JP2002034844A - Hand drier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve problems with a hand drier whose sides are opened, including scattering around of waterdrops blown off the hands. SOLUTION: By arranging side plates 31 at the sides of a drying chamber 4 into which the hands are inserted, splashing laterally and toward a user of waterdrops is prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hand drying apparatus used in a washroom, a toilet, a kitchen or the like to dry hands wet by washing with water or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a hand-drying device that hygienically dries hands by holding hands over the blown warm air instead of wiping hands wet with water or the like with a towel or handkerchief has been put into practical use. Have been. For example, those that can be used as a hair dryer or those that have additional functions such as sterilization by ultraviolet rays have been developed. In these methods, an air flow is generated by rotating a blowing means including sirocco type blades by an induction motor, and the air flow is heated by a heating means including an electric heater to blow hot air to a hand insertion portion. Basically, it takes about 20 seconds to 1 minute to complete drying because the moisture of the wet hands is evaporated and dried by heat, which is inconvenient.

[0003] An improved version of this is also being developed. As shown in FIG. 6, an air flow blown from a high-pressure air flow generator 61 through an upper blow nozzle 62 and a lower blow nozzle 63 is applied to both sides of the hand. At the same time, it is sprayed as a high-speed jet, and the moisture of the hand inserted from the hand insertion section 3 is blown off and dried. As a measure against the winter season, an external heating device 64 is also provided.

[0004]

However, as in the above-mentioned prior art, the hand drying device that blows off moisture by a high-speed jet has an open side surface of the hand insertion portion, and the moisture of the blown hand becomes water droplets and scatters around. There is a risk of soiling the floor or walls. Furthermore, as a countermeasure against splashing of water droplets to the surroundings, in a drying room with a closed side surface, the water content of the blown hands becomes water droplets, and depending on the angle and position of the inserted hand, water droplets may scatter along the inner wall of the side surface due to the jet flow. There was a problem.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a side plate disposed on the side of the drying chamber, which is a hand insertion portion, to prevent water droplets from splashing around, and to have a drying chamber on the upper side of the side plate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hand drying device which is provided with a scattering prevention part for preventing the moisture of hands blown into a drying chamber from becoming water droplets and scattering to a user.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the overall configuration of the hand drying apparatus of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view thereof, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2, FIG.
FIG. 5B is an exploded perspective view showing the detachable parts, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the external shape of the nozzle unit.

In the following description, the configuration of a hand drying device for drying hands by circulating air will be described.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an electric blower for blowing an air flow.
2 is a main body, 3 is a hand insertion part (opening part) in which the upper surface of a drying chamber 4 for drying hands is opened, and an inlet part (upper inner surface) 4 of the drying chamber 4
a, a jet hole 5 for jetting the air flow blown by the electric blower 1
And a suction port 6 for recovering the airflow blown out from the blowout hole 5 in the back (lower inner surface) 4b.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a blower passage for guiding air to the electric blower 1 below the drying chamber 4, and reference numeral 8 denotes a blower from the intake port 6 to the electric blower 1.
A circulation flow path for recirculating air to the air, a circulation flow path 8 extends downward from the intake port 6, and includes a flow path recovery section 8a (air flow section indicated by an arrow C) containing both air and water droplets; Collection unit flow path 8a
And a recirculation part flow path 8b (air flow part indicated by an arrow line) from the air blower 1 to the electric blower 1, and communicates with the air flow path 7. A water droplet recovery port 10 for recovering water droplets from the recovery part channel 8a to the drain tank 9 is provided.

Reference numeral 11 denotes an electric blower case for housing the electric blower 1. The interior is separated by a partition 12 into a fan 14 in a high-pressure section 13 and a motor 16 in a low-pressure section 15. The air is sucked into the center of the fan and is blown in a circular shape.

Further, a configuration is adopted in which a part of the air flow of the blower vents the air from inside the fan 14 to the motor 16.
17 is a fan inlet sound absorbing material, 18 is an electric blower case 1
Reference numeral 19 denotes a sound absorber provided inside the high-pressure portion 13, 19 denotes an electric blower outlet, and 20 denotes a rib provided in the electric blower outlet 19 of the electric blower case 11.

