JP4345106B2 - Sanitary ware fixing member - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a fixing member used for fixing sanitary ware such as a toilet bowl to a floor or a wall.

There are various methods for fixing sanitary ware to the floor or wall. For example, in a floor-mounted Western-style toilet, the right and left parts on the rear side of the toilet body are fixed directly to the floor with screws such as wood screws. In addition to fixing to the floor via a drain socket, the right and left two places on the center side or one place on the front side is fixed with screws from the outside to the fixing member fixed to the floor inside the toilet body. Many methods have been performed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
The operation of fixing the central side surface or the front surface of the floor-standing Western-style toilet with screws is poor in workability because the work position is low, and the fixing member is often not formed with a screw hole, There was also a problem that a large force was required for screwing. In order to improve such a problem, a fixing member in which a plurality of slits are formed in advance in a portion to be screwed in the fixing member is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-211161 (page 4, FIG. 5, FIG. 7) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-293753 (pages 4-5 and 10-14)

  Before and after using the toilet bowl, it may happen that a part of the body accidentally hits the toilet bowl when sitting or leaving and the toilet bowl is displaced from its original position. If the toilet core is displaced from its original position, there is a possibility of causing washing water leakage or the like. Therefore, the toilet needs to be fixed so as not to be displaced on the floor surface. However, in the conventional fixing member, a slightly soft material is used to reduce the load at the time of screwing work, or a slit is formed in advance in the portion to be screwed as described above, the direction of the slit Therefore, it cannot be said that it has sufficient strength against the load in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a sanitary ware fixing member that has sufficient strength against longitudinal and lateral loads without increasing the load during the screwing operation.

In order to solve the above problems, the present applicant is a fixing member that is used on the inner side of a sanitary ware and is fixed to a floor and / or a wall by screws from the outer side of the sanitary ware. It is composed of an olefin resin foam containing 2% by volume or more and 20% by volume or less of a filler and having a porosity of 40% by volume or more and 55% by volume or less, and has a higher strength and dense layer on the surface than the olefin resin foam. is a thickness have a resin skin layer is 0.1mm or more 3.5mm or less, the screw is sanitary ware by being screwed into the resin skin layer and an olefin resin foam which is secured to the floor and / or wall A fixing member for sanitary ware is provided.

  The filler added to the resin material of the fixing member has an effect of lowering the hardness of the member, and the hardness of the member can be adjusted by changing the filler content. The resin in the absence of the filler is very hard, and a very large force is required when screwing the screw into the fixing member. Here, by including an appropriate amount of filler in the resin material of the fixing member, the hardness of the member can be prevented from becoming unnecessarily high, and the screwing operation can be carried out with an appropriate force without difficulty. It becomes like this. In addition, by making the fixing member a foam having independent pores inside, there is an effect of reducing the contact area between the screw thread and the resin during screwing, so that the screwing work should be carried out with a reasonable force. Is more certain. Note that the bubbles in the foam may be dispersed independently and uniformly, or the bubbles may be combined, but in the fixing member of the present invention, the foam has independent pores. There is an advantage that the effect of reducing the load of the screwing operation can be obtained stably.

Further, by providing a resin skin layer on the surface of the fixing member, when a load is applied to the screw that is screwed in, it is possible to increase resistance to displacement of the screw and destruction of the fixing member. The skin layer means a dense layer with respect to the porous layer (sponge layer) occupying most of the whole. Since the skin layer is a dense layer, it has higher strength than the porous layer if it is composed of the same material, and compared with a fixing member consisting only of a porous layer without a skin layer on the surface, Increased durability against load. The skin layer may be formed at least on the surface into which the screw of the fixing member is screwed.
When the thickness of the resin skin layer is less than 0.1 mm, there is almost no difference in strength against external load even when compared with a fixing member having only a porous layer, and the effect of preventing the displacement of sanitary ware is sufficient. I can't get it. Further, when the thickness of the resin skin layer exceeds 3.5 mm, a very large force is required when screwing in the screw, which leads to deterioration in workability. Therefore, when a load is applied to the screw screwed by setting the thickness of the resin skin layer on the surface of the fixing member to 0.1 mm or more and 3.5 or less, it is sufficient for displacement of the screw or destruction of the fixing member. It is suitable because it has a high strength.

