KR20140024754A - A water purifier - Google Patents

Abstract

A water purifier of the present invention includes a flux control unit which controls discharge of concentrated water which contains foreign materials filtered by a reverse osmotic filter. The flux control unit is formed with an inlet cap; first and second flow paths arranged in parallel to discharge the concentrated water; a valve housing where the channel capacity of either the first or second flow path is decided by the channel capacity of the other; a flux control valve which controls the channel capacity of the first flow path; an outlet cap which is combined to one end of the valve housing, and which is formed with an outlet, connected to a second discharge path of the concentrated water, in order for the concentrated water, passed through either the first or second flow path, can be discharged through the second discharge path of concentrated water. The water purifier has a simple structure and is capable of reducing the combining spots of members having possibilities for a water leak.

Description

A water purifier {A WATER PURIFIER}

The present invention relates to a water purifier.

Water purifier is a device that purifies by removing impurities contained in water. Such water purifiers are classified into natural filtration, direct filtration, distillation, reverse osmosis, etc. according to the water purification method. At present, the most commonly used is a direct water purifier, which is an integer by the filter.

The water purifier using such a filter is provided with a filter for purifying the raw water and a water tank for collecting purified water by the filter, and a heater or a cooling system for supplying cold water or hot water may be further provided in some cases.

Examples of the filter include a sediment filter (sediment filter) for removing macroscopic foreign substances such as rust, soil, sand, and suspended solids contained in raw water (tap water, ground water, etc.) a pre-carbeon filter that removes residual chlorine components such as trihalomethanes by adsorption using activated carbon made by burning coal minerals or palm trees at high temperatures, polyamide (Membrane filter or reverse osmosis filter (R / O)) which removes various pollutants, bacteria, inorganic substances, heavy metals and the like in the water through fine pores equivalent to 0.0001 microns by the membrane, And a post-carbon filer for removing the same foreign matter.

Particularly, the water purified by the reverse osmotic pressure filter (hereinafter referred to as purified water) is provided for the user to drink, and the filtered impurities (hereinafter referred to as concentrated water) must be discharged to the outside. On the concentrated water discharge passage, a flow rate control valve and a wastewater resistance are provided. The flow control valve and the wastewater resistance are provided in parallel with each other, and the discharge amount of the concentrated water is controlled according to the opening amount of the flow control valve.

In order to realize such a structure, conventionally, the flow rate control valve and the wastewater resistance are provided independently of each other, and they are connected through a plurality of connection pipes. The structure in which the plurality of connection pipes are connected to the flow rate control valve or the wastewater resistance, respectively, has a problem in that not only the number of connection parts where leakage can occur, but also an increase in the manufacturing cost and an increase in the number of assembly operations due to the increase in the number of parts.

A problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a water purifier that reduces the possibility of water leakage during the discharge of concentrated water to the outside.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a water purifier that simplifies the structure of a flow rate regulator for regulating the amount of concentrated water discharged.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a water purifier that reduces the number of parts constituting the flow rate regulator.

The purifier of the present invention comprises a reverse osmosis filter; A first concentrated water discharge passage through which the concentrated water including the foreign matter filtered by the reverse osmosis filter is discharged; A flow rate regulating unit connected to the concentrated water discharge channel and controlling the amount of concentrated water discharged to the outside; And a second concentrated water discharge channel for discharging the concentrated water that has passed through the flow rate control unit to the outside, wherein the flow rate control unit includes an inlet cap having an inlet port connected to the first concentrated water discharge channel; A first flow path and a second flow path for discharging the concentrated concentrated water are formed in parallel with one end of the first flow path and the second flow path, A valve housing in which the other flow quantity is determined; A flow rate regulating valve for regulating the flow rate of the first flow path; And an outlet connected to the second concentrated water discharge passage so as to discharge the concentrated water discharged through at least one of the first flow passage and the second flow passage to the second concentrated water discharge passage Outlet cap.

The water purifier of the present invention has an effect of reducing the risk of water leakage during the discharge of concentrated water.

Further, the water purifier of the present invention has the effect of reducing the number of components by simplifying the structure of the flow rate regulating portion, thus reducing the manufacturing cost and reducing the number of assembling steps.

