JPH0533120B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a water purifier, and more particularly to a water purifier equipped with a determining means for clarifying the performance guarantee period of a water treatment member.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, water purifiers for household tap water and other drinking water use removable activated carbon, filters, etc., and cartridges made of calcium carbonate impregnated materials to remove chlorine odor, mold odor, turbidity, etc. Furthermore, since the purpose is to add minerals, its effect is limited to a certain period of time depending on the usage environment.

After a certain period of time has elapsed, the customer purchases the cartridge separately and replaces it to ensure its functionality.

Therefore, unless the cartridge is replaced at the replacement time, performance cannot be guaranteed.

Also, depending on the customer, before the replacement period, that is,
Even if the performance of the cartridge is sufficient, it can be a costly burden to replace it.

In addition, the water that remains in the cartridge when not in use becomes chlorine-free water, and in the early stages when bacteria can grow, if one cup is spilled, new water containing a little chlorine will pass through. The bacteria will be killed and drained out, but after long-term use, the filter will become clogged, so even if fresh water is poured, there will be areas where it won't pass through, making it easy for bacteria to grow. There are also surface issues.

In addition, as related to this type of water purifier,
There is one described in JP-A-49-3456.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention clarifies the performance guarantee period of water treatment components, is hygienic, and is economical by eliminating the problem of water treatment components being replaced early even though their performance is sufficient. In addition, the present invention provides an improved water purifier that minimizes power consumption when electrically determining when to replace water treatment components, is economical in this respect, and is also easy to use. Its purpose is to

[Summary of the invention]

The purpose is to provide a water purification section comprising means for switching between a raw water path and a water purification path, and a water purification section comprising a treatment agent such as activated carbon, a filter, etc. in the water purification path;
A mineral elution part having a mineral impregnating material for the purpose of elution of minerals, or both the water purification part and the mineral elution part, with a replaceable water treatment member, and a means for measuring the residual chlorine concentration; A means for measuring a mineral concentration, or a means for determining both, and a means for determining whether the residual chlorine concentration is at least a predetermined value, or whether the mineral concentration is at a predetermined value or less, or both. and an alarm means for notifying the time to replace the water treatment member based on the determination result, and the determination means further includes a switching valve for switching between the purified water route and the raw water route,
This can be achieved by providing an operator that turns on the driving means, which is a power source, to make the determination only when purified water is obtained by adjusting the switching valve to the purified water path.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the water purifier according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 1 is a partially opened perspective view of a water purifier directly connected to a faucet according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Its vertical sectional view, FIG. 3 is a flowchart of its operation mode, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the determination-related portion.

In the figure, 1 is the faucet, 2 is the connection part, 3 is the body, and 4
1 is a raw water inlet hole, 5 is a purified water inlet hole, 6 is a raw water outlet hole, 7 is a spool insertion hole, 8 is a treatment material such as activated carbon, 9 is a filter, 10 is a water purification cartridge related to the water purification section, 10a is a water purification chamber.

Further, 11 is a raw water outlet, and 12 is a raw water inlet hole 4.
13 is a spool sleeve, 14, 15, 16 are O-rings, 17 is a spool, 18 is a dial, 18-1
is a switch, and 18A is a scale section.

19 is a purified water outlet, 20 is a spool 1
7 is a water passage provided at the end, 21 is an O-ring, 22 is a case body, 23 is a water hole in the cover 24, 25 is a mesh, 26 is a passage, 27 is a water passage, 2
8 is an elastic body for water sealing, and 29 is a cap.

Therefore, at least, the spool 17 and dial 18 connect the raw water path related to the raw water inlet hole 4, the raw water outflow hole 6, and the raw water communication part 12, and the purified water path related to the raw water inlet hole 4 and the purified water inlet hole 5. A switching valve device 30 relating to a switching valve configured to switch is formed.

Further, the water purification cartridge 10 is connected to a passage 26 communicating with the body 3, a treatment agent 8 such as activated carbon,
It is constituted by a case body 22 provided with a purification chamber 10a containing a filter 9, etc., and a water passage 27 connected to the passage 26 is formed,
A cover 24 to which a net 25 for preventing backflow of the treatment agent 8 such as activated carbon is fixed is crimped onto the water purification chamber 10a.

