EP0275269A1

EP0275269A1 - Thermostatic regulating system for heating installations

Info

Publication number: EP0275269A1
Application number: EP19870904239
Authority: EP
Inventors: Karl Thiel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-08-01
Filing date: 1987-07-08
Publication date: 1988-07-27
Also published as: WO1988001074A1; DE3626116A1

Abstract

Le dispositif de réglage comprend un réceptacle formant un socle (1), un dispositif de réglage rotatif à vissage (2) et un capuchon (3) couvrant ce dispositif. Il comprend en outre un agencement de régulation de chauffage muni d'une bague collectrice (5). Le réceptacle formant le socle s'emboîte sur le corps d'une soupape d'élément de chauffage. Les filets (13) du dispositif de réglage rotatif à vissage (2) s'engagent dans l'extrémité supérieure d'un filet femelle (12) grossier et emprisonnent une pièce de transmission cylindrique munie d'un ressort à compression. Cette pièce établit le lien entre la soupape qui doit être fermée axialement et le palpeur de température (14). Selon la température fixée, le dispositif de réglage rotatif sera vissé plus ou moins loin sur lefilet femelle (12). Pour fixer la température ambiante, trois éléments chauffants à résistance (18) sont fixés à la périphérie du dispositif de réglage rotatif (2) et chauffent directement le palpeur de température. Ce dernier commande alors la fermeture de la soupape. Pour l'alimentation en courant, un câble à basse tension (20) est amené vers la bague collectrice (5) qui présente des pistes concentriques à contacts glissants (25, 26) et des pistes de connexion (27, 28). Sur les pistes à contacts glissants (25, 26) se trouvent des baguettes téléscopiques (41, 42) pour collecter le courant. Ainsi, le danger de court-circuit venant de la détérioration de l'isolation des câbles à l'endroit des connexions tournantes est écarté.The adjustment device comprises a receptacle forming a base (1), a screw-on rotary adjustment device (2) and a cap (3) covering this device. It further comprises a heating regulation arrangement provided with a slip ring (5). The receptacle forming the base fits onto the body of a heating element valve. The threads (13) of the rotary screw-adjusting device (2) engage in the upper end of a coarse female thread (12) and trap a cylindrical transmission part provided with a compression spring. This part establishes the link between the valve which must be closed axially and the temperature sensor (14). Depending on the set temperature, the rotary adjustment device will be screwed more or less far on the female thread (12). To set the room temperature, three resistance heating elements (18) are attached to the periphery of the rotary adjustment device (2) and directly heat the temperature sensor. The latter then controls the closing of the valve. For the power supply, a low voltage cable (20) is brought to the slip ring (5) which has concentric tracks with sliding contacts (25, 26) and connection tracks (27, 28). On the sliding contact tracks (25, 26) there are telescopic rods (41, 42) for collecting the current. Thus, the danger of short circuit coming from the deterioration of the insulation of the cables at the place of the rotary connections is eliminated.

Description

Thermostatic control device for heaters or heating units

description

The invention relates to a thermostatic control device for heaters or heating units, with a temperature switch which has at least one dimension which is variable as a function of the sensed temperature and is held between a fixed base housing and a rotatable adjuster, with at least one attached to the rotatable adjuster Electrical control heating element for heating the temperature button above its ambient temperature, and with a current connection for the control heating element which is led beyond the rotary connection to the adjuster.

A thermostatic control device of this type is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 3441 695. One or more control or heating elements serve to reduce the temperature to be regulated as required or to set the regulation entirely in that the regulator controlling or by buttons affecting its thermal expansion are always kept at a button temperature above room temperature. The purpose benötig¬ th heating elements are so weak that it can be neglected expected also ^{^} s year power consumption. The control can be made dependent on any processes, in particular by adjusting an opening lock such as a window or a door, which can be operated directly or via separate switching elements by means of a push button switch triggers the activation of the heating element or the heating elements.

