ES2343230A1 - Threaded device with air valve for perfecting conventional biberon containers. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Threaded device with air valve for regulating the output flow of baby bottles. The device consists of a tubular body (2, 30) engageable between the mouth of a conventional bottle and the carrier part of the teat. A conduit (15) communicates the interior of the device with the outside, said conduit (15) having in its mouth (18) a valve (11, 12, 13, 14) permeable to air. A rotating adjustment ring (3) mounted externally on the body (2) and disposed on the outlet opening (16) of the conduit (15), forms a pneumatic conduit (24) so that the resistance to air flow of said the duct is adjustable by rotating the regulating ring (3), so that it is allowed to manually modify the reference value of the pressure inside the bottle container, and thus allows to adjust the conditions of intake in analogy. To achieve a totally natural breastfeeding. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

Threaded device with air valve for regulation of the outflow of bottles.

Object of the invention

The present invention consists of a device threaded with air valve for adaptation to a bottle conventional, which allows flow regulation by means of manual modification of the pneumatic flow resistance of the system.

The device of the invention is screwable, liable to be adapted to a conventional bottle for infant feeding, in order to obtain effects beneficial in the process of ingesting milk or fluid food, thus avoiding the familiar colic of the infant. According to an example of application particularly advantageous, but not limiting, the device according to the invention is intended to avoid almost by complete the undesirable air intake through the hole of suction, allowing air exchange through a valve or teat independent membrane, and additionally getting keep the constant pressure inside the vessel for The whole breastfeeding process. The present invention raises the possibility of modifying, through a simple manual operation, the reference value of the pressure inside the vessel, and this allows you to adjust the conditions of the intake for the purpose of fully breastfeeding natural.

Another purpose of the invention is to allow a simple hygiene and maintenance of it, as well as maintaining the correct operation of the valve regardless of conditions of use and conservation status of the nipple.

State of the art

Feeding through a conventional bottle (basically consisting of a bottle whose mouthpiece is place a nipple with a single exit hole, held by a threaded washer), or by an air valve system ineffective, requires a suction effort by the infant variable during the breastfeeding process that will depend, for a part of the amount of fluid remaining in the container and the angle of inclination of the same, and on the other, of the air pressure inside the bottle. Indeed, when the liquid leaves the container when sucked by the infant, the air cannot enter to replace that volume of outgoing liquid, so that it generates an imperfect vacuum inside the bottle that forces the infant to suck harder and harder, until he can't keep sucking. At this time, the infant is forced to interrupt the suction and open the mouth to allow the entry of air through the nipple suction hole. This air is undesirably mixing with the nutrient liquid, causing problems digestives that add to the discomfort caused by a process of discontinuous suction with forced pauses, very different from the process breastfeeding instinctive In this way excessive ingestion of air associated with this annoying artificial feeding process is the almost exclusive head of the well-known infant colic; Y, additionally, the vacuum generated during suction can pass into the baby's ear causing fluid to enter the Eustachian tubes, which increases the risk of the appearance of otitis.

Different bottle-type devices have been proposed in the prior art to regulate the output of the food controlling the air intake. However the different Proposed solutions do not satisfactorily solve the problem in All its dimensions. Thus we find diverse inventions that we can group into several groups, according to the part of the problem that tackle or solve with greater success.

A prominent group of inventions (ES 2065048 T3, ES 1028589 U, ES 1030225 U, ES 1017343 U) consists of a collapsible and generally disposable container incorporated in the inside the outer rigid bottle container. These solutions, which jointly solve hygiene problems together with those associated with the formation of imperfect vacuum inside of the vessel (and consequent risk of colic) present without However the inconvenience of being expensive in the long term. Indeed, in the cases, more and more frequent, in which the breastfeeding stage is prolonged considerably, it is not interesting nor an excess of asepsis, which could stunt the system Immune of the child, nor of course the use of disposable materials which entail, in addition to the aforementioned increase in economic cost, a unnecessary accumulation of waste, not recommended since point of view of ecological sustainability.

