Bathroom floor panel

a floor panel and bathroom technology, applied in the direction of flooring, treads, constructions, etc., can solve the problems of large amount of water drops remaining on the floor surface, user discomfort, and water used in the shower room or the unit bathroom to be repelled, so as to prevent slippage

US20080190048A1Inactive Publication Date: 2008-08-14TOTO LTD
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Patent Information

Authority / Receiving Office
US · United States
Patent Type
Applications(United States)
Current Assignee / Owner
Publication Date
2008-08-14
Estimated Expiration
Not applicable · inactive patent

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Abstract

A bathroom floor panel for use in an airtight and water tight space is configured to be efficiently dried in a few hours under ambient conditions. When water drops onto the floor panel, the surface tension of the water is broken by irregular-shaped portions and the water spreads without forming waterdrops. Also, the irregular-shaped portions reduce the flow velocity of the water due to a gradient of the panel, so as to prevent the water flowing in channels to a drain from being discontinued. With this, although the drain velocity of the water is low, substantially no water remains as isolated drops. Further, even if some water remain on the irregular-shaped portions after the water flows out the channels to the drain, any amount of water remaining in the channels is evaporated in a relatively short period of time because the amount of the remaining water is very small.
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Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part application of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 479,117 filed 28 Nov. 2003, which is the U.S. National Phase of International Application PCT / JP02 / 05281 filed 30 May 2002, which claims priority under 35 USC §119 based on Japanese Patent Application Number 2001-163403, filed on 30 May 2001. The subject matter of each of the above-identified applications is incorporated by reference herein.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates to a resin bathroom floor panel to be assembled as a part of a unit bath.BACKGROUND ART

[0003] The floor panel of the present invention is applied to a booth, i.e., a prefabricated airtight unit room, whose components or parts are fabricated at a factory, which can be readily built on site by only assembling the components or parts.

[0004] Examples of such a booth include a unit bathroom and a shower room. The details thereof will be explained her...

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0056]The embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a bathroom floor panel according to a first aspect of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the bathroom floor panel; FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a bathroom floor panel according to another embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 2; FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 3; and FIGS. 6(a) to (c) show the behavior of water on a floor panel.

[0057]A floor panel 1 is prepared by molding a resin material (for example FRP) and comprised of a bathtub installing portion 2 and a water place portion adjacent thereto. The bathtub installing portion 2 may be a split type in which it is formed as a separate member from a water place side floor panel and these are connected afterwards, or a bathtub with a water place in which a b...