Manually Operable Drain Device

Abstract

A method for preventing waste materials from clogging a household drain, the method comprising: a) receiving a quantity of waste material contained in a flow of liquid toward a drain receptacle; b) guiding the flow of liquid to a predetermined position adjacent a part of a manually operable device mounted within the drain receptacle and gathering the quantity of the waste material from the flow of liquid in a first location adjacent a member of the manually operable device located in the drain receptacle; c) maintaining the quantity of waste material generally perpendicular to the vertical motion of a manually moving size reduction assembly; d) manually moving the size reduction assembly portion of the device so as to subject the quantity of waste material to abrading action, thereby producing an abraded portion of waste material as a plurality of smaller pieces; and e) carrying the abraded pieces away from the drain receptacle and through a drain conduit in the flow of water.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Applications Nos. 60/814,409, filed Jun. 15, 2006; 60/814,495, filed Jun. 15, 2006; 60/814,497, filed Jun. 15, 2006; 60/855,577, filed Oct. 30, 2006; 60/873,657, filed Dec. 8, 2006; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0290082, filed May 4, 2007; the complete disclosure of each of which are incorporated herein, in the entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a device for handling solid materials, such as hair, to reduce clogging of household sink, tub, and shower drains. More particularly, the present invention relates to a manually operable device for reducing the size of pieces of hair and other solid waste materials to smaller pieces less likely to accumulate and clog a drain.

2. Description of Related Art

Drain receptacles for sinks, showers, and bath tubs frequently have strainers and filters covering or sitting in their openings so as to prevent solid materials from entering the drain conduit and clogging it at a downstream location. Such strainers are intended to allow liquid to pass while stopping the solid materials. However, in order for such devices to perform satisfactorily, they must be regularly cleaned, because they are prone to clogging. Cleaning such devices typically requires manually grabbing and removing the bacteria-laden obstructing material, which often includes entwined human hair.

Sinks in food preparation areas typically have devices for comminuting solid waste in order to allow its passage into a connected drain without clogging it. These devices are usually electrically powered “garbage disposals” that have little need for manual cleaning and operation, although they require significant space for installation, electrical power for operation, and adequate access for maintenance. These requirements are difficult or impossible to meet in the typical shower, tub, or sink outside the kitchen area.

Previous attempts to provide various manually operable drain strainers, waste traps, and comminuting devices, including comminuting or shearing devices designed to cut human hair, have various limitations. For example, Gandillon, U.S. Pat. No. 1,614,358, describes a manually operated device fitted under a common sink outlet, but the apparatus is prone to clogging, complex, and undesirably large. Comminution of solid material using such device is via manual rotation of a cone about a central axis against fixed arms.

Hammes, U.S. Pat. No. 2,012,680, describes an early incarnation of the electric garbage disposal flushing appropriately comminuted solid material from a grinding chamber by draining liquids through the chamber, and is shown as an under-sink installation.

Frank, U.S. Pat. No. 2,479,485, shows a manually operated self-cleaning sink stopper and addresses manual operation with solid waste straining and cutting functions. In the stopper device an initial strainer is included to keep commonly encountered material from reaching a cutting surface, and the initial strainer requires manual cleaning of materials trapped at that level. Furthermore, the device is prone to foriling with hair.

Hovartos, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,470, describes a garbage disposer that is driven by a water jet. The device requires significant space for installation and maintenance and has a vertically oriented shaft that is prone to fouling with hair. The device does not allow for manual operation when water flow provides insufficient power.

Maynard, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,571, describes a water driven device for agitating and fragmenting debris in a sink drain. The device includes a hydraulically driven impeller that may also be manually engaged with the strainer basket. However, the central shaft is exposed to solid waste entering the drain, and is, therefore, prone to fouling.

Maynard, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,166, discloses a device that includes a centrally mounted rotor, which rotates within a sink drain. However, the device is actuated by linear strokes of a steeply pitched threaded rod passing through a threaded bore of a rotor, and the threaded rod is exposed to solid waste material and is therefore prone to fouling.

