BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Piping couplers are generally used to connect the pipes or tubes of the water purifier, water softener, bidet to the water supplying line. And in these cases, a ball type or other type valve is provided between the water supplying line and the pipe or tube of water purifier, water softener, bidet and so on to control the volume of water flow. In particular, if the water volume is not properly adjusted on water purifier or water softener, the filter units inside the water purifier or softener may be broken or damaged.

But, in order to install the volume valves at the piping coupler, the pipe or the tube should be cut at the predetermined position other than that of the piping coupler and the valve body should be connected at that cut position, which requires a troublesome work and time. And another volume valve besides the piping coupler increases the cost. Moreover, if the installing space is narrow, the installing of the volume valve of relatively large size together with the piping coupler will be more difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is provided to solve the problems as described above and the object of the invention is to provide a novel piping coupler which has a volume adjusting function so that another adjusting valve need not be provided and it could be easily installed in a narrow place such as water purifier with low cost and fewer parts.

According to the aspect of the invention, there is provided a piping coupler connecting a pair of pipe and/or tube 2,3, which comprises a body 10 having a passage 5 communicating one of the pipe or tube 2,3 and a spiral guide groove 30 on the outer periphery, and a housing 55 having an insert hole 25 into which said body 10 could be slidably inserted and the insert hole 25 having a guide projection 35 or a screw projection 40 on the inner surface to be engaged with said guide groove 30 or the guide projection, and the housing 55 having an opening 48 communicating the other of the pipe or tube 2,3, and the body 10 being provided with a valve head 16 on the front end facing the opening 48 of the housing 55 and the port 65 on the outer surface communicating the passage 5 with the opening 48 of the housing 55, wherein the volume of the flow could be adjusted by turning the body 10 to move the valve head 16 of the body forward and backward against the opening 48 of the housing 55.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a piping coupler, wherein the body 10 has an inward taper 17 on the inner surface of the passage 5, and a collet 14 having a flange 13 at one end and a plurality of divided cylindrical section to clamp the pipe or tube 2 by pressing of the inward taper 17 is inserted between the body 10 and the pipe or tube 2 as the flange 13 being disposed outside the end of the body 10, and a spring 18 is elastically provided between the end of the body 10 and the flange 13 of the collet 14.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 and 2 show the operation of an embodiment of the invention Figure 3 shows the other embodiment of the invention Figure 4 and 5 show the operation of the embodiment of Figure 3 Figure 6 shows another embodiment of the invention BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail by referring to the accompanying drawings.

Referring Figure 1 and 2, there is provided a body 10 connected to one tube or pipe 2 at one end and a housing 55 slidably inserted on the outer periphery of the body 10 and connected to the other pipe or tube 3. The body 10 has a passage 5 communicating the pipe or tube 2 and the outer periphery of the body 10 is slidably inserted into the insert hole 25 of the housing 55. A screw groove 30 is provided on the outer surface of the body 10. And a port 65 is also provided on the outer surface of the front side of the body 10 which communicates the passage 5. The port 65 is formed to be open vertically to the centerline C-C. A valve head 16 having an o-ring seal is provided at the front end of the body 10.

A collet 14 having a flange 13 at one end and a plurality of divided cylindrical section 12 to clamp the pipe or tube 2 is slidably inserted in the passage 5 of one end of the body 10. And the flange 13 is disposed outside the end of the body 10. And an inward taper 17 is formed on the inner surface of the passage 5 of the body 10 to be contacted with outer surface of the collet 14.

A cap 22 is inserted on the outer periphery of the body 10 to slide forward and backward to push the collet 14 along the longitudinal direction. But the cap 22 can not be rotated against the body 10 as the inner wall of the cap 22 is engaged with the body 10 with the projection 23 on the inner surface of it.

Accordingly, if the water is supplied through the pipe or tube 2 inserted into the collet 14, the collet 12 will be pushed out of the body 10 together with the pipe or tube 2 by pressure of water flow so that the inward taper 17 may press the collet 14 to clamp the pipe or tube 2. Contrary, if the cap 22 and the collet 14 are pushed manually toward the housing 55 the collet 14 will be released from the inner taper 17 of the body 10 and it will be loosen so that the pipe or tube 2 will be disengaged.

The housing 55 has an insert hole 25, into which the outer <BR> <BR> surface of the other end of the body 10 will be slidably inserted.

A screw projection 40 is provided on the inner periphery of the insert hole 25 to be slidably engaged with the screw groove 30 of the body 10. And a thread 55a is provided on the outer periphery of the housing 55 by which the pipe or tube 3 could be connected.

And an opening 48 is formed on the other end of the housing 55 facing the front end of the body 10. The diameter of the opening 48 is smaller than that of the insert hole 25 so that the edge of the opening 48 will act as valve seat for the valve head 16 of the body 10.

If the body 10 together with cap 22 is manually turned to one direction, the screw projection 40 of the housing 55 will slide along the screw groove 30 of the body 10 and the valve head 16 at the front end of the body 10 will move toward the opening 48 of the housing 55, which will reduce the water flow through the opening 48 of the housing 55. If the body 10 together with the cap 22 is turned to the reverse direction, the valve head 16 at the front end of the body 10, will move backward from the opening 48 of the housing 55, which will increase the water flow through the opening 48 of the housing 55. Therefore, the adjusting of the water volume will be achieved.

Figure 3 shows the other embodiment of the invention, and Figure 4 and 5 show the operating action of the embodiment.

According to this embodiment, a spiral groove 30 is formed on the outer surface of the body 10 and a corresponding guide projection 35 is made of a bolt inserted into the screw hole 68 of the housing 55.

As shown in Figure 4, if the cap 22 is manually turned to rotate the body 10 to the direction of arrow A, the guide projection 35 will slide along the spiral groove 30 to move the valve head 16 of the body 10 toward the opening 48 of the housing 55, which will reduce the volume of water flow through the opening 48. And, as shown in Figure 5, if the cap 22 is reversely turned to rotate the body 10 to the direction of arrow B, the guide projection 35 will slide along the spiral groove 30 to retreat the valve head 16 of the body 10 from the opening 48 of the housing 55, which will increase the volume of water flow through the opening 48.

Figure 6 shows another embodiment of the invention, in which a leaf spring 18 is provided between the flange 13 of the collet 14 and the one end of the body 10. This leaf spring 18 will push the collet 14 elastically from the end of the body to a clamping direction so that unwanted disengagement of the collet 14 with the pipe of tube 2 will be prevented owing to the vibration or gravitational drop of the collet 14 in case of vertical piping.

According to the invention described above, by turning the body 10 to slide along the longitudinal direction of the housing 55, the gap between the valve head 16 of the body 10 and the opening 48 of the housing 55 may be adjusted so that the flow volume of the piping coupler will be controlled. As this piping coupler has a simple and small structure and also has a flow volume control function, another volume control valve besides the piping coupler would not be necessary, which will reduce the cost and time for piping the water purifier and so on. And it will be preferably used for pipe fitting in a narrow space in which another regular volume control valve could not be easily installed.

Preferably, the piping coupler of the invention is made of polyester that has no toxicant ingredients if it is used for drinking water supply system such as water purifier. But, it may be made of metal such as copper for other use.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As the piping coupler of the invention has a simple and small structure and also have a volume control function together with the pipe or tube fitting, the cost and time could be reduced because another volume control valve is not necessary and it could be advantageously used for narrower space.