Patent Abstract:
A device for regulating flow provided to work with a skimmer ( 12 ) in a pool, particularly a swimming pool, the skimmer including a peripheral frame ( 16 ) and providing a window ( 14 ), characterized in that it includes a base having a negative floatability and a flap having a positive floatability, articulated relative to the base, the whole having a positive floatability so that the upper edge of the flap is even with the surface of the water.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This invention relates to a device for regulating the flow of a skimmer in a pool, particularly a swimming pool, to create a falls effect and an acceleration of the surface current. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Devices are known that make it possible to create a falls effect in a skimmer. Skimmers are water outlet mouths that open onto the pool and that are located at the level of the surface of the water. These mouths are connected to the water treatment system of the swimming pool so as, on the one hand, to remove floating bodies by suction, and, on the other hand, to make the water that is skimmed off and suctioned by a pump pass through a water treatment device, for example having salt or having chlorine. 
         [0003]    This treatment and this operation are performed according to a programming set up by the person responsible for the pool. 
         [0004]    For debris and other foreign bodies like sand, to clean the inside surfaces of the pool, a vacuum cleaner is provided that circulates at the bottom of the water. 
         [0005]    For the surface debris, such as leaves, it is possible to perform a manual collection of the leaves by means of a scoop net, but the tedious nature of such an operation is immediately understood. 
         [0006]    To ensure a draining of the leaves on the surface of a pool, one solution consists in creating a surface current from the skimmers. 
         [0007]    That is how the United States patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,483 describes a device that is attached to the inside of a mouth of at least one skimmer of a swimming pool. This device is stationary and partially blocks the opening of said skimmer by a flap. This flap is mounted to pivot on a base fastened to the skimmer on the façcade, leaving a passage in the upper part, located under the surface of the water so that a falls effect is produced with a strong surface flow and not over the water height of the opening of the skimmer. This patent covers more particularly an arrangement with a hinged flap. With the pump, therefore, a constant volume of water is suctioned that is linked to the capacity of the pump but a volume only skimmed off at the surface so that a favorable surface current is created that has a tendency to lead the floating materials toward said skimmer. 
         [0008]    It is found that the problem of the device of this document of the prior art is that it is stationary relative to the skimmer and does not follow the surface of the water whose level is seen to vary regularly. 
         [0009]    Also, as soon as the water level decreases in the pool, as soon as this level is below the pivoting flaps, there no longer is any water that flows into the skimmer, and the pump can be damaged. 
         [0010]    French patent FR 2 736 344 is also known, which describes an arrangement with a façade that is mobile in vertical translation because it is mounted in rails added in a stationary manner to the skimmer. Floats ensure the maintaining of the façade at right angles to the surface of the water. 
         [0011]    As soon as the suction of the pump is brought to bear, the suctioned water falls through an opening located under the surface of the water so as to obtain a falls effect and a suction of the volume of water linked to the capacity of the pump but suctioned only at the surface so that a suction current on the surface is created. 
         [0012]    There is no regulating flap, so that the falls effect is limited, determined and constant. Moreover, the dirt is not retained in the skimmer when the pump is stopped. 
         [0013]    The patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,167, which describes a skimmer arrangement incorporating slides in which a floating lower flap is provided with teeth that can work with a rack located in said slides, can also be cited. Stops prevent said lower flap from disengaging from the slides. 
         [0014]    A floating upper flap is hinged and can rock in a limited range by a return spring. 
         [0015]    It is understood that as soon as there is the least force backward, the flap is going to be locked in height, not allowing an adjustment in height. 
         [0016]    Also, this device uses slides with all of the drawbacks connected with a mechanical device, namely the presence of a leaf and other foreign bodies that can become jammed in the rack. 
         [0017]    Also, such an arrangement necessitates modifying the skimmer that is present or providing a specific skimmer from the beginning. 
