WO2004085768A2

WO2004085768A2 - Direction and motion regulator

Info

Publication number: WO2004085768A2
Application number: PCT/ZA2003/000042
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hendrik Christoffel White; Herman Petrus Roodt
Original assignee: Microzone Trading 1240 Cc
Priority date: 2002-03-27
Filing date: 2003-03-27
Publication date: 2004-10-07
Also published as: WO2004085768A3; AU2003303958A1; AU2003303958A8

Abstract

Disclosed is a direction and motion regulator, a ball-and-socket joint connection, in particular for holding a pipe and or the likes on the one side of the joint intermediate to a pipe and/or device used for cleaning a swimming pool on the other side of the joint. the ball sitting in a socket/seat forms a joint casing in which instance the casing permits rotation of the ball inside the casing in any direction. On the one side of the ball an adapter is fitted to connect with a pipe and/or a cleaning device. This side of the ball extrude from the socket casing joint. On the other side of the ball an openinng is left to allow the free through-flow of air/water without obstruction. The socket on the outside of the ball is fitted with an extrusion/fitting to fit onto a pipe and/or cleaning device. The ball as well as the socket around the ball can be hollow as to freely allow the through-flow of air/water. The ball is places and positioned inside the socket by opening the socket on one side to allow such swivelling action that the ball can roll into a position ranging from 0 - 89 degrees.

Description

DIRECTION & MOTION REGULATOR : - DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION & BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a ball-and-socket joint connection and, in particular, is for a swimming pool cleaning device, with a joint hall sitting in a seat of a joint casing and permitting rotations in multi-axes and with a 6a//-shaped joint socket which can axially rotate the cleaning device into any direction of the joint casing i.e. it allows the swimming pool cleaning device to move in any one direction.

It is generally perceived without any specific reference to any specific product that cleaning devices do not clean and/or reach the complete pool. This can not be stated categorically as most of the pool cleaning device manufacturers and distributors generally claim its effectivity as well as their individual supremacy to the cleaning of pools. It must be stated that without swimming pool cleaning devices, it will be much more labour intensive to clean swimming pools.

The DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR proto-type was tested on most pools where this in-accessability was indicated and proved to be successful in cleaning the normally skipped areas i.e. steps, tight corners, sidewalls etc. The ball-and-socket joint connection has fulfilled its objectives within the framework of the abovementioned application in several swimming pools, and no disadvantage could be perceived.

The fact that the individual parts of the iba//-and-soc/cef joint connection are separable from one another makes its cleaning a pleasure, although it might never need any cleaning. The ball-and-socket joint connection is very cheap to manufacture in comparison and in relation to metal ball-and-socket joint connections because it is made from normal PVC like plastic, normally used in swimming pools.

The owner of the DIRECTION AMD MOTION REGULATOR has since progressed to manufacture the units and has received very positive results in the market. No other or similar product is available worldwide and every product sold or tested has indicated its novelty claim on the packaging by referring to patent protection. The provisional patent application as applied for on the 27^lh of March 2002 with number 2002/2440 refers. The first product was manufactured during November 2002 by means of plastic injection moulding and plastic blow moulding.

THE DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR'S STRUCTURE:

1. A ball-and-socket joint connection comprising: 1.1 a joint casing having a seat adapted to receive a rotatable joint ball,

1.2 a rotatable joint ball adapted to sit in said seat;

1.3 a joint socket housed in said joint casing;

1.4 a body case having a nozzle open toward one side, the body case having a substantially round shape;

1.5 a first connecting opening that has a first water/air flow passage for allowing passage of a flow of water/air sucked in through the one side and that is coupled to the body case so as to be rotatable about a rotation axis in any direction of the longer sides of the pipe fitting attached to the ball; and

1.6 on the other side an opening to a water/air flow freely through the joint even should the ball be in any other position than that of the socket joint casing;

1.7 an actuation element for displacing said joint socket with said joint ball wherein said joint ball is fixable in the seat of the joint casing by way of retracting the joint socket and the joint ball is pressed into the seat of the joint casing, and wherein by displacing forwards the joint socket with the actuation element the joint ball is separable from the seat. 1.8 a ball-and-socket joint connection that is hollow on the inside

1.9 a ball-and-socket joint connection that can be filled with a piping means inside to increase and or decrease the effective through-flow of water/air. The ball-and-socket joint connection of claim 1 , wherein the seat of the joint socket is formed round, elliptical and or conically.

The ball-and-socket joint connection of claim 1, wherein the joint casing is open to the outside and the joint ball is separable from the joint casing.

The ball-and-socket joint connection of claim 1, wherein the joint ball is rigidly connected to a fitting (as can be moulded onto the ball by a process such as plastic injection moulding).

The ball-and-socket joint connection of claim 4, wherein the joint socket casing is rigidly connected to another connected fitting (as can be moulded onto the socket by a process such as plastic injection moulding). A means such as a clip-on/off sealing connection joint as part of the socket joint allowing the socket joint to consist of two parts that clip-on and -off one another to form the said ball-and-socket joint connection unit.

a joint casing having a seat adapted to receive a rotatable joint ball;

a rotatable joint ball adapted with a protruding fitting fitted one side and opening on the other side inside the said seat.

a joint socket housed in said joint casing

The extruding fitting on the ball, wherein the actuation element is a round-shaped and which is pivotingly movably connected to an extension such as a pipe, the joint socket and which essentially projects in the opposite direction of the pipe attached to the ball, extruding to the connection on the socket, also attached to a pipe.

