JP3388038B2 - Foot massager - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a foot massager for promoting blood circulation on the soles of the feet and stimulating peripheral nerves, and in particular, an improvement of the impact foot massager disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-79428. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, an impact type foot massager capable of stimulating blood circulation while stimulating the sole of the foot where peripheral nerves concentrate has been filed by the present applicant in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-79428. Proposed.

That is, FIGS. 10 to 12 show a foot massager disclosed in the specification of the patent application, which is a hollow body housing A having an inclined upper surface a _{1 on} which a foot can be placed. And a first suspension spring B for stabilizing a position in a plane substantially parallel to the upper surface a ₁ and a first suspension spring B for stabilizing a position in a direction perpendicular to the plane. 2 suspension spring C
A mass block D suspended in is built in.

Then, the mass block D is reciprocally shocked by a reciprocating mechanism having a tip portion protruding toward the upper surface a ₁ and driven by an electric motor incorporated in the mass block D. Multiple striking rods E that are moved
Is attached to the tip of each of these impact rods E,
It said top surface a ₁ outside temporarily projecting resilient capable striking the surface of the foot of a patient placed on the top surface a ₁ striking head F is attached.

That is, in this foot massager,
A guide member G is fixed to the upper surface a ₁ of the machine body housing A, and the guide member G guides the holding member H fixed to the mass block D in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface a ₁ . .

[0006]

However, when a foot massager having such a structure was manufactured as a prototype, the impact head F showed some expansion of the capillaries of the sole of the foot and stimulation of peripheral nerves. Although it could be done at the same time, it was difficult to sufficiently stimulate the concentration point of the peripheral nerve, which is so-called "acupoint". The reason for this is the so-called "point"
Has a diameter of about 2 to 4 mm,
The impact head F of the above-mentioned foot massager has a diameter of about 30.
Since it is a spherical impact surface of about mm, the impact with the impact head F is suitable for sufficiently stimulating a small "point" even if it can promote the expansion of the capillaries of the sole of the foot. It seems that the cause is not.

Further, according to the example of the trial production of the foot massager described above, the same foot massager can be operated without annoying noise, but when used in a quiet hospital or living room, some noise is annoying. , Further noise reduction measures were desired. This slight noise is caused by the first suspension spring B and the second suspension spring B.
The attitude of the mass block D suspended by the suspension spring C becomes unstable during operation (during operation), and the vibration of the mass block D is transmitted to the guide member G from the holding member H fixed to the mass block D. The main cause is that the upper wall a ₂ of the machine housing A having a large surface area which is integral with the guide member G vibrates and becomes an environmental noise.

In view of the problems of the conventional lower limb massager described above, the first object of the present invention is to provide a hit type which can sufficiently stimulate so-called "acupoints" and can be used even in a quiet room without annoying noise. To get a foot massager. A second object of the present invention is to obtain a foot massager which can achieve the first object and which has improved noise countermeasures.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the first object is to provide a hollow body housing having an inclined upper surface on which a foot can be placed and a position in a plane substantially parallel to the upper surface. And a mass block suspended inside the fuselage housing by a first suspension spring that stabilizes the position of the mass block and a second suspension spring that stabilizes a position in a direction perpendicular to the same plane, and a tip end portion of the mass block facing the upper surface. A plurality of impact rods that are reciprocally moved in a direction substantially perpendicular to the upper surface by a reciprocating mechanism that is driven by an electric motor incorporated in the mass block and that is outside the upper surface. A foot massager comprising a hitting head fixed to the tip of each hitting rod so as to be able to temporarily project and hitting the surface of the foot placed on the upper surface, A large number of wart protrusions integrally formed on the surface of the pad and having a tip contacting the surface of the foot, an opening formed in the upper wall of the fuselage housing, fixed to the mass block, and enclosing the hitting head. And a guide block located in a non-contact state inside the opening in a state.