         [0018]    Such a purely mechanical system is not satisfactory. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0019]    The object of this invention is to remedy the problems of the prior art by creating a surface suction current of a pool from a skimmer, but without necessitating modifying the skimmer, while being adaptable to the surface of the water, making possible an industrial production, allowing an immediate and very simple installation not requiring any adaptation of the skimmer, making possible a removal that is both instantaneous and simple, creating an optimized suction current and retaining the impurities inside the skimmer in normal operation without suction. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0020]    The device according to this invention is now described in detail with regard to the drawings that are attached to illustrate said invention, these drawings comprising figures, these figures showing: 
           [0021]      FIG. 1 : a view in perspective of the device according to this invention, in an isolated fashion, 
           [0022]      FIG. 2 : a view in perspective of the device according to this invention, before installation, presented in front of a skimmer, 
           [0023]      FIG. 3 : a view of the device in place on the skimmer of  FIG. 2 , 
           [0024]      FIG. 4 : a view in vertical section of the mounting of  FIG. 3 , in standby position, 
           [0025]      FIG. 5 : a view of the adaptability of said device to the variations of the surface of the water, 
           [0026]      FIGS. 6A to 6D : the operational block diagram of the device according to this invention, 
           [0027]      FIG. 7 : a variant for retaining of the device according to this invention, eliminating the tabs. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0028]    In  FIG. 1 , the device according to this invention has been shown adapted to work with a skimmer of a pool. 
         [0029]    This device comprises a base  10 , with a width greater than that of the skimmer  12  on which it must be placed. 
         [0030]    The skimmer  12  has a window  14  that is the opening itself and a peripheral frame  16  that is held against the wall of the pool, particularly to ensure the seal when a liner is present. This frame  16  penetrates into the opening while creating an interior peripheral projection  18 . 
         [0031]    The height of this base  10  is approximately that of the skimmer  12  with which it must work. 
         [0032]    The base  10  has a front face AV and a rear face AR. The rear face is the one that is intended to be pressed against the skimmer, and the front face looks out at the pool. 
         [0033]    This base  10  has a flap  20 , articulated relative to the base and above said base, around a hinge  22 . This flap  20  is articulated to pivot relative to the base, preferably toward a face of said base, in this case toward the rear face AR of said base as will be explained below. 
         [0034]    The width of the flap  10  is less than the width of the window  14  of the skimmer  12 , so as to be able to pivot within it. 
         [0035]    The flap  20  also comprises fastening means  24  that can be removed from the device according to the invention relative to the skimmer. These removable fastening means  24  take the shape of flexible, elastic tabs  26  that can be locked behind the interior peripheral projection  18  of the skimmer by simple snapping-in. The width between the ends of the tabs is at least equal to that of the window  14 . 
         [0036]    The base  10  consists of a material having a negative floatability, and the flap  20  consists of a material having a positive floatability. 
         [0037]    The complete device floats; i.e., the floatability of the flap ensures the taking-up of the negative floatability of the base. 
         [0038]    Thus, the base  10  is suspended with the floating flap  20 . 
         [0039]    The upper edge of the flap  12  is thus even with the surface of the water, preferably slightly below, on the order of a few millimeters, with the base  10  then constituting a hinged keel. 
         [0040]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , the device is presented in front of the window of the skimmer, and the removable fastening means  24 , which are integral with the flap  20 , are inserted into the window  14  of the skimmer  12 . In the embodiment shown, the flexible tabs  26  are hooked behind the projection  18  of the frame  16  of the skimmer  12 . They make possible a movement in vertical translation, in height, and limit any movement in horizontal translation and therefore any untimely disengagement of the device. 
         [0041]    This is what is shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 . 
         [0042]    The device is therefore held by the removable fastening means  24  of the flap. The base  10  is suspended from the flap  20 , and the top of the flap is even with the surface by its upper edge. 
         [0043]    In this position, as shown in  FIG. 5 , depending on the height of the water in the pool, the device can follow the surface of the water because it is in no way immobilized in translation, by any slide; it is entirely floating. 
         [0044]    No means for guiding in translation proves necessary because the tabs ensure the holding of the device in front of the window. 
         [0045]    Removable fastening means  24  ensure the holding of the device in front of the window of the skimmer without any pressure, the base remaining free, only held in front of the window by its negative floatability. 
         [0046]    The lower edge of the base  10  is located below the lower edge of the window and therefore of the frame. 
