EP0274588A2

EP0274588A2 - Modular-structure equipment for the automatic and integral cleaning of the toilet bowl, for use both in public and private toilets

Info

Publication number: EP0274588A2
Application number: EP87116195A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ennio Ghellini Sargenti
Original assignee: Pt Matic SpA
Current assignee: Pt Matic SpA
Priority date: 1986-12-17
Filing date: 1987-11-04
Publication date: 1988-07-20
Also published as: IT8622728A0; IT1199799B; EP0274588A3

Abstract

Equipment for the automatic and integral cleaning of the toilet seat and of the toilet bowl of toilets and bathrooms in general, comprising a box-shaped body (1) of containment and support, interposed between the rear of the bowl (3) and the wall of the room, inside which a treatment chamber or tank (5) is provided for the washing, disinfection and drying of the bowl seat (4), said tank being equipped, on its front side, with a shutter suitable to be sequentially opened both with the lifting of the seat destined to be positioned inside the treatment tank after the use of the bowl, and with the lowering thereof on the bowl at the end of the treatment, inside said treatment tank distributor means for the washing water and the disinfection liquid, hot air distributor means to dry said seat, and limit switches suitable to make it possible the cleaning cycle to be performed, being provided.

Description

The object of the present invention is a modular-structure equipment for the automatic and integral cleaning of the toilet bowl of both public and private toilets and bathrooms, whether already existing, or newly built.
It is known that for long time the problem has already been faced of the automatic cleaning and disinfection of the bowl and of the inner walls of the public toilets, both individual, and installed in the buildings destined to communities, and the like.
In general, the systems proposed and used up to now have shown to be nearly always very complex, affected by large overall dimensions and poorly reliable over time; furthermore, due to their particular, not much protected structure, they result prone to be variously damaged and to acts of vandalism. A manufacture was proposed recently, which integrally replaces the room used as public toilet, and which is constituted by a true room, inside which an automatic equipment for the self-washing is provided, which carries out the disinfection and drying of the toilet bowl, and the automatic washing and disinfection of the walls and of the floor of the same room. This type of manufacture constitutes, and replaces integrally, the traditional public toilet room, installed in towns. Whilst its particular aesthetical shape, and its size, finds, on one hand, a proper positioning within the ambit of the urban fittings, on the other hand, it results complex and expensive; in fact, it requires, to be installed, the prearrangement of a suitable base and, above all, it incorporates a self-cleaning and bowl disinfection device, which cannot be fitted to the traditional bowls. Furthermore, said self-cleaning and disinfection device is constituted by several revolving parts, swingingly mounted above the bowl, and is affected by the disadvantage that the usual seat installed on all traditional bowls has to be eliminated.
Therefore, it is a purpose of the present invention, to provide a modular-structure equipment, which can be applied behind a bowl of a toilet room or of a bathroom, and so structured, as to carry out the automatic and integral washing, disinfection and drying of the usual seat, which can be lifted from the same bowl, after each usage thereof, as well as the automatic washing of the interior of the bowl.
Another purpose of the invention is to provide an equipment for the automatic washing of the seat and of the bowl, capable of resulting highly reliable, of showing a safe and long-lasting operation, and such be suitable for use in both public and private, already existing, or newly-built toilets.
Not least purpose of the invention is to provide an automatic self-cleaning equipment of the above specified type, having such a structure as to result completely autonomous, easily transportable to the installation place, and easily assemblable on the spot. These and still further purposes, which can be better evidenced by the following disclosure, are achieved by a modular-structure equipment for the automatic and integral cleaning of the toilet seat and of the toilet bowl, of toilets and bathrooms in general, which equipment comprises, according to the present invention, a box-shaped body of containment and support, interposed between the rear of the bowl and the wall of the room, inside which a treatment chamber or tank is provided for the washing, disinfection and drying of the bowl seat, said tank being equipped, on its front side, with a so-mounted shutter as to be suitable to be sequentially opened both with the lifting of the seat destined to be positioned inside the treatment tank after the usage of the bowl, and with the lowering of said shutter on the bowl when said treatment is finished, inside said treatment tank distributor means for washing water and disinfection liquid, hot air distributor means to dry the same seat, sensor means, and limit switches suitable to make it possible the coordinated sequence of the movements of the seat with the movements of the shutter of the treatment chamber to be performed, being provided.
