JP2002013812A - Warm water apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact warm water apparatus which is superior in heat responsiveness and heat exchange efficiency and easy in manufacture. SOLUTION: The warm water apparatus 1 has a heating resistor 5 and a plurality of electrodes 6a and 6d disposed through an insulation layer 4 on the outer surface of a cylindrical metal base 3 and a cylindrical metal heater 2 having a plurality of feed terminals 8a, 8b connected to the electrodes 6a and 6b. One and the other ends of the heater 2 are connected to a water supply passage and a water discharge passage, respectively to heat water from the feed passage and discharge it to the discharge passage. On the heater 2 surface a heat insulated outer tube 11 is provided for covering the base 3 surface through a heat insulating gap and flanges 9a and 9b are provided for fixing at least either of the feed terminals 8a and 8b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water heater using a cylindrical metal heater for heating water to a predetermined temperature.

[Prior art]

In recent years, in order to reduce the size of a hot water device, a ceramic heater having a heating resistor embedded in a ceramic substrate has been used as a heater for heating hot water, and this heater is submerged in a relatively small capacity hot water storage tank. An instantaneous heating type hot water device is used.

[0003] In such a hot water apparatus 100, as shown in FIG. 4, a heat generating portion of a cylindrical ceramic heater 113 is inserted and fixed in an opening provided on one side of a hot water storage tank 114, and is integrated with the heater 113. Flange 109 provided
And hot water storage tank 114 are fixed with screws 112 and sealed with water by O-ring 117. The flange 109 is connected to the ceramic heater 113 via the glass material 120. Here, the flange 109 is formed of the same ceramic material as the heater 113. By fixing the flange to the heater using a glass material having excellent heat resistance, it is possible to prevent falling off when abnormal heating occurs. Further, by melting and fixing the glass material at a high temperature, water leakage from the fixing portion can be prevented, and the sealing property can be improved. As described above, since a glass material is used as the fixing material, a ceramic material having better heat resistance than a glass material is suitable for the flange material.

One end of the ceramic heater 113 exposed to the outside of the hot water storage tank 114 is connected to a water supply passage (not shown) as a water inlet 115, and a hot water outlet 116 provided on an upper surface of the hot water storage tank 114 transfers hot water (not shown). Connected to the channel. Note that reference numeral 108 in the figure is a conduction terminal. In such a configuration, by supplying water to the internal flow path of the ceramic heater 113 from the water inlet 115 and supplying power to the heating resistor 105 via the power supply terminal 108, the water is primarily heated while passing through the internal flow path. After flowing into the inside of the hot water storage tank 114, the hot water is again contacted with the outer surface of the heater and secondary-heated to become sufficient warm water.
Is discharged from the tap hole 116 to the discharge channel. .

[0005]

However, in order to make the hot water system more compact, the hot water storage tank 114 is required.
It is preferable to use a water heater of an instantaneous heating type in which a water supply channel and a drainage channel are directly connected to both ends of the ceramic heater 113 without using a heater. In such an instantaneous heating type hot water device, it is necessary to perform sufficient heating only by passing water into the ceramic heater 113 (only by the primary heating), so that heat from the embedded heating resistor 105 is removed. It is necessary to efficiently transmit the water to the water passage inside the ceramic heater 113. As the means, it is conceivable to reduce the thickness of the entire ceramic base material or to reduce the thickness of the ceramic base material between the heating resistor 105 and the internal water passage to improve the heat transfer coefficient. Mechanical strength may be reduced, resulting in breakage. In the latter case, there is a problem that manufacturing becomes difficult. Since the ceramic substrate is weak against thermal shock, if air bubbles or foreign matter adheres to the inner surface of the ceramic heater 113 and cold water comes into contact with the locally heated surface, the ceramic heater 113 may break and leak water therefrom. is there.

