The present invention relates to a manually operated invertible pump for dispensing atomized liquids withdrawn from a liquid container, on the mouth of which the pump is mounted usable both in the upright position, i.e. with the pump facing upwards from the container, and in the inverted position, i.e. with the pump facing downwards from the container.
Many types of invertible pumps are known, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,636, U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,079, U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,001, U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,252, EP-A-0648545 and EP-A-1029597, however such pumps have serious drawbacks which limit their production and use. In this respect, some are of very complex structure with many component parts difficult to mould and assemble; others entrust the seal to small, light sleeves slidable on the surfaces of a holed cylindrical body, the mobility of such sleeves being very precarious and unreliable; still others are of considerable size below the seal gasket of the ring cap for fixing the pump onto the mouth of a liquid container, either axially (see the two said European patents and U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,001 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,079) or transversely (U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,636), making them unsuitable for use on small-dimension containers such as required, for example, in the perfumery field.
The operation of an invertible pump depends on the fact that the liquid enclosed in a container must be able to penetrate into the pump compression chamber by rising along a dip tube (of which one end is mounted on the pump and the other end is free and is positioned in proximity to the container base) when the pump is positioned above the container, but to penetrate directly into said compression chamber from a hole provided in the pump body, and of which the opening is controlled by a unidirectional valve which opens only during pump intake and only when the pump is inverted, i.e. positioned below the container.
The main object of the present invention is to provide an invertible pump having a structure which is very simple to mould and assemble, and of easy and economical construction, and in particular having a length and width (below and respectively laterally to the pump body) which are equal to or only slightly exceed the dimensions of a similar non-invertible pump. This and other objects are attained by an invertible pump comprising a main body having an upper end and a lower end and defining a chamber within which a piston is sealedly slidable connected to a hollow stem emerging from the upper end of the main body, at the lower end of which there is provided a hole from which there extends a tubular appendix for supporting a dip tube connected to the pump via a unidirectional valve system which is open to enable liquid to arrive in said chamber through the dip tube when the pump is upright, but is closed when the pump is inverted, in the main body there being provided an aperture which is open and free, to enable liquid to arrive directly in the pump chamber when the pump is inverted and in the rest condition, but closes when the pump is operated and its piston moves away from the rest position, wherein said aperture is provided in the upper part of the main body in a position in which it is left free by said piston when the pump is at rest whereas it is closed by said piston when the piston withdraws from its rest position on operating the pump, said unidirectional valve system comprising two balls and a hollow profiled element projecting into said chamber from the lower end of the main body in correspondence with the hole provided at the lower end of the main body, and having two ends both profiled to form seats on which a respective ball can rest and form a seal, one of said balls being disposed within the pump chamber and the other being housed and movable between the hole provided at the lower end of the main body and the cavity of the tubular appendix, said hollow profiled element comprising means for retaining the ball freely oscillable within the pump chamber in proximity to its seat.
Preferably, said hollow profiled element is formed separately from the pump main body and is inserted into and retained in the pump chamber in correspondence with the hole to which the dip tube is connected.
The structure and characteristics of the invertible pump of the present invention will be more apparent from the ensuing descriptions of two non-limiting embodiments thereof, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The pump shown in
The main body 1 is lowerly bounded by a base wall 6, in the centre of which there is provided a hole connectable to a dip tube 7 which enables the liquid present in the container to rise (when the pump is in the upright position of
The new and characteristic part of the pump of the invention relates to the lower part of the pump (with reference to the pump in its upright position of
The ball 11 is freely oscillable between the hollow element 10 and a projection (not numbered for simplicity) provided in the cavity of the appendix 12, the ball 9 being oscillable between its seal seat on the element 10 and the (inwardly projecting) ends of cylindrical sectors 13 which extend from the element 10.
The element 10 is simply inserted and forced into the cavity 8, its structure being extremely simple and easy to produce with high precision on an industrial scale, because the overall axial length of the element 10 is very small. It can also be seen that assembly of the described pump is very simple because the ball can be inserted into its housing by simply allowing it to fall into the cavity or chamber 8 before inserting into this cavity the element 10 on which the ball 9 has been previously mounted with considerable ease.
Finally, in the upper part of the main body 1 there is provided an aperture 14 which freely connects the chamber 8 to the outside of the body 1 when the pump is at rest (
It will now be assumed that the pump is in the upright vertical position (
To prime the pump, the cap 4 is pressed with a finger to lower the piston 2 from the position of
Starting from the position of
At the end of its upward stroke, the piston 2 passes beyond the aperture 14, but the liquid present in the chamber 8 cannot pass through this aperture, because the pump is used in the upright position. With the pump hence primed and upright, when the pump is operated the aperture 14 firstly closes to pressurize the liquid present in the chamber 8 and force the ball 9 to press and seal against its seat in the hollow element 10.
The pump can hence be used in the same manner as a common non-invertible pump of similar structure (in particular that of EP-A-1334774).
Reference will now be made to
The liquid present outside the pump body 1 flows freely through the aperture 14 to fill the pump cavity 8, when this cavity is under vacuum.
When the pump is pressed to dispense atomized liquid, the piston 2 immediately closes the aperture 14, to compress the liquid present in the chamber 8 and hence raise the ball 9 so that it becomes inserted into and seals against its seat in the hollow element 10: this position is maintained until the piston 2 reaches its end-of-travel position (
From that stated and illustrated, it is clear that the length of the invertible pump is very small, equal to or only slightly more than that of a common non-reversible pump, thus facilitating its use in many cases (for example in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics fields), and also facilitating its storage, its handling and its despatch from the manufacturer to the user.
The hollow element 10 can be easily produced with high precision (given its very small length) and can be inserted, as can the balls, into the pump body 1 also very easily.
The pumping system applied to the hollow main body 101 will not be described as it is the same as that already described (but could also have a different configuration). Again, in this embodiment the body 101 defines an intake and compression chamber 108 and presents an aperture 114 which is left free by the piston 2 when the pump is in its rest state.
A hollow element 110 rigidly projects from the base 106 of the body 101 and houses two small sealing balls 109, 111 (identical to the already described balls 9 and 11 and having the same function), a dip tube 107 being sealedly mounted on the free end of the appendix 112.
It is not necessary to describe the operation of the pump of
In the pump shown in
Instead of passing through the open free end of the appendix (12 in
With reference now to
In
As already stated,
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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MI2003A2083 | Oct 2003 | IT | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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4277001 | Nozawa | Jul 1981 | A |
4775079 | Grothoff | Oct 1988 | A |
5222636 | Meuresch | Jun 1993 | A |
5738252 | Dodd et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
20050089423 | Marelli | Apr 2005 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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0 648 545 | Apr 1995 | EP |
1 029 597 | Aug 2000 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050089423 A1 | Apr 2005 | US |