Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Toilet hinge arrangement
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toilet hinge arrangement for releasably
fastening of a
toilet cover assembly including a toilet seat and/or a toilet cover to a
toilet bowl so that
the toilet cover assembly can pivot about a substantially horizontal rotation
axis.
The invention is furthermore directed to a dampener as well as a method of
assembling
such a toilet hinge arrangement.
Background of the Invention
In the art it is well-known to provide toilet hinge arrangement which allows
the toilet
cover and seat to be dismounted from the toilet bowl in order to improve
cleaning pro-
cedures and thereby increase the hygiene. Furthermore, it is also known in the
art to
use dampeners whereby it is possible by means of the dampener to delay the
motion of
the toilet cover and/or seat when closing the cover or seat whereby a
relatively slow
and noiseless closing of the seat and/or cover is achieved. An example of such
a prior
art device is illustrated in EP 1532913, which disclose a dampener embedded in
a hinge
arrangement. The dampener is enclosed in a sleeve, such that the dampener
cannot
rotate relative to the fastening means to the ceramics (toilet). The opposite
end of the
dampener is fixed to a ring-shaped eye part being part of the toilet seat or
cover.
A common problem, however, is how to assemble these hinge arrangements in a
suit-
able manner, both from a factory perspective as well as from a maintenance
perspective
in that it might be desirable to replace one or the other part. In these
situations prior art
devices do not facilitate disassembling of the hinge arrangements once they
are
mounted.
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Object of the Invention
Consequently it is an object of the present invention to provide an easy to
assemble
hinge arrangement which may also be disassembled in order to carry out
maintenance
works such as for example replace the dampener, replace the seat and/or a
cover and
the like.
Description of the Invention
The invention addresses this by providing a toilet hinge arrangement for
releasable fas-
tening of a toilet cover assembly, including a toilet seat and/or a toilet
cover, to a toilet
bowl, so that the toilet cover assembly can pivot about a substantially
horizontal rota-
tion axis, where dampening means are activated for dampening the downward move-
ment of said toilet seat and/or cover, said toilet hinge arrangement includes
a base
member with a lower side adapted to abut the surface of the toilet bowl, where
said
base member has a shaft member projecting upwards from the base member, said
shaft
being suitable to releasably engage a hinge part characterised in that the
hinge part
comprises:
- a dampener, said dampener having a first end rotatable relative to the
dampener body,
where the rotation of the first end is dampened relative to the body
- an engagement part where said engagement part has means for engaging a
first end of
said dampener;
- a first ring-shaped connection eye of the toilet seat or cover, having an
opening such
that the ring-shaped connection eye is arranged about the dampener;
- a second ring-shaped connection eye of the toilet seat or cover, having
means for
engaging the free end of the dampener body in a non-rotatable manner
where said dampener is provided with first fastening means adjacent the free
end of the
dampener body, where said second ring shaped connection eye is provided with
means
for accommodating and firmly engaging said dampener's first fastening means;
and where said engagement part is provided with second fastening means which
second
fastening means will firmly engage the first end of the dampener where both
first and
second fastening means will maintain the dampener in fixed relationship
axially along
the rotation axis.
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With this arrangement is achieved that the various parts of the hinge
arrangement are
assembled around the dampener and assembled in such a manner that it by means
of the
engagement means built into the dampener and the engagement part is possible
rela-
tively easy to disengage and thereby disassemble the entire hinge arrangement.
In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention the engagement part
comprises
one or more locking surfaces arranged as interior surfaces, where said
surfaces engage
corresponding surfaces on the first end of the dampener; and where further a
bearing
surface is provided inside said engagement part, which bearing surface abuts,
guides
and supports an outer periphery of the dampener body.
By providing locking surfaces in the engagement part to which the first end of
the
dampener abuts the transfer of force from the cover/seat of the toilet cover
assembly is
safely transferred to the shaft and base member and thereby to the toilet
bowl. Typi-
cally, it will be possible to provide relatively large locking surfaces in
order to distribute
the pressure to as large a surface as possible. Furthermore, the bearing
surface for
supporting the dampener is also provided whereby the load from the first and
second
ring-shaped connector eyes will not solely be borne by the locking surfaces
and the
dampener, but will also be transferred via the dampener body by means of the
bearing
surfaces to the engagement part and therefore through the base member to the
toilet
bowl. In this manner the dampener as such is only exposed to a minimum load
which
decreases wear and tear on this member.
