EP0692049A1

EP0692049A1 - Double-acting lavatory flushing valve arrangement

Info

Publication number: EP0692049A1
Application number: EP95903092A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bengt Eriksson; Egert Haglund; Paul Lindh
Original assignee: TOOFAN Ltd
Current assignee: TOOFAN Ltd
Priority date: 1993-12-03
Filing date: 1994-12-02
Publication date: 1996-01-17
Also published as: SE501336C2; AU1207895A; SE9304020D0; WO1995015422A1; SE9304020L

Abstract

The invention relates to a double-acting flushing valve arrangement, making alternative flushing possible after lavatory visits. With the invention, you may either flush part of the contents of the water tank or empty the whole water tank. The invention comprises an upper valve for flushing a small amount of water and a lower valve for flushing a large amount of water, said valves being arranged in a flushing valve housing located inside the water tank. The valve housing (1) consists of a hollow body having an upper orifice (13a) directed downwards for the upper valve (2a) and a lower opening (13b) directed upwards for the lower valve (2b). When the upper valve (2a) is open, the water flows up through the upper orifice (13a), through a duct (14) in the valve housing (1) and out to the discharge opening. When the lower valve (2b) is open, the water flows down through the lower orifice (13b) and out to the discharge opening. The valve housing is reversible to provide two openings having threads (12) of different diameters for connection to the water tank.

Description

Pou.b_e-agt.ng lavatory flushing valve arrangement

Technical area

The present invention relates to a double-acting lavatory flushing valve arrangement . The invention provides the possibility of alternative flushing after using the lavatory. With the invention, either a part of the water volume in the flushing tank, or substantially the whole volume of said tank, may be used for flushing. Flushing valves of this type allow for a very substantial water saving while in spite of this providing an efficient and powerful flushing.

State of the art

After most lavatory visits it is not- necessary to flush with the whole content of the flushing tank, not quite half of it is more than adequate. Most people visit the lavatory about five times a day. During at least three of these visits, only part of the tank content is needed for flushing. If for example it is possible during these three visits to flush with only 2 1 instead of 6 1, this implies a large saving. This is of course an advantage if water supply is limited, but also eases the burden on the sewage treatment works which today handle the polluted water.

Double-acting flushing valves for lavatories are known as such. For example, DE 2619585 describes a valve device having an upper and a lower valve for economy and complete flushing respectively. This design shows, however, several problems. The design is complicated due to many different parts to be manufactured and assembled. In order to open the lower valve, practically the whole valve housing with both valves must be lifted, which might be cumbersome. The design demands one separate control for each valve.

The present invention solves the above problems by pro¬ viding a flushing valve housing through which water may flow in from the side and up through an upper valve or down through a lower valve. Thereby, a simple design having few parts is achieved. The valve housing is also reversible so as to be adaptable to different sizes of water tank discharge openings. The two valves can be operated by one single control.

Summary of the invention

The present invention thus provides a double-acting flushing valve arrangement comprising an upper valve for flushing a small amount of water and a lower valve for flushing of a large amount of water, said valves being arranged in a flushing valve housing which in turn is located in a lavatory water tank.

According to the invention, the flushing valve housing consists of a hollow body having an upper orifice directed downwards for the upper valve and a lower opening directed upwards for the lower valve . When the upper valve is open, the water may in this way flow up through the upper orifice, through at least one passage in the flushing valve housing and out through the discharge opening. When the lower valve is open, the water may flow down through the lower orifice and out through the discharge opening.

Preferably, the upper valve comprises a valve poppet which is to be pushed down to open the upper valve, and the lower valve comprises a valve poppet which is to be pulled up to open the lower valve, said poppets being operable by the same control means.

The invention will be defined in further detail by the enclosed claims.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the flushing valve arrangement according to the present invention with both valves in their closed positions. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, with the upper valve in an open position.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, with the lower valve in an open position, Fig. 4 is a side view showing the internal parts of the arrangement,

Fig. 5A is a side view of a valve housing according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5B is a cross sectional view of the valve housing, seen from above, along the line 5B-5B in Fig. 5A.

Fig. 5C is a cross sectional view of the valve housing along the line 5C-5C in Fig. 5B,

Fig. 5D is a cross sectional view of the valve housing along the line 5D-5D in Fig. 5A, Fig. 6 is a side view of the valve poppets and their control means,

Fig. 7 is an exploded side view of the upper valve pop¬ pet with its control means,

Fig. 8 is an exploded side view of the lower valve pop- pet with its control means,

Fig. 9 is a side view of the second embodiment of the flushing valve arrangement, and

Fig. 10 is a side view of the flushing valve housing according to the second embodiment .

