US-20260124567-A1 - AIR PURIFIER

US20260124567A1US 20260124567 A1US20260124567 A1US 20260124567A1US-20260124567-A1

Abstract

An air purifier includes: a body providing an internal space; a plurality of fan units arranged to be spaced apart from each other in an up-down direction in the internal space of the body and configured to provide a blowing force for drawing air into the internal space of the body; and a plurality of filter units arranged in the up-down direction between the plurality of fan units to filter air introduced into the internal space of the body. The plurality of fan units include: a first fan unit disposed above the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by one of the plurality of filter units to flow upward; and a second fan unit disposed below the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by another one of the plurality of filter units to flow downward.

Inventors

Yu Young NAM
Seung Ki Kim

Assignees

COWAY CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251029
Priority Date: 20241106

Claims (13)

1 . An air purifier comprising: a body providing an internal space; a plurality of fan units arranged to be spaced apart from each other in an up-down direction in the internal space of the body and configured to provide a blowing force for drawing air into the internal space of the body; and a plurality of filter units arranged in the up-down direction between the plurality of fan units to filter air introduced into the internal space of the body, wherein the plurality of fan units include: a first fan unit disposed above the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by one of the plurality of filter units to flow upward; and a second fan unit disposed below the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by another one of the plurality of filter units to flow downward.
2 . The air purifier of claim 1 , wherein the body includes: an upper inlet through which air is introduced; a lower inlet through which air is introduced, the lower inlet being positioned below the upper inlet; an upper outlet for discharging air, the upper outlet being positioned above the upper inlet; and a lower outlet for discharging air, the lower outlet being positioned below the lower inlet, wherein the plurality of filter units include: a first filter unit that filters air introduced through the upper inlet; and a second filter unit that filters air introduced through the lower inlet, wherein the upper outlet is disposed above the first filter unit to discharge air filtered by the first filter unit, and wherein the lower outlet is disposed below the second filter unit to discharge air filtered by the second filter section.
3 . The air purifier of claim 2 , further comprising a partition unit disposed between the first filter unit and the second filter unit to partition the internal space of the body.
4 . The air purifier of claim 3 , wherein the partition unit includes: a first support part disposed below the first filter unit to be movable in the up-down direction; a second support part disposed above the second filter unit to be movable in the up-down direction; and an elastic part providing an elastic force to move one of the first support part and the second support part away from the other of the first support part and the second support part.
5 . The air purifier of claim 2 , wherein the body includes: a first body part in which the upper inlet, the lower inlet, and the lower outlet are formed and which provides the internal space; and a second body part disposed on top of the first body part to cover the internal space and in which the upper outlet is formed, wherein the upper outlet is open upward to discharge filtered air in an upward direction, and wherein the lower outlet is formed on a lower side surface of the first body part to discharge filtered air laterally downward.
6 . The air purifier of claim 5 , further comprising: a cover part for opening and closing the upper outlet; and a lifting and lowering unit that supports the cover part and is arranged to be movable in the up-down direction with respect to the second body part so that the cover part opens and closes the upper outlet.
7 . The air purifier of claim 2 , wherein each of the first filter unit and the second filter unit includes a plurality of filter members that are connected at their sides to be rotatable relative to each other.
8 . The air purifier of claim 1 , further comprising a sterilization unit that sterilizes the air filtered by the plurality of filter units.
9 . The air purifier of claim 8 , wherein the first fan unit includes: a first fan housing having a first intake port through which filtered air is drawn in; a first fan that is at least partially accommodated in the first fan housing and rotates about a rotational axis extending in the up-down direction; and a first fan driving unit configured to provide a driving force to rotate the first fan, wherein the second fan unit includes: a second fan housing having a second intake port through which filtered air is drawn in; a second fan that is at least partially accommodated in the second fan housing and rotates about a rotational axis extending in the up-down direction; and a second fan driving unit configured to provide a driving force to rotate the second fan, wherein the sterilization unit is provided as a plurality of sterilization units, and wherein the plurality of sterilization units include: a first sterilization unit disposed in the first intake port to sterilize filtered air introduced into the first intake port, and a second sterilization unit disposed in the second intake port to sterilize filtered air introduced into the second intake port.
10 . The air purifier of claim 9 , wherein the first fan is disposed between the plurality of filter units and the first fan driving part, and the second fan is disposed between the plurality of filter units and the second fan driving part.
11 . The air purifier of claim 9 , wherein the first sterilization unit includes: a first sterilization part for sterilizing filtered air; a first sterilization body disposed between the plurality of filter units and the first fan housing and having a communication opening to allow filtered air to flow into the first intake port; and a first sterilization support extending from a central portion of the first sterilization body toward the first fan to support the first sterilization part so that the first sterilization part is placed in the first intake port, wherein the second sterilization unit includes: a second sterilization part for sterilizing filtered air; a second sterilization body disposed between the plurality of filter units and the second fan housing and having a communication port to allow filtered air to flow into the second intake port; and a second sterilization support extending from a central portion of the second sterilization body toward the second fan to support the second sterilization part so that the second sterilization part is placed in the second intake port.
