Patent Application
20220007901
The present disclosure relates to a urinal protector, more specifically to a urinal protector for use with a toilet bowl preventing splashing.
Urinals can be a significant source of unwanted staining on a person's clothing, especially pants and shoes. For example, due to the currently used shape of urinals, excess liquids, such as water, cleaning chemicals, and/or urine (e.g., from splash-back or drippage) can spill over the edge of the urinal and directly downwards. Because of the location of the urinal, a user's feet would be directly in the spillage and could lead to damage to the user's clothing. Furthermore, the liquids could splash, thus damaging the pant legs of the user of the urinal. Additionally, spillage can lead to puddles on the ground in a restroom, even when a floor urinal mat is used, which are not merely unsightly but can begin to substantially damage the floor or the soles of a person's shoes. It can be expensive to fix any damage done to the floor by the uric acid.
In the past, floor mats have been used in restrooms to reduce urine and other chemical/liquid levels on the restroom floor. Urine is a significant damage for floors, and can etch or eat away from the floor, and thus it is advantageous to prevent urine from remaining on a floor. While floor mats have typically been used, the restroom environment is harsh on them, both physically and chemically, and the floor mats can quickly collect urine and other chemicals. As users do not want to stand on a urine filled floor mat, they stand aside the floor mats, thus exacerbating the damage to the floor. Further, because of the harsh environment, floor mats can quickly lose their air freshening or sanitizing function, become torn so that debris is permitted through them, or become unsightly. Therefore, floor mats need to be changed relatively often to function properly without drawing undue attention. In addition, floor mats can easily be kicked aside, thus eliminating any usefulness in protecting the restroom floor.
Disclosed herein is a urinal protector acting as a floor shield, which can prevent liquids from falling from the urinal area and onto the floor and/or a user's clothing. Accordingly, this can prevent clothing from being damaged, as well as improve sanitation in a restroom. Further, an embodiment of the floor shield can remain above the floor of a restroom, thus significantly reducing the wear and damage to the floor shield facility, being used effectively for a longer period.
In an embodiment, a urinal protector for use with a toilet bowl, comprising:
Preferably, the two protecting plates are slightly inclined toward inside the toilet bowl when they are unfolded upright.
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the disclosure, the terminology used is for the purpose of describing particular embodiment only and is not intended to be limiting of inventive concepts. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in the disclosure, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Commonly used predefined terms may be construed as having the same or similar meaning as the contextual meanings of the related art and are not to be construed as an ideal or overly formal sense unless expressly defined to the contrary herein. In some cases, the terms defined herein may not be construed to exclude the embodiment of the inventive concepts.
An example embodiment in accordance with principles of inventive concepts will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete and fully conveys inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the sizes and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail concerning the accompanying drawings so that a person who has ordinary skill in the art can easily implement the present disclosure.
As shown in the figures, the urinal protector 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure comprises a thin rectangular head plate 12 and a wire frame 14. The thin rectangular head plate 12 can be made of plastic or metal material. The wire frame 14 is, preferably, made of steel or other metal material.
The thin rectangular head plate 12 can be inserted between a toilet seat and the toilet bowl. Or, as shown in
The wire frame 14 is attached to the thin rectangular head plate 12, for example, by inserting the left and the right ends into holes perforated left and right sides of the thin rectangular head plate 12, or by embedding the left and the right ends of the wire frame 14 in the rectangular head plate 12 when manufacturing the same.
The wire frame 14 has substantially the same shape as the outline or rim of a toilet bowl 3. Therefore, when the urinal protector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is installed between the toilet seat 4 and the rim of the toilet bowl 3, the wire frame 14 surrounds the edge of the rim of the toilet bowl 3.
The left protecting plate 16 and the right protecting plate 18 are made from plastic or metal and are attached on the left end and the right end of the wire frame respectively. Two protecting plates 16 and 18 are rotatably attached on the wire frame through the left and the right torsion springs 20.
Both ends of the torsion springs 20 are embedded in the protecting plates 16 and 18, and the torsions of the springs 20 are set up such that the protecting plates 16 and 18 are folded under the liftable toilet seat by the weight of the liftable toilet seat and unfolded upright by the two torsion springs when the liftable toilet seat is lifted. Therefore, when a female uses the toilet bowl or it is not using, the protecting plates 16 and 18 are folded under the liftable toilet seat 4 and cannot be seen from outside except the wire frame 14.
When a male uses the toilet bowl for taking a dump, the liftable toilet seat 4 is not lifted and the protecting plates 16 and 18 are folded under the liftable toilet seat 4 as well. However, when a male uses the toilet bowl for peeing, the liftable toilet seat 4 is lifted, and by the force of the torsion spring 20, the protecting plates 16 and 18 are unfolded upright.
Since the protecting plates 16 and 18 are upright and block both sides of the rim of the toilet bowl 3, urine cannot be splashed outside of the toilet bowl 3. The two protecting plates 16 and 18 can be slightly inclined toward inside the toilet bowl when they are unfolded upright. Therefore, after peeing, the liftable toilet seat 4 is lowered down, then the two protecting plates 16 and 18 are pressed down accordingly, and finally are folded down again below the liftable toilet seat 4.
The above description of the present invention is for illustrative purposes only, and a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains will be able to understand that other specific forms can be easily modified without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments described above are illustrative and non-limiting in all respects. The scope of the present invention is outlined in the claims rather than in the detailed description, and all changes or modified forms derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalent concepts should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.
