JP2017089974A - Sphere drying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sphere drying device that can dry spheres with a simple structure and is easily carried.SOLUTION: A sphere drying device 1 according to the present invention comprises a housing that can be carried, and comprises: sphere supporting means 22 and 23 for supporting spheres B in the housing; drying means 21 for drying the spheres B supported by the sphere supporting means 22 and 23; and control means 32 for performing operation control of the drying means 21.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a sphere drying apparatus.

  Conventionally, as a ball used in baseball (hereinafter also referred to as “sphere”), a hard ball used in professional baseball, a baseball player for society, a soft ball used in grass baseball, etc., other semi-rigid balls, etc. Balls are present. Various techniques for efficiently cleaning balls used in such baseball are known (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  Patent Document 1 discloses a ball cleaning machine in which a ball is cleaned by a rotationally driven shaft with a brush and further dried by a dryer. According to this ball washer, a large number of balls can be efficiently and continuously automatically washed. Patent Document 2 discloses a sphere cleaning device including a sphere supply device, a chute for guiding a ball from the sphere supply device to the cleaning device body, and a cleaning device body including a cleaning brush and the like. According to this sphere cleaning device, a large amount of spheres can be efficiently cleaned or polished, and the shape of the parts can be simple and inexpensive.

Japanese Patent No. 3472730 Japanese Patent No. 4046885

  By the way, when playing baseball outdoors in rainy weather or when the ground conditions are not good after raining, when the ball gets wet with water or gets soiled with soil, the ball cleaning device according to the above prior art is not on the spot However, it was necessary to wipe off the moisture and dirt adhering to the ball with a cloth or the like each time, which was troublesome. Moreover, the spherical body cleaning apparatus according to the above-described prior art is relatively large as an apparatus and is not easy to carry.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sphere drying apparatus that can dry a sphere with a simple configuration and is easy to carry.

  In order to achieve the above object, a sphere drying apparatus according to the present invention is a sphere drying apparatus comprising a portable casing, and includes a sphere support means for supporting a sphere in the casing, and the sphere support means. A drying means for drying the supported sphere, and a control means for controlling the operation of the drying means are provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a sphere drying apparatus that can dry a sphere with a simple configuration and is easy to carry.

It is a perspective view which shows an example of the whole structure of the spherical body drying apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the modification of the 1st roller and 2nd roller which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows another example of the whole structure of the spherical body drying apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.

[Example of overall configuration of sphere drying apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the overall configuration of a sphere drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  A sphere drying apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a portable, horizontally long, rectangular parallelepiped casing having a main body upper part 2 having a hollow space and a main body lower part 3 provided on the lower side of the main body upper part 2. On the upper surface of the sphere drying apparatus 1, a grip portion 4 for carrying the sphere drying apparatus 1 is provided. The main body upper part 2 includes a drying unit 21, a first roller 22, a second roller 23, and a door unit 24. On the other hand, the main body lower part 3 includes an input unit 31, a control unit 32, a storage unit 33, and a power supply connection unit 34. Hereinafter, each component will be described. For convenience of explanation, the sphere drying apparatus 1 is divided into a main body upper part 2 and a main body lower part 3, but these are integrally formed. However, the main body upper portion 2 and the main body lower portion may be formed separately.

  The drying unit 21 is disposed on the inner ceiling surface of the upper part 2 of the main body, and a blower outlet (not shown) is provided on the lower surface to blow out air such as warm air or cold air. It is a blower as a drying means for drying the sphere B by blowing wind downward. The drying unit 21 has an outside air inlet (not shown) communicating with the outside of the housing on the back side in the figure, and warm air is heated by heating the outside air sucked through the outside air inlet with a built-in heater. Or blow out the outside air as cold air. The operation of the drying unit 21 is controlled by the control unit 32.

  The first roller 22 and the second roller 23 are rotary bodies that are provided in parallel with the lower side of the hollow space of the main body upper portion 2 in the long side direction of the casing, that is, between the inner left side surface and the inner right side surface of the main body upper portion 2. There is a sphere support means for supporting the sphere B placed between the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 from below.

