Air Conditioner for Paint Booth

Abstract

An air conditioner that can have a higher efficiency, a lower power consumption, and a smaller size is disclosed. The air conditioner is for supplying air to a paint booth for painting a paint target. The air conditioner includes a housing that has an inlet and an outlet for air that is to be supplied, a humidifying means for spraying humidifying mist into the air taken in through the inlet, and a vaporizing means for vaporizing unvaporized humidifying mist contained in the air into which the humidifying mist was sprayed by the humidifying means by causing the unvaporized humidifying mist to come into contact with the air flowing through the vaporizing means. The air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifying means and the vaporizing means is supplied to the paint booth via the outlet.

Claims

1-5. (Canceled)

6. An air conditioner for supplying air to a paint booth for painting a paint target, the air conditioner comprising: a housing having an inlet and an outlet for air that is to be supplied; a humidifier for spraying humidifying mist into the air taken in through the inlet, the humidifying mist having a droplet size of 100 μm or smaller; and a vaporizer for vaporizing unvaporized humidifying mist contained in the air into which the humidifying mist was sprayed by the humidifier, by causing the unvaporized humidifying mist to come into contact with the air flowing through the vaporizer while letting the unvaporized humidifying mist collide with the vaporizer due to an inertial force of the unvaporized humidifying mist itself and thereby trapping the unvaporized humidifying mist, wherein the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier and the vaporizer is supplied to the paint booth via the outlet.

7. The air conditioner according to claim 6, wherein the vaporizer includes a plurality of plate-shaped elements, and wherein the elements are disposed separated from each other in a vertical direction, are each arranged in an inclined orientation such that a lower edge is upstream of an upper edge in an airflow direction of air flowing from the inlet toward the outlet, and are arranged such that the lower edge of an upper element out of a pair of vertically adjacent elements is lower than the upper edge of a lower element out of the pair of elements.

8. The air conditioner according to claim 7, wherein the elements are inclined at an angle in a range of 45 to 85 degrees relative to a horizontal direction.

9. The air conditioner according to claim 7, wherein the elements are each constituted by a porous body having pores that can trap the unvaporized humidifying mist contained in the air at surfaces of the pores while allowing the air to flow through.

10. The air conditioner according to claim 6, further comprising a heater for heating the air taken in via the inlet before the air reaches the humidifier.

11. The air conditioner according to claim 6, further comprising a temperature/humidity adjuster for performing temperature and humidity adjustment on the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier before the air is discharged from the outlet.

12. The air conditioner according to claim 8, wherein the elements are each constituted by a porous body having pores that can trap the unvaporized humidifying mist contained in the air at surfaces of the pores while allowing the air to flow through.

13. The air conditioner according to claim 7, further comprising a heater for heating the air taken in via the inlet before the air reaches the humidifier.

14. The air conditioner according to claim 8, further comprising a heater for heating the air taken in via the inlet before the air reaches the humidifier.

15. The air conditioner according to claim 9, further comprising a heater for heating the air taken in via the inlet before the air reaches the humidifier.

16. The air conditioner according to claim 7, further comprising a temperature/humidity adjuster for performing temperature and humidity adjustment on the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier before the air is discharged from the outlet.

17. The air conditioner according to claim 8, further comprising a temperature/humidity adjuster for performing temperature and humidity adjustment on the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier before the air is discharged from the outlet.

18. The air conditioner according to claim 9, further comprising a temperature/humidity adjuster for performing temperature and humidity adjustment on the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier before the air is discharged from the outlet.

19. The air conditioner according to claim 10, further comprising a temperature/humidity adjuster for performing temperature and humidity adjustment on the air subjected to humidity adjustment by the humidifier before the air is discharged from the outlet.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] FIG. 1 is an illustrative diagram of an air conditioner according to the present invention.

[0042] FIG. 2 is an illustrative diagram of a humidifying means and a vaporizing means.

[0043] FIG. 3 is an illustrative diagram of a relevant portion of the air conditioner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0044] The following describes an embodiment of an air conditioner according to the present invention with reference to the drawings.

[0045] As shown in FIG. 1, a paint booth 60 is for painting various paint targets such as automobile bodies, automobile parts, and other ordinary paint targets, and a paint target 62 is painted in the paint booth 60 by spraying paint from painting devices 61.

[0046] An air conditioner 10 supplies temperature/humidity controlled air to the paint booth 60 in order to ensure the quality of the painting of the paint target 62.

[0047] The supplied air also plays a role of trapping excess flying paint mist that has been sprayed from the painting devices 61.

[0048] The air conditioner 10 includes a heating means 20, a humidifying means 30, a vaporizing means 40, and a temperature/humidity adjusting means 50, which are provided inside a housing 13 that has an inlet 11 for air outside the air conditioner 10 and an outlet 12.

[0049] The heating means 20 is provided in order to heat air taken in via the inlet 11 to a temperature suited to humidification by the humidifying means 30.

[0050] The humidifying means 30 includes mist nozzles 31, a pump 32 for supplying water to the mist nozzles 31, and the like, and is configured to humidify the air whose temperature was adjusted by the heating means 20, by spraying water supplied by the pump 32 from the mist nozzles 31 so as to form a humidifying mist that has a droplet size of approximately 30 pm or smaller. The mist nozzles 31 are constituted by single-fluid high pressure nozzles. In the present embodiment, the mist nozzles 31 are arranged so as to spray the humidifying mist downstream in the airflow direction of the air.

