AU713516B2 - Fold-up hinge - Google Patents

Description

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S F Ref: 368223

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name and Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: Caroma Industries Limited Market Street Brisbane Queensland 4000

AUSTRALIA

Donald Terry Hall Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorneys Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Fold-Up Hinge Invention Title: ASSOCIATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION DETAILS [31] Application No(s) [33] Country P00174 AU [32] Application Date 31 May 1996 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- 5815

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A FOLD-UP HINGE The present invention relates generally to toilet seat assemblies and, in particular, to a fold-up hinge suitable for use with a toilet seat assembly.

Toilet seat assemblies take the form of the toilet seat itself, a lid, and a hinge mechanism which permits the lid and seat to pivot relative to the hinge. The hinge normally includes some sort of mounting arrangement which enables the assembly to be mounted on the lavatory pan.

The lid, seat and the various components of the hinge are normally each separately manufactured and must be assembled prior to the seat assembly being packaged prior to sale. Generally the assembly of the hinge components is timeconsuming and does not lend itself to any mechanisation. As a consequence, there is generally a high labour content involved in this part of the overall production costs.

Since the lid and/or seat in use may be subjected to considerable twisting torques, it is desirable for the hinge to take the part of a journal or longitudinally slit hollow cylinder the two parts of which come together to capture stub axles, one on the lid and one on the seat. This arrangement is repeated for each of the hinges.

It would therefore be desirable if all of the parts of the hinge could be held together in a known relationship prior to assembly of the hinge (thereby substantially reducing the number of parts and the time required to collect them together) and if the parts themselves once collected together lent themselves to a simple mechanical assembly procedure which could therefore be automated.

It is object of the present invention to provide a hinge assembly with a view to going at least partially along the way of satisfying the above-mentioned desirable criteria.

In accordance with the present invention there is disclosed a hinge assembly comprising a base having a first journal part, a middle member having a second journal part, and a cap; said middle member and cap being pivotally connected to said base and being integrally formed therewith, said middle member being pivotal over said base to bring said two journal parts into operative opposition, and said cap being pivotal over said pivoted middle member and base to cover same without covering said operative journal.

Preferably each of the base and middle member includes a fastener receiving aperture, said apertures being aligned when said middle member is pivoted over said base, and said pivoted cap being spaced from said pivoted middle member by a distance sufficient to receive the head of the fastener, whereby said pivoted cap obscures said fastener head from view.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a toilet seat assembly with its lid raised, [N:\libd]OO1 21:ayl Fig. 2 is a plan view of the assembly of Fig. 2 but with the lid lowered so as to clearly show the two hinge assemblies, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the hinge assemblies of Figs. 1 and 2, Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the hinge assembly of Fig. 3, Fig. 5 is an inverted plan view of the hinge assembly of Fig. 3, Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the hinge assembly prior to installation, and Fig. 7 illustrates in exploded perspective form the schematic arrangement of the final step of installation of the hinge assembly on the pan; the seat, lid and pan being omitted for clarity.

As seen in Fig. 1, the toilet seat assembly 1 takes the form of a seat 2 having a lid 3 and two hinge assemblies 4. As best seen in Fig. 2, the hinge assemblies 4 preferably continue the lines of the seat 2 in an aesthetically pleasing contour.

In the folded condition of the hinge assembly 4 illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and it will be seen that the hinge assembly 4 takes the form of a cap 6 and a split journal 7 having an upper part 8, a lower part 9 and a cylindrical cavity 10 which receives from opposite ends a stub axle (not illustrated) from each of the seat 2 and lid 3 respectively.

As best seen in Fig. 6, the hinge assembly 4 is formed from three parts in the *form of a base 12, a middle member 13 and the cap 6. Each of the middle member 13 and the cap 6 are hingedly pivoted from the base 12 by means of integrally moulded 20 hinges 15, 16, which permit the three parts, base 12, middle member 13 and cap 6, to be moulded in a generally co-planer configuration so that the two halves of the mould can be easily moved away relative to each other at the conclusion of the moulding process.