  The first roller 22 and the second roller 23 as the sphere support means are rotation mechanisms capable of rotating the sphere B. That is, when the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 rotate, the sphere B such as a soft ball placed between the two rollers rotates. In the example shown in FIG. 1, both the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 rotate clockwise. In this way, the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 rotate in the same direction, thereby urging the rotation of the sphere B. In consideration of power saving or the like, either one of the rollers may be configured not to rotate, and the rotation direction may be reversed, that is, the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 may be rotated counterclockwise. You may let them. Moreover, if it is an aspect which can rotate the spherical body B, it will not be limited to said structure and a rotation direction. The operations of the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 are controlled by the control unit 32.

  Moreover, the surface of the 1st roller 22 and the 2nd roller 23 which are shown in FIG. 1 is formed with the rubber | gum for slip prevention. Thereby, the sphere B can be prevented from slipping, and the entire sphere B can be configured to be uniformly exposed to the wind. Note that at least one of the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 may be a roller brush formed of short bristle. Thereby, the soil etc. adhering to the sphere B can be efficiently removed.

  In addition, protrusions (not shown) may be formed on the surfaces of the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 so as to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in the long axis direction. This protrusion is formed to prevent the sphere B from moving in the long axis direction. According to the 1st roller 22A and 2nd roller 23A in which such a projection part was formed, the long axis direction movement of the spherical body B can be prevented, and it can support stably from the downward direction.

  The separation distance between the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 is shorter than the diameter of the sphere B, and is a distance that allows the sphere B to be supported from below by both rollers. In view of the fact that the diameter of the soft ball is about 7 cm and the diameter of the soft ball No. 3 is about 9.7 cm, it is preferably about 2 cm to 5 cm, for example. Further, the length of the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 in the major axis direction is a length capable of mounting about three soft balls in consideration of the diameter of each ball, for example, about 35 cm to 45 cm. It is preferable that However, the number of spheres that can be placed and the lengths of both rollers are not limited to the above case.

  The door portion 24 is provided on the side surface on the near side of the upper portion 2 of the main body. For example, the lower portion is attached to the main body via a hinge (not shown) or the like. is there. The door 24 is preferably transparent so that the sphere B can be seen from the outside of the apparatus. Further, in order to effectively dry the sphere B, it is desirable that the door portion 24 has a mode in which the internal space of the main body upper portion 2 can be sealed when the door portion 24 is closed.

  The input unit 31 is a functional unit that is provided on the front face of the lower part 3 of the main body and allows the user to input various operation instructions. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the input unit 31 includes input buttons 31A, 31B, 31C, 31D, and an input knob 31E. The input buttons 31 </ b> A and 31 </ b> B are on or off instruction input units for starting or stopping the operation of the sphere drying apparatus 1. The input buttons 31 </ b> C and 31 </ b> D are instruction input units that switch the blowing air from the drying unit 21 to hot air or cold air. The input knob 31E is an instruction input unit for setting the activation time of the sphere drying apparatus 1. Information related to the instruction input by the input unit 31 is transmitted to the control unit 32.

  The control unit 32 is a control unit that is provided inside the lower portion 3 of the main body and controls the operations of the drying unit 21, the first roller 22, and the second roller 23 based on information related to the instruction input to the input unit 31. . The control unit 32 is, for example, an electric circuit, and is connected to the drying unit 21, the first roller 22, the second roller 23, and the power supply connection unit 34 by wiring or the like (not shown). The control unit 32 operates based on the electric power supplied when the power connection unit 34 is connected to the power source. Specifically, when the input buttons 31A and 31B are pressed, the control unit 32 starts or stops the operations of the drying unit 21, the first roller 22, and the second roller 23, respectively. When the input buttons 31C and 31D are pressed, the air blown from the drying unit 21 is switched to hot air or cold air. When the activation time is set by the input knob 31E, the operations of the drying unit 21, the first roller 22, and the second roller 23 are stopped when the set time has elapsed.

