GB2399080A

GB2399080A - No spill drinking apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2399080A
Application number: GB0300994A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Stephen Paul Tollman
Original assignee: Vital Innovations Ltd
Current assignee: Vital Innovations Ltd
Priority date: 2002-06-14
Filing date: 2003-01-16
Publication date: 2004-09-08
Anticipated expiration: 2023-01-16
Also published as: GB2399080B; AU2003277067A1; WO2003105635A1; GB0300994D0

Abstract

A valve for liquid or fluent materials comprises a flexible valve member 1a disposed over one or more apertures in a relatively non-flexible valve seat 11a. When suction is applied to the face of member 1a that is remote from seat 11a, such as when a child sucks on a spout 27 on the lid 26 of a trainer cup, or pressure is applied to the other face of member 1a that is nearest to seat 11a, such as by squeezing a flexible tube or bottle on which the valve is carried, member 1a will be flexed off seat 11a and permit liquid or fluent material to flow through the or each aperture in seat 11a but member 1a will flex back to overlie and close the or each aperture to seal same when the suction or pressure is released. The valve may be provided with a handle 14, which may carry a relief or seating valve having a membrane diaphragm containing a slit (44, fig 23).

Description

The invention relates to a valve for liquids and fluent materials such as

creams and pastes, also known as a non-spill valve because it is particularly suitable for domestic applications where the liquid or fluent material is sucked or pressed out of a container but substantially nothing escapes from the container when the suction or pressure stops.

The valve of the invention has been designed in particular for the lids of trainer cups for children abler they have been weanedfrom the breast or feeding bottle. Such trainer cups are invariably carelessly held obliquely by the toddler when not in use or laid down sideways instead of upright or they are shaken vigorously. It is therefore desirable to provide the lid of the cup with a valve which avoids spillage but is nevertheless easy to operate when the child sucks on a spout provided on the lid.

Known constructions have made use of a slit valve of flexible material, in which the slit opens under suction and the material flexes shut at other times. Although flexible slit valves are generally satisfactory, they are necessarily made from a flexible plastics material which is sensitive to high temperatures and cannot therefore be steam cleaned or boiled. Also, it is difficult to make simple adjustments to enable the valves to be modified - 2 to suit the suction applied by toddlers of different ages or to adapt the valves to different uses, such as pressure valves.

According to the present invention, a valve for liquids or for fluent materials comprises a flexible valve strip disposed over one or more apertures in a relatively non-flexible valve seat so that, when suction is applied to the face of the strip remote from the valve seat or pressure is applied to the face of the strip nearest to the valve seat, the strip will be flexed off the valve seat and permit liquid or fluent material to flow through the or each aperture but the strip will flex back to lie over and close the or each aperture to seal same when the suction or pressure is released.

It will be evident, therefore, that the valve of the invention functions as a non-return valve when used either as a suction valve or as a pressure valve insofar that it will not allow flow in the direction opposite to that intended. For example it will not allow a child to blow bubbles into the cup. However, the main purpose of the valve according to the invention is to avoid spillage and to permit one and the same valve construction to be employed as a suction valve or as a pressure valve without requiring major redesigning. - 3

Preferably, in the case of a valve for trainer cups, the valve strip is wrapped about a valve holder or retaining ring surrounding an apertured hollow post of the valve seat. The strip and valve holder can therefore be pre-assembled and this assembly can be connected to the valve seat to form a unit which is subsequently sealed in an emplacement formed in the lid of the cup beneath a spout through which the child sucks.

The invention extends to vessels and containers, and especially ridded trainer cups, fitted with the above-mentioned non-spill valve.

Examples of the invention applied to trainer cups will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figs. I and 2 are respectively a side elevation and plan view of a valve member incorporating a valve strip for a non-spill valve; Figs. 3 to 5 are respectively a plan, side elevation and underplan of a valve holder for the Figs. I and 2 strip of the valve; Figs. 6 and 7 are respectively a *ection on the line A-A and a section on the line B-B in Fig 3; - 4 Figs. 8 to 10 are respectively a reduced plan, side elevation and underplan of a valve seat of the valve for co-operating with the valve strip of Figs. 1-2; Figs. 11 and 12 are respectively a section on the line A-A and a section on the line B-B in Fig 8, Figs. 13 and 14 are respectively a partsectional reduced side elevation and plan of a trainer drinking cup for toddlers; Fig 15 is a front elevation of the lid of the Fig 13 cup; Fig. 16 is an enlarged part-sectional side elevation of the lid shown in Fig 13 having the assembled non-spill valve inserted in the spout; Figs 17 and 18 are respectively enlarged part sectional front and side elevations through a modif ed valve installed in the spout of the lid of a trainer cup, Figs. 19 and 20 are respectively a fragmentary side elevation of a modified valve seat and an underplan of the valve seat; - 5 Fig. 21 is an exploded perspective view of a modif ed lid of the trainer cup of Figs. 13 and 14 and a further form of non-spill valve according to the invention, Fig 22 is an underplan of the Fig 21 lid, and Fig 23 is an underneath perspective view of the Fig 21 valve when assembled and inserted in the Fig 22 lid.

Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate a valve member 1 of flexible and preferably plastics material comprising a rectangular strip 2 terminating in thickened and widened anchoring portions 3. Figs. 3 to 7 show a preferably plastics valve holder 4 for the valve member 1. The valve holder 4 is notflexible. It comprises a ring 6 of which the hole 7 is wider than the width of strip 2. The ring has depending side walls 5. In the illustrated case, the ring is oval and the ends are formed with notches 8 of a depth substantially equal to the thickness of the strip 2 of the valve member 1. When assembled, the strip 2 of valve member 1 overlies the ring 6 of holder 4 as shown in chain-dotted lines in Fig 3 and passes through the notches 8, the thickened and widened anchoring portions 3 (not visible in Fig. 3) being tucked under the ring and held in place on its underface between the side walls 5. - 6

In a modification (not illustrated), the ring 6 of valve holder 4 is of stiff plastics material and co-moulded with a flexible valve strip to replace a separate valve member 1 that has to be assembled with the valve holder 4.

Nowadays, co-moulding is not a difficult technique for bonding stiff and soft plastics materials to each other. Such co-moulding would do away with the needfor side walls 5 and notches 8 for the holder 4 and thickened and widened anchoring portions 3 on the valve member 1.

The assembly of valve member 1 and holder or retaining ring 4 co- operates with a valve seat generally indicated at 11 in Figs 8-12 and also visible in Fig 16. This valve seat comprises a body portion 12, here oval in shape, a semi-oval skirt 13 depending therefrom and a handle 14 The body portion carries an upstanding hollow post 16 of oval cross- section closed at its top by a wall 17 but provided in the wall 17 with at least one aperture 18 and preferable at least two apertures or even three. The wall 17 at the top is curved longitudinally of the oval and carries four projections 20. The body portion 12 contains a central cavity 19 and of course the post 16 extends right down to the base of the cavity. The cavity 19 is larger than the cross-sectional dimensions of the post 16 to define a channel 21 surrounding the post 16 Before the valve is applied to the lid of a trainer cup as will hereinafter be described, the valve holder 4 carrying the valve member 1 is assembled - 7 with the valve seat 11. This is simply done by threading the ring 6 of the holder 4 with its oval hole 7 over the post 16. In so doing, the strip 2 of the valve member 1 wrapped over and under the ring 6 becomes positioned in an emplacement defined by the projections 20 of the post 16 and become taut over the curved top wall 17, the thickened and enlarged anchoring portions 3 at the ends of the strip 2 becoming trapped beneath the ring 6 and the bottom of the aforementioned channel 21 in the valve seat. The dimensions of the ring 6 are such that it is a push fit in the channel 21 of cavity 19 and also a push fit on the post 16. When pushed home, the side walls 5 of the valve holder 4 rest on the bottom of the cavity 19 of the valve seat 11 and the valve member 1 seals the holes 18 in the top of the post 16.

It will now be apparent that, if suction is applied to the exposedface of the strip 2 of the valve member I from above as viewed in Fig 3, the strip will be flexed to lift off the top wall 17 of the post 16 of the valve seat 11 and the holes 18 will be opened to permit liquid to pow through the post and out through the holes 18. As soon as suction is released, the strip 2 will flex back again to shut the holes 18 The same result will be achieved if pressure is applied to the strip 2 by pushing fluent material upwardly through the post 16. - 8

The amount of suction or pressure, that is to say pressure differential, required to flex the strip 2 off the holes 18 depends on the pre-stress applied to the strip 2 during assembly, which is governed by the length of the strip 2 between the thickened and widened anchoring portions 3. It also depends on the material usedfor the valve member 1, the thickness of the strip 2, the size of the holes 18 in the top wall 17 of the hollow post 16 and the height of the post. All these factors can therefore by utilised to vary the suction or pressure required to displace the valve member 1. The preferred materials for all the parts are plastics, best of all silicone for the valve member 1, polycarbonate for the valve seat 11 with handle 14 and likewise polycarbonate for the valve holder 4.