Note that 31 is a check valve, and 32 is a ring body.

That is, the body 3, which has a connection part 2 that can be directly connected to the faucet 1, has a roughly cross-shaped passageway, which includes a raw water inlet hole 4, a purified water inlet hole 5, and a raw water outlet hole, respectively. 6, and a spool insertion hole 7.

Therefore, on the downstream side of the purified water inlet hole 5,
A removable water purification cartridge 10 is provided.

The spool insertion hole 7 has a raw water inlet hole 4.
A spool sleeve 13 having a raw water communication portion 12 relating to a hole communicating with the raw water outflow hole 6 is connected to the O-ring 1.
It is designed to be inserted through 4.

Additionally, an O-ring 15 seals the vicinity of the end face of the spool sleeve 13 and the end face of the purified water inlet hole 5.
and a dial 18 for operating the spool 17.
A spool 17 is inserted into the spool insertion hole 7 to which an O-ring 16 is fixed for water sealing.

Accordingly, by the operation of the switching valve device 30 mentioned earlier, that is, by the customer's selective operation of the dial 18, the spool 17 is moved, the raw water route and the purified water route are switched, and the raw water and purified water are switched. It is possible to obtain each.

In other words, by rotating the dial 18 and aligning the scale section 18A with the raw water display (not shown),
The O-ring 15 of the spool 17 seals the vicinity of the end face of the purified water inlet hole 5 (the state shown in Fig. 2),
Water flowing in from the raw water inlet hole 4 passes through the illustrated small diameter portion of the spool 17, passes through the raw water communication portion 12, passes through the raw water outlet hole 6, and flows out from the raw water outlet 11.

Similarly, as shown in FIG.
When the scale strip 18A of No. 8 is set to match the purified water display, that is, when the O-ring 15 seals the vicinity of the end of the spool sleeve 13, the water flowing in from the raw water inlet hole 4, It passes through the passageway 20 of the spool 17 having a small diameter or approximately star-shaped cross section, and then passes through the water purification inlet hole 5 to reach the water purification cartridge 10 detachably attached to the body 3. It is.

That is, the raw water that has reached the purified water inlet hole 5 passes through the passage 26, the flow rate is reduced by the multiple water passage holes 23, and the raw water passes through the treatment agent 8 such as activated carbon and the filter 9 at a slow speed, and the chlorine in the tap water is removed. Odors and turbidity generated from piping and the like are adsorbed, resulting in colorless, odorless and delicious water that flows out from the purified water outlet 19.

As mentioned above, when adjusting to the water purification display, the switch 18-1 is closed by the contact piece of the dial 18.

The switch 18-1 is operated in conjunction with an operator 50-1, which will be described later, to operate the drive means 52-1. Note that this driving means 52-1 can employ a commercial power source or other power source in addition to a battery.

Then, a residual chlorine concentration detection device 50, which is a means for measuring residual chlorine concentration, is attached to the purified water outlet 19 of the water purifier configured as described above, so as to measure the residual chlorine concentration of the purified water flowing out. This is what I did. This would, for example, make use of a diaphragm chlorine electrode.

Furthermore, the residual chlorine concentration detection device value 50
The measured value by
It would be better if you set this as the standard. ) concentration, that is, the residual chlorine concentration according to the above measured value reaches a predetermined value or more, the determination circuit 52 associated with the determination means,
This is determined and the determination is made so that it can be appealed to the user (customer) by a separately provided alarm device 51.The alarm device 51 is configured to:
For example, a lamp or a buzzer may be used to enable visual or auditory judgment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of its operation mode.

