AU672908B2

AU672908B2 - Potable rainwater collecting apparatus

Info

Publication number: AU672908B2
Application number: AU66723/94A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Kenneth George Clark
Original assignee: Rainsystems Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Rainsystems Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1993-04-29
Filing date: 1994-04-29
Publication date: 1996-10-17
Anticipated expiration: 2014-04-29
Also published as: AU6672394A

Description

WO 94/25691 PCT/AU94/00224 "POTABLE RAINWATER COLLECTING APPARATUS" TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to novel apparatus for use in collecting potable rainwater.

BACKGROUND ART While nobody would disagree that water is the one essential needed for the survival of all humans and animals, the availability of pure or high quality water, particularly for human consumption, continues to be one of the biggest problems for man because of contamination and impurities in public water supplies in which there are constantly found such things as pesticides, industrial chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria and rust by way of example, while additionally the many chemicals purposely added for various reasons all reduce the purity level which it would be most desirable to achieve. Some benefits are considered to be obtained by collecting rainwater in tanks, but the water is then contaminated by dirt and debris from roof tops. Some advantages can be achieved by the use of relatively expensive filter systems or by buying filtered or otherwise treated water, or by importing well-known brands of imported water, but even these are very much less than desired and involve costs beyond the means of the average householders.

My present invention has been devised with a view to overcoming or alleviating the problems currently associated with the acquiring of quality drinking water as aforementioned, and it has for its principal object the provision of novel apparatus for use in collecting potable rainwater whereby contact of the rainwater with .irfaces having a deletious effect thereon will be avoided.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel rainwater collection apparatus which will involve a onceonly cost in that it will be both efficient and robust so as to be usable for a very long and continuous period. A further object is to provide such apparatus which will be of relatively simple construction and can be made and installed without undue expense, and yet will lend itself to small domestic applications or major commercial applications or any applications therebetween. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be appreciated from the subsequent descriptions herein of preferred embodiments of the invention.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION With the foregoing and other objects in view, my invention resides broadly in apparatus for use in collecting potable rainwater including: an open mouthed trough member, a discharge outlet in said trough member in that part thereof which is lowermost or near lowermost when the trough member is operatively disposed; a delivery tube connected to said discharge outlet for conveying received rainwater for passage to storage or distribution means; a mounting frame whereby said trough member may be mounted in a rain-receiving location, and 20 said trough member being operatively connected to ~said mounting frame for movement from an operative collecting disposition in which said trough member opens upwardly such that rain may be collected through said open mouth for delivery via said discharge outlet 25 to an inoperative non-collecting disposition in which said open mouth faces downwardly or sidewardly and is freely open to atmosphere such that liquid or solid S.materials cannot be supported therein.

In one form of the invention, given by way of example only, said trough member is suitably of substantially conical shape so that in operation it is of dished conical form and has its discharge outlet at the lowermost apex portion thereof. Likewise, in some instances, said delivery tube suitably comprises a flexible hose leading directly from said discharge outlet to storage or distribution means. However, the delivery tube may include a plurality of interconnnected components providing an enclosed flow path if desired. In a very basic embodiment, the trough member is connected to the mounting frame by tilt means including an elongate bracket having its outer or distal end connected to that part of the trough member which is the underneath part when oEeratively disposed, the other or proximal end of the bracket being pivotally connected about a horizontal tilt axis to a mounting post or other mounting surface constituting said mounting frame.

In such form, it is preferred that releasable locking means be provided for securing said proximal end of said bracket to said mounting frame means in at least the operative disposition of said trough member. In one embodiment the releasable locking means includes a locking pin mounted in one of the tilt means and the mounting frame and adapted to engage with a complementary aperture provided in the other of said tilt means and said mounting frame.

In some alternative embodiments said elongate bracket S. is tubular to constitute a first part of said delivery tube, its distal end being connected to said discharge S 20 outlet while its proximal end is connected sealably with a "9 flexible tube constituting a second, downstream part of said delivery tube. In such a construction the proximal end of said elongate bracket suitably is sealably pivotable about a bearing tube on the mounting frame, said bearing "o 25 tube having openings to receive water from the proximal end S""of the bracnet and having a remote outlet end connected sealably with said tube constituting said second, S.downstream part of said delivery tube.

.9 In any one of a number of other embodiments the trough member may be connected to the mounting frame by tilt means comprising an elongate support member having its outer or distal end connected to that part of the trough member which is the underneath part when operatively disposed, the other or proximal end of the support member being journalled in a horizontal bearing on said mounting frame, rotation of said support member in said bearing acting to pivot the trough member towards an inverted inoperative disposition. In such a construction, said elongate support member is preferably tubular to constitute a first part of said delivery tube, its distal end being connected to said discharge outlet while its proximal end is connected sealably with a tube constituting a second, downstream part of said delivery tube.

