JPH0810024A - Contact lens vessel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a contact lens vessel in which a housed contact lens is difficult to float. CONSTITUTION:When a liquid L and a contact lens R are put in the body 1 of a contact lens vessel C, and a cap 2 is fastened, the lens R can be held in the state regularly dipped in the liquid L since the protruding part 5 of the cap 2 is protruded into the body 1 to submerge the lens R in the liquid L, and the drying of the lens R is thus prevented. Further, since a ring seal member 7 having ring protruding ribs 8, 8 on the body 1-side seal surface is nipped between the upper surface of the body 1 and the lower surface of the (cap 2 to liquid-tightly seal the both, the leakage can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a container for containing a contact lens together with a liquid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a contact lens container K as shown in FIG. 12 has been used. In this container K, a cap 102 is screwed onto a cylindrical container body 101 from the outside, and an opening 10 is formed via a seal member 104 made of rubber or the like.
3 is blocked. Then, a contact lens (hereinafter, also simply referred to as a lens) R and a liquid L such as physiological saline are contained in the main body 101, and are used for storing the lens R or heated with a container to sterilize the lens R by boiling. Used for. Further, in order to separately accommodate the left and right lenses, a container in which two sets of containers K are connected by a base B or the like is often used. At this time, for example, the lenses to be accommodated are provided on the upper surface of the cap 102. In order to identify the right and left sides of R, characters may be displayed.

[0003]

In the container K shown in FIG. 12, a space S is likely to be formed between the lower surface of the flat cap 102 and the liquid surface of the liquid L. For example, in the case of a soft contact lens, the lens R is made of a water-containing resin and may float in the liquid L during storage or during boiling disinfection. At this time, if a space S as shown in the drawing is formed inside the container K, it is conceivable that the lifted lens R is exposed from the liquid surface to the space S and the lens R dries.

Next, the seal member 104 is the cap 10
When the 2 is removed from the main body 101, mainly the cap 102
Since it is held on the lower surface of the cap only by the frictional force received from the inner peripheral surface of the, there is a difficulty in falling off. Also,
Since the sealing surface is formed in a flat shape, in order to obtain a liquid-tight sealed state, the cap 102 is attached to the main body 101.
It is necessary to tighten it quite strongly against.

Further, when characters such as right and left are displayed on the upper surface of the cap 102 by characters, if the characters are formed when the cap 102 is molded, when the cap 102 is fastened to the main body 101, the characters are displayed on the container K. When viewed from the front direction, it may be located at an angle, making it difficult to read.

[0006] A first object of the present invention is to provide a contact lens container in which a space is unlikely to be formed inside the container and the contact lens accommodated therein is difficult to dry. A second problem is to make it difficult for the seal member to fall off the cap. And the third problem is to provide a seal structure that facilitates obtaining a liquid-tight state between the cap and the main body. A fourth problem is to make it easier to read the display or the like formed on the upper surface of the cap when the cap is tightened.

[0007]

A contact lens container for solving the first problem of the present invention is formed with a container body having an opening for accommodating a contact lens and a liquid, and the container body. A male threaded portion is provided with a female threaded portion that is screwed from the outside, and a cap that closes the opening in the threaded state is provided, and the side of the cap facing the opening is opened in the threaded state. It is characterized in that a protrusion is formed to enter the inside of the container body from the portion. Here, the tip of the projecting portion may enter the inside of the container body through the opening by 2 mm or more, preferably 3 mm or more, and may be separated from the bottom surface inside the container body by 2 mm or more, preferably 5 mm or more. .

In the container for solving the second object of the present invention, a seal member for sealing the container body and the cap is added to the above-mentioned structure, and the seal member is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the cap and the protruding portion. It is arranged at the bottom of the annular groove between the outer peripheral surface. Further, in the container for solving the third problem, one or more annular convex ribs are concentrically formed on the sealing surface of the sealing member facing the container body and / or the cap.

