JPS6364974B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an electric towel dispensing device installed inside a toilet or the like, in which unused towels are supplied to the outside when a person directly or indirectly operates a main switch. The present invention relates to an electric towel dispensing device that stores used towels that have been wiped clean by a person after a certain period of time.

Conventionally, this type of electric towel dispensing device is
As disclosed in Japanese Pat. A take-up roller that can be driven both in the take-up direction and in the opposite direction;
Directly or indirectly turned on by a motor device that drives a supply roller and a take-up roller, and a hand that drives and urges the supply roller in the supply direction and drives and urges the take-up roller in the opposite direction of winding. a deenergizing device that deenergizes the take-up roller after unwinding a predetermined length of used towels from a used towel roll; A deenergizing device that deenergizes the towel afterward; a timer and a biasing device that biases the take-up roller in the winding direction after a predetermined period of time; Electric towel dispensing devices are known that are comprised of a deenergizing device that drives the towel until it is rolled up and then deenergizes it.

Although this motorized towel dispensing device is excellent in that it rationally drives the supply roller and take-up roller, it has serious deficiencies in the opposite aspect. Generally, towel dispensing devices are installed in the toilet room, but few toilets are equipped with an AC power outlet. It is therefore appropriate to use a battery, especially a dry cell battery, as the power source for the motorized towel dispensing device. In the conventional electric towel dispensing device described above, the used towel roll is driven to rotate in both forward and reverse directions by the take-up roller, so the diameter of the used towel roll gradually increases and its weight becomes relatively large. As a result, the power consumed in both forward and reverse rotational motion becomes extremely large, accelerating battery consumption and increasing the cost of replacing batteries, thereby delaying the widespread use of electric towel dispensing devices. There were flaws.

Also, as a second drawback, the above-mentioned U.S. patent
Not only in No. 3797902 but also in other manual towel dispensing devices, the used towel roll is placed above the unused towel roll, so the dirt particles attached to the used towels scatter and fall, leaving the towel unused. It adheres to towels, causing hygiene problems for towel dispensing devices that require cleanliness.

Furthermore, the third drawback of the above-mentioned US Pat. No. 3,797,902 is that the only way to change the loop length of the towel loop is to change the rotation drive time of the supply roller or take-up roller, that is, the timer setting time. . Therefore, the only way for the user to change the loop length is to change the timer, and even with this, it is difficult to arbitrarily and easily adjust the loop length to a desired length.

As a result of various improvement studies, the inventors of the present invention have reached the following conclusion regarding the first drawback. The rotation of the supply roller in the supply direction and the rotation of the take-up roller in the take-up direction are essential and unavoidable movements in transferring the towel from the unused towel roll to the used towel roll. I learned that rotation in the opposite direction is not an essential movement.
Paying out a portion of the used towel from the rear of the towel dispensing device is necessary to improve the economy of the towel in that the user only uses the front side of the towel loop and not the back side. Therefore, the main part of the present invention is that the used towel is fed out so as to be on the rear side of the towel loop without reversing the used towel roll. In other words, a winding roller that rotates the used towel roll only in the winding direction and a separate feed roller that rotates in both forward and reverse directions are provided, and a storage chamber for the used towel is configured to wind up the used loop-shaped towel. First, some of the towels are wound onto a used towel roll by rotating the take-up roller, and the remaining looped towels are collected by stopping the take-up roller and rotating only the feed roller in the towel lifting direction. The towels that are to be pulled up are stored in the storage chamber in a folded manner, and when the towels are used, the supply roller is rotated to supply the unused towels to the front of the towel loop, and the feed roller is rotated in the feeding direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a motorized towel dispensing device that dispenses towels in a storage chamber downwardly to form a rear surface of a towel loop. With this configuration, only the used towels folded inside the storage chamber can be delivered outside without reversing the used towel roll, thereby increasing the economy of towels and reducing battery consumption. We have realized an electric towel dispensing device that can suppress the amount of waste as much as possible.

Also, to address the second drawback, the used towel roll can be positioned below the unused towel roll, thereby eliminating the fallout of dirt particles from the used towel. Furthermore, by placing an unused towel roll on the towel tray, dirt particles flying up from the used towel can be blocked by the lower surface of the towel tray. The present invention thus aims to provide a clean motorized towel dispensing device.

