Patent Application
20250134321
The present invention relates to a soap holder capable of supporting a soap bar, the soap bar comprising a through-hole, the soap holder comprising: at least one elongate body having a prevailing extension direction and being capable of being inserted within the through-hole; attachment means connected to the elongate body and configured to constrain the elongate body to a support element having the prevailing extension direction parallel to the vertical direction; a holding element capable of supporting the soap bar preventing the soap bar from sliding away from the elongate body when the elongate body is inserted inside the through-hole; connection means capable of releasably constraining the elongate body to the holding element and allowing the soap holder to be arranged: in a constraining configuration, in which the holding element prevents the soap holder from falling, and in a replacement configuration, in which the holding element does not obstruct the insertion of the elongated body within the through-hole.
In particular, it is suitable for being made in a variety of configurations, being adaptable to any type of washbasin or washbasin, bathtub or shower, both for indoor and outdoor use, and being suitable for working with any type of soap holder, in particular if shaped as described below.
Traditional soap holders are known in the technique, made in the form of containers of various configurations, placed above washbasins, washbasins and sanitary fixtures in general, and capable of holding at least one soap bar inside: In addition to the various limitations of such soap holders related to their conformation and location, over time the used soap contained in them, in the presence of residual water, progressively dissolves and soils the walls of the soap holder and the surrounding environment, requiring various cleaning interventions and reducing the useful life of the soap holder itself.
In order to solve these problems, prior art has provided for certain types of “hanging” soap holders, as described for example in DE-A1-19963449, CN-Y-2482374, CN-Y-2267750, CN-U-2061028, CN-U-2047171, DE-A1-19958433 and U.S.-S1-D477949, which, however, have the drawback of being magnetic and therefore guaranteeing a poor hold of the soap holder, which often falls into the basin. In addition, the soap bar must be fitted with a magnetic plate to be attracted, inserted manually by force into it, with obvious problems of precision of placement and inconvenience of installation for the user, not to mention the fact that, with use, when the soap bar itself gradually wears out, the plate embedded in it tends to detach.
The documents CH-A-317 014, FR-A-387 743, CH-A-174319, FR-A-754 825, FR-A-599 967 and FR-A-588 556 describe soap holders according to the preamble to claim 1: none of them, however, provides for a soap holder capable of connecting to a tap by means of a rubber ring through which the soap holder cable passes.
The purpose of the present invention is to solve the aforementioned problems of the prior art, by providing a soap holder suitable to be made in a variety of configurations, to be adaptable to any type of sink or washbasin, bathtub or shower, whether for indoor or outdoor use, and to be capable of functioning with any type of soap holder.
A further purpose of the present invention is to provide a soap holder as set forth above that allows maximum use of the soap holder attached thereto, without problems of soiling of related sinks and without inconvenience of placing and maintaining, within a soap holder, more or less reliable sealing equipment.
A further purpose of the present invention is to provide a soap holder that can also be used by persons with reduced manual dexterity, for example handicapped persons or children.
The aforementioned and other purposes and advantages of the invention, as will result from the following description, are achieved with a soap holder capable of supporting a soap bar, the soap bar comprising a through-hole, the soap holder comprising: at least one elongate body having a prevailing extension direction and being capable of being inserted within the through-hole; attachment means connected to the elongate body and configured to constrain the elongate body to a support element having the prevailing extension direction parallel to the vertical direction; a holding element capable of supporting the soap bar preventing the soap bar from sliding away from the elongate body when the elongate body is inserted inside the through-hole; connection means capable of releasably constraining the elongate body to the holding element and allowing the soap holder to be arranged: in a constraining configuration, in which the holding element prevents the soap holder from falling, and in a replacement configuration, in which the holding element does not obstruct the insertion of the elongated body within the through-hole; the elongate body being a rigid rod, the connecting means comprising permanent magnets.
It is understood that all the appended claims form an integral part of the present description.
The present invention will be best described by certain preferred forms of embodiment, provided by way of example and not limitation, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
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In the present document, the measurements, values, shapes and geometric references (such as perpendicularity and parallelism), when associated with words like “about” or other similar terms such as “approximately” or “substantially”, are to be considered as except for measurement errors or inaccuracies due to production and/or manufacturing errors, and, above all, except for a slight divergence from the value, measurements, shape, or geometric reference with which it is associated. For instance, these terms, if associated with a value, preferably indicate a divergence of not more than 10% of the value.
Moreover, when used, terms such as “first”, “second”, “higher”, “lower”, “main” and “secondary” do not necessarily identify an order, a priority of relationship or a relative position, but can simply be used to clearly distinguish between their different components.
Unless otherwise specified, as results in the following discussions, terms such as “treatment”, “computing”, “determination”, “calculation”, or similar, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or similar electronic calculation device that manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical, such as electronic quantities of registers of a computer system and/or memories in, other data similarly represented as physical quantities within computer systems, registers or other storage, transmission or information displaying devices.
The measurements and data reported in this text are to be considered, unless otherwise indicated, as performed in the International Standard Atmosphere ICAO (ISO 2533:1975).
