KR101883444B1 - Method for managing mal-functioning of flowpath changing valve - Google Patents

Abstract

A malfunction management method for a flow path switching valve according to the present invention includes the steps of: (a) initiating rotational drive of a valve drive gear in a forward direction; (b) sensing a plurality of position determining units formed on the valve driving gear by sensing the position sensing sensor and determining whether the sensed value varies; (c) determining whether the valve driving gear is in a driving error state through the passage of a predetermined error recognition time; And (d) accumulating the number of operational faults of the valve driving gear to determine whether the number of faults exceeds a predetermined number of faults.
The present invention resumes the driving operation from the origin to the regeneration position of the valve driving gear to detect the driving abnormality of the valve driving gear due to the temporary simple operation failure of the flow path switching valve and to stop driving the entire training device An excessive burden can be solved.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for managing malfunction of a flow path switching valve,

The present invention relates to a malfunction control method of a flow path switching valve, and more particularly, to a malfunction control method of a flow path switching valve, in which a valve driving gear constituting a flow path switching valve is rotationally driven, And more particularly to a malfunction control method of a flow path switching valve that enables a determination of whether or not the number of malfunctions of the drive gear reaches a predetermined number of errors.

The water softener has the principle of softening calcium ions and magnesium ions contained in hard water by replacing them with sodium ions (Na +). To this end, a water tub containing ion exchange resin of a special polymer compound containing sodium ions is an essential component And a regeneration tank containing an ion exchange resin regeneration material such as salt that produces sodium ions when dissolved in water.

That is, in the water softener, the water is continuously passed through the softener tube in contact with the ion exchange resin in a state where a large amount of fine ion exchange resin in the shape of ball is stored in the softener, The Na + component is reduced by the continuous contact with the tap water. Therefore, in order to conserve the Na + component, the salt water made of the NaCl component is injected into the water tank.

The conventional water softener generally has a regeneration tank filled with salt for regenerating water to regenerate the ion resin when the performance of the ion resin deteriorates when the water softener is deteriorated in performance, . The water storage tank and the regeneration tank are connected to the water supply port, the shower means, the water tank outlet, and the like through a connection pipe such as a pipe and a channel switching valve module.

The flow path switching valve module is formed with a flow path, a flow path, and a flow path groove therein so that raw water, soft water, and regenerated water can be sent to each part of the water softener system. That is, the raw water supplied from the outside is supplied to the regeneration tank and the regeneration tank, and the flow path is formed so that the regenerated water can be discharged to the outside by passing the ion water of the water tub.

In the operation of the water softener, the function of changing to the operating stage such as soft water, regeneration, rinsing, and the like is performed by the flow path switching valve module. The valve structure to which the valve driving gear constituting the flow path switching valve module is connected is rotated It is the basis for smoothly moving the raw water, the soft water and the regenerated water supplied through the process. On the other hand, even when the user manually performs the conversion or automatically performs the conversion operation in the process of converting to the respective operation steps of the water softener, the user can not accurately move to the operation steps such as the training, Has come. In addition, if power is not properly connected to the flow switching valve module, the water softener system will enter an unexpected operating mode, which may interfere with performance.

The malfunction of the flow path switching valve module as described above is performed by using a position sensing sensor such as an ultraviolet light emitting portion or a hall sensor to detect the position or the movement of the valve driving gear in a valve driving gear having a sensing hole or a magnetic force body In the past, when there is no sensing value input from the position sensor for a predetermined time, the power supply is stopped to perform an alarm operation for a malfunction.

Such a conventional malfunction detection method is problematic in that when the malfunction of the flow path switching valve module occurs, the position of the flow path is abnormal and the soft water is not discharged at all or the inflow of raw water is not performed. For example, if a malfunction occurs during the regeneration operation of the water softener and the inflow of the raw water to the regenerant tank is not interrupted, the operation may be stopped, the water in the regenerant tank may be drained, There is a problem that waste regenerant and raw water are wasted.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a zero point operation for returning the valve driving gear to its original state when detecting a malfunction of the valve driving gear through the position detecting sensor, And an object of the present invention is to provide a malfunction management method for a flow path switching valve which enables an alarm to be determined.