Further, regardless of the ceramic heater 113, when water is passed only inside the cylindrical heater to heat it,
If the heat radiation from the outer surface of the heater is large, there is a problem that not only the heat exchange efficiency is reduced but also the peripheral devices of the heater are adversely affected. Therefore, it is preferable to provide a heat-insulating outer cylinder outside the heater. However, when providing this heat-insulating outer cylinder, it is necessary to sufficiently consider insulation as well as heat insulation due to the property of a heater for a water heater. It is desirable to simplify the process as much as possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and is small in size and excellent in thermal response and heat exchange efficiency.
An object of the present invention is to provide a hot water device that is easy to manufacture.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems and Actions / Effects In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a heating resistor and a plurality of electrodes on an outer surface of a cylindrical metal base via an insulating layer. A cylindrical metal heater having a plurality of energizing terminals connected to the electrodes, one end of the heater being connected to a water supply flow path, and the other end being connected to a discharge flow path, for inflow from the water supply flow path. In the hot water device that heats the discharged water by the heating resistor and discharges the discharged water to a discharge flow path, a heat insulating outer cylinder that covers a surface of the metal base material through a heat insulating gap on a surface of the cylindrical metal heater; A hot water device comprising a flange for fixing at least one of the energizing terminals. Therefore, the heat-insulating outer cylinder can be easily fixed with screws or the like, and heat radiation from the outer surface of the heater can be suppressed, and a decrease in heat exchange efficiency can be prevented. When fixing the heat-insulating outer cylinder with a screw, a temperature detecting means such as a thermistor is arranged at the same time and the temperature of the heat-insulating outer cylinder is directly detected. In addition, the connection strength of the current-carrying terminals is improved, and power can be reliably supplied to the heater.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the flange is formed of a non-conductive material. By forming the flange using a non-conductive material having excellent heat resistance, such as ceramics, the flange can be directly disposed on or near the surface of the heat-generating resistor mounting portion which reaches a high temperature state. Insulation between the heat-generating terminal, the heat-generating resistor and the heat-insulating outer cylinder, and the current-carrying terminal can be reliably achieved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the flange is made of a heat-resistant resin material. By forming the flange with heat resistant resin, it can be directly attached to the cylindrical metal heater.
A flange having a complicated shape can be integrally formed, thereby simplifying assembly and improving productivity.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the heat-insulating outer cylinder and the current-carrying terminal are fixed by one flange. The cylindrical metal heater can be made more compact, assembling can be simplified, and productivity can be improved.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the flange is formed of a metal material. In order to improve the heat exchange efficiency, the heat accumulated in the heat-insulated outer cylinder is made by contacting one or both ends of the heat-insulated outer cylinder with a cylindrical metal heater by using a metal with excellent heat conduction such as copper or aluminum. When heat is transferred to the heater base material to recover heat, the use of a flange made of a metal material does not hinder the heat conduction from the heat-insulating outer cylinder to the metal heater. And since the surface temperature of the heat insulating outer cylinder can be reduced, peripheral devices are not adversely affected.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, an uneven portion for positioning is provided on a portion of the flange that comes into contact with the metal base material, the insulating layer, or the like. The flange is fixed at a fixed position, and the flange can be prevented from falling off from the cylindrical metal heater.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a periphery of a fixing portion between the metal heater and the flange is covered with a water-resistant resin material. The adhesion strength between the cylindrical metal heater and the flange is improved, and it is possible to prevent water from penetrating into the adhesion portion.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a water heater according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings described in the present embodiment, the thickness of each member is different from the actual thickness. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of a water heater according to the present invention.

In the water heater 1, one end (left side in the figure) of the cylindrical metal heater 2 is connected to a water supply passage (not shown) as a water inlet 15 and the other end (right side in the figure) is connected to a discharge passage (not shown) as a water outlet 16. Connected. The water flowing in from the water inlet 15 is gradually heated while passing through the internal flow path of the cylindrical metal heater 2, and is discharged as hot water from the water outlet 16.

At this time, in order to recover the heat radiated from the outer surface of the heater 2, a heat insulating outer cylinder 11 made of copper material and having a thickness of about 1 mm is arranged via a gap of about 2 mm from the outer surface of the heater 2. One end (left side in the figure) of the heat insulating outer cylinder 11 is fixed to the water inlet side flange 9b, and the other end (the right side in the figure) is fixed to the tapping side flange 9a by screws 12a to 12d, respectively. That is, the flanges 9a and 9b have a function as a spacer. The thermistor 19 is fixed together with the screw 12a.

Here, the cylindrical metal heater used in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
The outline will be described. After electrolytic polishing, the cylindrical metal heater
The insulating layers 4a, 4b, 4c made of crystallized glass are formed on the surface of the stainless steel substrate 3 which has been subjected to the A treatment.
A rectangular heating resistor 5 is provided on the surface of the insulating layer 4a, and a plurality of electrodes 6a and 6b are disposed on opposite ends (upper and lower ends in the drawing) of the heating resistor 5; A protective layer 7 made of crystallized glass is laminated on the surface of the electrodes 6a and 6b except for the area 5 and the wide portion.

