EP0670186A2

EP0670186A2 - Liquid spraying vessel

Info

Publication number: EP0670186A2
Application number: EP95105752A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Takamitsu Nozawa; Kazunori Hashimoto
Original assignee: Yoshino Kogyosho Co Ltd
Current assignee: Yoshino Kogyosho Co Ltd
Priority date: 1990-12-04
Filing date: 1990-12-04
Publication date: 1995-09-06
Anticipated expiration: 2010-12-04
Also published as: EP0670186A3; EP0670186B1

Abstract

A liquid spraying vessel provided with a body proper (1), a cylinder (10) suspended in the vessel with cap-like member (30) fitted over the outer periphery of opening neck of the vessel, and a stem (17) erecting from a cylindrical piston (16) fitted into said cylinder and passing through the top wall (4) of said cap-like member, and a working piece (20) having a head (18) with a nozzle to open toward the front side fitted at the upper end of said stem, so that liquid in the vessel is sucked into the cylinder with the vertical movement of the working piece relative to the cylinder and spouted from the nozzle (19) through the stem, wherein said working piece is easily operated with auxiliary walls (6, 6) to serve as finger-applying parts and head guides are erected on both sides of the head of the working piece.

Description

The present invention relates to a manual type liquid injection container such as a spraying container, a foaming container or a container for discharging liquid as it is, and a container capable of injecting one of spray, foam and liquid selectively by switching a liquid injection passage formed in a head.

Background Art

As the manual type spraying container, a foaming container or a container for injecting a liquid as it is, there is commercially sold a liquid injection container which comprises: a container body; a cylinder depending into the container body from a cap-shaped member fitted on the outer face of the mouth/neck portion of the container body; and an actuator having a stem erected through the top wall of the cap-shaped member on a cylindrical piston, which is fitted in the cylinder, and a head fitted on the upper end of the stem and having a nozzle opened forward. The actuator is moved up and down with respect to the cylinder for sucking a liquid in the container body into the cylinder and discharging the liquid in the cylinder out of the nozzle through the stem. Also sold is a container which is enabled to inject one of those spray, foam and liquid selectively by switching a liquid injection passage formed in the head.
Incidentally, these containers have different nozzle structures but are substantially similar except the structure of the head having the nozzle.
In the aforementioned liquid injection containers of the prior art, the actuator composed of the cylindrical piston, the stem and the head is biased upward by the spring so that it is raised back by the spring after it has been depressed. As a result, the depression of the actuator is accomplished against the biasing force of the spring so that it requires a considerable force.
JP-U-642758 discloses a liquid discharge container in accordance with the preamble of claim 1.
Due to the force acting on the stem when depressing the head downward, there is a risk of bending and/or even breaking the stem during such action. For the same reason the length of the stem is limited thereby also limiting the amount of liquid being discharged when the actuator is depressed.
The present invention contemplates to provide a liquid discharge container which overcomes these problems.
In accordance with the invention auxiliary walls acting as a finger grip and guiding the head are so erected from the righthand and lefthand two side portions of the top wall of the cap-shaped member along a righthand and lefthand two side faces of the head as to allow the vertical movements of said head.
The auxiliary walls 6 and 6 of Figure 8 which are erected along the righthand and lefthand side portions of the top wall of the cap-shaped member, partly provide a finger grip, when the container is held at its upper portion by the hand, and partly guide the head 18 when the head is moved down, to prevent the head from moving to the right and left. Thus, the actuations of moving the actuator up and down by the finger are facilitated while at the same time the stroke of the actuator can be increased.

Brief description of drawings

Fig. 1: is a longitudinal section showing a container;
Fig. 2: is a front elevation showing the container of Fig. 1; and
Fig. 3: is a top plan view showing the container of Fig. 1;
Fig. 4: is an enlarged section showing an essential portion of Fig. 1 with an actuator being in a lower position.

