Patent ID: 8266730
Filing Date: 2012-09-18
Classification: A47K

Abstract:
1. A hands-free toilet attachment on a toilet system that has as existing equipment the following: (a) a toilet bowl, with a rim on top, and with rim height standardized in definite ranges; (b) a seat, attached conventionally to swivel up vertically and down horizontally, on top of said toilet bowl through standardized apertures on said toilet bowl with predetermined nuts and bolts; (c) a water tank, having a tank container with a tank top; a tank cover; a flushing mechanism actuated with a flushing rod inside said tank container; and a flushing lever outside of said tank container; for the conventional flushing of said toilet bowl; (d) a lid, attached conventionally to swivel up vertically to rest against said water tank and down horizontally to rest on top of said seat, along said seat or independently of said seat when possible; and (e) a wall behind said toilet bowl; said hands-free toilet attachment on a toilet system comprising, in combination: (a) a base plate, serving as a planar supporting member having paralleled, opposed major faces; (b) a foot pedal, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around a first axis at one of its ends; (c) a first lever, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around a second axis at one of its ends; (d) a second lever, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around a third axis at one of its ends; (e) a third lever, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around said same third axis at one of its ends; (f) a mechanical toggle, serving as a memory of the transient period when said seat is urged to be falling down; (g) a first arm of said mechanical toggle, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around a fourth axis at one of its ends; (h) a first U-shaped metal rod, transmitting said foot pedal movements onto said first lever on the swinging down movement only, while detaching said foot pedal from said first lever during the time said foot pedal swings up; (i) a second U-shaped metal rod, transmitting said foot pedal movements onto said first arm of said mechanical toggle; (j) a third U-shaped metal rod, serving as a second arm of said mechanical toggle, and transmitting the movements of said first arm of said mechanical toggle onto a fulcrum on said third lever; (k) a fourth and fifth U-shaped metal rods, transmitting the movements of said first lever onto a predetermined aperture and a predetermined cut out area of said second lever, respectively, so as to be able to raise said seat when it has been in the lowered position by depressing said foot pedal to its lowest position and then releasing it; and to free said seat in the initial lowering of said seat by depressing said foot pedal to its lowest position and then releasing it, when said seat has been in the raised position; and to transmit the movement of said second lever onto said first lever in the remaining course of said seat lowering under the continuous effect of gravity on said seat; (l) a mechanical flip-flop, serving as a memory of the up or down state of said toilet seat, pivoting on a plan parallel to the opposed major faces of said base plate, around a fifth axis on a predetermined point of a support plate of said mechanical flip-flop; said mechanical flip-flop having pushing means to push the tip of said fifth lever to one or the other of two limiting positions according to the past memory state stored in said mechanical flip-flop with each depression on said foot pedal, and then storing the new memory state with the help of a built-in snapping means; (m) a sixth U-shaped metal rod, transmitting said foot pedal movements onto said mechanical flip-flop; (n) a first torsional spring, wrapping around said second axis, urging said first lever, when free, to swing upward after said first lever is pulled downward by said foot pedal, for the purpose of latching said seat into a stable position leaning against said lid in front of said water tank in predetermined cooperation with the upper end of said fifth U-shaped metal rod; said first torsional spring being there also for the purpose of moving the upper end of said fifth U-shaped metal rod, at the right time, into freeing said second lever for it to rotate away from the underside of said seat; (o) a second torsional spring on said first lever that bears against the lower end of said fifth U-shaped metal rod to cooperate in a predetermined manner with said second lever to accommodate harmlessly an inadvertent manual lowering of said seat when it has been latched into the raised position; (p) a metal Z-shaped wire form anchored on a predetermined point of said mechanical flip-flop, serving, when said seat is being lowered, to reset said mechanical flip-flop correctly for raising said seat the next time when said foot pedal is depressed, if said seat lowering operation caused any disturbance in said mechanical flip-flop memory; (q) a first rolling pin, preferably made pliable, rolling freely but snuggly inside an aperture on said second lever, and covered all around its part outside of said aperture on said second lever with a tubing, preferably of semi-rigid plastic, serving as means to raise said seat alone or said seat and lid together; (r) a second rolling pin, preferably made pliable, rolling freely but snuggly inside an aperture on said third lever, and covered all around its part outside of said aperture on said third lever with a tubing, preferably of semi-rigid plastic, serving, along with said first rolling pin, as means to lower seat alone or said seat and lid together; (s) an extension spring, attached to the upper end of said sixth rod and to the lower end of a J-shaped wire form; the upper end of said J-shaped wire form being attached to said third axis common to said second and said third levers; said extension spring being biased to pull the upper end of said sixth U-shaped metal rod toward said third axis to rest at an apex of said support plate of said mechanical flip-flop; (t) a first link strip, attached at its two ends with nylon tying straps of predetermined strength to the upper end of said sixth U-shaped metal rod and a predetermined point of said second U-shaped metal rod; said first link strip serving as a mechanical linkage that maintains said sixth U-shaped metal rod and said second U-shaped metal rod in a predetermined angular position with respect to each other in all movements of said sixth and second U-shaped metal rods; (u) an upper bracket, serving to affix a first predetermined point of said base plate onto a predetermined location on said toilet bowl selected from the group consisting of the surface areas on the rim of said toilet bowl at the vicinity of the standardized apertures of said toilet bowl provided for the fixture of said seat for conventional use with said toilet bowl; said upper bracket positioning in a predetermined manner said first and second rolling pins for the raising and lowering of said seat alone or said seat and lid together; (v) a predetermined plurality of supporting feet, joined to said base plate at spaced locations to bear onto the surface that supports said toilet bowl, and adjustable so as to enable said hands-free attachment on a toilet system to work with different sizes of said rim height; and (w) a lower bracket, serving to affix a second predetermined point of said base plate to bear onto a predetermined point selected from the group consisting of a predetermined point on said wall behind said toilet bowl and a predetermined aggregated number of points on said toilet bowl; said lower bracket serving cooperatively with said plurality of supporting feet and said upper bracket as means to counter a force on said base plate every time said foot pedal is depressed; whereby, when said seat has been in the lowered position, operating twice the sequence of depressing said foot pedal by any means to its lowest position then releasing for it to rise to its highest position, said hands-free attachment on a toilet system provides a dual operation selected from the group consisting of: each time of operating the sequence being separated from the next with a chosen time interval.