JP5633861B2 - Method for manufacturing shower head body and shower head body - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a shower head body of a shower that can be used in a bathroom or a shower room, and a shower head body formed by the manufacturing method.

The shower head of the shower apparatus proposed in Patent Document 1 includes a mouthpiece that sprinkles water (corresponding to the watering member of the present application), and a support that holds the mouthpiece and serves as a water passage to the mouthpiece. (Corresponding to the shower head main body of the present application) and the like, and the surface is subjected to decorative plating such as nickel chrome plating as necessary. The mouthpiece and the support constituting the shower head can be manufactured by metal casting.
However, when the shower head main body is manufactured by metal casting, the component is a casting, resulting in a thick wall. Therefore, a lot of raw materials are required, and the material cost becomes high.
Moreover, casting requires a lot of energy, such as a pouring temperature close to 1000 ° C. and a large electricity bill, and the load on the environment is large.

JP 9-502650 A

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to manufacture a metal shower head main body at a low cost with a smaller amount of material than before. Another object of the present invention is to produce a shower head body with energy saving than before.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a method of manufacturing a shower head body of a shower apparatus , wherein a water spray hole forming step of forming a plurality of water spray holes in a metal pipe, and the water spray holes are formed. An outer shape forming step of plastically deforming the formed metal tube into a predetermined shape is sequentially performed to form an outer shape of the shower head main body.

According to this, since the shower head main body having a predetermined shape can be manufactured from the metal tube, it is possible to provide an inexpensive shower head main body with a smaller amount of material than before. In addition, it is possible to manufacture the shower head body with energy saving as compared with the prior art.
In addition, according to this manufacturing method, since a plurality of water spray holes are opened directly in the metal pipe, there is no seam between the shower head body and the water sprinkling member, the appearance is better than before, and a clean shower with reduced adhesion of dirt. It is possible to obtain a head body.
In addition, since the sprinkling holes are processed before plastic deformation, the sprinkling holes can be easily formed.

The invention of claim 2 is a method for manufacturing a shower head body of a shower apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, as the outline shape forming step, the metal tube is tightened after a mold loaded with the metal tube is tightened. A showerhead body manufacturing method is characterized in that a bulging process is performed in which a metal tube is plastically deformed by injecting a filler into the interior and applying pressure to the filler.

According to this, it becomes possible to drastically improve the degree of freedom of design related to the shower head body. For example, it is possible to obtain a shower head body with a sharp design by forming the corners into edges. it can.
In addition, since the diameter of the metal tube can be increased, it is possible to obtain a shower head body having a design that has not existed before.

The invention of claim 3 is the method of manufacturing a shower head main body according to claim 2, characterized in that, before executing the bulge processing, press processing is performed to crush the metal tube into a flat shape.

According to this, the diameter of a metal tube can be expanded by bulge processing after crushing the whole metal tube by press processing. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a shower head body having a novel design in which at least a part is flattened.

In order to achieve the above object, a fourth aspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a shower head body of a shower apparatus, comprising: an outer shape forming step including a pressing process for crushing a part of a metal tube into a flat shape; A method of manufacturing a shower head body, wherein a water spray hole forming step of forming a plurality of water spray holes in a metal pipe formed in a shape is sequentially executed to form an outer shape of the shower head body.

According to this, since the shower head main body having a predetermined shape can be manufactured from the metal tube, it is possible to provide an inexpensive shower head main body with a smaller amount of material than before. In addition, it is possible to manufacture the shower head body with energy saving as compared with the prior art.
In addition, since the water spray hole is directly opened in the metal pipe, it is possible to obtain a clean shower head main body that has no seam between the shower head main body and the water sprinkling member, has a better appearance than conventional ones, and has reduced adhesion of dirt. .
In addition, since the metal tube is plastically deformed before forming the water spray holes, the water spray holes can be processed in accordance with the outer shape of the shower head body, and the manufacturing yield can be further increased. .
Further, a shower head body with a novel design in which at least a part is flattened by pressing can be obtained.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, as the outer shape forming step, after the pressing process is performed, a metal mold loaded with the metal tube is tightened, and then a filler is filled in the metal tube. The showerhead body manufacturing method is characterized in that bulging is performed to plastically deform the metal tube by pouring and applying pressure to the filling.

  According to this, it becomes possible to drastically improve the degree of freedom of design related to the shower head body. For example, it is possible to obtain a shower head body with a sharp design by forming the corners into edges. it can.

The invention of claim 6 is the method of manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 3 or 5, wherein the metal tube is bent into a predetermined shape before the press working.

According to this, since the process of bending the metal tube is performed before the bulge process, it is possible to obtain a shower head body having a generally curved shape.

The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that, in any one of claims 2 to 6, after the outer shape forming step is executed, a cutting step for cutting an end portion of the processed metal tube is executed. It is a manufacturing method of a shower head main body.

  According to this, since the end portion of the metal tube is cut after the bulge processing, it becomes possible to easily obtain a shower head body having a predetermined size.

The invention according to claim 8 is the showerhead according to claim 1 or 4 , wherein one end of the metal tube is sealed by welding before the outer shape forming step. It is a manufacturing method of a main body.

