JP2012038831A - Dust arrester and fan control method for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a fan control method in which allow cleaning of a dustproof filter and functioning of the dustproof filter even when the device is in an operating state.SOLUTION: A dust arrester using a dustproof filter comprises a plurality of fans 3 and a control unit 4 which requests the fan 3 to rotate in an inverse direction to remove dust on a dustproof filter 2 provided in an intake side of the fans 3. When the fan 3 rotates in the inverse direction, the control unit 4 requests at least one of the fans except the fan rotating in the inverse direction to keep rotating in a forward direction.

Description

  The present invention relates to a dust removing device that reversely rotates a fan for dust removal operation of a dustproof filter provided on an intake side of the fan, and a fan control method thereof.

  In general, an electronic device is provided with a fan for the purpose of cooling the inside of the apparatus, and a dust-proof filter is provided on the intake side of the fan for dust prevention in the apparatus. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-80437, a temperature sensor is used to deal with the problem that the cooling function is impaired due to dust, dust, and dust being adsorbed on the dust filter by the intake of the fan and the intake resistance of the fan increasing. When the ambient temperature in the power supply compartment reaches a specified value or higher, the fan is rotated in the reverse direction to remove dust and dirt accumulated on the filter by reversing the air flow and removing dust from the dustproof filter. A method of performing an operation is known.

  For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-299493, a method of incorporating a time switch and cleaning the filter at a time set outside the working hours by the time switch has been proposed.

  Further, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-235743, a method of grasping the rotation time of the fan, storing the accumulated rotation time in a memory, and rotating the fan reversely for a predetermined time when the predetermined time is exceeded Has also been proposed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-80437 JP 2005-299493 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-235843

  However, none of the methods described in Patent Documents 1 to 3 can be applied to a device that is always operating.

  The reason is that in any of the methods described in Patent Documents 1 to 3 described above, when the dust-removing operation of the dustproof filter is performed, the ability to cool the inside of the device is significantly reduced, and the operation of the device is stopped. This is because the dust removal operation of the dustproof filter must be performed when the heat generation amount of the device is lowered.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a dust removing device and a fan control method for the dust removing device that can solve the above-mentioned problems, can always clean the dustproof filter even during operation, and reduce the burden on the maintenance of the user.

The dust removing device of the present invention is a dust removing device for a dustproof filter comprising a plurality of fans and a control unit that reversely rotates the fan for dust removal operation of the dustproof filter provided on the intake side of the fan, the control unit comprising: When the fan rotates in the reverse direction, at least one fan other than the reversely rotating fan is maintained in the forward rotation.
The fan control method for a dust remover according to the present invention is a fan control method for a dust remover that reversely rotates a fan for dust removal operation of a dustproof filter provided on an intake side of the plurality of fans, and is the reverse of the plurality of fans. A rotating fan is selected, and the selected fan is reversely rotated and at least one fan other than the reversely rotating fan is forwardly rotated.

  According to the dust removing device and the fan control method of the present invention, it is possible to always clean the dustproof filter even during operation, and the burden on the maintenance of the user can be reduced.

It is a block diagram showing the structure of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram showing the structure of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram showing the structure of the control part of FIG. It is a flowchart showing the fan control operation | movement of FIG.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention can be implemented in a communication device in which a dustproof filter and a fan are mounted, and a device in which components such as a personal computer and a measuring instrument are mounted that require cooling.

  Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of fans 3 in a part of the opening of the housing 1. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, three fans 3 are arranged along the openings. Are arranged in one row in one direction.

  The normal rotation direction of the fan 3 is a direction in which air is sucked from the outside of the housing 1 and exhausted to the inside of the housing 1. It is desirable that the fan 3 has a performance capable of maintaining a necessary cooling function by other fans even when one of the mounted fans 3 is stopped.

  A dustproof filter 2 is provided on the intake side of the fan 3. For example, one dustproof filter 2 covers the entire width of a plurality of fans 3 arranged as shown in FIG. 1.