Another group of inventions are those that they have the anti-colic valve incorporated in the teat itself (ES 0291545 U), usually in the outer body thereof, or in its base. The former have the disadvantage that if the child (think of children with sufficient independence to take the bottle by themselves) turn your head or bottle slightly during intake, it deforms the valve so that, in a few cases, milk comes out of it. In addition, these valves must go incorporated in radially asymmetric teats in which there are only a correct breastfeeding position, which is the one in which the valve is facing up. For their part, the bottles whose air valve is established in collaboration with the base of the nipple with the conjunction of the threaded elements have a performance dependent on the threading force, together with the additional inconvenience of forcing the client to acquire a bottle in which all its elements are provided by it maker. In these bottles it is advisable not to thread with force excessive, so that sometimes the milk comes out of the valve. On the contrary, if an excessively strong threading occurs, the Air intake system crashes resulting ineffective. Recently a utility model has been published (ES 1063649 U) which solves the problems associated with the threading force, although still has a slight inconvenience associated maintenance to the fact that valve and nipple belong to a single body undivided physicist Thus, being both fungible elements, a failure in the operation of one forces us to replace all the system.

The last major notable group of inventions (ES 2166902 T3, ES 2094717 T1, ES 1036158 U, ES 1037906 U), is that in which the solution to the hydrodynamic problem is addressed through of systems of pipes, valves or recesses more or less sophisticated, some of which even contain parts mobile phones All these inventions present two great inconvenience The first is cleaning, since it is either expensive access certain points of the pipeline system, or it is directly impossible. The second is maintenance, because these systems usually have delicate or fragile parts as well as bulky or prominent.

Description of the invention

To solve the indicated inconveniences, the invention provides a device consisting of a ring of inner diameter equivalent to the inner diameter of the neck threaded bottle container, which in its lower part is provided with female thread to adapt to the neck of the bottle and in Its upper part has a male thread to allow it to be adapted a nipple with conventional thread. Path size Threads will be variable to fit most or all of manufacturers of the market, the present invention not being limited to a single thread diameter.

This ring contains some pipes for allow sufficient air flow from outside to the valve that communicates with the "wet" part of the system (part inside where the liquid food circulates). At the ends of these air ducts have, on the "dry" side (external part of the device) an element in a ringed form that, in its cooperation with the end of the air ducts of the fixed ring, creates additional pneumatic ducts whose section and length can be modified without turning the mentioned one element with respect to the axis of symmetry of the bottle. The other end of the air ducting is crowned by a valve whose purpose is to allow air flow in the direction of entry, and disable outgoing fluid flow.

It is precisely these final parts of the air channeling those that deserve a more detailed comment. The fluid leakage valve in the state of the technique is done almost exclusively in latex or silicone and, in generally takes advantage of the flexibility of these substances and a particular geometry to allow the desired effect, so that at decrease the pressure inside the container, the valve will opens, closing otherwise. In the present invention, provides for the use of valves of this type, although, taking advantage of the fact that, with the device of the present invention we can physically separate the valve from the nipple, they are also provided valves of different materials or that take advantage of characteristics additional physical to the flexibility of the material itself to effectively separate the "wet" and "dry" parts of the system.

Thus, it is proposed to use the latex in its form usual, silicone, either in its usual form or with system of micropores, and finally it is proposed to use as valves, membranes with a micropore size that allows both adequate asepsis as a simple suction process. In the realization preferred, due to its hypoallergenic character, and mechanically resistant, the use of ethylene poly tetrafluoride is advised PTFE (gore-tex).

The fixing of these valves can be done in different ways according to the chosen embodiment. In the first one requires a threaded washer for latex valves or silicone (not necessary in case of goretex membrane, since it provides that it consists of a disc whose exterior is an elastic ring self-supporting) In the second embodiment, however, it is not necessary no additional element, so that elasticity is used of the materials to be fitted "under pressure" at the end of the pneumatic duct (this embodiment is not feasible with goretex membrane).

