JPH08252155A - Mirror with surface defogging function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To uniformly defog the surface of a mirror in a short time by energizing and heating the electrically conductive material in a mirror body member from electrodes connected to the material. CONSTITUTION: If a mirror attached to an installation surface 10 such as a washstand is clouded up with the use of warm water, for example, the power switch is turned on. Power is supplied to electrodes 2a, 2b through lead wires and then to a conductive film 5 on the back of a conductive glass. As the result, the electric current is made to flow to the whole surface of the conductive film 5 causing the film 5 to generate heat and function as a heater. Then, the temperature of the conductive film 5 heats a reflection substance coat 3 and a protective coat 11 positioned on the surface of the mirror, thereby evaporating the dew condensation on the surface in a short time and enabling the cloud to be removed uniformly. At this time, since the plane glass 4 side of the conductive glass as the mirror body member 1 faces a user facing and using the mirror in the direction of the arrow, he is cafe and free from electrical shock even if coming into contact with the mirror.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention heats a surface of a mirror installed in a place with a large amount of water vapor such as a bathroom or a washroom or a place with a large change in environmental temperature to cause the water vapor to condense and become cloudy. With respect to a defrosting mirror that is removed or prevented by the above method, in particular, in the case of a surface mirror in which the surface of the mirror body member is mirror-finished, the back surface side or the thick portion of the mirror body member is directly heated The present invention relates to a safe defrosting surface mirror that can remove uniformly in a short time and is safe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When air containing water vapor comes into contact with a mirror installed in a place with a lot of water vapor such as a bathroom or a washroom or a place where environmental temperature changes greatly, the surface temperature of the mirror is below the dew point of the water vapor. In this case, the water vapor in contact therewith is cooled to cause condensation and dew condensation, and the surface of the mirror becomes cloudy. In order to remove or prevent such fog on the mirror surface, anti-fog mirrors have been conventionally provided. This type of anti-fog mirror has, for example, a nichrome wire formed in a meandering shape on a part of the back side of the mirror having a reflective substance attached to the back surface of the glass, as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3-106971. And an antifogging heater attached to an insulating panel or the like is provided. And
When using it in a washroom, etc., the nichrome wire is heated by energizing the anti-fog heater from a household power source through a switch to heat the surface of the mirror at this temperature, and the dew condensation adhered to the surface. Was to be evaporated to remove haze.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional anti-fogging mirror, since the anti-fogging heater is separately provided on the back surface of the mirror, even if the nichrome wire is energized to be heated. The temperature was first conducted to the back surface of the glass, and after heating the glass itself having a thickness of about 3 to 5 mm, the temperature on the surface of the mirror started to rise. Therefore, it takes time for the surface temperature of the mirror to rise above the dew point of water vapor,
It may take, for example, 5 to 6 minutes for the haze on the mirror surface to completely disappear. With this, the user could not wait until the cloudiness of the mirror disappeared, and the user wiped it off with a towel or the like. Further, since the above-mentioned anti-fog heater uses a nichrome wire formed in a meandering shape as a heat source, it is not possible to cover the entire back surface of the mirror all over, and only the portion of the nichrome wire heated by electricity is applied. Even if the fog disappeared well, the fog did not disappear so much in other parts and the peripheral part of the mirror, and unevenness in removing the fog sometimes occurred. In this case, it cannot be said that the anti-fog mirror is fully functioning. Further, the conventional anti-fog mirror has not been applied to a surface mirror formed by subjecting the surface of the mirror body member to mirror surface processing.

Therefore, the present invention addresses such a problem and directly heats the rear surface side or the thick portion of the mirror body member in a surface mirror formed by subjecting the surface of the mirror body member to mirror finishing. An object of the present invention is to provide a safe defrosting surface mirror that can remove haze on the surface of the mirror in a short time and uniformly.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the defrosting surface mirror according to the present invention is made of an insulating material in the shape of a plate, and a conductive material is integrally formed on the back surface side or the thick portion of the surface over substantially the entire surface. Specifically formed mirror body member, an elongated thin plate electrode provided on the back surface of the mirror body member at a predetermined interval and connected to the conductive material and supplied with power from a power source, and the mirror body member. The reflective material coat formed to be a mirror surface on the surface of the mirror, and the transparent and hard protective coat formed on the surface of the reflective material coat to cover the entire surface of the reflective material coat. The conductive material is heated by energizing the material.

The mirror body member may be conductive glass in which a thin film-shaped conductive film is formed by impregnating or film-forming a conductive material on the back surface of plate-shaped glass.

Further, the mirror body member may be a conductive plastic in which a thin film-shaped conductive film is formed by impregnating or film-coating a conductive material on the back surface of a member formed of a plastic plate.

