KR101793513B1 - Aquarium cooling device - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed present invention relates to a cooling device for an aquarium, which comprises: a cooling unit circulating a refrigerant to lower a temperature of the refrigerant; a heat exchange unit into which the refrigerant cooled from the cooling unit is supplied; a water inlet/outlet unit for receiving water from the aquarium, supplying water to the heat exchange unit and collecting the water cooled after performing heat-exchange with the refrigerant, specifically, in the water inlet/outlet unit, a net conveyor is installed across the width direction of the water inlet/outlet unit to filter out various solid foreign substances contained in the collected water, and under the net conveyor, an inclined plate provided with at least one protruding portion is installed along the width direction on the downwardly inclined upper surface of to increase dissolved oxygen.

Description

Aquarium cooling device < RTI ID = 0.0 >

The present invention relates to an aquarium cooling apparatus capable of appropriately lowering the temperature of an aquarium that rises above a proper temperature in the summer, and at the same time, removing various foreign matter including excretion excreted by a fish in an aquarium to improve an aquarium's ecological condition To an aquarium cooling device.

An aquarium (or an aquarium) is a generic term for a collection of living things that live in the water. By artificially creating an environment suitable for their ecological conditions according to the type of aquatic organisms, It is a facility made to survive.

The aquarium is used for observing the shape, ecology, and habitat of aquatic organisms such as ornamental or research, and is also used as a facility for selling live fish in wholesale and retail trade, restaurants, etc. where fish are treated as commodities.

Ornamental or research aquariums are often well-maintained in their surroundings and have very good ecological conditions, such as limiting the number of fish in the aquarium to a considerable extent in order to maintain fish survival over a long period of time.

In contrast, aquariums installed at commercial facilities that treat fish as commodities are often less economical than ecological conditions, especially water quality management, because large amounts of fish must survive for relatively short periods of time. In particular, an aquarium that treats fish as a commodity may be installed in an outdoor area exposed to sunlight (for example, a restaurant that treats live fish) or a large building that does not perform well (for example, a fish market). Many ecological conditions fluctuate due to seasonal factors.

These aquariums are particularly vulnerable in the summer, as the temperature increases due to temperature and sunlight, and many fish species are concentrated in a narrow space.

In summer, the aquarium is a temperature environment in which various germs are liable to multiply in the aquarium. However, crowded fishes in a narrow space are low in immunity and are susceptible to bacterial infection in a group. Especially, if the fish do not remove the excrement frequently, Becomes more serious.

Therefore, there is a high demand for a device that can keep the aquarium's ecological environment well in summer, and development is needed.

Korean Utility Model Publication No. 20-2016-0004299 (published Dec. 14, 2016)

An object of the present invention is to provide a device capable of lowering the water temperature of an aquarium to an appropriate level in summer and preventing deterioration of water quality caused by fish feces and the like.

The aquarium cooling apparatus according to the present invention comprises a cooling section for circulating a refrigerant to lower the temperature of the refrigerant, a heat exchange section to which the refrigerant cooled from the cooling section is supplied, water supplied from the aquarium to the heat exchange section, And a water inlet / outlet unit for exchanging the cooled water with the aquarium, wherein the water inlet / outlet unit comprises: a first pump for taking in water from the aquarium; A water inlet unit for introducing the water in the aquarium into the water inlet unit, and a solid foreign matter including faeces contained in water discharged across the outlet of the water inlet unit, And a net conveyor arranged to cross the net conveyor along a height direction so that the inside of the water inlet / A divided wall body divided into a first region on the upstream side and a second region on the downstream side and communicating the first region and the second region at a lower end portion of the water access unit; At least one plate inclined downwardly so that a free end thereof is opened along the width direction of the net conveyor and at least one protrusion is provided on the upper surface along the width direction thereof; At least one filter for collecting the solid foreign matter falling into the second area downstream of the net conveyor by the air ejected from the air injector; a water level sensor installed below the lowermost swash plate among the swash plates; A discharge pipe for introducing water stored in an area below the level sensor into the heat exchange unit; And a second pump for sending water stored in an area below the level sensor to the heat exchanger through the discharge pipe.

Here, according to one embodiment of the present invention, it is also possible to constitute the squeezing net in a drawer type so as to draw the squeezing net outside the aquarium cooling apparatus.