Other devices, such as electric razors that are designed specifically to cut hair, are not easily adapted for use in handling hair caught on sink, tub, or shower drain parts to prevent Clogging of those drains. Ochiai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,352, and Szymansky, U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,446, describe cutting devices used in common electric shavers, but hair that has caught in sink, tub, or shower drains tends to be unlikely to be oriented so that these devices would be effective.

Lohnert, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0207004, describes a device designed to rend captured hair in a drain orifice by integrating such a shearing device. However, hair trapped in the device is not perpendicularly oriented to the shearing surface. This dramatically decreases the efficacy of any shearing device as significant portion of the captured hair has a tendency to bind such a mechanism if not held perpendicular to the shearing motion.

The need for precisely machined and aligned shearing surfaces makes application to a legacy drain's cross members extremely difficult to achieve. This is especially true given the lack of standardization of the cross members. As such, their size, orientation, finish, and materials are highly variable, making the manufacture have to develop a separate device for the literally hundreds of different legacy drain permutations. Also, the use of such drain orifice cross members as strainer arms is not effective at catching a majority of hairs flowing into the orifice.

Materials and manufacturing costs are significant concerns of manufacturers in the plumbing field, thereby decreasing the likelihood that such a device would ever be cost effective enough to see market implementation. Use of shearing blades increases the costs beyond those in tuned with the alignment and precision issues as they require use of corrosion resistant materials, most likely ceramics, stainless steel, or other corrosion resistant yet durable alloys, with the concomitant cost issues associated with such materials. While mention is briefly made regarding use of plastics in this capacity, it is apparent to one skilled in the art of rending hair with a bladed instrument that plastic is not an effective alternative.

In any case, shearing surfaces requires precise machining and alignment in even non-legacy drain applications.

What is needed, therefore, is a device that is easily mounted in or constructed to fit in the space conventionally available in the strainer bowl or similar initial receptacle portion of a household drain, or constructed to replace such a strainer bowl or similar receptacle, for reducing the size of pieces of hair and other solid waste materials that might otherwise accumulate in and clog a drain conduit from household sink, tub, and shower drains, so as to promote more efficient disposal of the waste through the drain. Such a device should be manually operable with minimal physical effort of the operator, and resistant to clogs without needing frequent cleaning beyond that resulting from the operation of the device.

Finally, such a device should be designed as to be robust and easy to manufacture, without need for finely machined surfaces, blades, or knife-like edges.

The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a device and method for preventing waste materials from clogging a household drain. The method comprises: a) receiving a quantity of waste material contained in a flow of liquid toward a drain receptacle; b) guiding the flow of liquid to a predetermined position adjacent a part of a manually operable device mounted within the drain receptacle and gathering the quantity of the waste material from the flow of liquid in a first location adjacent a member of the manually operable device located in the drain receptacle; c) maintaining the quantity of waste material generally perpendicular to the vertical motion of a manually moving size reduction assembly; d) manually moving the size reduction assembly portion of the device so as to subject the quantity of waste material to abrading action, thereby producing an abraded portion of waste material as a plurality of smaller pieces; and e) carrying the abraded pieces away from the drain receptacle and through a drain conduit in the flow of water.

In one embodiment the method includes the step of using the flow of water to align the quantity of waste material in a predetermined arrangement within the device prior to manually moving the size reduction assembly, which can be the arrangement of at least some of the waste materials into a strand.

In another embodiment, the method includes the step of using the flow of water to place the strand of waste material in a location spanning a plurality of neighboring water passages through a containment portion of the device.

In one alternative, the waste material is comminuted by moving the size reduction assembly downward, thereby urging a plurality of fingers into contact with the strand and into respective ones of the water passages, thereby tearing the strand into small pieces.

