Dispensing – Collapsible wall-type container – With casing or support
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-23
2002-10-22
Derakshani, Philippe (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
Collapsible wall-type container
With casing or support
C222S481500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467653
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a laminated bottle that has a delaminatable inner layer and an outer layer, wherein the outer layer has an inner surface on which the inner layer is laminated and has a ventilation hole to take ambient air in itself. The invention also relates to a pumping container that comprises the laminated bottle and may be a comb-product or the like, the laminated bottle serving as an reservoir charged with a content such as a hair-dyeing agent.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. Hei. 4-267727 discloses a multi-layered container, which is designed such that ambient air is inhibited from entering the container through a mouth and its content is discharged by the pumping action of an inner layer and an outer layer. This container consists of a bottle and a cap. The bottle is composed of an impermeable inner layer and a squeezable outer layer. The cap is attached to the mouth of the bottle. The inner layer can be readily delaminated from the outer layer in which ventilation holes are formed such that the ambient air can communicate with the space between the layers. The cap has a check valve incorporated therein. Therefore, the inner layer of this bottle will naturally shrivel with a decrease in its content, with the ambient air flowing into the space through said holes so that only the outer layer can restore and maintain its normal configuration. Owing to this feature, its content remains satisfactory in quality, from the beginning to end of use, without being adversely affected by ambient air or external light beams.
The multi-layered container in the prior art has a film tag adhered in part to the rim of the ventilation hole, and the tag larger than the hole is disposed inside the outer layer. Such a kind of ventilation valve will allow air to flow inwards penetrating only the outer layer from outside. With the container being gripped by a user, the ventilation hole will be closed with the valve due to an increasing inner pressure so as not to allow any amount of air to leak out from the interlayer space. Such a depressed outer layer will raise the interlayer air pressure to thereby depress in a centripetal direction the inner layer so as to exude the content out of the container.
The prior art method comprising the steps of preliminarily blow molding or thermally forming the outer layer and subsequently integrating it with the inner layer does however require so many steps as increasing manufacture cost of the multi-layered pumping containers and lowering yield thereof. In an alternative method, the laminated bottle with the ventilation hole formed solely in the outer layer may be molded, and the ventilation valve is then attached to the hole. However, this method will also increase the number of steps and necessary parts, inevitably resulting in a higher manufacture cost.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a laminated bottle having a delaminating inner layer, and also provides a pumping container comprising the laminated bottle such that at least one ventilation hole is opened or closed by and/or with the inner layer itself to take ambient air in a space between the inner and outer layers, without needing any discrete or additional suction valve. This feature of the invention will be effective not only to decrease the number of necessary parts but also to simplify the structure, thus abridging manufacture process and reducing manufacture cost. Further, the inner layer may have a closing portion capable of elastic recovery to temporarily close the at least one ventilation hole formed in the outer layer, hereby the air between these layers is more reliably prevented from leaking out.
In accordance with the present invention, the laminated bottle may have the delaminating inner layer laminated on the inner surface of the outer layer and capable of exfoliation therefrom, wherein the at least one ventilation hole is formed in the outer layer to allow ambient air to flow into the space between the outer and inner layers. The ventilation hole in the outer layer may be normally closed with a closing portion of the inner layer from inside. The closing portion may function as a valve that is capable of inward deforming due to atmospheric pressure in response to a negative pressure appearing in the space between the inner and outer layers. Because the closing portion provided as an integral part of the inner layer functions as a valve in the laminated bottle of the invention, any discrete or extra valve body need not be mounted, therein. Despite lacking in any discrete valve body, a user does not have to shut the ventilation hole with his or her fingers when he or she will squeezes the bottle. As content in the bottle gradually flows or exudes out, the closing portion will be pressed outwards by the content, hereby it will be spontaneously close the ventilation hole.
Preferably, the closing portion of the inner layer may have elasticity for shape recovering so as to close the ventilation hole. Such a closing portion will restore its natural configuration to close again the outer layer ventilation hole, upon disappearance of negative pressure within the interlayer space due to inflow of a sufficient amount of ambient air into said space. Thus, the bottle's outer layer may be squeezed subsequently or later, surely inhibiting the air from flowing out of the interlayer space.
The laminated bottle of the invention may comprise of a body and a mouth, by forming the outer and inner layers to comprise respective body parts and respective mouth parts. Preferably, the at least one ventilation hole is formed in the outer layer's mouth part, and the inner layer is made thicker at its mouth part than its body part so as to act as the portion for closing said hole. This structure will enable a cap fitted on the bottle to hide the ventilation hole, affording a pleasant appearance to the product, viz., container. In contrast with such the mouth part of inner layer made thicker to be capable of restoring its normal shape to close said hole, the thinner and film-shaped body part of inner layer will readily deflate in the course of discharging the content. A parison to be blow molded for forming the bottle may be of a uniform thickness from its mouth part to body part, and by stretching only the body part of the parison in the blow molding step, it is possible to provide the bottle that the body part of the inner layer is of a film-like shape and the mouth part of the inner layer is of a layer thickness such as the same has elasticity for shape recovery. This means that any extra step or additional process is not needed herein to give the inner layer portion a shape capable of performing itself as a kind of valve body.
The mouths of outer and inner layers may be of a cylindrical shape (whether round or elliptic), the ventilation hole may be formed in the mouth part of the outer layer, and the mouth part of the inner layer may act as the closing portion as described above. If the inner layer's mouth part as closing portion is cylindrical, its elastic recovery will be enhanced to surely seal the ventilation hole.
In the described bottle of this invention, a bottom of the inner layer may comprise a flange fixed on and/or engaging with a bottom of the outer layer, securing these bottoms to each other to prevent the inner layer's lower end portion from curling up. Preferably, the flange may be formed when molding a inner preform for forming the inner layer by injecting a molten resin to an interior of an outer preform for forming the outer layer through a through-hole that is previously formed in a bottom of the outer preform.
The laminated bottle having the mouth in the invention may be utilized to construct any pumping containers for varied uses, if a cap comprising a check valve is attached to the mouth. Such the pumping container provided herein may substantially comprise of the laminated bottle and the cap fixed on the mouth, wherein the body part of the bottle's outer layer is
Hamamoto Keiji
Mihashi Hirokazu
Derakshani Philippe
Taisei Kako Co., Ltd.
Wood Phillips Katz Clark & Mortimer
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