However, since in most control devices attached to a radiator valve or the like, the temperature button controlling the valve has a rotatable adjuster, it is necessary to also attach the heating elements to this adjuster and to bridge the rotary connection by means of a suitable current supply.

According to the prior publication, an electrical low-voltage cable serves this purpose, which is led from a supply unit through a non-rotatable base housing with a loosely laid spiral shape over the rotary connection to the control heating element attached to the rotatable adjuster or to a heating unit formed from several heating elements.

Although the current path connections can basically be set up there or formed by soldering points, the loosely laid spiral cable easily rubs off on the edges of the non-rotatable part of the device during the usual setting operations for the desired room temperature, which easily leads to short circuits and also tears off the connections Can have consequences.

The invention is based on the control device defined at the outset and pursues the task of improving the operational safety of such control devices by avoiding the sources of danger for short circuits and tearing of connections in the area of the rotary connection.

To achieve this object, according to the invention, a slip ring arrangement with at least two electrically separate slip ring surfaces fixed to the base housing and two rotatable adjusters are arranged centrally to the rotary connection. Sliding contacts abutting on the slip ring surfaces are provided.

In this way, flexible current-carrying cables are in principle only required on the fitting housing, that is, they are not exposed to the risk of damage from grinding operations, and a reliable connection of the sliding contacts for the heating element or elements can easily be ensured on the rotatable part. The adjuster, which is generally screwed onto the base housing, can be removed with the sliding contacts as required, without having to manipulate anything. In this case, the base housing can be a fitting housing fixedly attached to the heating valve, but it can also be a support part which is arranged somehow and where in the room, from which a plurality of heating systems can be controlled or influenced in all rooms of a house or even a house complex .

The slip ring arrangement can have an annular disk made of insulating plastic which is attached to the housing and has two live ring or segment surfaces made of electrically highly conductive, wear and corrosion resistant material on the sensing side. These slip ring contact surfaces can in principle be exposed in the axial direction, but can expediently be shielded in the radial direction. They can be almost as thin as desired and can be formed on the carrier disk by spraying, vapor deposition or the like. A contact material.

The design of the sliding contacts as resiliently flexible telescopic rods, between which one or more control heating elements are optionally directly connected, is currently preferred. Such telescopic rods can each be formed by two electrically conductive tubes which are expediently closed or at least narrowed at their outer ends, which tubes have a screw acting between their two outer ends. enclose pressure spring. One of the two tubes is then used for mounting in the rotatable adjuster and the other is pressed against the slip ring path by the enclosed helical compression spring. In this way, the spring adjustment path which is thereby increased can also be achieved when a particularly coarse thread is used between the base housing and the adjuster. Since large guide lengths remain, the contact between the two pipes is always guaranteed and the mechanical stress is also reduced.

The contacting surfaces of both telescopic parts are expediently covered with a layer of electrically conductive material that is resistant to corrosion. The use of different precious metals, in particular gold and silver, is recommended for the coating materials. Given the small surfaces to be considered and the thin coating layers, the specific costs of these materials are of no particular importance. However, it is ensured that with the prevailing low voltages = 6 V the functional reliability is maintained even under adverse environmental influences.

Further features and advantages of the invention are set out in the subclaims and result from the following explanation of the invention with reference to the drawing. Show it:

1 is a spatially exploded view of a control device intended for direct connection to a radiator valve,

Fig. 2 is a partial section through this control device seen in the circumferential direction along the line II-II in Fig. 1 and

Fig. 3 seen a view of the rotary adjuster after removing a cap in the direction of arrow III in Fig. 1.

The control device shown in the drawing is intended for direct attachment to a radiator valve and is divided into a base housing (1) with a rotary adjuster (2) that can be screwed into it and a cap (3) covering the adjuster, a control heating device (4 ) on the rotary adjuster (2) and a slip ring arrangement (5) between the parts (1) and (2).

