CN116490105A

CN116490105A - Hand drier

Info

Publication number: CN116490105A
Application number: CN202080107301.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 泽部健司; 铃村晋也
Original assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corp
Current assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corp
Priority date: 2020-11-27
Filing date: 2020-11-27
Publication date: 2023-07-25
Also published as: US20230337871A1; JP7383177B2; WO2022113291A1; EP4252603A4; EP4252603A1; JPWO2022113291A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a hand dryer for drying wet hands in a toilet, a bathroom, or the like. The hand dryer of the present invention comprises: a frame; a blower provided in the frame; and a nozzle unit provided at a lateral portion of the housing, the lateral portion being located at either one of the left and right sides of the housing when viewed from a user facing the housing, and configured to discharge air sent from the blower to the outside of the housing in a fan shape. In the conventional hand drying device, there is a problem that a part of the user's visual field is blocked by the structure, and the user cannot visually confirm the entire hand and dry the hand. In contrast, according to the hand drying apparatus of the present invention, the user can dry the hand while visually checking the entire hand.

Description

Hand drier

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a hand drying apparatus for drying wet hands in a bathroom, a washroom or the like.

Background

Patent document 1 discloses a hand drying apparatus including a hand drying chamber having an opening into which a user can insert his or her hand, and configured to eject air from an air outlet provided in an upper portion of the hand drying chamber toward a lower hand when the user inserts his or her hand into the hand drying chamber. Patent document 2 discloses a hand dryer including a nozzle region configured to discharge air downward, wherein when a user's hand is inserted below the nozzle region, the air is discharged toward the hand below. The hand dryer disclosed in patent document 2 includes two nozzle regions corresponding to the left and right hands, respectively. The nozzle regions extend across the width of the user's open hand, causing wind to blow against the entire palm or back of the hands.

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2011-130944

Patent document 2: japanese patent laid-open No. 2013-039379

However, in the hand dryer disclosed in patent document 1, when the hand is dried, it is necessary to put the hand under the air outlet inserted into the hand drying chamber. Therefore, there is a problem that a part of the user's visual field is blocked by a structure such as a blowout port, and the user cannot visually confirm the entire hand and dry it.

In the hand dryer described in patent document 2, it is also necessary to put the hand under the nozzle area when the hand is dried. Therefore, there is a problem that a part of the user's visual field is blocked by a structure such as a nozzle area, and the user cannot visually confirm the entire hand and dry it.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a hand drying device that enables a user to dry the hand while visually checking the entire hand.

The hand dryer according to the present disclosure includes: a frame; the blower is arranged in the frame; and a nozzle unit provided at a lateral portion of the housing, the lateral portion being located at either one of the left and right sides of the housing when viewed from a user facing the housing, and configured to discharge air sent from the blower to the outside of the housing in a fan shape.

According to the hand drying device of the present disclosure, the user can dry the hand while visually checking the entire hand.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hand dryer according to a first embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the hand dryer according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a right side view of the hand dryer according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a right side view of the hand dryer according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a front view of a hand dryer according to a second embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a right side view of the hand dryer according to the third embodiment.

Detailed Description

First embodiment

The hand dryer 100 according to the first embodiment will be described below. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hand drying apparatus 100. Fig. 2 is a front view of the hand dryer 100. Fig. 3 is a right side view of the hand drying apparatus 100. As shown in fig. 1 to 3, the hand dryer 100 includes: a frame 1 forming an outline; a blower 3 provided inside the housing 1; and nozzle portions 4a and 4b for ejecting the air sent from the blower 3 to the outside of the housing 1 in a fan shape. Further, the hand dryer 100 includes: hand detection units 5a and 5b for detecting insertion of a user's hand into the outside space of the housing where air is ejected from the nozzle units 4a and 4 b; and a control unit 7 for controlling the operation of the blower 3 based on the detection results of the hand detection units 5a and 5b.

In the present disclosure, when viewed from a user facing the hand dryer 100, the front side is referred to as "front", the back side is referred to as "rear", the upper side is referred to as "upper", the lower side is referred to as "lower", the right side is referred to as "right", and the left side is referred to as "left".

The housing 1 has a cylindrical outer shape extending in the up-down direction, and is back-mounted on the wall surface W. The frame 1 is formed to have a width in the lateral direction smaller than the shoulder width of the user. The width of the frame 1 in the lateral direction may be 150mm or less, for example. By reducing the width of the housing 1 in the lateral direction to a predetermined value or less in this way, when the user faces the housing 1 and extends both hands forward, the user can go to the lateral outside of the housing 1 without touching the housing 1 with both hands.

