Abstract:
A manifold box adapted to contain manifolds for valves controlling the flow of potentially hazardous liquids. This is a rotationally cast sealed plastic box enclosing the valves to contain any leaks from the valves and allow any leaking liquid to drain from the box through a drain tube at the bottom of the box to prevent the liquid from leaking onto surfaces below or adjacent to the valves. Attachment engaging “tee-nuts” are cast in place within the walls of the box and fittings for tubing connections are attached to the walls of the box at openings in the walls. The box has a front access opening sealingly closed by a hinged plastic cover panel. In one embodiment the box is rectangular and is designed with two adjacent sloping walls which permit drainage of liquid from the box into a drain tube regardless of whether the box is mounted vertically or horizontally. In another embodiment the box is square and has one sloping wall containing a drain connected to a drain pipe.

Description:
RELATED US APPLICATIONS 
     This invention is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/170,231, filed Oct. 13, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,780. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a manifold box containing manifolds for valves controlling the flow of potentially hazardous liquids. More specifically this is a sealed box enclosing the valves to contain any leaks from the valve and allow any leaking liquid to drain from the box through a drain tube at the bottom of the box to prevent the liquid from leaking onto surfaces below or adjacent to the box. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     It is known in the prior art to provide sealed junction boxes containing either electrical wiring, plumbing or both and which contain and divert leaking liquid so that it will not damage adjacent surfaces or equipment. 
     A typical example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,907 issued to Harald Philipp which shows an enclosure divided into two compartments with one containing electronic circuitry and the other containing liquid controlling valves. The compartments are divided by a slanted wall which causes any water leaks to drain from the enclosure without contacting the electronic equipment. 
     Another example of such an enclosure is a washing machine outlet box which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,624 issued to Constantine R Doumany which shows a plastic box having a downwardly extending neck around a drain opening in the bottom of the box to drain away any water leaking within the box to prevent water from escaping from the box and leaking onto adjacent surfaces and equipment. 
     Other similar examples of plastic boxes with bottom drains are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,471 (Logsdon) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,422 (Izzi, Sr). 
     The manufacturing of plastic boxes for specific applications such as to contain certain manifolds carrying hazardous liquids such as those containing acid materials and the like are often manufactured by hand lay up from sheet plastic materials to meet the needed requirements of the size, shape and the particular valve fittings to be mounted within a particular container. This can be very expensive and time consuming. 
     OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of this invention is to provide an inexpensive, easy to manufacture sealed container for a valve manifold which contains and drains away hazardous liquids which may leak from the connections of the manifold. 
     Another object of this invention is to provide a manufacturing method for a sealed container which can produced in mass production with a minimum of hand labor. 
     A still further object of the invention is to provide a container which can be mounted for use in either the vertical or horizontal position and still provide effective drainage of liquid from the bottom of the container regardless of whichever mounting position is selected. 
     These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in the following specification and drawings. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention is a valve manifold box to enclose manifolds controlling the flow of potentially hazardous liquids which need containment in the event of valve or connection leaks, the box comprising: a substantially rectangular non-metallic box having five sides integral with each other, four of said sides defining an opening; a cover panel sealingly held against adjacent edges of four of the sides to form a liquid retaining enclosure to contain any leakage from valves or connection points of a manifold within the box; and a plurality of fittings attached in sealing relationship to at least part of the walls; said fittings adapted to be in communication with the inside of the box and with liquid carrying tubes passing therethrough. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a manifold box of the invention prior to attachment of access fittings; 
     FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the box of FIG. 1 looking at the right side thereof; 
     FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the box of FIG. 1 taken on line  3 — 3  of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is a greatly enlarged view of the lower left corner of FIG. 3 showing a flange and channel for receiving a resilient seal member; 
     FIG. 5 is a simplified perspective diagrammatic view showing the multiple motions of a mold for rotational casting to a box such as that of FIGS. 1-4; 
     FIG. 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view through a portion of one of the walls of a box such as that shown in FIGS. 1-4; showing a fitting being attached to the wall by spin welding to extend through a hole cut therein; 
     FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of a vertically mounted manifold box similar to that of FIG. 1 after installation of a front access panel and a plurality of fittings; 
     FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the manifold box of FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 9 is a front elevational view of a manifold box similar to that of FIG. 7 except that the box is mounted horizontally; 
     FIG. 10 is a side elevational view of the manifold box of FIG. 9; 
     FIG. 11 is a greatly enlarged view of a corner of a box similar to FIG. 4 but showing thump screws to fasten an access panel in place as any alternative to latches; 
     FIG. 12 is a front view of another embodiment of the invention similar FIG. 1 but showing a square box instead of a rectangle; and 
     FIG. 13 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a wall segment and fitting similar to that shown in FIG. 6 but showing the fitting being attached to the wall by compression with gasket material sealing the fitting to the wall. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to the drawings and in particular to FIGS. 1-3 a manifold box is indicated generally by the numeral  10 . The manifold box is of substantially rectangular shape and has a back wall  12 , a front wall  14  and four side walls  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22  formed integrally with the back wall  12  and front wall  14 . 
