Patent Publication Number: US-2006016838-A1

Title: Small -size water storage type automatic water spray device

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      This practicable and new type system relates to an electronic automatic water spray device and more particularly to a device that sprays water automatically on the potted flowers and grass or other plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations. This device uses the water storage device as the source of water to spray water automatically at a required time by opening the electromagnetic valve preset by the timer.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      With the improvement of the living standard, it has become a style for the people to grow flowers and plant grass to cultivate morality and preserve health. However, the indoor potted flowers and grass or other plants need to be watered regularly and carefully taken care of due to their different growth features. This is a kind of enjoyment anyway for those people who do not work and enjoy their leisure time at home. But for those people who work, they often forget to water the flowers, grass and plants which would be dry and dying due to their busy work as well as going out on vacation and sightseeing, or due to one-time over watering which causes the death of flowers, grass and plants because of the root rot. In addition, there is often the lack of watering management for the flowers and grass in the offices and public places. On the other hand, the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations are mostly watered manually and there has been no any special family used small-size automatic water spray device that can be seen in the market. Therefore, how to change the manual watering into the automated one to meet the need of the people who love to grow flowers and plant grass is the issue that this practicable and new type system needs to solve.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      This practicable and new type system provides a small-size water storage type automatic water spray device that sprays water automatically on the potted flowers and grass or other plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations, the objective of which is to reduce the management time on indoor potted flowers and grass and plants and realize the automated watering so as to increase the level of automated service for the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations.  
      In order to accomplish the above objective, the technical plan adopted by this practicable and new type system is: a small-size water storage type automatic water spray device that comprises water storage device, hose, timer, control circuit, electromagnetic valve and spray head. The hose inlet is connected to the water spray device and its outlet is connected to the spray head so as to form into the water supply channel where the electromagnetic valve is installed. The output signal of the timer is connected to the input port of the control circuit and the output port of the control circuit is connected to the control end of the electromagnetic valve.  
      The following is the explanation of the relevant contents and changes in the above-mentioned technical plan: 
          1. In the above plan, the timer can be mechanical type or electronic type structure controlled by the program.     2. There could be the following changes regarding the structure design of the said water supply channel: 
            a) The water supply channel is composed of the connections between the general route and two branch routes at least. The spray head is installed at the end of each branch route and the electromagnetic valve is installed on the general route or on each branch route.     b) The water supply channel forms into the tree-branch-shape channel by the connections of the general route, first-class branch route and second-class branch route. The spray head is installed at the end of the second-class branch route. The electromagnetic valve is installed on general route or on first-class branch route or on second-class branch route.     c) Under the second condition said above, third-class branch route and fourth-class branch route can be also set up on some of the second-class branch routes, which will be decided according to the actual needs.    
            3. In the above plan, in order to adjust the water spray type according to the needs, such as general water flow, thick water flow, thin water flow and thin sprinkle so as to meet the water spray needs. The adjustment panel of water spray type is installed on the spray nozzle of said spray head. The spray holes of different water spray types are distributed at a distance around the adjustment panel circumference. The spray nozzle corresponds to the position of spray holes circumference. The spray nozzle, when turning the adjustment panel, corresponds respectively to the spray holes of different water spray types. The shape of the spray holes includes sprinkle hole, bell-bottomed hole, round hole and flat hole.     4. In the above plan, the following technical steps can be adopted in order to adjust the outer corner and height of the spray head to meet the position and direction of the water spray: 
            a) The adoption of bending adjustment structure in which the said spray head is connected to the water supply channel through a section of soft tube covered with sleeve which can be bent and positioned so as to constitute the outer corner of spray head and the structure of universal height adjustment.     b) The adoption of supporting adjustment structure in which the supporting stand is installed at the place of said spray head. The supporting stand comprises base stand, supporting pole and spray head pole. The supporting pole is inserted into the base stand and has a device to adjust the height and the spray head pole is installed on the supporting pole and the spray head can be turned and positioned on the spray head pole so as to constitute the adjustment structure of the outer corner and height of the spray head.    
            5. In the above plan, in order to be convenient for disposition and reducing the volume, the timer, control circuit and electromagnetic valve can all be disposed in a box on which there is a distribution channel in which the valve of the electromagnetic valve is installed. The timer and control circuit can also be disposed respectively in a separate box and the electromagnetic valve can be integrated with the distribution channel.        

      The working principle of this practicable and new type system is: the small-size water storage device is used as the source of water and the water supply channel and spray head are set up and the electromagnetic valve is installed in the water supply channel to spray water automatically on the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations at a required time by opening the electromagnetic valve through the control circuit preset by the timer (the opening time and duration is controlled by timer), thus to reduce the time of manually handling the potted flowers and grass and plants and increase the level of automated service for the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations.  
      Due to the adoption of the above technical plan, this practicable and new type system has the following advantages compared with the existing technology: 
          1. This practicable and new type system has a very simple structure which is reliable and replaces the manual watering, and also reduces the time of manually handling the potted flowers and grass and plants and increases the level of automated service for the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations.     2. The installation and use are both convenient since this practicable and new type system is specially designed for use in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations.     3. Since the small-size water storage device is used as the direct source of water in this practicable and new type system, it is not only convenient for people to get water in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations, but also people can put reagent as well as liquid fertilizers and nutrition agent in the water.     4. Since this practicable and new type system is specially designed for use in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations, it is more applicable for use in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations compared with outdoor large-size electronic automatic water spray system.       

