JP2531926B2 - Hot moxibustion - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to hot moxibustion which generates heat by an electric current from a charging / discharging means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Moxibustion has been used as a method for treating diseases since ancient times. In general, moxibustion burns Mogusa on the body surface to apply physical and thermal stimuli to the acupuncture points to correct the biological modulation.

[0003] As a moxibustion method, it is general that the moxa is pressed and hardened with a finger, the mass is placed on the acupuncture point on the body surface, and ignited and burned. Those marked with are also commercially available.

[0004]

However, in the conventional moxibustion, there is an unpleasant odor when burning the moxa, and since the moxa becomes very hot due to the burning, there is a problem that the moxibustion marks due to burns are made on the skin. There was a tendency to be shunned by young people and women.

Therefore, the present inventors have thought of using a heating element that generates heat when energized. However, in an energization heating element that uses a household power source, an electric wire must be arranged, and in a system that uses a battery. The size of the device becomes a problem, and any of these methods is extremely inconvenient as a moxibustion to be applied locally.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an electric type local hot moxibustion which does not have an unpleasant odor. Further, the present invention provides hot moxibustion that can be used many times.

[0007]

The hot moxibustion according to the present invention comprises a charging / discharging means having an electric double layer capacitor, and
Control means for controlling the current from this, and from the control means
A heating means for generating heat by an electric current, and the heating means
Are provided as having self-temperature control ability .

[0008]

[0009]

In the present invention, an electric double layer capacitor (hereinafter referred to as EDLC (Electr
ic Double Layer Condenser)) is used, so that a compact electrically heated moxibustion can be constructed. That is, since the EDLC is an efficient capacitor that can store a large amount of electricity as described below, it is compact and can supply enough current to continue heating for a long time. At the time of use, the warm moxibustion of the present invention may be charged by using an arbitrary charger, and may be detached from the charger at the time of use.

The EDLC utilizes +/- charges existing at very short distances at different two-layer (solid / liquid) contact interfaces, that is, the dielectric property of an electric double layer. For the solid portion, an aluminum thin film with activated carbon is used, and for the liquid portion, an electrolytic solution is generally used, and positive and negative charges are relative to the interface between the activated carbon electrode and the electrolytic solution. By being arranged, electricity is stored. EDLC has the largest gap among general-purpose capacitors because the electric double layer corresponding to a dielectric has a very small gap of several Å and the specific surface area of activated carbon used as an electrode is as large as 1800 to 2000 m ² / g. It is possible to achieve a huge electric capacity in the unit of farad which is about 1000 times that of an aluminum electrolytic capacitor. As described above, the EDLC has a larger capacity than the conventional capacitor, so that it can be designed and manufactured to be used as a small capacity small storage battery.

Since the EDLC has a large capacity as described above, it can be charged and discharged with a large current. And since it is possible to quickly charge in seconds, if you want to use hot moxibustion, you can immediately charge it with a charger. Generally, electric heating type heating means requires supply of a large current for a short time,
Since the EDLC has instantaneous power and a sufficient amount of discharge, it is possible to instantly supply the necessary current to heat the heating means. Since it has a large capacity as described above, the heating can be continued for a length of about 2 to 3 minutes. Also, ED
The LC hardly changes its characteristics even after being repeatedly charged and discharged 100,000 times or more, and since it is resistant to repeated charging and discharging, it has excellent maintainability, can be used many times without being disposable, and has a long life.

Furthermore, since EDLC does not contain heavy metals, it is safe to dispose of. Other advantages include no charge / discharge control circuit, good maintainability, good mountability (no need to consider short circuit during soldering), and wide usable temperature range (-40 ℃ to + 85 ℃). Yes, the applicability to moxibustion is very high.

By using such an EDLC, it is possible to put it into practical use as an electric moxibustion. When the electrical type is used, the moxibustion temperature can be controlled by controlling the amount of current supplied to the heating means or the on / off of the current, or only the conventional method of continuous thermal stimulation at a constant temperature. Instead, it is possible to change the stimulus by intermittently applying thermal stimulus, or increasing or decreasing the temperature stimulus.

Next, the self-control heating means will be described.
An example of the self-control heating means is a PTC heater (ceramic heater). PTC (Positive Temperature Coe)
fficient) When a constant voltage is applied to the heater, a current according to the initial resistance flows and the temperature starts to rise due to self-heating, but when the switching temperature is reached, the resistance value rapidly increases and the current decreases. This level balances the heat dissipation to the surroundings, and the temperature cannot rise any further. By using the one having a constant temperature range of 60 to 80 ° C., it becomes possible to perform safe moxibustion treatment at an appropriate temperature.

