JPH02243141A - Dental automatic cup water supply apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simply adjust the title apparatus by detecting the wt. of a cup stand, that of a cup and that of the water supplied in the cup as voltage signals through the strain gauge arranged to the lower part of the cup stand and comparing the signal obtained from these detection voltage signals with the reference signal value corresponding to both of the wt. of the cup stand and that of the cup to perform control. CONSTITUTION:When the wt. w1 of a cup is fixed and the proper wt. of water put in the cup is w2, a water amount setting device 5 is present so as to generate the same voltage A[volt] as amplifier voltage A[volt] calculated by multiplying a voltage signal (a)[volt] by an amplification factor (x) from an electric circuit having a strain gauge incorporated therein when an article having a wt. of (w1+w2) is placed on a cup stand 1. When the whole of the apparatus is operated, amplified voltage V3 is inputted to a comparing circuit 7a from a Wheatstone bridge having a strain gauge incorporated therein through an amplifying circuit 4a. The voltage A generated in a water amount set reference signal value generation circuit 5b set by a water amount setting dial 5a is also inputted to the comparing circuit 7a. Both of them is compared and, when the amplified voltage V3 is lower than the voltage A, an 'H' signal is inputted to an AND circuit 7b from the comparing circuit 7a and, when the voltage V3 is same to or more than the voltage A, an 'L' signal is inputted thereto.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention can be easily used not only for metal cups but also for paper cups, and the device for detecting the amount of water in the cup has no mechanically movable parts. The present invention relates to an automatic water supply device for dental use that is easy to break down and does not easily break down.

[Conventional technology]

As a water supply device that comes with dental treatment sets,
In older times, a button switch was installed to open the solenoid valve installed in the water supply pipe, and some were held down until the required amount of water was reached, or a timer was connected to the solenoid valve.
There was a system that always injected water for a certain amount of time each time, but the former had operational inconveniences, and the latter had problems such as the amount of water changing due to fluctuations in water pressure or overflowing when replenishing water. There was a drawback.

In recent years, the pot holder is supported by a spring so that it can be moved up and down by a load, and the pot is placed on the pot holder as a device that detects the amount of water in the pot and issues a signal to open and close a solenoid valve. Then, the weight of the pot causes the pot holder to be lowered, the start switch is turned on, the solenoid valve is opened, and automatic water supply starts, the amount of water in the pot increases, and the pot holder is further lowered. When the amount of water in the pot reaches a predetermined amount, an end switch is turned on, a solenoid valve is closed, and automatic water supply is stopped. However, the supporting spring mechanism of the tip holder in this device is intricately constructed in order to make the position and amount of displacement due to changes in the weight of the object placed on the tip holder appropriate for the contact position. (Heavy tips such as those made of metal in general) This device has been adjusted and manufactured for use with other tips of different weights (generally heavy tips made of metal etc.).
Even if you use a light tip (for example, made of paper), it will not work properly, and it is not easy to readjust the support spring mechanism. In addition, because part of the water level detection mechanism includes a mechanically moving part to operate the switch contacts, failures tend to occur, resulting in a lack of reliability.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional technology, and even when the weight of the tip changes, it can be adjusted and used with extremely simple operations.The present invention also detects the amount of water in the tip and issues a signal for opening and closing the solenoid valve. An object of the present invention is to configure an automatic pot water supply device so that the device has no mechanically movable parts and is less likely to malfunction.

