JPH02139347A - Bottle giving liquid in controllable manner by dropping - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To controllably dispense the liquid contents as the liquid drops within a predetermined size range by providing an insert element having an internal bore of selected cross-sectional area and length for selectively regulating the rate of flow of liquid contents from a bottle. CONSTITUTION: The regulated flow of the liquid contents 18 is dispensed from an internal bore 34 of an insert element 32 by quietly pressing a bottle body. The flow of liquid from the insert element 34 can be kept slow enough for sufficiently filling a frustro-conical space defined by a face 26 by the co-effect of the surface tension and the small bore 34 of predetermined diameter 'X' and length 'L'. As a result, the sufficient liquid is passed through the bore 34, and enter a depth end part defined by a face 30, and the liquid increases there. Further a neck portion having the predetermined diameter 'D' and depth 'd' of a recess 30 is formed at a narrowed portion 22 for forming the individual drops 20 by dispensing the liquid from the bottle, so that the drops are released as the liquid drops of predetermined size, that is, at least a permittable diameter size.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a bottle for dispensing liquid contents by individual drops, and more particularly to a bottle with a predetermined cross-sectional area that regulates the flow to produce liquid droplets within a predetermined size range. The invention relates to a bottle having a dispensing tip formed to contain an insert having a lumen of length.

There are many situations in which the liquid material is most advantageously applied in the form of droplets, preferably within a predetermined size range. Such applications involve the administration of a fixed amount of a drug, eg, an eye drop, to the patient's eyes, the administration of which must avoid overdosing the drug. Normally in such situations, the bottle containing the liquid contents is typically undone by popping the lid off, and the user then squeezes the bottle out and places it in a selected position, e.g. on the eye. One or more drops of drug are dispensed through the distal tip.

Such bottles are typically made of a flexible plastic material and the tip generally has the elongated profile of a cone with an aperture through which individual droplets are formed before leaving the bottle for deposition at the intended site. has.

Is the liquid content flowing from the bottle to the tip in a relatively thin manner for dripping? If ff1l is not carried out, there is always a risk of a forceful jet or dribbling flow of the liquid contents resulting in undesirable dosing. It has long been known that a certain amount of constricted mouth or passageway that limits the rate at which the liquid contents flow from the bottle is beneficial. The practical problems that make this known solution useful concern an economically viable method of manufacturing bottle tops containing such contents.

Most plastic materials that are safe and convenient for the type of use in question are thermoplastics, and the constant amount of narrow opening through which the liquid contents must flow into the tip of the bottle when the tip of such a bottle is formed is Requires placement of very small diameter cores.

This core must subsequently be removed without disturbing the molded part obtained. For applications such as a dose of eye drops, such an orifice should be in the range of 130-150μ in diameter;
Many attempts have been made to utilize metal wire of this diameter as a core to create such a mouth. '5! However, due to the high molding temperature and the force required to separate the material f4 and the various elements, the core wire tends to break quite often and remains in the mouth where it must be removed and removed.

This results in significant quality control problems for manufacturers.
Each such tip is not necessarily inspected to ensure that the core wire has been effectively removed without fF'q remaining tips.

Solutions to this problem are being sought in various countries, including U.S. Patent No. 3.276 by Lancaster,
Including No. 639, the accuracy of the dropper is 1 meter of liquid! Hit 40
Each drop is 0.05mj with an accuracy of ±2V2% in such a way that it is ±1 drop! A problem was posed that yields a series of dosages with a capacity of . Lancaster's device utilized a thin lumen tube with a conical section that expanded at its most distal end.

Another example of this technique is U.S. Patent No. 3, by Danoff et al.
No. 276.847, which teaches a microtitration tubular dropper that also includes a long tubular element with a flared conical end. Other national examples include, for example, Swiss Patent No. 474.412, in which the bottle has an outwardly conically open tip and a frustro.
) Fluid can flow through the small mouth at the bottom of the conical part,
FR 821.258 to Regard teaches a narrow inner diameter tubular section with a relatively wide open conical end. As mentioned earlier, a major problem in the manufacture of such devices is the location of the core wire during the shaping of the bottle tip to ensure that it does not break and that the remaining mouth can perform the desired function. be.

The flow of liquid to a tip designed to emit droplets in a certain size range is therefore effectively regulated so that there is relatively little risk of producing too many droplets or too large a size of droplets. A solution is needed to assure manufacturers of bottles that dispense liquid contents in droplets that can be manufactured with consistent quality control.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a bottle for controlled dispensing of liquid contents as droplets delivered in a range of predetermined sizes.

