KR20060126390A - Gas misuse prevention and blocking device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses an improved technique for an automobile shut-off device that automatically cuts off or connects a gas supply depending on the use state of a gas appliance such as a gas range. The present invention provides an alarm when a gas user leaves the field and cuts off the gas supply after a safe time elapses when the user overlooks the alarm, and at the same time, changes in pressure in the gas supply pipe instead of a direct ignition signal of the gas equipment. Determination of the state of ignition / extinguishing operation by excessive fluctuations and automatic locking at all times when not in use, can only be opened when used.Furthermore, gas misuse that can be used even under pressure fluctuations in the gas supply side and pressure fluctuations In order to provide an automobile cut-off device for prevention, the automobile cut-off device provided in the present invention is installed in a gas supply pipe connected to a gas appliance, and is provided with an automobile cutoff valve to automatically cut off or connect gas supplied to the gas appliance. In the stage device, a gas between the automobile shut-off valve and the gas appliance Class pressure sensor for detecting the pipe pressure; And a control module for detecting a change in the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor and controlling opening and closing of the shutoff valve based on the change in the pressure value.

Description

Automatic Gas Shutdown Device for Preventing Mistake in Gas Use}

1 is a system block diagram showing the overall configuration of an automobile shutoff device of the present invention.

2 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a graph showing the fluctuation of gas pressure during ignition / extinguishing of a gas appliance.

4 is a graph showing an example of actual measurement data on gas pressure fluctuations.

5 is a system block diagram illustrating a case in which an automatic fire extinguishing module is additionally installed in the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10: auto shut off valve 20: pressure sensor

30: control module 40: human body detection sensor

50: communication module 60: automatic fire extinguishing module

The present invention relates to an automatic shut-off device that automatically cuts off or connects a gas supply according to a use state of a gas appliance such as a gas range, and more particularly, sends an alarm when a gas user leaves the field and overlooks the alarm. In one case, the gas supply is cut off after the safety time has elapsed, and the state of the ignition operation / digestion is judged not by direct ignition signal of gas equipment, but by the pressure fluctuation and fluctuation of the gas supply pipe. The present invention relates to a gas shut-off prevention device that can be locked and opened only when used, and can be used even under conditions where the pressure on the gas supply side is not constant and the pressure fluctuations occur.

In general, gas usage sites are based on the premise that a user or a manager always checks and monitors gas usage.

In the case of using a large amount of gas, such as industrial use, various safety monitoring devices are installed under the premise of remote monitoring, and there is a device that can be used safely even if a person does not monitor it on the site. Only the bay is installed, but the remote monitoring unit is rarely installed.

For this reason, 'accidents caused by misuse' often occur when a user of a gas appliance leaves the field while using gas. Here, misuse means, for example, going out with a gas ignited, forgetting to extinguish, leaving it alone, or going to bed.

In order to prevent accidents caused by misuse caused by human error, the safety measures such as attaching a fuse cock to the gas source plug of the gas appliance have been prepared. In terms of preventing accidents due to use, it was not very satisfactory.

In addition, when preventing fire due to an earthquake or the like, it is always necessary to lock the gas main valve. However, in many cases, it is often forgotten to lock the gas. In the case of conventional gas safety devices, the gas main valve is locked when not in use. It was not a condition and was insufficient as a safety measure.

In other words, the conventional technology does not prepare for the 'misuse' of gas appliances such as gas ranges, that is, when the user senses that they have left the site of use of gas appliances, and is not locked when not in use. Inadequate protection was not provided and no effective means for monitoring leaks in gas supply lines was not provided. In addition, in terms of economics, the cost burden that the cost of the gas range becomes very expensive when a system for detecting the use of the gas range is installed in the user equipment such as the gas range.

Therefore, the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention is not by the direct ignition signal of the gas machine, but by the pressure fluctuation and fluctuation detection of the gas supply pipe (exactly the secondary side of the shut-off valve) The purpose of the present invention is to provide a gas shutoff device to reduce the user's hassle to open and close the intermediate valve every time by judging the ignition / fire extinguishing operation so that it can be automatically closed when not in use and then open when in use. It is done.