It is advisable to arrange the valve of the chosen type "looking" down when the bottle is in the position of transport, thus, during use no skills are generated between the direction of the flow of fluid and incoming air in the narrower part of the system, which could lead to bubbling or instability of fluid flow in the outlet orifice of the teat.

As for the dry or outer end of the air ducting, it is planned to have the commented mobile element, although it will be considered that replacing said element with a ring fixed will be a particular case contemplated in the present invention. The proposed design for this mobile ring in the embodiment preferred allows modifying the absolute resistance to the flow of air inlet according to a continuous function, but with gradient discontinuous. In this way we can obtain, in a simple way, to a certain value of the suction force, any value of flow over a wide range that extends from practically zero up to a characteristic value that will be determined by the state of preservation of the valve arranged at the end "damp".

Thus, unlike traditional designs, in which we have a specific number (two or three usually) of suction positions, in the present invention we have a number concrete suction ranges: the slow variation, for small flows, the one of average variation for average flows and thus successively for large, very large flows, etc., being possible all intermediate states between the minimum value and maximum.

Finally, the system is completed with a simple modified disc, which acts as a stopper, to separate optionally the container fluid system, during transport or during mixing.

As discussed so far, this invention refers to a threaded device adaptable to bottles, which could continue to be employees (with worse behavior) without its participation. This provides a particular advantage over other systems, and its use is the bottle being optional with or without the provision of the proposed invention. Similarly, a simplified version of proposed system, could be fixed directly to the bottle container, although the fact that the device is independent, it presents another series of advantages besides the commented, among which we highlight the following:

to)

the cleaning of both the device and the container is simplifies

b)

in case of having children of an advanced age or less demanding we can give up the use of the ring at will,

C)

the situation in the upper part of the bottle allows transport the system stays dry

d)

be It also allows the incorporation of a cap between the bottle fluid and the valve or membrane that is the most delicate part of the system, and the unique fungible, thus extending the life of this elements

and)

by Lastly, maintaining the uniformity of the internal pressure of the container is all the more effective the closer to the hole from the outlet the valve is arranged, as discussed in the paragraph next.

In another order of things, the hydrodynamic study of the complete system during breastfeeding shows that, except for some initial sips in which the suction resistance is slightly lower, and the final sips, characterized by "dry" work of the valve porous; in the rest of the suction the relationship between the suction force and the flow rate obtained is strictly constant, and almost completely independent even of the angle at which the baby arranges the bottle. The justification for this statement is simple: i) At the beginning of suction, the pressure in the air of the container is atmospheric, so that when tilting the bottle for breastfeeding, the highest point of the liquid is at that pressure, and thus The pressure at the end of the nipple will depend on the height of the fluid according to the known fundamental equation of hydrostatics. ii) In the strictly constant suction section, the baby makes a very slight vacuum in the air of the bottle that will vary depending on the liquid remaining in the container, thus the reference point (whose pressure will be constant and equal to the Atmospheric minus hydrodynamic load losses in the valve) is located on the wet side of the valve itself. From this point, whose pressure is constant whenever the suction force is, we can calculate the pressure at the end of the nipple that will depend, for a given fluid, only on the height, ii) Once the fluid level remains under the valve, we must consider the density of the air (lower than that of the liquid) to obtain the pressure at the end of the nipple, therefore this pressure will be reduced, although in a practically negligible way and only for a few
sips

With regard to cleaning, it is expected that wet end valves of the pneumatic pipeline can recover, since its useful life and economic cost will be predictably lower than the main body. On the other hand, yes the entire system is cleaned by immersing it in a sterilizing liquid; this does not lead to any problem, even in the case that the pneumatic ducts were not completely dry at the time of artificial feeding. In effect, the morphology of the preferred embodiments is such that a slight jolt of the system would be enough, when removed from the liquid sterilizer to make it functional, since when the position of the bottle during breastfeeding, the dry side of the valve is effectively dried by gravitational effect and therefore He would behave correctly. Additionally, the ducts of the purely pneumatic circuit (except for both initial valves and final) are oversized, so if your section is reduces by the presence of drops of sterile liquid, it is system It continues to function normally.