In one embodiment, the method includes the step of mechanically carrying a portion of the waste material along a roughened abrasive surface, thereby abrading the waste material into smaller pieces. In a further such embodiment, the method includes the step of mechanically carrying a portion of the waste material along a plurality of roughened abrasive surfaces.

In a different embodiment, a plurality of parts of a strand of the waste material is gripped while pushing the plurality of parts of the strand simultaneously into a plurality of respective apertures, thereby ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

In a further preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of gripping a strand of the waste material at a plurality of locations along a length of the strand while pushing a plurality of parts of the strand into a plurality of respective apertures, thereby ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

In a still further preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of simultaneously holding and pushing on a plurality of locations along a length of a strand of the waste material, thereby pushing the strand simultaneously into a plurality of neighboring apertures and thereby pulling and ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

In another embodiment, the method includes the step of closing the drain by engaging the size reduction assembly with a part of the drain receptacle and thereby holding a sealing member carried on the size reduction assembly in sealing contact with a surface of the drain receptacle.

In a different embodiment, the method includes the step of closing the drain by using a spring included in the size reduction assembly to hold a sealing member carried on the size reduction assembly in sealing relationship with a surface of the drain receptacle. The size reduction assembly can thereafter be moved back to an initial position.

In a further preferred embodiment, the method includes gathering and entwining a plurality of hairs included in the waste materials as a part of the step of aligning the quantity of waste materials, and using the flow of water to align a strand of hairs transversely across the flow of water.

In a still further preferred embodiment, the method includes the step of gripping a strand of waste material at a plurality of places along the strand and thereafter forcing respective parts of the strand simultaneously into apart-spaced openings in a bottom member of the manually operable device, thereby elongating the strand sufficiently to cause it to break into a plurality of shorter pieces.

The invention also provides a manually operable device for use in a household drain inlet receptacle, the device comprising: (a) a stationary main body; (b) a strainer portion associated with the stationary main body and positioned to receive a flow of liquid and to catch relatively large pieces of solid waste material and temporarily hold the relatively large pieces at the strainer; (c) a manually movable size reduction assembly extending within the stationary main body and reciprocally movable with respect to the stationary main body, between an upper position and a lower position; and (d) an abrasive material associated with at least one of the stationary main body and the size reduction assembly; where when the manually movable size reduction assembly engages at least some of the relatively large pieces of waste material it acts cooperatively with the stationary main body to abrade and reduce at least some of the engaged pieces of waste material to a smaller size while the movable size reduction assembly is being moved between the upper and lower positions thereof.

The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an idealized manually operable device for use in a drain.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1 with a movable size reduction assembly thereof moved to a lower position.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1 at a reduced scale.

FIG. 4 is a cross section view of the device shown in FIG. 1 sitting within a legacy drain receptacle.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an alternative manually operable device for use in a drain.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 5 with a movable size reduction assembly thereof moved to a lower position.

FIG. 7 is a cross-section view of the device shown in FIG. 5 sitting within a legacy drain receptacle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIGS. 1-4, a manually operable dram mounted device 99 shown assembled in FIG. 1 may be installed in an open drain receptacle (as typified in FIG. 13 and seen in sink, bathtub, or shower drains) (add picture of common drain receptacle and label it FIG. 13) for disposal of solid materials commonly encountered in a household or office, other than in a kitchen, such as hair, thread, fingernails, soapy residues, and so forth.

Referring to FIG. 1, the device 99 is in a ready condition, before operation, fitted for a typical drain receptacle. The device 99 may be manufactured in a size appropriate to fit snugly within the receptacle of a conventional drain for a tub, shower, or sink, in which the receptacle portion includes a horizontal bottom support cross member defining a threaded hole centered within the strainer bottom.

