JP2002306370A - Hand dryer and air purifier - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide a hand dryer capable of extracting the air purifying function of an air purifier by connecting to an air purifier and quickly and effectively purifying indoor air. SOLUTION: Air introduced from an intake port 7 is pressurized by a high-pressure airflow generation unit 2 controlled by a control circuit 5 to convert the air into a high-speed airflow, and the high-speed airflow blows off moisture attached to a hand. A hand drying device A for drying, wherein an intake port 7 of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 is connected to an entrance 1
A series of air passages 14 having air purifying means 13;
Passage 1 of air purifier B with small pressure loss in which
4 can be connected to the end 16 of the outlet.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hand-drying device for drying a wet hand after washing by spraying a high-speed air stream, and an air cleaner having a function of removing dirt components such as odor components contained in air. It is about a vessel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hand-drying apparatuses have been developed in which wet hands after washing are not wiped off with a towel or handkerchief, but are blown off by a high-speed air stream to blow off moisture and dry. Some apparatuses of this type include a deodorizing means for eliminating odors and a fragrance means for scenting, as shown in JP-A-6-304090 and JP-A-7-136079. . Both fragrance and odor are odorous, and it is not very meaningful to use deodorizing means and fragrance means together,
Regarding the deodorizing function, the installation place of the hand drying device is often in the vicinity of a hand washing facility such as a toilet, which is effective for improving the atmosphere of the toilet. JP-A-6-30409
In the hand drying device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 0, the ventilation path from the blower to the discharge port through the deodorizing filter and the ventilation path from the blower to the discharge port without passing through the deodorizing filter are formed in one housing. The hand drying function and the deodorizing function are achieved by controlling the operation of the blower together with switching of the ventilation path.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional hand drying apparatus, the hand drying process is performed by blowing a high-speed air stream from a discharge port, and the deodorizing process is performed by applying a low flow rate to a deodorizing filter. Since the process is performed by allowing air to pass through and discharging the processing air from the discharge port, the operation state of the blower greatly deviates between the drying process and the deodorizing process, and the mechanical stress of the component parts is large and the components are liable to break down. In addition, since the two ventilation paths must be switched, the structure is complicated and the switching control is also required.

[0004] The deodorizing effect by the function of merely passing a low flow rate of processing air through the deodorizing filter is not very high, and it takes a long processing time, and it is difficult to link with a relatively frequent drying process, and the usability is not good.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has as its object to draw out the air purifying function of an air purifier by connecting it to an air purifier, thereby achieving quick and effective operation. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a hand dryer capable of purifying indoor air, and to provide the hand dryer with operability in connection with an air cleaner to improve usability.

Another object is to develop an air purifier connected to a hand dryer that can perform effective air cleaning by utilizing the blowing capability of the hand dryer without impairing the function of the hand dryer. Another object is to enhance the operability of the air purifier with the hand drying device and improve the usability.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, air introduced from an air inlet is pressurized by a high-pressure air flow generator controlled by a control circuit and converted into a high-speed air flow. Then, for the hand drying device that blows off moisture adhering to the hands by this high-speed air flow, the suction port of the high-pressure air flow generation unit is disposed with a series of passages having inlets and outlets, and air purifying means with small pressure loss is disposed. Means for connecting to the outlet end of the passage of the air cleaner.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control circuit according to the first aspect, wherein the control circuit operates the high-pressure airflow generating section also by receiving an electric signal from the air purifier side. The means configured as described above is adopted.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control circuit according to the second aspect, wherein the control circuit is configured to set a high-pressure air flow generating section to a predetermined high-pressure air flow when an electric signal is received from the air purifier side. Means to operate intermittently at the time intervals of.

