Patent Application
20100122411
There are no cross references to other applications in this Patent Application.
No federally sponsored research and development funds nor involvement led to this Patent Application.
No reference is made to a sequence listing in this Patent Application.
Christopher Adam McLeod is the Sole Inventor of this Utility and Author of this Application.
A bath or sink, herein “vessel”, is drained by a “waste-overflow” bath drain assembly. The upper portion of this assembly consists of an “elbow”, sometimes called a “head fitting”, that is fastened to the vessel wall by a “tieplate” fastened by a variety of means through the overflow hole in the vessel wall into the elbow on the outer vessel wall. In this Application, this tieplate is annular in shape, with a flat flange hugging to the inner side of the vessel. The internal circumference of this annular flange bears an externally or male threaded short pipe which passes through the overflow hole, through a water seal gasket, and then threads into an internal or female thread within the elbow. Other tieplate shapes include a simple tiebar across the width of the overflow hole, and round plates with bolt holes.
In the early days of plumbed baths, a perforated metal plate was fastened to this tieplate by means of a bolt which might also bear a chain suspending a plug. This fastened plate was called a “faceplate”. This terminology stuck even when the faceplate was deepened into a cup, the perforations moving off the vertical face plane to the bottom of the cup rim, out of aesthetic sight. Ball (U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,241: Apr. 6, 1999) is an example of a bolt-on faceplate.
Other means of securing the faceplate to the tieplate include snap-on faceplates (Dunnett U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,319: Mar. 7, 2006), hinged faceplates (Freville U.S. 4,796,310: Jan 10, 1989), and faceplates secured with a set screw (Ball US Pat. No. 6,173,459: Jan. 16, 2001). Often the attachment is integral to some more complex drain functionality, as in all of the above patents.
Although no patents exist employing a slide-on utility for hanging the faceplate onto the tieplate, reference to somewhat similar slide-on functions in other utility classifications taking advantage of a mating slot and tab can be found in McIlvenna (U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,492: Dec. 30, 2003) and In (U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,969: Aug. 22, 2006). In this Application, the slot is interior and rear to the faceplate, and the tab a mating flange on the tieplate running concentrically and circumferentially on the main flange, with sufficient clearance from the vessel wall to allow the grooved faceplate to fit over this mating flange of the tieplate.
Covering the overflow hole with a faceplate performs mainly an aesthetic function. Indeed, an open overflow without a faceplate would provide the best functionality for the drainage functions of the overflow hole; namely,
Nonetheless, in most vessel installations the user of the vessel has come to expect that the overflow hole be discretely covered by a faceplate, though even frontal perforations became unacceptable, leading to the evolution of the cup shaped faceplate with perforations on the rim underneath.
As part of the evolution of the overflow assembly, this Application describes a novel faceplate-tieplate sub-assembly wherein the faceplate is designed to slide over and onto the tieplate. Although simple, this subassembly enables all three of the drainage functionalities to be realized; namely,
Additionally, using a slide-on faceplate brings the following benefits.
This application describes a novel faceplate-tieplate sub-assembly wherein the faceplate is designed to slide over and onto the tieplate of a sink or bath drain assembly by means of a slot fitting over a mating flange. This sub-assembly covers the overflow hole of the vessel. Although simple, this sub-assembly enables all three of the overflow drainage functionalities to be realized; namely,
Additionally, using a slide-on faceplate brings the following benefits.
The waste-overflow sub-assembly of a vessel drain assembly has an “elbow”, also known as “head fitting”, behind the bath or sink vessel, centered upon the overflow hole in the vessel wall. Between the vessel wall and the elbow is a gasket that prevents leakage of vessel liquid. In order to cinch this elbow and its sandwiched seal tight against the vessel wall, a part called the “tieplate” must be positioned on the opposite, interior, side of the vessel wall, again centered on the overflow hole. Any number of means is used to pull the the elbow tight to the part on the interior of the vessel, called the “faceplate”. Bolts are most common.
In this Application an annular faceplate with a male-threaded short pipe running from inner diameter of this ring is chosen, this male thread fitting into the female thread of the interior of the elbow chosen for this Application. This architecture allows for an aesthetic cover plate-tieplate sub-assembly as in
The gap also performs two traditional functions of a faceplate:
This very simple method of attaching a cosmetic faceplate to a tieplate is novel both in what it lacks, that is, a fastener and a central bar on the tieplate, as for what it gains, that is, a fitted slot-flange coupling and a smooth faceplate surface opportunity for decoration. Although the faceplate in the two Figures is rounded at the top, any shape would be possible, including rectangular. Functionality can be optionally added to the interior region of the sub-assembly, for example, indentations to capture the ball of a chain and plug drain stopper.