The frame 1 is formed to have a width of 75mm or more in the front-rear direction. This makes it possible to prevent hands extending to the left and right outside of the housing 1 from touching the wall surface W.

Air inlets 2a and 2b for sucking ambient air into the inside of the housing 1 are provided on the left and right side surfaces of the upper part of the housing 1. An air filter 9 for preventing penetration of dust and water droplets is provided in an air passage extending from the air inlets 2a, 2b to the inside of the housing 1 of the blower 3. As the air filter 9, a resin mesh, a metal mesh, a HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter), or the like can be used. The air filter 9 is preferably arranged such that the suction surface thereof is located above the suction ports 2a and 2b. This is to prevent water droplets from dropping or adhering to the air filter 9 even when the water droplets enter from the air inlets 2a, 2b.

The blower 3 is composed of a motor, a turbo fan rotated by the motor, and the like. The blower 3 is controlled by the control unit 7 to operate, and the air flowing in from the air inlets 2a, 2b through the air filter 9 is pressurized and sent out to the nozzle units 4a, 4 b.

At the lower part of the housing 1, nozzle parts 4a, 4b are provided at left and right side parts, and the nozzle parts 4a, 4b discharge air sent from the blower 3 to the outside of the housing 1 in a fan shape. The nozzle portion 4a is provided on the right side of the housing 1 for the right hand, and the nozzle portion 4b is provided on the left side of the housing 1 for the left hand.

Each of the nozzle portions 4a and 4b is provided with a blowing port which is an elongated slit-shaped opening for communicating the inside of the housing 1 with the outside. The outer surface of the side portion of the housing 1 where the nozzle portions 4a, 4b are provided is formed of a curved surface protruding toward the outside of the housing 1. The air outlets of the nozzle portions 4a and 4b are provided on the same surface as the outer surface of the housing 1. Thus, the air outlet is formed in a substantially circular arc shape protruding toward the outside of the housing 1 with respect to straight lines La, lb connecting the uppermost end portions 41a, 41b and the lowermost end portions 42a, 42b between the uppermost end portions 41a, 41b and the lowermost end portions 42a, 42 b. As shown by broken lines Fa and Fb in fig. 2, air is discharged in a fan shape from the nozzle portions 4a and 4b to the outside of the housing 1 by this shape. That is, a sheet-like airflow having a width that expands toward the downstream side is formed. Further, a hand drying space capable of drying hands is formed on the left and right outer sides of the housing 1 by the air flow blown out from the nozzle portions 4a, 4 b.

The air outlets of the nozzle portions 4a and 4b may be formed in a substantially circular arc shape protruding outward of the housing 1 with respect to the straight lines La and Lb connecting the uppermost end portions 41a and 41b and the lowermost end portions 42a and 42b, at least in part between the uppermost end portions 41a and 41b and the lowermost end portions 42a and 42b, and need not be provided on the same surface as the outer surface of the housing 1. The substantially arc-shaped portion is not necessarily formed by a curve (or curved surface). For example, it may be formed of a combination of straight lines (or planes) or a combination of straight lines and curved lines (or planes and curved surfaces).

The user using the hand drying apparatus 100 inserts his hands into the hand drying space by extending his hands so as to be placed on the left and right side portions of the housing 1. At this time, since the fingertip direction of the user's hand inserted into the hand drying space is obliquely downward forward as indicated by an arrow a in fig. 3 when viewed from the user, the air outlets of the respective nozzle portions 4a, 4b are formed to extend in a direction substantially orthogonal to the fingertip direction thereof. Specifically, the outlet of each nozzle portion 4a, 4b is formed in a slope from the obliquely lower front to the obliquely upper rear when the housing 1 is viewed from the side. That is, the air outlet is arranged to be located forward as going downward. In this case, as shown in fig. 3, the slope of the outlet of each nozzle portion 4a, 4b may be such that the angle x with respect to the front-rear direction is in the range of 0 to 45 °. Accordingly, the air flow blown out from the nozzle portions 4a and 4b is a sheet-like air flow having an expansion in the width direction of the user's hand, and therefore the user can efficiently remove water droplets by moving both hands back and forth.

