Abstract:
A fluid reservoir for an oral hygiene appliance has a floor valve in its floor which opens when the reservoir is placed on the oral hygiene appliance. The fluid reservoir is subdivided into two separate fluid chambers, each with a fluid outlet leading to the floor valve. The fluid outlets can be controlled by a manually operable selector valve in such a way that one fluid outlet is opened and the other is closed alternately.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention concerns a fluid reservoir for an oral hygiene appliance having a floor valve in its floor which opens when the reservoir is placed on the oral hygiene appliance. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     A fluid reservoir of the preceding type is, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,186. The fluid reservoir can be filled with water separately from the oral hygiene appliance and be transported while full to the oral hygiene appliance, and automatically opens a connection to the oral hygiene appliance when it is set on the oral hygiene appliance. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One often has the desire to use a special mouthwash instead of clear water in the water reservoir of an oral hygiene appliance or to add mouthwash to the water in the reservoir. However, as the fluid reservoir has a relatively large volume, this leads to undesired high costs if one uses a mouthwash or water to which mouthwash has been added instead of clear water in the oral hygiene appliance from the beginning. Therefore, one often changes the fluid contained in the fluid reservoir shortly before finishing use of the oral hygiene appliance, which is, of course, inconvenient. 
     The invention has as its basis the problem of designing a fluid reservoir of the type initially mentioned in such a way that one can switch between at least two fluids in the easiest possible way. 
     This task is solved according to the invention in that the fluid reservoir has two separate fluid chambers, each having a fluid outlet, leading to the floor valve, connected to a manually operable selector valve which alternately opens one or the other fluid outlet. 
     Through this design of the fluid reservoir, one can connect the oral hygiene appliance during use to one or the other fluid chamber alternately. It thereby becomes possible, for example, to spray with a mouthwash only near the end of the cleaning process without having to change the fluid in the fluid reservoir in order to do so. Thanks to the invention, one can fill the two fluid chambers with the two fluids even before using the oral hygiene appliance. Furthermore, through the separate configuration of two fluid chambers, one can ensure that the reservoir is filled with only the small amount of the relatively expensive mouthwash actually needed for use at the end of the cleaning process. 
     The selector valve is particularly easy to operate and always opens either one or the other fluid outlet if, according to an advantageous development of the invention, the selector valve is preloaded by a bistable catch spring in its respective switch positions. 
     The fluid reservoir has a particularly simple structural design if the floor valve is positioned in a valve chamber provided under the floor of the fluid reservoir and if the selector valve is realized as a manually rotatable valve disk adjacent to the floor of the fluid reservoir between a closing element of the floor valve and the fluid outlet, having a channel which can alternately be brought into overlap with one or the other fluid outlet. 
     The means for operating the valve disk can be very simply designed if the valve disk is provided with a coaxial gearing and an axially displaceable rack is provided for rotating the valve disk. 
     The desired snapping function of the selector valve can be easily achieved if the rack is preloaded by the catch spring in two end positions. 
     The handling of the fluid reservoir is particularly simple if a two-arm rocking lever, movable around a swivel pin, is provided for actuating the rack which engages at one end with the rack and which has a pushbutton pressing against each of its lever arms. This embodiment makes it possible to operate the pushbutton with the same hand which carries the fluid reservoir while it is being carried, and thereby to open the desired fluid chamber. 
     When the selector valve is switched, it remains in the respective end position until the dead center position has been overcome if the rack is movably connected with the rocking lever of the to such a degree that, during switching from one to the other position, the rack is only pulled along after the dead center of position of the catch spring has been overcome. Through this design, the specific switch position of the selector valve is at first completely maintained. Only after overcoming the dead center position does the switching process of the selector valve begin, so it occurs very quickly and the selector valve is only in an intermediate position for a short time. 
     The desired play between the rack and the rocking lever can be realized in a simple way if the catch spring presses against a pin which is movably guided in a prong of a lever arm of the rocking lever on one side and supported on the other side in a recess of the rack, and if the pin can be moved against one of the two end surfaces of the recess at a time to displace the rack. 
     The operation of the valve disk is also possible through one rocker switch instead of two pushbuttons, if, according to another development of the invention, a connecting rod for rotating the valve disk is linked to the valve disk which is connected at its other end to a lever arm of a rocker switch. 
     In such an embodiment, the desired snapping function can be attained with simple means if the catch spring is realized as a telescopic rod and engages on a support of the fluid reservoir and a sliding surface of the rocker switch. 
     The invention allows various embodiments. Several of these are depicted in the drawings and will be described in the following. These show: 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 a vertical section through a fluid reservoir according to the invention, 
     FIG. 2 a horizontal section through the fluid reservoir, 
     FIG. 3 a schematic diagram of the operation of a selector valve of the fluid reservoir, 
     FIG. 4 an enlarged-scale sectional depiction of the region of the selector valve of the fluid reservoir, 
     FIG. 5 a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the operation of the selector valve, 
     FIG. 6 a horizontal section through the fluid reservoir with an altered operation of the selector valve, 
     FIG. 7 a rocker switch of the fluid reservoir in a first switch position, 
     FIG. 8 the rocker switch according to FIG. 7 in a second switch position. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The fluid reservoir depicted in its entirety in FIG. 1 has a separating wall  1  which subdivides it into two fluid chambers  2 ,  3  separated from one another. These fluid chambers  2 ,  3  are delimited at the bottom by a floor  4  which sinks towards the middle of the fluid reservoir, and each has a fluid outlet  5 ,  6  immediately before the separating wall  1 . The fluid outlets  5 ,  6  flow into a common valve chamber  7 , molded onto the floor  4  of the fluid reservoir, in which a floor valve  8  is positioned. This valve has a closing element  9 , which is pushed open in the usual way when the fluid reservoir is placed on an oral hygiene appliance. A selector valve  10  is positioned in the valve chamber  7  above the floor valve  8  which makes it possible to alternately connect one of the fluid outlets  5 ,  6  with the valve chamber  7  and to thereby close the other fluid outlet  5 ,  6 . 