The second object is a foot massager which can achieve the first object, which is interposed between the inner lower surface of the body housing and the bottom surface of the mass block in a compressed state. A structure including a holding pad that stabilizes the posture of the mass block during operation by pressing the mass block toward the opening, and the mass massager with the mass pad extended in a direction substantially perpendicular to the upper surface. This is achieved by a structure including at least two auxiliary springs, which are hung between the lower portion of the block and the fixed portion of the machine body housing to stabilize the attitude of the mass block during operation.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. Explaining the whole foot massager according to the illustrated embodiment, the foot massager that can be placed on the floor includes a hollow resin molding machine housing 3 having four vibration isolation pedestals 1 on its bottom surface. 3 can be carried by the handle portion 3a.
This body housing 3 has inclined left and right upper surfaces 3b on which the left and right feet can be placed at the same time while sitting on a chair,
Plural strips of anti-slip rubber 4 are projected on each upper surface 3b.

An opening collar 3e having a triangular opening 3d formed on the left and right upper walls 3c of the machine housing 3.
Are integrally molded, and inside the respective opening collars 3e that are raised above the upper wall 3c, three impact rods 5 whose drive mechanism and support structure will be described later are substantially perpendicular to the upper surfaces 3b. It is arranged so as to be able to reciprocate in a shocking manner.

The tip portion 5 of each of these striking rods 5 is
A hitting head 7 hitting the sole of the foot placed on the upper surface 3b is fixed to a. That is, the hitting head 7 fixed to a resin retainer 94, which will be described later, shown in FIG. 7 by the clip 7a is improved by the present invention and is formed by an elastic body such as silicon rubber. These hitting heads 7 have a spherical hitting surface as in the conventional case, but the hitting surface 7 has a wart projection 7b extending in a direction parallel to the hitting rod 5 and having a diameter of about 3.5 mm. , 7c are integrally molded. That is, these wart projections 7b and 7c are composed of four central projections 7b having a height located in the center of the striking surface and eight peripheral projections 7b arranged low around the central projections 7b. Therefore, these wart protrusions 7b, 7c
Is hit against the surface of the foot, it corresponds to the central protrusion 7b.
The acupoint "is strongly stimulated, and thereafter the peripheral projection 7c is brought into contact with the periphery of the corresponding" acupoint ", thereby promoting blood circulation in the vicinity thereof. In the illustrated embodiment, the impact head 7 and The wart projections 7b and 7c are made of an elastic material, and the purpose thereof is to give a softest stimulus to the surface of the foot. It is also possible to adopt an embodiment in which the hitting head 7 and the wart projections 7b and 7c are integrally formed with a retainer 94 which is made of hard resin, and the hitting rods 5 of each set are placed on the upper surfaces 3b. Although the foot detectors FS (shown in FIG. 6) composed of CCD elements or the like that can sense each of the feet that have been hit are arranged, the attachment of these foot detectors FS will be described later.

A power switch MS and a speed dial 8 are arranged in the center of the body housing 3 in the left-right direction, and an output signal of a speed volume 9 coupled to the power switch MS and the speed dial 8 is shown in FIG. It is input to the control circuit CPU. That is, the control circuit CPU, which is composed of a CPU and the like, includes a timer T and an AND logic element AN.
When the power switch MS having a built-in D is pressed by the user, the timer T is reset and the timer T is operated for a fixed time (15 minutes).
A power lamp R (shown in FIG. 3) shown as an ED element is turned on. The output of the timer T is an AND logic element AN.
The output signal from the foot detector FS is supplied to one input terminal of D and the other input terminal of the AND logic element AND.
0 (shown in FIG. 7) is applied with the voltage set by the speed potentiometer 9 only when an output signal is present in the AND logic element AND, and the impact rods 5 of each set are driven by the same DC motor 10 as described later. Are periodically reciprocated.

The machine body housing 3 assembled with the assembly screws 11 shown in FIG. 3 is composed of a lower housing 3L to which the vibration isolation pedestal 1 is fixed, and an upper housing 3U having the upper surface 3b. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, a transformer transformer 13 for reducing the voltage of the commercial AC power source, a rectifier for rectifying the voltage reduced by the transformer transformer 13, and the control are provided inside the center of the lower housing 3L in the left-right direction. The main printed circuit board 15 on which each element of the circuit CPU is mounted is fixed by mounting screws 16 and 17, respectively.