The lengths from the uppermost ends 41a, 41b to the lowermost ends 42a, 42b of the outlets of the nozzle portions 4a, 4b are set so that the width of the air flow is the same as or slightly larger than the length of the user's hand in the width direction at a position slightly apart from the outlet to the outside of the housing 1, that is, at a position where the user actually dries the hand. Specifically, the air streams ejected from the nozzle portions 4a and 4b have widths that expand as they go downstream, and therefore, the length of the air outlet is made smaller than the width of the air stream at the position where the user actually dries his or her hand, taking this expansion into account. For example, the length from the uppermost end portions 41a, 41b to the lowermost end portions 42a, 42b of the air outlet may be formed smaller than the length in the width direction of the hand of the user so that the width of the air flow at the position where the hand of the user is actually dried is the same as the length in the width direction of the hand of the user. This can reduce the size of the hand dryer 100 and improve the operability. Here, as the length in the width direction of the user's hand, an average value of the lengths of the hands of adult males in a country using the hand dryer 100 can be used.

The nozzle portions 4a and 4b are formed so that air is discharged in a fan shape in a downward range from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction. Specifically, when the horizontal direction is 0 ° and the vertical direction is 90 °, the nozzle portions 4a and 4b are formed to discharge air in a fan shape in a range of 0 ° to 60 °. That is, the nozzle portions 4a and 4b are formed so that air is discharged in the direction of 0 ° at the uppermost end portions 41a and 41b of the air outlet, and air is discharged in the direction of 60 ° at the lowermost end portions 42a and 42b, and the air is discharged in the range of 0 ° to 60 ° throughout the air outlet.

The width of the nozzle portions 4a and 4b in the short side direction of the outlet is, for example, 2mm or less. The output of the blower 3 can be set so that the discharge velocity of the air from the air outlet is 80m/s or more, for example. The water droplets adhering to the hands of the user can be effectively scraped off by the laminar air flow.

Further, hand detecting portions 5a and 5b are provided near the nozzle portions 4a and 4b of the housing 1, and the hand detecting portions 5a and 5b detect insertion of the user's hand into the hand drying space formed by the nozzle portions 4a and 4 b. The hand detection units 5a and 5b monitor whether or not the hand of the user is inserted into the hand drying space by means of a single or a plurality of optical or electrostatic capacitance sensors, and detect the insertion of the hand. The hand detection unit 5a is provided in the housing 1 in front of the nozzle unit 4a, and detects the hand of the user inserted into the hand drying space provided on the right side of the housing 1. The hand detection unit 5b is provided in the housing 1 in front of the nozzle unit 4b, and detects the hand of the user inserted into the hand drying space provided on the left side of the housing 1. In the example shown in fig. 1 to 3, the hand detection portion 5a is provided on the front upper side of the nozzle portion 4a, and the hand detection portion 5b is provided on the front upper side of the nozzle portion 4 b.

The control unit 7 controls the operation of the blower 3 based on the detection results of the hand detection units 5a and 5b, and when a hand is detected, air is ejected from the nozzle units 4a and 4 b. The control unit 7 may eject air from the two nozzle units 4a, 4b when at least one of the hand detection units 5a, 5b detects a hand, or may eject air from only one nozzle unit that detects a hand when only one of the hand detection units 5a, 5b detects a hand.

The control unit 7 is disposed inside or adjacent to an air passage extending from the air inlets 2a and 2b to the inside of the housing 1 of the blower 3. Thus, during operation of the hand dryer 100, the control unit 7 is cooled by the airflow flowing through the air passage, and the temperature rise of the control unit 7 can be suppressed. The air ejected from the nozzle units 4a and 4b may be heated by the exhaust heat from the control unit 7.

Next, the operation of the hand dryer 100 will be described. When the user puts his/her hand into the hand drying space formed on the left and right outer sides of the housing, the hand detecting portions 5a, 5b detect the hand and activate the blower 3 through the control portion 7. Air around the housing 1 is sucked into the housing 1 through the air inlets 2a and 2b. The sucked air flows into the blower 3 through the air filter 9, is pressurized by the blower 3, and is sent out to the nozzle portions 4a and 4 b. The nozzle portions 4a and 4b discharge the air sent from the blower 3 to the outside of the housing in a fan shape. The air streams blown out from the nozzle portions 4a, 4b collide with the hands of the user, and blow away the water droplets adhering to the wet hands.

