This invention relates to couplings for connecting water closet drains to sewer pipes, and more particularly, it relates to a mounting ring which secures the coupling to a water closet and to an adjacent floor when desired.
In recent years plastic water closet couplings have been used to connect the drains of water closets to sewer pipes. These water closet couplings are normally made out of plastic materials such as PVC and ABS. Generally speaking water closet couplings comprise a connecting pipe which is solvent bonded onto the sewer pipe, an extension toward the water closet forming a flange with a radially extending channel near the inlet end of the coupling and a mounting ring retained within the channel. These water closet couplings are normally sold as a single unit which is referred to as a closet flange.
The mounting ring normally has holes in it which enable it to be fastened to the floor, thereby securing the coupling to the floor. The mounting ring also normally has arcuate slots formed within it. After a wax ring is placed about the inlet end of the coupling, the drain of the water closet is set within the coupling so that a base portion of the water closet fits over the mounting ring. The base has holes in it with bolts mounted at positions within the base which enable heads of the bolts to extend through a widened portion of the arcuate slots of the mounting ring. The water closet is rotated slightly to fit the heads of the bolts under the mounting ring. The bolts, when tightened, thus fasten the water closet to the mounting ring and in turn to the floor. Assemblies of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,268 issued on Mar. 16, 1967 to Blumenkranz and U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,780 issued on Dec. 4, 1973 to McEwen. One such assembly is shown in FIG. 1 and described below.
The load of the water closet is transmitted through the mounting ring. Thus, over a period of time after the installation of a water closet as described above, it is not unusual to find that the mounting ring breaks. This normally occurs in the vicinity of the arcuate slots, where the mounting ring is connected to the water closet. The mounting rings often break due to the stress from the water closet on the mounting ring in the area of the arcuate slots or due to rust or corrosion. As a result, the broken mounting ring has lost its seal and unsanitary liquid leaks from the water closet.
There is a closet flange currently being manufactured and sold which is molded in total as a single piece of plastic material. That is, that closet flange does not have a separate mounting ring installed on it. Rather, the flange portion of the closet flange is extended radially a distance sufficient to include the arcuate slots required to attach a water closet to it and to include the holes in it to be used to fasten the closet flange to the floor. Thus, if the extended flange portion of this closet flange is broken, it normally cannot be readily repaired because the plastic extended flange is integral with the rest of the closet flange. The replacement ring shown in U. S. Pat. No. 5,492,372 issued on Feb. 20, 1996 to Dranberg cannot be installed on it, nor can the mounting rings disclosed and claimed in my U. S. Pat. No. 6,155,606 issued Dec. 5, 2000 or in my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/589,943 filed on Jun. 7, 2000.
In accordance with this invention, a plastic mounting ring comprises two plastic arcuate members each having a flat upper profile, a flat lower profile and a predetermined thickness. Each plastic arcuate member has a lip extending radially inwardly with an inside diameter which allows it to engage the sides of the channel formed by the flange on the water closet coupling on which it is to be mounted. A corresponding first end of each arcuate member has a notch of a pre-selected length and a pre-selected height out of the lower level of its thickness. A second corresponding end of each arcuate member has an extension which is coplanar with its flat lower profile. This extension has a thickness equal to the height of the notch and a length no greater than the length of the notch. This enables the extension on the second end of each arcuate member to fit within the notch on the first end of the other arcuate member to form a plastic mounting ring which has a flat upper profile and a flat lower profile.
In accordance with still another aspect of this invention, a flange formation of an installed water closet coupling, which has its installed connecting pipe attached to a sewer pipe, can be replaced without removing the total water closet coupling. The flange formation is cut away from the installed water closet coupling so that no remaining portion of the installed water closet coupling is wider than the installed connecting pipe. In the preferred embodiment of this invention a circular saw is used for this purpose. Additionally, a replacement water closet coupling is provided having a replacement connecting pipe with an inside diameter greater than the outside diameter of the installed connecting pipe to an extent which causes the replacement connecting pipe to fit closely around the installed connecting pipe. The replacement water closet coupling is installed by mounting the replacement connecting pipe around the installed connecting pipe.
This invention does not reside in any one of the features of the mounting rings and method of installing mounting rings which are disclosed above and in the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments and claimed below. Rather, this invention is distinguished from the prior art by its particular combination of features of the mounting ring and method of installing mounting rings which are disclosed. Important features of this invention have been described to illustrate the best mode contemplated to date for carrying out this invention.
Those skilled in the art will realize that this invention is capable of embodiments which are different from those shown in the details of the mounting ring and method of installing mounting rings and can be changed in various manners without departing from the scope of this invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and are not to restrict the scope of this invention. Thus, the claims are to be regarded as including such equivalent mounting rings and methods of installing mounting rings as to not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention.
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USPTO Backgrounds