JP6188054B2 - Disposer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a disposer that generates slurries by crushing straw or the like.

  The disposer is an apparatus that is disposed, for example, under a sink in a kitchen, crushes the cocoons and the like, mixes the crushed cocoons with water, generates a slurry, and discharges the generated slurry. Further, in general, the disposer has an opening in the upper part, and a throwing part into which the pestle is thrown through the opening, a crushing chamber connected to the lower part of the throwing part, and a crushing mechanism disposed in the lower part of the crushing chamber And an electric motor that is disposed below the crushing chamber and drives the crushing mechanism (for example, Patent Document 1).

  In such a disposer, since the rotating shaft of the electric motor penetrates through the bottom plate of the crushing chamber and penetrates into the crushing chamber, a seal is provided in the gap between the through hole of the bottom plate and the rotating shaft, It prevents water leakage toward the motor.

  In Patent Document 2, a cylinder body that opens downward is provided on the lower surface of a crushing mechanism (rotary blade plate), a rotor core of an outer rotor type electric motor is provided inside the cylinder body, and a stator core is provided inside the rotor core. And a disposer including a seal in a gap between the cylinder and the lower casing is disclosed. In this disposer, a rotating blade plate and a cylinder are placed on the rotor core and the stator core to prevent the rotor core and the stator core from being covered with water, and the lower casing is prevented from being flooded with a seal. Yes.

  In Patent Document 3, when a motor is provided with a rotor case and a seal disposed in a gap between the through hole in the bottom plate of the crushing chamber and the rotating shaft of the motor is broken and water leakage occurs, the water leakage is prevented with the rotor case. Accordingly, there is disclosed a disposer configured such that water leaks to the bottom of the motor case without touching the rotor, stator and bearings of the electric motor, and passes through a drain hole provided in the bottom.

JP 2000-157886 A JP 2002-263515 A JP 2003-80100 A

  The seal is a consumable part, and loses its elasticity over time, or loses its function due to deformation or breakage. Since the disposer described in Patent Document 1 does not include a means for detecting water leakage when the seal loses its function and water leaks to the motor, the water leak may be left until fatal damage occurs to the motor. There is.

  Since the disposer described in Patent Document 2 covers the rotor core and the stator core with the rotary blade plate and the cylinder, they do not directly receive water, but this disposer also has means for detecting water leakage. Since it is not provided, even if the function of the seal is impaired and water leakage enters the lower casing, there is a risk that the motor will be left until fatal damage occurs.

  Since the disposer described in Patent Document 3 includes a rotor case and a drain hole, even if the seal loses its function and water leaks, the water leaks outside through the drain hole without touching the rotor, stator and bearing of the motor. As it is discharged, the risk of immediate damage to the motor is small, but fatal damage will eventually occur if the damage to the seal increases.

  The present invention has been made under such a background, and when water leakage occurs due to damage to the seal in the gap between the through hole in the bottom plate of the crushing chamber and the rotating shaft of the electric motor, the water leakage is promptly performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a disposer that can detect and prevent fatal damage to an electric motor.

In order to achieve the above object, a disposer according to the present invention has an opening on the upper side, a throwing-in part into which a bowl is thrown through the opening, a crushing chamber connected below the throwing part, and the crushing A crushing mechanism disposed at a lower portion of the chamber, and an electric motor disposed below the crushing chamber to drive the crushing mechanism, and a rotation shaft of the electric motor passes through a bottom plate of the crushing chamber and the interior of the crushing chamber In the disposer protruding to the top, a weir-shaped portion is formed on the upper surface of the electric motor at a position away from the rotating shaft of the electric motor and surrounding the rotating shaft in an annular shape . around, with pockets for temporarily storing water leakage leaked from the crushing chamber is constituted, in the interior of said pocket, characterized in that sensors for detecting the presence of water leakage is disposed.

  You may make it provide the alarm means which displays or sends out an alarm when the sensor detects the presence of water leakage.

  Moreover, when the said sensor detects presence of water leak, you may make it provide the control part which stops the driving | operation of the said disposer.

