JPH0433331B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a washbasin device equipped with an automatic faucet.

(b) Conventional technology Conventionally, as a form of washroom device, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-
As described in the back of issue 294033, a thermopile type infrared sensor is installed in the handwash bowl, washbowl, and discharge fitting on the washstand counter, and the infrared sensor detects when a human body approaches or leaves the washroom. There is a system in which an automatic faucet equipped with a discharge fitting is automatically operated based on the detection output, and water for washing is discharged from the discharge fitting.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, since the infrared sensors conventionally installed in such washroom devices are single thermopile-type infrared sensors, the following problems still remain to be solved.

It is easily affected by ambient heat changes and tends to malfunction, and malfunctions may also occur due to sunlight.

Due to poor sensitivity, it cannot handle both cold and hot water discharges.

An object of the present invention is to provide a washbasin device equipped with an automatic faucet that can solve the above problems.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides a dual sensing element mounted on a washbasin, etc., in which two sensing elements operate with a phase difference when a human body part is inserted into the handwashing space inside the washbowl. This invention relates to a washbasin device equipped with an automatic water faucet, characterized in that a type of pyroelectric sensor is provided, and sensing elements of the same type of pyroelectric sensor are connected in series with opposite polarities.

(E) Functions and Effects With the above configuration, the present invention has the following functions and effects.

The pyroelectric sensor is a dual type in which two sensing elements are connected in series with opposite polarity.
When inputs are sequentially applied across the sensing elements, the difference between the + signal and the - signal is taken as the output signal, so the output signal can be large. Therefore, the sensitivity is good, and if you put your hand out to the water spout, you can reliably sense that you are washing your hands and can start spouting water.

Also, if you hold out your hand slowly,
The sensor reliably detects your hand, and water can be reliably spouted.

In steady state, the current consumption is about the same as the dark current.
Since normal current consumption flows only when the hand is held out, power consumption can be reduced.

(f) Examples The present invention will be described in detail below based on examples shown in the attached drawings.

1 to 3 show the overall configuration of a washbasin device A according to the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a roughly wooden box-shaped cabinet installed on the floor, with a door 11 on the front so that the interior can be used as a storage space, and a washbasin 12 placed on the top surface. .

The washbowl 12 has a rear peripheral corner extending forward to form a projecting portion 13, and a discharge fitting 14 is attached to the projecting portion 13 for discharging hot water into the hand washing space W within the washbowl 12. There is. This discharge fitting 14 forms a part of an automatic faucet 15, which will be described later, and is linked to opening and closing of the automatic faucet 15 to supply hot water to the washbowl 12.
It can automatically discharge and stop in the hand washing space W inside.

In the above basic configuration, the present invention provides a washbasin device A.
The human body part inserted into the wash basin 12 is shown above. Specifically, a pyroelectric sensor is provided to detect heat rays generated from the hand, and an automatic faucet 15 equipped with a discharge fitting 14 can be operated by the detection output of the pyroelectric sensor. The feature is that the sensor is a dual type.

This configuration will be specifically explained below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

As shown in FIG. 4, the discharge fitting 14 has an upper water discharge passage 16 and a lower sensor mounting space 1 at its upper and lower portions, respectively, communicating with the distal end discharge port 14a.
7, and at the base of the upper water discharge channel 16 is a water supply pipe 18 whose lower end communicates with the automatic faucet 15.
The top end is open.

The front part of the lower sensor mounting space 17 is a discharge fitting 14
It opens in the front wall 14b, and an annular sensor mounting surface 19 is formed in the opening.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a sensor case made of ABS resin or the like, in which an annular flange 20b is integrally attached to the tip of a cylindrical body 20a, and the annular flange 20b is brought into contact with the annular sensor mounting surface 19.

The discharge fitting 14 forms a bolt insertion hole that reaches the lower sensor mounting space 17 from the back surface thereof,
The tip of the sensor case fixing bolt 21 inserted into the bolt insertion hole is inserted into the cylindrical body 2 of the sensor case 20.
The sensor case 20 can be fixed to the discharge fitting 14 by contacting the outer peripheral surface of the sensor case 0a.

