JPH0575681B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an oxygen concentrator with reduced noise generation. More specifically, the present invention relates to an oxygen concentrator cabinet made of a soundproof wall with a built-in sound-absorbing box, and an oxygen concentrator that minimizes noise generation by being equipped with the cabinet.

[Prior Art] In recent years, many patients are suffering from respiratory system diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis, and oxygen inhalation is one of the most effective treatments for these diseases. In such oxygen inhalation methods, oxygen concentrators that separate and concentrate atmospheric oxygen in the immediate vicinity of the patient are attracting attention as a simple oxygen supply source. This type of oxygen concentrator uses an adsorption separation method that uses an adsorbent such as zeolite that more selectively adsorbs oxygen or nitrogen, and a selective permeation membrane that allows oxygen to permeate at a higher rate than nitrogen. There are two types of membrane separation methods.

In both the adsorption separation method and the membrane separation method, such an oxygen concentrator uses the power of an electric motor to drive an air transportation means, that is, a pump, and for example, in the adsorption separation method, the air is pumped at 1 to 3 kg/cm ² G. In the membrane separation method, the oxygen-rich gas that has passed through a selective permeable membrane is compressed into an adsorbent to absorb nitrogen.
The structure is such that a vacuum state of 300 Torr is maintained to obtain a predetermined oxygen concentration.

In order to continuously obtain air enriched with oxygen components, the adsorption separation method requires air to be adsorbed and released by an adsorbent, so the operating pressure is a so-called pressure swing method in which pressurization and/or depressurization are repeated. The compressor makes a lot of noise, and the noise repeatedly increases and decreases, causing pain to users, especially sick people. In the membrane separation method, the generated oxygen-enriched air is simply taken out under vacuum, and the pressure (degree of vacuum) is also constant, so compared to the adsorption separation method, the noise generated by the vacuum pump is considerably lower. In addition, when the surrounding noise level is low, such as at night, it can be painful for the patient or people living in the vicinity, especially when sleeping.

In an oxygen concentrator, the pump means is driven by the power of the electric motor, so the electric motor is cooled and the gas is compressed (atmospheric pressure in the adsorption separation method, and oxygen-enriched air in the membrane separation method from vacuum to atmospheric pressure). An essential requirement for stable and efficient operation of an oxygen concentrator is to prevent as much as possible the temperature rise of the pump itself that occurs due to the compression of the oxygen concentrator. Therefore, a measure is generally taken to cool the electric motor and pump by bringing an amount of air several times to several ten times larger than the oxygen-enriched air into contact with the motor and pump via a cooling fan. For this reason, the oxygen concentrator is provided with a large-area opening on its outer wall for air to flow in and out, and a flow path with a large space inside the oxygen concentrator as a passage for air for cooling.

On the other hand, the main sources of noise in oxygen concentrators are the pump, electric motor, and cooling fan.Furthermore, in the adsorption separation method, when the adsorbent is regenerated using a pressure swing, air rich in nitrogen components adsorbed by the adsorbent is used as exhaust gas. The exhaust noise generated when the gas is depressurized and released into the atmosphere is also instantaneous, but it is relatively loud.

The easiest and surest way to keep noise levels low is to install the noise source in a closed space, but as is clear from the above explanation, it is best to install air passages to cool each part. Due to the need to ensure security, it was difficult to adopt the above measures, and an effective solution was desired.

In particular, adsorption-type oxygen concentrators, which are currently used as medical oxygen sources, have a large oxygen production capacity that shows approximately 90% oxygen concentration at a flow rate of 2/min. The noise is about 50~
It has a high level of 55 dB(A) (at a distance of 1 meter), and has the drawback that it will disturb patients' sleep unless measures are taken to reduce the noise, such as placing it far away from the patient's room, and improvements have been hoped for.

[Object and Structure of the Invention] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the inventors of the present invention aimed to obtain a general-purpose improvement means that can reliably and effectively realize noise reduction, especially in various oxygen concentrators. As a result of intensive research aimed at this purpose, we have arrived at the following invention.