  In addition, a low position sensor that detects the presence of water leakage at a low position and a high position sensor that detects the presence of water leakage at a position higher than the low position sensor are disposed inside the pocket, and the low position sensor An alarm means for displaying or sending an alarm when the presence of water leak is detected, and an emergency stop means for stopping the operation of the disposer when the high position sensor detects the presence of water leak may be provided. .

  According to the present invention, the dam-shaped portion surrounding the rotating shaft is formed on the upper surface of the housing of the electric motor, and the sensor for detecting the presence of water leakage is disposed between the rotating shaft and the dam-shaped portion. When water leaks due to damage to the seal in the gap between the through hole in the bottom plate of the chamber and the rotating shaft of the motor, the leaked water accumulates between the rotating shaft and the weir and is detected by the sensor. Water leakage can be detected in stages. Therefore, since repair can be performed at an early stage, there is an effect of preventing fatal damage to the electric motor. It also has the effect of preventing kitchen fouling.

It is sectional drawing of the disposer which concerns on this invention. It is an enlarged view of the A section of FIG. 1, (a) is a top view, (b) is sectional drawing. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structure of a control part. It is a flowchart which shows the process by the start / stop program. It is a flowchart which shows the process by an alarm output gram. It is a flowchart which shows the process by an emergency stop program.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a disposer 1 according to the present invention. The disposer 1 is a device that pulverizes the soot and mixes it with water to generate a slurry, which is discharged into sewage or the like, and includes a main body 2 and a control unit 3.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the main body 2 of the disposer 1 includes an input unit 4, a crushing chamber 5, a crushing mechanism 6, and an electric motor 7. The input part 4 is a part at the top of the main body 2 and connected to a drain port of a sink (not shown). There is an opening 8 above the input portion 4, and the bag introduced from the sink enters the main body 2 through the opening 8. The crushing chamber 5 is a part connected to the lower side of the input unit 4, and a crushing mechanism 6 is disposed below the crushing chamber 5. The crushing mechanism 6 includes a rotating disk 9 that is driven to rotate by an electric motor 7, a swing hammer 10 that is pivotally supported by the rotating disk 9, and a fixed blade 11 that is fixed to the crushing chamber 5. The pestle is pressed against the fixed blade 11 and crushed. Moreover, the crushed powder by the crushing mechanism 6 falls into the space 12 below the rotating disk 9 and is discharged from the discharge pipe 13 together with water. The electric motor 7 is disposed below the crushing chamber 5, and the rotating shaft 14 of the electric motor 7 penetrates the bottom plate 15 of the crushing chamber 5 and protrudes into the crushing chamber 5, and is connected to the rotating disk 9. A shaft seal 16 is provided between the bottom plate 15 and the rotating shaft 14 to prevent water leakage from the gap between the bottom plate 15 and the rotating shaft 14.

  Next, the detailed structure of part A in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. On the upper surface of the housing 17 of the electric motor 7, a dam-like portion 18 is formed that is located away from the rotary shaft 14 and surrounds the rotary shaft 14 in an annular shape. Here, for convenience of explanation, a recess surrounded by a weir 18 on the upper surface of the housing 17 is referred to as a pocket 19. On the upper surface of the housing 17 inside the pocket 19, an inner dam portion 20 that protrudes in a ring shape and surrounds the rotary shaft 14 in a position close to the rotary shaft 14 is raised. In addition, in order to prevent leakage of water from the gap between the housing 17 and the rotating shaft 14, a V ring 21 is attached to the rotating shaft 14, and the tip thereof is in contact with the upper surface of the inner dam portion 20. Note that the upper surface of the inner dam portion 20 is located higher than the upper surface of the dam-shaped portion 18.

  Since the V ring 21 is only in light contact with the upper surface of the inner dam portion 20, the frictional force that the V ring 21 receives from the inner dam portion 20 is smaller than the frictional force that the shaft seal 16 receives from the rotating shaft 14. Therefore, the shaft seal 16 is consumed faster than the V ring 21. That is, in many cases, the shaft seal 16 is broken before the V-ring 21. When the shaft seal 16 is broken, water leaks down along the rotary shaft 14 and reaches the V ring 21. The water leak reaching the V ring 21 is bounced by centrifugal force and flows down into the pocket 19. With this configuration, when the shaft seal 16 is broken and water leaks from the gap between the bottom plate 15 and the rotating shaft 14, the water temporarily accumulates in the pocket 19.

