The present technology relates to a toilet exterior structure of an aircraft lavatory unit.
A toilet installed in an aircraft lavatory unit employs a method of discharging waste into a tank by negative pressure, and the shape of a toilet body significantly differs from the shape of a residential toilet body including a bowl portion. The toilet installed in an aircraft lavatory unit is made of metal or a resin and has a simple bowl shape.
Thus, in the toilet installed in an aircraft lavatory unit, the toilet body having a bowl shape is supported on the floor by a support portion, and further, an exterior (shroud) covering the toilet body and the support portion is provided.
The shroud includes an annular plate-like flange that is provided in a peripheral wall portion covering peripheries of the toilet body and the support portion and is provided in an upper portion of this peripheral wall portion, and that is placed in an upper end outer peripheral plate portion of the toilet body. A toilet seat is placed on this flange.
In the case of flushing to discharge waste, unless countermeasures are taken against negative pressure acting for the discharge, a human body seating portion in a state of sitting on the toilet seat may be drawn into the toilet body.
Thus, in an aircraft lavatory unit, a communication passage communicating the inside and the outside of the toilet body is required to be provided between the toilet seat and the upper end outer peripheral plate portion of the toilet body by a predetermined area or greater.
Accordingly, in an aircraft lavatory unit of the related art, a plurality of cushion blocks are provided in a lower surface of a toilet seat at intervals in the extension direction of the toilet seat while a plurality of cushion blocks are also provided in a lower surface of a flange of a shroud at intervals in the extension direction of the flange. A plurality of communication passages communicating the inside and the outside of a toilet body are provided between the cushion blocks between the lower surface of the toilet seat and the flange and between the lower surface of the flange and an upper end outer peripheral portion, and negative pressure of drawing into the toilet body is prevented from acting on the human body seating portion.
In recent years, the frequency of breakage of flanges of shrouds has increased.
It is considered that this is because a user of an aircraft lavatory unit puts their foot on the flange of the shroud while wearing shoes, or a user or a cleaning person stands on the flange of the shroud while wearing shoes.
As described above, in the aircraft lavatory unit, to prevent negative pressure from acting on the human body seating portion, the plurality of communication passages communicating the inside and the outside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion of the toilet body are provided between the plurality of cushion blocks having a predetermined thickness between the flange and the upper end outer peripheral plate portion of the toilet body.
Thus, it has been considered that in a case where a user puts their foot or stands up between the cushion blocks adjacent to each other, or in other words, puts the foot or stands up at a section of the flange on the communication passages, the load may directly act on the flange and cause breakage of the flange.
The present technology provides a toilet exterior structure of an aircraft lavatory unit that is advantageous in preventing negative pressure of drawing into a toilet body from acting on a human body seating portion, and preventing breakage of a flange of a shroud.
An embodiment of the present technology is a toilet exterior structure of an aircraft lavatory unit, including; a toilet body including a bowl portion and an upper end outer peripheral plate portion extending along an upper end outer periphery of the bowl portion with a width at an upper end of the bowl portion; a support portion configured to support the toilet body on a floor; a shroud including a flange placed in a peripheral wall portion covering peripheries of the toilet body and the support portion, and placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion; and a toilet seat placed on the flange. The flange includes a main body plate portion extending annularly along the upper end outer peripheral plate portion with a width larger than the width with which the upper end outer peripheral plate portion extends. A shroud mount placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion is provided in a lower surface facing downward of the main body plate portion. The shroud mount includes a plurality of space portions formed by a plurality of partition walls provided at intervals in a circumferential direction of the main body plate portion, and the plurality of space portions are opened downward between the plurality of partition walls and extend in a width direction of the main body plate portion. In a state where the main body plate portion is placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion via the plurality of partition walls, a plurality of air communication passages are formed by the plurality of space portions between the lower surface of the main body plate portion and the upper end outer peripheral plate portion, and communicate a space inside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion in the width direction and a space outside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion in the width direction. The intervals between the plurality of partition walls along the circumferential direction of the main body plate portion are formed with such a dimension that in a state where the main body plate portion is stepped on by a foot, the plurality of partition walls are positioned inside of a contour of the foot as viewed in a plan view.