That is, when the previous dial 18 is turned to match the purified water, water purified by the water purification cartridge 10 flows out from the water purification outlet 19. At this time, by operating the operator 50-1 in conjunction with the dial 18, the chlorine concentration of the purified water is compared with the determination reference value in the determination circuit 52 via the residual chlorine detection device 50, and the chlorine concentration is determined by the determination circuit 52. When the concentration is equal to or higher than the determination reference value, an alarm device 51 is activated to prompt a cartridge replacement display. In addition, if the water purification cartridge is below the judgment standard value, the water purification cartridge can be used continuously. You may also have them do this.

However, in the above embodiment, a water purification cartridge is used as the water purification unit, but this may be configured to replace the water treatment member in the housing that is not a cartridge type. It is something.

In addition, although the above embodiment is provided with a water purification section, a mineral elution section is provided in place of this, and a concentration measuring means and a determination that the concentration is below a predetermined value are made, and the determination is made by the user. The water purifier can be provided with a determination means that can make a determination, and the mineral elution part may have a cartridge configuration or other configuration as described above, and other configurations may include:
This is the same as the above embodiment.

Furthermore, a water purifier can be provided which includes both the water purification section and the mineral elution section described above, as well as the measurement and determination means described above.

Although the above-described embodiment relates to a water purifier that is directly connected to a faucet, the present invention is a general-purpose water purifier that is not limited to this type of water purifier.

Further, the mineral elution section or the cartridge related thereto has a mineral impregnated material for the purpose of elution of mineral components.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the performance guarantee period of water treatment components is clarified, which is sanitary, eliminates the problem of water treatment components having to be replaced at an early stage even if their performance is sufficient, and is economical. In addition, the water treatment member is linked with a switching valve that switches between the purified water route and the raw water route, and only when the switching valve is set to the purified water route to obtain purified water, the driving means, which is the power source, is turned on and the water treatment member is activated. By providing an operator to determine when it is time to replace water treatment components, there is no need to keep the power supply on continuously when determining when it is time to replace water treatment components, which reduces power consumption. It is economical in this respect as the amount is minimized, and there is no need to perform a new operation other than switching between raw water and purified water or forget to perform the operation, unlike when the above judgment is performed manually. In this way, it is possible to obtain an improved water purifier that is excellent in terms of ease of use, with the switch between raw water and purified water being used to immediately determine when to replace the water treatment member.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially opened perspective view of a water purifier directly connected to a faucet according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of its operating mode. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the determination-related portion. 1... Faucet, 2... Connection part, 3... Body, 4
... Raw water inlet hole, 5 ... Purified water inlet hole, 6 ... Raw water outflow hole, 7 ... Spool insertion hole, 8 ... Treatment agent,
9...Filter, 10...Water purification cartridge, 10a...Water purification chamber, 11...Raw water outlet, 1
2... Raw water communication part, 13... Spool sleeve,
14-16, 21...O-ring, 17...Spool, 18...Dial, 18-1...Switch,
18A...Scale strip part, 19...Water purification outlet, 20,
27... Water passageway, 22... Case body, 23... Water hole, 24... Cover, 25... Net, 26... Passage, 28... Elastic body, 29... Cap, 30...
...Switching valve device, 31...Check valve, 32...Ring body, 50...Residual chlorine concentration detection device, 50-1
...Operator, 51... Alarm device, 52... Judgment circuit, 52-1... Drive means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for switching between a raw water path and a water purification path, and the water purification path is equipped with a water purification section composed of a treatment agent such as activated carbon, a filter, etc., or a mineral for the purpose of eluting mineral components. A mineral elution section having an impregnating material, or both the water purification section and the mineral elution section described above, are provided with a replaceable water treatment member, and a means for measuring residual chlorine concentration, a means for measuring mineral concentration, or In addition to having both measuring means, a means for determining whether the residual chlorine concentration is above a predetermined value, or whether the mineral concentration is below a predetermined value, or both, and a water treatment member based on the determination result. In addition to providing an alarm means for notifying the timing of replacement, the determining means is further provided with a switching valve that switches between the purified water route and the raw water route, and the switching valve is configured to obtain purified water by matching the switching valve to the purified water route. 1. A water purifier, characterized in that a water purifier is provided with an operator that turns on a driving means, which is a power source, to make the determination.