  The control unit 4 for controlling the plurality of fans 3 is a circuit having forward and reverse functions of the fans in order to implement the present invention. The control unit 4 maintains at least one fan other than the reversely rotating fan in the forward rotation when the fan 3 is reversely rotated for the dust removing operation of the dustproof filter 2.

  The operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1 will be described. First, the control unit 4 provided in the casing selects the fan 3 that rotates in reverse for the dust removing operation of the dustproof filter 2 from the plurality of fans 3 provided in the casing. Wind pressure in the direction opposite to normal generated by reverse rotation of the selected fan 3 is generated. The dust filter is cleaned by removing dust, dust, and dust adsorbed on the dust filter 2 by the wind pressure. At this time, while the selected fan 3 is rotating in the reverse direction, the control unit 4 performs control so that at least one of the other non-selected fans continues the normal rotation operation.

  The effects of the first embodiment of the present invention described above are, for example, a communication device that cannot easily disconnect power because communication must not be cut off, and a calorific value that cannot be predicted because the amount of communication load and calculation load cannot be predicted. Even with an unpredictable device, the dustproof filter can always be cleaned. This is because the dust filter near the fan is cleaned by rotating only the fan that cleans the dust filter without rotating the operation of all the fans at once. Therefore, it is possible to perform the dust removal operation of the dustproof filter even when the operation of the device is not stopped or when the heat generation amount of the device is reduced, and the burden on the maintenance of the user can be reduced.

  The second effect of the present invention is that the dustproof filter can be cleaned even when the device is installed in a remote place that cannot be directly touched by the user. This is because the dust removal operation is performed only by the apparatus provided in the present invention, and therefore the user does not need to be in a state of directly touching the device when performing the dust removal operation.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As in the first embodiment, this embodiment includes a plurality of fans 13A, 13B, and 13C in a part of the opening of the housing 11, and for example, three fans are provided along the opening as shown in FIG. They are arranged in one row in one direction. The normal rotation direction of the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C is a direction in which air is sucked from the outside of the housing 11 and exhausted to the inside of the housing 11. It is desirable that the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C have a performance capable of maintaining a necessary cooling function by other fans even when one of the mounted fans is stopped.

  Further, a dustproof filter 12 is provided on the intake side of the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C. For example, a single dustproof filter 12 covers the entire width of the plurality of fans 13A, 13B, and 13C arranged as shown in FIG. .

  Moreover, the control part 15 which is a circuit with the normal rotation of a fan which controls several fan 13A, 13B, 13C, and a reverse rotation function is provided. When the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C are reversely rotated for the dust removing operation of the dust filter 12, the control unit 15 maintains at least one fan other than the reversely rotating fan in the forward rotation.

  Each of the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C has a rotation speed sensor 14.

  An ambient temperature sensor 17 is provided near the outer surface of the housing 11, and an internal temperature sensor 18 is provided inside the housing 11.

  The controller 15 has a function of appropriately adjusting the rotational speeds of the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C based on the information of the ambient temperature sensor 17, the internal temperature sensor 18, and the rotational speed sensor 14 for the purpose of energy saving.

  The control unit 15 is further connected to the external communication path 19, and a remote operation unit (not shown) for starting the dust removal operation of the dustproof filter 12, and an instruction from the user input to the remote operation unit are input to the external communication path 19. And a communication unit 16 that receives the instruction and gives an instruction to start the dust removal operation to the control unit 15.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the rotation speed sensor 14, the ambient temperature sensor 17, and the internal temperature sensor 18 are also connected to the communication unit 16, and the communication unit 16 is connected to the ambient temperature sensor 17 and the internal temperature via the external communication path 19. You may enable it to make an operator confirm the information of the temperature sensor 18 and the rotational speed sensor 14. FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the control unit 15 of FIG.

  The control unit 15 includes drive units 21A, 21B, and 21C that control the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C, an instruction unit 22 that instructs forward / reverse rotation / stop and rotation speed of each fan, and reverse rotation when performing a dust removal operation. And a setting storage unit 23 for storing settings such as the order of fans to be performed.