In addition, the water purifier of the present invention has the effect of reducing the possibility of leakage due to component failure or assembly failure by minimizing the connection part between parts and components on the path through which concentrated water is discharged.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows an integer system applied to the water purifier of Fig.
3 is a perspective view showing a flow rate regulator.
4 is an exploded perspective view of the flow rate regulator shown in FIG.
5 is a cross-sectional view of the flow rate regulator shown in FIG.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. To fully disclose the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a water purifier according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1, a water purifier 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a main body 2, input means such as a button for receiving various control commands from a user, A control panel 3 provided with a display means for displaying various information indicating the operation state of the water purifier, and a lever 4 operated by a user to take purified water through a water intake hole (not shown) .

Fig. 2 shows an integer system applied to the water purifier of Fig. Referring to FIG. 2, the water purifier 1 may include a plurality of filters. These filters include a sediment filter 11, a pre-carbeon filter 12, a membrane filter or reverse osmosis filter (R / O) 13, a post-carbon filter 14 , post-carbon filer), and the like. Hereinafter, the water purifier 1 will be described in such a manner that the raw water passes through the sediment filter 11, the free carbon filter 12, the reverse osmosis filter 13 and the post carbon filter 14 in order, The order of installation is not necessarily limited to this.

The sediment filter or the sedimentation filter 11 is made of a porous material having a micropore size of 5 microns or less by first contacting the raw water to remove contaminants of about 5 microns (μm) or more. For example, a high density polypropylene polyproplylene) material.

The free carbon filter 12 is a carbon material calcined at a high temperature using raw materials such as coconut husks, wood, and coal, and is composed of an aggregate of amorphous activated carbons having minute pores of molecular size in the activation process. Granular activated carbon (GAC), powder activated carbon (PAC), and activated carbon fiber (ACF). The raw materials include palm oil, wood, sawdust, charcoal, Anthracite, lignite, and coal, petroleum residues using petroleum residues, sulfuric acid sludge, and oil carbon.

The reverse osmotic pressure filter 13 is a system in which a reverse osmosis pressure is forcibly applied to move raw water from a high impurity concentration level to a low concentration level in the water to be purified, that is, the water is passed through a filter membrane having a very fine porous structure However, pollutants are filtered without passing through the filter membrane. In the case of the water purification system using the reverse osmosis pressure filter 13, it is difficult to apply a sufficient hydraulic pressure only by the natural pressure or the water pressure depending on the case, so that a water storage tank separate from the pressure pump may be further provided.

The reverse osmosis filter 13 may be made of TFC (Thin Film Composite), that is, a multiple layer thin film filter film composite. Such a TFC material may include an ultra-thin dense layer and a porous substrate layer, the density layer is polyamide, and the porous substrate layer is polysulfone. ) As the main raw material.

According to the embodiment, the reverse osmosis filter 13 may include a low pressure type reverse osmosis membrane (non-filtration-Low Presseure), and the pore size of the membrane surface may be adjusted so that the low- (Ultrafiltration Membrane) membrane, which is smaller than the reverse osmosis membrane and has a size of 0.0001 to 0.001 micron smaller than that of the UF (Ultrafiltration Membrane) membrane, and can be used only with the pressure of the water without a separate high-pressure pump.

On the other hand, when the raw water passes through the reverse osmosis filter 13, almost all the impurities are removed, but once the post-carbon filter 14 is passed, the gas component and the odor component dissolved in the water are removed, have. The post-carbon filter 14 may be formed of an aggregate of activated carbon as in the case of the pre-carbon filter 11.

On the other hand, the reverse osmosis filter 13 is disposed inside the filter housing 31 in which the raw water inlet 32 into which the raw water flows is formed. The filter housing 31 may be provided with a raw water inlet 32 through which raw water flows and a purified water outlet 35 through which purified water is discharged and a filter cap 36 coupled with the filter housing 31 is provided with a concentrated A water outlet 37 may be formed and the tube 34 may be disposed inside the reverse osmosis filter 13.