Another object of the invention is a dispensing tip which is easily manufactured of plastic material and which ensures that the flow of the liquid contents from the bottle is regulated so as to be ejected as droplets which are dispensed in a predetermined size range. The present invention is to provide a bottle having the following properties.

It is further an object of the present invention to easily manufacture a bottle to suit the required range containing a certain amount of droplets of liquid content from a variety of bottles which, by selection of insert elements, can be adapted to any number of drops in the size range. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispensing tip element suitable for use with a bottle (or other liquid container) capable of dispensing with water.

A further related object of the present invention is to ensure that the flow rate of liquid contents from a bottle is selectively adjusted to facilitate dispensing the liquid contents, such as individual droplets, within a predetermined size range. An object of the present invention is to provide an insert element having an internal lumen of a predetermined cross-sectional area and length.

These and other related objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing a bottle for the controlled dispensing of liquid contents as droplets dispensed within a predetermined size range, the dispensing tip portion being individually dispensing. An elongated frustro circle with a wide end that produces a droplet of liquid and a narrow end that receives a regulated flow of liquid from the contents of the bottle! (the insert element formed internally as a C-shaped outwardly open passageway and regulating T1 body flow has an internal lumen of a predetermined cross-sectional area and length;
The insert element is located at the narrow end of the tip section to regulate the flow of liquid from the bottle to the tip section. Another aspect of the invention provides for an annular recess having a predetermined depth and a cross-sectional area larger than the wide end of the frustro-conical passageway and communicating therewith to control liquid droplet volume within a predetermined size range. Formed with recesses for possible separation.

Still further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, in which only the preferred embodiments of the invention are presented and are briefly described by specific examples of the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. It is conceivable that the invention is capable of other different embodiments and that its several details may be changed in various obvious aspects, all without departing from the invention.

Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative examples and not as limitations, with the invention being defined only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Bottle 10 formed according to a preferred embodiment of the invention
The bottle has a shoulder 12 towards the open end which protects the liquid contents of the bottle from contamination by surrounding dust, bacteria etc., which allows the bottle to be fitted with a closure cap (not shown) when not in use. ) is attached to the outside to accommodate the

The dispensing ends of such bottles 10 are conveniently formed as extensions 14 having ends 16, each of which is ejected in the form of a droplet 20 forming a neck 22, just before the liquid contents 18 of the bottle separate from the bottle. .

Such bottles are usually made of flexible plastic materials, especially considering cost, manufacturing convenience, amenability to sterilization for containing sensitive drugs, and flexibility for ease of transportation, handling, and use. There is.

As a practical matter, the manufacture of such bottles, particularly their tips, involves various modes of molding thermoplastic materials.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which is a vertical cross-sectional view along the axis of a typical bottle in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. There is probably a liquid content 1 under the tip of the bottle 10.
Bottle 1, which will contain some air, is placed on the surface further above 8.
The upper part 24 of the inner volume of 0 can be seen. A small volume 118 of the liquid contents of the bottle, forced by the vertical bottle, i.e. by its uppermost tip towards the tip 16, is bounded by the wall 26 and hollowed at the bottom 28 if the bottle has been used at least once. can be expected to remain within the tapered base of an elongated frustrocone.

The flared surface of the frustro-conical surface 26 is directed toward the distal end of the bottle, i.e., the outermost portion of the distal end adjacent the distal end surface 16 thereof.

According to one aspect of the invention, a droplet of a predetermined size is generated;
An annular recess bounded by an outer cylindrical surface 30 of diameter "D" and depth "d" is formed as illustrated in FIG. 2 to aid in convenient collective continuous ejection by individual droplets. can be done.

A port, which is not numbered to avoid confusion, is formed in the bottom 28 having a diameter small enough to accommodate the insert 32, which will be described more fully below.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, if the mouth of a narrow lumen is to be formed at the bottom of the frustroconical portion bounded by surface 26, a very small diameter (e.g. 130-150
The core wire of μ) is precisely located and must be removed intact, leaving behind a narrow lumen opening. Experiments have shown that due to the physical handling of the wire and the pressure involved in the process of producing the thermoplastic material, such thin core wires often break off and remain in the hole formed when the bottle tip is removed from the mold. When one of the forming devices is so damaged, i.e. when the wire creating the spout is no longer available to form the spout of the continuous bottle tip being bent and molded, many spoutless bottle tips is produced and must be found and disposed of. This requires very precise quality control since the bottle cannot otherwise be filled with liquid or, if filled, cannot be dispensed with liquid. Such core wire breakage also places additional stress on the maintenance and maintenance of the forming equipment. All of this adds up to additional costs and serious quality control issues.

