JP2016083255A - Bathtub - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bathtub which allows a bather to take a bath with relaxing, compared with a conventional bathtub, in a view point based on human engineering.SOLUTION: A bathtub A comprises a backrest surface 20 for supporting a back of a bather, and a pillow part 4 having a front face 40 connected to the backrest surface 20, in which the backrest surface 20 is formed into a rearward inclined curved surface which is curved in a recessed state with constant curvature radius Ra over a range from a bottom face part of the bathtub to a connection part C with the front face 40 of the pillow part 4, and the front face 40 of the pillow part 4 is formed into a rearward inclined curved surface which is connected to the backrest surface 20 in a tangent state, and curved into a salient state with constant curvature radius Rb.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a bathtub.

  As a bathtub, for example, as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, a part of the inner wall surface of the bathtub is inclined backward as a backrest surface for supporting a bather's back, and in the vicinity of the upper portion of the backrest surface. Further, there is one provided with a pillow portion protruding upward from the upper surface of the flange portion. According to such a configuration, the bather can take a bath in a relaxed posture by placing his / her neck on the back and the back of his / her head on the pillow while leaning his back on the backrest.

  However, conventionally, from an ergonomic point of view, it is difficult to say that a bather can enjoy bathing in a sufficiently relaxed posture. Therefore, there was still room for improvement in this respect.

Japanese Patent No. 4340340 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-18289

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances as described above, and provides a bathtub that allows a bather to relax and enjoy bathing from the viewpoint of ergonomics. That is the issue.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

The bathtub provided by the present invention comprises a backrest surface for supporting a bather's back and a pillow portion having a front surface connected to the backrest surface, wherein the backrest surface is a bathtub. Over the range from the bottom surface to the connecting portion with the front surface of the pillow portion, the curved surface is inclined backward with a constant radius of curvature, and the front surface of the pillow portion is tangent to the backrest surface. It is characterized by the fact that the curved surface is curved backward and curved in a convex shape with a constant radius of curvature.
Here, “tangent” means a state in which the tangents of these two surfaces are coincident with each other in the cross-sectional view or the side view of the front surface and the backrest surface of the pillow portion. In the present invention, the means for connecting the front surface and the backrest surface of the pillow portion so as to be tangent is not limited to the means for directly connecting these two surfaces, and the tangent line between these two surfaces is between these two surfaces. It is also possible to apply a means for interposing a plane portion corresponding to the above (as much as possible, it is desirable that the plane portion has a small area) and indirectly connecting the two surfaces via the plane portion.

According to such a configuration, the following effects can be obtained.
First, the backrest surface has a curved shape that matches the arch shape of the spine when the bather bathes in a long-sitting position, so that the contact area of the bather's back with the backrest surface can be increased. . For this reason, it can prevent that a pressure concentrates on a part of narrow area of a back. As a result, the bather can continue to take the same posture and is suitable for long-time bathing. Further, if pressure is not concentrated on a specific part of the back, the skin contact with the body is improved, and a comfortable bathing feeling can be obtained.
Secondly, since the backrest surface is tilted backward, the blood flow is improved by relaxing the spinal column standing muscle group (the muscle that continues to work to erect the spine). Moreover, since it approaches a sleeping posture, the parasympathetic nerve can be dominant and the resting feeling can be enhanced. Furthermore, the effect which accelerates | stimulates fatigue recovery can also be anticipated by these composite actions.
Thirdly, while the backrest surface is inclined backward, the pillow portion is provided in a form connected to the backrest surface, so that the posture makes it easy to take a deep breath and a high relaxing effect is obtained. The sternocleidomastoid muscle is used as an auxiliary for deep breathing, and the rectus abdominis and internal intercostal muscles are used as an auxiliary for exhalation. For this reason, if there is no pillow part, it will always work, making it difficult to take deep breaths and shallow breaths. According to the present invention, this can be solved.
Fourthly, the front surface of the pillow portion is curved in the direction opposite to the curved shape of the backrest surface. For this reason, the bather should be in a long-sitting position to match the arch shape of the spine and the anterior curve shape of the cervical spine, and the back, neck, head, etc. It is possible to make it lean satisfactorily. For this reason, it can be immersed in the bath water with a relaxed posture. In the case of bathing deeply in the winter (soaked in hot water to the shoulders) and bathing in shallow water (soaked in the hot water to the sides) in summer, bathing in a comfortable posture is possible in any case.

  In the present invention, preferably, the backrest surface is non-curved in the width direction.

  According to such a configuration, an open feeling is felt for many people regardless of the body shape, and a feeling of bathing is more preferable.

  In this invention, Preferably, the connection part of the front surface of the said pillow part and the said backrest surface is the same height as the upper surface of a flange part, and is the linear form extended horizontally in the bathtub width direction.

  According to such a configuration, when the bathtub is covered, one end edge of the lid can be brought into intimate contact with the connecting portion, and an unreasonable gap can be prevented from occurring between them.

  In the present invention, preferably, a jet water discharge nozzle having a rotating nozzle main body that jets jet water into the bathtub while rotating is provided at a position near the lower portion of the backrest surface.