Further, L is provided inside the upper housing 3U.
The sub-board 19 on which the ED element is assembled is fixed by a fixing screw 20, and the switch body 21 of the power switch MS described above is assembled on the sub-board 19. When facing the contact 22 of the switch body 21, the contact 25 of the power button 24, which is pressed by the return spring 23, is located oppositely. Therefore, when the power button 24 is pressed with a fingertip, the contact 22 and the contact 25 of the contact 22 are separated. The timer T is reset by the make. Since the speed dial 8 that can be rotated with a fingertip is fixed to the variable shaft of the speed volume 9 fixed to the upper housing 3U by the fixing nut 9a, the reciprocating cycle of the hitting rod 5 can be changed by operating the speed dial 8. Can be changed according to your wishes. The lighting state of the LED element described above can be observed from the outside through the light transmitting member 27 located in the light transmitting hole 3f of the upper housing 3U.

As shown in FIG. 4, the body housing 3
In the left and right spaces of the lower housing 3L and the upper housing 3
Rigid frame 29 made of metal that is firmly fixed to U
The rigid frame 29 supports an elliptical frame-shaped mounting frame 31 through a plurality of anti-vibration rubbers 30. That is, the mounting frame 31 has a plurality of mounting pieces 31a, and these mounting pieces 31a are mounted in the openings 34 of the rigid frame 29 by the connecting screw 32 and the vibration-proof rubber 30.

Further, in order to stabilize the posture of the mass block 37, which will be described later, during operation, a mounting band 35 having a band flange 35a on a body portion near the lower part of the mass block 37.
Are fixed, and the band flange 35a and the mounting frame 31 are fixed.
The plurality of bent pieces 31b are connected to each other by two auxiliary springs 36 which are symmetrically arranged in the left-right direction and which are substantially orthogonal to the upper wall 3c. Of course, the auxiliary spring 36 according to the present invention is not necessarily limited to the same arrangement configuration. For example, the auxiliary spring 36 is symmetrically arranged in the circumferential direction of the attachment band 35 and has a “c” shape when viewed from the side direction of the attachment band 35. The same effect can be obtained by a plurality of pairs of auxiliary springs 36 arranged in a letter shape. The grounding of these auxiliary springs 36 stabilizes the behavior of the mass block 37 when an external force is applied, and the elastic holding effect by the suspension spring described later is enhanced.

Inside the mounting frame 31, a heavy mass block 37 is formed by aluminum die casting.
Is stably suspended by the plurality of first suspension springs 39 located in a plane substantially parallel to the upper surface 3b and the second suspension springs 41 extended in a plane substantially perpendicular to the upper surface 3b. It That is, as shown in FIG. 5, four pairs of mounting ears 31d and 31e are integrally formed on the outer periphery of the flange portion 31c of the mounting frame 31 described above, and the two pairs of mounting ears 31d located on the left and right in FIG. The hook pin 46 of the connection bracket 45 fixed by 43 is connected to the other ends of two pairs of intersecting first suspension springs 39, one end of which is fixed to the anchor screw 48 on the surface of the mass block 37. Therefore, these first suspension springs 39 that intersect in an X shape are
Due to the balance of the force of
It will be stably suspended in a plane parallel to the upper surface 3b of the machine body housing 3.

Further, one end of a plurality of second suspension springs 41 is fixed by screws 53 to a coupling bracket 51 fixed to the two pairs of mounting ears 31e arranged vertically in FIG. Second suspension spring 4 intersected with
The other end of 1 is a suspension screw 5 planted in the mounting band 35.
Connected to 5. Therefore, these second suspension springs 41 are crossed with each other in an X shape in FIG.
Since it is extended in the plane of FIG. 6, the mass block 37 takes a stable posture in the plane of FIG. 6 based on the balance with the force of the first suspension spring 39 described above.
Between the mounting band 35 of the lower body of the mass block 37 and the mounting frame 31, auxiliary springs 36 located on the left and right are provided.
Is provided, it is possible to reliably prevent the mass block 37 from swinging in the plane of FIG. 4 and becoming unstable in behavior.