  The drive units 21A, 21B, and 21C drive and control each fan to an appropriate air volume based on information from the ambient temperature sensor 17, the internal temperature sensor 18, and the rotation speed sensor 14, respectively, in a normal state. Further, during the dust removal operation, the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C are driven and controlled based on instructions from the instruction unit 22.

  The instructing unit 22 instructs the driving units 21A, 21B, and 21C to perform forward / reverse rotation / stop and the number of rotations. Further, when an instruction to start the dust removal operation is input from the communication unit 16, reverse rotation is instructed in order as shown in a flowchart described later.

  The setting storage unit 23 stores various settings referred to by the instruction unit 22.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the fan control operation in the control unit 15 of FIG. Of course, there are various types of such processing, and this embodiment only shows one example.

  In the case 11 shown in FIG. 2, in a normal state, the fans 13A, 13B, and 13C are connected to the ambient temperature sensor 17, the internal temperature sensor 18, and the rotation speed sensor 14 by the drive units 21A, 21B, and 21C of the control unit 15, respectively. The air volume is controlled appropriately based on the information.

  A remote operation unit (not shown) operated by the user transmits, for example, information on the ambient temperature sensor 17, the internal temperature sensor 18, and the rotation speed sensor 14 provided by the communication unit 16 shown in FIG. When it is obtained via the communication path 19 and the user is informed of the presence or absence of an abnormal temperature condition, a remote operation unit (not shown) is operated by the user to the communication unit 16 via the external communication path 19. To instruct the dust removal operation. When receiving an instruction from a remote operation unit (not shown), the communication unit 16 transmits an instruction to start the dust removal operation to the control unit 15.

  When the control unit 15 receives an instruction to start the dust removal operation, the control unit 15 starts the dust removal operation (step S1).

First, the controller 15 first selects a fan that rotates in the reverse direction. More specifically, the instruction unit 22 refers to information stored in the setting storage unit 23, and specifies a fan that is initially set to rotate backward. For example, in the example of FIG. 2, the fan 13A at the first end of the row is first selected (step S2).
Next, for the purpose of securing the flow rate of the cooling air, the rotational speed of one fan other than the selected fan is increased. For example, it is determined whether there is a fan that is not adjacent to the selected fan (step S3), and if there is one, the number of rotations is increased (step S4). More specifically, the instruction unit 22 refers to the adjacent information stored in the setting storage unit 23 when rotating each fan in the reverse direction. The adjacent information is information indicating, for example, fans that are not adjacent to each fan. With reference to the adjacent information, a fan that is not adjacent to the reversely rotating fan is searched, the corresponding fan is selected, and the drive unit 21 is instructed to increase the rotational speed. For example, in the example of FIG. 2, when the fan 13A is rotated in the reverse direction, the rotation speed of the fan 13C that is not adjacent to the fan 13A is increased. The setting of the rotational speed is set in the setting storage unit 23, and may be, for example, the maximum rotational speed of the fan.

  The instruction unit 22 of the control unit 15 instructs the fan driving unit selected in step S2 to perform reverse rotation (step S5).

  It is determined whether a certain time has elapsed since the fan was rotated in reverse (step S6), and after that, the control unit 15 stops the operation of the selected fan (step S7).

  Further, it is determined whether or not a certain time has elapsed (step S8). After the elapse, the control unit 15 reverses the operation of the selected fan and returns it to the normal rotation direction and speed (step S9).

  The rotational speed of the fan whose rotational speed is increased and which is not adjacent to the selected fan is restored (step S7).

  It is determined whether or not all the fans that are reversely rotated for the dust removal operation have been reversely rotated (step S11). If not all of the fans have been reversely rotated, the next fan is referred to by referring to the order information set in the setting storage unit 23. Is selected (step S12), and the process returns to step S3.

  For the dust removal operation, the reversely rotating fans are selected in the order determined in advance in the order information, for example, in the order of the fans 13A, the fans 13B, and the fans 13C in the order from one end to the other end in one row. Steps S3 to S9 are sequentially performed for all the fans that rotate in reverse. The control unit 15 may hold order information in which the order of the reversely rotating fans is determined in advance.

