The invention relates to a pouring member to be attached to a container which fills and seals fluid contents, thereby to form a pouring mouth for the contents.
Conventionally, as a container in which fluid contents are filled and sealed, a bag-like container (pouch) obtained by forming a flexible packaging material such as a resin film into a bag has been known. In medical institutions such as hospitals, these bag-like containers are widely used as a container for filling and sealing enteric nutrients, liquid diets, liquid medicines or the like. In order to pour these contents for administrating to patients, a nozzle-like pouring member is used, and one example thereof is shown in Patent Document 1.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-293361
The pouring member (container capping member) of Patent Document 1 has a configuration in which a stopper engaged with an unsealing cap is twisted off by rotating an unsealing cap with respect to a pouring cylinder, thereby realizing sanitary unsealing without directly touching the pouring cylinder.
However, the pouring member having an unsealing mechanism as mentioned above has the following problem. Specifically, for example, when the unsealing cap is rotated during transportation or when filling and sealing contents, the stopper may be twisted off to cause the contents to be leaked out. Therefore, it is desired that unnecessary rotation of the unsealing cap be prevented when not used.
In addition, the stopper is hidden under the unsealing cap. Therefore, when unsealing, a user cannot visibly confirm that the stopper has been twisted off, which makes difficult for a user to judge whether unsealing by twisting off of the stopper has been completed. Accordingly, problems have been pointed out that working hours are spent wastefully since the unsealing cap is rotated a larger number of times than required, that contents are leaked out when an attempt is made to pull out the unsealing cap forcedly when the stopper remains untwisted due to insufficient rotation of the unsealing cap, or the like.
In addition, in applications where use in medical institutions such as hospitals is assumed, in order to prevent medical mistakes before they happen, erroneous use is prohibited by limiting the shape of a pouring member in accordance with a director's notice. Therefore, when an unsealed pouring member is inserted into a tube such as a catheter in order to administrate the contents to a patient, it is difficult to allow a pouring member to correspond to all types of catheters differing in diameter.
Accordingly, for catheters with relatively large diameters to which a pouring member cannot be inserted as it is, an adapter is used in order to allow the outer diameter of the pouring mouth of a pouring member to be adapted to the inner diameter of a catheter. In this case, it is desired that a user can confirm easily whether a pouring member is firmly attached to an adapter and that loosening after the attachment can be prevented.
When an adapter is used in combination, there may be a case where an empty container of which the contents have been administrated is exchanged with a new one with the adapter still being inserted into a catheter and, during such exchange, another liquid medicine is administrated to a patient by means of a catheter tip syringe. If an adapter is used repeatedly in this way, it is required that sealing performance of an adapter for a pouring member or a catheter tip syringe be prevented from being deteriorated so that no liquid leakage occurs. In particular, when administration by means of a catheter tip syringe is performed, the tip of a catheter tip syringe is pushed to the sealing surface in an adapter. In such a case, the sealing surface in an adapter may be deformed by an applied pressure. Therefore, sealing performance of an adapter to a pouring member has to be maintained while taking possible deformation of the sealing surface in an adapter into consideration.
In attaching a pouring member to an adapter, threads may be formed on the side surface of a pouring cylinder to permit attachment by screwing.
However, if such threads are formed on the side surface of a pouring cylinder, the following problem may occur. Specifically, when a pouring cylinder is directly inserted into a catheter of which the inner diameter is not as large as one which requires an adapter, depending on the material of a catheter, the opening thereof may be widened and lies on the threads. As a result, contents which have been poured are caused to run down the threads revolving the side surface of the pouring cylinder, and then are leaked out.
For such type of a catheter, for example, it may be possible that an adapter is forcedly inserted into a catheter, and then a pouring member is attached to this adapter. However, such a complicated work not only may impose a heavy burden on a user but also may damage a catheter.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and the object thereof is to provide a pouring member which is provided with an unsealing mechanism by which the pouring member is unsealed by rotating an unsealing cap, prevents unnecessarily rotation of the unsealing cap, allows a user to easily judge the completion of unsealing, as well as can solve various problems associated with the combined use of an adapter.
The pouring member of the present invention has a configuration in which the pouring member comprises a pouring member main body and a cylindrical unsealing cap having one end thereof being closed and is coaxially attached to said pouring member main body, wherein
said pouring member main body has a pouring cylindrical part extending cylindrically from a base and a sealing part formed at the tip of said pouring cylindrical part through a thin wall part, and said sealing part is twisted off with said thin wall part by rotating said unsealing cap which is engaged with said sealing part around the central axis,
two or more rotation prevention sections are extended vertically and downwardly and symmetrically with respect to the central axis, and, at substantially the center of the width direction of each rotation prevention section, a recess is formed such that it opens to the front end side of the rotation prevention section,
an engagement projection to be engaged with said recess in a direction almost parallel with the direction in which said rotation prevention sections are extended vertically and downwardly is formed at a specific position of a flange part provided in a boundary between said base part and said pouring cylindrical part of said pouring member main body.