On the other hand, although a guide block 57 having guide holes 57a for guiding the hitting heads 7 is located above the mass block 37, the guide block 57 is as shown in FIG. Since the outer shape of the opening collar 3e is made sufficiently smaller than the triangular opening 3d, the opening collar 3e is always kept in non-contact with the opening collar 3e.
That is, on the upper surface of the mass block 37, the base substrate 65 to which the CCD element 62 constituting the above-mentioned foot detector FS is attached is fixed with the screw 58, and the guide block 57 is attached to the base substrate 65 by the clip 57b (FIG. It is fixed in 6). Further, in the center of the guide block 57, a lens barrel 57b in which a transparent protective glass 60 and a condenser lens 61 are arranged.
Is formed, and at the focal position of the condenser lens 61, the terminal plate 63 to which the CCD element 62 constituting the above-mentioned foot detector FS is attached is arranged. Therefore, when ambient light is blocked by the feet placed on the upper surface 3b of the machine body housing 3, this CCD element 62 detects this state and prompts the excitation of the DC motor 10 to be described later.

As shown in FIG. 4, the body housing 3
Between the upper surface of the lower housing 3L and the bottom surface of the mass block 37, a holding pad 56 in a compressed state composed of a first holding pad 56a having a large area and a second holding pad 56b having a small area is interposed. To be dressed. The holding pad 56 made of an elastic material such as urethane foam bears an external force from the foot of the patient applied from the guide block 57 during operation, and generates a reaction force against the external force. Is effective to maintain the non-contact state between the opening collar 3e and the guide block 57.

As shown in FIG. 7, in order to shield internal noise, the mass block 37 is composed of a hollow upper block 37U and a hollow lower block 37L which are vertically assembled in a sealed state. A reciprocating mechanism is built-in that reciprocally reciprocally impacts each impact rod 5. This reciprocating mechanism is assembled to a gear box 69 that is injection molded of plastic such as polyacetal resin. The gear box 69 that is composed of an upper box 69U and a lower box 69L that incorporates a reduction gear mechanism between them is In order to prevent the transmission of generated vibration, the collars 71a and 71a
The mass block 37 is supported by eight elastic bodies 71 having a pair of heads 71b and 71c.

6 and 7 show the support structure of the gear box 69, and the lower block 3 for supporting the gear box 69.
7L has a hole 73 in the end face for receiving the head 71c.
Are formed integrally with the four support posts 37a,
Lower gear box 6 corresponding to these support posts 37a
Four posts 69a having holes 75 for receiving the heads 71b are integrally formed on the bottom surface of 9L. Further, the upper gear box 69U has an upper end surface integrally formed with four posts 69b each having a hole 77 for receiving the head 71c of the elastic body 71 formed on the end surface thereof. The inner surface of the upper block 37U facing the posts 69b is integrally formed. A receiving hole 79 for receiving the head portion 71b of the elastic body 71 is formed in.

Therefore, when the gear box 69 is assembled to the mass block 37, the gear box 69 is supported by the mass block 37 via the elastic body 71, so that mechanical vibration generated in the gear box 69 is generated. Since it is damped by the elastic body 71, mechanical vibration that causes noise is not transmitted to the mass block 37.

Returning to FIG. 7, the DC motor 10 serving as a drive source is fixed to the outside of the lower box 69L with a fixing screw 80. The drive pinion gear 81 of the DC motor 10 is located in the space between the upper box 69U and the lower box 69L, and the drive pinion gear 81 is supported by the relay shaft 82 so as to be freely rotatable. Meshed with. Further, the relay gear 83 has a large size of a first reduction gear 85 which is rotatably supported by a first support shaft 84 which is hung between an upper box 69U and a lower box 69L in parallel with the relay shaft 82. The small diameter tooth portion 85b of the first reduction gear 85 is meshed with the radial tooth portion 85a, and is meshed with the second reduction gear 87 fixed to the second support shaft 86.

