KR20190001450U - Industrial smart water purifier - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a smart water purifier that monitors the performance of a water purifier in real time, automatically performs filter cleaning according to monitoring results to extend the filter usage period, and informs the administrator terminal of the filter replacement timing and monitoring results.
The smart water purifier of this invention can measure the electric conductivity of raw water and drinking water as well as flow rate change and differential pressure, and can more accurately judge the performance (clogging degree, life span prediction) of the filter (pretreatment filter and membrane).
The inventive smart water purifier can periodically perform filter cleaning by itself, and the flushing and recycling time and frequency can be controlled based on the measured filter performance value, thereby extending the filter life.
The smart water purifier of this invention is equipped with a gate network and a Wi-Fi module, so that it is possible to provide free Wi-Fi to a large number of users at a restaurant, an office or a factory workplace where Wi-Fi is not provided.

Description

Industrial smart water purifier

More particularly, the present invention relates to a smart water purifier for a new business, and more particularly, to a smart water purifier for a new business, more specifically, to monitor the performance of a water purifier in real time, perform filter cleaning automatically according to monitoring results, To a smart water purifier for industrial use.

A water purifier is a device for filtering natural water (hereinafter referred to as "raw water") such as tap water, ground water or weak water, and filters foreign water by using various kinds of filters to remove foreign substances or harmful substances contained in the raw water, Provide drinking water containing only beneficial substances.

In general, when the water purifier is used for a certain period of time, the purification ability is remarkably reduced, so it is essential to periodically replace consumable materials such as filters and maintenance management to check whether the apparatus is normally operating.

In maintenance and replacement of the water purifier, the manager periodically visits the place where the water purifier is directly installed at predetermined intervals to check the operation state and judge whether the filter is replaced or not.

However, the water purifier can be broken and the filter replacement time may be changed even if the same product is used depending on the use conditions such as the use place, the use time, the contamination degree of the raw water, and the usage amount. For example, it is necessary to shorten the filter replacement cycle in a water purifier installed in a restaurant, a workplace, an office or the like where the amount of water is large, or where the contamination degree of the raw water is relatively high.

In recent years, systems and devices have been developed that can confirm the parts replacement cycle of a water purifier without visiting a manager.

 Patent No. 10-0651629 discloses a filter replacement timing notification device of a reverse osmosis water purifier that detects the operation accumulated time and predicts the life of the filter and displays it.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-0836720 discloses a filter replacement timing notification device for determining whether a filter is clogged from a flow rate of water flowing into a water storage tank.

Open Patent Application No. 10-2005-0110815 discloses a water purifier management system for detecting operating status and management status information of a water purifier and transmitting the information to a management server at a remote site.

However, the registered patents and the published patents are limited to notifying the administrator or the user of the filter replacement time based on the differential pressure, the flow rate, the flow rate, and the like.

The present invention is to provide a smart water purifier that can not only notify when a filter is exchanged but also can perform maintenance on its own.

The present invention provides a smart water purifier that can extend the filter life and increase the replacement cycle.

The present invention provides a smart water purifier that can provide wireless WiFi to a large number of users.

In one aspect,

A pretreatment filter 10 for purifying raw water;

A pressure pump (20) located at a downstream end of the pretreatment filter and pressurizing the raw water;

A membrane filter (30) located at a downstream end of the pressure pump;

An electrical conductivity meter (40) provided at each of the front and rear ends of the membrane;

A pressure sensor (50) at the upstream side of the membrane;

A flow sensor 60 downstream of the membrane; And

The performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane is compared with a preset reference value, and the performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane is transmitted to an administrator terminal connected to the wired / wireless network, And a control module (70) for controlling at least one of a flushing, an air flushing, and a recycling of the filter by controlling the pump and the automatic valve according to the performance of the pretreatment filter or the membrane.

The smart water purifier of this invention can measure the electric conductivity of the raw water and the drinking water as well as the flow rate change and the differential pressure to more accurately determine the filter performance (clogging degree, lifetime prediction).