While the foregoing descriptions focus on constructions involving a single trough member and support member, it will be appreciated that volume collection requires a plurality of collectors arranged singly or in a bank. Thus the elongate support member is preferably one of a plurality of parallel horizontal support members and the said trough member being one of a plurality of trough members corresponding to the support members. In such form, the apparatus may include crank means for tilting the trough members whereby all support members may be rotated in unison to move the trough members from operative to inoperative dispositions and vice versa if desired.

Likewise, instead of the trough member being conical, 20 it may in other embodiments be of substantially rectangular dish-like form having opposed water-retaining rims or surfaces, and be tiltable about a horizontal pivot axis S.mounting means about which the trough member may be pivoted :4 between operative disposition and substantially inverted 25 inoperative disposition. By way of example, shafts may 01.

ee ""extend outwardly from opposed ends of the trough member and be mounted in sockets, cradles or the like provided in the 4. 0* mounting frame. In a bank of such collectors said trough member is suitably one of a plurality of parallel horizontal trough members each tiltable about a respective horizontal pivot axis mounting means, and means being provided whereby said trough members may be pivoted in unison from operative to inoperative dispositions and vice versa, the trough members being adjacent one another to provide a continuous collection area and/or shade area when fully operative or fully inoperative.

"V ~1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings wherein:- Fig. 1 shows in 'op, front perspective view the most simple embodiment of the invention showing a single trough member connected by a pivotable bracket to an upright

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94 4. 4 9*r 4 *94 4 *r 4 *4 9 49 4 9r I WO 94/25691 I'CT*/AU94/00224 mounting post, the trough member being in operative disposition; Fig. 2 shows the components of Fig. 1, but with the trough member and its mounting bracket moved to inoperative disposition, and viewed from the rear; Fig. 3 is a sectional elevational view showing the trough member and its mounting bracket, corresponding to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2; Fig. 4 shows in front perspective view a modified form of rainwater collecting apparatus, in which the support bracket forms part of the delivery tube means, this view showing the positions of adjacent trough members in a close group thereof; Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation on the line 5-5 in Fig. 4 showing the pivotal connection of the proximal end of the tubular support bracket, delivering to a second part of the delivery tube means; Fig. 6 shows in perspective view another form of rainwater collecting apparatus according to the invention, the trough member being pivotable about a horizontal axis for inversion purposes; Fig. 7 is a sectional side elevation of Lae bearing assembly for the tilt means of the apparatus in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 8-8 in Fig. 7 but showing the delivery tube support member further rotated; Fig. 9 shows in perspective view a bank of parallel pivotable trough support and water delivery members, part of the mechanism for actuating same in unison being also shown; Fig. 9a shows in perspective view, in separated relationship to Fig. 9, the motor, gear box and pulley arrangement for the actuating cable of Fig. 9; Fig. 10 is a top perspective view of a different embodiment of the invention employing trough members of rectangular form in parallelism, and Figs. lla, llb and 1lc show schematically and in WO 94125691 PCT/AU9400224 6 section the trough member components of the embodiment of Fig. 10, in operative disposition, part-turned disposition and fully inoperative disposition, respectively.

As shown initially in Figs. 1 to 3 of the drawings, the rainwater collecting apparatus in this embodiment comprises a trough member 10 having a dished surface 11 and adapted to receive rainwater when operatively disposed as in Figs. 1 and 3, and it will be seen that there is a discharge outlet 12 in the trough member on the part 13 which is 1 -wermost when the trough member is operatively disposed. .4 will be seen that the trough member 10 is of substantially conical shape so that it is of dished conical form and has the discharge outlet 12 centrally therein at the lowermost apex portion 14. The trough member has delivery tube means 15 connected to the discharge outlet 12 for conveying received rainwater away from the apparatus for passage to storage or distribution means, the delivery tube means 15 in this instance being a simple flexible hose 16 leading directly from the discharge outlet 12 to a simple container (not shown) therebeneath by way of example. It is preferred that a filter 17 be provided at the discharge outlet 12 at the top of the hose connection in order to exclude dust in particular.

