Patent Application
20170014007
The present invention relates to a hand dryer that enables optimal maintenance.
Hand dryers comprising a cavity intended to receive the hands of a user are known, comprising an operation control unit, the cavity being provided with at least one presence sensor to activate drying.
These hand dryers are conceived to work almost continuously, with a very high workload. In order to make the hand dryer operational again when a component fails, or when the water tray intended to collect the water droplets that fall from the hands of the user is full, it is necessary to notify that it is no longer operational, detect the breakdown and act on the hand dryer in order to make it operational again.
This sequence must be carried out as quickly as possible.
In the known hand dryers, the full tray condition tends to be evident due to the presence of water in the floor beneath the hand dryer, a situation that is not at all desirable due to the unclean appearance it entails.
Furthermore, in order for the person responsible for the maintenance to locate the failure, they must access the inside of the hand dryer, for which reason it must be disassembled, which entails time and cost.
In order to resolve the drawbacks of the state of the art, or minimise them, the present invention proposes a hand dryer comprising a cavity intended to receive the hands of a user, comprising an operation control unit, the cavity being provided with at least one presence sensor to activate drying, which is characterised in that it comprises status sensors for several of the components thereof connected to the control unit, wherein the control unit comprises wireless transmission means of said statuses.
In this way, it is possible to know the inner status of the hand dryer from the outside and act accordingly.
Preferably, the control unit is configured to activate the wireless transmission of said statuses when it receives an activation signal.
Preferably, the activation signal is activated when the presence sensor detects a predetermined sequence or when the hand dryer is wirelessly sent the activation signal.
In this way, whether for a routine control or after the occurrence of a breakdown, the person responsible for the maintenance must only carry out a break sequence of the hand presence sensor(s), after which the transmission of the component status of the hand dryer is activated.
Preferably, the wireless transmission means operate with Bluetooth communication protocol.
Alternatively or additionally, the wireless transmission means operate via Wi-Fi.
This advantageously enables the hand dryer to be connected to a service platform, especially management and maintenance services for one or more hand dryers.
Advantageously, the control unit is configured to order the transmission of information stored in the control unit.
According to several optional characteristics of the invention, which may be combined if technically possible:
Lastly, the sequence includes colour and strength variations of the light emitted by the light sources.
As a complement to the description, and for the purpose of helping to make the characteristics of the invention more readily understandable, in accordance with a practical embodiment thereof, said description is accompanied by a set of figures constituting an integral part thereof, which by way of illustration and not limitation represent the following:
As may be seen in the figures, the invention relates to a hand dryer 1 comprising a cavity 2 intended to receive the hands of a user, comprising an operation control unit 3, the cavity 2 being provided with at least one presence sensor 4 to activate drying.
Specifically, according to a preferred embodiment, as may be seen in
The control unit may also activate the wireless transmission, for example, via an activation signal sent externally.
The connection may be Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth, and according to the needs, may be transmitted continuously or intermittently.
In particular, the Wi-Fi connection enables one or more hand dryers to be connected to a management and maintenance platform. In particular, this enables the manager to carry out the maintenance of many units remotely themselves.
They may also know the status of the hand dryers and carry out predictive maintenance thereof, for example, via vibration or anomalous operation status analysis of components provided with sensors.
It is also provided that some variants of the hand dryer include an informative screen directed towards the user of the hand dryers. The manager may control the content shown on the screen via wireless communication.
The components include a collection tray 7 for the water collected at the bottom of the cavity 2. For example, when it is almost full, the maintenance staff may be notified so that they remove the water and the hand dryer may continue to work.
As may be seen in
This activation may be intermittent, in order for a breakdown to be more visible.
Furthermore, the control unit 3 is configured to activate the laser pointer when the tray 7 is full. This activation is continuous in order to differentiate the full tray situation from a breakdown.
According to another advantageous aspect of the invention, which may be considered an invention in itself, the hand dryer comprises light sources 9 arranged in the mouth of the cavity 2 for receiving hands and the control unit 3 is configured to activate a lighting sequence in these light sources 9.
This sequence includes colour and strength variations of the light emitted by the light sources 9.
The following 25-second cycle is preferably proposed for the LEDs whilst the motor is activated by a user.
These are three continuous colour changes:
It starts with BLUE RGB(0,0,255) and every 100 ms the red increases such that in 8 seconds it turns into MAGENTA RGB(255,0,255)
From MAGENTA RGB(255,0,255), every 100 ms the red decreases such that in 8 seconds it turns into BLUE RGB(0,0,255)
From BLUE RGB(0,0,255), every 100 ms the green increases such that in 8 seconds it turns into CYAN RGB(0,255,255)
Clearly, the wireless communication also enables the lighting sequences to be configured at will and remotely.
As may be seen in
In this text, the word “comprises” and variants thereof (such as “comprising”, etc.) should not be understood in an exclusive sense, i.e. they do not exclude the possibility of that which is described including other elements, steps, etc.
Also, the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments of the hand dryer described, but rather encompasses the variations that a person with average skill in the art could make (e.g. in terms of choice of materials, dimensions, components, design, etc.), within the scope of what may be deduced from the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| U201430195 | Feb 2014 | ES | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/ES2015/070089 | 2/12/2015 | WO | 00 |