According to this, the end of the metal tube is sealed by welding to form a metal tube that is closed at one end, and the metal tube is plastically deformed. Can be obtained.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is the method for manufacturing a shower head body according to the eighth aspect , wherein a polishing step of removing welding marks from the surface of the metal tube is executed.

According to this, since the welding traces remaining on the surface of the metal tube are removed by polishing, it is possible to manufacture a shower head body that has no welding traces on the surface and has a good appearance.

The invention of claim 10 is the method of manufacturing a shower head body according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein after the shower head body is formed, the surface of the shower head body is polished and finished. It is.

According to this, since the finishing polishing step is performed after the shower head body is formed, a beautiful shower head body with gloss on the whole can be obtained.

An eleventh aspect of the invention is a shower head main body formed by plastically deforming a metal tube by the manufacturing method according to any one of the first to tenth aspects.

According to this, since the shower head main body is formed by plastically deforming the metal tube, it is possible to provide a shower head main body that is lighter than the conventional one. Further, since the outer shape of the shower head body is formed by plastic deformation of the metal tube, it is possible to provide a shower head body with an unprecedented design.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a metal shower head main body at a lower cost with a smaller amount of material than before. In addition, it is possible to manufacture the shower head body with energy saving as compared with the prior art.

It is a perspective view which shows the shower apparatus concerning the 1st reference form of this invention. It is process drawing which shows the 1st reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is process drawing which shows the 2nd reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is process drawing which shows the 3rd reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is process drawing which shows the 4th reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the shower apparatus carrying the shower head main body manufactured by the 2nd-4th reference example. It is process drawing which shows the 5th reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the shower apparatus concerning 1st embodiment of this invention. It is process drawing which shows the 6th reference example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the 1st specific example of the bulge process in a 6th reference example. It is a schematic diagram which shows the 2nd specific example of the bulge process in a 6th reference example. It is process drawing which shows the 1st example of the manufacturing method of the shower head main body of this invention.

  Hereinafter, the shower apparatus which has a metal shower head main body, and the manufacturing method of a metal shower head main body are demonstrated.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a shower apparatus A according to a first referential embodiment of the present invention.
In the shower device A, the shower head main body 31 is made of metal, and the water spray member 33 is made of resin.

  The shower device A has a configuration in which a shower head 3 is connected to a shower hose 1 connected to a shower-side discharge port of a hot and cold water faucet (not shown) via a socket 2 and the shower head 3 is held by hand. Can be used.

  This shower apparatus A is attached to a shower head main body (outer cylinder) 31 constituting the outline of the shower head 3 and a base end portion of the shower head main body 31, and hot water supplied from the shower hose 1 is supplied to the shower head main body 31. A water passage member 32 to be introduced into the inside of the shower head body 31 and a water sprinkling member 33 as a water sprinkling member which is attached to the tip of the shower head main body 31 and has a plurality of water sprinkling holes 33b for spraying hot water in a shower shape.

The shower head main body 31 is a member formed from a metal such as SUS304. The shower head main body 31 has a grip portion 311 having a diameter that allows the base end portion to be easily held by hand, and has a distal end portion that is flatter and wider than the grip portion 311 (about 10 to 15 mm). In addition, an opening for mounting the watering member for mounting the watering member 33 is formed at the tip of the shower head body 31. This opening is formed only on one side surface of the shower head main body 31.
The shower head main body 31 can be formed as thin as about 0.5 mm to 1 mm, and is lighter than a conventional shower head.

  This shower head body 31 is made of a glossy metal such as SUS304, so that a high-quality metal shower device can be produced without applying decorative plating such as chrome plating to the surface like brass. Can do.

  The water passage member 32 is formed of a resin, and a shower hose 1 is connected to one end thereof to form a water inlet 32a that receives supply of hot water, and a water outlet 32b that discharges the supplied hot water to the other end. Is formed. Further, the water passage member 32 is fixed to the shower head body 31 after being inserted into the shower head body 31 from the other end where the water outlet 32 b is formed.

  The watering member (watering part) 33 is an injection-molded product of resin, and is mounted so as to be embedded in an opening 31 a formed in a thin portion at the tip of the shower head body 31. Further, the water sprinkling member 33 is connected to the water outlet 32 b of the water passage member 32, and an introduction port 33 a for introducing hot water into the water sprinkling member 33 is formed, and the surface exposed to the outside of the shower head body 31 is formed. A plurality of sprinkling holes 33b for sprinkling the introduced hot water is formed. The water sprinkling member 33 is fixed to the shower head main body 31 or the water passage member 32 after being engaged with and attached to the opening 31 a of the shower head main body 31.

  Further, the end face of the shower head main body 31 is exposed to the outside without being covered with the water spray member 33. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a refreshing shower head 3 in which the entire side surface is made of metal.

  Due to such a configuration, this shower apparatus has a lighter shower head than conventional ones, and can reduce CO2 emission during transportation.

  Next, as described above, a method for manufacturing a shower head body in which a resin watering member is attached to a metal tube will be described.