According to an embodiment of the present technology, a space inside of the bowl portion is communicated with the inside of a lavatory by a plurality of air communication passages.
Thus, even when negative pressure in discharging waste acts on the inside of a toilet body, the negative pressure in discharging waste does not act on a human body seating portion.
In addition, even in a case where a user of an aircraft lavatory unit or a cleaning person steps on a main body plate portion of a flange of a shroud with a foot, a plurality of partition walls are positioned inside of a contour of the foot as viewed in a plan view, and the load can be received directly by the plurality of partition walls. Thus, this is advantageous in preventing breakage of the flange of the shroud.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present technology will be described with reference to the drawings.
As illustrated in
The toilet body 16 is made of metal and includes a bowl portion 1602, and an upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 having an annular plate-like shape and extending outward of the bowl portion 1602 with a constant width W0 (see
A bottom portion of the bowl portion 1602 is connected to a discharge pipe 1606 that discharges waste in the bowl portion 1602 out of the bowl portion 1602 by negative pressure.
The support portion 18 supports the toilet body 16 on a floor 1204 of the lavatory 12, and in the present embodiment, supports the toilet body 16 at a section close to a rear wall 1202 of the lavatory 12.
As illustrated in
The toilet seat 24 and the lid 26 include forked portions 2412, 2602, respectively, and the forked portions 2412, 2602 each are attached in a swingable manner to the mounting portion 3602 via a support shaft 3604 (see
As illustrated in
The main body plate portion 3402 has a width larger than the width of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604, and extends annularly along the extension direction (circumferential direction) of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604.
The inner surface plate portion 3404 extends along the extension direction of the main body plate portion 3402 while projecting downward from an inner peripheral end of the main body plate portion 3402, and conceals the inside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604.
The outer surface plate portion 3406 extends along the extension direction of the main body plate portion 3402, projects downward from an outer peripheral end of the main body plate portion 3402, conceals the outside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 and is connected to an upper portion of the peripheral wall portion 32.
The shroud mount 40 is made of a synthetic resin in the present embodiment. Note that the shroud mount 40 may be made of metal or hard rubber.
The shroud mount 40 is a separate member from the shroud 22 in the present embodiment.
As illustrated in
The shroud mount 40 includes a plurality of partition walls 4002, an inner peripheral wall 4004, an outer peripheral wall 4006, and a plurality of space portions 4008.
The partition walls 4002 linearly extend in the width direction of the main body plate portion 3402 at sections located at an equal interval in the extension direction of the main body plate portion 3402.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
In the present embodiment, the interval D between the partition walls 4002 is, for example, from 10 mm to 30 mm, and the thickness T of each one of the partition walls 4002 is from 3 mm to 6 mm.
The width W1 of each one of the partition walls 4002 is formed with a dimension greater than the width W0 of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604, allowing for the partition walls 4002 to be reliably placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604, and also allowing for the space portions 4008 and air communication passages 42 described below to span a space S1 inside of the upper end outer peripheral portion 1604 in the width direction and a space S2 outside of the upper end outer peripheral portion 1604 in the width direction.
As illustrated in
The height H of each one of the partition walls 4002 is formed such that the outer peripheral side is higher than the inner peripheral side, and that the height gradually increases from the inner periphery to the outer periphery, allowing for the space portions 4008 and the air communication passages 42 described below to be formed by a large cross-sectional area.
The thickness T of each one of the partition walls 4002 is formed with such a dimension that the rigidity of the partition walls 4002 is ensured, and in the present embodiment, the thickness of each one of the partition walls 4002 is uniform.
As illustrated in
In other words, the strength and the rigidity of the partition walls 4002 are ensured by the inner peripheral wall 4004 and the outer peripheral wall 4006.
Note that in the present embodiment, the shroud mount 40 is a separate member from the shroud 22, and is bonded to a lower surface of the main body plate portion 3402 with an adhesive.