In addition, the present invention can prevent the user's carelessness by generating an alarm after a certain period of time when the user of the gas while using the gas appliance, that is, ignited by cooking the gas while leaving the site without extinguishing the gas. It is another object of the present invention to provide a gas shutoff device that can prevent accidents caused by misuse.

In addition, the present invention has a function that can always ensure the minimum gas pressure required for the ignition of the gas equipment, it is possible to immediately ignite at any time without failing ignition even after long-term unused, and to detect the gas leakage inside the gas equipment Another object is to provide a gas shutoff device that can further increase the safety of gas equipment.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, an automatic shutoff device for preventing gas misuse provided by the present invention is installed in a gas supply pipe connected to a gas appliance, and is provided with an auto shut off valve to automatically cut off or connect gas supplied to the gas appliance. An auto shutoff device comprising: a pressure sensor detecting a gas supply pipe pressure between the auto shutoff valve and a gas appliance; And a control module for detecting a change in the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor and controlling the opening and closing of the shutoff valve based on the change in the pressure value.

In addition, in the present invention, the control module maintains a constant value and decreases the pressure value measured by the pressure sensor, and when the shaking component is detected, it is determined that the ignition operation of the gas appliance opens the cutoff valve. It may be configured to control the closing of the shut-off valve by judging the extinguishing operation of the gas appliance when the shaking component is detected while rising while maintaining the stationary, which is also one of the features of the present invention as a preferred configuration.

In addition, as a more preferable configuration for the present invention, when the control module is determined to be the ignition operation of the gas mechanism as described above to open the shut-off valve, after closing the shut-off valve for a predetermined time, the pressure of the pressure sensor If the value falls, the ignition success may be determined to open the shutoff valve again, and if there is no change in the pressure value, the shutoff valve may be judged to be an ignition failure to further perform the control of closing the shutoff valve. In addition, when the control module closes the shutoff valve by determining the extinguishing operation as described above, after opening the shutoff valve for a predetermined time, if the pressure value of the pressure sensor does not change, extinguishing of the gas appliance is performed. It can be configured to further perform the control to keep the shut-off valve in the closed state by reconfirming that.

In addition, as a more preferable configuration for the present invention, the control module recovers the gas pressure by opening the auto shutoff valve when the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor falls below a predetermined reference pressure value when the gas machine is not in use. This makes it possible to keep the ignition state possible at all times. Further, when the frequency of opening of the shut-off valve is more than a predetermined set number of times, it is possible to further perform the control of judging gas leakage.

In addition, as a more preferable configuration for the present invention, it may be configured to further include an automatic fire extinguishing module having a temperature sensor for detecting overheating of the ambient temperature of the gas appliance to eject the extinguishing material when overheating.

In addition, as a more preferable configuration for the present invention can be configured to further include a human body sensor for detecting the user's motion and the emergency control module for receiving the signal from the human body sensor to control the opening and closing of the shut-off valve. The human body sensor is installed on a wall or ceiling near the gas range, and monitors whether the gas sensor is in the vicinity of the gas range, that is, in a range where the gas user waits during normal heating cooking. As the human body detecting sensor, an infrared proximity sensor or a CCD camera may be used. In addition, the emergency control module generates an alarm when the user determines that the user has left the site because no operation signal is detected from the human body sensor and controls to close the shutoff valve after a predetermined safety time elapses from the occurrence of the alarm. It can also be configured to perform

In addition, the emergency control module may be further provided with a communication module for transmitting information on the state of use of the gas device to the user's communication device, the emergency control module at this time, the emergency shut-off valve by the alarm generated In case of closing, it is preferable to have a function of notifying the gas blocking through the communication module and receiving a response from the user to stop the alarm.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a system block diagram showing the overall configuration of the shut-off device of the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, the present invention is basically installed on the gas supply pipe to connect / close the supply of gas The opening and closing control of the shut-off valve 10, the pressure sensor 20 installed on the outlet side of the shut-off valve 10, and receiving the signal from the pressure sensor 20 to perform the opening and closing control for the shut-off valve 10 It is configured to include a control module 30, in addition to the preferred configuration may be further provided with a human body sensor 40, the communication module 50 and the like.