FIG. 2 is a process diagram showing a first reference example for manufacturing a shower head body.
First, a stainless steel flat plate is prepared, and roll forming is performed by plastically deforming the flat plate and rounding it into a cylindrical shape. And the end part (mating surface) of the rounded flat plate is joined, and the welding made | formed with the straight tubular element | tube which both ends opened is performed.
The roll forming process and the process of welding the mating surfaces correspond to the metal tube forming process of the present invention.

In addition, since the appearance of a shower head will worsen if a welding trace remains, the grinding | polishing process which removes a welding trace is performed. When the welding mark is hardly raised from the surroundings, this polishing step may be performed at an arbitrary timing. However, in the case where the weld trace has a shape that is larger than the surroundings, it is preferable to perform a polishing process for removing the weld trace when the welding is finished.
For removing the welding marks, belt polishing capable of obtaining a large removal force with a single polishing over an arbitrary range is more suitable than barrel polishing in which the entire surface is uniformly polished. By performing belt polishing, welding marks can be removed in a short time. Moreover, it is preferable that the welded portion after removal of the weld trace is made to have the same surface roughness as that of the unwelded portion of the surface of the closed tube. By appropriately selecting the abrasive and grain size and carrying out belt polishing in several stages, the welding marks are flattened, and the roughness equivalent to the surface of the stainless steel plate (for example, arithmetic average roughness Ra = 0.0).
About 2 μm).
In addition, when the welding marks are removed by using a polishing method such as barrel polishing that averages the entire surface simultaneously and averagely, an uneven shape having a level difference of several tens of μm remains on the welding marks, resulting in poor appearance. However, according to the belt polishing, there is no fear that such uneven shape remains, and the appearance defect rate can be reduced.

  Next, if necessary, a bending process is performed in which a pressure is applied in one direction to the side surface of the raw tube to plastically deform the raw tube to form a bent tube. Note that this bending process does not need to be performed depending on the shape of the shower head body, and it is also possible to bend and deform the raw pipe when a bulge processing mold to be described later is tightened.

Next, when the cross section of the shower head main body is not a circular pipe, a pressing process is performed to crush the bent pipe or the raw pipe into a flat shape.
Then, a bulging process is performed in which the bending pipe or the raw pipe is made into a bulging product plastically deformed into a predetermined shape. In this bulge processing, a bending tube or a raw tube is loaded into a mold, the die is tightened, a filling such as a liquid is injected into the bending tube or the raw tube, and a high pressure of about 200 MPa is applied to the filling. Then, the bent pipe or the base pipe is expanded into a predetermined shape so as to form the shape of the shower head body. In this bulging process, when the bending pipe or the raw pipe is compressed in the axial direction by applying pressure to the filling (axial pushing), the bending pipe or the raw pipe is applied alternately by applying a low pressure and a high pressure. By performing so-called vibration molding in which the shape of the shower head is greatly deformed in the radial direction, the appearance shape of the shower head main body can be made highly designable using a curved surface.
In the first reference example, bending, pressing and bulging correspond to the outer shape forming process of the present invention.

In the first reference example, the bent pipe or the raw pipe is deformed by the outer shape forming step, and the top surface of the shower head body 31 is formed on one surface of the bent pipe or the raw pipe.

  It is also possible to impart a sharp edge shape to the showerhead body by expanding the bent portion of the bending tube by bulging and deforming it so as to follow the edge portion formed in the mold.

Here, when a polishing process is performed to remove the welding trace before plastic deformation of the bending pipe or the base pipe by bending, pressing, or bulging, the welding trace can be removed along the straight line. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the load of the polishing process.
Also, if the weld marks are large, remove the weld marks before bulging to prevent large irregularities from being formed around the weld marks when bulging is performed with the weld marks remaining. It is possible to reduce the load of the final surface finishing process.

  Next, in order to cut a surplus portion of the bulge processed product into a pre-finished product, a cutting process is performed in which the opening end of the bulge processed product is cut at a predetermined position.

  Further, drilling is performed in order to form an opening for incorporating a resin watering member at the tip of the pre-finished product. For this drilling process, a laser cutting process can be applied. This drilling process corresponds to the sprinkling member mounting portion forming step of the present invention.

  In addition, it becomes possible to form in the opening part the engagement hole with which the processus | protrusion formed in the water sprinkling member engage | inserted by an opening part is engaged by the cutting process by a laser.

  By the bulge processing, the surface roughness of the pre-finished product is rougher than before the bulge processing. Therefore, a polishing process is performed to finish the entire pre-finished product in a mirror state.

  In the above-described polishing step, the welding marks are removed so that the surface roughness of the welded portion and the unwelded portion is approximately the same. Therefore, belt polishing or barrel polishing can be used as a method for efficiently polishing the entire pre-finished product. However, when the pre-finished product has a design having a sharp edge shape or a complicated shape such as a small R portion on the surface, it is desirable to use barrel polishing that can cope with the complicated shape.

