JP7634585B2 - Particle recovery device and recovery method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a particle recovery device and a particle recovery method.

In electrical equipment such as power converters, pure water cooling devices are sometimes used that use low-conductivity pure water to cool internal elements. The pure water cooling device is equipped with an ion exchanger that produces pure water, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. The particulate ion exchange resin contained in the ion exchanger deteriorates in function with use over time, so it must be replaced periodically. In conventional replacement work, a drain valve is attached to the lower flange of the ion exchanger, and with the drain valve open, the ion exchanger is vibrated while water is supplied from the upper flange to discharge the ion exchange resin.

JP 2003-185321 A

The above method has the problem that it is time-consuming to attach and detach the drain valve to the lower flange of the ion exchanger and to drain all of the ion exchange resin by its own weight. This problem is not limited to the case of recovering the ion exchange resin contained in the ion exchanger, but also exists when recovering other particles contained in the tank.

The present invention was made based on this background, and aims to provide a recovery device and recovery method that can quickly recover particles contained in a tank.

In order to achieve the above object, the recovery device according to the present invention comprises:
a supply hose for supplying pressurized liquid;
an ejection means connected to the supply hose for ejecting the liquid supplied from the supply hose;
a suction cover that supports the jetting means so that liquid is jetted from the inlet side to the outlet side of the internal space, and that sucks in particles to be collected by a jet pump action caused by the jet from the jetting means;
a discharge hose connected to an end of the outlet side of the suction cover and formed to be grippable by a user, for discharging the liquid sprayed from the spray means and the particles to be collected that are sucked by the suction cover to the outside;
A collection tank in which the base end side end of the discharge hose is disposed, and a drain hole is provided on the lower side of a wall portion for draining the liquid discharged from the discharge hose to the outside so as to dehydrate the particles to be collected discharged from the discharge hose;
Equipped with.

The present invention provides a recovery device and recovery method that can quickly recover particles contained in a tank.

1 is a diagram showing a relationship between a pure water cooling device including an ion exchanger in which ion exchange resin is recovered by a recovery device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and a power converter. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a recovery device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a diagram showing a state in which a recovery device according to an embodiment of the present invention sucks up ion exchange resin contained in an ion exchanger. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of the configuration of the recovery device according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the recovery device of FIG. 4 taken along line AA. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of a method for exchanging an ion exchange resin according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The recovery device and recovery method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same or equivalent parts are given the same reference numerals. In the embodiment, the case of replacing the ion exchange resin contained in the ion exchanger will be described as an example.

The recovery device according to the embodiment is a device that recovers ion exchange resin by sucking it from the ion exchanger using the suction force that uses the jet pump action. The jet pump action is the action of drawing in other fluids in the surrounding area using a jetted fluid.

As shown in FIG. 1, the ion exchanger is provided in a pure water cooling device that generates pure water for cooling the power converter. The pure water cooling device includes a heat exchanger that cools the pure water generated by the ion exchanger, and is connected via piping so that the pure water can be circulated between the power converter and the pure water cooling device. The power converter includes an inverter and a converter that require cooling with pure water during operation. Pure water is used as the cooling water to prevent short circuits from occurring in the inverter and the converter.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ion exchanger includes a tank that contains a large number of ion exchange resins. A removable upper flange is provided on the top surface of the tank, and a removable lower flange is provided on the wall surface of the tank below. By removing each flange, openings in the wall surface of the tank are exposed, allowing the ion exchange resin to be added or discharged. A portion of the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment is inserted into the ion exchanger through the opening exposed by removing the upper flange.