  After the operations from S3 to S9 are performed on all fans that rotate in reverse for the dust removal operation, the dust removal operation is terminated.

  According to the second embodiment of the present invention described above, the decrease in the cooling air volume during the dust removal operation is suppressed by increasing the number of rotations of one of the forward rotating fans other than the reverse rotating fan, and the apparatus operates. In particular, it is possible to always perform the dust removal operation while maintaining the cooling capacity in the housing.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the structure of the above-mentioned embodiment, A various change is possible. For example, the instruction to start the dust removal operation is not limited to the communication unit, and the control unit may be instructed to start the dust removal operation by a switch directly mounted on the apparatus.

  In addition, the selection order of the fans for cleaning the dustproof filter is not limited to the order in which the fans are arranged from one end to the other end of the row, but may be alternate from the center, alternate from the outside, and the like.

  Further, the number of selected fans for simultaneously cleaning the dustproof filter is not limited to one, and a plurality of fans may be selected simultaneously.

  This makes it possible to perform an optimum dust removal operation in accordance with the external shape of the apparatus to which the present invention is applied and the importance of the cooling part inside the apparatus.

  In addition, when fans are installed at remote locations in the equipment, dust removal operation is not performed using all of the fans, and some dust is protected using some fans based on information from various sensors. A dust removal operation may be performed on the filter.

  As a result, it is possible to avoid performing a useless dust removal operation on a place where the dust filter needs not be cleaned.

  Further, a timer may be mounted inside the apparatus, and the control unit may start the dust removal operation after a certain time has elapsed.

  Further, the control unit may start the dust removal operation by detecting clogging of the dustproof filter based on information acquired from various sensors such as an atmospheric pressure sensor and a temperature sensor inside the apparatus.

  Thereby, the dust removal operation of the dustproof filter can be performed according to the management form of the apparatus.

  Further, the dust filter, the fan, and the control unit may not be directly provided in the apparatus, but may be modularized and removed from the apparatus by any combination of the dust filter, the fan, and the control unit.

  This facilitates repair and replacement of the removable part, and improves maintainability.

  Examples of utilization of the present invention include communication devices, computers, measuring instruments, etc., which are equipped with a dustproof filter and a fan.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 11 Case 2, 12 Dust-proof filter 3, 13A, 13B, 13C Fan 4, 15 Control part 14 Rotational speed sensor 16 Communication part 17 Ambient temperature sensor 18 Internal temperature sensor 19 External communication path 21A, 21B, 21C Drive part 22 Instruction unit 23 Setting storage unit

Claims (6)

In a dust removing device for a dustproof filter comprising a plurality of fans and a control unit that reversely rotates the fan for dust removal operation of a dustproof filter provided on the intake side of the fan,
The control unit maintains at least one fan other than the reversely rotating fan in the forward rotation when the fan rotates in the reverse direction. The plurality of fans includes a plurality of fans arranged in one direction,
The control unit maintains at least one of the plurality of fans arranged in the one direction in a forward rotation when the plurality of one arranged in the one direction is reversely rotated. The dust removing apparatus according to claim 1. The dust removing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a communication unit that inputs an instruction to start a dust removal operation received via an external communication path to the control unit. A fan control method for a dust removal device that reversely rotates the fan for dust removal operation of a dustproof filter provided on an intake side of a plurality of fans,
Select a reverse rotating fan from the plurality of fans,
A fan control method for a dust removing device, wherein the selected fan is rotated in reverse and at least one fan other than the reversely rotated fan is rotated forward. The plurality of fans includes a plurality of fans arranged in one direction,
The at least one of the plurality of fans arranged in the one direction is maintained in the forward rotation when one of the plurality of fans arranged in the one direction is reversely rotated. Item 5. The fan control method according to Item 4.   When one of the plurality of fans arranged in the one direction is reversely rotated, the plurality of fans arranged in the one direction are maintained in the forward rotation and are not adjacent to the reversely rotating fan. 6. The fan control method according to claim 5, wherein the number of rotations of the fan is increased.

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