KR100193048B1 - Regeneration system for softening device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a water softener that makes soft water suitable for removing skin wastes during bathing and washing by ion-exchanging raw water, such as tap water. More specifically, the water softening process and the regeneration process are controlled electronically and used effectively. In particular, the present invention relates to a water softener and a regeneration system for simplifying the piping structure and allowing a user's convenience by performing a softening of hot and cold water at the same time by using one soft water tank.

The softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention is provided with one softening tank 10 filled with an ion exchange resin, and the first inlet 11 and the first inlet 11 formed at the upper and lower ends of the tank so that the mixed water flows in a forward direction. Outlet (12), the second outlet 14 and the second inlet 13 formed in the upper and lower ends of the tank so that the reverse flow during regeneration, both hot and cold water cock (30) (31) and the first inlet of the tank (11) ), An inlet valve installed on an inlet pipe 15 connected to the inlet pipe, a drain pipe 17 and a drain valve 18 connected to the second outlet port 14 of the tank, and a second inlet port of the inlet pipe 15 and the tank ( 13, a salt water injection valve 20 and a salt water injection pump 21 installed on the pipe connected to the second inlet 13 of the tank, characterized in that made do.

Description

Water softeners and regeneration system

The present invention relates to a water softener that makes the soft water suitable for removing skin wastes during bathing and washing by ion-exchanging raw water such as tap water, and more specifically, by using electronically controlling the softening process and regeneration process efficiently. In particular, the present invention relates to a water softener and a regeneration system for simplifying the piping structure and allowing a user's convenience by performing a softening of hot and cold water at the same time by using one soft water tank.

Water softener is a device that converts soft water (smooth water) such as tap water into soft water (single water) .It absorbs and removes impurities such as green water and colloid in raw water, making it especially soft and clean water for skin beauty. do.

For example, strong acidic cation exchange resins are used to exchange hard water-inducing substances (calcium, magnesium, etc.) in water to convert hard water into soft water. More specifically, they are bonded to the synthetic resins of ion exchange resins by ionic bonds. Allow ions to be exchanged with ions of the same sign in the original water.

The cold water softener is connected to the pipe so that the cold water is supplied to the water softener, and the hot water softener is connected to the pipe so that the hot water is supplied.

As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional water softener includes a tank 1 having a water inlet formed at an upper portion thereof and a water outlet formed at a lower portion thereof, a metal mesh 2 installed below the inside of the tank 1, and the metal mesh. It consists of the ion exchange resin (3) filled in (2).

The tank 1 is composed of an upper tank cap (1a) and the lower body (1b), the raw water supply pipe (4) is connected to the inlet and the soft water discharge pipe (5) is connected to the outlet. The soft water discharge pipe 5 is provided with a discharge cock 6.

The conventional softener as described above is provided with two separate ones to connect a cold water pipe to one softener and to connect a hot water pipe to the other softener.

When the user opens the discharge cock 6, the raw water enters the tank 1 through the inlet of the upper part of the tank 1 and reacts with the ion exchange resin 3 so that the ions of the raw water are the same as the ion exchange resin 3. It is exchanged with the ions of to soften and discharged through the discharge cock (6).

To maintain good water quality and to prolong its life, the ion exchange resin should be recycled regularly.

The conventional method of regenerating the ion exchange resin has been a manual regeneration method in which the tank cap 1a is opened, salt is injected into the tank, and shaken to mix well with the ion exchange resin 3.

When this regeneration process is performed, the ionic components of the impurities adsorbed by the ion exchange resin are desorbed and exchanged by the brine when the soft water is used, and the performance of the ion exchange resin is restored, and the compressed resin is released by hydraulic pressure to fill the resin particles. Will be trimmed.

The ion exchange resin can be used semi-permanently after repeated regeneration as described above, but it is preferable to replace the ion exchange resin every three to five years as it has a consumption rate of about 5% per year.

However, since the conventional water softener is designed to manually regenerate the ion exchange resin, the regeneration work of the ion exchange resin is inconvenient, and only the regeneration operation releases the compressed resin by water pressure, so as to prepare the resin particles in the filled state, There is a problem in that it is not possible to achieve the function of washing off the suspended suspension and suspended solids or removing the gas in the resin at the same time, and in particular, the softening and regeneration of hot and cold water cannot be performed simultaneously.