As one aspect of the present invention, there is one in which a discharge current from the EDLC is supplied to a self-controlled heating means having a self-temperature control action like the PTC heater.

On the other hand, the current from the charging / discharging means having the EDLC may be supplied to the heating means via the control means. In this case, the supplied current is changed in various ways by the control means to perform thermal stimulation of moxibustion. Various patterns such as continuous, intermittent, and strong and weak can be made. Further, the heating means may not have the self-temperature control action.

[0017]

【Example】

<Embodiment 1> FIG. 1 (a) is a perspective view from the bottom side showing a hot moxibustion according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) shows the hot moxibustion 1
3 is a sectional view taken along line bb of FIG. In the figure, 5 is an EDLC of charging / discharging means, 11 is a control unit (control means) for controlling the amount of discharge from the EDLC 5, and 2 is a PTC heater of heating means, which is heated by receiving an electric current. Reference numeral 4 is an adsorption pad for fixing the thermal moxibustion 1 on the skin surface, and 3a and 3b are + and-charge electrodes for charging.

FIG. 2 (a) is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a charger for charging the above-mentioned thermal moxibustion 1, and FIG. 2 (b) is b- of FIG. 2 (a).
It is sectional drawing in the b line. The charger 7 can charge one hot moxibustion moxibustion 1 and uses two UM-1 dry batteries as a power source. 8
Is a fitting part of the hot moxibustion 1, and 6a and 6b are charging terminals of positive and negative electrodes, which are spring type. Filling electrode 3 when charging
Contact with a and 3b. Reference numeral 13 denotes a spring mechanism that locks the insertion, and fixes the hot moxibustion 1 during charging.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a circuit of the above-mentioned warm moxibustion 1. In the figure, the parts given the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 indicate the same or corresponding parts as in FIG. Next, the operation will be described.

When using the hot moxibustion 1, the hot moxibustion 1 is first inserted into the fitting portion 8 of the charger 7, and the charging electrodes 3a, 3b are inserted.
And charging terminals 6a and 6b are brought into contact with each other for charging (FIG. 1,
2). Since the charging electrodes 3a, 3b on the side of the hot moxibustion 1 are concentric and are joined to the charging terminals 6a, 6b, the direction (angle) need not be taken into consideration when the hot moxibustion 1 is inserted. Good. At this time, the current input from the charging electrodes 3a and 3b is stored in the EDLC 5. The charging characteristic of EDLC is expressed by the following equation (1).

CV = IT (1) C: electric capacity (F) V: voltage (V) I: current (A) T: time (seconds) When the EDLC 5 is 2.5 V, 10 F, charging The flow is 25 A · second, and if the charger 7 is a power source of 2.5 A, the charging time is about 10 seconds.

In the case of the charger 7 shown in FIG. 2 (a), UM-1
Since two dry batteries are used in series and the voltage is 3 V, it can be sufficiently used as a charger. Also, UM-1
Has a current capacity of about 3 A · hr, and 3 A · hr = 108
Since it is 00 A · second, the charger 7 can be used 1080 times if the charging time is 10 seconds.

Next, the hot moxibustion moxibustion 1 is taken out from the charger 7, and is attached via the suction pad 4 so that the surface of the heater 2 is brought into contact with the skin (pot). The current stored in the EDLC 5 is supplied to the PTC heater 2 via the control unit 11,
The C heater 2 heats up. The PTC heater 2 is maintained at a constant temperature of 60 to 80 ° C. by self control. This PTC heater 2
The acupuncture points will stimulate the acupuncture points. As shown in FIG. 1 (b), the PTC heater 2 is recessed so as not to be in direct contact with the body, and its radiant heat stimulates the acupuncture points.

The EDLC energy (E ₁ ) is expressed by the following equation (2). E ₁ = 1 / 2C · V ² = W · T (2) [W: Power (w)] Therefore, the EDLC 5 (2.5V, 10F) is fully charged (2.5V) to 1V. If it is used until it decreases, the supplied energy (E ₂ ) is E ₂ = 1/2 × 10 × 2.5 ² −1 / 2 × 10 × 1 ² = 1/2 × 10 (2.5 ² − 1 ² ) = 26.25w seconds.

