Patent Application
20180125762
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The disclosure and prior art relates to water bottle couplable nipple devices and more particularly pertains to a new water bottle couplable nipple device for allowing a single nipple to accommodate variously sized threaded necks of fluid containers.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a cover including a top wall and a perimeter wall that is attached to and extends downwardly from the top wall. The perimeter wall has a cylindrical shape and the top wall has a central opening extending therethrough. A nipple is integrally coupled to the top wall and extends upwardly therefrom. The nipple extends around the opening and forms a seal around the opening. The nipple has a distal end with respect to the top wall and the distal end has an aperture extending therethrough. A threading engagement member is positioned on an inner surface of the perimeter wall. The threading engagement member is configured to engage threading on a neck of a fluid container.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A threading engagement member 28 is positioned on an inner surface 30 of the perimeter wall 16. The threading engagement member 28 is configured to engage threading 36 on a neck 34 of a fluid container 32. The perimeter wall 16 urges the threading engagement member 28 into engagement with the threading 36 to retain the perimeter wall 16 engaged with the neck 34. The threading engagement member 28 may comprise a coiled wire 38 that is configured to engage and threadably couple itself with the threading 36 as the coiled wire 38 is rotated when in contact with the threading 36 to releasably retain the cover 12 on the neck 34. The coiled wire 38 acts as a coil spring with a diameter than can change relative to the neck 34. For this reason, the coiled wire 38 cannot generally be completely attached to the perimeter wall 16 but would typically be attached to the cover 12 at one more discrete points. For example, an upper ring 40 of the coiled wire 38 may be embedded into or otherwise attached to the perimeter wall 16 to ensure that the coiled wire 38 rotates with the perimeter wall 16. The coiled wire 38 may include a free end 42 extending downwardly from the cover 12 to facilitate engagement with the threading 36.
In use, the cover 12 is placed on a conventional drinking or fluid container 32 having a threaded neck 34 to turn the drinking container 32 into a bottle. The perimeter wall 16 and the threading engagement member 28 allow the cover 12 to engage different sized necks 34 as needed by a user of the assembly 10.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