A plurality of nozzles for ejecting air may be provided on the outer peripheral surface of the roller on the downstream side of the rollers for driving the net conveyor.

In the aquarium cooling apparatus of the present invention having the above-described structure, the water temperature of the water tube is lowered to an appropriate level by using the low-temperature refrigerant provided by the cooling unit, and at the same time, various solid foreign substances contained in the aquarium water are removed through the water supply unit By improving the water quality of the aquarium water by post heat exchange, it has a good effect on the health of the person who takes the fish in the aquarium as well as the fish.

In addition, it is possible to construct a drawer type structure in which a filtration net obtained by collecting solid matter separated from water in an aquarium finally is put in and taken out, and an inlet for drawing out the sieve is placed outside the aquarium cooling device, It can be easily cleaned by pulling out the filter from the outside.

1 is a view showing an installation example of an aquarium cooling apparatus according to the present invention.
2 is a view schematically showing the overall internal structure of the aquarium cooling apparatus of the present invention
Fig. 3 is a view showing the internal structure of the water inlet / outlet unit of Fig. 2; Fig.
Fig. 4 is a view showing an embodiment in which a water supply unit included in the water inlet / outlet unit of Fig. 2 is configured as a drawer type. Fig.
5 is a view showing a configuration of a downstream roller provided with a nozzle;
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view along AA improvement of FIG. 5;

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. It should be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituent elements of the drawings, the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals whenever possible, even if they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the embodiments of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the difference that the embodiments of the present invention are not conclusive.

In describing the components of the embodiment of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. These terms are intended to distinguish the constituent elements from other constituent elements, and the terms do not limit the nature, order or order of the constituent elements. When a component is described as being "connected", "coupled", or "connected" to another component, the component may be directly connected or connected to the other component, Quot; coupled "or" connected "indirectly.

1 is a view showing an example of installation of an aquarium cooling apparatus 10 according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 according to the present invention is configured such that the two tubes enter into the water of the aquarium AQ, take water through one tube, lower the temperature in the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 And returned to the aquarium AQ. Since the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 of the present invention is constituted by a separate independent apparatus, it can be installed only when necessary, for example, in summer, and can be easily connected to an already installed aquarium (AQ).

The aquarium cooling apparatus 10 according to the present invention takes a method of directly cooling the water of an aquarium (AQ) as in the case of the apparatus of Patent Document 1, indirectly exchanging water by taking water from the aquarium AQ and lowering the temperature and returning it It is not. This is to make the aquarium cooling device 10 an independent device so that it can be easily used only when necessary and in an existing aquarium (AQ). Furthermore, it is intended to improve not only the water temperature of the aquarium (AQ) . This will be described in detail later in this section.

2 is a view schematically showing the overall internal structure of the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 of the present invention. The aquarium cooling apparatus 10 includes a cooling unit 100 that circulates refrigerant to lower the temperature of the refrigerant, a heat exchange unit 200 to which the refrigerant cooled from the cooling unit 100 is supplied, And a water inlet / outlet unit 300 for taking water from the water heat exchanger AQ and supplying the water to the heat exchanging unit 200 to exchange heat with the refrigerant, and then returning the cooled water to the aquarium AQ.

The cooling unit 100 is configured to lower the temperature of the water taken from the aquarium AQ through the heat exchange process by using the refrigerant in a lowered temperature while circulating the refrigerant in the cooling cycle. The cooling unit 100 includes a compressor 110 and a condenser 120, an expansion valve 130, and a cooling fan 140 as components for constituting a cooling cycle. Here, the evaporator for completing the cooling cycle will be the heat exchanger 200 to be described later.

The power-driven compressor 110 compresses the refrigerant vapor to produce a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant vapor. The refrigerant vapor compressed at a high temperature and a high pressure is condensed into a refrigerant liquid by discharging heat to the surroundings through the condenser 120 through which the outside air flows by the cooling fan 140.

The refrigerant condensed in the liquid phase through the condenser 120 is changed into a low-temperature low-pressure refrigerant liquid while rapidly increasing in volume as it passes through the expansion valve 130. The refrigerant liquid which has passed through the expansion valve 130 and is changed to a low temperature enters the heat exchanging unit 200 and indirectly exchanges heat with water taken from the aquarium AQ.