The configuration will be described along the flow of air after exiting the electric blower 1. 21 is an air chamber and a front air chamber 21a
And a rear air chamber 21b, which communicate with each other. The air chamber 21 occupies substantially the entire left and right width in the main body 2 and has a sufficiently large cross-sectional area (about 10 times or more the ejection hole 5). Air enters the air chamber inlet 22 from the electric blower outlet 19.
The electric blower outlet 19 and the air chamber inlet 22 are configured so as not to leak by the seal member 23 and the rib 20.
The air that has entered from the air chamber inlet 22 passes through the interior of each air chamber and goes to the nozzle unit 25 provided in the air outlet 24. The nozzle unit 25 is inserted into a nozzle unit opening 26 provided above the drying chamber 4.

The front air chamber 21a corresponds to a slit-shaped nozzle 27 as the ejection hole 5, and the rear air chamber 21b corresponds to a round nozzle 28 as the ejection hole 5. Note that the slit-shaped nozzle 27 is located on the user side so as to correspond to the palm of the hand, and the round hole nozzle 28 is configured to hit the back of the hand on the back side.

FIG. 4 is an exploded schematic view of each main part, and the configuration will be described based on this figure.

A flow path through which the circulating flow mounted on the drain tank 9 passes is constituted by a middle box body 29 provided in the drain tank 9.

A filter 30 is provided in a portion of the middle box 29 that enters the electric blower 1 side. Reference numeral 29a denotes a drain opening for dropping water drops into the drain tank 9. The drain tank 9 is detachable from the main body 2 and the inner box 2
9. Each of the filters 30 is separable.

Next, the drying chamber 4 is integrally formed to have a substantially U-shaped cross section, and two side plates 31 are provided at the side open portions. The side plate 31 has a fixing flange 32 on the lower side, and is screwed to a deep portion 4b of the drying chamber 4 at the concave portion 33. In addition, in the vicinity of the upper part of the side plate, a lifting prevention part 3 is provided.
4 causes the nozzle unit 25 to be caught by the entrance angle portion 35.

Numeral 36 denotes a water droplet scattering prevention portion 36 provided on the upper portion of the side plate 31, and a protrusion is provided inside the drying chamber 4. The side plate 31 is formed of a light transmitting body (including a translucent, skeleton, etc.) capable of daylighting, and the outside is textured. And the shape is gently rounded outward (circular arc)
To protrude from the width of the main body 2. These side plates 3
1 is inserted and fixed along grooves and the like provided on the front and rear surfaces of the drying chamber 4.

Reference numeral 37 denotes a sensor (hand detecting means),
8 and a light receiving section 39, and are connected to the control means 40 by a signal line. 42 is a sensor cover (arc).

Reference numeral 43 denotes a display unit, which is described here as a power lamp having a triangular shape. The display unit 43 may display an operation state.

The front case 4 covered with a waterproof cover 45
6 is provided on the side surface 47 side (signal lines are not shown).
The front case 46 has an upper part 48 and a side part 47, and a front part 49, a part between the upper part 48 and the side part 47 are curved surfaces,
When viewed from the front, a screw or the like to be fixed to a member or the like inside is invisible. Upper part 4 of front case 46
8 and a part of the side portion 47 are adapted to fit with the drying chamber 4 and are provided with a protruding portion for fixing inside.
Further, the front case 46 has a fixing portion 52 to be fixed to the bottom plate 51, and is fixed to the bottom plate 51 and the back surface with screws.

The main body 2 can be put on a table for operation, and in this case, the drain tank 9 can be removed.

The front case 46, the drying chamber 4, the drain tank 9, the side plate 31, the sensor cover 42, the filter 30, and the inner box body 29, which are configured as external parts, are formed of polypropylene resin.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

When the hand is inserted into the drying chamber 4 from the hand insertion section 3, the sensor 37 detects the hand and drives the electric blower 1. Then, the airflow sucked from the intake port 6 passes through the circulation channel 8 and the airflow channel 7 and is sucked into the high-pressure section 13 of the electric blower 1. Spit out. Since the suction portion of the fan 14 of the electric blower case 11 has a negative pressure, the air is sucked to the electric blower case 11 via the fan inlet sound absorbing material 17, and the air flow does not leak from the high-pressure portion 13. .