That is, the present invention has the following features: (a) At least one air transport means driven by the power of an electric motor and an oxygen-enriched air separation means for separating oxygen-enriched air from the atmosphere; An oxygen concentrator having a concentrated air outlet and an exhaust outlet; (b)(i) a soundproof wall covering the entire oxygen concentrator and having an atmospheric air intake, an oxygen-enriched air outlet, and an exhaust outlet; (ii) installed inside the soundproof wall, having a built-in atmosphere passage through which the atmosphere taken in from the air intake port passes, and an exhaust passage through which the exhaust gas led out from the exhaust outlet passes; A sound deadening box in which an air passageway and an exhaust passageway are in contact with each other via an insulating partition material, baffles are installed on both the atmosphere passageway and the exhaust passageway, and each passageway has an entrance and exit. The present invention relates to an oxygen concentrator characterized in that it uses an oxygen concentrator cabinet having an oxygen concentrator cabinet.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below.
That is, the present invention is characterized in that the main body of the oxygen concentrator is housed in a cabinet made of a soundproof wall that includes a built-in sound deadening box.

The oxygen concentrator includes at least one air transport means driven by the power of an electric motor, an oxygen enriched air separation means for separating oxygen enriched air from the atmosphere, an atmosphere inlet, and an oxygen enriched air outlet. and an exhaust outlet. The oxygen-enriched air separation means may be either adsorption separation means or membrane separation means, but in general, adsorption separation means tends to generate louder noise, so the present invention is applied. It has a great effect on reducing noise. Further, examples of the air transport means include a vacuum pump, a compressor, a blower, a fan, and the like. Furthermore, exhaust air means air itself or air containing air with a reduced oxygen concentration.
That is, the oxygen concentrator referred to in the present invention corresponds to a conventional oxygen concentrator itself in some cases.

Further, the oxygen concentrator cabinet of the present invention mainly includes a soundproof wall (i.e., an outer wall of the cabinet) for accommodating the entire oxygen concentrator body, and a soundproof box arranged in the space between the soundproof wall and the oxygen concentrator. It consists of. Furthermore, the oxygen concentrator according to the present invention is one in which such a cabinet is used in the oxygen concentrator to reduce noise generation.

For example, in conventional adsorption oxygen concentrators, there is usually a temperature difference between the outside air and the exhaust air, and the temperature of the exhaust air is 10 degrees Celsius or more higher than the outside air, so it is not possible to achieve a soundproofing effect by simply covering the entire concentrator. Even if
Mixing of outside air and exhaust air will increase the temperature within the cabinet and adversely affect the concentrator. To prevent this, a partition with insulation effect is installed to prevent outside air and exhaust from mixing.
The cabinet and oxygen concentrator of the present invention include a sound deadening box with separate passages for outside air intake and exhaust.

Furthermore, in the oxygen concentrator of the present invention, in order to prevent the temperature of the oxygen concentrator body from rising, the silencing box is disposed near the exhaust outlet provided in the concentrator, so that the heated exhaust gas is recirculated. Contact with the concentrator is avoided as much as possible, and a space is provided between the concentrator so that the outer surface of the concentrator other than the surface that contacts the soundproof box does not come into contact with the inner surface of the soundproof wall constituting the cabinet. It is desirable to cool the entire concentrator by circulating the air (ie, outside air) taken in from an air intake port provided in the concentrator into the space.

Further, the sound deadening box of the present invention has separate passages for the atmosphere taken in from the air intake provided in the soundproof wall and for exhaust air taken out from the exhaust outlet provided in the concentrator. This prevents the propagation of noise and muffles it while maintaining a ventilation structure rather than a closed structure as described above. In particular, the structure within the sound-deadening box includes installing baffle plates in each passage, installing sound-absorbing or sound-deadening materials such as lead plates or sponge-like materials on the inner wall surface, and the entrance of the exhaust passage. It is desirable to install a sound absorbing section facing the exhaust outlet of the storage box in order to achieve a sound deadening or soundproofing effect. The silencing box may be located anywhere within the cabinet, and the atmospheric passage and the exhaust passage may be installed separately.

