RU2546221C2 - Controlled atmosphere cabinet - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: heating.

SUBSTANCE: invention refers to laboratory equipment and can be applied for plant cultivation. Cabinet includes glazed work chamber with glazed front door for plant observation, control unit, and air treatment unit. Additionally the cabinet features light sources outside of the work chamber. Air treatment unit is connected to the work chamber by holes in their common wall serving as air treatment unit top and work chamber bottom. Rear glazed wall of the work chamber is double and forms cavity for air injection from air treatment unit and features a slot at the top of the internal glass pane for circulating air outlet to the work chamber and further to air treatment unit through holes in the work chamber bottom.

EFFECT: regular distribution of air temperature throughout work chamber.

1 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of laboratory equipment for conducting research work with biological objects (plants, insects, etc.) in an artificial climate. It can be used to study the influence of climatic factors on the processes occurring in biological objects, as well as to conduct breeding work with plants, to develop measures to protect plants from pests with the help of entomophagous insects, etc.

Known cabinets, installations, plant growth chambers differ mainly in the number of reproducible climatic factors from the following: light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide content, air velocity [1, 2, 3]. The main components of such devices are a glazed working chamber with useful space for the studied objects, light sources, an air preparation unit and a control unit. The most widely used devices with a vertical design of the working chamber [3], allowing more efficient use of the laboratory area. The closest analogue of the invention is a plant growth cabinet [4], containing a glazed working chamber with a glazed front door for monitoring plants, provided with a mirror coating on the inside with a given light transmittance, light sources with mirror reflectors located on the outside of the working camera, air preparation unit and control unit. The excess heat from the lamps is removed by the air conditioner, and its deficiency is compensated by the heater of the air preparation unit. The lack of moisture is compensated by the humidifier of the air preparation unit. The ceiling of the air preparation unit is the bottom of the working chamber. The working chamber communicates with the air preparation unit through two longitudinal slots in the ceiling along the sides. In this case, through one of the slots, the air is pumped into the working chamber, and through the other it is taken. The air circulates alternately under the influence of fans of the air conditioner or heater of the air preparation unit, depending on which actuator (air conditioner or heater) is turned on at a given time. The disadvantage of this technical solution is that with a relatively high design of the working chamber, the upper layers of the air mix worse, which increases the temperature non-uniformity (gradient) along the height of the working chamber.

The technical result of the invention is to reduce the temperature gradient along the height of the working chamber.

The technical result is achieved in that in an artificial climate cabinet containing a glazed working chamber with a glazed front door for monitoring plants, light sources located on the outside of the working chamber, a control unit and an air preparation unit communicating with the working chamber through openings in a common wall being its ceiling and the bottom of the working chamber, the rear glazed wall of the working chamber is double so that a cavity is formed for pumping air from the preparation unit into air, and the inner glass of the rear wall has a gap in the upper part for the circulation of air to enter the working chamber and then to the air preparation unit through the openings in the bottom of the working chamber. Thus, almost the same speed of air movement is achieved in all areas of the working chamber and, as a result, a decrease in the temperature gradient along the height of the working chamber, since the warmer air of the upper part of the working chamber uniformly moves to the colder lower part and the colder air of the lower the working chamber at the same time through the cavity of the rear wall enters the warmer upper part of the working chamber. In addition, this technical solution practically does not change the amount of luminous flux through the rear wall and does not worsen the lighting conditions of plants.

The drawing shows the air circulation of an artificial climate cabinet, explaining the invention.

