JPH0357769B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a towel dispensing device installed in a washroom or the like for wiping hands and faces, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a towel dispensing device that is installed in a washroom or the like to wipe hands and faces, and more particularly, when a user uses a towel, a predetermined length of unused towel is dispensed. Later, it relates to a towel supply stop mechanism of a towel dispensing device that stops the supply.

Heretofore, two types of towel dispensing devices of this type have been known.

The first is a manual towel dispensing device in which the looped towel is exposed downward at all times. That is, the towel is wound from an unused towel roll onto a used towel roll via a supply roller, and the take-up roller that slides on the outer periphery of the used towel roll and the supply roller are connected by a chain. This towel dispensing device is provided with a towel supply stop mechanism that stops the supply of unused towels after a predetermined length of supply. This supply stop mechanism is generally implemented by forming a spiral groove on the end face of a disk, or by forming a spiral groove on the outer peripheral surface of a metal cylinder, both of which have a spiral groove. It is nothing but a structure in which a pin guided by a pin moves from one end to the other and maintains its moving state. These structures lacked the versatility of structures that could only be used in the fully manual towel dispensing devices described above.

The second structure is a completely electric version of the first structure. That is, a supply motor is connected to the supply roller, a take-up motor is arranged to the take-up roller, and both rollers are driven independently. The towel dispensing device having this structure does not require a supply stop mechanism at all since it supplies unused towels for a predetermined length and then stops the supply motor to stop the supply of unused towels.

In the first towel dispensing device, since the towel loop is always exposed downward, germs, dirt, dust, etc. can adhere to the towel loop, which poses an extremely hygienic problem. Also the second
Because the towel dispensing device is fully automatic, it has the disadvantage that mechanical failure occurs when a user who is accustomed to the action of pulling out a towel forcibly pulls out the towel.

As a result of intensive research to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present inventors have found a semi-electric towel dispensing device that manually pulls out the towel, automatically winds up the looped towel after a predetermined time, and does not expose the towel when not in use. We have come to develop this.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a towel supply stop mechanism for a towel dispensing device, and more specifically to provide a towel supply stop mechanism that is most suitable for a semi-electric towel dispensing device. be.

To summarize, the towel supply stop mechanism of the towel dispensing device according to the present invention includes a rotary plate that rotates in conjunction with the rotation of the supply roller, a locking piece attached to the rotary plate, and an unused towel that is supplied. a swinging rod connected to an end of the pinch roller that comes into contact with the supply roller when the towel is in contact with the supply roller and moving downward by towel tension; and a return mechanism that returns the swinging rod to the initial device when the towel tension is released. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a protrusion provided on the swinging rod that prevents movement of a locking piece on the rotary plate when the rotary plate rotates about one revolution.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a towel supply stop mechanism of a towel dispensing device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to a drawing showing a semi-electric towel dispensing device.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a semi-electric towel dispensing device. As shown in the figure, an unused towel roll 2 is placed on a towel tray 4 so as to be able to roll freely, and the unused towel 6 pulled out from the roll passes through a supply roller 8, a pinch roller 10, and a take-up roller 12. It is wound around the used towel roll 13 through the towel. Arc-shaped elongated holes 16a, 16b are bored at the upper ends of the left and right side walls 14a, 14b of this device, and both ends of the supply roller 8 are rotatably supported through these elongated holes 16a, 16b. A supply gear 18 is fixed to one end of the supply roller 8 on the outside of the side wall 14, and a rotating plate 20 is rotatably disposed on the side wall 14 in mesh with the supply gear 18. The rotary plate 20 is formed in the shape of a gear, and an L-shaped locking piece 22 having a claw is rotatably mounted on the rotary plate 20 by a pin 22a. A locking piece 2 is provided at one end of the locking piece 22.
2b is provided in a protruding manner, and one end of the spring 24 is fixed to the stopper piece 22b. The other layer of the spring 24 is connected to a fixing pin 20a on the rotary plate 20, and applies a clockwise rotational elastic force to the locking piece 22. Further, a restriction pin 20b is provided on the rotating plate 20 in order to prevent the locking piece 22 from rotating counterclockwise at an appropriate position.

