Dispensing – Processes of dispensing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-11
2003-06-10
Kaufman, Joseph A. (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
Processes of dispensing
C222S213000, C222S494000, C222S546000, C222S556000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06575330
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap for a container that may be used for packaging certain products, such as cosmetic products (e.g., shampoos and conditioners) or care products (e.g., body milks, moisturizing products, and sunscreens).
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, such products are packaged in containers with deformable walls, often made of polypropylene or polyethylene, and surmounted by a neck, a free edge of which delimits an opening. Mounted on this opening, is a cap comprising a housing snap-fitted onto the neck of the container. A transverse wall of the housing has a passage passing through it. This passage may be in communication with the container. Optionally, the cap may have a top hinged to the housing via a snap hinge. The top may comprise a portion, particularly in the form of a pip, capable, when the top is closed, of engaging with the passage of the cap to substantially seal it closed.
A snap hinge may be an articulation that allows a lid or top to pass from a first position, known as a closed position, into a second position, known as a wide open position, by pivoting about an axis (defined, for example, by a film hinge), passage from the first position to the second and/or vice versa being accompanied by passage through an intermediate position of unstable equilibrium in which the elastic deformation (e.g., bending, compression, stretching, etc.) of at least part of the cap, particularly of a connecting element connecting the housing of the cap to the top, passes through a maximum value. The unstable equilibrium may result from an elastic return force generated by the elastically deformed element(s), often by the connecting element connecting the housing to the top.
Several types of snap hinges are available. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,714, the connecting element may be in the form of a latch lock lever including an elbow, the opening of which is at its maximum on passing through the intermediate position. Another type of snap hinge, in which the connecting element includes a band that deforms in elongation, is described in EP 0 147 423. Yet another type of connecting element is described in EP 0 56 469. Still other types of snap hinges are also used. In the EP 056 469 patent, the connecting elements may deform little if at all. It is the cap and/or the cover that deform on passing through the position of unstable equilibrium.
Snap hinges are one example of a way to make it possible to produce a cap in a single piece, for example, a molded piece. Relatively rigid materials, such as certain polypropylene, may result in a satisfactory springing effect. If such rigidity is not achieved, the cap may operate sloppily and may be deemed unsatisfactory.
In such caps, a flap configured in such a way as to move aside under the pressure of the product inside the container may allow product to be dispensed, and the flap may return to its closed position when the pressure ceases, to be positioned in the passage delimited by the housing. Such a flap may make it possible to reduce (at least during a period of normal inversion of the container) a liquid contained in the container from flowing out under gravity. Furthermore, it may allow better control for the dispensing of the product in response to the deformation of the walls of the container. An optional use of the flap may be to close the orifice sufficiently to prevent liquid (particularly water) from entering the container from the outside. Optionally, such a flap may allow air to enter the container, after a dispensing operation, to compensate for the volume of product dispensed.
The flap may be flexible and supple enough to allow for easy dispensing of the product. The material of the flap may also withstand numerous flexing operations in both directions, each time the product is dispensed. Ideally, an articulation connecting the flap to the body may not break after a number of uses, but may maintain its ability to return elastically to the closed position after use, and to do so throughout the life of the product. Some optional characteristics relating to the suppleness of the material relate to when the flap, on returning to its closed position, allows air to be taken into the container. This is because the flap may be subjected to bending operations that are just as repetitive, but through a maximum angle that may be bigger.
Starting out from these observations, particularly as regards the diametrically opposed properties that the materials forming, on the one hand, the snap hinge and, on the other hand, the selective shut-off door have to exhibit, specialists in such caps have hitherto resorted to the same solutions.
A first solution consists in molding the cap equipped with a snap hinge using a rigid material, particularly a polypropylene, and making a protrusion from an elastomeric material. Although satisfactory from the operational point of view, such caps can have the disadvantage of being expensive to produce due to the use of two distinct materials. Two materials can make molding more complicated. Furthermore, with certain elastomeric materials there can be a problem of compatibility of the elastomer with the product packaged in the container.
According to a second solution, described, for example, in utility certificate application FR 2 558 140, a protrusion is made of the same material as the material forming the body of the cap, and is molded as a single piece with the cap body. The material used is of relatively low rigidity, so as to meet the requirements of good operation of the protrusion. The cap cover, for its part, can be made separately from the cap, and can be mounted tightly or screwed onto the container. In other words, the snap hinge function is omitted. Just as with the first solution, this second solution may not be satisfactory from the cost point of view. Furthermore, the cap cover, which is not hinged to the cap, may become lost if care is not taken in immediately refitting it after each use. Finally, attaching such a cap, made of a material of relatively low rigidity, by snap fastening, may prove problematical as regards the robustness it affords.
In a third solution, it has been proposed for the cap to be produced as a single piece with a cover hinged to a housing by means of a snap hinge. The cap may be made of a rigid material that may meet the requirements of good articulation operation. By contrast, there is no flap arranged in the a passage. With this solution, unless the passage is dimensioned appropriately to suit the viscosity of the product, the latter flows out quickly under the effect of its weight when the bottle is held head down. Liquid, particularly water, can enter the container from the outside when the cap cover is not flipped down onto the body. Furthermore, dispensing is difficult to control.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one optional embodiment, the invention may include a cap for a container. The cap may comprise a body, an outlet orifice for dispensing a product from a container, a lid configured to selectively cover at least a portion of the outlet orifice, a snap hinge coupling the lid to the body, and a valve. The valve may comprise, for example, at least one shut off-flap. The valve (e.g., shut-off flap) may selectively allow the product to be dispensed from the outlet orifice. The valve and the body may be a single piece formed of a material substantially the same as a material forming the snap hinge.
In an optional embodiment, the valve may comprise a least one shut-off flap configured to move from a first position, covering the outlet orifice, to a second position, enabling the product to be dispensed from the outlet orifice, in response to an increased pressure in the container. The at least one shut-off flap may be configured to return to the first position when the increased pressure ceases.
In another optional embodiment, the at least one shut-off flap may be configured to move from the first position to the second position by bending. The at least one shut-of
Kaufman Joseph A.
L'Oreal
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