There is provided any suitable form of mounting frame means 18 adapted to support the trough member 10 in a rainreceiving location, such as on a stand-alone steel post 19 in this instance, and the connection between the post 19 and trough member 10 is made by tilt means 22 which in this case includes a bracket 20 of elongated form having its outer or distal end 21 secured by fasteners 22 radially along the lowermost part 13 of the trough member 10 while its inner or proximal end 23 has an affixing arm 24 rigid therewith and at an angle to extend down the post 19 when the trough member is in raised operative disposition as shown in Fig. 1. The affixing arm 24 has upper and lower apertures 25 and 26 registering with apertures 27 and 28 in the post 19, the lower apertures 26 and 28 being SWO 94/25691 PCT/AU94100224 7 interconnected by a pivot bolt 29, while the upper apertures 25 and 27 may be engaged by a releasable pin as shown in Fig. 1 when the apparatus is operative. Fig.

2 shows how release of the pin 30 enables the bracket and trough 10 thereon to be swung down in the direction arrow 32 about the pivot bolt 29 to inoper ve disposition, there being provided a standard form of catch member 31 whereby the latter disposition may be maintained.

It will thus be apparent that the invention is so designed that the tilt means 22 will enable the trough member 10 to be moved between the operative disposition in which rainwater is received and then delivered via the discharge outlet 12 and delivery tube means 15, and an inoperative disposition which can be one of such semiinverted or inclined nature that the dished trough surface 11 will not support liquid or solid materials. In other embodiments as later described, the trough member could conveniently be fully inverted, all such dispositions falling within the broad idea of the invention.

Turning next to the embodiment of Figs. 4 and similar components to those of Figs. 1 to 3 are given the same numerals but suffixed by the letter The position of the trough member 10ga is indicated in dotted outline and it can be moved in the direction of arrow 33 to the lowered position also outlined. The positions of further trough members are indicated at 10a' and 10'' if it is desired to provide three or four at right angles to each other from a common mounting frame means 18,. In this case, the tilt means 22A includes an elongate tubular member 20A having its outer or distal end 21l shaped to cradle-like shape to support the trough member 10A, the upper rim of which is above the proximal end 23a so that collected water will pass via discharge outlet 12a, into the interior of the tubular member 20, and flow to the proximal extrem.ty marked 34, the latter being sealed so that water can only flow into a bearing tube 35 passing sealably therethrough as shown in Fig. 5 and rigidly mounted relative to the WO 94/25691 PCT/AU94/00224 8 mounting frame means 18q. One end of the bearing tube has a delivery tube 16_ thereon, there being shown in Fig.

spaced mounting brackets 36 between which the tubular arm is pivotable to move the trough member 10a between the positions illustrated, suitable locking pin means enabling the desired attitude to be maintained. Fig. shows the openings 37 in the bearing tube 35 to permit water in the closed end 34 of the tubular arm 20_ to enter the tube and pass to the hose or tube 16q.

In the embodiment of Figs. 6 to 8, instead of the trough member 10h tilting down to lie near to vertically against the mounting post, it is arranged to tilt to an attitude again near to vertical but substantially coplanar with the post, being tiltable about a horizontal axis extending from the post means 19b (shown in dotted outline) through the centre line of the conical trough member The tubular support arm 20b is similar to the arm 20a of Fig. 4 except that it is conveniently of circular crosssection so that its proximal portion 23) can be passed rotatably through a bearing assembly 38 mounted rigidly on the post means 19k. The proximal portion 232 is in fact continued to provide an identical support 20b' for another trough member shown at 10b' movable in unison with the trough member 10h on the same mounting and both delivering through registering holes 39 and 40 when the operative disposition is attained, the delivery hose 16h being illustrated.

Also shown in Fig. 6 is a typical remote control means 41 whereby the tube 20h may be rotated in one direction or the other about its longitudinal axis by pulling in either of the respective directions indicated by the arrows 42 and 43 on the cable means 44 via a pair of pulleys 45 and four yoke arms 46 secured to the tube 20k about which the cable means passes, the cable being secured to one yoke arm only so that the arms operate in the manner of pulleys about the horizontal axis.

Figs. 9 and 9a show design variations in the I_ WO 94/25691 PCT/AU94/00224 9 embodiment of Fig. 6 to enable a plurality of mounting tubes 20b to be mounted horizontally in parallelism, each having a crank arm 50 and connected to a common continuous cable 51, one end of which is connected to a tension spring 52 while the other end is wound on a pulley 53 adapted to be rotated by an electric motor 54 through a gearbox Also shown is a typical bearing assembly 56 through which the mounting tube 20b passes rotatably with apertures to deliver water via hose 161, the casing 57 of the bearing assembly 56 having stop pins 58 to be engaged by stop lugs 59 on the tube 20b to limit rotation against the action of the spring 52, the latter reversing rotation when the motor is rendered inoperative.