The base housing (1) can be clamped onto the valve housing of a radiator valve with a ring nut (11) rotatably mounted on it. At its upper end it has a coarse nut thread (12) with a pitch of approx. 4 mm, into which a threaded connector (13) provided at the bottom of the adjuster (2), which is usually formed by several segments, engages. This threaded connector encloses an approximately cylindrical transmission body, not shown here, which is provided with a compression spring and which connects the radiator valve to be closed by axial pressure to the temperature button (14), which is only schematically indicated in FIG. This temperature sensor is also essentially designed as a cylindrical body, the volume of which increases as the temperature rises and decreases as the temperature falls. Only the axial length of the temperature button is used to control the radiator valve. If the sensed temperature rises, the valve is throttled more and more and ultimately closed. If the sensed temperature drops, the valve is opened again.

In order to be able to set a reference temperature, the distance between the temperature sensor (14), which is supported in the axial direction in the rotary adjuster (2), and the base housing (1) is changed by moving the adjuster more or less far into the nut thread (12). screwed in. Corresponding temperature levels are generally shown on the cap (3). However, their position can be changed by repositioning this cap: e- on the toothing (16) on the lower flange (17) of the rotary adjuster (2).

In order to be able to change the temperature of the heated room with the position of the rotary adjuster (2) unchanged, three approximately cylindrical resistance heating elements (18) are so firmly attached to the circumferential surface of the rotary adjuster (2) by a ring belt (19) tense that the heat generated by these heating elements is transferred directly to the temperature sensor (14). This button can therefore be quickly heated to a temperature of around 40 degrees with very little power in the order of less than 5 watts and then closes the connected radiator valve completely. However, it can also be warmed up only slightly by lower voltage, so that only the control temperature is raised by a few degrees compared to room temperature. This can be useful if you want to lower it to night temperature or if you want to provide frost protection. A current source such as a battery on the temperature button itself is of little use, because then a manual setting in the area of this temperature button would be required and, moreover, a battery hardly brings the necessary voltage constant. However, around the heater. (4) to be able to be controlled remotely, low voltage must be supplied from the outside, and for this purpose a cable (20) is inserted through a recess (21) into the base housing and up to the slip ring arrangement (5) carried out.

This slip ring arrangement has, as can best be seen from FIG. 2, an annular plastic disk (24) fastened on the upper edge of the inner part (23), which has two concentric slip contact tracks (25, 26) at the top, and opposite connection tracks of comparable size below ( 27.28). The ends of the electrical conductors (29, 30) of the cable (20) are soldered to the latter.

In the outer region of the connecting track (27), an angle groove (37) is formed in the plastic washer (24), by means of which this washer is glued to the upper end of the inner wall (38) of the base housing (1), without the Screwing-in process of the threaded connector (13) into the nut thread (39) formed on the inner wall (38) is hindered.

The sliding contact tracks (25, 26) at the top, like the connecting tracks (27, 28) at the bottom, are formed by annular layers which are sprayed on or vapor-deposited. The inner ring layers, like the outer ring layers, are conductively connected by means of rivets (31, 32) passed through the plastic disc (24).

In addition, the inner ring layers (25, 27) each have a radial nose projection (33), which projects laterally stripped in an interruption (34) of the outer ring layers (26, -28). In this way, the contact connection for the inner ring layers can be placed on the outside to facilitate the solder connection. However, insulating plastic layers (35, 36) are expediently attached to the circumferential surface, if appropriate also on the inner surface of the plastic disk (24), in order to prevent the voltage from being inadvertently dissipated to the outside.

On the formed by the ring layers (25) and (26) Slip ring surfaces are in the form of telescopic rods (41, 42) which are pantographs with an outer tube (43), an inner tube (44) and a helical compression spring (45) enclosed by both tubes. The outer tubes (43) are firmly seated in bores (46) of the flange (17), so that the rounded end (47) of the respective inner tube (44) forms the actual sliding contact. The contact surfaces, practically all surface parts of the outer tubes (43) are coated with a thin layer of gold, that of the inner tubes (44) with a thin layer of silver.