In a further advantageous embodiment the second fastening means are arranged
in said
one or more locking surfaces.
The second fastening means will typically be resilient means which at the
first end of
the dampener is pushed into the engagement part which by click-action will
engage and
lock the dampener in position relative to the engagement part such that it
takes a rela-
tively large force to withdraw the dampener from the engagement part. In this
connec-
tion, however, it should be noted that there are no screws, rivets or the like
used in
order to maintain a fixed relationship between the first end of the dampener
and the
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engagement part, but solely a resilient mechanism which locks and fixates the
first end
of the dampener relative to the engagement part.
In a still further embodiment of the invention the first end of the dampener
is provided
with means complimentary to said second fastening means. In this manner it is
possible
to design a first end of the dampener in such a way that it will possibly
interact with the
second fastening means and thereby increase the holding force whereby the
dampener
will be further maintained in a relatively fixed position relative to the
engagement part.
In a still further advantageous embodiment of the invention the second ring-
shaped
connection eye is provided with a closed side, such that said second ring-
shaped con-
nection eye will be in the shape of a cup, and that a shaft is provided,
projecting from
the bottom of the cup, where said shaft is adapted to be inserted into a
corresponding
cavity in the free end of the dampener.
The shaft of the cup serves to help stabilize and guide the dampener.
When using the hinge arrangement according to the invention in order to mount
a toilet
cover assembly including a toilet seat and a toilet cover usually two toilet
hinge ar-
rangements are used, namely one in either side of the toilet cover assembly.
In order to
create the correct dampening effect, i.e. having dampening of the seat and
cover re-
spectively, the dampeners in the two assemblies are arranged such that they
rotate in
opposite directions, but by mounting them in a mirror image manner they will
be able to
dampen the movement of the seat respectively the cover in the same direction,
i.e.
going from a substantially vertical position into a substantially horizontal
position.
By providing the shaft projecting from the second ring-shaped connection with
a spe-
cific cross section it is possible also to provide various dampeners with
different cross
sections such that it will only be possible to mount a dampener in a second
ring-shaped
connection eye having the corresponding cross-sectional shape. In practice,
circular
cross sections are used for left-hand-side hinge arrangements whereas square
cross-
sectional shapes are used for right-hand-side hinge arrangements. In this
manner it is
ensured that the correct type of dampener is mounted in the correct side of
the toilet
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cover assembly. Therefore, the cross-sectional configuration of the shaft and
the corre-
sponding cavity in the free end of the dampener may take any geometric
configuration
other than the ones mentioned above, i.e. circular or square, such as for
example trian-
gular, star-shaped or any other suitable shape which provides the same
advantages.
5
In a still further advantageous embodiment a shim is inserted around the
dampener,
between the first and second ring-shaped connection eyes, and where the first
ring
shaped connection eye is provided with an interior recess for accommodating at
least
part of said shim, and where said shim has an aperture corresponding to the
outer shape
of the dampener, and furthermore where means for accommodating and
transferring
rotation from said shim to said second ring-shaped connection.
In a still further advantageous embodiment of the invention a cover is
provided where
said cover, being in the shape of a cylinder having a closed end, where the
interior di-
mensions of said cup correspond to the exterior dimensions of said engagement
part,
where an aperture is provided in the cylinder wall, allowing the shaft of the
base mem-
ber to engage with the engagement member. The purpose of the cover is partly
to pro-
vide a nice finish to the toilet hinge arrangement, but also to hide the
second fastening
means arranged in the engagement part such that tampering or unintended
release of
the second fastening means and thereby disassembly of the entire toilet hinge
arrange-
ment is avoided. As it is important to superpose the aperture in the cylinder
wall with
the cavity in the engagement part into which the shaft of the base member is
inserted,
alignment means between the engagement part and the cover may be provided such
that the aperture provided in the cover is superposed the opening in the
engagement
part.