The present invention corresponds to a device for automatically opening and closing the shut-off valve 10 in response to the operation when the gas user operates the gas opening and closing button B to use or stop the gas. That is, when the user opens the gas open / close button to use the gas, the gas is automatically opened by opening the shutoff valve, and when the user closes the gas open / close button to stop using the gas, the auto shutoff valve is automatically closed to close the gas. It was to cut off the supply. Therefore, according to the present invention can be opened only when the use of the gas and automatically closed when not in use can save the user's hassle to open and close the intermediate valve every time you use, close the gas opening and closing device at bedtime or going out Not only does it need to be used, but it can also be used as a very useful tool as an earthquake countermeasure.

In this invention, it can be said that the determination of the ignition, the extinguishing operation of the gas appliance is very important. In the present invention, the determination of the ignition / extinguishing is not the direct ignition signal of the gas equipment, but the main feature that can be determined independently by the pressure fluctuations of the gas supply pipe. The opening and closing operation is performed by the following technical configuration and process.

As shown in Fig. 2 showing an embodiment of the present invention, an auto shut-off valve 10 is provided on the gas supply pipe from the gas source (eg, gas cylinder) plug to the gas range, and this auto shut-off valve 10 is provided. The pressure sensor 20 is installed at the outlet side of the gas sensor so as to detect the gas pressure. The automatic shutoff valve is used as an NC type automatic valve, and operates when power is supplied to the control module 30 installed in a wall near the gas stove, and stops when the power of the control module is cut off.

Looking at the operation of the shut-off valve 10 in more detail, when the pressure on the inlet side of the cutoff valve 10 is P1 and the pressure on the outlet side is P2, the cutoff valve 10 and When there is no gas leak between the gas opening and closing button B, the pressure of P2 is equal to the virtual pressure of the inlet pressure P1. At this time, when the user opens the gas opening and closing button B, as shown in FIG. 4, P2 drops sharply from the stable state and swings for a while and maintains a stable pressure at the same time as ignition. One measurement data for this phenomenon is shown in FIG.

The present invention focuses on the phenomenon in which the pressure drops sharply during ignition and judges it as an ignition signal. Specifically, the automobile shutoff valve is opened when the following three conditions are satisfied. (Codes in the following conditions use the same code as shown in Fig. 3)

1. The pressure difference ΔP1 should occur when comparing P21 with the shut-off valve closed and P21 stored in memory a few seconds before the present time.

2. After the pressure difference ΔP1 occurs, the pressure P22 becomes stable, and there is a pressure difference ΔP2 when compared with P22 and P21 (a few seconds earlier).

3. There must be an AC component which is gas pressure displacement (fluctuation).

The comparison operation, determination, and operation signal generation for the shut-off valve 10 are performed by the control module 30, and the control module may be implemented by configuring a circuit using a microcomputer chip.

However, there is no guarantee that the gas user is on fire (successful ignition) only by the operation that the gas user pressed the opening / closing button B. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether the gas range is on fire. In this method, the shut-off valve can be closed for a very short time (a few milliseconds) to determine whether the ignition is successful based on the pressure change at this time. That is, when there is a fire, when the shut-off valve is closed, the gas pressure is lowered, so that the ignition success is judged and the combustion is continued by opening the shut-off valve again. On the other hand, if there is no fire, the gas pressure does not change. In this case, the ignition failure is considered and the shutoff valve is kept closed.

On the other hand, even when the gas user stops using the gas by pressing the opening and closing button, the control module opens the shut-off valve for a very short time, if the pressure value of the pressure sensor does not change when the opening is so The control module keeps the shut-off valve closed because it is reconfirmed to be correct.