The device 99 includes a perforated strainer and ripping cutting plate 106 which is stationary and may be supported by a small distance above the horizontal bottom cross members of the receptacle, also shown in cross section in FIG. 4. A movable size reduction assembly 100 includes vertically extending members hereinafter referred to as fingers 104, arranged to move downwardly into respective ones of a set of corresponding holes 109. Strands of hair and solids 107 are captured atop the radial arms 105 of strainer plate 106.

FIG. 2 demonstrates depression of movable size reduction assembly 100, leaving device 99 in a lower position that allows flexible flange 102 to interact with the top of drain receptacle and impede flow of liquid into drain receptacle, whereby plugging the drain. The holes 109 extending downward through the strainer plate 106 allow passage of fingers 104 during depression of movable reduction assembly 100. Depression of movable size reduction assembly 100 pushes fingers 104 through holes 109 causing subsequent movement of solids captured atop radial arms 105 of the strainer plate 106. The upper edges of the radial arms 105 are optimally roughened or coated with abrasive, as are the lower portion 108 of fingers 104. Such optimization is key in abrasion and ripping of the moving strands of hair and captured solids 107 as movable size reduction assembly 100 is depressed, pulling hair and captured solids 107 across the abrasive and or roughened surfaces of 108 and upper portions of 105. Movement of solids in said manner allows for rending of all solids across roughened and or abrasive coated surfaces. Flow of liquid through the strainer plate 106 in the course of normal use flushes the rendered hair and solids 114 into distal plumbing where it is now unlikely to contribute to clogs given their reduced size/length. Use of roughening and or abrasive coatings obviates the need for expensive and meticulously aligned shearing surfaces or cutting blades.

Experimental data has demonstrated that a solid strainer arm or protuberance every 0.31 inches of inside drain orifice circumference is necessary to capture 95% of hairs that are 4 inches in length or greater (the size of hairs shown in the experimental data to be the ones most prone to causing clogs in plumbing by wrapping around protuberances or defects in the plumbing encountering fluid stream flow).

Halving that strainer arm to circumference ratio to one strainer arm every 0.628 inches decreases the capture of hairs to as low as 48% of hairs entering the drain orifice (thereby allowing 52% of hairs to pass into distal plumbing and cause clog formation). Use of four cross members as shown in the prior art devices demonstrates a ratio of one strainer arm for every 1.7 inches of drain wall circumference (in the typical United States bath tub drain orifice diameter of 1.5 inches). It is clear that use of drain cross members (of which the typical number is 4 in legacy drains) to capture hair in the waste stream would allow a majority of hair to pass into distal plumbing, causing subsequent clogs.

A central support shaft/screw 200 as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 may be attached to the bottom cross member of the drain receptacle, and in most cases will be able to be threaded solidly into a mating relationship with the threaded hole. Legacy drain receptacles without a threaded cross member will not accept threaded shaft/screw 200, and in such cases˜the screw/shaft 200 may be truncated, allowing strainer plate 106 to fit flush on cross members of the receptacle. In such a case, the outside edge of strainer plate 106 holds device 99 in place by fitting snuggly in the drain receptacle, perhaps with the aid of plumbers tape placed circumferentially around the base of strainer plate 106. Alternatively, the manufacturer may decide to make strainer plate 106 integral to a drain receptacle.

The superior portion of strainer plate 106 defines a central opening 207 to receive the screw 200, and to serve as a cover for spring 208. The strainer base 106 may include two through-bores 210 to allow for drainage of liquid from within the spring cover.

A central body 103 has a generally cylindrical shape, and the vertically oriented fingers 104 (integral to the central body 103) extend parallel with one another and are spaced apart from each other about the cylindrical central body 103. Each of the fingers 104 has a lower end portion 108 that extends downward independently and that have a rough or abrasive-coated surface aligned generally tangential to the circumference of the central body 103. The lower end portion 108 of each finger is aligned with one of the correspondingly shaped holes 109 defined by the strainer plate 106.

