JPH039571Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Field of industrial application] The present invention relates to a water faucet, and in particular to a water faucet configured to open and close a valve that was conventionally operated manually by a power drive such as a motor. be.

[Prior Art] Water faucets with rotating handles are used in various devices.

With conventional water faucets with rotating handles, when you want to flush water, you have to pinch and rotate the handle of the faucet with your hand.
Open the valve. Also, when you want to stop the water, close the valve by pinching the handle with your hand and rotating it in the opposite direction.

In this way, with this type of conventional faucet handle, it is necessary to directly touch the handle of the water faucet to operate it, making it uncomfortable for an unspecified number of people to touch the handle directly. There is. Furthermore, when attached to a flush urinal, the handle tends to become contaminated and become unusable.

Furthermore, since the valves are opened and closed depending on human actions, it is easy to forget to turn off the water.

In order to solve this problem, the present applicant has proposed a water faucet that is opened and closed by motor drive (Japanese Patent Application No. 60-20017, hereinafter referred to as "prior application"). The hydrant according to this prior application has a hydrant shaft that is screwed into a female threaded hole and shifts in the axial direction by rotation, and is attached to this hydrant shaft, and the valve In a faucet equipped with a valve that cuts and shuts off water passing through the mouth, the faucet shaft is configured to be rotated by a motor.

According to the water faucet related to this earlier application, the human body can be sensed using a photo sensor, for example, and the motor can be operated based on this human body detection signal, so that the water supply can be automatically interrupted without any human intervention. is possible.

[Problems that the invention aims to solve] As mentioned above, with conventional water faucets that require a person to touch the handle directly, there are discomfort caused by touching the handle, hygiene problems, and problems with water supply. There were problems such as forgetting to turn it off.

Additionally, the water faucet proposed by the prior application had the following improvement issues.

Difficult to adjust water supply amount. This is because the prior application uses a gap control system between the valve and the valve opening, and the adjustment of this gap is delicate, making it difficult to accurately fine-tune the amount of water supplied.

Water supply and water stop operations are slow. The hydrant shaft in the prior application shifts in the axial direction by rotating multiple times, thereby opening and closing the valve. Therefore, in order to open and close the valve, the hydrant shaft must rotate multiple times. This is because it will take a long time.

The operation of the gears is complicated. In the faucet of the previous application, the faucet shaft is connected to the motor via a gear, but as the faucet shaft shifts in the axial direction, the meshing position of the gears moves, making the operation complicated. become.

The opening/closing load of the valve is heavy. In the water faucet of the prior application, water is shut off by pressing the valve against the valve opening, and a rubber gasket is attached to this water shutoff portion. It takes a considerable amount of force to overcome the water pressure to move the valve toward the valve port and to press it against the valve port against the elasticity of the rubber, which increases the load for opening and closing the valve.

Valve durability is low. In the water faucet of the prior application, a rubber gasket is used in the water stop portion, so if sand mixed into the piping chews up, this rubber gasket will be damaged and water will leak.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The water faucet of the present invention is provided with a fixed plate and a movable plate that slides on the fixed plate and the plate surface as a valve body for opening and closing the water passage. Water holes that can overlap each other are formed in the fixed plate and the movable plate. In addition, the movable platen is supported by a plate-shaped connecting member,
A shaft body is connected to the connecting member, and a drive means for rotating the shaft body is attached, and a large number of slender columnar projections are erected at a portion of the plate-shaped connecting member facing the water inlet of the movable plate. . Preferably, the fixed platen and the movable platen are each made of ceramic.

[Function] In the faucet of the present invention, when the shaft body is rotated, the movable platen also rotates. Then, when the movable platen is stopped so that the water holes on the movable platen and the fixed platen are aligned,
Water flows at maximum flow rate. Furthermore, if the movable platen is stopped at a position where the water inlets do not overlap at all, water is completely shut off. When the movable plate is stopped at an intermediate position between these positions, water flows at a restricted flow rate. Also,
By making the fixed plate and the movable plate made of ceramic, wear resistance and corrosion resistance are significantly increased, resulting in a long service life. When a large number of slender column-shaped protrusions are erected at a portion of the plate-shaped connecting member facing the water inlet of the movable plate, the sound of running water generated when the water flow collides with the connecting member is reduced.