An ion exchange resin is a resin that removes ions from a solvent, for example, water, by performing ion exchange. In ion exchange, the ions held by the ion exchange resin are dissolved into the solvent, and the ions in the solvent are absorbed instead. For example, the ion exchange resin takes in cations in the water, for example, calcium ions Ca ⁺ and sodium ions Na ⁺ , and releases hydrogen ions H ⁺ , and takes in anions in the water, for example, chloride ions Cl ^-, and releases hydroxide ions OH ^- . The H ⁺ and OH ^- released into the water combine with each other and turn into water, so no new ions are generated in the water. The ion exchange resin is a lightweight and minute particle, and has a diameter of, for example, about 1 mm, so it can be easily sucked up by the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment.

Next, the configuration of the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment will be described.
2, the recovery device 1 includes a pressurizing means 2 for pressurizing water, a water supply hose 3 connected to the pressurizing means 2 and supplying pressurized water, a jetting means connected to the tip end of the water supply hose 3 and jetting water supplied from the water supply hose 3, a suction cover 5 that supports the jetting means so that liquid is jetted from the inlet side to the outlet side of the internal space and sucks up particles to be recovered by a jet pump action caused by jetting from the jetting means, a discharge hose 6 connected to the base end end of the suction cover 5 and discharges the water jetted from the jetting means and the ion exchange resin sucked by the suction cover 5 to the outside, and a recovery tank 7 in which the base end end of the discharge hose 6 is disposed. The water used for jetting in the recovery device 1 is, for example, pure water.

As shown in FIG. 3, the recovery device 1 injects water pressurized by the pressurizing means 2 from the tip side (inlet side) of the suction cover 5 toward the base side (outlet side) by the injection means 4, generating a suction force by the jet pump action in the suction cover 5, and sucking in the particulate ion exchange resin in the ion exchanger. In order to increase the suction force by the jet pump action, it is recommended to increase the pushing pressure when injecting water from the injection means 4 as much as possible. With the pressurizing means 2 activated, the user can hold the water supply hose 3 and the discharge hose 6 of the recovery device 1 and move them freely in the ion exchanger, thereby sucking in and recovering the ion exchange resin in the ion exchanger one after another. The supply pipe shown in FIG. 3 is a pipe that returns the pure water used to cool the power converter to the ion exchanger, and the discharge pipe is a pipe that discharges the high-purity pure water generated in the ion exchanger to the outside.

Returning to FIG. 2, the pressurizing means 2 includes, for example, a motor and a pump. The motor of the pressurizing means 2 drives the pump, which pressurizes and sprays the pure water taken from the water supply tank 2A by the pump. The water supply tank 2A stores, for example, pure water. Note that a submersible pump 2B is installed in the water supply tank 2A, and the pure water can be supplied to the ion exchanger via a water supply hose 2C that is separate from the water supply hose 3. The submersible pump 2B and the water supply hose 2C may be used when supplying pure water to the ion exchanger after new ion exchange resin has been filled.

The water supply hose 3 is an example of a supply hose that supplies pressurized liquid. The water supply hose 3 is a deformable hose through which pure water flows in an internal pipeline, and is, for example, a rubber hose. The base end of the water supply hose 3 is connected to the pressurizing means 2. For example, a general-purpose high-pressure washer may be used as the pressurizing means 2 and the water supply hose 3.

As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the spraying means 4 is supported by the suction cover 5, receives water supplied from the water supply hose 3, and sprays it into the suction cover 5. The spraying means 4 is supported by the suction cover 5 so as to be positioned in the internal space of the suction cover 5, and includes a pipe 4a to which the water supply hose 3 is detachably connected, and a nozzle 4b connected to the end of the tip side of the pipe 4a and sprays the water supplied from the pipe 4a into the suction cover 5.

The pipe 4a is an L-shaped pipe that extends from the wall side of the suction cover 5 toward the central axis and then bends along the central axis from the tip side to the base side of the suction cover 5. The nozzle 4b extends from the tip side to the base side of the suction cover 5 and increases the flow rate of the water pressurized by the pressurizing means 2 and sprays it to the outside. The nozzle 4b is, for example, a tapered nozzle whose cross-sectional area is reduced in the flow direction. To increase the suction force, it is advisable to increase the flow rate (spray pressure) of the jet sprayed from the nozzle 4b as much as possible.

