Dispensing – With lock or fastening seal – Inhibiting disassembly
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-18
2004-03-23
Mancene, Gene (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
With lock or fastening seal
Inhibiting disassembly
C222S402130, C222S528000, C222S529000, C222S530000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708849
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates in general to actuator and tube overcap assemblies adapted for installation onto a pressurized container and more particularly to actuator and tube overcap assemblies that can be installed onto the pressurized container with automated machinery.
A wide variety of actuators and tubes for selectively releasing material from a pressurized container and conducting that material to a selected destination are known. One specific application for these actuators or valves and tubes is tire inflator containers that contain various tire inflator and sealant products.
Modern pneumatic tires are designed for extended use on vehicles, such as automobiles and trucks, over many miles. Regardless of how well these tires are designed, they can still be punctured by sharp objects inadvertently left on the roadway and go flat. When the tire is punctured, the motorist must change the tire if he has a spare or have another tire put on the vehicle. In some instances, it is difficult to change the tire due to the location of the vehicle, such as when the puncture occurs on roadway which is not flat and the vehicle cannot be safely raised with a jack to change the tire. Other instances are dangerous to change the tire, such as for example, when the tire is punctured on a heavily traveled roadway and there is insufficient space to change the tire safely.
Various tire inflator and sealant products have been developed for both sealing the puncture in a tire and also inflating the tire so that it can be used to resume travel. These tire inflator and sealant products generally include a container having a inflator and sealant composition contained therein under pressure. This composition is releasable through an upstanding valve in the discharge end of the container. These compositions in the container typically include a liquefied gas in a sufficient quantity to reinflate the tire to a driveable condition and a sealant material for sealing the puncture when introduced into the tire.
An actuator is provided for attachment to the pressurized container to activate the upstanding valve of the container so that the inflator and sealant composition passes through the valve and then through the actuator to a discharge tube attached to the valve on the tire. In operation, the motorist attaches the discharge tube to the valve on the punctured tire and then properly positions the canister to maximize the flow of the inflator and sealant composition into the tire.
Since such tire inflator products contain the tire inflator and sealant material in the pressurized container under high-pressure, it is desirable to attach the discharge tube to the actuator when the actuator and tube product is manufactured. By providing a secure connection between the discharge tube and actuator, a connection is provided that prohibits leakage of material at that connection when material is discharged from the pressurized container.
One such design is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,784, issued to one of the inventors of the present invention, and provides for the attachment of a flexible tube to a valve. Another such design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,466. Another design for attaching the tube to the valve includes positioning the tube over a barbed outlet of the valve and then fitting a non-flexible sleeve over the end of the tube attached to the barbed outlet.
The actuator and tube product is then provided to the manufacturer of the tire inflator product where the actuator and tube product is assembled with a pressurized canister having tire inflator and sealant material therein. General this assembly process is performed by hand since automation of the assembly process is difficult due to the nonsymmetrical shape of the actuator and tube assembly. The flexible tube extending from the actuator creates this nonsymmetrical configuration that makes it difficult to automatically assemble the actuator tube product to the pressurized container. Accordingly, these actuator tube products have necessarily been mounted on the pressurized container manually.
Additionally, the flexible tube requires additional manufacturing operations. Since the tube is not secured, it is free to move. To avoid this problem, the tube has been temporarily secured to the pressurized container by manually putting a rubber band around both the container and the tube. After this assembly process, the assembled tire inflator product must be hand packed for shipping since the temporarily attached tube prevents automated packaging. Then, when the assembled tire inflator product is displayed in a store on shelves, it can be difficult to arrange them neatly on the shelves and they can also take up more shelf space due to the tube secured to the side of the container. After the consumer purchases the tire inflator product, it is generally placed in the trunk where the tube can get tangled up with other objects in the trunk and damage the connection between the tube and the actuator or the actuator and the pressurized container.
It is desirable to provide an actuator and tube overcap assembly which can be assembled with a pressurized canister by automatic machinery. It is also desirable to provide an actuator and tube overcap assembly which contains the tube in a position that allows for automated packing, ease of display on store shelves, and avoids tangling the tube with other objects.
Known designs have provided overcap assemblies that can be assembled with a pressurized container by automatic machines, generally referred to as “capping machines”. Generally, overcap assemblies that can be readily assembled with automatic machinery have a symmetrical configuration and a top surface that can be used to urge the overcap assembly into engagement with the pressurized canister without actuating the actuator.
Wells, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,601, describes a valve and tube assembly in which a conduit is attached to the actuator body and a protective cap is preassembled onto the actuator body in overlying relationship to the conduit. The conduit described in Wells extends axially away from the pressurized container when mounted thereon and may be coiled or of other nonlinear configurations. The conduit provided by Wells is relatively short and is made from a resilient material, typically a polymer, such as polyvinyl chloride, high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, or polypropylene. The protective cap described in Wells fits over the conduit, which is free to move inside the protective cap, and is attached to the actuator. The cap disclosed in Wells is attached to the actuator and not the canister with a limited amount of space which accordingly limits the length of the conduit.
Another known overcap assembly is described in Hsiao, U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,739 B1. The Hsiao design provides a base having a skirt that extends over the lower rim of the canister when they are mounted together. The base is bulky and large in size and in fact is the diameter of the entire cannister. A valve is provided in the top of the base with a flexible tube attached to the outlet of the valve. A cap is attached to the base with the tube positioned between the base and the cap and free to move in that space. In other embodiments, Hsiao discloses not providing an overcap and affixing the tube to the base with an adhesive, mechanical fasteners, such as flexible wires, or a shrink sleeve. Attaching the tube around the exterior of the valve without a base and cap is also disclosed. Such alternative embodiments without an overcap are difficult to use with automated machinery due to the unsymmetrical configuration thereof and the need for a top surface to press the assembly into engagement with a pressurized canister.
The known art does not disclose an actuator and tube overcap assembly in which the tube is removably secured to the inside of an overcap to allow automatic assembly thereof and subsequently allow automated machinery to assemble it with a pressurized container. It is desirable to provide an actuator and tube overcap a
Carter Randall E.
Kohli Leslie F.
Schumacher Brian D.
Buechner Patrick
Mancene Gene
Precision Thermoplastic Components, Inc.
Robert R. Hussey Co. LPA
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