Detailed description of the embodiments of the invention

Fig. 1 shows the flushing valve arrangement according to the invention assembled inside a lavatory flushing tank. In short, the arrangement functions as follows. If the knob is pushed, the upper valve is opened and a small amount of water is flushed, see Fig. 2. If the knob is pulled, however, the lower valve is opened and most of the water volume is flushed away, see Fig. 3.

A first embodiment of the invention is described in further detail with reference to Figs. 4-8. The arrangement comprises primarily a flushing valve housing 1 shown in Fig. 5A-D. In the first embodiment, the flushing valve housing 1 consists of a hollow body having the shape of an approximately square ring. The housing 1 has openings at both ends, equipped with threads 12. The threads have different diameters to fit different diameters of the tank discharge opening. The valve housing 1 is reversible, making it possible to select one of two different diameters. Furthermore, adapters (not shown) may be attached to the threads 12 to provide still more diameters.

As is most clearly seen in Figs. 5C and 5D, the valve housing has an upper orifice 13a arranged at the inside of the ring, at its upper inside, and a corresponding lower opening 13b. At the sides, ducts 14 are arranged, through which the water may flow from the upper orifice 13a or from an opening 15, formed by the uppermost opening of the valve housing corresponding to the discharge opening at the other end. The orifices 13a and 13b each have flanges lβa and 16b, which may be exchangeable, to form seats for valve poppets closing the openings.

Fig. 6 shows the valve poppets 2a and 2b together with the control means .

The upper valve poppet is shown in Fig. 7. It consists of a tubular or cup-shaped part 2a, a gasket 3a and a guide 4a. A pipe 5 is connected by threads to the guide 4a. The pipe 5 is actuated by a control knob 9, by the knob 9 pushing on the pipe 5 to depress the valve poppet 2a and thereby opening the orifice 13a.

Fig. 8 shows the lower valve. It consists of a bottom plug 8, a guide 4b a gasket 3b and a tubular or cup-shaped part 2b. Except for the bottom plug, the lower valve poppet 2b is identical to the upper valve poppet 2a in order to reduce the number of parts for manufacture. The lower valve is operated by a rod or pipe 6, connected by threads to the knob 9. The pipe 6 runs telescopically inside the pipe 5, as can be seen from Fig. 6. The pipe 6 and the valve poppet 2b are joined by a cotter pin 7 located in a hole 7a drilled transversally through the pipe 6. The pin can move in a slot in a slotted pipe 10 which is connected by threads to the valve poppet 2b. The slot in the pipe 10 is there so that the pipe 6 may be pushed down to operate the upper valve poppet 2a without being stopped by the lower valve poppet 2b.

Fig. 4 shows the assembled flushing valve arrangement. To assemble the device, the valve poppets 2a and 2b are entered from the side through the opening in the housing 1. The pipe 6 is then screwed to the upper valve poppet 2a, the slotted pipe 10 is screwed to the lower poppet 2b, the inner pipe 6 is fastened with the cotter pin to the slotted pipe 10 and the control knob is screwed to the pipe 6, all in turn. The valve housing 1 may be equipped with guides (not shown) to guide the movement of the valve poppets 2a, 2b, correctly.

Figs. 9 and 10 show an alternative embodiment of the valve housing itself. As can be seen from Fig. 10, the valve housing 1' has here a different shape, i.e. it consists of a hollow body, only open to one side, in the approximate shape of a C, whereby only one duct 14 ' for the flow of water is formed on the other side. The duct 14' has however the same total cross section area as the two channels 14 in the first embodiment. The orifices 13a' and 13b' may be inclined (not shown) to promote a higher water speed. The valve poppets would then of course also be inclined to a corresponding degree. Otherwise the second embodiment corresponds exactly to the first embodiment.

The flushing valve arrangement according to the invention has a detail function as follows. When the flushing valve is assembled according to Fig. 4 and fitted into the lavatory water tank, the entire weight of the upper and the lower valve poppets 2a, 2b lies on the lower sealing flange of the valve housing, and the gasket 3b is sealing. As water is filled into the tank, the water level rises and fills the cup-shaped lower valve poppet 2b with water from above. The water continues to rise and as the upper cup- shaped valve poppet 2a is turned the other way round with the opening downwards, an air pocket is formed inside the upper valve poppet 2a. Said poppet will then float up against the upper sealing flange 16a of the valve housing and the gasket 3a will seal. The water then rises further in the tank until closed off by the existing float of the lavatory. This float is no part of the invention. Should the float for some reason not close, the water will rise further until reaching the edge 15 of the valve housing 1 where it will flow down into the valve housing and pass through the side ducts 14 out into the lavatory bowl. The valve housing thus functions as a spillway.

