FAUCET APPARATUS

Abstract: A faucet apparatus (10) characterized in that an ultrasonic transmitter (32) and an ultrasonic receiver (34) are provided at a predetermined distance on a water flow passage (16,18,26,28), and an ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitter is propagated through the flow passage as a control signal for operation control of the faucet apparatus and is received with the receiver.

Description: The present invention relates to a faucet apparatus. In a faucet apparatus, turning on of water, turning off of water, temperature adjustment and the like have been heretofore performed mechanically by manual operation of a handle, a lever and the like. Such a faucet apparatus in which a sensor portion and an operation portion are provided at a port for turning on of water extending from a faucet body portion, and a detection signal from the sensor portion and an operation signal from the operation portion are transmitted to an operation control portion through a lead wire or a cable so as to control the operation of turning on of water and the like as in DE-A-33 38 064 has been developed and used of late years. In case of a faucet apparatus of this sort, however, it is required to wire the lead wire or the cable so that it is invisible from the outside. Thus, there has been such an objection that the structure of the apparatus becomes complicated inevitably, and there has also been such a problem that the structure of the apparatus is restricted and the degree of freedom in design is limited because of the wiring of these lead wire and cable. Moreover, there has been a fear that the function of the apparatus is deteriorated in this case due to disconnection of the lead wire or the cable, and the whole wiring portion has to be disassembled for repair in case of disconnection thereof, thus causing a problem of troublesome maintenance. It is an object of the present invention to provide a faucet apparatus having a simple apparatus construction. It is another object of the present invention to provide a faucet apparatus in which maintenance is simplified. According to a faucet apparatus of the present invention, an ultrasonic transmitter and a receiver are disposed on a water flow passage at a predetermined distance from each other, and an ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmitter is propagated through the flow passage as a control signal for operation control of the faucet apparatus and is received with the receiver. In the faucet apparatus of the present invention, an ultrasonic wave is employed for the control signal for operation control of the faucet apparatus and a water flow passage is used as a transmission path of the control signal. Accordingly, it is possible to omit a lead wire or a cable as a transmission path of a control signal in a conventional apparatus. As a result, even in case a sensor portion, an operation portion and the like are installed in a water flow passage such as a port for turning on of water of the faucet apparatus, it is not required to adopt a wiring structure for concealing the lead wire or the cable. Thus, the apparatus structure may be simplified and the degree of freedom in designing the apparatus is improved by a large margin. Further, in the case of the present invention, there is no fear of disconnection as having been experienced in the case of using a lead wire or a cable because a water flow passage is used as a transmission path of a control signal, and maintenance is simplified since only a trouble portion needs to be disassembled for repair. The present invention takes an excellent effect when it is applied to a faucet apparatus having a configuration in which a hose extending from the faucet body is fitted with a shower head at an end thereof. In the case of this faucet apparatus, it is desirable that an operation portion is provided on the shower head so that turning on operation of water and the like when the shower is used may be operated. In this case, however, when a long lead wire or cable is adopted as a transmission path of a control signal, the long lead wire or cable has to be installed without deteriorating flexibility of the hose. Therefore, such problems are caused that the lead wire or the cable is easily disconnected due to to deformation of the hose in addition to the difficulty in wiring thereof. However, when the present invention is applied to such a faucet apparatus, that is, when an ultrasonic transmitter is provided on a shower head, and an ultrasonic receiver is provided on the side of the faucet body portion so as to transmit a control signal for operation control of the shower is transmitted with an ultrasonic wave from the transmitter to the receiver, it is not required to wire a lead wire or a cable on the hose. Therefore, it is possible to prevent such problems from occurring and to improve the reliability of the apparatus. Fig. 1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a faucet of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional explanatory view showing by enlarging a principal part of the faucet; Fig. 3 is an explanatory view of a principal part showing another embodiment of the present invention. In Fig. 1, a single lever type shampoo faucet 10 includes a mixing valve 12 having a manual operation lever 20, a shower head 14, a fixed piping 16 and a hose 18 for connecting them. The manual operation lever 20 provided on the mixing valve 12 is for performing temperature control of water and turning on of water from the shower head 14 manually by turning it horizontally and vertically, and the mixing valve 12 feeds water adjusted to a desired temperature to the fixed piping 16 by means of turning operation of the lever 20. An electromagnetic valve 22 is provided on the fixed piping 16, and mixed water fed from the mixing valve 12 to the fixed piping 16 is supplied to the hose 18 or stopped to be supplied to the hose 18 by opening and closing of the electromagnetic valve 22. That is to say, in the faucet 10 of the present embodiment, discharge of water from the shower head 14 is controlled manually with the lever 20 in a state that the electromagnetic valve 22 is opened, and, on the other hand, turning on of water from the shower head 14 is controlled by opening and closing of the electromagnetic valve 22 in a state that the mixing valve 12 is opened by the lever 20. The hose 18 which leads water from the fixed piping 16 to the shower head 14 is made by attaching a metallic shape holder 24 having a bellows form on an outside surface of a hose body made of resin, and the hose 18 is made to run through a backup pipe 26 provided so as to be able to project from an upper surface of a cabinet 25 at a tip side thereof and a guide pipe 28 attached fixedly to the tip of the backup pipe 26 in a loose fit state. This hose 18 may be taken in and out the guide pipe 28 freely. An ultrasonic transmitter 32 is provided on the shower head 14 at a portion kept in a state always filled with water by means of a watertight mechanism for instance as shown in Fig. 2 in detail. On the other hand, an ultrasonic receiver 34 is provided on the fixed piping 16. The ultrasonic transmitter 32 includes an operation portion provided with a switch which is operable from the outside, a transmission circuit portion which receives an operation signal of the switch and outputs an operation control signal and an ultrasonic wave transmitter which receives a signal from the transmission circuit portion and emits an ultrasonic wave. When the switch of the operation portion is operated, an actuation control signal having data contents corresponding to the switch is emitted from the ultrasonic wave transmitter toward the hose 18 side. The ultrasonic receiver 34 includes an ultrasonic wave receiver which receives an ultrasonic wave emitted from the ultrasonic transmitter 32 and propagating through water and a receiving circuit portion thereof, and outputs a signal received at the receiving circuit portion to a controller 36. Then, the controller 36 applies driving signals to respective control object portions in accordance with data contents of the received signal. Besides, in the present embodiment, a turning on of water/turning off of water switch is provided in the operation portion of the ultrasonic transmitter 32, and a turning on of water control signal or a turning off of water control signal is emitted as an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic wave transmitter by the operation of this switch. Further, the ultrasonic receiver 34 receives the ultrasonic wave with an ultrasonic wave receiver and applies the received signal to the controller 36, and the controller 36 controls opening and closing of the electromagnetic valve 22 in accordance with the received signal. In other words, when the faucet body 12 is opened, turning on of water from the shower head 14 is controlled. As described above, in the faucet 10 of the present embodiment, it is possible to control turning on of water from the shower head 14 by operating an operation switch provided on the ultrasonic transmitter 32 of the shower head 14 when the mixing valve is kept open with the lever 20. Thus, there is an advantage that the state of turning on of water can be controlled easily within reach without stretching one's arm to the mixing valve 12 purposely. Further, in the faucet 10 of the present invention, since the portion between the operation portion disposed on the shower head 14 and the controller 36 provided on the base end side of the hose 18 is constructed of an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver with water in the hose 18 as an ultrasonic wave propagating medium, it is not required to use a lead wire or a cable as a signal transmission line. Accordingly, it is possible to construct the structure of the hose 18, in its turn the whole shower faucet simply, and to prevent troubles caused by disconnection of the lead wire or the cable from occurring, thus improving reliability and making maintenance easier. An embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, only the operation of turning on of water/turning off of water has been controllable in the shower head 14 in the case of the previous example, but it is also possible to perform change-over control and the like for changing over discharge water quantity, water temperature or discharge water configuration from a discharge opening 30 with respect to decentralized discharge water to and from concentrated discharge water with the shower head 14. Further, when a human body detection sensor 38 is provided on the shower head 14 so as to perform water discharge operation from the discharge port 30 automatically as shown in Fig. 3, it may also be arranged so that a detection signal of the sensor 38 is transmitted with an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic transmitter 32 to the ultrasonic receiver 34. Other than the foregoing, the present invention may be constructed in configurations applied with various modifications based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art within a scope not departing from the gist thereof in such a manner that it is applicable, other than the faucet 10 described in the precedent, to an ordinary shower faucet in which a hose of the shower head extends directly from the faucet body, an ordinary faucet apparatus in which a water discharge tube extends from the faucet body and the like.