Furthermore, to address the third drawback, the present invention maintains the loop length of the towel loop formed below when setting the towel, so that the user cannot adjust the towel loop to any length. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electric towel dispensing device that can be used.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the electric towel dispensing device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of the electric towel dispensing device, and as shown in the figure, an unused towel roll 2 is placed in a recessed portion of a towel tray 4 so as to be freely rollable. A supply roller 6 having a rough surface is pivotally supported on the front side of the unused towel roll 2 in order to increase surface friction with the towel. Free rollers 8, 10 are arranged. A gear _G1 attached to one end of the supply roller 6 is meshed with a worm _W1 ,
The supply roller 6 is rotationally driven only in the towel supply direction by the electric motor _M1 to supply the unused towel 12. Further, an end switch ESW is arranged to detect passage of the final end of the towel so that the actuator comes into contact with the unused towel 12.

A used towel roll 14 is arranged below the unused towel roll 2, and a take-up roller 16 is pivotally supported in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the used towel roll 14. If the used towel roll 14 is provided below the unused towel roll 2 as described above, dirt particles attached to the used towel will not fall onto the unused towel roll 2. Furthermore, since the towel tray 4 separates and shields both the towel rolls 2 and 14, dirt particles scattered by the rotation of the used towel roll 14 can also be blocked. A gear _G2 is attached to one end of the take-up roller 16.
The worm W ₂ that meshes with this gear G ₂ is an electric motor.
It is attached to the tip of _M2 .

There is a storage room 18 behind the used towel roll 14.
is provided at the bottom 18a of the storage chamber 18.
is formed in a convex shape downward to facilitate winding up of the used towel 20, and an opening 18b is provided at the top. A plate-like protrusion 18c is formed near the bottom 18a, and the used towel 20 passes through the slit 18d while being smoothed out by the plate-like protrusion 18c, and is transferred to the used towel roll 14.
driving towards. If the plate-shaped protrusion 18c is configured to be swingable using a spring member or the like, the towel can be easily set up for the first time.

Further, a feed roller 22, a free roller 24, and an auxiliary roller 26 are arranged in parallel contact with each other in the opening 18b, and one end of the feed roller 22 is driven by an electric motor _M3 . worm
W ₃ and gear G ₃ are provided. A bottom plate 28 is arranged below the used towel roll 14,
An inclined plate 30 is provided in front of it to facilitate the supply of unused towels 12. Further, an under switch USW is provided in the center of the bottom plate 28. A towel loop 32 is formed below the bottom plate 28 by the unused towel 12 and the used towel 20. In addition, the supply roller 6, the used towel roll 1
4. The winding roller 16 and the like are rotatably supported by a side wall plate (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal sectional side view of the main parts of this device, and the members not shown in FIG. 1 will be explained next. The internal mechanism of the device is surrounded by a case 34, and a supply slit 36 is formed between the lower front end 34a of the case 34 and the inclined plate 30, and serves as an outlet for unused towels 12. or,
A retraction slit 38 is formed between the rear lower end 34b of the case 34 and the end of the bottom plate 28, and the used towel 20 moves in and out of the retraction slit 38. There is a towel loop 32 on the front side of the case 34.
Main switch operated by a person to form
MSW is provided. Further, a tension switch is installed at a position directly above the plate-like protrusion 18c in the storage chamber 18.
A TSW is provided to detect the amount of used towels 20 fed out from the storage chamber 18.

CC is the drive control circuit, end switch ESW,
Main switch MSW, under switch USW,
Tension switch TSW and electric motor M ₁ ,
It controls the timing and operation of M ₂ and M ₃ . In this embodiment, the main switch MSW is composed of a push button switch, but it may also be composed of a photoelectric switch, a proximity switch, or any other contact or non-contact switch. Furthermore, although the switches ESW, USW, and TSW in this device are all constituted by limit switches, they may be constituted by switches having other detection functions.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a specific circuit configuration of the drive control circuit CC. In addition, the motion state of the towel controlled by this circuit CC is the fourth
As shown in FIG. First, to explain the configuration of Fig. 3, R ₁ , R ₂ , R ₃ , and R ₄ are pull-down resistors, and each switch MSW, TSW, USW,
It has the function of setting the potential at the upper end of the resistor to OV, that is, "L" when ESW is opened. Capacitor C ₁ ,
C ₂ , C ₃ , C ₄ and resistors R ₅ , R ₆ , R ₇ , R ₈ are elements that constitute a differential circuit. For example, C ₁ and R ₅ constitute a set of differential circuits, and the following Form a pulse signal to the stage circuit. The reason for incorporating the capacitor _C1 is to prevent this device from automatically continuing to operate if the main switch MSW is kept pressed. Therefore, only when the switches MSW, TSW, USW, and ESW are closed from the open state, these differentiating circuits output a pulse of potential "H".

The AND gate AND outputs a trigger pulse to the monostable multivibrator _MM1 to drive this device, and is a flip-flop circuit described later.
By using the output of FF ₃ as input, even if the main switch MSW is operated while this device is operating,
This operation is blocked by this AND gate AND.

