Disposable water purifier

An inexpensive, throw-away water purifier is provided for use with water receiving household devices such as coffee makers, portable water containers, ice makers and the like, to treat the water with dosages of water softening and purifying chemicals as the water flows into the devices. The purifiers are small, compact, flat pancake-like units, used singly or in stacked combinations directing water flow in an extended serpentine path through one or more dosages of water treating chemicals. The purifiers have thin impervious plastics material housings, thin porous membranes separating the water treating chemicals from the inlet and outlet of the housing and baffle means directing the water flow in an extended serpentine path as it flows through the membranes and chemicals from a top inlet to a bottom outlet. The purifiers can be thrown away after a single usage and are sized to be compatible with the inlet mouths of standard water receiving household appliances. The purifiers are adapted to be stacked in superimposed relation to afford extended water treatment and provide successive dosages of different types of water purifying and softening chemicals.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to the art of single use throw-away type water 
purifiers and specifically deals with pancake-like packets or pads of 
water treating chemicals. 
THE PRIOR ART 
Heretofore known water purifiers required expensive, heavy, and bulky 
containers and were usually permanently installed in household pipelines. 
Smaller cartridges of water filtering material, such as activated carbon, 
have been proposed for attachment to water faucets and the like, but these 
units also require a permanent housing and plumbing attachments and, like 
their larger counterpart, must be opened up and recharged with fresh 
chemicals. 
Since there are many instances where water purification and softening of a 
truly portable nature is desired, it would be an improvement in this art 
to provide inexpensive single use throw-away water purifiers in a compact 
easily handled package conveniently inserted in the inlet mouth of 
conventional household appliances and utensils to soften and purify the 
water just prior to its use. This invention, therefore, provides water 
purifiers in the form of compact small light weight and easily handled 
packets which are sufficiently inexpensive to be disposed of after single 
usage. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
According to this invention, dosages of water treating chemicals are 
packaged in disposable plastic material housings containing porous filter 
membranes and baffles to direct water flow from a top inlet in an extended 
serpentine pass through the membranes and dosages of chemicals as it flows 
to the bottom outlet of the housing. The dosages can vary in amounts and 
chemical composition depending on the quality and quantity of the water to 
be treated. For example, if only about 1 gallon of water with impurities 
in the range of 0.05 to 0.07% is to be purified, several ounces of 
chemicals should be sufficient. 
The preferred housing may be an inexpensive thin walled stiff shape 
retaining polyvinyl chloride doughnut-like member about 3/4 to 11/2 inches 
high, about 21/2 to 41/2 inches in diameter, with a central inlet in the 
top thereof and a central outlet in the bottom thereof, about 1/2 inch in 
diameter. The plastics materials, sizes and shapes of the housing can be 
varied to suit conditions, but the walls of the housing need only be very 
thin in the order of 0.010 to 0.030 inches for minimizing costs. The 
housing is easily formed from two molded cup members united in opposed 
relation around the peripheries of their mouths. 
The membranes are preferably a porous plastics material, vacuum molded in 
hollow tire-shape. Two of these membranes are stacked together in the 
housing on opposite sides of a thin dividing wall or wafer with a 1/2 inch 
hole in its center and with its periphery heat sealed between the rims of 
the opposed cups forming the housing. The porous plastic members have very 
thin film-like or membrane-like walls, but stiff enough to hold their 
shape. Thicknesses in the range of 0.005 to 0.030 inches are useful. The 
membranes are preferably constructed of a polyolefine molded to a porous 
state with pores preferably not exceeding about 500 micrometers. The 
dividing wall wafer has an outside diameter mating with the rims of the 
plastic housing cups and preferably has a thickness in the order of 0.02 
to 0.03 inches. 
The top of the top membrane and the bottom of the bottom membrane are 
covered with thin circular wafers or baffles of impervious plastics 
material of the same order of thickness as the dividing wall between the 
membranes, but no holes are provided in these top and bottom wafers. 
All of the plastics materials should, of course, be FDA approved for 
drinking water use. 
