JPH0312157A - Bubble generator for bathtub - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the density of bubbles in hot water and to more improve a message effect to a human body by providing a film member, for which a surface is a fine film equipped with fine holes and an internal part is composed of a sponge-shaped supporting body, and a pressurized air supplying means. CONSTITUTION:For a bubble generator 5, plural hollow thread bundles 7 are housed in a cylindrical body 9 with supporting the both end parts of the bundle by a mold material 8. For a holly thread constituting the hollow thread bundle 7, inner and outer surfaces are composed of the fine films and the internal part is sponge-shaped. Then, a low of the holes at 100Angstrom exist on the film of the surface. When air is sent from an air compressor 6 and hot water 3 in a bathtub 1 is sent to a circulation line 2 and circulated, pressurized air is supplied to the inside of each hollow thread in the hollow thread bundle 7 of the bubble generator 5 and the fine bubbles are generated from an outside to flowing water in a flowing water room 11. Since bubble generators 5 and 5' can supply a low of the bubbles into the bathtub 1 while holding a fine state without developing the fine bubbles, the density of the bubble in the hot water is made high and the message effect to the human body is more improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a bubble generator for a bathtub for generating extremely fine bubbles in a bathtub.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Baths that generate air bubbles in the bathtub and have a pine surge effect on the skin of the human body are becoming popular.

Conventional devices for generating air bubbles in the bathtub include:
Bubble generators using a pressurized water depressurization method and bubble generators using a porous filter method are generally used.

The bubble generator using the pressurized water depressurization method is shown in FIG. 4, and includes a jet pump a, an accumulator b, and a decompression nozzle that injects the pressurized water from the jet pump a into the bathtub C while decompressing it. It consists of d and
A circulation pipe e connected to a bathtub C is connected to the jet pump a, and an air introduction vibrator g is further connected to the circulation pipe e via a valve f.

In this device, air from an air introduction vibrator g is dissolved under pressure in the middle of a circulation pipe e into a whirlpool in a bathtub C that is circulated by a jet pump a, and this hot water is heated by a jet pump a through an accumulator b. It is fed under pressure. When the pressure is reduced and sprayed into the bathtub C from the pressure-reducing nozzle d, bubbles i of 10 to 20 μm are generated in the hot water in the bathtub C.

The bubble generator using the porous filter method is shown in Fig. 5, and consists of a porous plate j installed at the bottom of the bathtub C, and an air pump j that supplies air to the porous plate j. The air from the air pump k becomes finer bubbles than the porous plate j and is released into the vortex. The porous plate j is made of ceramic made by sintering inorganic powder or hard synthetic resin foam.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Among the conventional bubble generators mentioned above, the former requires a large amount of energy because it is necessary to increase the pressure of pressurized water to about 2 to 3 kg/c+#, and requires equipment such as jet pump A1 valve F. It was reported that the structure was complicated, the entire device became large, and it was difficult to control the bubble diameter and density.

In addition, in the latter bubble generator, the diameter of the holes provided in the porous plate j is usually 5 μm to 2 mm, and the bubbles generated therefrom have a diameter of 1 mm or more, making it possible to obtain fine bubbles. It was difficult.

As described above, when the bubble diameter is large, the rising speed of the bubbles in the bathtub is fast, making it difficult to retain a large amount of bubbles in the bathtub water.

Furthermore, if the air bubbles rise at a faster rate, a water flow will occur in the bathtub,
Even at the same water temperature, the perceived temperature is higher than that of still water.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above, and has a simple structure and does not allow microbubbles to grow in hot water.
To provide a bubble generator for a bathtub, which can supply a large amount of bubbles into a bathtub while maintaining a fine state, is inexpensive, has a high bubble density in a whirlpool, and can further enhance the pine surge effect on the human body. The purpose is to

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the bubble generating device for a bathtub according to the present invention is a bubble generating device for a bathtub that supplies fine bubbles into a bathtub.
It consists of a membrane member whose interior is made of a sponge-like support, and pressurized air supply means for supplying pressurized air to the inside of this membrane member.

It is composed of the membrane member, pressurized air supply means for supplying pressurized air to the inside of the membrane member, and water flow generation means for supplying running water around the membrane member.

Further, the membrane member is composed of a flat membrane or a hollow fiber.

[For production]

When air is sent inside the membrane member using a pressurized air supply means, it passes through the membrane member and a large number of ultrafine bubbles are generated. These ultrafine bubbles are released directly into the hot water in the bathtub, or into the vortex along with the running water around the membrane member.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the figure, 1 is a bathtub, 2 is a circulation line that circulates hot water 3 in the bathtub 1, and this circulation line 2 is composed of a pump 4, a bubble generator 5, and a near compressor 6.

The bubble generator 5 has a plurality of hollow fiber bundles 7 supported at both ends with molding material 8 and housed in a cylinder 9, with one end of each hollow fiber bundle 1 attached to one end of the cylinder 9 Opposed gas chambers 10 are formed, and a water flow chamber 11 is formed between both molding materials 8,8.

The near compressor 6 is connected to the gas chamber 10, and the outlet side of the pump 4 is connected to the same longitudinal side of the water chamber 11, and the outlet vibrator 12 is connected to the other side. Furthermore, the inflow vibrator 13 of the pump 4 and the outlet vibrator 12 of the bubble generator 5 are opened into the hot water of the bathtub 1.

Both the vibrators 12 and 13 may be connected to the side wall of the bathtub 1 as shown in FIG. It's okay.

The hollow fibers constituting the hollow fiber bundle 7 are composed of dense membranes on the inner and outer surfaces, and have a sponge-like interior, and the surface membrane has many pores of about 100 on the entire surface.