  Hereinafter, the barrel polishing process will be described in detail. Since the surface roughness of the pre-finished product before polishing is roughened by the above-described bulge processing, the surface roughness is gradually reduced starting from rough polishing. At this time, in order to halve the arithmetic average roughness Ra for each step, for example, when the arithmetic average roughness Ra after bulging is 0.4 μm, Ra is changed from 0.4 μm to 0.2 μm in the first step. Ra is decreased from 0.2 μm to 0.1 μm in the next step, Ra is further decreased from 0.1 μm to 0.05 μm in the next step, and Ra is decreased from 0.05 μm to 0.00 μm in the final step. Steps are sequentially performed to reduce the thickness to 025 μm, and the surface is finished.

  Here, in order to realize polishing at low cost, it is necessary to shorten the polishing time per process, and it is important to set the optimum media, compound, and other polishing conditions according to the surface condition. Become. For example, in the rough polishing process, the initial surface roughness can be reduced to about half by using ceramic or resin-based media and polishing for about 30 minutes. In the final finishing step, Ra = 0.03 μm or less and 10-point average roughness RzJIS are obtained by polishing for about 1 hour using plant-based media such as resin or walnut that satisfy the final finishing conditions. = 0.1 μm or less and maximum height roughness Rz = 0.2 μm or less can be achieved. Thereby, the surface of a pre-finished product can be finished in a glossy state with a mirror surface. Even if Ra = 0.05 μm, a good mirror surface state can be obtained.

  Although fine polishing marks may be generated by barrel polishing, it is possible to further improve the finishing level by performing buffing to remove it.

In this way, the shower head body can be manufactured from a thin metal such as stainless steel.
According to this, since a shower head main body is obtained by plastically deforming a thin metal plate, it is possible to provide an inexpensive shower head main body with a smaller amount of material than a metal shower head main body by casting. Moreover, it is possible to manufacture a shower head body with energy saving compared to a metal shower head body by casting. In addition, it is possible to obtain a thin shower head body that is thin and flat and has never been seen before.

Next, a second reference example for manufacturing a shower head body in which a resin watering member is attached to a metal tube will be described. FIG. 3 shows a process of the second reference example.
In the second reference example, the step of forming the top surface of the shower head main body is different from the first step described above. Other steps are the same as those in the first step, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

In this second reference example, after forming a base pipe by welding a roll forming process and a mating surface, a flat top plate member is joined to one side of the base pipe having both ends open to seal the opening. Weld with the closed tube. That is, the top surface of the shower head body is constituted by another member welded to the raw tube. After the closed tube is formed by welding, the process of removing the welding marks at an appropriate timing is performed as in the first reference example.
In the second reference example, the roll forming process, the welding of the mating surfaces, and the welding process of sealing the opening with the top plate member correspond to the metal tube forming process of the present invention.
After this metal tube forming step, the outer shape forming step, the cutting step, the sprinkling member mounting portion forming step, the polishing step, etc. are sequentially performed on the closed tube to obtain a showerhead body of a predetermined shape with thin metal. be able to.

Next, a third reference example for manufacturing a shower head body in which a resin watering member is attached to a metal tube will be described. FIG. 4 shows a process of the third reference example.
The third reference example, steps for obtaining a closed pipe, a first reference example described above, the second reference example differs. Other steps are the same as those in the first step, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

In this third reference example, two stainless steel flat plates are prepared. One flat plate is deep drawn by press working to form a deep drawn tube. The other flat plate is subjected to a roll forming process in which it is plastically deformed and rounded into a cylindrical shape, and the end portions of the rounded flat plate are joined to each other and welded to form a straight tubular element tube having both ends opened.
Alternatively, a straight tubular stainless steel tube having both ends opened is formed by extrusion molding or pultrusion molding.
Then, a deep-drawn tube is joined to the opening at one end of the base tube by welding to form a closed tube.
These steps correspond to the metal tube forming step of the present invention.
After that, if necessary, a polishing process for removing welding marks is performed. In contrast to the second reference example in which the top of the shower head body is welded to the flat top plate member, the third reference example is a deep drawing. By welding the pipe, it is possible to reduce the polishing load for removing the weld trace.
After this metal tube forming step, the outer shape forming step, the cutting step, the sprinkling member mounting portion forming step, the polishing step, etc. are sequentially performed on the closed tube to obtain a showerhead body having a predetermined shape with a thin metal. be able to.

Next, a fourth reference example for manufacturing a shower head body in which a resin watering member is mounted on a metal pipe will be described. FIG. 5 shows a process of the fourth reference example.
The shower head body formed according to the fourth reference example has substantially the same diameter over the entire length. Therefore, not the first reference example performed bulging like the third embodiment.
In the fourth reference example, the outer shape forming process executes only the process of bending the closed tube.
Also by this, the shower head main body of a predetermined shape can be obtained with a thin metal.

In addition, FIG. 6 is a figure which illustrates the shower head main body formed by the manufacturing method demonstrated to the 2nd-4th reference example . The metal is exposed on the entire shower head body except that the water spray member made of resin is exposed on the water spray surface in which a plurality of water spray holes are formed.