  Inside the pocket 19, first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23 are provided. Each of the first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23 has a pair of electrodes (not shown) and detects the presence of water leakage by measuring a change in electrical resistance between the electrodes when the electrodes are in contact with water. The specific configuration and detection principle are already well known and will not be described. If necessary, see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3112427, Japanese Patent No. 2669705, Japanese Patent No. 2573033, and the like.

  Moreover, the 1st water leak sensor 22 is arrange | positioned in the low position rather than the 2nd water leak sensor 23, and detects a water leak at a low water level. That is, water leakage is detected at an early stage. When water leakage continues and the water level in the pocket 19 becomes high, the second water leakage sensor 23 contacts the water and detects water leakage.

  As described above, since the upper surface of the inner dam portion 20 is located higher than the upper surface of the dam-like portion 18, the water leaked in the pocket 19 does not enter the housing 17 beyond the inner dam portion 20. The water leaked in the pocket 19 overflows the upper surface of the weir 18 before exceeding the inner weir 20 and overflows outside the weir 18, but is detected by the second water leak sensor 23 before that. .

  Now, the control unit 3 is schematically configured as shown in FIG. That is, the control unit 3 includes a computer 31 and an input / output interface 32, and the operation switch 33, the display lamps 34, 35, 36, the relay 37 and the first and second water leakage sensors 22, via the input / output interface 32. 23. The operation switch 33 is a switch for performing an operation input to the disposer 1, for example, a function that starts the operation of the disposer 1 when pressed while the disposer 1 is stopped, and stops the operation of the disposer 1 when pressed while the disposer 1 is operating. Is a push button. The display lamps 34, 35, 36 are lamps that display the operating state of the disposer 1. The display lamp 34 is turned on when the electric motor 7 is energized. The display lamp 35 is a warning lamp that is turned on when water leakage is detected. The indicator lamp 36 is lit when there is a danger of fatal damage to the electric motor 7 following the leakage of water, and when the indicator lamp 36 is lit, the operation of the disposer 1 is prohibited thereafter. Is done. The relay 37 is a device that opens and closes an electric circuit (not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) that supplies electric power to the electric motor 7.

  The functions described above are realized by a plurality of programs installed in the computer 31. The start / stop program shown in FIG. 4 is one of such programs, and is executed when the operation switch 33 is operated. When the start / stop program is activated, it is first determined whether or not the disposer 1 is in operation (step 1). Whether or not the disposer 1 is in operation is determined by, for example, the state of an output signal to the relay 37. A flag indicating that the vehicle is in operation may be set in the computer 31 and the determination may be made based on the state of the flag. If the disposer 1 is in operation (step 1: YES), an operation stop process is performed. Specifically, the display lamp 34 is turned off (step 2), and then a signal for shutting off the relay 37 is output to stop the motor 7 (step 3), and the process is terminated.

  If the disposer 1 is stopped (step 1: NO), the state of the operation prohibition flag is confirmed (step 4). The operation prohibition flag is a variable stored in the non-volatile memory of the computer 31 and is OFF in the initial state and is rewritten to ON when the second water leakage sensor 23 detects water leakage. A method for rewriting the operation prohibition flag will be described later.

  If the operation prohibition flag is ON, that is, if the operation of the disposer 1 is prohibited (step 4: YES), the display lamp 36 is turned on (step 5) to display that the operation is prohibited. End the process. Therefore, if the operation prohibition flag is ON, the disposer 1 does not move even if the operation switch 33 is operated.

  If the operation prohibition flag is OFF, that is, if the operation of the disposer 1 is not prohibited (step 4: NO), an operation start process is performed. Specifically, the display lamp 34 is turned on (step 6), then a signal for energizing the relay 37 is output to rotate the electric motor 7 (step 7), and the process is terminated.