  By using an olefin resin that does not contain chlorine atoms in the chemical structure, such as polypropylene or polyethylene, as the constituent material of the fixing member, there is little generation of toxic gas during combustion, and it is excellent in combustion safety and environmental conservation. This is preferable because it can contribute.

  The filler content contained in the fixing member is 2 volume% or more and 20 volume% or less, and the porosity is 30 volume% or more and 60 volume% or less, more preferably, the filler content is 5 volume% or more and 15 volume% or less, and the porosity. By setting the volume to 40% by volume or more and 55% by volume or less, the hardness of the member and the contact area between the screw thread and the resin can be appropriately reduced, and the screwing operation can be carried out with an appropriate force without difficulty. is there. When the filler content is less than 2% by volume and the porosity is less than 30% by volume, the fixing member is very hard, and not only a very large force is required when screwing, but in some cases Since screwing may be impossible, it is not suitable. On the other hand, when the filler content contained in the fixing member exceeds 20% by volume and the porosity exceeds 60% by volume, or the filler content exceeds 15% by volume and the porosity is 55% by volume. In the case where it exceeds 1, the hardness of the member is excessively lowered and is not suitable because it does not have sufficient strength against external load.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the olefin resin is a block copolymer of polyethylene and polypropylene.
The olefin resin can have a structure of a homopolymer (homopolymer), a random copolymer (random copolymer), or a block copolymer (block copolymer) depending on its composition. For example, when comparing various properties between a random copolymer and a block copolymer when the copolymerization monomer is ethylene compared to a polypropylene homopolymer, the random copolymer is generally superior in transparency and gloss. The block copolymer becomes a polymer excellent in rigidity and impact resistance. Here, when considering the use as a fixing member of sanitary ware, the fixing member is used on the inner side of the sanitary ware, and thus the appearance characteristics such as transparency and gloss are irrelevant and are the subject of the present invention. In order to prevent the sanitary ware from being displaced, it is preferable to select a block copolymer having excellent rigidity and impact resistance.

  In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the skin layer is made of the same material as the olefin resin foam, is formed by heating the olefin resin foam, and gently from the skin layer toward the olefin resin foam. It is made to form so that the density of resin may fall.
  Since the resin skin layer is made of the same material as the olefin resin foam and is formed by heating the olefin resin foam, the resin skin layer can be formed once when the fixing member is formed. For example, in the case of manufacturing by injection molding, it is not necessary to inject the resin skin layer and the olefin resin foam into two parts with different materials.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the fixing member of the sanitary ware which has sufficient intensity | strength with respect to the load of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction, without increasing the load at the time of screwing operation | work.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a cross-sectional structure of a fixing member, where 1 is a fixing member, 2 is a skin layer, and 3 is a porous layer. FIG. 2 is a view showing the appearance of a fixing member according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a view showing the entire toilet bowl fixed by the fixing member according to the present invention.

  The fixing member 1 is made of an olefin resin foam containing a filler. Although it does not specifically limit as an olefin resin used here, For example, a polyethylene-type resin, a polypropylene-type resin, an ethylene propylene copolymer etc. are mentioned. The filler is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, aluminum hydroxide, clay, talc, alumina, and silica.

  Examples of the shape of the filler include a spherical shape, a needle shape, a plate shape, a rhombohedron, and the like. One of these can be used alone, or two or more types can be mixed and used. In addition, a filler having a particle size of 50 μm or less, low cohesiveness, and good dispersibility is preferably used.

  The method for producing the olefin resin foam can be obtained, for example, by mixing olefin resin particles and a foaming agent, heating and pressurizing, and then releasing to atmospheric pressure. A master batch in which resin particles and a foaming agent are mixed in advance can also be used. Here, the foaming agent is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include azodicarbonamide, dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine, benzenesulfonyl hydrazide, and sodium bicarbonate. Furthermore, a modifier for thermoplastic resins such as acrylic modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is added to add a urea-based foaming aid or adjust the melt tension during molding as required. May be added.