In a state where the shroud mount 40 is attached to the lower surface of the main body plate portion 3402 of the flange 34, the plurality of space portions 4008 are formed in the shroud mount 40 by the plurality of partition walls 4002 provided at intervals in the circumferential direction of the main body plate portion 3402. The plurality of space portions 4008 each having a rectangular shape in a plan view, or in other words, a linear shape in the width direction of the main body plate portion 3402 are opened downward between the partition walls 4002 and extend in the width direction of the main body plate portion 3402.
Then, in a state where the main body plate portion 3402 is placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 via the plurality of partition walls 4002, the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 is positioned in an intermediate portion in the longitudinal direction of the space portions 4008 as viewed in a plan view, and a plurality of the air communication passages 42 are formed by the space portions 4008 between the lower surface of the main body plate portion 3402 and the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604, and communicate the space S1 inside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 in the width direction and the space S2 outside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 in the width direction.
Thus, as illustrated in
According to the present embodiment, in a state where the main body plate portion 3402 of the flange 34 is placed in the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 via the plurality of partition walls 4002, the plurality of air communication passages 42 are formed between the lower surface of main body plate portion 3402 and the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 by the space portions 4008, and communicate the space S1 inside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 in the width direction and the space S2 outside of the upper end outer peripheral plate portion 1604 in the width direction.
In other words, a space inside of the bowl portion 1602 is communicated with the inside of the lavatory 12 via the plurality of air communication passages 42.
Thus, even when negative pressure in discharging waste acts on the inside of the toilet body 16, the negative pressure in discharging waste does not act on the human body seating portion.
In addition, as illustrated in
In addition, a cushion rubber of the related art is removed from a lower surface of the flange 34, and the shroud mount 40 is attached to the lower surface of the flange 34, and thus it is possible to also correspond to a toilet 14 used in the related art, and excellent versatility is provided.
In this case, it is more advantageous to form the partition walls 4002 each having the same height as the dimension of a cushion block of the related art.
Note that in the present embodiment, the case where the shroud mount 40 is a separate member from the shroud 22 and is bonded to the lower surface of the main body plate portion 3402 with an adhesive is described; however, the shroud mount 40 may be formed integrally with the shroud 22. This is advantageous in reducing the number of components and reducing the number of assembly steps.
As illustrated in
In addition, as illustrated in
In addition, in the present embodiment, the case where the space portions 4008 and the air communication passages 42 each have a substantially rectangular shape is described; however, regardless of whether the shroud mount 40 is separate from or formed integrally with the shroud 22, as illustrated in
In addition, as illustrated in
In addition, in the present embodiment, the case where the partition walls 4002 extend linearly in the width direction of the main body plate portion 3402 is described; however, regardless of whether the shroud mount 40 is separate from or formed integrally with the shroud 22, as illustrated in
Note that, as illustrated in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
JP2017-211729 | Nov 2017 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2018/024963 | 6/29/2018 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2019/087461 | 5/19/2019 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1955579 | De Malaussene | Apr 1934 | A |
2240094 | Foreman | Apr 1941 | A |
4376314 | Iwans | Mar 1983 | A |
5839127 | Curiel | Nov 1998 | A |
6226807 | Rozenblatt et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
7065801 | Klepfer | Jun 2006 | B1 |
8769731 | Seibt | Jul 2014 | B2 |
20040210994 | Turkman | Oct 2004 | A1 |
20060277671 | Jones | Dec 2006 | A1 |
20140137319 | Beach et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
20140165279 | Plugovoy | Jun 2014 | A1 |
20170150855 | Seibt et al. | Jun 2017 | A1 |
20210169281 | Taguchi | Jun 2021 | A1 |
20210179270 | Taguchi | Jun 2021 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2008-285835 | Nov 2008 | JP |
2016-169004 | Sep 2016 | JP |
2017-124819 | Jul 2017 | JP |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report for International Application No. PCT/JP2018/024963 dated Sep. 11, 2018, 4 pages, Japan. |
European Search Report for European Application No. 18874875.0 dated Jun. 30, 2021, 9 pages, Germany. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20200354061 A1 | Nov 2020 | US |