Container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium

Abstract

A container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium comprises a resilient wall enclosing a volume receiving the flowable medium, an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and an automatically resetting pneumatic device for indirectly applying the pressure to the resilient wall. This device may be an actuating hollow body comprised at least partly of a resilient material, the hollow body bordering on the resilient wall, and the resilient wall and hollow body together closing the volume of the container. Alternatively, the device may comprise an outer container for a gaseous medium, the outer container hermetically enclosing the container receiving the flowable medium, except for the opening, and the outer container having a resilient wall for applying pressure on the gaseous medium, which pressure is transmitted to the resilient wall of the container receiving the flowable medium, the proportion of the volume of the outer container to the container hermetically enclosed thereby being between 1.2:1 to 20:1.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium, which has an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to a resilient wall of the container. The flowable medium may be preferably an adhesive or it may be a cosmetic fluid, or generally any flowable medium used for a variety of uses. Typically, the container has the form of a tube whose wall is comprised entirely of a resilient material yielding to pressure, such as a resilient synthetic resin or aluminum.

[0003] Such a container should provide a targeted application of the flowable medium discharged from its opening without the medium flowing out of the opening uncontrollably or dripping. This pointed application of the flowable medium cannot be accomplished, or is accomplished only unsatisfactorily, if the container material is aluminum or a thin synthetic resin. The reason for this is the resiliency of the container wall, which usually has little resetting capacity, i.e. it is not automatically restored to its original shape after it has been deformed under pressure.

[0004] The discharge of the flowable material from such a container is obtained by squeezing the container wall. For this purpose, the container is held between two fingers and squeezed from opposite sides. As long as the container is fairly full, this always causes too much flowable medium to be discharged through the opening and additional dripping. Once the container has been somewhat emptied, dosing of the discharged flowable medium is improved and there is less danger of dripping after the discharge. On the other hand, dosing of the discharged flowable medium becomes more difficult.

[0005] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0006] JP 07309356 discloses a container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium, which comprises a resilient wall, and an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall. This container is designed to prevent dripping of the flowable medium after it has been discharged through the opening but it cannot provide proper dosing, particularly when the container is fairly empty.

[0007] The container comprises a resilient wall enclosing a volume of the flowable medium, an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and an automatically resetting pneumatic means for indirectly applying the pressure to the resilient wall, the automatically resetting pneumatic means comprising an outer container for a gaseous medium, the outer container hermetically enclosing the container receiving the flowable medium, except for the opening, and the outer container having a resilient wall for applying pressure on the gaseous medium, which pressure is transmitted to the resilient wall of the container receiving the flowable medium.

[0008] A similar container has been disclosed in DE U1 94 04 476. In this case, the outer container additional has at least one check valve to assure complete emptying of the container receiving the flowbale medium. However, this container, too, does not assure proper dosing of the flowable material when the container receiving the flowable material is nearly empty.

[0009] Containers for receiving and discharging a flowable material are known, which have a generally cylindrical shape and whose cylinder walls are substantially rigid but whose bottom wall is comprised of a resilient, flexible material which has a relatively good resetting property. Such a container has the problem that pressure on the relatively small-area bottom wall does not assure fine dosing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] It is the primary object of this invention to provide a container of this general type, which assures good control of the dosing of the discharged flowable medium even when the container is fairly empty while avoiding dripping.

[0011] In one embodiment of the invention, this object is accomplished with a container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium, which comprises a resilient wall, an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and an automatically resetting pneumatic means for applying the pressure to the resilient wall, the automatically resetting pneumatic means comprising an actuating hollow body comprised at least partly of a resilient material, the hollow body bordering on the resilient wall, and the resilient wall and hollow body together closing the volume of the container.

[0012] In another embodiment, the container comprises a resilient wall enclosing a volume receiving the flowable medium, an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and an automatically resetting pneumatic means for indirectly applying the pressure to the resilient wall, the automatically resetting pneumatic means comprising an outer container for a gaseous medium, the outer container hermetically enclosing the container receiving the flowable medium, except for the opening, and the outer container having a resilient wall for applying pressure on the gaseous medium, which pressure is transmitted to the resilient wall of the container receiving the flowable medium, the proportion of the volume of the outer container to the container hermetically enclosed thereby being between 1.2:1 to 20:1.

