JPH10317461A - Sanitary washing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To maintain the feeling of use at the time of the flushing of a private part by flush water through forced air mixing. SOLUTION: City water from a water supply piping 3 is decompressed by a valve unit having a decompression function, and air is mixed forcibly with decompressed flush water by a compressor by a porous suction head 8. Flush water is changed into warm water by a heat exchanger 5. Accordingly, flush water, with which air is mixed forcibly and which is changed into warm water, is elected from a nozzle device 2 under the state, in which a flow rate is stabilized by decompression.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sanitary washing apparatus for jetting washing water to clean a part of a human body, wherein the washing water is foamed and quiet washing water can be discharged.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sanitary washing apparatus having a local washing function is provided by:
In general, a structure in which hot water is jetted toward a local area by a nozzle device is shown in FIG.

In the figure, a casing 1 of a sanitary washing device is fixed to a toilet body 50, and a toilet seat 6 is attached to the casing 1.
0 and the toilet lid 61 are attached so as to be openable and closable. Inside the casing 1, a tank for heating the washing water, a hot air fan for drying, and a control unit are incorporated, and the operation of each function is performed by an operation unit 1a provided on the upper surface of the casing 1. Then, a nozzle body 51 for local cleaning is provided so as to be able to protrude and retract from the casing 1, and after it is advanced to the cleaning position, the cleaning water is blown out from the blowing hole of the nozzle head at the tip.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a supply system of washing water to the nozzle body 51, using a valve unit 52 having an opening / closing valve and a flow rate adjusting valve function, a ceramic heater or a sheath heater for directly heating and sending out water. A heat exchange 53 and a control unit 54 are provided, and a flow rate adjustment switching unit 55 is incorporated between the heat exchanger 53 and the nozzle body 51.
Then, the nozzle body 51 is driven and the cleaning position is set, the hot water temperature is set by the heat exchanger 53, and the valve unit 5 is set.
2 and the operation of the flow rate adjustment switching unit 55 are performed by the operation unit 1a. In some cases, the flow rate adjustment switching unit 55 is integrated with the valve unit 52.

The nozzle head at the tip of the nozzle body 51 is a hollow body having a plurality of ejection holes formed on the upper surface thereof. The opening diameter of this ejection hole is relatively small so that the force of the ejection water does not become too weak even when the supply amount of the washing water is small. For this reason, when the amount of the washing water is increased, the spouting water hitting the local part becomes considerably stronger, and the user often feels pain.

[0006] In order to prevent such pain, it has been proposed to foam water jetted from a nozzle head as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-180727. This is to mix air bubbles into the cleaning water so that the soft touch cleaning by the bubbles can be realized even when the power of the cleaning water is strong. As a structure for foaming the washing water, a pressure reducing plate having a small hole in the flow path is incorporated, and an external pressure reducing plate is provided downstream of the pressure reducing plate as widely used in a conventional foam faucet or the like. It is to open the air hole that sucks the air from. With such a structure, the internal pressure is reduced due to the acceleration of the flow of water after passing through the holes of the pressure reducing plate, and external air is sucked from the air holes and mixed into the water. It is foamed.

[0007]

By the way, when the air is mixed into the washing water, the air is not forced into the washing by increasing the flow rate as described above, but is forced into the air using an air pump. Can also be increased. However, in such forced air mixing, although the amount of air pumping, and thus the amount of air mixing, can be adjusted through drive control of the air pump, there are the following problems.

[0008] In the case of performing the local cleaning with the cleaning water mixed with air, if the amount of air mixing fluctuates during the jetting of the cleaning water, the usability is impaired. Therefore, it is desirable that the air mixing amount with respect to the washing water amount be a steady value desired by the user.
If the supplied amount of washing water is stable, the air mixing amount with respect to the amount of washing water can be easily set to a desired steady value by placing the air pump in a predetermined steady operation state.

[0009] In a sanitary washing apparatus, tap water is generally used as washing water. However, the pressure of the tap water fluctuates for various reasons, and the amount of supplied washing water (the amount of tap water) also depends on this pressure. It changes with fluctuations. Therefore, in order to make the air mixing amount a steady value as described above, it is necessary to perform feedback control of the air pump in accordance with the supply amount of the cleaning water. Further, when a configuration is adopted in which the supplied clean water is supplied to the downstream side by a water pump, it is necessary to perform feedback control on this water pump in accordance with the clean water amount.