In the final embodiment shown in Figs. 10, lla, llb and llc, trough members 10c are of elongated rectangular form and identical construction, being arranged against one another in parallelism to receive water in the trough between dished surfaces liq and end plates 60, the latter having lowermost pivot fittings 61 which also constitute discharge outlets to carry water to delivery tube means in the form of tubular mounting bars 64 having delivery hoses 16_. Rotation of the trough members 10o in unison is achieved by a cable 62 shown in the diagrammatic illustration of Fig. lbl to engage over pulleys 63 to invert the members 10o to the dispositions shown in Fig.

lic. This embodiment of the invention v;1 be useful for areas normally requiring only a shade structure, but in this case convertible to a rain-collecting structure when so desired by inverting the inoperative overhead slat-type members.

It will of course be understood that the embodiments herein are illustrative only and may be subject to many further variations of constructional detail and design, as well as using any form of power means for actuation of a plurality of collectors in unison, such as solar power, and the use of electronic controls for actuation in response to rain sensing. Most importantly, high grade NYLON or other WO 94/25691 PCT/AU94/00224 materials may be used in the trough members so as to have no chemical reaction with the water, and high quality hose fittings can be selected to suit. The invention is to be understood to embrace all variations within its broad scope and ambit as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. Apparatus for use in collecting potable rainwater including: an open mouthed trough member, a discharge outlet in said trough member in that part thereof which is lowermost or near lowermost when the trough member is operatively disposed; a delivery tube connected to said discharge outlet for conveying received rainwater for passage to storage or distribution means; a mounting frame whereby said trough member may be mounted in a rain-receiving location, said truugh member being operatively connected to said mounting frame for movement from an operative collecting disposition in which said trough member opens upwardly such that rain may be collected through S: said open mouth for delivery via said discharge outlet to an inoperative non-collecting disposition in which said open mouth faces downwardly or sidewardly and is freely open to atmosphere such that liquid or solid oo ~materials cannot be supported therein.

2. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said trough member is of substantially conical shape so that in operation it is of dished conical form and has its discharge outlet at the lowermost apex portion thereof.

3. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to either of the preceding claims, wherein said delivery tube comprises a flexible hose leading directly from said discharge outlet to storage or distribution means.

4. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to either of Claims 1 or 2, wherein said trough member is connected to said mounting frame by an elongate bracket having its outer or distal end connected to that part of the trough member which is the underneath part when operatively disposed, the other or proximal end of the bracket being pivotally connected about a horizontal tilt axis to a mounting post or other mounting surface constituting said mounting frame.

Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 4, whereby releasable locking means is provided for securing said proximal end of said bracket to said mounting frame in at least the operative disposition of said trough member.

6. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to either of Claims 4 or 5, wherein said elongate bracket is tubular to constitute a first part of said delivery tube, its distal end being connected to said discharge outlet while its proximal end is connected sealably with a flexible tube constituting a second, downstream part of said delivery tube.

7. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 6, wherein the proximal end of said elongate bracket is sealably pivotable about a bearing tube on the mounting frame means, said bearing tube having openings to receive water from the proximal end of the bracket and having a remote outlet end connected sealably with said tube constituting said second, downstream part of said delivery tube. :0

8. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to either of Claims 1 or 2, wherein said trough member is connected to said mounting frame by an elongate support member having its outer or distal end connected to that part of the trough member which is the underneath part when .operatively disposed, the other or proximal end of the support member being journalled in a horizontal bearing on said mounting frame, rotation of said support member in said bearing acting to pivot the trough member towards the inoperative non-collecting disposition.

9. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 8, wherein said elongate support member is tubular to constitute a first part of said delivery tube, its distal end being connected to said discharge outlet while its proximal end is connected sealably with a tube constituting ~I 13 a second, downstream part of said delivery tube.

Rainwater collecting apparatus according to either of Claims 8 or 9, wherein the elongate support member is one of a plurality of parallel horizontal support members, the said trough member being one of a plurality of trough members corresponding to the support members, the apparatus further including crank means whereby all support members may be rotated in unison to move the trough members from operative to inoperative dispositions and vice versa.

11. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said trough memh. r is of substantially rectangular dish-like form having opposed water-retaining rims or surfaces and connected to said mounting frame by mounting means allowing pivotiag of the trough member about a horizontal rivot axis between the operative collecting 0,00 disposition and a substantially inverted inoperative non- i' collecting disposition. 1

12. Rainwater collecting apparatus according to Claim 11, wherein said trough member is one of a plurality of parallel horizontal trough members each tiltable about a respective horizontal pivot axis mounting means, and including means whereby said trough members may be pivoted in unison from operative to inoperative dispositions and e* vice versa, the trough members being adjacent one another to provide a continuous collection area and/or shade area n "when fully operative or fully inoperative.