The water in the aquarium AQ having a relatively high temperature is cooled by the heat exchange in the heat exchanging part 200. On the contrary, the liquid refrigerant having a low temperature and a low pressure absorbs heat and changes into a coolant gas of low temperature and low pressure. The low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant gas enters the compressor 110, and is further compressed into high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant vapor in the compressor 110, and circulates in the above-described cooling cycle.

 The heat exchanging part 200 is a part where water taken from the aquarium AQ and the refrigerant liquid at low temperature and low pressure exchange heat with each other as described above. The water and the refrigerant indirectly contact each other through the pipe to exchange heat. To facilitate the heat exchange, the tube through which the refrigerant flows is bent in a zigzag fashion to increase the time for the refrigerant to stay in the heat exchange unit 200, or to increase the heat exchange area by forming a pin structure on the tube surface, The technology can be applied throughout.

Here, the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 of the present invention includes a water inlet / outlet unit 300 provided in the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 before the water taken from the aquarium AQ is directly supplied to the heat exchanging unit 200 have. The provision of the water access unit 300 is intended to treat various solid foreign objects including excretion discharged in a large amount from a dense fish in a narrow space of the aquarium AQ.

Such solid foreign matter in the water adversely affects the health of a person who eats the fish in the aquarium (AQ) as well as the fish due to deterioration of the water quality, and is deposited in the heat exchanging unit 200 to lower the heat exchange efficiency. The present invention is configured to treat solid matter in advance before supplying the water taken in the aquarium (AQ) to the heat exchanging part (200).

The water inlet unit 300 serving as the above is an independent component that is configured to be detachable with respect to the aquarium cooling apparatus 10. Referring to FIG. 2, the inflow pipe 312 and the discharge pipe 382, which are the pipes through which the water flows into and out of the water access unit 300, are installed to be easily removable through screw connection. A bypass pipe 390 for directly connecting the inflow pipe 312 and the discharge pipe 382 is provided so as to form a separate flow path that does not pass through the water inlet unit 300, The water taken out from the aquarium AQ is directly supplied to the heat exchanging unit 200 by using the bypass piping 390 when the water access unit 300 is separated from the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 by the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 10) can be continuously operated.

The first to third valves 391, 392 and 393 are valves provided to selectively supply water to the water inlet / outlet unit 300 or to regulate the flow of water to the bypass pipe 390 . For example, when water is supplied to the water inlet / outlet unit 300, the first and second valves 391 and 392 are opened while the third valve 393 is closed and the water is allowed to flow through the bypass pipe 390 The third valve 393 may be opened while the first and second valves 391 and 392 are closed.

3 is a view showing the internal structure of the water entering / leaving unit 300, and its detailed structure will be described with reference to this.

As shown in the figure, the water access unit 300 includes a first pump 310 for taking water from the aquarium AQ. The water taken from the aquarium AQ by the first pump 310 is introduced into the water access unit 300 by the inflow pipe 312.

A net conveyor 320 is disposed below the inflow pipe 312 disposed at the upper end of the water access unit 300. The net conveyor 320 is a power driven conveyor that is a kind of water permeable conveyor that passes water down through a solid foreign object containing faeces contained in the water discharged through the outlet of the inflow pipe 312. It is preferable that the net conveyor 320 is formed with a through hole having a size enough to sufficiently filter out solid foreign matter of at least a visible size. The net conveyor 320 is disposed across the width direction of the water access unit 300 so as to be able to filter out the water discharged from the inflow pipe 312.

