JP2000279962A - Sterilizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stabilize electric power consumption and production efficiency, though the device is used for a long period, by constituting the device such that end surfaces of electrodes are not exposed to a water stream, in the device provided with a pair of electrodes, one of which is made of metal that elutes sterilizing metallic ions, and an electrolytic bath supporting the electrodes. SOLUTION: In the case that a sterilizing device is applied to washing of a toilet stool, a pair of the electrodes 6a, 6b and a flow path 7 between the electrodes are provided in the electrolytic bath 21, and the end surfaces of the electrodes forming thickness of the electrodes 6a, 6b are covered with a covering member 26 so as to be not exposed to the water stream. When a water feed valve is opened by a work of a toilet stool automatic washing system, then city water passes through a water feed pipe for washing the toilet and flows in the flow path 7 between the electrodes. At that time, electric energy fed from an electrode part 13 is fed to a pair of the electrodes 6a, 6b via a control device 27, and silver ions are eluted from an anode side of either one side of the electrodes 6a, 6b, and the water for washing the toilet containing the silver ions is fed to an urine vessel through the water feed pipe for washing the toilet stool.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an electrode comprising at least a pair of electrodes opposed to each other in parallel at a predetermined interval, at least one of which is made of a metal which elutes bactericidal metal ions, and an electrolytic cell which supports the electrodes. The present invention relates to a sterilization device including a power supply unit for supplying power to the electrodes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional technique, a sterilization apparatus provided in a toilet flush water supply channel to a flush toilet will be described as an example.

[0003] Conventionally, the toilet is routinely cleaned by a manual cleaning device by a button operation of a user, or by automatically detecting when a person stands in front of the toilet and when the use of the toilet is finished. It has been performed by an automatic cleaning device that performs an operation of flowing water or middle water.

However, simply flushing water after use of the toilet does not prevent gradual adhesion of water, slime, or odor. Further, in urinals, urine stones adhere to the inside of the pipe to narrow the passage of sewage, or adhere to the surface of the toilet to impair the appearance, become a hotbed of bacteria and emit odors. The urine stones once adhered in this way are difficult to remove by ordinary cleaning, and cannot be removed unless they are strongly rubbed with a brush. For this reason, urolith removal had to be entrusted to a specialized trader, which was a heavy burden.

[0005] Several methods have been disclosed to address this problem by producing and supplying a component having a sterilizing power to toilet flush water.

For example, a toilet flush water supply passage for a flush toilet, an ion generator having a silver electrode plate for mixing silver ions into the toilet flush water supply passage, and an open / close valve provided in the toilet flush water supply passage. There is also known a sterilizing and purifying apparatus for toilet flushing water, which is provided with a power supply device that closes in conjunction with a valve opening operation and supplies power to a silver electrode plate. (Japanese Utility Model 7-17391)

[0007] In these inventions, at least one pair of at least one pair of which are opposed to each other in parallel at a predetermined interval, at least one of which is made of a metal that elutes bactericidal metal ions, an electrolytic cell that supports the electrodes, In a sterilizing apparatus comprising a power supply unit for supplying power to the electrodes, a component having a sterilizing power is generated and supplied to the toilet flush water by causing an electric current to flow through the electrodes attached to the electrolytic cell to cause electrolysis. Was.

[0008]

However, the electrodes used in the conventional sterilizing apparatus as described above consume the electrodes when producing and supplying components having a sterilizing power. Electrolysis from the electrode end face, which is lowered, occurs preferentially, and the surface area of the electrode contributing to the electrolysis is reduced, so that there is a drawback that the power consumption is increased due to an increase in voltage, and the generation efficiency is reduced due to a change in electrolysis conditions. Further, when the electrolytic cell holds and supports the electrode plate at a position including its end face, the entire electrode plate is not uniformly electrolyzed, and if the vicinity of the support portion of the electrode plate first melts, the electrode plate may be damaged. There was a drawback of falling off the support and falling.

[0009] The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and when producing and supplying a component having a bactericidal activity,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sterilization apparatus that has stable power consumption and generation efficiency even when used for a long period of time and can be used reliably until the electrodes are exhausted.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems and Action / Effect To achieve the above object, a sterilization apparatus according to the present invention is provided so as to face in parallel at a predetermined interval, at least one of which dissolves a germicidal metal ion. In a sterilization apparatus comprising at least a pair of electrodes comprising: an electrolytic cell for supporting the electrodes; and a power supply unit for supplying power to the electrodes, the end faces of the electrodes are not exposed to water flow.