The central body 103 is hollow and has an open bottom end that fits around the superior portion of strainer plate 106. An inner side of each finger 104 may be aligned with a corresponding groove 209 on the superior portion of strainer plate 106 in order to ensure proper guidance of fingers 104 through holes 109 in the lower portion of strainer plate 106. The central body 103 is movable in a reciprocating manner upward and downward, between an upper position, in which the lower end portions 108 of the fingers 104 are located a small distance above the lower portion of strainer plate 106 and a lower position, in which all of the lower end portions extend downward into respective ones of the correspondingly shaped holes 109 in the lower portion of strainer plate 106.

A scraping mechanism is enclosed within the upper portion of strainer plate FIG. 6 and the movable central body 103 and allows the size reduction assembly 100 to be moved downward and latched into its lower position by pressing downward on a cap 101 connected to the top of the central body 103. The cap 101 has a comfortable upper surface that can comfortably be pressed by a hand or foot. The size reduction assembly 100 may then be released and raised to the upper position by a succeeding downward movement of the cap 101 and the attached central body 103.

In one such stepping mechanism, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a hollow shaft 204 portion of the stepping mechanism is mounted over the upper end of the central support shaft 200, allowing it to spin freely about the vertical axis of shaft 200. Vertical ribs or flutes 210 on the outside of the hollow shaft 204 form a part of the stepping mechanism. Grooves defined between the flutes 210 receive inwardly projecting bodies 211 located within the upper end of the central body 103, so that the hollow shaft 204 guides and aligns the upper end of the central body 103 With the central shaft 200 as the size reduction assembly 100 moves reciprocatingly upward and downward with respect to the strainer 106 and the central shaft 200. An upper spring 201 and a lower spring 208 and a rotating stepping ratchet body 203 arranged in a well-known manner sequentially hold the central body 103 in its upper position and its lower position when it is repeatedly moved fully downward by depressing the cap 101.

When the rotating stepping ratchet body 203 is in a lower position the upper spring 201 urges the central body 103 toward the lower position, and a seal member shown as a radially extending frustoconical resiliently flexible seal member 102 that fits around an upper shoulder of the central body 103, is also lowered and urged toward the lower position. The seal member 102 then presses against the radially extending flange 115 of the drain receptacle portion 500 of the drain, preventing liquid from flowing into the device. When the central body 103 is in its upper position as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 the seal member 102 is spaced upwardly apart from the flange 115, and liquid to be drained from the tub or sink, etc., in which the device 99 is installed is free to enter a receptacle beneath the sealing member.

The cap 101 is held securely atop the central body 103 as by mating threads, and includes a lower rim 212 seated against a central hub of the sealing member 102, so that to enter the drain liquid must pass through the device 99, by flowing beneath the sealing member 102, and then around the outside of the cylindrical portion of the central body 103, between the fingers 104, carrying any entrained waste solid pieces, including hair. Because the fingers 109 are straight and vertical, waste material can be carried unhampered to the strainer plate 106 in a flow of liquid.

As a flow of liquid containing solid pieces of waste material proceeds downward within a drain receptacle, past the stationary body of device 99, pieces of solid waste come to sit atop the bottom portion of strainer plate 106, and at least partially beneath the lower ends 108 of the fingers 104, so that when the central body 103 is moved downward by pressure on the cap 101 the lower ends 108 of the fingers 104 grasp and force pieces of solid material through the corresponding holes 109, abrading and ripping relatively large pieces of waste material 107 into reduced sized pieces 114 which are small enough to pass freely through a drain conduit beneath a drain receptacle with greatly reduced likelihood of accumulating so as to clog the associated drain conduit at a distant downstream location.