The water outlet unit 300 is provided with a divided wall body 330 along the height direction. The divided wall body 330 is disposed to cross the net conveyor 320 along the height direction so that the inside of the water inlet unit 300 is divided into the first area 331 on the upstream side of the net conveyor 320 and the first area 331 on the upstream side of the net conveyor 320, The second area 332 is divided. Here, upstream and downstream are defined based on the rotation direction of the upper surface 320-1 of the net conveyor in which the water introduced from the inflow pipe 312 contacts the net conveyor 320 for the first time, And the portion where the start portion is referred to as the upstream portion and the end portion that is terminated is referred to as the downstream portion.
That is, when the inside of the water inlet / outlet unit 300 is divided on both sides with respect to the divided wall body 330, the first area 331 is formed such that the water introduced from the water inlet / And the second area 332 is separated from the inflow pipe 312 so that the solid foreign matter in the water contacted with the net conveyor is caught by the net conveyor 320 and flows in the rotating direction with the net conveyor 320 Means a portion separated from the net conveyor and falling downward. The reason for installing the divided wall body 330 is that the first area 331 on the upstream side of the net conveyor 320 where the clean water containing the solid foreign matter falls down and the first area 331 on the upstream side of the net conveyor 320, To prevent the solid foreign matter from being mixed again with the water from which the solid foreign matter has been removed.

The divided wall body 330 is at least partially opened at the lower end of the water inlet / outlet unit 300, and communicates the first region 331 and the second region 332 which are isolated from the upper portion. As described later, since the solid foreign matter is collected again in the second region 332, it is necessary to remove the solid foreign substance and combine the clean water collected in the second region 332 with the water passing through the first region 331 There is.

At least one downwardly inclined swash plate 340 is installed in the first area 331 along the width direction. The swash plate 340 is configured to increase the dissolved oxygen amount by increasing the contact time between water and air before the water falls and collects to the lower part of the water inlet / One end of the swash plate 340 is fixed to the wall surface of the water access unit 300 or the partition wall 330, and the free end thereof is opened to form a space for water to flow down.

Furthermore, at least one protrusion 342 may be provided on the upper surface of the swash plate 340 along the width direction thereof. The protruding portion 342 delays the water flowing down the swash plate 340 so that it takes time for the water to flow over and over so that the contact time of water and air is further increased and the solid foreign matter remaining in the minute portion is filtered from the protrusion 342 It plays a role.

The second area 332 is an apparatus for separating and collecting solid foreign matter transferred to the downstream side of the net conveyor 320 from the net conveyor 320. The air injector 350 and the filtering net 360 are installed.

The air injector 350 is disposed on the downstream side of the net conveyor 320, that is, on the upper portion of the second area 332, and has the same configuration as the air nozzle for injecting the compressed air. The solid foreign matter falls down into the second area 332 downstream of the net conveyor 320 by the air ejected from the air injector 350 to separate the solid foreign object from the net conveyor 320.

The solid foreign matter separated from the net conveyor 320 by the air ejected from the air injector 350 is collected in a sieve 360 having at least one set in the middle of falling into the second area 332. Thus, by periodically cleaning the filter mesh 360, the cleanliness of the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 and the aquarium AQ can be maintained.

A part of the air ejected from the air injector 350 also flows into the swash plate 340 through a part of the part of the partition wall 330 which intersects with the net conveyor 320. The flow of air introduced into the swash plate 340 also makes contact with the water flowing down the swash plate 340 to actively increase the amount of dissolved oxygen.

As described above, the cleaned water passing through the first area 331 and the second area 332 is stored in the lower part of the water access unit 300. The stored water is fed by the second pump 380, introduced into the heat exchanging unit 200 through the discharge pipe 382 and cooled, and then returned to the aquarium AQ. Depending on the embodiment, the electromagnet 384 may be provided on the outer surface of the discharge pipe 382. The magnetic lines of force generated by the electromagnet 384 contribute to improving the aquatic environment of the aquarium (AQ) by increasing the hexagonal water content in clean water exiting the drain pipe 382.

Another structure for performing the same function as the air injector 350, that is, a function of separating the solid foreign object from the net conveyor 320 and increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen by bringing air into contact with the water flowing down the swash plate 340 Is shown in FIG.

Fig. 5 shows a roller 321 on the downstream side of the rollers for driving the net conveyor 320. Fig. That is, the downstream roller 321 is located in the downstream area of the net conveyor 320 adjacent to the air injector 350. An air passage 323 is elongated in the central portion along the longitudinal direction of the downstream roller 321 and a plurality of nozzles 322 communicating with the air passage 323 are formed in the radial direction Respectively. The diameter of the nozzle 322 is reduced to be smaller than the diameter of the air passage 323 so that the pressure of air to be blown is sufficiently high.