Next, when the gas user closes the gas opening / closing button B, the pressure detected from the pressure sensor rises sharply from the stable state as shown in FIG. 3 and swings for a while and becomes a stable pressure at the same time as extinguishing. Therefore, the condition for closing the shut-off valve is specifically a case where the following three conditions are satisfied.

1. The pressure difference ΔP3 should occur when comparing the pressure value P22 with the shut-off valve open and the memory P22 memorized a few seconds before the present time.

2. After the pressure difference ΔP3 occurs, the pressure P23 becomes stable, and there is a pressure difference ΔP4 when compared with P23 and P22 (a few seconds earlier).

3. There must be an AC component which is gas pressure displacement (fluctuation).

Further, according to the present invention as described above, when the gas is not in use, the shut-off valve remains closed, but if there is a gas leak in the gas supply pipe after the shut-off valve outlet side (actually, to some extent within the gas range itself) There is a leak.) The gas pressure is gradually lowered. If the pressure in the piping causes the pressure in the pipe to fall below the minimum pressure required for the operation of the gas range (which usually happens when it has not been used for a long time), it will not ignite when the user presses the gas switch. do. In order to prevent such a case, the present invention controls to open the shut-off valve for a very short time when the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor falls below a predetermined reference pressure value when the gas machine is not in use and closes when the gas pressure returns. . However, if the above-mentioned opening and closing times exceed the set number of times, it may be considered that there is a problem in the gas supply pipe itself. In this case, the control module determines that the gas is leaking and alarms and locks and closes the shutoff valve.

On the other hand, in the present invention, opening the shut-off valve as described above to restore the pressure is also for triggering an alarm, but more importantly, when the gas pressure is lower than the gas supply lower limit without returning as described above, This is to prevent this because there is no guarantee of safe ignition. In addition, when the pressure becomes 0, the logic (contrast) cannot be detected in the present invention in determining whether to ignite / fire extinguish, which is a logic contradiction. Therefore, in the present invention, the expression "return gas pressure" has two purposes: to detect displacement (fluctuation) and to trigger an alarm and to enable reliable ignition.

On the other hand, according to the illustrated embodiment, the human body detecting device 40 such as an optical sensor is disposed at an optimum position near the gas range. The human body sensor 40 detects whether the gas is present in the vicinity of the gas range, that is, in a range where the gas user waits during normal heating cooking. The human body sensor is installed on a wall or ceiling near a gas range, and the human body sensor may be an infrared proximity sensor or a CCD camera.

In the present invention, if the user's motion is not detected in the human body detecting sensor 40 is determined that the user has left the gas use site, the control module 30 generates an alarm after a predetermined time elapses and generates an alarm again. After the predetermined safety shutoff time has elapsed, the auto shutoff valve 10 is blocked to prevent an accident due to an artificial malfunction of the user. When an alarm sounds and the user returns to the gas use site, the user can press the reset button to return to the normal monitoring state.

At this time, the detection range of the human body sensor, the time until the alarm, the safety off time after the alarm, etc. can be set in the control module 30, for this purpose, the control module has a variable timer capable of setting the alarm It may be provided. In detecting the human body, the control module monitors the presence of the gas user only while the gas is in use, turns on the power only when the gas user uses the gas, and shuts off the power of the control module when the gas is finished. It is also possible to synchronize with the signal.

In addition, preferably, the control module is further provided with a communication module 50 so as to be able to communicate with a communication device such as a user's mobile phone is configured to transmit and receive information on the use state of the gas device to the user's mobile phone. can do. As such, when the communication module is provided, the control module has a function of transmitting an e-mail message to the user's mobile phone through the communication module when the gas user does not notice the alarm and operates the shut-off valve after the safety shutoff time. Can be added. At this time, the user may stop the alarm of the control module by sending an alarm release mail when receiving the warning mail from outside.