The inventive smart water purifier can control the filter cleaning based on the measured filter performance, thus extending the filter life.

The smart water purifier of this invention is equipped with a gate network and a Wi-Fi module, so that it is possible to provide free Wi-Fi to a large number of users at a restaurant, an office or a factory workplace where Wi-Fi is not provided.

1 is a view showing a configuration of a smart water purifier.
Figures 2 and 3 are schematic diagrams showing the operation of the control module.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the description or drawings of the following embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the construction of an industrial smart water purifier, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are schematic views showing the operation of a control module.

In the present invention, an industrial water purifier is used as a term to distinguish it from a domestic water purifier. An industrial water purifier refers to a water purifier whose water usage is several times higher than that of a domestic water purifier or whose water purification capacity is relatively larger than that of a domestic water purifier. Industrial water purifiers have high water purification ability and can be used in production facilities of enterprises, work spaces with many workers, large restaurants and the like.

1, the smart water purifier of the present invention includes a pretreatment filter 10, 10 ', a pressure pump 20, a membrane filter 30, an electric conductivity meter 40, a pressure sensor 50, a flow sensor 60 And a control module 70.

The pretreatment filter is installed on the piping to filter particulate matter from the raw water and to filter chlorine or organic chemicals and the like.

The pretreatment filter includes a cartridge filter 10 for filtering relatively large particles contained in raw water and a carbon filter 10 'for removing chlorine components and odors contained in raw water passing through the cartridge filter 10 .

The pressurizing pump 20 is located at the downstream end of the pre-processing filter, and pressurizes the raw water to supply it to the membrane filter 30.

The membrane filter 30 removes heavy metals, ionic substances, organic substances and microorganisms contained in water. The membrane filter may include a microfiltration membrane (microfiltration membrane), an ultra filtration membrane (ultrafiltration membrane), a nanofiltration membrane (nano filtration membrane), and an RO membrane (reverse osmosis membrane).

The water that has passed through the membrane filter 30 may be stored in the storage tank 100 and then supplied to the user as drinking water or directly to the user without going through the storage tank.

The purifier of the present invention includes an electric conductivity meter 40 provided at the front and rear ends of the membrane, a pressure sensor 50 at the front of the membrane, and a flow sensor 60 at the rear of the membrane.

The electric conductivity meter 40, the pressure sensor 50 and the flow rate sensor 60 may be additionally installed at appropriate positions.

The electric conductivity meter 40 is installed at the front and rear ends of the membrane to measure the electric conductivity of the raw water and the drinking water. As the electric conductivity meter, a known and commercially available conductivity meter can be used without limitation. Electrical conductivity is a very important item to judge the quality of water even though the electric conductivity is not specified in the water quality test standard for drinking water. It is a representative item for water pollution caused by inorganic substances. It can be measured automatically by using the electrode measurement method. It is an indicator of the ionic substance. The electrical conductivity may be expressed as a salt permeability (produced water conductivity / water conductivity).

The pressure sensors 50 and 50 'may be installed in front of the membrane filter or in front of the pre-filter, respectively, and may transmit measured pressure values to the control module 70 in real time.

The purifier of the present invention includes a bypass pipe 80 connecting the front and rear ends of the pretreatment filter and a bypass pipe 90 connected to the front end of the pressure pump in the concentrated water pipe 31.

In addition, the purifier of the present invention includes automatic valves 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305 that can automatically control the flow of raw water and concentrated water.

The control module 70 determines the performance of the pretreatment filter or membrane, transmits the determined performance and air cleaning status to the manager terminal, drives the automatic valve and the pressure pump, Can be controlled.

The performance of the pre-treatment filter or membrane, which is a term used in the present invention, refers to the state of the filter or membrane (e.g., steady state, abnormal state, critical state, replacement (request), etc.) determined by the processor 71.

The term filter cleaning, which is used in the present invention, refers to flushing, air flushing or recycling as described below.