More precisely, in the equipment according to the present invention, the support box-shaped body is frontally provided with shutters which can be opened, for the purpose of inspecting and/or servicing the electrical and mechanical apparatuses prearranged to carry out the operative cycle of the equipment, whose beginning is commanded by optical and/or electromechanical control means, which detect the user going out from the toilet room, after the use thereof, and stop the same cycle after a pre-fixed time.
The present invention is hereinunder disclosed in greater detail, according to a preferred form of practical embodiment thereof, by referring to the hereto attached drawing table, supplied for illustrative only, and not limitative, purposes, wherein the only one figure shows a perspective and partially sectional view of an equipment for the automatic cleaning of toilet bowls, accomplished according to the invention.
Referring to said only one figure, the equipment is constituted by a support, box-shaped body 1, substantially a cabinet having a parallelepipedal shape made from metal structural work, or the like, frontally provided with side doors with openable wings 1a-1b, with a central door 1c located on its front bottom portion and, at the top, with a lid 1d with safety locks, door-like liftable, and destined to protect the upper chamber, containing the electrical control apparatuses 2. The parallelepipedal cabinet 1 is interposed between the rear of an usual toilet bowl 3, provided with the relevant liftable seat 4, and the wall of the toilet room. Behind the toilet bowl 3, inside the front surface 1e of the cabinet 1 a substantially quadrangular and vertically positioned tank 5 is provided; the dimensions of said tank are such as to house the seat 4 when this latter is lifted to its vertical position and, on the revolution axis of the said seat, outside the tank 5 an electrical motor 5 is provided, which is suitable to drive the revolutionary movements of lifting and lowering of said seat, and at least a limit switch 7 is provided inside the tank, able to detect the stopping of the seat inside the tank, and to allow the beginning of the subsequent washing steps, as it is better clarified hereinunder.
The treatment tank 5 is provided with a vertical sliding, tightly sealing shutter 8, which is guided inside the opposite vertical edges of the tank 5, and is driven, with a reciprocating up and down movement, by two racks 9-9a integral with the shutter, and inmeshing with two pinion gears 10-10a, mounted on a single shaft driven by an electrical motor 11 of its own. Limit switches 12 are also provided, to stop the shutter 8 in its open and closed positions.
The same treatment tank is provided, at its bottom, with a small tank to collect the washing water, with said collected water being drained through the drain 3a of the toilet bowl.
Inside the tank 5, a divider wall 13 is placed, which bounds a rear chamber, wherein the washing water coming from the water distribution system, and the disinfecting liquid - coming from a suitable reservoir 14 - arrives, and on which a plurality of nozzles 13a are provided, to allow water to flow into the front chamber when the seat is housed inside the treatment tank. On the same divider wall 13, bores or nozzles are also provided, to allow the passage of hot air coming, through the pipe 16, from an axial-intake, axial-delivery hot-air generator 15, constituted by a fan 16a directly assembled on the revolving shaft of the electrical motor which drives it; to make it possible an air stream to be produced, which is hot enough to dry the seat inside the tank 5 at the end of each washing cycle, the fan driving motor is suitably overfed, so to supply heat to air lapping it.
The programmed feed of washing water, and of the disinfecting liquid to the interior of the treatment tank takes place through a feed pipe 17, which is equipped with a manual on-off valve, a non-return valve and electrovalves for the washing of the toilet seat inside the tank 5, and of the interior of the same toilet bowl 3. The distribution of water takes place through the ducts 17a-17b-17c, and the drawing of the disinfectant is directly carried out from the overhanging reservoir 14, by means of a pump 18. With the water supply duct, also a pressure switch, a pressure gauge and a pressure reducer (not shown in the figure) are associated.
Still according to the invention, inside the support body 1, provided is a tank 19 for the bowl washing water, to be used in emergency cases, i.e., in case of fault of a whatever component of the equipment, or in case of failure of supply of the electrical power necessary to perform the cycle. The emergency tank 19, provided with float ball, is connected with the water distribution system, and is automatically filled after each drain.
