Fluid handling – Processes – Cleaning – repairing – or assembling
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-03
2001-11-20
Chambers, A. Michael (Department: 3753)
Fluid handling
Processes
Cleaning, repairing, or assembling
C137S362000, C137S855000, C137S856000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318397
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to drains for building floors, basements, exterior paved areas, and the like. The invention provides floor drain assemblies and valves providing improved drainage performance, particularly where drainage is an irregular occurrence.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
U-shaped or “gooseneck” traps have long been used in the plumbing industry to prevent backflow of harmful or annoying sewer or pipe gasses into buildings while permitting drainage of unwanted water from floors and other horizontal surfaces. Such traps operate by leaving a small quantity of fluid within the lower portion of a U-shaped trap section to act as a gas barrier. In many applications, however, particularly where access is difficult or where drainage is rare, it is disadvantageous to use such drains. Fluid may evaporate from the trap, permitting free flow of obnoxious gases through the drain; or in some instances the fluids may harden so as to actually block or restrict flow through the drain. Such conventional drains are also relatively difficult and expensive to install. In addition to floor drain applications, these problems are also common to other areas of fluid control, wherever fluid drainage is an occasional problem.
One solution to these problems has been the use of trap primers, which operate to ensure that a minimum level of fluid is left in the drain to act as a trap for gasses which accumulate
Vertically aligned check valves present promising possibilities, as for example as described in my patent application Ser. No. 60/141,913, entitled Check Valve Floor Drain and filed Jun. 30, 1999. However, however, vertically aligned check valves and the like have in some circumstances betrayed a tendency to become fouled by dirt, rocks, and other objects which become caught between the valve stop itself and the valve seat, thus permitting backflow of gasses from within the drain and in some cases retarding or completely blocking drainage of fluid through the valve.
Thus there is need for a simple, economical, and dependable floor drain which will provide efficient operation even when left dry or not called upon to function over long periods of time, and which shows a reduced tendency to become fouled by foreign matter.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide simple, economical, and dependable floor drain apparatus which will provide efficient operation even when left dry or not called upon to function over long periods of time and which shows a reduced tendency to become fouled by foreign matter. This and such other objects of the invention as will become evident from the disclosure below are met by the invention disclosed herein.
The invention provides improved floor drains of unprecedented simplicity and reliability. In one aspect, the invention provides a side port floor drain, the floor drain comprising a non-horizontal sealing surface around a drain port, a stop or port cover adapted for sealing engagement of said sealing surface, and means to urge the stop into sealing engagement with the sealing surface. The means for urging the stop into sealing engagement with the sealing surface is adapted to permit disengagement of the stop from the sealing surface as a liquid enters the drain, so that drainage of the fluid through said drain is permitted, while backflow of gasses from within the drain after the fluid has drained is prevented. Preferred embodiments of this aspect of the invention comprise a plurality of sealing surfaces and drain ports, and generally of stops or port covers as well, although as will appear it is both possible and in some circumstances desirable to provide stops which cover more than one port simultaneously.
In many embodiments of this aspect of the invention the sealing surface of the drain is substantially vertically aligned, as shown in FIG.
1
. However, it has been found that by giving some substantial slope, generally between about 5 degrees and about 70 degrees, and most preferably between about 10 degrees and about 40 degrees, to the drain surface an improved seal against drain gas backflow may be provided. This is due to the possibility of using gravity to assist the means for urging the stop into sealing contact with the drain surface, as may be seen in the Figures.
In another aspect the invention provides a side port floor drain for use with a drain conduit, the floor drain in this aspect comprising a non-horizontal drain port, a sealing surface between the drain port and the drain conduit, a stop adapted for sealing engagement of the sealing surface, and means to urge the stop into sealing engagement with the sealing surface. The means for urging the stop into sealing engagement with the sealing surface is adapted to permit disengagement of the stop from the sealing surface as liquid enters the drain, whereby drainage of the liquid through said drain is permitted, while backflow of gasses from within the drain is prevented after the liquid has drained. Preferred embodiments of this aspect of the invention comprise a drain ports. Preferred stops comprise elastic valves, as previously described, or flotation devices such as ball valves or specially adapted floats. Drain ports may be substantially vertical or sloped, depending upon the application to which they are to be put.
Preferred embodiments of the invention comprise stops incorporating “flapper” diaphragms made of elastic material, such as natural or synthetic rubbers, or other polymers. The diaphragm(s) in such embodiments have sufficient flexibility to flex under pressure or other action of liquid entering or exiting the drain in order to allow the liquid to drain, and to return to a substantially unflexed condition in which sealing engagement of the drain sealing surface by the diaphragm is restored following drainage of said liquid. In such embodiments, as may be seen, the elasticity of the diaphragm acts as the means for urging the diaphragm into sealing contact with the drain sealing surface. A particular advantage of such embodiments of the invention is that the elastic diaphragm may be relatively easily, through well known fluid static and dynamic principles, and through well known principles of structural mechanics, be adapted to flex under the action of a preselected head pressure when fluid is present within the drain. That is, the geometry, and therefore the stiffness, of a diaphragm made of any given elastic material may be selected to ensure that the valve will open when a desired hydrostatic head or amount of water is present in the drain. As will be readily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, once the suggestion has been made, this purpose may be accomplished either by selecting an appropriate uniform thickness for the diaphragm or by tailoring the thickness to provide a non-uniform thickness having any of a wide variety of desired flexure or bending characteristics. Another way of controlling flexure in the diaphragm, as will be well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, is to provide the elastic diaphragm with a back plate which serves to stiffen or otherwise support at least a portion of the diaphragm. In such cases portions of the diaphragm supported by the back plate will have a generally increased stiffness, as compared to non-backed portions of the diaphragm.
In other preferred embodiments of the invention the stop may be spring-biased, such that the means for urging the stop into contact with the drain sealing surfaces comprises a spring. As will be readily apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art, in such embodiments it is a relatively straightforward matter, once the idea has been suggested, to select or adapt a spring having an appropriate thickness for permitting disengagement of the stop from the sealing surface when a selected head pressure had been reached inside the drain.
By suitable arrangement of the drain port and stop with respect to the floor or other surface to be drained, it is possible to practice the invention such that the drain ports and stops are located at
Huber Donald G.
Stakset Allen I.
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