Further, the present invention determines whether or not an error alarm is generated according to whether the accumulated number of times of regenerating errors reaches the preset number of times of regenerating errors when detecting a malfunction of the valve driving gear to the regeneration position in the process of regenerating the water softener And to provide a method for malfunction control of the flow path switching valve.

In order to accomplish the above object, there is provided a malfunction management method for a flow path switching valve according to the present invention, comprising the steps of: (a) initiating rotational driving of the valve driving gear in a forward direction; (b) sensing a plurality of position determining units formed on the valve driving gear by sensing the position sensing sensor and determining whether the sensed value varies; (c) determining whether the valve driving gear is in a driving error state through an elapse of a preset error recognition time; And (d) accumulating the number of operational faults of the valve driving gear to determine whether the number of operational faults exceeds a predetermined number of faults.

It is preferable that the malfunction management method of the flow path switching valve is applied to a process of determining whether the flow path switching valve has reached the origin position.

It is preferable that the malfunction control method of the flow path switching valve is applied to a process of determining whether or not the regeneration position of the flow path switching valve is reached.

It is preferable that the malfunction management method of the flow path switching valve is applied to a process of determining whether the regeneration position and the origin position of the flow path switching valve have been reached.

In the step (b), it is preferable that the plurality of position determining units are position detecting holes formed on a cylindrical blocking wall constituting the valve driving gear.

The position detecting sensor includes a body, a light emitting unit disposed on the body to transmit a light component, and a light receiving unit disposed on the body at a predetermined distance from the light emitting unit and receiving light components from the light emitting unit And the blocking wall rotates in a space between the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion.

It is preferable that the plurality of position determining portions are magnetic forces disposed on a cylindrical blocking wall constituting the valve driving gear.

The position sensor may be a Hall sensor.

The method according to the present invention is characterized in that in the step (d), when the accumulated number of errors of the valve driving gear exceeds the predetermined number of errors, (e) The method further comprising:

It is preferable that the error recognition time is a maximum time required for recognizing an arbitrary position checking unit after the valve driving gear rotates and recognizing another position checking unit.

As described above, the malfunction control method of the flow path switching valve according to the present invention performs a zero point operation to restore the valve driving gear to its original state when detecting a malfunction of the valve driving gear through the position detecting sensor, It is possible to judge whether or not an error alarm has occurred according to whether the number of times of the occurrence of the error is reached or not. By re-executing the origin operation, it is possible to solve the excessive burden of stopping the operation of the entire apparatus by detecting the abnormal operation of the valve driving gear due to the temporary simple operation failure of the flow path switching valve.

In addition, the malfunction detection method according to the present invention can solve the conventional problem that the flow path switching valve module is not operated due to the abnormal state of the flow path at the time of malfunction, or the inflow of raw water is not performed.

1 is a perspective view of a flow path switching valve according to an embodiment of the present invention, viewed from one direction,
Fig. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of the flow path switching valve of Fig. 1 in another direction,
3 is a schematic view showing the structure of a valve driving gear which is a component of the present invention, and Fig.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a time-series characteristic of a malfunction management method of the flow-line switching valve according to the present invention.

These and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described are provided by way of illustration for the purposes of illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

The flow path switching valve applied to the malfunction management method of the flow path switching valve of the present invention may be manufactured as an integral type or separately manufactured as needed. In addition, some components may be omitted depending on the usage pattern.

Hereinafter, a method for managing the malfunction of the flow path switching valve and the valve driving gear constituting the flow path switching valve according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The overall configuration of the flow path switching valve 100

1 to 3, the overall structure of the flow path switching valve 100 applied to the present invention will be described.

The flow path switching valve 100 includes a valve driving gear 110, a position sensing sensor 120 disposed at one side of the valve driving gear 110, a housing 130 (not shown) in which a valve structure A flow pipe portion 140 connected to one end of the housing 130 to enable flow of raw water, soft water, regenerated water, etc., and a drive motor 150 for providing a driving force to the valve drive gear 110 . The driving motor 150 is directly connected to the pinion 152 and the pinion 152 is engaged with the outer peripheral surface of the tooth 111 formed on the outer periphery of the valve driving gear 110, Of power.

The flow path switching valve 100 is responsible for relocating the connection of the pipeline so that the fluid flows smoothly through the flow paths in each operation stage such as raw water, soft water, regeneration and rinsing mode on the water softener system. It plays a role. It is therefore desirable to have the valve drive gear 110, which actuates the valve structure in the housing 130, correctly positioned in order to increase the reliability of the water softener system.

