AU682187B2 - Multi-channel fluid dispenser - Google Patents

Description

WO 95/29869 PCT/US94/04741 1 Multi-Channel Fluid Dispenser 2 3 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 4 i. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a fluid dispensing apparatus, 6 and more particularly, to means for selectively dispensing one of 7 a plurality of fluids housed in separate containers by means of a 8 single dispenser head.

9 2. Prior Art There are several types of inexpensive liquid dispensing 11 apparatus presently on the market which incorporate a manually 12 operated reciprocating pump mechanism for the transport of fluid.

13 The dispenser usually includes a screw-on closure to releasably 14 engage a container so that the dispenser may be removed from the container for the purpose of refilling the container. Such 16 dispensers may have a trigger member, plunger or other protruding 17 element which is intended to be moved manually to operate a pump 18 piston in the dispenser, usually against the force of a return 19 spring, so that liquid may be pumped from the container and dispensed through the liquid ejection nozzle or outlet of the 21 device.

22 Tada, in US Patent 3,701,478 issued October 31, 1972, 23 describes one such hand-held dispenser useful for spraying a fluid.

24 Tyler, in US Patent 3,061,202 describes yet another hand-held spraying head for delivering a fluid from a vessel. Malone, in US 26 Patent 3,650,473, also describes a fluid dispensing head.

27 Corsette, in US Patent 4,618,077, issued October 21, 1986, WO 95/29869 PCT/US94104741 1 describes yet another such dispensing head. The foregoing patents 2 describe various hand operated pumps which are well known in the 3 literature and are incorporated herein by reference thereto. They 4 are all hand operated pumps for dispensing fluids from a container.

They all include a body containing a pumping chamber having an 6 inlet and an outlet. Such pumps normally have a fluid uptake tube 7 that extends downward from it and into a reservoir containing a 8 fluid to be dispersed, and a screw closure that removably affixes 9 the fluid uptake tube and the dispensing head to the reservoir.

A disadvantage of prior art dispensers is that they are 31 each capable of dispensing only a single fluid. This often limits 12 their usefulness or requires that several dispensers be kept on 13 hand...one for each fluid. Or that fluid reservoirs be manually 14 changed when needed. It is therefore the primary object of this invention to provide an adapter for a fluid- dispensing, hand- 16 operated pump, which adapter provides means for the selective 17 dispensation of one of a plurality of fluids housed in their 18 respective reservoirs from a single pump head or dispenser.

19 Another object of the invention is to provide an adapter for selectively dispensing fluids from a plurality of reservoirs 21 wherein the dead volume holding a fluid within the pump is 22 minimized.

23 The manner in which the foregoing objects are atAlieved 24 will be more apparent from the following description, the appended claims and the figures of the attached drawings.

26 27 L WO 95/29869 PCTr/US94/04741 1 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 2 The invention provides an adapter for a standard pump- 3 type fluid-dispensing head, which enables any one of a plurality 4 of fluids housed in separate reservoirs to be dispensed through the single head without physically disconnecting the dispenser head 6 from the reservoirs. The adapter can be modified to fit most types 7 of hand-held prior art fluid pumps. The adapter has a pump end and 8 a reservoir end. The pump end of the adapter non-releasably 9 attaches to the fluid uptake port of the pump dispensing head. The reservoir end of the adapter has projecting therefrom a 11 multiplicity of fluid intake ports in fluid communication with 12 their respective fluid reservoirs; normally by means of siphon 13 tubes therebetween. The adapter provides means for switching the 14 fluid communication between the various fluid reservoirs and the fluid intake orifice of the pump by simple rotation of the adapter 16 between detent stopped positions. An indexing arrow affixed to the 17 adapter indicates which reservoir is being selected for 18 dispensation. A detent, or bump, stops the rotation of the adapter 19 when alignment of the fluid conduit between the appropriate fluid reservoir and the pump fluid intake orifice is achieved.

21 22 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 23 Figure 1 is a telescopic vertical sectional view of the 24 switching adapter assembly of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a view of the adapter assembly of Figure 1 26 along lines 2-2.

WO 95/29869 PCTUS94/04741 1 Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view of the adapter 2 assembly of Figure 1 fitted into a prior art pump head.

3 Figure 4 is an enlarged scale view of the adapter 4 assembly of Figure 3, showing on of a plurality of possible fluid through the adapter assembly device.

6 Figure 5 is a top view of the outer housing of the 7 adapter assembly.

8 Figure 6 is a top view of the seal plate of the adapter 9 assembly.

Figure 7 is a top view of the upper gasket.

11 Figure 8 is a top view of the inner housing of the 12 adapter assembly.

13 Figure 9 is a bottom view of the inner housing of the 14 adapter assembly.

Figure 10 is a top view of the detent ring of the adapter 16 assembly.

17 Figure 11 is a top view of the threaded closure.

18 Figure 12 is a top view of the lower stop ring of the 19 adapter assembly.

Figure 13 is a top view of the lower gasket of the 21 adapter assembly.

