Patent Grant
7648276
The present invention relates to liquid containers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid container provided with a sealer that is adapted to close a wide opening in the container.
Personal hydration systems are known in the art and are used extensively by people that are active in sports, trekking activities, recreational is activities as well as in the military. Over the last decade, people in general and especially people that are active in physical activities became aware of the fact that drinking during physical activity is crucial from health considerations. Therefore, personal hydration systems were developed over the years and since the use of soft polymers such as polyurethane became applicable in designing the drinking containers of the hydration systems, flexible containers, bladder-like containers, became widely used. An example for a personal hydration system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,457 “hydration system” by Croft, filed in 1996. This patented hydration system for backpackers or other athletes includes a bladder, a filling opening, an enclosing cover and filling opening, a flexible line and a deformable valve to be held in the user's mouth. Another hydration system was invented by the inventor of the present invention (Gill Yoram) and Ezer Asaf and disclosed in PCT patent application no. PCT/IL97/00263 (filed in the U.S. Ser. No. 09/297,384) “Flexible Container for Storing and Dispensing Liquids”. This flexible container comprises an inner bag and at least one outer bag, and liquid dispensing means.
One of the problems stemming from the use of flexible polymers in the design of hydration containers is that they are not easily cleaned. The soft polymer itself is a material that may absorb matter from the liquid, especially if the liquid filled in the container is juice or tea or other sugar containing liquid. In addition, the container is soft and has welded areas, therefore residues of the liquid that was inside the container may be left in corners formed in the sides of the container. Cleaning becomes a problem even when using the opening of the container from which the container is filled by liquid since this opening is usually relatively small. Accessories for cleaning flexible containers are available (can be purchased in the markets) but still, the maintenance of the container is difficult.
Most of the flexible containers are made from two flexible sheets of polymer welded together from all sides while an opening for filling the container and drinking from it is formed on the side of the container in the surface of one of the sheets. One of the solutions for the maintenance problem in those types of flexible containers is to leave a large opening on one of the sides of the container by leaving an unwelded area. It is straightforward that the unwelded area that acts as an opening is in the narrower side of the container while it becomes very easy to clean the interior of the container by inserting a hand into it. Moreover, it is easy to dry the container after cleaning is finished and there is no need for expensive cleaning and drying accessories.
Leaving an unwelded area to be used as an opening for cleaning the container brought about another problem. The ability to hermetically seal this opening when the container is in use and filled with liquid is diminished. Several solutions are available on the markets. Two of the solutions (“easy clean” from Blackburn company and another container from ultimate direction company) are based on an extended opening that may be folded several times and possibly to different directions. The folds of “easy clean” may be secured by hook and loop fastenrs. The solution of ultimate direction is based on U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,640 “Roll Top Bladder” by Thatcher filed in 1997. This bladder includes two sidewall portions, which are disposed opposite one another and joined along a majority of the perimeter. In the unattached portion, a neck is formed, which extends from the body of the bladder. To close the conduit formed by the neck portion, the neck portion is rolled towards the body. The rolled neck portion seals the opening closed and prevents liquid from escaping out of the neck. Another solution is offered by cascade designs company. Here, their platypus flexible hydration system is closed by a “big zip”. The closure is based on the idea of a plastic zipper in which one side of the opening is provided with a strip that protrudes from the sheet surface and opposite to the strip, a corresponding groove is provided. When the user wishes to close the container, he presses the strip into the groove so that the opening is closed. Another solution that is based on the idea of a ZIP-LOCK® is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,456 by Dileman “Pressurized Portable Drinking System” filed in 1997. This patent discloses a liquid dispenser that includes a container formed of a flexible synthetic resin material and a hose connected to the container for dispensing liquid. Among other features, the dispenser also includes a closure assembly that is positionable in a scaled position sealing a cavity shut beneath a mouth so that the cavity is substantially liquid tight, and an unscasled position exposing the cavity to the mouth for filling.
In all the available solutions including the above mentioned ones, the container is prone to liquid leakage. In all of these cases, the container has to be positioned so that the opening is in the upper side of the container at all times. This fact prevents the free use of the container to many of the application that these containers are designed for. For example, when the personal hydration system is placed on the rear of a bike, it is most convenient to put the container on its side. Placing a container having a cleaning opening closed in the way described herein above cause leakage and loses of liquid. Those containers may be used only when the container is hanged, a fact that limits the use of the personal hydration system. There is a need to provide an easy way to close the hydration container so that the container is completely sealed when in use. Moreover, when the container is safely sealed, it may be placed in any orientation without leakage. Another problem that originates from using a zip-like closure is that when the container is filled, the user has to squeeze the side edges of the container in order to open up the opening. This operation is uncomfortable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flexible personal hydration container provided with a sealer that hermetically closes a wide opening in the container.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a flexible personal container provided with a sealer that safely secures and closes an opening in the container so that liquid from the container would not leak even when the container is full and even if the container is positioned with the opening in its bottom.