Even fibrous materials such as hair or pieces of grass will be divided into smaller pieces which are less likely to be able to accumulate within a drain conduit to a troublesome extent. As longer fibrous pieces such as long hairs 107 are carried into the space surrounding the central body 103 those fibers are carried down along the fingers 104 by the flow of water, which aligns such long pieces 107 naturally over the radial arms 105 of the lower portion of the strainer 106 as shown in FIG. 1, and the abrasive coated or roughened bottom ends of the fingers 108 help to grasp such fibrous materials and urge spaced-apart portions of strands of entwined such hairs 107 simultaneously through neighboring ones of the corresponding holes 109 through the bottom plate 106, thus ripping the hairs 107 or strands of other fibers into short pieces that when sufficiently shortened will drop through the holes 109 in the bottom plate 106 and thereafter be flushed from the device 99 into the flow of liquid into the drain conduit below the device.

Pieces of waste material which are not divided sufficiently with a first downward stroke of the size reduction assembly 100 can be further reduced by subsequent downward strokes of the size reduction assembly from its upper position to its lower position in which the lower ends of the fingers 104 pass into the boles 109.

When the cap 101 is depressed far enough to move the central body 103 fully into its lower position the sealing member 102 engages the radially extending flange stopping the flow of liquid into the drain strainer, so that the device 99 seals the drain and retains liquid in the sink, shower, or bathtub in which it is installed, until the cap 101 and attached central body 103 are allowed to rise slightly and are thereafter again pushed downward, operating the stepping mechanism centrally located within the drain protective device 99. The central body and the spring cover may fit together slidingly, and, although there is room for entry of water into the space deformed within the spring cover, the holes in the bottom of the spring cover allow the water to drain freely, and the space between the central body 103 and the spring cover 202 may be small enough to prevent entry of waste material that would be likely to interfere significantly with operation of the stepping mechanism.

While the entire device 99 could be of metal several parts could, instead, be of a suitable plastics material to reduce costs. Abrasive surfaces would ideally comprise of materials coated with abrasive material such as silicone carbide, but could also simply be roughened surfaces of the materials used to construct fingers 104 or radial arms 105.

FIGS. 5 through 7 depict an alternative device 299 as a sink based device, utilizing the same basic technology as described above for a tub device in FIGS. 1-4. FIG. 5 shows the device 299 in its up position, while FIG. 6 shows the embodiment in the down, or tearing, position. FIG. 7 depicts the device 299 fitted for a typical sink drain receptacle 500.

In reference to FIGS. 5 and 7, the device 299 includes a perforated strainer and ripping cutting plate 306 which is stationary and may be supported within the receptacle 500. A movable size reduction assembly 300 includes vertically extending members hereinafter referred to as fingers 304, arranged to move downwardly into respective ones of a set of corresponding holes 309. Strands of hair and solids are captured atop the radial arms 305 of strainer plate 306.

FIG. 6 show the position of a lowered assembly 300. In the lower position of assembly 300, the flexible flange 302 interacts with the top of the drain receptacle 500 to impede flow of liquid into drain receptacle 500, whereby plugging the drain. The holes 309 extending downward through the strainer plate 306 allow passage of fingers 304 during depression of movable reduction assembly 300.

In reference to FIG. 7, the catch element 310 can be seen, depicted as a square opening at the bottom of the device to catch the lever that attaches to the plunger that directs the lowering and raising of the assembly 300 within the drain receptacle 500. As a flow of liquid containing solid pieces of waste material proceeds downward past the raised assembly 300, pieces of solid waste come to sit atop the bottom portion of strainer plate 306, and at least partially beneath the lower ends 308 of the fingers 304.

Referring again to FIG. 6, when the assembly 300 is lowered downward the fingers 304 are pushed through holes 309, causing subsequent movement of solids captured atop radial arms 305 of the strainer plate 306. The upper edges of the radial arms 305 are optimally roughened or coated with abrasive, as are the lower portion 308 of fingers 304. Such optimization is key in abrasion and ripping of the moving strands of hair and captured solids 307 as movable size reduction assembly 300 is depressed, pulling hair and captured solids 307 across the abrasive and or roughened surfaces of 308 and upper portions of 305. Movement of solids in this manner allows for rending of all solids across roughened and or abrasive coated surfaces.

