JPH0349502B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an incubator used for protecting and raising premature infants such as physically immature premature infants.

[Prior Art] As is well known, incubators are used to protect and raise physically immature premature infants, such as preterm infants, in an optimal environment cut off from outside air.

The typical structure of such a conventional incubator is
As shown in the figure.

This Figure 4 is an exploded view of the main parts of the incubator seen from the back side.As shown in the figure, the upper part of the incubator is
The nursery room 2 is surrounded by a transparent hood 1 made of acrylic resin or the like. Although not shown in the drawings, the nursery room 2 is provided with a bed on which the infant is placed, a height-adjustable pedestal on which the bed is placed, and the like.

Inside the incubator main body 3 on the lower side of the nursery room 2, an air adjustment section 4 is provided for adjusting the temperature and humidity of the air circulated within the nursery room 2, respectively. As shown in the figure, the air adjustment section 4 is composed of a plurality of chambers, and in order from the upstream side, an air merging chamber 5;
It has an air heating chamber 6 and a humidity control section 7. The air merging chamber 5 is a chamber for mixing air drawn from the nursery room 2 with fresh air sucked in from the outside through an air filter 51. The air mixed here is sent to the air heating chamber 6 by the action of the Shirotzko fan 52,
After being heated to an appropriate temperature by a heater 61 , it is sent to the humidity control section 7 .

Although various structures are known for the humidity control section 7, the illustrated structure is the most commonly put into practical use. That is, following the air heating chamber 6, two passages 7 are arranged horizontally in parallel.
1, 72 are provided, one of which is the passage 71.
Water 73 for humidification is placed in the tank. and,
The air heated to an appropriate temperature in the air heating chamber 6 is
By the action of a throttling means, which will be described later, the water flows through these two passages 71 and 72 at an appropriate flow rate ratio. At this time, the air flowing through one passage 71 is humidified by coming into contact with the humidifying water 73, and the air flowing through the other passage 72 is not humidified at all. Therefore, by appropriately adjusting the air flow rate ratio in the humidity control section 7, air having a desired humidity can be circulated within the nursery room 2.

The nursery room 2 and the air conditioning section 4 described above are separated from each other by a partition plate 8 that constitutes the bottom wall of the nursery room 2 and the upper wall of the air conditioning section 4. An air suction port 81 for drawing air from the nursery room 2 into the air adjustment section 4 is provided near one end of the partition plate 8, that is, in a portion that constitutes the upper wall of the air merging chamber 5 of the air adjustment section 4. It is provided. On the other hand, in the vicinity of the other end of the partition plate 8, that is, in the vicinity of the end farthest from the air suction port 81, and forming the upper wall of the humidity control section 7 of the air adjustment section 4, there is an air adjustment section. An air outlet 82 is provided for blowing air from the part 4 into the nursery room 2. In addition,
The air suction port 81 and the air outlet 82 are each formed into a longitudinal shape extending substantially perpendicular to the direction from the air outlet 82 to the air suction port 81 . As shown in the figure, the air outlet 82 is provided with a restricting means such as a slider 83, for example. The slider 83 is provided with an opening 84, and an air outlet 8 is formed across the two passages 71 and 72 of the humidity control section 7.
By appropriately shifting the position of this opening 84 that aligns with 2, the two passages 71,
The air flow rate through 72 is adapted to be adjusted.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the above-mentioned well-known incubator has the following problems.

That is, in the incubator configured as described above, the slider 8 provided at the air outlet 82 of the partition plate 8
By sliding 3, the air adjustment section 4
The humidity of the air circulated in the nursery room 2 is adjusted by changing the ratio of air flow rates flowing through the two passages 71 and 72 in the humidity control unit 7. That is, when the opening 84 of the slider 83 is moved to the side of one passage 71 of the humidity control section 7, the maximum humidified air is supplied into the nursery room 2, and also,
When moved to the other passage 72 side, air that is not humidified at all is supplied into the nursery room 2 . and,
The opening 84 of the slider 83 is placed at an intermediate position between these two passages 71 and 72 of the humidity control section 7.
When the opening 84 is moved to a position where it straddles the respective passages 71 and 72, a flow rate ratio approximately proportional to the area ratio where the opening 84 opens to the respective passages 71 and 72 is obtained.

However, in this way, the opening 8 of the slider 83
In the configuration in which the humidity is adjusted by moving the nursery room 2, the position from which air is blown into the nursery room 2 changes each time. For this reason, the distribution of airflow flowing inside the nursery room 2 changes, and as a result, it becomes difficult to control the temperature particularly near the baby's body. In particular, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases in which extremely immature infants, such as preterm infants, are being treated.
In that case, even a fairly subtle change in temperature can pose a danger.

