US3481360A - Water tap - Google Patents

Description

1969 G. A. GILLBERG 3,

WATER TAP Filed June 12, 1967 United States Patent US. Cl. 137-315 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention concerns a construction of a water tap by which it is possible to dismount the tap, for instance for repacking or maintenance, without the need of any tools. According to the invention the tap handle is nonrotatably connected to a screw actuating the tap valve member by means of a centrum spindle, but is axially displaceable relatively to same within definite limits. The handle and the tap cap accommodating the valve member are provided with opposed claws which are disengaged in mounted condition of the tap, but can be brought into engagement by axial displacement of the handle, so that the tap cap thereby may be screwed out of the tap casing by means of said handle. Finally, means are provided which exert a relatively great initial resistance to axial displacement of the centrum spindle with respect to the actuating screw, but which do not prevent said displacement after the overcoming of said initial resistance.

The present invention concerns a water tap comprising a tap casing, a tap cap screwed into said casing and accommodating a tap valve member which is axially displaceable towards and away from a valve seat, an actuating screw turnable by means of .a handle and imparting the axial movement to the valve member, and a centrum spindle rigidly connected to the handle and joining same with the actuating screw.

By the repeated dismountings of a water tap in order to repack same the tools necessary for the dismounting usual- "ice to the handle, and that said tap cap and said handle are provided with claws extending in opposite directions and arranged to be brought into engagement with each other by the axial displacement of said handle and said centrum spindle, so that said tap cap is screwable into or out of said tap casing by means of said handle.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail under reference to the accompanying drawing which shows a water tap according to the invention partly in axial section.

The tap shown on the drawing comprises a tap casing 1 with a spout and a tube 2 for connection with the water supply. A tubular tap cap 3 is threaded into a threaded bore in the tap casing 1 and is sealed against same by means of a packing 4 arranged in an annular groove. The tap cap 3 is provided with an axial through-bore which is hexagonal in the end thereof facing the tap casing in .order axially slidably but non-rotatably to accommodate a tap valve member 5 provided with a packing (not shown) at the end thereof directed towards the tap casing. Said packing co-operates with a valve seat in the tap casing 1 to control the flow of water through the tap.

The part of the tap cap 3 protruding out of the tap casing 1 is cylindrical and the top part 6 thereof has a smaller diameter than the rest of the tap cap. Said part 6 with smaller diameter is provided with an internal circular bore which is co-axial with said hexagonal bore. The circular bore encloses an actuating screw 7 which extends down through the hexagonal bore and is in threaded engagement with the tap valve member 5. The screw 7 is maintained axially unmovable in the tap cap 3 by an angular flange 8 abutting against a shoulder 22 between the circular and the hexagonal bores and by a circlip 9 retained in a peripheral groove in said screw 7 and in engagement with the protruding end of said tap cap. The outer diameter of said flange 8 is such that said screw can be 1y cause damages of the outer chromium plated surfaces of the tap parts. This does not only spoil the appearance of the tap but said damages also increase the corrosion, and the abutment surfaces for wrenches or the like can also be spoiled to such an extent that a succeeding dismounting becomes difficult.

The purpose of the present invention is to set aside the above mentioned disadvantage and to provide a water tap, the dismounting of which, for instance for r'epacking, can be accomplished without the aid of any tools. It is thereby intended that the tap and the complete valve mechanism together with the handle shall be removable as an assembled unit, the packing of the tap valve member thereby becoming accessible for replacing. The inventive construction is furthermore such, that the appearance of the tap is not affected and that the safety thereof is not lessened, so that for instance children cannot dismount the tap.

Finally, it is also intended that the unit consisting of the tap cap, valve mechanism, and handle shall be usable without any modifications in already installed tap casings of standard constructions. I

According to the invention these intentions are mainly fulfilled by the fact that the centrum spindle after the overcoming of an initial resistance is axially displaceable relatively to the screw by means of a pulling force applied pushed up through the hexagonal bore of said'tap cap into engagement with said shoulder.

The screw 7 is provided with a through hole of hexagonal or otherwise non-circular cross-section in the part thereof remote from said tap casing, whereas the opposite end of said hole is preferably circular. At the end facing said tap valve member 5 said screw is provided with a counterbore 10 forming a shoulder 11 with said circular part of the through hole.