The base 12 and middle member 13 respectively include first and second apertures 18, 19 and the upper journal part 8 carries a resilient tongue 21 which is able to snap engage with a recess 22 formed in the lower journal part 9. Alignment posts 26 on the base 12 are arranged to mate with corresponding holes 20 in the middle member 13. Similarly, the cap 6 includes a wedge 23 which is able to snap engage with a lip 24 carried on the middle member 13. The cap 6 also includes a bight 25 which is shaped to complement the upper journal part 8.

In order to secure all the members of the toilet seat assembly 1 together, two of the hinge assemblies are positioned on a flat surface in their intended final relationship on a toilet pan, but with the hinge assembly in the open configuration generally as illustrated in Fig. 6. Then the seat 2 and lid 3 are placed in position so that their stub axles are received in the cavities 10. With the parts in this configuration, each middle member 13 is pivoted about its hinge 15 so as to engage the tongue 21 and recess 22 and thereby form the journal 7 about the captured stub axles. The completion of this action maintains the seat 2, lid 3 and hinge assemblies 4 in their final relative positions.

Then, as indicated in Fig. 7, the cap 6 can be pivoted about the hinge 16 so as to inter- [N:\libdJO0121:ayl engage the wedge 23 and lip 24 and place the cap 6 in the closed position illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. In this configuration, as illustrated in Fig. 2, the toilet seat assembly is able to be packaged and sold.

Immediately prior to installation of the toilet seat assembly the cap 6 is distorted, for example by means of a screwdriver, so as to disengage the wedge 23 and lip 24 thereby allowing the cap 6 to be pivoted open and reveal the aligned first and second apertures 18, 19. In this configuration the shank 28 of a conventional lavatory fastener 27 having a butterfly nut 29 can be passed through the apertures 18, 19 so as to bring the head 30 into engagement with the apertures 18, 19. Thereafter the butterfly nut 29 is engaged with the shank 28 in conventional manner so as to secure the toilet seat assembly to the pan (not illustrated).

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foregoing arrangement has a number of advantages. Firstly, all the components of the hinge are able to be moulded together in a single moulding operation for which only a relatively simple is mould movement is required since all items can be moulded in a generally co-planer arrangement. Secondly, all the pieces of the hinge assembly are immediately on hand at a given time and so stock control problems are substantially reduced. There is also no time lost, for example, in dropping, retrieving or attempting to pick up small fasteners such as screws which have hitherto been used. Further, the entire 20 arrangement lends itself to automatic pick and place machinery which can carry out the processes required to create the toilet seat assembly 1.

The foregoing describes only one embodiment 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.

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Claims (10)

1. A hinge assembly comprising a base having a first journal part, a middle member having a second journal part and a cap; said middle member and cap being pivotally connected to said base and being integrally formed therewith, said middle member being pivotal over said base to bring said two journal parts into operative opposition, and said cap being pivotal over said pivoted middle member and base to cover same without covering said operative journal.

2. A hinge assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the base and middle member includes a fastener receiving aperture, said apertures being aligned when said middle member is pivoted over said base, and said pivoted cap being spaced from said pivoted middle member by a distance sufficient to receive the head of the fastener, whereby said pivoted cap obscures said fastener head from view.

3. A hinge assembly as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the first journal part includes a recess and the second journal part includes a resilient tonque 15 adapted to snap engage with the recess.

4. A hinge assembly as claimed in claim 3, wherein said recess is adjacent said first journal part and said tonque is adjacent said second journal part.

A hinge assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the middle member includes at least one alignment hole and the base includes at least one alignment post adapted to mate with the alignment hole(s).

6. A hinge assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the base includes a lip and the cap includes a wedge adapted to snap engage with the lip.

7. A hinge assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the cap includes a bite which is shaped complimentary to the second journal.

8. A hinge assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the middle member and the cap are each pivotally connected to the base by integrally o moulded hinges.

9. A hinge assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

10. A toilet seat and lid assembly, said assembly comprising a toilet seat and a toilet lid adapted to pivot about a pair of stub shafts, wherein said stub shafts are each received within the operative journal of a hinge assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9. DATED this Eighteenth Day of April 1997 Caroma Industries Limited Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON [N:\libdJO0121:ayl