JPH10156345A - Water purifier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable each of plural different kinds of filter to be used up to its life. SOLUTION: Filter devices 9-11 exchangeably housing a different kind of a filter cartridge 16 is successively and detachably connected to each other through an introducing pipe 26, connecting pipes 27-29 and a discharge pipe. Each filter device 9-11 is constituted so that the different kind of the filter cartridge 16 is exchangeably housed. Each filter device 9-11 has the same structure to enable the filter cartridge 16 to be used in common.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water purifier for purifying water, such as tap water, through a plurality of types of filters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various water purifiers of this kind have been proposed. The filter of such a water purifier is formed by sequentially laminating a plurality of different types of filter layers formed of a single material such as a nonwoven fabric and activated carbon. Therefore, when the filter is replaced, all the filter layers are replaced.

[0003] The impurities to be filtered by each filter layer are determined for each type of filter layer. For example, a filter layer made of a nonwoven fabric mainly filters algae, rust, turbidity, and the like. The filter layer made of activated carbon mainly removes trihalomethane. Then, when purified water such as tap water is introduced into the filter device, each filter layer sequentially removes each impurity.

[0004]

The purified water actually purified by the water purifier includes various types such as well water, underground water, and fresh water, in addition to tap water. These purified waters
The content of each impurity is different for each water to be purified. For example, well water and underground water have higher algae and germ contents and lower chlorine content than tap water. Therefore, the amount of each impurity removed by each filter layer of the water purifier differs for each water to be purified.

However, the filter of the above-mentioned water purifier is simply formed by sequentially laminating a plurality of filter layers having a predetermined capacity. Does not match the content of impurities.
That is, the life of a specific filter layer is shorter than the life of other filter layers depending on the type of the water to be purified. As a result, the entire filter had to be replaced with a new one even though other filter layers could still be used, resulting in wasted use of filter layers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a water purifier having a plurality of different types of filters so that each filter can be used for its life. It is to make.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 has a flow path for introducing purified water supplied from the outside from one side and discharging the purified water from the other side to the outside again. A plurality of different types of filters provided in order in the flow path and filtering water flowing through the flow path in order, wherein each of the filters is individually formed for each type, and the flow path Provided with a filter accommodating means for accommodating the filters in a replaceable manner.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the filter accommodating means comprises a plurality of independent filter accommodating means, each accommodating one filter.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, the filter accommodating means is detachable from the flow path. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the filters individually formed for each of a plurality of different types are exchangeably housed in the filter housing means provided in the flow path. Therefore, each of a plurality of different types of filters can be replaced independently.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect is provided.
In addition to the effect of the invention described in the above, each filter is accommodated one by one in a plurality of filter accommodation means. Therefore,
Each filter can be replaced for each filter accommodating means.

According to the invention described in claim 3, according to claim 2
In addition to the operation of the invention described in (1), since each filter accommodating means can be attached to and detached from the flow path, each filter accommodating means can be replaced with another filter accommodating means having a different filter capacity.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a plan view for explaining the structure of a water purifier 1 of the present embodiment,
2 and 3 are cross-sectional views, respectively. Water purifier 1
Has a base 2. The base 2 is formed in a square shape by a metal plate, and two openings 2a and 2b are formed on one side thereof. Two sets of mounting portions 3 and 4 are fixedly provided on the bottom surface of the base 2. The mounting base 3 is composed of a pair of projecting portions 6 forming a mounting groove 5. Similarly, the mounting portion 4 includes a pair of projecting portions 8 forming a mounting groove 7.

First to third filter devices 9, 10, and 11 are sequentially arranged on the mounting portion 3, and fourth to sixth filter devices 12, 13 and 14 are sequentially mounted on the mounting portion 4. It is arranged. Since all of the filter devices 9 to 14 have the same structure, the first filter device 9 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 5, the first filter device 9 includes a base 15, a filter cartridge 16 and a cover 1.
7 is comprised. The base portion 15 is formed of a hard synthetic resin, and includes a bottomed cylindrical housing portion 15a and a connection portion 18 protruding downward from the bottom surface thereof. The connection unit 18
It is formed in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped and has the same width as the mounting grooves 5 and 7. As shown in FIG. 4, an introduction hole 19 for introducing purified water is formed on one side of the connecting portion 18 in the longitudinal direction, and the other side is for discharging filtered water obtained by filtering the purified water. Discharge holes 20 are formed. An annular protruding portion 15b is formed inside the base portion 15. Projection 1
An inflow hole 21 communicating with the introduction hole 19 is formed on the outer side of 5b, and an outflow hole 22 communicating with the discharge hole 20 is formed on the inner peripheral side of the projection 15a. The base 15 is fixed to the base 3 by fitting the connecting portion 18 into the mounting groove 5. A male screw part 15c is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the accommodation part 15a.
Are formed.

