A urinal is a receptacle used by men which collects urine in a basin and transfers it to a drainage system. A popular variant includes a flushing mechanism to clean the basin after use. Urinals are a common fixture in washrooms and are typically composed of ceramic materials with metallic embellishments, such as the drain cover and levers used to trigger the flushing mechanism. They may be freestanding or wall-mounted, and some variants use an extended design to accommodate multiple simultaneously users.
The standard urinal provides a fairly simple means for removing liquid waste. However, systems currently known in the art are generally wasteful with regard to water usage. After flushing the urinal, a user will customarily wash his hands in a nearby sink provided in the washroom.
Previous attempts have been made to combine a urinal with a hand washing station. Some of these urinals are awkward to use and overly complicated. For example, the apparatus disclosed in Ball, U.S. Pat. No. 167,972 (1875), which requires a complicated lever system to lift a hand washing basin out of the way of a lower urinal basin when the latter is in use. Similar designs are observed in the disclosures of Rich, Eckhardt and McClenahan; U.S. Pat. No. 2,324,725 (1943), U.S. Pat. No. 2,375,090 (1945), and U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,348 (1958), respectively. Each of these systems relies on the need for an upper basin for washing and a separate lower compartment to serve as the urinal basin. This configuration is inefficient in the sense that it requires extra complexity and additional parts.
More recent attempts have similarly failed to provide a solution as elegant and efficient as the present invention. For example, see Basterfield, U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,293 (1979) and Teichroeb, U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,047 (1998). Both require more elaborate systems involving additional piping and space requirements. Furthermore, each is designed to function with both urinals and toilets, and thus they are designed to utilize large volumes of water. Chen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,148 (2002) illustrates a similar approach, again using a design that treats the washing facility and toilet as separate units that are merely connected by shared piping.
An alternative approach is disclosed in Flippen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,029 (1999), which places the washing facility on an upper tier above a urinal basis such that water is transferred by gravity flow to be reused. However, Flippen is directed to a space-saving system as opposed to one that conserves water. This is reflected in the design, which while smaller than a traditional dual setup, still uses a significant amount of water and requires a tiered structure that may be awkward for users of varying heights.
Another compact system is disclosed in Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,285 (2000), Kim's design adds a hand washing function to, a standard urinal, but relies on a faucet-based design which directs the water vertically downward. Without the optional divider described in the preferred embodiment, Kim's approach results in splattering as water from the faucet strikes the bottom of the urinal, which is both unhygienic and a waste of water that would otherwise be used to flush and clean the basin.
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