MXPA98009366A - Mechanism for the automatic drive of unfluxome - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is related to flushometers for feeding water to the urinals and more specifically relates to a new mechanism that allows the operation of a flushometer without the intervention of the hand of man. Said fluxometers comprise a mechanism that, without requiring modifications to the structure of existing flushometers, makes these flushometers automatic, requires little energy to operate the water discharge, increasing the duration of the batteries used in case of a mechanism electric to operate said discharge, with a quite long life utility decreasing the tensions and pressures to which the parts that carry out the release of the water discharge are subjected and in which the release mechanism of the water discharge is out of contact with the Water. Structurally, the invention is characterized by comprising a device that by means of a cam moved by a battery motor, drives the lever downwards to release the flow of water, following its rotation until a position in which the cam stops operating the lever for allow it to return to the closed position by the spring comprising said paddle

Description

MECHANISM FOR THE AUTOMATIC ACTIVATION OF A FLUXOMETER FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention is related to flushometers for the water supply to the urinals and more specifically relates to a new mechanism that allows the operation of a fiuxometer without the intervention of the hand of man.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The hydraulic principle of current fluxometers has remained more or less constant and most of the improvement efforts of these devices have focused on the mechanisms that can make them operate without the participation of the human hand.

For reasons of hygiene, it has been sought that the activation of the fiuxometer without the user having to touch any part of the fl uxometer. For the above, electrical devices such as motors and solenoids have been used, which act on what is commonly called a telescope in the flushometers.

The sensors are known to detect the presence of the user waiting to be removed to send a pulse that triggers an electrical device that triggers the discharge of water.

The power supply for these devices can be by means of the electrical network or by means of batteries. The use of power from the electrical network requires separate wiring for power conduction and a system that solves the problems of power cuts, an electrical safety system, resulting in an additional installation cost.

The use of batteries instead of the electrical network partially solves the problem of the use of electric power in the network, however, causing the need to periodically change the used batteries with new ones. Obviously, the frequency with which the batteries must be changed will depend on the force that must be provided to operate the flushometer and the frequency of use of the urinal in which the mechanism is installed.

In short, the flushometer has a housing with a chamber in which a piston moves up and down, with a ring-shaped side seal on top. Said lateral seal that in addition to sealingly sweep the inner wall of the chamber, since the piston is displaced downwards, closes the outlet of the chamber downwards and the lateral supply of the water network.

The piston comprises, on its upper face, at least two peripheral entrances that connect with a central outlet on the lower face. Said lower outlet forming a seat where it rests, sealing said outlet, a disc pushed by a spring on its underside and joined on its underside to a bolt projecting downwards, where an internal piston is housed telescopically which may have some upward movement and down inside that external bolt. On its upper face, in addition to the at least two peripheral entrances, the piston comprises a central outlet connected to an entrance located in its lateral central part.

The piston on its outside face, in the lower part of the piston, has a frustoconical configuration with the base downwards so that when the water hits this surface it pushes it down to keep the flow of water closed down, at the same time time that the water, going through the central lateral entrance, is stored in the upper volume until the water entrance to the chamber is completely closed.

When a user made use of the toilet fed by the flushometer, to discharge the water to said toilet, it is required to simply operate the telescopic bolts with a lateral force to lift a peripheral part of the sealing disc against the lower central seat of the plunger, when this The water is emptied from the upper part of the plunger and this ascends by opening the water inlet so that it flows into the sanitary unit.

The pressure that is generated in the upper part of the plunger by the stored water is around 50 kg / cm2, depending on the water inlet pressure to the chamber, and the force that must be exerted on the telescopic bolts to discharge the water in the sanitary cabinet in which the flushometer is installed, is around 7 kg. To exert this level of force requires the use of a certain amount of energy that is high, to drive the coil or drive motor, which greatly decreases the duration of the batteries when they are used to provide the force of discharge of water.

The use of a motor means to develop this force of 7 kg to trigger the discharge of water means an important supply of electrical energy that can reduce the period of useful life of the used electric batteries.

On the other hand, the production of manually operated manometers is a mature technology, and its production is very well assimilated, and a change in this structure, in addition to the redesign effort itself, would also require a modification in The production process, which would require investment in research and development, especially taking into account that the device would have to work in a medium flooded with water, in combination with a medium that by the characteristics of electrical conductivity of water and use of electric power for the operation of the devices, it would have to be isolated from said flooded medium.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION The first objective of the present invention is to make possible a mechanism that, without requiring modifications to the structure of the existing flushometers, make these automatic-operated flushometers.

As an additional objective is to have a flushometer that requires little energy to trigger the discharge of water, increasing the duration of the batteries used in case of an electrical mechanism to trigger said discharge.

Another objective is to provide a mechanism that has a fairly long life span by decreasing the stresses and pressures to which the parts that carry out the release of the water discharge are subjected.

Still another objective is to achieve a fiuxometer in which the release mechanism of the water discharge is out of contact with water.