[Example] Examples will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of installing a hydrant according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows an example in which a hydrant 10 is installed in a water pipe of a urinal 12. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of this water faucet 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, this faucet 10 includes a faucet body 14 and a motor 16 for operating a valve device built into the faucet body 14. Reference numeral 18 denotes a first gear, which is connected to the rotating shaft of the motor 16, and a second gear 20 which is directly connected to a valve device built into the faucet body 14.
It's meshing with each other. Water flows into the faucet main body 14 through the inlet 22 and flows out through the outlet 24. Reference numeral 26 is a cap nut for connecting piping to the outlet 24.

Next, details of the configuration of the water tap 10 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 8.

Reference numeral 28 denotes a casing that forms the outside of the faucet main body 14, and has a valve device 30 built therein. A plate 32 for supporting the motor 16 is integrated into the casing 28, and the motor 16 is fixed with bolts 34. Reference numeral 36 is a main stopper, which has a screw shaft 38 screwed into the casing 28, and a valve body 40 attached to the tip of the screw shaft 38 can be moved into and out of contact with the edge of the opening 42. .

The valve device 30, as shown enlarged in FIG.
a cap 44, a shaft 46 inserted through the cap 44,
A movable platen 50 attached to the tip side of the shaft body 46 via a connecting member 48, a fixed platen 52 that slides with the movable platen 50, a support ring 54 that accommodates the movable platen 50 and the fixed platen 52, and a diameter It is composed of a pin 56 etc. inserted in the direction.

As shown in a side view in FIG. 5, the cap 44 has a flange 44a and a male thread 44b carved on the side circumferential surface on the distal side of the flange 44a, and is screwed into and fixed to the casing 28. There is. The cap 44 is attached to a shaft body 46 as shown in FIG.
are inserted inside and combined.

As shown in FIG. 6, the support ring 54 has a window hole 54a on its side, water flows in through the opening 54b on the leading side (see FIG. 4), and water flows out through the window hole 54a. It is considered possible. Support ring 5
4 has a nut-shaped portion 54c formed on the rear end side, and the center hole 44c on the front end side of the base 44 has a hexagonal hole shape that fits into this nut-shaped portion 54c. A notch 54d is provided on the rear end side of the nut-shaped portion 54c, and the pin 56 can reciprocate within the width of the notch 54d. Shaft body 4
The rotation angle of 6 is regulated.

As shown in FIG. 7, when the pin 56 is removed, the support ring 54 can be removed from the shaft body 46. As shown in FIG. 7 and the next FIG. 8, the shaft body 46 has a cylindrical portion 46a and a gear mounting portion
6b, and a spline is carved in the gear mounting portion 46b. As shown in FIG. 8, a square hole 46c is provided on the distal end side of the shaft body 46, and a square column 48a provided integrally with the connecting member 48 is fitted into this square hole 46c. The connecting member 48 has this prism 48a and a disk portion 48b,
Protrusions 48c are provided on the front side of the disc portion 48b so as to face each other on both ends in the diametrical direction. Reference numeral 49 indicates a washer.

In this embodiment, the movable platen 50 and the fixed platen 52 are made of ceramic such as alumina.

The movable platen 50 has a fan-shaped cutout at two locations facing each other in the diametrical direction of the disk, and the cutout portions 50a act as water holes. Movable plate 50
is provided with a recess 50b, and this recess 5
0b fits into the protrusion 48c of the connecting member 48. Thereby, the rotational force of the shaft body 46 is transmitted to the movable platen 50 via the connecting member 48, and the movable platen 50 is rotated. As clearly shown in FIG. 12, a large number of thin columnar projections 48 are provided in the portion of the disk portion 48b of the connecting member 48 that faces the notch portion 50a.
d is erected.

The fixed platen 52 is provided with two fan-shaped window holes 52a as water inlets, and these window holes 52a
have the same fan-opening angle as the notch 50a of the movable platen 50, and are provided facing each other in the diametrical direction. A recess 52b is provided on the side circumference of the fixed plate 52, and this recess 52b engages with a protrusion 54a (see FIG. 4) protruding from the inner circumferential surface of the support ring 54, and the fixed plate 52 is fixed so that it does not rotate together with the movable platen 50.

In addition, as shown in the figure, an O-ring 46 is attached to the shaft body 46.
e is fitted, and the flange portion 44a of the cap 44
A packing 44d is fitted inside, and a support ring 54
A packing 54c is arranged on the inner circumferential surface of the distal end side,
Each one is doing a seal.

In the water faucet configured in this way, when the motor 16 is rotated, the rotational force is transferred to the first gear 1.
8. transmitted to the shaft body 46 via the second gear 20;
The movable platen 50 is rotated via the connecting member 48.
The rotation range of the shaft body 46 is the range in which the pin 56 can move within the notch 54d, and is 90° in the illustrated example. On the other hand, a fixed platen 52 sliding with the movable platen 50
is locked to the support ring 54, so the movable platen 5
0 rotates, the fixed plate 52 does not rotate together. Therefore, the overlap between the cutout portion 50a and the window hole 52a changes as the shaft body 46 rotates, and water flow and water stoppage are performed.