As a result, dissolution from the end face of the electrode, which lowers the electric resistance, becomes extremely small, and the entire electrode is uniformly electrolyzed. Therefore, when used for a long period of time, the surface area of the electrode contributing to electrolysis is reduced, and consumption due to an increase in voltage is reduced. An increase in power and a decrease in generation efficiency due to a change in electrolysis conditions can be prevented. Further, even if the electrolytic cell supports the electrode plate at a portion along the end face thereof and is attached in parallel with each other, the entire electrode plate does not uniformly electrolyze, and the vicinity of the support portion of the electrode plate is not provided. The electrode plate is melted first, thereby preventing the electrode plate from being detached from the support and falling.

In practicing the present invention, it is possible to provide a covering member for covering the end face of the electrode so that the end face of the electrode is covered so as not to be exposed to a water flow.

Preferably, the electrolytic cell has a structure that covers at least a part of the end face of the electrode.

Accordingly, it is not necessary to separately provide a covering member for covering the end face of the electrode.

In a further preferred embodiment, the covering member is made of an insulating material. The portion of the electrolytic cell covering the electrode was made of an insulating material.

As a result, since no current flows on the surface of the covering member, an electrolysis reaction or the like of water does not occur on the surface of the covering member, and the supplied current can be efficiently used for the electrolytic reaction of the electrode.

As a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, there can be cited one in which at least one of the materials of the electrodes in the above configuration is silver.

Thus, silver ions are dissolved as silver ions from the silver electrode and supplied into the toilet flush water. The silver ion concentration required for sterilization is generally set to 50 μg / L or more. Copper, which is another sterilizing component, can achieve a sterilizing effect at a lower concentration than that of 500 mg / L or more. Furthermore, these electrode reaction efficiencies (that is, the ratio of the equivalent of the generated sterilizing component to the equivalent of the electrons flowing between the electrodes) are extremely high in the reaction for generating silver ions from silver. From this, when silver is used as the material of the electrode, a bactericidal effect can be obtained with a very small amount of electrons, that is, a current value. Since the current value is low, power consumption can be reduced under the same electrode shape (electrode area and interelectrode distance) as compared with the case where other sterilizing components are supplied.
Further, under the same power consumption condition, the distance between the electrodes can be increased or the electrode area can be reduced. In the former case, since the pressure loss due to the passage of water is reduced, there is no inconvenience that the amount of water flowing through the washing water supply flow path per hour (here, this value is referred to as “flow rate”) is reduced. In the latter case, the sterilizing component supply means can be reduced in size and does not hinder use.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, an example in which the sterilizing apparatus of the present invention is mainly applied to toilet flushing is shown. However, the same effect can be exerted when used in all other sterilizing apparatuses such as a water purifier and a bathtub.

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of a sterilizing apparatus for toilet flush water according to the present invention.

An electrolytic cell 21 is provided downstream of a water supply valve 24 such as a flush valve of a water supply pipe 23 for flushing a toilet bowl. The water supply valve 24 is a well-known automatic toilet cleaning system 3
It is connected to the. The toilet flush water pipe 23 is connected to the urinal 1. In addition, the controller 27 controls the power supply unit 13, the electrodes 6 a and 6 b of the electrolytic cell 21, and the
And is electrically connected to

FIG. 2 is a front view and a sectional side view of an electrolytic cell 21 used in the sterilizing apparatus for cleaning a toilet bowl of FIG. Inside the electrolytic cell 21, a pair of electrodes 6a, 6b, which are arranged with metal silver plates facing each other as a sterilizing component supply means, and an inter-electrode flow path 7 formed between the electrodes, are provided.
It has a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet communicating with the inter-electrode flow path 7.

Of the end surfaces of the electrodes forming the thicknesses of the electrodes 6a and 6b around the electrode surfaces opposed to the electrodes 6a and 6b, the vertical end surface in FIG. 2 includes a covering member including the electrode surfaces in the vicinity thereof. The end face in the lateral direction in the side sectional view of FIG. 2 is coated so as not to be exposed to the water flow by the electrolytic cell 21 itself, so that the entire end faces of the electrodes 6a and 6b are covered. Are protected from exposure to water flow. Note that the control device 27 is connected to the power supply unit 13 and the electrodes 6a and 6b.

