US 5,711,037 AGranted

Waterless urinal

AssigneeWaterless Company

InventorsKlaus H. Reichardt, Ditmar L. Gorges

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A waterless urinal meeting U.S. sanitation code requirements and providing advantages of cost savings, water conservation and easy maintenance is particularly beneficial in public or institutional urinal facilities. An odor trap cartridge unit is configured as a coaxial dual chamber bell trap that eliminates the need for conventional P or J type traps required in water-flushed urinals. In the odor trap, a body of oily liquid sealant, floating on a body of trapped residual urine, serves as an odor barrier but allows entering urine to immediately permeate downwardly through the sealant and proceed to a drain without requiring flushing. The odor trap is molded from two plastic parts that are assembled together to form a cartridge unit that fits readily into a receptacle cavity of urinal bowl configured for wall mounting. The cartridge stays in place by friction and gravity, and can be easily removed with a special tool. A special low specific gravity sealant formulation, ensuring efficient operation, is made biodegradable to protect the environment against any traces escaping to the drain. Sealant replenishment, when required, is easily performed. For unusually frequent usage, maintenance may be reduced by the use of an auxiliary oil reservoir serving one or more urinals.

Claims3

Dependent claims

An odor trap kit for a waterless urinal having a trap receptacle in a lower portion thereof, comprising:

an odor trap unit, constructed and arranged to be installed into the trap receptacle and to be retained there frictionally, comprising:
(a) a cylindrical main body part having an outer wall integrally joined via a common floor to a central stand tube extending upwardly to an overflow level, the outer wall extending upwardly beyond the overflow level to a rim region, thus forming a main liquid chamber, and
(b) a cap/partition part having a cap portion with a partition, extending downwardly therefrom to a horizontal lower edge, constructed and arranged to divide the main liquid chamber into an inner chamber region surrounded by an outer chamber region, and to define a bottom chamber region, communicating with the inner and outer chamber regions, extending in height from the floor to the lower edge of the partition, the cap portion extending outwardly beyond the partition to a circumference configured with a plurality of spacers disposed in a uniform polar array extending radially so as to engage the rim region in a manner to attach said main body part to said cap/partition part, thus forming said odor trap unit as a cartridge to be installed in the trap receptacle, the spacers, cap and rim forming a polar array of arched gaps for directing urine from above downwardly into the outer chamber region of said main body part;
and
a generally U-shaped metal tool, having a pair of ends each shaped to have a hooked tab constructed and arranged to engage said odor trap unit by inserting the tabs through two diagonally opposite arched gaps and rotating the tool so as to engage a corresponding pair of the cylindrical spacers with corresponding hooked tabs, such that, subsequent to installation in the trap receptacle, the odor trap unit can then be extracted therefrom by pulling on said tool;
whereby, when the main liquid chamber contains watery effluent liquid up to the overflow level so as to form a drain trap, a layer of liquid sealant, formulated to repel the effluent liquid and to have a specific gravity lower than that of the effluent liquid, is enabled to float on the effluent liquid in the outer chamber region and to thus function as a sealed barrier that prevents release of odor from the effluent liquid.

3 more elements

A waterless urinal having an odor trap fitted into a bowl portion, the odor trap comprising:

