JPH06339605A - Apparatus for cleaning of hot water in bathtub and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate smoothly and effectively colloid particle-like contamination which is a reason for turbidness of hot water. CONSTITUTION:A precision filter tank 21 is arranged in a sub-circulation path 19 branching from a main circulation path 3 wherein cleaning treatment instruments such as a filter tank 5, a circulation pump 7 and a heater 8 are arranged in series through a switch valve 18 and, when hot water becomes turbid, the switch valve is switched by detecting the turbidity by means of a turbidity sensor 29 and filtering is precisely performed while pressurization is performed by using compressed air from a compressor 24. Two problems on precision filtering such as elevation of installation cost caused by a pressurizing apparatus and elevation of running cost caused by early clogging of an expensive filter medium can be solved thereby.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bathtub device, and more particularly to a filtering device for removing dirt in a bathtub hot water cleaning device for cleaning hot water.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a bathtub in which hot water in a bathtub is pumped up by a circulation pump to forcefully circulate the bathtub hot water circulation passage in which various cleaning treatment devices are provided and to eject the purified water into the bathtub again. A hot water purifier has been developed.

In the conventional apparatus, a so-called filtration tank in which a filtration layer is formed by a granular filtration material having an adsorption power of activated stone, activated carbon, zeolite and the like and an ion exchange capacity is provided as a filtration device for removing dirt, and the dirt is removed. At the same time as filtration, it is removed by adsorption or ion exchange.

Further, in order to make the filtration of the dirt more complete and at the same time prevent the granular filter medium filled in the filtration tank from being clogged with dirt in a short period of time, a thread winding filter which can be easily replaced when dirty is provided. A loaded so-called filter tank may be arranged upstream of the filtration tank.

[0005]

Dirt in the bathtub is not limited to mere hair and dirt floating in the bathtub, but also secretions from the body, soaps, cosmetics, patches on the body such as ointment, and raw water. There are various insoluble components and other stains.

Among these stains, large stains having a particle size of 10 ^-6 or more can be filtered without problems due to the filtering ability of the filter layer of the wound filter or the granular filter medium, and extremely fine dirt having a particle size of 10 ^-9 or less or dissolved. The stains can be removed by the adsorption power of the granular filter material, the ion exchange capacity, and the like.

However, since the conventional apparatus does not use a filter material having a fine mesh so that the filter material will not be clogged immediately or give a great resistance to the flow of hot water, insoluble components in these stains will be It is difficult to remove stains from colloidal particles with a particle size of 10 ^-6 to 10 ^{-9, which} are aggregated, and if a large amount of these colloidal particles are dispersed in hot water, the hot water will turn white and turbid, which is very dangerous for bathers. Becomes uncomfortable.

[0008] Such dirt that has become colloidal particles can be removed if the filter medium becomes clogged as the apparatus is operated, and if a precision filter medium such as a hollow fiber or a high density sintered body is used as the filter medium. Can be removed.

However, in expectation of filtration due to clogging of the filter medium, it is necessary to endure that the hot water becomes cloudy until the filter medium is clogged, and if a precision filter medium is used, the resistance of the filter medium causes the usual The circulation pump cannot circulate hot water and requires a special pressurizing device, which makes the device large and expensive.

Further, the precision filter medium is clogged immediately to filter even a very fine dirt, and expensive filter medium must be frequently replaced, which is costly and laborious to replace.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and completely removes the dirt of colloidal particles even in the initial stage of operation when the filter medium is not clogged, and the equipment cost is low, the maintenance is easy, and the running cost is low. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that does not cost even.

[0012]

That is, according to the present invention, the hot water in the bathtub is pumped up by a circulation pump, and the hot water is cleaned by forcibly circulating the circulation path of the bathtub hot water in which various cleaning devices are installed. In the bath water purifying device that re-ejects water into the bathtub, a microfiltration tank for microfiltration is provided in the sub-circulation path that branches from the main circulation path where the purification treatment equipment is arranged in series via the switching valve. In the bath water purifying device, the microfiltration tank is equipped with a microfiltration medium and is provided with a pressurizing device. In addition, in the bath water purifying device that branches from the main circulation route of the bath water to the sub-circulation route where a microfiltration tank is installed via a switching valve, the bath water detected by the turbidity sensor is controlled by the control device. Automatic switching valve according to turbidity Instead, the hot water is circulated including the sub-circulation path, and in addition to the normal cleaning treatment, the micro-filtration tank installed in the sub-circulation path is used for microfiltration treatment. is there.