The suction cover 5 is a truncated cone-shaped cover tapered from the tip to the base. A drain hose 6 is connected to the base end of the suction cover 5, and the suction ion exchange resin is supplied to the drain hose 6. The maximum diameter of the suction cover 5 is set so that it can pass through an opening in the ion exchanger. The water supply hose 3 and drain hose 6 are configured to be deformable, so the user can freely move the suction cover 5 within the tank of the ion exchanger.

The wall of the suction cover 5 is provided with a connector 5a to which the end of the water supply hose 3 is detachably connected and to which the piping 4a is connected. The connector 5a has a through hole that connects the water supply hose 3 and the piping 4a.

The drain hose 6 is a deformable hose through which a mixture of ion exchange resin and pure water flows in an internal conduit, and is, for example, a rubber hose. The drain hose 6 has a larger inner diameter than the water supply hose 3 in order to allow the mixture of ion exchange resin and pure water to flow. However, it should be noted that if the inner diameter of the drain hose 6 is made too large, the suction force within the drain hose 6 will decrease.

The drain hose 6 includes, for example, a first hose located at the tip side, and a second hose connected to the first hose and located at the base end side. The first hose is formed to have higher rigidity than the second hose in consideration of workability near the bottom surface inside the ion exchanger. The second hose is placed on the floor and may be stepped on by the user, so it has a wall thickness greater than that of the first hose to ensure a flow path against external forces.

Returning to FIG. 2, the recovery tank 7 is a resin tank that has an opening at the top into which the end of the drain hose 6 is inserted, and that stores the ion exchange resin discharged from the drain hose 6. The bottom of the wall of the recovery tank 7 is provided with a drain hole that drains water while retaining the ion exchange resin.

The drain hole is an example of a liquid discharge means for retaining the ion exchange resin and discharging the liquid water. The drain hole includes, for example, a through hole formed to penetrate the wall of the tank, and a filter provided in the wall of the tank to cover the through hole and for discharging the water while retaining the ion exchange resin. The recovery tank 7 may be placed on a dolly 8 in consideration of subsequent transportation work.
The above is the configuration of the recovery device 1.

Next, the operation of the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment will be described.
When the pure water taken in from the water supply tank 2A is pressurized by the pressurizing means 2 and supplied to the water supply hose 3, the pure water is sprayed at high speed from the nozzle 4b of the spraying means 4 towards the inside of the suction cover 5. At this time, the jet of pure water is sprayed from the inlet side towards the outlet side along the central axis of the suction cover 5. When the flow velocity of the pure water sprayed from the nozzle 4b reaches or exceeds a certain speed, the jet pump action of the pure water causes the pure water in the ion exchanger to be drawn into the suction cover 5. At this time, the ion exchange resin is light and tiny particles of about 1 mm, so it is drawn into the suction cover 5 together with the pure water.

The ion exchange resin and pure water sucked by the suction cover 5 are discharged through the discharge hose 6 together with the pure water sprayed onto the discharge hose 6 side within the suction cover 5. At this time, if the discharge hose 6 is lifted high midway, the suction force decreases, so it is preferable to keep the position of the discharge hose 6 as low as possible.
The operation of the recovery device 1 has been described above.

Next, the flow of a method for exchanging ion-exchange resin particles using the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG.
First, as shown in FIG. 2, an upper flange provided on the upper part of the ion exchanger is removed to expose an opening (step S1).

Next, the recovery device 1 is used to discharge the ion exchange resin from the ion exchanger (step S2). Specifically, the recovery device 1 is first placed inside the ion exchanger. In this step, the user grasps the discharge hose 6 of the recovery device 1 and inserts the tip portion of the recovery device 1, including the suction cover 5, into the ion exchanger from the opening on the top side, as shown in FIG. 3.

