Tap connector with flow stabilization

The present invention relates generally to the field of tap con- nectors . More specifically, the present document discloses a tap connector comprising means for reducing liguid turbulences .

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Tap connectors for enabling a guick coupling of a hose with a water tap are known in prior art. For example, document

GB 1,167,680 A discloses a hose coupling comprising an inner male member and an outer female member, the inner, male member being adapted to be inserted into the outer, female member. The outer female member comprises locking means in order to estab ^¬ lish a detachable connection between the inner member and the outer member.

In order to couple a hose with a tap, the inner, male member is arranged at the outlet of the tap. In case that no hose is cou ^¬ pled with said inner, male member, e.g. for directly providing water from the tap into a watering can, the water does not form a uniform water jet but the water sprays out of the tap. Said spraying of water is mainly caused by a valve included in the tap .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of the embodiments of the present invention to provide a tap connector which stabilizes the liguid flow in order to avoid splashing of water in case that no hose is cou ^¬ pled with the tap connector. The objective is solved by the fea ^¬ tures of the independent claim. Preferred embodiments are given in the dependent claims. If not explicitly indicated otherwise, embodiments of the invention can be freely combined with each other .

According to an aspect, the invention relates to a tap connect- or. The tap connector comprises a first coupling portion adapted to couple the tap connector with a tap. Said first coupling por ^¬ tion may comprise an annular shape and may comprise a female thread for receiving a male thread of the tap. In addition, the tap connector comprises a second coupling portion adapted to re- ceive a hose connector. Said second coupling portion comprise an outer contour in order to detachably arrange a hose connector at the tap connector. The second coupling portion further comprises a fluid channel for guiding a fluid received from the tap to a fluid outlet. The fluid channel comprises one or more ribs pro- truding from a wall of the fluid channel into the fluid channel. Said one or more ribs are integrally formed at the wall of the fluid channel.

Said tap connector is advantageous because, based on the ribs, a silencing of liquid turbulences within the fluid channel is achieved which leads to a uniform and focussed liquid stream at the outlet of the tap connector. By integrally forming said ribs at the fluid channel wall, a secure arrangement of ribs within the fluid channel is obtained.

According to embodiments, the second coupling portion is inte ^¬ grally formed at said first coupling portion. Thereby, a fixed connection between the first and the second coupling portion is obtained .

Preferably, the longitudinal axes of the ribs are arranged in parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fluid channel. In other words, said ribs extend along the longitudinal axis of the fluid channel. The length of the ribs may be equal or lower than the length of the second coupling portion. According to embodiments, said one or more ribs are bar-like protrusions. Said ribs may comprise a planar shape. Thereby, liguid swirls occurring within the fluid channel can be sup- pressed.

According to embodiments, the tap connector comprises two or more ribs, said ribs being evenly distributed across the circum ^¬ ference of the fluid channel. By means of said distributed ribs, the fluid channel is at least partially segmented which leads to a silencing of liguid flowing through the fluid channel.

According to embodiments, the one or more ribs protrude radially from the wall of the fluid channel. In other words, the rib and a tangent at the origin of said rib confine a right angle. Ac ^¬ cording to other embodiments, the one or more ribs protrude from the wall of the fluid channel such that the rib and a tangent at the origin of said rib confine an acute angle. According to embodiments, the one or more ribs comprise a width smaller than the radius of the fluid channel. In other words said ribs are only arranged at the outer peripheral area of the fluid channel and the centre of the fluid channel is free from any ribs. Thereby only a partial segmenting of the fluid channel is obtained.

According to embodiments, the one or more ribs protrude radially from the wall of the fluid channel and are coupled in the centre of the fluid channel. For example, the ribs may comprise a width egual to the radius of the fluid channel and therefore meet in the centre of the fluid channel. Thereby an improved stability of the rib structure is obtained.

According to embodiments, said tap connector is integrally formed as a one-piece element. For example, the tap connector may be a single-piece plastic element and may be manufactured by injection molding.

The term "essentially" or "approximately" as used in the inven ^¬ tion means deviations from the exact value by +/- 10%, prefera ^¬ bly by +/- 5% and/or deviations in the form of changes that are insignificant for the function.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various aspects of the invention, including its particular features and advantages, will be readily understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which :

Fig. 1 illustrates a sectional view of a tap connector accord ^¬ ing to prior art;

Fig. 2 illustrates an opened water tap with a tap connector according to Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 illustrates an example embodiment of a tap connector with multiple ribs in a sectional view;

Fig. 4 illustrates an opened water tap with a tap connector according to Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 illustrates a cross-sectional view through a tap con ^¬ nector according to a first example embodiment;

Fig. 6 illustrates a cross-sectional view through a tap con ^¬ nector according to a second example embodiment; and

Fig. 7 illustrates a cross-sectional view through a tap con ^¬ nector according to a third example embodiment . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described more fully with ref- erence to the accompanying drawings, in which example embodi ^¬ ments are shown. However, this invention should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Throughout the following description similar reference numerals have been used to denote similar elements, parts, items or features, when ap- plicable.

Fig. 1 illustrates a sectional view of a tap connector 1 accord ^¬ ing to prior art. The tap connector comprises a first and a sec ^¬ ond coupling portion 2, 3. The first coupling portion 2 is con- figured to detachably connect the tap connector 1 with an outlet of the tap. More in detail, the first coupling portion 2 may comprise an annular shape with a female thread 2.1 for enabling the tap connector 1 to be screwed on a corresponding male thread of the tap.

