EP1700961A2

EP1700961A2 - "Water trap unit"

Info

Publication number: EP1700961A2
Application number: EP06004019A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Per Thorsson
Original assignee: Sjobo Bruk AB
Current assignee: AB SJOEBO BRUK
Priority date: 2005-03-09
Filing date: 2006-02-28
Publication date: 2006-09-13
Anticipated expiration: 2026-02-28
Also published as: NO20061061L; EP1700961B1; SE529486C2; DK1700961T3; SE0500522L; PL1700961T3; NO337604B1; EP1700961A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a water trap unit (9) for an outlet (1) and which comprises an inlet member (10) and a cup (11). The inlet member (10) includes a tubular or annular portion (20) which is directed down into the cup (11) such that water collected in the cup defines a water odour lock as long as the surface of the water lies above a lower edge (21) of the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion of the inlet member. The cup (11) has a depth (D) of 6-30 mm and the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion (20) of the inlet member (10) a length (L) of 1-25 mm for defining a water odour lock of 1-25 mm.

Description

The present invention relates to a water trap unit as defined in the preamble of claim 1.
Such a water trap unit is already defined in e.g. EP 0 486 954 B1 . There is a need for mounting such water trap units in drain units having an extremely low structural height, but other types of outlets may also be considered for water trap units with said construction and function.
In order to get an extremely low-built construction of the water trap unit of the abovementioned type, said water trap unit is provided with the characterizing features of claim 1.
The above and other characterizing features of the invention as well as the advantages therewith will be described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein

fig. 1 is a vertical section, in perspective, of a water trap unit according to the invention mounted in a drain unit;
fig. 2 is a vertical sectional diagrammatic view, somewhat enlarged and from the side, of a water trap unit according to the invention;
fig. 3 is a perspective view of a water trap unit according to the invention, with a handle in a predetermined, lower pivoting position; and
fig. 4 is a perspective view of the water trap unit of fig. 3 with the handle in another, upper pivoting position for demounting or removing the water trap unit from a drain unit.