A stationary disk 89 is loosely fitted to the inner end portion of the second support shaft 86 pivotally supported by the bearing metal 88 of the lower box 69L, and the upper box 6 facing the inner end portion thereof.
A lubricating pad 90 impregnated with lubricating oil and a circular resin plate 91 are positioned in the recess of 9U, and the surface of the circular resin plate 91 is pressed against the inner end face of the second support shaft 86. Therefore, the tooth portion and the shaft support portion of each gear described above are lubricated by the lubricating oil that gradually flows out from the lubricating pad 90, and the generation of meshing noise is prevented.

A large diameter end face cam 93 is provided at the outer end of the second support shaft 86 protruding from the lower box 69L.
Is fixed, and three hitting rods 5 penetrating the upper box 69U and the lower box 69L are arranged around the end surface cam 93. As described above, the impact heads 7 held by the resin retainers 94 are fixed to the tips 5a of these impact rods 5, respectively.
A strong accumulating spring 96 composed of a compression coil spring is interposed between the collar 95 fixed to the tip portion 5a and the surface of the upper box 69U.

A pair of stoppers 97, 98 composed of E-rings are fixed to the base end portion 5b of each striking rod 5 protruding from the lower box 69L to the outside.
A driven piece 99, which is molded by resin, is provided between the bases 7 and 98.
A buffer spring 100 composed of a compression coil spring is interposed between the driven piece 99 and the stopper 97, which are movably attached along the line b and are driven by the cam surface 93a of the end surface cam 93. It

As can be seen from FIGS. 7 and 9, the end face cam 93 rotated in the direction of the arrow slides each striking rod 5 downward in FIG. 7 against the force of the accumulating spring 96. About 2
40 ° cam surface 93a and about 120 ° missing portion 9
Since each driven piece 99 has the missing portion 93b of the same end surface cam 93 because it has 3b, the hitting rod 5 is shockedly moved upward in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, in order to prevent the driven piece 99 from rotating around the hitting rod 5, three guides parallel to the hitting rod 5 are provided on the lower surface of the lower box 69L. The pins 102 are projected and these guide pins 102
Is located in the groove 104 of the fork portion 99a of each driven piece 99.

The impact reciprocating mechanism using the reduction gear mechanism described above can be modified within the range of known techniques, and can be realized by various reciprocating mechanisms using, for example, a flat cam or a grooved cam.

Since the foot massager according to the illustrated embodiment has the above-described structure, when the power switch MS is operated, the timer T is reset so that it can be used for a certain period of time, and at the same time, the power lamp is turned on. The R is turned on and the user is informed that it is in the standby state. The user sits on a chair or the like and places one or both feet on the upper surface 3b of the body housing 3.
When this is set to, the state is detected by the foot detector FS, and the DC motor 10 starts rotating. Excitation of the DC motor 10 is stopped immediately after the foot is separated from the upper surface 3b of the body housing 3 or immediately after a certain time set by the timer T elapses, so that useless power consumption can be prevented.

The rotary motion of the DC motor 10 is generated by the relay gear 8
3, the first reduction gear 85, the second reduction gear 87 reduce the speed, and are transmitted to the second support shaft 86.
Is rotated at low speed in the direction of the arrow (FIG. 9). Therefore, with the rotational movement of the end face cam 93, the end face cam 93
Accumulating spring 9 of each striking rod 5 driven by the cam surface 93a of
6 is gradually compressed, but when the driven piece 99 of the striking rod 5 coincides with the missing portion 93b, the restraint of the energy storage spring 96 of the striking rod 5 suddenly disappears. Therefore, the impacting force of the accumulating spring 96 causes the impacting rod 5 to suddenly urge upward in FIG. 7, and the impacting head 7 fixed to the tip portion 5a of the impacting rod 5 causes the user's foot to move. Is strongly collided with the back of.

