Shower bath apparatus and spray nozzle

Abstract

A shower bath apparatus which enables hot water bathing in a relaxed condition and provides a warm feeling over the whole body, equivalent to bathing in a bath tub. The shower bath apparatus comprises a shower bath apparatus body, a seat, on which a bathing person is seated, a spray nozzle for jetting hot water to the bathing person, and an arm provided with at least one spray nozzle. Sprayed hot water envelops the whole body of a user in a seated position to give the user a warm feeling.

Description

[0001]This is a Reissue Application of U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,814, issued Mar. 6, 2001.[0002]This Application is a U.S. National Phase Application of PCT International Application PCT / JP97 / 00525.TECHNICAL FIELD[0003]The present invention relates to a shower bath apparatus having a spray nozzle for jetting fluid to a user, and more particularly to a shower bath apparatus capable of warming the whole body simultaneously same as bathing in a bath tub, and bringing about an excellent warming effect.BACKGROUND ART[0004]Shower bath is becoming popular as simple bathing means owing to its ease in preparation for bathing and saving of space, but shower bathing is hard to get warmth and obtain relaxed feeling, and there is a gap from the bath tub bathing practice based on the traditional bath culture in Japan. To eliminate this gap, various shower bath apparatuses have been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 61-94616 proposes a shower box as shown in FIG. 43, in which a ring-s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019]In a shower bath apparatus in a third aspect of the invention, the seat means has a support unit such as support plate, and the support unit can support the body weight of the user applied on the seat means firmly on the floor, thereby preventing the seat means from being broken to prevent accident due to impact of sitting or years of use, so that the shower bath apparatus of high safety is presented.

[0068]In a fifty-second aspect of the invention, three swirl units of the spray nozzle are formed as swirl holes, and the constitution of the swirl units is simplified, and the pressure loss of the fluid and the loss of swirl force generated by the swirl units are suppressed to a minimum limit, so that a stabler spraying is realized at lower cost.

Problems solved by technology

Shower bath is becoming popular as simple bathing means owing to its ease in preparation for bathing and saving of space, but shower bathing is hard to get warmth and obtain relaxed feeling, and there is a gap from the bath tub bathing practice based on the traditional bath culture in Japan.

In such conventional spray nozzle, however, since only two swirl holes 7 are provided in the swirl unit 3, sufficient swirl force of fluid is not obtained, and the spay angle is narrow and mist particles are rough in size.

In particular, when used at low pressure as in general household, the swirl force of fluid is much smaller, and mist particles are small in the conventional nozzle, and it is hard to realize a nozzle with a large spray angle.

To solve this problem, by reducing the size of the injection hole of the nozzle, a nozzle reduced in mist particle size and widened in spray angle has been proposed, but since the pressure loss is large, sufficient fluid flow rate is not obtained, and hence the application is limited to spraying of agricultural chemicals or the like.

In Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 8-38377 allowing an elderly user weak in physical strength to have shower in seated position, not in standing position very large in burden, there is no aid for standing or sitting, and the burden due to standing or sitting before and after bathing occurs.

It is also a problem that the nozzle provided on the floor is an obstacle when moving within the bath room.

Images