JP3054504B2 - Ion generation electrode structure - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ion generating electrode structure of an ion generating device for ionizing air.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ionized air has the effect of maintaining the freshness of food, and has conventionally been used in refrigerators or food storages. At present, it has been recognized that ionized air has a favorable effect on the human body, and is now used for air cleaning devices and the like. It has been found that the effects of the above ions are mainly caused by negative ions. For this reason, as an electrode of the ion generator,
A sheet-like electrode is used on one side, and a needle-like metal electrode pointing to the sheet-like electrode is used on the other side. A negative potential is applied to the needle-like electrode side (ion generation electrode) and a positive potential is applied to the sheet-like electrode side. The application generated negative ions.

[0003]

[0005] Stainless steel is mainly used for the above-mentioned conventional ion generating electrode. For this reason, there has been a problem that the tip of the ion generating electrode is gradually consumed with use, and the amount of generated ions is reduced. In addition, a needle-shaped electrode is often used for the ion generation electrode in order to efficiently generate ions. This needle-shaped electrode needs to be formed by implanting a needle in the base of the metal, and is difficult to manufacture, which has been a factor in increasing the cost of the ion generator. Further, in order to generate negative ions having the above-mentioned effects, a conventional ion generator uses a DC power supply as a voltage source applied between the electrodes. For this reason, there is also a problem that the power supply device becomes expensive. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ion which is durable, can be manufactured at low cost, and can efficiently generate negative ions even with an AC power supply. It is to provide an electrode structure of a generator.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises a planar electrode and a plate-like ion generating electrode having a plurality of sawtooth teeth. A ceramic dielectric plate is integrally attached, the ion generating electrode is mainly made of nickel, and a tip of the saw tooth is formed at an angle of 45 degrees or less.

[0005]

In the ion generating electrode structure configured as described above, the ion generating electrode is made of nickel, so that it is hardly consumed. Further, since the ion generating electrode is formed in a sawtooth shape, it can be easily formed. Furthermore, since the electrode for ion generation and the planar electrode face each other via the dielectric ceramic plate, negative ions can be generated efficiently even when an AC voltage is applied to both electrodes.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an ion generating apparatus 10 using an ion generating electrode structure according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. Here, FIG. 1 is a plan view of the ion generator 10, FIG. 2 is a side view of the ion generator 10 of FIG. 1 viewed from the arrow B side, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the ion generator 10 viewed from the arrow A side. The ion generator 10 is mainly formed of a housing 20 containing a high-voltage generating circuit board, an ion generating electrode 12 integrally attached to an outer surface 20a of the housing 20, and a counter electrode 14. You. The counter electrode 14 is mounted substantially parallel to the bottom surface 20b of the housing, and includes a plurality of sawtooth 1s.
The ion generating electrode 12 having 2a is mounted so as to be substantially parallel to the side surface 20a of the housing 20 and the sawtooth 12a is directed to the counter electrode 14. The ion generating electrode 12 is formed by punching a nickel plate, and the counter electrode 14 is formed by embedding a metal in dielectric ceramics. These manufacturing methods will be described later in detail.

Counter electrode 14 made of dielectric ceramics
Is a holder 16 to protect against external impact.
A, 16B firmly sandwiches and extends outward from the housing 20 and is fixed. On the other hand, the ion generating electrode 1
2 is an ion generating electrode holding member 22 made of an insulator so as to be substantially parallel to the outer surface 20a of the housing of the ion generating device.
And the ion generating electrode holding member 2
2 is attached with a boss 24 and a pin 26. The space gap length between the tip of the ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14 is set to 4 mm in this embodiment. This is because spark discharge easily occurs when the space gap is 2 mm or less, and the generation of ions rapidly decreases. Conversely, when the space gap is 20 mm or more, the voltage required for ion generation becomes 15 KV or more, which makes the power supply design difficult. That's why. The reason will be described in more detail later.

Next, a method for manufacturing the ion generating electrode 12 of this embodiment will be described. This ion generating electrode 12
Is formed by punching a metal plate mainly composed of nickel having a thickness of about 70 μm to 500 μm. Regarding the thickness of the ion generating electrode 12, the thinner the electrode, the smaller the radius of curvature at the electrode tip portion and the higher the ion generation efficiency. For example, an ion generation electrode having a thickness of 1000 μm and a thin electrode having a thickness of 70 μm can obtain about three times the amount of ion generation. On the other hand, if the ion generating electrode is too thin, a problem occurs in mechanical strength. For this reason, in the present embodiment, it is configured using the nickel plate having a thickness of about 70 μm to 500 μm. Similarly, the tip of the sawtooth 12a is set at an angle of 45 ° or less so as to reduce the radius of curvature at the tip of the electrode and increase the ion generation efficiency.

FIG. 4 shows another example of the ion generating electrode.
In this example, the ion generating electrode 15 is configured by applying a nickel plating to a stainless steel plate formed in the illustrated shape. Even with such a configuration, as described later, it has sufficient durability against the consumption of the electrodes.

