humidifier

Abstract

To provide a humidifier which enables a user to grasp a humidification amount accurately, enables improvement of accuracy of humidification control, and achieves high flexibility in selection of an injection mode.SOLUTION: A humidifier includes: a vehicular fuel injection valve 10 configured to inject a fuel by driving control by a control unit 100; and a high pressure pump 20 which increases a pressure of water supplied by driving control of the control unit 100 to supply the water to the vehicular fuel injection valve 10. The vehicular fuel injection valve 10 injects the water to enable spray of mist having a substantially minute spherical shape.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a humidifier, and more particularly to a humidifier which aims to improve the accuracy of humidity control and the freedom of selection of spray form. [Background technology]

[0002] As is well known, in recent years, ultrasonic humidifiers that generate water mist consisting of fine water droplets using ultrasonic vibrations obtained from an ultrasonic vibrator and release it into the air have become mainstream as humidifiers for humidifying a desired space (see, for example, Patent Document 1, etc.). In addition, a humidifier has been proposed that generates and releases a swirling humidified air flow through an air nozzle piped in a spiral shape, thereby enabling rapid humidification of a space where a large amount of humidification is desired (see, for example, Patent Document 2, etc.). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 61-007739 [Patent Document 2] JP 2000-210600 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, among conventional humidifiers such as those described above, there are few that are configured to be able to measure the amount of water mist released in a short period of time, or that enable accurate, high-resolution, and high-precision humidity control, and so the situation is not such that they are able to adequately meet these demands. Furthermore, there are almost no humidifiers that are configured to allow the mist emitted from the humidifier to be shaped in a desired manner to achieve a visual effect, and there is also the problem that there is little freedom in how the humidifier can be used.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides a humidifier that enables rapid, accurate, and precise and detailed understanding of the amount of humidification, improves the accuracy of humidification control, and allows for a high degree of freedom in selecting the spray form. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, a humidifier according to the present invention comprises: The fuel injection valve is configured to be capable of injecting fuel by drive control of a control unit, and a high-pressure pump is configured to pressurize supplied water by drive control of the control unit and supply it to the vehicle fuel injection valve, and by injecting the water through the vehicle fuel injection valve, it is possible to spray fine, approximately spherical water mist. Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present invention, by spraying water using a vehicle fuel injection valve, the injection amount can be grasped with the same high precision as fuel injection control, and further, by configuring the spray to stop when the humidity detected by the high-precision humidity sensor reaches the target humidity, combined with the high-precision grasping of the injection amount, accurate, precise and detailed humidity control can be ensured. Furthermore, unlike conventional humidifiers such as ultrasonic humidifiers that spray continuously, the timing of spray can be changed at will and the state of water mist generation can be adjusted, making it possible to produce spray with a visual effect and improving the flexibility of how the humidifier can be used. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first configuration example of a humidifier according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a humidification operation control process executed by a control device constituting the humidifier in the embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a second configuration example of a humidifier in an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. It should be noted that the components, arrangements, etc. described below do not limit the present invention, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. First, a first configuration example of a humidifier in an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The humidifier S in the embodiment of the present invention is composed of a vehicle fuel injection valve 10, a high-pressure pump (referred to as "HP" in FIG. 1) 20, a water supply tank (referred to as "WP" in FIG. 1) 30, a control unit (referred to as "CNT" in FIG. 1) 100, a setting unit (referred to as "SET" in FIG. 1) 110, and a humidity sensor 1 as its main components.

[0010] In the humidifier S, the portion consisting of the vehicle fuel injection valve 10, the high pressure pump 20, the water tank 30, and the control unit 100 constitutes a fuel injection control device for an automobile, and the configuration itself is basically the same as that which has been well known in the past. However, the configuration can be changed as long as the same effect is obtained.

[0011] Thus, the water supply tank 30 and the high-pressure pump 20 are connected by a first water supply pipe 2, and the high-pressure pump 20 and the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 are connected by a second water supply pipe 3, respectively. The water tank 30 stores water used for humidification, and is provided with a water pump (not shown) so that water can be sent to the high-pressure pump 20 according to drive control by the control unit 100. The high-pressure pump 20 pressurizes water supplied from a water supply tank 30 in response to drive control by the control unit 100 and delivers the water to the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 .

