Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This invention relates to lavatories and, more specifically, to aircraft lavatories having modular components.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Turnaround time for cleaning and other maintenance on an aircraft between flights has a direct effect on operation cost of the aircraft. More specifically, lavatory maintenance between flights must be fast in order to minimize the amount of time and aircraft transitions from off-loading passengers and on-loading passengers. Maintenance personnel must manually check and replace all the necessary items within the lavatory, thus expending valuable turnaround time.  
         [0003]     For example, Japanese Patent Application 02220409 to Hiroyuki discloses a lavatory that includes an external door that allows maintenance personnel to access a trash compartment and an amenities cabinet within the lavatory. This improves the efficiency of turnaround by allowing maintenance personnel to replace amenities items and dispose of trash from outside the lavatory. However, the maintenance personnel must still manually touch each item going into and out of the lavatory, thereby wasting valuable turnaround time.  
         [0004]     Therefore, it would be desirable to further reduce aircraft service turnaround time particularly with regards to replenishment of lavatories.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods that provide a more efficient maintenance turnaround by ground crew when replenishing lavatory necessities. In one embodiment, an amenities cabinet device includes a housing having an opening and a module that is slideably received within the housing. The module includes a plurality of amenity compartments. The housing includes a plurality of ports for accessing the plurality of amenity compartments included within the module.  
         [0006]     In one aspect of the invention, the device includes a wheeled module cart for transporting the module. The module cart slideably receives the module. In another aspect of the invention, the plurality of amenity compartments are configured to store a soap dispenser, a lotion dispenser, a tissue dispenser, a paper towel dispenser, or other amenities. In still another aspect of the invention, the module includes a device for locking the module in the housing. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     The preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is an isometric view of a lavatory unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0009]      FIGS. 2 and 3  illustrate an alternate embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0010]      FIG. 4  is an isometric view of an alternate embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 5  is an isometric view of a cart used with an amenities module in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0012]      FIG. 6  is a side elevational view of an aircraft in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0013]     The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for providing more efficient use of lavatory space. Many specific details of certain embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following description and in  FIGS. 1-6  to provide a thorough understanding of such embodiments. One skilled in the art, however, will understand that the present invention may have additional embodiments, or that the present invention may be practiced without several of the details described in the following description.  
         [0014]      FIG. 1  illustrates a view of a lavatory unit  20  formed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. This embodiment may be used in any aircraft, other vehicles (e.g., ships, buses, trains, subways, monorails, etc.), or as a stand-alone unit. The lavatory unit  20  may include a commode  26 , and a sink  28 . The lavatory unit  20  includes an amenities cabinet  30  having an opening  32  at an exterior wall  34  of the lavatory unit  20 . The amenities cabinet  30  slideably receives an amenities module  40  through the opening  32 .  
         [0015]     In this embodiment, the amenities module  40  includes sliding brackets  50  or similar devices for allowing the amenities module  40  to be slideably received by corresponding tracks or rolling devices (not shown) within the amenities cabinet  30 . The amenities module  40  includes an external panel  60  having a locking dial  64  that when turned into a locking position, locks the amenities module  40  within the amenities cabinet  30 . The external panel  60  matches the exterior wall  34  and is flush with the exterior wall  34  when the amenities module  40  is fully received within the amenities cabinet  30 .  
         [0016]     In one particular embodiment, the amenities module  40  includes various compartments for storing amenities, such as without limitation tissues, paper towels, soaps, lotions, etc., that are accessible by users of the lavatory unit through access ports in the amenities cabinet  30 . In operation, maintenance personnel may perform the necessary replenishment of the amenities within the lavatory unit  20  by simply removing a previous amenities module  40  and installing a new amenities module  30  within the amenities cabinet  30 .  
         [0017]      FIGS. 2 and 3  illustrate an alternate embodiment of an amenities cabinet system  70 . The amenities cabinet system  70  includes a bracket  71  that is affixed to a bulkhead of a lavatory above a sink  72 . The cabinet system  70  also includes a removable module  73  that is slideably received by the bracket  71 . In one embodiment, the bracket  71  is C-shaped having an opening that faces a user of the sink  72 . A base section of the bracket  71  includes access holes to allow a user access to amenities that are included within the module  73 . The bracket  71  includes mechanism for allowing the module  73  to lock into place. The module  73  includes access openings that are exposed at the opening of the bracket  71 . The access openings may include access to various items stored within the module  73 , such as toilet seat covers, tissues, lotions, soap, paper towels, etc. At a cross-sectional end of the bracket  71 , a side of the module  73  is exposed. At the exposed side of the module  73 , the module may include an access port that provides access to spare toilet paper rolls. As one toilet paper roll is removed from the side of the module  73 , another toilet paper roll stored within the module  73  falls into place at that opening.  
         [0018]     Embodiments of apparatus and methods in accordance with the present invention may provide significant advantages over prior art lavatory units. For example, the lavatory unit in accordance with the present invention may reduce turnaround time for performing necessary maintenance on the lavatories between flights. More specifically, since there is no need for the maintenance personnel to restock the amenities within the lavatory by hand during the maintenance interval between flights, the time required to perform the necessary maintenance is reduced.  
         [0019]     It will be appreciated that a wide variety of lavatory units may be conceived in accordance with the present invention, and that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described above and shown in  FIGS. 1-3 . For example,  FIG. 4  is an isometric view of a lavatory unit  100  in accordance with an alternate embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the lavatory unit  100  has many of the same components as the embodiment described above with reference to  FIG. 1 . For the sake of brevity, only significant differences will be discussed in detail.  