In short, the proposed invention allows, when incorporated into a conventional bottle, have a system of perfected bottle presenting the following advantages over to current systems

to)

To the being a multi-use bottle solves, compared to bottles with disposable container, the problems discussed previously related to a lower economic impact and ecological

b)

To the unlink the valve nipple, it can be used together with any type of nipple without being limited to radially asymmetric or those designed for a single format of container.

C)

The valve and nipple disengagement also allows, in case of wear, that only the damaged part is replaced. This advantage it may seem minor, however, in practice, it is common that the children "get fond" of certain teats going through a long and annoying adaptation period each time it is replaced. The proposed system avoids this inconvenience.

d)

With with respect to the bottles provided with "complex" systems the advantages, already mentioned, refer to better hygiene and simple maintenance

and)

By Last, with respect to all previous bottles, this invention allows a slight regulation of resistance to suction, by analog sealing of the pneumatic duct. This regulation can facilitate, among other things, the process of adaptation of the child to a new nipple with a hole size different, adapt the suction in case of milk or food with the same nipple (for example on trips), or simply look for the optimum point in each moment for the well-being of baby.

Description of the figures

Figure 1.- Shows three perspective views from different angles of the device object of the invention according to the first preferred embodiment.

Figure 2.- Shows a perspective view of the four types of valves provided for the device according to the first and second preferred embodiments.

Figure 3.- Shows a sectional view of the four elements of the invention, excluding the valve, in Your first preferred embodiment.

Figure 4.- Shows a sectional view of the main body of the device according to the second embodiment preferred.

Figure 5.- Shows three perspective views sectioned according to different planes of the main body of the device according to the first preferred embodiment (drawings a, b and c), and a sectioned perspective view of the device according to the second preferred embodiment (drawing d).

Preferred Embodiment of the Invention

In the first preferred embodiment of the invention shown in figure 1, the device for regulation of the outflow of bottles (1) is constituted by a body (2) that has a mouthpiece in its upper part upper (6) equipped externally with a helical shoulder (7) (shown in figure 3) to thread a piece for fastening of a nipple which is conventionally provided with said piece internally of a helical projection coinciding with that of said stand out

Inside the device has a lower opening (9) internally provided with a shoulder helical (10) (shown in figure 3) for coupling to the neck of a conventional container of a bottle. In the zone device center has a wide circular opening (8) communicating said upper and lower mouths (6) and (9).

In said circular opening (8) there is a socket (18) shaped like a socket, from which they start radially ducts (15) that flow through some openings (16) on the outside of the body (2) so that the circular opening (8) is at ambient pressure, as it is Note especially in Figure 3.

The device incorporates a ring of regulation (3) that is externally coupled and capable of turning in the upper body (2), so that the user can turn said regulation ring (3) at will. The functionality of This ring is to control at will of the user, the flow tire through the ducts (15). To do this, the ring (3) It has a series of perimeter grooves on its inner face (23) leading to one or more exit holes (31) to the device exterior. With this arrangement of elements, it it forms a conduit that communicates the circular opening (8) with the outside of the device, through the ducts (15), openings (16), grooves (23) and outlet holes (31). Grooves (23) create a pneumatic circuit (24) of high and variable resistance to air flow, which the user can regulate at will turning the ring (3), since in this way the distance between openings (16) and exit holes (31), and therefore the length of said pneumatic circuit (24). Alternatively, the grooves (23) may be in the body main (2) or in the aforementioned ring.

Also, on the inner side of the ring (3) you It has first stops (25) in the form of a partition longitudinal, which are conveniently located relative to few second stops (26) arranged on the outer face of the body (2), to define the limit positions of the rotating path of the ring (3), which in turn define the maximum and minimum points air flow resistance of the pneumatic circuit (24).

The main body (2) can have stiffening elements (22) to reinforce the body structure main (2), which can be made of a vitreous material, plastic or similar

The device of the invention incorporates a valve (11, 12, 13, 14) for air intake, preferably obtained from an air permeable and fluid impermeable material, and with sufficient mechanical strength for the performance of your function. The valve can be made for example with poly ethylene tetrafluoride (gore-tex), latex or silicone, in the case of the first embodiment.