The purified purified water passing through the reverse osmosis filter 13 is transferred to the post carbon filter 14 through the tube 34 and the purified water outlet 35 to be finally consumed by the user, The concentrated water containing the filtered pollutants must be discharged to the outside, and the flow rate control unit 100 is provided on the concentrated water discharge flow path 41 through which the concentrated water is discharged.

The concentrated water discharge flow path 41 includes a first concentrated water discharge flow path 41a for guiding the concentrated water to the inlet side of the flow rate regulating part 100 and a second concentrated water discharge flow path 41b for discharging the concentrated water passing through the flow rate regulating part 100 to the outside And includes a discharge passage 41b.

3 is a perspective view showing a flow rate regulator. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the flow rate regulator shown in FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the flow rate regulator shown in FIG. 3 to 5, the flow rate regulator 100 is connected to the first concentrated water discharge passage 41a to regulate the amount of concentrated water discharged to the outside.

The flow rate regulator 100 includes an inlet cap 140 having an inlet 141 connected to the first concentrated water discharge passage 41a and one end connected to the inlet cap 140 to supply the concentrated water, A valve housing 150 in which a first flow path 151 and a second flow path 155 for discharge of water are formed in parallel, a flow control valve 120 for regulating the flow rate of the first flow path 151, The second concentrated water discharge flow path (41b) is connected to the other end of the housing (150) so that the concentrated water discharged through at least one of the first flow path (151) and the second flow path (155) And an outlet cap 160 formed with an outlet 161 connected to the outlet cap 41b.

The valve housing 150 may be provided with an installation groove 157 into which the flow control valve 120 is inserted and a bracket 110 for fixing the flow control valve 120 may further be provided.

The first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155 are connected to each other in parallel so that one flow rate is determined depending on the flow rate of any one of the first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155. In general, in the process of purifying the raw water, the raw water is filtered by the foreign matter filtered while passing through the reverse osmosis filter 13, and the outside of the reverse osmosis filter 13 (raw water flows inward from the outside of the reverse osmosis filter 13, ), The concentration of such high concentration of raw water should be gradually discharged. For this purpose, it is preferable to provide a wastewater resistance on the second flow path 155. Herein, the wastewater resistance is for controlling the amount of purified water and the amount of wastewater according to the amount of the wastewater, and various types of wastewater resistances are distributed in accordance with the specifications of the reverse osmosis filter 13 in the market. Generally, when the flow rate of the reverse osmosis filter 13 is in the range of 50 to 60 GPD (gallons per day), the wastewater resistance of the specimen of 250 ml per minute is suitable, and in the case of 80 GPD, the wastewater resistance of the specimen of 300 to 350 ml is suitable , And in the case of low-pressure reverse osmosis membrane filter, wastewater resistance of 150ml standard is used.

The resistance of the wastewater is lower than that of the first flow path 151 because the second flow path 155 itself is formed with a narrower flow path sectional area than the first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155 is formed on the second flow path 155 by the above- It is also possible to install wastewater resistors. In any case, the mass flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the second flow path 155 is preferably smaller than the flow rate of the reverse osmosis filter 13. For example, when the first flow path 151 is completely shut off by the flow control valve 120, all of the concentrated water is discharged through the second flow path 155, but in this case also, The amount of the purified water passing through the reverse osmosis filter 13 must be large.

In addition, at the maximum opening of the flow control valve 120, the flow rate (water flow rate) of the concentrated water discharged through the first flow path 151 is preferably larger than the water flow rate of the reverse osmosis membrane filter 13. According to the embodiment, the control panel 3 can be provided with a menu for selecting the filter cleaning execution, and the flow control valve 120 is opened to a considerable level, preferably at the maximum, Is discharged through the first flow path 151, so that the foreign matter in the filter housing 31 can be discharged.

Hereinafter, it is assumed that the second flow path 155 acts as a wastewater resistance.

In order for the second flow path 155 to function as a wastewater resistance, the flow rate of the second flow path 155 must be relatively small compared to the flow rate of the first flow path 151 at the same water pressure. In this case, when the opening degree of the flow control valve 120 is high, most of the concentrated water is discharged through the first flow path 151. Therefore, the amount of concentrated water discharged through the second flow path 155 And the amount of the concentrated water discharged through the second flow path 155 when the flow control valve 120 is fully opened is negligible.