On the other hand, the power consumption of the PTC heater 2 is approximately 2.5V × 0.2A = 0.5w,
The power supply possible time (T ₁ ) from the EDLC 5 is T ₁ = 26.25w seconds / 0.5w = 52.5 seconds. That is, the EDLC 5 can continuously supply electric power to the PTC heater 2 for 52.5 seconds to continue heating, with a voltage drop from 2.5V to 1V.

<Embodiments 2 and 3> In the above-mentioned embodiments, the acupuncture points are stimulated by continuously heating them.
Power may be intermittently supplied to the C heater 2 (heating means). FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the power supply pattern, in which the cycle of supplying power for 10 seconds and resting for 1 minute is repeated. By controlling in this way, thermal stimulation to the acupuncture point becomes intermittent,
Unlike the conventional case where only continuous heating was possible, a new stimulating effect can be expected.

FIG. 5 shows the stimulation temperature patterns of these examples. FIG. 5 (a) shows the temperature change when heat stimulation is continuously performed (Example 1), and FIG. 5 (b) shows the temperature change when heat stimulation is intermittently performed (Example 2). ). Of FIG.
FIG. 9B is a diagram showing a case where the thermal stimulation is continuously performed by adjusting the amount of electric power in the control unit 11 so as to increase or decrease the thermal stimulation (Example 3). Various stimulation patterns as shown in the above embodiments can be selected.

<Fourth Embodiment> FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a heating and moxibustion apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram thereof. As shown in FIG. 7, the fourth embodiment has a long shape, and can be easily installed in a place such as the acupoint on the back where it is difficult to set the moxibustion by oneself. Since the switch 10 is provided in the fourth embodiment, the user can turn on / off the heating.

In the fourth embodiment, when an EDLC having a large capacity of 2.5 V and 100 F is used and the full charge is used from 2.5 V to 1 V, the supply energy (E ₃ ) is E ₃ = 1. ^{/2×100×2.5 2 -1 / 2 × 10 ×} 1 2 = 1/2 × 100 (2.5 2 -1 2) = a 262.5w seconds. Power consumption of PTC heater is 2.5V × 0.2A
= 0.5w, the continuous use time of this Example 4 is 2
62.5w seconds / 0.5w = 525 seconds ≈8.8 minutes.

In this case, the charging time is 100F × 2.5V = 250A seconds from the above equation (1), and when the output capacity of the charger is 2.5V, 25A,
The charging time is about 10 seconds. Also in the case of the fourth embodiment, the thermal stimulus pattern may be variously changed by the control unit 11 as described above.

It should be noted that in the above-described embodiment, the charger is a hot moxibustion 1
Although it was charged individually, as shown in FIG. 6, it is also possible to charge a plurality of (for example, 6) hot moxibustion moxibustion at once, or a charger using an AC power source from a household outlet. May be It goes without saying that the amount of power in this case is sufficient.

Further, the EDLC 5 and the PTC heater 2 are not limited to the types shown in the above embodiment, and various types can be used. Although the control unit 11 is provided in the above embodiment, the control unit 11 may not be provided. A heater other than the PTC heater may be used as the heating means.

[0033]

As described above, according to the hot moxibustion according to the present invention, an electrically heated hot moxibustion that is compact and has a sufficient heating time can be obtained. Therefore, at the time of moxibustion, there is no unpleasant odor like burning of moxa, and by using the heater temperature set to a temperature that does not cause burn marks,
No need to worry about moxibustion on the skin. Further, since it is an electric type, it is possible to control the heating temperature including the control of turning on and off, and it is possible to change the thermal stimulus, and thus a new moxibustion treatment effect can be expected. In addition, the warm moxibustion according to the present invention can be repeatedly used any number of times by charging, and the charging can be easily performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing hot moxibustion according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a warm moxibustion charger.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the thermal moxibustion according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an output waveform of a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing stimulation temperature patterns of Examples 1 to 3.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the warm moxibustion charger.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing hot moxibustion according to Example 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of hot moxibustion according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Hot moxibustion 2 PTC heater 3a, 3b Charging electrode 4 Adsorption pad 5 EDLC (electric double layer capacitor) 6a, 6b Charging terminal 7 Charger 8 Fitting part 10 Switch 11 Control part 13 Spring mechanism

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A thermal moxibustion applying heat stimulation to the living body by heating, and the charging and discharging means having an electric double layer capacitor, and control means for controlling the current from said charging discharging means, the current from the control means Equipped with heating means to generate heat
For example, and thermal moxibustion temperature heat means and having a self temperature control action.