The membrane compartments are filled with water treating chemicals, 
preferably in the form of small beads, flakes or granules of ion exchange 
resins, activated charcoal and the like. The pair of superimposed membrane 
compartments may be filled with the same or different chemicals in dosages 
to insure water purification on a single pass through the housing. The 
peripheries of the membranes are spaced inwardly from the periphery of the 
housing and the wafers or baffles are spaced from the top and bottom walls 
of the housing to direct the water flow from the top inlet radially 
outward to the periphery of the top membrane, thence radially inward 
through the chemicals to the central hole in the dividing wall or baffle, 
thence radially outwardly through the chemical in the bottom membrane, 
through the periphery of this bottom membrane and thence radially inward 
to the bottom outlet of the housing. The extended flow path insures fast 
flow and maximum intimate contact of the water with the chemicals. A 
gravity flow of only 2 minutes or less for one gallon of water to pass 
through entire purifier is achieved. 
The pad-like purifiers of this invention may vary greatly in size and shape 
with the plastics material components being quite thin to minimize cost 
and still provide structural strength to maintain the shape and seal the 
chemicals in the porous membrane compartments. 
It is then an object of this invention to provide a disposable water 
purifier in the form of a flat pancake-like packet or pad containing one 
or more dosages of water treating chemicals and adapted for use with 
conventional water receiving household devices as water is flowed into 
such devices. 
Another object of this invention is to provide a throwaway type water 
purifier pad for use with conventional household appliances and utensils. 
A specific object of this invention is to provide a flat pad or pancake 
packet containing one or more dosages of water treating chemicals and 
having a top inlet and a bottom outlet with a porous filter membrane 
separating the dosage from the inlet and outlet and baffle means in the 
housing extending the water flow path between the water inlet and outlet. 
A further specific object of this invention is to provide a disposable 
single use water purifier having a doughnut-like housing containing 
stacked porous membrane compartments filled with water treating chemicals 
and a serpentine flow path for water through the housing and chemicals. 
A very specific object of the invention is to provide a disposable water 
purifier of thin-walled molded plastics material providing a flat 
pancake-like pad containing a plurality of superimposed membranes filled 
with solid particles of water treating chemicals and having exposed 
peripheral porous walls receiving water flow therethrough together with 
baffle means directing the water flow in a serpentine path from a top 
inlet to a bottom outlet of the housing. 
Other and further objects of this invention will be apparent to those 
skilled in this art from the following detailed description of the annexed 
sheets of drawings, which show a best mode embodiment of the invention.

AS SHOWN ON THE DRAWINGS 
In FIGS. 1-4, purifier packets or pads 10 of this invention are illustrated 
in use with various types of household utentils or appliances to show the 
compatibility of the purifiers of this invention with standard household 
devices. 
In FIG. 1, the purifier 10 is illustrated as mounted in a funnel 11 for 
feeding water to a coffeepot 12. The water must pass through the purifier 
10. 
In FIG. 2 the purifier 10 is mounted in the water inlet 13 of a coffee 
maker 14. 
In FIG. 3 the purifier 10 is mounted in the water inlet 15 of a portable 
molded plastic water bottle 16 having a dispensing outlet 17. The device 
16 is of the type conveniently mounted in an icebox to provide chilled 
water. 
In FIG. 4 the purifier 10 is mounted in the water inlet 18 of an ice cube 
maker 19 of the type mounted in the freezing compartment of a refrigerator 
20. 
The conventional household appliances or utentils of FIGS. 1-4 thus have 
the water fed thereto treated by a purifier 10 of this invention. This 
purifier 10 is sized for easily handling and may take various shapes to 
fit the water inlets of the devices. It is completely disposable and 
thrown away after use. No special holders or auxiliary containers are 
needed. 
As shown in FIG. 5, the purifier 10 is a flat cylindrical pad or 
pancake-like packet with a top central inlet 21 and a bottom central 
outlet 22. 
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the purifier 10 has a housing 23 composed of two 
thin walled cup-shaped molded plastic halves 24 and 25 each with a flat 
cylindrical base 26 and an upstanding peripheral cylindrical sidewall 27. 
The top cup member 24 contains the central circular inlet 21 in its base 
26 while the bottom cup member 25 contains the central circular outlet 22. 