Next, a fifth reference example for manufacturing a shower head body in which a resin watering member is mounted on a metal pipe will be described. FIG. 7 shows a process of the fifth reference example.
The fifth reference example is different from the first to fourth reference examples described above in the form of the sprinkling part mounting portion and the formation process thereof. Other steps are the same as those in the first step, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

In the fifth reference example, the raw tube obtained by the metal tube forming process in which the stainless steel flat plate is subjected to roll forming processing, etc. was subjected to press processing for bending and crushing as necessary. Thereafter, plastic deformation is performed so as to obtain a predetermined shape by bulging, thereby obtaining a bulged product. The bulging is performed in order to provide an edge at the corner of the shower head body. This bending process, press process, and bulge process correspond to the outer shape forming process of the present invention.
And the cutting process which cut | disconnects both ends of the bulge processed product by which both ends were opened, and obtains a pre-finished product is performed.
Then, a mounting opening to which the watering member is mounted is formed by cutting out the side surface of the pre-finished product from the opening at the front end side end of the pre-finished product by laser processing. At that time, by providing a portion left without being cut out around the opening portion of the surface forming the opening portion, the portion can be used as a retaining portion for the attached watering member.
In addition, the process of notching a part of this opening and expanding the opening corresponds to the sprinkling member mounting portion forming process of the present invention.
Finally, polishing for surface finishing is performed to obtain a shower head body.

Also according to the fifth reference example, a showerhead body having a predetermined shape can be obtained from a thin metal.
Further, according to the fifth reference example, unlike the first to fourth reference example, by cutting the edge of the opening end of the metal tube, because it utilizes a fitting opening of nozzle member, watering Compared to newly opening the opening for mounting the member, it is possible to reduce the labor of processing and reduce the manufacturing cost. Moreover, the site | part which remained without notching around the opening part for mounting | wearing can use the said site | part as a retaining part of a water sprinkling member. Thereby, it becomes possible to make it difficult to remove the watering member from the shower head body.

The shower head main body in which the resin watering member is mounted on the metal pipe can be manufactured by the manufacturing method described above, but can be executed with various modifications.
For example, the shower head body can be formed by appropriately replacing the steps of the first to fifth reference examples described above. Specifically, the metal tube forming process of the third reference example is adopted as the metal tube forming process of the first reference example.
Further, as in the second reference example and the fourth reference example, the order of performing the cutting step and the sprinkling member mounting portion forming step can be switched as necessary.

Of course, it is possible to adopt another processing method for an arbitrary step of the manufacturing method.
For example, as a process of forming an opening for fitting a resin sprinkling member, the excision processing by laser processing is exemplified, but before that, a convex portion is formed at a portion corresponding to a sprinkling portion of a mold for bulge processing Then, by tightening the mold or performing bulge processing, the shape of the convex portion is changed to a raw tube or a closed tube to form a concave portion. When the side surface of the concave portion is left and excised with a laser, a hanging piece can be formed around the opening for mounting the watering member. If the shower head main body 31 is thin, it is difficult to firmly fix the resin water sprinkling member, but by forming a hanging piece on the opening, the thickness can be increased around the opening. The member can be fixed.
In addition, in forming the hanging piece, instead of laser processing, a part of the bulge processed product after bulging may be pulled out while being recessed by press working to form the hanging piece on the peripheral edge of the opening. Good. In this case, if the preliminary hole is opened along the edge of the opening by performing piercing before the pressing, the pressing can be easily performed.

  Furthermore, it is also possible to purchase a general-purpose stainless steel tube without performing the metal tube forming step and perform the manufacturing method from the outer shape forming step.

Next, the shower apparatus concerning 1st embodiment of this invention is demonstrated.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the shower apparatus B according to the first embodiment.
The shower device B has a structure in which a shower head 4 is connected to a shower hose 1 connected to a shower-side discharge port of a hot and cold water faucet (not shown) through a socket 2 and the shower head 4 is held by hand. Can be used.

  The shower apparatus B is composed of a shower head main body 41, which is entirely formed of metal and forms an outline of the shower head 4, and has a water spray part 41 b having a plurality of water spray holes 41 a on the side surface on the tip side. A water passage member 42 that introduces hot water to be supplied into the shower head main body 41 is configured.

The shower head body 41 is a member made of metal such as SUS304. The shower head main body 41 has a gripping portion 411 having a base end side that can be easily held by hand, and a distal end portion that is flatter and wider than the gripping portion 411 and has a thin sprinkling portion 41b.
Thereby, the shower head main body 41 can be formed as thin as about 0.5 mm to 1 mm, and is lighter than a conventional shower head.

  Similarly to the shower device A, the water passage member 42 is formed of a resin. The shower hose 1 is connected to one end of the water passage member 42 to form a water inlet 42a for receiving hot water supply, and the supplied hot water is supplied to the other end. A water outlet 42b for discharging water is formed. The water passage member 42 is fixed to the shower head main body 41 after being inserted into the shower head main body 41 from the other end.