In the container for solving the fourth object of the present invention, a concave portion is formed on the upper surface of the cap so as to correspond to the protruding portion,
Another member is fixed to the recess. The separate member is, for example, for identifying left and right of the contact lens housed in the container.

The contact lens container of the present invention may include two sets of a container body and a cap, and a connecting portion for connecting the two container bodies to each other.

[0011]

According to the contact lens container which solves the first object of the present invention, when the cap is screwed into the main body, the protruding portion of the cap enters the inside of the main body to accommodate the lens to be housed. Forcibly sink below the liquid level. Further, since the protruding portion immersed in the liquid raises the liquid surface to fill the inside of the main body, a space is unlikely to be formed. Because of this, the lens is stably held in the liquid,
There is no worry of drying due to exposure from the liquid surface. The above-mentioned effect can be particularly remarkably obtained when the tip of the protruding portion is inserted into the inside of the container main body from the opening portion by 2 mm or more, preferably 3 mm or more. Further, by separating the tip of the protruding portion from the bottom surface inside the container main body by 2 mm or more, preferably 5 mm or more, it is possible to prevent the lens submerged in the liquid by the protruding portion from being pressed against the container bottom surface.

Further, according to the container which solves the second problem, since the seal member is arranged at the bottom of the annular groove between the inner peripheral surface of the cap and the outer peripheral surface of the protruding portion, the seal is maintained when the cap is removed. It is difficult for the parts to come off. That is, the protruding portion also has a function of holding the seal member. Further, in the container that solves the third problem, since an annular convex rib is formed on the sealing surface of the sealing member, the seal with the lower surface of the cap or the container body becomes a line seal state with high contact surface pressure. , The reliability of the seal is improved.

In the container for solving the fourth object of the present invention, another member for left / right identification of the lens is fixed to the recess formed on the upper surface of the cap. In this case, after the cap is fastened to the main body, the other member can be fixed to the cap while adjusting the display direction of the formed characters and the like, so that the display can be easily read without tilting. Further, the recess is necessarily formed in consideration of the strain and the flow of resin when the cap is manufactured by molding a resin or the like, corresponding to the formation of the protrusion on the lower surface side. Often In this way, by positively utilizing the recesses that often occur as a by-product of forming the protrusions, for example, the left and right identification display of the lens is improved, and the appearance of the container is also enhanced.

[0014]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A contact lens container C (hereinafter referred to as a lens container C) shown in FIG. 1A has two container bodies 1 in which a liquid such as a contact lens and physiological saline is stored, and two container bodies 1 screwed from the outside to each of them. It has one cap 2. The main body 1 and the cap 2 are formed by molding or injection molding of resin, plastic or the like. As a material thereof, a resin or plastic having excellent chemical resistance and less elution of components into water is preferably used, and for example, polysulfone resin, polycarbonate resin, polyacetal resin, polyamide resin, polyethylene resin or the like is used.

The main body 1 is of a cylindrical shape having an opening 1a on the upper side and an external thread M formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and is formed integrally with a base 3 as a connecting member. The lens container C is not connected by a connecting member such as the base 3,
It may be configured separately.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cap 2 has a female screw portion F formed on the inner side surface thereof, which is screwed with the male screw portion M of the main body 1 in FIG. Further, a cylindrical protrusion 5 is formed on the lower surface of the cap 2 in FIG. This protrusion 5
As shown in FIG. 3B, when the cap 2 is tightened in the main body 1, the cap 2 is inserted into the main body 1 up to about half its height. In addition, the protruding portion 5
The shape is not limited to a cylindrical shape, but various shapes such as a hemispherical shape or a stepped side surface as shown in FIG. 4 can be used.

By providing the protrusion 5 on the lower side of the cap 2, an annular groove B is formed between the inner side surface of the cap 2 and the outer side surface of the protrusion 5, and the bottom portion thereof is made of rubber, soft plastic or the like. The ring-shaped seal member 7 configured by is fitted. Sealing surface 7 of main body 1 side of sealing member 7
Two ring-shaped convex ribs 8 and 9 are formed in a (FIG. 5), and the inner rib 9 is concentrically provided so as to have a narrower width than the outer rib 8.

