Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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stem for putting on and changing a tubular protective
cover on a toilet seat
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for
putting on and changing a tubular protective cover on a
toilet seat, in which the protective cover can be moved
from a storage device for fresh tubing over the toilet
seat by means of a drive mechanism and on to a receptacle
area for used tubing.
BACKGROUND OF TOE INVENTION
Systems of the above-described type are known
from Swiss Patents 624,004 and 624,565. They have proven
to be highly satisfactory in practice; however, depending
upon standardized toilet sizes and available space, the
need exists in certain cases for the volume of such soys-
terms to be reduced in principle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention there is provided a
system for putting on and changing a tubular protective
cover on a toilet seat, wherein the protective cover is
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movable from a storage unit for fresh tubing over the
toilet seat by means of a drive mechanism and then to a
receptacle area for used tubing, wherein the receptacle
area for used tubing has a collector container for the
used tubing.
he receptacle may be disposed outside the system
and include an interchangeable pouch having reinforced
means for removably fastening the pouch to a housing wall;
alternatively, a shredding device for the used tubing may
be disposed upstream of the container so that the latter
may receive the shredded tubing.
Preferably, the invention relates to a system
for putting on and changing a tubular protective cover for
a toilet seat including a drive mechanism for moving the
cover over the toilet seat from a storage unit, wherein
the drive mechanism is manually actuatable. In accordance
with this aspect of the invention, the drive mechanism may
include a rack and gear arrangement coupled with at least
one pull-off roll for the tubing.
In another preferred form, the invention provides
a system for putting on and changing a tubular protective
cover on a toilet seat including a drive mechanism for
moving the cover over the toilet seat from a storage unit
to a receptacle for used tubing where the storage unit
for the fresh tubing is an interchangeable cassette. In
accordance with this aspect of the invention, the tubing
may be contained in the cassette on a roll or folded, and
the cassette may be mounted either between the ends of the
toilet seat or to one side of the toilet seat.
Other aspects of this invention are claimed in
a divisional application based on the present application.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 schematically shows the design of a system
according to the invention, having a receptacle for the
used tubing;
Fig. 2 shows a removable foil pouch as a collector
for the used tubing;
Fig. 3 schematically shows the disposition of a
tubing shredder system disposed preceding the collector;
Fig. 4 schematically shows a portion of the system
according to the invention, in which the used tubing, having
been shredded, is disposed of in the toilet bowl and flushed
away;
Fig. 5 schematically shows the embodiment of a drive
mechanism for the tubing which can be actuated manually by
hand or foot;
Fig. 6 schematically shows a system according to
the invention having an interchangeable storage cassette
for the fresh tubing;
Fig. 7 shows a further variant embodiment of a
storage cassette for fresh tubing; and
Fig. 8 shows two variant dispositions of a storage
cassette for fresh tubing in the system.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In Fig. 1, a system 1 according to the invention
is shown in schematic form. A toilet seat 3 has one us-
attached end 5, over which the tubular protective cover
9 is drawn onto the toilet seat 3 from a storage unit for
fresh tubing shown in the form of a roll 7. At the fastened
end 11 of the toilet seat 3, a cutter 13 is disposed, which
slits open the tube 9 pulled over the toilet seat, preferably
in increments, in the direction of the arrow. The cutter
13 slits open the tube 9 in such a manner that it can be
drawn off by a drive mechanism, schematically represented
by the rolls 15 and 17. The drive mechanism includes a
preferably battery-operated electric motor 19 or some manual
device actuatable by hand or by toot. The used tubing drawn
off the toilet seat 3 is not wound up onto a roll of used
tubing, which would require increased space for the complete
system 1; instead, as shown in Fig. 1, the used tubing is
diverted either before or after the drive mechanism 15, 17,
19 and disposed of in a container serving as a storage unit 21
for used tubing. This storage unit is preferably disposed
outside the system, depending upon the given situation; for
instance, the used tubing may be passed through an opening
in the housing 23 of the system, above which opening the
collector 21 is attached from the outside.
As shown in Fig. 2, the collector 21 is preferably
embodied by a foil pouch 23, which in the area of its open-
in is glued to a holder plate 25, the latter having a eon-
trial opening 27 for the tubing. The holder plate 25 is
secured to one part of the housing wall 31 such that it can
be removed by sliding along holder rails 29, and the housing
wall 31 is also provided with an opening 33 for removing the
used tubing. The collector may be disposed, depending upon
a given situation, either suspended on a horizontal housing
part or laterally on a vertical housing part.
As shown in schematic form in Fig. 3, the volume
required by the used tubing 35 is decreased by providing a
shredding device 37 preceding the collector 21, which is
shown here in the form of a foil pouch 23. The shredder
37 may for instance be in the form of cutter blocks aye
and 37b operatively connected with one another, and it
is disposed between the drive mechanism having the rollers
15 and 17 and the opening 33 for the now-shredded used
tubing 35.
As shown in Fig. 4, instead of a collector vessel
for the used tubing 35, a conduit 39 may be provided, which
disposes of the used tubing, in particular after the latter
has passed through the shredder 37, into the toilet bowl 41.
In order to prevent stopping up the toilet, the conduit 39
may be provided with a nozzle (not shown) for flush water.
In Fig. 5, the embodiment of a manual drive for the
tubing which can be operated either by foot or by hand is
shown in schematic form. An actuation lever 43 acts in
either case, via diverting levers and diverting rods (not
shown), upon a driving rack 45, which in turn acts upon a
gear wheel 47. In a known manner, the toothing of the gear
wheel 47 and of the rack 45 and their interaction are such
that the rack 45 acts, rotating, upon the gear wheel 47
only in the actuation direction p. The rotational movement
of the gear wheel 47 is transmitted via a step-up gear
mechanism, represented in Fig. 5 by the gear wheels 49 and
51, to the drive rollers 15 and 17 for the used tubing 35.
In Fugue , the system according to Fig. 1 has an
interchangeable cassette 52 as the storage unit for the
fresh tubing. A roll 59 having the fresh tubing is stored,
capable of rotating, in the cassette housing 57, the latter
self-contained except for an outlet opening 55. After the
cassette 57 has been placed into an appropriate recess 61
in the system housing 23, this fresh tubing is unrolled
out of the opening 55 and pushed onto the open end 5 of
the toilet seat 3.
A further variant for storing the fresh tubing in
a cassette 63 is shown in Fig. 7. Instead of being wound
up on a roll 59 as shown in Fig. 6, the fresh tubing here
is laid in folds and stored in the cassette 63; it is
unfolded from a slit-type opening 55. This embodiment of
the cassette makes it possible to attain flatter dimensions
than if a roll were provided.
Fig. shows how the cassettes of fresh tubing are
disposed in the system. Embodied as shown in Fig. 7, that
is, with the tubing folded, the cassette 63 is placed for
instance between the two ends of the seat 3, and the fresh
tubing is drawn onto the seat 3 over the free end 65, which
here is curved toward the seat. As a result of this disk
position and the utilization of the space between the ends of the toilet seat, the system becomes decisively flatter,
especially if the provision of a cassette of this type is
combined with the provision of an external collector 21 as
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shown in Fig. 1 or Fig. 2. As indicated by dot-dash lines,
the open end 65 of the toilet seat 3 may also be curved
toward the outside and a cassette provided such as that
shown at 52 in Fig. 6.
S It will be understood that the variant embodiments
shown in schematic form in Figs. 1-8 can be combined with
one another, affording the opportunity to adapt the system
flexibly to given structural and space requirements.