Fig. 1 illustrates a drain unit in the form of a side-discharging floor drain 1. This floor drain 1 includes an outer member 2 which at the top is provided with a seat portion 3, into which a floor mat (not shown) is inserted. The floor mat is kept in place by means of a clamping ring 4 which is also inserted into the seat portion 3. On top of the clamping ring 4 there is provided a grating 5 which is intended to form a cover to the interior of the floor drain and which is provided with openings or apertures for letting water into the floor drain. The design and disposition of the floor drain, clamping ring and grating are well known and therefore not further described here. Beneath the seat portion 3, the outer member 2 has an inwardly directed portion 6, the inner parts of which transform into a downwardly directed pipe member 7. This pipe member transforms down below into a tubular, laterally directed connecting portion 8, through which the floor drain 1 is connectable with a drainage system (not shown).
In the outer member 2, there is provided a water trap unit 9, comprising an inlet member 10 and c cup 11. The inlet member 10 is on top provided with a suitable outwardly directed, circumferential flange portion 12. Beneath the flange portion 12, the inlet member 10 preferably has a circumferential groove 13 for a sealing ring 14 which is adapted to provide a tight connection between the outer member 2 and the inlet member 10 and through which the water trap unit 9 is mounted in the drain unit in question.
As is apparent particularly from fig. 2, the inlet member 10 further comprises a horizontally directed or substantially horizontally directed portion 15 which transforms into a downwardly directed portion 16. The latter portion 16 transforms into a further horizontal portion 17, which in turn transforms into a second downwardly directed portion 18 from which another horizontal portion 19 is extending. The horizontal portion 19 transforms into a downwardly/inwardly inclined or substantially downwardly directed tubular or annular portion 20, the lower edge 21 of which defines the lower edge of the inlet member 10. In order to have a structural height of the water trap unit 9 and thereby, of the drain unit in question, which is as low as possible, and still have a satisfactory through-flow capacity, the tubular or annular portion 20 has a length of between 1 and 25 mm.
In order to provide an odour lock in the floor drain 1, the water trap unit 9 comprises, as stated above, an upwardly open cup 11 into which the tubular or annular portion 20 of the inlet member 10 is inserted. Water or another liquid in the cup 11 defines an odour lock as long as there is so much water in said cup 11 that the water surface lies above the lower edge 21 of the inlet member 10. Such an odour lock prevents gases from flowing up from the drainage system and into the surroundings through the floor drain 1. For obtaining a low-built construction with an odour-trap height of 1-25 mm, the cup 11 has, with upwardly inclined or substantially upwardly directed wall portions 22, a depth of between 6 and 30 mm.
In order to provide the floor drain 1 with, among other things, an odour-preventive function also if the level of water in the cup 11, e.g. because of evaporation, falls such that the water surface lies beneath the lower edge 21 of the inlet member 10, the cup 11 is movably mounted relative to a seat 23 and it cooperates with at least one power generating means 24 which is provided to subject the cup 11 to such an upwardly directed force that said cup closely engages the seat 23. The power generating means 24 is also mounted such that it allows the cup 11 to move downwards from the seat 23 in order to define a through-flow gap between said seat 23 and cup 11 through which water can flow out of the cup 11 and into the drainage system.
When the power generating means 24 holds the cup 11 in close engagement with the seat 23, all connection between the drainage system and the surroundings through the floor drain 1 is closed whether there if sufficient water in the cup 11 or not. If there is sufficient water in the cup 11 for defining an odour lock and said cup closely engages the seat 23, said cup 11 and seat 23 prevent animals or bacteria from leaving the discharge system, and if there is not sufficient water in the cup 11 for defining an odour lock, the cup 11 and seat 23 together define an odour lock. However, the power generating means 24 can yield if water flows down into the cup 11, such that the through-flow gap is formed between the cup 11 and the seat 23, whereby water may pass out of the cup 11 and into the drainage system. Hereby, it is ensured that the water does not rise out of the floor drain 1 when water flows thereinto, but instead, the floor drain "opens" and lets water through into the drainage system.
The power generating means 24 is preferably mounted such that it with a successively decreasing load thereon, from above presses the cup 11 against the seat 23 with a successively increasing pressure. This means that said means 24 presses the cup 11 harder and harder against the seat 23 while e.g. the water evaporates from the cup 11 and thus, the total weight of said cup decreases. Since the weight of the cup 11 is at its lowest when there is no water at all therein, said cup 11 engages the seat 23 with its highest pressure in such cases.
For keeping the floor drain 1 "closed" except when there is a certain amount of water therein and water also flows down through the inlet member 10, the power generating means 24 is preferably mounted such that it holds the cup 11 in close engagement with the seat 23 when the water surface in the floor drain 1 is on level with the upper edge 25 of the cup 11 or slightly above or below this level, and such that the cup 11 moves downwards from the seat 23 when additional water is added to such amount of water through the inlet member 10.
The power generating means 24 is preferably mounted and designed such that it subjects the cup 11 to such an upwardly directed force that said cup 11 closely engages the seat 23 when there is water therein up to a certain level and the weight of the cup 11 including the water therein falls below a certain value. The power generating means 24 also allows for that when the upwardly directed force of said power generating means is overcome by the water exceeding said level and thus, the weight of the cup 11 and the water therein as well as eventual water above said cup exceeds said value, the cup 11 is moved downwardly from the seat 23 to define the through-flow gap between said seat 23 and cup 11. The power generating means 24 is also mounted to return the cup 11 to sealing engagement with the seat 23 if the water again falls below said level and thus, the weight of the cup 11 and the water therein falls below said value.
Preferably, the power generating means 24 is also mounted such that it allows the cup 11 to sink relative to the seat 23 in dependence of an increasing amount of water flowing into the cup 11 through the inlet member 10, whereby the width of the through-flow gap increases momentarily in correspondence with the increase of the amount of water momentarily flowing into the cup 11 through the inlet member 10. In order to optimize the through-flow capacity, the cup 11 is thereby displaceable at the most a distance exceeding the length L of the tubular or annular portion 20 of the inlet member 10 directed down into the cup 11. Water may then flow radially out of the water trap unit 9.
In those cases where the floor drain 1 is disposed at such a level, e.g. in the basement, that waste water from the drainage system can rise therein, the cup 11 is preferably mounted and/or designed such that waste water rising in the drainage system can move said cup 11 towards the seat 23 and bring it to close engagement with said seat or, if the cup 11 already engages the seat 23, increase its engagement pressure against the seat such that the waste water is prevented from flowing from the drainage system into the cup 11.
In order to make it possible for rising waste water to efficiently affect the cup 11 in upwards direction towards the seat 23, said cup preferably is provided with a bottom 26 which is cambering towards its central portions. By designing the bottom 26 of the cup 11 in this way, it is achieved that waste water rising quickly will have more difficulty in deflecting to the sides and instead affect the cup 11 with the highest possible force.
