Abstract:
A sanitary toilet employs a soft flat tube at the outlet neck at the outlet of the toilet bowl. This soft flat tube extends through the drain opening into the sanitary drain to permit passage of waste into the sanitary sewer drain. A water inlet pipe produce a water spray or jet into the bowl, and a valve limits the flow of water to about 0.3 to 1.0 liters per use. The toilet has a vent inlet within the toilet bowl beneath the seat, a blower that induces a flow of air into the vent inlet, and an exhaust conduit from the blower that discharges to a vented space outside the bathroom. The unit may be formed of a micrite material.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]    This invention is directed to sanitary toilets, and is in particular concerned with toilets that have a reduced water consumption as compared with traditional siphon-type flush toilets, and is also concerned with toilets that can vent off bathroom odors before they escape from the toilet bowl. 
         [0002]    Typically, modern toilets have a tank that holds a quantity of water (six liters to sixteen liters) and which discharges the water quickly into the toilet bowl to cause the bowl to siphon and flush away the urine, feces, or other waste matter in the bowl. 
         [0003]    This type of toilet is notorious for wasting water, both during the flush and through leakage from the tank past leaky flush valves. 
         [0004]    The flushing operation causes the water to flow past a trap to reduce the static hydraulic pressure, to suck the water in the bowl past the trap, and into the sewer drain pipe. This consumes a minimum of about six liters of water, and in some toilets as much as sixteen liters. 
         [0005]    Considering a typical large city, such as Beijing (twelve million individuals) with each individual on average having one bowel movement per day and six urinations per day, and considering that a standard toilet consumes at least six liters per flush, i.e., a daily water consumption per person of 36 liters, it follows that the water needed in a large city for flushing of toilets is 432 million liters daily, or about 158 billion liters annually. 
         [0006]    On top of this, a great quantity of water is lost between flushes due to toilet valve leaks. All of the water consumption adds to the wastewater that needs to be treated in the municipal sewage treatment facility. Also, each homeowner and property owner needs to pay for water usage, including the water consumed by flushing and leakage of toilets. 
         [0007]    Moreover, urine tends to be alkaline, and a quantity of an acid, such as sulfuric acid, needs to be added to the toilet to control buildup of deposits in the toilet and drain pipe, and to control the pH of the wastewater so it can be properly processed. This can involve as much as 70,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid for a large city, such as Beijing. 
         [0008]    Also, normal or standard flush toilets fail to deal with the problem of bathroom odors. Fetid odors arise from the fecal matter during a bowel movement. The odors escape from the toilet bowl and enter the air within the bathroom. Then the air from the room needs to be vented outside to reduce the unpleasant smell. No one has previously thought to vent the space within the toilet bowl to remove the odors before they enter the general atmosphere of the bathroom. 
       OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]    Accordingly, it is an aspect of this invention to provide a sanitary toilet with significantly reduced water consumption, and which avoids the drawbacks of the prior art. 
         [0010]    Another object is to provide a toilet of simple construction which allows the waste matter to pass to the sewer drain, but does not allow malodorous sewer gases to rise from the sewer drain pipe. 
         [0011]    A further object is to provide a sanitary toilet which avoids water wastage from dripping or leaking out of the toilet tank. 
         [0012]    A still further object is to vent off malodorous vapors from the toilet bowl, before those vapors can enter the air in the bathroom. 
         [0013]    According to an aspect of this invention, a sanitary toilet with low water consumption characteristics is provided for use in a bathroom, where the bathroom has a drain opening in the floor of the bathroom that leads to a sanitary drain. The toilet resembles a standard flush toilet in that it has a toilet bowl and the bowl has a seat at its upper side and a drain outlet at a lower part. In this case, the outlet has a neck at its under side facing the drain opening. Usual means are provided for attaching the toilet to the floor of the bathroom and sealing over the drain opening of the sanitary drain, and for supporting the bowl and seat above the floor of the bathroom. In the toilet of this invention, rather than a usual siphoning water trap, the toilet employs a soft flat flexible tube that is fitted onto the neck at the outlet of the toilet bowl. This soft flat tube extends through the drain opening into the sanitary drain. The soft flexible tube is normally biased into a flat condition to seal against vapors rising through it from sanitary sewer drain, but opens to permit passage of waste materials and liquids therein to allow the same to drain into the sanitary sewer drain. 
