Abstract:
A sprinkler head shut off device, comprising of a handle with at least one jaw, a lever, a stopper arm, and a means for reciprocating the stopper arm as the lever is rotated, in order to bring a portion of the stopper arm in contact with the orifice of the sprinkler and stop water flow. The device further comprises a locking means to lock the lever in position. The locking means comprises a member attached to the lever which locks its rotary motion in one direction at a particular position by engaging with a portion of the means for reciprocating the stopper arm.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
   None 
   FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
   Not Applicable 
   SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM 
   Not Applicable 
   STATEMENT REGARDING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL 
   Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
   BACKGROUND 
   The present invention relates in general to sprinkler shut off tools for stopping the flow of water from activated fire sprinkler heads, and more particularly to an improved sprinkler head shut off tool. 
   The sprinkler heads of the automated fire protection sprinkler systems used in buildings and ships when activated by a fire sensor or accidentally, can cause water damage to buildings and other objects in the coverage area and other areas that the water can flow to. 
   Frequently, it is difficult to access the water valve to stop the flow of water from the sprinkler head. Therefore, it is desirable to have the means to stop the water flow. Several devices have been developed in art. For example, U.S. Pub. No. 20060042803 to Gallaher discloses a tool to stop the flow of water through an activated fire protection sprinkler head. This tool is designed to be a heavy duty, simple to operate mechanism capable of deactivating fire preventing sprinkler heads quickly. By simply turning the outer housing of the tool, by hand or by means of an adjustable extension pole, shut-off levers of this tool will be moved apart within the bracket of the sprinkler head until co-action between the bracket and one of the levers forces the other lever, preferably one bearing a shut-off gasket, against the open water orifice in the sprinkler head, thereby preventing the flow of water through it. 
   U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,141 to Harrington discloses a device useful for shutting off the flow of water from the heads to minimize the damage resulting from the continuous flow of water. The device is effective to shut off the water from the sprinkler heads whether or not the heads are mounted so that the opening is located at the top or bottom or with heads having openings at the top and also openings at the bottom. The device is so constructed as to seal off either type of opening when applied to a sprinkler head. 
   U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,685 to Warne discloses an invention whose principal object is to provide a simple, neat and light weight tool which can be instantly applied to an open sprinkler head to rapidly, completely and safely shutoff the discharging water. Tools have been designed for this purpose, but due to the wide variety of sprinkler heads activated in different ways; for instance by heat or impact. No one tool is designed to cover these possibilities. It is therefore another object of this invention to provide in a single tool for closing any of the conventional standard sprinkler heads regardless of whether they open downwardly or upwardly, whether they are bent or broken due to impact or activated by heat and regardless of whether they are of the fixed yoke or Cain suspension varieties. 
   Although prior art tools serve the same purpose but they differ structurally from the present invention. They use a thread mechanism which has to be rotated to operate the tool, whereas present tool is operated by turning a lever with hand. This and other features of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the appended Summary, Description, and Claims. 
   SUMMARY 
   The present invention relates in general to the sprinkler head shut off tools and more particularly to an improved sprinkler head shut off tool. The tool mainly includes a handle with a jaw, a stopper arm which is equipped with a stopper to come directly in contact with the orifice of the sprinkler head to stop the flow of water, a lever to operate the tool and a means for reciprocating the stopper arm as the lever is rotated. The means includes a connector arm with a curved slot, which connects the lever and the stopper arm using pins. One pin connecting the lever to the connector arm moves along the slot and facilitates the transfer of lever motion to the stopper arm. The tool also includes a locking means to lock the lever in a fixed position. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the sprinkler head shut off tool in accordance with the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the sprinkler head shut off tool with the stopper and the jaw in open position. 
       FIG. 3  is a front view of the handle. 
       FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the jaw. 
       FIG. 5  is a top view of the jaw. 
       FIG. 6  is a front view of the stopper arm. 
       FIG. 7  is a perspective view of the stopper. 
       FIG. 8  is a front view of the stopper. 
       FIG. 9  is a top view of the stopper. 
       FIG. 10  is a top view of the washer. 
       FIG. 11  is a front view of the connector arm. 
       FIG. 12  is a front view of the lever. 
       FIG. 13  is a perspective view of the locking member. 
       FIG. 14  is a front view of the locking member. 
   

   FIGURES 
   Reference Numerals 
   
       
         10  . . . Shut off tool 
         12  . . . Handle 
         14  . . . Jaw 
         16  . . . Lever 
         18  . . . Stopper Arm 
         20  . . . Stopper 
         22  . . . Connector Arm 
         24  . . . Locking Member 
         26  . . . U Shaped Portion of Jaw 
         28  . . . Lower Portion of Jaw 
         30  . . . First Portion of Stopper Arm 
         32  . . . Second Portion of Stopper Arm 
         34  . . . Third Portion of Stopper Arm 
         36  . . . Hole 
         38  . . . Bottom Portion of Stopper 
         40  . . . Top Cylindrical Section of Head of the Stopper 
         42  . . . Bottom Cylindrical Section of Head of the Stopper 
         44  . . . Washer 
         46  . . . Teeth 
         47  . . . Curved Slot 
         48  . . . First Face of Locking Member 
         50  . . . Second Face of Locking Member 
         52  . . . Third Face of Locking Member 
         54  . . . Inclined Portion of the Second Face of Locking Member 
     
