Gas separation: apparatus – Electric field separation apparatus – Plural diverse electric fields
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-15
2003-01-14
Chiesa, Richard L. (Department: 1724)
Gas separation: apparatus
Electric field separation apparatus
Plural diverse electric fields
C096S087000, C096S097000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06506238
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric dust collecting unit and, more particularly to, the electric dust collecting unit suitable for use in a diesel engine exhausted carbon particulate removing apparatus, a factory oil mist removing apparatus or a like.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. Hei11-324717 filed on Nov. 15, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since offices, restaurants, amusement places, factories, housing, and other buildings have recently been of an airtight construction, cigarette smoke, toner, welding fumes, and other harmful particulates floating in air are more likely to damage human health in a building, contaminated facilities and equipment. To guard against this, there has been widely employed an air cleaner which is placed in the office or housing, to collect cigarette smoke, particulates, and offensive odors floating in the air. One such type of air cleaner is known as a needle-discharge type air cleaner disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei9-285739 (Japanese Patent No. 2733908), Japanese Patent Application No. Hei11-125451 (Japanese Patent No. 3092112), and others. This air cleaner roughly has such a configuration that, as shown in
FIG. 8
, its apparatus box body
3
, having an air inlet
1
and an air outlet
2
, includes a panel-shaped pre-filter
4
, a box-shaped electric dust collecting unit
5
, a panel-shaped deodorizing filter
6
made up of an activated carbon filter, and a ventilating fan
7
, which are all mounted serially from a windward side to a leeward side therein.
In the above-mentioned configuration, when the ventilating fan
7
operates, air in a room is drawn in. If, in this case, the air in the room has been contaminated with cigarette smoke or other floating particulates, first the panel-shaped pre-filter
4
captures relatively large particulates, to permit other relatively small particulates that could not be captured by the panel-shaped pre-filter
4
to be captured and removed by the box-shaped electric dust collecting unit
5
. Still remaining cigarette odor is absorbed and removed by the panel-shaped deodorizing filter
6
. In this manner, cleaned air is returned to the room via the air outlet
2
by exhausting force of the ventilating fan
7
. The boxed-shaped dust collecting unit
5
or a like, if contaminated with particulates or a like stuck thereto, may be taken out from the apparatus box body
3
, washed, rehabilitated, and then mounted in the apparatus box body
3
again for use.
As shown in
FIGS. 9 and 10
, the boxed-shaped electric dust collecting unit
5
has a box-type frame
5
a
which includes a plurality of disk-needle-shaped needle electrodes
5
b,
prism-shaped deflecting electrodes
5
c
for supporting and fixing these disk-needle-shaped needle electrodes
5
b
in a protruded state, and both-ends-opened rectangular-shaped collector cells (collecting electrodes) (hereinafter may be referred to as collector cells
5
d
) for surrounding these disk-needle-shaped needle electrodes
5
b
and prism-shaped deflecting electrodes
5
c
in an non-contact manner which are all arrayed in a lattice and in combination in such a manner that there may be provided an air-passage gap between each of the prism-shaped deflecting electrodes
5
c
and its corresponding collector cell
5
d.
When, in this configuration, a DC voltage of for example 5-6 V is applied between a disk-needle-shaped needle electrode
5
b
and its corresponding prism-shaped deflecting electrode
5
c,
which are both positive in potential, and its corresponding negative-potential electrode collector cell
5
d,
uniform corona discharge persistently occurs in a stable manner around the sharp tip of a disk-needle-shaped needle electrode
5
b,
thus forming an ionized space region
5
e
as shown in FIG.
11
. When, in this state, the ventilating fan
7
operates to permit contaminated air inhaled via the air inlet
1
(
FIG. 8
) to reach the ionized space region
5
e
of the box-shaped dust collecting unit
5
, oxygen is first dissociated into positive ions, which in turn stick to particulates p of cigarette smoke or a like and charge them electrically. The charged particulates “p” pass through between a next prism-shaped deflecting electrode
5
c
and its corresponding collector cell
5
d,
during which they are attracted to the collector cell
5
d
with a negative (lower) potential if they are near that collector cell
5
d.
If they are far away from a electrode plate(not shown or labeled) of the collector cell
5
d,
on an other hand, the particulates “p” are near the electrode plate (not shown or labeled) of the prism-shaped deflecting electrode
5
c
with a positive (higher) potential, so that they get Coulomb resiliency to move toward the electrode plate (not shown or labeled) of the collector cell
5
d,
thus finally being attracted and captured by the collector cell
5
d.
In the above-mentioned prior art box-shaped electric dust collecting unit
5
, however, as shown in
FIGS. 9 and 10
, the sharp tip of the disk-needle-shaped needle electrode
5
b
faces to an opened front face of the box-type frame
5
a,
therefore an operator may be injured by the needle electrodes when washing, maintaining or inspecting the boxed shaped electric dust collecting unit
5
, thus holding a manufacturer responsible for handling safety.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide an electric dust collecting unit capable of safe replacement, washing, and maintenance and inspection.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric dust collecting unit including:
a corona discharging portion for giving rise to corona discharge to thereby electrically charge floating particulates in an airflow; and
an electric collecting portion disposed on a leeward side of the corona discharging portion, for electrically collecting the floating particulates charged at the corona discharging portion,
wherein the corona discharging portion includes a plurality of needle electrodes in which each has a sharp needle tip and also which is arranged in such a way that the sharp needle tip thereof may be directed toward the leeward side.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the corona discharging portion and the electric collecting portion are disposed as separated from each other space-wise with or without an insulating material interposed therebetween.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the corona discharging portion includes:
the plurality of the needle electrodes which each has the sharp needle tip and also which is arranged in such the way that the sharp needle tip thereof may be directed toward the leeward side; and
a plurality of opposing electrodes which is disposed in an n-to-one opposing relationship with the needle electrodes, where the n is a two or larger natural number representing number of the needle electrodes, and also which each has both ends thereof opened for forming an airflow passage.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the corona discharging portion includes:
the plurality of the needle electrodes which each has the sharp needle and also which is arrayed in such the way that the sharp needle tip thereof may be directed toward the leeward side; and
a plurality of cell-shaped opposing electrodes which is disposed in a one-to-one opposing relationship with the sharp needle electrodes and also which each has both ends thereof opened for forming an airflow passage.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the corona discharging portion includes:
the plurality of the needle electrodes which each has the sharp needle tip and also which is disposed in such the way that the sharp needle tip thereof may be directed toward the leeward side;
one or more of supporting electrodes for supporting and fixing the plurality of the needle electrodes; and
the plurality of the cell-shaped opposing electrodes which is disposed on a leeward
Chiesa Richard L.
McGinn & Gibb PLLC
O-DEN Corporation
LandOfFree
Electric dust collecting unit does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Electric dust collecting unit, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electric dust collecting unit will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3049463