a main body part having a cylindrical outer wall integrally joined via a coaxial circular common floor to an open central coaxial stand tube extending upwardly to an overflow level, the outer wall extending upwardly beyond the overflow level to a rim region, thus forming an annular main liquid chamber;
a cap/partition part having a horizontal circular shallow-domed cap portion disposed and attached coaxially within the rim of said main body part, and having an integrally-formed co-axial tubular partition, of smaller diameter than the cap portion and extending downwardly therefrom, constructed and arranged to divide the main liquid chamber into an outer chamber region and an inner chamber region surrounded by the outer chamber region, and to define a bottom chamber region, communicating with the inner and outer chamber regions, extending in height from the floor to the lower edge of the partition, said cap/partition part being configured with an integral annular skirt disposed around the outer circumference of the cap portion extending downwardly therefrom in a vertical direction and defining a predetermined uniform skirt height;
a plurality of spacers disposed peripherally in a uniform polar array around said skirt, said spacers extending radially to the inner circumference of the rim of the outer wall of said main body part, thus forming between the spacers a polar array of arched gaps constructed and arranged to provide entry of urine from above through the arched gaps into the outer chamber region of said main body part;
main assembly attachment means constructed and arranged to attach said cap/partition part peripherally to said main body part in a substantial manner so as to thus form said odor trap as an integral unit, said attachment means comprising:
said spacers being formed as portions of vertically-oriented elongated cylinders formed integrally in intersecting partial combination with said skirt, sized and disposed in general correspondence with the height of said skirt, the cylinders having a flat lower end and a hemispheric dome-shaped upper end, and having a major cylinder portion extending outwardly so as to constitute said spacers;
a plurality of hemispheric domes arranged in a polar array, formed one on each of said spacers, protruding radially outwardly therefrom;
a flared entry region, formed around the inner circumference of the rim of the main body part, constructed and arranged to facilitate initial assembly of the odor trap by providing a guidance surface for said domes;
an annular groove formed around the inner wall region of the rim of the outer wall of said main body part, engaging said domes in a detented manner, said domes and said annular groove being constructed and arranged to provide substantial detented attachment between said main body part and said cap-partition part;
and, supplied with said odor trap,
a generally U-shaped metal tool constructed and arranged to engage selected ones of said spacers in a manner to extract the odor trap from the trap receptacle of said urinal.

7 more elements

A waterless urinal having an odor trap fitted into a bowl portion, the odor trap comprising:

a main body part having a cylindrical outer wall integrally joined via a coaxial circular common floor to an open central coaxial stand tube extending upwardly to an overflow level, the outer wall extending upwardly beyond the overflow level to a rim region, thus forming an annular main liquid chamber;
a cap/partition part having a horizontal circular shallow-domed cap portion disposed and attached coaxially within the rim of said main body part, and having an integrally-formed co-axial tubular partition, of smaller diameter than the cap portion and extending downwardly therefrom, constructed and arranged to divide the main liquid chamber into an outer chamber region and an inner chamber region surrounded by the outer chamber region, and to define a bottom chamber region, communicating with the inner and outer chamber regions, extending in height from the floor to the lower edge of the partition, said cap/partition part further comprising an integral annular skirt disposed around the outer circumference of the cap portion extending downwardly therefrom in a vertical direction and defining a predetermined uniform skirt height;
plurality of spacers disposed peripherally in a uniform polar array around said skirt, said spacers extending radially to the inner circumference of the rim of the outer wall of said main body part, thus forming between the spacers a polar array of arched gaps constructed and arranged to provide entry of urine from above through the arched gaps into the outer chamber region of said main body part;
a plurality of hemispheric domes arranged in a polar array, formed one on each of said spacers, protruding radially outwardly therefrom;
a flared entry region, formed around the inner circumference of the rim of the main body part, constructed and arranged to facilitate initial assembly of the odor trap by providing a guidance surface for said domes;
an annular groove formed around the inner wall region of the rim of the outer wall of said main body part, engaging said domes in a detented manner, said domes and said annular groove being constructed and arranged to provide substantial detented attachment between said main body part and said cap-partition part;
and
a generally U-shaped metal tool, having a pair of ends each shaped to have a hooked tab and an adjacent straight tab, constructed and arranged to engage said odor trap unit by inserting the tabs through two diagonally opposite adjacent pairs of the arched gaps and rotating the tool so as to engage a corresponding pair of the cylindrical spacers with corresponding hooked tabs, such that, subsequent to installation in the trap receptacle, the odor trap unit can then be extracted from the trap receptacle by pulling on said tool.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.