  
   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Referring to the drawings, a preferred embodiment of the sprinkler head shut off tool is illustrated and generally indicated as  10  in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . The tool  10  is used to close the orifice of a fire sprinkler head to stop the flow of water from an activated sprinkler. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the tool comprises a handle  12  with a perpendicular jaw  14 , a lever  16 , a stopper arm  18  with a stopper  20 , a connector arm  22  and a locking member  24  to lock the rotation of lever  16  in one direction and a particular position. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 3 through 5 , the handle  12  includes holes to connect it with the stopper arm  18  by pin joints. A jaw  14  is mounted perpendicularly on top of the handle  12 . The jaw  14  comprises two portions, a U shaped portion  26  which is used to receive the threaded portion of the sprinkler head to engage with the sprinkler, and a bottom portion  28 , to connect the jaw  14  to the handle  12 . As the jaw engages with the sprinkler the stopper  20  comes near the orifice of the sprinkler head. 
   Referring to  FIG. 6 , the stopper arm  18  consists of three portions namely, first  30 , second  32  and third  34 . The first portion  30  includes a hole to mount the stopper  20  using a pin. The second portion  32  comprises two slots to connect the stopper arm  18  with the handle  12  using pins. The pins which are fixed to the handle  12  and the slots on the stopper arm  18 , guide the stopper arm  18  to reciprocate parallel to the handle  12  when a motion is induced. The second portion  32  of the stopper arm is inclined to the first portion  30  at an angle less than 180 degrees and preferably of 119 degrees. The third portion  34  is at an angle of less than 180 degrees, and preferably of 150 degrees, with the second portion  32  of the stopper arm  18 . The third portion  34  also includes a hole for connecting the stopper arm  18  with the lever  16  using a pin. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 7 through 10 , the stopper  20  comprises a head portion and a bottom portion  38 . The head portion includes two cylindrical sections, a top  40  and a bottom  42 . The top cylindrical section  40  is made to hold the washer  44  in place. The washer  44  is made to contact the orifice of the sprinkler, while the tool  10  is used to stop the water flow. The bottom cylindrical section  42  has a diameter less than the top cylindrical section  40 . A washer  44  is seated on the top of the bottom portion of the stopper  38  and held in place by the top cylindrical section of the stopper head  40  and the bottom cylindrical section of the head  42 . The bottom portion of the stopper  38  comprises a cylinder with a diametrical slot and a through hole perpendicular to the slot. The slot allows mounting of the stopper  20  on the stopper arm  18  by receiving the first portion  30  of the stopper arm and inserting a pin in the through hole. The stopper  20  can also be made as part of the stopper arm  18 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 11 , the connector arm  22  is a member with three straight edges and a curved edge. The curved edge has teeth  46  and forms an angle below 180 degrees at its centre. The connector arm  22  includes two holes, one for connecting it to the handle  12  and the other to the lever  16  using pin joints. The pin joint with the lever also acts as a pivot for rotating the lever  16 . The connector arm  22  further comprises a curved slot  47  for facilitating a connection between the lever  16  and the stopper arm  18  using pins. The slot  47  allows the pin to move along it when the lever  16  is rotated. The pin travels freely along the slot  47  as the lever  16  is rotated. The lever  16  is connected with the stopper arm  18  and transfers its motion to the stopper arm as the lever  16  is rotated. 
   Referring to  FIG. 12 , the lever  16  is a L-shaped member with holes to connect it with the connector arm  22  and the stopper arm  18  using pins, one connection serves as a pivot for rotating the lever  16  and the other is connected to the stopper arm  18  and moves freely along the curved slot  47  on the connector arm  22 . As the lever  16  is rotated the pin moves along the slot  47  and moves the stopper arm  18 . 
   Referring to  FIGS. 13 and 14 , the lever  16  is provided with a locking member  24  to lock the lever in a particular position. The locking member is a part of a beam of channel cross section with three faces namely first face  48 , second face  50  and third faces  52 . The first face  48  and the third face  52  are perpendicular to the second face  50 , but are parallel to each other, thus forming a gripping shape. The first  48  and third faces  52  have a through hole such that when a pin is inserted in the hole of first face  48 , it can also extend to the hole of the third face  52 . The second face  50  has an inclined portion  54  attached to it, at an angle below 180 degrees and preferably 150 degrees. The locking member  24  is attached to the lever  16  by a pin passing through the first  48  and third face  52  of the locking member. The inclined portion  54  of second face of the locking member is engaged with teeth on the connector arm  22  to lock the rotation of the lever  16  at a particular position. The lever can be unlocked by disengaging the inclined portion  54  of the locking member  24 . 
   The shut off tool is operated by first unlocking the lever  16  by disengaging the locking member  24 , and then rotating the lever  16  in one direction which makes the stopper arm  18  to move allowing the jaw  14  to receive the threaded portion of the sprinkler head and the stopper  20  to come near the orifice of the sprinkler head. The lever  16  can now be rotated in opposite direction to move the stopper arm  18  and then the stopper  20 , thereby closing the orifice of the sprinkler head to stop the water flow. 
   All features disclosed in this specification, including any accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings, may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features. 
   Any element in a claim that does not explicitly state “means for” performing a specified function, or “step for” performing a specific function, is not to be interpreted as a “means” or “step” clause as specified in 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6. In particular, the use of “step of” in the claims herein is not intended to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6. 
   Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention has been described by way of illustration and not limitation.