Flow of liquid through the strainer plate 306 in the course of normal use flushes the rendered hair and solids into distal plumbing. As is the case for the embodiment of FIGS. 1-4, the use of roughening and or abrasive coatings obviates the need for expensive and meticulously aligned shearing surfaces or cutting blades.

Pieces of waste material which are not divided sufficiently with a first downward stroke of the size reduction assembly 300 will be further reduced by subsequent downward strokes of the size reduction assembly from its upper position to its lower position in which the lower ends of the fingers 304 pass into the holes 309.

The devices described in Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 20070290082 describe the use of strategically placed abrasive materials or roughened surfaces to achieve the desired function without the use of shearing. This patent application is meant to expound upon those described benefits by describing exemplary devices utilizing the primary features of trapping of solid materials from a liquid flow, aligning them in an orientation that facilitates their rending, then rending them into small pieces unlikely to form clogs by a movable drain assembly with strategically placed abrasives or roughened surfaces.

Thus, the present disclosure sets forth a description of a manually operable apparatus and a method for separating larger pieces of materials such as human hair, textile fibers, bits of grass or other vegetation, fingernails, toenails, and other waste materials from a flow of water being drained from a conventional fixture such as a bathtub, shower, or sink, and for periodically reducing the size of such accumulated pieces of waste materials to a size small enough to be flushed readily down through an ordinary drain conduit without accumulating readily in quantities able to cause a significant blockage of such a drain conduit. Key to the function of the device is the movement the materials against at least one abrasive or sufficiently roughened surface at strategic locations that rend hair into smaller pieces when the plunger arms of the device are actuated. Use of abrasives or sufficiently roughened surfaces instead of shearing to rend hair allows for more extensive use of plastics as blades and hard cutting surfaces aren't necessary, makes the device easier to manufacture for placement in a multitude of legacy drains, and significantly reduces the manufacturing and materials costs associated with machining or casting of the metal/ceramic/alloy parts necessary to produce shearing surfaces.

Abrasion of materials to the point that they can no longer resist breaking as they are stretched by the actuation of at least one moving plunger arm is significantly different from shearing. Abrasion of materials commonly encountered in bathroom drains, necessitates that the materials move across at least one abrasive or sufficiently roughened surface in order to facilitate their rending into smaller pieces. Shearing, in contrast, requires that the materials be relatively immobile so that it may remain in between the two shearing surfaces and be cut.

Likewise, though a perpendicular orientation of the material in relation to the movement of plunger arms at the beginning of device actuation is preferred, the orientation of the materials during the actuation of the plunger arms can be variable. This contrasts with materials in a shearing device that must ideally remain strictly perpendicular to the shearing surfaces to avoid simply binding the surfaces to a point where their mobility is hindered as one might encounter with hair binding the blades of scissors if the hair isn't held taut and perpendicular to the scissor blade action.

Finally, though abrasive materials and roughened surfaces tend to have sharp edges on a microscopic level, and may indeed do some cutting, they are variably oriented so as to facilitate rending of materials with variable orientations. This, again, contrasts with shearing where the sharp shearing surface is in a roughly linear orientation, thus requiring that the material to be cut again be in roughly a perpendicular orientation to the motion of the blades.

In some embodiments the device is easily installed in an existing drain. Other embodiments may be manufactured as integral parts of drain receptacles to be mounted in a sink, tub, or shower.

The simplicity of the drain mounted device allows for easy production and installation, garnering significant advantages over more complex mechanisms such as motor-driven garbage disposals, or those requiring machined and corrosion resistant shearing surfaces.

The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof; it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.

