JP3489823B2 - Towel dryer - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a towel dryer, and more particularly to an improvement of a towel dryer which is used for hand-wiping in a toilet or the like to dry a wet towel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a towel dryer of this type, a structure as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-28614 is known.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, this structure has a body case 3 having an external air suction port 1 and having an outer C-shape.
Inside the electric motor 5, a blower fan 7 connected to the electric motor 5, a blower casing 9 for letting the blown air from the fan 7 flow downward, and a heater 11 arranged in the middle of the casing 9. , An L-shaped connecting pipe 13 connected to the outlet end of the casing 9, and a cylindrical towel hook member 15 is rotatably fitted to the tip of the connecting pipe 13 at one lower end of the main body case 3. Arrange it so that it passes over the lower space of the body case 3 with the towel hook member 15
The other end is pivotally supported on the other lower end of the main body case 3, and in the main body case 3, a pulley 17 attached to the other end of the towel hook member 15 and a drive motor 19 are connected by a belt 21. .

5 and 6, reference numeral 23 is a spring for urging the towel hanging member 15 from one end side (right side in the drawing) to the other end side (left side in the drawing), and reference numeral 25 is for the towel hanging member 15. A ring-shaped towel is hung over, reference numeral 27 is a hot air outlet formed on the towel hanging member 15, and reference numeral 29 is a timer (not shown) for controlling the electric power supply to the electric motor 5, the heater 11 and the motor 19 for a predetermined time. Switch.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the towel hanging member 15 is displaced toward the front with the lower end of the casing 9 as a fulcrum for the replacement of the ring-shaped towel 25.

In such a towel dryer, when the timer switch 29 is operated, the electric power supply to the electric motor 5, the heater 11 and the motor 19 is started, and the rotation of the electric motor 5 causes the fan 7 to suck the outside air from the suction port 1. The hot air heated by the heater 11 is taken into the inside of the towel hanging member 15 and blown out from the plurality of outlets 27, while the towel hanging member 15 is driven by the motor 19, the belt 21, and the pulley 19. The motor 5, the heater 11 and the motor 1 after a lapse of a predetermined time.
9 stops.

Therefore, the ring-shaped towel 25 which is wet when the user wipes his / her hand is operated by the switch 29.
While being hit by the hot air blown out from the outlet 27 of the towel hook member 15, the towel hook member 15 is rotated to be easily dried.

[0008]

However, in the towel dryer having the above-mentioned structure, the cylindrical towel hanging member 1 is used.
Since the electric motor 5, the fan 7, the casing 9, and the heater 11 are arranged on the upper side of 5, the external dimensions tend to be large, and in addition to the electric motor 5, the fan 7 and the casing 17, the towel rack member 19 is rotated separately. Since the motor 19 is required, the number of parts tends to increase, and it is difficult to reduce the cost.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object thereof is to provide a small-sized and inexpensive towel dryer capable of reliably drying a hand towel.

[0010]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention relates to an electric motor, a fan for blowing air by the electric motor, and a tubular shape for guiding the air flow blown by the fan to the inside. A pipe that has a plurality of outlets on its peripheral surface and is closed on the downstream side of the blower, a heater that heats the air blown by the fan, and a fan that is placed in the pipe and blown by the fan An impeller that is rotated by the wind flow and outputs this rotational force to the outside of the pipe, and a rod shape that is arranged above the pipe in parallel and rotatably at a distance from it, and a ring-shaped towel is hung so as to surround the pipe. The towel hanging member and the rotating force transmitting portion that transmits the rotating force of the impeller to the towel hanging member to rotate the towel hanging member.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the electric motor, the fan and the heater are housed in series in the pipe by advancing to the upstream side of the wind flow.

Further, according to the present invention, the pipe and the towel hook member may be cantilevered on the same side of the main body case of the towel dryer.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a towel dryer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a towel dryer according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views.

