Air Cleaner

This application claims the benefit of and priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0077107, filed in Korea on Jun. 13, 2024, the entire disclosure(s) of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates to an air cleaner, and more particularly, to an air cleaner having stacked air purification modules.

An air cleaner is a device that reduces dust and bacteria in air in a certain space by filtering and discharging the air within that space. The air cleaner filters out foreign substances through the air flow of the space and discharges air from which foreign substances have been removed.

In the air cleaner, in order to quickly increase the cleanliness of an indoor space, a discharge port is formed toward the upper side, and filtered air discharged toward the upper side can flow in all directions.

In addition, when forming the discharge port on the upper side, a separate fan for wind direction control can be disposed on the upper side to send filtered air over a long distance.

Additionally, research is being conducted on an air cleaner configured with multiple stages by stacking blowers vertically.

Korean Patent Publication No. KR10-2022-0083719 and Korean Patent Publication No. KR10-2017-0140578 disclose air cleaners in which blowers are disposed in a vertical direction to filter a large amount of air.

The air cleaners in the above-described Patent Documents have a problem in that the control module is divided into upper and lower parts, and a filter pressing plate is disposed above the control module of each stage, which increases the height of the product.

In addition, as the performance of air cleaners improves and the functions provided by air cleaners diversify, the number of circuit boards and sensors accommodated in the control module tends to increase and the size tends to increase, and the sizes of the control module and air cleaner product may become larger.

In addition, when moisture penetrates inside the control module containing various circuit components, it may cause malfunctions and safety hazards such as electric leakage.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide an air cleaner capable of reducing the product height by sharing control modules of air purification modules.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide an air cleaner capable of reducing the product size by effectively disposing the substrate inside the control module.

Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide an air cleaner that can effectively drain water when water flows into the control module, thereby improving reliability.

Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide an air cleaner capable of simplifying the length and wiring structure of wires connected to light sources.

Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide a miniaturized air cleaner that prevents return wind without adding a structure such as a partition plate.

Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide an air cleaner capable of improving air purification performance by preventing discharged clean air from being re-inflowed.

An air cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can reduce a product height and size by disposing and sharing a control module between air purification modules.

An air cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can have a plurality of substrates inside the control module, and can reduce the product size by disposing the substrates spaced apart from each other in an up-down direction.

An air cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can prevent a malfunction even when water flows into the control module by forming a drain hole at a lower portion of the control module and forming a drain structure in a plate supporting the substrate.

An air cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can prevent return wind and improve air purification performance by stacking an air purification module that discharges clean air upward and an air purification module that discharges clean air downward.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an air cleaner including: a case having an intake port formed on a peripheral surface; a first air purification module including a first blower fan disposed inside the case and a first filter for removing foreign substances in air flowing into the intake port; a second air purification module including a second blower fan disposed inside the case and a second filter for removing foreign substances in air flowing into the intake port; and a control module disposed between the first air purification module and the second air purification module, in which the control module includes an upper cover, a lower cover, a first substrate and second substrate accommodated in an internal space formed by coupling the upper cover and lower cover, a plate supporting the first substrate and second substrate from below, a first substrate seating portion which protrudes upward from the plate and to which the first substrate is fixed, and a second substrate seating portion which protrudes upward from the plate and to which the second substrate is fixed, and the first substrate is disposed spaced apart from an upper side of the second substrate, thereby effectively disposing components inside the control module.

The plate may include a recessed portion formed to be recessed downward, and the second substrate seating portion may be formed by protruding upward from the recessed portion, thereby allowing the substrates to be spaced apart.

A depth of the recessed portion may be smaller than a vertical length of the first substrate seating portion.

The first substrate seating portion may include a plurality of pillars protruding upward from the plate, and coupling holes formed on upper surfaces of the plurality of pillars, and some of the plurality of pillars may have different shapes from those of the remaining pillars.

The second substrate seating portion may include a plurality of ribs that protrude upward from the recessed portion, a first part that fixes one side of the second substrate, and a second part that extends from some of the plurality of ribs to an upper side of the second substrate.

The second substrate seating portion may include a plurality of pillars protruding upward from the recessed portion and coupling holes formed on upper surfaces of the plurality of pillars.

The first substrate seating portion may include a plurality of pillars protruding upward from the plate and coupling holes formed on upper surfaces of the plurality of pillars.

Some of the plurality of pillars may have a different shape from the remaining pillars.

At least some among the plurality of pillars may have a fixed rib protruding upward.

The second substrate may include a plurality of substrates disposed spaced apart from each other.

At least some of the plurality of substrates may overlap the first substrate when viewed from above.

At least some of the plurality of substrates partially may overlap the first substrate when viewed from above.

An area of the first substrate may be larger than an area of the second substrate.

The second air purification module may be disposed above the first air purification module, a first discharge port may be formed at a lower end of the first air purification module, and a second discharge port may be formed at an upper end of the second air purification module.

Each of the upper cover and the lower cover may have an open center.

The control module may further include an upper filter pressing plate disposed at the center of the upper cover and a lower filter pressing plate disposed at the center of the lower cover.

The lower filter pressing plate may be disposed above the first filter, and the upper filter pressing plate may be disposed below the second filter.

The control module includes a plurality of sensors and a stand on which the plurality of sensors are mounted, and the stand may be connected to an upper side of the plate.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a product height and size can be reduced by disposing and sharing the control module between the first air purification module and the second air purification module.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the substrate inside the control module can be effectively disposed to reduce the product size.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the control module includes the upper cover, the lower cover, the substrate accommodated in the internal space formed by coupling the upper cover and the lower cover, and the plate supporting the substrate from below, thereby enabling efficient disposition of internal components.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a first substrate seating portion which protrudes upward from the plate and to which a first substrate is fixed and a second substrate seating portion which protrudes upward from the plate and to which a second substrate is fixed may be provided, the first substrate is disposed spaced apart from an upper side of the second substrate, thereby enabling implementation of various functions without significant constraints of the substrates, and reducing the size of the control module and the air cleaner product.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drain hole is formed in the lower cover, and the plate includes the drain guide that guides water flowing into the control module to the drain hole, thereby enabling effective drain when water flows into the inside of the control module.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first discharge port formed at the lower end and the second discharge port formed at the upper end are provided, and air from which foreign substances have been removed is discharged downward through the first discharge port at the lower end and upward through the second discharge port at the upper end, thereby preventing return wind.

According to at least one of the embodiments of the present disclosure, by disposing the first air purification module that discharges clean air to the lower end at the lower side and the second air purification module that discharges the clean air to the upper end at the upper side, air discharged from the first air purification module can be prevented from flowing into the second air purification module, thereby improving air purification performance.

Effects of the present disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description of the claims.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments and may of course be modified in various forms.

In the drawings, parts that are not related to the description are omitted in order to clearly and concisely explain the present disclosure, and the same drawing reference numerals are used for identical or extremely similar parts throughout the specification.

Meanwhile, the suffixes “module” and “portion” used for components in the following description are given simply for the convenience of writing the present specification, and do not in themselves have any particularly important meaning or role. Accordingly, the “module” and “portion” may be used interchangeably.

Additionally, in the present specification, terms such as first, second, or the like may be used to describe various elements, but these elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are used only to distinguish one element from another.