By the above-mentioned configuration, by causing the rotation prevention sections extending vertically and downwardly from the unsealing cap to be engaged with the engagement projection which projects on the pouring member main body, unnecessary rotation of the unsealing cap can be prevented. At least when the rotation prevention sections and the engagement projection are released from the engagement, the rotation prevention section elastically deforms to restore while vibrating, and allows a user to have a feel of clicking. A user can recognize easily the start of unsealing by this feel of clicking.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.
The pouring member 1 shown in these figures is provided with a pouring member main body 2 and an unsealing cap 3 to be attached to the pouring member main body 2. As mentioned later, the pouring member 1 may be provided with an adapter 4 (see
Here,
In this embodiment, the pouring member main body 2 has a base part 23, a pouring cylindrical part 22 which cylindrically extends from the base part 23 upwardly in the figure, a sealing part 21 which is formed at the tip of the pouring cylindrical part 22 through a thin wall part 21a, and a boat-like part 24 positioned below the base part 23 in the figure. As shown, the base part 23 and the boat-like part 24 penetrate the inside of the pouring cylindrical part 22 so that they intercommunicate with the pouring cylindrical part 22 so as to form a liquid passage 2a therein.
The boat-like part 24 of the pouring part main body 2 will serve as a welding part when the pouring member 1 is attached to a container such as a pouch, which is obtained by forming into a bag a soft packaging material such as a resin film, as a pouring mouth of the contents. The boat-like part 24 has three welding substrates 24a extending right and left in the figure and a positioning substrate 24b positioned between the welding substrates 24a and the base part 23. The positioning substrate 24b is caused to abut the side of a soft packaging material constituting the pouch, thereby to conduct positioning, and the soft packaging material is then welded to the side surface of the welding substrate 24a while conducting the positioning, whereby the pouring member 1 can be attached to the pouch.
On the other hand, the unsealing cap 3 is a cylindrical member with its one end being closed by a top plate 3a, and is attached to the pouring member main body 2 by capping such that it is engaged with the sealing part 21, thereby to cover the surroundings of the pouring cylindrical part 22.
In
In order to allow the unsealing cap 3 to be engaged with the sealing part 21 of the pouring member main body 2, for example, a projection part 21b is formed on the sealing part 21 such that it projects in the form of a flange along the periphery thereof. At the same time, an engagement rib 3b which is engaged with this projection 21b is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the unsealing cap 3. As a result, when the unsealing cap 3 is attached to the pouring member main body 2, the engagement rib 3b formed in the unsealing cap 3 moves across the projection part 21b formed in the sealing part 21, whereby the unsealing cap 3 and the sealing part 21 can be engaged with each other.
The unsealing cap 3, at a position where it is coaxially attached to the pouring member main body-2, is allowed to rotate around the central axis thereof. The sealing part 21, which has been engaged with the unsealing cap 3, is then twisted off by the thin wall part 21a, thereby allowing the pouring cylindrical part 22 to open (see
Meanwhile,
In order to allow the sealing part 21 to be twisted off by the unsealing cap 3, for example, as shown in the figure, a pair of extending sections 21c which extend in the radial direction thereof are formed in the sealing part 21, and an engagement groove 3c in which this extending section 21 is engaged may be formed on the inner peripheral surface of the unsealing cap 3. As a result, when the unsealing cap 3 is rotated around the central axis (either left or right), the sealing part 21 is rotated with this rotation, and then twisted off by the thin wall part 21a.
The sealing part 21 which has been twisted off can be prevented from dropping from the unsealing cap 3 by allowing it to remain engaged with the unsealing cap 3.
By attaching the unsealing cap 3 to the pouring member main body 2 in this way, with the pouring cylindrical part 22 of the pouring member main body 2 being covered with the unsealing cap 3, it is possible to unseal the pouring cylindrical part 22 by twisting off the sealing part 21 to allow the contents in the pouch to be poured without the fear that the fingers of a user touch the pouring cylindrical part 22. That is, for example, a user can twist the sealing part 21 off sanitarily without touching the pouring cylindrical part 22 only by rotating the unsealing cap 3 with one hand while holding the base part 23 of the pouring member main body 2 with another hand.
