Tracking Drain Closure Device that Rotates between Open and Closed.

Abstract

A drain closure device for a vessel such as a bathtub or sink is provided. The drain closure device comprises a stopper fitted with a sealing gasket and equipped with track followers on a vertical post capped with a horizontal stopper, plus a flanged pipe emanating from said stopper that fits to the drainage hole in a vessel. The device is operable to be concentrically disposed with a hole in the bottom of the vessel. Rotation of the stopper causes travel of the followers on the stem to rise against the track cut into the interior of the flanged pipe. Resistance to closure when opened is provided by a terminal rest stop for each track follower on the upper part of the track. No springs, pins, or resistance seals are used. Reverse rotation of the stopper causes reverse travel of the followers back down the track to a low resting place located to effect closure of the horizontal stopper atop the flange of the pipe resting on the perimeter of the vessel hole. Once in place, the drain closure occupies the drain hole in the bottom of the vessel.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

No cross reference is made to other applications.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OF DEVELOPMENT

No Federal Government support was received in the development of this Invention.

SEQUENCE LISTING, TABLE, OR COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING

No sequence listing, table, or computer program is attached or accompanies this Application.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a drain closure for a vessel, and more particularly a drain closure incorporating a rising track within a pipe internal wall to direct track followers to effect opening and closure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A bath or sink, herein “vessel”, is drained by a “drain closure” assembly. The upper portion of this assembly consists of a “stopper”, which is fastened to a “strainer” by a plurality of methods. The “strainer” itself is a flanged pipe that threads through a vessel drain hole into further pipes beneath the bath to direct drain water out of the “vessel” via the bottom perforation of this flanged pipe with further “linkage” to a drain pipe. Said linkage usually consists of an external thread on the outer wall of the strainer pipe threading into an internal thread of a fitting beneath the bath. The upper flange on the “strainer” cup rim pulls on the rim of the vessel drain hole to hold the fitting beneath the vessel tightly to the underside of the vessel. A plurality of seals for this juncture are encountered in the field. Common “drain closures” include rubber stoppers, spring loaded devices, and pin capture devices. Often “cross hairs”, a horizontal cross feature, is affixed to the interior of the strainer pipe.

In the early days of plumbed baths, a rubber stopper was used to retain water in a vessel. Since “stopper” implies a resistance fit, this terminology has evolved to “drain closure” to also include several categories of devices that effect closure with a sealing “gasket” that lies atop the “strainer” flange inside the vessel to effect closure. The “open” position of a drain closure must include a mechanism whereby, when in open position, the drain stays open in opposition to the force of the head of draining water within the vessel that naturally operates to close the drain and seal the gasket or similar seal.

More advanced stopper drain closures include Fairchild (U.S. Pat. No. 1,300,593: Apr. 15, 1919) and Leduc (U.S. Pat. No. 1,403,423: Jan. 10, 1922). These devices indicate a rudimentary initiative to include new convenient functionalities of a drain closure. Here, the plugs have features to prevent removal.

A number of patents describe assemblies including a spring to enable an easy transition from open position of the drain to closed position of the drain. Watts (U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,877: Jan. 26, 1988) patented the “push pull” drain which maintains an open position using a sprung ball bearing. The advantage of this design is that the fraction of the strainer volume occupied by the “stem” of the “push pull” is small and interferes less with drain flow when open. The disadvantage of small springs used is the eventual failure to maintain an open position against the head pressure of liquid being drained from the vessel.

Kivela (U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,762: Dec. 8, 1959) describes a device which makes use of a coil spring centered around the “stem” axis. Such an open spring device is easily fouled by hair and other debris. The spring longitudinal to the “stem” axis, when combined with a catch system, resulted in the evolution of two standard drain closures. The first is “pop up” using a large axial spring and a ballpoint pen clicker barrel, as in Petursson (U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,980: Feb. 6, 1968). The other is the unpatented “clicker” device which uses a planar track instead of the pen clicker barrel to maintain an open position in opposition to the head of draining liquid. Both of these devices occupy a large fraction of the volume within the “strainer”, potentially slowing liquid drainage from the vessel. All drain closures relying upon a spring have a limited functional life.

