JP2004264269A - Moisture detector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a moisture detector that is in a simple configuration, is compact, and can be mounted at diversified inspection sites. <P>SOLUTION: The moisture detector 1 comprises a water detection sensor 2 consisting of an electrical heating element, and a thermocouple 3. The electrical heating element as the water detection sensor 2 generates heat by reaction, when being wetted by moisture, and is composed of silica gel made of colorless, yellowish brown, transparent, or translucent powder, and is accommodated in a wrapping material 4 damped with water. The wrapping material 4 can be deformed into a shape corresponding to the shape of an inspection site, and is made of thin sheet-like paper so that water soaks or is transmitted. The thermocouple 3 transmits electromotive force generated by heat generated, by the electrical heating element to an output side and is made of two pairs. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a moisture detection device that detects moisture.
[0002]
[Prior art]
An apparatus for detecting moisture is used, for example, in a pipe or the like. When touching water leaking from the pipe, the apparatus reacts with the chemical reaction and detects the water leakage by interlocking with the chemical reaction. Other than the above, for example, there is one that detects dew condensation.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the above-mentioned conventional moisture detection device is designed to detect water leakage or the like by a chemical reaction when it comes into contact with water, but is manufactured exclusively for piping and can be applied to anything other than piping. Did not. That is, for example, it cannot be used for warehouses that store materials whose value will be lost if they get wet with water, electronic components such as substrates that can not be used if they are short-circuited, and mounted on complicated parts I couldn't.
[0004]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a moisture detecting device that has a simple configuration, is small in size, and can be mounted on various inspection sites in view of the above-described problems of the related art.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following solutions.
The invention according to claim 1 is a moisture detection device for detecting the presence or absence of water, wherein a water detection sensor comprising a heating element which reacts with water and generates heat, and transmits the heat when the heating element generates heat. And a thermocouple.
According to the present invention, for example, when the leaked water flows into the inspection site and touches the heating element, the heating element chemically reacts with the water to generate heat, and the heat generation generates a thermoelectromotive force. Since the temperature of the heating element can be determined by passing through a thermocouple, by observing the temperature, it can be easily determined that the inspection site is wet with water due to water leakage or condensation, and the presence or absence of water is good. Can be detected.
[0006]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the moisture detecting device according to the first aspect, in the water detecting sensor, a heating element is made of silica gel.
According to the present invention, since the heating element is made of silica gel, it can reliably generate heat when wet with water, and can function well as a heating element.
[0007]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the moisture detecting device according to the first or second aspect, the heating element is housed in a sheet-like wrapping material that impregnates water and transmits the water to the heating element. .
According to this invention, since the heating element is housed in the sheet-like wrapping material, not only can the water detection sensor be easily attached, but also the location where the water detection sensor should be installed has a complicated shape. Can be easily attached irrespective of its shape.
[0008]
The invention according to claim 4 is the moisture detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a thermometer connected to an output side of the thermocouple and displaying a temperature at which a heating element generates heat. It is characterized by the following.
According to the present invention, since the presence of water is known based on the magnitude of the temperature indicated by the thermometer, the water can be detected satisfactorily.
[0009]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the moisture detector according to any one of the first to third aspects, the arithmetic processing unit is connected to an output side of the thermocouple and determines a magnitude of a temperature at which the heating element generates heat. And a display unit for displaying the presence or absence of an abnormality according to the determination of the arithmetic processing unit.
According to the present invention, the arithmetic processing unit determines the magnitude of the temperature at which the heating element generates heat, and the presence or absence of an abnormality is displayed on the display unit in accordance with the determination of the arithmetic processing unit, so that water detection is performed well. And can be very effective in locations that are adversely affected by water.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are diagrams showing a moisture detecting device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the moisture detecting device, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a use state of the moisture detecting device. It is.
The moisture detecting device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a water detecting sensor 2 composed of a heating element and a thermocouple 3. The heating element serving as the water detection sensor 2 generates heat by reacting when wet with moisture, and in this example, is made of colorless, tan, transparent or translucent powdered silica gel. That is, silica gel is porous, and generates heat due to a chemical reaction when wet with water.
[0011]
Such a heating element is housed in a wrapping material 4 that impregnates water. The foreskin material 4 can be deformed into a shape corresponding to the shape of the detection site. In this example, the foreskin material 4 is made of a sheet-like thin paper so that water can permeate or permeate, but is not limited thereto. Instead, a filter formed so as to be able to store the heating element may be used.
[0012]
The thermocouple 3 transmits the thermoelectromotive force generated by the heat generated by the heating element to the output side, and includes two pairs. In this case, the two thermocouples 3 are coated with an insulating material (not shown) so that they do not conduct with each other in order to accurately output heat from the heating element. A thermometer 5 is connected to the output side of the thermocouple 3 as shown in FIG. 1. When the heating element generates heat by getting wet with water, its thermoelectromotive force is transmitted through the thermocouple 3 to thereby measure the thermometer 5. Can measure the temperature. In addition, the thermometer 5 is configured to be able to be displayed by arithmetic numerals, but may be configured to perform analog display like a thermometer using a mercury column. Although the thermometer 5 shown in FIG. 1 has a configuration in which the temperature below the decimal point cannot be displayed, it may be configured to be able to display the temperature as needed. Further, in FIG. 1, in order to represent a heating element (silica gel) as the water detection sensor 2, a part of the wrapping material 4 is drawn in a broken state.
[0013]
Since the moisture detection device 1 of the present embodiment is configured as described above, its handling will be described next.
First, a wrapping material 4 containing a heating element as a water detection sensor 2 is attached to an upright wall 6 which is an inspection site with an adhesive tape 7 (or a screw (not shown)) or the like. The moisture detection device 1 is configured by connecting the output end of the thermocouple 3 drawn out of the thermocouple 2 to the thermometer 5.