  Moreover, the alarm output program as shown in FIG. 5 is installed in the computer 31, and it is started when the first water leakage sensor 22 detects water leakage. That is, when the first water leakage sensor 22 detects water leakage, the display lamp 35 is turned on (step 11). As described above, when the first water leakage sensor 22 detects water leakage, only the display lamp 35 is turned on, and processing for stopping or prohibiting the operation of the disposer 1 is not performed. Since the initial amount of water leakage is small, in many cases it evaporates due to heat generated from the electric motor 7, and while the water level accumulated in the pocket 19 is lower than the inner weir portion 20, This is because the risk of causing fatal damage to the electric motor 7 is small because it is prevented by the inner dam portion 20. Further, if the disposer 1 is stopped every time a slight water leak is detected, it is warped and the usability is deteriorated. For this reason, the initial water leakage is merely urged to inspect and repair by turning on the display lamp 35.

  In addition, an emergency stop program as shown in FIG. 6 is installed in the computer 31 and is activated when the second water leakage sensor 23 detects water leakage. That is, when the second water leakage sensor 23 detects water leakage, the display lamp 36 is turned on (step 21), a signal for shutting off the relay 37 is output to stop the motor 7 (step 22), and further, the operation is prohibited. The flag is rewritten to ON (step 23). Further, the display lamp 34 and the display lamp 35 are turned off (steps 24 and 25), and the processing is completed. As described above, when the second water leakage sensor 23 detects water leakage, that is, when the water level in the pocket 19 exceeds a predetermined height, the disposer 1 is stopped in an emergency and further operation is prohibited. . This is because if the amount of water leakage increases, there is a greater risk of causing fatal damage to the electric motor 7.

  As described above, the disposer 1 includes the dam-like portion 18 on the upper surface of the housing 17, the pocket 19 is formed, and water leakage always flows into the pocket 19. And since the 1st water leak sensor 22 is provided in the inside of the pocket 19, water leak can be detected reliably. Therefore, even an initial slight water leak can be detected.

  If only the first water leakage sensor 22 detects water leakage, the alarm lamp (indicator lamp 35) is turned on to give an alarm. However, since the disposer 1 continues to operate, it may cause an initial or fatal damage. It is possible to avoid frequent stoppages at a stage where the possibility of reaching is low.

  Moreover, since the 2nd water leak sensor 23 is provided in the position higher than the 1st water leak sensor 22 of the pocket 19 and the 2nd water leak sensor 23 detects water leak, since the disposer 1 is stopped in an emergency, the disposer 1 In particular, fatal damage to the electric motor 7 can be avoided.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, the technical scope of this invention is not limited by the said embodiment. The present invention can be practiced by being freely applied, modified or improved within the scope of the technical idea shown in the claims.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, when the first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23 detect water leakage, the computer 31 turns on the display lamps 35 and 36 and causes the diposer 1 to stop emergency. The alarm means and emergency stop means according to the present invention are not limited to those configured as described above. The alarm means and emergency stop means may be configured by dedicated hardware, or the first and second water leakage sensors 22, 23 and the alarm means and emergency stop means may be directly connected. For example, the display lamp 35 may be turned on by operating the relay 37 with the output signal of the first water leakage sensor 22. Alternatively, a power circuit breaker may be arranged between the disposer 1 and the commercial power supply so that the power circuit breaker operates according to the output signal of the second water leakage sensor 23.

  An example in which an alarm is displayed by turning on the display lamp 35 is shown. Instead of the display lamp 35, an alarm may be displayed by displaying characters or figures on a display panel, for example. Alternatively, a buzzer or the like may be provided to send an alarm by sound.

  In addition, as a specific example of the first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23, an electric sensor that detects a change in electrical resistance or capacitance between the electrodes has been illustrated. However, the sensor of the present invention is an electric sensor. It is not limited to sensors. As long as the function of detecting the presence or absence of water in the pocket 19 is provided, the configuration and detection principle are not limited. For example, an optical sensor that utilizes the difference in transmittance and refractive index between air and water may be used.

  Further, the number of sensors is not limited to two. In addition to the first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23, a third water leakage sensor may be provided to detect the water level in the pocket 19 in three stages. Alternatively, only one sensor, that is, only one of the first or second water leakage sensors 22 and 23 may be provided.