Returning to FIG. 2, a concave portion 10 having a circular cross section is formed on the upper surface side of the cap 2 so as to correspond to the projecting portion 5 on the lower surface side, and a disc-shaped identification member 11 is press-fitted therein as a separate member. The cap 2 is fixed so as to be substantially flush with the upper surface of the cap 2 by a method such as fitting and bonding. This identification member 11
1. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, characters, symbols, designs, etc. (for example, L / R, left / right, etc.) for identifying the left and right of the contact lens to be housed are formed and engraved on the upper surface side, It is formed by printing, labeling, etc.

Next, a method of using the container C will be described. As shown in FIG. 3 (a), a liquid L such as a physiological saline solution is formed in the main body 1 up to a height H 1 that exceeds, for example, half of the height.
If a contact lens R made of water-containing resin or the like is placed in the lens, the lens R may float on the liquid surface. When the cap 2 is put on the main body 1 and tightened in this state, as shown in (b), the protruding portion 5 pushes the liquid L into the main body 1 and sinks the lens R downward. It is kept immersed in the liquid L. Further, the height of the liquid L rises to H2 by an amount corresponding to the protrusion 5 entering, and almost no space is formed in the inner upper portion of the main body 1. This prevents the lens R from drying and the like.

Here, by setting the height H3 at which the tip of the protruding portion enters the main body 1 to be 2 mm or more, preferably 3 mm or more, the effect of sinking the lens R in the liquid L becomes particularly remarkable. On the other hand, the height H4 of the tip from the bottom surface 1b of the main body 1 is set to 2 mm or more, preferably 5 mm or more, so that the protruding portion 5 can be removed when the cap 2 is tightened.
A sufficient space is formed on the lower side, and when the lens R is sunk by the protrusion 5, the lens R is not pressed against the bottom surface 1b, and the lens R is housed in the container C with a margin. You can Considering the above-mentioned dimensional relationship, when the depth H5 of the main body 1 is, for example, 20 mm, the height H3 of the protrusion 5 that enters the main body 1 (that is, H5-H4).
The range of 2 mm or more and 18 mm or less, desirably 3 mm
It is better to be 17 mm or less.

When the cap 2 is tightened in the main body 1, the seal member 7 is sandwiched between the upper surface of the main body 1 and the lower surface of the cap 2 to liquid-tightly seal the both. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the contact state between the seal member 7 and the upper surface of the main body 1 is substantially a line contact state due to the presence of the convex ribs 8 and 9. A rib 9 having a narrow width and a high contact surface pressure is formed on the inner side to strongly stop the liquid L from leaking, and the outer side is further surrounded by the wide rib 8 to double-block the liquid leak. It As a result, a sufficiently sealed state can be obtained without tightening the cap 2 so strongly, and the liquid L leaks out of the container C even when the pressure inside the container is high as in the case of performing boiling sterilization. Is prevented.

Here, in the sealing member 7, convex ribs can be formed on the sealing surface with the cap 2. Also, the number of formed threads is not limited to 2, and only one or 3
You may form more than one. On the other hand, it is also possible to form a flat sealing surface as shown in FIG. 6 without forming a convex rib on the sealing member 7 or to use a so-called O-ring shape having a circular cross section as shown in FIG. it can. Further, when the cap 2 is made of a relatively soft material and the lower surface of the cap 2 and the upper surface of the main body 1 are brought into direct contact with each other to achieve a liquid-tight sealing state therebetween, the sealing member 7 is omitted. You may.