Furthermore, the mirror body member may be one in which a heater wire is embedded in a net shape in a thick portion of a plate-shaped member made of plastic.

[0009]

The defrosting front surface mirror thus constructed has a predetermined shape on the back surface of the mirror body member which is formed of an insulating material in a plate shape and integrally formed with a conductive material over the entire back surface side or inside the thick portion. By heating the conductive material by energizing the conductive material of the mirror main body member from the electrodes which are installed at intervals and connected to the conductive material, the back surface side or the thick portion of the mirror main body member is heated. Of the conductive material formed over substantially the entire surface of the mirror main body member, a reflective material coat on the surface of the mirror body member, and a protective coat formed over the entire surface of the mirror body member to heat the surface of the mirror. To work. Thereby, the back surface side or the thick portion of the mirror body member is directly heated, the dew condensation on the surface of the mirror is evaporated in a short time to remove the fogging, and the fogging can be uniformly removed. Moreover, there is no danger of electric shock and it is safe.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a central transverse sectional view showing an embodiment of a defrosting front surface mirror according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view showing a state seen from the back surface side. This defrosting surface mirror can be removed or prevented by heating, when a mirror installed in a place with a lot of water vapor such as a bathroom or a washroom or a place where the environmental temperature changes greatly has vaporized water vapor on the surface to become cloudy due to condensation. As shown in FIG. 1, the mirror body member 1, the electrodes 2a,
2b, the reflective material coat 3, and the protective coat 11 are combined.

The mirror body member 1 serves as a mirror body, and the back side thereof functions as a heater. The mirror body member 1 is formed of an insulating material in a plate shape, and the conductive material is integrally formed over substantially the entire back side. . Specifically, the mirror main body member 1 has a thin conductive film 5 integrally formed by impregnating or filming a conductive material on the back surface of a transparent glass plate 4 having a thickness of about 3 to 5 mm. It consists of a formed conductive glass. Such a conductive glass may be obtained by pasting, on one surface of the plate-like glass 4, a conductive raw material such as tin (Sn) made into a fine powder in a molten liquid state, applying it by spray coating, or the like. It is manufactured by forming the conductive film 5 by applying it by a roll coating method. Alternatively, in the plate glass manufacturing process, tin (Sn) is used on the float line.
CV in the process of continuously flowing molten glass to the upper surface of the water tank of
The conductive film 5 made of an extremely thin tin oxide film (SnOx) may be integrally formed on one surface of the plate-shaped glass 4 by the D method (chemical vapor deposition method). In this case, since the conductive film 5 made of the tin oxide film has a thickness of, for example, about 300 to 3000 Å and is almost transparent, and is stable and uniform, it is used as the conductive glass as the mirror body member 1 of the present invention. Is preferably manufactured by the above CVD method. The sheet resistance of the conductive film 5 of conductive glass manufactured by this CVD method is, for example, 10 to 1000 Ω / □. Therefore, when a current is passed through the conductive film 5 having such a sheet resistance, the conductive film 5 generates heat and functions as a heater.

Electrodes 2a and 2b are provided on the surface of the conductive film 5 of the conductive glass, that is, on the back surface of the mirror body member 1 so as to be connected to the conductive film 5. These electrodes 2a, 2b
Is for supplying electric power to the conductive film 5 of the conductive glass, and is formed in a thin thin plate shape with a conductive material such as silver, copper or aluminum. As shown in FIG. 2, it is installed at both end portions and is supplied with electric power from a power source (not shown). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the electrodes 2a and 2b are
The lead wires 6a and 6b are connected to the respective end portions of the plugs, and the plugs 7 provided at the end portions of the lead wires 6a and 6b are connected to a commercial power source such as AC 100V or 240V. There is. A switch 8 for turning on the power is provided in the middle of the lead wire 6a or 6b. A thermostat may be added in the middle of the lead wire 6a or 6b in order to keep the heating temperature of the conductive film 5 constant. Further, a transformer may be inserted in the middle of the lead wires 6a and 6b to boost the power supply voltage without directly connecting to a commercial power supply such as AC 100V or 240V. Furthermore, the lead wires 6a,
A timer for limiting the time of power supply may be inserted in the middle of 6b.

As shown in FIG. 1, an insulating coat 9 is provided on the surface of the conductive film 5 of conductive glass on which the electrodes 2a and 2b are provided. The insulating coat 9 is intended to prevent electric shock due to the conductive film 5 of the conductive glass, and is formed in a thin film form with an insulating material such as silicone, silicon resin, acrylic resin, glass film or an inorganic raw material. The back surface of the conductive glass on which the electrodes 2a and 2b are installed covers the entire surface of the conductive film 5 and the electrodes 2a and 2b, and is provided by sticking or coating. Alternatively, the insulating coat 9 may be formed by laminating or physically assembling an insulating film.