This hollow fiber is usually produced by dry or wet spinning using a solution in which a polymeric material is dissolved in a solvent and a pore-forming agent is added thereto.

For example, a solvent was used in which polysulfone P-1700 (manufactured by Union Carbide) was dissolved in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and ethylene glycol was added as a pore-forming agent.

In addition, in addition to hollow fibers, film-like membrane members can also be manufactured using this manufacturing method.

The membrane members including the hollow fibers include the types (materials and manufacturing conditions) of membrane members A, B, and C, as shown in FIG.
The diameter of the bubbles generated therefrom can be adjusted by adjusting the air pressure and amount applied to the membrane member, and the amount and angle of water flowing through the membrane member.

In the above configuration, when air is sent from the near compressor 6 and hot water 3 from the bathtub 1 is sent to the circulation line 2 by the pump 4 for circulation, pressurized air is generated inside each hollow fiber of the hollow fiber bundle 7 of the bubble generator 5. Fine air bubbles are generated in the flowing water in the flowing water chamber 11 from the outside. At this time, the flowing water in the flowing water chamber 11 may be a turbulent flow or a laminar flow, but the fine air bubbles generated on the outer surface of the hollow fibers due to the force of the water flow are supplied into the water before they grow on the outer surface. The hot water 3 in the circulation line 2 mixed with these ultrafine bubbles is then returned to the bathtub 1.
Ultrafine bubbles are released inside. Since the diameter of the ultrafine bubbles released into the bathtub 1 is extremely small, the rate of rise in the bath 3 is extremely low. Therefore, the residence time in the bathtub 1 is extremely long, and the bubbles spread throughout the bathtub 1, and the hot water becomes cloudy due to the bubbles.

In the above embodiment, an example of a configuration is shown in which air bubbles are generated in flowing water and circulated into the bathtub 1 using the circulation line 2, but as shown in FIG. The container 5' may be directly immersed in the bathtub 1 so that the air bubbles from the hollow fibers are released directly into the bathwater. At this time, the hot water 3 may be stirred by the screw 12, or the bubble generator 5' may be moved up and down without using the screw 12.

Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, the bubble generator 5.5' is shown to be large relative to the size of the bathtub 1, but this is merely for convenience of explanation, and in reality, the bubble generator 5.5' is It is sufficiently small compared to the size of the bathtub 1.

Further, in the above embodiment, hollow fibers are used as the bubble generators 5 and 5', but flat membranes may also be used instead. Further, it goes without saying that the piping for the outlet for hot water from the bathtub and the return outlet for bubbly water may be located at any position within the bathtub depending on the desired effect. Furthermore, the above-mentioned examples of the structure, shape, etc. of the bubble generator are merely examples thereof, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the bubble generators 5 and 5' can supply a large amount of bubbles into the bathtub 1 while maintaining a fine state without causing the bubbles to grow.

Therefore, the density of the bubbles in the whirlpool is high, further increasing the pine surge effect on the human body.

Furthermore, since the rising speed of such ultrafine bubbles in water is low, the generated bubbles remain in the vortex for a long time.

As a result, the heat retention effect and pine surge effect are enhanced, and visually the inside of the whirlpool becomes cloudy due to air bubbles, making it look like a milk bath.

Structurally, since the membrane member itself is extremely small, the bubble generators 5, 5' themselves are extremely compact, and the air pressure sent to the bubble generators 5, 5' is 2 kg/
Since it is as small as cJ, the near compressor 6 may also be small. Furthermore, even if hot water is circulated, a jet stream is not necessary for running water, and a small pump is sufficient, and in other embodiments, even this pump is not necessary.

Therefore, the bubble generator for a bathtub according to the present invention as a whole becomes extremely compact, and its hem does not take up much space, allowing for a simpler configuration.

Since the bubble generator itself has a simple structure, bubble generators using different types of membrane members can be replaced by cartridges, or different bubble generators can be installed in the same bubble generator for bathtubs and switched using a switch. By this, several types of bubbles can be generated.

In terms of energy, only low pressurized air is required and the pump is also small, so it requires much less energy than conventional methods.

In addition, since the entire amount of supplied air is generated in the form of small bubbles in the water, there is no excess air, resulting in high efficiency.

According to the bubble generation mechanism of the present invention, the bubble density can be adjusted to any desired value.

Since the membrane member of the bubble generator of the present invention does not allow water bodies to pass through the membrane member, there is no need for maintenance to deal with debris in the water, and the overall structure is simple, making maintenance such as replacing parts easy. be.

Furthermore, since the entire installation is compact, it can be installed in any desired structure, such as directly inside the bathtub or outside via a pipe.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are schematic configuration explanatory diagrams showing enlarged main parts of different embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the type of membrane member and the bubble diameter. FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic structural explanatory diagrams showing different conventional examples. 1 is a bathtub, 2 is a circulation line, 3 is hot water, 5.5' is a bubble generator, 4 is a pump, 6 is a near compressor, 7 is a hollow fiber, and 12 is a screw.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A bubble generator for a bathtub that supplies minute bubbles into the bathtub 1 includes a membrane member whose surface has micropores and whose interior is a sponge-like support, and a membrane member that is heated inside the membrane member. A bubble generator for a bathtub, comprising a pressurized air supply means for supplying pressurized air. (2) A bubble generator for a bathtub that supplies minute bubbles into the bathtub 1 includes a membrane member whose surface has micropores and whose interior is a sponge-like support; A bubble generator for a bathtub, comprising a pressurized air supply means for supplying pressurized air, and a water flow generation means for supplying running water around the membrane member. (3) The bubble generator for a bathtub according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the membrane member is a flat membrane or a hollow fiber.