Patent Publication Number: US-2004040899-A1

Title: Easily collapsible and portable water filtering device

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The present invention relates to an easily collapsible and portable water filtering device. Particularly, this invention relates to a water filtering device that can be easily collapsed and carried and can be used in a wild field. Also, the water filtering device can serve as a mini-type water reserving kettle temporarily.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] A conventional water filtering device is installed beside a faucet or in a water dispenser. Such water filtering device is fixed and quite cumbersome. It is hard to move to another location.  
       [0003] For a mountaineer or a camper, it is impossible to carry too heavy clean water with him/her. Therefore, it is necessary to find a clean water source in the wild field for cooking or drinking.  
       [0004] In case the found water contains too much mud or impurity and no filtering device is available, the taste of the cooked food, soup or the drink will be poor and even the body will get ill.  
       [0005] Therefore, it is necessary to invent a new personally portable water filtering device usable in a wild field. The mountaineers and campers can use the water filtering device in the wild field to filter water.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006] It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an easily collapsible and portable water filtering device usable in a wild field. Due to its outer and inner bags of the water filtering device are made of soft material and can be easily collapsed to minimize the volume of the water filtering device. Therefore, the water filtering device can be conveniently stored and carried.  
       [0007] It is a further object of the present invention to provide the easily collapsible and portable water filtering device that is suitable to be used in the wild field.  
       [0008] It is a further object of the present invention to provide the easily collapsible and portable water filtering device which also can temporarily serve as a mini-type water reserving kettle.  
       [0009] In order to achieve above objects, the easily collapsible and portable water filtering device comprises:  
       [0010] an outer barrel having a rigid first upper frame section and a soft watertight outer bag, the outer barrel having an opening facing upward, a handle extending from the upper frame section;  
       [0011] an inner barrel having a rigid second upper frame section and a soft watertight inner bag, the inner barrel having another opening facing upward, the second upper frame section being fitted in the first upper frame section with the entire inner barrel positioned in the outer barrel, a bottom end of the inner bag being formed with a fixing bottom edge;  
       [0012] a filter unit fixed on the fixing bottom edge of the bottom end of the inner bag, the filter unit having a water filtering housing formed with a water inlet and a water outlet, a filtering passage being formed between the water inlet and the water outlet, a filtering member being replaceably disposed in the filtering passage;  
       [0013] a water reserving space positioned between a bottom face of the filter unit and an inner bottom face of the outer bag of the outer barrel, the water reserving space having a predetermined capacity for reserving the filtered water; and  
       [0014] a water discharging valve disposed in a predetermined position of a lateral face of the bottom end of the outer bag for controlling discharge of the water from the water reserving space.  
       [0015] The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein: 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0016]FIG. 1 is a perspective assembled view of the present invention;  
     [0017]FIG. 2 is a sectional assembled view of the present invention;  
     [0018]FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a part of the present invention;  
     [0019]FIG. 4 is a perspective exploded view of the present invention;  
     [0020]FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the filter unit of the present invention;  
     [0021]FIG. 6 shows that the present invention is mounted on a tripod;  
     [0022]FIG. 7 shows that the present invention is collapsed; and  
     [0023]FIG. 8 shows that the filtering member of the filter unit is detached. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0024] Please refer to FIGS.  1  to  5 . The easily collapsible and portable water filtering device of the present invention mainly includes an outer barrel  10 , an inner barrel  20 , a filter unit  30 , a water reserving space  40  and a water dispensing valve  50 .  
     [0025] The outer barrel  10  has a rigid first upper frame section  11  (for example, made of metal or acrylic material) and a soft watertight outer bag  12  (for example, made of pliable plastic sheet material). The outer barrel  10  has an opening facing upward. A handle  13  extends from the upper frame section  11 .  
     [0026] The inner barrel  20  has a rigid second upper frame section  21  and a soft watertight inner bag  22  (for example, made of soft plastic sheet material). The inner barrel  20  also has an opening facing upward. The second upper frame section  21  is fitted in the first upper frame section  11  with the entire inner barrel  20  positioned in the outer barrel  10 . The bottom end of the inner bag  22  is formed with a fixing bottom edge  221 .  
     [0027] The filter unit  30  is fixed on the fixing bottom edge  221  of the bottom end of the inner bag  22 , whereby the filter unit  30  is integrally connected with the inner barrel  20 . The filter unit  30  has a water filtering housing  31  formed with a water inlet  311  and a water outlet  312 . A filtering passage (such as the spiral passage as shown in FIG. 5) is formed between the water inlet  311  and the water outlet  312 . A filtering member  32  is replaceably disposed in the filtering passage.  