The term water purifier used in the present invention refers to the operation state (operation or interruption) of the water purifier, the flow rate of raw water, the amount of drinking water produced, the state of filter cleaning, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 2, the control module 70 includes a memory unit 71 and a processor 72.

The memory unit 71 stores data received from the electric conductivity meter and sensors, and stores the performance of the membrane and the pre-processing filter.

The processor 72 determines the performance of the membrane and the pretreatment filter, opens and closes the pump and the automatic valve, and transmits the water purifier performance and operation status to the administrator terminal in real time.

The water purifier may include a display unit 73 disposed on the front surface or a side surface of the water purifier. The processor 72 may display the performance and operation status of the membrane and the pre-filter on the display unit 73.

The administrator terminal can receive the water purifier performance and operation status from the processor 72 in real time.

On the other hand, the administrator terminal can download and execute the water purifier maintenance application or the management program. The administrator terminal connected to the control module 70 and the wired / wireless network executes the application or management program to change the filter cleaning condition (cleaning time, frequency, period) of the processor 72 or change the water purifier production conditions ) Can be adjusted.

The processor 72 may determine the performance of the membrane in the following manner.

First, the pressure, the production flow rate (produced drinking water) and the electric conductivity at the time of the initial operation (test run period) in which there is no filter clogged state based on the predetermined raw water quantity are received from the sensors 40, 50 and 60 and set as the reference values . For example, the pressure reference value may be set to an average value of the pressure values measured during the initial commissioning period.

The processor 72 compares pressure, flow rate, and electrical conductivity data received at predetermined time intervals with a preset reference value to determine the performance of the pre-treatment filter and the membrane.

For example, when the pressure data measured by the pressure sensor 50 is 20% or more higher than the reference value, the processor 72 determines that the abnormal state is abnormal. If the pressure data is increased by 30% or more with respect to the reference value, It can be judged that the membrane filter replacement time has come.

The processor 72 determines that the pressure data measured from the pressure sensor 50 'is in an abnormal state when the pressure data measured by the pressure sensor 50' is increased by 30% or more. When the pressure data is increased by more than 40% It can be determined that the pre-processing filter replacement time has come.

In addition, the processor 72 determines that the measured flow rate data is in an abnormal state when the measured flow rate is reduced by 20% or more with respect to the reference value, and when the measured flow rate data is decreased by more than 30% .

If the measured electrical conductivity is increased by 15% relative to the reference value, the processor 72 determines that it is in an abnormal state. If the measured electrical conductivity increases by more than 30% can do.

The processor 72 may notify the administrator terminal of the performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane when any one of the electrical conductivity, pressure, and flow data values is determined to be abnormal, dangerous, or filter replacement.

On the other hand, the processor 72 turns on and off the automatic valve and the pressurizing pump according to the cleaning time, the number of times, and the cycle inputted by the manager, even when the electrical conductivity, pressure, Can be performed.

In addition, the processor 72 can immediately perform the pre-processing filter, the flushing, air flushing, or recycling of the membrane filter when any one of the electric conductivity meter, the pressure, and the flow data value is determined to be abnormal, The period of performing the filter cleaning can be shortened.

The processor 72 can immediately perform flushing and recycling of the pretreatment filter and the membrane filter when any one of the electric conductivity meter, the pressure, and the flow rate data is determined to be in a dangerous state, and the flushing and recycling execution cycle Can be further shortened. In addition, the processor 72 may perform a notification to promptly request replacement of a component such as a filter with the administrator terminal.

In addition, when the processor 72 determines that any one of the electric conductivity meter, the pressure, and the flow rate data value is the filter replacement, the processor 70 may stop the automatic valve 300 to stop the water purifier.

Flushing of the preprocessing filter can be performed as follows.

The process 72 sends a closing signal to the automatic valves 300 and 301 before and after the pre-processing filter and the pressure pump 20 to close the automatic valves 300 and 301 and turn off the pressure pump, An open signal is sent to the automatic valve 302 provided in the bypass pipe 80 of the pretreatment valve and the automatic valve 303 provided in the drain pipe of the pretreatment filter to flush the automatic valve.

