Vandal-proof plumbing valve access box

• US 4,167,196 A
• Filed: 10/21/1977
• Issued: 09/11/1979
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/1976
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Acorn Engineering Company
• Original Assignee: Acorn Engineering Company
• Inventors: Morris, Earl L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwadron, Martin P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, A. Michael
• Application Number:
  US05/844,360
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• Field of Search: 137/360, 137/382, 137/357, 222/173, 220/3.5, 220/3.8, 220/3.3, 220/3.4, 220/3.6, 220/327
• US Class Current: 137/360
• CPC Class Codes: E03C 1/021 Devices for positioning or connecting of water supply lines connection to the tap body E03C1/0403
• CPC Class Codes: E04F 19/08 Built-in cupboards; Masks of niches; Covers of holes enabling access to installations inspection openings in bathtub aprons A47K3/1615; covers for electrical distribution boxes H02G3/14; movable ceiling parts E04B9/003; removable wall partitions E04B2/74; clean-out doors of chimneys F23J
• CPC Class Codes: H02G 3/121 in plain walls
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/698 Wall

Abstract

A rectangular vandal-proof plumbing valve access box for housing at least one plumbing valve therein and for containing same within the wall of a building, including an access cover facing the user-occupied side of the wall with security bolts anchoring the cover to the access box and having a lip extending over the wall about the access box, the box further having a pair of re-inforced rims thereabout with valve locating notches located about one of the rims of the access box.

Claims

1. A vandal - proof plumbing valve access box for placement in an aperture in a mounting wall having a front face and a rear face for housing a plumbing valve and for preventing access thereinto by unauthorized persons or vandals while permitting actuation of a pushbutton of the plumbing valve;

comprising;

(a) a sleeve defined by a wall thereabout, said wall of said sleeve being co-extensively disposed between the pair of oppositely - disposed faces of said mounting wall and defining a single, rectangularly - shaped passageway therethrough, said sleeve having front and rear portions with rims thereabout and having a first flange disposed about the rim of said rear portion of said sleeve, said first flange being directed outwardly in a radial fashion therefrom, whereby said sleeve is stiffened and strengthened and may be positioned in said aperture in said mounting wall and when said first flange is abuttingly positioned thereabout it prevents said sleeve from being moved further through said aperture in said mounting wall so that said front portion of said sleeve does not project beyond the front face of said mounting wall;

(b) four brackets, each of said brackets being formed from a piece of rectangulary - shaped sheet metal wherein a pair of the complementary corners are bent along a diagonal line passing through the adjacent non-complementary corner, said corners following said bending are each disposed in a plane, said planes being disposed at right angles to one another and wherein said brackets are arranged to bridge the inside corners of said sleeve and respectively secured in fixed relationship to the intersection of adjacent sidewalls of said sleeve forming each of said corners, each of said brackets further having an aperture therethrough with a threaded portion thereabout;

(c) a cover for said sleeve, said cover extending beyond the rim of said sleeve and having at least four apertures adjacently disposed to each of the four corners thereof and having an apertured portion therein for the pushbutton for operating said plumbing valve; and

(d) security bolts for said apertures in said cover, said bolts being mateably receivable in threadable fashion with said threaded apertures in said brackets.

2. The plumbing valve access box of claim 1, wherein said first flange of said sleeve further comprises a plurality of paired, oppositely - disposed V shaped notches in the edge thereof, said pair of V-shaped notches, each having an apex, one pair of apexes defining a vertical reference line and the other pair of apexes defining a horizontal line, said reference lines intersecting to define an alignment position for said plumbing valve during installation in said sleeve absent said cover so that when said cover is thereafterwards installed, the pushbutton of said plumbing valve will project through said cover aperture.

3. The plumbing valve access box of claim 2, wherein said intersection of said reference planes is aligned with the center of the pushbutton.

4. The plumbing valve access box of claim 1, further including a second flange disposed about the rim of said front portion of said sleeve to strengthen the rim thereof.

5. The plumbing valve access box of claim 4, wherein said second flange is arranged to be disposed against the respective sidewall forming said sleeve to further strengthen the rim thereof and to form a reference edge thereabout against which said brackets are abutted to space said brackets away from the front opening of said access box.

6. The plumbing valve access box of claim 5, wherein said reference edge is disposed beyond the thickness of the sheet material forming the sleeve of the access box.

7. The plumbing valve access box of claim 6, wherein said brackets are abutted against said reference edge formed by said second flange about the front portion of said sleeve to recess said brackets from the edge of the rim of the front portion of said sleeve, whereby when said security bolts are used to secure said cover about said front portion of said sleeve, the distance between the head of the security bolt and the threaded portion of the shank of said bolt threadably mated with said threaded apertures in said brackets is a substantial portion of said shank length to improve the anchoring effect of said bolts between said cover and said brackets.