In such a feedback control system, the control sequence of the controlled device is multi-staged, so that the control of the controlled device is delayed. In the sanitary washing device, the amount of clean water does not always occur slowly, but the amount of clean water may change suddenly. For example, if the sanitary washing device and another device having a common water supply source (generally a water pipe), such as an electric washing machine, are used at the same time as the sanitary washing device, the sanitary washing device may be used. The amount of clean water supplied has been sharply reduced. In such a situation, the amount of air entrapment changes due to control delays of the air pump, the water pump, and the like, which may cause a user to feel uncomfortable and impair the feeling of use. Also, in a system that warms the washing water to an appropriate temperature, even if the heating equipment used is quickly controlled in accordance with fluctuations in the amount of clean water, the response time of the heating equipment will cause the cleaning water temperature, which is the control result, to decrease due to the response delay of the heating equipment. It may cause a sudden change, and may also give a feeling of incongruity or discomfort and impair the usability.

The problem to be solved in the present invention is to maintain a feeling of use when performing local cleaning with cleaning water that has been forcibly mixed with air.

[0012]

Means for Solving the Problems and Actions and Effects Thereof To solve at least a part of the above problems, a sanitary washing device of the present invention is a sanitary washing device for washing a local part of a human body using supplied tap water. And nozzle means for jetting washing water to the human body part, and valve means for reducing the pressure of the supplied clean water to supply a desired amount of clean water as the washing water to the nozzle means side. And a heating means for instantaneously directly heating the supplied water, and a forced air mixing means for forcibly mixing air into the washing water to form a gas-liquid two-phase flow. .

In the sanitary washing apparatus of the present invention having the above structure, tap water or the like is subjected to reduced pressure by the valve means so that the pressure fluctuation is suppressed, and a desired amount thereof is used as the washing water by the nozzle means. Water is sent to the side. The washing water sent in this way receives instantaneous direct heating by the heating means to be heated and becomes a gas-liquid two-phase flow through forced aeration by the forced aeration means, and is ejected from the nozzle means. . Therefore, the heating and warming of the cleaning water and the gas-liquid two-phase flow are performed under the condition that the amount of the cleaning water is stabilized by suppressing the pressure fluctuation. Therefore, heating control and forced air mixing control based on the stable amount of washing water can be performed, and the temperature and the degree of air mixing of the washing water that has been heated and heated and the gas-liquid two-phase flow can be made constant. As a result, it is possible to maintain a suitable feeling of use without giving the user who receives local cleaning with such cleaning water a feeling of discomfort or discomfort. In this case, at the time of pressure reduction of the water supply, feedback control such as detecting the water supply pressure and performing pressure reduction control according to the result is unnecessary,
Decompression can be performed with high mechanical response. Therefore, fluctuations in the water supply pressure can be quickly suppressed to stabilize the amount of water, and the above-mentioned washing water temperature and the degree of air mixing can be stabilized.

When air is forcibly mixed, air is forcibly pumped into an air mixing area formed by using a porous suction head, and air is mixed into the washing water in the air mixing area. Foaming is preferred. In this case, since foaming is performed by the porous suction head, fine bubbles are mixed into the washing water, and a gas-liquid two-phase flow having a sufficiently high foaming degree is obtained. Then, the washing water in the gas-liquid two-phase flow state can be directly and instantaneously heated by the heating means downstream of the air-mixed area and ejected from the nozzle means. In this case, the instantaneous direct heating of the washing water is performed in a turbulent state including bubbles in the flow of the washing water. Heat transfer is promoted, and the washing water can be quickly warmed. As a result, since the heat exchange efficiency can be improved, the foaming of the washing water can be sufficiently foamed together with the foaming of the high foaming degree by the porous suction head, and the water saving and the energy saving effect can be improved. be able to. In this case, the time for heating the cleaning water to the predetermined temperature can be reduced through the improvement of the heat exchange efficiency, so that the time during which the boiling sound is generated during the heating can be shortened, and the discomfort due to the boiling sound can also be reduced.