1 to 3, the horizontally-arranged cylindrical pipe 31 has a hollow interior made of, for example, synthetic resin, and one end (the right end in the drawings) is closed by a gear storage box 33 described later. The other end (the left end in the figure) is open, and a plurality of air outlets 35 are dispersedly formed on the peripheral surface so as to penetrate the inside and outside.

The box-shaped body case 37 is made of, for example, synthetic resin and has a hollow portion inside.
A pipe 31 is inserted in the lower part so as to penetrate the open end side, and the pipe 31 is supported in a cantilever manner.

The open end of the pipe 31 is exposed from the lower portion of the side surface of the main body case 37 to form an air suction port 39,
Covered with a predetermined breathable filter.

The body case 37 integrally has a back plate 41 extending along the pipe 31 on the back side thereof and extending in a slightly L-shape from the upper end toward the front as a part of the top plate.

Inside the pipe 31, the main body case 37
An electric motor 43 is arranged near the suction port 39 at a position corresponding to the inside, and this rotation of the electric motor 43 sucks air from the suction port 39 to generate a wind flow toward one end side of the pipe 31, that is, the gear storage box 33 side. The fan 45 to be generated is fixed.

Inside the pipe 31 at a position corresponding to the outside of the main body case 37, an electric heater 47 that heats air and an impeller 49 that rotates by the wind flow are slightly provided on the air flow direction side from the fan 45. The pipes 31 are arranged at intervals and are arranged in series close to the other end side of the pipe 31 (upstream side of the wind flow).

The plurality of outlets 35 described above are provided as impellers 49.
The pipe 31 is formed from the vicinity to the vicinity of the gear storage box 33.

The impeller 49 has a rotating shaft 51 extending therefrom.
Is rotatably supported by the bearing 53 and the gear storage box 33 fixed in the pipe 31, and is rotated by the wind flow generated by the fan 45 so that the rotational force is output from the pipe 31. Has become.

Air is blown out from the air outlet 35 of the pipe 31 by the air flow (hot air) generated by the fan 45.

The gear storage box 33 supported by the pipe 31 so as to close one end of the pipe 31 has a structure in which a plurality of transmission gears 55 are combined.

The speed change gear 55 is engaged with a gear provided at the tip of the rotary shaft 51 of the impeller 49, and the rotational force transmitting portion for transmitting the rotational speed of the impeller 49 while decelerating it to, for example, 1/200 to 1/300. Is.

The towel hanging member 57 is made of, for example, a synthetic resin and is formed into a rod shape which is thinner than the pipe 31, one end side (the right end in the drawing) is pivotally supported by the gear storage box 33, and the other end side (the left end in the drawing).
Are rotatably supported by the main body case 37, and are arranged above the pipe 31 in parallel with the pipe 31 at predetermined intervals. That is, the towel rack member 57 is connected to the pipe 31 via the gear storage box 33, but is cantilevered by the main body case 37 like the pipe 31.

The towel rack member 57 has a gear provided at the end thereof and a transmission gear 55 meshed in the gear housing box 33. The impeller 49 is rotated by the rotational force of the impeller 49 transmitted through the transmission gear 55. It is designed to rotate in conjunction with.

On the back plate 41 of the main body case 37, a sterilizing lamp 59 is arranged in parallel with the towel hanging member 57 at a slight interval at an inner corner near the towel hanging member 57.

The germicidal lamp 59 and the above-mentioned electric motor 43 and heater 47 are operated by a power source from a power source circuit (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 3, a well-known ring-shaped towel 61 is wound around the towel rack 57 from the side of the gear storage box 33 so as to surround them together with the pipe 31.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cover 63 is a translucent plate attached to the tip of the top plate portion of the back plate 41 of the main body case 37 by a hinge structure, covers the front side, and is shown in FIG. As described above, the ring-shaped towel 61 is easily hooked on the towel hook member 57 by opening to the upper side of the back plate 41.

A conventionally known proximity sensor 65 is arranged on the front surface of the cover 63, and for example, the user can cover the cover 63.
It is connected so as to detect it when standing in front of, to control ON operation of the electric motor 43, the heater 47, and the sterilizing lamp 59 for a predetermined time through a timer operation (not shown), and then stop control.

