Dispensing – With lock or fastening seal – Inhibiting actuation of discharge assistant
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-28
2001-09-04
Derakshani, Philippe (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
With lock or fastening seal
Inhibiting actuation of discharge assistant
C222S384000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06283332
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pressurized fluid substance dispenser with elements for snap-locking the dispensing head when in its lowered position.
DISCUSSION OF BACKGROUND
Fluid substances (liquids or creams) are commonly dispensed under pressure by pumps mounted on the mouth of containers containing the substance to be dispensed. The pressurized fluid is discharged to the outside by passing through cavities provided in a dispensing head or pusher, which has been press-fitted onto the free end of the pump stem.
The delivery pump and head occupy when at rest a relatively large space in their length direction. However, this is, in many cases, a serious drawback. Hence, various systems have been designed and used for locking the head on the respective pump during storage, packaging and transport, and for preventing delivery of the substance, if the head is accidentally pressed towards the respective pump.
This is achieved, by fixing onto the mouth of each container (on which a pump is mounted), a cap provided with elements which cooperate with corresponding elements provided on the delivery head, to retain this head, when lowered onto the cap.
As this head lowering operation is carried out in industrial plants operating at high speed, the delivery head has to be able to be engaged and retained automatically by the respective cap, whatever the angular position of the head relative to the cap.
The most simple engagement system is the snap type, such as that described in U.S.Pat No. 4,368,830 and in EP-A-0065214 and EP-A-0686432, which show a rib projecting inwardly from the upper free edge (i.e., the edge facing the outside of the pump) of the cap to snap-engage a corresponding rib or tooth projecting outwardly from the lower free edge of the respective delivery head.
The head is disengaged from the respective cap (to return the head to its raised position, in which it is operable) by different methods in the three above-mentioned patents, but always with certain difficulties which it would be desirable to overcome.
In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,830, to disengage the head
18
from the cap
13
, the tab
24
, projecting from the head
10
must be pressed laterally with a finger to bend the tab inwardly and to release the profiled tooth
27
, projecting from the tab,
24
from the annular rib
21
, projecting from the cap
13
. It is immediately apparent that releasing the head
18
from the cap
13
is not easy to achieve, and moreover, the structure of the head
18
makes it very costly because the tab
24
is connected to the lateral wall
25
of the head at its lower end, which can be achieved only by using very complicated and costly molds of low productivity.
In the case of EP-A-0065214, the dispenser is locked in its lowered position by an endless annular rib
18
, projecting outwardly from the lower end of the head, engaging and being retained by a plurality of annular rib segments
19
projecting inwardly from respective flexible appendices
17
on the cap. A serious drawback of this system is that to release the head from the cap, the head must be pulled, in the sense of withdrawing it from the cap. Initially, there is a strong resistance to this withdrawal (because the ribs
19
retain the rib
18
), then the rib
18
suddenly (rather than gradually) overcomes the rib
19
, such that the head (which is being pulled to release it from the cap) may be pulled completely away from the end of the stem of the pump on which it is mounted.
EP-A-0686432 describes a dispenser in which, when in its lowered position, the head
1
is locked to the cap
2
buy the engagement between a tooth
17
, projecting from the head
1
and an annular rib
7
, projecting from the cap. The tooth
17
projects from a flexible tab
13
, which is formed by making two distinct longitudinal cuts to separate the tab from the remaining portion of the cylindrical skirt
11
, which forms a forming part of the head
1
. Forming the two longitudinal cuts
12
at the same time as the tooth
17
, which projects laterally from the tab
13
, requires the use of molds of complex structure with relatively bulky components, able to operate only at relatively low speed, with the result that the head cost is rather high.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a fluid substance dispenser comprising elements which enable it to be snap-locked, when in its lowered position, whatever the angular position of the head relative to the cap, while enabling the head to be freely rotated about the cap, to which it is locked, when in its lowered position, and in particular, which can be produced by molds of relatively simple structure to minimize their cost, but which is very easy to move from the lowered position, in which the head is locked to the cap, to the operational position, in which the head is free and released from the cap.
This and still further objects are attained by a fluid substance dispenser including a cap and a delivery head. The cap is provided with means for fixing it onto the mouth of a container containing a substance to be delivered by a pump mounted on the container's mouth. The head has a seat for housing the free end of the stem of the pump. The seat communicates with a substance discharge hole. A substantially cylindrical skirt projects from the cap. A substantially cylindrical skirt which forms a part of the head can be inserted into the cap skirt to be movable longitudinally therein. At least one profiled rib projects from the inner surface of the cap skirt and is engagable by a corresponding profiled rib projecting outwardly from the head skirt to retain the head in a lowered position, when the head skirt is inserted into a space bounded by the cap skirt. The ribs projecting from the cap skirt and from the head skirt are spiral ribs having at least one start which wind in the same direction on both the cap and the head. The ribs extend for a limited portion of the length of the respective skirt. The cap skirt is dimensioned and shaped so as to define, below the ribs projecting from it, and towards that end on which the fixing means are provided, a free space in which the rib projecting from the head skirt can be housed and can freely rotate. The ribs are shaped so as to be able to be snapped into engagement when the head is pressed from a free operational position to the lowered position wherein it is locked to the cap. The ribs projecting from the head skirt are able to engage the ribs of the cap skirt to enable the head to be unscrewed from the cap so that the ribs are disengaged from each other to free the head from the cap.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3229863 (1966-01-01), Scoggin, Jr. et al.
patent: 4065036 (1977-12-01), Kirk, Jr.
patent: 4496082 (1985-01-01), Corsette
patent: 4566611 (1986-01-01), Sukopp
patent: 4589573 (1986-05-01), Tada
patent: 4589574 (1986-05-01), Foster
patent: 5558258 (1996-09-01), Albini et al.
patent: 5779106 (1998-07-01), Albini et al.
patent: 5842616 (1998-12-01), Ruscitti et al.
Bui Thach H
Derakshani Philippe
Lumson S.p.A.
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
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