Hobbs (U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,397: Mar. 16, 1999) describes a device which avoids all springs and instead relies upon lifting and turning of the “stem” axis to capture a projecting pin. While this design avoids the shorter life span of springs and the volume occupied by sprung devices, it is delicate in that the user of a bath can ruin the device by simply standing upon it and breaking the pin.

Provision of a drain closure other than a simple resistance fit stopper reflects a number of objectives for a drain closure; namely,

(1) The closure must be able to be manipulated between a closed position and an open position.

(2) The open position of the drain closure must be able to withstand without closing the head pressure of the liquid being drained from the vessel.

(3) The drain closure must not occupy too great a volume of the strainer in order to not unduly impede drainage flow.

(4) Potential for fouling of the drain closure by hair and debris should be minimized.

(5) The drain closure must be robust.

(6) Manipulation must be ergonomically efficient.

Despite a range of drain closures being available for vessels such as baths and sinks, none of them satisfy all of these requirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an objection of this invention to at least partially overcome some of the disadvantages of the prior art.

In a preferred embodiment, the horizontal stopper is circular with a domed surface on the upper side. On the underside of the stopper is a mounting zone for an annular gasket seal as well as a pipe into which the stopper is inserted. Alternately, an o-ring may be mounted in a grove to effect close against the upper interior of the strainer pipe. Ergonomic features including knobs can be added to the dome surface to aid in rotation by hand or foot. The post itself has several features, one the vertical post equipped with a plurality of horizontal track followers issuing perpendicular to the post, two a thread or other fixture that secures the horizontal stopper by a plurality of means to the top end of the post, and three optional terminal features extending down from the bottom end of the post that effect remote actuation if required. The horizontal track followers are inserted into vertical tracks in the inner wall of the strainer pipe and lifted and rotated to clear a stop against counterclockwise motion. This strainer in turn threads through the perforation at the bottom of the vessel into a receiving fitting to drain the vessel liquid away. Optionally, a bolt can be threaded through the post center from the bottom and fixed with a plurality of means underneath the strainer to allow for remote actuation. Although simple, this assembly enables all six of the drainage functionalities to be realized; namely:

(1) The closure must be able to be manipulated to a closed position and an open position:

This is achieved through the application of horizontal torque on the circumference of the horizontal stopper to effect travel of the track followers clockwise up and counter clockwise down the track on the internal wall of the flanged pipe strainer.

(2) The open position of the drain closure must be able to withstand, without closing, the head pressure of the liquid draining from the vessel:

At the uppermost position of the internal track there are terminal resting features in which the projections from the upper stem part may rest and resist force to move it back down the internal track.

(3) The drain closure must not occupy too great a volume of the strainer in order to not unduly impede drainage flow: With no springs or crosshairs the diameter of the post of the tracking drain closure is small.

(4) Potential for fouling of the drain closure by hair and debris should be minimized: Easy removal of the tracking drain stopper allows for complete access for cleaning.

(5) The drain closure must be robust:

With no springs or pins this design is robust.

(6) Manipulation must be ergonomically efficient:

Application of rotational force on the outer rim of the stopper results in good torque owing to the distance between the outer rim and the stem axis, allowing for easy rotation.

In a preferred embodiment, the flanged strainer is first fed through the hole in the bottom of the vessel. The upper flange on the strainer allows the strainer to hang freely on the vessel interior. Underneath the vessel a sealing gasket is applied to the upper flange of a fitting into which the strainer threads for a waterproof attachment. The drain closure stopper is then introduced into the tracks on the internal wall of the strainer. Alternately, an existing strainer with a broken stopper can be used, wherein the old stopper is removed and a new tracking strainer affixed by a plurality of methods, including glue, to the old strainer, and the new stopper inserted into this new tracking strainer. In this repair case, no external thread is necessary on the external wall of the strainer.

