Patent Application
20180334785
A water well head casing adapter for attachment to a water well head casing providing a two piece body engaged within the head casing of the water well with an inner formed cavity securing a baffle comprising a plurality of flexible wafer inserts defining a linear bore, the linear bore forming a seal around an air pressure hose to introduce pressurized air into the water well casing without water or air escaping between the air hose and the linear bore, the water well head casing adapter used to reduce the time and improve the efficiency required to purge and to blow out unsanitary water in the water well casing and water lines of a newly drilled water well.
A preliminary review of prior art patents was conducted by the applicant which reveal prior art patents in a similar field or having similar use. However, the prior art inventions do not disclose the same or similar elements as the present water well casing adapter, nor do they present the material components in a manner contemplated or anticipated in the prior art.
Primarily, the prior art disclosed numerous devices for connecting a hose to a fitting or connecting hoses together. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,702,332 to Young, an adapter is shown to connect a hose to a hose receptacle or an object in a locking relationship. It is not intended for a well head casing, nor does it provide a secure reduction channel accepting an air hose without air loss. A multiple port filter is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,862 to Bedi, but it is used on an engine filter for oil filtration and facilitates engine cleaning and oil changing. It cannot adapt to a water well casing or accept the introduction of an air hose without air loss. Three U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,864 to Thurman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,106 to Tetzlaff, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,249,371 to Peterman deal with laundry hose connections and adapters for fluid flow. A pipe holding slip to secure to a pipe for lifting, probably useful in grabbing the casing during the setting process, is shown in U.S. Pat. No 2,287,432 to Kinzback.
Water wells, especially those in third world countries, are essential to provide clean drinkable water and to eliminate the consumption requirement and exposure to disease in most surface water consumption situations. Many charitable organizations have intervened to help provide water wells in many countries around the world to address the issue of clean drinking water to these people in order to provide the essential drinking water to improve health and reduce the almost certain risk of contaminated water supplies and biological disease transmission.
Alarming statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) demonstrate that almost 840,000 people die each year due to drinking contaminated water, most from surface water and dirty wells. Ten percent of the people in the world have no clean water access. Over 80% of common diseases in third world countries is caused by poor drinking water and sanitation. The water and sanitation crisis world wide is the second biggest killer of small children under 5 years of age. Poor children around the world miss 443 million days of school each year with water-related illnesses. World wide economic loss due to lack of clean water is estimated at $260 billion dollars.
The present manner which water wells are developed involves the drilling of the well to a depth on the average of 200 feet, the placement of well casing, generally PVC tubing which encroaches below the underground water level, and finally purge the well of unsanitary water which originally fills the casing until the unsanitary water is eliminated and replaced by clean drinkable water. This commonly involves a stepwise elimination of water from the bottom up at several different level of elimination, most commonly at 5 feet intervals, to push the water from below by the introduction of pressurized air to lift the water to the top of the casing and out or a water line extending from the top of the completed casing.
At the present time, this is done by sealing off the top of the casing and running an air hose into the bottom of the casing at the target level, with the top of the casing sealed with whatever is available - generally rags, cloths, or other fabric materials held in place by ties, straps or ropes. The only way this works is if there is a seal around the top of the casing where the air hose enters to prevent air leaks. If there is an air leak, the water will not be lifted to the water line and eliminated. Therefore, the purging process is quite tedious, inefficient and time consuming. It takes approximately 15 minutes at each level just to reposition and retape each level during the purging process.
The present water well casing adapter is a reliable and time reducing device that engages the top of the well casing and provides a flexible baffle through which an air hose is introduced into the bottom of the water well casing which prevents air loss during the purging process, is quickly installed and removed, and does not require reattachment and reengagement every time the air hose is moved up the well during the phasic purging process. It is installed and clamped to the well head casing, with the baffle allowing for intentional movement of the air hose while maintaining an air seal to prevent pressurized air loss. It takes only a matter of seconds, after the initial application of the device to the well head casing to move the air hose from one level to another during the purging process. Overall time saving is approximately 80% or more, allowing water wells to be drilled and purged during a work day, and significantly reduces the number of workers it takes to perform the purging process upon completion of the water well by 33-50%. Using the prior inefficient technique, it took 3-4 people all day (approximately 9 hours) to purge one water well. Using the present water well case head adapter, it takes approximately two hours for 2-3 people to start and complete the purging of the same water well.
The following drawings are submitted with this utility patent application.
A water well case head adapter 10, attaching to a casing head B of a water well casing A, shown in
The water well case adapter 10 defines two identical half cylindrical bodies 20, one of which is shown in
4, creating an air tight seal between each respective flat lateral edges 27. There can be handles 30 formed on the upper outer surface 24 spanning the clamp recess 25. Each half cylindrical body 20 is made of a hard non-deformable material, preferably a formed hard plastic, polymer or metal, which will not deform under the pressure of air or water. I 5 Within each upper expanded inner cavity 23 is a half cylindrical baffle 40 defining a plurality of flexible wafers 42 in horizontal layers, as shown in
When each half cylindrical body 20 is united to form the full cylinder of
In use on a drilled and newly installed water well casing A, the each half cylindrical outer body A containing a respective half cylindrical baffle 40 is joined together, with the engagement flange 28 of one half cylindrical body engaged within the engagement recess 29 of the other, and vice versa. The lower threaded outer surface 21 of the attached half cylindrical bodies 20 is inserted within a female threaded water well casing head B. In the event the water well casing head B did not have inner threads, the lower threaded outer surface 21 of the half cylindrical bodies 20 would be provided without outer threads, but instead some type of gasket seal sleeve or gasket coating, not shown, to create a seal between the well casing and the threadless lower outer surface of the water well casing head adapter 10. See
A clamp 50 is placed within the clamp recess 25 around the joined half cylindrical bodies 20 to completely seal the water well case head adapter 10 and withstand air and water pressure without separation, as indicated in