After the pair of energizing terminals 8a and 8b are connected to the wide portions of the pair of electrodes 6a and 6b, the periphery of each contact portion between the electrode 6 and the energizing terminal 8 is covered with a PPS material. In addition, a part of the groove (a portion where the base material 3 is exposed in FIG. 2) provided between the insulating layers 4a and 4b partially penetrates to cover the entire surface of the base material 3, the heating resistor 5 and the like. A flange 9a is integrally formed with the power supply terminal 8 and the heat insulating outer cylinder 11 is fixed by the flange 9a. As described above, on the inner surface side of the flange 9a, the resin that has penetrated into the groove becomes the convex portion 18 and is engaged with the insulating layer 4b, so that the flange 9a can be prevented from falling off from the heater base material 3. .

A flange 9b made of the same material is provided on the insulating layer 4c in order to recover the heat radiated from the outer surface of the heater 2. By coating the periphery of the contact portion between the base material 3 and the flange 9a with, for example, the silicon resin 10, the adhesion strength between the base material 3 and the flange 9a can be increased without applying stress or the like to the glass material forming the insulating layer 4c. It is possible to prevent water from entering the outer surface of the heater 2.

When the flange 9 is formed of a metal material, if the flange is brought into direct contact with the base material, electrolytic corrosion occurs, and a hole is opened on the material having a low ionization tendency, which may cause water leakage or the like. For this reason, it is necessary to take measures such as using a material having a lower ionization tendency than the base material or interposing an insulator such as glass between the base material and the flange.

In this embodiment, the heat insulating outer cylinder 11 is fixed by disposing the flanges 9 made of different materials at both ends, but when heat is not recovered to the base material 3 side, the heat insulating outer cylinder 1
One end or both ends of 1 may be fixed by a flange 9 formed of ceramic or heat-resistant resin material.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. One end of the heat-insulating outer cylinder 11 is fixed to the flange 9d with the screw 12a, and the other end is characterized in that the end of the outer cylinder 11 is narrowed down and directly caulked to the insulating layer 4c without the flange being interposed. . Since the insulating layer 4a on the side of the heating resistor 5 and the insulating layer 4c for directly fixing the end of the heat insulating outer cylinder 11 are separated,
Even if a crack or the like enters the insulating layer 4c when the heat insulating outer tube 11 is swaged, the insulating layer 4a on the heating resistor 5 side is not affected at all. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of insulation failure between the heating resistor 5 and the heating resistor 5.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described examples and embodiments at all, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the energizing terminals are integrated at one end of the cylindrical metal heater, but the same effect can be obtained even if they are arranged at both ends. Further, the hot water device of the present invention can be applied to a sanitary washing device, an electric water heater, an automatic handwasher with a hot water function, and the like.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a hot water device that is small, has excellent heat responsiveness and heat exchange efficiency, and is easy to manufacture.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a first embodiment of a hot water device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic development view of the cylindrical metal heater used in the water heater.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing the second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view showing a conventional water heater.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: hot water device, 2: cylindrical metal heater, 3: cylindrical metal base material 4a, 4b, 4c: insulating layer, 5: heating resistor, 6
a, 6b: electrode, 7: protective layer, 8a, 8b: conducting terminal,
9a, 9b, 9d: flange, 10: water-resistant resin (silicone resin), 11: heat-insulated outer cylinder,

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takahiro Ohashi 2-1-1 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka F-term in Totoki Kiki Co., Ltd. 3L034 BA14 BA17

Claims (7)

[Claims] A heating resistor and a plurality of electrodes disposed on an outer surface of the cylindrical metal base via an insulating layer, and a cylindrical metal heater having a plurality of current-carrying terminals connected to the electrodes, One end of the heater is connected to the water supply flow path, the other end is connected to the discharge flow path, respectively, in a hot water device that heats the water flowing from the water supply flow path by the heating resistor and discharges the water to the discharge flow path,
On the surface of the cylindrical metal heater, there is provided a heat insulating outer cylinder that covers the surface of the metal base material through a heat insulating gap, and a flange for fixing at least one of the energizing terminals. Hot water equipment. 2. The hot water device according to claim 1, wherein the flange is formed of a non-conductive material. 3. The water heater according to claim 1, wherein the flange is formed of a heat-resistant resin material. 4. The hot water apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat insulating outer cylinder and the energizing terminal are fixed by one flange. 5. The hot water device according to claim 1, wherein the flange is formed of a metal material. 6. The hot water apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a concave / convex portion for positioning is provided on a portion of the flange that comes into contact with the metal base material, the insulating layer, or the like. 7. The water heater according to claim 1, wherein a periphery of a fixing portion between the metal heater and the flange is covered with a water-resistant resin material.