     [0028] Practically, referring to FIG. 8, in order to periodically replace the filtering member  32 , the water filtering housing  31  is preferably composed of two lockable sections than can be locked together or be separated. That is, the water filtering housing  31  includes a top casing  31 A (fixed on the fixing bottom edge  221  of the inner bag  22 ) and a bottom casing  31 B. The top casing  31 A has a downward extending first fixing section  313  (having a water incoming way). The bottom casing  31 B has a second fixing section  314  with which the first fixing section  313  is engaged. The first fixing section  313  is locked by a threaded fixing member  315 . Accordingly, after the fixing member  315  is unscrewed, a user can quickly take off the bottom casing  31 B to replace the filtering member  32  inside.  
     [0029] The water reserving space  40  is positioned between the bottom face of the filter unit  30  and the inner bottom face of the outer bag  12  of the outer barrel  10 . The water reserving space  40  has a predetermined capacity for reserving the filtered water. Also, the water reserving space  40  serves to temporarily reserve water.  
     [0030] The water discharging valve  50  is disposed in a predetermined position of a lateral face of the bottom end of the outer bag  12  for controlling discharge of the water from the water reserving space  40 .  
     [0031] Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, the filtering passage of the filter unit  30  can be a spiral passage outward spiraling from the circular center. Therefore, the length of the filtering passage can be maximized. Moreover, the filtering member  32  is substantially an elongated member which can be loaded into the filtering passage along the length thereof. In general, the filtering member  32  contains activated carbon and unwoven fabric filtering material. Certainly, other filtering materials can be added to the filtering member  32  or the manner in which the filtering materials are arranged can be changed.  
     [0032] A user can hold the handle  13  of the present invention or hang the handle  13  of the present invention on a tree. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6, the present invention can be co-used with a tripod  60  having a top section  61  and three legs  62  downward obliquely extending from the top section  61 . The top section  61  is equipped with a hook section  611  for hooking the handle  13  of the outer barrel  10 . Accordingly, the present invention can be fixed in a wild field.  
     [0033] The leg  62  can be a telescopic member composed of multiple fitting tubes  621 . The fitting tubes  621  can be detached to minimize the volume of the tripod and facilitate carriage thereof.  
     [0034] In practical operation, if a user needs some clean water to cook or drink on a mountain or in a wild field, the user can first build the tripod  60  beside a stream (or a river) and then hang the handle  13  of the outer barrel  10  on the hook section  611  of the tripod  60 . Then the stream water is poured into the inner barrel  20  to down flow into the filter unit  30 . After the water flows into the water inlet  311 , the impurities entrained by the water are filtered off by the filtering member  32  in the filtering passage. The clean water will flow out from the water outlet  312  into the water reserving space  40  which serves as a temporary water reservoir. Simply by means of turn on the water discharging valve  50 , the filtered clean water can be discharged.  
     [0035] When transferring the camp to another subject place, the water reserved in the water reserving space  40  is drained out. After the handle  13  is detached from the hook section  611 , the outer bag  12  and the inner bag  22  which are made of soft material can be deformed. Accordingly, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the present invention can be compressed from an original height H1 to a collapse height H2 which is about the height of the upper frame section  11  plus the height of the filtering member  30 . As shown in FIG. 7, the volume of the present invention is minimized for easy storage.  
     [0036] Therefore, the present invention can be collapsed into a very small volume and placed in a back bag for easy carriage. This is quite convenient for a mountaineer or a camper.  
     [0037] Therefore, the present invention has the following advantages:  
     [0038] 1. The present invention can be easily collapsed and carried. The outer and inner bags of the present invention can contain much water. However, the outer and inner bags are soft and can be collapsed to minimize the volume and weight. Therefore, the present invention can be easily placed into a back bag and conveniently carried.  
     [0039] 2. The present invention is usable in a wild field. The present invention can be used to quickly filter off the mud, sand and impurity contained in the water source (such as a stream or a river) in a wild field. The quality of the water can be greatly improved for drinking, especially for mountaineers and campers.  
     [0040] 3. The present invention can serve as a mini-type water reserving kettle. The water reserving space  40  of the present invention can contain a considerable amount of filtered water for ready use.  
     [0041] The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.