The invention is furthermore also directed to a dampener for use in a toilet
hinge con-
struction as described above where said dampener is particular in that it
comprises a
first end rotatable relative to the dampener body, where the rotation of the
first end is
dampened relative to the body, where at least one resilient fastening member
is ar-
ranged in the outer wall of the dampener body, where said resilient fastening
member is
biased radially away from the dampeners axis of rotation, and where one or
more in-
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dentations are provided adjacent the distal end of the dampeners first end,
where the
indentation(s) are suitable for being engaged by engagement means.
Naturally, the special damper mentioned in the embodiment above will make it
feasible
to utilize the advantages of the invention as described above.
Also the invention is directed to a method of assembling a toilet hinge
arrangement as
described above in that due to the inventive fastening means of the damper in
the toilet
hinge arrangement assembling is very smooth and carried out in such a way that
very
few operations are necessary in order to assemble the toilet hinge
arrangement. Fur-
thermore, by implementing certain of the features above, a fully automatic
assembly
may be achieved.
Description of the Drawing
Figure 1 illustrates a toilet hinge arrangement according to the
invention
Figure 2 illustrates an exploded view of the main components of the
invention
Figure 3 illustrates a cross section through a hinge arrangement
Figure 4 illustrates a dampener according to an embodiment of the
invention
Figure 5 illustrates an exploded view of a complete embodiment
Figure 6 illustrates a detailed view of the engagement part.
Detailed Description of the Invention
In figure 1 is illustrated a toilet hinge arrangement according to the
invention. The toilet
hinge arrangement 1 will typically be used in pairs such that a toilet hinge
arrangement
will be provided in each side of the seat/cover as is well known in the art.
The toilet
hinge arrangement 1 comprises a base member 2 which in this embodiment by
means of
anchors 3 may be fastened to a toilet bowl.
For clarity reasons neither the toilet bowl nor the seat or cover are
illustrated. The base
member 2 is provided with shaft 4, which shaft is inserted in the hinge part
5. As will be
explained with reference to figure 2 the base member including the shaft is
detachably
fastened to the hinge part 5.
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The hinge part 5 comprises an engagement part 10, a first ring-shaped
connection eye
20 and a second ring-shaped connection eye 30.
Turning to figure 2 an exploded view of the main components of the invention
as well
as a few details relating to the base member are illustrated. The base member
in this
embodiment comprises three disc-shaped parts 2', 2", 2" where 2" is a
resilient gas-
ket interposed between a metal part 2" and the toilet bowl (not illustrated)
which is
usually made from a ceramic material, whereby the resilient material of the
gasket 2"
separates two hard materials. The metal part 2" is provided with a shaft 4 for
engage-
ment with the engagement section 10 as explained above. In order to detachably
attach
the hinge arrangement 5 the shaft is provided with a resilient spring 6 and a
rubber seal
7 (0-ring). The resilient spring 6 serves to detachably lock the engagement
part 10 to
the shaft 4 and the rubber ring 7 serves to dampen and also fasten the
aperture in the
engagement part to the shaft 4. The cover plate 2" may be made from any
suitable
material and serves to cover the metal part 2" of the base member where also
screws
may be used in order to fasten the base member to the toilet bowl.
In the exploded view the dampener 40 is visible between the engagement part 10
and
the first ring-shaped connection eye 20. The interior diameter 21 of the first
ring-
shaped connecting eye has a size which accommodates the body 41 of the
dampener
40. The first end 42 of the dampener which is rotatable relative to the body
part 41 is
engaged with the engagement part 10 such that the engagement part 10 such that
the
engagement part 10 and the first end of the dampener 42 cannot rotate relative
to each
other. The special click-features of the dampener 40 will be explained with
reference to
figure 4.
In this embodiment the hinge arrangement 5 includes a shim 50 interposed
between the
first ring shaped connection eye and the second ring-shaped connection eye.