As described above, the hand dryer 100 includes: a frame 1; a blower 3 provided inside the housing 1; and nozzle portions 4a, 4b provided at left and right side portions of the housing 1 when viewed from a user facing the housing 1, and configured to discharge air sent from the blower 3 to the outside of the housing 1 in a fan shape. In this way, the user can dry his/her hands on the left and right outer sides of the housing 1, and in this case, the user can dry his/her hands while visually checking the entire hands because there is no structure between the user and the hands to block the user's view. Further, since the hand can be dried while visually checking the entire hand, the hand can be prevented from accidentally touching the housing 1, and the hand can be dried cleanly and efficiently without an undried portion.

Second embodiment

The hand dryer 200 according to the second embodiment will be described below. Fig. 4 is a right side view of the hand drying apparatus 200. Fig. 5 is a front view of the hand drying apparatus 200. The hand dryer 200 is different from the first embodiment in that the outer shape of the housing 201 is a hexahedral shape having a length in the up-down direction substantially equal to a length in the front-rear direction. In the hand dryer 200, a control unit 207, a blower 203, and the like are housed in a housing 201. At the lower part of the housing 201, nozzle parts 204a, 204b are provided at left and right side parts, and the nozzle parts 204a, 204b discharge air sent from the blower 203 to the outside of the housing 201 in a fan shape. The nozzle portions 204a and 204b are provided with a blowing port which is an elongated slit-shaped opening for communicating the inside of the housing 201 with the outside. As shown in fig. 5, the air outlet is disposed at a position that enters a portion further inward than the outer surface of the housing 201 as it goes downward, and is formed in a substantially circular arc shape protruding outward of the housing 201 with respect to straight lines La, lb connecting the uppermost end portions 241a, 241b and the lowermost end portions 242a, 242b between the uppermost end portions 241a, 241b and the lowermost end portions 242a, 242 b. The hand dryer 200 further includes an air inlet, an air filter, a hand detection unit, and the like. With these configurations, the same operation as that of the hand dryer 100 is performed in the hand dryer 200.

Third embodiment

The hand dryer 300 according to the third embodiment will be described below. Fig. 6 is a right side view of the hand drying apparatus 300. The hand dryer 300 is different from the first embodiment in that the outer shape of the housing 301 is spherical. In the hand dryer 300, a control unit 307, a blower 303, and the like are housed in a housing 301. A nozzle portion 304 is provided at a lower portion of the housing 301 and at left and right side portions, and the nozzle portion 304 discharges air sent from the blower 303 to an outside of the housing 301 in a fan shape. The nozzle portion 304 is provided with a blowing port which is an elongated slit-shaped opening for communicating the inside of the housing 301 with the outside. The air outlet is provided on the same surface as the outer surface of the housing 301. Thus, the air outlet is formed in a substantially circular arc shape protruding toward the outside of the housing 301 with respect to a straight line connecting the uppermost end and the lowermost end between the uppermost end and the lowermost end. The hand dryer 300 further includes an air inlet, an air filter, a hand detection unit, and the like. With these configurations, the same operation as that of the hand dryer 100 is performed in the hand dryer 300.

In the above embodiments, the case where the outer shape of the housing is cylindrical, hexahedral, or spherical has been described, but may be prismatic, semi-cylindrical, polyhedral or hemispherical other than prismatic, or may be any shape in which a plane surface and a curved surface are combined in a complicated manner.

In the above embodiments, the case where the nozzle portion has a slit-shaped opening having a slender outlet has been described, but the nozzle portion may have a plurality of small openings arranged in a row. The nozzle portion may have a plurality of slit-shaped openings arranged in the nozzle portion, or may have a plurality of small openings arranged in a row. In addition, a partition wall such as an elongated rib may be provided at the outlet of the nozzle portion to strengthen the air.

In the above embodiments, the case where the air outlet of the nozzle portion is substantially the same width from the uppermost end to the lowermost end has been described, but the air volume from the portion located above may be increased by making the opening width of the portion located above larger than the opening width of the portion located below. Thus, when the user puts hands with their palms facing the nozzle portion, the air volume blown to the thumb, which tends to have a large amount of water droplets remaining due to a relatively large surface area, can be made larger than the air volume blown to other portions, and thus the hands can be dried efficiently.