Next, an example of using the above towel dryer will be described. Normally, the towel dryer has an electric motor 43 and a heater 47.
The germicidal lamp 59 is connected to a predetermined power source but is in a stopped state.

Then, for example, when a user washing his hands in the toilet stands in front of the towel dryer of the present invention, the proximity sensor 65
Detects that, and starts the ON operation of the electric motor 43, the heater 47 and the germicidal lamp 59 through a timer operation (not shown).

When the fan 45 is rotated by the electric motor 43, external air is sucked in through the suction port 39, and an airflow toward the gear storage box 33 side is generated and guided into the pipe 31.

The air flow is heated by the heater 47 and hits the impeller 49 on the way to rotate the impeller.

The wind flow (hot air) generated by rotating the impeller 49 is
It blows out from the air outlet 35 of the pipe 31, and hits the inside of the ring-shaped towel 61 that is hung on the towel hanging member 57 together with the pipe 31.

The rotational force of the impeller 49 is the rotational axis 51,
As shown in FIG. 3, when the towel rack member 57 is rotated in the arrow A direction, for example, the ring towel 61 is moved in the arrow B direction by being transmitted to the towel rack member 57 via the transmission gear 55 in the gear storage box 33. Rotate to.

At this time, the rotation speed of the impeller 49 is decelerated by the transmission gear 55 and the torque is increased, and the towel hook member 57 causes the ring-shaped towel 61 to have a relatively strong force.
Rotate slowly and surely.

Therefore, hot air is sufficiently applied to the slowly rotating ring-shaped towel 61 from the outlet 35 of the pipe 31, the wet ring-shaped towel 61 is easily dried, and the sterilizing lamp 59 also sterilizes the wet ring-shaped towel 61. It will be possible.

When a predetermined time of the timer has passed,
The operations of the electric motor 43, the heater 47 and the germicidal lamp 59 are stopped.

When replacing the ring-shaped towel 61,
As shown in FIG. 4, when the cover 63 is opened on the upper side of the back plate 41, the tip ends of the towel hooking member 57 and the pipe 31 are opened, and the ring-shaped towel 61 can be easily removed and handed over.

As shown in FIG. 4, if the distance C between the back plate 41 extending from the main body case 37 and the gear storage box 33 is set to be wide to some extent, the ring-shaped towel 61 can be easily removed and handed over.

In addition, in the towel dryer described above, the wind flow generated by the electric motor 43 and the fan 45 is converted into a rotational force by the impeller 49, which is transmitted to the towel hooking member 57 and rotated to rotate the towel hooking member 57. Since the rotation drive source of (1) is also used as the wind flow source for applying the ring-shaped towel 61, it is not necessary to use another motor and other members as a drive source for rotating the ring-shaped towel 61 unlike the conventional case.

Therefore, the number of components is reduced, the structure can be downsized, and the cost can be easily reduced.

Moreover, the electric motor 4 is provided inside the pipe 31.
Since the fan 3, the fan 45 and the heater 47 are housed in series so as to be closer to the upstream side of the air flow, the size of the structure can be further reduced.

However, the electric motor 43, the fan 45 or the heater 47 does not necessarily have to be arranged inside the pipe 31. For example, the electric motor 43 or the fan 45 may be provided in the main body case 3.
7 may be arranged to guide the air flow from the fan 45 into the pipe 31. It is preferable to arrange the heater 47 inside the pipe 31 in order to maintain high heating efficiency.

In the structure for guiding the air flow from the fan 45 into the pipe 31, as well as the structure in which the electric motor 43 and the fan 45 are arranged inside the pipe 31 as described above, the air flow from the fan 45 arranged in the main body case 37 is also provided. For example, a configuration in which the other end side (left side in the drawing) of the pipe 31 is guided to the inside, or a central portion of the pipe 31 is guided to the inside is also possible.

In this case, if the downstream side of the air flow is appropriately closed, the amount of hot air blown out from the air outlet 35 is increased and the rotational force of the impeller 49 can be maintained high.

