Backflow prevention apparatus of clean room

• US 9,217,576 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Okui, Yousuke, Ikeno, Naoya
• Primary Examiner(s): Huson, Gregory
• Assistant Examiner(s): BECTON, MARTHA M
• Application Number:
  US13/406,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20120295530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,393 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/40 Pressure, e.g. wind pressure
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2221/40 HVAC with raised floors
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 3/167 Clean rooms, i.e. enclosed spaces in which a uniform flow of filtered air is distributed air distribution by perforated walls F24F7/10

Abstract

The present invention is to provide a backflow prevention apparatus of a clean room for solving a negative pressure point in the clean room so as to prevent a backflow from underfloor of the clean room. An intake port sucks the air of an underfloor chamber, a fan supplies the air to an upper part in the apparatus, and a blowoff port is installed on a side surface of an upper-floor part of the apparatus for supplying the air into the clean room. By supplying the air of the underfloor chamber into the clean room, the backflow from the underfloor chamber into the clean room is prevented.

Claims

1. A backflow prevention apparatus of a clean room in which a flow of clean air blown off from a ceiling surface flows in down-flow toward an underfloor chamber partitioned by an air-permeable floor, comprising:

a casing having a columnar shape and having at its lower part, an intake port configured to be opened in the underfloor chamber of the clean room with the air of the underfloor chamber of the clean room being sucked through the intake port by a fan filter unit, and at its upper part, a blowoff port configured to be opened in the clean room with the blowoff port blowing off the air into the clean room;

the fan filter unit arranged in the casing, the fan filter unit being configured to suction the air of the underfloor chamber from the intake port and blow off the air from the blowoff port into the clean room;

plate shape blowoff angle adjusting fins arranged at the intake port and configured to adjust a direction of an air flow blown off from the blowoff port in a height direction;

plate shape radial air blowing fins arranged in the blowoff port and extending in a radial direction from a center on a central longitudinal axis of the columnar shape casing, the plate shape radial air blowing fin being spanning an arc defined by the intake port;

a control device that controls drive of the fan filter unit so as to supply a shortage flow rate in the clean room from the underfloor chamber into the clean room;

a flow velocity obtaining sensor that obtains a flow velocity of a backflow from the air-permeable floor into the clean room; and

an arithmetic portion that calculates a flow rate Q of the backflow by multiplying an area where the backflow is generated by the obtained flow velocity; and

a control main body portion that controls drive of the fan filter unit based on an arithmetic result of the arithmetic portion a blowoff flow rate Qout from the blowoff port being in a relationship of 1.20×

Q<

Qout 3.47×

Q with respect to the flow rate Q of the backflow from the floor into the clean room,

wherein an angle of the blowoff angle adjusting fins is adjusted in a direction in which the air flow is blown off in a horizontal direction and/or a downward direction to direct the shortage flow rate from the underfloor chamber to the area where the backflow is occurring at the air-permeable floor.

2. The backflow prevention apparatus of the clean room according to claim 1, wherein when the center on the central longitudinal axis of the columnar shape casing is O, a straight line connecting the center O and a left end of a backflow range is A, a straight line connecting the apparatus center O and a right end of the backflow range is B, a bisector of ∠

AOB is C, ∠

AOC=∠

BOC=θ

, and an angle of actually blowing from the blowoff port is θ

′

, 0.9≦

(θ

′

/θ

)≦

1.2.

3. The backflow prevention apparatus of the clean room according to claim 1, further comprising:

a differential pressure gauge that detects differential pressure of upper and lower spaces taking the air-permeable floor as a border, wherein

based on the differential pressure detected by the differential pressure gauge, the control device controls the drive of the fan filter unit so as to supply the shortage flow rate in the clean room from the underfloor chamber into the clean room.

4. The backflow prevention apparatus of the clean room according to claim 1, wherein the blowoff port in the clean room is extended to a portion where a lower end of the blowoff port being located immediately above the air-permeable floor.