IONIZER

• US 20080098895A1
• Filed: 10/23/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SMC Corporation (Alamo Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: SMC Corporation (Alamo Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Yasuoka, Takashi, SATO, Toshio, Suzuki, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,497,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 96/54
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 2201/06 Ionising electrode being a needle
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 3/383 using radiation

Abstract

Positive and negative electrode needles, an air-blowing outlet, and a protection cover for covering these electrode needles and the air-blowing outlet are attached to an electrode cartridge which is attached to a housing, and an air-blowing hole positioned in front of the air-blowing outlet in a concentric manner therewith, for blowing out air from the air-blowing outlet toward the outside, and two air-flowing-out holes positioned in a concentric manner with the respective positive and negative electrode needles, and respectively surrounding outer peripheries of respective tip end portions of respective electrode needles via respective gaps for flowing out the air are formed in the protection cover.

Claims

1. An ionizer comprising:

a housing including one or more electrode-attaching portions;

a positive electrode needle and a negative electrode needle disposed in the electrode-attaching portions, respectively, in parallel with each other for generating an ion;

an air-blowing outlet being open in the electrode-attaching portion at a position between the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle;

a protection cover for covering both the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle, and the air-blowing outlet; and

a spatial portion spreading inside the protection cover-across both of the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle, and the air-blowing outlet, wherein

the protection cover comprises an air-blowing hole, and two air-flowing-out holes, and wherein the air-blowing hole-is positioned in front of the air-blowing outlet for blowing air blown out from the air-blowing outlet toward a workpiece, and the air-flowing-out holes are respectively formed at positions corresponding to the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle, and allow the air blown out from the air-flowing outlet and diffused in the spatial portion, to flow out to an outside of the protection cover along the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle, respectively.

2. The ionizer according to claims 1, wherein the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle are attached to the electrode cartridge, and the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle are attached to the electrode-attaching portion of the housing via the electrode cartridge, and wherein the electrode cartridge includes a concave portion encompassing the tip end portion of each of the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle, and wherein the air-blowing outlet is opened in the concave portion and the protection cover is disposed in a manner so as to cover the air-blowing outlet and both the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle.

3. The ionizer according to claim 2, wherein the air-blowing hole is concentrically positioned with the air-blowing outlet, and the air-flowing-out hole is concentrically positioned with the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle.

4. The ionizer according to claim 3, wherein an acute tip end portion of each of the positive electrode needle and negative electrode needle projects out from the air-flowing-out hole in front of the protection cover.

5. The ionizer according to claim 2 or 3, wherein a hole diameter of the air-blowing hole is smaller than a hole diameter of the air-flowing-out hole.

6. The ionizer according to claim 2, wherein the electrode cartridge is constructed by detachably attaching a back plate provided with the positive electrode needle and the negative electrode needle to a sheath cartridge being detachable to the housing, and wherein the concave portion is formed in the sheath cartridge, and wherein a tip end portion of the electrode needle attached to the back plate is projected to the concave portion through a holding hole for use in the electrode needle in the sheath cartridge.

7. The ionizer according to claim 6, wherein the electrode needle is non-rotatably and detachably mounted on the back plate.

8. The ionizer according to claim 6, wherein the sheath cartridge is composed of a cartridge body having an approximately long circle in plane shape, and a protection cover having the same shape, and detachably coupled by sliding in a longitudinal direction thereof while engaging a flange portion and a latch groove thereof.

9. The ionizer according to claim 6, wherein the air-blowing outlet is formed in a nozzle member and the nozzle member is inserted into a center of the electrode cartridge having a long circle in plane shape.

10. The ionizer according to claim 9, wherein the back plate is provided with a pair of sandwiching pieces for fixing the back plate to the sheath cartridge by sandwiching the sheath cartridge, and wherein at least one of the sandwiching pieces is constructed to elastically sandwiching the sheath cartridge by mean of elasticity of a thin-walled elastic deformation portion.

11. The ionizer according to claim 9, wherein an electrode-attaching hole for attaching the electrode cartridge, to be provided in the housing, corresponds to a plane shape of the electrode cartridge, and is formed to have a plane shape including a room where the electrode cartridge fitted into the electrode-attaching hole can be slanted around the nozzle member in the electrode-attaching hole, and a latch mechanism is provided in the electrode cartridge 43 and the electrode-attaching hole 47, the latch mechanism is that the electrode cartridge 43 latches and fixes into the electrode-attaching hole 47 when the electrode cartridge is in the normally attached state after fitting the electrode cartridge into the electrode-attaching hole at a position of the room 47a, and the latch mechanism allows the electrode cartridge 43 to remove from the electrode-attaching hole in a condition that the electrode cartridge 43 slants within the room 47a.

12. The ionizer according to claim 11, wherein in the latch mechanism, a latch projection at an upper part, and a friction ridge having a smaller projecting height than the latch projection at a lower part, are provided at both ends in a longitudinal direction of the electrode cartridge, and wherein side grooves that pass the latch projection when the electrode cartridge is fitted into the electrode-attaching hole in a slanted condition within the room are provided at both end portions in a longitudinal direction of the electrode-attaching hole, and wherein, adjoining the side groove, an elastic contacting piece that elastically comes in contact with the friction ridge when the electrode cartridge is returned to a normally attached state along a longitudinal direction of the housing after fitting the same into the electrode attaching hole, is provided, and wherein the elastic contacting piece is constructed as that elastically comes in contact with the friction ridge by that the electrode cartridge is pressed by the friction ridge when the electrode cartridge being in a slanted state is returned to the normally attached state while rotating the same, and wherein both the elastic contacting pieces suppress a dropping-off operation of the electrode cartridge by means of being latched with the latch projection while being positioned at a lower part of the latch projection at both ends of the electrode cartridge being returned to the normally attached state, and wherein the electrode cartridge is thereby detachably fixed.

13. The ionizer according to claim 11, wherein a connecting terminal connected to a positive and negative high voltage generating circuit in a high voltage generating apparatus in the housing is provided at the electrode-attaching portion of the housing where the electrode cartridge is attached, and wherein the connecting terminals are provided at positions corresponding to the electrode needles of the electrode cartridge to be mounted on the electrode-attaching portion.