The boundary between the skin layer 2 and the porous layer 3 may be such that the resin density gradually decreases from the skin layer 2 toward the porous layer 3 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1B, the skin layer 2 and the porous layer 3 may have a clear boundary.
When the fixing member having the cross-sectional structure as shown in FIG. 1 (a) is manufactured by, for example, injection molding, it is not necessary to inject the skin layer and the porous layer in different materials twice. By setting the mold temperature appropriately, it is possible to form a dense skin layer on the member surface side and a porous porous layer on the inner side due to the temperature gradient between the resin temperature and the mold temperature at the time of injection. . On the other hand, in order to obtain a fixing member having a cross-sectional structure as shown in FIG. 1B, a fixing member having a two-layer structure can be obtained by injecting different materials twice with an appropriate time interval. .

  As shown in FIG. 2, the fixing member 1 is formed in a block shape having a predetermined width and height, and screws for fixing the fixing member 1 to the floor surface with screws at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the fixing member 1. The hole 4 is penetrated in the up-down direction.

  As shown in FIG. 3, after the drain socket 76 and the fixing member 1 are fixed to the floor surface, the drain pipe of the sanitary ware 5 main body is fitted to the connection portion of the drain socket 7 and provided on the front side of the sanitary ware 5 main body. The screw 6 is screwed into the fixing member 1 from the formed hole, thereby fixing the fixing member 1 and the lower front part of the sanitary ware 5.

Commercially available polypropylene pellets for injection molding (block copolymer), filler-containing polypropylene pellets containing 80% by weight of calcium carbonate, and foaming agent-containing pellets in which a chemical foaming agent is kneaded into polyethylene resin, with a composition shown in Table 1, the total amount is 10 kg. And mixed for 10 minutes with a drum mixer to obtain a blended raw material.
2 is attached to an injection molding machine, the compounding raw material is put into a hopper of the injection molding machine, and resin injection is performed so that the fixing member mass shown in Table 1 is obtained at a resin temperature of 200 ° C. The amount was adjusted, injection molding, cooling, and taking out were performed to obtain fixing members of Examples 1 to 5. The obtained fixing member had a resin skin layer inevitably generated in molding. The thickness of this skin layer was 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm.

  Moreover, what changed raw material mixing | blending and fixed piece mass as Table 2 was produced by the method similar to the said Examples 1-5, and was set as Comparative Examples 1-4. The obtained fixing member had a resin skin layer inevitably generated in molding. The thickness of this skin layer was 0.5 to 2.5 mm.

Comparative Example 5 was obtained by cutting the surface of the fixing member of Example 2 with a milling machine by 1.5 mm on each side, assuming that the resin skin layer was not provided.
Furthermore, a fixing member currently on the market, which is made of polypropylene resin having a slit shape as shown in FIG. 4, is a comparative example 6, and a hard urethane foam is cut and processed into the shape shown in FIG. Example 7 was adopted.

The required performance of the pottery fixing member is the ease of screwing the wood screw into the surface of the pottery fixing member through the pottery fixing hole, the difficulty of pulling up the pottery as the fixing force after fixing the pottery, and applying stress from each direction during use The reliability of the fixing force with respect to the resin was evaluated. Evaluation and determination were carried out by the methods described later, and the results are shown in Table 3 together with the porosity and filler content. The porosity [vol%] is calculated by Equation 1 from the fixed member volume V [cm ³ ] measured by the Archimedes method, the fixed member mass W [g], each material specific gravity and the component material specific gravity D calculated from the blending ratio. It is the result.

[Evaluation of ease of screwing wood screws]
Install the actual pottery according to the procedure, and when screwing the wood screw into the surface of the pottery fixing member through the pottery fixing hole, hand tighten with a torque screwdriver, and the wood screw with the maximum torque until just before the head of the wood screw contacts the pottery The ease of screwing was evaluated.
Screws with a maximum torque value of 294 N · cm or less are easy to screw, “○” exceeds 294 N · cm but requires a little force, but “△” and screw with screw exceeding 343 N · cm It was judged as “x” because it was difficult.
The wood screw used conformed to JIS-B1112 cross hole countersunk wood screw 5.8 × 56 SUSXM7. (The same one was used for other evaluations.)