[0051] The vaporizing means 40 includes multiple plate-shaped elements 41. The elements 41 are each constituted by a ceramic board, which is one example of a porous body. The pores in the ceramic board are smaller than the droplet size of the humidifying mist sprayed by the mist nozzles 31.

[0052] As shown in FIG. 2, the elements 41 are disposed separated from each other in the vertical direction, and are each arranged in an inclined orientation such that a lower edge 41b is upstream of an upper edge 41a in the airflow direction of air flowing from the inlet 11 toward the outlet 12. In the present embodiment, the elements 41 are disposed such that the front and back surfaces form an angle of 60 degrees with the horizon, for example. The angle need only be in a range of approximately 45 to 85 degrees, and can be adjusted in accordance with the design wind speed of the air conditioner 10 so as to be able to reliably trap unvaporized humidifying mist and minimize pressure loss.

[0053] Also, the elements 41 are arranged such that, for each pair of elements 41 that are vertically adjacent (in FIG. 2, two elements are indicated by 41A and 41B to facilitate the description), the lower edge 41b of the upper element 41 (41A) is lower than the upper edge 41a of the lower element 41 (41B).

[0054] According to this configuration, a direct airflow path from the inlet 11 to the outlet 12 does not exist between the upper element 41 (41A) and the lower element 41 (41B), thus reducing the risk of unvaporized humidifying mist reaching the outlet 12 without coming into contact with any of the elements 41.

[0055] Because sufficiently large airflow paths can be provided between the pairs of elements 41 (41A and 41B) that are vertically adjacent among the elements 41, the amount of pressure loss that occurs as air flows through the vaporizing means 40 is lower than the amount of pressure loss caused by an eliminator provided in a conventional paint booth air conditioner. For this reason, a higher airflow speed than in a conventional paint booth air conditioner can be achieved without needing to increase the airflow cross-sectional area.

[0056] As shown by the flow indicated by a thick dashed-line arrow in FIG. 3, as the majority of the air that contains unvaporized humidifying mist flows through the airflow path between a pair of vertically adjacent elements 41 (41A and 41B) to the downstream side of the elements 41, the humidifying mist collides with the surface of the porous body that constitutes the element 41 due to the inertial force of the humidifying mist itself, and becomes trapped at the surface due to the electrostatic force of the humidifying mist and the porous body, for example. Note that in FIG. 3, the round bodies shown to the right of the element 41 are the humidifying mist, and it is shown that such round bodies are trapped at the surface of the element 41.

[0057] Also, as shown by the flow indicated by thin dashed-line arrows in FIG. 3, some of the air containing unvaporized humidifying mist passes through the pores of the porous body that constitutes the element 41, and as the air containing unvaporized humidifying mist passes through the pores of the porous body that constitutes the element 41, the unvaporized humidifying mist collides with the pore surfaces due to the inertial force of the humidifying mist itself, and becomes trapped at the surfaces due to the electrostatic force of the humidifying mist itself and the porous body, for example. When the humidifying mist becomes trapped at the pore surfaces, contact with air passing through the pores is promoted, and therefore the humidifying mist becomes sufficiently vaporized.

[0058] The temperature/humidity adjusting means 50 includes a cooling means 51 for cooling air that has passed through the vaporizing means 40, and a heating means 52 for heating the air that was cooled by the cooling means 51. The air humidified by the humidifying means 30 can be adjusted by the cooling means 51 and the heating means 52 so as to have a temperature and humidity that are optimal for used in the paint booth 60.

[0059] Although the case where the porous body that constitutes the elements 41 is a ceramic board is described in the above embodiment, there is no limitation this. For example, the porous body may be a metal sintered body, and it is sufficient that, at the surface of the porous body, unvaporized humidifying mist comes into contact with air passing through the pores of the porous body.

[0060] Although the case where the mist nozzles 31 are single-fluid high pressure nozzles is described in the above embodiment, there is no limitation to this. The mist nozzles 31 may be two-fluid nozzles, or may be ultrasonic atomizing nozzles.

[0061] Although the case where the air conditioner 10 includes the heating means 20, the humidifying means 30, the vaporizing means 40, and the temperature/humidity adjusting means 50 inside the housing 13 is described in the above embodiment, there is no limitation to this. The air conditioner 10 may have a configuration in which the heating means 20 and the temperature/humidity adjusting means 50 are not included inside the housing 13. In this case, the heating means 20 and the temperature/humidity adjusting means 50 may be provided outside the housing 13.

[0062] The embodiments described above are all examples of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above descriptions, and specific configurations of portions can be appropriately changed and designed while still achieving the effects of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0063] 10: Air conditioner

[0064] 11: Inlet

[0065] 12: Outlet

[0066] 13: Housing

[0067] 20: Heater

[0068] 30: Humidifier

[0069] 31: Mist nozzle

[0070] 40: Vaporizer

[0071] 41: Element

[0072] 41a: Upper edge

[0073] 41b: Lower edge 50: Temperature/humidity adjuster

[0074] 60: Paint booth

[0075] 62: Paint target