The electrical board 2, provided to program the various seat washing, disinfection and drying steps, can be accomplished, according to the invention, either in the electromechanical type, or in the microprocessor-governed type; in both cases, the washing and drying cycle is enslaved to the presence of the user inside the toilet room, by means of either optical or electromechanical means. For such purpose, inside the toilet room, a photoelectric cell or another beam detector (radar) can be installed, which, when the beam is not intercepted by the presence of the user, locks the toilet room door (as it is better clarified hereunder) and gives the enabling command to begin the cycle. Instead of being enslaved to optical control means, the cycle can be enslaved to the shifts of a footboard, or grid, swinging downwards (loaded footboard), or upwards (unloaded footboard). In any case, the cycle starts after that the user went out of the toilet room, and the door was automatically shut; at this time, the electrical control system stably locks the door, and commands the starting of the washing cycle.
For that purpose, the room door si equipped with a shutting pump and, after the shutting, a safety lock device is enabled, which prevents the toilet from being used throughout the cleaning cycle. Outside the toilet room door, furthermore a customary signalling of "vacant" and "occupied", together with that of "off service" is provided.
The equipment is also provided with a pushbutton panel 20, with manual-control pushbuttons, one of which makes it possible to disable the automatic cycle of the seat washing cycle, and to cause water contained inside the emergency tank 19 to drain, whilst the other one is destined to discontinue all of the functions of the equipment, in emergency case, for any reasons, with the simultaneous activation of a sound signal, which sounds until the toilet door is opened.
The electrical board 2 which controls the cleaning cycle is furthermore equipped with means to immediately discontinue the same cycle in case, e.g., of absence of disinfecting liquid inside its reservoir, of not perfectly shut and locked door and, above all, in case of failure of water supply.
The operation and usage of the above disclosed equipment begins, as said, after the user going out of the toilet room, and after the toilet door shutting. In fact, when the toilet door is shut, the equipment gives the enabling command to start up of the washing cycle, whose steps sequence can be summarized as follows:
- the motor 11 starts running, causing the shutter 8 to move upwards, by being so driven by the racks 9-9a, thus liberating the external face - on sight - of the treatment tank 5;
- then, the motor 6 starts running, which causes the toilet seat 4 to revolve, said toilet seat 4 getting vertically positioned inside the tank 5. The vertically-positioned seat, coming into contact with the limit switch 7, gives the enabling command for the lowering of the shutter 8;
- when the shutter is closed, the shutter 8, by coming into contact with the limit switches 12, gives the water feed electrovalve 17 enabling command, thus making pressurized water and disinfectant liquid enter the treatment tank, inside which the seat 4 is tightly enclosed.
The duration of the step of washing of the seat with water and disinfecting liquid, and of the direct drain of water into the bowl is controlled by a timer which, when time is over, discontinues the delivery of water to the treatment tank, and gives the command enabling the start-up of the electrofan 16, thus causing, still for a predetermined time, the seat drying. The timer controlling the drying time gives the enabling command, when the time is over, to start-up the motor 11, which, thus, lifts the shutter 8.
The shutter, at its upper stroke limit, gives the enabling command for the motor 6 to move the seat into its usage position and said seat, on reaching said position, gives the enabling command for the shutter 8 to move downwards again. When the shutter 8 has reached its closure stroke limit, a feeler gives the room door locking system the enabling command to unlock and release the same door, thus making it possible the toilet room to be subsequently used.
When the toilet room is occupied, with the swinging footboard being loaded by the user's weight, o due to the interruption of a sensor beam, outside the toilet door the signalling of user presence (occupied) is switched on, and a water film continuously washes the interior surfaces of the toilet bowl, preventing any stickings.
When the user leaves the toilet room, the door gets shut, and is locked, such to prevent any uses of the toilet room throughout the cleaning cycle.
Obviously, when the invention, as above disclosed for indicative purposes, is practiced, to it structurally and functionally equivalent changes and variants can be supplied, without going out of the purview of protection of the same invention.
Thus, for example, the cleaning equipment can be provided with a support cabinet having, instead of a parallelpipedal shape, a suitable shape to match, in the rear, the profile of the toilet room wall; furthermore, two equal pieces of equipment can be installed in closely approached positions, opposite to each other, so to generate two distinct automatic-washing toilet rooms, elimitating, or reducing the dimensions of, the partition wall between the adjacent rooms, with the advantage that in this case a large number of components of the same pieces of equipment can be eliminated, in that some of them can be either simultaneously or alternatively used to perform the washing cycle of two distinct toilet bowls.
Finally, the modular character of the support structure, and of the internal functional units thereof can be exploited to achieve solutions which are compatible with different types and sizes of rooms.

