US3693197A

US3693197A - Bath drain lift wire connection

Info

Publication number: US3693197A
Application number: US85549A
Authority: US
Inventors: Gerald E Christiansen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: BRIGGS PLUMBING PRODUCTS Inc A CORP OF MI
Priority date: 1970-10-30
Filing date: 1970-10-30
Publication date: 1972-09-26
Anticipated expiration: 1989-09-26

Abstract

The disclosure herein relates to bath tub drains and particularly to that class known as trip lever bath tub drains, wherein a single drain may be supplied for tubs of various sizes in which the overflow opening is at varying heights from one tub to the other, and it is desired to mount the bath tub drain thereon without preliminary setting of the stopper means therein, but relying upon adjustment of the connection of the stopper means with the operating means after assembly and upon insertion of the respective parts, it being desired to establish the adjustment and once established, to maintain the same without subsequent attention. The bath tub drain hereof is therefore provided with means to effect the adjustment of the plunger in the trip lever upon manipulation of the control means therefor initially in view of the connection of the lift means with the plunger, the aspect of maintaining the position by reason of the connection of the parts being important.

Description

[ 51 Sept. 26, 1972 United States Patent Christiansen BATH DRAIN LIFT WIRE Primary Examiner-Frederick L. Matteson CONNECTION Assistant Examiner-Donald B. Massenberg Attorney-Robb & Robb [72] lnventor: Gerald E. Christiansen, Flora, lnd.

[73] Assignee: Stephen A. Young, Monticello, lnd.

Filed:

[57] ABSTRACT The disclosure herein relates to bath tub drains and Oct. 30, 1970 particularly to that class known as trip lever bath tub [2] 1 Appl' 85,549 drains, wherein a single drain may be supplied for tubs of various sizes in which the overflow opening is at varying heights from one tub to the other, and it is desired to mount the bath tub drain thereon without preliminary setting of the stopper means therein, but relying upon adjustment of the connection of the stopper means with the operating means after assembly and upon insertion of the respective parts, it being desired to establish the adjustment and once established, to maintain the same without subsequent 32 03% 22 8 l/ 5 4112/ mm M372 000 E2 5 WM T 2 N m E .m% d T 2 e A mu .H 0.. mm C S UN 5 E e U. C T N N n A NN" e an" r. T. I m m R E me n "u N 1 m u h .w UhF ill. 11 2 8 6 555 5 [ii .I.

attention. The bath tub drain hereof is therefore vided with means to effect the adjustment of prothe

plunger in the trip lever upon manipulation of the control means therefor initially in view of the connection of the lift means with the plunger, the aspect of maintaining the position by reason of the connection of the parts being important.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 362 5 2 086 6 /828/8 l/75/5 5 4100/9/00/ wum h M242 m2 mm m "n u "0 n e d t nflmw w fm e k Z homm d MHTNSJWP 93732856 23034456 99999999 HHH yyWURZbZ 1 9648923 m l8 80 5mm 059 V WQAJ 1 1 12223 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 8/1932 Germany...................... 4/203 IIIIII F n l/dlnl l 1 BATH DRAIN LIFT WIRE CONNECTION OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is a principal object of this invention to provide improved means to interconnect the operating devices of a trip lever bath drain with the plunger provided therein, which plunger controls the outflow of water through the drain tee, so that once a setting for shutting off the water is established, it will be maintained and it will not be necessary to attempt to preliminarily set the same with the resultant trial and error problems arising therefrom, not to mention the wasted effort involved in such trial and error methods. I

A further object of the invention is to provide a trip lever drain in which the interconnection between the plunger thereof and the lift wire is of such a nature that upon an application of a predetermined amount of pressure, adjustment therebetween will be effected and subsequent use of the device will not require such pressure, and therefore the once established connection and adjustment may be maintained.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide a novel formation of the lift wire and its configuration -to maintain the once established position of a gripping unit in connection therewith, so that while adjustment may be efiected, substantially greater effort is required to effect such adjustment than is expended normally during use of the device to control the flow of water through the waste arm of the trip lever bath drain, of the class described herein.

Other and further objects of the invention will be understood from a consideration of the specification ap pended hereto and disclosed in the drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic view, partly in section, illustrating the general arrangement of a trip lever bath drain in position on a tub.

