Patent Application
20140075665
Walk-in bathtubs generally include higher tub walls, seating, and a side door, allowing the user to walk in to the tub from the side and sit down without having to climb down into a low bath tub or to elevate oneself over a tub wall. Walk-in tubs are well suited for individuals who have physical limitations that make it difficult or dangerous to climb into and out of a regular, low bathtub or to stand up in a shower for extended periods of time. Such limitations might include physical disabilities or simply the reduced strength, balance and range of motion that may occur with age. In addition, because the footprint of the walk-in tub can be reduced relative to the footprint of a traditional, lower, reclining-style tub, the tubs can be installed in smaller spaces, for example, allowing urban apartment dwellers to have a bathing tub, instead of merely a shower stall.
Many conventional walk-in tubs are configured so that door of the tub (which allows ingress and egress) opens inwardly, allowing the tub design to take advantage of the hydrostatic pressure of the water to press the door against the doorway to help seal the door.
However, an inward opening door requires significant physical maneuvering by the bather to situate him/herself in the tub and close the door. For example, the bather must enter the tub, remain standing and back himself or herself up sufficiently against the far wall of the tub to avoid obstructing the pathway of the door as it is closed. In addition, because the doors opened inwardly a significant distance between the faucet fixture and the tub seat had to be maintained to avoid obstruction by the fixture of the door. Disadvantageously, the necessary separation between the fixture and the seat made it difficult for a bather sitting on the seat to reach the fixture (creating a safety hazard) and also placed design limitations on the reduction of tub footprint and the type, style and nature of fixture used.
Prior art attempts to make walk-in tubs with outward opening doors have been made, but because of the challenges associated with achieving a watertight seal, most doors require significant physical strength to close and seal the doors, a disadvantage particularly as walk-in tubs bathers tend to be older and infirm. Many prior art designs rely upon large diameter sealing gaskets that require substantial physical force to cause the gasket to be tightly compressed between the door and the tub sidewalls to ensure that the closed tub does not leak. Prior art attempts have been made to use mechanical arrangements to reduce the amount of physical force necessary to compress the gasket and seal the door, but such designs can be improved upon.
There remains a need in the art for a walk-in tub having an outward opening door that can be sealed with relative ease and which provides safer ingress and egress for the bather.
In an embodiment of the invention, a walk-in tub having an outward opening door is described. Such tub allows for easy and safe ingress and egress by the bather, is capable of being designed so the bather can easily reach the water fixtures while partially or wholly supported by the seat in the tub, contains a seat designed to further facilitate easy ingress/egress from the tub and bears a door that is sealable by the bather without application of significant physical force and, in most cases, may be opened or closed by the bather while he/she remains in the safer, seated position.
In an embodiment, the invention includes a walk-in bathtub having an outward opening door. The tub includes a body, which defines a cavity for containing a bathing liquid, such as water. The tub body has at least one access wall which itself contains an entry surface that extends laterally away from the cavity. The entry surface defines a doorway or portal that is in communication with the cavity to facilitate lateral ingress to and egress from the cavity by a bather.
The entry surface of the access wall includes an adapting surface having a closure face that is positioned along the perimeter of the portion of the portal that is submerged when the cavity contains the liquid, the closure surface defining a bolt recess positioned adjacent to the portal. The bolt recess has a proximal portion that communicates with the portal and a distal portion that communicates with the proximal portion by an intermediate portion.
In an embodiment, the lateral width of the distal portion of the bolt recess (Wd) is less than the lateral width of the proximal portion (Wp) and the outer lateral edge of distal portion being the nearer the cavity than the outer later edge of the proximal portion.
The tub includes a door, which also has a submergible portion, wherein the submergible portion has a perimeter face that is shaped to be complementary to the shape of the portal and is opposable against the closure face along substantially the entire length of the closure face, the door being pivotally connected to the body at a position such that the door can be pivoted between a closed position in which the submergible portion of the door is substantially contained within the portal of the body and the perimeter face of the door is opposed against the closure face and an open position in which the door is positioned outside the cavity and the portal sufficiently to permit lateral ingress into and egress from the cavity through the portal by the bather.
The tub includes a gasket that is fixed to at least one of the wall and the door and positioned such that it is opposed against both the wall and the door when the door is in the closed position; and at least one bolt slidably attached to the door and positioned engageably with the bolt recess, whereby when the door is pivoted within the portal, the bolt can be slidably engaged into the proximal portion of the bolt recess and when the bolt is slidably extended within the bolt recess from the proximal portion to the distal portion thereof, sequential engagement of the bolt with the intermediate and distal portions of the bolt recess will urge the door laterally into the closed position.
In an embodiment, the tub of the invention includes a seat positioned within the cavity, and which may include a seating surface having a first portion nearer a water fixture than a second portion of the seating surface.
Also contemplated with the scope of the invention are door sealing assemblies that serve to seal the door against the access wall.