FIG. 3 is a front view and a sectional side view of another embodiment of the electrolytic cell 21 used in the sterilizing apparatus for cleaning a toilet bowl of FIG. Inside the electrolytic cell 21, a pair of electrodes 6a, 6b, which are arranged with metal silver plates facing each other as a sterilizing component supply means, and an inter-electrode flow path 7 formed between the electrodes, are provided. It has a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet communicating with the inter-electrode flow path 7.

The entire periphery of the end faces of the electrodes 6a and 6b is covered with the electrolytic bath 21 so that the entire end faces are not exposed to the water flow. Note that the control device 27 is connected to the power supply unit 13 and the electrodes 6a and 6b.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, if the end faces of the electrodes 6a and 6b can be prevented from being exposed to the water flow, the amount of silver eluted from the end faces of the electrodes 6a and 6b is reduced. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the preferential consumption of the end face, but from the viewpoint of suppressing the consumption, the electrode 6
It is preferable that the end faces of a and 6b are coated without coming into contact with water.

Next, the operation will be described. The water supply valve 24 is opened by the operation of the automatic toilet flushing system 3, and tap water flows into the inter-electrode flow path 7 of the electrolytic cell 21 through the toilet flush water supply pipe 23. At this time, the electric energy supplied from the power supply unit 13 is supplied to the pair of electrodes 6a and 6b in the electrolytic cell 21 via the control device 27, and silver ions elute from one of the anodes of the electrodes 6a and 6b, and silver Toilet flush water containing ions is supplied to the urinal 1 through the toilet flush water supply pipe 23.

The polarities of the electrodes 6a and 6b (ie, the anode and the cathode) are periodically inverted by the control device 27 to prevent scale such as calcium carbonate from adhering to the cathode side. At this time, the electrodes 6a and 6b are consumed with the supply of silver ions, so that the time when the electrode is the anode and the time when the electrode is the cathode are made equal so that the pair of electrodes 6a and 6b are consumed evenly. Can be done. In addition, by coating the end face of the electrode so as not to be exposed to the water flow, dissolution from the end face of the electrode having low electric resistance is eliminated, so that the entire electrode surface is uniformly electrolyzed and contributes to electrolysis when used for a long time. As a result, the surface area of the electrode to be reduced is reduced, so that it is possible to prevent an increase in power consumption due to an increase in voltage and a decrease in production efficiency due to a change in electrolysis conditions. In addition, the electrolytic cell has an electrode plate supported by a part thereof and mounted in parallel with each other. However, the entire electrode plate does not uniformly electrolyze, and the mounting side of the electrode plate dissolves first. The plate can be prevented from falling off the support and falling, and the electrodes 6a and 6b can be used up without waste until the end. The electrodes 6a and 6b are preferably made of a pure silver plate in that the electrodes 6a and 6b elute silver ions from themselves, so that the life can be extended. However, an alloy containing silver or silver plating may be used.

It is sufficient that at least one of the pair of electrodes 6a and 6b is silver. When an electrode other than silver is used, silver ions can be supplied by switching the polarity of the silver electrode side to the anode by the control device 27. A plurality of pairs of electrodes, at least one of which is silver, may be provided.

Further, depending on the manner of use of the toilet, the operation is not necessarily limited to the operation of supplying silver ions at the time of each toilet flush as described above. That is, when it is desired to minimize silver consumption, silver ions may be supplied only at the time of flushing the toilet several times. When it is desired to keep the silver consumption over time constant, the output signal of the control device 27 is connected so as to be input to the automatic toilet flushing system 3, and silver ions are not supplied at the time of flushing the toilet after using the toilet. The controller 27 may automatically open and close the water supply valve 24 by opening and closing the water supply valve 24 via the automatic toilet flushing system 3 at regular intervals, and supply silver ions only at this time. Furthermore, even if the consumption of silver increases, if you want to maintain a higher level of sterilization, not only when you use the toilet but also when it is not in use, the toilet is automatically cleaned at regular intervals. In this case, a mode in which silver ions are supplied may be used. The above operation can be dealt with by connecting the output signal of the control device 27 so as to be input to the automatic toilet flushing system 3 and changing the program of the control device 27 according to the usage state of the toilet.