Claims: A faucet apparatus having a water flow passage (16,18) extending from a portion for receiving feed water to a portion for discharging water, a valve (22) which is provided in said passage and performs at least one of interruption and flow rate adjustment of water flowing in said passage, and a drive unit (36) for driving said valve, characterized in that: an ultrasonic transmitter (32) for transmitting an ultrasonic signal for controlling said valve (22) and a receiver (34) for receiving this ultrasonic signal are disposed on said passage (16,18) separately from each other; an ultrasonic signal transmitted from said transmitter (32) is propagated through the flow passage (16,18) and received with the receiver; and said drive unit (36) is controlled based on a signal received by said receiver (34). A faucet apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said valve is an electromagnetic valve (22), the signal at said receiver is inputted to a control unit (36) for controlling the electromagnetic valve (22), and the control unit (36) opens and closes the electromagnetic valve (22) based on said received signal. A faucet apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein a shower head (14) is provided at an end on the downstream side of said flow passage (16,18), and said ultrasonic transmitter (32) is installed on this shower head (14). A faucet apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein a mixing valve (12) having a manual control lever (20) is installed at an end on the upperstream side of said flow passage (16,18). A faucet apparatus according to Claim 3, wherein a mixing valve (12) having a manual control lever (20) is installed at an end on the upperstream side of said flow passage (16,18). A faucet apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said ultrasonic transmitter (32) is installed so that ultrasonic waves transmitted therefrom are propagated through water in the flow passage (16,18), and this transmitter transmits said control signal by being operated by a user. A faucet apparatus according to Claim 5, wherein a hose (18) is connected with said shower head (14), and this hose is able to be pulled out of a guide pipe (28) freely. A faucet apparatus according to Claim 7, wherein the guide pipe (28) and the mixing valve (12) are arranged separately from each other.

Inventors: SHIRAI, KENJI
Applicants: INAX CORPORATION
Application year: 1991
Main classification: E03C1
IPC codes: E03C1