Various types of cocks are known in the art (for example, US-A-3378034 and DE-A-1284217), with several external and internal configurations to deliver the water flow and to mix the water temperature, so that it reaches the final situation desired by a user.

The most recent cocks, of the type with mixer, use, as internal mechanical control member, the so-called"motor" or cartridge, preferably made of ceramic material, whose purpose is changing both the delivered water flow, and the delivered water temperature, with modes and operation known to the skilled people in the art. Such motor is then connected upstream to water supply lines and downstream to different delivery mouths according to applications. Usually the engine is controlled by the user through levers, that are anyway not wholly satisfactory, above all in view of simplifying cock movements and outlines.

In fact, the levers need complex movements for adjustment and are subjected to malfunctions if used in an incorrect way, for example subjecting them to sudden strokes or efforts, and therefore are not suitable for environments in which they are subjected to continuous stresses.

Instead, in traditional cocks driven through knobs, the knobs must be provided as at least two (one for cold water and one for hot water), but have evident problems in that they do not guarantee a continuous temperature variation (if not by opening them both and moving through attempts in order to obtain tepid water) and have sealing problems after a prolonged use ; moreover, when they are closed by applying a strong force, they also have opening and operating problems.

Object of the present invention is solving the above prior art problems, by providing a modular cock that allows simplifying cock movements and outlines, with a simple, compact, very sturdy and efficient arrangement, placing all main cock controls inside its body and allowing to obtain coaxial outlets for mixed water with respect to adduction flows, making such cock particularly suitable for wall or resting applications.

A further object of the present invention is providing a cock of the above mentioned type that allows adjusting water temperature and flow with a single combined "elementary"movement of hand and wrist, such movement being spontaneous for a user and not looking like the standard movements for adjusting the mixers but instead looking like a sort of"massage"of the cock itself.

A further object of the present invention is providing a cock of the above-mentioned type that allows water to flow inside the cock body and to go out in any position along such body, independently from the cartridge position inside the body itself: in other words, the inventive cock is realised so that water can be delivered both above and below the cartridge.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained with a modular cock as disclosed in Claim 1.

Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject of the dependent Claims.

The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, given as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which: -Figure 1 is a side sectional view of an embodiment of the modular cock according to the present invention; - Figure 2 is an external perspective view of the cock in Fig. 1 ; and - Figure 3 is a schematic view of the operating principle of the cock in Fig. 1.

With reference to the Figures, a preferred embodiment of the modular cock 1 of the present invention is shown and described. It will be immediately obvious to the skilled people in the art that numerous variations and modifications (for example related to shape, sizes, various colours and parts with equivalent functionalities) could be made to the described cock without departing from the scope of the invention as claimed in the enclosed Claims.

According to the Figures, the modular cock 1 of the present invention is used for delivering any type of liquids, and substantially comprises: - a support body 3, preferably made of metallic or ceramic material ; - at least one liquid delivery mouth 5 connected to the support body 3 in a variety of shapes and configurations according to user preferences; and at least one motor 7 (or ceramic cartridge) contained inside the support body 3: such motor 7 is adapted to adjust, in a known way, temperature and flow of the liquid to be delivered, through a series of actuating means, only two of which have been schematically shown (designated by reference numbers 13 and 21), which are mutually connected and able to mutually move according to two different degrees of freedom, everything widely known to the skilled people in the art.

The modular cock 1 of the invention has as its main characteristic the fact of further comprising at least one control member 9 of the motor 7, which control member 9 is applied on the external surface of the support body 3 and is adapted to be actuated through the hands of a user. In particular, the control member 9 is adapted to perform a translation movement along the longitudinal direction of the support body 3 to adjust the liquid delivery flow and is adapted to simultaneously perform a rotation movement around the axis of the support body 3 to adjust the temperature of the liquid to be delivered.

Fig. 1 shows in fact two longitudinal translation positions in which the control member 9 can be located to change the outgoing liquid flow: all adjustment movements of the control member 9 are then easily able to be actuated by the hand and the wrist of a user, with a very immediate and natural movement, that is wound around the support body 3.

The above movements of the modular cock 1 of the invention are very flexible, practically allowing a timely adjustment of flow and temperature ; moreover, they can be performed simultaneously or separately, according to user's choices and applications.

In order to realise the above described movements, the control member 9 comprises connecting means 11,15 to actuating means 13,21 of the motor 7: the connecting means 11,15 are also placed inside the support body 3, in order to make the external shape of the cock 1 compact and slim, as can be better seen in Fig. 2.

In particular, the connecting means 11,15 are composed of at least one projection 11 hinged (in 17) to an end of at least one small connecting rod 15 ; the small rod 15 at another end thereof is further hinged (in 19) to actuating means 13,31 of the motor 7. As already stated, two vertical movement positions of the projection 11 and two corresponding rotary movement positions of the actuating means 13 are shown in Fig. 1.

The Figures show that the support body 3 is of a cylindrical shape and the control member 9 is also of a cylindrical shape and is hollow and annular, and is placed around the cylindrical surface of the support body 3. Other external gemoetric shapes are obviously possible, both of regular and of irregular type, provided that the rotation and translation movements of the control member 9 with respect to the support body 3 are kept unchanged.

According to a further characteristic of the cock 1 of the invention, that is better shown in Fig. 3, the actuating means 21 (shown in Fig. 3 without the connections in Fig. 1 to clarify the drawing) are equipped with openings 30,32 to make water go out, such openings 30, 32 being obtained in the lower part of the actuating means 21 themselves. The actuating means 21 are placed inside the support body 3 in order to allow the water flow, once having gone out from the actuating means 21, along the directions shown by A, A', B and B'in Fig.

3: it can therefore be seen that water, once being supplied to the cock 1 through the connection of hoses (not shown) to openings 34 and 36, is delivered and goes out from the cock 1 in a vertically upper position with respect to the actuating means 21. Such arrangement, that allows using the inventive control member 9, has never been realised so far in the field of cocks.

It will obviously be possible to provide more traditional arrangements, in which, for example, water can be delivered from a position that is substantially at the same height with respect to the openings 30,32 or at a lower height with respect to the openings 30, 32.

Some preferred embodiments of the present invention have been previously shown and described: obviously, it will readily occur to the skilled people in the art that numerous variations and modifications, functionally equivalent to the previous ones, can be made and fall within the scope of the invention as pointed out by the enclosed Claims. For example, the cock 1 as shown finds its preferred application as wall cock or resting cock, but obviously it can be used in any other type of cock application where it is desired to deliver liquids and change their flow and temperature.