# US 2014/0150727 A1 · Animal litter box > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0150727 A1 - Document ID: US20140150727A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 14/232,235 - Filed: 2012-05-17 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2011-07-13 - Assignees: Unicharm Corporation - Inventors: Takayuki Matsuo; Tatsuya Sogou - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140150727A1 ## CPC - A01K 1/0107: {Cat trays; Dog urinals; Toilets for pets} - A01K 1/0114: {Litter boxes with screens for separating excrement from litter} - A01K: ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS ## Abstract An animal litter box has a transverse direction, a longitudinal direction and a vertical direction and includes a lower container having an opening at an upper end thereof and allocated on the lower side, an upper side cover allocated above the lower container and a liquid passable litter tray interposed between the upper side cover and the lower container and cooperating with the lower container to close the opening. The lower container has an excrement tray provided so as to be manually movable in the longitudinal direction between a put-in position at which the excrement tray is set within the receiving space below the liquid passable litter tray and a drawn out position outside the receiving space and an end opening through which the excrement tray is put into or drawn out from the receiving space. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An animal litter box having a transverse direction, a longitudinal direction and a vertical direction and including a lower container having an upper opening, an upper side cover placed on the lower container and a liquid passable litter tray interposed between the upper side cover and the lower container and cooperating with the lower container to close the opening to define a receiving space in such a manner that liquid inflows into the receiving space, wherein: the lower container has an excrement tray provided so as to be manually movable in the longitudinal direction between a put-in position at which the excrement tray is set within the receiving space below the liquid passable litter tray and a drawn out position outside the receiving space and an end opening through which the excrement tray is put into or drawn out from the receiving space, the excrement tray has a bottom wall configured in a rectangle as seen in its planar view and side walls formed along a peripheral edge composed of four sides of the bottom wall and adapted to be put in contact with flap extending along a peripheral edge of an absorbent structure, and a pair of the side walls is formed in a tilted manner so as to be gradually distanced from each other as the side walls extend upward. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein, under the assumption that θ represents a tilt angle of an imaginary line passing through an end of the bottom wall and an upper end of the side wall relative to a horizontal plane in a range of 20° to 80°, the side wall is formed so as to extend within an imaginary region defined by a first imaginary straight line extending at an angle of 80° relative to the horizontal plane and a second imaginary straight line extending at an angle of 20° relative to the horizontal plane. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the liquid passable litter tray has a plurality of through-holes assuring fluid communication between the receiving space and the upper space, a liquid passable region which is rectangular as seen in its planar view and a non-liquid passable region extending along a peripheral edge of the liquid passable region and formed with none of the through-holes, and a total area of the bottom wall and the side walls is larger than an area of an area of the liquid passable region and, with the excrement tray set at the put-in position, the liquid passable region is included with a region immediately above the bottom wall and the side wall. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The animal litter box according to claim 3, wherein an area of the bottom wall of the excrement tray is larger than an area of the liquid passable region and, with the excrement tray set at the put-in position, the liquid passable region is included within a region above the bottom wall. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The animal litter box according to claim 3, wherein the area of the liquid passable region is larger than the area of the bottom wall of the excrement tray and, with the excrement tray set at the put-in position, the bottom wall is included within a region below the liquid passable region. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the excrement tray is formed with a user's finger insertion groove into which user's fingers are inserted for the purpose of moving the excrement tray into the put-in position within the receiving space or to the drawn out position so that the user's finger insertion groove may lie adjacent to the side wall, and the user's finger insertion groove includes a horizontal portion extending in a horizontal direction from the upper end of the side wall and a protrusion portion protrusion downward from an end of the horizontal portion so as to face the side wall wherein the length dimension in the vertical direction of the protrusion portion is smaller than the length dimension in the vertical direction of the side wall and having a concave portion between the side wall and the protrusion portion. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The animal litter box according to claim 6, wherein the excrement tray is formed so that an outer peripheral surface of the protrusion portion may extend along an outer peripheral surface of the lower container. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein a length dimension of the side wall measured along a tilted surface thereof is in a range of 15 mm to 50 mm. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein an apparent length dimension in the vertical direction of the side wall is in a range of 5.1 mm to 49.3 mm.