[Means to solve the problem]

As a result of various studies, the inventor of the present invention installed a strain gauge at the bottom of the tip holder, and through this strain gauge, the holder is connected to the holder, the holder placed on the holder, and the water supplied to the holder. The weight of the tip is detected as a voltage signal, and the signal obtained from this detected voltage signal is managed by comparing it with a reference signal value corresponding to the weight of the tip and the tip placed on the tip. Therefore, when the tip weight changes, corrections can be easily made by changing the setting of the reference signal value, and since there are no mechanically moving parts, failures are less likely to occur, and the optical sensor 1 detector is used. By opening the solenoid valve only when there is a signal indicating the presence of a pot, it is possible to avoid the solenoid valve from opening when there is no pot on the pot holder, and thus configure an automatic pot water supply device. The present invention was completed by discovering that the above-mentioned problems could be solved by the following methods.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The automatic dental water supply device according to the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic system diagram of the main parts of one embodiment of the automatic dental cup water supply device according to the present invention, and Fig. 2 is the relationship between the strain gauge output voltage and (the weight of the tip + the weight of water in the tip). FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control-related circuit in the device of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a partially sectional explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the device of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the device of the present invention includes a pot holder 1, a water supply pipe 2 for supplying water to the pot 11 placed on the pot holder 1, and an electromagnetic device for starting and stopping the water supply. The fact that valve 3 is provided is the same as in the prior art. The characteristics of the present invention are as follows.

As shown in FIG. 1, as a mechanism for detecting the amount of water in the tap 11 and opening and closing the solenoid valve 3, a strain gauge 4, an electric circuit that obtains the amount of strain of the strain gauge 4 as an output voltage, and a water amount setting device 5, The optical sensor detector 6 and the controller 7! Below 6, which is at the point where 2 is placed, these will be explained in order.

As shown in FIG. 4, the strain gauge 4 is installed at the bottom of the tip holder 1, and the weight of the tip holder 1 and the thing placed on it + & (weight of the weight of the tip 11 of the tip holder 1 +
It is incorporated into an electrical circuit that emits a voltage signal that changes in response to changes in the water weight in the tip (11). As a measurement method using such a strain gauge 4, a Wheatstone bridge as shown in FIG. 1 is usually used. In the case of rotation, the tip has a structure in which the strain gauge 4 is attached to a leaf spring extended to a connector 10 fixed to the lower surface of the stand 1 and a support stand 9 fixed to the frame 8, respectively. It has become. Originally, the strain gauge 4 was built into an electric circuit to obtain the strain of the object to which the strain gauge 4 is attached as a voltage signal by a change in its electrical resistance, as described above. The voltage signal obtained changes depending on the total load applied to the object to which it is attached (including the load due to the tip holder 1 and the connector 10 attached to it), but as explained later, the voltage signal inside the tip can be changed by adjusting the zero point. It is possible to measure only the weight of water supplied to the Since the voltage obtained through the strain gauge 4 is minute, it is generally passed through the amplifier circuit 4a to the controller 7.
Enter.

The water volume setting device 5 is a standard for comparison with a signal obtained from the electric circuit in which the strain gauge 4 is incorporated (which may remain as a voltage signal or may be converted to an analog signal other than a voltage signal or a digital signal). The main part is a signal generator that can change the setting of signal values, and as shown in FIG. 3, it is equipped with a water volume setting dial 5a and a water volume setting standard signal value generation circuit 5b, which are convenient for setting operations, and a controller 7. is connected to.

The optical sensor detector 6 detects the presence or absence of a tip on the tip holder 1 and emits a signal, and as shown in FIG.
b are installed, and if the tip 11 exists between them, the light from the light emitting part 6a is blocked and does not reach the light receiving part 6b, thereby identifying the presence or absence of the tip 11 and emitting a signal. These signals are respectively input to the controller 7 as shown in FIG.