Further aspects of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and drawings, which illustrate the invention and preferred embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which illustrate embodiments of the invention:

FIG. 1 is an exploded isometric view of the tracking drainage closure in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross section of the tracking drain closure, showing the ascending track and track followers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the stopper in the tracking drain closure, illustrating the plurality of track followers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 (a) is an isometric view showing the lowest part of the track within the strainer when stopper is closed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention:

FIG. 4 (b) an alternate isometric view showing the terminal feature for maintaining the stopper in an open position in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a drainage closure device is shown in an exploded isometric view. The horizontal top 1 allows for turning of the assembly to open and close the stopper. At least one track follower 2 protrudes from the vertical post 3. An optional bolt 4 hangs from the bottom of the post 3 in order to enable remote actuation when necessary. A vertical track 5 allows for dropping in of the stopper in preparation for aligning the horizontal track followers to follow the track 6 in the internal wall of the strainer. A flange 7 of the flanged strainer holds the strainer on the inner perimeter of the hole in the bottom of a vessel, and a pipe 8 serves both to support the internal track as well as being attached by a plurality of methods to a fixture fitting beneath. While the threading of an external thread on the pipe into an internal thread on a fitting beneath the fixture vessel is the a common method, an unthreaded pipe may be glued into an existing flanged strainer.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a vertical cross section of the tracking drain closure shows the horizontal stop 1 threaded by virtue of a thread mate 9 to a vertical post, although a multiplicity of joining methods is used. A flange 9 lays atop and seals against a flange 7 to prevent water passage when the drain closure is in the closed position. Horizontal track follower or followers 2 rise up and down a sloped track inscribed into the internal wall of the strainer pipe 5. Supports 11 for the track followers prevent breakage of the followers. An optional bolt 4 is threaded into the bottom of the post by a thread mate 13 or a plurality of alternative fixing methods. This bolt 4 can be joined to a remote actuation assembly. A nut 12 fixes the bolt in place, although a plurality of fixing methods may be used to effect this joining.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a side view of the stopper alone, a horizontal stopper top 1 is affixed by a plurality of methods to a vertical post 3. The stopper 1 supports the attachment of a sealing flange 10. At least one horizontal track follower 2 emanates from the vertical post at an appropriate height to effect opening and closing of the flange 10 against the strainer flange, and a bolt 4 affixed by a plurality of methods to the bottom of the vertical post 3, and fixed at a given height by a plurality of fixing methods exemplified by a nut 4, allows for attachment to a remote actuation assembly not illustrated or described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 4(a), an isometric view of the strainer alone, a vertical track 5 terminates proximal to a hump 15 impeding rotation of the vertical track follower around and up the track on the internal wall of the pipe. By lifting and turning the stopper, the track follower can clear this hump and then follow the track around and up. The purpose of this hump is to prevent the track follower from reversing into the vertical track upon closure of the stopper.

Referring now to FIG. 4(b), an alternate isometric view of the same strainer shows the internal track 6 ascending to a resting place 17 for the horizontal track followers to terminate in, allowing the stopper to resist the downward head pressure of liquid draining from the vessel.

Claims

1. A drain closure device for mounting to a strainer defining a fluid passage with a flange extending outwardly about an upper end thereof, said drain closure device comprising: a stopper having a sealing member for sealing against said flange depending from said stopper; a horizontal stopper supporting a vertical post, said stopper being rotatable about a stopper axis; a guide track inscribed on the internal wall of said flange for extending about and receiving at least a portion of horizontal track followers depending from said post for relative rotational and longitudinal sliding movement therebetween respectively about and along said stopper axis; said guide track further defining an cam surface; a cam track follower extending from said stem for following said cam surface in response to rotation of said stopper about said stopper axis, said cam surface being profiled to cause axial movement of said sealing member between an open configuration away from said guide track, and a closed configuration toward said guide track; said cam surface including a resting place for maintaining said stopper in said open configuration absent rotational input to said stopper.

2. A drain closure device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said post is provided with horizontal track followers for acting against said guide track retaining said stopper in said guide track.

3. A drain closure device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sealing member has a gasket affixed thereto for sealing against said flange in said closed configuration to impede fluid flow into said passage.