Spinner Tip Shower Head for Consistent Spray
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shower heads fail to maintain a wide, conical water spray pattern under low water pressure conditions, and often appear large and visually distracting.
Innovation Solution
A shower head design featuring a cylindrical nozzle body with a rotating spinner tube composed of three segments, including an upper, middle, and lower segment, which adjusts the water spray cone size and rotation rate, attached to a standard shower head water pipe, ensuring a consistent conical spray pattern across varying pressure conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional shower heads are designed to create large spray patterns, then the spray pattern size is improved, but the device becomes visually distracting and large in structure
Solution Approach 1:
The shower head is divided into multiple functional segments: a nozzle body, a rotating spinner tube with three segments (upper, middle, lower), and a cassette assembly with bearings. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently while maintaining a compact overall structure that produces a wide conical spray pattern without requiring a large device volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The spinner tube uses three-dimensional spatial arrangement with segments bent at specific angles (middle segment bent outward, lower segment offset) to convert linear water flow into rotational motion and create a conical spray pattern. This dimensional transformation achieves a wide spray pattern from a compact structure by utilizing spatial geometry rather than increasing device size.
2Force
If conventional shower heads are designed for high pressure, then the spray force is improved, but the spray pattern is destroyed under low water pressure conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The shower head incorporates a rotating spinner tube that dynamically adapts to different water pressure conditions. The spinner tube rotates freely on bearings within the nozzle body, allowing it to respond to varying pressure levels. Under both high and low pressure conditions, the spinner tube rotates at different rates but maintains the conical spray pattern, ensuring consistent performance across a wide pressure range.
Solution Approach 2:
The design changes the operational parameters by using a rotating spinner tube with specific segment geometries (middle segment bent outward, lower segment offset) that can rotate at different speeds depending on water pressure. This allows the system to maintain effective spray pattern geometry across varying pressure conditions without requiring high pressure specifically.
3Speed
If the water orifice is reduced in diameter, then the water velocity is increased, but the flow rate is decreased
Solution Approach 1:
The shower head uses hydraulic principles by incorporating a flat washer with a narrow central orifice that converts pressure energy into kinetic energy, increasing water velocity. The spinner tube then utilizes this high-velocity flow to generate rotational motion through the bent segments, converting linear hydraulic energy into rotational mechanical motion while maintaining adequate flow rate through the conical spray pattern distribution.
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
The design provides a wide, conical water spray pattern under both high and low water pressure conditions, with adjustable spray force and size, maintaining aesthetic appeal by being compact in size.
Implementation Method 1
The flat washer includes a narrow central opening with a diameter less than the adapter thereby reducing the diameter and increasing the velocity of the stream of water passing through the shower head
Implementation Method 2
The lower segment is also offset from the axis of the middle segment and designed to create rotation spin
Data Source
AI summary
A shower head designed to produce a consistent, wide diameter spray of water under both high and low water pressure conditions. The shower head includes a spinner tube mounted inside a cylindrical-shaped nozzle body. The upper segment of the spinner tube is held in a central location inside the nozzle body by a fixed cassette assembly. The middle and lower segments of the spinner tube extend below the cassette assembly and are bent outward and axially offset from the upper segment and from each other so that the spinner tube is able to spin freely inside the nozzle body. Mounted inside and over the upper end opening of the nozzle tube is an adapter with a longitudinally aligned threaded cavity formed on one end. The adapter includes a water orifice that delivers water from the shower head fixture tube to to the spinner tube. Disposed between the adapter and the upper end of the spinner tube is a flat washer with a narrow water orifice that delivers a narrow, high velocity stream of water to the spinner tube.