Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Dry closets – Receptacle type
Patent
1999-06-07
2000-05-09
Phillips, Charles E.
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Dry closets
Receptacle type
A47K 1106
Patent
active
06058520&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a method for supplying and conveying the liner film material used for lining the bowl of dry toilets and other waste receptacles.
BACKGROUND
International Patent Application No. US/95/03004 discloses a method for lining a toilet bowl with a thin film in the form of a continuous rectangular sheet supplied from a roll. A conveyance apparatus held and transported two opposed edges of the sheet around the perimeter of the bowl thus draping the sheet into the bowl to form a liner. The edges of the sheet were shown to be held by being impaled on pins which projected from two moving belts each of which traversed one half of the perimeter of the toilet bowl. The edges of the sheet were restrained from slipping off the pins by fixed guide surfaces which followed the path of the belts around the bowl and which would press lightly against the surface of the sheet near the pins to prevent the sheet from being dislodged from the pins.
That method of holding the edge of the liner sheet by piercing it with pins has several inherent complications which can require additional apparatus to correct and which can make the toilet more difficult to service. There is first the fact that some liner sheet material such as high density polyethylene can be tough, thin and slippery and will not puncture easily unless held under tension. Then, once the sheet is punctured by the point of the pin and is pushed further down the wider shank of the pin it will grip the pin to the extent that it will not easily come off, which it must do after being conveyed out of the bowl. Removal of the sheet from the pin is further restricted when the belt is on an outside bend which spreads the tips of the pins further apart requiring the sheet to stretch between adjacent pins. The solution to these problems requires additional apparatus to create the tension to facilitate the initial piercing by the pins and to create the mechanical forces required for removal of the sheet from the pins.
Furthermore, to service a film lined toilet it is desirable to be able to install a new roll of liner material with minimum difficulty, ideally with a feed mechanism requiring little or no manual intervention. The need for the liner sheet to be held under tension before the pins can pierce it and carry it forward makes it difficult to provide a feed mechanism that will work on the leading edge of the sheet which has no tension.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The requirement to pierce the liner sheet with pins, and the need for additional apparatus to make that process work with thin sheet materials, and the difficulty of providing a self feeding, supply mechanism, can be overcome by the present invention which provides a means for gripping the liner film without piercing the film surface and yet still use a simple belt conveyor.
This can be accomplished by first providing a frictional means for holding and transporting the liner sheet. Specifically, a high friction surface on the outer face of the moving conveyor belt can be made to cooperate with a stationary, low friction guide surface to form a passageway for the edges of the thin liner sheet. When the edge of the liner sheet are fed between the high friction belt face and the contiguous, low friction guide surface it is gripped by the high friction belt face and moves with the belt while sliding over the low friction surface.
This frictional action can be further emphasised if it is considered that the high friction surface on the belt face could be an abrasive grit and the low friction surface could be a soft, stationary brush and the liner sheet, a thin slippery plastic film. The brush will offer negligible resistance to the lateral movement of the slippery plastic film, easily sliding over the surface. Whereas, the abrasive grit will embed itself into the surface of the plastic film and as the belt moves laterally it will drag the film with it. When the pressure of the brush is removed from the plastic film it will immediately fall away from the grit on the face of the
REFERENCES:
patent: 4519104 (1985-05-01), Thornton et al.
patent: 4870709 (1989-10-01), Nilsson
Hawkins James A.
Hawkins Robert D.
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