GB2225000A

GB2225000A - Medical liquid container

Info

Publication number: GB2225000A
Application number: GB8925630A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Naoki Hotta
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-11-22
Filing date: 1989-11-13
Publication date: 1990-05-23
Anticipated expiration: 2009-11-13
Also published as: FR2639223A1; JP2696236B2; JPH02152652A; GB2225000B; FR2639223B1; DE3938630A1; GB8925630D0; DE3938630C2

Description

1 2 1 1.

MEDICAL LIQUID CONTAINER BACKGROUND OF---TI.JE_ INVEN'T I ON

Chemical substances sxich as medical goods are preferably contained in a sealed container so that these substances woi-lld not be deteriorated or degraded in medical effect and in ingredients caused by contamination or chemical changes due to oxidation, etc. which are occurred when the content of the container is contacted with atmosphere. This is especially true to a liquid-type or an ointment type medical liquid. and in order to prevent leakage or leaching of such medical liquid, a more perfect sealing is strongly demanded.

In a conventional generally-used container for containing medical liquid tight, the cap and the container are separated whenever used. This type of container is complicated in structure and becomes comparatively large in size. Therefore, this type of container is not suitable to a small medical liquid container for containing a single usage content.

Therefore, as a small type container for containing a single usage medical liquid, many proposals have been made on a seal ed medi cal 1 iqui d con tai ner compr i s i ng a con t a i ner body, and a plug portion for blocking the nozzle port of the container body and integrally formed with the'container body, plug portion, when in use, being removed by hand in order to open the container.

Mos t c) f the conven t i onal med i cal 1 i quid contai ners are I 2 of the type that when the plug portion is to be removed from the container body, a thin wall portion disposed between the container body and the plug portion is broken directly by hand finger force. The force required for such breaking depends on the thickness of the thin wall portion.

According to the conventional medical liquid containers, if the wall thickness of the thin wall portion is made thinner, the force required for such breaking becomes less and therefore, the plug portion can be small. On the other hand, however, there is such a fear as that the thin wall portion is accidentally broken and the medical liquid is flowed out.

On the contrary, if thicker, the force required As a consequence, unless the large, difficulty in opening And when the container the thin wall portion is made for such breaking becomes larger. plug portion is made excessively work cannot be avoided.

body is to be molded, a molding gate is located in the top portion of the plug portion and the synthetic resin material is charged into the molding dies from this gate to form a container body. At this time, the area in the vicinity of the tip portion of the plug portion near the gate exhibits a phenomenon in that th-e mole orientation of the synthetic resin charged into the molding dies are not orderly arranged.

Accordingly, when the plug portion is removed after the C.

3 container body is finished, the plug portion is accidentally broken in the midway of the removing work due to structural weakness thereof. As a result, the container body becomes unable to open.

SUM14ARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a small type medical liquid container including a plug portion which is particularly integral with the container body and adapted to block a nozzle port of the container body. The invention part i cu I ar I y re I ates to a di sposab I e type med i cal I i qui d container in which the nozzle port of the container body is opened by removing the plug portion.

The construction of the present invention comprises a container body integrally molded of a flexible synthetic resin material, a plug portion for blocking a nozzle port of the container body, and a cap member, the plug portion being integrally formed with the container body through a thin wall portion formed on a root area of the plug portion.

On the other hand, the cap member has an engaging hole which can be well fitted to the plug portion.

A first object of the present invention is to obtain a sealed small type disposable medical liquid container for a single usage.

A second object of the invention is to provide a medical liquid container in which even if the wall thickness of the 1 1 L.

4 thin wall portion interconnecting the nozzle port and the plug portion of the container body has a necessary and sufficient thickness for safely sealing the medical I iquid, the container body can very easily be opened by breaking the thin wal I port i on us i ng a separatel y provi ded cap member wh i ch i s engaged wi th the plug portion.

These objects can be achieved by the medical liquid container of the present invention. The concrete embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings and by way of detailed description to follow.

I t is no ted that the changes and modi f ications made by the spiri t of the i nvent i on are i ncluded i n the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION, OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a front view showing the whole picture, partly cutaway, of one embodiment of a medical I iquid container according to the present invention; Figs. 2(a) and 2(b) are sectional views of the enlarged portion of an important portion of the medical liquid container according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of an important portion of another embodiment; Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of an important portion of still another embodiment; Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of an im- 1 1 1 c portant portion of yet another embodiment: and Fig. 6 is an enlarged plan view of Fig. S.

EMUQD_LIIjEN'j.t5 The embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinaf ter with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The medical container A, as shown in Fig. 1. comprises a container body 10, a cap member 20 and a plug portion 30. This plug portion 30 is integral wi th the container body 10 at a nozzle port 13 of the container body 10 through a thin wall portion 33 (see Fig. 2(a)).