Claims

1. A method for preventing waste materials from clogging a household drain, the method comprising:

a) receiving a quantity of waste material contained in a flow of liquid toward a drain receptacle;

b) guiding the flow of liquid to a predetermined position adjacent a part of a manually operable device mounted within the drain receptacle and gathering the quantity of the waste material from the flow of liquid in a first location adjacent a member of the manually operable device located in the drain receptacle;

c) maintaining the quantity of waste material generally perpendicular to the vertical motion of a manually moving size reduction assembly;

d) manually moving the size reduction assembly portion of the device so as to subject the quantity of waste material to abrading action, thereby producing an abraded portion of waste material as a plurality of smaller pieces; and

e) carrying the abraded pieces away from the drain receptacle and through a drain conduit in the flow of water.

2. The method of claim 1 including the step of using the flow of water to align the quantity of waste material in a predetermined arrangement within the device prior to manually moving the size reduction assembly.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein, the predetermined arrangement includes arrangement of at least some of the waste materials into a strand.

4. The method of claim 3 including the step of using the flow of water to place the strand of waste material in a location spanning a plurality of neighboring water passages through a containment portion of the device.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of comminuting the waste material includes moving the size reduction assembly downward, thereby urging a plurality of fingers into contact with the strand and into respective ones of the water passages, thereby tearing the strand into small pieces.

6. The method of claim 1 including the step of mechanically carrying a portion of the waste material along a roughened abrasive surface, thereby abrading the waste material into smaller pieces.

7. The method of claim 6 including the step of mechanically carrying a portion of the waste material along a plurality of roughened abrasive surfaces, thereby abrading the waste material into smaller pieces.

8. The method of claim 1 including the steps of gripping a plurality of parts of a strand of the waste material while pushing the plurality of parts of the strand simultaneously into a plurality of respective apertures, thereby ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

9. The method of claim 1 including the steps of gripping a strand of the waste material at a plurality of locations along a length of the strand while pushing a plurality of parts of the strand into a plurality of respective apertures, thereby ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

10. The method of claim 1 including the steps of simultaneously holding and pushing on a plurality of locations along a length of a strand of the waste material, thereby pushing the strand simultaneously into a plurality of neighboring apertures and thereby pulling and ripping the waste material into smaller pieces.

11. The method of claim 1 including the step of closing the drain by engaging the size reduction assembly with a part of the drain receptacle and thereby holding a sealing member carried on the size reduction assembly in sealing contact with a surface of the drain receptacle.

12. The method of claim 1 including the step of closing the drain by using a spring included in the size reduction assembly to hold a sealing member carried on the size reduction assembly in sealing relationship with a surface of the drain receptacle.

13. The method of claim 1 including the further steps of thereafter moving the size reduction assembly back to an initial position and thereafter repeating the steps of claim 2.

14. The method of claim 1 including gathering and entwining a plurality of hairs included in the waste materials as a part of the step of aligning the quantity of waste materials, and using the flow of water to align a strand of hairs transversely across the flow of water.

15. The method of claim 1 including the step of gripping a strand of waste material at a plurality of places along the strand and thereafter forcing respective parts of the strand simultaneously into apart-spaced openings of the manually operable device, thereby elongating the strand sufficiently to cause it to break into a plurality of shorter pieces.

16. A manually operable device for use in a household drain inlet receptacle, the device comprising:

(a) a stationary main body;

(b) a strainer portion associated with the stationary main body and positioned to receive a flow of liquid and to catch relatively large pieces of solid waste material and temporarily hold the relatively large pieces at the strainer;

(c) a manually movable size reduction assembly extending within the stationary main body and reciprocally movable with respect to the stationary main body, between an upper position and a lower position; and

(d) an abrasive material associated with at least one of the stationary main body and the size reduction assembly;

wherein when the manually movable size reduction assembly engages at least some of the relatively large pieces of waste material it acts cooperatively with the stationary main body to abrade and reduce at least some of the engaged pieces of waste material to a smaller size while the movable size reduction assembly is being moved between the upper and lower positions thereof.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein the stationary main body comprises an abrasive surface.

18. The device of claim 16 wherein the size reduction assembly comprises an abrasive surface.