The assembled valve thus far described is intended to be usedfor a trainer cup for toddlers who are not yet proficient at drinking from beakers or ordinary cups. Such trainer cups 25 (Fig. 13) are provided with a lid 26 having a spout 27. The spout is made of relatively soft material moulded to the lid over a hole in the lid and it has one or more apertures 28 through which the child can suck. When it stops sucking, the cup is supposed to be leakproof andfor this purposes the spout is f tied with the previously described non-spill valve. Referring to Fig. 16, this illustrates the assembly of valve seat 11 and valve member 1 (the valve holder is not visible) in place within the spout 27 and engaged therein with a hermetic sealing fit. It is preferably a removable snap f t in the spout, for which - 9 - purpose the valve seat 11 is provided with a circumferential bead 22 (also see Figs. 11 and 12) engaging in a complementary groove inside the spout. The handle 14 on the valve seat 1I permits the valve assembly to be easily pulled out of the lid 26 for cleaning purposes.

As an optional feature, the ingress of air to facilitate rapid reduction of vacuum within the cup when the child is no longer sucking may be permitted through an air vent in the form of a pin hole (not shown) in the soft extension 27' of the material of spout 27 (Fig 16). The pin hole overlies a hole in the lid 26 and is normally closed by a pin or pimple on the top of the handle 14 at a position remote from the body portion 12 of the valve seat 11. Figs. 19 and 20 illustrate a modified valve seat Fib with handle 14b showing the pin 31 just referred to. When there is excessive vacuum within the cup, the pimple on the handle will become very slightly dislodgedirom the air vent or pin hole to permit air to enter but there is insufficient room for liquid to escape.

Figs. 19 and 20 also show that the handle 14 may be provided with an enlargement 32. This co-operates with a guide channel (not shown) on the underface of the lid 26 to help keep the valve seat in position. The enlargement 32 may be a snap fit in its guide channel. -

It has been found that the valve according to the invention is ideal for preventing spillage from the cup, even if the cup is laid on its side or held upside down or is shaken vigorously.

A modif cation of the valve construction is illustrated in Figs. 17 and 18 but the principle remains the same and therefore the same reference numerals have been used for equivalent parts but with the suffix a. The soft spout on the relatively rigid lid 26 of the cup is again indicated at 27 and the holes are at 28. The main difference resides in the manner in which the silicone valve member la is held taut on the hollow post 16a of the polypropylene valve seat lla to cover the holes 18a (of which there are this time three instead of just two or, better still a single slot). The retaining member or valve holder 4a is in this construction a snap f t in the cavity surrounding the post 16a and def nes with the base of that cavity two grooves 24 in the which the thickened end portions 3a of the valve strip 2a are trapped. The valve seat lla is again a hermetically sealed snap fit in the soft material of the spout 27. Although not illustrated, the valve seat may again carry a skirt such as 13 in the previously described construction and a handle such as 14 or 14b. The skirt enhances an airtight seal between the valve seat and the inside of the spout and the handle facilitate removal and possibly carries the previously described pin for closing a pin hole air vent against the escape of liquid. - 11

Another form of valve according to the invention is illustrated in Figs. 21 to 23. Again, the principle of operation is the same as previously described and therefore the same reference numerals have been usedfor equivalent parts but with the stuff x x.

The exploded view of Fig 21 shows the previously described valve member lx, the valve holder 4x and the valve seat Fix with upstanding hollow post 16x carrying projections 20x. The valve seat Fix is again carried by a handle 14x, with the aid of which the assembled valve is f lied to the lid 26x of a trainer cup and removed therefrom for cleaning The lid has a relatively soft spout 27x provided with three apertures 28x (also visible in Fig 22) through which the child can suck liquidfrom the cup.

The major difference in the construction of the non-spill valve in Figs. 21 and 23 is that the handle 14x also carries a relief or venting valve comprising a thin diaphragm in a hollow diaphragm holder 41, a tubular receptacle 42 for the diaphragm holder 41 and a hollow stopper 43 which is a push f t and preferably a snap f t in the receptacle 42 to trap the diaphragm holder 41 in the receptacle 42. The diaphragm itself is a thin membrane containing a slit 44 (see the underneath view of the Fig 23 lid). - 12

As in the embodiment described with reference to Fig 16, the assembled non-spill valve of Fig 21 is offered to the lid 26x by grasping the handle 14x and is inserted in the lid 26x. More particularly, with the aid of its bead 22x, the valve seat l lx is a sealing snap f t inside the spout 27x, whereas the receptacle 42 for the diaphragm holder 41 of the relief valve is received with a push f t in a tubular cylindrical socket 46 provided in the lid 26x beneath a pinhole 47 in the soft extension 27'x of the spout material.

