AU597724B2 - Improvements in or relating to shower enclosures - Google Patents

Description

i 1 1 59 77 2 L aa FORM 10 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION S F Ref: 18774 FEE STAMP TO VALUE OF

ATTACHED

MAIL OFFICER.... LODGED AT SUB-OFFICE 2 3 SEP 1987 Sydney (ORIGINAL) Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: FOR OFFICE USE: PH8152 23 September 1986 This document contains the amendments made under Section 49 and is currect for frinting.

Accepted: Published: Prior ity: TEN DOLLAS T Y D S Related Art: TEN DOLLARS TWENTY DOLLARS ONE HE Name and Address of Applicant: 4 Englefield Plastic Industries Limited 133 Diana Drive Glenfield Auckland NEW ZEALAND Larry Irvin Fairchild, Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorneys, Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Complete Specification for the invention entitled: IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO SHOWER ENCLOSURES The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us 5815/2 I C_ i -II BB~L This invention relates to shower enclosures and in particular enclosures which are formed by vacuum moulding sheet plastics material so that the shower enclosure is manufactured essentially in one piece. Such shower enclosures have an opening which is closeable by a door or doors.

Because of the nature of typical plastic materials used for shower enclosures it is not possible to vacuum form substantially square corners in the door opening since these must be radiused, e.g. have a radius of not less than 100mm, to prevent buckling which would otherwise occur during the moulding process. The radiused corners which result introduce a difficulty in selecting a suitable door, since standard doors with square corners cannot be used because this would not result in a sufficiently watertight joint between the door and the opening to the shower enclosure. The effect of this is that special doors have to be manufactured to suit the shape of the opening to the enclosure and this tends to limit the marketability of the enclosure since customers must then necessarily purchase the shower enclosure complete with door.

It is an object of this invention to provide a shower enclosure which has an opening which will accept a door which has square or substantially square corners.

Accordingly one form of the invention consists of a shower enclosure comprising a floor and rear and side walls of said enclosure and an opening c t from the exterior of said enclosure to the interior thereof adapted to receive a door for closing said opening, wherein each corner of said opening near the floor of said enclosure is a radiused corner wherein the radius of said corner on the side of said opening facing the interior of said enclosure is less than the radius of said corner on the side of said opening facing the exterior thereof.

A preferred form of the invention will now be described with the aid of the accompanying drawings wherein: SD/276i -2- L l*a_ ii ii ii Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional liew through a typical shower enclosure but incorporating the constructional features of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a part-sectional view of the lower portion of the front of the shower enclosure shown in Fig. 1.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates a shower enclosure having a rear wall 1, a floor 2, a ceiling 3, side walls 4 and an opening referenced generally at 5. The opening 5 is essentially rectangular and is formed by a sill 5a, upright edges which are preferably in the form of side posts and a lintel 5c. The sill 5a is preferably of a box formation such as that indicated in the drawings while the side posts 5b and the lintel 5c may be formed as indicated so as to present the necessary structural rigidity to the shower enclosure. Each junction of the sill with the upright edges of the enclosure forms a corner which has two separate radiuses. The forward portion of the entrance is radiused as at 6 (see particularly Fig. such radius being of a diameter that will allow a smooth finish to be formed without buckling. The rear portion of the junction between the side post 5b ne sill 5a is stepped as indicated in the drawings and the junction has a tight radius of for instance between 20-40mm so as to form a substantially square corner. Such a tight radius portion is formed at either end of the sill so as to accept the bottom edge of a standard shaped 'I c: c door (not shown in the drawings). It will of course be apparent that this 0.0. construction does not need to be applied to the junction of the lintel with the side posts because generally the shower door terminates a distance below the lintel so as to allow adequate ventilation.

The shower door may then be hung on either of the two side posts so as to provide left hand or right hand opening as desired. Although the upper face 7 of the sill 5a is shown to be essentially co-planar with the floor of the enclosure, the upper face can be bevelled downwardly towards SD/276i 3 -I -r lr the floor so as to aid the drainage of the opening and the sealing between the bottom edge of the door and the sill.

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Claims (4)

1. A shower enclosure comprising a floor, rear and side walls and an opening from the exterior of said enclosure to the interior thereof adapted to receive a door, the opening further comprising a sill, two upright edges and a lintel, where the upright edges join the sill at first corners having a first radius, the upright edges and the sill having extended therebetween a planar exterior web having a second radius in the plane of said planar exterior web, wherein the first radius is less than the second radius.

2. A shower enclosure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said upright edges comprise side posts of said enclosure.

3. A shower enclosure as claimed in either of claims 1 and 2 wherein a step is formed by the web providing an inwardly directed face exposed to the interior of said enclosure for abutment of the door Sthereagainst.

4. A shower enclosure substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings. DATED this SIXTEENTH day of MARCH 1990 Englefield Plastics Industries Limited Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON *t* S rhk/7623F II ai f)~C-LI-DII~C(iiZa_~~