The present invention relates to a projection image displaying device.
In a projection image displaying device such as a liquid crystal projector or the like, a short projection displaying device in which a projection mirror (a reflection mirror) for folding an optical path is provided between a projection lens and a projecting plane (such as a screen or the like) to reduce the distance between it and the projecting plane is marketed. In addition, in installation modes of the projection image displaying device, various installation modes are possible depending on the application such as not only floor installation that it is installed on a desk or the like, but also suspended installation that it is suspended from a ceiling, upward projection installation that projection is performed toward a ceiling or the like, downward projection installation that projection is performed toward a desk or the like and others.
In these projection image displaying devices, light generated from a light source such as a mercury lamp or the like is radiated to an image display device such as a liquid crystal panel or the like, and imaging light from the display device is enlarged and projected onto a screen via a projection lens. Since the light source such as the mercury lamp or the like is used in a sealed state, its temperature becomes high, and the display device is heated by being irradiated with light from the light source and its temperature rises. Since excessive temperature rise reduces the life of the light source and causes deformation of the display device and image deterioration, cooling air is sent from a cooling fan to the light source and the display device to suppress temperature rise. The cooling air used for this, external air on the outside of device is made to be introduced through an air inlet by a suction fan, to be blown against the light source and the display device and thereafter to be discharged to the outside of device through an exhaust port.
In order to effectively cool the light source and the display device, the wind velocity of the cooling air and the structure of a flow path become important. For example, in a projector device described in Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a configuration for maintaining a light source lamp at an appropriate temperature in various installation states of the device, that is, in the floor installation and the suspended installation, and in addition even when it is used in the upward projection installation and the downward projection installation. In this configuration, an attitude sensor for sensing an installed attitude of the projector device, and a control unit for controlling a fan in accordance with the attitude that the attitude sensor has sensed are provided.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-42444
When dirt and rubbish and fine dust (hereinafter, referred to as dust and the like) contained in the cooling air adhere to the display device, the amount of light that penetrates the display device is reduced, and the luminance of an image projected onto a screen or the like is reduced and luminance unevenness occurs. Thus, a dust filter for preventing intrusion of the dust and the like is attached to an air inlet for taking in the cooling air from external air. In addition, the air pressure within the device is put into a state (a positive pressure state) which is higher in air pressure than the outside of device with air which has been taken in by a suction fan so as to prevent the external air from entering it such that the durst and the like do not intrude through a case gap other than the air inlet. That is, the structure is such that air within the device is blown off to the outside through the case gap. For example, a gap (an opening) through which movement adjustment of a projection lens is possible in an optical axis direction is present between the projection lens and the case and part of the air within the device will be blown off to the outside through this opening.
The inventor of the present application has found a phenomenon that fine dust adheres to the projection mirror when a projection image displaying device with projection mirror was being used in a suspended installation state. As a result, the luminance of the projected image was reduced and the luminance unevenness occurred as in the case of adhesion of the dust to the display device. Incidentally, when the displaying device is used in a floor installation state, the dust does not adhere to the projection mirror. As a result of analysis, it is assumed that because the air blown off through the opening around the above-mentioned projection lens is mixed with the external air and stays on the mirror surface in the suspended state, the dust contained in the external air adhered to the mirror surface with generated static electricity. In such a case, not only work of removing the dust which has adhered to the mirror surface becomes necessary in order to recover the luminance of the projected image, but also work of cleaning the mirror surface becomes difficult when the displaying device is installed in the suspended state.
An object of the present invention is to prevent the dust within the external air from adhering to a reflective surface of the projection mirror regardless of the installation state of the projection image displaying device.
The present invention is characterized in that in a projection image displaying device having a sealable projection mirror on an upper surface of a case and enlarging and projecting imaging light emitted from a projection lens onto a projecting plane by being reflected by the projection mirror, it comprises: a plurality of cooling fans taking in and exhausting external air in order to cool components contained within the case, and an air inlet for sucking the external air into the case is disposed at the position of a sealing mechanism for operating said projection mirror to be sealed/unsealed.
An opening is provided around the projection lens for movement adjustment of the projection lens, and the air inlet provided on the projection mirror sucks air blown off through the opening provided on the projection lens into the case.
When a cooling operation of cooling the components within the case is to be performed by sealing the projection mirror, a sucking operation through the air inlet provided on the projection mirror is stopped or reduced.
According to the present invention, deterioration of the luminance of the projected image caused by the dust adhering to the reflective surface of the projection mirror is eliminated regardless of the installation state of the projection image displaying device and stable display performance can be maintained.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described using the drawings.
The configuration of the projection image displaying device is such that it has a sealable projection mirror 3 on an upper surface of a case 1, and imaging light emitted from a projection lens 2 is enlarged and projected onto a projecting plane such as a screen or the like by being reflected by a projection mirror 3. Although optical components such as a light source, a display device (a liquid crystal panel) and others are contained within the inside of the case 1, external air is taken in through air inlets 4a to 4d by a cooling fan and air after cooling is discharged through an exhaust port 5 in order to cool heat generated components. While the air inlets 4a and 4b are provided on the front surface side of the case and the air inlet 4c is provided on the rear surface side of the case, the new air inlet 4d is also provided at the position of a sealing mechanism 3a for operating the projection mirror 3 to be sealed/unsealed. Although the shape of the air inlet 4d is shown by hatching, it is formed across a lower end part of the projection mirror 3. The exhaust port 5 exhausts the air after cooling from a side surface on the side opposite to the case to the outside. Openings 2a and 2b are formed around the projection lens 2 in order to enable movement adjustment of the projection lens 2.
