Switzerland Priority Application 01090/08, filed Jul. 14, 2008 including the specification, drawings, claims and abstract, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a dispensing assembly comprising a cartridge having at least one storage container with a bag placed therein, an accessory that is connectable to the cartridge, and opening means acting upon the bag.
A dispensing assembly of this kind is e.g. known from DE 19618693, EP 1 112 779, or WO 0061457. These and other dispensing assemblies with bags have in common that the opening, resp. cutting member essentially acts in the longitudinal direction of the cartridge and of the accessory, i.e. frontal on the bag(s) within the cartridge.
Particularly in multiple cartridges, this opening procedure has the following disadvantages:
A restriction of the bag opening since the opening mechanism and the cartridge outlet diameter are interdependent.
Large volumes of lost material since the path up to the point where the two components are merged can only be realized by long channels leading to the mixer.
In the case of highly viscous materials, the pressure drop is high because the two components cannot be conducted from the bags into the mixer on the shortest and direct path.
Frontal piercing along the longitudinal axis of the bags entails the risk that the bag is torn in an undefined manner instead of being opened by a geometrically defined opening procedure.
Moreover, in the devices of the prior art, parts of the bag may involuntarily be torn off and possibly dispensed along with the mass in an uncontrolled manner.
On the background of this prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a dispensing assembly of the aforementioned kind that allows a controlled opening of the bag(s) and a clean dispensing while the pressure loss and the volume of lost outflowing material are to be kept as low as possible. This is accomplished by the dispensing assembly wherein the opening means comprises a cutting member having one or a plurality of knife-edge(s) that is (are) arranged and orientated to act essentially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bag(s) within the cartridge. Further advantages and embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.
The invention will be explained in more detail hereinafter with reference to drawings of exemplary embodiments.
In
Mixer housing 6 holds mixing elements 11. Connected to mixing elements 11 is a driving member 12 on which a cutting member 13 is arranged which in the present case comprises two knife-edges that are designed with sharp edges 14 and may consist of the same material as the mixing elements or of metal or another material. Instead of two knife-edges, a single knife-edge may be used which in this case is rotatable by 360°.
In the drawings it is seen that the cutting member or its knife-edges, respectively, are orientated and arranged essentially perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the cartridge to be active in this plane. Furthermore it appears in
It is further apparent in
In the case of a cutting member having a plurality of knife-edges, it is advantageous to provide a stop in order to prevent that it can be rotated more than 180° as the blade should no longer be active once the bag has been cut open. In
In
In
In
Instead of three or more storage containers in a corresponding cartridge, a single storage container with a single bag may be provided that is opened by a correspondingly shaped but similarly acting cutting member.
Moreover, the cutting member need not be connected to the mixing elements; both in a mixer and in a accessory of another kind, the cutting member may be connected to a ring that is arranged on the accessory and rotatable with respect to the cartridge. This is especially the case if a bayonet coupling between the cartridge and the accessory device is used. The cutting member may have one knife-edge for one bag or three knife-edges for three bags. The cutting quality and the mentioned advantages are the same as for the rotatable cutting member.
In another embodiment, the cutting member is displaceable transversally to the displacement direction depicted in
Instead of a mixer, the accessory connected to the cartridge may consist of a spray device with a spray head, an adapter, or a dispensing tube, the rotatable cutting member being arranged in the coupling section thereof. Alternatively, the rotatable cutting member with the twisting device may be designed as an additional functional unit.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1090/08 | Jul 2008 | CH | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CH2009/000232 | 7/3/2009 | WO | 00 | 1/10/2011 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2010/006455 | 1/21/2010 | WO | A |
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PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion on Application No. PCT/CH2009/000232 dated Sep. 11, 2009; 9 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20110108573 A1 | May 2011 | US |