         [0014]    Favorably, a water inlet pipe is connected to a source of water outside the toilet, and has a spray end or spray ring within the toilet bowl to produce a water spray or jet into the bowl, to rinse waste matter into and through the soft flat flexible tube. A valve mechanism turns on the water flow for a limited time through said water inlet pipe. Preferably, the valve limits the flow of water to about 0.3 to 1.0 liters per use. 
         [0015]    In order to keep the malodorous bathroom fumes from the general atmosphere in the bathroom the toilet is favorably provided with a vent to remove disagreeable odors from the toilet before they enter the bathroom. To this end, the toilet has a vent inlet within the toilet bowl beneath the seat, a blower that induces a flow of air into the vent inlet, and an exhaust conduit from the blower that discharges to a vented space outside the bathroom. In a favorable embodiment, the seat of the bowl has a toilet seat for seating a person thereon when using the toilet, and a lid covering the toilet seat when not in use. A switch associated with the toilet seat lid for turns the blower on when the toilet seat lid is lifted. Alternatively, the toilet can have a presence switch for turning the fan on, and/or for turning on the water flow. In that case, the presence switch can include a presence detector for detecting the presence of a person seated upon the toilet seat. 
         [0016]    For a durable, and stain resistant product, which is economical to manufacture, the toilet bowl and other components may be compression molded of a micrite stone material. 
         [0017]    These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of selected preferred embodiments, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying Drawing: 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
         [0018]      FIG. 1  is an elevational view, partly cut away, of a sanitary toilet according to one embodiment of this invention. 
           [0019]      FIG. 2  is a plan view of the bowl of the sanitary toilet of this embodiment. 
           [0020]      FIG. 3  is a detail view showing the soft flat flexible tube employed in this embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0021]    With reference to the Drawing Figures,  FIG. 1 , is a sectional elevation view of one exemplary embodiment of a sanitary toilet arrangement  10  in accordance with the present invention. This toilet arrangement  10  includes a bowl portion  12  and a tank portion  14  which is seated at an upper rear part of the bowl portion  12 . The toilet arrangement  10  has a similar outward appearance to a traditional or standard siphon-type flush toilet, and is adapted to be mounted on the floor of a standard bathroom over the entry to the sanitary drain pipe that is located in the bathroom floor. 
         [0022]    The bowl portion  12  has a lower side  16  that is installed against the bathroom floor. Here,  FIG. 1  shows the sanitary sewer drain pipe  18 , having a closet flange or closet ring  20  at its upper end, and a wax seal ring  22  installed on the closet ring  20 . The bowl portion has an outlet opening  24  that mounts onto the wax seal ring  22 , to contain any vapors from the sewer drain pipe  18  and prevent them from escaping into the atmosphere in the bathroom. 
         [0023]    In this embodiment, the bowl portion has a toilet bowl  26 , generally shaped as a funnel, with a seat portion  28  at its round open top side, and an outlet, in the form of a narrow neck  30 , at its lower end. Here a toilet seat  32  is mounted on the seat portion  28  to provide user comfort, and there is a toilet lid  34  which is hinged to open for use, as shown. 
         [0024]    A soft flat flexible tube  36  is mounted over the neck  30  of the bowl  26 , and this extends down through the closet flange  20  and into the sanitary sewer drain pipe  18 . The tube  36  is a flat resilient member, formed of a rubber-like polymer which normally holds itself flat with opposed sides against each other, to prevent fumes and vapors from passing up from the sewer drain pipe  18 . However, the tube  36  opens in the presence of urine or other liquid to allow the matter to drain out and into the drain pipe  18 . 
         [0025]    A strap or claim  38  in the form of an annular member, holds the upper end of the flat tube  36  onto the outlet neck  30  of the toilet bowl  26 , as shown, e.g., in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0026]    A ventilation conduit  40  is shown having an inlet end located within an upper part of the bowl  26 , near the upper end. The conduit passes beneath the tank portion  14 , and then connects with a blower or suction fan  42  situated within the tank portion. Here, it should be noted that the tank portion is “dry” and does not contain flush water, unlike the standard flush toilet. A fan motor  44  turns on to drive the fan  42  when needed, and an outlet conduit  46  leads from the fan, out of the tank portion  14 , to a discharge point outside the bathroom. In some applications, the discharge point can be at the sewer vent stack pipe, although it could be any vent discharge point outside the room and preferably venting outside the building. 