The filter cartridge 16 is formed with a cylindrical filter portion 24 interposed between a pair of annular lids 23 and has a center hole 25 penetrating in the axial direction.
The lid 23 is formed of an elastic material such as an elastomer. The filter cartridge 16 filters the water to be purified by passing the water from the outer peripheral surface to the inner peripheral surface of the filter unit 24,
The filtered water, from which the water to be purified is filtered, is discharged from the central hole 25. The filter portion 24 is formed of any single filter material such as a nonwoven fabric or a filter material containing activated carbon, and has the same shape regardless of the type of the filter material.

The cover 17 has a female screw portion 17a formed inside the lower portion thereof, and is screwed to a male screw portion 15c formed on the outer peripheral surface of the housing portion 15a. As a result, the cover 17 is fixed to the base 15. When the cover 17 is fixed to the base 15, the upper surface of the lid 23 on the upper side of the filter cartridge 16 and the upper inner peripheral surface of the cover 17 form a chamber in which only the center hole 25 communicates. At the same time, the lower lid 2 of the filter cartridge 16
The lower surface of 3 is in contact with the upper surface of protrusion 15b, and only center hole 25 communicates with outflow hole 22. In addition, a gap that forms a flow path is formed between the inner peripheral surface excluding the upper portion of the cover 17 and the entire outer peripheral surface of the filter unit 24, and this gap has an inflow hole 19.
Only communicate. At this time, since the lid 23 is formed of an elastic material such as an elastomer, each chamber is securely sealed.

That is, a chamber is formed by the cover 17 and the base 15, and this chamber is
Divided into two rooms. Here, the inflow hole 21 communicates with a chamber defined by the outer peripheral surface of the filter unit 24, and the outflow hole 22 communicates with a chamber defined by the inner peripheral surface of the filter unit 24. Then, the filter device 9 filters the purified water introduced from the introduction hole 19 by the filter unit 24 and discharges the purified water from the discharge hole 20 as filtered water.

In the filter device 9, the cover 17 can be removed from the base 15 while the base 15 is fixed to the base 3, and the filter cartridge 16 can be replaced. Accordingly, the filter device 9 can be used by exchanging the filter cartridge 16 made of a plurality of different types of filter materials such as nonwoven fabric and activated carbon. Since each of the filter devices 9 to 14 has the same filter mounting structure, different types of filter cartridges 16 can be used in common. In the present embodiment, the filter cartridge 16 is used as a filter, and the base 15 and the cover 17 are used as filter accommodation means.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an inlet tube 19 connected to a tap water tap (not shown) is detachably connected to the inlet hole 19 of the first filter device 9 through the opening 2a. ing. A connection pipe 27 is detachably connected to the discharge hole 20 of the first filter device 9, and the connection pipe 27 is detachably connected to the introduction hole 19 of the second filter device 10 through the mounting groove 5. The first filter device 9 includes the introduction pipe 2
The purified water supplied from 6 is filtered and supplied to the second filter device 10.

Similarly, the second filter device filters the filtered water discharged from the first filter device and discharges the filtered water to the third filter via the connecting pipe 28. The third filter device 11
The filtered water discharged from the filter device 10 is filtered to connect the connection pipe 2
Fourth filter device 1 arranged on the mounting portion 4 side via
Discharge to 2.

The fourth filter device 12 filters the filtered water discharged from the third filter device 11 and discharges the filtered water to the fifth filter device 13 through the connecting pipe 30.
Filters the filtered water discharged from the fourth filter device 12 and discharges the filtered water to the sixth filter device 14 via the connection pipe 31.
The filtered water discharged by the sixth filter device 14 and the fifth filter device 13 is filtered and discharged to the outside through a discharge pipe 32 discharged to the outside through the opening 2b.

That is, the first to sixth filter devices 9 to 14
Are sequentially connected between the introduction pipe 26 and the discharge pipe 32. In the present embodiment, the introduction pipe 26, the connection pipes 27 to 31
And a discharge pipe 32 as a flow path.

Then, the water purifier 1 configured as described above
When the water to be purified is supplied from the inlet pipe 26, the water to be purified is sequentially filtered by each of the filter devices 9 to 14, and the discharged water 3
2 is discharged as purified water.

According to the water purifier 1 configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained. (A) The filter cartridges 16 of different types are exchangeably accommodated in the respective filter devices 9 to 14 provided in order in the flow path.
6 can be exchanged independently. As a result, if the life of the filter cartridge 16 of a specific filter device 9 to 14 ends earlier than the filter cartridge 16 of another filter device 9 to 14 due to the content of each impurity in the water to be purified, Device 9
Only the filter cartridges 16 to 14 can be replaced with new filter cartridges 16. That is,
Filter cartridge 1 of all filter devices 9 to 14
6 can be used for its lifetime.