The ingress of air through the pinhole 47 to facilitate rapid reduction of a vacuum within the trainer cup when the child stops sucking on the spout is permitted by means of the diaphragm or membrane of the diaphragm holder 41. More particularly, when excessive vacuum has built up in the cup, the diaphragm flexes downwardly to open the slit 44. After the vacuum has been dissipated, the diaphragm flexes upwardly to close the slit again and prevent undesired spilling As has previously been explained, the valve according the invention is particularly suitable as a suction valve for use with trainer cups, spillage being avoided when no suction is applied. The invention extends to trainer cups f lied with such valves and to similar vessels such as baby's bottles. However, the valve is also applicable to flexible vessels and tubes, for example flexible ketchup bottles or toothpaste tubes, where the contents are expressed by deliberately squeezing the bottle or tube and spillage is desired to be prevented when the squeezing pressure is removed. The invention also extends to such bottles and tubes, in which case the valve is built into the neck or mouth of the container in question.

When pressure is exerted, the valve strip is in this case stretched to lift off the holes in the valve seat when pressure is applied through the holes from the valve seat side but the valve strip flexes back to close the holes when the pressure is released.

The valve of the invention is also applicable as an air vent inlet valve for a container that requires air to be let in when a predetermined vacuum arises within the container. For example the valve of the invention could be provided in the base of a baby's feeding bottle to prevent the creation of excessive suction and yet avoid escape of the liquid contents. - 14

Claims

Claims 1. A valve for liquids or fluent materials comprising a flexible

valve member disposed over one or more apertures in a relatively non-flexible valve seat; wherein, when suction is applied to the face of the flexible valve member remote from the valve seat or pressure is applied to the face of the flexible valve member nearest to the valve seat, the flexible valve member will be flexed off the valve seat and permit liquid or fluent material to flow through the or each aperture but the flexible valve member will flex back to lie over and close the or each aperture to seal the same when the suction or pressure is released 2. A valve according to claim 1, wherein theflexible valve member includes a valve strip that is wrapped about a valve holder or retaining ring surrounding a hollow post in the valve seat and wherein the hollow post includes the or each aperture.

3. 4 valve according to claim 2, wherein the flexible valve member includes an anchor portion for securing theflexible valve member to the valve holder.

4. valve according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the valve holder is substantially inflexible.

5. valve according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the valve holder and the flexible valve member form a one-piece whole.

6. '4 valve according to any one of claims 2 to 5, Wherein the valve holder includes a notch for engagement with the valve strip, and wherein anchor portions are held in place by valve holder wall members. -

7. A valve according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the valve seat includes a channel surrounding the base of the hollow post for engagement with the valve holder and the anchor portion.

8. A valve according to claim 7, wherein the valve seat and the valve holder mate via a push ft 9. A valve according to claim 7, wherein the channel includes a groove for snap-fit engagement with the anchor portion.

10. A valve according to any preceding claim, wherein the valve seat includes a handle.

11. A valve according to claim 10, wherein the valve is constructedfrom a plastics material.

12 A valve according to claim 11, wherein the flexible valve member is constructed from silicone and the valve seat and the valve holder are constructed from a polycarbonate material.

13. A vessel including a lid incorporating a spout, and a valve according to any preceding claim disposed within the lidfor regulating theflow oJafluid through the spout.

14. A vessel including a valve accordmg to any' one of claims I to 12 A vessel according to claim 13 or claim 14, wherein the vessel is a cup, a bottle or a deformable and/or flexible tube-type container. - 16

16. A cup including a lid incorporating a spout, and a valve according to any one of claims I to 12, wherein the handle includes a pin for releasably sealing an air vent in the lid.

17. A cup including a lid incorporating a spout, and a valve according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the handle includes a guide portion for engaging with a guide channel located on the underside of the lid.

18. A valve comprising a valve portion and a valve seat in releasable engagement with each other, wherein the valve portion includes a flexible valve member and the valve seat includes an aperture that is sealed by the flexible valve member in the absence of any applied pressure.

19. A valve according to claim 18, Tvherein the flexible valve member is disposed so as partially to cover a void in the valve portion and wherein the valve seat mates with the valve portion via the void.

A valve according to claim 19, wherein the valve seat includes a protrusion bearing the or each aperture.

21. A vane, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs I to 12 and 16 or Figs. 17 and 18 or Figs 19 and 20 or Figs 21 to 23 of the accompanying drawings 22 A vessel, substantially as hereinbefore described With reference to Figs 13 to 16 or Figs. 17 and 18 or Figs 21 to 23 of the accompanying drawings.