[0013]

The present invention is constructed as described above, and normally, hot water is circulated in the main circulation path for cleaning treatment, and only when the hot water becomes cloudy, a sub valve branched from the main circulation path by switching the switching valve. Make sure that hot water circulates in the circulation path.

As a result, dirt is usually removed by a conventional filtration device, and when the hot water becomes cloudy, filtration in a microfiltration tank is also carried out to remove dirt on the colloidal particles.
When the white turbidity disappears, the switching valve is switched again, and the hot water is circulated only in the main circulation path for cleaning treatment.

Therefore, since the filtration in the microfiltration tank provided in the sub-circulation path is limited when the hot water becomes cloudy, the microfiltration medium does not immediately become clogged, and the filtration medium can be taken out and washed even while the apparatus is in operation. The life of the filter medium can be extended, and even if the filter medium is high, the running cost is not so high.

Further, although pressure is required for microfiltration, it is easy to press only the microfiltration tank with a cheap and simple pressurizing device provided in the microfiltration tank without pressurizing the entire apparatus. Can be microfiltered.

Furthermore, if the switching valve is automatically switched according to the turbidity of the hot water detected by the turbidity sensor, the dirt can be removed from the initial stage when a slight amount of white turbidity occurs, which facilitates microfiltration. When the dirt is removed, the microfiltration is automatically completed, so the microfiltration is not unnecessarily performed and the filter material is not clogged quickly.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a piping diagram showing the construction of the apparatus of the present invention, in which 1 is a bath containing hot water 2 and 3 is a main circulation path for normal cleaning of hot water 2. .

The main circulation path 3 is filled with a hot water suction pipe 4 for sucking up the hot water 2 in the bath 1 and a granular filter medium 6 such as activated carbon or activated stone, either alone or in combination, to filter ordinary dirt. Filtration tank 5, a circulating pump 7 for forcibly circulating the hot water, a heater 8 for keeping the hot water at an appropriate temperature, and a spout tube 9 for jetting the cleaned hot water into the bath 1 again.
And the like are serial circulation paths for cleaning the hot water, which are formed by being connected to each other using the connecting pipes 10 and 11.

Reference numeral 12 is a flow rate sensor for detecting the flow rate of the hot water. The flow rate detected by the flow rate sensor 12 informs the user of the clogging state of the filter medium 6 in the filter tank 5 and informs the user of the replacement or cleaning time of the filter medium 6. .

Reference numeral 13 is a hot water temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the hot water, and the heating by the heater 8 is controlled by the temperature detected by the hot water temperature sensor 13 to maintain the hot water temperature at the temperature set by the user.

Reference numeral 14 is a jet nozzle attached to the spout of the spout tube 9. An intake pipe 15 is connected to the jet nozzle 14, and an intake valve 17 is opened to inhale air so that the purified hot water is mixed with air. It can be ejected as a jet flow, and by further operating the ozonizer 16, the air sucked by the intake pipe 15 is turned into ozone, and the bathtub 1
The hot water 2 inside can be sterilized with ozone.

Reference numeral 18 is a switching valve provided in the connecting pipe 11, and a sub-circulation path 19 is branched via this switching valve 18, and the sub-circulation path 19 is provided with a microfiltration tank 21 and this microfiltration tank. Hot water inflow / outflow pipe 20 for moving hot water in and out of 21
And 28 and.

The microfiltration tank 21 has an upper opening and a detachable lid 22 is attached to the microfiltration tank 21.
A precision filter medium 23 for precision filtration such as a high-density sintered body or a high-density granular filter medium is loaded.

A compressor 24 as a pressurizing device is attached to the lid 22 that closes the upper opening through an air supply pipe 25, and an exhaust valve 26 is attached through an exhaust pipe 27 to pressurize the inside of the tank with compressed air. You can press.

Reference numeral 29 is an ordinary turbidity sensor of an optical type or the like for detecting the degree of cloudiness of the hot water, and 30 is a control device for controlling the entire device.

A block diagram of the control by the control device 30 is shown in FIG. 2. The control device 30 includes a CPU 31 as a central processing unit, a ROM 32 for storing various control data and control programs, and an arithmetic processing unit. Therefore, the microcomputer is composed of the RAM 33 for temporarily storing data.

