Bonding Flange Support Disk for Low-Profile Shower Tray Drains
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shower floor constructions, including integrated systems, are too tall and thick, making it difficult to achieve a flush installation within the thickness of subfloor panels, especially in barrier-free designs, requiring costly and complex modifications to framing members or subfloor structures.
Innovation Solution
A substantially planar shower tray bonding element with a prefabricated polymer foam shower tray and slotted openings for mortar penetration, providing structural support and allowing for a thinner assembly while maintaining the necessary slope, thereby reducing the overall height and complexity of the shower floor construction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional shower floor construction methods are used with thick mortar beds and wire mesh reinforcement, then the structural strength and stability are sufficient, but the overall height and thickness of the floor assembly increases, making it difficult to achieve flush installation within subfloor panel thickness
Solution Approach 1:
The bonding flange support disk utilizes a porous material structure that allows mortar to penetrate through its thickness, creating mechanical interlocking and chemical bonding between the disk, substrate, and tile layers. This porous structure provides structural strength equivalent to or greater than solid materials while maintaining a much thinner profile, enabling the floor assembly to meet strength requirements without increasing overall thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The bonding flange support disk is formed as a composite structure combining multiple materials with complementary properties: a porous matrix material providing structural framework and mortar bonding, reinforcement elements (such as fibers or rebar) providing tensile strength, and a bonding flange layer providing adhesive bonding to the substrate. This composite approach achieves high structural strength in a thin profile, resolving the contradiction between strength and thickness.
2Length of stationary object
If the shower tray perimeter is made thinner to achieve a lower profile, then the aesthetic appearance and barrier-free design are improved, but the structural support for the drain becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The bonding flange support disk is segmented into distinct functional zones: a bonding flange region that interfaces with the substrate, a porous body region that receives mortar penetration and provides structural support, and a drain support region that specifically reinforces the area around the drain opening. This segmentation allows the thin tray perimeter to maintain adequate drain support through localized reinforcement while keeping overall thickness minimal for aesthetic purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The bonding flange support disk exhibits local quality variations with different densities, porosity, and reinforcement concentrations in different regions. The area surrounding the drain opening has enhanced structural properties (higher reinforcement density, lower porosity) to provide adequate drain support, while other areas of the disk can be thinner and more porous to maintain low overall profile and aesthetic appearance.
3Productivity
If integrated bonding systems are used to simplify construction, then the installation time and skill requirements are reduced, but the overall assembly height increases due to multiple bonded layers
Solution Approach 1:
The bonding flange support disk merges multiple functions into a single component: it serves as the bonding interface to the substrate, the structural support element, the mortar reception and distribution medium, and the base for tile bonding. By combining these functions that would traditionally require separate layers (substrate bonding layer, reinforcement layer, mortar bed, etc.) into one integrated disk, the system achieves simplified installation with reduced assembly height.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables a thinner and more stable shower floor assembly that supports the drain without increasing the overall height, facilitating easier installation and compliance with building codes, particularly in barrier-free designs, by distributing load effectively and minimizing mortar shrinkage.
Implementation Method 1
a prefabricated polymer foam shower tray on a flooring substrate and surrounding a substantially planar bonding disk on the flooring substrate at the circumference of the bonding disk. The bonding disk includes an interior rim that defines a drain opening and a plurality of slotted openings for permitting mortar to penetrate the bonding disk.
Data Source
AI summary
A combination for plumbing fixtures, particularly tiled floors with drains, is disclosed along with a method for building a tile floor using the combination. An exemplary combination includes a substantially planar shower tray bonding disk on a flooring substrate and surrounded by a prefabricated polymer foam shower tray on the flooring substrate and at the circumference of the bonding disk. The disk includes an interior rim that defines a drain opening and a plurality of slotted openings for permitting mortar to penetrate the disk. The drain opening in the disk can thus be positioned at a drain cut out in the flooring substrate.