The second coupling portion 3 is adapted to be inserted in a corresponding hose connector in order to establish a detachable connection between the tap connector 1 and said hose connector. The second coupling portion 3 may comprise an essentially tubu- lar shape. The contours at the outer coupling portion wall are adapted to enable said detachable connection between the tap connector 1 and said hose connector. The second coupling portion 3 confines a fluid channel 4 through which a fluid provided by the tap is guided to a fluid outlet 5 arranged at the free end of the second coupling portion 3.

The first coupling portion 2 is connected with the second cou ^¬ pling portion 3 via an annular portion 7, said annular portion providing a sealing surface in order to provide a fluid-tight connection between the tap and the tap connector. For example, said annular portion may form a contact surface for a sealing ring .

Fig. 2 shows a tap 10 with a tap connector 1 arranged at the outlet of the tap 10 (without any hose coupled with the tap con ^¬ nector) . In the opened state of the tap 10, liguid is dispensed, wherein the liguid jet comprise a spray cone-like shape. In oth ^¬ er words, the liguid jet is not focussed but the liguid is dis ^¬ pensed in a downwardly expanding fashion. Said unfocussed provi- sion of liguid is mainly caused by turbulences arising within the tap 10 in the area of a tap valve. For example, the tap 10 may comprise a ball valve, said ball valve inducing turbulances which cause a spray cone-like liguid dispension. Such spray cone-like liguid dispension has detrimental effects because cans or buckets can not be filled without splashing of water.

Fig. 3 shows a sectional view of an embodiment of a tap connect ^¬ or 1. The tap connector 1 of fig. 3 essentially comprises simi ^¬ lar features as the tap connector of fig. 1. Therefore, in the following only additional features of the tap connector 1 of fig. 3 are explained. Apart from that, the afore-mentioned fea ^¬ tures of fig. 1 are also valid for the embodiment of fig. 3. The main difference of the tap connector 1 of fig. 3 with respect to the tap connector of fig. 1 is that multiple ribs 6 are arranged within the fluid channel 4. Said ribs 6 are adapted to silence the flow of the liguid in order to reduce splashing of liguid provided at the fluid outlet 5. In other words, a focussed lig ^¬ uid beam is provided at the liguid outlet 5 (cf . fig. 4) . More in detail, said ribs 4 protrude from the wall 4.1 of the fluid channel 4 thereby providing guidance for the liguid flow ^¬ ing through the fluid channel 4. In the present embodiment, the ribs 6 protrude radially from the wall 4.1 of the fluid channel 4, i.e. the rib 6 and a tangent through the origin of the rib 6 confines an angle of 90°. Preferably, the ribs 6 may comprise a planar bar-like shape. The ribs 6 may extend in parallel to the longitudinal axis LA of the fluid channel 4. Thereby, the liguid flowing through the fluid channel 4 is forced to flow in the longitudinal direction and turbulences within the liguid stream are reduced by said ribs 6.

According to embodiments, multiple ribs 6 may be egually dis ^¬ tributed around the circumference of the fluid channel 4. There- by, the fluid channel 4 is segmented in multiple fluid channel portions which further reduces liguid turbulences .

The ribs 6 may comprise a longitudinal shape and may extend through the hole length 1 of the second coupling portion 3, i.e. from the annular portion 7 to the fluid outlet 5. Alternatively, the ribs 6 may only extend along a certain section of the second coupling portion 3, i.e. the length of the ribs 6 may be smaller than the length 1 of the second coupling portion 3. As shown in Fig. 3, the upper edges 6.1 of the ribs 6, i.e. the edges arranged in close proximity to the first coupling portion

2, may be rounded. Thereby, further generation of liguid turbu ^¬ lences can be avoided. Fig. 5 to 7 show sectional views through different embodiments of a tap connector 1 along the cutting plane A-A of Fig. 3. Said embodiments comprise three egually distributed ribs 6. However, according to other embodiments, also more or less ribs 6 may be possible .

The embodiment of Fig. 5 essentially refers to the tap connector 1 shown in Fig. 3. The ribs 6 are extending radially towards the centre of the fluid channel 4. The width w of the ribs 6 is smaller than the radius r of the fluid channel. As such, the centre of the fluid channel 4 is free from any ribs 6. For exam- pie the width w of the ribs 6 may be in region between 0.5*r < w

< r .

The embodiment of Fig. 6 mainly corresponds to the embodiment of Fig. 5. Different to the embodiment of Fig. 5, the width w of the ribs 6 is egual to the radius r of the fluid channel 4. As such, the ribs 6 meet in the centre of the fluid channel 4 thereby forming a star-shaped rib arrangement within the fluid channel 4. Preferably, the ribs 6 are coupled in the centre of the fluid channel 4.

Fig. 7 shows a third embodiment which comprises slanted ribs 6. In other words, the ribs 6 do not protrude radially from the wall 4.1 of the fluid channel 4 but the ribs 6 and a tangent t at the origin 6.2 of the rib confine an acute angle a (a < 90°) . According to embodiments, the angle a may be smaller than 60° (a

< 60°) . The width w of the ribs 6 may be smaller than the radius r of the fluid channel 4. For example, the width w of the ribs 6 may be in region 0.5*r ≤ w < r.

It should be noted that the description and drawings merely il ^¬ lustrate the principles of the proposed tap connector. Those skilled in the art will be able to implement various arrange ^¬ ments that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention.

List of reference numerals

1 tap connector

2 first coupling portion 2.1 female thread

3 second coupling portion

4 fluid channel

4.1 fluid channel wall

5 fluid outlet

6 rib

6.1 upper edge

6.2 origin

7 annular portion 10 tap a angle

1 length

LA longitudinal axis r radius

t tangent

w width