WO2003076326A1

WO2003076326A1 - Liquid dispensing and emergency water distribution

Info

Publication number: WO2003076326A1
Application number: PCT/CA2002/000320
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alberto 'P.G.' DE SOUSA COSTA
Original assignee: Floodmaster Design Inc.
Priority date: 2002-03-12
Filing date: 2002-03-12
Publication date: 2003-09-18
Also published as: AU2002240752A1

Abstract

A water bladder (12) may be brought to an emergency site and water tankers (80) may off-load their water to the bladder and leave for more. The bladder may port the water to a water distribution apparatus (20) having a plurality of valved water dispensers (30). Each water dispenser (30) may have a sleeve (50) tapering downwardly to a dispensing opening (52). The sleeve can capture a valve element (56) which seats in the dispensing opening under the force of gravity. An actuator (70) may be joined to the valve element through the dispensing opening to provide a simple, reliable mechanism. The water dispensers of the water dispensing apparatus may be configured in a circular pattern.

Description

LIQUID DISPENSING AND EMERGENCY WATER DISTRIBUTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a liquid dispenser and a method and system for emergency water distribution.

In a large scale emergency situation, particularly in the third world, safe potable water often becomes scarce. If a population is forced to turn to an unsafe water supply, diseases, such as cholera, can quickly spread with disastrous results.

It is known to drive water tanker trucks to the site of an emergency to provide safe water. However, the number of these trucks is invariably limited. Further, in most situations, there is no sanitary place to off-load the water, hence it must be dispensed to the population directly from the trucks. Thus, a truck typically remains at the site for a considerable period of time while its water is dispensed. A further problem is that there may be a considerable crowd at a truck in need of water. Despite this, typically the water must be dispensed from the truck into one container at a time. This can lead to impatience in the crowd and possible resultant jostling with consequent increased spillage.

The present invention seeks to avoid some of the drawbacks attendant in present approaches to distributing emergency water.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A water bladder may be brought to an emergency site and water tankers may off-load their water to the bladder and leave for more. The bladder may port the water to a water distribution apparatus having a plurality of valved water dispensers. Each water dispenser may have a head with a sleeve tapering downwardly to a dispensing opening. The head can capture a valve element which seats in the dispensing opening under the force of gravity. An actuator may be joined to the valve element through the dispensing opening to provide a simple, reliable mechanism. The water dispensers of the water dispensing apparatus may be configured in a circular pattern.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a liquid dispenser, comprising: a head with a sleeve tapering downwardly to a dispensing opening; a valve element captured by said head, said valve element having a seated position closing said dispensing opening; an actuator member extending externally of said head and joined to said valve element through said dispensing opening.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency water distribution system comprising a plurality of individually valved water dispensers arranged in a circular pattern.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of providing an emergency water supply comprising: trucking water to an emergency site; filling a water bladder at said emergency site with said water; porting water from said bladder to a water dispensing apparatus having a plurality of valved water dispensers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the figures which illustrate example embodiments of the invention, figure 1 is a perspective view of an emergency water distribution system in accordance with this invention, figure 2a is a plan view of the water dispensing apparatus of figure 1, figure 2b is a cross-sectional view along the lines IIB-IIB of figure 2a, figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of a liquid dispenser of the water dispensing apparatus, figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a liquid dispenser for the water dispensing apparatus, figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a liquid dispenser for the water dispensing apparatus, figure 6a is a plan view of another water dispensing apparatus suitable for use in the system of figure 1, and figure 6b is a cross-sectional view along the lines VIB-VIB of figure 6a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to figure 1, an exemplary emergency water distribution system 10 comprises a water bladder 12 having an outlet 14 joined to a conduit 16. Conduit 16 feeds to the inlet 17 of a supply hub 18 of a water dispensing apparatus 20. With reference to figures 2a and 2b along with figure 1, the water dispensing apparatus 20 has a plurality of water supply pipes 22 extending radially from hub 18. Each supply pipe 22 terminates in a water dispenser 30 such that the water dispensers are arranged in a circular pattern. The outer end of the supply pipes rest on, and may be positively mounted to, a supporting framework 24. The supporting framework comprises support arms 26 interconnected into a polygonal shape and depending support legs 28. To anchor apparatus 20, the base of the support legs 28 and supply hub 18 may be buried in the ground and anchors 32 may extend through a flange of the support legs and into the ground. As shown, there are eight supply pipes 22 and eight water dispensers 30. Of course, a different number of each may be provided by modifying framework 24 appropriately.

A (plastic) catchment plate may be placed on the ground below each of the water dispensers 30 and an underground conduit 34 may drain water from the catchment plate to an underground catchment reservoir 36 which may be provided with a pump 38.

Water bladder 12 has one or more sealable inlets 42 through which the bladder may be filled. Belts 44 may surround the bladder 12 to relieve the stress on the bladder walls when the bladder is full.