Similar to MM ₁ , MM ₂ , MM ₃ , and MM ₄ are also monostable multivibrators, with A indicating an input terminal, Q an output terminal, and an inverting output terminal. resistance
R ₉ , R ₁₀ , R ₁₁ , R ₁₂ and capacitors C ₅ , C ₆ , C ₇ , C ₈
is an element that constitutes a time constant circuit, and the time constant R ₉ C ₅ ,
R ₁₀ C ₆ , R ₁₁ C ₇ , and R ₁₂ C ₈ determine the operating times of the monostable multivibrators MM ₁ , MM ₂ , MM ₃ , and MM ₄ , respectively. FF ₁ , FF ₂ , and FF ₃ are flip-flop circuits, in which S is a set terminal and R is a set terminal.
indicates a reset terminal, Q indicates an output terminal, and indicates an inverted output terminal.

R ₁₃ , R ₁₄ , R ₁₅ , R ₁₆ are current limiting resistors, and switching transistors TR ₁ , TR ₂ , TR ₃ , TR ₄
form an appropriate base current for the current. _M1 ,
M ₂ and M ₃ are electric motors, where motor M ₁ rotates the supply roller 6 in the supply direction, motor M ₂ rotates the take-up roller 16 in the take-up direction, and motor M ₃ drives the feed roller 22 in forward and reverse rotation. It is something to do. Also, OR ₁ ,
OR ₂ is an OR gate, and the transistors TR ₃ ,
Output the drive signal to TR ₄ . Ry is a relay, and when the transistor TR ₄ is off, the movable contacts MC ₁ and MC ₂ are connected to the fixed contacts FC ₁ and FC ₃ as shown by the solid line to rotate the feed roller 22 in the towel feeding direction, and the transistor TR ₄ When is on, the movable contacts MC ₁ and MC ₂ are switched to fixed contacts as shown by the dotted lines.
Switching connection is made between FC ₂ and FC ₄ to rotate the feed roller 22 in the direction of pulling up the towel. The battery BT is usually constructed of a dry battery in a place where an AC power source is not provided, such as a toilet, and its voltage V is supplied to the part indicated by V in the figure. Further, the power source BT may be a DC power source using an AC adapter that converts alternating current to direct current.

Next, the operation of this device will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. Usually, the used towel 20 is
As shown in Figure A, the towel is folded and stored in the storage chamber 18, with no towel loop formed below. When a person wipes wet hands after washing, first press the main switch MSW. Then, the differential circuit formed by C ₁ R ₅ outputs “H” to the AND gate AND.
Monostable multivibrator that outputs pulses
Trigger MM ₁ . Upon receiving this input, the multivibrator _MM1 outputs _an "H" signal for a time determined by the time constant _C5R9 , and the transistor
When TR ₁ is turned on, the motor M ₁ rotates the supply roller 6, and as shown in FIG. 4B, the unused towel 12 is
is supplied in the direction of arrow a. In addition, the push operation of the main switch MSW is performed by a flip-flop circuit.
Set FF ₁ , turn on transistor TR ₂ ,
The motor _M3 rotates the feed roller 22 in the towel delivery direction, and delivers the used towel 20 folded and stored in the storage chamber 18 in the direction of arrow b. As the used towel 20 is fed out, the towel surface pushes the tension switch TSW, resets the flip-flop FF ₁ , stops the rotation of the motor M ₃ , and forms a towel loop 32 below.
The state shown in FIG. 4C is reached. The front side of this towel loop is made up of an unused towel 12, and the back side is made up of a used towel 20, and as it is customary for people to use only the front side of the towel loop, the economy of the towel is improved.

The pressing operation of the main switch MSW triggers the monostable multivibrator MM ₂ , and the time constant
A monostable multivibrator is activated by a rising signal at its output after a time determined by C ₆ R ₁₀ .
Trigger MM ₃ . Therefore, the time constant
The state shown in FIG. 4C is maintained for a period of time determined by C ₆ R ₁₀ , during which time the person can wipe his hands and face. After this time has elapsed, the transistor TR ₃ is turned on by the output signal of the vibrator MM ₃ , and the motor _M2 is turned on to turn on the take-up roller 16.
is rotated as shown in FIG. 4D. At the same time, flip-flop _FF2 is also set, transistor _TR4 is turned on, and relay Ry is energized. This relay Ry
For excitation, the fixed contacts MC ₁ and MC ₂ are switched and connected to the fixed contacts FC ₂ and FC ₄ as shown by dotted lines, and the motor M ₃ rotates the feed roller 22 in the towel pulling direction. Therefore, the used towel 20 is indicated by arrows c and d.
The towels are transported in the direction shown in , and wound up onto the used towel roll 14.

