Dispensing – Plural sources – compartment – containers and/or spaced jacket – With common discharge
Patent
1998-01-28
2000-04-11
Shaver, Kevin
Dispensing
Plural sources, compartment, containers and/or spaced jacket
With common discharge
222256, 222327, 222380, B67D 560, G01F 1100
Patent
active
060478624
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to pump dispensers for viscous flowable fluid materials, in particular to dispensers for toothpaste which is contained in adjacent segments of differently coloured toothpaste material so as to produce toothpaste of a striped appearance on dispensing.
Toothpaste is commonly supplied in known pump dispensers which generally comprise a cylindrical tubular reservoir for a bulk of the toothpaste, having integrally made or attached at the upper end of the reservoir a pump head which includes a mechanical pump operable by hand action, and closed at the bottom end by a follower piston.
The pump commonly comprises a pump piston which is reciprocally slideably moveable in the axial direction of the cylindrical reservoir, the pump piston having an aperture passing through the pump piston, opening into the interior of the reservoir and communicating via a channel to a dispensing orifice at the end of a nozzle. In operation the pump piston is depressed by hand action on an actuating button or lever toward the reservoir and against the toothpaste therein so as to extrude toothpaste through the aperture in the piston, along the nozzle and out through the dispensing orifice. In such known dispensers the pump operating mechanism is generally resilient in action so that on release of the operating pressure the pump piston is returned to its original position. The dispenser is often fitted with a closure linked to the operation of the pump mechanism so that as the pressure is released and the pump piston is returned the closure closes the orifice.
The follower piston is also slideable within the reservoir and is provided with a one-way sliding mechanism such as a star washer, so that it can only move upwards within the reservoir. Consequently as the spring returns the pump piston the follower piston is drawn up the reservoir until when all of the toothpaste has been dispensed the follower piston is at an extreme upper position adjacent to the pump piston.
In such dispensers it is known to load toothpaste into the reservoir in a number of radially disposed differently coloured side-by-side segments, so that as the toothpaste is extruded it emerges form the orifice in a striped stream maintaining the side-by-side disposition of the segments in the stream. One such toothpaste is sold under the name Aquafresh.TM. and is loaded in side-by-side red, white and blue or red, white and green segments so as to be extruded in a stream with a correspondingly striped appearance. Aquafresh.TM. toothpaste has been sold in such pump dispensers for many years.
It is desirable to provide such pump dispensers with replaceable reservoirs, so that the complex pump mechanism does not have to be thrown away together with the empty reservoir when the toothpaste has all been dispensed, but a new full reservoir can simply be attached to the pump. This can be more environmentally acceptable in overcoming the problem of excess packaging, and reducing the need to dispose of complex and expensive pump parts when the dispenser is empty. WO 93/16932 discloses the theoretical concept of such a pump dispenser having a replaceable reservoir, for example in FIGS. 1-6 thereof.
The pump dispensers disclosed in WO 93/16932 having a replaceable reservoir are generally unsatisfactory for use with such segmentally contained striped toothpaste. The problem is that of aligning the toothpaste segments in the new full reservoir with any residue of toothpaste remaining in the pump, e.g. in the aperture and in the channel. Any misalignment can cause a disruption of the striped appearance of the extruded striped stream shortly after the new reservoir has been attached, i.e. when the interface between the new material in the reservoir and the old material in the pump reaches the outlet. Although this is of no hygienic significance it detracts from the otherwise attractive appearance of a consistent striped stream. It is an object of this invention to provide a pump dispenser which overcomes this problem.
According to this invention, a pump dispenser fo
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Kinzig Charles M.
Quinalty Keats
Shaver Kevin
SmithKline Beecham p.l.c.
Stein-Fernandez Nora
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