The cylindrical sidewalls 27 of the cup members have aligned rims 28. A 
thin impervious plastics material circular wall or disk 29 spans the 
mouths of the inverted cup members 24 and 25 and has its periphery 
extended between their rims 28. The periphery of the disk 29 is heat 
sealed to the rims forming a housing with a top compartment 30 and a 
bottom compartment 31. The wall or disk 29 has a central opening or hole 
32 therethrough. 
A top cylindrical bead or shoulder 33 and an aligned bottom cylindrical 
shoulder or bead 34 are integrally formed around the wall or disk 29 
between the inlet and periphery of the wall, but closer to the periphery. 
A pair of hollow tire-shaped annular porous membranes 35 are seated on 
opposite faces of the wall 29. These membranes 35 are channel-shaped in 
cross section with an upstanding outer peripheral wall 36 and radial legs 
37. The bottom leg of the top membrane 35 is abutted against the top bead 
33 of the wall 29 while the top leg 37 of the bottom membrane 36 is 
bottomed against the bottom wall 34 of the wall. These legs are secured to 
the wall 29 as by heat sealing or by an adhesive. 
The peripheral wall 36 of each membrane is of smaller diameter than the 
sidewalls 27 of the cups 24 and 25 forming the housing 23 thereby 
providing an annular space between the housing and the membrane on each 
side of the dividing wall 29. 
The top leg 37 of the top membrane 35 and the bottom leg 37 of the bottom 
membrane 35 are covered with thin plastic circular baffles or wafers 38 
with each baffle having a bead or shoulder 39 abutting the inner end of 
the leg. The baffles 38 are sealed to the adjacent leg by heat sealing or 
glue. 
The baffles 38 are spaced inwardly from the top and bottom walls 26 of the 
housing 23 providing flow paths or gaps 40 commmunicating with the gaps or 
flow paths 41 surrounding the peripheries of the membranes. 
Each membrane 35 is filled with a solid water treating chemical in the form 
of small granules or beads. Thus, the top membrane maybe filled with an 
ion exchange resin 42 while the bottom membrane may be filled with a 
bacteria filtering chemical such as activated charcoal 43. 
Water entering the inlet 21 flows through the top gap or passage 40 
radially outward to the top peripheral passage 41 and thence through the 
porous wall 36 of the top membrane 35 to flow radially inward through the 
dosage of chemicals 42 to exit through the hole 32 in the dividing wall 29 
and flow radially outward through the chemicals 43 in the bottom membrane 
35, then exiting through the peripheral wall 36 of this bottom membrane 
35, into the bottom gap or passage 41 between the bottom membrane and the 
sidewall 26 of the bottom cup member 25 and thence radially inward through 
the passage 40 between the bottom baffle 38 and the bottom wall 26 of the 
bottom cup 25 to exit at the outlet 22. An extended serpentine reversed 
flow path is thus provided for the water forcing it to flow radially 
inward through the chemicals in the top membrane and radially outward 
through the chemicals in the bottom membrane. This arrangement provides 
increased intimate contact between the chemicals and the water. 
While two superimposed membranes are provided in the housing 23, as 
illustrated, it should be understood that three or more superimposed 
membranes could also be provided. 
Further, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of packets or pads 10 can be 
stacked in sealed relation connecting the bottom outlet 22 of the top pad 
with the top inlet 21 of a bottom pad without leakage by the use of an 
annulus of double-faced adhesive tape 44 between the superimposed pads 
adhesively sealed to the adjacent walls 26 thereof and surrounding the 
outlet 22 of the top pad 10 and the inlet 21 of the bottom pad 10. 
It will be understood that the components of the purifier pads of this 
invention are inexpensive plastics material easily molded and having thin 
walls for economy sake. The porous membranes preferably have pores in the 
order of 500 micrometer. While the purifiers have been shown in the form 
of flat pancake-like circular members it should be understood that the 
shapes of the pads can be varied to suit conditions of use. 
From the above descriptions it will be understood that this invention 
provides an inexpensive, compact, lightweight, water purifier containing 
selected dosages of water purifying and filtering chemicals and formed 
from sufficiently inexpensive materials as to warrant disposal after 
single usage. The devices are sized and shaped to fit water inlets of 
conventional household appliances and utensils.