According to such a configuration, when the bather is bathing in a relaxed posture as described above, in addition to being able to obtain a massage effect by applying jet water to the waist and back of the bather, Such effects can also be obtained.
First, by changing the bather's way of bathing (posture), for example, by applying jet water directly to both the pain associated with back pain and its trigger point (the part that is actually worse) It is possible to stimulate the trigger point while relaxing.
Second, since the jet water discharge nozzle is provided on a curved backrest surface that can bring the bather's back into close contact with a wide range, the back and the jet water discharge nozzle can be brought close to each other. Therefore, it is possible to make the strength of the jet water uniform when jet water spouts from the upper part or the lower part of the jet water discharge nozzle and hits the back or the like while the rotary nozzle body rotates.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It is a perspective view which shows an example of the bathtub which concerns on this invention. (A) is II-II sectional drawing of FIG. 1, (b) is a principal part enlarged view of (a). It is a top view of FIG. It is IV-IV sectional drawing of FIG. It is a top view of the state which covered the bathtub of FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state of the spine in the case of a long sitting position. It is sectional drawing which shows the other example of the bathtub concerning this invention. (A) is a perspective view which shows an example of the jet water discharge nozzle used in FIG. 7, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the typical trigger point of a low back pain.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  The bathtub A shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 is made of a resin that is integrally molded as a whole, and is provided on the bottom surface portion 1 and a plurality of side wall portions 2a to 2d that are erected from the bottom surface portion 1, and to the upper ends of these side wall portions 2a to 2d. It has the flange part 3 and the pillow part 4 which were provided continuously. The inner wall surface of the side wall 2 a is a backrest surface 20.

  The backrest surface 20 is formed as a concave curved surface that is curved upward from the bottom surface portion 1 with a constant radius of curvature Ra and that is recessed toward the rear of the backrest surface 20. The backrest surface 20 is inclined backward at an appropriate angle α1. A lower portion of the backrest surface 20 is smoothly connected to the bottom surface portion 1 via a curved surface portion 10 having a curvature radius Rc. The curved surface portion 10 is not included in the backrest surface 20. The backrest surface 20 is non-curved in the width direction.

  The pillow portion 4 has a front surface 40 directly connected to the backrest surface 20 and protrudes above the upper surface of the flange portion 3 so as to be positioned above the backrest surface 20. The front surface 40 of the pillow part 4 is a convex curved surface that is curved with a constant radius of curvature Rb, and is inclined backward at an appropriate angle α2. The upper portion of the front surface 40 is smoothly connected to the upper end portion 41 of the pillow portion 4 via a curved surface 42 having a curvature radius Rd. The curved surface 42 is not included in the front surface 40 of the pillow part 4.

  In the present embodiment, the front surface 40 and the backrest surface 20 of the pillow part 4 are directly connected so as to be tangent. The meaning of the tangent is as described above, and it is also as described above that the front surface 40 and the backrest surface 20 may be indirectly connected through a plane portion. The connecting portion C (shown as an imaginary line C in FIGS. 1 and 3) between the front surface 40 and the backrest surface 20 is flush with the upper surface of the flange portion 3 and extends horizontally in the width direction of the bathtub A. It is straight.

  The bottom surface portion 1 is provided with a plurality of convex portions 60 as slip stoppers (omitted in FIG. 2). Armrest portions 61 are provided on the inner wall surfaces of the pair of side wall portions 2b and 2c.

  Next, the operation of the above-described bathtub A will be described.

First, when a person takes a long-sitting posture, as shown in FIG. 6, the person's spine is curved in an arch (C-shape). On the other hand, since the backrest surface 20 has a curved shape corresponding to the backrest surface 20, when the bather takes a bath in a long sitting position, the contact area of the bather's back with respect to the backrest surface 20 can be increased. Since the backrest surface 20 is non-curved in the width direction, the contact area of the bather's back can be increased. For this reason, pressure is not concentrated on a part of the back, and the bather can continue to take the same posture, so that it is suitable for bathing for a long time.

  Since the backrest surface 20 is tilted backward, as described in the “Summary of the Invention” section, the spine upright muscle group is relaxed, the blood flow is improved, and the parasympathetic nerve is dominant to provide a resting feeling. It can also be increased. Furthermore, while the backrest surface 20 is inclined backward, the pillow portion 4 is provided in a form connected to the backrest surface 20, so that it is easy to take a deep breath. Since the front surface 40 of the pillow portion 4 is curved in the direction opposite to the curved shape of the backrest surface 20, the backrest surface 20 and the front surface 40 of the pillow portion 4 are configured so that the bather is in a long sitting position with the spine It matches the arch shape and the anterior curve shape of the cervical spine. For this reason, the bather can enjoy the bathing in a relaxed state by allowing his / her back, neck, occipital region and the like to lean on the backrest surface 20 and the pillow 4.