  The storage unit 33 is a functional unit that is provided on the right side of the main body lower part 3 and stores moisture and soil that have been separated from the sphere B and have fallen downward as the drying unit 21 dries. The storage unit 33 is, for example, a rectangular parallelepiped container having an upper surface opened. This storage part 33 can be removed by sliding it from the lower part 3 of the main body, and the storage part 33 is removed to discharge the stored moisture and soil. Note that the shape of the lower surface of the main body upper portion 2 (the upper surface of the lower body portion 3) is directed toward the opening portion of the storage portion 33 so that moisture and soil are effectively stored in the storage portion 33 as shown in FIG. And tilt down. However, the shape of the lower surface of the main body upper portion 2 is not limited to this case.

  The power supply connection part 34 is provided outside the main body lower part 3 and is a functional part for connecting to the operation power supply of the sphere drying apparatus 1 and is, for example, an outlet plug. When the power supply connection part 34 is an outlet plug, the spherical body drying apparatus 1 becomes operable by being connected to an outlet.

  As described above, the sphere drying apparatus 1 according to this embodiment is configured to dry the sphere B by drying the sphere B, and the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 as sphere support means for supporting the sphere B in a portable case. And a control unit 32 that controls the operation of the drying unit 21. This makes it possible to dry the sphere B with a simple configuration when the baseball is played in rainy weather or outdoors when the ground condition is not good after raining, and the sphere B gets wet with water or gets soiled with soil. It is. Moreover, since it is not large as an apparatus, it is easy to carry.

  In particular, when the sphere B gets wet in the rain or the like, the sphere B is not completely dried only by wiping the sphere B with a cloth or the like. Therefore, the sphere drying apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is also suitable as an apparatus for assisting drying of the sphere B from which moisture or dirt has been wiped off using a cloth or the like.

  Further, in the case where the sphere B is a hard ball, when the hard ball gets wet, the hard ball expands, and once expanded, the hard ball does not return to its original state or becomes heavy. Can occur. For this reason, it is highly necessary to quickly dry a hard ball wet with water. In such a case, the sphere drying apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is suitable as an apparatus for simply drying the hard ball.

  In addition, when the sphere B is a hard ball and is used on the ground using black soil, that is, a clay pavement material that achieves both water retention and drainage, black soil adheres to the surface of the hard ball. Many cases get dirty. In such a case, generally, the surface of the hard ball is lightly wiped with a cloth dampened with water or the like to remove dirt, but the wiped hard ball needs to be dried quickly. . In such a case, the sphere drying apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is suitable as an apparatus for simply drying the hard ball.

  In addition, from the viewpoint of improving the degree of drying of the sphere B with low power consumption and the viewpoint of ease of carrying by space saving, it is preferable that the hollow space of the main body upper portion 2 is as narrow as possible. In view of such a point, the spherical body drying apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a horizontally long substantially rectangular parallelepiped casing (the same applies to FIG. 3).

[Modified example of first roller and second roller]
FIG. 2 is a view showing a modified example of the first roller and the second roller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 2, the first roller 22A and the second roller 23A are shown as modified examples of the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 of FIG. In FIG. 2, only the first roller 22A, the second roller 23A, and the sphere B are illustrated for convenience of explanation.

  The first roller 22 </ b> A and the second roller 23 </ b> A as the sphere support means are rotation mechanisms capable of rotating the sphere B. The operation of the first roller 22A and the second roller 23A is controlled by the control unit 32 (see FIG. 1) and the control content is the same as the first roller 22 and the second roller 23 in FIG. The description is omitted here.

