FILTERING SCREEN APPARATUS FOR A URINAL

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not Applicable

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not Applicable

INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

Not Applicable

STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The disclosure relates to filtering screens and more particularly pertains to a new filtering screen for filtering debris from a urinal. (2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98

The prior art discloses myriad screens which prevent debris such as gum, chewing tobacco packs, and cigarette butts from being flushed down a urinal. However, the prior art fails to describe such a screen in which a frame conforms to an interior surface of the urinal while a mesh screen held within the frame is raised above water held in the urinal. The prior art further fails to disclose a filtering screen in which urinal blocks are mounted to a rear side of the frame such that they are held in abutment with the interior surface of the urinal when the screen is used.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a mesh screen that defines a plurality of apertures which extend therethrough. The mesh screen is configured to permit a fluid through the plurality of apertures and comprises a flexible material. A frame is coupled to and extends around a perimeter of the mesh screen. The frame comprises a bendable material such that the frame is configured to bend to conform to an interior surface of a urinal, and the mesh screen is configured to flex in response to a bending of the frame. The flexible material of the mesh screen and the bendable material may each be, for example, a plastic or a fiber comprising synthetic or natural fibers, and they may have the same composition.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a filtering screen apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a back view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a side view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of an embodiment of the disclosure taken from Line 4-4 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a front view of another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a front view of yet another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a detail view of a connection between a frame and a urinal block of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a detail view of another connection between a frame and a urinal block of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a detail view of yet another connection between a frame and a urinal block of an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 10 thereof, a new filtering screen embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described. As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 10, the filtering screen apparatus 10 generally comprises a mesh screen 12 that defines a plurality of apertures 14 which extend therethrough. The mesh screen 12 is configured to permit a fluid such as urine through the plurality of apertures 14. The mesh screen 12 comprises a flexible material such as a plastic or a fabric comprising synthetic or natural fibers, or the like. A frame 18 is coupled to and extends around a perimeter 16 of the mesh screen 12. The frame 18 comprises a bendable material such that the frame 18 is configured to bend to conform to an interior surface 62 of a urinal 60. The mesh screen 12 flexes in response to a bending of the frame 18. The bendable material may be a plastic or a fabric comprising synthetic or natural fibers, or the like. The bendable material and the flexible material may have the same composition. The mesh screen 12 may be integrally formed with the frame 18 in some embodiments. The frame 18 is shaped to lie on a plane when the frame 18 is in a resting condition.

A plurality of mount members 22 is coupled to the frame 18. The mount members 22 are distributed along a length of the frame 18. Each mount member 22 of the plurality of mount members 22 comprises a suction cup 24 which faces away from a rear face 19 of the mesh screen 12. In other embodiments, the mount members 22 may comprise hooks, clamps, or another suitable fastener for mounting the mesh screen 12 to the urinal 60.

A plurality of urinal blocks 26 is coupled to the frame 18. The urinal blocks 26 are positioned on a rear side 20 of the frame 18 and are distributed along the length of the frame 18. Each urinal block 26 comprises a body 28 and a disinfectant 30, wherein the disinfectant 30 is embedded in the body 28. The urinal blocks 26 are sized and configured to abut the interior surface 62 of the urinal 60 when the plurality of mount members 22 mount to the interior surface 62 of the urinal 60. A rearward surface 32 of each urinal block 26 is concavely arcuate. The urinal blocks 26 may also comprise a fragrance or other additives.

The mesh screen 12 is shaped to generally conform to the interior surface 62 of the urinal 60. With reference to an embodiment depicted in FIGS. 1 through 5, the mesh screen 12 has a rectangular shape 34 with rounded corners 36 which may adapt to a common shape of wall-mounted urinal which has a generally rectangular opening to the basin defined by the interior surface 62. The mesh screen 12 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 has a circular shape 38 which may conform to a generally bowl-shaped urinal. With reference to another embodiment seen in FIG. 7, the mesh screen 12 has an oblong shape 40 with a rectangular section 42 and a pair of semi-circular sections 44. The rectangular section 42 is coupled to and extends between the pair of semi-circular sections 44. This embodiment may be used to conform to the interior surface of a trough-shaped urinal. In each case, the mesh screen 12 may be sized and shaped such that the mesh screen 12 is positioned spaced away from water contained in the urinal.

FIGS. 8 through 10 depict different ways for the urinal blocks 26 to attach to the frame 18. Each of these may be used with any shape of mesh screen 12 to form further embodiments. With reference to FIG. 8, an embodiment may include the frame 18 defining a plurality of notches 46 in the rear side 20 of the frame 18, each of which contains one of the urinal blocks 26. The urinal blocks 26 may be removed from the notches 46 of the frame 18 to discard and replace them. FIG. 9 depicts another attachment scheme in which a plurality of connectors 48 couples the plurality of urinal blocks 26 to the frame 18. Each connector 48 comprises a peg 50 which is inserted into a hole 52 defined by an associated urinal block 26 of the plurality of urinal blocks 26.

Another attachment scheme is shown in FIG. 10, wherein adhesives 54 bond the urinal blocks 26 to the frame 18. The mating surfaces 56, 58 of the frame 18 and the urinal blocks 26 which the adhesives 54 bond together may be planar to improve manufacturability.

In use, the filtering screen apparatus 10 is mounted via the mount members 22 in the urinal 60 such that the mesh screen 12 is positioned over the interior surface 62 of the urinal 60 and blocks debris 66 including gum, cigarette butts, chew pouches, and the like from entering a drainpipe 64 of the urinal 60. The urinal blocks 26 are placed in abutment with the interior surface 62 such that the disinfectant 30 contained therein may be spread across the interior surface 62 when water or other fluids flow against the urinal blocks 26. Urine and other fluids may pass through the apertures 14 of the mesh screen 12. The debris 66 blocked by the mesh screen 12 may be collected and disposed of elsewhere.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.