When after using the lavatory, it is intended only to flush a little, the control knob 9 is pushed and will then depress the upper valve poppet 2a in the valve housing, as shown in Fig. 2. The water then flows up through the valve housing orifice 13a, past the sealing flange 16a and down through the ducts 14 and finally out into the lavatory bowl. The tank water level drops until it reaches the same level as the upper sealing flange 16a of the valve housing. As the control knob 9 is subsequently released, the upper valve poppet 2a will float upwards and seal again. The float has now opened the water inlet and fresh water is filling the tank.

If a major flushing is intended, the control knob 9 is pulled and in this way the lower valve poppet 2b is lifted to open the orifice 13b at the bottom of the valve housing, as shown in Fig. 3. Practically all the water in the tank will now flow past the lower sealing flange 16b and straight down into the lavatory bowl and an efficient flushing is obtained. Remaining in the tank is now only a little water at the bottom and the water remaining inside the lower valve poppet 2b. When the flow of water stops, the lower valve poppet 2b will fall down and seal against the lower sealing flange 16b, and the tank is filled up again. The flushing valve arrangement according to the invention can be easily adapted to water tanks with different heights and diameters. As already mentioned, two different threads are available and still more can be obtained using a simple adapter screwed onto the existing thread 12. The threads 12 also have sufficient length to allow cutting to suitable height during assembly.

A further variant of the invention is to make the valve housing 1 from two halves, whereby the ducts 14 of the upper and the lower halves fit telescopically into one another or are connected telescopically by means of an internal pipe

(not shown) . After having selected a suitable length or height for the valve housing 1, the components are welded or glued into a fixed unit. In order to adapt the pipes 5 and 6 they may also be cut to suitable length. The upper pipe 5 is cut at the non-threaded upper end, while the lower pipe 6 is cut at the lower end. Several holes 7a for the cotter pin 7 are pre-drilled at the end so that a hole at suitable height can be selected.

The present invention thus provides several advantages compared to the previously known art. The flushing valve arrangement according to the invention is a simple and reliable design with few components, which entails low manufacturing and assembly costs. The device is also simple to adapt to various lavatory models. The scope of the invention is only limited by the following claims.

Claims

1. Double-acting flushing valve arrangement for lavato¬ ries comprising an upper valve for flushing a small amount of water and a lower valve for flushing of a large amount of water, said valves being located in a flushing valve housing which is located inside a lavatory water tank, characterized in that the flushing valve housing (1, 1') consists of a hollow body having an upper orifice (13a, 13a') directed downwards for the upper valve (2a) and a lower opening (13b, 13b') directed upwards for the lower valve (2b) so that when the upper valve (2a) is open, the water may flow up through the upper orifice (13a, 13a'), through at least one passage (14, 14') in the flushing valve housing (1, 1') and out through the discharge opening, and, when the lower valve (2b) is open, the water may flow down through the lower orifice (13b, 13b') and out through the discharge opening.

2. Flushing valve arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper valve comprises a valve poppet (2a) which is pushed downwards to open the upper valve and that the lower valve comprises a valve poppet (2b) which is pulled upwards to open the lower valve.

3. Flushing valve arrangement according to claim 2, characterized in that both valve poppets are operated by the same control means (9) .

4. Flushing valve arrangement according to claim 3, characterized in that the control means comprise a telescopic device, an outer pipe (5) actuating the upper valve (2a) and an inner pipe (6) actuating the lower valve (2b) .

5. Flushing valve arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the valve housing

(1, 1') is reversible, having different diameters at the respective ends (12) in order to be connectable to water tanks having different size discharge openings.

6. Flushing valve arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the valve housing

(1) is shaped like a hollow, square-shaped ring, the upper orifice (13a) being arranged in the upper inside of said ring and the lower opening (13b) being arranged in the lower inside of said ring, and the two sides of the ring forming ducts (14) for the flow of water from the upper valve and from an overflow opening (15) formed by the opening located opposite to the valve housing discharge opening.

7. Flushing valve arrangement according to any of the claims 1-5, characterized in that the valve housing (1') has the form of a hollow body, shaped like a the letter C, open to one side, the upper orifice (13a') being arranged in the upper part of the inner surface of the C shape and the lower opening (13b') being arranged in the lower part of the inner surface of the C shape, and the side of the C shape forming a duct (14') for the flow of water from the upper valve and from an overflow opening (15') formed by the opening located opposite to the valve housing discharge opening.

8. Flushing valve arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the valve housing has a telescopic design to allow it to be fixed in various sizes when assembled into a water tank.