The housing 130 is composed of an upper housing 132 and a lower housing 134 and the valve driving gear 110 and the position sensing sensor 120 are located on the upper side of the upper housing 132. The valve driving gear 110 is fixed on the upper surface of the upper housing 132 to be rotatable and spaced apart from the upper surface of the upper housing 132. The position detecting sensor 120 is fixed to the upper surface of the upper housing 132, It detects the position.

The valve driving gear 110 includes a blocking wall 114 extending in a cylindrical ring shape of a predetermined thickness from a lower end of a disc-shaped body formed with teeth 111, And a fastener 112 connected to the structure. In the blocking wall 114, a plurality of positioning portions 116 are formed at regular intervals. The position confirmation unit 116 may be a position confirmation hole formed through the blocking wall 114 as an example and may be positioned at an accurate position of the flow path switching valve 100 so as to correspond to a soft water, The position sensing sensor 120 can be stopped in the corresponding mode by inducing the conversion.

The position detecting sensor 120 may include a body 121, a light emitting unit 122 disposed on the body 121 and transmitting a light component, and a light emitting unit 122 disposed at a distance from the light emitting unit 122, And a light receiving unit 124 disposed on the light emitting unit 121 for receiving light components from the light emitting unit 122. That is, when the light component emitted from the light emitting unit 122 is received by the light receiving unit 124, it is recognized as an on state, and if the light reception is not confirmed, it is recognized as an off state.

The thickness of the blocking wall 114 is shorter than the distance between the light emitting part 122 and the light receiving part 124, When the valve driving gear 110 is powered by the driving motor 150 and rotated, the position detecting sensor 120 detects the closed region of the blocking wall 114 and the open region Alternately. That is, the on / off process is repeatedly performed, and the position determining unit 116 is automatically detected.

Referring to Fig. 3, the arrangement of the positioning portion 116 formed on the valve driving gear 110 will be discussed. The position checking unit 116 is formed with the first to fifth position determining units 116a, 116b, 116c, 116d, and 116e continuously along the blocking wall 114. [ The adjacent position determining unit 116 may maintain a constant distance d along the blocking wall 114. [ Here, the time during which the distance d is shifted in the process of rotating the valve driving gear 110 may be defined as a checking period. The confirmation period may mean a time for sensing an adjacent position check unit 116 after confirming the arbitrary position check unit 116. [ The number of the position determining units 116 may not be limited to the number of the embodiments of the present invention which can be variously changed.

In the present invention, for example, the first position determining unit 116a is set to the initial stop mode, and the other second position determining unit 116b to the fifth position determining unit 116e are set as raw water, Mode, and the like. Of course, the mode setting can be variously configured according to the use state of the water softener, the design direction, and the like.

When the valve driving gear 110 is in an initial stop mode in a state where it is in an arbitrary position, the position detecting sensor 120 first rotates the valve driving gear 110 in a forward direction, When the sensing value of the position confirming unit 116 can not be checked during the set checking period after sensing the first position determining unit 116, the valve driving gear 110 rotates in the reverse direction The first position determining unit 116a stops the position confirming unit 116 which is first sensed in the state of FIG. Here, the forward direction may mean a clock or counterclockwise direction, and the reverse direction may be set in the opposite direction according to the forward direction.

The process of confirming the second position confirming portion 16b to the fifth position confirming portion 116e from the first position confirming portion 116a corresponding to the initial stopping mode rotates the valve driving gear 110 counterclockwise The valve driving gear 110 can be changed from the raw water to the rinse mode by detecting the desired position confirming unit by sequentially calculating the set checking cycles.

In the present invention, a plurality of magnetic force members may be formed on the blocking wall 114 as another embodiment of the position determining unit 116. The magnetic force body includes a plurality of position confirming magnetic force bodies and a reference magnetic force body disposed on an edge side of the position determining magnetic force body. Here, the reference magnetic force body corresponds to the first position determining portion 116a as one embodiment of the position determining portion 116, and the position determining magnetic force body corresponds to the second position determining portion 116 as one embodiment of the position determining portion 116 116b to the fifth position confirming portion 116e.