Yet, it is another object of the present invention to provide a flexible personal container provided with a sealer that closes a relatively wide opening that is large enough so that the opening may be used in order to fill liquid into the container and clean the container.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a container provided with a sealer that is durable in extensive out-door activity.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide a flexible hydration container provided with a sealer that is cheap and easy to use.
It is thus provided a sealing device adapted to seal a flexible liquid container having a cavity for receiving liquids, a lateral opening for filling the container with liquids, and a liquid dispensing outlet, said sealing device comprising:
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the length of said sealing device is at least as the length of the lateral opening.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a cap closes said closed end.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is slightly protruding beyond said open end.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said flexible container is formed from two films having the majority of their perimeter fused, allowing a portion of the perimeter unfused so as to acts as the opening.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said slot is slightly wider than twice the cumulative thickness of said two films.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the distance between the outer diameter of said rod and the inner diameter of said hollow cylinder is slightly larger than the cumulative thickness of said two films so that said two films may be freely threaded between said rod and said hollow cylinder and so that said two films are tightly contiguous.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, one of said two films has an extension that goes beyond the lateral opening.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said extension is provided with a hole.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said flexible container is made of a material selected from a group of materials such as polyethylene, PVC or polyurethane.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod has a round cross section.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said sealing device is made from a rigid polymer, said rigid polymer is selected from a group of materials such as ABS or acethal polypropylene.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is provided a sealing device adapted to seal a flexible liquid container having a cavity for receiving liquids, a lateral opening for filling the container with liquids, and a liquid dispensing outlet, said sealing device comprising:
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the length of said rod is slightly longer than a length defining the lateral opening of the container.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first end of the rod is provided with a resilient lateral protrusion and the second end of the rod is provided with a stopper having a diameter that is larger than a diameter of the passage of said sealer.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is welded to the flexible container.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the flexible container is formed from two adjacent films of polymeric material having a majority of their perimeter welded, and wherein the lateral opening is a portion of the perimeter, which is not welded.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said passage has a horse-shoe-like cross section, and wherein the cross-section is substantially constant along said elongated member.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod has substantially elliptic cross section.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said sealer is made from a rigid polymer, said rigid polymer selected from ABS and acetal polypropylene.
Furthermore, in accordance with yet another preferred embodiment f the present invention, it is provided a sealable flexible liquid container comprising:
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is provided laterally across the flexible container.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is welded to the flexible container.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first end of the rod is provided with a resilient lateral protrusion and the second end of the rod is provided with a stopper having a diameter that is larger than a diameter of the passage of said sealer.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is provided inside and substantially concentric to said elongated member and is attached to a side of the opposite sides of said elongated member that is closed.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said rod is slightly protruding out from the opening that is opposite the closed side of said elongated member.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the flexible container is formed from two adjacent films of polymeric material having a majority of their perimeter welded, and wherein the lateral opening is a portion of the perimeter that is not welded.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said passage has a horse-shoe-like cross-section, and wherein the cross-section is substantially constant along said elongated member and wherein said rod has substantially elliptic cross section.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said sealer is made from a rigid polymer, said rigid polymer selected from ABS and acetal polypropylene.
And furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said flexible container is made of a material selected from a group of materials such as polyethylene, PVC or polyurethane.
The unique seal of the present invention is adapted to hermetically seal personal hydration containers having an opening that is relatively large so as to enable easy filling and easy cleaning of the container through the opening. The seal prevents leakage of liquid from the container, no matter what the orientation of the container is. Therefore, the container may be positioned in any orientation as well as on its side without leakage.
Reference is now made to
Container 10 is provided with a liquid dispensing opening 20 in one side, close to the bottom of the container. Liquid dispensing opening 20 is designated to be connected to a flexible drinking pipe 22. At the proximal side of drinking pipe 22, a drinking valve 23 is provided. In order to fill container 10 with liquid such as water, opening 14 is oriented at the top of the container and freely opened. Container 10 is suspended with opening 14 wide open so that water 26 coming out from water tap 24 is directed to fill container 10. Water 28 that is filled in container 10 may be drunk from container 10 through flexible drinking pipe 22 and drinking valve 23.