A supply sprocket 26 is provided at the other end of the supply roller 8 on the outside of the side wall 14b, and is connected to a repeating sprocket 30 via a chain 28. An auxiliary gear 32 is fixed to this sprocket 30, and is provided so as to always mesh with a feeding gear 34, which will be described later, via a connecting piece 36. One end of the pinch roller 10 has a long hole 1
6b provided on the outside of the side wall 14b.
It is connected to the tip of a swinging rod 38, and this second swinging rod 38 is pivotably attached to the side wall rod 14b by a pivot pin 38a. In addition, the second swing rod 3
The other end of 8 is fixed to one end of the second return spring 40,
The other end of the spring 40 is a protrusion 1 protruding from the side wall 14b.
5b, and urges the tip 38b of the second swinging rod 38 to always come into contact with the upper edge of the elongated hole 16b. A second connecting rod 4 is provided at the center of the second swinging rod 38.
The upper ends of the two are connected by a connecting pin 42a, and the feeding gear 34 is rotatably provided at the lower end of the second connecting rod 42.

Therefore, when the tip 38b of the second swinging rod 38 is pulled downward by the towel tension, the swinging rod 38 supports the pivot pin 38a while resisting the elastic force of the second return spring 40. The connecting rod 42 rotates clockwise as indicated by the dotted line in Figure 1, and as a result, the connecting rod 42 moves downward.
A feeding gear 34 attached to the tip of the second connecting rod 42 meshes with a feeding reversing gear 12b, which will be described later. When the towel tension is released, the swinging rod 38 is rotated counterclockwise by the restoring force of the second return spring 40, and the feeding gear 34 is disengaged from the feeding reversing gear 12b, returning to the initial state.

The other end of the pinch roller 10 is fixed via an elongated hole 16a to a tip 44b of a first swinging rod 44 disposed on the outside of the side wall 14a. The first swinging rod 44 is swingably provided outside the side wall 14a using the pivot pin 44a as a fulcrum. In addition, the first swinging rod 4
A protruding piece 44c is fixed on the tip side of the rotation plate 20 at a position almost directly above the rotary plate 20.
As will be described later, comes into contact with the locking piece 22 and rotates the rotating plate 2.
It is configured to prevent rotation of 0. 1st
The rear end of the swinging rod 44 is connected to the upper end of the first connecting rod 46, and the rear end of the first swinging rod 44 is connected to the upper end of the first return spring 48. The lower end of the first return spring 48 is connected to a protrusion 15a formed in the side wall 14a, and is configured to always urge the tip 44b of the first swinging rod 44 to the upper end position of the elongated hole 16a. There is.

The lower end of the first connecting rod 46 is pivotally fixed to a corner of the gear housing 50 by a connecting pin 50a, and the other corner at a diagonal position of the gear housing 50 is rotated to the side wall 14b by a swing pin 50b. It is pivoted for free movement. A gear mechanism, which will be described later, is installed inside the gear housing 50, and a shaft 50 protrudes from the gear housing 50.
d, the drive gear 50c is connected to the housing 50 and the side wall 14a.
It protrudes between. An electric motor M is fixed to an end of the housing 50, and rotates the drive gear 50c via a gear mechanism inside the housing. The drive gear 50c is configured to normally mesh with a take-up gear 12a fixed to the outside of the side wall 14a at the end of the take-up roller 12. Further, the above-mentioned reversing gear 12b for feeding is fixed to the other end of the take-up roller 12 outside the side wall 14b. Therefore, the take-up gear 12a and the reversing feed gear 12b rotate together with the take-up roller 12 and in the same direction.

Because of the above structure, when a person pulls out an unused towel downward, the first swinging rod 44
rotates clockwise about the pivot pin 44a, and the first connecting rod 46 moves upward to lift the housing 50 clockwise about the swing pin 50b, and the drive gear 50c moves from the take-up gear 12a. break away. When the towel tension is released, the first swinging rod 44 rotates counterclockwise due to the return force of the first return spring, returning to the initial state as shown in FIG. match.

A support shaft 52 is pivotally supported by both side walls 14a and 14b at the lower end of the front side of the device, and an operating arm 54 is fixed to one end of this support shaft 52 at a position outside the side wall 14a. The base ends of support arms 52a and 52b are fixed to the center of the support shaft 52, and an actuating roller 56 is rotatably supported at the distal ends of both support arms 52a and 52b. side wall 14
A first limit switch 58 is disposed at the bottom of the towel, and its actuator 58a is open when the towel is not in use. The actuating roller 56 is always urged to rotate outward toward the front side due to its own weight, but when the towel loop is not formed in an unused state as shown in the figure,
Due to the tension of the towel, the actuating roller 56 rotates in the opposite direction to the urging direction, and the tip of the actuating arm 54 is in contact with the protruding shaft 50d of the drive gear 50c.
The first limit switch 58 is open. When the unused towel is pulled out downward, the actuating roller 5
6 rotates in the biasing direction due to its own weight, and the actuating arm 5
4 comes into contact with the actuator 58a of the first limit switch 58 to close this switch, and the rotation of the operating roller 56 is stopped.