A centrum spindle 12 extends through said through hole of the screw 7 and is provided with a hexagonal or non-circular part co-operating with the hexagonal or noncircular part of said through hole, so that said centrum spindle 12 is axially displaceable but not turnable relatively to said screw 7. Two peripheric grooves are provided in the cylindrical portion of said centrum spindle 12, one in such a position that a slotted wire ring 13 arranged with a radial interstice therein engages said shoulder 11 when said centrum spindle 12 is inserted as far as possible into said screw 7. Said shoulder 11 and slotted wire ring 13 serve to exert a relatively great initial resistance'to axial displacement between said centrum spindle 12 and said screw 7, but on account of the slot in said wire ring 13 and the interstice between same and the bottom of the cooperating groove, said ring is contracted and travels past the shoulder 11, so that said axial movement is no more prevented. This can for instance be achieved by forming said through hole with a section 14 of slightly increased diameter at some distance inside of said counterbore 10.

Patented Dec. 2, 1969 The lower peripheral groove of said centrum spindle 12 is positioned at some distance outside the end of said screw 7, when said centrum spindle 12 is fully inserted, and accommodates a locking ring 15 meant to come into engagement with said shoulder 11 without being able to pass the same and thus limiting the axial displacement of the centrum spindle 12.

The preferably hexagonal top end of the centrum spindle 12 is rigidly attached to a socket 16 and a tap handle 17, preferably of plastic material, is cast around said socket 16 which can be provided with abutments, known in the art and not shown, biting into said plastic material and providing a rigid connection between the socket 16 and the handle 17. The rigid attachment between the socket and the centrum spindle can for instance be provided by head screw 18 extending through the bottom of said socket 16 and axially into said centrum spindle 12. Thus, when said handle 17 is turned, said centrum spindle 12 also rotates, and via the hegaxonal part thereof said rotation is transmitted to the screw 7 which over the threaded connection with the tap valve member 5 imposes an axial movement on same in said tap cap 3, s0 that the flow of water through the valve seat to the spout can be controlled as desired.

At the outer edge of the socket 16 enclosed in the handle 17 said socket is provided with radial claws 19 extending towards said centrum spindle 12. The part 6 of the tap cap 3 having a smaller diameter extends into the interior of said socket 16 and at the end thereof reaching farthest therein said tap cap part 6 is provided with radial claws 20 directed away from the centrum spindle. The length of the part 6 of the tap cap extending into said socket 16 and the length of said sets of claws 19 and 20 are adapted to each other in such a way, that an axial space exists between said claws when said tap cap part is inserted to the bottom of said socket 16, so that the rotation of the handle is not prevented by said claws. The pitch of the two sets of claws 19 and 20 is such that they can be brought into engagement with each other by mutual axial displacement, whereafter the tap cap 3 can be rotated by turning the handle 17 The above described tap is assembled in the following way. The screw is inserted in the tap cap 3 and the circlip 9 is attached. The socket 16 with the tap handle 17 is joined to the centrum spindle by aid of the head screw 18, whereafter the slotted wire ring 13 is inserted in its groove. The unit consisting of a socket 16, the handle 17, and the centrum spindle 12 can now be mounted on the screw 7 by insertion of the centrum spindle through the hole of the screw 7, whereby the slotted wire ring 13 is contracted, so that it can pass through said hole past the shoulder 11. Finally, the stop ring 15 is inserted in its groove and the valve member 15 is screwed onto the screw 7. This assembly is thereafter inserted in the tap casing 1 and the threads at the lower end of the tap cap 3 are brought into engagement with the female threads of the tap casing 1. Said final assemblage is easily accomplished by means of the handle 17 with the claws 19 thereof in engagement with the claws 20 of the tap cap 3. When the tap cap is properly seated in the cap casing, the mounting is completed by pushing the handle downwards to bring said claws out of engagement and the wire ring into engagement with the shoulder 11.

The dismounting of the above described water tap for repacking is achieved in the following way starting from the position of the parts shown in the drawing.