The controller 7 includes a strain gauge 4 amplified through an amplifier circuit 4a.
The signal obtained from the voltage signal from the electric circuit in which the water volume setting device 5 is incorporated is compared with the predetermined reference signal value transmitted from the water volume setting device 5. It has a circuit that issues a command signal to open the solenoid valve 3 only when a signal is input. One example of the circuit in the controller 7 is, as shown in FIG. 3, a reference signal value from the water amount setting reference signal value generation circuit 5b of the water amount setting device 5 and a voltage signal from the electric circuit in which the strain gauge 4 is incorporated. A comparison circuit 7a to which a signal obtained from the voltage signal amplified by the amplifier circuit 4a is inputted, an AND circuit 7b to which electric signals are inputted to the comparison circuit 7a and the optical sensor detector 6, and this AND circuit. It mainly consists of a solenoid valve drive circuit 7c which receives an electric signal from 7b, and will be explained in detail along with the following operation. As a concrete device, an amplifier circuit 4a, a water amount setting reference signal value generation circuit 5b, etc. are housed inside the box in which the controller 7 is housed as control related circuits as shown in FIG. For example, the power switch or water volume setting dial 58
etc. are installed for convenient operation.

[For production]

First, a case will be described in which the device of the present invention uses a tip 11 having a constant weight.

When strain occurs in the strain gauge 4, a voltage signal is obtained from the electrical circuit in which the strain gauge 4 is incorporated as shown in FIG. It is directly proportional to the weight of the pot holder 1 and what is placed on it (weight of the pot holder 1 + weight of the tip 11 + weight of water in the tip 11). And Kotop stand 1
The other things that change the total weight are the pot 11 and the water inside the pot 11. Therefore, if we explain the signal obtained from the voltage signal from the electric circuit in which the strain gauge 4 is installed when the tip 11 is not present on the tip holder 1 as is, for example, the voltage signal is unchanged, if the tip 11 is adjusted to Q (voltl), the tip holder 1 When the weight of the tip 11 is changed by placing it on the top and filling it with water, a voltage signal v2 (volt) and a voltage signal (volt) from the electric circuit incorporating the strain gauge 4 are generated.
As shown in FIG. 2, the relationship between the weight of paper tips and the weight of water in the tips is sufficiently linear at least in the weight range of 50 to 200 g when using tips ranging from paper tips to metal tips. This relationship is based on the output voltage Vz (volt) from the Wheatstone bridge in which strain gauge 4 is incorporated.
Instead, the voltage amplified by the amplifier circuit 4a at a constant amplification factor X (hereinafter sometimes referred to as amplified voltage) V3 (=
V, xx) (The same is true when taking voltl. When the weight w1 of the tip 11 is constant and the appropriate weight of water to be put into it is w2, a heavy object of (W + w z ) is placed on the tip holder 1. When the strain gauge 4 is installed, the same voltage A[
volt] is generated. If all devices are activated in this condition, the third
As shown in the figure, an amplified voltage v3 is inputted from a Wheatstone bridge in which a strain gauge 4 is incorporated to a comparator circuit 7a via an amplifier circuit 4a. In addition, the water volume setting dial 5a
The voltage A generated by the water amount setting reference signal value generation circuit 5b is also input to the comparison circuit 7a. When these two are compared and the amplified voltage V is lower than the voltage A, “H”
’” signal is equal to or higher than voltage A, ’L”
The signals are respectively input from the comparison circuit 7a to the AND circuit 7b.

Such an operation is performed in the same way when the voltage signal from the electric circuit in which the strain gauge 4 is incorporated is changed to another signal (for example, a current signal, a dimensionless analog signal, or a digital signal). Needless to say.

On the other hand, apart from this, the AND circuit 7b receives a signal from the photosensor detector 6 indicating the presence or absence of the tip, that is, if the tip 11 is not placed, the signal rtL'' is used as a signal indicating the absence of the tip.
When the tip 11 is placed, the signal 11 HII is input as the tip presence signal. The above two signals (signal from comparison circuit 7a and signal from optical sensor detector 6) input to AND circuit 7b
Only when both are 110 II, the signal input from the AND circuit 7b to the solenoid valve drive circuit 7c becomes "H+j, and the solenoid valve 3 is opened; in other cases, it becomes 1L," and the solenoid valve 3 is closed. Ru. Therefore, if you place the pot 11 which is empty or contains less water than the weight w2 on the pot holder 1,
As described above, the control related circuit operates to open the solenoid valve 3 and supply water to the cup C, and when the weight of water in the cup reaches w2, the solenoid valve 3 is closed and the water supply is stopped. .