The inventors of the present invention used a chair as a substitute for a bathtub, investigated the degree of relaxation, etc., with a considerable number of adult men and women as subjects, and obtained preferable numerical values for each part of the bathtub A. The results are as follows.
The curvature radius Ra of the backrest surface 20 is preferably 1130 to 1430 mm.
The average inclination angle α1 of the backrest surface 20 is preferably 24 to 35 °.
The height H of the backrest surface 20 is preferably 460 to 543 mm.
The average inclination angle α2 of the front surface 40 of the pillow part 4 is preferably 17.7 to 30.7 °.
When in the numerical range as described above, it is possible to provide an excellent relaxation effect for many bathers.
An example of the curvature radii Rb, Rc, and Rd is about 230 mm, about 80 mm, and about 25 mm, respectively.

  As described above, the connecting portion C between the front surface 40 and the backrest surface 20 of the pillow portion 4 has the same height as the upper surface of the flange portion 3 and has a linear shape extending horizontally in the bathtub A width direction. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 5, when the lid 7 is placed on the flange portion, it is possible to prevent a large gap from being generated between the lid 7 and the pillow portion 4.

  7 and 8 show another embodiment of the present invention. In these drawings, elements that are the same as or similar to those in the above-described embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions are omitted.

  In the bathtub A shown in FIG. 7, a jet water discharge nozzle N is attached to a position closer to the lower part (lower than the center in the height direction) of the center part in the width direction of the backrest surface 20.

  The jet water discharge nozzle N has the same configuration as that described in, for example, JP2013-132421A. Briefly, the jet water discharge nozzle N is capable of jetting jet water into the bathtub A while circulating hot water in the bathtub A using a pump (not shown). As shown in FIG. For example, the rotary nozzle body 8 provided with two jet holes 80 is rotatably accommodated in the casing 90. The casing 90 is provided with a hot water supply pipe section 91 and an air supply pipe section 92. When hot water sent from the pump is supplied into the casing 90 from the hot water supply pipe section 91, the hot water is supplied to the orifice 90. After passing through 93, the air flows into the two jet holes 80, and air is introduced into the casing 90 from the air supply pipe portion 92 by a negative pressure action. As a result, air mixed jet water is ejected from the two jet holes 80. At that time, the rotary nozzle body 8 rotates. Therefore, it is possible to make jet water act on a surface area having a certain size rather than a pinpoint.

According to the present embodiment, when the bather is bathing in a relaxed posture as described above, the massage effect can be obtained by applying the jet water to the bather's waist and back. In addition, the following effects can be further obtained.
First, since the jet water discharge nozzle N is located in the center of the backrest surface 20 in the width direction, it is easy to apply the jet water to the bather's spinal column standing muscle.

If the bather has low back pain, as shown in Fig. 9, the place where the person actually feels the pain (the place of the related communication) and the trigger point (the part marked with x in the figure) may be misaligned. Many typical trigger points for back pain include the tenth and eleventh thoracic vertebrae. In such a case, the bather can change the way of bathing (posture) in the hot water, so that the jet water can be directly applied to both the above-mentioned related place and the trigger point, while alleviating the related pain, It is also possible to stimulate the trigger point.
According to the research by the present inventors, in order to easily execute the above-described method of applying the jet water, the mounting height Ha of the jet water discharge nozzle N from the bottom surface portion 1 is preferably 131 to 152 mm. It has been found that it may be set within the range of 141 mm, more preferably 141 mm.

  Since the jet water discharge nozzle N is attached to the curved backrest surface 20 that can bring the bather's back into close contact with a wide range, the back and the jet water discharge nozzle N can be brought close to each other. In addition, since the distance between the upper part and the lower part of the jet water discharge nozzle N and the back can be made substantially constant, the strength of the jet water is great at the upper and lower parts where the jet water hits. It is possible to eliminate the difference.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the bathtub according to the present invention can be variously modified within the range intended by the present invention.

A Bathtub C Connecting part (with backrest and front of pillow)
N jet water discharge nozzle 1 bottom surface part 2a-2d side wall part 20 backrest surface 3 flange part 4 pillow part 40 front surface (of pillow part)
8 Rotating nozzle body (of jet water discharge nozzle)

Claims (4)

A backrest to support the back of the bather,
A pillow portion having a front surface connected to the backrest surface;
A bathtub,
The backrest surface is a backward inclined curved surface curved in a concave shape with a constant curvature radius over a range from the bottom surface of the bathtub to the connecting portion with the front surface of the pillow portion,
The bathtub, wherein the front surface of the pillow portion is connected so as to be tangent to the backrest surface, and is a backward inclined curved surface curved in a convex shape with a certain radius of curvature. The bathtub according to claim 1,
The backrest surface is a non-curved bathtub in the width direction. The bathtub according to claim 1 or 2,
The connecting portion between the front surface of the pillow portion and the backrest surface is the same height as the upper surface of the flange portion, and is a straight line extending horizontally in the bathtub width direction. The bathtub according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The bathtub in which the jet water discharge nozzle which has a rotating nozzle main body which spouts jet water toward the inside of a bathtub, rotating is provided in the position near the lower part of the said backrest surface.