Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means – With receiver support – guide means – or shield
Patent
1997-03-18
1999-07-27
Douglas, Steven O.
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means
With receiver support, guide means, or shield
141322, 222205, B65B 104
Patent
active
059273542
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a novel device, being a dispenser for fluids, particularly liquids.
It is frequently necessary to dispense accurate unit volumes of fluids, (which term as used herein includes liquids, which may range from highly mobile liquids to viscous but pourable liquids) from containers, in accurate unit doses. Particular examples of such fluids include pharmaceutical formulations such as solutions or suspensions of medicaments for oral dosing. For example paediatric oral formulations are often provided in the form of syrups. It is particularly important to achieve accurate volumetric dosing of such formulations to ensure that the dose administered is neither too little for efficacy, nor greater than the safe dose.
It is an object of this invention to provide a dispenser which can accurately dispense a dose of a pourable fluid having a consistent predetermined volume. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.
According to this invention a dispenser for pourable fluids comprises: terminating in a mouth opening, being at least one passage in the neck allowing fluid to pass from the container along the neck past the holder toward the mouth opening, top facing generally in the same direction as the mouth opening, to pass from the container through the passage(s) toward and into the drinking cup, and respective re-inversion or cessation of agitation, and return to an upright orientation results in the retention of a predetermined volume of the fluid in the drinking cup.
The fluid is suitably a pharmaceutical product such as an orally administered medicament such a solution or suspension of a medicament, or may be a mouthwash etc. The fluid may be an aqueous solution or suspension, having a viscosity and mobility similar to that of water itself, or may be a viscous but pourable fluid such as a syrup.
The container body may suitably be a bottle or jar, having a neck and mouth opening of a suitable width, e.g. diameter, to accommodate a drinking cup of a suitable volume in the holder. The container body may suitably be made of materials conventional in the art, such as glass or plastics materials.
The holder may comprise a plastics material frame, which may be integral with a plastics container body. Alternatively the holder may comprise a diaphragm or bulkhead across the neck, which again may be integral with the body. Alternatively the holder may be a separate member from the container body and may be retained in the neck by for example a wedge fit, friction fit, snap fit or screw fit etc. The holder may suitably be located in the neck, at or shortly upstream of the mouth opening.
Suitably the holder may comprise a receptacle into which the drinking cup may fit. Such a receptacle may be retained in the neck by ribs extending, e.g. radiating, from the outer periphery of the receptacle toward the neck of the container body. The space(s) between the ribs, and/or between the receptacle and the neck, may suitably comprise the passage(s). Alternatively the receptacle may be integrally formed with the above described diaphragm or bulkhead, with apertures in the diaphragm or bulkhead comprising passages allowing fluid to pass through. Alternatively the receptacle may be mounted to one side of the neck, thereby leaving a passage between the receptacle and the inner neck wall on the other side.
In a preferred embodiment the receptacle may itself be in the form of a cup (herein termed the "receptacle cup" to distinguish it from the drinking cup), into which the drinking cup fits. For example the receptacle cup may correspond generally in shape to the lower part of the drinking cup. In this embodiment the upper outer part, e.g. the rim, of the drinking cup preferably fits into the upper part of the receptacle cup, so as to form a substantially fluid tight seal between the drinking and receptacle cups. This provides the advantage that when the container is inverted or agitated during use (or otherwise) fluid cannot easily penetrate between the drinking and r
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patent: 2768660 (1956-10-01), Russell
patent: 2803270 (1957-08-01), Carbone, Jr.
patent: 3043483 (1962-07-01), Vogt
patent: 4159791 (1979-07-01), Crutcher
patent: 4319614 (1982-03-01), Boice
Douglas Steven O.
Kinzig Charles M.
SmithKline Beecham p.l.c.
Williams Janice E.
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