The motor M ₂ rotates the take-up roller 16 for a time determined by the time constant C ₇ R ₁₁ , but when that time has elapsed, the motor M ₂ stops rotating. On the other hand,
Since the motor _M3 is still rotating, the used towels 20 are pulled up in the direction of the arrow e as shown in FIG. go. The used towel 20 is under-switched due to its tension.
When USW is closed, the differentiating circuits C ₃ and R ₇ reset the flip-flop FF ₂ , the transistor TR ₄ is turned off, the motor M ₃ is stopped, and the state shown in FIG. 4F is reached, returning to the initial state.

Flip-flop _FF3 is used to prohibit input to the main switch MSW while the device is in operation. That is, since the output of flip-flop _FF3 is the input of the AND gate,
While the device is in operation, the output is "L", and even if the main switch MSW is pressed, the output of the AND gate AND is held at "L". Then, when the under switch USW is closed, the output becomes "H" at that moment, and the main switch
It accepts MSW input signals.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the processing operation for the final end of the towel. When the main switch MSW is pressed and the remaining length of the unused towel 12 is shorter than the scheduled supply length, the final end 20a of the towel hangs downward as shown in FIG. 5A. On the other hand, at the moment when the final end 20a of the towel passes the end switch ESW, this switch ESW is immediately closed and triggers the monostable multivibrator _MM4 . Drive time is a time constant
Determined by C ₈ R ₁₂ . During this driving time,
As a result of the above-described operation, the take-up roller 16 and the feed roller 22 rotate as shown in the figure, and the used towel 20 is wound onto the used towel roll 14 while being pulled up in the direction of arrow f. The vibrator is set so that the driving time ends when the final end 20a of the towel reaches the position shown in FIG. 5B.
The output Q of MM ₄ becomes “L”, and the motors M ₂ and M ₃
stops. When a towel user discovers this condition, the towel can be replaced very easily by simply removing the used towel roll 14 and loading a new, unused towel roll.

As described in detail above, the present invention eliminates the reversal of the used towel roll by feeding the folded used towel into the storage chamber downward by the feed roller, and as a result, the consumption of the battery is minimized. This makes it possible to provide an electric towel dispensing device that is controlled. In addition, it is possible to realize a clean electric towel dispensing device that does not allow dirt particles to fall from a used towel roll to an unused towel roll, and completely blocks dirt particles from being scattered by the towel tray. It is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of an embodiment of an electric towel dispensing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view of a main part of the same device, and FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram as an example of a drive control circuit. , FIGS. 4A to 4F are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the towel, and FIGS. 5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams of the operation of pulling up the final end of the towel. 2...Unused towel roll, 4...Towel tray, 6
... Supply roller, 12 ... Used towel, 14 ... Used towel roll, 16 ... Take-up roller, 18 ... Storage chamber, 18b ... Opening, 18c ... Plate-like projection, 20 ...
Used towel, 22...Feed roller, MSW...Main switch, CC...Drive control circuit, _M1 , _M2 , _M3
…Electric motor, BT…Battery.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An unused towel roll 2 wrapped with an unused towel 12, a main switch MSW that is energized directly or indirectly by a person, and this main switch
A motor-driven supply roller 6 that supplies a predetermined length of unused towels 12 from the unused towel roll 2 by a biasing operation of the MSW, and a main switch.
A motor-driven feed roller 22 that feeds out a predetermined length in the feeding direction of the used towel 20 that has been folded and stored inside by the energizing operation of the MSW, and a loop formed outside of the unused towel after use. A part of used towel 20 is converted into used towel roll 1
A motor-driven take-up roller 16 that winds up the loop-shaped used towel 20 and the feed roller 22 are driven by a motor to pull up the remaining amount of the loop-shaped used towel inside, and a storage unit that stores the pulled-up used towel 20 in a folded manner. chamber 18, the supply roller 6, and the feed roller 22.
and an electric motor M ₁ that drives the take-up roller 16,
M ₂ , M ₃ , a drive control circuit CC that drives and controls the electric motors M ₁ , M ₂ , M ₃ , and the electric motor
An electric towel dispensing device comprising M ₁ , M ₂ , M ₃ and a power source for driving a drive control circuit CC. 2 The unused towel roll 2 is located above the used towel roll 14, and the unused towel roll 2
The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein the towel dispenser is placed on the towel tray 4. 3. The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein a feed roller 22 is disposed in the opening 18b of the storage chamber 18. 4. The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein a plate-like projection 18c for rubbing used towels is formed at the lower part of the storage chamber 18. 5. The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein the power source is a battery BT. 6. The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 5, wherein the battery BT is a dry battery. 7 Since the power source is connected to the AC adapter,
The electric towel dispensing device according to claim 1, which can be used for both AC and DC.