Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Flush closet – Bowl
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-20
2001-12-25
Walczak, David J. (Department: 3751)
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Flush closet
Bowl
C004S325000, C004S326000, C004S440000, C004S441000, C004S442000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332229
ABSTRACT:
FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
None
SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM
None
BACKGROUND
Field of Invention
This invention relates to toilets, particularly to an automated water-saving rinsing system for a toilet.
Definitions
To help make this description of prior-art toilets and our toilet clearer and easier for the reader, we use the nouns liquid waste and solid waste and the verbs, to rinse, to flush, to jet, to carry, and to infuse and in the following manner:
By solid waste we mean stools, toilet tissue, paper, sanitary napkins, cigarettes, and other solids commonly jettisoned into toilets.
By liquid waste we mean urine or water stained by particles of solid waste.
By to rinse, we mean to use water to dislodge human waste from surfaces inside of toilets.
By to flush, we mean to expel human waste, or other material, from a toilet into a sewer pipe.
By to carry, we mean to move solid waste (or test material that represents solid waste), towards a sewer main. The primary purpose of a domestic or commercial toilet is to carry human waste from a bathroom, or a water closet, to a sewer main.
By to jet, we mean to supply water under pressure to rinse a toilet.
By to infuse we mean to introduce clean water into a toilet part to create a clean water seal.
We believe that a toilet ideally does the following:
Carries human waste to a sewer main with one flush.
Rinses the first time.
Conserves more water than conventional toilets.
Expels fecal odors from the bathroom.
Periodically renews its water seals, and
Centers, or helps seat, sitters so that their feces do not foul the seat, rim, or the bowl.
Prior Art
In a toilet there are methods and structures that are used to create a mandatory water seal against sewer gas and to regulate the passage of waste through a waste passageway, from a toilet bowl to a sewer. The principal distinctions between prior-art toilets and ours relate to such methods and structures, i.e., to such a seal and to such regulation. We draw attention to the following classes of toilets based on such distinctions:
There are three types of conventional flap and cup toilets: those provided with a flap, a cup, a combination of flap and cup, flap and flap, and a combination cup and cup. In some a cup and cup, or flap and flap, rotate open and closed one above the other under a toilet bowl. The upper member rotates against and away from the bottom of the bowl to create a water seal and regulate the passage of waste from the bowl. The rotation of the lower member serves a variety of other functions that are mandatory in trains, boats, etc. but not in buildings.
A cup toilet has a cup under a bowl, inside of a waste passageway. The cup rotates to regulate the passage of waste and to create a water seal.
A flap toilet has a flap under a bowl. The flap rotates open and closed with respect to a bowl inside of a waste passageway and thereby regulates the passage of waste and creates a water seal.
The waste passageway of a siphon toilets per se is a siphon structure. The siphon structure, by acting siphonically as described below, carries waste for the bowl towards a sewer main. In addition, as described below, the siphon structure per se acts as a water trap to create a water seal.
We will discuss these types of toilets seriatim.
Flap Toilets: Various kinds of hinged and rotatable flap-valves are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,720,962 and 3,968,526, to R. Harrah in March 1973 and July 1976.
Microphor Inc., a manufacturer of toilets, at Willits, Calif., makes a toilet with a pivotally hinged flap valve. The flap opens and closes when the user activates a lever. This toilet is regarded as an ultra-low flush. It uses approximately 950 to 1,800 mls of rinse and flush water each time a user actuates a lever. This toilet is inadequate for conventional dwellings, workplaces, cities, etc., or in regions where water is more plentiful for the following reasons:
The flap has four functions; to retain waste in a bowl; to regulate the passage of waste from the bowl; to create a water seal between the bowl and a hopper to seal the bowl against sewer gas, and to provide water in to which feces may fall.
When open, the flap allow the contents of the bowl to fall gravitationally into a hopper. When closed, the flap retains waste or rinse water in the bowl. The water seal is small. The water seal is the only water in the bowl when a person defecates. The Microphor toilet rinses large areas of the bowl poorly and some areas not at all. Consequently despite rinsing, solid waste readily and commonly sticks to the bowl and remains there to greet the next user.
A remote external air compressor pressurizes a hopper-air chamber. The hopper is downstream to, and behind and below, the flap. It forces waste into a sewer pipe. The waste passageway of this toilet is relatively long, tortuous, and narrow compared to those of other conventional toilets. The compressor is very noisy and best kept far from bedrooms, dining rooms, workplaces, etc.
The Microphor toilet can be difficult to use. The user must press down a control lever on the back wall with a hand or foot. The user must hold the lever down to keep the flap valve pivoted open long enough to permit the contents of the bowl to slide into the hopper. Furthermore, the user must release the control lever in a timely fashion after waste leaves the bowl or else the compressor will not pressurize the hopper. If the hopper is not properly pressurized it cannot evacuate. Consequently, the waste will remain in the hopper. If the user fails to use the foot switch at all, the waste remains in the toilet bowl.
A gasket prevents pressurized solid and liquid waste from backing into the bowl from the hopper. However, the gasket and the gasket sealant are prone to deteriorate. Feces can stick to and visibly smear the deteriorated gasket or sealant. Fecal particles, easily missed on casual observation, can readily lodge in the crevices between the gasket and the sealant, and the bowl proper.
Further, the inside diameter of the tube that carries waste from the hopper to the external drains is only 34 millimeters wide. The tube makes one or two right angle bends. Accordingly, slender short foreign bodies, such as a 5 cm tooth pick or a bobby pin, can readily clog the tube. This toilet requires relatively high maintenance.
Consequently, the Microphor flap toilet can be suitable for a few, but not most, water closets or bathrooms in industrialized countries.
Cup Toilets; U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,500 to M. Miller, C. Vanden Brock, B. Stansbury, Jr, T. Jamison, C. Mc Hose, and P. Dubson, February, 1976, U.S. Pat. No. 2,275,562 to S. Duner, April 1954, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,521 to E Delco, December 1971 describe toilets. Each of the above toilets is provided with a pivotable cup-shaped valve. The cup-shaped valve serves two functions; it controls the passage of human waste and it creates a water seal.
However, each of the above-mentioned cups contacts human waste and soiled toilet tissue before and during flushing. When feces stick to a cup the feces soil whatever water the closed cup holds. Consequently, the above mentioned cups readily soil the water seals that they create. For example, the Duner patent describes a water-spraying mechanism for rinsing particles that stick to a bowl-shaped upper pan.
A conventional cup only toilet is provided with a relatively shallow cup. When water in the bowl is higher than the lip of the cup it promptly leaks into the sewer until the water in the bowl is at the level of the lip of the cup. Thus the water seal is the only water in the bowl when a user defecates. Consequently, almost all of the bowl is dry while a user is defecating (Stools are more likely to stick to a dry bowl than to a wet one. They are least likely to stick to a bowl if they first fall into water.) Consequently, stools that smear cup-only toilets are harder to rinse.
Furthermore, if the user opens the cup too slowly water can escape without flushing solid waste.
For example, a cup toilet made by Valterra Products Inc., 720 Jessie Street, San Fernando, Calif. 91340 is sold under
O'Malley Conor
Zappel Joseph
Nguyen Tuan
Walczak David J.
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