Claims

1. Modular-structure equipment for the automatic and integral cleaning of the toilet seat and of the toilet bowl of toilets and bathrooms in general, characterized in that it comprises, according to the present invention, a box-shaped body of containment and support, interposed between the rear of the bowl and the wall of the room, inside which a treatment chamber or tank is provided for the washing, disinfection and drying of the bowl seat, said tank being equipped, on its front side, with a so mounted shutter as to be suitable to be sequentially opened both with the lifting of the seat destined to be positioned inside the treatment tank after the usage of the bowl, and with the lowering of said shutter on the bowl when said treatment is finished, inside said treatment tank distributor means dispensing washing water and disinfection liquid; distributor means delivering hot air for drying the same seat; and feeler means and limit switches suitable to make it possible the coordinated sequence of the movements of the seat with the movements of the shutter of the treatment chamber - and the related cleaning cycle - to be performed; being provided.

2. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that said toilet seat treatment tank is vertically positioned, and is equipped, at its bottom, with a small tank to collect the washing water, with drain into the toilet bowl drain tube.

3. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that said shutter for the tight sealing of the treatment tank is so mounted, as to be able to vertically run, and is driven by racks, or the like, inmeshing with pinion gears driven by an electrical motor of their own.

4. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with feeler means, and/or limit switches enslaved to the positions reached by the toilet seat both inside the treatment chamber, and in its normal position on the bowl, as well as with further feeler means, and limit switches, enslaved to the extreme positions of the shutter of the treatment chamber, able to make it possible the seat washing, disinfecting and drying cycle to be performed in a coordinated sequence.

5. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with a reservoir for the disinfecting liquid, with a suction pump and a duct to dispense, during a predetermined time, the disinfectant liquid into the treatment tank.

6. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with a hot-air generator constituted by a motor-driven fan, with air intake-air delivery coaxial with the same motor, so to allow, by means of a motor overfeeding and consequent overheating, the intaken air to get hot, absorbing the heat generated by the motor.

7. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided, inside the toilet room, with optical and/or electromechanical control means, such as a photoelectric cell, a radar beam, a swinging footboard engageable by the user's weight, and the like, able to detect the user going out of the room, and to start up the washing cycle.

8. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides for the toilet room access door to be equipped with the customary signallings of "vacant-occupied" and "off service", as well as with a safety lock enslaved to said optical and/or electromechanical control means, in order to allow the washing cycle to be started up under safety conditions, and in the absence of any users.

9. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with at least a washing water tank, suitable to discharge its water content into the bowl, in case of emergency, or in case of malfunctioning of the automatic washing cycle; said discharge being commanded by a pushbutton.

10. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with an emergency pushbutton, able to disable the automatic washing cycle, and to enable an alarm sound signal.