When the air is forcibly mixed, the air mixing amount is adjusted so as to be proportional to the flow rate of the washing water, or the gas-liquid two-phase flow having substantially the same degree of foaming regardless of the flow rate of the washing water. If you adjust the amount of air mixing so that
A soft touch cleaning feeling can be obtained regardless of the flow rate of the cleaning water. If the amount of air mixed into the cleaning water is made larger than the amount of air mixed when only the ejector effect is used, the amount of air mixed with the flow rate of the cleaning water is sufficient, and the cleaning water having a higher foaming degree is obtained. Water saving effect and energy saving effect.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a sanitary washing device according to the present invention will be described based on examples. FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing the internal structure of the sanitary washing device of the present invention.

In the figure, the toilet body 50 is similar to the conventional example.
A supply system of washing water to the nozzle device 2 is provided in a casing 1 of the sanitary washing device fixed to the nozzle. In this supply system, a water supply pipe 3 that is directly connected to a building pipe outside the casing 1, a pump 4 that feeds water to the nozzle device 2 side, and a heat exchanger 5 that heats the water are incorporated.

The nozzle device 2 is a cylinder 2 fixed inside the casing 1 and connected to a supply pipe 5a from the heat exchanger 5.
a, and a nozzle body 2b incorporated in the cylinder 2a so as to be movable in the axial direction. A nozzle head 2c is provided at the tip of the nozzle body 2b. Then, as employed in the conventional sanitary washing device, the nozzle body 2
The nozzle b has a structure in which the cleaning water flows into the cylinder 2a by the pressure of the cleaning water, and when the cleaning water reaches the cleaning position, the cleaning water can be ejected from the nozzle head 2c. Further, as the supply of the washing water is stopped and the water pressure is attenuated, the nozzle body 2b returns to the original position in the cylinder 2a by a spring (not shown) for urging the nozzle body 2b to the storage position, The ejection of the washing water is also stopped.

The nozzle body 2b may be driven by an actuator such as a conventionally known motor instead of using the water pressure of the washing water. And, in the nozzle head 2c and the nozzle body 2b,
It is not necessary to provide any air holes for foaming the cleaning water or a throttle for the flow path for increasing the internal flow.

The pump 4 sends water to the heat exchanger 5 with the water from the water supply pipe 3 connected to the drain main pipe of a building or the like at an appropriate pressure. Further, the heat exchanger 5 has a built-in ceramic or sheath type heater 6 therein, and directly heats the supply water to supply it to the nozzle device 2. Then, the cleaning water heated from the heat exchanger 5 is supplied to the nozzle device 2 and stopped by turning on and off the operation of the pump 4, and at the same time, the nozzle body 2b advances to the cleaning position and returns to the original storage position after stopping water. Perform the operation.

A connecting pipe 7 is provided between the pump 4 and the heat exchanger 5.
And air is sucked from the outside into the flow path of the connection pipe 7 to foam the water supply. Then, a suction head 8 is incorporated in the middle of the connection pipe 7 for foaming.
The suction head 8 is formed of a porous material that does not leak water to the outside at a pressure of water passing through the inside and allows air from outside to pass when the pressure of the internal flow path is lower than the atmospheric pressure. It is formed in a pipe shape as a material.
As the porous body, for example, ceramic or the like can be used.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the flow of the washing water up to the nozzle device 2, in which a suction head 8 is incorporated in a connecting pipe 7 between the pump 4 and the heat exchanger 5. The suction of the air into the internal flow path by the suction head 8 is performed by the connection pipe 7.
The internal pressure should be reduced based on the increase of the flow rate of the water passing through the inside, or the air should be forced from the outside.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part showing the suction head 8 and its vicinity in the case of utilizing the ejector effect due to a decrease in internal pressure.

The suction head 8 has a cylindrical shape made of a ceramic material, and a housing 9 is integrally formed on the outside thereof to form a chamber 9a having an annular vertical section around the suction head 8. The housing 9 has a sleeve 9b projecting outward so as to be inclined to suck air in the flow direction of water. In the illustrated example, the throat is provided so that the flow area of the suction head 8 is smaller than that of the left and right connection pipes 7 in order to increase the flow velocity of the water passing through the suction head 8 and lower the internal pressure. ing.