Therefore, a certain amount of water is always kept in the bottle. The above action shows that water cannot be supplied when the pot 11 is not placed on the pot holder 1.

Next, to explain when replacing the tip 11 with one whose weight is W□' which is different from Wl, the strain gauge 4 is installed when a heavy object of (W1'+W2) is placed on the tip holder 1. All that is required is to reset the water volume setting device 5 so that the same reference signal value as the signal obtained from the voltage signal of the electric circuit being used is generated. Specifically, this operation is performed by setting the water volume setting dial 5a of the water volume setting device 5 in advance to a position where the water supply will be stopped when the amount of water in the water bottle is zero or very small, and then moving the water bottle 11 into the water bottle on the water bottle holder 1. , and then turn the water volume setting dial 5a to gradually increase the amount of water supplied, and stop the adjustment operation when the appropriate amount is reached.It is extremely simple and can be set instantly for any weight of the pot 11. It is possible to do so.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The automatic dental tip water supply device according to the present invention described in detail above includes a strain gauge installed at the bottom of the tip stand, and a signal obtained from the voltage signal of the electric circuit in which the strain gauge is installed and a reference signal whose settings can be changed freely. The amount of water inside the tip is managed by comparing it with the value, and the water supply is started and stopped.The water supply operation is enabled only when there is a tip using an optical sensor, so it can be used even if the tip has a different weight. Adjustment of the device can be completed with an extremely simple operation of changing the setting of the reference signal value, so it is easy to replace and use, regardless of the weight, whether it is a metal tip or a paper tip. Being able to use paper tips greatly contributes to preventing the spread of AIDS and hepatitis B in dental clinics, and the strain gauges installed to detect water inside the tips have mechanically moving parts. Since there is no such thing, malfunctions are less likely to occur, and it is a huge contribution to the field of dentistry.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic system diagram of the main parts of one embodiment of the dental automatic water supply device according to the present invention, and Fig. 2 is the relationship between the strain gauge output voltage and the water [amount] in the water tap. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control-related circuit in the device of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a partially cross-sectional explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the device of the present invention. ... Water supply piping 3 ... Solenoid valve 4 ... Strain gauge 4a ... Amplifier circuit 5 ... Water volume setting device 5a ... Water volume setting dial 5b ... Water i setting Reference signal value generation circuit 6...Photo sensor detector 6a...Light emitting section 6b...Light receiving section 7...Controller 7a...Comparison circuit 7b...AND circuit 7c ... Solenoid valve drive circuit 8 ... Frame 9 ... Support stand 10 ... Connector 11 ... Cotup Patent applicant Menshi Dental Industry Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Tadao Noma 1 patent attorney
Tadayuki Noma Self-diagnosis Kotsupu xi + 1 amount of water in Kotsupu (9)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 The solenoid valve installed in the water supply pipe (2) detects the amount of water in the cup (11) placed on the cup stand (1)
3) In an automatic dental cup water supply device that automatically supplies water into the cup (11) by opening and closing, it is installed at the bottom of the cup holder (1) and the weight of the cup holder (1) and the weight of the cup (11) are controlled. A strain gauge (4) for obtaining a voltage signal corresponding to the total weight of the weight and the weight of water in the cup (11), and a signal generator that can set and change the reference signal value to be compared with the signal obtained from the voltage signal. Water volume setting device (5) whose main part is
, an optical sensor detector (6) that detects the presence or absence of a cup on the cup holder (1) and emits a signal, and a signal obtained from the strain gauge (4) and a signal transmitted from the water volume setting device (5). control to open the electromagnetic valve (3) only when the reference signal value is input and the two are compared and the former is lower than the latter and a cup presence signal is input from the optical sensor detector (6). An automatic dental cup water supply device characterized in that a container (7) is installed.