  Unlike the first roller 22 in FIG. 1, the first roller 22 </ b> A is a rotating body in which a plurality of concave portions 22 </ b> B (here, three concave portions) are formed in the long axis direction. Unlike the second roller 23 in FIG. 1, the second roller 23 </ b> A is a rotating body in which a plurality of recesses 23 </ b> B (here, three recesses) are formed in the major axis direction. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the recess 22B and the recess 23B are formed in substantially the same section in the major axis direction. The recesses 22B and 23B are both portions formed with a short diameter from the roller rotation shaft.

  With the above configuration, each sphere B (three in FIG. 2) is placed between the pair of recesses 22B and 23B. Each sphere B placed in this way cannot move in the major axis direction even when the first roller 22A and the second roller 23A rotate. Therefore, according to such 1st roller 22A and 2nd roller 23A, the long axis direction movement of the spherical body B can be prevented, and it can support stably from the downward direction.

  The shapes of the recess 22B and the recess 23B are not limited to the case shown in FIG. 2 as long as the sphere B can be placed thereon. Further, in each of the first roller 22A and the second roller 23A, only the concave portion 22B and the concave portion 23B that are in contact with the sphere B are formed with short-haired brush hair or the like that efficiently removes dirt and the like attached to the sphere B. May be.

[Another example of the overall configuration of the sphere drying apparatus]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing another example of the overall configuration of the sphere drying apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The spherical body drying device 5 shown in FIG. 3 is a portable, horizontally long, rectangular parallelepiped housing having a main body upper part 6 having a hollow space and a main body lower part 7 provided below the main body upper part 6. On the upper surface of the sphere drying device 5, a grip portion 8 for carrying the sphere drying device 5 is provided. The main body upper part 6 has a drying part 61, a sphere support part 62, and a door part 63. On the other hand, the main body lower portion 7 includes an input unit 71, a control unit 72, a storage unit 73, and a power supply unit 74. Hereinafter, each component will be described.

  The drying unit 61 is disposed on the inner ceiling surface of the main body upper portion 6, and is provided with an air outlet (not shown) for blowing air such as warm air or cold air to the side. 3 is a blower as a drying means that dries the sphere B by creating an air flow that circulates in the housing in the direction of the arrow in the figure by blowing out the wind toward the front side 3. The drying unit 61 has an outside air inlet (not shown) communicating with the outside of the housing on the back side in the figure, and warm air is heated by heating the outside air sucked through the outside air inlet with a built-in heater. Or blow out the outside air as cold air. The operation of the drying unit 61 is controlled by the control unit 72. In addition, this drying part 61 may be arrange | positioned not in the inner ceiling surface of the main body upper part 6 but in the side surface. Further, the inner surface of the upper part 6 of the main body may be formed in a horizontally long substantially elliptical column shape so that the wind can circulate effectively in the housing by the drying unit 61.

  The sphere support part 62 is a support means that is disposed on the lower surface of the main body upper portion 6 and mechanically supports the sphere B from below. In order to uniformly dry the surface of the sphere B, it is desirable to have a shape that can expose the surface of the sphere B as much as possible. In FIG. 3, the sphere support portion 62 includes a column portion extending upward from the lower surface of the main body upper portion 6 and a column portion extending in four directions from the top of the column portion along the shape of the sphere B. However, it is not limited to such a shape. Further, the spherical body support portion 62 may be extended from the back side surface or the left and right side surfaces of the main body upper portion 6.

  The door part 63 is a door part that is provided on the front side surface of the upper part 6 of the main body and that can be opened and closed about the lower side as an axis by attaching the lower side to the main body via a hinge (not shown), for example. Since it is the same as the above-mentioned door part 24, description is abbreviate | omitted here.

  The input unit 71 is a functional unit that is provided on the front face of the lower portion 7 of the main body and allows the user to input various operation instructions. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the input unit 71 includes input buttons 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and an input knob 71E. The input buttons 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D and the input knob 71E are the same as the above-described input buttons 31A, 31B, 31C, 31D and the input knob 31E, respectively, and thus description thereof is omitted here.