In the illustrated example, the path of the washing water is in the order of the pump 4, the suction head 8, and the heat exchanger 5.
Instead of using the water discharge pressure of the pump 4, a method may be adopted in which the cleaning water is directly fed by the water supply pressure of the water supply pipe of the building. In this case, instead of the pump 4, the operation unit 1
a valve unit of an electromagnetic valve type that can be operated by a. The valve unit has the same function as the above-mentioned pump 4, that is, a decompression mechanism, an on-off valve mechanism, and a flow rate, which supply water from the water supply pipe 3 to an appropriate pressure and send it downstream. Incorporate a regulating valve mechanism, etc. Even with such a water supply direct connection type, the path from the valve unit to the nozzle device 2 is the same as that of the illustrated example, and the cleaning water is bubbled by the suction head 8 at a stage before water is discharged as described later. Can be

In the above configuration, when the cleaning switch (not shown) of the operation section 1a is operated, the pump 4 (a valve unit provided in place of the pump 4 in the case of a direct water supply type) is operated.
Is operated, and water is supplied from the connection pipe 7 through the heat exchanger 5 into the cylinder 2a of the nozzle device 2. Then, the nozzle body 2b advances to the cleaning position by the pressure of the cleaning water that enters the cylinder 2a, and then the nozzle head 2
Cleaning water is spouted from c.

Since the suction head 8 incorporated in the connection pipe 7 is a throat with respect to the flow of the cleaning water, the flow rate of the cleaning water flowing through this portion increases, and the internal pressure in the flow path decreases. For this reason, air is sucked in from the porous material suction head 8, and this air is mixed with the washing water passing through the inside. Therefore, before entering the heat exchanger 5, the washing water becomes a gas-liquid two-phase flow containing air bubbles, and is heated in the heat exchanger 5 in this state, and the nozzle head 2c remains foamy.
Squirted from.

As described above, when the washing water is gas-liquid two-phase flow before entering the heat exchanger 5, if the heater 6 of the heat exchanger 5 by the boiling heat transfer is made of, for example, ceramic, the flow becomes foamy. Turbulence as containing For this reason, heat transfer is promoted and the time until boiling of the cleaning water is shortened as compared with the case where ordinary cleaning water containing no bubbles is poured as it is. Therefore, not only is the heat exchange efficiency improved, but also the time for heating the cleaning water to a predetermined temperature is shortened, and the time width during which the boiling sound is generated during the heating is also reduced.

The heated washing water that has exited the heat exchanger 5 is supplied to the nozzle device 2 as a gas-liquid two-phase flow, and is jetted as it is from the nozzle head 2c as washing water containing foam. For this reason, soft touch cleaning can be performed more comfortably than cleaning water containing no foam. Then, the air for foaming is sucked from the suction head 8, so that if the suction head 8 is appropriately sized, a sufficient amount of air can be secured. For this reason, compared with the case where the foaming mechanism is simply provided in the nozzle head 2c, the amount of air can be remarkably increased, and soft cleaning with a high foaming degree can be performed. That is, since the suction head 8 is the flow path of the cleaning water, a structure for sucking air separately from the flow path is not required. The size of the suction head 8 can be freely changed, and it is easy to obtain a sufficient amount of air with respect to the flow rate of the washing water.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which air is forcibly blown into the suction head 8 instead of blowing air using the ejector effect as described above. It is like that.

As shown in FIG. 5, a cylindrical suction head 8 made of ceramic is incorporated with the inner diameter thereof equal to that of the connection pipe 7. The thickness of the suction head 8 is larger than that of the above-described example, and the outside thereof is covered with the housing 10 to form the air passage 10a inside. A compressor 11 is connected to the housing 10, and by operating the compressor 11, external air is supplied to the air passage 10.
blow into a. In the case of the direct water supply type as described above, instead of the pump 4, a valve unit having the same functions (decompression mechanism, on-off valve mechanism, flow control valve mechanism, etc.) as the pump described above may be incorporated. Good.

