GB905406A - Closure means for containers such as metal beer casks - Google Patents

Abstract

905,406. Pipe joints; dispensing liquids by gaseous pressure. WATNEY MANN Ltd. Nov. 19, 1958 [Sept. 2, 1957; March 6, 1958], Nos. 27524/57 and 7206/58. Classes 99(1) and 102(2). [Also in Group XVII] A closure for a liquid container, such as a beer cask, and for making separate gas and liquid connections with an extractor device, comprises an inner neck portion 14 to be housed within but spaced from the container dispensing opening 2, sealing means 9 and securing means 8, 11 for sealing and securing the inner neck portion in position, a delivery pipe 7 extending from the inner neck portion 14 to the lower part of the container, and separate valve controlled passages 20, 5, for the transfer of liquid through the delivery pipe 7 and gas to or from the upper region of the container through said inner neck portion 14 and adapted to be opened by insertion into said portion of a suitably constructed liquid extractor device 23 making separate gas and liquid connections 38, 28 with the respective passages. As shown the valve means controlling the passages 5 and 20, comprises a cap 19 with apertured side walls, slidable in an annular valve body 16 of rubbery material, the valve body 16 being itself slidable in a housing 6. When the extractor device 23 is pushed down and twisted to complete a bayonet connection between it and a ring 11, the resulting movements of a pipe 27 in the extractor first causes the valve 19 to slide out of the valve body 16 to expose its ports 20, whereafter the flange 22 on pipe 27 forces the valve body 16 downwardly. The coupling action thus causes the pipe 27 to seat on the body 16 in a manner completing a liquid path from the delivery pipe 7 to the outlet 28 controlled by a tap 30. The slightly delayed downward movement of the body 16 with respect to the valve 19 opens gas passages 5 in the housing 6. Gas applied to an inlet 38 then flows past a sealing flap ring 35 and through the passages 5 to cause the contents of the cask to be expelled under pressure. The first Provisional Specification describes a construction in which the closure comprises a disc provided with a closure valve, for seating on a shoulder such as the shoulder 3, and an inner neck 14, which may be a screw plug, for holding the disc in position together with a sealing gasket between the inner neck and the disc. The inlet valve may be a central aperture in the disc and the resiliently mounted plate for closing it, the plate being on the inner side of the disc so as to be pushed away by insertion of a filler or withdrawal tube and to be spring returned as the tube is withdrawn. Alternatively the plate may itself be resilient and joined at or towards one edge to the under face of the disc. In another form the plate and the disc are integral, for example by cutting from a flat sheet and then folding so that the plate over lies the disc. The inner neck portion 14 is shaped to receive a seal such as a crown cork. Specification 905,407 is referred to.