranged in the culture space 11 so as to be spaced apart from each other in the vertical direction on the inside of the incubator body 10 to provide light to the object to be cultured, And a unit lighting module 31.

The light source unit 30 is also installed inside the incubator door 20.

The unit illumination module 31 includes a substrate unit 32 and a plurality of LED packages 33 spaced apart from the substrate unit 32 along the longitudinal direction of the substrate unit 32 . Although not shown in the drawing, a heat sink or a heat sink for heat dissipation may be coupled to the rear surface of the substrate portion 32, and may be coupled using a heat dissipating grease or a heat dissipation tape.

The LED package 33 uses a surface mount device (SMD) type and has three chips. Preferably, the LED package 33 has a luminance of 6000 cd and a luminance of 20,000 lx.

The steering unit 40 is coupled to the unit illumination module 31 to adjust the direction of light emitted from the unit illumination module 31 and includes an extension rib 41, a support shaft 42, A rod 43, a fastening pin 44, and a driving cylinder 45. [

The extension ribs 41 are extended from the base portion 32 toward the rear of the base portion 32 at both ends of the unit illumination module 31 and are coupled to both ends of the unit illumination module 31 And a sliding groove 41a having a long hole shape is formed in a part thereof along the longitudinal direction.

The support shaft 42 is protrudingly formed on one side of the extending rib 41 so as to rotatably support the unit lighting module 31 on the incubator body 10. The support shaft 42 may be formed at both ends of the unit illumination module 31 without being formed in the extension rib 41 as shown in FIG.

The lifting and lowering rod 43 extends vertically in a direction corresponding to the direction in which the unit lighting modules 31 are disposed.

The fastening pin 44 is fastened through the sliding groove 41a of the lifting rod 43 and the extending rib 41 so as to restrain the extending rib 41 to the lifting rod 43. That is, when the lifting rod 43 vertically moves up and down, the lifting rod 43 and the extending rib 41 can move upward or downward with respect to the supporting shaft 42.

The driving cylinder 45 is coupled to the lower end of the lifting rod 43 to provide a power for moving the lifting rod 43 up and down, and a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder is used.

The sensing unit 50 is installed in the incubator main body 10 and measures environmental information of the culture space 11 and outputs measured environmental information. The sensing unit 50 includes a temperature sensor An illuminance sensor 51 for measuring the illuminance of the culture space 11, and the like.

The LED incubator 1 according to the present invention includes devices provided in conventional culture devices such as a heater 55 for controlling the temperature of the culture space 11 and a blower 56.

The power supply unit 60 is supplied with power from the external power supply and supplies power to the light source unit 30, the steering unit 40, and other components. A switching mode power supply (SMPS) 62 for converting the external power supply to a required rating for the light source unit 30 and a switching power supply 62 for switching the unit lighting And a dimming unit 63 for adjusting the current supplied to the module 31 and outputting the adjusted current.

The dimming unit 63 is not only manually operated by a user but also can be automatically operated by a control unit 70. [

The control unit 70 receives the environmental information output from the sensing unit 50 and controls the light source unit 30 and the steering unit 40 to perform the set operation.

The control unit 70 includes a digital proportional integral differential controller (not shown) capable of adjusting the temperature of the culture space 11 based on temperature information output from the temperature sensor 52, (Not shown) that can independently adjust the illuminance according to day and night.

For example, when the illuminance measured by the illuminance sensor 51 is out of the set reference illuminance range, the controller 70 controls the dimming unit 63 such that the illuminance of the culture space 11 corresponds to the reference illuminance range The heater 55 and the blower 56 are controlled so that the temperature of the culture space 11 corresponds to the set temperature range when the temperature measured by the temperature sensor 52 is out of the set temperature range, As shown in Fig.

The control unit 70 may control the amount of light of the light source unit 30 through the dimming unit 63 but may change the illuminance in the set area by interlocking the steering unit 40 together with the dimming unit 63 have. That is, the illuminance in the set area can be changed by adjusting the amount of light emitted from the light source unit 30 through the dimming unit 63, and the illumination angle of the light source unit 30 can be changed through the steering unit 40, It is possible to change the illuminance on the display screen.

