Oxygen-enriched air supplying apparatus

Details Oxygen-enriched air supplying apparatus Oxygen-enriched air supplying apparatus

2002-12-13

2004-06-29

Spitzer, Robert H. (Department: 1724)

Gas separation: apparatus

Apparatus for selective diffusion of gases

C096S008000, C096S010000, C096S222000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06755898

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an oxygen-enriched air supplying apparatus; and, more particularly, to an oxygen-enriched air supplying apparatus suitable for an air treating device such as an air conditioner, an air cleaner or the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An air treating device, e.g., an air conditioner, is widely used to treat the air in a closed room. However, when the room is maintained in a closed state for a long time, a variety of side effects, e.g., breathing difficulty, headache, weakening of memory, etc., may be caused to the people therein.
As an effort to ameliorate these problems, apparatuses for supplying an oxygen-enriched air to a room have been developed. One of them is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,484 entitled “AIR CONDITIONER HAVING OXYGEN-ENRICHED DEVICE”.
Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, there are shown a schematic view of a prior art oxygen-enriched air supplier and a lateral cross sectional view of a separator
50
included in the oxygen-enriched air supplier.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the oxygen-enriched air supplier includes an air compressor
10
, a muffler
20
, a first and a second filter assembly
30
and
40
, an oxygen-enriched air separator
50
and a connection pipe
60
for connecting the air compressor
10
, the muffler
20
, the filter assemblies
30
and
40
, an oxygen-enriched air separator
50
with each other, and an oxygen-enriched air discharging pipe
70
.
The air compressor
10
is installed at one side of an outdoor unit (not shown) of an air conditioner (not shown) to compress the air introduced from the outside.
The muffler
20
is provided near a suction unit (not shown) of the air compressor
20
to reduce noises generated when exterior air is introduced into the air compressor
10
.
The first and the second filter assembly
30
and
40
are installed in the connection pipe
60
at locations between the air compressor
10
and the oxygen-enriched air separator
50
to remove impurities contained in the air compressed by the air compressor
10
. Further, the first filter assembly
30
removes a pulsating pressure of the compressed air generated from the air compressor
10
and the second filter assembly
40
eliminates condensed water from the compressed air.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, the oxygen-enriched air separator
50
includes a main body
51
, a plurality of separation membranes
57
and a narrow tube
58
acting as a pressure maintenance means. The main body
51
is a hollow cylinder-shaped member and the separation membranes
57
are accommodated within the main body
51
by using a pair of bulk heads
80
. Each of the separation membranes
57
is a cylindrical tube with two open ends. The inside of the main body
51
is divided by the bulk heads
80
and the separation membranes
57
into a first space
52
communicating with the inside of the separation membranes
57
and a second space
53
communicating with the outside of the separation membranes
57
. Furthermore, the main body
51
has an oxygen-enriched air inlet port
54
and a nitrogen-enriched air outlet port
55
communicating with the first spaces
52
, respectively, and an oxygen-enriched air outlet port
56
communicating with the second space
53
. The ports
54
,
55
and
56
are respectively connected to the connection pipe
60
, the narrow tube
58
and the oxygen-enriched air discharging pipe
70
.
The oxygen-enriched air supplier starts to operate when an oxygen-enriched air supplying function is chosen in a manual operation mode or an automatic operation mode.
Supply of the oxygen-enriched air is triggered by an operation of the air compressor
10
. The air from the outside of the room is introduced into and compressed by the air compressor
10
after it passes through the muffler
20
. During this time, the muffler
20
reduces noises generated when the air is introduced into the air compressor
10
. The compressed air is introduced through the connection pipe
60
to the oxygen-enriched air separator
50
. While the compressed air travels through the connection pipe
60
, the first and the second filter assembly
30
and
40
remove impurities and condensed water from the compressed air.
Thus impurity-removed air is introduced into the oxygen-enriched air separator
50
via the oxygen-enriched air inlet port
54
. Thereafter, the introduced air moves from one of the first space
52
to the other thereof. During this time, some of the air permeates the separation membranes
57
and moves from the first space
52
to the second space
53
, and the remaining air stays in the first space
52
. The air passing through the separation membranes
57
is an oxygen-enriched air and the remaining air in the first space
52
is a nitrogen-enriched air. The oxygen-enriched air is discharged into the room through the oxygen-enriched air outlet port
56
and the oxygen-enriched air discharging pipe
70
, while the nitrogen-enriched air is exhausted to the outside of the room through the nitrogen-enriched air outlet port
55
and the narrow tube
58
.
In such an oxygen-enriched apparatus, a separation efficiency of the ordinary air into the oxygen-enriched air is low, since the compressor serving as a motive power of the separation operation is disposed at the inlet side of the separator.
Moreover, it is difficult to fabricate the separators since the separator has a cylindrical shape as well as complicated structure. Furthermore, it is cumbersome to perform the sealing between the bulk heads and the main body, and/or between the bulk heads and the separation membranes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an oxygen-enriched supplying apparatus having an improved separation efficiency of separating an oxygen-enriched air from an atmospheric air.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an oxygen-enriched supplying apparatus having separators capable of being simply manufactured.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for supplying an oxygen-enriched air, comprising:
one or more hollow membrane units spaced apart from each other, for separating a surrounding air thereof into an oxygen-enriched air and a nitrogen-enriched air;
an oxygen-enriched air suction means for sucking in the surrounding air via the separation membrane units to draw in and provide the oxygen-enriched air; and
an oxygen-enriched air discharging unit for discharging the oxygen-enriched air.


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