Furthermore, more preferably, the present invention may be further provided with an automatic fire extinguishing module in preparation for an accident such as a fire that may occur due to misuse of the gas range, and the block in the case where the automatic fire extinguishing module is provided. 5 is shown in FIG. The automatic fire extinguishing module 60 includes a temperature sensor 62 that can measure the temperature of the surroundings of a gas appliance such as a gas range, so that if there is ignition due to overheating of the heated object or overheating of the gas range, It is to detect the rise of and to spray the stored extinguishing material. Such automatic fire extinguishing modules are known and used in the prior art, and there will be no problem for those skilled in the art to understand and carry out without detailed description thereof.

The embodiment presented to help the understanding of the present invention above is an example in which the auto shutoff device of the present invention is installed immediately after the gas source stopper, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and for example, it is possible to put the inside of the gas range. In this case, the pipe leak between the gas source plug and the auto shut-off device cannot be detected, but there is an advantage that the misuse of the gas range can be prevented and the stability is increased. In addition, it is also possible to replace the gas source plug with the shut-off device of the present invention.

According to the present invention described above, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a fire due to the misuse of gas, and to contribute to the protection of the user's life or property.

Claims (11)

In the device that is installed in the gas supply pipe connected to the gas machine is equipped with an auto shut off valve to automatically cut off or connect the gas supplied to the gas appliance, A pressure sensor detecting a gas supply pipe pressure between the vehicle shutoff valve and a gas device; A control module for detecting a change in the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor and controlling opening / closing of the shutoff valve based on the change in the pressure value; The automatic shutoff device for preventing gas misuse, which is always closed when not in use and open when in use. According to claim 1, The control module maintains a constant value of the pressure value measured by the pressure sensor, and when the shaking component is detected and determines the ignition operation of the gas mechanism to open the shut-off valve, the constant value The gas shut-off prevention automatic shutoff device, characterized in that the control to close the shut-off valve by judging by the extinguishing operation of the gas appliance when the shaking component is detected while rising. According to claim 2, wherein the control module is determined that the ignition operation to open the vehicle shut-off valve, after closing the shut-off valve for a predetermined time, and if the pressure value of the pressure sensor is lowered to determine that the ignition success, The gas shutoff prevention automatic shutoff device, characterized in that the valve is opened, and if there is no change in the pressure value, it is determined that the ignition has failed and the control is continued to close the shutoff valve. According to claim 2, wherein the control module is determined that the fire extinguishing operation, when closing the shut-off valve, after opening the shut-off valve for a predetermined time and if the pressure value of the pressure sensor is not changed, the gas equipment is to be extinguished A gas shutoff prevention automatic shutoff device, characterized in that to further perform control to keep the shutoff valve closed. The method of claim 1, wherein the control module further performs control to return the pressure by opening the auto shut-off valve when the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor falls below a predetermined reference pressure value when the gas machine is not in use. Shut-off device for preventing gas misuse. According to claim 5, wherein the control module when the gas device is not in use when the pressure value detected by the pressure sensor falls below a predetermined reference pressure value to open the shut-off valve but the number of times when the predetermined number of times or more the gas Automatic shut-off device for preventing gas misuse, characterized in that to further perform the control determined to leak. The gas shutoff prevention device of claim 1, further comprising an automatic fire extinguishing module having a temperature sensor for detecting overheating of the ambient temperature of the gas appliance to eject the extinguishing material upon overheating. The gas misuse according to claim 1, further comprising a human body sensor for detecting a user's motion, wherein the control module receives a signal from the human body sensor and controls the opening and closing of the cutoff valve. Preventive automatic shutoff device. The control module of claim 8, wherein the control module generates an alarm when it is determined that the user has left the site because no operation signal is detected from the human body sensor, and closes the shutoff valve after a predetermined safety time has elapsed from the occurrence of the alarm. Automatic shut-off device for preventing gas misuse, characterized in that further control. The gas shutoff prevention automatic shutoff device according to claim 9, further comprising a communication module capable of transmitting information on a use state of the gas device to a user's communication device. The gas of claim 10, wherein the control module is configured to notify the gas shut-off through the communication module and to stop the alarm by receiving a response from the user when the shut-off valve is closed due to the alarm. Automatic shutoff to prevent misuse.

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