Furthermore, the sensor case 20 is provided with a large-diameter inner screw hole 22 and a small-diameter outer sensor mounting hole 23 that communicate with each other, and a waterproof cover is attached to the front end of the outer sensor mounting hole 23. An annular step portion 24 is formed.

25 is a dual type pyroelectric sensor,
The parpyroelectric sensor 25 has its cap 25 a fitted into the outer sensor mounting hole 23 from the inside, and its flange portion 25 b abutting against the annular stepped portion of the inner screw hole 22 .

26 is screwed into the inner screw hole 22.
This is a holding nut made of ABS resin, polyacetal, etc., and the holding nut 26 presses the flange portion 25b of the pyroelectric sensor 25 against the annular stepped portion of the inner screw hole 22, and the pyroelectric sensor 25 is moved into the sensor. It can be attached and fixed to the case 20.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, inside the outer sensor mounting hole 23 and in front of the pyroelectric sensor 25,
A shielding plate 27 made of ABS resin, polyacetal, or the like is provided, and the shielding plate 27 is provided with two through holes 28, 28 passing through in the axial direction.

The inner ends of these through holes 28, 28 face two sensing elements S1, S2 provided on the front surface of the cap of the dual type pyroelectric sensor 25. Further, with this configuration, the wash basin 12
The heat rays, that is, the radiation energy generated inside the sensor are passed through the through holes 28, 28 to the two sensing elements S1, S2.
can be detected.

Moreover, since the sensing elements S1 and S2 are connected in series and with opposite polarities, it is possible to amplify incident energy incident with a phase difference, as will be described later, and the sensitivity can be increased.

That is, the movement of the human body part within the washbasin 12 can be easily sensed, and common external heat changes can be canceled out for the sensing elements S1 and S2.

In addition, in FIG. 4, the outer sensor mounting hole 23
An annular stepped portion 24 for attaching a waterproof cover formed at the front end of the
A translucent waterproof cover 29 made of polyethylene resin or the like is attached to the.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the axis a of the inner screw hole 22 and the outer sensor mounting hole 23 is slightly inclined downward with respect to the axis of the sensor case 20.
Thereby, the pyroelectric sensor 25 can be activated only when the hand H is inserted into the hand washing space W shown by the temporary line in FIG. 3, and malfunction can be prevented.

In addition, two sensing elements S1 and S2 provided on the front surface of the cap of the dual type pyroelectric sensor 25
are connected in series and with opposite polarity, and
As shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 6a, the shielding plate 27
Similarly to the two through holes 28, 28 provided horizontally or inclined, they are arranged horizontally or inclined.

By adopting such an arrangement, the hand H can be placed in the hand washing space W of the wash basin 12, just like when washing the toilet normally.
When the sensing elements S1, S2 are caused to behave within the range, energy is incident in a direction that sequentially crosses the sensing elements S1, S2, that is, the energy is incident with a phase difference, and the sensing elements S1, S2 are
S2 can produce a waveform as shown in Figure 6b, thus increasing the sensitivity by 2 times compared to a single element.
This can be improved by a factor of 4 (ideally by a factor of 4).

Note that in order to better sense the movement of the hand H, etc., an opaque coating, that is, a paint that absorbs infrared rays, may be applied to the inner wall of the through hole 28. Thereby, the directivity of the pyroelectric sensor 25 can also be improved.

Furthermore, the length l of the through hole 28 provided in the shielding plate 27
The directivity of the pyroelectric sensor 25 can also be improved by making it longer.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an electrical control circuit for operating the automatic faucet 15 communicating with the discharge fitting 14 based on the detection output detected by the pyroelectric sensor 25.

In the figure, numeral 30 is an amplifier circuit connected to the pyroelectric sensor 25, whose detection output is amplified in two stages by amplifiers 31 and 32, and equipped with a bandpass filter. a comparison circuit for waveform shaping the amplified detection output;
34 is a waveform selection circuit, 35 and 42 are OFF delay circuits, 36 is a solenoid ON timer circuit, 3
7 is a solenoid OFF timer circuit, 38 is an analog switch for varying the threshold value in the comparison circuit 33, 39 is a photo coupler, 40
is a solenoid drive circuit, and 41 is a latching solenoid for operating the automatic faucet 15.