The seat 23 includes or consists of a ring 27 of elastic material, which is threaded on the downwardly directed portion 18 of the inlet member 10 and which engages a support surface which is defined by the horizontally directed portion 17 of the inlet member 10. The seat 23 is thereby located in level with an upper end of the downwardly into the cup 11 directed tubular or annular portion 20 of the inlet member 10. The ring 27 preferably has a circumferential tongue 28 and said tongue is preferably pointed and preferably more yielding than the remaining parts of the ring 27. The tongue 28 is adapted to form the sealing portion of the ring 27 engaged by the cup 11 and it can flex somewhat and/or adapt to the form of the upper edge 25 of the cup 11 when said cup engages it with pressure.
The power generating means 24 preferably consists of at least one helical spring, which is adapted to affect the cup 11 with a successively increasing force in an upwards direction towards the seat 23 the longer the cup 11, because of the pressure of water from above, starts to move downwards relative to the seat 23. The farther down from the seat 23 the cup 11 is pressed the more the spring 24 is stretched, and the more the spring is stretched the more force does it apply to the cup 11 in upwards direction.
The helical spring 24 may consist of at least one compression or tension spring and it is preferably positioned centrally relative to the cup 11. In the illustrated embodiment, the helical spring consists of a compression spring 24 which is disposed centrally relative to the cup 11. In order to mount this compression spring 24 in a suitable manner, the inlet member 10 includes a sleeve 29 which is positioned centrally in its tubular or annular portion 20, which projects upwards from the inlet member and which is provided on a plurality of, e.g. two or three brackets 30 extending radially in the inlet member 10. These brackets are preferably designed as guide flanges for opposing turbulent flow of water when water pass through the inlet member 10.
Down below the sleeve 29 has a bottom 31 with a hole and on top an opening which can be closed by a lid 32 which can be snapped-in over the sleeve in a suitable manner. The interior of the sleeve 29 may also define a stop surface 33 situated about halfway between the bottom 31 and the lid 32 thereof. The cup 11 preferably comprises an upwardly directed tap 34, which protrudes from the bottom 26 of the cup 11 and extends upwardly in the centre of said cup 11. The tap 34 may e.g. consist of a sleeve-like, upwardly directed and on top closed portion of the bottom 26 of the cup 11. The tap 34 is sized such that it from below can be inserted into the sleeve 29 through the hole in the bottom 31 thereof and it is so much thinner than the sleeve 29 that a space is defined between the tap 34 and the sleeve 29, wherein the helical spring 24 is positioned.
For applying the helical spring 24 in operating position, the tap 34 is inserted into the sleeve 29 from below. Thereafter, the helical spring 24 is threaded onto the tap 34 from above until said spring down below engages a support surface 35 which is defined preferably by the upper side of the bottom 31 of the sleeve 29. Thereafter, the spring 24 is stretched until an end portion 36 from above can be snapped-in over the upper end portion of the tap 34. This end portion 36 engages the inner side of the sleeve 29 with its outer edge such that said outer edge defines guide surfaces 37 for the upper parts of the tap 34. The lower side of the end portion 36 forms a support surface 38 engaged by upper parts of the helical spring 24, and guide surfaces 39 for lower parts of the tap 34 are formed preferably by the inner edge of the bottom 31. When the helical spring 24 is mounted in operating position, the sleeve 29 is closed from above by means of the lid 32.
The helical spring 24 is preferably sized beforehand such that it in operating position in the sleeve 29 presses the cup 11 upwards towards the seat 23 with such a force that said cup 11 engages said seat 23 when said cup is filled with water, substantially filled with water or the water level lies somewhat above the upper edge 25 of the cup 11, but not above the upper edge of the floor drain 1. The helical spring 24 also permits displacement of the cup 11 downwards from the seat 23 if thereby more water is introduced from above, whereby the water level does not rise, but instead water can flow out into the drainage system.
The abovementioned stop surface formed by the sleeve 29 permits limited downward movement of the cup 11 relative to the sleeve 29, so that the helical spring 24 can not be compressed to an unfavourable extent. This limitation of the movement of the cup 11 is achieved while the end portion 36 hits said stop surface 33 when the cup 11 has moved downwards a distance about half the height of the sleeve 29, which according to the above corresponds to a downward movement of the cup 11 to a position beneath the tubular or annular portion 20 of the inlet member 10, i.e. longer than said portion.
Since the cup 11 is guided as described or in another way when displaced relative to the seat 23, it is ensured that the cup 11 is moved in parallel with the tubular or annular portion 20 of the inlet member 10 and that the upper edge 25 of the cup 11 can engage the seat 23 around the entire cup. Since the cup 11 is centered with the tubular or annular portion 20 and defines an annular through-flow gap of unitary width above the upper edge 25 of the cup 11, the floor drain attains a favourable through-flow capacity when it is open.
The water trap unit 9 is preferably, irrespective of its size and/or the height of the odour trap, removably located in the outlet by means of e.g. a yoke which is mounted in attachments at the circumferential flange portion 12 of the inlet member 10 or preferably by means of a handle 41 having a grip portion 40 and through a pivot portion 42 pivotally attached to the circumferential flange portion of the inlet member 10. The preferably annular grip portion 40 is in the illustrated embodiment designed to surround, in a first pivoting position corresponding to the position in which the handle 41 is located when the water trap unit 9 is mounted in an outlet and operating (see fig. 3), a portion of the sleeve 29 with the power generating means 24, which portion projects upwards from the inlet member 10. The grip portion 40 may also be of semi-circular shape, of unilateral, bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral or multilateral shape or of any other shape, completely or partly surrounding the sleeve portion, maybe on one side only, such that a firm grip around the grip portion is obtained. In the illustrated embodiment, the pivot portion 42 is located opposite to one of the brackets 30, whereby a shaft portion 43 between the grip and pivot portions is provided with a recess 44 such that said shaft portion in said first pivoting position grasps over this bracket, which to this end is eventually also provided with a recess 45. In the illustrated embodiment with two opposing brackets 30, the other bracket is also provided with a recess 46 which receives the grip portion 40 when the handle 41 is brought or moved to said first pivoting position. In this "downwardly folded" or "lowered" position, the handle 41 extends in vertical direction up to at least on a level with the uppermost portions of the sleeve 29 or of the members closing the sleeve at the top thereof, i.e. the lid 32. In a preferred embodiment, the handle 41 may even be sized in vertical direction such that it, eventually also the brackets 30, define a support surface for the grating 5. The handle 41 with its grip, shaft and pivot portions is preferably integral, or made in one piece, with the inlet member 10. In fig. 4, the water trap unit 9 is illustrated in a second pivoting position, with a somewhat "upwardly folded" or "raised" handle 41, for demounting or removing the water trap unit from the outlet in question by applying, through the handle, a breaking or pulling force to the water trap unit at the point or attachment or connection of the handle to the inlet member 10 through the pivot portion 42. The removal of the water trap unit 9 from the outlet is facilitated while the force therefor is concentrated to one point.
Naturally, the invention may vary within the scope of the following claims. Thus, the outlet must not be a drain unit, but instead e.g. a shower outlet and the drain unit must not be a floor drain (it can be e.g. a roof drain). The drain unit must not be side-discharging (it can be e.g. bottom-discharging). The seat 23 may be of another type than shown. The power generating means 24 may be of another type than a helical spring and it can be mounted in other ways than shown. The wall portions 22 of the cup 11 can have a pointed upper edge 25 for preventing contaminants from adhering thereto and the force of the power generating means 24 may, when required, be selected otherwise.