In addition, the outer telescopic rod (42) is assigned to the nose projection (33) in such a way that in its end position it is still somewhat distant from this projection, as is shown in FIG. 1. The entire swivel angle of an adjustment range is chosen to be so much smaller than 360 degrees that the nose projection (33) is also not reached at the other end of the adjustment path.

The upper ends of the outer tubes (43) are narrowed so that the helical compression spring (45) can be supported there. One of the two ends (51, 52) of a ring line (50) is connected under each of these ends, into which all three heating elements (18) are soldered one behind the other.

Thus, all heating elements (18) forming a control heating device (4) are switched on at the same time as soon as a voltage is applied to the cable (20), which can be done by a door switch, window switch, timer or the like. The current flow is secured with great reliability, especially since the risk of corrosion is largely eliminated, as is the risk of contamination and short-circuiting due to damage to the cable sheath.

In contrast to the version shown, it may be advisable to control the control heater (4) with a or to provide a belt-shaped heating element which can also be provided with a heat-insulating layer on its exposed outside, possibly in conjunction with a heat reflection layer. In this way, the low electrical power to be applied is reduced even further.

Claims

A sayings

1. Thermostatic control device for heating or Heiz¬ aggregate, with a temperature button (14), which has at least one dimension depending on the sensed temperature and dimension between a device-fixed base housing (1) and a rotatable adjuster (2) gehal¬ ten, with at least one electrical control heating element (18) attached to the rotatable setting part for heating the temperature button (14) beyond its ambient temperature and with one via the rotary connection to the adjuster

(2) current connection for the control-heating element (18), characterized in that a slip ring arrangement (5) with at least two electrically separated slip ring surfaces (25, 26) fixed to the valve housing and on the rotatable adjuster (5) is centered on the rotary connection. 2) resiliently provided sliding contacts (41, 42) on the slip ring surfaces (25, 26).

2. Control device according to claim 1, characterized in that the slip ring arrangement (5) has a carrier disk (24) attached to the receiving housing made of insulating plastic, which has two live ring or segment surfaces (25, 26) made of electrically highly conductive wear on the tactile side - And has corrosion-resistant material.

3. Control device according to claim 2, characterized in that the slip ring surfaces (25, 26) are formed on the carrier disk (24) by spraying, vapor deposition or the like brought layers of contact material.

4. Control device according to claim 2 or 3, characterized gekenn¬ characterized in that on a connection side opposite the touch side to the slip ring surfaces (25, 26) arranged and possibly formed connecting ring layered bodies (27, 28) made of electrical connecting material attached and each electrically connected to the associated slip ring sheet (25, 26).

5. Control device according to claim 4, characterized in that the outer annular layer body (26, 28) are electrically connected by means of a rivet-like connection (31, 32) passed through the carrier disk.

6. Control device according to claim 4, characterized in that the inner annular layer body (25, 27) have identical radial projections (33) in an interruption (34) of the outer annular layer body (26, 28) to the outer edge of the carrier disk ( 24) protrude and are connected there.

7. Control device according to claim 6, characterized in that the setting angle of rotation of the rotatable adjuster (2) is made smaller than the segment angle of the segment-shaped slip ring track (26).

8. Control device according to one of claims 1 to 7, da¬ characterized in that the sliding contacts are formed by resilient telescopic rods (41, 42), between which one or more control heating elements (18) are switched on.

9. Control device according to claim 8, characterized by the design of the telescopic rods (41, 42) as two elec¬ trically conductive and expediently as at their outer ends closed or at least stepped tubes (43, 44) which one between their two outer ends Enclose helical compression spring (45).

10. Control device according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the contacting surfaces of both telescopic parts (43, 44) are coated with a layer of electrically conductive and corrosion-resistant material.

11. Control device according to claim 10, characterized gekenn¬ characterized in that the coating materials on two mutually adjustable telescopic parts (43, 44) are formed by different noble metals, in particular gold and silver.