(B) The plurality of filter devices 9 to 14 are independent of each other, and each of them accommodates one filter cartridge 16. Therefore, replacement of each filter cartridge 16 is performed for each of the filter devices 9 to 14. It can be carried out. As a result, replacement of each filter cartridge 16 becomes easy.

(C) Since each of the filter devices 9 to 14 can be attached to and detached from the flow path, it can be replaced with another filter device having a different capacity of the filter cartridge 16 to be housed. Therefore, the capacities of different types of filter cartridges 16 can be appropriately set. As a result, the life of each filter can be made uniform by setting the capacity of each filter in accordance with the content of each impurity in the water to be purified. For this reason, since the replacement time of each filter cartridge 16 can be matched, the filter replacement operation can be facilitated.

(D) Since each of the filter devices 9 to 14 can exchange and accommodate a plurality of different types of filter cartridges 16, the types of the plurality of types of filter cartridges 16 constituting the water purifier 1 are different. Each number can be changed. That is, for example, the number of filter cartridges 16 made of nonwoven fabric can be increased, and the number of filter cartridges 16 made of filter material containing activated carbon can be reduced. As a result, the capacity of each type of filter can be changed by appropriately selecting the number of each filter cartridge 16 according to the degree of purification of purified water to be obtained by the water purifier 1 and the type of water to be purified. .

(E) Since the base 15 and the cover 17 forming each of the filter devices 9 to 14 are all the same, the same filter cartridge 16 can be used for any of the filter devices 9 to 14. Therefore, since the filter cartridge 16 used for each of the filter devices 9 to 14 is shared, it is not necessary to prepare a dedicated filter cartridge for each of the filter devices 9 to 14.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be configured as follows. (1) Each of the filter devices 9 to 14 may house a dedicated filter cartridge for filtering a specific impurity. Even in this case, each of the filter devices 9 to 1
The four filter cartridges 16 can be used up to their respective service lives.

(2) A water purifier including a filter device using a filter material using hollow fibers instead of a filter material containing nonwoven fabric and activated carbon may be used. However, in this case, the structure of the filter device is the same as that of the filter devices 9 to 1 described above.
4 is different.

(3) Each of the filter devices 9 to 14 may not be detachable from the flow path. Even in this case, each filter cartridge 16 can be replaced independently.

(4) The number of filter devices 9 to 14 constituting the water purifier 1 may be any number of two or more. (5) In the above-described embodiment, the plurality of independent filter devices 9 to 14 provided in order in the flow path each accommodate one filter cartridge 16. This is 1
One filter device may exchangeably house a plurality of filter cartridges. In this case, the whole water purifier can be made compact.

Hereinafter, in addition to the technical idea described in the claims, the technical idea grasped in each of the above-described embodiments will be described together with its effects. (1) In the water purifier according to the second aspect, each of the filter housing means 15 and 17 has the same filter mounting structure.
According to such a configuration, each filter accommodating means 15, 1
The filter 16 used for the filter 7 can be shared.

[0034]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of different types of filters can be replaced independently of each other, so that each filter can be used for its life. it can.

According to the invention described in claim 2, according to claim 1
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), each filter can be replaced for each filter accommodating means, so that each filter can be easily replaced.

According to the invention of claim 3, according to claim 2,
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), by preparing filters having different capacities, the capacities of the filters can be set in accordance with the content of each impurity in the water to be purified. As a result, the replacement time of each filter can be matched, and the filter replacement operation can be facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a water purifier.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a base.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the filter unit.

[Description of Reference Numerals] 15: base part constituting filter accommodation means, 16 ... filter cartridge as filter, 17 ... cover constituting filter accommodation means, 26 ... introduction pipe as flow path, 2
7 to 31: connecting pipes constituting a flow path, 32: discharge pipes as flow paths.

Claims (3)

[Claims] A flow path for introducing purified water supplied from the outside from one side and discharging the water to the outside from the other side;
And provided in the flow path (26 to 32) in order, and the flow path (26
To 32), a plurality of different types of filters (16) for sequentially filtering the water to be purified, the filters (16) being individually formed for each type, and the flow path ( 26 to 32), each of the filters (16)
Filter accommodation means (1
A water purifier provided with 5, 17). 2. The filter housing means (15, 17).
2. The water purifier according to claim 1, wherein the water purifier comprises a plurality of independent filters, each containing one filter (16). 3. 3. The filter housing means (15, 17).
The water purifier according to claim 2, wherein each of the water purifiers is detachable from the flow path (26 to 32).