Patent Publication Number: US-2005127099-A1

Title: Electric multi-reservoir liquid soap dispenser

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      (a) Technical Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to an electric multi-reservoir liquid soap dispenser and the accompanied circuit, particular to a liquid soap dispenser, which can contain at least two reservoirs of detergent. When a user stretches out under any one of the reservoirs, the chosen reservoir will positively release the required liquid soap, while the un-chosen reservoir would not. The invention is applicable to public places where require a liquid soap dispenser of greater content or the like.  
      (b) Description of the Prior Art  
      To maintain personal hygiene, the rest rooms of the public places used to provide with detergent for people to wash hands. The most common liquid soap dispenser is a single-reservoir dispenser fixed to the wall. The user can press the button on the housing to release the liquid soap for use.  
      Further, in view of the improved technology, liquid soap dispensers become electric type as disclosed in R.O.C. publication No. 360515 entitled “Automatic Liquid Soap Dispenser”, which comprises: 
          a liquid soap supplier;     a motor driving pump connected to the liquid soap supplier via of piping; a liquid soap releasing device connected to the motor driving pump via piping; and     an electric circuit for actuating the pump driving motor, which includes: 
            a sensor for detecting to determine if the user&#39;s hand has arrived the right position for receiving the liquid soap released from the liquid soap dispenser;     a control circuit for the advancing motor connected to the sensor and the pump driving motor for responding to an actuating signal received the sensor, in order to drive the motor along the advancing direction, such that the liquid soap can be transmitted to the releasing device;     a liquid soap quantity regulating/controlling circuit which is connected to the advancing motor control circuit and the sensor, such that after a pre-determined period of time subsequent to receipt of an actuating signal from the sensor, the advancing motor control circuit will send out a pause signal; and     a reversing motor connected to the pump driving motor and the liquid soap quantity regulating/controlling circuit for responding to a pause signal received from the liquid soap quantity regulating/controlling circuit, in order to drive the motor along the reverse direction, such that the liquid soap current would become a backflow.    
               

