Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Opener or closer for a closet seat or lid – Fluid mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-18
2001-05-15
Fetsuga, Robert M. (Department: 3751)
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Opener or closer for a closet seat or lid
Fluid mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230336
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to toilets and more particularly to a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that eliminates the need for the user to touch either the seat or cover with their hands.
Many prior art toilet seat lifting devices are known, which permits the user to raise the toilet seat by stepping upon a pedal. By the use of levers, rods, cables or fluid displacing systems, the force of the user's foot is transmitted to the toilet seat so that the seat may be lifted without soiling the hands and without the inconvenience of bending down to reach the seat.
Although some such prior art devices are functional, they have not achieved wide acceptance and use in the United States. This lack of acceptance is believed to be due, at least in part, to several disadvantages inherent in the design in the prior art devices. Some devices, such as that disclosed in the Kemp U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,016 are mechanically complex and could therefore be prohibitively expensive to manufacture. Simpler and perhaps less costly devices, such as that disclosed in the Svedelius U.S. Pat. No. 1,999,070 have failed to provide any form of adjustment to fit toilets at varying heights. Some prior art devices must also be rigidly attached to the toilet and/or to the floor nearby to permit proper functioning. A practice of rigid permanent attachment has made cleaning of the toilet unnecessarily awkward, since the device may not be easily removed for regular cleaning.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering assembly that can be operated by a remote control.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that eliminates the need for the user to touch either the seat or seat cover.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that diverts a portion of the pressurized water traveling to the water tank of the toilet and utilizes this pressurized water to operate actuator assembly means connected to lifting levers secured to the respective toilet seat and seat cover for raising them from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can utilize an infra-red sensing light to flush the toilet after the user has moved away from the toilet.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can be retrofit to a majority of the existing toilets.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can be applied to new toilet designs such as being built in to the tank and out of sight.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system having a modular lever actuating housing that is mounted on the top surface of the toilet bowl adjacent the rear end of the toilet seat.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that keeps the seat cover closed on the toilet bowl and thereby keeping children and pets from getting into the toilet water.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The novel automated toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system has been designed to eliminate the need for the person using the toilet to touch either the seat or seat cover with their hands. The operation of lifting and lowering the toilet seat and/or the seat cover is accomplished by pushing a button on a 12v self contained remote control transmitter (similar to a garage door opener) that would be mounted on a wall by the toilet or near the bathroom door entrance or alternate location. The preferred embodiment would have two buttons on the remote control housing. When button #1 is pressed, the toilet seat cover would be lifted from the horizontal position to the vertical position or returned from the vertical position to its original horizontal position. When button #2 is pressed, the toilet seat and seat cover would be lifted from a horizontal position to a vertical position and during its travels also lift the toilet seat cover. By pressing the #2 button a second time, the toilet seat would be returned to its original position or close via an infrared sensor.
The automated toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system utilizes pressurized water to actuate the mechanical structure that lifts and lowers respectively the toilet seat and/or seat cover. All toilets have a primary tubular member whose one end is connected to a source of pressurized water and whose other end is connected to the bottom of the toilet tank. A T-connector is connected to the primary tubular member intermediate its length and a secondary tubular member connected thereto then provides pressurized water to the lever actuator housing. The lever actuator housing is mounted on the top surface of the toilet bowl adjacent the rear end of the toilet seat.
The lever actuator housing has four lifting levers extending forwardly from its front end. Two of these lifting levers are connected to the rear end of the seat cover and two of the lifting levers would be connected to the rear end of the toilet seat. The rear end of each of the lifting levers is connected to a horizontally oriented hinge disk having a transversely extending bore hole. The two outer hinge disks are mounted on the same horizontally extending splined primary shaft that mates with the shape of the bore holes in the outer hinge disks so that they rotate as a unit. The primary shaft is journaled in a splined secondary shaft that is shorter than the primary shaft. The two inner hinge disks are mounted on opposite ends of the splined secondary shaft that mates with the shape of the bore holes in the inner hinge disks so that they rotate as a unit. Rotation of the respective hinge disks lift the respective lifting levers from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
Inside lever actuator housing is a pair of laterally spaced vertically oriented piston cylinders each having a top end and a bottom end. A piston is mounted in each of these piston cylinders. The bottom ends of the piston cylinders are connected to an elongated bendable pressure band whose bottom surface is connected to a peripheral shoulder on specific vertically oriented hinge disks. Therefore, downward travel of the pressure band causes the hinge disks to rotate approximately through 90 degrees, thereby lifting the toilet seat and/or seat cover from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
The top ends of the piston cylinders are each connected to an electrically operated water inlet valve and an electrically operated water outlet valve. The water inlet valves are connected to the pressurized water by the secondary tubular member. The water outlet valves would be connected to a water bleed tube that would transport the bleed off water into the toilet bowl. These respective water inlet and water outlet valves would be electrically connected to a circuit board having a receiver and they would be actuated in response to a signal sent from the remote control transmitter when one of the respective buttons is pressed.
Two of the hinge disks are rigidly mounted on the transversely extending primary shaft. Movement of the first piston downwardly results in the toilet seat and seat cover being lifted together. The downward travel of the other piston would result in the rotation of the other two horizontal hinge disks and cause the seat cover to be lifted from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1821027 (1931-09-01), Oya
patent: 9006715 (1990-06-01), None
Knoll David M.
Koenig Donald H.
Fetsuga Robert M.
Logan II Charles C.
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