A considerable portion of the particulate matter attached to the filter can be drained through the flushing of the pretreatment filter, so that the efficiency of the pretreatment filter can be increased.

The process 72 may send an open signal to the automatic valve 305 provided in the concentrated water pipe 31 of the nanomembrane to open the automatic valve 305 to drain the concentrated water (flushing of the membrane).

Recycling of the membrane can be performed as follows.

After the process 72 drains the concentrated water, the automatic valve 305 is closed by sending a closing signal to the automatic valve 305 and the automatic valve 304 installed in the bypass pipe 90 of the nanomembrane, The automatic valve 304 is opened to recycle the concentrated water.

The concentrated water has almost no bacteria, viruses, organic substances and the like having a large size and is mostly contained, and mainly contains multivalent ions. The present invention can significantly reduce the load on the nanomembrane by recycling concentrated water from which bacteria, viruses and organic matter have been removed.

In addition, the process 72 can periodically perform air flushing on the nanomembrane, and additionally, air flushing is performed according to the performance judgment (abnormal state, dangerous state, etc.) of the pre-treatment filter or membrane .

Referring to FIG. 1, the smart water purifier may include an air injection pipe A connected to the inlet of the membrane and an automatic valve 601 located in the pipe.

The air flushing may be performed by the process 72 opening the automatic valves 601, When the automatic valves 601 and 305 are opened, compressed air (1 kg / cm 2 or more) is injected into the membrane through the air injection pipe (A) and then drained through the concentrated water pipe (31). At this time, the compressed air can discharge particles, microorganisms and slime attached to the membrane feed space.

Also, flushing of the membrane and air flushing can be performed simultaneously. In this case, as the raw water (liquid) and the high-pressure air are injected into the membrane, the turbulence due to mixing of the air and the raw water becomes large, and as a result, the particles or microorganisms pressed on the membrane can be more easily removed.

In addition, the present invention can automatically perform air flushing of the pre-treatment filter. Referring to FIG. 1, the smart water purifier may include an air injection pipe (B) connected to an inlet of a pipe at a downstream end of the pretreatment filter, and an automatic valve (600) located in the pipe.

The air flushing may be performed by the process 72, which locks the automatic valves 300, 301, 302 and opens 303 and 600.

Also, flushing and air flushing of the pre-treatment filter can be performed simultaneously. If the process closes the automatic valves 300, 301 and opens the automatic valves 302, 303 and 600, compressed air (1 kg / cm 2 or more) and raw water can be injected back into the pre-treatment filter.

In this case, since the raw water (liquid) and the high-pressure air are injected into the pre-treatment filter, the turbulence due to the mixing of the air and the raw water becomes large, so that foreign matter can be removed very effectively.

As described above, the smart water purifier of the present invention can perform the self-cleaning according to the pre-treatment filter, flushing, air flushing, and recycling of the membrane periodically or by determining the membrane performance (abnormal state, dangerous state, Can be extended several times or more. In addition, the invented smart water purifier is more economical and efficient because it can perform filter cleaning and maintenance without the need of management personnel.

Referring to FIG. 3, the purifier of the present invention may further include a network gateway 110 and a Wi-Fi module 120.

The control module 70, the network gateway 110 and the Wi-Fi module 120 are formed on the PCB board.

The network gateway 110 includes an Ethernet port to which an Internet network of a local area network (LAN) is connected. The network gateway 110 may include a memory in which various data exchanged with the Wi-Fi module 120 are temporarily stored.

The network gateway 110 may be a router.

The Wi-Fi module 120 may include a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly transmitting and receiving data to and from an external user terminal, and a communication unit for exchanging data with the network gateway 120 and the like.

The smart water purifier of this invention is equipped with a gate network and a Wi-Fi module, so that it is possible to provide free Wi-Fi to a large number of users at a restaurant, an office or a factory workplace where Wi-Fi is not provided.