In this configuration, water (tap water) is supplied from the water supply pipe 3.
When the pressure is reduced by the valve unit, the water (tap water) from the water supply pipe 3 is set to a set flow rate in which the pressure fluctuation is suppressed and the flow rate is stabilized. Air bubble mixing (air mixing) and warming by the heat exchanger 5 are performed. For this reason,
By controlling the heater 6 and controlling the compressor 11 based on the stable flow rate, the cleaning water spouted from the nozzle device 2 can be made the cleaning water whose temperature and the degree of air entrainment are stabilized. As a result, the user does not feel uncomfortable or uncomfortable due to a change in temperature or a change in the degree of air entrapment, and can maintain a suitable feeling of use. In addition, due to the highly responsive mechanical decompression by the valve unit, the fluctuation of the water supply pressure is quickly suppressed, the flow rate is stabilized instantaneously, and the above-mentioned cleaning water temperature and the degree of air mixing can be stabilized. Further, since the air is forcibly sent from the suction head 8 to the internal flow path by the compressor 11, even when the flow rate of the washing water is low and the internal pressure of the internal flow path does not decrease, the air can be reliably sent. Then, by adjusting the flow rate of the air from the compressor 11 so as to be proportional to the flow rate of the washing water, the void ratio can be set substantially uniformly. For this reason, it can be supplied as gas-liquid two-phase flow cleaning water having substantially the same foaminess regardless of the flow rate of the cleaning water. Therefore, if only the ejector effect is used, if the flow rate is small and the internal flow rate does not increase, the amount of suction air will also decrease and the foaminess will not increase. However, such an obstacle is solved by incorporating the compressor 11. .

Further, since the air can be supplied by the compressor 11 without increasing the flow rate of the washing water passing through the suction head 8, the suction head 8 only needs to be a simple cylindrical shape as shown. Therefore, there is no need to provide a throat or the like, and the processing of the suction head 8 and the incorporation into the connection pipe 7 are simplified. In addition, since the thickness can be increased, the strength of the ceramic material suction head 8 can be sufficiently maintained, which is preferable in terms of durability.

Further, as in the case where the ejector effect is used, the washing water is gas-liquid two-phase flow before entering the boiling heat transfer type heat exchanger 5, so that the bubbles contained in the heat exchanger 5 This turbulences the flow and promotes heat transfer. For this reason, the heat efficiency is improved, and the time until boiling is shortened, so that the boiling noise can be reduced.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described examples and embodiments at all, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of a sanitary washing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a supply system of cleaning water up to a nozzle device in the sanitary cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part showing an example of a structure for sucking air into a cleaning water flow path by an ejector effect.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a cleaning water supply system for forcing air into a cleaning water flow path by a compressor.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a suction head portion in the case of supplying air using a compressor in the case of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional example in which a sanitary washing device is installed on a toilet.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a supply system up to a nozzle device of cleaning water in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Casing 2 ... Nozzle device 3 ... Water supply pipe 4 ... Pump 5 ... Heat exchanger 6 ... Heater 7 ... Connection pipe 8 ... Suction head 9 ... Housing 10 ... Housing 11 ... Compressor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takuo Imasaka 2-1-1 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka Touchi Kiki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shingo Sato 2 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka No.1-1, Totoki Kiki Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sanitary washing device for washing a human body part using supplied water, a nozzle means for jetting washing water to the human body part, and reducing the pressure of the supplied water. Valve means for supplying a desired amount of clean water as the cleaning water to the nozzle means side; heating means for instantaneously directly heating the supplied clean water; and forcibly supplying air to the clean water. A sanitary washing device comprising: forced air mixing means for mixing gas-liquid two-phase flow. 2. The sanitary washing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said forced air mixing means has means for adjusting the amount of air mixed in proportion to the flow rate of the washing water. 3. The forced air mixing means has means for adjusting the air mixing amount so as to have a gas-liquid two-phase flow having substantially the same foaminess regardless of the flow rate of the washing water. The sanitary washing device as described. 4. The forced air mixing means is configured to generate air-liquid two-phase flow in which the amount of air mixed into the cleaning water is larger than when air is mixed into the cleaning water using only an ejector effect. 2. A means for adjusting a mixing amount of chromium.
A sanitary washing device according to claim 3.