As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 63-19144 and Japanese Utility Model Application No. 63-13129, such a restricting means is installed at a location other than the air outlet 82 to the incubator 2,
For example, it is conceivable to provide it at the outlet of the humidity control section 7. In this case, the air outlet 82 is always fully open, and air whose air flow rate ratio is controlled is introduced into the incubator 2 from the respective passages 71 and 72 through the air outlet 82. However, even in this case, the humidified air from the passage 71 is mainly introduced into the incubator 2 from one half of the air outlet 82 (the upper right half in FIG.
Since the unhumidified air from the incubator 2 is mainly introduced into the incubator 2 from the other half of the air outlet 82 (lower left half in FIG. 4), the airflow distribution within the incubator 2 becomes uneven. Moreover, there are two passages 71, 7.
When the air flow rate ratio of the incubator 2 changes, the flow velocity of each air branch passing through the air outlet 82 changes.
The airflow distribution inside the unit will change. Therefore, even in this case, strictly speaking, the temperature distribution within the incubator 2 will change to some extent.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an incubator that can solve the problems of the conventional incubator described above with a relatively simple configuration.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above problem is solved by the present invention as follows.

That is, in the incubator of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the temperature control section of the air adjustment section 4, for example, the humidity control section 7 which follows the air heating chamber 6, is vertically arranged vertically in parallel. It is composed of two passages 92 and 93 separated from each other by a partition plate 95, and water 94 for humidification is arranged inside one of the passages 93.

An air mixing chamber 10 is provided subsequent to the humidity control section 7, and an air outlet 8 to the nursery room 2 is provided at a part of the partition plate 8 that constitutes the upper wall of the air mixing chamber 10.
2 are provided. Each passage 92, 9 of the humidity control section 7
As shown in the figure, the three air outlets 92b and 93b are arranged in a vertical direction to each other and open in a vertical wall portion defining the air mixing chamber 10, respectively.

Then, the two passages 92 and 93 of the humidity control section 7
(For example, air outlets 92b, 93b or air inlets 92a, 93a of the two passages 92, 93)
An adjusting means such as an adjusting fin 96 for adjusting the air flow rate ratio of these two passages 92 and 93 is provided.

[Effect]

In the incubator of the present invention, the air adjustment section 4
The air flowing into the humidity control section 7 from the temperature control section 6 flows through two vertically arranged parallel passages 92 and 93 at a predetermined flow rate ratio due to the action of the adjustment means 96. The air divisions flowing through one passage 92 are not humidified at all, and the air divisions flowing through the other passage 93 are humidified by contact with humidifying water 94 and are discharged from the humidity control section 7, respectively. The divided air flows discharged from the humidity control section 7 are mixed with each other in the air mixing chamber 10 and then supplied into the nursery room 2 through the air outlet 82.

At this time, in the present invention, the air outlets 92b and 93b of the two passages 92 and 93 of the humidity control section 7 are
are lined up in the vertical direction, and the air outlet 82
is formed on the upper wall of the air mixing chamber 10, and the air outlet 82 has a longitudinal shape (hereinafter referred to as "horizontal") extending substantially perpendicularly to the direction from the air outlet 82 toward the air suction port 81. , so that the non-humidified air flow and the humidified air flow are very well mixed.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, parts corresponding to those of the conventional structure explained in FIG. 4 are given the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 2, the incubator of this embodiment has a nursery room 2 surrounded by a hood 1 made of acrylic resin or the like, similar to the conventional example shown in FIG. An air conditioning unit 4 consisting of a plurality of chambers is provided inside the incubator body 3 on the lower side of the incubator body 3 . However, in this embodiment, the temperature control section 7 of the air adjustment section 4 is connected to the incubator main body 3 as shown in the figure.
It consists of a humidity control box 9 that can be attached to and detached from the air conditioner. By attaching this humidity adjustment box 9 to the incubator main body 3, the space downstream of the air adjustment section 4 is divided, as shown in FIG. A section 7 and an air mixing chamber 10 are respectively formed. In addition, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 5 is an air merging chamber similar to the conventional one.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the humidity control box 9
is made of synthetic resin or the like and has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and is formed by combining an upper half portion 90 and a lower half portion 91 with each other. A horizontal partition plate 9 is provided between the upper half part 90 and the lower half part 91.
5, and as shown in FIG.
It is divided into two passages 92 and 93. A pair of mutually opposing wide side surfaces of the humidity control box 9 have air inlets 9 for each of the passages 92 and 93 when the upper half portion 90 and the lower half portion 91 are combined with each other.
2a, 93a and air outlets 92b, 93b are each formed as one continuous opening. Each air inlet 92a, 93a and each air outlet 92b, 9
3b are separated from each other by partition plates 95, respectively.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the upper half 90 of this humidity adjustment box 9 is provided with a protrusion 97 from the top surface to the back surface, and the humidity adjustment box 9 is connected to the incubator body. 3, as shown in FIG. They are in close contact to divide the internal space of the incubator main body 3.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the lower half 91 of the humidity control box 9 is configured as a water tank for holding water 94 for humidification, and the flow direction of the air is controlled in the tank. A large number of guide plates 98 are arranged along the direction of air flow.

Further, the partition plate 95 of the humidity adjustment box 9 is provided with adjustment fins 96 at the air inlets 92a and 93a, and by operating the adjustment fins 96, the air flows through the two passages 92 and 93. The air flow ratio is adapted to be adjusted. As shown in the figure, the adjustment fin 96 has an inverted dogleg shape in cross section, and is fixed to a rotation shaft 99 at its center. The rotation shaft 99 is rotatably supported by a bearing portion of the partition plate 95, and has an operation knob 100 fixed to its tip.

As shown in FIG. 2, an opening 31 for inserting the humidity control box 9 is formed in the front part of the incubator main body 3, and a humidity control box 9 is formed on the bottom wall surface aligned with this opening 31. A continuous guiding protrusion 32 is formed to guide the insertion operation of the box 9. In addition, in the figure, the reference numeral 33 is a water temperature regulator for heating the humidifying water 94 in the humidity regulating box 9, and although not shown, it is heated by a heater embedded in the bottom wall of the incubator body 3. The humidifying water 94 is heated to an appropriate temperature. Moreover, the code 34 is the nursery room 2
This is a display panel for displaying various information such as internal temperature and humidity.

Next, the operation of the incubator of this embodiment configured as above will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 2, the air drawn from the nursery room 2 into the air conditioning section 4 through the air suction port 81 provided near one end of the partition plate 8 flows into the air confluence chamber 5 of the air conditioning section 4. After being mixed with fresh air introduced from the outside, the air is sent to the air heating chamber 6. As shown in FIG. It is introduced into the control section 7.

At this time, by operating the operation knob 100 shown in FIG. 3 from outside the incubator, the humidity control box 9
Rotate the adjustment fins 96 of the two passages 9.
Adjust the air flow ratio of 2,93. That is, in FIG. 1, when the adjustment fin 96 is rotated clockwise to the maximum, the upper plate portion of the inverted dogleg-shaped adjustment fin 96 comes to a position where it closes the air inlet 92a of the upper passage 92. . At this time, the air from the air heating chamber 6 does not flow into the upper passage 92 of the humidity control box 9, but rather into the lower passage 93 containing the humidifying water 94.
It flows only into Therefore, in this case, maximum humidified air is sent out from the humidity control section 7. Conversely, when the adjustment fin 96 is rotated counterclockwise to the maximum, the lower plate-shaped portion of the adjustment fin 96 closes the air inlet 93a of the lower passage 93, and therefore the air heating chamber 6 air flows only into the upper passage 92. Then, air that is not humidified at all is sent out from the humidity control section 7. Further, when the adjusting fin 96 is fixed at an intermediate position, air flows through the two passages 92 and 93 at a rate corresponding to the rotational position of the adjusting fin 96 due to the difference in flow resistance. Therefore, in this case, air humidified to the desired humidity can be obtained by subsequently mixing the two air streams.

In addition, in this embodiment, especially the humidifying water 94
Air inlet 93a of so-called wet passage 93 containing
And the air outlet 93b is connected to the humidity control box 9 in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped.
The wide side surfaces of the wet passages 93 are provided at opposite positions, and each opening is relatively wide, so that the flow resistance of the airflow flowing through the wet passage 93 is relatively small. Therefore, airflow can be smoothly introduced into this wet passage 93. In addition, since the air flow spreads out laterally from the wide air inlet 93a to the wide air outlet 93b, the moisture absorption efficiency is improved. There is no particular need to disturb the airflow by providing a device such as a device, etc., and sufficient humidification can be achieved even during a relatively short stroke.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, since the humidifying water 94 is heated by a heater (not shown),
Humidification within the wet passage 93 can be performed more effectively.

As shown in FIG. 1, the air leaving the humidity control box 9 passes through an air mixing chamber 10 formed on the downstream side of the humidity control box 9, and then from an air outlet 82 provided in the partition plate 8. Sent to nursery room 2. At this time, as shown in the figure, the two passages 9 of the humidity control box 9
No. 2 and 93 air outlets 92b and 93b are formed on the vertical wall of the humidity control box 9 in a state that they are arranged one above the other. On the other hand, the air outlet 82 communicating between the air mixing chamber 10 and the nursery room 2 is provided in a portion of the partition plate 8 forming the upper wall of the air mixing chamber 10, and is configured to be horizontally long. For this reason, the airflow discharged from each passage 92, 93 is sufficiently mixed within this air mixing chamber 10, and then supplied into the nursery room 2 from the air outlet 82. In particular, in this embodiment, each passage 92, 93 of the humidity control box 9
The air outlets 92b and 93b are arranged perpendicularly to each other, and the air outlet 82
is arranged horizontally. Therefore, even if there is some unevenness in the vertical direction between the unhumidified air from the passage 92 and the humidified air from the passage 93, the unhumidified air will flow into one half of the vertically divided air outlet 82. Humidified air attempts to be supplied into the nursery room from the slit portion (half the width of the air outlet 82) and the other half portion. Therefore, the non-humidified air and the humidified air are further mixed before and after passing through the narrow half portion and the other half portion, and the unevenness between the two is further eliminated. This results in more effective mixing compared to horizontal arrangements.

The embodiments described above can be modified in various ways within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, the humidity control section 7 in the embodiment described above does not need to be composed of the detachable humidity control box 9, and may be formed integrally with the incubator main body 3. It is also possible to configure only the wet passage of the humidity control section 7 to be detachable. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the two passages 92, 9 of the humidity control section 7
Adjustment means for controlling the air flow ratio of 3 to each passage 9
Although it is provided at the inlet portion of No. 2 and 93, it may also be provided at the outlet portion. Furthermore, this adjusting means may be configured not with the adjusting fins 96 as in the above embodiment but with other aperture means such as a slider. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the upper side of the humidity control box 9 is a so-called dry passage 92, and the lower side is a so-called wet passage 93.
However, it is also possible to reverse this.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the present invention, the dry passage and the wet passage that constitute the humidity control section of the air adjustment section of the incubator are arranged vertically parallel to each other, and an air mixing chamber is provided between the humidity control section and the nursery room. , and the air outlets of the dry passage and the wet passage are arranged vertically and open in a vertical wall defining the air mixing chamber. Therefore, the unhumidified air flowing through the dry passage of the humidity control section and the humidified air flowing through the wet passage are sufficiently and effectively mixed in the air mixing chamber before being supplied into the nursery room. In addition, since the air outlet is configured in a longitudinal shape extending almost orthogonally to the direction from the air outlet to the air suction port, there is a difference between unhumidified air flowing through the dry passage and humidified air flowing through the wet passage. Even if some unevenness remains between these two
The two airs are further mixed before and after passing through the elongated air outlet, which further eliminates the unevenness. Therefore, there is no uneven airflow distribution in the nursery room as in the past, and even weak and extremely sensitive premature infants can be completely treated.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of essential parts of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the same incubator, and FIG.
The figure is an exploded view of the humidity control box of the same incubator as above, and FIG. 4 is an exploded view of the conventional incubator seen from the back side. In addition, in the symbols used in the drawings, 2...nursery room, 3...incubator body, 4...air adjustment section, 7...
...humidity control section, 8 ... partition plate, 9 ... humidity control box, 10 ... air mixing chamber, 81 ... air suction port,
82... Air outlet, 92, 93... Passage, 92
a, 93a...air inlet, 92b, 93b...air outlet, 96...adjustment fin.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A nursery room for accommodating a baby's body; An air conditioning section consisting of a plurality of chambers provided inside the incubator main body on the lower side of the nursery room; This air conditioning section and the above-mentioned Each of the partition plates is provided with a partition plate that separates the room from the nursery room, and an air suction port is provided near one end of the partition plate, and an air outlet is provided near the other end of the partition plate. The nursery room and the air conditioning unit are in communication with each other through a mouth and an air outlet, and the air outlet extends substantially perpendicularly to the direction from the air outlet to the air suction port. It is configured in a longitudinal shape, and the air sucked into the air conditioning unit from the nursery room through the air suction port passes through a temperature control unit and a humidity control unit of the air conditioning unit, respectively, and then passes through the air blowout port. In the incubator configured to be circulated to the nursery room, the humidity control section following the temperature control section of the air conditioning section has two passages arranged vertically parallel to each other and separated from each other. have,
Water for humidification is arranged inside one of the passages, and an air mixing chamber is provided following this humidity control section, and the above-mentioned air is supplied to the part of the partition plate that constitutes the upper wall of this air mixing chamber. An air outlet is provided, and
The air outlets of the two passages of the humidity control unit are arranged perpendicularly to each other and open to a portion of a vertical wall defining the air mixing chamber, and the two passages of the humidity control unit An incubator characterized in that the incubator is provided with adjusting means for adjusting the air flow ratio of these two passages.