Next, a method of manufacturing the counter electrode 14 of this embodiment, which is formed by integrally forming ceramics and metal, will be described with reference to FIG. First, MgO 2 was added to alumina powder.
% (Weight ratio, the same applies hereinafter) CaO 2%, SiO ₂ 4
%, Wet-pulverized for about 50 to 80 hours with a ball mill, and then dehydrated and dried. Then, to this powder, isobutyl methacrylate 3%, butyl ester 3%,
Nitrocellulose 1%, dioctyl phthalate 0.5%
Is added, and trichlorethylene and n-butanol are further added as solvents and mixed by a ball mill to form a fluid slurry.

After defoaming under reduced pressure, the mixture is poured out into a flat plate and cooled slowly to evaporate the solvent to form high-purity alumina green sheets 28 and 30 having a thickness of 0.5 mm. On the other hand, in order to form the planar electrode 32 made of metal, a tungsten powder is slurried by the same method to prepare a metallized ink. This is printed on the alumina green sheet 30 with tungsten metallized ink by a normal screen printing method to form a planar electrode 32. Then, the alumina green sheets 28 and 30 are thermocompression-bonded.
At this time, through holes 34 for extracting the terminals of the planar electrode 32 are formed in the alumina green sheets 28 and 30. The layered material thus formed is heated to 1400 ° C to 1 ° C.
The counter electrode 14 is completed by firing in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at 600 ° C.

FIG. 6 shows another example of the counter electrode. In the example described with reference to FIG. 5, the metal planar electrode 32 is configured to be embedded in the ceramics. A metal planar electrode 38 is attached to the lower surface of the ceramics plate 36, and the lower surface of the planar electrode layer 38 is configured to be exposed to the atmosphere. The counter electrode has a single-layer structure in which a metal planar electrode 38 is printed and fired on an alumina green sheet, but it can also be formed on fired alumina by a method called secondary meta.

FIG. 7 shows a high voltage generating circuit board 50 on which the counter electrode 14 is integrally mounted. The counter electrode 14 is
The end portion 14a is connected to the end portion 5 of the high voltage generation circuit board 50.
0a, and screw 42A, 42B into through hole 34
Is fixed to a screw hole (not shown) of the high-voltage generating circuit board 50 by inserting the same. At the same time, the metal planar electrode 32 inside the counter electrode 14 is electrically connected to a printed wiring (not shown) connected to a secondary terminal of the transformer 44 by the screws 42A and 42B. This electrical connection can be made by a lead wire instead of the screws 42A and 42B.

Next, the circuit configuration of the high voltage generating circuit board 50 will be described with reference to FIG. The high voltage generation circuit board 50 of this embodiment is connected to a 60 Hz or 50 Hz commercial AC power supply, and the ion generation electrode 12 and the counter electrode 1 are connected.
4, a high voltage required for ion generation is applied. 100V commercial AC voltage is
The potential is defined by a circuit comprising D1, a transistor TR1 and a diode D3, and a half-wavelength of an AC voltage in a forward direction with respect to the diode D1 is applied to the capacitor C1 through the diode D1.
Charge 1. Then, when the voltage is in the opposite direction to the diode D1, another capacitor C2 is charged. When this voltage reaches a value that triggers the trigger gate of the thyristor SCR1, the thyristor SCR1 is energized, and the charged capacitor C1 is charged. , A current path comprising the capacitor C1, the thyristor SCR1 and the primary side of the transformer 44 is formed, thereby generating a high voltage on the secondary side of the transformer 44. Secondary terminal 44 of transformer 44
a is connected to the electrode 12 for ion generation, and the secondary terminal 44b is connected to the counter electrode 14 via the printed wiring on the high-voltage generation circuit board 50 as described above. The indicated applied voltage is applied. Note that the attenuation amplitude of the voltage shown in FIG.
It is a waveform formed by the time constant of the capacitance of 1 and the inductance of the transformer 44.

Next, results of an operation test of the ion generator 10 having the above-described ion generating electrode structure will be described. When the ion generator 10 was operated and the number of ions at a position 5 cm away from the ion generator 10 was counted by a measuring instrument, it was found that the number of negative ions was usually 150 / cm ^{3 in the} atmosphere. 50,000
It was confirmed that the number increased to pcs / cm ³ . In the present embodiment, in order to apply an AC voltage between the ion generating electrode 12 and the counter electrode 14, positive ions are generated at the same time as mass ions, but the number of positive ions is about 200 / cm ³ .

As described above, the effect of maintaining the freshness of food is mainly provided by negative ions. In the present embodiment, however, since a dielectric ceramic is interposed between the two electrodes to apply an AC voltage, a positive ion is used. It was found that an extremely large number of negative ions were generated as compared with the above, and a desired effect by the ions was obtained.

