Trip lever assembly
AssigneeKohler Co.
InventorsDavid K. Rische, Kyle L. Hokel, Virgil S. Eickhoff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A toilet trip lever assembly provides a lever arm that extends in the tank perpendicular to the tank wall. As an outer handle is rotated, it drives a stem, which in turn drives an arm inside the tank that extends parallel to the tank wall, which pushes down an end of a lever. A support holds the lever such that downward movement of that end of the lever drives the opposite end of the lever up. The opposite end of the lever is connected to a linkage to a flush valve.
Claims10
A trip lever assembly mountable through a hole of a tank wall, comprising:
- a rotatable stem extendable through the hole;
- a handle mountable to an outer end of the stem;
- an arm mountable to an inner end of the stem so as to rotate with the stem, the arm then being extendable along the wall;
- a support mountable inside the tank;
- and
- a lever mountable for pivoting on the support, with the lever then extending from a position adjacent the wall towards a position farther away from the wall;
- wherein when the trip lever assembly is mounted through said tank wall hole, rotation of the handle can cause the arm to drive a wall adjacent part of the lever down, and an opposite end of the lever up.
A combined toilet tank and trip lever assembly, comprising:
- a tank having a bottom wall, and surrounding side walls, there being a hole through a side wall;
- a flush valve mounted in a lower portion of the tank;
- a rotatable stem extended through the hole in the tank side wall;
- a handle mounted to an outer end of the stem;
- an arm mounted to an inner end of the stem so as to rotate with the stem, the arm then extending essentially parallel to the side wall through which the stem extends;
- a support mounted inside the tank;
- and
- a lever mounted for pivoting on the support, with the lever then extending essentially perpendicular to the side wall through which the stem extends between a position adjacent that wall towards a position farther away from that wall;
- wherein rotation of the handle causes the arm to drive a part of the lever down, and an opposite part of the lever up.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.