The container body 10 is integrally molded of a soft flexible synthetic resin material such as, for example, lower density polyethylene. The container body 10 comprises a storing portion 11 for storing medical liquid therein, and a nozzle portion 12 continuous to the top of the storing portion 11. The nozzle portion 12 has a greatly reduced diameter and is tapered at its tip portion. A bottom portion of the storing portion 12 is heat sealed by, for example, ultrasonic welding after medical liquid is filled therein.

The wall thickness of the nozzle portion 12 is thick compared with the wall thickness of the storing portion 11 so that the nozzle portion 12 would not be deformed with ease.

As is shown in Fig. 2(a), the nozzle portion 12 has a 1 1 cl 6 nozzle port 13 formed in its tip portion in such a manner as to be dilated in the jetting direction of the medical liquid. The nozzle port 13 is blocked with the plug portion 30 and a thin wall portion 33 at the root of the pI ug port i.on 30. More specifically, the plug portion 30 is a cylindrical plug body havi ng a round con f i gura t i on on i ts upper end portion and is provided with a flare 32 formed at the root area of the plug portion 30 in such a manner as to surround the external peripheral portion of the plug portion 30 and spread in the outer diameter direction while reducing its thickness as it goes in the outer diameter direction. The plug portion 30 is continuous to a bottom portion of the nozzle port 13 through the thin wall portion 33 which is cylindrically formed along the lower edge of the flare 32. and thus the plug portion 30 is integral with the container body 1 As is shown in Fig. 2(b), the cap member 20 is 0.

formed in a cap-like configuration with a knurling 21 so that it can be fit to the tip portion of the nozzle portion 12 of the container body 10.

This cap member 20 has a thick wall portion 22 formed at its tip portion. The thick wall portion 22 is.provided with an engaging hole 23.

The engaging hole 23 is designed such that it is well fitted to the plug portion 30 of the nozzle portion 12 of the container body 10, and when the cap member 20 is mounted on t C, 7 the nozzle portion 12, the plug portion 30 is engaged with the engaging hole 23 and an upper end portion of the plug portion 30 penetrates the engaging hole 23 and projects upward from the cap member 20 (see the two dotted chain Jine of Fig. 2(b)). The external peripheral portion of the engaging hole 23 is serrated to form a plurality of engaging projections 23a which are projecting in the radial direction (therefore, the valley portions of the serrated part exhibit a generally V-shape in section).

And, as is shown in Fig. 1, the cap member 20 is integrally formed with the plug portion 30 by crushing the upper end portion of the plug portion 30 in order to heat deform the same after the cap member 20 is mounted on the nozzle portion 12 of the container body 10. At this time, the upper end portion of the plug portion 30 is crushed in such a manner as to fill spaces between the adjacent engaging projections 23a and completely integrally formed with the cap member 20.

In this way, as the plug portion 30 blocking the nozzle port 13 is integral with the cap member 30, by breaking the thin wall portion 33 in such a manner as to -apply a force while twisting the cap member 20, the plug portion 30 can be very easily removed by a small amount of force. At this time, as the cap member 20 and the plug portion 30 are integral with each other through the engaging projections 23a, - 1 1 S there is no such fear as that only the cap member 20 is rotated idle. Also, the plug portion 30 can be easily removed merely by applying the cap member 20, for example, a force for withdrawing the cap member 20 upward.

As the engaging projections 23a are adapted to make the plug portion 30 and the cap member 20 firmly integral with each other, the configuration and number thereof can be desirably established.

As another embodiment, a cap member 20' may have a simple plate-like shape as shown in Fig. 3. At this time, the outer configuration of a cap member 20' may be of any desired shapes including a circle and a rectangle. However, a part of the cap member 20' is required to be projected from the outer periphery of the nozzle portion 12. The cap member 20' is fixed in.such a manner as to block the nozzle port 13 by heat deforming the plug portion 30 by crushing the upper end portion of the plug portion 30 after the plug portion 30 is inserted into the engaging hole 23. By virtue of this cap member 20', it can be prevented that a contaminated substance is attached to. the nozzle port 13. In addition, by applying a force to the cap member 20' in suph a manner as to erect the portion projecting from the outer periphery of the nozzle portion 12 upward (the direction shown by the arrow K in Fig. 3), the olu- portior,30 can be removed with a small force.