And all those qualities and objectives that will become apparent when making a description of the present invention, supported by the illustrated modalities.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The application of force to drive the telescopic bolt, in the multiple tests carried out, presents a series of possibilities. It is possible to directly drive the telescopic bolt by means of a ferromagnetic part that is driven through a coil (electromagnet) that surrounds this part and a spring that returns the ferromagnetic part when the coil supply stops, or it can be carried out by means of some mechanism that uses an engine instead of an electromagnet.

This change of motor electromagnet means a distribution advantage of the force to be supplied in a longer but less intense time lapse. For this we had to transform a circular movement in a back and forth movement, but this would mean an increase in the duration of the batteries to not have such an intense discharge.

Physically we are talking about force (F = m »a), work (W = F» d) and power (P = W / t). Another definition of work is the energy required to move an object by applying a certain force during a certain distance. Trying not to require a strong punctual discharge of energy, conditions that diminish the useful life of the batteries, one can play with the force and the distance diminishing the force and increasing, obviously, the distance. For this you can use the so-called "machines" in physics.

In the traditional manual flushometer you already have one of these "machines" which is the lever. It is by means of a lever that normally a user moves the telescopic bolt to make the discharge of water. Taking advantage of this lever, it is possible to decrease the force by increasing the application distance thereof, with this the distance during which said force is applied is increased but the force used is decreased. But you still see the convenience of using an engine to operate the lever instead of a solenoid.

For this it was found that a cam allowed, in addition to transforming the revolving movement of the motor in a back and forth motion, to use another physical "machine": the inclined plane. Indeed, the cam can be visualized as an inclined plane describing an elliptical convolution.

Briefly, then, the invention consists of the association of a manual lever-operated flushometer at the end of which a cam rotated by an electric motor contacts. Turning this cam allows you to operate the lever with the sole power of a battery motor. In one of the embodiments of this invention, the cam may have more than one position. By studies of forces, efforts and dimensions, it is proposed that the cam has, in its preferred embodiment, 7 positions.

The cam has one end where the maximum movement of the lever is given and one end in which when resting on the lever this is in closed position.

For a better understanding of the invention, description will be made of one of the modalities thereof, illustrated in the drawings that are annexed to the present description for purposes of illustration, but not limitation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates, in conventional perspective, a state-of-the-art flushometer with a cut of the housing to be able to see the interior and the accessory that makes it automatic.

Figure 2 is a front view of the flushometer object of the present invention, showing the cam of 7 positions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITY The characteristic details of the present invention are clearly shown in the following description and in the accompanying drawings, the same reference signs serving to indicate the same parts, in the figures shown.

In figure 1 with the number 1 the housing inside which the plunger 2 is housed with its lateral annular seal 3 and the telescopic bolts 4 is shown. The upper chamber 5 which is formed when the plunger 2 moves downwards, filling with water, simultaneously with the displacement. The lever 6 when operated by the hand of man (in its manual option) or by cam 7 (in its automatic option) which is moved by a mechanism of gears and motor 8, drives the rod 9 which in turn displaces in a pendular movement the telescopic bolts 4.

In figure 2 a front view of the flushometer object of the present invention is illustrated, showing the 7 position cam (7) that actuates the end of the lever 6 when said cam 7 is rotated by the motor mechanism and gears 8.

As already mentioned, in the preferred embodiment a cam with 7 positions is used, however it could be shown that although it is not the optimal option, the cam can have less than 7 positions, depending mainly on the amount of displacement that is required for the lever, the successive changes of slopes of the face of the cam that is in contact with the lever, the optimum dimension of said cam and the distance that it is desired to leave between the center of the cam and the center of the lever.

The invention has been described sufficiently so that a person with average knowledge in the art can reproduce it and obtain the results that we mentioned in the present invention. However, any person skilled in the art who is competent in the present invention may be able to make modifications not described in the present application, however, if for the application of these modifications in a determined construction the material is required claimed in the following claims, said devices should be included within the scope of the invention.

Claims (3)

R E I V I N D I C A C I O N S Having sufficiently described the invention, it is considered as a novelty and therefore claims as property that contained in the following clauses.

1) Mechanism for the automatic activation of a lever-operated type fl uxometer characterized by comprising a device that by means of a cam moved by a battery motor, drives the lever down to release the flow of water, following its rotation until a position in which the cam stops operating the lever to allow it to return to the closed position by the spring comprising said lever.

2) Mechanism for the automatic activation of a lever-operated type flushometer as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the cam has more than 1 position.

3) Mechanism for the automatic activation of a lever-operated type flushometer as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the cam has 7 positions. SUMMARY The present invention relates to flushometers for supplying water to the urinals and more specifically to a new mechanism that allows the operation of a flushometer without the intervention of the human hand. Said fluxometers comprise a mechanism which, without requiring modifications to the structure of the existing flushometers, makes these automatic-operated flushometers; it requires little energy to activate the discharge of water, increasing the duration of the batteries used in case of an electrical mechanism to operate said discharge; with a quite long life, decreasing the tensions and pressures to which the parts that carry out the release of the water discharge are subjected and in which the release mechanism of the water discharge is out of contact with the water. Structurally the invention is characterized by comprising a device that by means of a cam moved by a battery motor, drives the lever down to release the flow of water, following its rotation to a position where the cam stops operating the lever to allow it to return to the closed position by the spring comprising said lever.