     The box  10  is preferably made by rotational casting such as shown in a mold  24  as shown in FIG.  5 . The mold is supported on a gimbal  26  which permits the mold  24  to rotate about axes “X” and “Y” which are perpendicular to each other. The box  10  is made of a not metallic plastic material such as polyethylene, polypropylene, Teflon or other suitable material. In performing the casting a designated quantity of plastic material in liquid or pellet form is placed in the mold  26  and if pellets are used, the mold is heated to melt the pellets into liquid form. The mold  26  is then rotated about multiple axes to cause the liquid to coat the entire interior surfaces of the mold in a relatively uniform thickness of the plastic material. As soon as the material is sufficiently cooled, the mold parts  26   a  and  26   b  are separated and the cast box  10  removed from the mold. 
     When removed from the mold  26  the box  10  as shown in FIGS. 1-3 forms a rectangular container which is totally closed on all six sides. The box  10  contains a plurality of “tee-nuts”  28  which are cast in place during rotational casting of the box  10  at certain predetermined locations within the side walls  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22  with the outwardly facing ends of the nuts  28  being open to receive screws and the inward ends of the nuts having flat heads sealed within the wall of the box so that the nut does not provide any open communication with the interior of the box  10 . This is to prevent any liquid from leaking out of the box when it is in use with a valve manifold mounted therein. Slightly larger “tee-nuts”  28   a  are cast in the same manner within the back wall  12  for providing a means of attaching mounting members (not shown) for mounting the box on a vertical wall when in use. 
     As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the box  10  has a flange portion  30  having the cross-section shape of a reverse “h” extending around the front edge of the four sides  16 ,  18 ,  20  and  22  of the box. The flange portion  30  carries therein a continuous groove  32  extending around the entire rectangular extending flange  30  with the groove  32  facing outwardly to receive a resilient seal member  34  (shown in FIG. 7) extending around the entire rectangular extending groove  32 . 
     The back wall has a plurality of circular inwardly offset portions  36  cast around mold inserts (not shown)  38  to provide rearwardly facing recesses  38  to receive disk shaped resilient seals or washers shown in FIG.  8 . The offset portions  36  provide support for attaching a mounting back plate  40  for a manifold  42  as shown in FIG.  8 . 
     Since the box is cast with all the walls totally enclosing the interior of the box  10 , it is necessary to cut a front access opening in order to install a manifold inside the box. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, it can be seen that the front wall  14  is recessed inwardly from the flange  30 . To provide the access opening the entire recessed portion of the front wall  14  is cut out on the cut line “C” and the wall  14  is removed from the position shown in chain dotted lines in FIG.  4  and moved away from the flange  30  as shown by the direction of the arrows  14   a  leaving only the flange portion  30  surrounding the opening  44  shown in FIG.  4 . The removed front wall is indicated by the number  14 R. The opening  44  bordered by the flange  30  is rectangular and leaves substantially all the front of the box  10  open until sealingly closed with a cover panel  46  (shown in FIGS. 7 and  9 ) which will be explained more in detail later. 
     After removal of the front wall  14  from the box  10 , it is cut to a reduced size as needed and mounted on the inside of the back wall  12  to serve as the previously mentioned mounting back plate  40  shown in FIG.  8 . The back plate  40  can be attached to the offset portions  36  by plastic bolts or other suitable means. 
     If needed for extra strength bolts  37  can be passed through the entire thickness of the offset portion  36  and a nut  37   a  applied to one end of the bolt as shown in FIG.  8 . 
     As shown in FIGS. 1-3, two of the sidewalls  16  and  18  are sloped toward a corner with each wall having a low portion for mounting a drain fitting as will be described later. The sidewall  16  slopes to a low portion  16   a  and the sidewall  18  slopes to a low portion  18   a . The two sloping walls  16  and  18  makes it possible to use the box  10  in a vertical position as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 or in a horizontal position as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 depending upon what configuration of manifold is to be mounted in the box. As long as either of the sloping walls  16  or  18  is placed as the bottom wall, then the liquid will properly drain to a corner and pass out of a drain fitting  51  and drain pipe  51   a  attached to the respective low portion of the bottom wall. 
     Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8, it may be seen that a plurality of tubular top fittings  48  have been attached to the top wall  22  and a plurality of bottom fittings  50  have been attached to the bottom wall  18 . The fitting  51  serves as the drain connection mounted in the low portion  18   a  of the bottom wall  18  which holds the drain pipe  51   a.    
     These fittings are attached to the walls of the box  10  by first drilling holes through top wall  22  and bottom wall  18  at the desired locations and then spin welding the fittings in the holes as shown in FIG. 6 where for example a bottom fitting  50  is inserted in a hole  50   a  of bottom wall  18  and spun at high speed by a rotating chuck  52  thereby generating heat which melts a sufficient amount of the contacting plastic surfaces to cause the fitting  50  to be fused to the wall  18  and to seal the fitting  50  in the hole  50   a . The top fitting  48  and the drain fitting  51  are also attached in the same manner. 
