Fluid handling – With casing – support – protector or static constructional... – Static constructional installations
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-23
2001-01-30
Chambers, A. Michael (Department: 3753)
Fluid handling
With casing, support, protector or static constructional...
Static constructional installations
C137S360000, C137S356000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178993
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a covering rosette for a sanitary flush-mounted fitting with a covering plate which is fastened to the flush-mounted fitting and with an ornamental hood which is detachably fastened to the covering plate, whereby covering plate and ornamental hood exhibit coaxial passage openings for a region of the flushmounted fitting onto which an ornamental cap is capable of being pushed from outside.
Covering rosettes of this type serve for protection of the flush-mounted fitting against spray and simultaneously serve to cover, in visually appealing manner, the transition region between the region of the flush-mounted fitting protruding from the wall and the wall section adjacent to said region.
A covering rosette of the type mentioned in the introduction is known from EP 0 485 842 B1. It comprises a covering plate, which for the purpose of fastening is screwed on the flush-mounted fitting, as well as an ornamental hood. The ornamental hood exhibits moulded-on pushbutton-like spigots with which it locks in position in openings in the covering plate for detachable fastening. The point of this type of fastening is to conceal the connecting means with which the ornamental hood is fixed to the covering plate from the view of the observer.
With covering rosettes of this type a certain dilemma arises: on the one hand the ornamental hood is to be capable of being fastened to the covering plate with little expenditure of force and, still more important, is also to be capable of being redetached from the covering plate with little expenditure of force. On the other hand of course, the ornamental hood is not to be capable of being detached from the covering plate unintentionally. The covering rosette described in EP 0 485 842 B1 cannot satisfy both requirements simultaneously.
The object of the present invention is to configure a covering rosette of the type mentioned in the introduction in such a manner that, on the one hand, the ornamental hood is capable of being fixed to the covering plate and capable of being redetached from the latter with very little expenditure of force, but, on the other hand, the risk of unintentional detachment of the ornamental hood from the covering plate is ruled out.
In accordance with the invention this object is achieved by at least one spring shackle being provided on the covering plate and/or on the ornamental hood, the boundary surface of which pointing towards the axis of the passage openings pertaining to covering plate and ornamental hood is situated in the tension-free state on a circle which is concentric with the passage openings, the diameter of which circle is equal to or smaller than the outside diameter of the push-on ornamental cap, and which exhibits on the boundary surface pointing away from the axis of the passage openings a latching device which interacts with a complementary latching device on the respective other part (ornamental hood or covering plate) in such a manner that the latching devices cannot be detached from one another when the ornamental cap is pushed on.
The basic idea according to the invention is the following: if one of the two parts of the covering rosette (that is to say, either the covering plate or the ornamental hood) is provided with a spring shackle which is capable of being latched with its outward-pointing boundary surface on the respective other part (ornamental hood or covering plate), then it is possible for this latching connection to be released only by the spring shackle being distorted radially inwards in the direction of the axis of the passage openings pertaining to covering plate and ornamental hood. The invention recognises that this degree of freedom which is required for bringing about or releasing the latching connection can, with certain flush-mounted fittings, be blocked or released in the following way: the flush-mounted fittings in question exhibit an ornamental cap which in the course of final mounting of the fitting in a conclusive step is pushed from outside as an optical decorative part over those parts of the fitting which extend out of the wall and through the passage openings in the covering rosette. Now if the spring shackle is configured and dimensioned in the manner according to the invention, then with the ornamental cap inserted the spring shackle cannot execute the compensating movement which is necessary for bringing about and releasing the latching connection. With the ornamental cap inserted, the latching connection between ornamental hood and covering cap, which leads over the spring shackle, is accordingly “locked”. With the flush-mounted fitting completely mounted in the ready-to-use state, the ornamental hood is therefore no longer capable of being removed from the covering plate by traction. If the ornamental hood is to be detached from the covering plate it is necessary to remove the ornamental cap of the flush-mounted fitting beforehand. But then the ornamental hood can be very easily taken off from the covering plate.
Particularly preferred is that configuration of the invention in which the boundary surface of the spring shackle pointing towards the axis of the passage openings is situated in the tension-free state on a circle, the diameter of which is smaller than the outside diameter of the ornamental cap to be pushed on, this boundary surface being of spherically convex form. With this configuration the spring shackle accordingly projects into the path of the pushing-on movement of the ornamental cap. Only when this ornamental cap is pushed on is said spring shackle brought into that final position in which the latching connection is “firm”. This “pushing-back” of the spring shackle in the radial direction is facilitated by the spherically convex configuration of the boundary surface of the spring shackle adjacent to the ornamental cap. With this dimensioning of the spring shackle it can be ensured that in the tension-free state the interacting latching devices do not engage one another. This means that pushing the ornamental hood onto the covering plate or taking the ornamental hood off from the covering plate is possible with practically no expenditure of force when the ornamental cap of the flush-mounted fitting is removed.
Alternatively it is, of course, conceivable that the latching devices already engage one another, more or less, also in the case where the spring shackle is tension-free, whereby it can be determined by the extent of the interengagement and by the form of the interacting latching, faces how great the force is that has to be applied in the course of pushing on or detaching the ornamental hood.
The interacting latching devices are advantageously constituted by a plurality of flutes which are situated on a cylindrical circumferential surface. This means that the ornamental hood can be fixed to the covering plate at differing distances, as a result of which dimensional inaccuracies with respect to the covering plate and/or the ornamental hood as well as irregularities of the mounting-wall can be compensated.
A particularly reliable fixing of the ornamental hood on the covering plate is obtained when a plurality of spring shackles are integrally formed with a clamping ring which is fastened to the covering plate or to the ornamental hood. The “locking” which is brought about by this plurality of spring shackles when the ornamental cap is inserted then takes place at several places about the axis of the passage openings.
From the point of view of manufacture, that embodiment of the invention in which the ornamental hood is flange-mounted onto the clamping ring is particularly simple. In the case of the ornamental hood it is generally a question of a metallic part, whereas the clamping ring consists, as a rule, of synthetic material. Flange-mounting is a particularly favourable process for bringing about a connection between these parts which consist of different materials.
Each spring shackle may exhibit a curved transition region which is moulded at one end onto the ring body of the clamping ring and is connected at the other end t
Chambers A. Michael
Hansa Metallwerke AG
McShane Thomas L.
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