GB2580378A

GB2580378A - A toilet pan

Info

Publication number: GB2580378A
Application number: GB1900222.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard Davies Vivian
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2019-01-08
Filing date: 2019-01-08
Publication date: 2020-07-22

Abstract

The present invention provides a toilet pan 1 which comprises an integrally formed bowl 3 having a trap at a lower end of the bowl and a rim 11, defining an opening 10, at an upper end of the bowl 3, wherein the toilet pan 3 further comprises a heating element 14 within the pan 3, which heating element 14 extends around at least a portion of the rim 11 below an upper surface 13 of the toilet pan 3. The invention may enable the rim to be heated avoiding the need to provide a separate seat for a toilet. The rim may be shaped to provide a seat to a user. The heating element may be moulded into the rim.

Description

A Toilet Pan The present invention relates to a toilet pan.

The design of toilet pans has changed very little over the past hundred years, comprising a bowl having an opening at an upper end, defined by a rim of the bowl, and a trap at a lower end, the trap leading to an outlet to be connected to a sewer pipe and being arranged to receive and retain water, and thus form a seal between the outlet and the opening in the upper portion of the toilet pan.

The toilet pan will normally additionally have an inlet for receiving water from a cistern, in order to flush waste within the toilet pan. Water received at the inlet will typically be conveyed from the inlet along a concealed channel within the rim of the bowl, which channel extends around the complete top edge of the bowl, in order to distribute the water evenly around the bowl to ensure complete flushing of the bowl. Alternatively, water may be conveyed along an open channel formed on an inner surface of the rim of the bowl, again in order to distribute water evenly around the top edge of the toilet bowl, to ensure complete flushing of the bowl. This later arrangement, where water is directed around an open channel on the inner surface of the rim is sometimes referred to as a rimless toilet pan, to distinguish from those toilet pans where the water is conveyed within a concealed channel within the rim. The present invention is equally applicable to both these types of toilet pan, as well as to other types of toilet pan.

Three essential properties of a good toilet pan is that it is impervious to water, it is resistant to attack by harsh cleaning chemicals commonly used on toilets and it provide a strong and very rigid structure to both support a user and instil confidence in a user that the toilet pan will adequately support them.

One material used for toilet pans for over a hundred years now, and which is still by far the most popular material, is vitreous china. Vitreous china has all three of the above properties and is also relatively cheap to produce, it being possible to mould the complete toilet pan as a single piece. However, other materials are possible for toilet pans, most notably stainless steel. However the cost of fabricating a toilet pan out of stainless steel means that the use of stainless steel is commonly confined to applications where toilet pans may be vandalised. Thus applications for stainless steel toilet pans are typically restricted to prisons, public toilets and the like. However, the present application is equally applicable to stainless steel and similar toilet pans.

Considering for now a toilet pan made from vitreous china, this type of toilet pan is normally provided with an opening lid and raiseable seat, to both provide a more aesthetically pleasing appearance when the toilet pan is not in use and the lid is closed, and, when the seat is "down", to provide a more comfortable seat to a user, avoiding the cold shock which may otherwise be experienced by a user sitting directly upon the vitreous china.

The top surface of the rim of the toilet pan is normally smooth and hard due to it being made of vitreous china, which results in a surface which offers very little grip to the seat resting upon it. This in combination with the relatively large forces that may be experienced by the seat, make it necessary to provide a fairly substantial bracket and mounting for securing the toilet seat (and thus also the lid) to the toilet pan. The mounting needs to be secure and rigid, for any movement of the seat when the user first sits on it, or while a user is seated on it, can be very disconcerting to that user. However, the very hard, but brittle, nature of vitreous china makes it difficult to attach conventional fixings to. To overcome this, a pair of apertures are normally provided through the top surface of the toilet pan, towards the rear of the rim, through which apertures studs from a bracket for the toilet seat and lid may pass, with fasteners being applied to the studs under the toilet pan, in order to clamp the vitreous enamel between those fasteners and the main body of the bracket. This arrangement requires that soft material such as rubber washers or spacers be provided between the main body of the bracket and the top surface of the vitreous china toilet pan, and between the fastening and a lower surface of the top portion of the vitreous china toilet pan, to ensure that tightening the fastening or subsequent forces applied to the seat do not crack the toilet pan. Thus, a layered structure is provided where one of those layers is deformable. Such a structure, even when newly installed, provides an area which is difficult to clean and which is prone to the ingress of dirt and germs. With age the materials will inevitable deteriorate or the bracket will become loose, creating more spaces for germs and dirt to collect in and which can't be properly cleaned.