[0013] Surprisingly, it has been found that the object of accurate dosing of the discharged flowable medium even from a fairly empty container, while avoiding dripping, is accomplished by applying pressure on the resilient part of the container wall by means of the hollow body exerting a pneumatic pressure of this resilient container wall part, in the one embodiment, while it is accomplished in the second double-walled container embodiment by the special proportion of the volumes of the inner and outer containers.

[0014] According to preferred features of the first embodiment, the container is substantially cylindrical, the resilient wall forms a bottom of the cylindrical container and is arranged opposite the opening, and the actuating hollow body is substantially hemispherical.

[0015] According to preferred features of the second embodiment, a major part of the outer container, i.e. its entire wall except for a portion adjacent the opening, is of a resilient wall material. Such a structure is particularly useful for a flexible, tube-shaped container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium since pressure is applied over the entire container wall area when pressure is applied to the outer air-filled container. This avoids a crushing of the tube. Since the air pressure on the inner container, which works like an air cushion, is applied over the entire container wall area, the discharge of the flowable medium is finely controlled. In addition, the yielding wall of the tube will be automatically restored so that dripping is dependably avoided.

[0016] Furthermore, this double-walled structure has the advantage that the walls of the tube receiving the flowable medium can be squeezed together until the last drop of the flowable medium has been discharged. The outer container hermetically enclosing the tube has preferably a flat shape conforming to that of the tube, such as a flat parallelepipe or a cylinder of oval or round cross section. Alternatively, the outer container also may be of tube shape.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0017] The above and other objects. advantages and features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of now preferred embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the schematic drawing wherein

[0018] FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section of a first embodiment and

[0019] FIG. 2 shows a like section of a second embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown container 10 for receiving and discharging a flowable medium. The container comprises resilient wall 13, and opening 15 in discharge nozzle 14 through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to resilient wall 13. The container is substantially cylindrical, and resilient wall 13 forms a bottom of the cylindrical container and is arranged opposite opening 15. The cross section of the container may be substantially oval or round. The container may be of tubular shape and has a rigid cylindrical wall 11 connected to resilient bottom wall 13 by conical bottom portion 12. As shown, actuating hollow body 13 is substantially hemispherical.

[0021] As has been indicated in the introductory portion of the specification, the flowable medium was discharged from containers of this type by applying pressure to the resilient bottom, with the described disadvantages. These disadvantages are overcome by providing an automatically resetting pneumatic means for applying the pressure to resilient wall 13, which comprises actuating hollow body 16 comprised at least partly of a resilient material, the hollow body bordering on the resilient wall, and resilient wall 13 and hollow body 16 together closing the volume of the container.

[0022] Hemispherical hollow body 16 is air-tightly connected to the rim of resilient bottom wall 13, for example by welding or being formed integrally therewith, so that the bottom wall and the wall of the hollow body enclose a definite volume of gas, such as air. When the hollow body is squeezed, the enclosed volume of gas is compressed and transmits pressure to resilient bottom wall 13 over the entire area thereof. This causes the flowable medium to be discharged through opening 15. While pressure is applied only to discrete points of the resilient bottom wall in the prior art containers, squeezing of hollow body 16 will apply pressure to the entire area of the bottom wall, causing a controlled discharge of the flowable medium through opening 15.

[0023] As soon as pressure on hollow body 16 is reduced or released entirely, the pressure on resilient bottom wall 13 is correspondingly reduced or entirely released, and the resilient bottom wall is restored to its original position. This causes the flowable medium to be sucked back into container 10 so that no medium will drip through opening 15.

[0024] The container 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 is tube-shaped but wider and thicker than container 10. Except for head 22, it comprises a resilient wall enclosing a volume receiving a flowable medium, and opening 25 through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall. Tube-shaped container 20 is narrower at an upper end leading to opening 25 than at a bottom end, and the bottom end is closed by a fold in case the container is made of aluminum, or by a weld seam 21. Generally cylindrical head 22 is of a rigid material and has a thread 23 for screwing a cover (not shown) over nozzle 24 which defines opening 25. As in the first-described embodiment, the container has an automatically resetting pneumatic means for indirectly applying pressure to the resilient wall of container 20.