     An alternative to attaching the above described fittings is to insert the fittings in their respective holes in the walls of the box  10  and apply heat around the periphery of the fittings adjacent to the holes to fuse the fittings to their respective wall  18  or  22 . 
     The fittings may also be attached to the walls by an adhesive or by a solvent which temporarily softens the fitting and the wall at the area of contact to fuse the fittings to their respective wall. 
     An additional manner of attaching the fittings is shown in FIG. 13 in which the bottom fitting  50  has gasket material  53   a  applied to the fitting flange  53  on the surface  53   b  facing the wall  18  and the fitting  50  is force fitted into the hole  50   a  so that the gasket material  53   a  is compressed between the flange  53  and the wall  18  to form a seal between the fitting and the wall. 
     The cover panel  46 , made preferably from a clear plastic material such as polyvinyl chloride, is attached to the sidewall  20  by a piano type hinge  54  which has one leaf attached to the sidewall  20  by screws  56  which engage the “T” nuts  28  and other leaf of the hinge like wise attached to the cover panel by similar screws  28  and nuts. 
     The “T” nuts  28  located in the sidewalls  16 ,  18  and  22  receive screws  56  which fastens over center latches  58  to the sidewalls to engage keepers  60  similarly attached to the cover panel  46 . Thus it can be seen that the cover panel  46  provides a hinged see-through cover which can be sealing closed and held against the resilient seal member  34  which is held in place by latches  58  to contain any liquid material leaking from the manifold  42 . Other fasteners such as knurled thumb screws  61  as shown in FIG. 11, may be used as alternatives to the latches  58 . In addition the cover panel  46  can be made totally removable instead of being hinged by removably fastening it to the box  10  entirely by the screws  61 , by clamps  58  or other suitable means. 
     The manifold  42  consists of a series of interconnecting pipes and valves which need not be described in detail and has upwardly extending connections  62  communicating with tubes inner  62   a  which extend through fittings  48  and downwardly extending connections  64  communicating with inner tubes  64   a  passing through fittings  50 . The inner tubes  62   a  and  64   a  are made preferably of Teflon. The tubes  68  and  70  made preferably of polyvinyl chloride, serve as outer tubes which surround inner tubes  62   a  and  64   a  respectively as the tubes  62   a  and  64   a  continue outside the fittings  48  and  50 . The inner tubes  62   a  and  64   a  carry the liquid flowing through the system, while the outer tubes  68  and  70  contain any leakage which may occur. The outer tubes  68  and  70  sealingly engage the fittings  48  and  50  so that no leakage within the box  10  passes onto adjacent surfaces outside of the box where tubing passes through the fittings. 
     In a completed assembly, the inner tubes  62   a  and  64   a  extend outwardly from the connections  62  and  64  to carry liquids to and from the manifold  42 . The tubes  62   a  and  64   a  are sealed to their respective connections and fittings to prevent any leakage of liquid from the box  10  and any leakage occurring inside the box  10  only passes through the drain fitting  50   a.    
     Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, a box  10 ′ is shown which is substantially identical to the box  10  of FIGS. 7 and 8 except that it is positioned with the longer walls  16 ′ and  20 ′ being positioned horizontally instead of vertically. Since the assembly of the various components of the box  10 ′ is substantially identical to that of box  10  the assembly will not be described in detail in the interest of brevity, and the identical parts will be given the same numbers followed by a prime (′). 
     In box  10 ′, the bottom wall  16 ′ is sloped to a low portion  16   a ′ in which a drain fitting  50   a ′ is connected to provide drainage of any leaking liquid from inside the box  10 ′. With the box  10 ′ in a horizontal position, this means that the fittings  48 ′ and  50 ′ are mounted on sidewalls  18 ′ and  22 ′ instead of on the top and bottom walls as is the case of box  10  in FIGS. 7 and 8. 
     FIG. 12 shows another modification of a box  10 ″ similar to the box  10  in FIG. 1 except that the sides  16 ″,  18 ″,  22 ″ and  22 ″ are all the same length forming a square box instead of a rectangle. Since the box  10 ″ is square, there is no reason to select more than one of the sides as the bottom side. Only the bottom side  18 ″ needs to be sloped for drainage to a low center portion  18   a ″ to which is attached a drain fitting  51 ″ and a drain pipe  51   a ′. The box  10 ″ in FIG. 12 is shown after the front access opening  44 ″ has been cut in the front wall  14 ″. 
     The remaining fittings and cover plate can be attached to the walls of the box  10 ″ in the same manner as previously described in FIGS. 7 and 9. 
     Thus it may be seen that the boxes  10 ,  10 ′ and  10 ″ are cast as the same identical type box and vary only in the manner in which they are positioned either vertically or horizontally if rectangular or in the case of the box  10 ″ the box will be square. 
     In all the embodiments shown, the locations of fitting which are attached to the walls of the boxes  10 ,  10 ′ or  10 ″ may vary to suit the particular needs of the configuration of manifold contained within the box. 
     Variations can be made in the, materials used, locations of “T” nuts and fittings and the manner of attaching the front cover panel  46 , the fittings  48 ,  50  and  51  and manifold  42  without departing from the scope of the invention.