FIG. 2 is a greatly enlarged view, illustrating the gripping unit in place on the lift wire, being fragmentary in large measure.

FIG. 3 is a greatly enlarged cross-sectional view of the lift wire and formation for maintaining the gripping unit in place.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, a trip lever of substantially conventional form is illustrated in which the same is mounted on a bath tub generally indicated at 1, such trip lever including a waste tee 2, connected to the drain leading from the tail piece 3, and extending upwa'rdly from the tee 2 the overflow arm 4,-which consists of a lower tube 5 and an upper tube 6 adjustable relative one another by means of suitable slip joint arrangement, and controlled by a nut 7; the upper end of the overflow arm 4 having the overflow head 8 connected therewith leading to the overflow on the tub I, and maintained in position by a face plate 9 of conventional configuration, which face plate 9 inturn is provided with a lever 10 for rotational movement about a pivot 11 mounted in the face plate 9 and connected at its inner end within the head 8 to a lift wire 12, which lift wire extends downwardly into and through the tee 2 previously mentioned.

A waste arm 13 extends from the side. of the tee 2 and is connected to a waste shoe 14 leading to the waste outlet of the tub in the usual way.

The tee 2 is provided with a plunger 15 of generally conventional configuration, it being a cylindrical part, hollow at the bottom with a seat 16 thereon to engage a mating seat 17 formed in a tee. The plunger 15 is intended to shut off the flow of water to the waste arm 13 and in order to effect the draining of the tub, the plunger 15 must be raised.

The plunger 15 is provided at its upper end with a bail 18 extending across the same, this bail having an opening through which the lift wire 12 extends downwardly.

In order to effect an interconnection between the lift wire 12 and plunger 15, a gripping unit generally designated 19 is shown as being emplaced thereon, and in much enlarged form in FIG. 2.

Referring therefore to FIG. 2, the lift wire 12 is shown with the gripping unit 19 positioned thereon, such gripping unit 19 comprising a gripping portion 20 and a second gripping portion 21 of substantially identical configuration, being a spirally wound coil spring-like member in each case, but of the opposite hand in each case likewise.

Integral with each one of the

portions

20 and 21 is the bail engaging section 22 which, as seen in FIG. 1, passes around one side of the bail to maintain the spacing of the

portions

20 and 21.

Although the gripping

portions

20 and 21 and the gripping unit 19 have been contemplated previously, the same have been used in conjunction with a smooth wire 12 or under the most extreme circumstances with a wire which has been deformed in some manner.

The problem which was raised by this previous configuration was that the gripping action of the

respective portions

20 and 21 was not always uniform, and thus after use the plunger 15 moved with respect to the wire 12 and thus operation of the handle 10 did not always shut off the water through the waste arm 13. 7 Thus, the instant invention provides against such an improper operation by means of the novel configuration of the lift wire 12, which as shown in FIG. 3, is usually a round wire and by way of example about 0.090 inches in diameter nominally.

In order to provide for a non-slipping interengagement of the gripping

portions

20 and 21, the wire (according to this invention) is provided with a chord-like formation asviewed in FIG. 3 by suitable rolling dies, which cause the metal of which the lift wire is formed to assume the protuberant configuration suggested at 23 in FIG. 3, the diameter of the areas involving the protuberances 23 being increased effectively by manipulation of the equipment for forming such form ations so that in actuality the diameter of this portion across the protuberances is about 0.093 inches.

It will be seen that these diametrically opposed protuberances will thus provide gripping areas since they are spaced uniformly along on the opposite ends of the diameter as suggested in FIG. 2, and since they are formed so as to be spaced an amount equal to the pitch of the spiral gripping portions 20. and 21, such gripping portions will inter-engage and inter-lock substantially therewith.-

It will be further observed that since these portions are preferably formed only on opposite ends of the diameter so to speak, they will inter-engage with the

spiral formations

20 and 21, irrespective of the hand in which such spiral formations are wound.

Thus, for example, if the spiral formation 20 is wound in the counter-clockwise manner, and the portion 21 in a clockwise manner, it will not make any difference in the interlocking action between the respective parts since the chord-like formation is relatively short in extent and the protuberance provided thereby is not affected by the hand which might be involved in the inter-engaging gripping

portions

20 and 21.