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is to provide an air purifier having a function of purifying air passing through an air passage in a main body having a series of air passages having an entrance and an exit. A means is arranged, and the outlet end of the air passage is converted into a high-speed air flow by pressurizing the air introduced from the intake port by a high-pressure air flow generation unit controlled by a control circuit, and adheres to a hand by the high-speed air flow. A means for connecting to an air inlet of a hand dryer for blowing off and drying dried water is employed.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the control circuit of the hand dryer according to the fourth aspect further comprises a connecting means for sending an electric signal for operating the high-pressure air flow generating section. Is adopted.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a high-pressure air flow generating unit is intermittently provided at a predetermined time interval to a control circuit of a hand dryer by the connecting means in the means according to the fourth aspect. Employ means for operating.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, the means according to any one of the fourth to sixth aspects further comprises a pollution detecting means for detecting indoor air pollution.
Means for operating the high-pressure airflow generating section of the hand dryer based on the output value of the contamination detection means is employed.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 The embodiment shown by FIGS. 1 to 3 relates to a hand drying apparatus A for drying hands by jetting high-speed airflow. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the hand drying device A includes a high-pressure air flow generating unit 2 incorporated in a main body box 1 having an outer shell having a hand insertion port.
Is sent to the vicinity of the inlet / outlet to form a high-speed airflow as a working airflow relating to hand drying which blows off moisture in the hand insertion portion 3 constituting the processing chamber following the inlet / outlet.

The hand insertion part 3 is a deep-bottomed open container which can be inserted into and removed from the upper part (refer to FIG. 1) or the front surface (refer to FIG. 2) of the main body box 1 with both hands aligned. Structured. A drain port is provided at the bottom of the hand insertion section 3 and is connected to a water receiver 4 which is provided at the bottom so as to be able to be inserted and removed by a drain pipe.

The high-pressure air flow generating unit 2 includes a DC brushless motor (which may be a normal commutator motor or an induction motor), a driving circuit for driving the motor, and a turbo fan or a centrifugal fan rotated by the DC brushless motor. In this embodiment, it is attached below (see FIG. 1) or above (see FIG. 2) the hand insertion portion 3 of the main body box 1, and is automatically operated by the control circuit 5 as shown in FIG. You. The intake side of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 faces an intake passage 6 provided in the main body box 1, and sucks air from an intake port 7 at an end of the intake passage 6 opened at a lower part of the main body box 1. Is available. This inlet 7
A gasket 8 for maintaining airtightness is attached to the rim of the container so as to slightly protrude downward. The control circuit 5 is connected to a signal line 9 for receiving an external signal, and when the external signal is received, drives the high-pressure airflow generating unit 2 by the external signal.

The outlet of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 is connected to a duct, and at the end of the duct, the high-pressure air flow sent from the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 is converted into a high-speed air flow. 3 is connected to an air nozzle 10 that blows out in a horizontal line. The air nozzle 10 is attached to the hand insertion portion 3 in a lateral direction with the ejection port facing downward at substantially the center near the access port, and blows a high-speed air flow as a working airflow to the hand inserted into the hand insertion portion 3. Water drops on the hand are separated from the surface of the hand and blown into the hand insertion portion 3 without rubbing the hands.

The hand dryer A alone performs only the hand drying function. That is, when the user inserts both hands into the hand insertion section 3 from the access port and almost enters the vicinity of the wrist, the hand is detected by the hand detection sensor 11 that detects the hand, and the high-pressure air flow generation section 2 is processed by the control circuit 5. Is activated, and a linear jet, which is a high-speed air flow having high kinetic energy, is blown out of the air nozzle 10 into the hand insertion portion 3, hits the inserted hand and removes moisture attached to the hand on the back side of the hand insertion portion 3. And blow it down. Further, by inserting and removing the hand in the hand insertion section 3, all the water adhering to the entire hand is removed, and the hand is dried. When the hand is completely removed from the hand insertion unit 3 after the hand drying process, the hand detection sensor 11 that detects the hand detects that the hand has been removed, and the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 stops.