At the time of hitting with the hitting head 7, the wart projection 7
Since b and 7c are shockingly contacted with the surface of the patient's foot,
The "warts" can be sufficiently stimulated by the wart projections 7b and 7c having a small outer shape. Therefore, according to the structure shown in the figure, not only is each peripheral nerve on the sole of the foot stimulated, blood circulation is promoted by the expansion of the capillaries of the foot, and a massage effect that sufficiently stimulates the “acupoint” is expected. it can.

In the case of hitting with the hitting head 7, the mass block 37 is provided with the opening collar 3e of the machine housing 3.
Since it is always placed in a non-contact state with respect to the above, it is possible to prevent the mechanical vibration from being transmitted from the mass block 37 to the upper wall 3c of the body housing 3 to cause noise. Therefore, even if the foot massager is used in a quiet room, there is no fear of making an unpleasant noise to surrounding objects.

Noise during operation can also be improved by the addition of auxiliary springs and retaining pads 56. That is, when the auxiliary spring 36 is attached, the posture of the mass block 37 with respect to the machine housing 3 is stabilized, and the swing of the mass block 37 during operation can be prevented. Therefore, abnormal contact or low contact due to the swing of the heavy mass block 37 can be prevented. Frequency noise is eliminated.

Further, if the holding pad 56 is interposed between the bottom surface of the mass block 37 and the body housing 3, the stability of the mass block 37 against external force is increased, and the mass block 37 is effectively acted upon by the pressure of the patient's foot. At the same time, the internal mechanical noise can be prevented from being transmitted to the machine body housing 3 through the holding pad 56, and a quiet operating state can be obtained.

[0045]

As is apparent from the above description, in the foot massager of the present invention, not only can the blood circulation be promoted while stimulating the sole of the foot where peripheral nerves concentrate,
You can expect quiet driving that effectively stimulates the pot.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a foot massager according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the foot massage device.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged top view showing a supported state of a mass block of the foot massager.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG. 5 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the inside of the mass block.

8 is a sectional view of the inside of the mechanical housing taken along the line VIII-VIII in FIG. 7 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

FIG. 9 is a bottom view of the mechanical housing.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional foot massager.

FIG. 11 is a top view of a mass block of the foot massager.

FIG. 12 is a side view of the mass block.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Airframe housing 3b upper surface 3c Upper wall 3d opening 3e Opening collar 5 Hit rod 7 hitting head 7b, 7c wart protrusion 10 DC motor 36 Auxiliary spring 37 Mass Block 39 First suspension spring 41 Second suspension spring 57 Information block CPU control circuit FS foot detector MS power switch T timer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-255818 (JP, A) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-255809 (JP, A) Actual Flat 6-50642 (JP, U) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61H 23/02 A61H 39/04

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hollow fuselage housing having an inclined upper surface on which a foot can be placed, a first suspension spring for stabilizing a position in a plane substantially parallel to the upper surface, and a direction perpendicular to the same plane. It is driven by a mass block suspended inside the body housing by a second suspension spring for stabilizing the position, and an electric motor having a tip end protruding from the mass block toward the upper surface and incorporated in the mass block. A plurality of striking rods that are reciprocally moved reciprocally in a direction substantially perpendicular to the upper surface by a reciprocating mechanism, and are fixed to the tips of the striking rods so that they can temporarily project outside the upper surface. And a striking head capable of striking the surface of the foot placed on the upper surface, wherein the tip is in contact with the surface of the foot integrally molded with the surface of the striking head. A large number of wart projections, an opening formed in the upper wall of the machine housing, and a guide block fixed to the mass block and positioned inside the opening in a non-contact state with the impact head enclosed. Foot massager with and. 2. The attitude of the mass block during operation is interposed between the inner bottom surface of the machine body housing and the bottom surface of the mass block in a compressed state, and the mass block is pressed toward the opening. The foot massager according to claim 1, further comprising a holding pad for stabilizing the foot. 3. The posture of the mass block during operation is hung between the lower portion of the mass block and the fixing portion of the machine body housing in a state of extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the upper surface. The foot massager according to claim 1, comprising at least two stabilizing auxiliary springs.