Meanwhile, the LED incubator 1 according to the present invention may further include a rotation reflector 80 as shown in FIG. 6, the rotary reflector 80 is rotatably installed on a corner of the incubator main body 10 so that the light propagating toward the edge of the incubator main body 10 passes through the center of the incubator main body 10, As shown in FIG.

The rotary reflector 80 includes a rotary body 81 having a polygonal cross section and a plurality of reflective surfaces 81a disposed adjacent to each other, And a rotation drive unit 85 for rotating the rotation shaft 81.

The rotator 81 is rotatably coupled to a bracket 82 provided at an upper end of the incubator body 10 and a lower end rotatably mounted to a rotatable drive unit 85 fixed to the inside of the incubator body 10 .

The rotary reflector 80 as described above has an advantage that light efficiency can be improved by reflecting light traveling from the light source unit 30 to the corners of the incubator main body 10.

The LED incubator 1 according to the present invention further includes a display unit 90 for displaying environment information and illumination information measured by the sensing unit 50 and transmitted to the controller 70 in real time.

As shown in FIG. 1, the LED-type incubator according to the present invention can be applied to a box-type structure in which one culture space is formed therein, but it may also constitute an LED incubator 2 as shown in FIG. 7 includes an incubator main body 10 and a incubator door 20. A light source unit 30 and an incubator main body 10 are disposed inside the main body 10 so as to accommodate the object to be cultivated in a vertical direction. A stand type having a shelf capable of placing an object to be cultivated can be applied.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. I will understand that. Accordingly, the true scope of protection of the present invention should be determined only by the technical idea of the appended claims.

1: LED incubator 10: incubator main body
11: culture space 20: incubator door
21: handle 25: anti-rotation link
30: light source 31: unit lighting module
32: substrate portion 33: LED package
40: steering part 41: extension rib
42: support shaft 43: lifting rod
44: fastening pin 45: driving cylinder
50: sensing unit 51: illuminance sensor
52: Temperature sensor 60: Power supply
61 on-off switch 62: SMPS
63: dimming unit 70:
80: rotation reflecting part 81: rotating body
85:

Claims (4)

An incubator body having a culture space in which an object to be cultured can be received and cultivated, and an upper part of which is opened;
An incubator door rotatably coupled to an upper portion of the main body to open and close the culture space;
A light source part including a plurality of unit illumination modules arranged in a vertical direction inside the incubator body to provide light to the object to be cultured and having a plurality of LED packages along a longitudinal direction;
A steering unit coupled to the unit lighting module to adjust a traveling direction of light emitted from the unit lighting module;
A sensing unit installed in the incubator body for measuring environmental information of the culture space and outputting measured environmental information;
A power supply unit for supplying power to the light source unit and the steering unit;
And a control unit for receiving environmental information output from the sensing unit and controlling operations of the light source unit and the steering unit,
The steering unit may include an extension rib which is coupled to both ends of the unit illumination module and has slidable sliding grooves formed along the longitudinal direction thereof and a plurality of unit ribs formed on one side of the extension rib to rotatably support the unit illumination module A lifting rod extending in a vertical direction corresponding to a placement direction of the unit lighting module; a fastening pin fastened to penetrate through the sliding groove of the lifting rod and the extending rib; And a driving cylinder for moving the lifting rod vertically. delete The method according to claim 1,
And a rotation reflecting portion rotatably installed on an edge side of the incubator main body and reflecting the light traveling toward the edge side of the incubator main body toward the center side of the incubator main body,
Wherein the rotary reflector comprises a rotary body having a polygonal cross section and a plurality of reflection planes disposed adjacent to each other, and a rotation driving unit coupled to a lower portion of the rotary body to rotate the rotary body. . The method of claim 3,
Wherein the sensing unit includes an illuminance sensor for measuring illuminance of the culture space,
Wherein the controller controls the operation of the light source unit and the steering unit to be interlocked or independently controlled so that the illuminance of the culture space corresponds to the reference illuminance range when the illuminance measured by the illuminance sensor is out of the set reference illuminance range. .

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