Apparatus for controlling an ozone generator

Abstract

The invention provides an ozone generator controlling apparatus capable of controlling an ozone generator so that when a discharge breakdown occurs in some discharge element, the operation of generating ozone can be continued without imposing a bad influence on the remaining normal discharge elements. When an anomaly occurs in one of or a plurality of discharge elements during the operation of generating ozone, the anomaly is detected by an anomaly detection means. In response to the detection of the anomaly, first output control means reduces the output of an AC power supply circuit to a sufficiently low level so that after the discharge element having the anomaly is isolated from the circuit the operation of generating ozone can be continued with the remaining normal discharge elements without interruption and without causing the normal discharge elements to encounter an overload current thus preventing them from being broken one after another. The discharge element having the anomaly may be isolated using nondestructive current cut-off means such as a high-voltage relay. In this case, the current cut-off means can be used for a very long time without having to replace when a breakdown occurs in some discharge element, unlike the case where a fuse is used as the current cut-off means. When an anomaly occurs in some discharge element, instead of immediately isolating it from the circuit, the output of the AC power supply circuit may be reduced using second output control means until the current detected by the current detection means becomes lower than the predetermined upper allowable limit. This makes it possible to continue the operation of generating ozone without isolating the discharge element having the anomaly.