The position of the heater 47 is arbitrary before and after the fan 45 and the impeller 49.
The order of the heater 47 and the impeller 49 may be preferable.

The shape of the impeller 49 as a rotating body and the arrangement position in the pipe 31 are arbitrary, but if it is arranged in a position close to the fan 45, the wind flow will be able to be efficiently converted into a rotational force.

The rotating force of the impeller 49 is applied to the towel hanging member 57.
The transmission gear 55 to be transmitted to is not limited to this, and other means, for example, a pulley and a belt can be combined, and the rotational force of the impeller 49 is transmitted to the towel rack member 57 to rotate it. Any transmission unit may be used, and it is more preferable if it has a function of reducing the rotational force of the impeller 49.

The towel dryer of the present invention can be widely used not only in toilets but also in places where it is necessary to dry a wet towel, such as a kitchen.

[0053]

As described above, the towel dryer of the present invention has an electric motor, a fan for blowing air by the electric motor, a plurality of outlets on the peripheral surface, and an air flow blown by the fan. A pipe that guides the inside of the pipe, a heater that heats the air blown by the fan, and a blade that is placed inside the pipe and that is rotated by the airflow blown by the fan and that outputs this rotational force to the outside of the pipe. The wheel, a rod-shaped towel rack placed on the upper side of the pipe in parallel and rotatably with a space therebetween, and a ring-shaped towel is hung so as to surround the pipe, and the rotational force of the impeller is applied to the towel rack. Since it is configured to have a rotational force transmission section that transmits the rotating force to the member and rotates it, the towel ring member is rotated by the impeller rotated by hot air, and the wet ring-shaped towel is rotationally displaced. Thereby it becomes possible, in order to rotate shift the ring-like towel, it is not necessary to use such as another motor in addition to the motor and fan for generating air flow. Therefore, the number of parts is reduced, size reduction and cost reduction are facilitated, and the entire wet ring-shaped towel can be evenly and reliably dried. Further, in the configuration in which the electric motor, the blower fan, and the heater are housed in the pipe in series, the size can be further reduced. Further, in the structure in which the pipe and the towel hanging member are cantilevered to the main body case of the towel dryer on the same side, there is an advantage that the ring-shaped towel can be attached and detached very easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a towel dryer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the towel dryer of FIG.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing the towel dryer of FIG. 1 (in FIG.
II-II cross section).

4 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the cover is opened in the towel dryer of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conventional towel dryer.

6 is a cross-sectional view showing the towel dryer of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 suction port 3, 37 body case 5,43 electric motor 7,45 fans 9 casing 11,47 heater 13 Connection tube 15,57 Towel hanging member 17 pulley 19 motor 21 belt 23 springs 25, 61 ring towel 27, 37 outlet 29 switch 31 pipes 33 gear storage box 41 backboard 49 impeller 51 rotation axis 53 bearings 55 Speed change gear (rotational force transmission part) 59 germicidal lamp 63 cover 65 Proximity sensor

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electric motor, a blower fan for blowing air by the electric motor, a tubular pipe for guiding the air flow blown by the fan to the inside, and having a plurality of air outlets on a peripheral surface thereof. A pipe whose downstream side is blocked, a heater for heating the air blown into the pipe by the fan, and a rotational force which is arranged in the pipe and is rotated by the airflow blown by the fan. An impeller that outputs to the outside, a rod-shaped towel hook member that is arranged on the upper side of the pipe in parallel and rotatably with a space therebetween so as to hang a ring-shaped towel so as to surround the pipe, and the impeller of the impeller A towel dryer, comprising: a rotating force transmitting unit that transmits a rotating force to the towel hanging member to rotate the towel hanging member. 2. The towel dryer according to claim 1, wherein the electric motor, the fan, and the heater are housed in the pipe in series so as to be closer to the upstream side of the air flow. 3. The towel dryer according to claim 1, wherein the pipe and the towel hanging member are fixed so that the same side is cantilevered by the main body case of the towel dryer.