Shower floor former assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shower floor formers with eccentric drainage apertures often result in asymmetric shower floors and require laborious tile cutting, as they cannot be centrally positioned, leading to potential weakening of joists when trying to avoid them.
Innovation Solution
A shower floor former assembly with a non-circular waste-plate receiver and a drain waste plate having offset drainage apertures, allowing for central alignment and simplifying tiling with linear edges, reducing the need for curved cuts and improving watertightness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed pre-drilled drainage aperture is provided in the shower floor former, then the drainage function is ensured, but the shower waste may overlap with joists requiring cutting and weakening support
Solution Approach 1:
The drain waste plate is made rotatable within the waste-plate receiver, transforming a static fixed-aperture design into a dynamic adjustable one. This allows the drainage aperture to be repositioned to avoid joists without compromising structural support, resolving the contradiction between ensuring drainage function and maintaining joist strength.
2Strength
If circular drain plates with eccentric drainage apertures are used to avoid joists, then the shower waste can be positioned to avoid cutting joists, but the drainage aperture cannot be positioned at the centre resulting in asymmetric appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable drain waste plate enables dynamic adjustment of the drainage aperture position. The installer can rotate the plate to achieve two objectives: position the aperture centrally for symmetric appearance, or offset it to avoid joists. This dynamic capability resolves the contradiction between maintaining symmetry and avoiding joist cutting.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention intentionally introduces asymmetry through the offset of the drainage aperture from the center of the drain waste plate. This controlled asymmetry, combined with the rotatable mechanism, allows the system to achieve symmetry (central aperture) or asymmetry (offset aperture) as needed, resolving the contradiction between symmetric appearance and joist avoidance.
3Adaptability or versatility
If circular drain plates are used, then the drainage aperture can be positioned flexibly, but tiling becomes laborious requiring curved cuts
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable drain waste plate provides flexible positioning capability while maintaining a simple geometric form. The plate can be rotated to align the drainage aperture in different directions, providing adaptability for various joist configurations, while the overall circular or polygonal shape with linear edges simplifies tiling compared to complex curved forms.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the floor covering adapt to a circular drain plate (requiring curved tile cuts), the invention inverts the approach by providing a drain plate that can be oriented in different directions within a rectangular/polygonal receiver. This allows standard rectangular tiles to be used without curved cuts, resolving the contradiction between positioning flexibility and ease of tiling.
4Productivity
If the shower floor former has greater depth to create slope for water run-off, then water drainage is improved, but the proximity to joists increases the risk of overlap with fixed drainage apertures
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable drain waste plate allows the drainage aperture to be positioned optimally after the shower floor former is installed. This dynamic adjustment capability eliminates the need for a larger safety margin in the design, allowing the floor former to maintain its required depth for proper slope and water run-off while the aperture can be positioned to avoid joists, resolving the contradiction between drainage efficiency and joist overlap risk.
Data Source
Figure 1a~1b
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A shower floor former assembly (10) is provided which comprises a shower floor former (12) having a non-circular waste-plate receiver (18) and a drain waste plate (18) which is dimensioned to be receivable in the waste-plate receiver (18). A centre point (CWPR) of the waste-plate receiver (18) is offset from a centre point (CSFF) of the shower floor former (12), and the drain waste plate (14) has a drainage aperture (30) therethrough, a centre point (CDA) of the drainage aperture (30) being offset from a centre point (CDWP) of the drain waste plate (14). The drain waste plate (14) is receivable in the waste-plate receiver (18) in a first condition in which the centre point (CDA) of the drainage aperture is offset relative to the centre point (CSFF) of the shower floor former (12). The drain waste plate (14) is also receivable in the waste-plate receiver (18) in a second condition in which the centre point (CDA) of the drainage aperture (30) is coincident with the centre point (CSFF) of the shower floor former (12).