Reference numeral 34 is a key input device, which includes a run / stop key 35 for operating or stopping the device, a temperature setting key 36 for setting the temperature of the hot water to one's preference, and an intake pipe 15.
The intake key 17 for opening the intake valve 17 and the jet key 37 for jetting hot water from the jet nozzle 14 as a jet flow, and the sterilization key 3 for operating the ozonizer 16 for ozone sterilization
8. A microfiltration key 39 and the like for switching the switching valve 18 and operating the compressor 24 to manually or automatically perform microfiltration in the microfiltration tank 21 are provided, and 40 is a filter by the flow rate sensor 12. It is a display device that displays the operating state of the device including the clogging of the filter material 6 of the tank 5.

The operation of the apparatus configured as described above will be described. Before starting the operation, various operation conditions are determined by keying in with the key input device. Set to automatically perform microfiltration when is cloudy.

When the operation is started by operating the operation / stop key 35, the circulation pump 7 is operated and the switching valve 18 is switched to the main circulation path side. Therefore, as shown by the arrow in FIG. Only the main circulation path 3 is circulated.

The hot water 2 in the bathtub 1 is sucked up by the hot water suction pipe 4, filtered by the filter medium 6 in the filtration tank 5, and then maintained at the set temperature while the heater 8 detects the temperature by the hot water temperature sensor 13. Heated and passed through the spout tube 9 to the jet nozzle 1
It is returned to the bathtub 1 from 4 again.

The hot water returned to the bath tub 1 is jetted as a jet flow if the air sucked in from the intake pipe 15 is mixed, and is further jetted with the ozonized air mixed if the ozonizer 16 is operating. Be ozone sterilized.

In this way, while the hot water is being cleaned in the main circulation path 3, the turbidity sensor 27 constantly detects the turbidity of the hot water and sends the detection signal to the control device 30, When it is determined that the turbidity exceeds the turbidity stored in the ROM 32, the control device 30 controls the microfiltration.

The operation of the microfiltration will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The switching valve 18 includes a hot water inflow pipe 20 and a hot water outflow pipe 28.
Are respectively connected to the connecting pipes 11 and are switched to a direction in which the hot water circulates in the sub circulation path 19, and the hot water after filtration in the filtration tank 5 of the main circulation path 3 enters the sub circulation path 19 via the switching valve 18. , Flows through the hot water inflow pipe 20 as shown by the arrow and enters the microfiltration tank 21.

The hot water in the microfiltration tank 21 cannot flow through the microfiltration medium 23 only by the pressure of the circulation pump 7 because the resistance of the microfiltration medium 23 is large. Therefore, the hot water accumulates in the tank and cannot be filtered.

Under the control of the control device 30, the switching valve 18 is connected to the hot water outlet pipe 28 and the connecting pipe 11 after a predetermined time.
And the connection between the hot water inflow pipe 20 and the connection pipe 11 is switched to a direction in which the hot water inflow pipe 20 and the connection pipe 11 are disconnected, and the compressor 24 is operated to pressurize the inside of the microfiltration tank 21 with compressed air to remove the hot water in the tank from the microfiltration medium 23. To filter.

The hot water thus microfiltered flows out into the hot water outlet pipe 28, enters the connecting pipe 11 as shown by the arrow, returns to the bathtub 1 through the heater 8, and is compressed for a predetermined time. After performing microfiltration while pressurizing with, the exhaust valve 26 is opened to exhaust the inside of the microfiltration tank 21, and then the exhaust valve 26 is closed again.

When the exhaust valve 26 is closed, microfiltration is performed again by inflowing hot water into the microfiltration tank 21 and pressurizing with compressed air. Such microfiltration confirms that the cloudiness of the hot water has been removed. The process is repeated until the turbidity sensor 29 detects it.

The microfiltration as described above is performed by the control device 30.
Control of the switching valve 18, the operation of the compressor 24, and the opening / closing of the exhaust valve 26 can be easily performed by appropriately controlling the time.

As shown in FIG. 4, the control of the switching valve 18, the compressor 24, and the exhaust valve 26 for performing the microfiltration is performed in the microfiltration tank 21 in order to detect the water level in the tank. Sensor 41 and downward water level sensor 42
And may be deployed and based on water level.