While the raw water is being purified, the opening degree of the flow control valve 120 is lowered (preferably, completely blocked) so that concentrated water is discharged little by little through the second flow path 155. On the other hand, It is preferable that the flow control valve 120 is fully opened so that the foreign matter inside the valve body 31 is quickly discharged.

Meanwhile, the first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155 may be formed integrally with the valve housing 150. The valve housing 150 may be formed by injecting a synthetic resin. In this case, the core for forming the coupling hole 157, to which the coupling hole 156 to which the inlet cap 140 is coupled and the outlet cap 160 are coupled, It is preferable that the two engaging holes 156 and 157 are opposed to each other so that they can be easily taken out. The structure in which the first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155 are integrally formed minimizes the connection portion between the parts and the parts on the path through which the concentrated water is discharged so that the possibility of leakage due to component failure or assembly failure can be reduced It is effective.

In addition, the inlet cap 140 and / or the outlet cap 160 are preferably removably coupled to the valve housing 150. In the case of providing a separate wastewater resistance inside the second flow path 155, it is possible to easily replace the wastewater resistance having a shorter life span.

The flow control valve 120 may be a solenoid valve. 5 shows a solenoid valve 120 including a rod 123 which is moved forward and backward by a magnetic force induced by a current flowing in a coil (not shown) and a spring 122 which rides on the rod 123. The first flow path 151 is interrupted by the packing 124 provided at the end of the rod 122. 5, the first flow path 151 includes the upstream side flow path 151a and the downstream side flow path 151b of the solenoid valve 120, and the inlet of the downstream side flow path 151b is blocked by the packing 124 .

On the other hand, a portion where there is a possibility that water leakage may occur due to a component failure between the first concentrated water discharge passage 41a and the second concentrated water discharge passage 41b or a connection failure between the members, The connection between the valve housing 150 and the flow control valve 120 and the coupling between the discharge cap 160 and the valve housing 150 are restricted to the first valve body 150 and the second valve body 150, Since the flow path 155 is formed integrally with the valve housing 150, the possibility of leakage that may occur when the first flow path 151 and the second flow path 155 are formed as separate elements from the valve housing 150 .

Claims (11)

Reverse Osmosis Filter;
A first concentrated water discharge passage through which the concentrated water including the foreign matter filtered by the reverse osmosis filter is discharged;
A flow rate control unit connected to the concentrated water discharge passage to adjust an amount of the concentrated water discharged to the outside; And
And a second concentrated water discharge channel for discharging the concentrated water that has passed through the flow rate control unit to the outside,
The flow rate control unit,
An inlet cap formed with an inlet connected to the first concentrated water discharge passage;
One end is combined with the inlet cap to introduce the concentrated water, and a first flow path and a second flow path for discharging the introduced concentrated water are formed in parallel, and according to the flow rate of any one of the first flow path and the second flow path. A valve housing in which the other water flow rate is determined;
A flow rate regulating valve for regulating the flow rate of the first flow path; And
A discharge port coupled to the other end of the valve housing and connected to the second concentrated water discharge channel so that the concentrated water discharged through at least one of the first and second flow paths is discharged to the second concentrated water discharge channel; Water purifier with caps. The method of claim 1,
And the first flow path and the second flow path are integrally formed with the valve housing. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the valve housing is formed by injection molding. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the valve housing comprises:
Wherein the coupling hole to which the inlet cap is coupled and the coupling hole to which the outlet cap is coupled face each other. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the inlet cap or the outlet cap is removably coupled to the valve housing. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the maximum flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the second flow path is smaller than the flow rate of the reverse osmosis filter. The method according to claim 6,
The maximum flow rate of the flow control valve, the flow rate of the concentrated water discharged through the first flow path is greater than the water flow rate of the reverse osmosis membrane filter. The method of claim 1,
And a wastewater resistance of the valve housing and a separate element on the second flow path. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the flow rate control valve is a solenoid valve. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the valve housing is provided with an installation groove in which the flow control valve is installed. The method of claim 1,
A water purifier is provided between the inlet cap and the housing, between the outlet cap and the housing, and between the flow control valve and the housing only between the first concentrated water discharge passage and the second concentrated water discharge passage.

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