Here, the magnetic force body induces precise positional conversion of the flow path switching valve module 100 to correspond to the water softener, regeneration, rinsing mode, etc. on the water softener system. Stopping is possible.

Description of a method for managing malfunction of the valve driving gear 110 constituting the flow path switching valve 100

Next, a method for managing malfunction of the valve driving gear 110, which is a core component of the flow path switching valve 100, according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG.

The regeneration operation is started when the water regeneration valve including the flow path switching valve 100 is supplied and the softening process is first performed to produce a predetermined amount of soft water, (S10).

Thereafter, it is determined whether the valve driving gear 110 is driven (S12). The position sensing sensor 120 transmits and receives a sensing signal through a plurality of position confirmation portions 116 disposed on the blocking wall 114 rotating at the same speed as the valve driving gear 110 rotates. That is, according to one embodiment, whether or not the position confirmation unit 116 is recognized can be read according to whether or not the light component between the light receiving unit 124 and the light emitting unit 122 is received. As another embodiment, it is possible to detect whether or not the position confirming unit 116 is recognized by detecting whether the magnetic force is changed by using the hall sensor in the position detecting magnetic force body and the reference magnetic force body formed on the blocking wall 114.

If there is a change in the on / off signal recognized by the position sensing sensor 120 in step S12, the position sensing unit 120 senses a different position confirmation unit 116. Therefore, It is determined whether or not the reproduction position has been reached (S14). If it is determined in step S14 that the regeneration position has been reached, it is determined that the movement of the valve driving gear 110 is completed (S16), and the regeneration position error count is initialized (S17). If the reproduction position has not been reached in step S14, step S12 is continuously performed.

In step S17, the initialization of the number of times of reproduction position error initializes the accumulated number of times of the reproduction position error. In the case where repetitive control is applied to the valve driving gear 110 within the number of errors set in the present invention, The number of times is reset to '0' to confirm normal operation of the valve driving gear 110.

If there is no change in the on / off signal recognized by the position sensing sensor 120 in step S12, it means that the valve operation gear 110 or the position sensing sensor 120 is malfunctioning. (S18). The error recognition time is regarded as the maximum time taken until the other position confirming unit 116 is recognized after the arbitrary position confirming unit 116 is confirmed in the state where the valve driving gear 110 is driven to rotate. That is, when recognizing the different position checker 116 within the error recognition time, it is regarded as an error.

If it is determined in step S18 that the error recognition time has not elapsed, step S12 is performed again.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the error recognition time has elapsed, the number of times of the reproduction position error is accumulated (S20). That is, since the error recognition time is a maximum time in which the valve driving gear 110 or the position sensing sensor 120 can be judged as a failure, it is not judged that the function is abnormal before the error recognition time elapses.

In step S22, it is determined whether the number of times of error of the reproduction position accumulated in step S20 exceeds the preset number of times of reproduction position error. In the step S22, an error checking process, which is one of the existing limitations, is set in a plurality of circuits in the process of switching the flow path to the regeneration position by using the valve driving gear 110, so that the valve driving gear 110 or the position sensing sensor 120 It is meaningful in that the function abnormality can be completely checked. The preset number of times of error of the reproduction position is programmed and stored before driving the training device. For example, the number of times of error of 3 to 5 times can be set in an appropriate range.

If it is determined in step S22 that the accumulated number of the playback position errors exceeds the predetermined number of playback position errors, an error alarm is performed to enable the user to perform the check (S32). In this process, the operation of the training device can be stopped entirely.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S22 that the accumulated number of times of play position errors does not exceed the predetermined number of play position errors, the valve start gear 110 may be caused to start the zero point operation (S24). In the case where the valve operating gear 110 is in an initial stop mode in a state where the valve driving gear 110 is in an arbitrary position, the position detecting sensor 120 rotates the valve driving gear 110 in the forward direction If it is not possible to check the sensing value of the position check unit 116 during the hall check period after sensing the arbitrary position check unit 116, the first position check unit 116a which is the initial stop mode is detected. It is assumed that the driving gear 110 is positioned in the initial stop mode corresponding to the first position confirming portion 116a by making the position confirming portion 116 to be sensed first when the driving gear 110 rotates in the reverse direction.

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not an error in the origin operating process has occurred (S26). In step S26, it is determined whether the valve driving gear 110 is driven as in step S12. That is, it is determined whether there is no change in the on / off signal recognized by the position detection sensor 120 and whether or not the predetermined origin movement error recognition time has passed.