12 . The air purifier of claim 1 , further comprising a controller for controlling the first fan unit and the second fan unit, wherein the controller independently controls the first fan unit and the second fan unit such that a blowing force of one of the first fan unit and the second fan unit is greater than a blowing force of the other of the first fan unit and the second fan unit, or such that the blowing forces of the first fan unit and the second fan unit are equal.
13 . The air purifier of claim 12 , further comprising a sensor unit that detects a concentration of first foreign substances and a concentration of second foreign substances that are larger than the first foreign substances, wherein the controller controls the second fan unit and the first fan unit such that the blowing force of the second fan unit is greater than the blowing force of the first fan unit when the concentration of the second foreign substances detected by the sensor unit is greater than the concentration of the first foreign substances, and controls the second fan unit and the first fan unit such that the blowing force of the first fan unit is greater than the blowing force of the second fan unit when the concentration of the first foreign substances detected by the sensor unit is greater than the concentration of the second foreign substances.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an air purifier. BACKGROUND In general, an air purifier is a device that sucks in polluted indoor air, and purifies it into clean air by filtering out dust, odor particles, etc. contained in the air. Such an air purifier can purify indoor air by sucking in and purifying the surrounding polluted air, purifying it, and then discharging the purified clean air to the outside of the air purifier. The air purifier may include an inlet for drawing air into the interior thereof, a blower fan for providing blowing force to draw air into the inlet, a filter for filtering out dust, odor particles, and the like contained in the air drawn into the interior, and one or more outlets for discharging air filtered by the filter. Further, a conventional air purifier may include a plurality of filters and a plurality of blower units to draw in air from different locations and discharge filtered air in different directions. In this regard, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2020-0122941 entitled "Air purifier" (Patent Document 1), filed by the applicant LG Electronics Inc., discloses an air purifier including a first blower unit for discharging air laterally and a second blower unit, for discharging air upwardly, disposed above the first blower unit. In addition, Patent Document 1 discloses that each of the first blower unit and the second blower unit includes a filter member and a fan disposed above the filter member. However, Patent Document 1 does not disclose any mechanism by which air flows downward inside the air purifier. In other words, since the fan of each of the first blower unit and the second blower unit of Patent Document 1 is disposed above the filter member, air filtered through the filter member can only flow upward by the blowing force. Therefore, the air purifier of Patent Document 1 has the limitation that the filtered air cannot flow downward inside the air purifier, meaning that filtered air cannot be discharged toward the floor. In addition, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2018-0138248 entitled “Air purifier having bidirectional fans using a discharge flow path” (Patent Document 2), filed by the present applicant, discloses an air purifier including a filter unit for filtering air, a plurality of fans for drawing in filtered air, and a discharge flow path for discharging filtered air discharged from the plurality of fans laterally or upwardly. However, Patent Document 2 does not disclose any mechanism by which the filtered air flows downward inside the air purifier. In other words, in the air purifier of Patent Document 2, since the plurality of fans are configured to discharge the sucked filtered air laterally or upwardly toward the discharge flow path, the filtered air can only flow upward in the discharge flow path. Therefore, the air purifier of Patent Document 2 has the limitation that the filtered air cannot flow downward inside the air purifier, meaning that the filtered air cannot be discharged toward the floor. Prior Art Documents Patent document 1: Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2020-0122941 (Published on October 28, 2020) Patent Document 2: Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2018-0138248 (Published on December 31, 2018) SUMMARY In view of the above, one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an air purifier in which air filtered through a plurality of filter units can flow upward and downward. In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an air purifier including: a body providing an internal space; a plurality of fan units arranged to be spaced apart from each other in an up-down direction in the internal space of the body and configured to provide a blowing force for drawing air into the internal space of the body; and a plurality of filter units arranged in the up-down direction between the plurality of fan units to filter air introduced into the internal space of the body, wherein the plurality of fan units include: a first fan unit disposed above the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by one of the plurality of filter units to flow upward; and a second fan unit disposed below the plurality of filter units and configured to provide a blowing force for causing air filtered by another one of the plurality of filter units to flow downward. Further, the body may include: an upper inlet through which air is introduced; a lower inlet through which air is introduced, the lower inlet being positioned below the upper inlet; an upper outlet for discharging air, the upper outlet being positioned above the upper inlet; and a lower outlet for discharging air, the lower outlet being positioned below the lower inlet. The plurality of filter units may include: a first filter unit that filters air introduced through the upper inlet; and a second filter unit that filters air introduced through the lower inlet. The upper