IP Library Granted Patent US 10,704,020
Granted Patent B2
US 10,704,020 · App. 16/352,329 · Granted Jul 7, 2020

Incubator

Inventors: Hironobu Sekine (Gunma, JP); Koichi Kobayashi (Tochigi, JP)
Assignee: PHC HOLDINGS CORPORATION
C12M41/14C12M23/04C12M41/34C12M41/48
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,704,020
App. No.
16/352,329
Granted
Jul 7, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

An incubator includes: an insulated box including an incubation space surrounded by multiple inner faces; a humidifying unit that humidifies an incubation space; a first heating unit that heats a first inner face among the multiple inner faces, with electric power supplied; a second heating unit that heats a second inner face, different from the first inner face, with electric power supplied; and a control unit that controls the magnitude of electric power supplied to each of the first heating unit and the second heating unit. The control unit repeatedly changes the magnitude of electric power supplied to the first heating unit at first timing, and also repeatedly changes the magnitude of electric power supplied to the second heating unit at second timing different from the first timing.

Claims (14)

1. A method of controlling an incubator, the method comprising:

humidifying an incubation space of the incubator;

heating inner surfaces surrounding the incubation space with electric power supplied to heaters, respectively, the heaters being provided to heat the inner surfaces, respectively; and

periodically and repeatedly changing a magnitude of the electric power supplied to each of the heaters at predetermined timing different from each other.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the magnitude of the electric power supplied to each of the heaters is changed between a first magnitude and a second magnitude; and

the first magnitude is to provide first electric power to each heater, and the second magnitude is to provide second electric power that is greater than that of the first electric power, both the first electric power and the second electric power maintaining each heater to turn on.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein a period during which one of the first and second magnitudes are maintained is variable.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the period for one of the heaters is different from that of another one of the heaters.

5. A method of controlling an incubator, the method comprising:

humidifying an incubation space of the incubator;

supplying electric power to heaters to heat inner surfaces surrounding the incubation space; and

controlling a magnitude of electric power supplied to each heater to repeatedly change a temperature distribution within the incubation space, wherein

the controlling includes at least first to third temperature distribution patterns to control the heaters, and controls the heaters to periodically change the temperature distribution based on the at least first to third temperature distribution patterns.

Priority Claims (1)
JP 2015-069862 · Mar 30, 2015 · national
Continuity (3)
Continuation 15719323 · Sep 28, 2017
Continuation PCTJP2016057908 · Mar 14, 2016
Related Publication 20190211301A1 · Jul 11, 2019