The artificial climate cabinet contains a glazed working chamber 1 with a glazed front door 2, on the inside of which a mirrored polymer film is glued. The rear wall consists of two glasses 3 and 4, spaced from each other so that a cavity 5 is formed for pumping air from the air preparation unit 6. The inner glass 3 of the rear wall is shorter than the outer one, so that a gap is formed in the upper part of the working chamber 1 for air to escape from the cavity 5 into the working chamber 1. Inside the working chamber 1 are four removable trellised shelves (not shown) for plant installation. On the outside of the working chamber 1 on the ceiling and three sides (two lateral and rear) are light sources - seven lamps 7 with fluorescent lamps (lamps on the sides of the drawing are not shown). The working chamber 1 is installed on the air preparation unit 6, which contains actuators: air conditioning (cooler) 8, heater (fan heater) 9 and an ultrasonic humidifier 10. The ceiling of the air preparation unit 6 is the bottom of the working chamber 1 after installing it on the air preparation unit 6 and has openings for air circulation. A control unit (not shown in the figure) is mounted in the air preparation unit 6, the main elements of which are the temperature, humidity, lighting, and temperature and humidity sensors programmable in time.

The operation of the artificial climate cabinet consists in maintaining the specified microclimate parameters in the working chamber 1 with the help of lamps 7, air conditioner 8, heater 9, humidifier 10 of the air preparation unit 6, which are turned on and off under the control of the controller, depending on the temperature, humidity, time set by the program turning on (off) the fixtures 7 and the current values of temperature, humidity and time from the temperature sensor, humidity sensor and controller timer. The illumination in the working chamber 1 is created by the lamps of the lamps 7 and the light reflected from the mirror polymer film on the front door 2. The air circulates under the influence of the fans, or the air conditioner 8, or the heater 9 of the air preparation unit 6, depending on which actuator is turned on by the regulator at the given moment - air conditioning 8 or heater 9.

The invention can be implemented using the following components. The frames of the working chamber 1 and the removable door 2 can be made of painted aluminum profile type CONSTA-SIB. Glazing can be made of window glass with a thickness of 4 mm with polished edges using U-shaped plastic seals. As luminaires 7 can be used standard - type TL418-1A for four fluorescent lamps with a power of 18 W each, with a special emission spectrum for plants, type L18W / 77 FLUORA. To regulate and reproduce the required values of temperature, humidity and illumination, the MPR51-Shch4 microprocessor program controller and two ТС 034-50М resistance thermometers (OWEN firm, Moscow), one of which is used to measure humidity by the psychrometric method, and actuators can be used: air conditioner-cooler type 8 LWJ0561ACG (company LG, South Korea), fan heater 9 REN 2036 and humidifier 10 type PUH 1104 (both firms POLARIS, USA). Mirror coating on the inner surface of door 2 can be done by gluing a polymer mirror film of the Llumar trademark, for example, type R15GSRCDF (gray, with a light transmission of 15%).

The results of temperature measurements on the shelves of the working chamber using a multi-channel (up to 12 channels) thermometer ТМ-12.2 (error 0.01 ° C) showed that at a given temperature of 20.0 ° C the difference in average (from 5 points) temperatures on the top and lower shelves decreased from 1.5 ° C to 0.8 ° C in night mode (lamps off) and from 6.0 ° C to 2.7 ° C in day mode (lamps on) compared to the prototype.

Information sources

1. Sadovoy A.F., Sovetov V.P. Artificial climate installations. - M .: Agropromizdat, 1985 .-- 72 p., Ill.

2. Kurets V.K., Popov E.G. Statistical modeling of a plant-environment relationship system. - L .: Nauka, 1991 .-- 152 p.

3. Patent for industrial design No. 544275. Installation of a microclimate vegetative.

4. RF patent No. 2446673. Plant growth cabinet (prototype).

Claims (1)

An artificial climate cabinet containing a glazed working chamber with a glazed front door for monitoring plants, light sources located on the outside of the working chamber, a control unit and an air preparation unit communicating with the working chamber through openings in a common wall, which is its ceiling and the working bottom chamber, characterized in that the rear glazed wall of the working chamber is double so that a cavity is formed for forcing air into it from the air preparation unit, and its internal its glass has a slot at the top for exit of the circulating air to the working chamber and further to the service unit through the holes in the bottom of the working chamber.