Isolation device with built-in particle counter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10843183-B2
Application number	US-201716309337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 12, 2017
Priority date	Sep 9, 2016
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

An isolation device for supplying a workspace with clean air resulting from dust filtration by an air cleaning means accurately manages the number of fine particles in a workspace and prevents fine particles from mixing with an experimental material. The isolation device includes a measurement probe; a particle counter for measuring the fine-particle counts for a plurality of particle sizes in the workspace air and outputting the measurements; a storage unit for storing, for each of the plurality of particle sizes and for work times and non-work times, management fine-particle counts at which the number of fine particles per unit volume is determined to be large; a cleanliness determination unit that compares the fine particle counts and the management fine-particle counts; and an output unit for outputting an alarm when the work-time/non-work time fine particle count for a particle size in the workspace exceeds the corresponding management fine-particle count.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An isolation device with built-in particle counter which supplies cleaned air with dust filtered by air cleaning means to a workspace, the isolation device comprising:
a measurement probe for air intake disposed in the workspace;
a particle counter which measures and outputs a number of fine particles having a plurality of particle sizes of air in the workspace taken in by the measurement probe;
a storage unit which stores a number of managed fine particles for each of the plurality of particle sizes, the number of managed fine particles being determined in number of fine particles per unit volume and divided into a work time and a non-work time;
a cleanliness determination unit which compares the number of fine particles having the plurality of particle sizes measured by the particle counter with the number of managed fine particles having the plurality of particle sizes stored in the storage unit to determine cleanliness; and
an output unit which outputs an alarm when the number of fine particles in the workspace during operation is determined to be greater than the number of the managed fine particles for any of the plurality of particle sizes, and for each of the work time or the non-work time in the cleanliness determination unit.

2. The isolation device with built-in particle counter according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a selection unit which selects the number of managed fine particles in the storage unit, depending on the work time and the non-work time,
wherein the cleanliness determination unit compares the number of the managed fine particles at the selected work time or the non-work time with the number of the measured fine particles.

3. The isolation device with built-in particle counter according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a sensor which detects presence or absence of a worker's hand in the workspace,
wherein the selection unit selects the number of managed fine particles at the time of work or non-work, on the basis of the output of the sensor.

4. The isolation device with built-in particle counter according to claim 1 , wherein a suction port of the measurement probe is disposed in a direction in which the cleaned air is blown out, and
a difference between a blowing speed of the cleaned air and a sucking speed of the measurement probe is managed within ±20%.

5. The isolation device with built-in particle counter according to claim 1 , wherein the isolation device with built-in particle counter is a safety cabinet or an isolator.

Assignees

• Hitachi Industry Equipment Systems Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ono Keiichi
• Suzuki Tomoyuki

Classifications

• B01L1/025

  Environmental chambers · CPC title

• G01N15/06

  Investigating concentration of particle suspensions (by weighing G01N5/00; investigating sedimentation of particle suspensions G01N15/04; investigating individual particles G01N15/10) · CPC title

• B01L1/00 Primary

  Enclosures; Chambers (provided with manipulation devices or glove boxes B25J21/00) · CPC title

• G01N2015/0046

  in gas, e.g. smoke · CPC title

• B01L1/04 Primary

  Dust-free rooms or enclosures · CPC title