In addition to the above, the inability to securely fasten to the vitreous china in a conventional manner, commonly results in the bracket supporting the toilet seat becoming loose so that the toilet seat is no longer securely held in place, resulting in an uncomfortable feeling for the user.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved toilet pan.

According to the present invention there is provided a toilet pan having a bowl integrally formed therein, the bowl having a trap at a lower end I and a rim, defining an opening, at an upper end, characterised in that the pan further comprises a heating element within the toilet pan, which heating element extends around at least a portion of the rim below an upper surface of the rim.

An advantage of a toilet pan, in accordance with the present invention, is that it enables the top surface of the toilet pan to be heated, which avoids the cold shock which may otherwise be experienced by a user sitting directly on the top surface of the toilet pan, especially when that toilet pan is formed from vitreous china or stainless steel.

The present invention makes it possible to removes the need to provide a separate seat and thus removing the need for a bracket and the need for a secure fixing to the toilet pan and the problems associated with this. Furthermore, it enables the toilet pan to have a smooth, uninterrupted upper surface defining in part the rim, the upper surface being free from any mounting for a toilet seat. This provides a toilet pan which is far easier to clean than a conventional toilet pan.

Preferably, the rim is shaped to provide a seat to a user. This may be by being appropriately contoured in a similar manner as a conventional toilet seat, such that it acts to "centre" a user above the bowl. However, alternatively or in addition thereto, the rim may be shaped to provide a seat to a user by having a maximum width greater than 5cm in regions to either side of the bowl, or more preferably a maximum width greater than 6cm to either side of the bowl. This provides a wide region to comfortably support the user directly on the toilet pan.

The toilet pan is preferably formed from vitreous china, for this has the advantageous properties mentioned above. However, it could be made of any other suitable material, for example stainless steel.

Where the toilet pan is formed from vitreous china, the heating element may be moulded into the rim as part of the manufacturing process. This enables the heating element to be placed directly where the heat is required, avoiding the unnecessarily heating of other areas of the toilet pan. The heating element may comprise an electrical heating element, which may be in the form of a resistive wire contained within a tube moulded into the rim. The tube may be an oil filled tube or a tube filled with an insulator, in the manner of conventional electrical heating elements. Alternatively, the heating element may comprise a duct within the rim arranged to receive heated fluid from an external source. Thus, the toilet could be plumbed into a conventional central heating system, with a thermostatic valve on the outlet to control the flow of liquid through the duct and thus maintain the rim at a desired set temperature.

Where the toilet pan has an uninterrupted upper surface defining in part the rim, free from any mounting for a toilet seat, this may form part of a toilet comprising a toilet pan, a lid and a bracket to hold the toilet lid in place on the toilet pan, the bracket extending over and down the sides of the rim, with the respective ends of the bracket, (extending down respective side of the toilet pan), being biased towards each other such as to sandwich the toilet pan between them to retain the bracket, and the lid attached to the bracket, in place.

The advantage of this is that it enables a lid to be provided, as is conventional for aesthetic purposes, but because only a lid is provided and not a toilet seat the bracket for the lid need not be as strong as a bracket designed to retain a seat in place. Thus bracket can be secured merely by the resilience of the bracket clamping the toilet pan between the ends of the bracket, avoiding the need to provide apertures through vitreous china and encountering the problems associated with this, as mentioned above. Furthermore, because the resilience the bracket alone retains the lid in place, the lid and the bracket may be easily removed for cleaning.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 is a front elevation of a toilet with a toilet pan in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a side elevation of the toilet of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a plan view of the toilet of Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a cross section through the upper portion of the rim along the line IV-IV of Figure 3.

Referring now to Figures 1 to 3, a toilet, indicated generally as 1, comprises a cistern 2, a toilet pan 3 and (as shown in Figures 1 and 2 only) a lid 4 secured by hinge 5, via studs 6 to a bracket 7. The bracket 7 has two wings 8, 9 which are inwardly biased and extend down the outside faces of the toilet pan 3, to retain the lid 4 in place. The lid 4 and bracket 7 are shown removed from the toilet 1, illustrated in Figure 3.

As can be seen from Figure 3, the toilet pan 3 comprises a bowl 10 having a rim 11 around its upper periphery which forms a top surface of the toilet pan 3. Figure 4 is a cross-section through the rim 11, taken along the line IV-IV of Figure 3. From the cross-section of Figure 4 it can be seen that the rim 11 is formed with a central void space 12, as is the whole the toilet pan 3, by being formed in a conventional manner. The uses a liquid slip poured into a porous mould, whereby the clay in the liquid slip is deposited on the inner surface of the mould, leaving the void space 12 within the finished product.