In the unsealing cap 3, rotation prevention sections 3d for preventing unnecessary rotation of the unsealing cap 3 are formed. The rotation prevention sections 3d are formed such that they vertically extend downwardly from the end surface of the open end side of the unsealing cap 3. As shown in the figure, almost center in the width direction of the rotation prevention section 3d, a recess 3e which opens on the front end side of the rotation prevention section 3d is formed. An engagement projection 2b formed on the pouring member main body 2 is engaged with this recess 3e in a direction almost parallel to the direction in which the rotation prevention sections 3d is extended vertically and downwardly, whereby unnecessary rotation of the unsealing cap 3 can be suppressed. As a result, twisting off of the sealing part 21 when not used can be prevented.
The engagement projection 2b formed on the pouring member main body 2 and the rotation prevention sections 3d formed on the unsealing cap 3 can also be used for positioning when the unsealing cap 3 is capped on the pouring member main body 2.
The rotation prevention sections 3d are arranged symmetrically with respect to the central axis of the unsealing cap 3. In the shown examples, two rotation prevention sections 3d are arranged such that they are opposed, i.e. 180 degrees apart. As shown in figures, as for the engagement projection 2b formed on the pouring member main body 2, a flange part 2c is provided in a boundary between the pouring cylindrical part 22 and the base part 23, and the engagement projection 2b may be provided on a specific position of the flange part 2c corresponding to the rotation prevention section 3d formed in the unsealing cap 3.
In the shown example, when the sealing part 21 is twisted off, the unsealing cap 3 is rotated in the state shown in
Furthermore, when the unsealing cap 3 makes an almost half turn around the central axis, as shown in
Therefore, in the example shown in
That is, in this embodiment, the timing of unsealing is known to a user by single feel of clicking, and the completion of unsealing is known to a user by stopping the rotation of the unsealing cap 3 in the state shown in
When the unsealing cap 3 is further rotated in the abutted state shown in
By appropriately adjusting the thickness, the material or the like of the thin wall part 21a such that the rotation angle required for the sealing part 21 to be twisted off becomes smaller than 180°, it is possible that the completion of the unsealing of the sealing part 21 and the start of the unsealing of the sealing part 21 are respectively known to a user by a single feel of clicking (twice feels of clicking in total).
Specifically, the start of unsealing is known to a user by a first feel of clicking. After the actual completion of the twisting off of the sealing part 21, by a second feel of clicking, it is possible to allow a user to sensibly know that twisting off of the sealing part 21 has been completed or was already completed. Simultaneously, the actual sealing is completed, and the unsealing cap 3 is in the state they can be pulled upwardly.
Due to the above-mentioned configuration, troubles that, when the sealing part 21 is twisted off, the unsealing cap 3 is unnecessarily rotated to cause the work time to be consumed wastefully, a user spills the contents over when he or she tries to pull the unsealing cap 2 out forcefully with the twisting off of the sealing part 21 remaining uncompleted due to insufficient rotation of the unsealing cap 3 or other problems can be avoided.
Here, the cross section shown in
At this time, in
The recess 3e may be in the form of a penetrating hole. However, when the unsealing cap 3 is capped on the pouring member main body 2, it is preferred that the bottom part of the recess 3e (the inner side surface nearer to the center of the unsealing cap 3) remain closed in order to prevent the strength from being lowered when an axial load is imposed. By adjusting the amount of engagement (the amount of interference) of the engagement projection 2b and the recess 3e, it is possible to allow the engagement projection 2b to abut the rotation prevention section 3d or to allow the engagement projection 2b to move over the rotation prevention section 3d.
A projection 3f which extends vertically and downwardly from the end surface of the open end side of the unsealing cap 3 together with the rotation prevention section 3d is formed according to need for the purpose of reinforcement in order to prevent the unsealing cap 3 to be inclined or to prevent the rotation prevention section 3d from being broken when an axial load is imposed during capping when the unsealing cap 3 is capped on the pouring member main body 2. As shown in
The pouring member 1 as mentioned above can be used by attaching to a pouch in which contents such as an enteric nutrient, a liquid diet, a liquid medicine or the like are filled and sealed. Then, the unsealing cap 3 is removed by twisting off the sealing part 21, and the unsealed pouring cylindrical part 22 is inserted into a tube such as a catheter to allow the contents to be poured such that they are administrated to a patient. In applications where use in medical institutions such as hospitals can be assumed, the shape of the pouring member main body 2 is restricted by the regulation specified in a director's notice. As a result, it will be difficult to allow the pouring main body 2 to correspond to all catheters differing in inner diameter. For catheters having a diameter to which the pouring member main body cannot correspond, in order to adapt the outer diameter of the pouring mouth to the inner diameter of the catheter, an adapter 4 shown in
Here,
The adapter 4 is a cylindrical member which is coaxially screwed to the pouring cylindrical part 22 of the pouring member main body 2. Threads 2f for screwing the adapter 4 are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the pouring cylindrical part 22. During the actual use, a pouch can be exchanged by allowing the adapter 4, which is connected to a catheter, to be removed from or installed to the pouring member main body 2. For this purpose, it is preferred that the screwing angle of the adapter 4 be about 45 to 270° in order to prevent the catheter from being twisted during the exchange of a pouch.