    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
      DRAWING  1  is the principle diagram of this practicable and new type system.  
      DRAWING  2  is the block diagram of this practicable and new type system with application examples.  
      DRAWING  3  is the block diagram of the interior box of this practicable and new type system with application examples.  
      DRAWING  4  is the supporting structure diagram of the spray head of this practicable and new type system with application examples.  
      DRAWING  5  is the block diagram of the spray head with different spray holes of this practicable and new type system.  
      DRAWING  6  is the upward view of DRAWING  5 .  
      DRAWING  7  is the block diagram of the bend adjustment of the spray head of this practicable and new type system. 
    
    
     DETAIL DESCRIPTION  
      In the above drawings,  8  to  10 : spray head.  11  to  13 : spray head pole.  14  to  16 : base stand.  17  to  19 : foundation bed.  20  to  22 : opening of water outlet.  23  to  25 : hose.  26 : water storage device.  27 : box.  28 : timer and control circuit.  29 : manually operated valve.  30  to  32 : supporting pole.  34 : electromagnetic valve.  35 : general route.  36  to  38 : first-class branch route.  39 : bolt.  40 : bolt.  41 : bolt.  42 : spray nozzle.  43 : adjustment panel.  44 : sprinkle hole.  45 : bell-bottomed hole.  46 : round hole.  47 : flat hole.  48 : soft tube.  49 : sleeve.  50 : top cover.  
      The following is the further description of this practicable and new type system in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the application example. Referring to DRAWING  1 , a small-size water storage type automatic water spray device which comprises water storage device, hose, timer, control circuit, electromagnetic valve, spray head and supporting stand. The water storage device is used as the source of water and the water supply channel and spray head are set up and the electromagnetic valve is installed in the water supply channel to spray water automatically on the potted flowers and grass and plants in the households, offices, public places and other indoor locations at a required time by opening the electromagnetic valve through the control circuit preset by the timer. The water storage device is a container which can be made of glass, plastic or other materials. The size and shape are like the jug of the water cooler with the jug opening downward.  
      Referring to DRAWING  2 , the electromagnetic valve is integrated with the distribution channel in the box  27 . On the top of the box  27  is the water storage device  26 . The water outlet of the water storage device  26  is located at the bottom and is connected to the distribution channel. The top cover  50  is on the top of the water storage device  26 . The openings of water outlet  20 ,  21  and  22  are connected to the hoses  23 ,  24  and  25 . The hoses  23 ,  24  and  25  are connected to the spray head poles  11 ,  12  and  13 . The spray head poles  11 ,  12  and  13  are fixed on the supporting poles  30 ,  31  and  32 . The spray head poles  11 ,  12  and  13  are connected to the spray heads  8 ,  9  and  10 . The spray heads  8 ,  9  and  10  at the front end of the spray head poles  11 ,  12  and  13  can be turned around at different angles. The structure to adjust the water spray type is adopted for the spray heads  8 ,  9  and  10 . For example, the spray head carries the adjustment panel, on which there are respectively the sprinkle hole, bell-bottomed hole, round hole and flat hole which can spray the general water flow, thick water flow, thin water flow and thin sprinkle so as to meet the water spray needs. The supporting poles  30 ,  31  and  32  are located on the base stands  14 ,  15  and  16  and can be pulled up and down so as to adjust the height in order to fit the flowerpot position. The base stands  14 ,  15  and  16  are fixed on the foundation bed  17 ,  18  and  19  but the base stands  14 ,  15  and  16  are respectively separated from the foundation bed  17 ,  18  and  19  so that the base stands can be directly put into the flowerpot soil. The electromagnetic valve  34  is installed in the water supply channel. The timer and the output signal of the timer in the control circuit  28  are connected to the input port of the control circuit and the output port of the control circuit is connected to the control end of the electromagnetic valve. The timer and the control circuit  28  control only one electromagnetic valve which is installed inside the box  27 . The manually operated valve  29  is used to control the switch of the general route  35 .  
      Referring to DRAWING  3 , it is the block diagram of the interior box. The box  27  is composed of electromagnetic valve  34  and distribution channel which is composed of the connections between the general route  35  and three first-class branch routes  36 ,  37  and  38 . Each first-class branch route is connected to the spray head through the hose. The electromagnetic valve  34  is installed on the general route  35 . The outlet at lower end of the water storage device  26  is connected to the general route  35  with a top cover  50  on the top. The electromagnetic valve  34  is controlled by the timer and control circuit  28 .  
      Referring to DRAWING  4 , it is the supporting structure diagram of the spray head  8 . The supporting structure is composed of base stand  14 , supporting pole  30  and spray head pole  11 . The supporting pole  30  is inserted into the base stand  14  which can be pulled up and down to adjust the height and then is fixed by the bolt  39 . The spray head pole  11  is connected to the supporting pole  30 . The spray head  8  is turned and positioned on the spray head pole  11  by the bolt  41  to constitute the outer corner of spray head and the structure of height adjustment. The hose  25  is connected to the spray head pole  11  and there is a channel in the spray head pole  11 .  
      Referring to DRAWING  5  and  6 , it is the block diagram of the spray head with different spray holes. The adjustment panel  43  of water spray type is installed in front of the spray nozzle  42  of the spray head  8 . Four spray holes of different water spray types are distributed at a distance around the circumference of this adjustment panel  43 . The spray nozzle  42  corresponds to the position of spray holes circumference. The spray nozzle  42 , when turning the adjustment panel  43 , corresponds respectively to four spray holes of different water spray types: sprinkle hole  44 , bell-bottomed hole  45 , round hole  46  and flat hole  47 .  
      Referring to DRAWING  7 , it is another kind of application example of the outer corner and height adjustment of the spray head. The spray head  8  is connected to the water supply channel through a section of soft tube  48  covered with sleeve  49  which can be bent and positioned so as to constitute the universal adjustment structure of the outer corner and height of the spray head.