  The control unit 72 is a control unit that is provided inside the main body lower portion 7 and controls the operation of the drying unit 61 based on information related to the instruction input to the input unit 71. The control unit 72 is, for example, an electric circuit, and is connected between the drying unit 61 and the power source 74 by wiring (not shown) or the like. The control unit 72 operates based on the power supplied from the power supply unit 74. Specifically, the control unit 72 starts or stops the operation of the drying unit 61 when the input buttons 71A and 71B are pressed. When the input buttons 71C and 71D are pressed, the air blown from the drying unit 61 is switched to hot air or cold air. When the activation time is set by the input knob 71E, the operation of the drying unit 61 is stopped when the set time has elapsed.

  The storage unit 73 is a functional unit that is provided in the lower part 7 of the main body, and stores water and soil that have been separated from the sphere B and have fallen downward along with drying by the drying unit 61. Since it is the same as the above-mentioned storage part 33, description is abbreviate | omitted here.

  The power source 74 is an operating power source for the sphere drying device 5 provided inside the main body lower portion 7 and is, for example, a rechargeable storage battery.

  With the configuration described above, the sphere drying device 5 according to the present embodiment is used when playing baseball outdoors in rainy weather or when the ground condition is not good after raining, and the sphere B is wet with water or soiled with soil. In addition, it is possible to dry the sphere B with a simple configuration. Moreover, since it is not large as an apparatus, it is easy to carry. Furthermore, since the number of elements to be operated is smaller than that of the sphere drying device 5 of FIG. 1, power saving can be realized. Furthermore, by providing an internal power supply, it can be used even when there is no outlet or the like at the place where the sphere drying apparatus 5 is used.

  Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the above embodiment shows one example of application of the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention is limited to the specific configuration of the above embodiment. is not.

  For example, in the said embodiment, although the drying part demonstrated the form which dries the spherical body B by blowing off wind, it is not limited to this case. For example, the drying unit is a heater or the like, and the sphere B may be dried by generating heat. Moreover, the arrangement | positioning position of a drying part is not limited to the case where it is a ceiling surface as shown in FIG.1 and FIG.3, The arbitrary positions of the internal space of a spherical body drying apparatus may be sufficient.

  For example, although the case where the sphere B is a baseball is described as an example in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this case. For example, a tennis ball or a soccer ball may be used. Moreover, not only the sphere B but other drying objects may be dried.

  Further, for example, in the above-described embodiment, the control unit has been described as an example in which the drying unit or the like is operated based on the input in the input unit, but is not limited to this case. For example, a detection unit such as a sensor may be provided separately, and the detection unit may detect that the sphere B is loaded in the apparatus and automatically operate the drying unit, the first roller, the second roller, or the like. good.

1, 5 Sphere drying device 2, 6 Main body upper part 3, 7 Main body lower part 4, 8 Grip part 21, 61 Drying part 22, 22A First roller 23, 23A Second roller 22B, 23B Recessed part 24, 63 Door part 31, 71 Input unit 32, 72 Control unit 33, 73 Storage unit 34 Power supply connection unit 62 Spherical body support unit 74 Power supply unit

Claims (5)

A spherical drying device comprising a portable casing,
Sphere support means for supporting the sphere in the housing;
Drying means for drying the sphere supported by the sphere support means;
Control means for controlling the operation of the drying means;
A spherical dryer characterized by comprising:   The said drying means is an air blower which is arrange | positioned in a housing | casing and blows off the wind which flows through the inside of the said housing | casing, The said spherical body support means is a mechanism which supports the said spherical body rotatably. The spherical body drying apparatus as described.   The spherical body support means includes a first roller that is a rotating body, and a second roller that is a rotating body that is disposed in parallel with the first roller and at a distance shorter than the diameter of the spherical body, The operation of the first roller and the second roller is controlled by the control means, and the sphere placed between the first roller and the second roller is supported from below. 2. The sphere drying apparatus according to 2.   The spherical body drying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein at least one of the first roller and the second roller is a roller brush. The spherical body drying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each of the first roller and the second roller is formed with a concave portion on which the spherical body is placed.

Images