Next, the relationship between the gap length of both electrodes and the amount of generated ions will be described with reference to FIG. This figure is 5
An electrode for generating ions having three needle electrodes and a counter electrode having a 10 × 30 mm tungsten electrode embedded in alumina ceramics are used, and 8.5 KVpp (60
2 shows the relationship between the electrode space gap length and the ion generation amount when a voltage of (Hz) is applied. When the gap length is reduced, the amount of ions generated increases. However, when the gap is reduced, the discharge property changes from about 3 mm to corona discharge, which is effective for generating ions, to spark discharge, which is not suitable for generating ions. Transition. For this reason, the gap length cannot be made too small. On the other hand, since the amount of generated ions decreases with an increase in the gap, it is necessary to increase the applied voltage as the gap is increased in order to secure the required amount of ions generated. A voltage of 15 KV or more is required, making it difficult to design a power supply. From the above results, it was found that the appropriate gap length was about 2 to 20 mm.

Next, regarding the material of the electrode for ion generation,
This will be described with reference to FIG. 11 which compares the durability between stainless steel and nickel. This test was also performed at a position 5 cm away from the ion generator 10 using the above-described measuring device for counting the number of ions. In both stainless steel and nickel, the number of negative ions is about the same as about 50,000 / cm ³ after 1000 hours. However, in the case of stainless steel, the wear of the tip of the electrode becomes large after about 5000 hours, and the distance between the electrodes becomes large. And the tip of the electrode becomes dull. For this reason, the generation amount of negative ions gradually decreases,
After 10,000 hours, the amount generated is about 3000
It decreased to nearly 40% at 0 / cm ³ . On the other hand, in the electrode using nickel, almost no decrease in the amount of generated ions is observed even after 10,000 hours. From this test result, it was clarified that the electrode made of nickel had higher durability than that made of stainless steel. The durability shown in the above test results can also be obtained by plating nickel on a metal plate of another material, and the ion generating electrode of the present invention can reduce the manufacturing cost. For this purpose, it is also possible to use the nickel plated plate of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the arrangement of the ion generator 10. In this example, the ion generating electrode 10 and the counter electrode 14 attached to the outer surface 20a of the ion generating device housing 20 are rotated by 90 ° counterclockwise from the arrangement of the ion generating device 10 shown in FIG. , The ion generator 10 is arranged so as to be located at the top. The ion generator 10 of the present embodiment can be appropriately arranged according to the situation such as the installation place.

In the above-described embodiment, a commercial AC power supply is used as a power source. However, in the present invention, it is also possible to use a rectified AC power supply or a DC power supply such as a battery. In this case, a negative high voltage is applied to the ion generating electrode side to generate negative ions. The applied voltage is, for example, about 5 KV when the space gap between the electrodes is 10 mm. When a DC voltage is applied, since a spark discharge is more likely to occur than when the AC is applied, it is desirable to increase the space gap. It is preferable to use a metal planar electrode as the planar electrode.

[0021]

According to the present invention, which has the above-described structure and uses nickel for the ion generating electrode, the amount of ion generation does not decrease even when the tip of the electrode is consumed for a long period of time with little consumption. . Further, since the tip of the ion generating electrode is formed in a saw-tooth shape, it can be manufactured inexpensively and easily. Furthermore, since a dielectric ceramic plate is interposed between the ion generating electrode and the counter electrode, it is possible to efficiently generate negative ions using an AC power supply with low manufacturing and running costs. The synergistic effects described above provide excellent effects such as superior durability, low-cost production, and high ion generation efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an ion generating apparatus using an ion generating electrode structure according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the ion generator of FIG. 1 as viewed from an arrow B side.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the ion generator of FIG. 1 as viewed from an arrow A side.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an ion generating electrode according to another embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a counter electrode according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the counter electrode according to another embodiment of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a high-voltage generation circuit board according to the embodiment.

8 is a circuit diagram of the high-voltage generation circuit board shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a waveform diagram of a voltage applied between an ion generating electrode and a counter electrode.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the relationship between the electrode gap length and the amount of generated ions.

FIG. 11 is a graph showing the durability of an electrode for ion generation.

FIG. 12 is a side view showing another example of the arrangement of the ion generator of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Ion generator 12 Ion generation electrode 14 Counter electrode 20 Ion generator housing 28 Alumina green sheet 30 Alumina green sheet 32 Planar electrode 44 Transformer 50 High voltage generation circuit board

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F24F 7/00 A61N 1/10 A61N 1/44 H01T 14/00 H05F 3/04

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sheet-like electrode, and a plate-like ion generating electrode having a plurality of saw teeth, a ceramic dielectric plate is integrally attached to an upper surface of the sheet-like electrode, Is made mainly of nickel, and the tip of the saw tooth is formed at an angle of 45 degrees or less. 2. The space according to claim 1, wherein a space gap between the ceramic dielectric plate and the ion generating electrode is 2 m.
An ion generating electrode structure having a length of m to 20 mm.