On the other hand, a part of the air flows from the fan 14 to the motor 16 to the motor 16 in the low-pressure section 15 to cool the motor 16. The air used for cooling is discharged to the lower side or the rear side of the electric blower case 11 and goes out of the main body 2.

The sound absorbing member 18 in the electric blower case 11
Is provided on the inner periphery of the high-pressure section so as to oppose the fan. Therefore, the sound from the fan rotating at high speed in the electric blower case 11 is absorbed to a considerable extent here.

The air that has flowed out of the electric blower 1 passes through a front air chamber 21a and a rear air chamber 21b of the air chamber 21, and is guided to a nozzle unit 25 having the ejection holes 5. In the front air chamber 21a and the rear air chamber 21b, as described above, the cross-sectional area of the flow path is sufficiently large as compared with the ejection hole 5, so that almost uniform compression is achieved, and a stable high-speed jet from the ejection hole 5 Can squirt. The ejection holes 5 are provided facing each other so as to spray a jet at the same time on both sides of the palm and the back of the hand, and the ejection direction is set to the depth direction of the drying chamber 4, that is, the downward direction in the drawing (the direction of the inserted finger: The hand is slightly (5-10 °) tilted (not shown). A slit nozzle 27 from the front air chamber 21a and a round hole nozzle 28 from the rear air chamber 21b hit the palm and back of the hand, respectively.

Since the palm of the hand is rubbed and washed with both hands when water drops are applied, a large amount of water adheres to the palm. On the other hand, much water does not adhere to the back of the hand, but water droplets adhere to wrinkles of the hand.

Accordingly, the slit-shaped nozzle 27 is
A lot of air is sprayed from the back of the hand, and a round hole nozzle blows water droplets at the back of the hand in a spot-like manner.

Here, the area of the slit-shaped nozzle 27 configured to hit the palm is twice or more the area of the round-hole nozzle 28. Therefore, many air streams hit the palm. However, unless the hole area of the slit-shaped nozzle 27 is 10 times or less the area of the round-hole nozzle, the air injected from the round-hole nozzle 28 is too small to dry the back of the hand sufficiently.

Further, the slit-shaped nozzle is closed between 10 mm and 50 mm in the longitudinal center position, so that air is blown only to the hand without blowing wasteful air between both hands. is there.

This prevents the airflow from coming out of the two nozzles from hitting, since the airflow coming out of both nozzles can be prevented since the airflow at the center where the airflow is the largest is kept.

Thereafter, the air flow is sucked into the intake port 6. The air flow passes through the circulation passage 8, passes through the electric blower 1, and is blown again as an air flow from the air chamber 21 and the ejection holes 5. The temperature of the blown air flow is increased by repeatedly passing through the electric blower 1 and repeatedly compressed in the air chamber 21, so that warm air is supplied from the ejection holes 5 without separately providing a heating means. Can be.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the water droplets sucked into the intake port 6 together with the air flow are accelerated downward along the air flow in the recovery section flow path 8a of the circulation flow path 8, and the recirculation section 8b At the bent position, the water is dropped and separated to the position of the water droplet collecting port 10 by inertia and collected in the drain tank 9. The filter 30 mainly prevents dust from flowing into the electric blower 1.

At the time of maintenance, the power switch 44 is temporarily turned off to perform cleaning, but all or any of the side plate 31, the drain tank 9, the middle box body 29, and the filter 30 are removed from the main body 2, separated and exposed to running water. It can be washed while giving physical force. After the cleaning is completed, the removed parts are mounted on the main body 2 again.

The above-mentioned hand drying apparatus is used for drying washed hands. However, when washing is insufficient, dust or dirt components are contained in water droplets. is there. For this reason, dirt will inevitably adhere to the inside of the drying chamber 4 and the circulation channel 8 due to long-term use.
For this reason, in this embodiment, the drain tank 9, the middle box 29
Since it can be removed, it is easy to clean and very easy to use.