FIG. 9 to FIG. 11 are diagrams showing examples of overlapping of the movable platen 50 and the fixed platen 52. FIG. 9 shows a state in which the notch 50a of the movable platen 50 is closed by the fixed platen 52. In this state, water is completely cut off. As shown in FIG. 10, when the movable platen 50 rotates by 45 degrees, the window hole 52a of the fixed platen 52 becomes about half open, and water is allowed to pass through with the amount of water being reduced. Furthermore, the movable platen 50 is rotated, and the notch 50
When a and the window hole 52a are completely aligned, the 11th
As shown in the figure, the window hole 52a is fully opened and water is passed through at the maximum flow rate.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 12, a large number of thin columnar projections 48d are erected on the disk portion 48b of the connecting member 48, thereby forming the window hole 52a.
The sound of running water generated when the water passes through and collides with the connecting member 48 is reduced.

In the present invention, a human body detection sensor is connected to the control unit for driving the motor, and each time the urinal 12 is used, the motor 16 is operated and the valve device 30 is kept open for the necessary time. It may be configured to allow water to flow. As such a human body sensor, various types can be used, such as a phototube type sensor or an ultrasonic type sensor.

In addition, when water flow control is performed using a human body sensing sensor, a configuration may be adopted in which water flow control can be performed according to the state of use of the urinal. For example, detailed control may be performed such that a small amount of water is allowed to flow through the urinal when the urinal is in use, and a large amount of flushing water is allowed to flow through the urinal after urinating. Since the device of the present invention changes the flow path cross-sectional area of the water inlet by sliding the movable platen and the fixed platen, it is possible to perform such detailed water flow control extremely accurately.

In this embodiment, the movable platen 50 and the fixed platen 5
2 are made of ceramic, so even if sand or the like gets into the water tap, the movable plate 50 and the fixed plate 5
2, and since ceramic has high corrosion resistance, the durability of the water stop portion is almost semi-permanent.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, by moving the shaft body 69 within a range of 90 degrees, switching between water stop and water flow can be performed, and the water supply and water stop operations are extremely quick.

In this embodiment, a motor is used as a drive device for the shaft body 46, but a solenoid may also be used.

Further, the main valve 36 is normally in an open state, and is used to adjust the water force or to shut off the water during repairs.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the water faucet of the present invention, the valve is driven by power, so that the water flow can be controlled without manual operation. Therefore, it is extremely hygienic, and discomfort during use can be eliminated. Furthermore, by automatically supplying water and stopping water, it is possible to reliably supply water and stop water, thereby realizing water conservation.

In the present invention, since the water stop part is of a sliding type with a movable plate and a fixed plate, it is easy to adjust the opening area of the water inlet and finely adjust the amount of water supplied. In addition, only a small amount of rotation of the shaft is sufficient, and water supply and water stop operations are quick. Furthermore, since the connecting member has a large number of slender columnar protrusions erected, the sound of running water is small.

In the present invention, since the shaft does not shift in the axial direction when rotating, the gear mechanism for rotating the shaft does not undergo any positional change, resulting in smooth operation.

In addition, it is also possible to improve the durability of the valve by making the fixed plate and the movable plate made of ceramic.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of installing a hydrant according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a hydrant according to an embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a hydrant according to an embodiment. 4 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a side view of the valve device, FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 are explanatory diagrams of assembly of the valve device, and FIGS. 9, 10, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the movable platen and the fixed platen, and FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the connecting member. 10... Water faucet, 22... Inlet, 24... Outlet, 30... Valve device, 46... Shaft, 50...
Movable plate, 52...Fixed plate.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a water faucet equipped with a water passage leading from an inlet to an outlet and a valve body for opening and closing this water passage, the valve body is a fixed plate provided in a direction to cut off the water passage, and the fixed plate and the plate surface are connected to each other. A sliding movable plate is provided,
The fixed plate and the movable plate are formed with water inlets that can be overlapped with each other, the movable plate is supported by a plate-shaped connecting member, a shaft body is connected to the connecting member, and a shaft body for rotating the shaft body is formed. A water faucet, characterized in that a driving means is attached thereto, and a large number of slender column-shaped projections are erected at a portion of the plate-shaped connecting member facing the water inlet of the movable plate.