In the above embodiments, the case where the left and right nozzle portions are symmetrically provided on the left and right sides of the housing has been described, but the left and right symmetry is not necessarily required. The nozzle portion may be provided only at one of the left and right side portions of the housing. The left and right nozzle portions may be continuous in front of or below the housing. For example, the left and right nozzle portions may be connected to each other as one nozzle. When the space in which the hand can be dried is enlarged by continuing the left and right nozzle portions, not only the hand, the arm portion, and the like can be effectively dried.

In the above embodiments, the case where the nozzle portion ejects air in the range of 0 ° to 60 ° was described, but the range may be changed as appropriate. For example, the range may be 0 ° or more and 90 ° or less, or the range may be 0 ° or more and 45 ° or less. The range may be 0 ° or more and 30 ° or less. The range may be-30 ° or more and 30 ° or less, or-45 ° or more and 0 ° or less.

In the above embodiments, the case where the air inlet is provided on the upper side surface of the housing has been described, but the air inlet may be provided at any position other than the upper surface of the housing. In this case, the air inlet is disposed above the nozzle portion, and water droplets are prevented from entering from the air inlet when the hand is dried in the vicinity of the nozzle portion.

In the above embodiments, the case where the hand detection unit is provided in the housing in front of the nozzle unit has been described, but the hand detection unit is not necessarily required to be in front of the nozzle unit as long as the hand detection unit can detect the hand position close to the hand drying space in time. In the above embodiments, the case where two hand detection units are provided has been described, but one or three hand detection units may be provided.

In the above embodiments, the case where the housing is mounted on the wall surface has been described, but the housing may be disposed above a sink having a washbasin.

In the above embodiments, the case where the outlet of the nozzle portion is substantially circular arc has been described, but the outlet may have a substantially circular arc portion from the uppermost end to the lowermost end, and the entire outlet from the uppermost end to the lowermost end is not necessarily substantially circular arc.

Description of the reference numerals

1. 201, 301. 2a, 2b. suction openings; 3. 203, 303. 7. 207, 307. Air filter; 4a, 4b, 204a, 204b, 304. 5a, 5 b..hand detection portion; 100. 200, 300. Wall surface.

Claims

1. A hand drying device, wherein,

the hand drying device comprises:

a frame;

a blower provided inside the frame; and

and a nozzle portion provided at a lateral portion of the housing, the lateral portion being located at a side of the housing facing the user when viewed from the user, and configured to discharge air sent from the blower to an outside of the housing in a fan shape.

2. The hand drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein,

the nozzle unit discharges the air in a fan shape in a downward range from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction.

3. The hand drying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein,

when the horizontal direction is set to 0 ° and the vertical direction is set to 90 °, the nozzle portion discharges the air in a fan shape in a range of 0 ° to 60 °.

4. The hand drying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein,

when the horizontal direction is set to 0 ° and the vertical direction is set to 90 °, the nozzle portion discharges the air in a fan shape in a range of 0 ° to 30 °.

5. The hand-drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein,

the nozzle part is provided with an opening communicating the inside of the frame with the outside, namely a blowing-out port,

the blowout port has a substantially arc-shaped portion protruding toward the outside of the housing with respect to a straight line connecting the uppermost end portion and the lowermost end portion between the uppermost end portion and the lowermost end portion.

6. The hand drying apparatus according to claim 5, wherein,

the length of the blow-out port from the uppermost end to the lowermost end is smaller than the length of the hand of the user in the width direction.

7. The hand drying apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, wherein,

the air outlet is disposed so as to be located in front of the front side of the housing when viewed from the user facing the housing.

8. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein,

the air outlet is provided on the same surface as the outer surface of the housing.

9. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein,

the opening width of the portion of the blow-out port located on the upper side is larger than the opening width of the portion of the blow-out port located on the lower side.

10. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein,

further comprising a hand detection means for detecting that the hand of the user is inserted into the outer space of the housing from which the air is ejected from the nozzle portion,

the hand detection means is provided in the front of the nozzle unit, which is the front side of the housing when viewed from the user facing the housing.

11. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein,

the frame body is cylindrical, prismatic, semi-cylindrical, polyhedral, spherical or hemispherical except the prismatic.

12. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein,

the frame body is columnar extending in the up-down direction, and the nozzle part is arranged at the lower part of the frame body.

13. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein,

the nozzle portions are provided at the left and right side portions of the housing.

14. The hand drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein,

the frame is disposed above a sink having a basin.