As a result, the soft water quality becomes poor, the ion exchange resin is damaged, and thus the effective water softening operation and regeneration process cannot be expected, and the life of the device itself and the ion exchange resin are shortened, and further inconvenience and inconvenience to the user. I had problems such as being.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the conventional water softener as described above, by controlling the training process and the regeneration process electronically to make the user convenient and efficient use management, in particular using a single soft water tank and It is an object of the present invention to provide a softening and regeneration system for a water softener, which allows the softening and regeneration of cold water to be performed at the same time, thereby simplifying the piping structure and facilitating user convenience.

The softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention for achieving the above object is provided with a soft water tank filled with ion-exchange resin, the first of the cold and hot water formed in the upper and lower ends of the tank so that the flow of cold and hot water at the time of softening and rinsing is made The inlet and the first outlet, the second outlet and the second inlet formed in the upper and lower ends of the tank so that the reverse flow of the cold and hot water during the injection of the brine is installed on the inlet pipe connecting the first inlet of the cold and hot water and the tank An intake valve, a regeneration valve installed on a pipe connecting the inlet pipe and the second inlet of the tank, a drain pipe and a drain valve connected to the second outlet of the tank, a salt water injection valve installed on a pipe connected to the second inlet of the tank, and A brine injection pump, and the discharge pipe connected to the first outlet of the tank, characterized in that made.

1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional water softener,

2 is a piping diagram showing the structure of the softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: Tank 1a: Tank Cap

1b: main body 2: metal mesh

3: ion exchange resin 4: raw water supply pipe

5: soft water discharge pipe 6: discharge cock

10: Training tank 11: first entrance

12: Exit 1 13: Entrance 2

14: exit 2 15: inlet pipe

16: inlet valve 17: drain pipe

18: drain valve 19: regeneration valve

20: salt water injection valve 21: salt water injection pump

22: water pipe

Hereinafter, the softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a piping diagram showing the structure of the softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention.

As shown, the softening and regeneration system of the softener of the present invention is provided with one softening tank 10 filled with an ion exchange resin, and the cold and hot water is formed so that a forward flow path of raw water is formed at the upper and lower ends of the softening tank 10. The first inlet 11 and the first outlet 12 is formed, the second outlet 14 so that the reverse flow path is made when regeneration and salt water injection to one side of the first inlet 11 and the first outlet (12) And a second inlet 13 are formed.

In addition, an inlet valve 16 is installed in the inlet pipe 15 connected to the first inlet 11 of the tank, and the hot water coke 30 and the cold water coke 31 are joined to the end of the inlet pipe 15. The drain valve 18 is installed in the drain pipe 17 connected to the second outlet 14 of the tank.

In addition, a regeneration valve 19 is installed on the pipe connecting the inlet pipe 15 and the second inlet 13 of the tank, and the salt water injection valve 20 on the pipe connected to the second inlet 14 of the tank. ) And the brine injection pump 21 is installed, and the water outlet pipe 22 is connected to the first outlet 12 of the tank.

Although not shown in the softener according to the present invention, a control panel for automatically controlling and displaying various operations is provided at the front.

The control panel includes a time display section, a start button for starting softening, a regeneration button for regenerating the ion exchange resin, a time setting button for setting the time, a time setting button for setting the regeneration time of the ion exchange resin, and a time setting. Or an up button for increasing the number of the time display section at the time of setting the regeneration time of the ion exchange resin, a down button for down the number of the time display section at the time of setting the time or setting the regeneration time of the ion exchange resin, ion exchange It consists of a regeneration indicator that is lit during the regeneration of resin, a salt water injection indicator that is lit when the brine is supplied during regeneration of the ion exchange resin, and a start indicator that is lit when the start button is pressed.

The softening process and the regeneration method of the ion exchange resin using the softening system of the softener of the present invention as described above are carried out as follows.

First, the training process is explained.

When the user presses the start button on the control panel, the start indicator is turned on and the inlet valve 16 is operated to open.

Then, the mixed cold and hot water supplied from the hot water coke 30 and the cold water coke 31 are simultaneously transferred through the water inlet pipe 15 and the water inlet valve 16 to open the first inlet 11 formed at the top of the soft water tank 10. The hot and cold water mixed water introduced into the tank and introduced into the tank passes through the ion exchange resin filled in the soft water tank 10 and is flowed by the forward flow through the water outlet 12 formed at the bottom of the tank and the water outlet pipe 22 connected thereto. Water softening takes place.

In other words, the ion exchange resin of the strong acid cation filled in the tank exchanges the hardness-inducing substances (calcium, magnesium, etc.) of the influent with sodium to change the hard water to soft water, and it removes impurities such as green water and colloid to make soft and clean water.