In the shown example, on the side surface of the adapter 4, a pair of wing parts 4a which serve as a grip for screwing the adapter 4 are formed such that they extend symmetrically in the radial direction. As shown in
Due to such a configuration, further rotation of the adapter 4 can be prevented. At the same time, by determining in advance the position of the wing part 4a when the screwing is completed, a user can easily judge that the screwing is completed only by visually confirm the position of the wing part 4a.
On the side surface along the end edge on the side opposite to the flange part 2c of the adapter 4, not only the abutment part 4b as mentioned above is formed, but also a loosening prevention rib 4c for preventing the adapter 4 which has been screwed to the pouring member main body 2 from loosening is formed. This loosening prevention rib 4c has an inclined surface of which the height from the side surface of the adapter 4 increases in the direction opposite to the screwing direction. When the pouring member main body 2 is screwed to the adapter 4, the engagement projection 2b projecting on the flange part 2c moves over the inclined surface and enters between the abutment part 4b and the loosening prevention rib 4c.
As a result, the engagement projection 2b is sandwiched between the abutment part 4b and the loosening prevention rib 4c, whereby the rotation of the adapter 4 in a direction opposite to the screwing direction is inhibited, and the adapter 4 is prevented from being loosened.
In addition, a liquid medicine or the like may be administrated from the adapter 4 connected to a catheter through a catheter tip syringe 6 (see
Here,
When a liquid medicine or the like is administrated in this way, as shown in
That is, in the example shown, as shown in
Therefore, on the side surface of the pouring cylindrical part 22, as shown in the figure, it is preferred that a ring-like rib 2d, which protrudes in a ring-like form, be formed at a position nearer to the tip than the threads 2f. In addition, it is preferred that, when the pouring member main body 2 is screwed to the adapter 4, the circular rib 2d be caused to be in close contact with the inner surface of the adapter 4. As a result, sealing performance can be exhibited in a part different from the sealing surface for the catheter tip syringe 6, whereby sealing performance of the adapter 4 for the pouring member main body 2 can be maintained.
Depending on the thickness, elasticity or the like of a catheter 5, the pouring cylindrical part 22, even if it is slightly thick, may be directly inserted to the catheter 5 without passing through the adapter 4, and the catheter 5 can be pressed in and then fixed using the threads 2f provided according to the shape advised by a director's notice. Further, when the catheter 5 is formed of a flexible material or for other reasons, as shown in
For the catheter 5 which has a relatively small diameter, the sealing performance between the inner surface of the catheter 5 and the pouring cylindrical part 22 can be enhanced by providing a slip prevention member 2e.
The present invention has been explained hereinabove with reference to preferred embodiments. The present invention is, however, not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and it is needless to say various modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention.
For example, in the example shown, two rotation prevention sections 3d are formed such that they are apart from each other by 180°. However, for example, if the rotation angle required for twisting the sealing part 21 off is smaller than 120°, three rotation prevention sections 3d may be formed such that they are apart from one another by 120°. In this way, as in the case mentioned above, it is possible to allow a user to know that the twisting off the sealing part 21 has been completed (or was completed) by a second feel of clicking. It is also possible that, by increasing the width of the rotation prevention sections 3d or the like, the outer side surface of the rotation prevention section 3d and the engagement projection 2b are allowed to abut when the rotation by 120° is attained, thereby to cause the rotation of the unsealing cap 3 to be stopped. As apparent from the above, the number of the rotation prevention section 3d can be determined appropriately according to the angle required to twist the sealing part 21 off as long as they are arranged symmetrically with respect to the central axis of the unsealing cap 3.
The pouring member according to the present invention can be used particularly preferably for a container in which contents which have to be required to be unsealed sanitarily are filled and sealed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2007-272780 | Oct 2007 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2008/068850 | 10/17/2008 | WO | 00 | 4/16/2010 |