22 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 23 Figure 1 shows a vertical telescopic sectional view of 24 the adapter assembly of the present invention and its structural and functional relationship with the prior art pump head. The pump 26 head P has a fluid intake orifice P1 and dispensing orifice P2 and 27 a conduit (not shown) providing fluid communication therebetween.

s WO 95/29869 PCT/US94/04741 1 The adapter assembly of the present invention, generally indicated 2 at has an adapter inlet port, 11, and an adapter outlet port 3 indicated at 12. The adapter inlet port 11 and the outlet port 12 4 preferably have small diameters and together provide a low-volume fluid conducting conduit through the outer housing 13. The 6 assembly of the dispenser begins with the attachment of the outer 7 housing 13 of the adapter 10 to the prior art pump. The outer 8 housing 13 is dimensioned to fit within the receiving portion 22 9 of the prior art pump P. The outer housing 13 matingly engages the receiving portion 22 of the prior art pump and is non- 11 releasably affixed thereto. This may be accomplished by adhesion, 12 or by spin welding if there are no receptive threads on the prior 13 art pump head, or by threading the exterior surface of the outer 14 housing 13, in the event there are female threads on the inner surface 22 of the prior art pump. The outlet port 12 of the 16 adapter 10 is adjacent to, and in fluid communication with the pump 17 fluid intake orifice P1. After non-releasably affixing the outer 18 housing 13 to the mating inner surface 22 of the prior art pump, 19 a sealing plate 14 having two holes therein is pressed into the outer housing 13 and bonded thereto as indicated in Figures 3 and 21 4. The holes on the sealing plate 14, shown in Figure 6, are 22 positioned such that one of them 61 provides an opening into the 23 fluid conduit 12 of the outer housing 13 when the other hole 62 24 engages a mating projection or key Al on the interior surface of 25 the outer housing 13. Next, an upper gasket 15 is placed against 26 the sealing plate 14. The upper gasket 15 has four holes therein, 27 shown more clearly in Figure 7, radially located about the WO 95/29869 PCT/US94/04741 1 *periphery of the disk. These upper gasket holes are dimensioned 2 to matingly engage the upper projection of the adapter fluid intake 3 orifice projections A2 on the top surface of the inner housing 16.

4 The surface of the upper gasket, which is in contact with the sealing plate 14, rotates freely against the sealing plate 14.

6 Next, the inner housing 16 is pressed up against the upper gasket 7 15 so that the upper projections A2 of the adapter inlet orifices 8 11 engage the holes 71 in the upper gasket 15. Thus, one of the 9 plurality of adapter fluid inlet ports 11 is in fluid communication with the adapter fluid outlet port 12. The inner housing 16 is 11 held in place with respect to the outer housing by means of a 12 detent ring 17. The detent ring 17, shown in more detail in Figure 13 9, is bonded to the outer housing 13 and effectively locks the 14 inner housing 16 in place with respect to the outer housirg, permitting only rotating motion of the detent ring 17, seal plate 16 14 and outer housing 14 relative to the inner housing 16. A 17 threaded closure 18 is pressed up against the base of the detent 18 ring 17 and secured in place by a lower stop ring 19 and lower 19 gasket The assembled adapter is shown in an enlarged view in 21 Figure 4. The adapter fluid inlet ports 11, which may be any 22 reasonably number, extend down from the adapter and may be 23 connected to separate fluid reservoirs by means of tubes. By 24 rotating the adapter assembly by grasping the prior art pump head in one hand, the threaded closure 18 portion of the adapter 10 in 26 the other and twisting, the adapter outlet orifice 12 is 27 sequentially connected to each one of a plurality of radially WO 95/29869 PCTIUS94/04741 1 distributed fluid inlet ports 11. A registration arrow on the 2 outer housing of the adapter is useful for designating which 3 reservoir is in communication with the pump head. A spring-loaded 4 (not shown) detent comprising a pair of ball plungers separated by a spring is inserted into a tubular chamber 21 within the inner 6 housing 16 so that the ball plungers are pressed radially outwards 7 in the inner housing to seat within detent holes in the detent ring 8 17. The detent ring 17 is shown in greater detail in Figure 9.

9 The detent ring 17 consists of an annular member with circumferential indentations therein which indentations matingly 11 engage the ball plungers of the spring-loaded detent housed within 12 the tubular chamber 21 of the inner housing 16.

13 The foregoing embodiment of the invention is conveniently 14 made of plastic. The adapter 10 may be generally regarded as a selector portion for use with a fluid dispensing device. The 16 complete fluid dispensing device of the present invention has a 17 dispensing head P1, a plurality of fluid-containing reservoirs 18 which form a reservoir portion, and a selector portion which 19 provides a selectable fluid-conducting channel between individual fluid reservoirs in the reservoir portion and the dispensing 21 orifice of the dispenser head. Obviously, many of the 22 modifications and variations of the present invention are made 23 possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be 24 understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise that as specifically 26 described.

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Claims (1)

1. A valve for use with a fluid dispensing pump, said fluid dispensing pump having a pump fluid intake port and a dispensing orifice and a fluidly communicating channel therebetween; said valve enabling the selective dispensation from said dispensing orifice of any one of a plurality of fluids, each said any one fluid being housed in a separate container, said valve comprising: an inner housing having a fluid intake end having a plurality of valve fluid intake ports projecting therefrom, and (ii) means thereon for releasably connecting said fluid intake end of said inner 15 housing to at least two said separate i containers; and a first pump end and at least two fluid communicating inner housing channels therebetween; and an outer housing having a second pump 20 end, said second pump end having means thereon for the non-releasable attachment of said outer housing to said fluid intake port of said fluid dispensing pump; and an inner housing end dimensioned to matingly receive said first pump end of said inner housing, and a single outer housing conduit therebetween providing fluid communication between said inner housing end and said pump fluid intake port and wherein said inner housing is rotatable with respect to said outer housing and wherein rotation of said inner housing with respect to said outer housing sequentially brings only one of said at least two inner housing channels into fluid communication with said single outer housing conduit. DATED this ist day of July 1997 RANDAL N KAZARIAN and DAVID P MILLS By their Patent Nttorneys CULLEN CO. -o r 8 O