Hydraulic and earth engineering – Drainage or irrigation – Porous or apertured pipe – flume – or tileway
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-03
2001-11-27
Bagnell, David (Department: 3673)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Drainage or irrigation
Porous or apertured pipe, flume, or tileway
C405S049000, C138S121000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322288
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a chamber for managing storm or waste water.
2. Description of Related Art
The inventor of the subject matter of the present patent application has a number of issued United States patents and pending United States patent applications on galleries and chambers for managing storm or waste water that are known in the art. The reader is referred to U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,151, entitled “Drainage System;” U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,838, entitled “Groundwater Storage and Distribution System having a Gallery and Filtering Means;” United States provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/063,896, filed Oct. 31, 1997, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,482, both entitled “Reversible Interlocking Field Drain Panel,” all owned by the instant inventor and incorporated by reference in their entirety, for a detailed description of how the galleries or chambers are made and used in the water management industry. The inventor's galleries or chambers have been applied to other areas of technology, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,756, entitled “Lightweight and Durable Utility Pull Box for Protecting Slices and Junctions of Underground Coaxial Cables, Electrical Wires and Optical Fiber”, also incorporated by reference in its entirety.
In particular, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,482 shows a reversible interlocking field drain panel having twenty five transverse strengthening ribs and three lateral transfer tunnels or side transfer openings (See reference label T
3
). One of the lateral transfer tunnels or side transfer openings is located substantially in the middle of the chamber, while the other two are located at about one quarter and three quarters along the length of the chamber, The lateral transfer tunnels or side transfer openings have a halfmoon-dimension for fitting one half of a four inch pipe (i.e., having a four inch diameter) and function to transfer water or liquid from tunnel to tunnel. The lateral transfer tunnels or side transfer openings do not provide meaningful lateral or transverse flexing along the length of the chamber.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a new and unique chamber that is flexible and able to be contoured along the entire length of the chamber when deployed on rock and earth formations with variable gradings.
The chamber (a.k.a. the EZ-
24
chamber) has a multiplicity of stress relief notches (also known as flex ports) formed on both sides at the base of the chamber substantially along the entire length of the chamber. In one embodiment, a separate stress relief notch is formed between respective pair of protruding ribs along substantially the entire length of the chamber so the chamber can flex in an accordion-like or caterpillar-like manner. The chamber may be flexed or contoured horizontally (i.e. laterally), vertically (i.e. transversely) or a combination thereof with respect to the ground plane along the length of the chamber. The chamber may be molded to include the strain relief notches.
REFERENCES:
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patent: 5773756 (1998-06-01), DiTullio
patent: 6129482 (2000-10-01), Ditullio
patent: 1330603 (1994-07-01), None
“Worth looking at . . . from any angle.” by Norwesco Fluid Systems Division, Water and Waste Management Products, 1987 Norwesco Inc./Walton-Mattson Advertising, WWM30M687, pp 1,2,5-9.
“For The Serious Treatment Of On-Site Wastewater And/Or Stormwater . . . Give Your Customer A High Quality, Cost Effective Cultec Chamber System” Brochure by Cultec, Inc., pp 1-4, Undated.
Bagnell David
Singh Sunil
Ware Fressola Van der Sluys & Adolphson LLP
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