BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a pump for extruding and expelling contents from a bottle.
2. Description of Related Art
A known pump is used at a mouth of a bottle for extruding and expelling thick contents from the bottle. In FIG. 1, a conventional pump is provided. Such pump has a lid 10 for being combined with a mouth of a bottle and a sleeve 11 having an accommodating space 111. The sleeve 11 has an upper end thereof assembled in the lid 10 and is connected to a drawing tube 12 extending into the bottle. A one-way valve 13 is settled between the sleeve 11 and the drawing tube 12, and is controlled by a steel ball 131. A piston tube 14 has a lower end thereof pierced into the lid 10 and connected to a first elastic member 15 having a lower end thereof positioned in the accommodating space 111 of the sleeve 11. A second elastic member 16 abuts an inner wall of the sleeve 11 and embraces an outer periphery of the first elastic member 15. An interval 165 exists between an upper end of the second elastic member 16 and the lower end of the piston tube 14. The first elastic member 15 has a radial hole 151 and an axial hole 152 that are communicated mutually. The axial hole 152 is further communicated to the piston tube 14 and the second elastic member 16 normally blocks the radial hole 151. A gate 17 is provided between the first elastic member 15 and the second elastic member 16. By opening or closing the gate 17, the accommodating space 111 of the sleeve 11 is communicated to or disconnected from the radial hole 151 of the first elastic member 15. A pressing head 18 having an outlet 181 is assembled at an upper end of the piston tube 14. A spring 19 is mounted around an exterior of the piston tube 14 such that two ends of the spring 19 are stopped at the pressing head 18 and the lid 10, respectively.
FIGS. 2 and 3 are provided for explaining how the pump expels the contents from the bottle through the outlet 181. To expel the contents from the bottle, it is important that the pressing head 18 is pressed downward to the extreme in a single pressing operation. In such pressing operation, the first elastic member 15 and the second elastic member 16 move asynchronously. As shown in FIG. 2, the pressing head 18 is pressed and in an initial stage of moving downward. At this time, the piston tube 14 moves downward in company with the first elastic member 15 to open the gate 17 between the first elastic member 15 and the second elastic member 16 so that the accommodating space 111 of the sleeve 11 become communicated with the radial hole 151 of the first elastic member 15. Meanwhile, the accommodating space 111 of the sleeve 11 is internally pressurized so that the steel ball 131 moves downward to close the one-way valve 13. In FIG. 3, now the pressing head 18 is further pressed and moves further downward. At this time, the lower end of the piston tube 14 pushed the upper end of the second elastic member 16 to make the second elastic member 16 move downward so that the accommodating space 111 is further internally pressurized. Thus, if the accommodating space 111 is now filled with contents, the contents can enter the radial hole 151 through the gate 17 and enter the piston tube 14 through the axial hole 152 so as to reach the outlet 181 and be expelled.
On the contrary, when the pressing head 18 is released, the spring 19 resiles to push upward and reposition the pressing head 18, the piston tube 14, the first elastic member 15, and the second elastic member 16 so as to produce a drawing force. Thereupon, the contents in the bottle can enter the accommodating space 111 through the drawing tube 12 and the one-way valve 13 and wait for the next pressing operation.
It would be absolutely convenient for a user to press the pressing head 18 once to expel the contents from the bottle. However, in the perspective of a manufacturer, such conventional pump requires a relatively large amount of components and time-consumptive assembly so that the selling benefit is significantly reduced due to the increased manufacturing costs. Besides, a user of the above-discussed conventional pump bears a risk that the contents in the bottle may interact with the metal spring and steel ball of the pump, resulting in unexpected deterioration.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances in view to provide a novel design of a pump used at a mouth of a bottle.
A pump for a bottle is disclosed. The pump comprises a lid for being assembled to a mouth of the bottle, a shell settled inside the lid, a drawing tube connected to a lower end of the shell with a one-way valve settled therebetween so that contents in the bottle can be drawn into the shell through the drawing tube and retained from reversely flowing back to the bottle, a pressing head for controlling a piston tube to axially shift in the lid and the shell, an elastic member settled in the shell so as to axially deform and resile in responding to the axially shifting piston tube so that the contents in the bottle can enter the shell through the one-way valve and be extruded into the piston tube through a radial hole so as to be expelled at an outlet of the pressing head.
It is one objective of the present invention to provide a pump for a bottle with a simplified configuration. As compared with the conventional pump, the disclosed subject matter employs fewer components and is easier to be assembled while the objective of expelling a predetermined amount of contents from the bottle by a single pressing operation is achieved.
It is one objective of the present invention to provide a pump for a bottle without any metal components and spring so as to keep the contents in the bottle from unexpectedly deteriorating.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross sectional view of a conventional pressing head;
FIG. 2 is another schematic cross sectional view of the conventional pressing head showing a first elastic member being moved by the pressing head;
FIG. 3 is another schematic cross sectional view of the conventional pressing head showing a second elastic member being moved by the pressing head;
FIG. 4 is a schematic cross sectional view of a pump of the present invention showing deformable reduced sections provided on a lower end of a neck of an elastic member and a shoulder portion of a body;
FIG. 5 is another schematic cross sectional view of a pump of the present invention showing the lower end of the neck of the elastic member deformed;
FIG. 6 is another schematic cross sectional according to FIG. 5 and further showing the shoulder portion of the body deformed;
FIG. 7 is another schematic cross sectional view of a pump of the present invention showing deformable reduced sections provided on an upper end of the neck of the elastic member and a sidewall of the body;
FIG. 8 is another schematic cross sectional view of a pump of the present invention showing the upper end of the neck of the elastic member deformed; and
FIG. 9 is another schematic cross sectional according to FIG. 5 and showing the elastic member further deformed at the sidewall of the body.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As the drawings recited in the following embodiments are provided for illustrating the concept of the present invention as described above, it is to be understood that the deformation and displacement of the components in these drawings are made for better explanation and need not to be made in scale.