On the surface of the conductive glass as the mirror body member 1 on the side of the plate-shaped glass 4, that is, the surface of the mirror body member 1,
The reflective material coat 3 is provided so as to be a mirror surface.
The reflective material coat 3 is formed on the surface of the mirror body member 1 and serves as a reflective surface of the mirror. For example, a silver-based material such as silver nitrate is coated in a film shape, or aluminum is deposited by vapor deposition. Has been formed.

The entire surface of the reflective material coat 3 formed on the surface of the mirror body member 1 is covered with a transparent and hard protective coat 11. The protective coat 11 protects the reflective substance coat 3 formed on the surface of the plate-shaped glass 4 from being peeled off or scratched. For example, the protective coat 11 is made of the same material as the insulating coat 9 described above. After forming a film having a thickness of, for example, about 0.2 to 1 μm on the coat 3, it is transparent and exhibits a certain degree of hardness (for example, a pencil hardness of about 8 to 9H). The protective coat 11 need only be transparent and hard, and need not have insulating properties.

The defoaming surface mirror thus constructed is shown in FIG.
In, the insulating coat 9 is faced to the installation surface 10 such as a toilet makeup unit or a toilet unit, an attachment site in a bathroom unit or other appropriate attachment site, and the surface on which the reflective substance coat 3 and the protective coat 11 are formed is It is attached to the installation surface 10 so as to face the user side as shown by arrow A. In this case, the insulation coat 9 may be omitted if the safety of the installation surface 10 side can be ensured.

In order to use the defoaming surface mirror having the above-described structure, for example, when the mirror surface becomes fogged by the use of hot water in a state where it is mounted on the installation surface 10 such as a washbasin unit, it is previously shown in FIG. The switch 8 is turned on while the plug 7 is connected to a commercial power source (not shown). Then
Electric power is supplied to the electrodes 2a and 2b through the lead wires 6a and 6b, and the electrodes 2a and 2b are energized to the conductive film 5 on the back surface side of the conductive glass shown in FIG. As a result, a current flows through the entire surface of the conductive film 5, and the conductive film 5 generates heat and functions as a heater. The reflective material coat 3 and the protective coat 11 located on the surface of the mirror at the temperature of the conductive film 5.
Can be heated to evaporate the dew condensation adhering to the surface in a short time to uniformly remove the haze. At this time,
As is clear from the above, since the plate-shaped glass 4 side of the conductive glass as the mirror main body member 1 faces the user side facing the direction of the arrow A, even if they come into contact with each other, electric shock may occur. It is safe without it. The above switch 8
If the conductive film 5 is always energized by turning on in advance,
It is possible to prevent the mirror surface from becoming cloudy by using hot water or the like.

FIG. 3 shows the electrode 2 in the defrosting surface mirror of the present invention.
It is a back surface explanatory view showing the modification of the installation state of a and 2b.
FIG. 3A shows a state in which the electrodes 2a and 2b are installed on the upper side and the lower side of the mirror body member 1, respectively. FIG. 3 (b)
Shows a state in which the electrodes 2a and 2b are installed in a substantially L shape from both side portions of the mirror body member 1 to the upper side portion or the lower side portion. FIG. 3C shows a state in which one electrode 2a is installed so as to surround the periphery of the mirror body member 1 and the other electrode 2b is installed in the central portion of the mirror body member 1.
And FIG.3 (d) has shown an example at the time of applying to a large mirror about the same size as a door or a window,
1 shows a state in which the side portions in the longitudinal direction of the mirror body member 1 and electrodes 2a, 2b having a shape that enters the inside of the mirror body 1 at a right angle from the middle of the side portions are opposed to each other. By doing so, electric power can be effectively supplied to the entire surface of the conductive film 5 even with a large mirror.

As another form of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, as the mirror body member 1, not the conductive glass but the conductive glass is used.
As in FIG. 1, using a conductive plastic in which a thin film-shaped conductive film 5 is formed by impregnating or film-forming a conductive material on the back surface of a member (corresponding to the plate-shaped glass 4) formed in a plate shape with plastic. Good. The mirror body member 1 is not necessarily limited to glass, and any material that can be formed into a plate shape with an insulating material may be used, and plastic that is easily processed is suitable. The function and effect in this case are exactly the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a central cross-sectional view showing still another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, as the mirror body member 1 shown in FIG. 1, a heater wire 13 such as a nichrome wire is used as a conductive material in a mesh shape in a thick portion of a plate-like plastic 12 which is formed of plastic rather than conductive glass. It is the one that is buried in. Then, when the plate-shaped plastic 12 is manufactured, the heater wires 13 assembled in a mesh shape in a matrix in the vertical and horizontal directions are embedded almost all over the central portion of the thick portion. After that, the plate-shaped plastic 1
When the electrodes 2a and 2b are installed on the back surface of the electrode 2 at a predetermined interval, the wire around the heater wire 13 is attached to the electrode 2
It may be connected to a and 2b. Others are exactly the same as the embodiment of FIG. In this case, by supplying electric power through the electrodes 2a and 2b, the heater wire 13 is energized, and the heater wire 13 generates heat to function as a heater.
Therefore, like the embodiment of FIG. 1, it is possible to vaporize the dew adhered to the protective coat 11 on the surface of the mirror body member 1 in a short time to uniformly remove the fogging. Also in this case, the arrow A
Since the surface of the plate-shaped plastic 12 as the mirror body member 1 faces the user side who uses it as shown in FIG.
Even if they come in contact with each other, there is no danger of electric shock and it is safe.