         [0027]    Also shown here is a water tube,  50  which is hooked up to a convenient source of water, such as the main cold water pipe for the bathroom. The tube  50  has a valve  52 , shown schematically, which is turned on and off via a control to be described. A spray head  54  provides a water spray or water jet that flows into the toilet bowl  26  for a limited time when the toilet is used to help rinse urine or other waste matter from the bowl and through the outlet neck  30  and flat tube  36  into the sanitary sewer drain pipe  18 . Here, the spray head  54  is in the form of a ring placed at the inner periphery of the bowl  26 , with spray openings around its circumference (See  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0028]    In this embodiment, there is a magnetic member  56 , i.e., a permanent magnet, situated on the toilet lid  34 , and this member  56  actuates a magnetic switch  58  atop the tank  14  when the lid  34  is opened. This switch  58  can be used to turn on the ventilation blower motor  44 . Also shown here is a presence sensor  60 , which can use IR technology or sonic technology, for example, to detect the presence of a person seated on the toilet. This presence sensor can then provide a signal to the valve  52  to turn on the flow of water through the tube  50 . This can occur when the person is seated, or when the person leaves. 
         [0029]    Alternatively, the ventilation fan and/or the water flow can be turned on by actuating a manual switch (which may be designed to resemble the standard flush handle of a siphon-type flush toilet). The water that is consumed can be shut off after some predetermined time elapse, or can be shut off when a predetermined quantity of water has passed through the tube  50 . 
         [0030]    Fecal matter in the toilet bowl typically rinses down and through the flat tube  36  without difficulty. 
         [0031]    With the toilet arrangement of this invention, only a small quantity of water is consumed in a given use. Typically, only 300 ml to one liter of water is needed for spraying to rinse urine or other waste matter from the bowl  26 . Overall, with this invention it is possible to reduce the water usage by a factor of twenty. Also, there is no leakage of water from the tank past a flap valve or ball stopper, as is the case in many conventional flush toilets. 
         [0032]    The flat flexible tube reliably passes waste matter through, and does not experience the jamming or clogging that is often the case with siphon-type toilets. This eliminates a maintenance problem of clearing the clogged toilet, or in mopping up spillover from the clogged toilet, which is a frequent occurrence with the standard toilet. 
         [0033]    The design and profile of the toilet of this invention lends itself to manufacture by compression forming of a micrite stone material, which has been shown to have superior properties for sanitary toilets, in comparison with metal (steel or cast-iron) or conventional porcelain or other ceramics, marble, or stone. 
         [0034]    Ceramic toilets have exhibited may drawbacks, such as radioactive contamination, short life of glaze color, color fading, production expense, and high consumption of water during the manufacturing process. Also the manufacture of the standard flush toilets from ceramic materials, e.g., porcelain, can have a high wastage or rejection rate (typically between 30% and 60%), and the materials can usually not be recovered or recycled. 
         [0035]    Therefore, because the toilet of this invention can be manufacture using the technique known as micrite glass agglutination, a superior product can be manufactured at a much reduced cost, both to the maker and to the environment. 
         [0036]    The micrite product has properties of excellent wear resistance, rich color which is long lasting and non-fading, and is relatively impervious to harmful chemicals such as acids and alkalines. The micrite glass sanitary equipment is formed by a ramming or compression in a mold, followed by a high-temperature process (to crystallize the material) and then an annealing step for stress-relieving. The micrite product thus has improved impact resistance, is non-absorbent, has a higher albedo and a cleaner, brighter, more colorful appearance than is possible with ceramic or metal toilets. The micrite formation process involves no organic materials, and so is not subject to discoloration, and the porosity is much lower, so that in the moist bathroom environment the units are highly resistance to acids, alkalis or other reagents. The micrite process is also less prone to surface cracks than natural stone, porcelain, or marble. 
         [0037]    While the present invention has been described with one or more selected specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments. Rather, many modifications and variations would present themselves to persons skilled in the art without departure from the scope and spirit of this invention, as defined in the appended claims.