According to FIG. 4, the disclosed subject matter comprises a lid 20 for being assembled to a mouth of a bottle (not shown), and a shell 25 having an upper end thereof airtightly combined with an inner surface of the lid 20 and having a lower end thereof connected to a drawing tube 26 extending into the bottle. The shell 25 has a one-way valve 251 settled at the lower end thereof and between the shell 25 and the drawing tube 26, wherein the one-way valve 251 is opened or closed by a stopcock 27. A piston tube 30 comprises coaxially and integrally formed a pressing head connecting portion 31, an elastic member connecting portion 32 and an axial hole 33 communicating the two connecting portions 31, 32. The pressing-head connecting portion 31 is fixedly connected to a pressing head 40, which has an outlet 41, while the elastic member connecting portion 32 is used to fixedly connected to an elastic member 50. The elastic member connecting portion 32 has a radial hole 34 communicated to the axial hole 33. The elastic member 50 comprises a neck 51 and a body 52 that are coaxially and integrally formed. The neck 51 is mounted around and affixed to an exterior of the elastic member connecting portion 32. The body 52 has an outer surface thereof abutting an inner surface of the shell 25. The body 52 is shaped as a bell that includes an inner space 520 and an opening at a lower end thereof. The shell 25 has a flange 252 extending toward an axis thereof for receiving a lower periphery of the body 52. The elastic member 50 is made of a flexible material (such as rubber) so as to give an ability of deforming when being compressed and resiling when being released. Therefore, when the elastic member 50 is compressed, the neck 51 and the body 52 become deformed successively as two-stage deformation. On the other hand, the lid 20, the piston tube 30, the shell 25 and the one-way valve 251 are made of plastic materials.
The mentioned two-stage deformation happens when the pressing head 40 is pressed to push the piston tube 30 downward. Referring to FIGS. 4 through 6, such two-stage deformation includes a first deformation 511 and a second deformation 521. The first deformation 511 is presented at the neck 51 of the elastic member 50 while the second deformation 521 is presented at the body 52 of the elastic member 50. The first deformation 511 happens at an initial stage when the piston tube 30 moves downward. The mentioned deformation refers to an axial compression of the neck 51 that allows the radial hole 34 of the piston tube 30 to appear in the inner space 520 of the body 52. The second deformation 521 happens when the piston tube 30 further moves downward and when the axial compression of the neck 51 is developed to the extreme. The mentioned deformation refers to an axial compression of the body 52 that makes the inner space 520 become compressed and internally pressurized. The first deformation 511 and the second deformation 521 of the elastic member 50 make the stopcock 27 shift vertically so as to open or close the one-way valve 251. Thereby, the contents in the bottle can enter the shell 25 and the inner space 520 of the body 52 through the drawing tube 26 and the one-way valve 251. Then a predetermined amount of the contents can be extruded from the inner space 520 and expelled at the outlet 41 through the radial hole 34 and the axial hole 33.
Referring to FIGS. 4 through 6 and 7 through 9, it can be seen how the disclosed subject matter expels the contents from the bottle through the outlet 41 of the pressing head 40. It has been known that when the shell 25 and the inner space 520 are empty, a user can exhaust the air in the inner space 520 by pressing the pressing head 40 several times so as to make the contents of the bottle enter and fill the inner space 520. Once the inner space 520 is filled with the contents, during the next time the user presses the pressing head 40, the piston tube 30 moves downward to cause the first deformation 511 of the elastic member 50 so that the redial hole 34 of the piston tube 30 enters the inner space 520. Following this, the second deformation 521 of the elastic member 50 is performed to compress the inner space 520 so that the stopcock 27 blocks the one-way valve 251 and contents are extruded into the axial hole 33 through the redial hole 34 so as to be expelled at the outlet 41. On the contrary, when the pressing head 40 is released, the elastic member 50 resiles to push upward and reposition the piston tube 30. Thus, the inner space 520 is now in a negative pressure status. At this time, the contents in the bottle pushes the stopcock 27 from the drawing tube 26 so as to enter the inner space 520 through the one-way valve 251 and await the next pressing operation.
According to the present embodiment, the two-stage deformation of the elastic member 50 may be provided by the structures shown in FIGS. 4 and 7. At predetermined portions of the neck 51, 51′ and the body 52, 52′, the thickness thereof may be reduced to form deformable reduced sections 512, 512′ and 522, 522′. The reduced sections may be arranged at any portion of the neck. For instance, in FIG. 4, the reduced section 512 is provided at a lower end of the neck 51. Alternatively, in FIG. 7, the reduced section 512′ is provided at an upper end of the neck 51′. In both instances, the reduced sections enable the axial deformation of the neck. The reduced section of the body may be provided at any portion of the body. For instance, in FIG. 4, the reduced section 522 is provided at a shoulder portion of the body 52 so that the body 52 is deformed at the shoulder, as shown in FIG. 6. Alternatively, in FIG. 7, the reduced section 522′ is provided at a sidewall of the body 52′ so that the body 52 is deformed at the sidewall, as shown in FIG. 9.
Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that numerous variations will be possible to the disclosed embodiments without going outside the scope of the invention as disclosed in the claims.
Patent Application
20090140009