      The above-mentioned prior art has improved the defect that the user must press the dispensing button manually to obtain the liquid soap, which is rather inconvenient. However, given that a number of electric liquid soap dispensers are arranged in a line, the respective sensor might be led to a misjudgment when the user&#39;s hand inadvertently and suddenly passes the underside of the sensor, and thus allow the liquid soap to release in error. As a result, the liquid soap released for nothing would be wasted, the washroom floor could be polluted thereby, and in turn, the user is possibly exposed to the danger of slip.  
      In view of the above defects existing in the prior art, the present invention has provided a structure that can correctly judge the right time for releasing the liquid soap without any error, as claimed by the inventor.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The primary object of the present invention is to provide an electric multi-reservoir liquid soap dispenser, which may permit combination of at least two reservoirs in a liquid soap dispenser and correct determination on whether or not the chosen dispensing device does operate, while the un-chosen dispensing device would not take an error operation.  
      To obtain the above object, the present invention comprises a coupling base, at least two reservoirs and a control circuit. Each reservoir includes a containing space for containing liquid soap. The containing space has an ease-open cover on the top, a tube downwardly extending from the bottom, and couplers provided beneath and on the back. The coupler beneath and back of the containing space connected to a lower base for holding the control circuit, while the extruding edge is provided on the periphery of the coupling base such that when the coupling base is coupled with the reservoir, there will be sufficient carrying capacity. By way of the detection of the control circuit, whether or not each reservoir respectively releases detergent can be correctly determined.  
      Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.  
      The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.  
      Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is bottom view of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the present invention.  
       FIG. 4  is an exploded view of the reservoir according to the invention.  
       FIG. 5  is a cut-away view taking from  5 - 5  in  FIG. 1 .  
       FIG. 6  is a cut-away view taking from  6 - 6  in  FIG. 1 .  
       FIG. 7  is a detailed circuitry of the invention.  
       FIG. 8  is another detailed circuitry of the invention.  
       FIG. 9  is flow chart showing the operation of the invention.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.  
      Referring to FIGS.  1  to  3 , the electric multi-reservoir liquid soap dispenser comprises two reservoirs  10 ,  10   a , a backboard  20 , a central closure  26 , a coupling base  30  and a control circuit  40 . Couplers  11 ,  11   a  are provided on the backside of the two reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  (as shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 ) for inter-locking with the locking flaps  21  on the edge of the backboard  20 . As such, the couplers can be designed as a locking element in form of an extruding hook so as to lock with the vertical sides of the backboard  20 . The bottom of the two reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  are provided with baseboards  12 ,  12   a , the center of which is provided with a liquid soap outlet  13 ,  13   a , respectively (as shown in  FIG. 2 ). Infrared ray detecting windows  19 ,  19   a  are provided adjacent to the edge of liquid soap outlets  13 ,  13   a , while the connecting portion of the baseboards  12 ,  12   a  and the front edge of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  is provided with a frame, which is closed by a transparent cap  14 ,  14   a . The top of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  are respectively mounted with covers  15 ,  15   a , the rear end of which is inwardly provided with recessions  17 ,  17   a  (as shown in  FIG. 3 ), while axle holes  18 ,  18   a  (as shown in  FIGS. 4 and 6 ) are respectively provided on the recessions  17 ,  17   a . The front edge of each of the covers  15 ,  15   a  is respectively provided with an extruding flap  16 ,  16   a  to ease open by a user&#39;s fingers.  
      The backboard  20  is a board having a shape in adaptation to the outer line of the backside of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a . The backboard  20  has a connecting case  24  in the center and pluralities of locking flaps  21  on the vertical sides. An axle  22  is provided on the top of each cover  15 ,  15   a , while back hangers  23  (as shown in  FIG. 6 ) are extrusively provided on the backside of the backboards  20 . The connecting case  24 , being set in-between the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a , has a bearing tray  25  on the bottom, pluralities of connecting bases and extrusions inside the interior for connecting with a control circuit  40  and a battery chamber  43  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ). Meanwhile, the connecting case  24  is further mounted with a closure  26 . As shown the backboard  20  is formed integrally. Whereas the above-mentioned function of holding the two reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  and the connecting case  24  can be obtained in case the backboard  20  is assembled by parts.  
      A coupling base  30  in the form of a board being adapted to the size of the backboard  20  is vertically provided with an extruding edge  31  at the periphery, a coupling hole  32  at the center and locking slots  33  at two sides adjacent to the top.  
      To assemble the invention, the extruding hooks on the couplers  11 ,  11   a  of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  are locked with the locking flaps  21  on the vertical sides of the backboard  20 . The axle holes  18 ,  18   a  on two sides of the cover  15 ,  15   a  are coupled to the axles  22  on the top of the backboard  20 , such that the covers  15 ,  15   a  can be convertibly lifted for filling the liquid soap. Further, by way of the coupling hole  32  on the connecting base  30 , the coupling base  30  can be fastened with nails to an appropriate position on the wall adjacent to the washbasin. Finally, the reservoirs filled with liquid soap can be locked in the locking slots  33  of the coupling base  30  by way of back hangers  23  on the backboard  20 . Accordingly, the assembly of the invention is completed.  
      Referring to  FIG. 4 , each of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  can be composed of a liquid soap squeezer  50 , an upper reservoir  51 , a lower base  52  and a cover  15 . The liquid soap outlets  13 ,  13   a  on the bottom of the reservoirs can be connected to the liquid soap squeezers  50  by a hose  55 , which is connected to the bottom outlet of the upper reservoir  51  at one end, and connected to the liquid soap outlets  13 ,  13   a  on the lower base  52  at the other end. The connecting portion of the baseboard  12  and the front edge of the reservoir  10  is provided with a frame, which is closed by a transparent cap  14 , which is pervious to the light from an electric LED indicating light  53  provided at the front edge of the liquid squeezer  50 , such that the user can recognize that the machine is in operation. An infrared ray sensor  54  is provided at the side of the liquid squeezer  50 , whereas when the cover  15  provided on the top of the upper reservoir  51  can be opened for the purposes of refilling liquid soap. The periphery of the upper reservoir  51  and lower base  53  is provided with extruding hooks of the couplers  11  for connecting to the backboard  20 .  
      Referring to  FIGS. 6, 7  and  8 , an embodiment of the invention is provided with a control circuit  40 , which is composed of pluralities of integrated circuits, chips, diodes, resistors, capacitors, light-emitting diodes (LED), two infrared ray sensors  54  and a battery chamber  43  (as shown in  FIG. 3 ). The control circuit  40  is disposed in the connecting base in the middle of the connecting case  24 , while the battery chamber  43  is coupled to the bearing tray  25 . The control circuit  40  has the function of controlling whether or not liquid soap is squeezed out from the positions where the liquid soap outs  13 ,  13   a  on the baseboards  12 ,  12   a  of the two reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  (referring to  FIG. 6 ). The infrared ray sensors  54  disposed inside of the infrared ray detecting windows  19 ,  19   a  of the baseboards  12 ,  12   a  of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  is for determining the operation of the control circuit  40 , while the sensing time of the infrared ray sensors  54  should be a pre-determined parameter.  
      Referring to  FIG. 9 , when the control circuit  40  is electrified, it will firstly detect to determine whether or not the voltage is overly low. In case the voltage is overly low, the electric LED indicating light  53  will glisten to notify the user. If the voltage is normal, the control circuit  40  will further examine whether or not the liquid soap volume-regulating switch (not shown) has been pressed down (meaning the liquid soap volume is sufficient). While the regulating switch has a five-step design, if the operation exceeds the fifth step, it will return to the first step. Meanwhile, the infrared ray sensors  54  will detect the time period of being shaded, and a pre-determined quantity of liquid soap will be released from the liquid soap squeezers  50  or  50   a  of either of the reservoirs  10 ,  10   a  when the time that any infrared ray sensor  54  is shaded exceeds the pre-determined time.  
      Thereby, when the user stand in front of the washbasin with his/her hand inadvertently wave across the underside of the liquid soap dispenser, without shading the infrared ray sensor  54  for over the pre-determined time period, the control circuit  40  would not operate. Accordingly, the liquid soap would not easily release to pollute the floor or the washbasin. When the user intends to reach out for liquid soap, he/she selects either reservoir and dispose his/her hand beneath the liquid soap outlet  13 , stay still for moment until the hading time of the infrared ray sensor  53  continues for a period exceeding the pre-determined time of the control circuit  40 , the liquid soap squeezer  50  or  50   a  will proceed to operate and release an appropriate quantity of detergent from the liquid soap outlet  13  or  13   a  for the user&#39;s consumption.  
      The above descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments, such as electric three-reservoir, four-reservoir or even five-reservoir liquid soap dispenser, may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departure from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.  
      Concluded above, the electric multi-reservoir liquid soap dispenser disclosed by the present invention can correctly select the right reservoir that is chosen by way of the control circuit no matter the number of the reservoirs is, and release an appropriate quantity of liquid soap without any error. Accordingly, the liquid soap would not pollute the environment, nor be wasted. The present invention complies with the patentabilty, and hence submitted to the Patent and Trademark Office for review and grant of the commensurate patent rights.  
      It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.  
      While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.