In step S26, if the origin operation error recognition time has not elapsed, the origin operation error count is initialized (S27). In step S27, the initialization of the number of times of origin operation error initializes the accumulated number of times of the origin operation error, and the normal operation of the valve drive gear 110 is confirmed by resetting the number of times of error to '0' . Thereafter, step S12 is performed again.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the origin operation error recognition time has elapsed, the number of origin operation errors is accumulated (S28).

In step S30, it is determined whether the number of times the origin operation error has been accumulated in step S28 exceeds the preset number of origin operation errors. In the step S30, an error check process, which is one of the limitations of the conventional one, is set in a plurality of circuits in the process of resetting the valve driving gear 110 to the home position, thereby completely solving the malfunction of the valve driving gear 110 or the position detecting sensor 120 This can be meaningful in that it can be checked.

If it is determined in step S30 that the accumulated number of times of origin operation error exceeds the preset number of origin operation errors, an error alarm is performed to allow the user to perform the check (S32). In this process, the operation of the training device can be stopped entirely.

As described above, the malfunction management method of the channel switching valve according to the present invention performs a zero point operation to restore the valve driving gear to its original state when detecting a malfunction of the valve driving gear through the position sensing sensor, It is possible to judge whether or not an error alarm has occurred according to whether the number of times of the occurrence of the error is reached or not. By re-executing the origin operation, it is possible to solve the excessive burden of stopping the operation of the entire apparatus by detecting the abnormal operation of the valve driving gear due to the temporary simple operation failure of the flow path switching valve.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the appended claims. And equivalents should also be considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

100: Flow Switching Valve Module
110: valve drive gear
111: Tooth type
112: fastener
114: blocking wall
116:
120: Position sensor
121: Body
122:
124:
130: housing
132: upper housing
134: Lower housing
140:
150: drive motor
152: pinion
d: separation distance between each positioning unit

Claims (10)

In the malfunction management method of the valve driving gear constituting the flow path switching valve,
(a) initiating rotational drive of the valve driving gear in a forward direction;
(b) sensing a plurality of position determining units formed on the valve driving gear by sensing the position sensing sensor and determining whether the sensed value varies;
(c) determining whether the valve driving gear is in a driving error state through an elapse of a preset error recognition time; And
(d) determining whether or not the number of operational errors of the valve driving gear exceeds a predetermined number of errors, and if the number of operational errors of the integrated valve driving gear exceeds a predetermined number of errors, The method comprising:
If it is determined in step (d) that the number of operational errors of the accumulated valve driving gear does not exceed the predetermined number of errors,
(e-1) initiating an origin operation on the valve driving gear;
(e-2) determining whether an error in the origin operating process occurs, and accumulating the number of origin operating errors when it is determined that the origin operating error recognizing time has elapsed;
(e-3) performing an error alarm when the number of times of the origin operation error accumulated in the step (e-2) exceeds the preset number of origin operation errors; Further comprising:
In the step (b)
Wherein the plurality of position determining portions are position sensing holes formed on a cylindrical blocking wall constituting the valve driving gear,
Wherein a plurality of position sensing holes are continuously formed at predetermined intervals in the blocking wall, and the position sensing holes are formed in the same shape.
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.
The method according to claim 1,
A malfunction management method for the flow path switching valve,
Wherein the step of determining whether the valve driving gear has reached the home position of the valve driving gear,
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.
The method according to claim 1,
A malfunction management method for the flow path switching valve,
Wherein the controller is adapted to determine whether the regeneration position of the valve driving gear is reached or not.
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.
The method according to claim 1,
A malfunction management method for the flow path switching valve,
Wherein the controller is adapted to determine whether the regeneration position and the origin position of the valve driving gear have been reached.
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.
delete The method according to claim 1,
The position detecting sensor includes a body, a light emitting unit disposed on the body to transmit a light component, and a light receiving unit disposed on the body at a predetermined distance from the light emitting unit and receiving light components from the light emitting unit And the blocking wall rotates in a space between the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion.
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.
delete delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the error recognition time is a maximum time required for recognizing an arbitrary position checking unit after the valve driving gear rotates and recognizing another position checking unit.
How to manage malfunction of flow switching valve.

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