Refrigeration – Atmosphere and sorbent contacting type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-01
2001-10-30
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Atmosphere and sorbent contacting type
C062S094000, C062S093000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308525
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dehumidification apparatus.
II. Description of the Related Art
Various dehumidification apparatuses utilizing deliquescent dehumidification agents such as calcium chloride are known. As a typical example of this type of known dehumidification apparatuses, the dehumidification apparatus described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 10-192641 will now be described referring to FIG.
15
.
The known dehumidification apparatus
100
shown in
FIG. 15
comprises a container
101
and a cover
102
enclosing an electric fan
115
. On the bottom
101
a
of the container, granular deliquescent dehumidification agent D such as calcium chloride which absorbs moisture in the air is laid.
The container
101
is closed except for an opening
104
formed in the upper portion of the container
101
. A cap
106
having a vertically extending cylindrical air-introducing duct
105
is mounted on the container
101
such that the cap
106
covers the opening
104
.
The cover
102
comprises a cylindrical air-discharging duct
110
which vertically extends and coaxially nested in the air-introducing duct
105
. The distal end of the air-discharging duct
110
protrudes from the distal end of the air-introducing duct
105
. The cover
102
includes a lower cover
113
having an air inlet
112
which communicates with an air-introducing passage
111
formed between the outer surface of the air-discharging duct
110
and the inner surface of the air-introducing duct
105
. The cover
102
has an upper cover
116
having an air outlet
114
which communicates with the inner side of the container
101
through the air-discharging duct
110
. The upper cover
116
harbors the electric fan
115
and a battery
117
which gives the power to drive the fan
115
.
In operation, the fan
115
is driven. As a result, air is drawn through the air inlet
112
and the air-introducing passage
111
into the inside of the container
101
. The air is then discharged from the apparatus from the air outlet
114
through the air-discharging duct
110
. Since the air contacts the deliquescent dehumidification agent D on the bottom of the container, the moisture contained in the air is absorbed by the deliquescent dehumidification agent D and the air is dried. On the other hand, the absorbed moisture is converted to deliquesced liquid and accumulated on the bottom
101
a
of the container
101
.
With this conventional dehumidification apparatus, since the deliquescent dehumidification agent placed on the bottom of the container is immersed in the deliquesced liquid accumulated on the bottom of the container, the dehumidification ability of the dehumidification apparatus is decreased very much by the accumulation of the deliquesced liquid.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 2-227115 proposes to separate the deliquescent dehumidification agent D and the deliquesced liquid by harboring the deliquescent dehumidification agent D on a porous plate arranged on the upper portion of the container
101
so that the deliquesced liquid drops onto the bottom
101
a
of the container through the pores formed in the porous plate. Since the deliquescent dehumidification agent D is separated from the deliquesced liquid and so can be kept relatively dry, the ability to absorb moisture is kept high.
However, in both of the above-described known dehumidification apparatuses, as shown in
FIG. 15
, the air-introducing duct
105
and the air-discharging duct
110
are nested, so that only a small portion of the deliquescent dehumidification agent can contacts the air. As a result, the dehumidification efficiency of the apparatus is low.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a dehumidification apparatus which retains a high dehumidification ability.
The present inventors intensively studied to discover that this object may be attained by holding the deliquescent dehumidification agent in a downwardly tapered compartment whose outer boundary has a plurality of through holes through which water and air can pass but said deliquescent dehumidification agent cannot pass.
That is, the present invention provides a dehumidification apparatus comprising: a container having at least one air inlet and at least one air outlet, and has an upper plate covering the container; a fan driven by a motor, which introduces air into said container from said air inlet and discharges air from said container through said air outlet so that air flow passing through said container is formed; a holder for holding deliquescent dehumidification agent, which holder is contained in said container, which holder has at least one downwardly tapered compartment in which said deliquescent dehumidification agent is held, said deliquescent dehumidification agent held in said compartment contacts said air flow via through holes through which water and air can pass but said deliquescent dehumidificatin agent cannot pass, said through holes being formed in outer boundary of said compartment.
With the dehumidification apparatus according to the present invention, the deliquescent dehumidification agent is held in one or more compartments which are downwardly tapered. Since each compartment is downwardly tapered, the lower the position in the compartment, the smaller the amount of the deliquescent dehumidification agent held at the position, and in turn, the larger the surface area per a unit volume of the dehumidification agent. Therefore, the deliquescent dehumidification agent held at the bottom region of the compartment is firstly lost by deliquescence, so that a hollow region is formed at the bottom region of the compartment. When this occurs, since the compartment downwardly tapers, and since the deliquescent dehumidification agent granules are agglutinated each other by small degree of deliquescence, the deliquescent dehumidification agent held at the region upper than the hollow bottom region is continuously held at its original position even though the region under the held deliquescent dehumidification agent is hollow. Thus, the deliquescent dehumidification agent held in the compartment is above the deliquesced liquid accumulated on the bottom of the container. When the deliquesced liquid is accumulated to a higher level by deliquescence of the deliquescent dehumidification agent, since the deliquescent dehumidification agent is lost from the lowest position thereof, the lowest portion of the deliquescent dehumidification agent is still kept higher than the raised level of the deliquesced liquid. Thus, the deliquescent dehumidification agent held in the compartment is always retained above the upper surface of the deliquesced liquid accumulated on the bottom of the container. Therefore, the dehumidification ability of the apparatus is kept high.
Further, since the deliquescent dehumidification agent held in the compartment is always retained above the upper surface of the deliquesced liquid accumulated on the bottom of the container by virtue of the downward tapered shape of the compartment, the entire height of the container may be effectively utilized for holding the deliquescent dehumidification agent. That is, the compartment may extend over substantially the entire height of the container. Therefore, the inner space of the container may be effectively utilized, so that the dehumidification ability of the apparatus is high, or the apparatus can be made compact when compared with a conventional apparatus having the same dehumidification ability.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5022241 (1991-06-01), Wilkinson
patent: 5301439 (1994-04-01), Wang
patent: 5632954 (1997-05-01), Coellner et al.
patent: 5817167 (1998-10-01), DesChamps
patent: 5937667 (1999-08-01), Yoho, Sr.
patent: 6050100 (2000-04-01), Belding et al.
patent: 6094835 (2000-08-01), Cromer
patent: 6178762 (2001-01-01), Flax
Ike Hidetoshi
Ishikawa Yasushi
Kakuta Kazunari
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Doerrler William
Kankyo Co., Ltd.
Shuman Mark
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