The size of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR is dependant upon the size of the piping used with a swimming pool cleaning device. The optimal effectiveness of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR is obtained when the dimensions of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR is subject to the minimum dimensions of the normal piping used with swimming pool cleaning device i.e. smaller dimensions allows less movement because of less surface allowance etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the invention to provide a ball-and-socket joint connection which permits rotation in several axes, allows jerk-free movements, which fixes and again releases when used with a device such as cleaning devices normally used in swimming pools and other similar environments.

The invention also relates to a 'plυg-and-plsy' device that can be attached to any existing swimming pool cleaning device, although it can be part of the device and/or pipe of the related cleaning device/s.

A ball-and-socket joint connection achieving the above object according to an essential aspect of the invention divides the socket part in such a way that the ball will be fixed in what is named the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR, a ball-and-socket joint connection. In this manner the ball-and-socket joint connection according to the invention may be released by dismantling the socket parts' sections and removing the ball from the seat part of the socket joint.

In another preferred embodiment the seat of the joint casing is provided with a shallow round/cone so that the joint ball in the retracted position of the joint socket comes to lie on the round/cone surface of the seat. The more shallow the round/cone shape, the better the normal movement of the ball surface in the round/cone-shaped seat.

Due to the openable formation of the joint casing with the round/cone shape, the joint ball in the released condition of the ball-and-socket joint connection may be simply removed from the joint casing.

For the axial displacement of the joint socketto each individual ball-and-socket joint connection the suction or blowing of a swimming pool pump together with the restriction and/or release of the flow of water/air influence the direction of movement of the attached cleaning device used for swimming pools.

In another embodiment, the direction fluctuation of the swimming pool cleaning device can be assisted, solely and or in conjunction with the axial movement obtained from the ball inside the socket, by the size and or the opening of the ball inside the seat or socket. As soon as the through flow of water;/air is restricted through the inner ball-and-socket joint connection opening, it will influence the speed of the swimming pool cleaning device and will therefor redirect the path and or direction that the device would normally follow.

The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims appended to and forming a part of this specification. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects obtained by its use, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

SKETCH A shows a first embodiment of DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR ball-and-socket joint connection which connects two pipes, on one side the cleaning apparatus as discussed above and on the other side the pipe that is connected to the filter pump of the swimming pool;

SKETCH. B shows an alternate embodiment of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATORball-and-socke lntcxinnecϊion with an elastically designed joint ball,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED

EMBODIMENTS

SKETCH A shows a first embodiment, indicated generally by reference numeral 1 , of a ball-and-socket joint connection according to the invention which on one side is connected to a pipe part 4 and on the other side is connected to the swimming pool cleaning device 5. Should the cleaning device therefore reach an area where it needs to go in another direction, it will not stop or go in the same direction as previously, but the chance that it will go in a totally different direction is far greater than before the DIRECTION AND MOTION

REGULATOR was fitted are 100% more likely. Otherwise the swimming pool cleaning devices tends to clean certain areas of a swimming pool and never reach certain parts of the swimming pool. Steps in a swimming pool always seems to be neglected by swimming pool cleaning devices. This problem is and seems to be totally eliminated with the DIRECTION AND MOTION

REGULATOR.

The ball part 2, partially enclosed by the socket part 3, is allowed to turn in a 380 degree circle and in any direction. The ball part of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR also consist of a adaptor/fitting means 6 (female) that can be attached to a pipe and or swimming pool cleaning device. The direction into which the pump suck the water through the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR is not important and the device 1 will operate in any direction, whatever position and size the adaptor/fitting means 6 might be, whether it is male or female. The socket part of the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR 7 is fitted on the one side with a adaptor/fitting means that can also be attached to either the pipe that is connected to a pipe attached to the swimming pool filter/pump and/or either to the swimming pool cleaning device.

The schematic representation in SKETCH B in the same manner as in SKETCH A shows another embodiment of DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR ball-and-socket joint connection where the device is attached onto the swimming pool cleaning device with the pipe attached to the filter/pump attached on the other side of the device.

As mentioned in the "WE CLAIftf ^! above, the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR can also form part or be incorporated or be a single unit combination of a swimming pool cleaning device. This is illustrated by SKETCH

C where the DIRECTION AND RflOTlON REGULATOR is situated directly above the unit. Also indicated on SKETCH C is the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR as an add-on inserted device with indications of how to fit it onto a swimming pool cleaning device.

SKETCH D illustrate the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR attached at either end to normal swimming pool piping.

Claims

WE CLAIM:According to our invention, we claim the following uniqueness for the DIRECTION AND MOTION REGULATOR:

1. An add-on, clip-on, insertion device- ;

2. A device used in-conjunction-with, together with- ;

3. A device that can form part of as a complete unit- of the swimming pool cleaning device; 4. A device that enhances or add effectiveness to the swimming pool cleaning device; 5. A device that allows the swimming pool cleaning device to move more

freely into and all directions inside a swimming pool of various shapes and sizes.