At this time, the mixing ratio of hot water and cold water is to allow the user to adjust the hot water coke 30 and the cold water coke 31 to maintain a temperature according to taste.

On the other hand, the water softener deteriorates the performance of the filled ion exchange resin when used for a certain period of time.

The regeneration of the ion exchange resin is about 3 minutes of primary back washing, about 7 minutes of brine injection and circulation, about 2 minutes of secondary back washing, about 2 minutes of rinse This is done through a process, and each of these operations will be described in detail.

1st back washing

When a buzzer sound indicating the regeneration time is generated, the inlet valve 16 is closed and the regeneration valve 19 and the drain valve 18 are opened.

In this state, when the user presses the play button on the control panel, an indicator light is turned on during regeneration, and raw water through the inlet pipe 15 passes through the open regeneration valve 19 to enter the tank through the second inlet 13 of the tank. The introduced cold and hot mixed water flows out through the second outlet 14 formed at the top of the tank by passing the ion exchange resin filled in the tank, and the drain pipe 17 and the open drain valve 18 connected thereto. It is discharged to outside through).

In other words, the flow of raw water is reversed in the opposite direction to the flow of water when using soft water to release the compressed ion exchange resin by water pressure to reduce the filling state of resin particles, and to wash suspended matter and suspended matter deposited on the resin layer. And backwashing such as removing gas in the resin.

-Brine injection and circulation

After the primary backwashing action is brine injection and circulation is started.

Brine injection and circulation is a process of restoring the performance of ion exchange resin by desorbing and replacing the impurity ion component adsorbed by ion exchange resin with brine (regeneration agent) when using soft water. It is a process.

At this time, the inlet valve 16 and the regeneration valve 19 are closed, and the salt water injection pump 21 is operated in the state in which the salt water injection valve 20 and the drain valve 18 are opened so that the salt water contained in the salt water tank is softened. Flows into the tank (10).

That is, the brine is introduced into the tank through the brine injection valve 20-the second inlet 13 of the tank and is discharged to the second outlet 14 formed in the upper end of the tank while acting with the filled ion exchange resin, the drain pipe 17 And through the open drain valve 18.

2nd clear back washing

After the brine injection and circulation process is completed, the second backwashing process is performed for about 2 minutes, and the second backwashing operation is performed in the same manner as the primary backwashing operation described above.

That is, the raw water flows in the reverse flow from the regeneration valve 19-the second inlet 13 of the tank-the soft water tank 10-the second outlet 14 of the tank-the drain pipe 17-the drain valve 18. The washing operation is performed on the exchange resin.

Rinse

After the second backwashing action is completed, a rinsing action for completely washing out the brine and hardness components remaining in the resin layer is performed for about two minutes.

That is, the raw water through the inlet pipe 15 is opened inlet valve 16-the first inlet 11 formed at the top of the tank-the soft water tank 10-the first outlet 12 formed at the bottom of the tank and connected thereto Forward flow is discharged to the outside through the discharge pipe.

The mixed water softening process of the hot water and cold water as described above and the regeneration process of the ion exchange resin are controlled electronically by the microcomputer, and the microcomputer stores a program for controlling the on / off valve.

As described above, the softening and regeneration system of the water softener of the present invention is electronically controlled for the softening process and the regeneration process, so that convenient and efficient use management is made for the user. As a result, the regeneration effect is more excellent, and in particular, one soft water tank is used to perform soft water and regeneration of hot and cold water at the same time, thereby simplifying the piping structure and promoting user convenience.

Although the present invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, such changes or modifications should be within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (2)

One softening tank 10 filled with an ion exchange resin is provided, and the first inlet 11 and the first outlet 12 formed at the upper and lower ends of the tank so that the mixed water of the soft water and the cold and hot water at the time of rinsing is formed in a forward flow. The second outlet 14 and the second inlet 13 formed at the upper and lower ends of the tank so that reverse flow occurs during regeneration and brine injection; An inlet valve installed on an inlet pipe 15 connecting both the coke 30 and 31 of cold and hot water to the first inlet 11 of the tank; Drain pipe 17 and drain valve 18 connected to the second outlet 14 of the tank, A regeneration valve 19 installed on a pipe connecting the inlet pipe 15 and the second inlet 13 of the tank, and Soft water injection and regeneration system comprising a salt water injection valve (20) and a salt water injection pump (21) installed on the pipe connected to the second inlet (13) of the tank. The water softener of claim 1, wherein the water inlet valve 16, the regeneration valve 19, the drain valve 18, and the salt water injection valve 20 are electrically opened and closed by the control of the control panel. And playback system.

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