Claims

Water trap unit (9) which is removably located in an outlet (1) and which comprises an inlet member (10) and a cup (11),
wherein the inlet member (10) includes a tubular or annular portion (20) which is directed down into the cup (11) such that water collected in the cup defines a water odour lock as long as the surface of the water lies above a lower edge (21) of the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion of the inlet member,
wherein the cup (11) is movably mounted relative to the inlet member (10) between a first position in which it cooperates with a seat (23) on the inlet member (10) in level with an upper end of the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion (20) of the inlet member for closing the water trap unit (9) and a second position for opening the water trap unit,
wherein at least one power generating means (24) is provided to allow the cup (11) with water defining an odour lock to sink relative to the seat (23) to its second position for opening the water trap unit (9) so that water can flow through it, and
wherein the power generating means (24) is provided to move the cup (11) against the seat (23) to its first position when water in the cup falls so that the water surface lies below the lower edge (21) of the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion (20) of the inlet member (10),
so that either the water in the cup (11) or the cup and the seat (23) together are closing the water trap unit (9),
characterized in
that the cup (11) has a depth (D) of 6-30 mm and the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion (20) of the inlet member (10) a length (L) of 1-25 mm for defining a water odour lock of 1-25 mm.
Water trap unit (9) according to claim 1, characterized in that based on the amount of water flowing through the water trap unit (9), the cup (11) is movable between the first and second positions at the most a distance exceeding the length (L) of the downwardly into the cup directed tubular or annular portion (20) of the inlet member (10).
Water trap unit (9) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the water trap unit (9) comprises a peripherally at one point or location (42) on the inlet member (10) mounted handle (41) which is pivotable between a first pivoting position in which a grip portion (40) of the handle completely or partly surrounds an upwardly from the inlet member projecting portion of a sleeve (29) with the power generating means (24) located in said inlet member, and a second pivoting position for removal of the water trap unit (9) from the outlet (1) by applying through the handle (41) a breaking or pulling force on the water trap unit at the point or location (42) of attachment of the handle to the inlet member (10).
Water trap unit (9) according to claim 3, characterized in that the handle (41) in said first pivoting position extends in vertical direction up to at least on a level with the uppermost portions of the sleeve (29) or of the members (32) closing the sleeve at the top thereof.
Water trap unit (9) according to claim 4, characterized in that the handle (41) is sized such that it in said first pivoting position defines a support surface for a grating (5).
Water trap unit (9) according to any of claims 3-5, characterized in that the handle (41) in said first pivoting position is supported or received in recesses (45, 46) in brackets (30) for the sleeve (29) with the power generating means (24).
Water trap unit (9) according to any of claims 3-6, characterized in that the handle (41) is integral, or made in one piece, with the inlet member (10).