  In the shower device of this embodiment, the entire shower head 4 excluding the portion connected to the shower hose 1 is composed of a seamless shower head body 41 formed of a glossy metal such as SUS304. Therefore, a high-quality metal shower device can be manufactured without applying decorative plating such as chrome plating to the surface like brass. Moreover, since the joint between the members does not appear on the surface of the shower head 4 except for the base end portion, it is not necessary to provide a joint between the members in the vicinity of the water spray holes of the shower head. For this reason, the shower device overflows with a clean feeling without being contaminated near the water spray hole.

  Moreover, since it was set as such a structure, this shower apparatus can make the shower head lighter than before, and can reduce CO2 emission during transportation.

Next, as described above, a method for manufacturing a shower head body that is entirely made of metal will be described.
FIG. 9 is a process diagram showing an example (sixth reference example) for manufacturing a shower head body.

First, a step of preparing a flat plate made of stainless steel and forming a sprinkling hole processed plate by opening a sprinkling hole in the flat plate is executed. It is preferable in terms of cost to simultaneously process a large number of holes in a flat plate by pressing or the like. This corresponds to the sprinkling hole forming step of the present invention.
And the roll forming process which plastically deforms a water spray hole processed board and rounds it into a cylinder shape is performed. And the end part of the round sprinkling hole processed board is joined, and the welding made | formed with the straight tubular element | tube which both ends opened is performed.
Thereafter, a flat top plate member is joined to one of the base pipes open at both ends, and the opening is sealed to form a closed pipe. That is, the top surface of the shower head body is constituted by another member welded to the raw tube.
The roll forming process, the welding of the mating surfaces, and the welding process of sealing the opening with the top plate member correspond to the metal tube forming process of the present invention.

  In addition, since the appearance of a shower head will worsen if a welding trace remains, the grinding | polishing process which removes a welding trace is performed. When the welding mark is hardly raised from the surroundings, this polishing step may be performed at an arbitrary timing. However, in the case where the weld trace has a shape that is larger than the surroundings, it is preferable to perform a polishing process for removing the weld trace when the welding is finished.

For removing the welding marks, belt polishing capable of obtaining a large removal force with a single polishing over an arbitrary range is more suitable than barrel polishing in which the entire surface is uniformly polished. By performing belt polishing, welding marks can be removed in a short time. Moreover, it is preferable that the welded portion after removal of the weld trace is made to have the same surface roughness as that of the unwelded portion of the surface of the closed tube. By appropriately selecting the abrasive and grain size and performing belt polishing in several stages, the welding traces are flattened, and the same roughness as the surface of the stainless steel plate (for example, arithmetic average roughness Ra = 0.2 μm) Degree).
In addition, when the welding marks are removed by using a polishing method such as barrel polishing that averages the entire surface simultaneously and averagely, an uneven shape having a level difference of several tens of μm remains on the welding marks, resulting in poor appearance. However, according to the belt polishing, there is no fear that such uneven shape remains, and the appearance defect rate can be reduced.

  Next, if necessary, a bending process is performed in which a pressure is applied in one direction to the side surface of the closing tube to plastically deform the closing tube to form a bending tube. Depending on the shape of the shower head body, it is not necessary to perform this bending process, and the element tube can be bent and deformed when a bulge forming mold to be described later is tightened.

  Next, bulging is performed by plastically deforming the bent tube or the closed tube into a predetermined shape to form a bulged product. In this bulging process, a bending tube or a closing tube is loaded into the mold, the die is tightened, a filling such as a liquid is injected into the bending tube or the closing tube, and a high pressure of about 200 MPa at maximum is applied to the filling. Then, the bent tube or the closed tube is expanded into a predetermined shape so as to form the shape of the shower head body. In this bulging process, first, a small pressure is applied to the filling to compress the bending tube or the closing tube in the axial direction (axial push) to cause primary deformation, and then a high pressure is applied to the filling. In addition, by performing so-called hammering molding that causes secondary deformation that greatly deforms the bending tube or the blocking tube in the radial direction, the appearance shape of the shower head body can be made high in design using a curved surface. It becomes possible.

In addition, the shower head main body shown in FIG. 8 is made into the thin body shape whose watering part is flat and wide. In order to make the shower head main body into such a shape, when the bulge processing mold is tightened, the bending tube or the blocking tube is plastically deformed so as to have a flat shape.
Moreover, in the shower apparatus, since it is necessary to sprinkle so that a sprinkling area | region may spread from a sprinkling hole, each sprinkling hole is orient | assigned to a different direction, respectively. In this example, by deforming the surface on which the water spray holes are formed into a predetermined curved surface shape by bulge processing, it is possible to direct a plurality of water spray holes in different directions, and to impart water spray performance as a shower device. it can.
In addition, the point which bulges the member in which the water spray hole was opened is mentioned later.

This bulging process or bending process and bulging process corresponds to the outer shape forming process of the present invention.
In addition, it is possible to give a sharp edge shape to the shower head body by expanding the bent portion of the bent tube or closed tube by bulge processing and deforming it to follow the edge portion formed in the mold It is.

Here, if the polishing process is performed to remove the welding trace before plastic deformation of the bending pipe or the closed pipe by bending or bulging, the welding trace can be removed along the straight line. It is possible to reduce the process load.
Also, if the weld marks are large, remove the weld marks before bulging to prevent large irregularities from being formed around the weld marks when bulging is performed with the weld marks remaining. It is possible to reduce the load of the final surface finishing process.