Next, the pressurizing means 2 of the recovery device 1 is started, and the ion exchange resin contained in the ion exchanger is sucked in one after another. In this process, the user only needs to move the suction cover 5 around inside the ion exchanger while holding the discharge hose 6 of the recovery device 1. Water pressurized by the pressurizing means 2 is sprayed from the nozzle 4b into the suction cover 5, so that the ion exchange resin is drawn into the suction cover 5 together with the pure water as shown in FIG. 4, and is discharged through the discharge hose 6 into the recovery tank 7. At this time, since the recovery tank 7 is provided with a drain hole, the ion exchange resin can be dehydrated simply by recovering it in the recovery tank 7.

If the amount of pure water in the ion exchanger falls below a certain level during operation and air is sucked in through the suction cover 5, the suction force produced by the jet pump action will decrease, making it difficult to suck in the ion exchange resin. Therefore, if the amount of pure water in the ion exchanger falls below a certain level in step S2, the submersible pump 2B can be operated to replenish the pure water from the water supply hose 2C into the ion exchanger.

Next, the recovery device 1 is removed from the ion exchanger. In this step, the user simply pulls out the tip of the recovery device 1 from the ion exchanger while still holding the discharge hose 6 of the recovery device 1. The operation of the pressurizing means 2 is then stopped. Note that, although low-purity water can be used in the step S2, it is preferable to use pure water if possible, since it is necessary to wash the inside of the tank with pure water after the operation.

Next, the recovery tank 7 containing the ion exchange resin recovered in step S2 is transported to a storage facility (step S3). Since the recovery tank 7 is already placed on the dolly 8 at the time of step S2, it can be transported using the dolly 8 as is. The ion exchange resin can be disposed of as industrial waste together with the recovery tank 7.

Next, new ion exchange resin is filled into the ion exchanger, and pure water is replenished (step S4). To replenish the pure water, a submersible pump 2B installed in the water supply tank 2A shown in FIG. 2 can be used.

Next, an upper flange is attached to close the opening of the ion exchanger (step S5), and all the steps are completed.
The above is the flow of the ion exchange resin replacement method.

As described above, the recovery device 1 according to the embodiment includes a water supply hose 3 that supplies pressurized water, a jetting means 4 that is connected to the water supply hose 3 and jets the water supplied from the water supply hose 3, a suction cover 5 that supports the jetting means 4 so that liquid is jetted from the inlet side to the outlet side of the internal space and sucks in particles to be recovered by a jet pump action caused by the jet from the jetting means 4, and a discharge hose 6 that is connected to the outlet end of the suction cover 5 and discharges to the outside the water jetted from the jetting means 4 and the particles to be recovered that have been sucked in by the suction cover 5. Therefore, the ion exchange resin contained in the ion exchanger can be recovered simply by suctioning it from above.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and the following modifications are also possible.

(Modification)
In the above embodiment, the pressurizing means 2 is installed on the floor, but this is not limited to this. It may be replaced with a small pressurizing means that is small and light enough for a user to hold. This allows the length of the water supply hose 3 to be shortened, thereby suppressing pressure loss due to the water supply hose 3.

In the above embodiment, the water supply hose 3 and the drain hose 6 are separate, but the present invention is not limited to this. At least in the portion that is placed inside the ion exchanger, the water supply hose 3 and the drain hose 6 may be integrated with a ligature band or the like.

In the above embodiment, the water supply hose 3 and the drain hose 6 are held by hand, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the drain hose 6 may be provided with a handle that can be held by the user. In addition, the water supply hose 3 and the drain hose 6 may be supported by a support means installed on the floor surface.

In the above embodiment, one nozzle 4b is connected to the pipe 4a, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the pipe 4a may be a pipe with branches, and multiple nozzles 4b that spray a jet from the tip side to the base side of the suction cover 5 may be connected to such a pipe.