The downstream roller 321 having a plurality of nozzles 322 on the outer circumferential surface is advantageous for obtaining two effects of separating the solid foreign matters and increasing the dissolved oxygen amount by ejecting air in all directions by rotational movement of the roller. Particularly, since air is ejected directly at a point close to the net conveyor 320, there is a considerable effect in separating various solid foreign substances deposited on the net conveyor 320.

The downstream roller 321 having the air injector 350 and the plurality of nozzles 322 may have only one structure because the functions thereof are almost the same, but they may be complementary to each other, Do. For example, the air injector 350 is more advantageous to induce airflow along the second region 332 to collect solid foreign objects separated by the sieve 360, and the downstream roller 321 is connected to a net conveyor 320, it may be desirable to combine these configurations appropriately, since it is advantageous to isolate the solid foreign matter that has been deposited.

According to the embodiment, the water level sensor 370 is provided below the lowermost swash plate 340 of the swash plate 340. The water level sensor 370 is a sensor for detecting the water level of the water stored in the lower part of the water access unit 300. For example, a buoy sensor such as that shown in Fig. 3 can be used as the water level sensor 370. The water level sensor 370 is used to control the first pump 310 and the second pump 380 so that an appropriate amount of water is stored in the lower portion of the water access unit 300. [ That is, when the amount of stored water is small (when the water level is low), the operation of the second pump 380 is temporarily stopped to secure the water quantity. On the contrary, if the sufficient amount of water is maintained, The water level sensor 370 is used for the control for stopping the operation.

4 is a view showing an embodiment in which the screen 360 included in the water access unit 300 is formed in a drawer type. According to the embodiment described with reference to Fig. 3, since the sieve mesh 360 is disposed inside the water entrance unit 300, a large part of the aquarium cooling apparatus 10 is disassembled and reassembled There is a hassle to do.

Therefore, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the screen 360 can be pulled out, that is, can be put in and out, and the inlet for drawing out the screen 360 is disposed outside the aquarium cooling apparatus 10, So that it is possible to take out the filtering net 360 from the outside without cleaning the aquarium cooling device 10 and clean it.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

10: aquarium cooling apparatus 100: cooling section
110: compressor 120: condenser
130: expansion valve 140: cooling fan
200: heat exchanger 300: water inlet unit
310: first pump 312: inlet pipe
320: Net conveyor 321: Downstream roller
322: nozzle 323:
330 divided wall body 331: first region
332: second region 340: swash plate
342: protrusion 350: air injector
360: Filter net 370: Water level sensor
380: second pump 382: discharge pipe
384: Electromagnet 390: Bypass piping
391: first valve 392: second valve
393: Third valve AQ: aquarium

Claims (2)

A cooler for circulating the coolant to lower the temperature of the coolant; a heat exchanger for supplying the coolant cooled by the cooler; and a cooler for supplying water to the heat exchanger, exchanging heat with the coolant, And a water access unit for returning to the aquarium,
The water inlet /
A first pump for taking in water from the aquarium;
An inlet pipe for introducing the water of the aquarium taken in by the first pump into the water access unit;
A net conveyor installed across the width direction of the water access unit to filter out solid matter including excretion contained in water discharged through the outlet of the inflow pipe;
The water conveying unit is divided into a first region on the upstream side of the net conveyor and a second region on the downstream side of the net conveyor while being arranged to cross the height direction of the net conveyor, A divided wall communicating the first region and the second region;
At least one plate inclined downward so that a free end thereof is opened along a width direction of the first region, the inclined plate having at least one projection along its width direction on an upper surface thereof;
An air injector disposed on an upstream side of the net conveyor;
At least one sieve net collecting the solid foreign matter falling into the second region downstream of the net conveyor by the air ejected from the air injector;
A level sensor provided below the lowermost swash plate of the swash plate;
A discharge pipe for introducing water stored in an area below the level sensor into the heat exchange unit; And
And a second pump for sending water stored in an area below the level sensor to the heat exchanger through the discharge pipe,
Wherein a plurality of nozzles communicating with the air passage extend in a radial direction so that air is supplied to the outer peripheral surface of the downstream roller A plurality of nozzles for jetting are provided,
And an electromagnet is provided on an outer wall of the discharge pipe. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the squeezing net is configured as a drawer so that the squeezing net can be drawn out from the aquarium cooling device.

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