A second limit switch 6 is installed on the upper part of the side wall 14a.
In the illustrated state, the actuator 60a is pushed up by the first swinging rod 44 and the switch 60 is closed. When the user pulls out the towel downward, the first swinging rod 44 rotates clockwise to close the second limit switch 60.
will be released. Further, guide grooves 17a, 17b are formed in the intermediate portions of both side walls 14a, 14b, and both ends of the central axis (not shown) of the used towel roll 13 are formed in the guide grooves 17a, 17b.
As a result, the towel roll 1
3 are placed circumferentially on the take-up roller 12.
Therefore, the used towel roll 13 is configured to rotate due to frictional force as the take-up roller 12 rotates, and to move along the guide grooves 17a, 17b as the take-up diameter increases.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the gear housing 50, and a worm W is provided at the tip of the motor M.
A drive gear 50 is provided at the tip of the protruding shaft 50d via a gear mechanism 50e composed of a plurality of gears.
c is rotationally driven, and the rotational force is transmitted to the take-up gear 12a meshed with the drive gear 50c, thereby winding the loop-shaped towel onto the used towel roll 13 as described later.

3A and 3B are a left side view and a right side view of the apparatus in the state shown in FIG. 1, and the same parts are given the same numbers. The traveling state of the unused towel 6 from the unused towel roll 2 to the used towel roll 13 is shown by a dashed line, and the rest of the explanation will be omitted.

Next, the above configuration and operation will be explained with reference to the drawings.

First, the device is in the state shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B in an unused state. When a person wipes their hands, they grasp the lower front end 6a of the unused towel 6 with both hands and forcefully pull it down. FIGS. 4A and 4B are a left side view and a right side view showing a state in which the towel is being lowered. By pulling down the unused towel 6, the pinch roller 10 moves down to a position surrounding the supply roller 8. At this time, the actuator 60a
is released, and the second limit switch 60 is opened. The opening of limit switch 60 causes a timer (not shown) to begin operating. At the same time, the actuating roller 56 rotates outward due to its own weight, the actuating arm 54 separates from the protruding shaft 50d and presses the actuator 58a, the first limit switch 58 is closed, and the actuating roller 56 rotates. stops. Further, the drive gear 50c is the winding gear 12
At the same time, the feeding gear 34 meshes with the feeding reversing gear 12b.

Furthermore, when the unused towel 6 is pulled down,
Since the outer peripheral surfaces of the pinch roller 10 and the supply roller 8 are formed into rough surfaces, the unused towel 6 is supplied from the unused towel roll 2 while receiving appropriate braking due to the frictional force. At the same time, the rotational force of the supply roller 8 is transferred to the chain 28 and the feeding gear 3.
4 to the feeding reversing gear 12b,
The take-up roller 12 is reversely rotated to feed the used towel 13a downward from the used towel roll 13. As the towel 6 is pulled down, the rotating plate 20
rotates, and after about one rotation, the tip of the locking piece 22 comes into contact with the edge 44d of the protruding piece 44c, and the locking piece 22 rotates counterclockwise against the elastic force of the spring 24.
When the back surface of the rotary plate 20 comes into contact with the restriction pin 20b, further rotation of the rotary plate 20 is prevented. Therefore, the unused towel 6 can no longer be pulled down, and the towel loop 62 is completed and reaches the state shown in FIG. When the user releases the unused towel 6, the pinch roller 10 is moved upward by the return springs 40, 48 and returns to the initial state shown in FIG. As described above, the front side of the towel loop 62 is covered with an unused towel 6, and the back side is covered with a used towel 1.
3a. The user can wipe his/her face, hands, etc. with the loop-shaped towel for a set time using the timer.