Further, since the side plate 31 is a light transmitting body, it allows sufficient lighting when used and allows the inside of the drying chamber 4 to be seen through from the outside, so that a feeling of discomfort, rejection, or fear of inserting a hand into a closed space is provided. Etc. can be alleviated.

The front case 46, the drying chamber 4, the drain tank 9, the side plate 31, the sensor cover 42, the filter 30, and the middle box 29 are made of polypropylene resin, so they have chemical resistance and are used in toilets. Even hard to break. It also has weather resistance and has the effect of not discoloring.

Since the front case 46 is formed of resin as described above, when the front case 46 is attached, even if the fixing portion 52 for fixing to the bottom plate 51 is protruding, the front case 46 is easily expanded, and the rear surface of the bottom plate 51 is The outer shell can be constructed with less man-hours and fewer parts.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the air flow blown by the electric blower 1 is ejected from the slit nozzle 27 and the round hole nozzle 28 according to the characteristics of the palm and back of the hand. Can be dried efficiently. Since the palm side is a slit-shaped nozzle, the air volume is larger than that of the back side of the hand, and continuous air is supplied, so that it can be dried quickly. These nozzle configurations are the effects obtained by the combination of the round hole and the slit. Accordingly, a small and compact electric blower 1 is sufficient, and the entire main body can be made compact.

In the above embodiment, the case where the air flow circulates while passing through the electric blower 1 has been described.
The air may be supplied from outside the main body 2 without circulating the air flow. Then, a separate heating means may be provided so as to blow out a warm wind. Even in that case, if the nozzle configuration is the same, the slit-shaped nozzle 27 and the round hole nozzle 28
Since the air stream is sprayed according to the characteristics of the palm and back of the hand, it can be dried very efficiently. Accordingly, a small and compact electric blower 1 suffices, so that the entire main body can have a compact configuration.

[0043]

As described above, the hand drying device according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided in the main body forming the outer shell and is provided with the electric blower for blowing the air flow, and is inserted from the top opening of the main body. A drying chamber for drying hands, an ejection hole arranged on the inner surface of the drying chamber for ejecting an air flow blown from the electric blower, and an air chamber communicating the blow side of the electric blower with the ejection hole. By arranging the side plate on the side of the chamber, it is possible to prevent water droplets from scattering around the drying chamber in the lateral direction.

Further, in the hand drying apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, a side plate is disposed on the side surface of the drying chamber as in the first aspect,
Since the upper portion of the side plate has a splash preventing portion directed toward the inside of the drying chamber, the moisture of the hand blown off can be prevented from becoming water droplets and splattering along the side plate by the jet to the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a hand drying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are exploded perspective views showing detachable parts in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an external view of a slit nozzle in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional side view showing a configuration of a conventional hand drying device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electric blower 2 Main body 3 Hand insertion part (opening part) 4 Drying chamber 5 Jet hole 21 Air chamber 21a Front air chamber 21b Rear air chamber 46 Front case 51 Bottom plate 52 Fixed part (fixing means)

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroaki Ishimoto 1006 Kadoma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electric blower arranged in a main body forming an outer shell to blow air flow, a drying chamber for drying a hand inserted from an upper opening of the main body, and a drying chamber arranged on an inner surface of the drying chamber. A blower that blows out the air flow blown from the electric blower, and an air chamber that communicates the blower side of the blower with the blower, and a side plate is disposed on a side surface of the drying chamber. Drying equipment. 2. An electric blower, which is disposed in a main body forming an outer shell and blows an air flow, a drying chamber for drying a hand inserted from an upper opening of the main body, and a drying chamber disposed on an inner surface of the drying chamber. A blower that blows out the airflow blown from the electric blower, and an air chamber that communicates the blowout side of the blower with the blower, a side plate is disposed on a side of the drying chamber, and an upper part of the side plate is provided. Is a hand-drying device having a scattering prevention portion directed to the inside of the drying chamber.