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of various embodiments of the invention, may be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings various embodiments. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown. In the drawings:
The figures and description provided herein detail embodiments of a walk-in tub having an outward opening door and a set designed to facilitate safer and easier ingress/egress. The outward opening door pivots between an open and a closed position, allowing a bather to step in or out of the tub. The door is capable of being closed and sealed by the bather with relative ease and while safely in a seated position or while at least partially supported by the seat. Sealing of the doors is achieved when one or more of the slidable bolts is/are first extended into a proximal portion of a bolt recess, then sequentially engaged into the remainder of the bolt recess, thereby urging the door against the access wall, allowing for compression of a gasket between the door and the access wall of the tub.
The invention in some embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings herein. In the specification, words such as “inner” and “outer,” “upper” and “lower,” “superior” and “inferior,” “distal” and “proximal”, “inwardly” and “outwardly,” and “upwardly” and “downwardly,” and words of similar import are used for assisting in the understanding of the invention when referring to the drawings and absent a specific definition or meaning otherwise given by the specification for such terms should not be considered limited to the scope of the invention.
With reference to
The body 102 may be of any dimension. In some embodiments, it may be preferred that the body is capable of holding about 20 to about 40 gallons of water for a single bather tub. The dimension may be smaller, for example, if one is designing for a smaller end use space or larger, as desired, for example, if a tub having multi-bather capacity is required.
In addition, in some embodiments, the wall of the body may extend upwardly about 3-4 feet (conventional walk-in tub height), 5 feet or 8 feet or more, for example, if the tub is intended to be a component of a fully or partially enclosed bathing capsule or stall installation.
The body 102 is affixed at its lower extreme to a floor 148. One or more openings for drains or jets (not shown) may be included in the floor 148 and/or the sidewalls 146, the permit the entry or drainage of water or air.
A seat 150 may be located in the interior of the body 102. The seat 150 may be manufactured as a separate unit and fixed in the tub 100 or it may be formed integral with the body 102. In some embodiments, to facilitate ease of entry into the tub, the seat 150 may have a seating surface 158. In addition, the tub may include one or more water fixtures, such as, for example, hot or cold water faucets or a handheld showerhead. In a preferred embodiment, the water fixtures may be located in that portion of the sidewall(s) that is opposite the seat, such that a bather sitting in the tub would be facing the water fixtures and able to reach and adjust the fixtures while supported by at least a portion of the seat.
In an embodiment, at least a first portion of the seating surface 158 is nearer to the water fixture (or the sidewall in which the water fixture is intended to be fixed); this facilitates ease of entry into the tub, and permits most bathers to reach and adjust the fixtures while supported by at least a portion of the seating surface. In some embodiments, an edge 156 of the seating surface defines a perimeter that is in the form of an S-curve or a W-form.
Regardless of the configuration of the body and/or the seat, it includes an access wall 106. The access wall 106 contains an entry surface 108 that extends away from the cavity in a substantially lateral plane and defines a doorway or portal 110 that is in communication with the cavity 104. The portal 110 permits egress and ingress of the bather to the cavity 104 when the door is in an open position. It may be preferred that the portal extends from a generally level rim of the body to a substantially planar floor 148, such that the lowermost portion of the entry surface is substantially co-planar with the floor.
In some embodiments it may be desirable that the lateral width of the entry surface (Wes) is minimized so that a bather need only take a small step forward to enter the cavity. Alternatively, in some embodiments it may be desirable that the lateral width of the entry surface (Wes) is 8 to 12 inches, so that the bather can place his foot on the surface when entering or leaving the tub. The entry surface may contain anti-slip devices, drainage channels or vents, and/or any other components as desired.
The entry surface 108 includes an adapting surface 112 that contains a closure face 114 that is positioned at least along the perimeter of the portion of the portal 110 that is submerged when the cavity 104 contains a liquid. By “submerged”, it is meant that portion of the portal (or door or other component) that is located in a plane that is beneath a hypothetical plane defined by the horizontal surface of the water in the cavity, regardless other whether such portion is in direct contact with the water. In an alternative, it may be preferred that the closure face 114 of the adapting surface 112 is positioned such that it generally faces away from the interior of the cavity 104 or that the adapting surface 112 has a generally rectangular lateral cross section, with the closure face 114 being positioned on a wall facing in a direction generally opposite the interior of the cavity 104.
Referencing
In an embodiment, when the door is in the closed position, the submergible portion of the door 132 is substantially contained within the portal of the body 102 and the perimeter face of the door 132 is opposed against the closure face 114. When the door 132 is in an open position, the door is located outside the portal 112 sufficiently to permit lateral egress into and ingress from the cavity 104 by a bather.