When the predetermined time set by the timer ends, the electric motor M starts rotating, and the drive gear 50c
And the take-up roller is rotated normally via the take-up gear 12a. Since the outer circumferential surface of the take-up roller 12 is formed into a rough surface, the used towel roll 13 begins to rotate normally due to the frictional force and starts to wind up the loop-shaped towel on its circumferential surface. As the loop-shaped towel is wound up, the operating roller 56 is lifted by the bottom of the loop and rotated toward the inside of the device, and the operating arm 54 separates from the actuator 58a, opening the first limit switch 58 and stopping the rotation of the motor M. Stop and finish winding the looped towel. the result,
It returns to the initial state shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of the towel supply stop mechanism according to the present invention, and a more detailed operation of the towel supply stop mechanism will be explained with reference to FIG. 1 of the embodiment. FIG. 7A shows the normal state (before use), and since the rear end of the first swinging rod 44 has been pulled downward by the return mechanism 48, the tip 44b is centered around the pivot pin 44a. As a result of being pulled upward, the pinch roller 10 and the supply roller 8 are at a separate position. FIG. 7B shows a state in which the pinch roller 10 is moved down until it contacts the supply roller 8 due to the initial towel pulling operation in order to continuously pull out towels, and the towels still remain from the unused towel roll 2. is currently not in supply. FIG. 7C shows a state in which about half of the predetermined length to be supplied is supplied by further pulling out the towel.
As the supply roller 8 is rotated counterclockwise as shown by the arrow, the rotary plate 20 meshing with the supply gear 18 rotates half a turn clockwise, and the locking piece 22 moves downward. There is. FIG. 7D shows a state in which the unused towel 6 is supplied from the unused towel roll 2 to a predetermined length, and the rotary plate 20 is rotated until the locking piece 22 comes into contact with the edge portion 44d of the protruding piece 44c. It's rotating.

FIG. 7E shows a state in which the supply of unused towels is completely stopped. When the user further pulls out the towel from the state shown in FIG. 7D, the locking piece 22 is pressed by the edge portion 44c and rotates counterclockwise about the pin 22a while resisting the elastic force of the spring 24. . When the back surface of the locking piece 22 comes into contact with the restriction pin 20b, further rotation is prevented by the pin 20b, the rotary plate 20 cannot rotate any further, and the supply of unused towels is completely stopped. . When the user releases his hand from the towel, the first swinging rod 44 rotates counterclockwise around the pin 44a due to the return spring force of the first return spring 48, and the edge portion 44d moves against the locking piece 2.
Leave from 2. At this moment, the locking piece 22
It is forcibly rotated counterclockwise by the return force at step 4, and returns to the initial position shown in FIG. 7A. Therefore, after the loop-shaped towel hanging downward is stored, it enters a standby state for next use.

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to prevent unnecessary pulling out of more towels than necessary, and it is possible to supply an appropriate amount of towels for one use, thereby increasing the economic efficiency of towels. Further, by appropriately setting the gear ratio of the supply gear 18 and the rotary plate 20, the amount of unused towels supplied can be freely adjusted.

Furthermore, although an embodiment has been described in which the present invention is applied to a semi-electric towel dispensing device, the present invention can also be applied to a fully automatic towel dispensing device. It can also be used as a protection mechanism against

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above description, and includes various modified structures within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of a semi-electric towel dispensing device equipped with a towel supply stop mechanism of the towel dispensing device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of a gear housing, and Fig. 3 A and B are The left side view and right side view of this device in Figure 1, Figures 4A and B are left side views and right side views showing the state in the middle of forming a towel loop, and Figure 5 shows the completed state of the towel loop. The left side view shown, FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of the towel supply stop mechanism, and FIGS. 7A to 7E are drawings showing the operation of FIG. 6. 6... Unused towel, 8... Supply roller, 10
... Pinch roller, 20 ... Rotating plate, 22 ... Locking piece, 44 ... Swinging rod, 44c ... Projection piece, 48 ...
...Return mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotating plate 20 that rotates in conjunction with the rotation of the supply roller 8, and a locking piece 22 attached to this rotating plate.
and a swinging rod 44 that is connected to the end of the pinch roller 10 that comes into contact with the supply roller when unused towels 6 are supplied and is moved downward by the towel tension.
a return mechanism 48 that returns the swinging rod 44 to its initial position when the towel tension is released; and a return mechanism 48 that prevents the locking piece on the rotating plate from moving when the rotating plate 20 rotates about one rotation. A towel supply stop mechanism for a towel dispensing device characterized by comprising a projection piece 44c provided on a swinging rod 44.