[0012] The vehicle fuel injection valve 10 injects water supplied at high pressure from the high-pressure pump 20 into the air through an injection nozzle 10A provided at the injection end in response to the control of a control unit 100 as described below, and the injection is basically the same as fuel injection into an engine in an automobile. The setting unit 110 is configured to set a desired humidity in the space to be humidified and output the set value to the control unit 100. Such a setting unit 110 is not specific to the present invention, and a setting unit having a conventionally known configuration can be applied.

[0013] For example, the desired humidity may be set in an analog manner, continuously variable, or discretely set. Furthermore, the output form of the set value to the control unit 100 is preferably a digital value, but the analog value may be converted into a digital value required for control processing within the control unit 100.

[0014] The control unit 100 is configured, for example, around a microcomputer having a known and commonly-known configuration, and includes memory elements such as RAM and ROM (not shown), as well as an input / output interface circuit (not shown) as its main components. The control unit 100 in the embodiment of the present invention is basically similar to a conventional control unit configured to be capable of executing fuel injection control for an automobile, but further, as described below, is configured to be capable of executing water mist spray control so as to achieve a desired humidity.

[0015] The humidity sensor 11 is provided at an appropriate location in the space to be humidified, or at an appropriate portion of the humidifier so as to face the space to be humidified. The accuracy and resolution of the detection value of the humidity sensor 11 need only be within the range of accuracy and resolution of the humidity controllable by the humidifier S, and of course a humidity sensor with general performance may be used. The humidifier S in the embodiment of the present invention is configured so that a necessary DC voltage can be generated inside the humidifier S by a power supply circuit (not shown) based on a commercial power source and can be supplied to necessary circuits.

[0016] FIG. 2 shows a flow chart illustrating the procedure of the humidification control process executed by the control unit 100 in the embodiment of the present invention, and the contents of the process will be described below with reference to the same figure. When the control unit 100 starts processing, first, the desired humidity (set humidity) set in the setting unit 110 is read into the control unit 100 (see step S110 in FIG. 2). The set humidity read into the control unit 100 is stored and saved in a storage area (not shown) in the control unit 100 as the latest set humidity.

[0017] Next, the water (pump water) in the water supply tank 30 is sent and supplied from a water supply pump (not shown) to the high-pressure pump 20 by drive control by the control unit 100 (see step S120 in FIG. 2). Next, the water (high-pressure water) pressurized in the high-pressure pump 20 by drive control by the control unit 100 is supplied to the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 (see step S130 in FIG. 2).

[0018] Next, the measured humidity is read by the control unit 100 (see step S140 in FIG. 2). That is, the detection value of the humidity sensor 1 is read by the control unit 100, and is stored and held in an appropriate storage area within the control unit 100 as the latest humidity in the humidified space. Next, it is determined whether the humidified state has reached the target humidity (see step S150 in FIG. 2). That is, the set humidity read in the previous step S110 is set as the target humidity, and it is determined whether the measured humidity read in step S140 has reached this target humidity.

[0019] In step S150, if it is determined that the measured humidity has reached the target humidity (YES), spraying is stopped for a predetermined time (see step S160 in FIG. 2), and then the process is repeated again from the previous step S140. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S150 that the measured humidity has not reached the target humidity (NO), a drive pulse is output as an injection signal from the control unit 100 to the vehicle fuel injection valve 10, resulting in water being injected from the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 (see step S170 in FIG. 2). After step S170 is executed, the process is repeated from step S140, and water injection is repeated until the target humidity is reached.

[0020] Here, the injection operation of the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 by application of the drive pulse is basically the same as that of fuel injection into an engine. That is, in fuel injection control that requires grasping a minute and accurate fuel injection amount, the amount of fuel injected from the vehicle fuel injection valve is usually determined almost uniquely at least by the specific specifications of the injection nozzle 10A of the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 (e.g., the number of injection holes, the shape of the injection holes, etc.) and the pulse width of the drive pulse applied to the vehicle fuel injection valve during injection.

[0021] Therefore, by appropriately setting the width of the drive pulse for one injection in accordance with the specific specifications of the vehicle fuel injection valve 10, the amount of water injected in one injection can be determined. Therefore, if one wishes to know the amount of water sprayed while the humidifier S is operating, it is possible to periodically know the amount of water sprayed by applying well-known technology, such as, for example, counting the number of sprays and, for each appropriate number of sprays, calculating the product of the counted number of sprays and the amount of water sprayed per spray, and displaying the calculation result on an appropriate display element (for example, a liquid crystal display element).