  Next, in order to cut a surplus portion of the bulge processed product into a pre-finished product, a cutting process is performed in which the opening end of the bulge processed product is cut at a predetermined position.

By the bulge processing, the surface roughness of the pre-finished product is rougher than before the bulge processing. Therefore, a polishing process is performed to finish the entire pre-finished product in a mirror state.
In the above-described polishing step, the welding marks are removed so that the surface roughness of the welded portion and the unwelded portion is approximately the same. Therefore, belt polishing or barrel polishing can be used as a method for efficiently polishing the entire pre-finished product. However, when the pre-finished product has a design having a sharp edge shape or a complicated shape such as a small R portion on the surface, it is desirable to use barrel polishing that can cope with the complicated shape.

  Hereinafter, the barrel polishing process will be described in detail. Since the surface roughness of the pre-finished product before polishing is roughened by the above-described bulge processing, the surface roughness is gradually reduced starting from rough polishing. At this time, in order to halve the arithmetic average roughness Ra for each step, for example, when the arithmetic average roughness Ra after bulging is 0.4 μm, Ra is changed from 0.4 μm to 0.2 μm in the first step. Ra is decreased from 0.2 μm to 0.1 μm in the next step, Ra is further decreased from 0.1 μm to 0.05 μm in the next step, and Ra is decreased from 0.05 μm to 0.00 μm in the final step. Steps are sequentially performed to reduce the thickness to 025 μm, and the surface is finished.

Here, in order to realize polishing at low cost, it is necessary to shorten the polishing time per process, and it is important to set the optimum media, compound, and other polishing conditions according to the surface condition. Become. For example, in the rough polishing process, the initial surface roughness can be reduced to about half by using ceramic or resin-based media and polishing for about 30 minutes. In the final finishing step, Ra = 0.03 μm or less and 10-point average roughness RzJIS are obtained by polishing for about 1 hour using plant-based media such as resin or walnut that satisfy the final finishing conditions. = 0.1 μm or less and maximum height roughness Rz = 0.2 μm or less can be achieved. Thereby, the surface of a pre-finished product can be finished in a glossy state with a mirror surface. Even if Ra = 0.05 μm, a good mirror surface state can be obtained.
Since the pre-finished product has sprinkling holes, it is preferable to prevent the clogging holes from being clogged by using a medium having a particle size larger than that of the sprinkling holes.

  Although fine polishing marks may be generated by barrel polishing, it is possible to further improve the finishing level by performing buffing to remove it.

In this way, the entire shower head body can be manufactured by processing a thin metal such as stainless steel.
According to this, since a shower head main body is obtained by plastically deforming a thin metal plate, it is possible to provide an inexpensive shower head main body with a smaller amount of material than a metal shower head main body by casting. Moreover, it is possible to manufacture a shower head body with energy saving compared to a metal shower head body by casting. In addition, it is possible to obtain a thin shower head body that is thin and flat and has never been seen before. Further, since the water spray hole is directly opened in the metal tube, there is no seam between the shower head body and the water sprinkling member, and it is possible to obtain a clean shower head body that has a better appearance than conventional ones and has reduced dirt adhesion. .
In addition, since the sprinkling holes are processed before plastic deformation, the sprinkling holes can be easily formed.

Next, the point which bulges the member in which the water spray hole was opened is demonstrated.
FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a bulging process.

  In this example, bulging is performed by loading the mold 6 with the elastic material tube 7 inserted into the bending tube or the closed tube 5. Therefore, the sprinkling hole 41b formed in the bent tube or the closed tube 5 is sealed by the tube 7, so that the bent tube or the closed tube 5 is expanded without causing the filler to leak outside the bent tube or the closed tube 5. be able to.

In the bulge processing, plastic processing at a maximum pressure of 200 MPa is performed, but the tube 7 made of an elastic material inserted into the bending tube or the closed tube 5 does not break.
Originally, the tube 7 made of an elastic material is broken when a tensile deformation load is applied to the inside of the elastic material and the amount of deformation exceeds the elastic region of the material. However, in this example, the elastic material tube is always subjected to a compressive load by the pressure medium. Although some tensile deformation has occurred, the amount of deformation is small and does not exceed the elastic region of the elastic material, so that the tube of elastic material does not break.

Next, FIG. 11 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a second example for explaining the bulging process.
In the second example, a tube made of an elastic material is mounted on the outer periphery of a bent tube or a closed tube, and is loaded into a bulge processing mold.
Also by this, the sprinkling holes formed in the bent tube or the closed tube 5 are sealed by the tube 71, so that the bent tube or the closed tube 5 is expanded without causing the filler to leak outside the bent tube or the closed tube 5. can do.

  By using the measures shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the pipe member 5 having the water spray holes 41b can be bulged, and the water spray holes are provided in the normal direction with respect to the outer periphery of the metal pipe which is expanded and curved. A metal showerhead body can be manufactured. Moreover, since a water spray hole is processed in the state before plastic processing, a water spray hole can be processed easily.