Next, regarding the actions of the pyroelectric sensor 25 and automatic faucet 15 of the washroom device during washing,
This will be explained with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. 8 and the time chart shown in FIG. 9.

First, as shown in Figure 3, move your hands H to the hand washing space W.
When the pyroelectric sensor 25 detects changes in the heat rays caused by the behavior, the pyroelectric sensor 25
The two sensing elements S1 and S2 reliably and sequentially sense and generate a detection output, which is amplified by the amplifier circuit 30 (FIG. 9a).

Thereafter, the comparison circuit 33 performs waveform shaping of the detected output (FIG. 9b).

Next, the waveform selection circuit 34 is activated to select a waveform (FIG. 9c). That is, in order to distinguish between signals and noise, waveform discrimination is performed and pulses of a certain width or more are regarded as signals.

After that, an ON trigger is generated by the detection output after selecting the waveform (Fig. 9 d), and the same detection output is sent to the OFF delay circuit 35 to generate an OFF trigger after, for example, 60 ms (Fig. 9 d).
Figure f).

Then, the solenoid is activated by the ON trigger output.
While driving the ON timer circuit 36 (9th
d), the latching solenoid 4 is sent to the solenoid drive circuit 40 through the photocoupler 39.
1 to operate the automatic faucet 15, and discharge hot water from the discharge fitting 14 into the hand washing space W in the wash basin 12.

Then, after the set time has elapsed, the OFF delay timer circuit 35 is activated (Fig. 9h), and the solenoid OFF timer circuit 37 is activated.
By activating the solenoid drive circuit 40 and turning off the solenoid (FIG. 9g), water discharging from the hot water discharging fitting 14 can be stopped.

Thereafter, when the hand H is moved again in the hand-washing space W, the pyroelectric sensor 25 is activated, and the automatic faucet 15 is activated in the manner described above, allowing water to be spouted from the discharge fitting 14.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a washbasin device equipped with an automatic faucet according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view thereof, Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of main parts, and Fig. 4 is a partially cutaway side view of a discharge fitting. , Fig. 5 is an enlarged explanatory view of the main part of the discharge fitting in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 and Fig. 6a are arrow views along the line of Fig. 5, and Fig. 6b is a single type and dual type pyroelectric sensor. An explanatory diagram showing the output waveform of
FIG. 7 is an electrical control circuit diagram, FIG. 8 is a block diagram, and FIG. 9 is a timing chart. In the figure, A: Washing device, H: Hand, S1: Sensing element, S2: Sensing element, W: Hand washing space, 10: Cabinet, 11: Door, 12: Wash bowl, 1
3: Overhanging part, 14: Discharge fitting, 14a: Tip discharge port, 15: Automatic faucet, 15a: Rear end surface,
16: Upper water discharge channel, 17: Lower sensor mounting space, 18: Water supply pipe, 19: Annular sensor mounting surface,
20: Sensor case, 20a: Cylindrical body, 20
b: Annular flange, 21: Sensor case fixing bolt, 22: Inside screw hole, 23: Outside sensor mounting hole, 24: Annular step for installing waterproof cover, 25: Pyroelectric sensor, 25a: Cap, 25b: Flange part, 26: holding nut, 27: shielding plate, 2
8, 28: Through hole, 29: Waterproof cover, 30: Amplifier circuit, 31, 32: Amplifier, 33: Comparison circuit, 3
4: Waveform selection circuit, 35: OFF delay circuit,
36: Solenoid ON timer circuit, 37: Solenoid OFF timer circuit, 38: Analog switch, 39: Photo coupler, 40: Solenoid drive circuit, 41: Latching solenoid.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A dual-type pyroelectric sensor 25 on the washbowl 12 etc., in which two sensing elements S1 and S2 operate with a phase difference when a human body part is inserted into the hand washing space W in the washbowl 12. 1. A washbasin device equipped with an automatic water faucet, characterized in that sensing elements S1 and S2 of a parpyroelectric sensor 25 are connected in series with opposite polarities.