In the above embodiment, the suction cover 5 is provided with a connector 5a that connects the end of the water supply hose 3 and the end of the pipe 4a, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the pipe 4a may be configured to penetrate the wall portion of the suction cover 5, and the end of the pipe 4a exposed to the outside may be detachably connected to the end of the water supply hose 3.

The piping 4a may also be configured to be supported by the wall portion of the suction cover 5, wrap around the end of the tip side of the suction cover 5, extend toward the central axis of the suction cover 5, bend on the central axis, and extend on the central axis from the tip side to the base end side of the suction cover 5.

In the above embodiment, the suction cover 5 has a truncated cone shape, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the suction cover 5 may have a cylindrical shape.

In the above embodiment, the recovery tank 7 is used to recover the ion exchange resin discharged from the discharge hose 6, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a bag capable of leaching water may be used to recover the ion exchange resin.

In the above embodiment, the ion exchange resin recovered from the ion exchanger is transported, and then new ion exchange resin is filled into the ion exchanger, but the present invention is not limited to this. New ion exchange resin may be filled into the ion exchanger, an upper flange may be attached, and then the ion exchange resin recovered from the ion exchanger may be transported.

In the above embodiment, the recovery device 1 is used to recover particulate ion exchange resin from the ion exchanger, but the present invention is not limited to this. The recovery device 1 may also be used to recover other particles, sand, combustion ash, and other dust contained in the tank from the tank.

In the above embodiment, pure water is sprayed from the recovery device 1, but the present invention is not limited to this. The liquid to be sprayed is not limited to pure water, and other liquids may be used depending on the particles to be recovered from the tank.

The above embodiments are examples, and the present invention is not limited to these, and various embodiments are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention described in the claims. The components described in the embodiments and variations can be freely combined. Furthermore, inventions equivalent to the inventions described in the claims are also included in the present invention.

1 Recovery device 2 Pressurizing means 3 Water supply hose 4 Injection means 4a Pipe 4b Nozzle 5 Suction cover 6 Discharge hose 7 Recovery tank

Claims (7)

a supply hose for supplying pressurized liquid;
an ejection means connected to the supply hose for ejecting the liquid supplied from the supply hose;
a suction cover that supports the jetting means so that liquid is jetted from the inlet side to the outlet side of the internal space, and that sucks in particles to be collected by a jet pump action caused by the jet from the jetting means;
a discharge hose connected to an end of the outlet side of the suction cover and formed to be grippable by a user, for discharging the liquid sprayed from the spray means and the particles to be collected that are sucked by the suction cover to the outside;
A collection tank in which the base end side end of the discharge hose is disposed, and a drain hole is provided on the lower side of a wall portion for draining the liquid discharged from the discharge hose to the outside so as to dehydrate the particles to be collected discharged from the discharge hose;
A recovery device comprising: The recovery tank is configured to be mounted on a cart.
The recovery device according to claim 1 . The discharge hose is deformable so as to freely move the suction cover within a tank containing the particles to be collected.
The recovery device according to claim 1 . The injection means is
a pipe supported by the suction cover and connected to the supply hose for receiving liquid from the supply hose;
a nozzle connected to an end of the tip side of the pipe and configured to increase the flow rate of the liquid supplied from the pipe and spray the liquid;
The recovery device according to claim 1 . The suction cover has a truncated cone shape or a cylindrical shape,
The nozzle is disposed so as to extend on the central axis of the suction cover.
The recovery device according to claim 4 . A recovery method using the recovery device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
A placement step of placing the suction cover in a tank containing the particles to be collected;
a suction step of suctioning the particles to be collected that are contained in the tank in which the suction cover is placed in the placement step ;
a removal step of removing the suction cover from the tank into which the particles to be collected have been sucked in the suction step ;
Recovery methods including. The recovery method further includes a step of loading the recovery tank onto a dolly before performing the placing step;
The removal step is performed while the collection tank is placed on the cart.
The recovery method according to claim 6.

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