  Alternatively, a plurality of first and second water leakage sensors 22 and 23 may be provided to detect water leakage at different positions (of the same height) of the pocket 19.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the example which performs an emergency stop when the 2nd water leak sensor 23 detected water leak was shown, the 2nd water leak sensor 23 was excluded, for example by the 1st water leak sensor 22 The frequency of detection of water leakage and the cumulative number of detections may be counted, and an emergency stop may be performed when the frequency or number of times exceeds a predetermined threshold. Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the example which carries out the emergency stop only of the disposer 1 was shown, in addition to this, you may provide the function which carries out the emergency closure of the water tap. That is, for example, if a faucet for injecting water into a sink provided with the disposer 1 is provided with an electric valve so that the electric valve is operated according to a command from the control unit 3, water injection can be stopped in the event of an emergency stop. Damage due to water leakage can be minimized.

  In addition, the configuration of the control unit 3 illustrated in the above embodiment is simplified and conceptualized to the minimum necessary for the description of the present invention, and the configuration of the present invention is not limited to the configuration having such a configuration. . For example, the number of switches connected to the control unit 3 is not limited to one. A plurality of switches may be provided. Further, instead of the display lamps 34 to 36, a display device may be provided to display an alarm with characters or figures. For example, when the first water leakage sensor 22 detects water leakage, the “water leakage caution” may be displayed on the display device. Alternatively, a speaker may be provided to issue an alarm by sound or voice. Further, in FIG. 1, for convenience of explanation, the main body 2 and the control unit 3 are illustrated as being physically separated. However, all or part of the control unit 3 may be configured integrally with the main body 2. .

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the operation and the stop are performed by one operation switch 33 has been described. However, an “operation” switch and a “stop” switch may be provided separately. Alternatively, the control unit 3 may be provided with a timer and programmed to automatically stop when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of operation. Alternatively, the current flowing through the electric motor 7 may be measured, and the operation may be automatically stopped when the current value decreases. This is because the load on the electric motor 7 is reduced when the pulverization is completed, but a decrease in the load can be detected as a decrease in the current value.

  As described above, the operation prohibition flag is OFF in the initial state, but the control unit 3 may be provided with means for returning the operation prohibition flag rewritten to ON to the initial state again. For example, the control unit 3 may include a reset button, and when the reset button is operated, the computer 31 may rewrite the operation prohibition flag to OFF. Normal operation can be resumed by replacing the shaft seal 16 and operating the reset button.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Disposer 2 Main body 3 Control part 4 Input part 5 Crushing chamber 6 Crushing mechanism 7 Electric motor 8 Opening 9 Rotating disc 10 Swing hammer 11 Fixed blade 12 Space 13 Discharge pipe 14 Rotating shaft 15 Bottom plate 16 Shaft seal 17 Housing 18 Weir-shaped part 19 Pocket 20 Inner weir 21 V ring 22 First water leakage sensor 23 Second water leakage sensor 31 Computer 32 Input / output interface 33 Operation switch 34-36 Indicator lamp 37 Relay

Claims (4)

An input part having an opening on the upper side, through which the straw is input;
A crushing chamber connected to the lower side of the charging unit;
A crushing mechanism disposed in a lower part of the crushing chamber;
An electric motor disposed below the crushing chamber and driving the crushing mechanism;
In the disposer in which the rotating shaft of the electric motor penetrates the bottom plate of the crushing chamber and protrudes into the crushing chamber,
On the upper surface of the electric motor, a dam-like portion is formed at a position away from the rotating shaft of the electric motor and surrounding the rotating shaft in an annular shape ,
A pocket for temporarily storing the leaked water from the crushing chamber is formed around the rotating shaft by the weir-shaped portion ,
Inside the pocket, disposer, wherein a sensor for detecting the presence of water leakage is disposed. The disposer according to claim 1, further comprising alarm means for displaying or sending out an alarm when the sensor detects the presence of water leakage. The disposer according to claim 1, further comprising emergency stop means for stopping the operation of the disposer when the sensor detects the presence of water leakage. Inside the pocket, a low position sensor that detects the presence of water leakage at a low position, and a high position sensor that detects the presence of water leakage at a position higher than the low position sensor,
Alarm means for displaying or sending an alarm when the low position sensor detects the presence of water leakage;
The disposer according to claim 1, further comprising emergency stop means for stopping the operation of the disposer when the high position sensor detects the presence of water leakage.

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