[0014]
In this case, for example, when the leaked water flows into the inspection site, soaks into the foreskin material 4 and touches the heating element, the heating element chemically reacts with the water to generate heat, and the heat generation generates a thermoelectromotive force. Therefore, the thermoelectromotive force is transmitted to the thermometer 5 via the thermocouple 3, so that the thermometer 5 displays the temperature of the heating element.
Thus, by observing the temperature displayed on the thermometer 5, the observer can easily determine that the inspection site on the wall surface 6 is wet with water due to water leakage or dew condensation, and determine whether water is present. It can be detected accurately.
[0015]
Therefore, according to the moisture inspection apparatus 1, when the water detection sensor 2 gets wet or touches the water, it reacts and generates heat, and it is possible to detect that water is generated due to water leakage or dew condensation. It can be used in places that are adversely affected by water caused by water.
Further, if the water detection sensor 2 is composed of a heating element that generates heat in response to water, it is only necessary to detect the temperature, so that the configuration of the moisture testing device 1 is simplified and realized at low cost. Can be.
[0016]
Furthermore, since the heating element as the water detection sensor 2 is silica gel and is in a powder form, and the wrapping material 4 for housing the heating element is a thin sheet-like material, the wrapping material 4 is impregnated with water to generate heat. In addition to the above, since both the heating element and the wrapping material 4 can be deformed into an arbitrary shape according to the shape of the inspection site, the wall surface on which the inspection site stands as shown in FIG. Even if it is 6, it can be easily attached.
[0017]
Such a heating element and the wrapping material 4 include not only the upright wall surface 6 but also, for example, as shown in FIG. Not only can it be deformed according to the shape, but also as shown in FIG. 4, it can be installed in the pipe 6B by forming it into an elongated shape in accordance with the elongated shape such as the pipe 6B. In addition, the water detection sensor 2 can be easily attached to a part having a complicated shape, and can be easily mounted regardless of the shape of the inspection part.
Although FIG. 4 shows an example in which the water detection sensor 2 is provided in case a crack or the like is generated in the pipe 6B and water enters the inside, the water detection sensor 2 is not shown. By providing the water detection sensor 2 on the outer periphery of the pipe for flowing the water, it is possible to cope with the case where water leaks from the pipe to the outside.
[0018]
FIG. 5 shows a moisture detecting device according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the difference from the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is that the output side of the thermocouple 3 is connected to an input unit of an arithmetic processing unit 8 including a central processing unit called a CPU, The arithmetic processing unit 8 determines the magnitude of the temperature output from the thermocouple 3 and displays the determination result on the display unit 9 so that the presence or absence of water due to water leakage or condensation can be detected. It is in.
[0019]
In this case, the arithmetic processing unit 8 can also determine whether or not the detected water has an adverse effect on the inspection part (and its surroundings) based on the magnitude of the temperature and the location where the water detection sensor 2 is to be installed. . At that time, the arithmetic processing unit 8 can display whether or not there is an abnormality on the display unit 9 based on the magnitude of the temperature from the heating element, and thus, precise detection accuracy is possible.
[0020]
As shown in FIG. 6, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the arithmetic processing unit 8 has the water detection sensor 2 disposed on the surface of the substrate 6C so as to entirely cover the same. When the thermocouples 3 are drawn out from a plurality of locations in the surroundings, each location can be individually inspected by individually determining the heat transmitted from each thermocouple 3, and accordingly, the inspection location can be determined. Even if there is more than one, the inspection location can be easily specified by one moisture inspection apparatus 1, and the reliability of the inspection can be improved.
[0021]
In the illustrated embodiment, an example in which silica gel is used as the heating element of the water detection sensor has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In other words, another element that generates heat with water may be used. . In addition, the example in which the heating element is used by being housed in the wrapping material 4 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Since the material can be used by placing the material at the inspection site, the wrapping material 4 is not particularly required.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, when water touches a heating element as a water detection sensor, a chemical reaction is caused to generate heat, thereby detecting the presence or absence of water from the temperature of the heating element. Therefore, there can be obtained an effect that it can be realized with a simple configuration and at low cost, and can be easily and reliably mounted regardless of the shape of the inspection site.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a moisture detection device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a use state in which a water detection sensor is installed on an upright wall surface.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a use state in which a water detection sensor is installed at a corner at the back.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a use state in which a water detection sensor is installed in a pipe.
FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a moisture detection device according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a plurality of thermocouples are drawn out of a water detection sensor provided on an inspection site.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Moisture detection device 2 ... Water detection sensor 3 ... Thermocouple 4 ... Insulation material 5 ... Insulation material 6 ... Thermometer 8 ... Operation processing part 9 ... Display part

Claims (5)

In a moisture detection device that detects the presence or absence of water,
A water detection sensor consisting of a heating element that generates heat by reacting with water,
When the heating element generates heat, a thermocouple transmitting the heat is provided.
A moisture detecting device, comprising: The moisture detection device according to claim 1,
The water detecting sensor according to claim 1, wherein the heating element is made of silica gel. The moisture detector according to claim 1 or 2,
The moisture detecting device is characterized in that the heating element is housed in a sheet-like wrapping material that impregnates water and transmits the water to the heating element. The moisture detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A moisture detecting device, comprising: a thermometer connected to an output side of the thermocouple, for displaying a temperature at which a heating element generates heat. The moisture detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
An arithmetic processing unit that is connected to the output side of the thermocouple and determines the magnitude of the temperature at which the heating element generates heat, and a display unit that displays the presence or absence of an abnormality according to the determination of the arithmetic processing unit. A moisture detector characterized by the above-mentioned.

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