In addition, the smart water purifier can wirelessly transmit the filter performance and the operation state to a nearby administrator terminal in real time, and the administrator terminal can wirelessly check the filter performance and operation state of the water purifier and control the cleaning condition and operation state .

While the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that such description is illustrative and exemplary of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that various changes, modifications, and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims and accompanying drawings.

10, 10 ': preprocessing filter 20: pressure pump
30: Membrane filter 40: Electric conductivity meter
50: Pressure sensor 60: Flow sensor
70: Control module

Claims (2)

A pretreatment filter 10 for purifying raw water;
A pressure pump (20) located at a downstream end of the pretreatment filter and pressurizing the raw water;
A membrane filter (30) located at a downstream end of the pressure pump;
An electrical conductivity meter (40) provided at each of the front and rear ends of the membrane;
A pressure sensor (50) at the upstream side of the membrane;
A flow sensor 60 downstream of the membrane;
An air injection pipe (B) connected to a pipe at a downstream end of the pretreatment filter;
An air injection pipe (A) connected to a pipe on the upstream side of the membrane filter; And
The performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane is compared with a preset reference value, and the performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane is transmitted to an administrator terminal connected to the wired / wireless network, And a control module (70) for performing flushing, air flushing and recycling by controlling the pump and the automatic valve according to the performance of the pre-treatment filter or the membrane,
The membrane filter is a nanofilter filtration membrane (nanofiltration membrane) or an RO membrane (reverse osmosis membrane)
The control module 70 sends a closing signal to the automatic valves 300 and 301 at the front and rear ends of the pretreatment filter and the pressure pump 20 to turn off the automatic valves 300 and 301 and the pressure pump, An automatic valve 302 provided in a bypass pipe 80 of the pre-treatment filter, an automatic valve 303 provided in a drain pipe of the pre-treatment filter, and an automatic valve 600 provided in the air injection pipe B, The compressed air having a pressure of 1 kg / cm 2 or more is injected back into the pre-treatment filter to simultaneously perform flushing and air flushing,
The control module 70 opens the automatic valve 305 provided in the concentrated water pipe 31 of the membrane filter and the automatic valve 601 provided in the air injection pipe A to supply raw water and compressed air of at least 1 kg / Is injected into the membrane filter to simultaneously perform flushing and air flushing,
When the performance of the membrane filter is judged to be less than the reference value, the control module 70 sends a closing signal to the automatic valve 305 to close the automatic valve 305 after draining the concentrated water, The automatic valve 304 provided in the bypass piping 90 is opened to recycle the concentrated water,
If the measured pressure data from the pressure sensor 50 increases by 20% or more relative to the reference value, the control module 70 determines that the abnormality is abnormal. If the pressure data increases by 30% or more relative to the reference value, It is judged as the replacement point,
When the pressure data measured from the pressure sensor 50 'is greater than 30%, the control module 70 determines that it is in an abnormal state. If the pressure data is increased by more than 40% It is judged as the filter replacement time point,
The control module 70 determines that the measured flow rate data is in an abnormal state when the flow rate data is decreased by 20% or more with respect to the reference value, and when the flow rate data is decreased by more than 30% and,
If the measured electrical conductivity is increased by 15% relative to the reference value, the control module 70 determines that it is in an abnormal state. If the measured electrical conductivity increases by more than 30%, the control module 70 determines that the membrane filter is replaced with a dangerous state. ,
The control module 70 notifies the performance of the preprocessing filter or the membrane to the administrator terminal when any one of the electric conductivity, the pressure, and the flow data value is determined to be an abnormal state, a dangerous state, or a filter replacement,
Wherein the control module (70) performs flushing, air flushing, or recycling of the pretreatment filter or the membrane filter when any one of the electrical conductivity, pressure, and flow rate data is determined to be an abnormal state or a dangerous state. . The system of claim 1, wherein the smart water purifier
A network gateway having an Ethernet port connected to a local area network, and a Wi-Fi module transmitting and receiving data wirelessly with a user terminal or an administrator terminal.

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