The water bladder 12 is made of an impermeable flexible material lined with a food grade liner or coating. A suitable flexible material is a linear low density polyethylene (LLDP) material such as POLYFLEX III^tm produced by PolyFlex, Inc. of Grand Prairie, Texas. An advantage of an LLDP is that it has no plasticisers which rodents consider as a food. While a range of dimensions for the bladder may be suitable, exemplary dimensions for an empty bladder laid flat are 3.43 m wide by 10 m long. Such a bladder has a circumference of about 7 m when filled and will hold almost 23,000 litres of water. The wall of the bladder, when fabricated from POLYFLEX III^tm brand LLDP material may be 1.50 mm thick. This will provide a high degree of protection from puncture in rough terrain. The wall may be coloured white for heat dissipation. The food grade liner or coating may be a food grade polypropylene or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material. The water bladder may rest on a ground sheet 40 which will also assist in preventing punctures. The ground sheet may be fabricated of a 0.75 mm thick geomembrane-type material.

The supply hub 18 and supply pipes 22 may comprise an aluminum or PVC outer tube and a food grade polypropylene or PET inner tube. A layer of insulation, such as a fifty mm thick layer of urethane foam, may be provided between the inner and outer tubes. Suitable fittings join the supply pipes in fluid communication with the supply hub.

Turning to figure 3, a water dispenser 30 has a head 48 in fluid communication with a supply pipe 22 and a sleeve 50 tapering downwardly to a dispensing opening 52. The sleeve may be frusto-conical in shape and is lined with a food grade polypropylene liner 54.

A valve element, which in this exemplary embodiment is ball valve 56, is captured by head

48. When lowered, the ball valve 56 seats on the liner 54 of sleeve 50 in order to close the dispensing opening 52. A lever support 60 with a lower opening 62 screws to the head 48. The lever support has a pivot 64 opposite a side opening 66. A lever 68 extends through the side opening 66 and is joined to pivot 64 such that the pivot acts as a fulcrum for the lever

66. The lever has a shield 69 which at least partially occludes side opening 66. A joining member, which in this exemplary embodiment is post 70, is pivotably joined to lever 68 and is fixed to ball valve 56. Thus, post 70 extends through the dispensing opening. The head 48 and ball valve 56 may be made of, or lined with, copper, a material to which bacteria does not attach.

The gravitational forces on the ball valve 56 and the interconnected post 70 and lever 68 urge the ball valve to seat on the sleeve liner 54 and close the dispensing opening. Thus, the dispensing opening will only be open when the lever is displaced from its resting position illustrated in solid line in figure 3 toward a valve opening position illustrated in phantom in figure 3. Further, when the lever is released, the ball valve will return, under the force of gravity, to its seated position, again closing the dispensing opening. Conduits 16 and 34 are ideally flexible and may be fabricated of polypropylene or other food grade materials. The catchment reservoir may be aluminum and lined with a polypropylene liner.

In the event of an emergency where safe water becomes scarce in an area, one or more water distribution systems 10 may be shipped to the area. Each bladder 12 is shipped empty and, conveniently, an empty bladder and its ground sheet may be in a rolled up state while shipped. One or more sites in the area are chosen so that the bladders may be deployed at an elevation which is higher than that of water distribution apparatus 20. At a site, a ground sheet is unrolled on the ground, belts 44 are laid flat on the ground sheet and a bladder is unrolled on top of the ground sheet and belts. At a lower elevation, a framework 24 is installed by burying the base of legs 28 into the ground and anchoring the legs. Next a hub 18 and supply pipe 22 assembly may be installed with the supply pipes resting on the support arms 26 of the framework 24 and the base of the hub dug into the ground. A conduit 16 may be attached to the outlet 14 of bladder 12 and to the inlet 17 of hub 18. Ideally, the conduit 16 is buried underground. This assists in protecting the conduit from people and the sun.

A catchment reservoir 36 may be dug into the ground or otherwise placed at a lower elevation than water distribution apparatus 20. A catchment plate 31 may be placed below each water dispenser 30 and a conduit 34 joined to a drain in the catchment plate and to the catchment reservoir.

After this installation, water trucks 80 (or any other available source of water) may be used to fill bladder 12 and the belts 44 secured around the bladder to assist in taking the strain on the bladder walls imparted by the water.

When the bladder has water in it, the water will flow down and into water distribution apparatus 20 by virtue of the bladder being at a higher elevation than the water distribution apparatus. Now people can dispense water from any of the water dispensers 30. As described, this simply involves lifting lever 68 (figure 3) and letting go of the lever when finished. Much of the water lost to the ground will hit one of the catchment plates 31 and drain to the catchment reservoir, where it may be used as grey water.

Because there are a number of water dispensers 30 and they are arranged in a circular pattern, the water distribution apparatus allows for a number of simultaneous users without the users interfering with one another.