Also included in the walk-in tub of the invention is a gasket 138. The gasket 138 may be fixed to the access wall 106 or to the door 132 or to both. The gasket 138 is fixed such that when the door 132 is in a closed position, the gasket 138 is opposed against both the wall and the door, as is shown in, for example,
The gasket is preferably made of a compressible and/or elastomeric material. Suitable materials may include, for example, rubber, plastic, elastomers, and/or polymers or copolymer material. In some embodiments, it may be desirable that the selected material is latex-free. The gasket may be hollow or solid and may have a cross section of shape. In an embodiment, however, it may be preferred that the gasket is hollow and has a substantially circular cross section.
The gasket may be fixed to the door or the access wall by any mechanism known or developed in the art. In an embodiment, the gasket is fixed by adhesive. Alternatively, the gasket includes a collar or series of tabs or similar structures that can be fitted into a groove or channel present on the surface to which the gasket is fixed, for example, as is shown in
The door 132 also includes at least one bolt. The bolt may be any configuration known or to be developed in the art, although those having a substantially circular, oval, or square shape in cross section may be preferred in some embodiments. It may be preferred that the face of the bolt is substantially flat, with or with out a beveled edged. However, rounded, bull-nosed, pointed, and or tapered faces may also be used in various embodiments.
The bolt is slidably attached to the door. Preferably, it is positioned engageably with the bolt recess that is defined by the adapting surface. The adapting surface 114 defines at least one bolt recess 120, although in some embodiments, depending on the size and shape of the portal 110, the adapting surface may define, for example, about two, about three, about 4 or about 5 to about 25 bolt recesses.
Turning to
The bolt recess 120 (in whole or in part) may be formed integral with the body 102, or it may be formed (in whole or in part) as a separate piece or pieces and fixed within the closure face 114.
With reference to
It may be preferred that the bolt is operably attached to an actuator that is connected to the door, for example, an actuator that may permit the bather to extend and/or retract the bolt while remaining at least partially supported by the seat or while in the cavity of the body. The actuator that is connected to the door may be within the door, or on the outside or the inside of the door.
The actuator may be any known or to be developed in the art. In an embodiment, the actuator may include, for example with reference to
As the tubs of the invention are designed to be used by older persons who may have reduced upper body strength, it may desirable in some embodiments to that the actuator includes a lever, whereby the actuating force exerted upon the bolt is greater than operating force exerted by the bather upon the actuator. Actuators that meet one or more of the above-described criteria and which may be suitable for use in the invention include, for example, those described in WO 2010/074771 A1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,066,316; 3,341,239; 3,863,275; 4,360,935; 4,802,247; 7,299,509; and United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0102746, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In what may be a preferred embodiment, referencing
In this embodiment, the handle 200 may have a pivotal mounting 250 positioned thereon, such as at or near the distal end 210 or along the intermediate portion 220, and the handle 200 may be pivotally mounted at the pivotal mounting 250 so that movement of the proximal end 230 of the handle 200 in one direction causes the handle 200 to pivot about the pivotal mounting 250, thereby urging the distal end 210 in the direction opposite the direction of movement of the proximal end 230. The position of the pivotal mounting may be selected to take advantage of leveraging principles, so that force applied to the handle at its proximal end 230 may be transmitted by the handle 200 about the pivotal mounting 250 and exerted by the distal end 210 of the handle on another object or surface (e.g., one or more extension or tie members 300 or one or more bolts 140) as a fraction or a multiple of the force applied to the proximal end 230. Leveraging principles are well understood, and substantially any of the numerous structures and methods known for transmitting force between physical members may be used to operably connect a pivoting handle 200 with a bolt 140.
A bolt-actuating handle 200 may have any of a wide variety of known locking mechanisms 400 associated with it. Locking mechanisms may, for example, inhibit or prevent unintended or accidental deployment of the handle 200 from the locked position 202. One example of a locking mechanism 400 is shown in
To close and seal the portal 110, one pivots the door 132 from the open position to the closed position. The bolt or bolts is/are then approximately adjacent to the proximal portion of the bolt recess. Referencing
The tub body, seat, door and/or other components (including the bolt recess) may be formed of any suitable material known or to be developed in the art, and each part may be formed out of the same or out of different materials. Suitable materials may include, for example, poured concrete, stone, wood, plaster, acrylic, fiberglass, porcelain, ceramic, marble, granite, stainless steel, aluminum, plastic, or other known materials. Such materials may be selected and “mix and matched” depending on the end use and/or end location of the tub. For example, if a tub is to be installed in an outdoor location, it may be desirable to fabricate it of tiled covered concrete (in the manner of a swimming pool). Alternatively, if the tub is to be sold for after market installation in residential bathrooms or assisted living facilities, it may be desirable to fabricate the tub body, seat, door and/or other components from molded acrylic. In most embodiments, it may be preferred that the material(s) selected are substantially waterproof, sanitizable, relatively resistant to corrosion and/or molds or mildew, and not prone to splitting, cracking or chipping.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/701,308, filed Sep. 14, 2012, entitled “Walk In Bathtub Having Outward Opening Door and Entry Facilitative Seat,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61701308 | Sep 2012 | US |