[0025] In this embodiment, the resetting pneumatic means comprises outer container 26 for a gaseous medium. The outer container hermetically encloses container 20 receiving the flowable medium, except for the opening, and the outer container has a resilient wall for applying pressure on the gaseous medium, which pressure is transmitted to the resilient wall of container 20 receiving the flowable medium. According to the present invention, the proportion of the volume of outer container 26 to container 20 hermetically enclosed thereby is between 1.2:1 to 20:1, preferably 1.5:1 to 6.5:1.

[0026] Preferably, a major part of outer container 26 is comprised of a resilient wall material, only end wall 27 adjacent head 22 being of a rigid material. A gas-tight seal at head 22 defining opening 25 is provided between container 20 receiving the flowable medium and outer container 26. This seal may be a weld seam.

[0027] At least a major part of container 20 receiving the flowable medium is comprised of a resilient wall material.

[0028] The illustrated outer container 26 is substantially cylindrical and of substantially oval cross section so that the ovally curved walls of the outer container face the wide sides of tube-shaped container 20. If desired, however, the cross section of outer container 26 may be substantially round.

[0029] Since the outer container is hermetically sealed to container 20 receiving the flowable medium, a gas volume is created between the two containers, and this serves as an automatically resetting pneumatic pressure means on the yielding walls of tube-shaped container 20.

[0030] When pressure is applied on outer container 26, preferably perpendicularly to the curved wall of the outer container, for instance by a finger of a user, the pressure applied to the gas, such as air, enclosed in the outer container will be transmitted to the entire area of the resiliently yielding walls of container 20, which will be reversibly deformed. This assures a well controlled discharge of the flowable medium from opening 25. As soon as the pressure on the outer container is released, its wall as well as the wall of container 20 will be automatically reset to its original shape. This dependably avoids dripping after the discharge of the flowable medium.

Claims

1. A container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium, which comprises (a) a resilient wall, (b) an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and (b) an automatically resetting pneumatic means for applying the pressure to the resilient wall, the automatically resetting pneumatic means comprising (1) an actuating hollow body comprised at least partly of a resilient material, the hollow body bordering on the resilient wall, and the resilient wall and hollow body together closing the volume of the container.

2. The container of claim 1, wherein the container is substantially cylindrical, the resilient wall forms a bottom of the cylindrical container and is arranged opposite the opening.

3. The container of claim 1, wherein the cross section of the container is substantially oval.

4. The container of claim 1, wherein the cross section of the container is substantially round.

5. The container of claim 1, being of tubular shape.

6. The container of claim 1, wherein the actuating hollow body is substantially hemispherical.

7. A container for receiving and discharging a flowable medium, which comprises (a) a resilient wall enclosing a volume receiving the flowable medium, (b) an opening through which the flowable medium may be discharged when the volume of the container is reduced by applying pressure to the resilient wall, and (b) an automatically resetting pneumatic means for indirectly applying the pressure to the resilient wall, the automatically resetting pneumatic means comprising (1) an outer container for a gaseous medium, the outer container hermetically enclosing the container receiving the flowable medium, except for the opening, and the outer container having a resilient wall for applying pressure on the gaseous medium, which pressure is transmitted to the resilient wall of the container receiving the flowable medium, the proportion of the volume of the outer container to the container hermetically enclosed thereby being between 1.2:1 to 20:1.

8. The container of claim 7, wherein the proportion is 1.5:1 to 6.5:1.

9. The container of claim 7, wherein a major part of the outer container is comprised of a resilient wall material.

10. The container of claim 7, further comprising a gas-tight seal at the opening between the container receiving the flowable medium and the outer container.

11. The container of claim 7, wherein a major part of the container receiving the flowable medium is comprised of a resilient wall material.

12. The container of claim 7, wherein the outer container is substantially cylindrical.

13. The container of claim 12, wherein the cross section of the outer container is substantially oval.

14. The container of claim 12, wherein the cross section of the outer container is substantially round.