It will be apparent that once a water tanker has off-loaded its water to a bladder 12, it is free to immediately leave to load more water. This, then makes much more efficient use of these trucks as compared with dispensing water directly from such trucks.

Figure 4 illustrates a portion of an alternative water dispenser. Turning to figure 4, the head 148 of dispenser 130 has a downwardly tapering sleeve 150 made of a rigid polypropylene material. Thus, the sleeve does not require an additional liner. A cap, with a basal opening 162 protects sleeve 150. With dispenser 130, the actuator member is a laterally extending bar 168. Bar 168 is joined to the ball valve 56 through dispensing opening 152 by a post 170. With dispenser 130, a user may lift bar 168 to lift the ball valve from its seated position in order to dispense water. Once the bar 168 is released, the ball valve will again drop to a seated position whereat it closes dispensing opening 152. As a further alternative, bar 168 can actually be a laterally extending bar grid.

Figure 5 illustrates a portion of another alternative water dispenser. Turning to figure 5, water dispenser 230 has a head 248 with a downwardly tapering sleeve 250 lined with liner 254. Ball valve 56 is captured by the head 248 of the dispenser. An actuator member for dispenser 230 is in the nature of a tubular sleeve 268 which extends downwardly from the dispensing opening 252 and is closely toleranced thereto. A post 270 joined to the actuator member 268 extends through the dispensing opening and is joined to ball valve 56. When the ball valve 56 is seated, the upper end of the actuator member remains within the dispensing opening so that the actuator remains properly positioned. When the actuator member is displaced upwardly, ball valve 56 is unseated and water may be dispensed. When the actuator member is released, the ball valve returns to its seated position. It will be appreciated from figure 5 that the actuator member could be joined directly to the ball valve 56 through the dispensing opening rather than by way of a separate joining member.

It should be apparent that the simple mechanism of each of the water dispensers provides a reliable and robust construction and, by virtue of closing when released, conserves water. These dispensers could be used to dispense liquids other than water.

An alternative water dispensing apparatus is illustrated in figures 6a and 6b. Dispensing apparatus 220 has a framework 224 comprising arms 226 interconnected in a polygonal shape with depending legs 228. A polygonal supply pipe 222 has supply spurs 223 which rest on arms 226 of framework 224 and terminate in water dispensers 30'. These water dispensers 30' are identical to dispensers 30 of figure 3 except that their heads 48' have a circular cross-section. The supply pipe 222 connects to conduit 16 from the water bladder via a riser pipe 218. To add additional stability to framework 224, a number of support wires 280 diagonally interconnect portions of the framework. These support wires may be tightened with couplings 282.

Other modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art and, therefore, the invention is defined in the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1 A liquid dispenser, comprising: a head with a sleeve tapering downwardly to a dispensing opening; a valve element captured by said head, said valve element having a seated position closing said dispensing opening; an actuator member extending externally of said head and joined to said valve element through said dispensing opening.

2. The liquid dispenser of claim 1 wherein said sleeve has a frusto-conical shape and said valve element is a ball valve.

3. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said valve element is urged by gravity toward said seated position.

4. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said actuator member is joined to said ball valve by a joining member comprising a post attached at one end to said ball valve and to another end to said actuator member.

5. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said actuator member comprises a lever.

6. The liquid dispenser of claim 5 further comprising a lever support interconnected with said sleeve, said lever support providing a fulcrum for said lever.

7. The liquid dispenser of claim 6 wherein said actuator is joined to said ball valve by a . joining member comprising a post attached at one end to said ball valve and to another end to said lever.

8. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said actuator member comprises a laterally extending bar.

9. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said actuator member comprises a laterally extending bar grid.

10. The liquid dispenser of claim 2 wherein said actuator member comprises a sleeve extending downwardly from said dispensing opening and closely toleranced to said dispensing opening so as to slide through said dispensing opening.

11. An emergency water distribution system comprising a plurality of liquid dispensers of claim 1 arranged in a circular pattern.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a water supply bladder and a fluid line connecting said water supply bladder to said supply hub.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising a liquid catchment disposed below each said liquid dispensers and a liquid line extending from each said catchment to a catchment reservoir.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising a plurality of supply pipes extending radially from a supply hub, each supply pipe terminating in one of said liquid dispensers.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a support framework for said supply pipes, said framework having support arms interconnected into a circular or polygonal shape.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said framework has a plurality of support legs extending from said support arms.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising an anchor for anchoring one of said support legs.

18. An emergency water distribution system comprising a plurality of individually valved water dispensers arranged in a circular pattern.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising a plurality of water supply pipes extending radially from a water supply hub, each supply pipe terminating in one of said water dispensers.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein each water dispenser has a valve arranged to close under the force of gravity.

21. A method of providing an emergency water supply comprising: trucking water to an emergency site; filling a water bladder at said emergency site with said water; porting water from said bladder to a water dispensing apparatus having a plurality of valved water dispensers.