[0022] Water injected from the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 turns into minute, roughly small spherical water mist 20 in the air, which gradually rises. Therefore, when the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 is aligned vertically and the nozzle hole (not shown) of the injection nozzle 10A faces upward, the minute, roughly small spherical water mist 20 generated with each injection rises in a roughly straight line at intervals corresponding to the injection interval, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1. In other words, the water mist 20 injected from the vehicle fuel injection valve 10 rises vertically upward, forming a line of water mist that is each dot-shaped and aligned in a roughly straight line overall. Although not shown in FIG. 1, it goes without saying that each water mist 20 will disappear in sequence after a certain amount of time has passed since it was ejected.

[0023] In the above embodiment, the injection is performed at a predetermined time interval, but the injection interval does not have to be limited to this. For example, the injection pattern may be such that after a predetermined number of injections are performed at a predetermined time interval, the injection is stopped for a certain period of time, and then the predetermined number of injections are performed again at a predetermined time interval.

[0024] Next, another configuration example of the humidifier according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that the same components as those shown in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof is omitted. The following description will focus on the differences. In the second configuration example, a detection signal from the humidity sensor 11 can be transmitted to and received from the main body of the humidifier S by wireless communication, thereby improving the flexibility of mounting the humidity sensor 11.

[0025] To explain more specifically, first, a first wireless terminal (indicated as "WT1" in FIG. 3) 50 is connected to the humidity sensor 11, and the humidity sensor 11 can be installed at a desired location in the humidified space. In addition, a second wireless terminal (denoted as "WT2" in FIG. 3) 60 is connected to the control unit 100. The first wireless terminal 50 is configured to periodically wirelessly transmit the detection signal of the humidity sensor 11. The second wireless terminal 60 is configured to receive the wireless signal transmitted from the first wireless terminal 50 and to be able to demodulate the original detection signal of the humidity sensor 11. Various wireless terminals having such a configuration have been put to practical use in the past, and the embodiment of the present invention may also be of such a conventional configuration, and does not adopt a configuration unique to the present invention.

[0026] Furthermore, the above-described configuration of the first and second wireless terminals 50, 60 is the minimum required, but of course there is no need to be limited to this configuration, and further operations and functions may be added to the configuration. That is, for example, it is also preferable that the second wireless terminal 60 transmits a transmission request signal to the first wireless terminal 50 at a predetermined time interval, requesting the first wireless terminal 50 to transmit the detection signal of the humidity sensor 11, and when the first wireless terminal 50 receives the transmission request signal from the second wireless terminal 60, it wirelessly transmits the detection signal of the humidity sensor 11. [Industrial Applicability]

[0027] The present invention can be applied to humidifiers in which it is desirable to accurately grasp the amount of humidification, improve the accuracy of humidification control, and provide freedom in selecting the spray form. [Explanation of symbols]

[0028] 1...Humidity sensor 10...Fuel injection valve for vehicles 20…High pressure pump 30…Water tank 100…Control unit 110…Setting unit

Claims

1. a high-pressure pump that pressurizes supplied water under the drive control of the control unit and supplies the pressurized water to the vehicle fuel injection valve; and a humidity sensor that detects the humidity in a humidification space, and the vehicle fuel injection valve is provided with a fuel injection valve that is configured to inject fuel under the drive control of the control unit, and the water is injected by the vehicle fuel injection valve to spray fine, approximately spherical water mist, the vehicle fuel injection valve is provided with an injection nozzle having an injection hole facing vertically upward, and capable of forming a plurality of the substantially spherical water mist in a discrete and substantially linear row in the vertical direction; humidifier, wherein the control unit is configured to cause the vehicle fuel injection valve to continue injecting water until the humidity detected by the humidity sensor reaches a target humidity.

2. 2. The humidifier according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit capable of setting the target humidity, and the control unit is configured to be able to read the humidity set by the setting unit as the target humidity.

3. A first wireless terminal is connected to the humidity sensor, and a second wireless terminal is connected to the control unit, The first wireless terminal wirelessly transmits a detection signal of the humidity sensor, 3. The humidifier according to claim 2, wherein the second wireless terminal is configured to receive and demodulate a signal transmitted from the first wireless terminal and to input a detection signal of the humidity sensor to the control unit.

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