It will therefore be seen that the position of the gripping portion 20 will be maintained as will that of the portion 21 and the connection 22 in passing around the bail 18 will position the lift wire with respect thereto.

Whereas it might be contemplated that a threading of the lift wire 12 would accomplish a similar purpose, it will be pointed out that this is not the fact since such a thread would be of one hand or the other, and either one or the other of the

gripping portions

20 or 21 would not thereby inter-engage properly therewith. It is not desired to have the gripping

portions

21 and 20 of the same hand because there is an unscrewing tendency possible to take place as between the wire and gripping unit which is counteracted by the use of the portions disclosed on the opposite hand.

It is emphasized that the spacing of the protuberances 23 corresponds to the pitch of the spiral to which said gripping portions are formed.

When the trip lever is applied to the tub 1, with the overflow arm 4 suitably adjusted and fixed in position as well as the waste arm 13 likewise arranged similarly, subsequently insertion of the lift wire 12 with the plunger 15 attached thereto to the overflow opening in which the face plate 9 is seated, will facilitate proper closing by suitable downward pressure upon the plunger 15 against the seat 17, making possible subsequent manipulation of the handle 10 to raise and lower the plunger through the same distance each time and effect suitable closing to prevent undesired draining of the tub.

It is noted that the protuberances are designed to extend beyond the circumference of the wire so that they will inter-engage with the coils of the gripping portions irrespective of the hand of said spiral formation.

1 claim:

1. In bath drain construction of the class described,

in combination, a waste tee, an overflow arm extending upwardly therefrom, a waste arm extending sidewardly from the tee, a drain seat in said tee, a plunger operable in said tee to control drain flow through the said seat, means in said overflow arm to operate said plunger toward and away from said seat, said means including a lift wire, means to connect the lift wire and plunger comprising a bail on'the plunger and a gripping unit having resilient coil-spring-like gripping portions engaging the lift wire on each side of the bail, and a connection between such portions and means to non-rotatively, adjustably longitudinally position said gripping unit on said wire including a series of thread-like elements formed on the wire spaced to correspond with the spacing of the gripping portions aforesaid, said nonrotative longitudinal movement of the gripping portions of said unit along the thread-like elements being required to effect proper seating adjustment of the plunger in the tee, and being facilitated by the relative dimensions of the said portions and elements and the fi l iiie as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thread-like elements comprise chord-like protuberances.

3. The combination as claimed in claim 2, wherein the protuberances are diametrically opposed and extend outwardly beyond the basic circumference of the wire.

4. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient gripping portions are cylindrically arranged and the thread-like elements comprise protuberances formed to extend out of the surface of the lift wire into engagement with the said portions at intervals of substantially I".

5. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient gripping portion at one side of the bail is of the opposite hand to that on the other side thereof, and the thread-like elements on the wire are formed to engage the portions and afford substantially equal resistance to displacement of each of said portions along the said wire.

6. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gripping portions are of spiral form, certain of the same being of opposite hands, and cylindrically arranged to closely encircle the lift wire.

Claims

1. In bath drain construction of the class described, in combination, a waste tee, an overflow arm extending upwardly therefrom, a waste arm extending sidewardly from the tee, a drain seat in said tee, a plunger operable in said tee to control drain flow through the said seat, means in said overflow arm to operate said plunger toward and away from said seat, said means including a lift wire, means to connect the lift wire and plunger comprising a bail on the plunger and a gripping unit having resilient coil-spring-like gripping portions engaging the lift wire on each side of the bail, and a connection between such portions and means to non-rotatively, adjustably longitudinally position said gripping unit on said wire including a series of thread-like elements formed on the wire spaced to correspond with the spacing of the gripping portions aforesaid, said non-rotative longitudinal movement of the gripping portions of said unit along the thread-like elements being required to effect proper seating adjustment of the plunger in the tee, and being facilitated by the relative dimensions of the said portions and elements and the tension in the portions.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thread-like elements comprise chord-like protuberances.

4. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient gripping portions are cylindrically arranged and the thread-like elements comprise protuberances formed to extend out of the surface of the lift wire into engagement with the said portions at Intervals of substantially 180*.