Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Wash receptacles – With proximity operated valve
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-07
2001-02-20
Fetsuga, Robert M. (Department: 3751)
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Wash receptacles
With proximity operated valve
C004S628000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06189163
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a device for automatically controlling the operation of at least one washroom appliance such as a water faucet, soap dispenser, shower, urinal, etc., in particular the operation of a flow control valve of such an appliance, comprising:
at least one sensor provided for sensing the presence of a user in a close neighbourhood of said appliance and for generating a presence signal upon sensing said presence
a control unit having an input for receiving said presence signal, which control unit is provided for generating a control signal on the basis of the received presence signals and for transmitting said control signal to means for actuating said appliance;
means for deactuating said appliance;
a remote control arranged for emitting a signal;
a receiver arranged for receiving said signal and for generating a maintenance signal in response to receipt of said signal from the remote control; and
means responsive to the maintenance signal for generating an overruling signal for disabling said actuation means.
Such a device is known from EP-A-0 487 977. This European patent application discloses a toilet including an automatic flushing system actuated by an active infrared detection system. The automatic flushing system can be put out of order by means of a remote control operation device, in particular when a maintenance person enters the toilet to clean it. The remote control operation device comprises an infrared transmitter and a receiver for the infrared rays emitted by the remote control device. These infrared rays have to be emitted both to initiate and to stop the cleaning or maintenance function.
In EP-A-0 487 977 the power source for supplying the necessary electrical power to the automatic flushing device has not been specified. The present invention is, however, especially directed to automatic control devices which are powered by means of a low voltage power source, in particular a battery. In such a case, the longevity of the battery is of great importance. In this respect, the cleaning function of the known automatic flushing device has the disadvantage of requiring additional energy, in particular the receiver for detecting the infrared rays emitted by the remote control.
An object of a first aspect of the present invention is therefore to provide a new automatic control device which can be put in a maintenance or cleaning function by means of a remote control device without making it impractical to still use a battery as power source.
To this end, the device according to the first aspect of the present invention is characterised in that said device comprises means for intermittently actuating and deactuating said receiver to reduce the power consumption thereof.
In an advantageous embodiment of the device according to the invention the receiver is actuated at least once per second. In this way, the intermittent activation of the receiver will not be noticeable at all in practice for a person operating the remote control but the energy requirements can be kept to a minimum.
In a second aspect, the present invention also relates to a device for automatically controlling flow of water in a wash fountain through a series of water nozzles connected to separate water supply valves, in particular a device according to the above described first aspect of the invention, which device comprises:
a series of sensors assigned to said nozzles, which sensors are provided for sensing the presence of a user in close neighbourhood to the nozzle they are assigned to and for generating a presence signal upon sensing said presence;
a control unit provided for generating a control signal upon receipt of said presence signal and for transmitting said control signal to valve actuation means arranged to open the water valve of said corresponding nozzle in response to receipt of said control signal; and
valve deactuation means for closing said water valve again.
Such a device is known from EP-A-0 574 372 and is used as system for automatically controlling i.a. water valves and soap valves in a wash fountain. The wash fountain may contain either one common water valve or several water valves, one for each water nozzle. In the latter case, a number of passive infrared sensors are provided for detecting the presence of a user near the respective water nozzle of the wash fountain.
A problem arises when the wash fountain has to be cleaned since the device automatically detects the presence of the maintenance person and therefore activates the water and soap nozzles, which is not desired at that moment. The person therefore has to deactivate the device for example by removing the battery or switching off the mains from the device or by closing for example the main water and/or soap supply. This operation is relatively cumbersome, since the battery and the water and/or soap supply are normally well concealed to prevent vandalism and consequently not easily accessible. Moreover, closing the water supply of one wash fountain might require to close the water supply of an entire building. Additionally, in order to reactivate the wash fountain, the person may not forget to reinstall the battery in the device or to reopen the supply after maintenance.
Another important drawback is that when deactivating the entire wash fountain in any of the above described ways, the maintenance person can no longer take any water to clean the wash fountain and has therefore to provide the necessary supply of water.
An object of the second aspect of the invention is therefore to provide means in the device to allow maintenance without requiring a cumbersome operation such as removing the battery from the device or closing the water and/or soap supply and which moreover to permit cleaning the wash fountain without having to provide a supply of cleaning water.
To this end, the device according to the second aspect of the invention is characterised in that said device further comprises maintenance means including means for generating a maintenance signal and means responsive to said maintenance signal for generating an overruling signal for preventing opening of all but at least one of said water valves during a predetermined period of time and for allowing opening of said water valves again after said predetermined period of time has lapsed.
The maintenance signal can be generated for example in response to a signal emitted by means of a remote control or even more simply in response to a signal generated by the device itself in particular in response to depression of a push button. Before starting to maintain the wash fountain, the maintenance person can simply give the required signal in response to which the overruling pulse is generated. In this way, actuation of said wash fountain is prevented during the predetermined period of time of for example two minutes so that during this period of time the presence of the persons in the neighbourhood of the device does not cause flow of water through the wash fountain, at least not through most of the water nozzles. No cumbersome operation is thus needed for allowing to clean the wash fountain. After this period of time, the person does not have to execute any actions, since the activation is automatically enabled and the device returns automatically to its normal operating condition.
An important feature of this second aspect of the invention is further that the maintenance function enables deactuation of less than all of the water valves and maintains at least one water valve active so that the person may use the water flowing through this valve to clean the wash fountain. After this initial phase, all the water valves, i.e. also the water valve(s) which were not inoperative during the initial phase, may be kept closed for a second predetermined period of time of, for example 30 seconds, so that the wash fountain can be dried by the maintenance person. After this second period of time, the device automatically returns to its normal operating condition since the activation is automatically enabled.
According to a first preferred embodiment of t
Cahill Sutton & Thomas P.L.C.
Fetsuga Robert M.
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