Flush Toilet Pump Control for Tank Size Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional flush toilets face challenges in reducing the size of the flush water tank while maintaining a sufficient amount of flush water discharge, leading to inadequate drainage of black water due to reduced water storage capacity.
Innovation Solution
A flush toilet design that includes a controller to coordinate the operation of the pump device and water supply device, allowing for simultaneous water supply and discharge, ensuring that the total amount of flush water discharged exceeds the tank capacity, with the pump device's discharge rate being higher than the supply rate, thus enabling efficient flushing even with a smaller tank.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the flush water tank is reduced in size, then the size of the flush toilet is reduced, but the amount of flush water that can be stored and discharged is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The water supply device supplies flush water to the flush water tank in advance during non-flushing periods, so that when flushing is needed, sufficient water is already available in the tank. This preliminary water supply action allows the tank to be smaller while still providing adequate flush water volume when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous water supply to the flush water tank during operation, ensuring that the tank is constantly replenished. This continuous action allows the pump device to discharge more water than the tank capacity by operating during the continuous supply period, resolving the contradiction between small tank size and sufficient flush water discharge.
2Volume of moving object
If the flush water tank is reduced in size, then the overall toilet size is reduced, but black water may not be sufficiently drained away
Solution Approach 1:
The controller operates the pump device to discharge flush water continuously from the flush water tank during the flushing period. This continuous discharge action ensures that sufficient total amount of water is delivered to the toilet main body to effectively drain black water, even though the tank capacity is small.
Solution Approach 2:
The water supply device performs preliminary water supply to the flush water tank before flushing operations. This ensures that the tank is adequately filled with flush water in advance, providing sufficient volume for effective black water drainage when the pump discharges the stored water.
3Quantity of substance
If the pump device discharges more water than the tank capacity, then sufficient flush water is provided, but the water supply and discharge coordination becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The controller monitors the operation status of both the water supply device and pump device, and adjusts their operation timing based on feedback from their respective states. This feedback mechanism enables coordinated control where the pump discharges water during the period when the supply device is replenishing the tank, allowing discharge volume to exceed tank capacity without complex manual coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller automatically manages the timing and duration of water supply and discharge operations based on pre-set parameters and real-time system state. This self-service control eliminates the need for complex external coordination, as the system autonomously optimizes the overlapping operation periods of supply and discharge to achieve sufficient flush water delivery.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration allows for a sufficient amount of flush water to be discharged into the toilet main body, ensuring effective drainage while minimizing the size of the flush water tank, and includes features like an overflow channel and float switch for leak prevention and water level management.
Implementation Method 1
a pump device for supplying flush water in the flush water tank to the toilet main body
Implementation Method 2
tap water (flush water) supplied from a water pipe is discharged by water supply pressure from a rim spout port
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a flush toilet that performs flushing by rim spouting, the flush toilet allowing the size of a flush water tank to be reduced while enabling discharge of a sufficient amount of flush water to a toilet main body. A flush toilet 1 includes a toilet main body 2 including a bowl 2a, a rim 2c and a rim spout port 2f for discharging supplied flush water to the rim 2c, a flush water tank device 4, a pump device 6, a water supply device 8, and a controller 10, where the controller 10 is capable of performing a flushing mode in which the total amount of discharge of flush water discharged to the rim spout port 2f by the pump device 6 is greater than a tank capacity of the flush water tank device 4, and the controller 10 controls driving of the pump device 6 and the water supply device 8 in the flushing mode such that at least a part of a water supply period when flush water is supplied by the water supply device overlaps a discharge period when flush water is discharged by the pump device 6.