In this case, if the upper water level sensor 41 detects that the hot water flowing into the microfiltration tank 21 through the hot water inflow pipe 20 is accumulated to the upper water level by the switching of the switching valve 18, the switching valve 18 is turned on. Switch to stop the inflow of hot water.

After that, the compressor 24 is operated to pressurize the inside of the tank to perform microfiltration, and if the lower water level sensor 24 detects that the water level has dropped to the lower water level, the operation of the compressor 24 is stopped and the exhaust valve 26 is released at the same time. Open and exhaust the tank.

When the exhaust is completed, the exhaust valve 26 is closed and at the same time the switching valve 18 is switched to store hot water in the microfiltration tank 21 again up to the upper water level and pressurize with compressed air to filter until the water level drops to the lower water level. By repeating the above operation, microfiltration can be performed.

As described above, when the hot water is subjected to the microfiltration in addition to the normal filtration and the hot water is turbid, the filtration material 6 of the filtration tank 5 and the precision filtration tank 21 are refined. The filter material 22 eventually becomes clogged.

When the filter medium 6 in the filtration tank 5 is clogged, the flow rate sensor 12 detects it and displays it on the display device 40, so that it can be taken out and washed or replaced.

Further, the microfiltration medium 22 of the microfiltration tank 21 is considerably clogged once it is microfiltered, but the lid 22 of the microfiltration tank 21 is opened during the normal cleaning process after the microfiltration is finished to perform precise The filter medium 23 can be taken out and washed, and if the microfiltration tank 21 is provided with an inlet / outlet for washing water (not shown), it can be washed in the microfiltration tank 21 while being pressurized with the washing water and compressed air.

[0047]

The present invention has the above-described structure and operation, and is a microfiltration tank for filtering colloidal particles from a main circulation path for filtering ordinary dirt to a sub-circulation path branched via a switching valve. When the hot water becomes cloudy due to colloidal particles, the switching valve automatically switches and removes dirt by microfiltration to eliminate cloudiness.

In order to carry out microfiltration, pressurization of hot water and clogging of the filter material are problems, but since the microfiltration tank is installed in the auxiliary circulation path branched from the main circulation path, only the hot water in the tank Since it suffices to pressurize, and therefore a simple pressurizing device such as a compressor may be provided, the equipment cost is almost negligible.

Further, since the microfiltration is carried out only when the hot water becomes cloudy, and the usual filtration is carried out before the microfiltration, the microfiltration material is quickly clogged with extra dirt other than the colloidal particles. , The life is not shortened.

Further, the precision filter medium can be easily washed by taking it out of the tank or using the tank itself as a washing tank during the normal cleaning treatment. become longer.

As a result of the above, it is possible to provide a bath water purifying apparatus which can prevent the hot water from becoming cloudy due to colloidal particles without significantly increasing the facility cost and running cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a piping diagram of the first embodiment (normal processing state),

[Fig. 2] Control block diagram,

FIG. 3 is a piping diagram of the first embodiment (fine filtration processing state),

[Fig. 4] Piping diagram of the second embodiment (fine filtration processing state)

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Bathtub 2 Hot water 3 Main circulation path 5 Filtration tank 7 Circulation pump 8 Heater 18 Switching valve 19 Sub-circulation path 21 Microfiltration tank 24 Compressor 29 Turbidity sensor 30 Control device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A bathtub hot water in which the hot water in the bathtub is pumped up by a circulation pump and forcedly circulates in the bathtub hot water circulation passage in which various cleaning devices are installed to eject the purified hot water again into the bathtub. In the cleaning device of the above, a bath for hot water is provided in which a microfiltration tank for microfiltration is provided in a sub-circulation path branched from a main circulation path in which purification equipment is arranged in series through a switching valve. Cleaning equipment. 2. The microfiltration tank is loaded with a microfiltration medium and provided with a pressurizing device.
The bathtub cleaning device described. 3. A turbidity sensor is detected under the control of a controller in a bath water purifying device that branches from a main circulation route of bath tubs through a switching valve to a sub circulation route in which a microfiltration tank is provided. The switching valve is automatically switched according to the turbidity of the hot water to circulate the hot water including the sub-circulation path, and in addition to the normal cleaning process, the micro-filtration tank installed in the sub-circulation path performs micro filtration processing. A method for cleaning hot water in a bathtub, which comprises: