JPH0428387B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a high-pressure steam sterilizer that sterilizes objects to be sterilized within saturated steam pressure.

(b) Prior Art This type of high-pressure steam sterilizer that sterilizes objects to be sterilized within saturated steam pressure has the following steps.
A preliminary vacuum process to remove air from the chamber;
A sterilization process in which the chamber is filled with saturated steam to sterilize the object to be sterilized, an exhaust process in which the chamber is evacuated, and a drying process in which the chamber is heated to dry the object to be sterilized. Each of the above-mentioned steps is configured to automatically proceed to the subsequent step after the previous step is completed by operating the start button.

Therefore, even if it becomes necessary to stop the sterilization operation of the object to be sterilized during the pre-vacuum process or the sterilization process, replace it with another object, and perform only drying of the object to be sterilized, the series of After waiting for the above-mentioned process to be completed, it was necessary to again store the object to be sterilized, which is only to be dried, into the chamber and operate the drying start button. As a result, the waiting time became long and the equipment (sterilizer) could not be used effectively. Furthermore, if the chamber lid is not opened in the middle of the sterilization process, but the chamber lid is forcibly opened at the early or late stages when the pressure inside the chamber has decreased somewhat, the object to be sterilized will scatter, which is very dangerous.

(c) Purpose of the invention The present invention provides a preliminary vacuum process, a sterilization process, an evacuation process,
It is equipped with a fast-forward function to select fast-forward selection of each step in the drying process, and this fast-forward function is designed to be inactive when the pressure inside the chamber exceeds a predetermined value during the exhaust process to improve safety. be.

(d) Structure and operation of the invention The present invention provides a chamber for accommodating objects to be sterilized;
A preliminary vacuum step in which air is removed from the chamber using a lid that seals the opening of the chamber; a sterilization step in which the chamber is filled with saturated steam after the step; and an exhaust step in which the chamber is evacuated after the step. In a drying process in which the inside of the chamber is heated and dried after the drying process, and each process is automatically performed in sequence by operating a start button, any part of the process in progress can be started by operating a predetermined button. A fast-forward means is provided to stop the process and move on to the next process.

Further, a lock means is provided for disabling the fast-forwarding means when the pressure in the chamber during the evacuation step exceeds a predetermined value, and the predetermined button is the start button.

With the above configuration, even after a series of processes have started by operating the start button, if you want to interrupt the sterilization operation, you can stop any process in progress by operating the button and proceed to the next step. can be moved to. Therefore, if you operate the button continuously, you can skip the subsequent steps (fast forward).
The series of steps can then be completed. Incidentally, when the pressure inside the chamber is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the fast-forwarding means is brought into a non-operating state to prevent the dangerous opening of the lid. Furthermore, the configuration can be simplified by using the start button also as a button for interrupting the process.

(e) Examples The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. Figure 1 shows the piping diagram of the main body. 1 is the opening 1 provided in the front
It is a cylindrical chamber into which objects to be sterilized (not shown) are taken in and taken out from a, and a steam supply space 2 is formed on the outside thereof, and an outer cylinder 3 is provided. 4 is the chamber 1
A lid 6 has a handle 5 for opening and closing the opening of the chamber 1, and a lid 6 is a steam supply pipe that communicates the chamber 1 and the outer cylinder 3, and a steam supply valve 7 is provided in a part thereof. 8 is an air supply valve having an air supply valve 9 connected to the chamber. Reference numeral 10 denotes a boiler which is provided separately from the chamber 1 and includes a heater 11 for supplying steam to the chamber 1;
It is connected to the outer cylinder 3 via. 13,13
14 is an electrode for water level detection provided at different heights on the inner wall of the boiler 10, and 14 is a detector provided at a suitable location on the inner wall of the boiler 10 to sense the pressure or temperature inside the boiler, for example: Consists of a pressure switch or a thermistor. A discharge pipe 15 is connected to the boiler 1 and has a manual drainage valve 16 in a part thereof.A discharge pipe 17 connects the inside of the chamber and the discharge pipe 15, and a part thereof is opened only in the direction of the exhaust valve 18 and the discharge pipe 15. An air supply pipe 20 provided with a check valve 19 is connected to the steam supply space 2
and a vacuum pipe 21 connecting between the discharge pipe 15 and the discharge pipe 15.
2 is a vacuum valve provided in the vacuum pipe 20, and 22 is a vacuum pump which is also provided in the vacuum pipe 20 and bleeds air from the steam supply space 2 and the boiler 10 when the vacuum valve 21 is opened;
3 is an automatic air vent valve provided between the steam supply space 2 and the discharge pipe 15; 24 is a water supply pipe connected to the boiler 10; a part thereof is provided with a water supply valve 25 and a water supply pump 26;

Reference numeral 27 denotes a pressure sensor, which is attached to the inner wall of the chamber 1 and consists of a pressure switch, etc., for detecting the pressure inside the chamber 1. When the pressure inside the chamber 1 is below a predetermined pressure, it turns on, and when the pressure is above the predetermined pressure, it turns on.
It becomes OFF.

Next, the block diagram shown in FIG. 2 will be explained. RC is a register control circuit composed of a flip-flop circuit, and its output side is at the "H" level in the reset state. FC is a fast forward circuit with two output terminals, Ra, Rb,
Rc and Rd are shift register circuits provided corresponding to the respective processes to be described later, and their output signals start the preliminary vacuum process, sterilization process, exhaust process, and drying process, respectively. INV is an output converter that drives, opens and closes the pumps, valves, etc. shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with the respective outputs of the shift register circuits Ra, Rb, Rc, and Rd. OG ₁ is a 4-input OR gate for obtaining a fast-forward signal by inputting the output signals of the shift register circuits Ra, Rb, and Rd except for one register circuit Rc for the exhaust process, and AG ₁ is shown in FIG. The second input inputs the "H" and "L" levels of the pressure sensing body 27 and the "H" and "L" levels of the output of the register circuit Rc for the exhaust process described above.
A 1AND gate constitutes the locking means. That is,
The output of this AND gate AG ₁ becomes "H" when the output of the register circuit Rc for the exhaust process and the output of the pressure sensing body 27 are "H", and the output is OR gate OG _1.
is input. AG ₂ is the second input which takes the output of the OR gate OG ₁ and the start button ST as inputs.
It is a 2AND gate. The start button ST is used to operate all processes in sequence, and is turned ON only when pressed, setting the register control circuit Rc and the input side of the second AND gate AG ₂ to the "H" level. OG ₂ is the register control circuit Rc
This is a two-input OR gate for passing the CK pulse, which inputs one output of the fast forward circuit FC and takes the contents of the previous stage register circuit into the next stage register circuit.

Here, the operation will be explained based on the chamber internal pressure characteristic diagrams shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and the display panel diagram shown in FIG. 4. When the power switch (not shown) is turned on, the register control circuit
The output of Rc becomes "H" and at the same time the output converter
INV is in a standby state and is input to the register circuit Ra for the preliminary vacuum process, and the pressure sensor 27 is in the ON state.

Now, when the start button ST is pressed, a CK pulse is output from the register control circuit RC and inputted to the register circuit Ra for the preliminary vacuum process via the 2-input OR gate OG ₂ , setting the register circuit to the "H" level. latched state. At this time, the output of the register circuit Ra is a 4-input OR gate
One input side of the second AND gate AG ₂ is set to "H" level via OG ₁ , and is input to the output converter INV to open the vacuum valve 21 and drive the vacuum pump 22, so that the inside of the chamber 1 is in a negative pressure state. Then, the pre-vacuum process starts and the pre-vacuum lamp PA lights up.
During this negative pressure operation inside the chamber 1, the pressure sensing element 2
7 is OFF. Then, another pressure detector (not shown) that detects that the pressure inside chamber 1 has reached a certain value inputs the input to the CK pulse input terminal CKT of each register circuit, and outputs the register circuit Ra for the preliminary vacuum process. is taken into the register circuit Rb for the sterilization process, and the register circuit Rb is latched at the "H" level. Similarly register circuit
The output of Ra is passed through the 4-input OR gate _OG1 .
The input side of the 2AND gate AG ₂ is set to "H" level and the heater 11 is energized by the output converter INV to supply steam to the boiler 10 through the steam pipe 12,
Steam supply space 2, chamber 1 via steam supply pipe 6
The chamber is filled with saturated steam. Then, the sterilization process is started, in which the object to be sterilized is sterilized during the time when the inside of the chamber 1 changes from a negative pressure state to a high pressure state, and during a certain period of time during which the high pressure state is maintained, and the sterilization lamp PB
lights up. In this way, when the sterilization process B○ is completed, the output from the counter circuit (not shown) is
Input the CK pulse input terminal CKT and take the output of the register circuit Rb for the sterilization process into the register circuit Rc for the exhaust process, latching the register circuit Rc to the "H" level and opening the exhaust valve 18 by the output converter INV. Then, the inside of chamber 1 is evacuated, the exhaust process is started, and the exhaust lamp PC is turned on.
lights up. When the evacuation process is completed in this way and the pressure reaches a predetermined level or lower, the pressure sensor 27 turns ON and inputs the input to the CK pulse input terminal CKT, and the output of the register circuit Rc for the evacuation process is transferred to the register circuit Rd for the drying process. The resistor circuit Rd is latched to the "H" level, and the output converter INV causes the heater 11 to generate heat again. ), and the high-temperature hot air passing through the pipe is passed through the air supply valve 9.
Air is supplied into the chamber 1 through the chamber 1 to dry the inside of the chamber 1 and the object to be sterilized, and the drying lamp PD is turned on. This hot air is discharged to the outside from the exhaust pipe 15 via the exhaust valve 18.

Next, the fast forward function will be explained. During each of the above-mentioned steps, one input side of the second AND gate _AG2 is set to the "H" level via the four-input OR gate _OG1 by each register circuit. for example,
When the start button ST is pressed during the sterilization process, the other input side of the second AND gate AG ₂ also becomes "H".
level and input to the fast-forward circuit FC, and one output of this fast-forward circuit inputs the CK pulse to the register circuit via the 2-input OR gate OG ₂ to stop the sterilization process and shift to the exhaust process.

By the way, during this fast-forward operation, the fast-forward circuit FC
The other output terminal of the output converter INV serves to keep one input side of the output converter INV at "H" level and stop the operation of each process.

Thus, in the above-mentioned fast-forward function, for example, if you want to end the sterilization process only with sterilization, you press the start button ST in the same way as described above, but if the pressure inside chamber 1 exceeds the predetermined pressure value (dangerous). pressure), pressure sensing element 2
Since 7 is OFF, the first AND gate
The output of AG ₁ becomes “L” level and the second AND
One input side of gate _AG2 also goes to the "L" level, and the fast forward circuit FC no longer operates. This state is maintained until the pressure sensing element 27 drops below a predetermined pressure value (safe pressure), resulting in a locked state that prevents rapid forwarding of the exhaust process. Eventually, when the pressure drops below a predetermined value, the output of the first AND gate AG ₁ becomes "H" level, and the 4-input OR gate OG ₁
The output of the second AND gate _AG2 is set to the "H" level via the fast-forwarding circuit FC, and the drying process is started and completed.

(f) Effects of the invention A preliminary vacuum step in which an object to be sterilized is housed in a chamber and sealed with a lid, and air is removed from the chamber; a sterilization step in which the chamber is filled with saturated steam after the step; and a drying step of heating and drying the inside of the chamber after the step, and a drying step of heating and drying the inside of the chamber after the step.
In a machine that automatically performs each process in sequence by operating a start button, it is equipped with a fast-forwarding means that stops any process in progress and moves to the next process by operating a predetermined button. Even after a series of processes have been started by operating the start button, if the sterilization operation is to be interrupted, any process in progress must be stopped by operating the button and the process can proceed to the next step. be able to. Therefore, by continuously operating the button, the subsequent steps can be sequentially omitted (fast-forwarded) and the series of steps can be completed. As a result, there is no need to wait for the completion of the process in progress, and the equipment can be used efficiently, saving the user's time.

Furthermore, since it has a locking means that disables the fast-forwarding means when the pressure inside the chamber exceeds a predetermined value during the evacuation process, when the sterilization operation is finished by pressing a button, the inside of the chamber is When the pressure is higher than a predetermined value, the fast-forwarding means is put into a non-operating state to prevent dangerous opening of the lid.
In addition, the start button can also be used as a button for interrupting the process, simplifying the configuration and operation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a piping diagram of the high-pressure steam sterilizer of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram, FIG. 3 is a chamber internal pressure characteristic diagram, and FIG. 4 is a display panel diagram. 1...Chamber, RC...Register control circuit, FC...Fast forward circuit, Ra, Rb, Rc,
Rd...shift register circuit, AG ₁ ...first AND gate as locking means, ST...start button.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A chamber containing an object to be sterilized and a lid that seals the opening of the chamber, a preliminary vacuum step for removing air from the chamber, and filling the chamber with saturated steam after the step. sterilization process,
After the step, the chamber is evacuated; and after the step, the chamber is heated and dried. A high-pressure steam sterilizer characterized by being provided with a fast-forward means for stopping any process in progress and moving to the next process by operating a predetermined button. 2. The high-pressure steam type according to claim 1, further comprising a locking means for disabling the fast-forwarding means when the pressure in the chamber during the evacuation process is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. Sterilizer. 3. The high-pressure steam sterilizer according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined button is the start button.