Furthermore, for soundproofing purposes, it is preferable that the air inlet and exhaust outlet provided in the soundproof wall be located on a surface other than the front surface of the cabinet, and particularly preferably on the side, back surface (opposite the front surface), or lower surface. .
Furthermore, it is also preferable to install a sound deadening material on the inner wall surface of the cabinet.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited by the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the entire oxygen concentrator of the present invention.
This is an example. That is, FIG. 1 shows an oxygen concentrator cabinet consisting of a soundproof wall 1 and a sound deadening box 3, and an oxygen concentrator body 2. Outside air (atmosphere) A is air intake port 4
It is taken in from the air outlet 5 of the sound deadening box 3 as B, and is passed through the space 14 between the soundproof wall 1 and the concentrator 2 to the air inlet 1 of the concentrator 2.
5 was introduced as C. The introduced atmosphere is separated into oxygen-enriched air and oxygen-depleted air (air with reduced oxygen concentration) by the oxygen-enriched air separation means in the concentrator.
The oxygen-enriched air exits from the outlet 12 and is led to the oxygen-enriched air outlet 13 provided in the soundproof wall 1 via conduit means and, if necessary, humidification means. It is taken out as air F. Furthermore, if necessary, it is provided for use by a patient or the like via a conduit means such as a cannula. On the other hand, the oxygen-depleted air obtained in the concentrator may be used for cooling pump means, etc. in the concentrator, or mixed with separately supplied cooling air, and then discharged as exhaust D. The exhaust gas exits from the exhaust outlet 6 of the concentrator, enters the silencing box 3 through the exhaust inlet 9 of the silencing box 3, passes through the exhaust passage, is muffled, and is then discharged to the outside as exhaust gas E from the exhaust outlet 7.

FIG. 2 shows the upper box of the soundproof wall in the cabinet of FIG. 1, which has an opening 4 for taking in outside air at the lower right side and an opening 7 for exhausting air at the lower rear side. In addition, a door 8 that can be freely opened and closed is provided at the front to operate the oxygen concentrator main body.

Fig. 3 shows a sound deadening box, and the outside air from the outside air intake opening 4 enters the sound deadening box.
The air enters the air intake port of the oxygen concentrator body, and the resulting exhaust gas C passes through the exhaust intake port 9, which is provided to completely cover the exhaust port of the main body, and passes through the exhaust passage at the bottom to the exhaust opening. It is released from part 7 to the outside.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken at an intermediate plane of the silencing box, in which an outside air passage 15 and an exhaust passage 16 are separated by a partition 10 to prevent outside air and exhaust from mixing. Furthermore, a baffle plate 11 is installed in each passageway to increase the sound deadening effect.

[Effects of the Invention] The oxygen concentrator according to the present invention generates very little noise during operation, and can supply oxygen-enriched air even in a room where a patient is present without disturbing their sleep. be. Furthermore, this device can safely supply oxygen-enriched air without overheating by effectively removing heat generated in the pump or the like within the oxygen concentrator body.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows an outline of the entire oxygen concentrator using the cabinet of the present invention, Fig. 2 shows the upper box of the soundproof wall in the cabinet, and Fig. 3 shows the soundproof box. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the sound deadening box in a mid-plane. In FIGS. 1 to 4, 1 represents a soundproof wall, 2 represents an oxygen concentrator, and 3 represents a sound deadening box.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 (a) At least one air transport means driven by the power of an electric motor and an oxygen-enriched air separation means for separating oxygen-enriched air from the atmosphere, and an atmosphere inlet, an oxygen-enriched air outlet, and an oxygen-enriched air outlet; An oxygen concentrator equipped with an exhaust outlet, (b) (i) a soundproof wall that covers the entire oxygen concentrator and is equipped with an atmospheric air intake, an oxygen-enriched air outlet, and an exhaust outlet, and (ii)
A built-in atmosphere passageway is disposed inside the soundproof wall, and includes an atmosphere passageway through which the atmosphere taken in from the air intake port passes, and an exhaust passageway through which the exhaust gas led out from the exhaust outlet passes; The exhaust passages are in contact with each other via an insulating partition material, and baffles are attached to both the atmospheric passage and the exhaust passage,
An oxygen concentrator characterized by using an oxygen concentrator cabinet having a sound deadening box having an entrance and exit for each passage.