Referring to the Figures, a preferred form of realisation of the soap holder of the present invention is illustrated and described. It will be immediately obvious that innumerable variations and modifications (e.g., relating to shape, dimensions, arrangements and parts with equivalent functionality) can be made to the described embodiment without departing from the scope of protection of the invention as appears from the appended claims.
As illustrated in the Figures, the soap holder 1 of the present invention is suitable for supporting a soap bar 3, preferably by suspending it vertically, comprising a through-hole 3a. As soap bars usually have a shorter size than the others, the through-hole 3a preferably does not pass through the shorter size but one of the two larger sizes, preferably the larger size of the others, or alternatively the second larger size.
The soap holder 1 is preferably constrained to a support element 15, 20, hereinafter described. The soap holder 1 and the support element 15, 20 together form a soap holder apparatus 100.
The soap holder 1 found substantially comprises:
The connection means 7 preferably comprise, and more preferably are, permanent magnets.
As can be seen in the various Figures, the elongated body 2 may comprise a wire 2, made of steel, plastic or any other suitable material to ensure its flexibility.
Moreover, the elongated body 2 could be constituted in other preferable ways, for example a small plastic tube or other flexible material (not illustrated), in various configurations suitable for the purpose, or again in rigid, non-flexible material (such as, for example, an asti-form metal rod: in this solution, a joint, placed in the upper part of the body, could allow the movement of the rod in the desired directions).
In practice, the support element 15, 20 may comprise a tap 15, as illustrated in
According to an alternative illustrated in
According to a further preferred alternative, illustrated in
In the example shown in
Innovatively, as illustrated in
The lower portion 51 is, preferably, in one piece with the holding element 18, 18′, or integrally constrained thereto.
Furthermore, preferably, the upper portion 50 comprises connection means 7 comprising an upper magnet 70, and the lower portion 51, comprises connection means 7 comprising a lower magnet 71. The two magnets 70 and 71 are preferably capable of being bound to each other, obviously by magnetic attraction.
The upper magnet 70 and the lower magnet 71 are preferably housed within respective cavities 50a, 50b present in the upper and lower portions 50, 51.
Furthermore, preferably, the upper magnet 70 and the lower magnet 71, when the device 1 is in a spare configuration, are facing outwards from the respective cavities 50a, 50b.
The outwardly facing portions of the upper and lower magnets 70, 71 are preferably coated with powder coating.
The elongated body 2 is preferably circular in cross-section. It also preferably has an average diameter between 0.5 mm and 1 cm and in particular between 5 mm and 1 cm.
Also, in the example of
In the examples of
In the various Figures, two preferred forms of realisation of the holding element 18, 18′ are illustrated, namely the spherical shape (
With the above configuration, it is therefore possible to connect the soap holder 1 to a tap 15 or a surface or wall, and to use the soap 3 connected to it, before washing. Soiling of the washbasin, sink or other sanitary fixture is also prevented, as the wet soap drips briefly into the drainage basin and then dries in the air, without soiling external walls. Furthermore, soap 3 can be easily replaced, depending on the user's operational or even just aesthetic needs.
In the version with the first socket 13, the conceptual flexibility of the inventive soap holder 1 also allows it to be installed on a tap 15 which has been prepared for this purpose by means of the simple hole 14 in it: here, also, it is easy to screw and unscrew the soap holder 1 should one wish to insert it on the tap 15 or not, and it is just as easy to unscrew the holding element 18 should one wish to replace the soap 3 held by it in the soap holder 1.
In the innovative solution of the two magnets, the use of the soap holder 1 of the present invention will also be open to persons with reduced manual abilities, for example handicapped persons or children, for whom the screwing of the various components in the traditional version would have been difficult to accomplish: in this case, the simple coupling of the soap holder 3 to the soap holder 1 allows the mutual magnetic coupling, in a simple, easy and reproducible manner in any configuration.
It goes without saying that the first lug 13 can be replaced by equivalent elements, which perform the functions of the attachment means 5. For example, the attachment means 5 could be replaced by at least one hook (not illustrated) capable of being operatively inserted into a cavity (not illustrated) provided by the support element 15, 20. Or, the attachment means 5 could be at least one magnetic element (not illustrated), also capable of being operatively coupled (in a manner known or within the reach of an average branch technician) to the support element 15, 20.
With the above configuration, it is therefore possible to connect the flexible soap holder 1 to a tap 15 or a surface or wall, and use the soap 3 connected thereto, before washing, so as to minimise consumption. The contamination of the washbasin, sink or other sanitary fixture is also prevented, as the wet soap briefly drips into the drainage basin and then dries in the air, without soiling external walls. Furthermore, soap 3 can be easily replaced, depending on the user's operational or even just aesthetic needs.
In the version with first socket 13, the flexibility of the inventive soap holder 1 also allows it to be installed on a tap 15 prepared for the purpose by means of the simple hole 14 cut in it: here too, it is easy to screw and unscrew the soap holder 1 should one wish to insert it or not on the tap 15, and it is just as easy to unscrew the holding element 25 should one wish to replace the soap 3 supported by it in the soap holder.