The toilet pan 3 is formed by being moulded in a mould shaped to leave the top surface 13 of the toilet pan 3 contoured, as shown in Figure 4, such that the top surface 13 is gently dish shaped in the region of the rim 11 extending about the periphery of the bowl 10, such that a user sitting on the rim 11 tends to be centred above the toilet bowl 10 by the dished shape of the top surface 13.

A heating element 14, comprising a thin flexible metal tube 15 and a conductive wire 16 within the metal tube 15, insulated from the metal tube 15 by a powdered insulating material 17, is moulded into the vitreous china during the moulding process and extends along the rim in the region of the periphery of the bowl 10, as can be most clearly seen from Figure 3. The heating element 14 is connected to a conventional control means, which monitors the resistance of the conductive wire 16 to determine the temperature of that wire and then uses this to maintain the rim 11 at a desired temperature, typically in the range of 25°C to 35°C. However, in an alternative embodiment, the heating element 14 could be a small pipe moulded within the vitreous china, through which heated water may pass, with a thermostat positioned on the outlet controlling the flow to maintain the temperature of water within the pipe at a desired temperature, typically in the range of 25°C to 35°C.

The provision of a heating element maintains the rim 11 of the toilet pan 3 at a desired temperature and this in combination with the rim 13 being approximately 7cm wide, provides both a warm and comfortable seat to a user avoiding the need for a separate seat. Thus when the lid is removed, which may be easily lifted off as shown in Figure 3, this leaves an unobstructed top surface 13 which may both be easily and thoroughly cleaned.

Although not shown, the bowl 10 of the toilet pan 3 has a trap at its lower end for connecting to a sewage pipe in a traditional manner. Additionally, an inlet (not shown) is provided which extends through the top of the toilet pan, from the cistern 2 to the bowl 10, to enable the bowl and its contents to be flushed through the trap (not shown).

In the embodiment shown, the inlet connects the cistern to a channel 18 (see Figure 4) on an inner surface of the rim 11 of the bowl 3 and directs the water as a jet along the channel 18, such that the water is distributed from the channel over the entire inner surface of the bowl 10, in the manner of a conventional "rimless" toilet pan.

Alternatively, the toilet pan could be of a traditional design, where the inlet feeds a channel formed by an upper part of the void space 12 (see Figure 4) in the rim 11, with apertures being provided from the void space 12 through to the inner surface of the toilet bowl 10, to provide for flushing the entire surface of the toilet bowl. In such an arrangement, the heating element 14 might occasionally be cooled by the flushing water from the cistern, but as this is for a very short duration and because the water may not reach the bottom surface of the top of the rim 11, the cooling effect on the rim 11 would be negligible. In addition, this would only normally occur once a user had vacated the toilet.

One embodiment of the present invention has been described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated that very many modifications are possible within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Particularly it will be appreciated that the invention is equally applicable to other types of toilet pans particularly those made of stainless steel or other metals.

Claims

Claims 1. A toilet pan having integrally formed therein a bowl having a trap at a lower end of the bowl and a rim defining an opening at an upper end of the bowl, characterised in that the pan further comprises a heating element within the toilet pan, which heating element extends around at least a portion of the rim below an upper surface of the rim.
2. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the rim is shaped to provide a seat to a user.
3. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the rim is shaped to provide a seat to a user by being contoured so as to have a flat upper surface.
4. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 2 or 3, wherein the rim is shaped to provide a seat to a user by having a maximum width greater than 5cm in regions to either side of the bowl.
5. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 2 or 3, wherein the maximum width of the rim in regions to either side of the bowl is greater than 6cm.
6. A toilet pan as claimed in any preceding claim, formed from vitreous china.
7. A toilet pan as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the heating element is moulded into the rim.
8. A toilet pan as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the heating element comprises an electrical heating element.
9. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the heating element comprises a resistive wire contained within a tube moulded into the rim.
10. A toilet pan as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the tube is filled with oil.
11. A toilet pan as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein the heating element comprises a duct within the rim arranged to convey heat fluid from an external source.
12. A toilet pan as claimed in any preceding claim, having an uninterrupted upper surface defining in part the rim, free from any mounting for a toilet seat.
13. A toilet comprising a toilet pan as claimed in Claim 12, a lid and a bracket to hold the toilet lid in place on the toilet pan, the bracket extending over and down the side of rim, with respective ends of the bracket, extending down respective side of the toilet pan, being biased towards each other such as to sandwich the toilet pan between them to retain the bracket, and the lid attached to the bracket, in place.