US3565466A

US3565466A - Means to connect a conduit to a container

Info

Publication number: US3565466A
Application number: US784565A
Authority: US
Inventors: Donald M Mullings
Original assignee: General Electric Co
Current assignee: Trane US Inc
Priority date: 1968-12-18
Filing date: 1968-12-18
Publication date: 1971-02-23
Anticipated expiration: 1988-02-23

Abstract

A CONNECTOR INCLUDES A TUBULAR ELEMENT HAVING A LARGE DIAMETER PORTION AND A SMALL DIAMETER PORTION DEFINING A SHOULDER THEREBETWEEN. THE SMALL DIAMETER PORTION FITS INTO A RESILIENT GROMMET WHICH IN TURNS FITS INTO AN OPENING IN A CONTAINER. THE GROMMET IS SANDWICHED BETWEEN PROJECTIONS ON THE SMALL DIAMETER PORTION AND THE SHOULDER. RIBS EXTEND OUTWARDLY ADJACENT THE SHOULDER TO PRE-

VENT RELATIVE ROTATION BETWEEN THE ELEMENT AND THE GROMMET. THE DISTAL END OF THE SMALL DAMETER PORTION EXTENDS INTO THE CONTAINER AND HAS AN OBLIQUE CUT TO LOCALIZE FLOW FROM THE CONTAINER INTO THE ELEMENT TO INCREASE VELOCITY OF THE FLOW.

Description

Feb. 23,1971" D. M. MULLINGS 3,565,456

v MEANS To CONNECT A CONDUIT TO A CONTAINER Filed Dec. 18. 1968 Fuel . INVENTOR. DONALD M. MULLINGS BY 5 a 6 \HS ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,565,466 MEANS TO CONNECT A CONDUIT TO A CONTAINER Donald M. Mullings, Yardley, Pa., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Dec. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 784,565 Int. Cl. F161 5/02 US. Cl. 285-158 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A connector includes a tubular element having a large diameter portion and a small diameter portion defining a shoulder therebetween. The small diameter portion fits into a resilient grommet which in turn fits into an opening in a container. The grommet is sandwiched between projections on the small diameter portion and the shoulder. Ribs extend outwardly adjacent the shoulder to prevent relative rotation between the element and the grommet. The distal end of the small diameter portion eX- tends into the conainer and has an oblique cut to localize flow from the container into the element to increase velocity of the flow.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention, although not necessarily limited to such application, is particularly useful to connect a drain conduit to a humidifier for a warm air furnace. Accordingly, in order to give a clear understanding of the present invention and its background, it is described and shown in association with such humidifier.

Such a humidifier is usually installed on the hot air distribution duct or furnace plenum of the heating system. Among other elements, the humidifier includes an evaporating element through which water is passed. The evaporating element may comprise a wettable filter-like pad having a high surface area through which hot furnace air can be drawn. A slight amount of excess water is allowed to drain from the element and accumulate in a sump to be removed through the drain connection of the present invention. This continuous draining or flushing action tends to keep mineral concentrations at a minimum by allowing them to be washed away by the flow instead of collecting on the internal parts of the humidifier.

Difliculties have been experienced during the installation of such humidifiers due to the cramped working conditions in certain furnace areas which makes it difli cult to make a universal design of humidifier for many sets of conditions for bringing in the electrical power, the water supply and the drain conduit for accommodating the water overflow. Sometimes the humidifier can only be mounted on the underside of the duct and other times it has to be mounted on the vertical side of the duct, or furnace plenum, and these conditions require special consideration. To provide some degree of versatility, the humidifier cabinet or container may be provided with knockout portions in various walls of the container so that regardless of the orientation of the humidifier, one of the knockout portions will be at the lowermost point. Thus, that knockout portion can be removed to provide an opening at the lowermost point to which a drain conduit can be connected.

3,565,466 Patented Feb. 23, 1971 Thus, it is desirable to provide a connector, to secure the drain conduit to the humidifier, which can be shipped separately with the humidifier and later installed in one of several locations on the humidifier cabinet depending upon the required orientation of the cabinet. Moreover, to enable the homeowner, who may not possess a wide assortment of plumbing tools, to install a humidifier and easily attach a drain conduit to the humidifier, it is desirable to provide a male hose fitting so that a standard hose can be used as the drain conduit.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved means to connect a conduit to an opening in the Wall of a container.

