AU2014246631A1 - Plumbing connector - Google Patents

Abstract

A plumbing fitting comprising a misalignment connector (30) having an inlet (43) and a plurality of potential outlets (38) each of which is connectable to said inlet (43). The outlets (38) are facing in substantially the same direction and are spaced apart to form an array of outlets (38). 5405A-AlT A-4 I %

Description

1 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 5 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A PATENT 10 Name of Applicant(s): Tony AOUN 15 Actual Inventor(s): Tonly AOUN Address for Service: FRASER OLD & SOHN Patent Attorneys PO Box 560 20 MILSONS POINT NSW 1565 Invention Title: PLUMBING CONNECTOR Details of Associated 25 Provisional Applications: 2014 902 231 Dated 12 June 2014 30 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 35 5405A-AlT 2 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to plumbing and, in particular, to the installation of cisterns, however, the present invention is not restricted merely to this activity. 5 Background Art Cisterns may be categorised into two types. The first type has a bottom entry inlet and water is supplied to the cistern by means of a flexible pipe from a cock mounted on the wall below the cistern. Since the cock and flexible pipe are regarded as being 10 unsightly to some extent, the second category of cisterns has been developed. This category of cisterns is intended to be supplied from a pipe which is hidden by the cistern. Therefore the cistern rear wall has an opening for the water to be provided to the cistern. Traditionally such openings have been located in the top left hand corner of the rear wall of the cistern. As a consequence, either the cistern body or the cistern 15 lid, or both, have a small opening which is intended to be aligned with a pipe (termed a "No. 19 - 12 inch outlet") which is positioned in the wall of the toilet or bathroom at the intended location of the cistern. In the building trades, the installation of appliances such as cisterns, water heaters, 20 and the like which are supplied with water and or gas, is conducted in two stages. The first stage is the so called "roughing-in" in which the pipe work is connected throughout the building. The end of each branch of the pipe system is sealed and the pipes are pressure tested to ensure that there are no leaks in the joins between the various pipes which together form the network of pipes in the building. Once this 25 sealed condition has been verified, it is then possible for the walls to be sheeted and tiled or rendered brick or the like and tiled, and so on. This work is carried out as an intervening step by another trade, typically tilers or plasterers. Then the plumber returns to connect the appliances, which are prime cost items and which are installed after the building has achieved a lock up stage. This reduces the incidence of theft of 30 such prime cost items and appliances. Inevitably, because of the accumulation of small differences, the plumber's estimate as to where a supply pipe should be relative to a tiled floor which is yet to be tiled, is out by some small dimension. As a consequence, there will be some small S40S A-All 3 misalignment between the supply pipe and the inlet to the cistern or other appliance. If this misalignment is small, the misalignment can be tolerated. In these circumstances, for example, the opening in the rear wall of the cistern may be large enough to allow the supply pipe (which is not centred relative to the inlet) to still pass 5 through the inlet. However, in many instances the misalignment will be sufficient for the opening in the rear wall of the cistern to require some adjustment. It is known for plumbers under these circumstances to use an angle grinder to cut away part of the vitreous china of 10 the cistern so as to accommodate the misalignment. This is a very hazardous activity because the vitreous china may well crack and then a new cistern must be purchased. Genesis of the Invention The genesis of the present invention is a desire to ameliorate the abovementioned 15 difficulties. Summary of the Invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a plumbing fitting comprising a misalignment connector having an inlet and a plurality of 20 potential outlets each of which is connectable to said inlet, said outlets facing in substantially the same direction and being spaced to form an array of outlets. In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a method of counteracting misalignment of a plumbing supply pipe and a supplied 25 appliance having an appliance inlet, said method comprising the step of interposing a misalignment connector between said supply pipe and said appliance inlet, said connector having a connector inlet connected to said supply pipe, and a plurality of potential outlets, only one of which is connected to said inlet to said appliance inlet. 30 Brief Description of the Drawings A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a top entry cistern with its lid shown inverted; 5405A-AlT 4 Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a toilet or bathroom showing the position of a water supply pipe intended to supply a top entry cistern of the type illustrated in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a misalignment connector according to a first 5 preferred embodiment; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but illustrating installation of the misalignment connector of Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing the installation of the cistern of Fig. 1 in the circumstances of Fig. 4. 10 Detailed Description As seen in Fig. 1, a cistern 1 has a body 2 and a lid 3. The cistern body has a rear wall 4 which is provided with a bight 5. A similar bight 15 is provided in the rear wall 14 of the cistern lid 3. It will be apparent that when the lid 3 is placed on the body 2 so 15 as to complete the cistern 1, the two bights 5, 15 together form an opening through which it is intended that a water supply pipe pass to supply the cistern with water. As seen in Fig. 2, a bathroom or toilet 7 normally has concrete floor 8 and a rear wall 9. A supply pipe 10 which is intended to supply water to the cistern extends over the 20 rear wall 9. The supply pipe is provided with an elbow 12 and terminates in a male thread 17 which protrudes beyond the studs 18 of the toilet wall. At the roughing-in stage the male thread 17 is sealed by means of a threaded cap (not illustrated) and the network supplying the supply pipe 10 is pressure tested to ensure there are no leaks, for example at the elbow 12. 