The hand dryer A can be connected to an air purifier B as shown in FIGS. The air purifier B is configured by arranging an air purifying unit 13 in a cabinet-type main body box 12. An air passage 14 having a large volume is formed in the main body box 12, and an air cleaning means 13 is disposed so as to cross the air passage 14 at an angle. The air passage 14 has an inlet 15 opened in front of the main body box 12, and an outlet 16 opened in a flat upper surface of the main body box 12. The outlet 16 connects the hand dryer A to the main body box 12.
By being placed on the upper surface of the hand dryer, it is connected to the air inlet 7 of the hand dryer A in an airtight state. The air cleaning means 13 has a configuration in which a deodorizing filter for removing odor components is provided on the outlet side, and a prefilter for removing dust is combined with the deodorizing filter. The effective permeating area is configured to be wide to reduce pressure loss. Since there is no size restriction on the volume of the main body box 12,
The air purifying means 13 can have a large effective transmission area and a small pressure loss.

If the hand dryer A is placed on the air purifier B so that the outlet 16 and the air inlet 7 are aligned, the packing 8 is crushed and the area around the connecting portion is airtight. The space between the inlet 15 and the outlet 16 communicates with the intake passage 6 of the hand dryer A. As a result, the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 of the hand drying device A generates a high-pressure air flow for hand drying using room air taken in through the air purifier B. The air that has passed through the air purifier B is deodorized and deodorized by passing through the pre-filter and the deodorizing filter, and is purified. The purified air is ejected from the air nozzle 10 as a high-speed air flow, and the air is discharged. Used as is for drying. Therefore, the indoor air is purified by the drying operation.

The air purifier B does not have a blower for sucking, purifying and diffusing polluted air into the room, and its function is left to the hand dryer A without interfering with the hand drying process. On the other hand, in the hand drying device A, the operation state of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 is the same in both the drying process and the deodorizing process, the mechanical stress of the components is small, and the breakdown is small, and the indoor air is quickly removed. Clean. Further, it is not necessary to switch the air path between the drying process and the deodorizing process, and it is not necessary to control the switching, so that a simple configuration can be adopted. The deodorizing filter may be one that deodorizes with a catalyst.

Embodiment 2 FIG. The present embodiment shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 is provided with a means for enabling the linked operation with the hand drying device and the air purifier shown in the first embodiment.
The configuration other than this is the same as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The air purifier B of the present embodiment is connected to a signal line 9 of a hand dryer A, and a control circuit 17 for sending an electric signal to the control circuit 5 of the hand dryer A as an external signal and a signal line 1.
8 is provided. An odor sensor 19 is connected to the control circuit 17 as pollution detection means, and the odor (miscellaneous gas concentration) in the installation space is output as a control circuit 1 as an output value.
7 is input. The control circuit 17 outputs an external signal when the output value of the odor sensor 19 becomes equal to or larger than a preset G0 value, and sends the signal to the control circuit 5 of the hand dryer A via the signal line 18. The G0 value can be set arbitrarily based on the size of the volume of the installation space.

When the control circuit 5 of the hand dryer A receives an external signal, it controls the high-pressure air flow generator 2 according to the algorithm shown in FIG. That is, upon receiving the external signal, the control circuit 5 determines whether or not the stop time of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 has passed a predetermined time T1 seconds in step # 1 in FIG. Proceed,
If not, it is determined in step # 2 whether the hand detection sensor 11 has detected a hand. If a hand is detected in step # 2, a process of strongly operating the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 is performed in step # 3, and the process returns to step # 2. If no hand is detected, the process returns to step # 1.

In step # 4, a process for weakly operating the high-pressure air flow generating section 2 is performed, and the process proceeds to step # 5. In step # 5, it is determined whether or not the hand detection sensor 11 has detected a hand. If it is detected, in step # 6, the high-pressure airflow generating unit 2 is subjected to a strong operation, and the process returns to step # 5 to detect the hand. If not, it is determined in step # 7 whether the operation time of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 has passed a predetermined time T2 seconds. If it has elapsed, the process proceeds to step # 2, and if it has not elapsed, the process returns to step # 4. The stop time T1 seconds and the operation time T2 seconds of the high-pressure air flow generation unit 2 can be arbitrarily set based on the size of the installation space.