         [0020]     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the lavatory unit  100  includes an amenities cabinet  130  having an first opening  132  disposed in a first wall  134  leading into a passenger cabin  135  of an aircraft. A plurality of access ports  133  are disposed in a second wall  135  of the amenities cabinet  120 . As described above, a first module  140  ( FIG. 1 ) is slideably received into the first opening  132 . In  FIG. 4 , the first module  140  is shown in a closed or installed position. The first module  140  includes a plurality of compartments  141  disposed therein that are aligned with the access ports  133  in the second wall  135 .  
         [0021]     As further shown in  FIG. 4 , the lavatory unit  100  also includes a trash receptacle  110  formed in the first wall  134 . A second module  120  (shown in an open or uninstalled position) is slideably received into a second opening  122  in the first wall  134 , and is adapted to receive trash that an occupant of the lavatory unit  100  deposits into the trash receptacle  110 .  
         [0022]     In operation, when the first module  140  is positioned in the amenities cabinet  130 , the compartments  141  containing various amenity items (e.g. tissues, paper towels, soaps, lotions, etc.) are aligned with the access ports  133 , allowing an occupant of the lavatory unit  100  to access the amenities within the first module  140 . As described above, the first module  140  might suitably be used to efficiently stock amenities within the amenities cabinet  130  in the manner described above. Also, the second module  120  may be used to receive trash discarded by aircraft passengers. Maintenance personnel may quickly and efficiently remove the trash from the lavatory unit  100  by removing the second module  120  and replacing it with an empty module. For both the restocking and trash removal tasks, the maintenance personnel may perform these operations from the passenger cabin  135  without entering the lavatory unit  100 . In this way, further improvements to the efficiency of the maintenance process may be achieved, and the turnaround time of the aircraft may be reduced.  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  illustrates a view of an amenities module loading cart  280 . The amenities module loading cart  280  includes a top surface  282  for supporting the amenities module  40 . The amenities module loading cart  280  includes wheels  284  and is sized to allow aircraft personnel to wheel an amenities module  40  and a trash module  288  on the amenities module loading cart  280  into an aircraft and to a position adjacent to the exterior wall  34  of the lavatory unit  220 . The amenities module loading cart  280  is sized vertically to allow aircraft personnel to slide a fully replenished amenities module  40  into the amenities cabinet  30  without having to lift or drop the amenities module  40  into the opening  32 .  
         [0024]     In an alternate embodiment, the amenities module loading cart  280  includes a height adjustment mechanism (not shown) for adjusting the height of the top surface  282 , thereby allowing aircraft personnel to adjust the height of an amenities module  40  on the amenities module loading cart  280  to match the opening  32  of the amenities cabinet  30 .  
         [0025]     In still another embodiment, the top surface  82  is sized to support two amenities modules  40 . Aircraft personnel may then remove a used module from the amenities cabinet  30  onto one side of the top surface  82 , and then may move the amenities module loading cart  280  to allow a newly replenished module  40  that is on the other half of the top surface  282  into position to slide the new module  40  into the amenities cabinet  30 .  
         [0026]     The amenities module loading cart  280  includes a rotating tray  290 . Two modules  40  are placed on the rotating tray  290  in a linear relationship to the cart  280  to allow the cart  280  to maneuver within the aisles of the aircraft. When the cart  280  is located at the proper position for allowing the removal and insertion of modules  288  and  40  into the lavatory, the rotating tray  290  is rotated 90° to allow a module  40  to be slideably removed from the amenities cabinet  30  and placed on the tray  290  and vice versa.  
         [0027]     The trash module  288  is loaded onto a lower portion of the cart  280  at a height for allowing for it to be slideably received and removed from the second opening  122 .  
         [0028]     A wide variety of apparatus may be conceived that include lavatory units in accordance with alternate embodiments of the present invention. For example,  FIG. 6  is a side elevational view of an aircraft  600  having one or more lavatory units  602  formed in accordance with alternate embodiments of the present invention. In general, except for the lavatory units formed in accordance with the present invention, the various components and subsystems of the aircraft  600  may be of known construction and, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein. Embodiments of lavatory units  602  in accordance with the present invention, including but not limited to those embodiments described above and shown in  FIGS. 1-5 .  
         [0029]     More specifically, as shown in  FIG. 6 , the aircraft  600  includes one or more propulsion units  604  coupled to a fuselage  605 , wing assemblies  606  (or other lifting surfaces), a tail assembly  608 , a landing assembly  610 , a control system  612  (not visible), and a host of other systems and subsystems that enable proper operation of the aircraft  600 . A plurality of lavatory units  602  formed in accordance with the present invention are located within the fuselage  605  and distributed throughout the various portions of the aircraft  600 .  
         [0030]     Although the aircraft  600  shown in  FIG. 6  is generally representative of a commercial passenger aircraft, including, for example, the 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, and 7E7 models commercially-available from The Boeing Company of Chicago, Ill., the inventive apparatus and methods disclosed herein may also be employed in the assembly of virtually any other types of aircraft. More specifically, the teachings of the present invention may be applied to the manufacture and assembly of other passenger aircraft, cargo aircraft, rotary aircraft, and any other types of aircraft, including those described, for example, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft by Enzo Angelucci, published by Book Sales Publishers, September 2001, in Jane&#39;s All the World&#39;s Aircraft published by Jane&#39;s Information Group of Coulsdon, Surrey, United Kingdom, which texts are incorporated herein by reference. It may also be appreciated that alternate embodiments of apparatus and methods in accordance with the present invention may be utilized in the other applications, including, for example, ships, buses, trains, recreational vehicles, subways, monorails, or any other desired application.  
         [0031]     While preferred and alternate embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of these preferred and alternate embodiments. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.

Technology Category: 7