25 Similarly, at an early stage of the construction, the soil pipe 19 is positioned in the floor 8 prior to the concrete being poured. It will be appreciated that the soil pipe 19 can be positioned in a wall 9 when the P-trap toilet is used. 30 After the initial work by the plumber in installing the supply pipe 10, for example, intervening work is done by other tradesmen, such as a tiler in laying the tiles 20 of the toilet floor. The tiles themselves have an indeterminate thickness T1 and are laid on a bed of sand/cement mixture or adhesive which has another indeterminate 5405A-AlT 5 thickness T2. The laying of the tiles 20 may also slightly dislodge the soil pipe 19 from its original position. In addition, the studs 18 are clad with plasterboard 22 or equivalent, which may or 5 may not be tiled. An opening 23 is provided in the plasterboard 22 and through which the male thread 17 protrudes. After this work has been carried out by tradesmen other than the plumber, the plumber returns to the site once the building has reached lock up stage and installs the toilet. 10 This involves mounting the pan (not illustrated) onto the soil pipe 19 and then mounting the cistern on the pan. Often the plumber finds that the accumulated tolerances in the thicknesses of T1 and T2, the pan itself and the cistern, mean that the opening formed by the two bights 5, 15 is not aligned with the male thread 17. Under these circumstances it has hitherto been necessary for the plumber to cut away part of 15 the rear wall 4, 14 of the cistern 1 so as to correct this misalignment. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, this cutting action is not necessary if the misalignment connector 30 illustrated in Fig 3 is utilised. The misalignment connector 30 takes the form of a brass block 31 of generally rectangular construction 20 having a top surface 32, a front surface 33, and an end surface 34. Into the front surface 34 are drilled six branch passages 36 which are arranged as illustrated in two rows 37A and 37B. Each branch passage terminates in a threaded female opening 38. Each of the openings 38 is releasably sealed by means of a 25 threaded male plug 39 and a sealing means which may be either sealing tape, or a sealing liquid such as those sold under the trade mark LOCTITE. Drilled into the end surface 34 are two main passages 41 and 42 each of which intersects with, and therefore interconnects with, the branch passages of the 30 corresponding rows 37A and 37B respectively. In addition, drilled into the top surface 32 is an inlet passage 43 which intersects with both main passages 41 and 42. The inlet passage is provided with a threaded female opening 44 which is left open. However, the two main passages 41 and 42 are sealed by corresponding brass plugs 5405A-AlT 6 141 and 142 which are permanently sealed by means such as brazing or silver soldering. The net result of the construction described above in relation to the connector 30 is to 5 have a single inlet opening 44 which is connected to each of six outlet openings 38, only one of which is intended to be opened and utilised after installation of the cistern. Preferably all the openings 38, 44 are inch with British Standard Pipe (BSP) threads. It will be appreciated that in other preferred embodiments the threaded female opening 44 can be located in a bottom surface opposed to top surface 32 and 10 be disposed in fluid communication with main passage 42, for example, or it could be in any other preferred location. Turning now to Fig. 4, it will be seen that the misalignment connector 30 is installed on the rear wall 9 of the toilet 7 with the supply pipe 10 terminating in the inlet 15 opening 44. All of the outlet openings 38 face forwardly and are accessible through the opening 23 in the plasterboard 22. That is to say, the misalignment connector 30 is installed at the roughing-in stage and before the application of the plasterboard 22 to the studs 18. 20 As a consequence of the use of the misalignment connector 30, once the cistern 1 is positioned as illustrated in Fig. 5, at least one of the six openings 38 will be able to be accessed directly through the bights 5, 15, without any modification to the rear walls 4, 14 of the cistern 1, notwithstanding that the cistern 1 may be substantially misaligned from its intended position calculated at the time of roughing-in. As a 25 result of the accessibility of at least one of the outlet openings 38, the corresponding male plug 39 can be removed and the inlet water connection easily made to the cistern 1. This connection can by either by means of an annealed copper pipe or by means of a flexible hose. In this way there is no requirement to cut the rear wall of the cistern 1 and thus no danger of the cistern cracking. In addition, all the time involved in this 30 modification is completely avoided. As indicated in Fig. 4, if the supply pipe 100 indicated by broken lines extends upwardly from the floor, (instead of downwardly towards the floor as illustrated in 5405A-AlT 7 solid lines) then the misalignment connector 30 is merely inverted to achieve the same ends. As a second embodiment, the plugs 39 are not required. Instead, each of the six 5 branch passages are not drilled deeply enough to intersect with the corresponding main passage 41 or 42. Each of the openings 38 is, however, tapped to create the necessary female thread. In this embodiment, after installation of the cistern, the best placed opening 38 is drilled by the plumber, for example a 10mm diameter hole, to make the necessary connection to the corresponding one of the main passages 41 or 10 42 and provide sufficient water flow. Of course, any loose material created by the drilling must be removed before use. For inch openings 38 (nominal pipe external diameter 15mm or DN15) an 11mm drill bit should be used. 15 The foregoing describes only two embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the number and arrangement of the openings 38 can be changed if desired. In addition, the connector 20 30 is able to used not only for cold or hot water, but also for the supply of gas and thus used in relation to appliances such as hot water services, gas stoves and the like where again misalignment can occur between roughing-in of the supply pipe(s) and installation of the appliances. 25 Further, the openings 38 on the front surface can be disposed in face 33 as a square or rectangular array as shown in Fig. 3 but need not be. Any preferred regular or non irregular array of openings can be provided. The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the 30 inclusive sense of "including" or "having" and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'. S40S A-All