In the above description, the front shape of the mirror body member 1 is shown as a rectangular shape, but the shape is not limited to this and may be any shape such as triangular, polygonal or circular. Further, the mirror body member 1 is not limited to a flat plate shape, but may be a curved surface shape such as a convex curved surface or a concave curved surface, or a bent shape bent at an appropriate angle such as a right angle. Furthermore, the use of the mirror is not limited to that used in a bathroom or a washroom, but it can be used in an atmosphere with a large amount of water, as long as it is necessary to remove or prevent clouding due to condensation of water vapor. It can also be applied to a mirror for use.

[0022]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
The mirror body member is formed of an insulating material in the shape of a plate and is integrally formed with a conductive material over the entire back surface side or inside the thick portion. The mirror body member is installed at a predetermined interval and connected to the conductive material. From the electrode, the conductive material of the mirror body member is energized to heat the conductive material, whereby the conductive material formed on the back surface side of the mirror body member or substantially all over the thick portion functions as a heater. It is possible to heat the surface of the mirror which is composed of a mirror body member, a reflective material coat on the surface thereof, and a protective coat formed over the entire surface of the mirror body member. As a result, it is possible to directly heat the back surface side or the thick portion of the mirror body member to evaporate the dew condensation on the surface of the mirror in a short time to remove the fog and also to uniformly remove the fog. In particular, in the present invention, a defrosting function can be imparted to the surface mirror formed by subjecting the surface of the mirror body member to mirror surface processing. Since the conductive material exhibiting the defoaming function is formed on the back surface side or the thick portion of the mirror body member, it does not exist on the front surface side where the user is located, and if There is no danger of electric shock even if it comes into contact with the surface, and it is safe. In addition, since a transparent and hard protective coat is formed on the surface of the reflective substance coat which becomes a mirror surface, it is possible to protect the reflective substance coat from being peeled off or scratched. Therefore, a clean mirror surface can be maintained. Further, the defrosting surface mirror of the present invention is not only a mirror having a function to remove fogging, but also utilizes the heater function of the conductive material integrally formed on the mirror body member,
By using the defrosting surface mirror as, for example, a bathroom door itself or a look inside the dressing room, it is possible to exert an effect of gently heating the dressing room and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a central cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a defrosting surface mirror according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view showing a state in which the defrosting front surface mirror is viewed from the back surface side.

FIG. 3 is a back surface explanatory view showing a modified example of the installation state of electrodes in the defrosting surface mirror of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a central cross-sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mirror body member 2a, 2b ... Electrode 3 ... Reflective substance coat 4 ... Plate glass 5 ... Conductive film 9 ... Insulation coat 10 ... Installation surface 11 ... Protective coat 12 ... Plate plastic 13 ... Heater wire

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A mirror body member which is formed of an insulating material in a plate shape and integrally formed with a conductive material over substantially the entire back surface side or inside a thick portion, and a predetermined interval is provided on the back surface of the mirror body member. Is installed and is connected to the conductive material and is supplied with power from a power source, an elongated thin plate electrode, a reflective material coat formed to be a mirror surface on the surface of the mirror body member, and a reflective material coat It is formed by combining a transparent and hard protective coat formed on the surface to cover the entire surface, and the conductive material of the mirror body member is heated by energizing the conductive material of the mirror body member. Cloudy surface mirror. 2. The mirror body member is a conductive glass in which a thin conductive film is formed by impregnating or filming a conductive material on the back surface of a plate glass. Cloudy surface mirror. 3. The mirror body member is a conductive plastic in which a thin film-shaped conductive film is formed by impregnating or film-forming a conductive material on the back surface of a plate-shaped member made of plastic. The defrosting surface mirror according to claim 1. 4. The defrosting surface mirror according to claim 1, wherein the mirror body member is formed by burying a heater wire in a mesh shape in a thick portion of a plate-shaped member made of plastic.