Coiled hose

#The present invention relates generally to hoses and more particularly to a hose having a coiled tube with an elliptical cross-section. Another aspect of the invention relates to a hose having a coiled tube with a cross-sectional shape causing the tube to have a flexural modulus greater than the flexural modulus of a coiled tube having a circular cross-section, wherein the coiled tubes are otherwise the same. An additional aspect of the invention relates to a hose having a coiled tube with longitudinally extending ridges on its peripheral surface.

#Water hoses having extruded polyurethane resin or polyvinyl chloride resin heclically coiled tubes with cross-sections having circular interior and exterior surfaces are commercially available. The tubes are coiled to enable the hoses, when stored, to have adjacent abutting or substantially abutting turns. In use, one end of such a hose is connected to a standard faucet and a user pulls on the other end of the hose, causing the adjacent abutting turns to become spaced from each other, resulting in partial uncoiling of the tube. Upon release by the user, the tube again becomes tightly coiled so that adjacent turns again abut or substantially abut. Hoses having such tubes are considered desirable because of the ease with which they are stored and the small amount of space they occupy during storage.

#Such hoses having extruded polyvinyl chloride resin heclically coiled tubes have greater flexure than hoses having extruded polyurethane resin coiled tubes with otherwise identical properties. The greater flexure of the polyvinyl chloride tubes enables the polyvinyl chloride tubes to be uncoiled more easily than the polyurethane resin tubes. In addition, tubes made of polyvinyl chloride resin are less expensive than tubes made of polyurethane resin. However, a disadvantage of heclically coiled polyvinyl chloride resin tubes relative to hectically coiled polyurethane tubes is that the helix of a polyvinyl chloride resin tube must have a relatively small diameter to provide the tube with a sufficiently large flexural modulus to maintain the adjacent turns of the tube in an abutting relationship. (Flexural modulus is also referred to as flexural rigidity; it is a constant indicative of the ability of a structure to bend; flexural modulus is equal to the Young's modulus of the material in the structure times the moment of inertia of the structure; it is also equal to the square of the radius of gyration of a cross-section of the structure perpendicular to the plane in which the structure is being bent.) In fact, the commercially available hoses having polyvinyl chloride resin heclically coiled tubes, when stored, have adjacent turns that frequently do not abut or even substantially abut so that such hoses cannot be stored in an optimum, minimum space condition.

#FIG. 1 is a top view of a hose including a coiled tube, in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a front view of the hose of FIG. 1;

#FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of one preferred embodiment of the coiled tube of the hose of FIGS. 1 and 2; and

#Reference is now made to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawing wherein water hose 10 is illustrated as including flexible, heclically coiled tube 12 having male and female connectors 14 and 16 respectively connected to opposite ends of the tube. Male and female connectors 14 and 16 are of the conventional type, respectively adapted to be connected to standard domestic outdoor faucets and water dispensing structures, such as nozzles, sprayers and sprinklers.

#Tube 12, preferably made of extruded plastic resin (preferably polyvinyl chloride) having a durometer hardness measurement approximately in the range of 70-80 Shore A, has elliptical cross-sections in planes at right angles to the direction of flow through the tube, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. The resin includes known pigments which inhibit sunlight deterioration of tube 12. The helical windings of tube 12 are substantially circular throughout the length of the tube, as illustrated in FIG. 2. When tube 12 is stored, adjacent pairs of the helical windings abut or substantially abut.

#Tube 12 has elliptical cross-sections throughout its length, except at its ends where the tube is connected to connectors 14 and 16, at which points the tube has circular cross-sections. Tube 12 is sufficiently pliable that the portions of extruded elliptical cross-sections connected to connectors 14 and 16 are deformed into circular cross-sections when the connectors are attached to the tube in a conventional manner.