[Fixing force evaluation (difficulty pulling)]
Various jigs were prepared on the assumption of actual mounting and pottery lifting, and measurement and evaluation were performed with a precision universal testing machine Autograph AGS-10kND manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation.
As shown in FIG. 6, a metal plate 8 assuming a floor surface was fixed to the precision universal testing machine body. The wood screw 11 was passed through the mounting hole of the metal plate 8 assuming a pottery, and the wood screw 11 was screwed vertically onto the surface of the pottery fixing member 1 until the tip of the wood screw protruded 8 mm from the opposite surface. The earthenware fixing member 1 was fixed to the metal plate 8, and the metal plate 9 was clamped and fixed by a clamping jig 10 fixed to the load cell of the precision universal testing machine. The load cell was pulled up at a speed of 50 mm / min, the pulling height at a load of 500 N was read, and the pulling height was used as an index of the fixing force.
When the lifting height at 500 N load was 5 mm or less, the fixing force was high, “◯”, and when it exceeded 5 mm, the fixing force was low, and “x” was determined.

[Reliability evaluation of fixing force]
As reliability evaluation of the fixing force with respect to the application of stress from each direction at the time of use, after applying stress in each direction to the wood screw screwed into the ceramic fixing member, the degree of wobbling of the wood screw was measured and evaluated.
A wood screw was screwed onto the surface of the ceramic fixing member perpendicularly and until the tip of the wood screw protruded 8 mm from the opposite surface. Next, the earthenware fixing member was fixed with a vise, 300N of stress was applied to the wood screw head in each of the directions A to E shown in FIG. 7, and this cycle was repeated 10 times. Then, the wobbling width of the wood screw head was measured and used as an indicator of the reliability of the fixing force.
If the wood screw head wobble width is 3mm or less, the reliability of the fixing force is high. "○" If it exceeds 3mm and within 5mm, "△". If it exceeds 5mm, the reliability of the fixing force is low. Judged by “x”.

  From Table 3, Example 1 to Example 5 are ○ judgments in all items of evaluation of ease of screwing of wood screws, evaluation of difficulty of pulling up, and reliability evaluation of fixing force, and sufficient performance as a ceramic fixing member. You can see that

(A) It is a schematic diagram which shows the cross-section of the fixing member which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. (B) A schematic view showing a cross-sectional structure of a fixing member according to another embodiment of the present invention. (A) It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the fixing member which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. (B) A top view and a plan view of a fixing member according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the whole toilet bowl fixed with the fixing member which concerns on this invention. (A) It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the fixing member which concerns on the comparative example 6. FIG. (B) A top view, a plan view, and a side view of a fixing member according to Comparative Example 6. (A) It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the fixing member which concerns on the comparative example 7. FIG. (B) A top view and a plan view of a fixing member according to Comparative Example 7. (A) It is a figure which shows the evaluation outline | summary which concerns on a fixing force evaluation (difficulty pulling up) method. (B) (A) is a schematic diagram of the figure. It is a figure which shows the direction of stress provision which concerns on reliability evaluation of fixing force.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Fixed member 2 ... Skin layer (dense layer)
3 ... Porous layer (sponge layer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 4 ... Screw hole 5 ... Sanitary ware 6 ... Screw 7 ... Drainage socket 8 ... Metal plate supposing floor surface 9 ... Metal plate supposing ceramic ware 10 ... Clamping jig 11 ... Wood screw

Claims (4)

A fixing member that is used on the inner side of sanitary ware and is fixed to a floor and / or a wall with screws from the outer side of the sanitary ware, wherein the fixing member contains 2% by volume to 20% by volume of filler. , Composed of an olefin resin foam having a porosity of 40% by volume to 55% by volume, and a surface having a higher strength and dense layer than the olefin resin foam and having a thickness of 0.1 mm to 3.5 mm have a resin skin layer or less, the sanitary ware by the screw is screwed into the olefin resin foam with the resin skin layer secured sanitary ware, characterized in that fixed to the floor and / or wall Element. The filler content of the fixing member is 5% by volume or more and 15% by volume or less, and the porosity is 40% by volume or more and 55% by volume or less. Element. The sanitary ware fixing member according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the olefin resin is a block copolymer of polyethylene and polypropylene. The resin skin layer is made of the same material as the olefin resin foam, is formed by heating the olefin resin foam, and the resin density gradually decreases from the resin skin layer toward the olefin resin foam. 4. The sanitary ware fixing member according to claim 1, wherein the sanitary ware fixing member is formed as described above.