In the hand drying apparatus A, when the hand drying process is not frequently performed in connection with the air purifier B, the air cleaning process can be automatically and intermittently performed automatically, thereby improving the usability. Note that, as in Embodiment 1, the operating state of the high-pressure airflow generation unit 2 may be the same during both the drying process and the cleaning process. Other functions are the same as those of the first embodiment.

[0027]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the air purifying function of the air purifier is brought out by connecting to the air purifier.
A simple hand-drying device having a configuration capable of quickly and effectively purifying indoor air can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, continuity with the air purifier is provided, and the usability is improved.

According to the invention of claim 3, together with the effect of claim 2, the air cleaning process can be performed at predetermined time intervals, and the installation space can be kept in a clean atmosphere.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an air purifier capable of performing effective air cleaning using the air blowing capacity of the hand dryer without impairing the function of the hand dryer.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the fourth aspect, continuity with the hand dryer is enhanced, and usability is improved.

According to the invention of claim 6, together with the effect of claim 4, the air cleaning process can be performed at predetermined time intervals, and the installation space can be kept in a clean atmosphere.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect according to any one of the fourth to sixth aspects, the air purifying process is automatically performed in the hand drying device according to the indoor air pollution. An air purifier that can be cleaned is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram illustrating a hand dryer and an air purifier according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram illustrating a hand dryer and an air purifier according to another embodiment of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of the hand dryer according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram illustrating a hand dryer and an air purifier according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a control system of a hand dryer and an air purifier according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation of a control circuit of the hand dryer according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body box, 2 High pressure air flow generation part, 3 Hand insertion part, 5 Control circuit, 6 Intake passageway, 7 Intake port,
8 packing, 9 signal line, 13 air cleaning means,
14 air passage, 15 inlet, 16 outlet, 1
7 control circuit, 18 signal line, 19 odor sensor.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A high-pressure air flow generating unit controlled by a control circuit pressurizes air introduced from an intake port to convert the air into a high-speed air flow, and blows off moisture attached to a hand by the high-speed air flow to dry. In a hand dryer, the intake port of the high-pressure air flow generating section can be connected to the outlet end of the air purifier having a small pressure loss in which air purifying means is arranged in a series of passages having an entrance and an exit. Hand drying equipment. 2. The hand drying device according to claim 1, wherein
A hand dryer having a control circuit configured to operate the high-pressure air flow generating unit also by receiving an electric signal from the air purifier. 3. The hand dryer according to claim 2, wherein:
A hand dryer in which a control circuit is configured to intermittently operate a high-pressure air flow generation unit at predetermined time intervals when an electric signal is received from an air purifier side. 4. An air purifying means having a function of purifying air passing through an air passage and having a small pressure loss is disposed in a main body box having a series of air passages having an entrance and an exit end of the air passage. A high-pressure air flow generating unit controlled by a control circuit pressurizes air introduced from an air inlet to convert the air into a high-speed air flow, and the high-speed air flow blows off moisture attached to a hand to dry the hand dryer. An air purifier that can be connected to the intake port. 5. The air purifier according to claim 4, wherein:
An air purifier provided with a connecting means for sending an electric signal for operating a high-pressure airflow generating unit to a control circuit of a hand dryer. 6. The air purifier according to claim 4, wherein:
An air purifier in which a control circuit of a hand drying device causes a control circuit of a hand dryer to intermittently operate a high-pressure air flow generating unit at predetermined time intervals by a linking means. 7. The air purifier according to claim 4, further comprising: a pollutant detecting means for detecting contamination of indoor air, based on an output value of the pollutant detecting means. An air purifier that operates the high-pressure airflow generator of the hand dryer.