It is another object of this invention to provide such connector which is easily installed by hand without need for special tools.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such connector which includes means to simply manually connect a conduit thereto.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided means to connect a conduit to an opening in the Wall of a container and comprises a tubular element having a first portion of reduced size and a second portion of enlarged size defining a shoulder therebetween. A resilient grommet encircles the first portion adjacent the shoulder and has a central opening of slightly smaller size than the first portion of the tubular element. The grommet further has a peripheral groove to receive the peripheral edge of the opening in the container wall. The first portion has at least one inclined projection spaced from the shoulder a distance slightly less than the thickness of the grommet whereby the element is secured to the grommet by sandwiching the grommet between the projection and the shoulder. At least one rib projects from the element adjacent the shoulder to extend into said grommet and prevent rotation of the element relative to the grommet. The distal end of the first portion has an oblique cut to localize flow from the container into the element and thus increase velocity of the flow to minimize accumulation of slime or scale.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which is regarded as the invention, it is believed the invention will be better understood from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a humidifier employing the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 2 but looking at the device from the right hand side of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the tubular element of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a. view similar to FIG. 3, but showing a modification of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing, and initially, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is illustrated a humidifier 10 having an outer cabinet or container 11 to which a connector 12 has been assembled to connect a conduit to the container 11.

Referring now to FIG. 2, details of the connector 12 are illustrated. It can be seen that the bottom wall of container 11, as container 11 is oriented in FIG. 1, has a depressed portion 13 forming a sump 14. An opening 15 has been provided in depressed portion 13 and it is within opening 15 that connector 12 has been installed. Connector 12 includes a tubular element 16 having a first portion 17 of reduced size and a second portion 18 of enlarged size defining a shoulder 19 therebetween. Element 16 is hollow and defines a central passageway 20 therethrough so that liquid may pass through element 16 from sump 14.

A resilient grommet 21 is provided to secure element 16 within opening 15 and to provide a liquid-tight seal between element 16 and container 11. Grommet 21 has a peripheral groove 22 to receive the peripheral edge of opening 15. In order to reasonably assure a liquid-tight seal between grommet 21 and that portion of container 11 defining opening 15, the dimensions of groove 22 are made slightly less than the dimensions of opening 15 so that there is a slightly interfering fit therebetween. Grommet 21 also has a central opening 23 therethrough to receive portion 17 of element 16. Central opening 23 is of slightly smaller size than the external size of portion 17 again to assure a reasonably liquid-tight seal between grommet 21 and portion 17. With this arrangement, grommet 21 encircles portion 17 adjacent shoulder 19, and with groove 22 receiving the peripheral edge of opening 15, a liquid-tight seal is provided between element 16 and container 11.

Element 16 is secured to grommet 21 by a sandwiching action between shoulder 19 and a plurality of inclined projections 24 which project from the outer surface of portion 17 and which are spaced from shoulder 19 a distance slightly less than the thickness of grommet 21. The inclined surfaces of projections 24 terminate with a fiat surface 25 generally perpendicular to the axis of element 16. It is, of course, surface 25 which engages and bears against the surface of grommet 21 to effect the sandwiching action in cooperation with annular shoulder 19.

As mentioned above, it is desirable to provide a male hose fitting so that a standard hose, such as a portion of a garden hose, can be used as a drain conduit to allow a homeowner to install the drain conduit without requiring the need for an assortment of plumbing tools. To carry out this objective, in the preferred form of the present invention, portion 18 is formed with a cylindrical outer surface of a size consistent with a standard garden hose male fitting and is provided with an external screw thread 26. Because certain torsional forces will be exerted on element 16 as a female hose fitting is threaded onto thread 26, means are provided to prevent rotation of element 16 relative to cabinet 11. In the preferred form of the present invention, this means takes the form of a plurality of ribs 27 each projecting from element 16 adjacent shoulder 19 so as to extend into grommet 21 when grommet 21 is sandwiched between surfaces 25 and shoulder 19. In the preferred form of the invention, the material from which grommet 21 is made is resilient enough to receive ribs 27 without an actual piercing action occurring so as to retain the integrity of grommet 21 and minimize leakage.