         [0047]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , the device leaves free the upper part of the window, and in static operation, the floating dirt that passes over the flap of the device is then held in the skimmer by said flap, preventing any return to the pool. 
         [0048]    The water of the pool is located in front of the device; behind the device, the flap is slightly inclined rearward since its removable fastening point is in the rear of the frame of the window, a frame that is located in the plane of the wall of the pool. 
         [0049]    The pool is equipped with a pump of a system for recirculation and treatment of the water of said pool, and this in a well-known way. The pump suctions the water at the bottom of the skimmer, which is equipped with a filter so as to retain the foreign bodies that have passed through the window of the skimmer, and directs this pumped water to the treatment means, not shown, before a return to the pool. 
         [0050]    The device reacts in the following way when the pump is put into operation. 
         [0051]    In  FIG. 6A , when the pump is operating, it suctions water at the bottom of the skimmer and creates a current. The current thus created is sufficient to flatten the base  10  against the frame, and the more the skimmer empties, the more the water pressure of the pool is exerted on the base and flattens it against the frame. 
         [0052]    The base is thus immobilized by the pressure of the water against the frame of the skimmer, by simple flattening. 
         [0053]    Consequently, simultaneously and proportionally to the reduction of the height of water in the skimmer, behind the base, the flap rocks rearward to take a position near the horizontal since—no longer having water—it can no longer be kept vertical by floating, see  FIG. 6B . 
         [0054]    The water of the pool passes over the flap because the surface of the water is at the level of the upper edge of the flap when it is in the raised position. 
         [0055]    A waterfall effect is therefore obtained, behind the base, of a significant volume of water skimmed off at the surface, which results in creating a strong surface current, see  FIG. 6C . Leaves and other floating impurities are suctioned and led toward the basket filter of the skimmer that retains them. 
         [0056]    As soon as the pump is stopped, water again fills the skimmer, and the flap  20  resumes floating, the flap blocks the dirt inside the skimmer, the base becomes detached from the frame of the skimmer against which it is no longer flattened, and the device is held by removable fastening means  24 , namely the tabs, ready for a new sequence, see  FIG. 6D . 
         [0057]    If the user wishes to remove the device, it is enough for him to exert a pulling force on the device, approximately perpendicular to the wall of the pool and to the plane of the window to remove said device, the tabs bending to allow this removal. 
         [0058]    Advantageously, the base can be made of a material with a density that is just slightly greater than that of the water but able to be filled with water so that there is no floatability caused by trapped air. 
         [0059]    As for the flap, it is advantageously made from the same material whose empty spaces are filled with a material having a positive floatability coefficient such as closed-cell foam. 
         [0060]    The material to produce the different elements that make it up can be that which is used for the manufacture of swimming pool curtain wall sheets that are known to be perfectly suited in mechanical strength and in resistance to ultraviolet rays and to treatment agents such as sodium chloride or chlorine. 
         [0061]    In the particular embodiment considered, the hinge  22  is advantageously continuous over the entire width of the flap in the form of a flexible blade of polymer material. This blade is about the width of the flap and has a height of several millimeters, in one manufactured piece with the base and working with the lower edge of the flap. 
         [0062]    This arrangement thus does not rely on any metal element that can corrode. 
         [0063]    According to a variant embodiment of removable fastening means  24  with tabs, a stop  24 - 1  is provided that can be self-sticking and that is intended to be fastened inside the skimmer. This stop, for example made of an elastomer, is stuck on the interior, horizontal, upper face of the frame of the skimmer. 
         [0064]    Thus, when the device according to the invention is put into place, it suffices to slip the flap  20  behind the stop  24 - 1  by pushing the unit into the water over the height of said stop or a few millimeters. 
         [0065]    Then, in normal operation, without suction, the unit is secured; so long as the base  10  is held flat, the flap can rock backward, the stop being useless, as before. This involves a rigorous management of the water height, which is generally the case, suitable sensors making possible a precise regulation. 
         [0066]    This stop shows a simplified way of making fastening means  24  removable, allowing still more freedom since there is no longer contact, with that of the tabs, already at a minimum, being eliminated.

Technology Classification (CPC): 4