By a sharp pull in the handle 17 the initial resistance provided by the slotted wire ring 13 is overcome and said slotted wire ring is forced past the shoulder 11 so that the tap handle 17, the socket 16, and the centrum spindle are axially displaced relatively to the rest of the tap. This axial movement is stopped when the end surfaces of the socket claws 19 come into contact with the opposed end surfaces of the tap cap claws 20. By turning the handle 17 a fraction the sets of claws 19 and 20 can be made to meshwith each other under further axial movement of the handle together with the socket and the centrum spindle. If he handle 17 is thereafter turned, the tap cap 3 is carried along through the engagement between said claws 19 and 20, and thus said tap cap 3 can be unscrewed from the cap casing 1 with the aid of said handle 17. Thereby the whole tap mechanism with the handle and the tap cap is loosened from the tap easing 1 and can be pulled out as a unit, since the locking ring 15 makes it impossible fully to pull the centrum spindle 12 out of the screw 7. After the exchange of the packing at the end of the tap valve member 5 the tap is reassembled in the contrary way to the one just described.

By means of the above described construction it is therefore possible to dismount the tap for repacking or the like completely without tools which may damage the chromium plating of same. If measures have been taken in a convenient way to interrupt the water supply to the interior of the tap casing 1 this repacking can be undertaken in a few minutes by a technically untrained person, which substantially lessens the costs of maintenance of a building.

It should also be pointed out that the above description only takes account of the constructional feaures of imporance for the invention, whereas the construction of the details as for the rest have not been considered. Finally, the inventive construction can also without any substantial modifications be utilized in combination with most of the tap constructions commercially available.

It is also evident that the described embodiment can be modified in many respects without departing from the inventive idea defined in the attached claims. Thus, there is for instance nothing that prevents the claws 19 and 20 to extend in opposite directions from those stated.

What I claim is:

1. A water tap comprising a tap casing, a tap cap screwed into same and accommodating a tap valve member which is axially displaceable towards and from a valve seat, and an actuating screw turnable by means of a handle and imposing the axial displacement upon said tap valve member, and a centrum spindle rigidly attached to the handle and forming a connection between said handle and said screw, characterized in that the centrum spindle after the overcoming of an initial resistance is axially displaceable relatively to the screw by means of a pulling force applied to said handle, and that said tap cap and said handle are provided with claws or the like, extending in opposite direction and arranged to be brought into engagement with each other by the axial displacement of said handle and said centrum spindle, so that said tap cap is screwable into or out of said tap causing by means of said handle.

2. A water tap as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said centrum spindle is provided with a hexagonal portion extending into a hexagonal bore in said screw and a peripheral groove for a slotted wire ring abutting against a shoulder in the bore of said screw to exert said initial resistance.

3. A water tap as claimed in claim 2, characterized by a further peripheral groove at the free end of said centrum spindle and a locking ring in said groove preventing that the centrum spindle is pulled out of said screw.

4. A water tap as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the end of said tap cap protruding out of said tap casing extends into a cylindrical cavity of said handle and at the outer edge is provided with claws extending radially outwards, said claws being arranged for engagement with radially inwards extending claws at the mouth of said handle cavity when said handle is axially displaced.

5. A water tap as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the claws of the tap cap are positioned at an axial distance from the claws of said handle, when said centrum spindle is fully inserted.

6. A water tap as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the distance between said circlip and said locking ring 6 of said centrum spindle is not less than the axial distance 3,006,361 10/1961 Reinemann 137-4545 between the claws of said tap cap and said handle plus 3,190,309 6/1965 Staat et a1. 137-454.6 the combined axial length of said claws.

WILLIAM F. ODEA, Primary Examiner References 5 DAVID R. MATHEWS, Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,064,623 12/1936 Mueller 251-96 2,991,795 7/1961 Fraser et a1 137454.6 X 251--96, 215, 284, 318

Po-wfio UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFACATE F CGRRLCTION Patent: No. 3,481,350 Dated December 2, 1969 Inventorfi) GUNNAR ARNE GILLBERG It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that: said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Claim 1, next to last line, the word "causing" should have been casqmg The sentence should read:

fie screwable into or out of said t ep casing by means of" SIGNED IND SEALED BEAL) Most:

EaMM-mm'k mun 1:.suaunm, Ja. Amazing Officer commissioner of Patents

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