It is an object of the present invention to provide means to connect a conduit to an opening in the wall in the container which is easily installed by a homeowner without the requirement of tools. The foregoing arrangement is very simply installed by first inserting resilient grommet 21 into opening 15 so that the peripheral edge of opening 15 is received within peripheral groove 22. Portion 17 of element 16 is then inserted into central opening 23 of grommet 21 with inclined projections 24 passing through grommet 21 until surfaces 25 come into engagement, and sandwiching relationship, with the surface of grommet 21. Because of the relative snugness of fit between portion 17 and opening 23, a lubricant may be applied to portion 17 to facilitate insertion into opening 23. It should be noted that assembly is further enhanced by the present invention in that installation may be effected from outside container 11 thus making it easier to manipulate the elements during assembly.

In a humidifier such as that described herein, tap water is used because of its convenience and economy. Such tap water may contain a relatively high concentration of mineral deposits which have a tendency to collect within the system. Furthermore, the water being circulated over the evaporating element may remove additional foreign matter from the air so that during the heating season several pounds of scale-forming material may collect in the humidifier system. Since the drain connection described therein is a low-flow device, calcium deposits accumulate on the evaporating element as well as on the walls forming the sump and they tend to clog the passageways, especially in the vicinity of the drain connection. The reason for this clogging is the tendency for sediment and residues of the evaporation process to collect in a slime-like material around the inlet to the drain connection. The runoff is slow when the upper or distal end of portion 17 is cut square, in a horizontal plane, since the flow will then extend completely around the inlet edge. Slime or scale will build up at this point of low velocity, possibly to the extent of eventually clogging the entire drain outlet.

One way to reduce this accumulation of slime and scale is to increase the velocity of flow. This can be done by providing an oblique cut at the distal end of portion 17 which will localize fiow from the container into element 16 at the lowermost edge of the distal end of portion 17. This increase in velocity of the flow tends to minimize accumulation of slime or scale. In the embodiment of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the oblique cut truncates the entire cross section of portion 17.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternate method of localizing flow from the container 11 into element 16 which involves an oblique cut defining a generally V-shaped notch 28. The V-shaped notch has one advantage over the truncated arrangement in that it provides additional surface area on the portion 17 to allow better spacing of projections thereabout. It will be appreciated that a tubular element 16 may be constructed from any suitable noncorrosive material. It has been found in practice that a moldable plastic or nylon material works very well in this application.

It now should be apparent that the present invention provides an improved means to connect a conduit to an opening in the wall of a container such as, for example, the cabinet of a warm air furnace humidifier. This connector is easily installed onto the container by hand without need for tools and includes means to connect a conduit thereto by hand without need for tools.

As will be evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects of the invention are not limited to the particular details of construction of the examples illustrated, and it is contemplated that other modifications or applications may occur to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the appended claims shall cover such modifications and applications as do not depart from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Means to connect a conduit to an opening in the wall of a container comprising:

a tubular element having a first portion of reduced size and a second portion of enlarged size defining a shoulder therebetween,

a resilient grommet encircling said first portion adjacent said shoulder and having a central opening of slightly smaller size than said first portion of said tubular element,

said grommet further having a peripheral groove to receive the peripheral edge of the opening in the container Wall,

said first portion having at least one inclined projection spaced from said shoulder a distance slightly less than the thickness of said grommet whereby said element is secured to said grommet by sandwiching said grommet between said projection and said shoulder,

at least one rib projecting from said element adjacent said shoulder to extend into said grommet and prevent rotation of said element relative to said grommet, and

the distal end of said first portion having an oblique cut to localize flow from the container into said element and thus increase velocity of the flow to minimize accumulation of slime or scale.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein a screw thread is provided on the external surface of said second portion whereby an external conduit may be threaded thereto.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein said oblique cut defines a generally V-shaped notch.

4. The invention of claim 1 wherein said oblique cut truncates the entire cross section of said first portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS THOMAS F. CALLAGHAN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.