Turning to figure 3 a cross section through a hinge arrangement 5 according to
the
invention is illustrated. From the cross section is evident that the shaft 4
is arranged in
the engagement part 10 such that the hinge part 5 is in a position illustrated
with refer-
ence to figure 1. The dampener 40 is engaged in its first end 42 by means 11
which
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means 11 are biased/urged for firm engagement against the first end of the
dampener.
The means 11 are resilient such that as the engagement part 10 comes into
contact with
the first end of the dampener 42 the means 11 will click into contact with the
first end
and lock the first end to the engagement part 10. The dampener is provided
with means
43 (see figures 2 and 4) complementary to the fastening means 11 such that the
first
end of the dampener 42 will be maintained in a firm grip/position relative to
the en-
gagement part 10.
The second ring-shaped connection eye 30 is in this embodiment provided with a
side-
wall 31 such that the second ring-shaped connecting eye 30 is in the shape of
a cup.
From the bottom of the cup projects a shaft 32 into a cavity 44 provided in
the free end
of the dampener 40 such that the shaft 32 will help to stabilize and guide the
dampener
40 relative to the hinge construction 5. In order to ensure that the correct
dampener is
inserted in the correct side relative to the way the seat and cover shall be
mounted the
cross section of the shaft 32 and the cavity 44 may be given a particular
shape such as
for example square as illustrated with reference to figure 4 a circular, oval
or any other
desirable shape.
Turning to figure 4 a dampener according to an embodiment of the invention is
illus-
trated. The dampener is provided with means 43 on the first end for engagement
with
the means 11 of the engagement part in order to fixate the dampener relative
to the
engagement part 10. Furthermore, flexible resilient first fastening means 45
are pro-
vided in the body of the dampener 40 such that as the dampener is inserted
into the
second ring-shaped connection eye, the fastening means 45 will be triggered
and due to
the resiliency of the member will expand into a corresponding cavity 46
provided inside
the second ring-shaped connection eye. In this manner the dampener 40 will be
locked
into engagement with the second ring-shaped connection eye 30.
After both the engagement part and the second ring-shaped connection eye have
been
attached to the dampener the first ring-shaped connection eye will be free to
pivot
about a pivot axis coaxial with the rotation axis of the dampener without
being influ-
enced by the dampener as such. Only the second ring-shaped connection eye, for
ex-
ample attached to a toilet seat or toilet cover will be influenced by the
dampener such
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pie attached to a toilet seat or toilet cover will be influenced by the
dampener such that
the movement of said toilet seat or cover will be dampened.
Turning to figure 5 an exploded view of a complete embodiment is illustrated
where a
cover 60 is provided where said cover has a dimension such that it will be
able to cover
the engagement part 10 and thereby hinder unintended tampering with the
fastening
means 11 which could cause unintended disassembly of the hinge construction 5.
The
cover 60 is provided with an aperture 61 which is use coincides with the
aperture 12
(see figure 3) which accommodates the shaft 4.
In fig. 6 is illustrated a view into the interior of the engagement part. The
tap 32, in this
embodiment having a round cross-section is situated substantially centrally in
the cavity
for accommodating the dampener 40. The locking surfaces 47 are arranged as
part of
the interior surfaces in the cavity formed in the engagement part, designed to
receive
the free end of the dampener body 41. Furthermore the bearing surfaces 48 are
also
illustrated.
Also partly visible in fig 6 is the shim 50. The shim 50 is inserted around
the dampener
40, between the first and second ring-shaped connection eyes 20,30, and the
first ring
shaped connection eye 20 is provided with an interior recess 52 for
accommodating at
least part of said shim 50. The shim 50 has an aperture 53 corresponding to
the outer
shape of the dampener 40, such that the shim may be arranged outside the
dampener.
Furthermore, means 54 for accommodating and transferring rotation from said
shim 50
to said second ring-shaped connection eye 20 is provided between said shim 50
and the
second ring-shaped connection eye 20.
Above the invention has been explained with reference to a particular
embodiment, but
it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the scope of the invention is
only to be lim-
ited by the appended claims.
In particular embodiments where the toilet seat and cover are not releasably
fastened to
the toilet ceramics are also to be contemplated within the scope of the
present inven-
tion.