Next, a first example of manufacturing a shower head body composed entirely of metal will be described. FIG. 12 shows a process of the first example.
In this first example, the sprinkling hole forming step is different from the sixth reference example described above.

In this example, a stainless steel flat plate processed by a metal tube forming process is subjected to press processing for bending and crushing as necessary to obtain a bent tube, and then the bent tube is molded into a bulge mold The mold is tightened, a filling such as liquid is injected into the inside of the base tube or the closed tube, and a high pressure of about 200 MPa is applied to the filled material to plastically deform the closed tube to obtain a bulge processed product. . Unlike the sixth reference example, the watering holes are not opened at this point.
Next, immediately after plastic deformation of the closed tube by bulge processing, piercing is performed by inserting a piercing pin from the outside of the bulge processed product in a state where high pressure is applied to the filling inside the mold, and water sprinkling holes are formed. To do.
And this sprinkling hole processed product is taken out from a metal mold | die, the cut process which cut | disconnects one end part is performed, the whole is grind | polished, surface finish is performed, and a shower head main body is obtained.

In this way, the entire shower head body can be manufactured from a thin metal such as stainless steel.
In this first example as well, the polishing step for removing the welding traces before the plastic deformation and the polishing step for surface finishing are executed at an appropriate timing as in the sixth example.

According to this, since a shower head main body is obtained by plastically deforming a thin metal plate, it is possible to provide an inexpensive shower head main body with a smaller amount of material than a metal shower head main body by casting. Moreover, it is possible to manufacture a shower head body with energy saving compared to a metal shower head body by casting. Further, since the water spray hole is directly opened in the metal tube, there is no seam between the shower head body and the water sprinkling member, and it is possible to obtain a clean shower head body that has a better appearance than conventional ones and has reduced dirt adhesion. .
In addition, since the metal tube is plastically deformed before forming the water spray holes, the water spray holes can be processed in accordance with the outer shape of the shower head body, and the manufacturing yield can be further increased. .

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to these descriptions.

The manufacturing method described above can produce a showerhead body having a water spray hole in a metal tube, but can be implemented with various modifications.
Of course, it is possible to adopt another processing method for an arbitrary step of the manufacturing method.
For example, the sprinkling hole forming step is not limited to the sixth reference example in which holes are drilled in the state of a stainless steel flat plate, and the first example in which holes are drilled by piercing after bulge processing. For example, after the bulge processing, the sprinkled holes can be formed by pressing after the bulge processed product is taken out from the mold. In this case, the plurality of water spray holes are directed in the same direction. However, by installing a water discharge direction defining member that defines the direction of water discharge from the water spray holes inside the water spray part, water discharge from the plurality of water spray holes is performed. It is possible to spread. In addition, as the drilling process, a drilling process using a drill or a laser may be performed in addition to the press process.

Furthermore, it is also possible to purchase a general-purpose stainless steel tube without performing the metal tube forming step and perform the manufacturing method from the outer shape forming step.

A ... Shower device B ... Shower device 3 ... Shower head 31 ... Shower head main body 311 ... Grasping part 32 ... Water passage member 33 ... Sprinkling member 33b ... Sprinkling hole 4 ... Shower head 41 ... Shower head main body 41a ... Sprinkling hole 41b ... Sprinkling water Part 42 ... Water passage member 5 ... Blocking pipe 6 ... Mold 7 ... Tube 71 ... Tube

Claims (11)

A method of manufacturing a shower head body of a shower device,
A sprinkling hole forming step of forming a plurality of sprinkling holes in a metal tube;
An outer shape forming step of plastically deforming the metal tube in which the watering holes are formed to form a predetermined shape;
Are sequentially executed to form the outer shape of the shower head body. As the outer shape forming step, a bulge process is performed in which the metal tube is plastically deformed by injecting a filler into the inside of the metal tube after tightening a metal mold loaded with the metal tube and applying pressure to the filler. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 1, wherein: The method for manufacturing a shower head main body according to claim 2, wherein a press work for crushing the metal tube into a flat shape is executed before the bulge processing. A method of manufacturing a shower head body of a shower device,
An outer shape forming process including press working to crush a part of the metal tube into a flat shape;
A sprinkling hole forming step of forming a plurality of sprinkling holes in a flat metal pipe,
Are sequentially executed to form the outer shape of the shower head body. As the outer shape forming step, after performing the pressing process, the mold filled with the metal tube is tightened, a filler is injected into the metal tube, and pressure is applied to the filler. 5. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 4, wherein bulging is performed to plastically deform the metal tube. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 3 or 5, wherein the metal tube is bent into a predetermined shape before the press working. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein a cutting step of cutting an end portion of the processed metal tube is performed after the outer shape forming step. . The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 1 or 4, wherein one end of the metal tube is sealed by welding before the outer shape forming step. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to claim 8, wherein a polishing step of removing welding marks from the surface of the metal pipe is performed. The method for manufacturing a shower head body according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein after the shower head body is formed, the surface of the shower head body is polished and finished. A shower head body formed by deforming a metal tube by the manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.