In the embodiment of Figure 3, it is envisioned the use of a ring (5) provided externally with a protrusion helical (17) whose purpose is to hold the valve to the mouth (18) of the channels (15), the exterior being provided with mouth (18) of helical projections (19) for said purpose

In the case of Figure 2-a, the valve (11) is a circular membrane (27), which in its outer part has an elastomeric ring (28) for fixing to the outer edge (29) of the mouth (18) ) being retained by the
ring (5).

In the case of Figure 2-b, the valve (12) has a disc (32) with a protuberance (33) in its center with an opening (34) at its end.

Preferably there is a plug (4) that is fixed when threading the helical shoulder (10) arranged internally on the body of the device (2) with the protrusion helical arranged externally on the neck of a container for bottle.

The second preferred embodiment of the invention has been represented in figure 4, and consists of a device (30) same as the device (2) of figure 1 but lacking the mouth (18). Instead, there is a "L" shaped duct (15) so that the mouth (21) of this duct is manually accessible from the lower opening (9) as shown in figure 4.

For this second preferred embodiment, employ the valves (13, 14) of figures 2-c, or 2-d, which have cylindrical general formal, and they have at one end a hole (20) of diameter compatible with the arm (35) of the duct (15) to be inserted therein, and at the other end a hole (36) in the case of the valve (13) of Figure 2-c, or a plurality of holes (37) in the case of figure 2-d.

The valves (13, 14) can be made from of latex, silicone or other elastomeric material.

Finally it should be noted that the diameters nominal of the helical projections (7, 10) that it has in its part lower and upper are both equal, allowing to be incorporated into any bottle whose neck and teat clamp washer have a compatible nominal diameter.

Claims (9)

1. Threaded device with air valve for the regulation of the outflow of bottles, comprising: a body (2,30) that has a mouthpiece in its upper part upper (6) equipped externally with a helical shoulder (7) for its threaded coupling to a clamping piece of a nipple, and by Its lower part has a lower opening (9) equipped inside a helical shoulder (10) for coupling threaded with the neck of a conventional bottle container, so that a circular opening (8) inside the body (2) communicates said upper and lower openings (6, 9), at least one conduit (15) communicating said circular opening (8) with the outside of the body (2) through a opening (16) so that the circular opening (8) is at ambient pressure, a valve (11, 12, 13, 14) air permeable arranged in the circular opening (8) mounted on the mouth (18) duct (15), characterized in that it also includes: a swivel adjustment ring (3) mounted externally in the body (2.30) and arranged over the opening (16), said ring (3) being provided with one or more exits (31) and perimeter grooves (23) on its inner face so that said perimeter grooves (23) form a pneumatic circuit (24) between openings (16) and exits (31), so that the air flow resistance of said pneumatic conduit (24) is variable by rotating the adjustment ring (3). 2. Device according to claim 1 characterized in that the body (2) is made of vitreous or plastic material. 3. Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the nominal diameters of the helical projections (7, 10) are both the same. 4. Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the valve is made of ethylene poly tetrafluoride. Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it further comprises a ring (5) provided internally with a helical shoulder (17) for fastening the valve to the mouth (18) of the pneumatic duct (15) by threading on helical projections (19) provided in said mouth (18). Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the valve is made from latex, silicone or other elastomeric material, and because it has a hole (20) in which the mouth (21) of the conduit is inserted (fifteen). Device according to the preceding claims, characterized in that it incorporates a cap (4) that is fixed when the helical projection (10) is threaded with the helical projection of the neck of a bottle container. 8. Device according to any of the preceding claims characterized by having stops
(25, 26) conveniently arranged in the body (2, 30) so that they define the ends of the adjustment ring travel (3) to establish the points of maximum and minimum resistance to air flow. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the valve is made from a circular membrane of water-impermeable fabric (27), which in its outer part has an elastomeric ring (28) for fixing to the outer edge (29) of the mouth (18).