The present invention is related to the structure of an automatic soap dispenser, and more particularly, to an automatic foam soap dispenser used for a soap bottle pressed downwardly (such as, the pressing bottles for hand soap and shampoo found in the market).
Owing to the development of technology and the improvement of life quality, the manual soap dispenser has been replaced by the automatic soap dispenser with the sensing technology.
The current automatic soap dispenser, as disclosed in a R.O.C patent No. M328853, entitled “Soap dispensing mechanism for automatic soap dispenser”, includes a driving device, composed of a motor and a gear set, for driving a tube pressing lever to press a soap tube linked to a soap reservoir so as to output the soap. The tube pressing lever, which is pivotally connected to a protruded axle of a substrate in the driving device, has a curved side and an opposite flat side, and the curved side is rejected against a trigger, which is pivotally connected to an output axle of the gear set of the driving device. Moreover, a blocking board is mounted at a rear side of a front cover of a housing of the soap dispenser, and the soap tube linked to the soap reservoir is located between the tube pressing lever and the blocking board. Accordingly, through the motor drives the gear set, the trigger turns to reject against the tube pressing lever so as to force the lever to swing toward the soap tube, and by cooperating with the block board, the soap tube can be pressed.
Although the manual operation is replaced by the sensing technology in the automatic soap dispenser described above, there still have some disadvantages as followed:
1. In the conventional automatic foam soap dispenser, the soap reservoir is designed to be upside down, so that when the soap reservoir is pressed, the valve body compresses air into the soap reservoir. When the net is mounted inside the outlet, the air will push the soap toward the outlet and then pass through the net for making foam. However, since the valve body is close to the net and the net is close to the outlet, the foam is easily gathered around the outlet and then be sucked back during the next operation of the valve body, so that the lubricant movement of the valve body might be influenced by the foam, thereby reducing the lifetime of the valve body.
2. Since the foam is frequently remained and gathered around the outlet of the automatic soap dispenser, when the liquid soap is separated from the air (namely, the bubble is broken) after a period of time, the liquid soap will drop to the floor or the tape platform to cause contamination.
The object of the present invention is to provide an automatic foam soap dispenser which not only complies with the usual practice of downward soap output, but also prolongs the lifetime.
For achieving the object described above, the present invention provides an automatic foam soap dispenser, including a covering housing opened downwardly for accommodating a pressing-typed soap reservoir and a foam nozzle opened downwardly at the bottom thereof, wherein the soap reservoir has a pressing head at the top thereof, the pressing head is communicated with a connecting head, and the connecting head extends an extension pipe to communicate with the foam nozzle; a control circuit board electrically connected to a power source; a motor controlled by the control circuit board, wherein a transmission gear set, which is driven by the motor to turn, and a swinging pressing board are mounted on an extension fixing board extended from the covering housing inside, and wherein the transmission gear set has a cam, and a first end of the swinging pressing board is pivotally connected to the cam and the transmission gear set, and a second end of the swinging pressing board is leaned on the pressing head or the connecting head; and a sensor for sensing an approach of an external object and feedbacking a signal to the control circuit board so as to trigger the motor to turn and then drive the swinging pressing board to press the soap reservoir.
Another object of the present invention is to solve the problem of soap dropping caused from the remaining foam soap so as to keep the soap outlet clean.
For achieving this object, the present invention provides an automatic foam soap dispenser, including a covering housing opened downwardly for accommodating a pressing-typed soap reservoir and a foam nozzle opened downwardly at the inner bottom thereof, wherein the soap reservoir has a pressing head at the top thereof, the pressing head is communicated with a connecting head, and the connecting head extends an extension pipe to communicate with the foam nozzle; a control circuit board electrically connected to a power source; a motor controlled by the control circuit board, wherein a transmission gear set, which is driven by the motor to turn, and a swinging pressing board are mounted on an extension fixing board extended from the covering housing inside, and wherein the transmission gear set has a cam, and a first end of the swinging pressing board is pivotally connected to the cam, and a second end of the swinging pressing board is leaned on the pressing head or the connecting head; and a sensor for sensing an approach of an external object and feedbacking a signal to the control circuit board so as to trigger the motor to turn and then drive the swinging pressing board to press the soap reservoir, wherein the foam nozzle has a foam net inside, the foam nozzle further has a foam outlet, at the bottom thereof, communicated with the extension pipe, and an outlet extension portion with an adhesion plane surrounding thereof is further formed around the foam outlet.
Accordingly, as compared with the prior arts, the present invention is advantageous of:
1. According to the present invention, the soap reservoir can be in an upright position with the pressing head at top, and by the extension pipe, the foam nozzle can be mounted at the inner bottom of the covering housing, in the result that the foam outlet is distant from a valve body of the soap reservoir, so that the foam will not be gathered around the foam outlet, thereby preventing the foam suction, which may influence the movement of the valve body, and thus prolonging the lifetime of the soap reservoir.
2. Through the outlet extension portion mounted around the foam outlet at the bottom of the foam nozzle and the adhesion plate surrounding the outlet extension portion, the foam remained and gathered around the foam outlet, owing to the surface tension, can diffuse and adhere to the adhesion plane so as to avoid the soap from dropping, thereby keep clean.
3. The swinging pressing board is designed in accordance with the lever principle, in which the first end of the swinging pressing board is cooperated with the cam, and owing to the height difference of the cam, the second end can be moved up and down to press the pressing head. Besides, since the swinging pressing board moves in accordance with the lever principle, which turns upon a fixed axle, the wearing caused by torsion can be minimized, thereby improving the durability of the transmission gear set.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Please refer to
It should be noticed that, in the present invention, through the extension pipe 61, the foam nozzle 60 can be positioned at the bottom of the covering housing 20 and thus distant from a valve body (not shown since the valve body is disposed inside the pressing-typed soap reservoir 30 and is well known in the art) of the pressing-typed soap reservoir 30, so that the foam will not be remained and gathered around a foam outlet 600, thereby preventing the foam suction, which influences the movement of the valve body, and thus prolonging the lifetime of the pressing-typed soap reservoir 30.
Please further refer to
Please further refer to
It should be noticed that through the outlet extension portion 601 mounted around the foam outlet 600 at the bottom of the foam nozzle 60 and the adhesion plate 602 surrounding the outlet extension portion 601, owing to the surface tension, the foam remained around the foam outlet 600 will diffuse to the adhesion plane 602, so as to avoid the soap from dropping, thereby keeping the outlet and the environment clean.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.