Best mode for carrying out the invention

The embodiment shown in Fig 1 to 4 will be described in the following. Reference numeral 1 designates a container body having an erected mouth/neck portion 2. On the outer face of the mouth/neck portion, there is screwed the lower half of a circumferential wall 5 which depends from the outer circumference of the top wall of the cap-shaped member 3. Said member is formed with a hole 8 at the central portion of the top wall 4. The upper half of the circumferential wall is radially reduced to have a smaller internal diameter than the external diameter of the mouth/neck portion, and the reduced portion has its lower end face mounted through a packing 9 on the upper end face of the mouth/neck portion. In the upper half of the aforementioned circumferential wall 5, there is fitted a short cylinder 12 which is erected from the outer circumference of an external flange 11 formed in the upper portion of a cylinder 10. This cylinder 10 has a larger diameter portion 10a at its upper portion and a smaller diameter portion 10b at its lower portion and is equipped in the inner face of its lower end with a suction valve 13 of a ball valve. A pipe 14 depends to the bottom portion of the container body from the lower end of the cylinder 10. An air vent hole 15 is formed in the aforementioned larger-diameter portion 10a.
From the inside of the aforementioned cylinder 10, there is erected through the aforementioned hole 8 a stem 17 which is equipped with a cylindrical piston 16 at its lower end. On the upper end of said stem, there is fitted a head 18 which has a nozzle 19 opened forward. The cylindrical piston 16 and the stem 17 may be made of different members, as shown. In the shown embodiment, the cylindrical piston has its smaller-diameter cylindrical portion 16b erected from the upper end of its cylinder portion 16a through an inward flanged portion and fitted in the lower portion of the stem 17. These cylindrical piston 16, stem 17 and head 18 constitute altogether an actuator 20, which is equipped with a discharge valve. This discharge valve is formed in the shown embodiment by fitting a valve member 21, which has longitudinal grooves in its outer face, vertically moveable in the stem 17 so that it is defined by the lower end face of said valve member and the upper end of the bore of the aforementioned smaller-diameter cylinder portion. The valve member 21 is biased downward by a spring 22 which is fitted in the stem. This spring has its upper end engaging with the lower face of the inward flange formed at the upper end of the stem. On the outer face of the lower portion of the stem 17, there may be fitted a sliding cylinder 25, which has its lower portion formed on its outer circumference with a ring-shaped sealing member 26 fitted in the cylinder larger-diameter portion 10a and which has its lower end engaging with the upper end face of the cylinder portion of the cylindrical piston 16.
As shown in Fig. 4, said sliding cylinder is moved down together with the stem 17 by depressing the head 18, until it is stopped when said sealing member has its lower end contacting with the upper end of the cylinder smaller-diameter portion 10b so that the sealing member 26 shuts out the air vent hole 16. However, the stem 17 is further moved down with respect to the sliding cylinder 25. When the stem is to be moved up, on the other hand, the cylindrical piston has its cylinder portion 16a contacting with the lower end of the sliding cylinder 25 to push up said slider cylinder. If the container has its inside evacuated as the liquid decreases, the sealing member 26 is moved upward of the air vent hole 15. After this, the ambient air is introduced into the container body through the clearance between the inner edge of the hole 8 and the outer face of the sliding cylinder 25, through the clearance which is established between the sealing member 26 and the inner face of the larger-diameter portion of the cylinder by deforming said sealing member elastically, and through the air vent hole 15. In the shown embodiment, the nozzle opened in the front face of the head is used for atomizations. Despite of this fact, however, there can be provided a foaming container or a liquid discharge container either, as is well known in the art, by changing the nozzle structure into a foaming one or by making a head for injecting a liquid as it is. To the upper face of the head 18, there is attached a ring-shaped finger knob 30 which has its ring hole directed forward or backward. Said finger knob is sized to admit the finger tip into the ring-shaped portion. Said finger knob 30 has its finger hole 31 opened forward or backward.
As shown in Fig. 1 to 3, auxiliary walls 6 and 6 for acting as the finger grip and guiding the head are erected from the righthand and lefthand two portions of the top wall 4 of the cap-shaped member 3 of Fig. 1, and a rear wall 7 for connecting the rear portions of the lower halves of those auxiliary walls is erected from the rear portion of the top wall. In this embodiment, the head 18 is formed generally into such a square shape that it can be moved up and down while having its righthand and lefthand side faces contacting with the inner faces of the auxiliary walls 6 and 6.
These auxiliary walls 6 and 6 can be added to a variety of cap-shaped members 3, more specifically described in EP 05 13 350 A1.
As defined in claim 1, the auxiliary walls acting as the finger grip and guiding the head are so erected from the righthand and lefthand two side portions of the top wall of the cap-shaped member along the righthand and lefthand two side faces of the head as to allow the vertical movements of the head. As a result, the actuator can be operated by gripping the upper portion of the container body and the lower portions of the auxiliary walls when the container is held for operating the actuator. Thus, the grip position of the hand can be made higher than that of the case of no auxiliary wall, to raise the finger tip engaging with the finger knob thereby to increase the stroke of the actuator. Moreover, the head can be prevented from shaking by the guidance of the auxiliary walls, while it is being moved up and down, so that the operation of the actuator be facilitated.

Claims

A liquid injection container comprising: a container body (1); a cylinder depending into said container body from a cap-shaped member (3) fitted on the outer face of the mouth/neck portion of said container body; and an actuator (20) having a stem (17) erected through the top wall (4) of said cap-shaped member from a cylindrical piston, which is fitted in said cylinder, and a head (18) fitted on the upper end of said stem and having a nozzle opened forward, whereby said actuator is moved up and down with respect to said cylinder for sucking a liquid in said container body into said cylinder and discharging the liquid in said cylinder out of said nozzle (19) through said stem, characterized in that a pair of auxiliary walls (6, 6) for protecting and guiding said head (18) extend upwardly from a top surface of said cap-shaped member (3) along respective opposed side surfaces of said head (18), said pair of auxiliary walls (6, 6) are arranged on opposed sides of the stem (17) at generally right angles to the direction to which the nozzle (19) is oriented, such that the liquid can be discharged outwardly from the nozzle (19) through a gap between said pair of auxiliary walls (6, 6).