In the flow paths of the cooling air, an air flow 101 shows that part of the air which has cooled the liquid crystal panel 7 moves along the projection lens 2 and is blown off to the outside of device through the openings 2a and 2b. This is because the inside of device in the vicinity of the projection lens 2 is in a positive pressure state (a state which is higher in air pressure than the external air) by an action of sending air from the cooling fans 11 and 12. In addition, an air flow 102 shows that the external air is sucked through the air inlet 4d provided around the projection mirror 3. This is because the inside of device in the vicinity of the projection mirror 3 is in a negative pressure state (a state which is lower in air pressure than the external air) by an exhausting action of the cooling fan 15. An air flow 103 shows that the air sucked through the air inlet 4d cools the power source unit 8. Thereafter, it is exhausted to the outside of device through the exhaust port 5 by the cooling fan 15. Here, since the openings 2a and 2b and the air inlet 4d are arranged adjacent to one another, the air flow 101 which has been blown off to the outside of device through the openings 2a and 2b is sucked in as the air flow 102 through the air inlet 4d. Therefore, it never occurs that the air flow 101 stays in front of the projection mirror 3.
On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the air inlet 4d is provided in the sealing mechanism 3a of the projection mirror 3 in either of the floor installation in (a) and the suspended installation in (b) of
Therefore, the air flows 101a and 101b which have been once blown off to the outside through the openings 2a and 2b are sucked into the device without staying in front of the projection mirror 3. Thereby, the reflective surface of the projection mirror 3 can be prevented from being stained with the dust.
Although the cases of the floor installation and suspended installation have been shown as the installation modes here, the same thing also applies to cases such as the upward projection installation that projection is performed toward a ceiling or the like and the downward projection installation that projection is performed toward a desk or the like.
In the following, a structure of a conventional projection image displaying device and flows of cooling air therein will be shown and described in comparison with the present embodiment.
In the case of the floor installation in
On the other hand, in the case of the suspended installation in
As installation modes other than the above, there are cases of the upward projection installation that projection is performed toward a ceiling or the like and the downward projection installation that projection is performed toward a desk or the like. In the case of the upward projection installation, an air flow blown off through an opening turns into an ascending air current and is diffused, while, in the case of the downward projection installation, since it stays because its upper side is obstructed by the projection mirror, the dust will adhere to the reflective surface.
b) is a diagram explaining the mechanism of dust adhesion. The vortex flows 105a and 105b which stay in front of the projection mirror 3 turn into a frictional flow 105c which is in contact with the reflective surface 3b, while engulfing dust 202 contained in the external air by mixing with the external air which is present in a front space of the projection mirror 3. As a result, static electricity 201 generates on the reflective surface 3b and the dust 202 engulfed in the vortex flow is sucked and adheres to the reflective surface 3b. The adhesion amount of the dust depends on the flow velocity of the frictional flow 105c. Incidentally, in the case of such floor installation as shown in
b) shows the case that the dust 202 has adhered to the entire surface of the reflective surface 3b of the projection mirror 3. When the dust adheres to the reflective surface 3b, its reflectance is reduced and the luminance of an image projected onto the screen gets dark. In addition,
According to the projection image displaying device of the embodiment 1, adhesion of the dust to the reflective surface of the projection mirror is prevented in all the installation states including the suspended state, the clean reflective surface can be maintained as in
In the embodiment 1, the structure that adhesion of the dust and the like to the projection mirror is prevented while using the projection image displaying device in a state where the projection mirror is unsealed has been described. On the other hand, in the embodiment 2, a structure that adhesion of the dust and the like to the projection mirror is greatly reduced while using the projection image displaying device in a state where the projection mirror is sealed will be described.
Therefore, the present embodiment is made so as to stop or greatly reduce the operation of sucking air through the air inlet 4d by controlling the operations of the cooling fans in order to prevent the dust and the like from adhering to the reflective surface of the projection mirror during the cooling operation.
In
On the other hand, in
As described, in the embodiment 2, intrusion of the external air through the periphery of the sealed projection mirror is eliminated by controlling the air quantities of the cooling fans in the cooling operation and staining caused by adhesion of the dust and the like to the reflective surface of the projection mirror can be greatly reduced.
1 . . . case, 2 . . . projection lens, 2a, 2b . . . opening, 3 . . . projection mirror, 3a . . . sealing mechanism, 3b . . . reflective surface, 4a-4d . . . air inlet, 5 . . . exhaust port, 6 . . . light source, 7 . . . liquid crystal panel, 8 . . . power source unit, 9 . . . panel drive circuit, 10 . . . CPU (control unit), 11-15 . . . cooling fan, 101-106 . . . air flow, 201 . . . static electricity
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2010/066976 | 9/29/2010 | WO | 00 | 5/15/2013 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2012/042613 | 4/5/2012 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20090040470 | Fukui et al. | Feb 2009 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2005-141065 | Jun 2005 | JP |
2006-003541 | Jan 2006 | JP |
2009-042444 | Feb 2009 | JP |
2010-113111 | May 2010 | JP |
Entry |
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International Search Report on application PCT/JP2010/066976 mailed Nov. 16, 2010; 1 page. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20130235355 A1 | Sep 2013 | US |