Opening 14 is a large opening relative to the openings that are usually available in such containers so that the container may be filled conveniently (as shown in
After water fills container 10 and it is ready to be used, opening 14 has to be hermetically closed. Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
The container is hermetically sealable if the slot in the hollow cylinder is slightly wider than twice the thickness of the container (the thickness of the container means the accumulative thickness of the two films that form the container). The thickness of the slot has to be optimized so that from one side it will be wide enough so that the folded container may be freely slided through the slot and from the other side, it has to be narrow enough so that water can not pass through the fold. In the same manner, the diameter of the elongated rod has to be adjusted so that the folded container may be freely inserted into the hollow cylinder between the cylinder and the rod. The two films in the fold that are situated between the hollow cylinder and the rod and inside the slot of the cylinder have to be tightly contiguous in order to establish a good sealing characteristic of the sealer. An example for optimized sizes of a container and a corresponding sealer are: for a container having thickness of approximately 0.9 mm (the thickness of the two films), a sealer having a slot of about 3 mm, a rod of about 3 mm in diameter and an inner cylinder diameter of about 11.5 mm will adapt to sealingly block the passage of liquid from the liquid receiving cavity through the fold while at the same time the insertion of the fold into the cylinder is easy.
Reference is now made to
Container 100 is provided with a liquid dispensing opening 108 in one side, close to the bottom of the container. Liquid dispensing opening 108 is connected to a flexible drinking pipe 110. At the proximal side of drinking pipe 110, a drinking valve 112 is provided.
Substantially parallel and close to opening 102, an elongated rod 114 is provided. Elongated rod 114 is preferably made of a relatively flexible yet rigid enough polymeric material that is laterally attached to container 100 and preferably welded to it. A separated sealer 116 is provided. Sealer 116 comprises an elongated member 118 having substantially horse-shoe-shaped cross-section and is adapted to internally accommodate rod 114. Rod 114 can be inserted or pulled out from the interior of elongated member 118 only by sliding the rod through the side openings of the internal cavity in elongated member 118. The rod's diameter is too large so as to be pulled out through the slot along the internal cavity of the elongated member. Sealer 116 further comprises a handle 120 that is design so as to enable the user to comfortably deal with the sealer. Handle 120 facilitates the user to hold the sealer and slide elongated member 118 onto rod 114. Sealer 116 is preferably made of a rigid polymeric material such as acetal polypropylene or ABS.
In order to seal container 100, extension 104 is wrapped over rod 114 and elongated member 118 is slidingly mounted over rod 114 and the wrap. As mentioned herein before, elongated member 118 is mounted over the rod by sliding the rod and wrap into the cavity of elongated member 118 from one of it sides. Rod 114 has two ends, the first end is provided with a lateral protrusion 122 and the second end is provided with a stopper 124. In order to slidingly mount elongated member 118 onto rod 114, lateral protrusion 122 is threaded into the interior of elongated member 118 through an opening 126 in the member. Elongated member 118 can be mounted on rod 114 only through the end provided with lateral protrusion 122. Lateral protrusion 122 may be inserted through opening 126 while stopper 124, on the other end of rod 114, can not be inserted through opening 126. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the space defined within the passage in the sealer is not smaller than the total space occupied by the portion of the container provided with the lateral opening folded over the rod and the rod itself when inserted in the passage, and the slot is not narrower than the total thickness of the folded portion of the container and the adjacent portion when inserted through the slot.
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
It is preferable to design elongated rod 114 so that its cross section will be elliptic rather than circular and will be positioned with the ellipse elongated diameter parallel to the plane of the polymeric film. In this way, the rod is positioned in the interior of elongated member 118 so as to establish a complete and hermetic closure of container 100.
Handle 120 is provided with a hole 128. When sealer 116 seals container 100, hole 128 may be used in order to suspend the container.
The container is hermetically sealable if the slot through which the fold pass is slightly wider than twice the thickness of the container (the thickness of the container means the accumulative thickness of the two films that form the container). The thickness of the slot has to be optimized so that from one side it will be wide enough so that the folded container may be freely slided through the slot and from the other side, it has to be narrow enough so that water can not pass through the fold. In the same manner, the diameter of the elongated rod has to be adjusted so that the folded container may be freely inserted into the gap between the elongated member and the rod. The two films in the fold that are situated in the gap have to be tightly contiguous in order to establish a good sealing characteristic of the sealer. An example for optimized sizes of a container and a corresponding sealer are: for a container having thickness of approximately 0.9 mm (the thickness of the two films), a sealer having a slot of about 3 mm, a rod of about 3 mm in diameter and an inner passage diameter of about 11.5 mm will adapt to sealingly block the passage of liquid from the liquid receiving cavity through the fold while at the same time the insertion of the fold into the cylinder is easy.
It should be clear that the description of the embodiments and attached Figures set forth in this specification serves only for a better understanding of the invention, without limiting its scope as covered by the following Claims.
It should also be clear that a person in the art, after reading the present specification could make adjustments or amendments to the attached Figures and above described embodiments that would still be covered by the following Claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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| 139801 | Nov 2000 | IL | national |
| 144800 | Aug 2001 | IL | national |
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