Next, in the recess 10 on the upper surface side of the cap 2,
When a discrimination member 11 for discriminating the right and left of the lens R is arranged as another member, for example, as shown in FIG. 1B, after the cap 2 is fastened to the main body 1, characters or the like formed on the surface are If the identification member 11 is arranged so as to be upright when viewed from the front direction of the container C, the reading of the characters and the like becomes easier.
Further, if the characters or symbols to be formed are raised from the surface of the member 11 in a convex shape or are formed so as to be recessed from the surface, it is convenient because they can be identified by touching them even with dark hands.

As shown in FIG. 8, the identification member 11 is fixed to the recess 10 by fitting a rib 11a formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof into a groove 10a formed on the inner peripheral surface of the recess 10. Good. Further, the identification member 11 may be projected from the upper surface of the cap 2 or, as shown in FIG. 9, a member having a small height may be arranged at the bottom of the recess 10. Further, the identification member 11 is not limited to a plate-like member, and various cross-sectional shapes such as a hemispherical member shown in FIG. 10 can be used.

Further, as shown in FIG. 11, the inner surface of the recess 10 is a stepped surface, and the stepped portion 10b supports the lower side of the outer edge of the plate-shaped identification member 11 and is formed on the lower surface of the identification member 11. Fitting recess 11c of recess 11b and recess 1
By fitting the fitting convex portion 10c formed on the bottom surface of 0,
The identification member 11 can be fixed to the recess 10.

Further, the recess 10 and the identifying member 11 are not limited to those having a circular planar shape, but may be formed in various shapes such as a polygon such as a triangle and a quadrangle, an ellipse, and a star.
In addition, for example, a triangular plate-shaped identification member may be arranged in the concave portion formed in the shape of a square hole so that the two planar shapes can be made different. Here, from the viewpoint of making it easier to read the display provided on the surface of the identification member 11, it is desirable that both the recess 10 and the identification member 11 be formed in a circular planar shape.

The identification member 11 can be identified by color coding or the like instead of forming characters or symbols on the surface. Further, the separate member arranged in the concave portion 10 is not limited to the one for identifying the left and right of the lens R, and may be, for example, a decorative member or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a contact lens container of the present invention in a disassembled state and a completed state.

2 is a cross-sectional view of the container cap of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the operation of the container of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a modified example of a protrusion.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a seal member.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a modified example of the seal member.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing another modification of the seal member.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing a first modification of the identification member.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing a second modification of the identification member.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing a third modification of the identification member.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a fourth modification of the identification member.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional contact lens container.

[Explanation of reference symbols] C contact lens container 1 container body M male screw part 2 cap F female screw part B annular groove 5 protruding part 7 sealing member 8, 9 convex rib 10 recessed part 11 identification member (separate member)

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A container main body having an opening, in which a contact lens and a liquid are accommodated, and a female screw portion externally screwed to a male screw portion formed in the container main body, and the opening portion in the screwed state. A cap for closing the contact lens, wherein the cap has, on the side facing the opening, a protrusion that enters the inside of the container body from the opening in the screwed state. Characteristic contact lens container. 2. The contact lens according to claim 1, wherein the protrusion has a tip that is inserted into the inside of the container body by 2 mm or more from the opening and is separated from the bottom surface inside the container body by 2 mm or more. container. 3. A seal member, which is arranged at a bottom portion of an annular groove between an inner peripheral surface of the cap and an outer peripheral surface of the protruding portion and seals the container body and the cap. The contact lens container described in. 4. A ring-shaped convex rib is provided on a sealing surface of the sealing member facing the container body and / or the cap.
The contact lens container according to claim 3, wherein the contact lens container is formed in a strip or more concentrically. 5. The contact lens container according to claim 1, wherein a concave portion is formed on the upper surface of the cap so as to correspond to the protruding portion, and another member is fixed to the concave portion. 6. The contact lens container according to claim 5, wherein the separate member is for identifying right and left of the contact lens housed in the container. 7. The contact lens container according to claim 1, further comprising two sets of the container body and the cap, and a connecting portion connecting the two container bodies to each other.