Next, the silver ion concentration and the current required for exhibiting the effects of the present invention will be described. The concentration of silver ions contained in toilet flush water is preferably at least 50 μg / liter, which is generally said to exert a bactericidal effect. If the silver ion concentration is excessive, blackening due to deposits of silver oxide or metallic silver may occur on the bowl surface or the trap portion of the urinal 1,
It is preferable to maintain the concentration at 300 μg / liter or less.

The flow rate of the toilet flush water is generally about 10 liters / minute (= 0.17 liters / second). At this time, only about 0.1 liter of current flows between the electrodes 6a and 6b in the electrolytic cell 21. When a current of 03A is applied, the electrode reaction efficiency (the ratio of the amount of electricity used to generate silver ions to the amount of electricity flowing between the electrodes 6a and 6b) is assumed to be 100%, and the Faraday constant is set to 96500. Silver ions flowing out from the anode side of the electrodes 6a and 6b (atomic weight of 107.
9) The concentration is about 197 μg / liter as shown in the following equation. (0.03 × 107.9 / 96500 / 0.17) =
1.97 × 10 ⁻⁴ g / liter = 197 μg / liter The electrode reaction efficiency depends on the design of the electrolytic cell 21 (electrode area, distance between electrodes, cross-sectional area of flow path between electrodes, voltage, current, etc.) and water quality of toilet flushing water. (Electric conductivity, chloride ion concentration, pH, etc.), but according to experiments by the applicant of the present invention, it is 50 to 100% under any conditions in the range of tap water in Japan. Therefore, the silver ion concentration produced is expected to be 98-197 μg / liter, which is within the preferred silver ion concentration range.

In order to disinfect bacteria present in the urinal and pipes, it is possible to prevent the generation of slime, slime and odor, and to eliminate the cause of urine stones in the urinal. It is kept in a clean state and does not impair the aesthetic appearance, the narrowing of the sewage passage due to the adhesion of urine stones in the piping is prevented, and the generation of odor due to ammonia or the like is also prevented.

The electrode in the present invention is not limited to a silver electrode, but may be made of a metal that elutes bactericidal metal ions. Examples include copper and zinc.

The shape of the electrodes in the present invention is not limited to a square shape, but may be any shape such as a triangle or a circle as long as it is at least a pair of electrodes facing in parallel at a predetermined interval. The member may have any shape as long as it covers the end face of the electrode.

As described above, according to the present invention, the urinal is provided with a function of preventing the adhesion of water stains, slime, and the generation of odor. It is possible to provide a sterilizing device which has a function of preventing the generation of odor and has a stable power consumption and generation efficiency even when used for a long period of time, and can be used reliably until the electrodes are eliminated. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a sterilization apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a first structural view of an electrolytic cell used in the sterilization apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a second structural view of an electrolytic cell used in the sterilization apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: urinal 3: automatic toilet cleaning system 6a, 6b: electrode 7: flow path between electrodes 13: power supply unit 21: electrolytic tank 23: water supply pipe for toilet cleaning 24: water supply valve 26: covering member 27: control device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (Reference) C02F 1/50 540 C02F 1/50 540B 550 550D 550L 560 560F C25B 11/08 C25B 11/08 Z E03D 9 / 02 E03D 9/02 (72) Inventor Shuji Nishiyama 2-1-1 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka F-term (reference) 2D038 AA02 4D061 DA03 DA07 DA08 DB01 DB02 DB09 EA03 EB19 EB20 EB31 EB39 GC02 GC16 4K011 AA15 DA11

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. At least one pair of electrodes which are opposed to each other in parallel at a predetermined interval and at least one of which is made of a metal that elutes bactericidal metal ions into water, an electrolytic cell supporting the electrodes, A sterilizing device comprising a power supply unit for supplying electric power to the electrode, wherein the entire end surface of the electrode is not exposed to a water flow. 2. A sterilizing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a covering member for covering an end face of said electrode, wherein said end face of said electrode is covered so as not to be exposed to a water flow. 3. The sterilizer according to claim 1, wherein said electrolytic cell has a structure covering at least a part of an end face of said electrode. 4. The sterilizer according to claim 2, wherein said covering member is an insulating material. 5. The sterilizing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a portion of said electrolytic cell which covers said electrode is an insulating material. 6. The sterilizer according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the electrodes is made of silver.