4 1 i n \1-1 9 As is shown in Fig. 4, a plug portion 30' may have an approximate square con f i gurat ion in cross sect ion and an engaging hole 23' of the cap member 20' may have a conf iguration which can be well fitted to th.e rotation of the cap member 20', the p 1 ug, por t i on 30 --- Upon thin wall portion 33 is twisted of f so that the plug, portion 30' can be removed from the engagi ng ho 1 e 23 ' o f the cap member 20' The upper end portion of the plug portion 30 may be crushed or not crushed. If the upper end portion of the plug portion 30' is crushed, the plug portion 30 can be removed in one direction without any rotation as in the case with the embodiment of Fig. 3.

As isshown inFig. 5, a plug portion intermediate portion which is formed in hexagonal configuration, and the cap member engaging hole 23" which can be well fitted tion 30". In this case, as the plug portion gaging hole 23" are contacted with each other larger twisting force can be transmitted.

30', may have an an approximate may have an to the plug por 3V and the en at six spots, a Also, at this time, if the plug portion 301' is formed of a concave surface 30"a and the engaging hole 23" is formed of a convex surface 23"b, (Fig. 6), the contacting state between the plug portion 3V and the engaging hole 23" approaches from a linear con tacting state to a plane contacting state. As a con sequence, the ability for transmitting the twisting force can 1 cl be more increased.

The plug portion and the engagring hole may have any optical configuration other than those of the above-mentioned embodiments as long as both of them are well fitted wi-th each other.

According to the construction of a medical liquid container of the present invention, the container boy is -formed integrally of a flexible synthetic resin material. Moreover, the plug portion is integral with the container body so as to block the nozzle port. Accordingly, the medical liquid contained in the container can be completely cut away from atmospheric air. Furthermore, as the container body has a suitable amount of resilient deformation, if the nozzle port is opened by breaking the thin wall portion and removing the plug portion from the nozzle port, the medical liquid can_be extruded outside.

Also, as a force can be applied to the plug portion through the cap member engaged with the plug portion, the container can be opened with a small amount of force.

Furthermore, in a medical liquid container having a plug portion integrally formed with a cap member by -heat deformation, even if a force is applied to the cap member in the direction for removing the plug portion, the connecting relation between the plug portion and the cap member is not canceled.

I c 11 Also, in a medical I iquid container having a cap member provided wi th a plural i ty of engaging projections around the peripheral portion of the engaging hole, the plug portion can be completely integral with the cap member in a state where the heat deformed plug portion is engaged wi th the engaging projections. Accordingly, the opening work can be performed more easily by applying a twisting force to the plug portion.

According to a medical liquid container of the present invention, when the container is opened by removing the plug portion from the nozzle port, the thin wall portion can be broken by applying a force to the plug portion through the cap member. Accordingly, it exhibits such an excellent effect as that the container body can be easily opened with a small amount of force without making the thin wall portion sufficiently thick.

Furthermore, by making the cap member and the container body as separate bodies, the container body can be molded without using a split mold. Accordingly, no fins (unnecessary projecting pieces generated during molding) are generated around the outer periphery of the nozzle portion. For example, therefore, it is particularly suitable when applied to a medical liquid container of the type which is used by inserting the nozzle portion into the anus portion or the like.

In addition, the plug portion is made large in diameter 1 c c 12 compared with the conventional products or otherwise the plug portion, as shown in Figs. I and 3, are heated to sof ten and crushed. Accordingly, there can be el iminated the structural weakness in the vicinity of the tip portion of Lhe plug portion during molding. As a result. there can be prevented an accidental breakage of the plug portion at i ts middle part.

Z 1 1 13 C -1- A- -1 -- M

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A medical liquid container comprising a container body integrally formed of flexible synthetic resin material, a nozzle, and a plug portion for closing or blocking the nozzle and i n tegra 1 1 y f ormed wi th the con t a 1 ner body through a th i n portion formed on a root area of the plug portion, characterized in including a cap member having an engaging hole which is designed in such a manner as to be well fitted to the plug portion of the container body.

2. A medical liquid container as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said plug portion and said cap member is integrally formed with each other by heat deforming said plug portion.

3. A medical liquid container as claimed in claim 1 and claim 2, characterized in that said engaging hole of said cap member has an engaging projection formed on its peripheral portion.

4. A medical liquid container as claimed in claim 1 and claim 2, characterized in that said cap member is formed in a flat plate-like shape.

1 i 1 1 14

5. A medical liquid container as claimed in claims 2. 3 and 4, characterized in that said plug, cap mem- portion and said ber are of any suitable conf igurations we] 1 f i tted wi th respect to each other.

A medical liquid container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1, 2a and 2b; Figure -9; Figure 4 or Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.

Published 1990atThe Patent Office. State House. 6671 High Holborn. LondonWCIR4TP.Purther copies maybe obtained from The Patent Office Sales Branch, St Mary Cray. Orpington. Kent BR5 3RD Printed by Multiplex techniques ltd. St Mary Cray, Kent, Con 1187