     For this purpose, the selector valve  10  has a valve disk  11 , rotatably positioned in the valve chamber  7 , which has a channel  12  which can alternately be brought into overlap with either one fluid outlet  5  or the other fluid outlet  6 . The valve disk  11  is provided with a coaxial gearing  13  for its operation. 
     FIG. 2 illustrates that a rack  14  engages in the gearing  13  in order to rotate the valve disk  11 . A rocking lever  16 , which can be swiveled around a swivel pin  17 , serves to displace the rack  14  in a slide guide  15 . A catch spring  18  preloads the rocking lever  16  or the rack  14  in the position depicted. If the pushbutton  19  is pressed, then the rocking lever  16  swivels counterclockwise. The catch spring  18  is first compressed, overcomes a dead center in the middle position, and then snaps the rocking lever  16  into the dashed position, whereby the rack  14  is thereby correspondingly displaced to the right and the valve disk  11  rotates. If one then wishes to switch back to the old position, one presses a pushbutton  20 , which affects the other lever arm of the rocking lever  16  than the pushbutton  19 , whereby one then swivels the rocking lever  16  clockwise and it reaches its end position on its own after the dead center of the catch spring  18  has been overcome. 
     The origin of the snapping effect can be most quickly understood from FIG. 3. A pin  21 , for example, is attached to the rack  14 , via which a prong  22  of the rocking lever  16  engages. The catch spring  18  presses against this pin  21  with a piston rod  23  attached to the pin  21 . If one moves the rack  14  to the right, then the piston rod  23  is pushed, against the action of the catch spring  18 , into a cylinder  24  and, due to the spring tension, travels back out of this cylinder  24  as soon as a dead center has been overcome. 
     FIG. 4 serves to further illustrate the design of the selector valve  10 . It can be seen that its valve disk  11  presses from below against the floor  4  of the water reservoir, forming a seal. Its channel  12  is aligned with the fluid outlet  5 , so that fluid can run out of the fluid chamber  2 . The fluid outlet  6  is simultaneously closed by the valve disk  11 . 
     In the embodiment according to FIG. 5, the rack  14  has a recess  25  delimited by two end surfaces  26 ,  27 . In the position of the catch spring  18  indicated, the pin  21  presses against the left end surface  27 , so that the rack  14  is preloaded to the left and presses with a stop cam  28  against a stop  29 . If one swivels the rocking lever  16  clockwise around its swivel pin  17 , then it moves the pin  27  with its prong  22  to the right until the dead center position of the catch spring  18  has been overcome. The catch spring  18  then moves the pin  27  against the right end surface  26  and consequently moves the rack  14  to the right until it reaches a right stop (not shown). 
     FIG. 6 partially shows a housing  30  of the fluid reservoir in which a rocker switch  31  is positioned so it swivels around an axle  32 . The rocker switch  31  has a rigidly attached lever arm  33  inside the housing  30  to which a connecting rod  34  is linked This connecting rod  34  is articulated at its other end with the valve disk  11 . This valve disk  11  has two channels  12  and  35  in this embodiment. In the position depicted, the channel  12 , for example, is in such a position that fluid is able to flow out of a fluid chamber  2 , while the other channel  35  is not aligned with the fluid outlet  6  of the other fluid chamber  3  shown in the present figure, and this outlet is therefore blocked. If the valve disk  11  is rotated clockwise, then the channel  35  reaches a position aligned with the fluid outlet  6 , so that the fluid chamber  3  is able to flow while the fluid chamber  2  is blocked. 
     The rotational movement of the valve disk  11  occurs when one swivels the rocker switch  31  clockwise around the axle  32 . The connecting rod  34  seen in FIG. 6 thereby moves left and rotates the valve disk  11 . The position of the valve disk  11  should, again, be bistable. Therefore, the rocker switch  31  is designed to be bistable in this embodiment, which is illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. 
     As can be seen in FIGS. 7 and 8, the rocker switch  31  has a sliding surface  36  against which a telescopic rod  37  is supported with preloading. The telescopic rod  37  is swivel-mounted at its other end in a support  38 . Its preloads the rocker switch  31  in the position shown in FIG.  7 . If one presses on the lower region of the rocker switch  31  shown in FIG.  7  and swivels it around the axle  32 , the telescopic rod  37  first slips across the sliding surface  36  into a middle, labile position and then snaps into the opposite position shown in FIG. 8, so that the rocker switch  31  snaps itself into its second switch position. 
     LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS 
       1  Separating wall 
       2  Fluid chamber 
       3  Fluid chamber 
       4  Floor 
       5  Fluid outlet 
       6  Fluid outlet 
       7  Valve chamber 
       8  Floor valve 
       9  Closing element 
       10  Selector valve 
       11  Valve disk 
       12  Channel 
       13  Gearing 
       14  Rack 
       15  Slide guide 
       16  Rocking lever 
       17  Swivel pin 
       18  Catch spring 
       19  Pushbutton 
       20  Pushbutton 
       21  Pin 
       22  Prong 
       23  Piston rod 
       24  Cylinder 
       25  Recess 
       26  End surface 
       27  End surface 
       28  Stop cam 
       29  Stop 
       30  Housing 
       31  Rocker switch 
       32  Axle 
       33  Lever arm 
       34  Connecting rod 
       35  Channel 
       36  Sliding surface 
       37  Telescopic rod 
       38  Support