Claims (19)

1. A plumbing fitting comprising a misalignment connector having an inlet and a plurality of potential outlets each of which is connectable to said inlet, said outlets facing in substantially the same direction and are spaced to form an array of outlets.

2. The fitting as claimed in claim 1 wherein: each of said potential outlets is connected to said inlet and releasbly sealed.

3. The fitting as claimed in claim 2 wherein: each of said outlets terminates a corresponding branch passage, a first plurality of said branch passages intersects with a first main passage, a second plurality of said branch passages intersects with a second main passage, and said inlet terminates an inlet passage which intersects with both said main passages.

4. The fitting as claimed in claim 3 wherein each of said main passages constitutes a blind hole having its opening sealed.

5. The fitting as claimed in claim 4 and comprising a block of generally cubic or rectangular configuration having a top surface, a front face substantially perpendicular to said top face, and an end surface substantially perpendicular to both said top surface and said front face, wherein said outlets are arranged in two rows in said front face with the corresponding branch passages being on two levels corresponding to said rows, each of said main passages extends from said end surface at one of said two levels, and said inlet is in said top surface and said inlet passage is substantially perpendicular to said main passages.

6. The fitting as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein said inlet and outlets connect to the same pipe size.

7. The fitting as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 and fabricated from brass.

8. The fitting as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein said inlet comprises an opening having a female thread and each of said outlets comprises an 5405A-AlT 9 opening having a female thread with a male threaded plug sealingly located therein.

9. The fitting as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said potential outlets comprises a threaded blind hole, and the depth of said blind hole is extendable to connect said blind hole with said inlet.

10. The fitting as claimed in claim 10 wherein: each of said outlets terminates a corresponding branch passage, a first plurality of said branch passages are directed towards a first main passage, a second plurality of said branch passages are directed towards a second main passage, and said inlet terminates an inlet passage which intersects with both said main passages.

11. The fitting as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 and suitable for water, for gas, or for both water and gas.

12. A plumbing fitting substantially as herein described with reference to Figs. 3 of the drawings.

13. A method of counteracting misalignment of a plumbing supply pipe and a supplied appliance having an appliance inlet, said method comprising the step of interposing a misalignment connector between said supply pipe and said appliance inlet, said connector having a connector inlet connected to said supply pipe, and a plurality of potential outlets, only one of which is connected to said inlet to said appliance inlet.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the step of connecting all outlets to said inlet and releasably sealing all said outlets other than said one outlet.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the step of connecting only said one outlet to said inlet.

16. The method as claimed in any one of claims 13 to 15 including the step of connecting said misalignment connector to said supply pipe during roughing in, and subsequently connecting said appliance to said one outlet after intervening activity by another trade.

17. The method as claimed in any one of claims 13 to 16 wherein said supply pipe supplies gas or water. 5405A-AlT 10

18. The method as claimed in any one of claims 13 to 17 wherein said appliance is selected from the class consisting of top entry cisterns, gas stoves, and a gas water heaters.

19. A method of counteracting misalignment of a plumbing supply pipe and a supplied appliance, said method being substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings. Dated this 9th day of October 2014 TONY AOUN By FRASER OLD & SOHN Patent Attorneys for the Applicants 5405A-AlT