The improvements in the technique provided by the present invention allow for effective control of the fluid flow rate when the user decides to dispense (internal lumens that are carefully selected in consideration of the fluid being dispensed). An insert element 32 is provided preformed of a moldable material in place within the bottom 28 to have a diameter "X" and a total lumen length QL. The surface can be textured or vice versa as will be understood by those skilled in the art to be amenable to sealing/bonding with the bottle material molded around it. Although the length of "L" is shown to be somewhat longer than the thickness "d", this is not required; one skilled in the art can readily envision approaches that allow for other length relationships.

Although lumen 34 is shown in FIG. 2 as a straight cylindrical section, this is not absolutely necessary. An important feature is that lumen 34 provides desired flow rate regulation of liquid contents 18 from bottle 10. In fact, for manufacturing convenience, insert element 32 can simply be a short length of uniform cylindrical tube with an internal lumen "X" cut to the appropriate length "L".

Known techniques for locating the core can be utilized, particularly since the outer dimensions of the insert element 32 are coupled such that it is longer than another required core having an outer diameter comparable to "X". The details of how the bottle tip is shaped around the insert element 32 are not critical to evaluating the advantages of the present invention.

Given a shaped bottle with insert element 32 in the location determined by FIG.
is at the bottom, remove or remove the protective cap that is normally placed on the shoulder 12 of the bottle being upside down, and then very gently squeeze out the body of the bottle to adjust the liquid contents of the bottle for the day. The flow must be vented through the interior lumen 34 of the insert element 32. Due to surface tension effects and small diameter “X” and pre-selected length “L”
Due to the cooperative effect of the small lumen 34, the flow of liquid from the insert 34 can be kept slow enough to fill the frustoconical space bounded by the surface 26.

Eventually enough liquid will pass 1 ffl through lumen 34 and the liquid will pass through surface 3
It enters the recessed end section marked by 0, where the liquid increases. Furthermore, as liquid is expelled from the bottle, a drop sized by the diameter "D" and the depth "d" of the recess 30 forms a neck at 22 as the droplet 20 and has a predetermined size, i.e., a small ( Both are ejected as droplets within an acceptable diameter size.

The lumen 34 presents a flow impedance of a known magnitude, selected with care to the viscosity and other suitable parameters related to the liquid content 18, so that the liquid constriction is controlled. ff
Deliberately avoid uncontrolled squirts or rapid droplets from the bottle. In other words, the present invention provides a highly consistent, inexpensive, and easy to manufacture structure for the controlled dispensing of liquid in individual drop volumes within a given size range.

A distinct advantage of the construction according to the preferred embodiment is that the separate bins having the same overall shape and size all have the same outer diameter, different lumens "X" and 7/or lumen length "L" of the insert element. By choosing clause [1'L to include ``, the same equipment can be used to form a liquid that can be used to contain and dispense disparate liquid contents with different viscosities and flow characteristics. It is possible. If there are two bottles of different sizes and with the same inner size and outer shape that are used to dispense two different liquid contents that have to be discharged at night, then :1L
Even if the droplets have the same size (the anti-bodies have different viscosities; one type of liquid) 8 liquids can be combined with the individual bottle bodies in a known manner into one or more different types) 7 It should have a manufactured tip element, typically calibrated to provide the desired flow of fluid. Such tip section has substantially the same construction as the dispensing end section of the bottle of FIGS. 1 and 2.

The manufacturer simply needs to select the insert 32 that is properly fitted inside while using the exact same molding equipment. The conventional approach requires the preparation of various core wires which differ only slightly in outer diameter and are each subject to the fracture diameter and resulting problems mentioned at the outset. The combination of an insert element 32 in accordance with the present invention with an otherwise conventional bottle tip 14 allows for the provision of a wide range of different types of liquids by simply exchanging insert elements having substantially the same profile and size. make it possible to realize.

Developmental studies with prototype structures are particularly useful for bottles whose internal lumen diameter "X" in the range 130-150 microns contains liquids whose viscosity is not significantly different from water, such as eye drop solutions. In fact, individual shades can be formulated by mixing the emulsion as a more viscous liquid, for example with an epoxy resin, a chemical hardener, or by mixing the various liquid components. If the insert element 32 is to be used for formulating dyes etc., one skilled in the art will be able to adjust the insert element 32 accordingly.
one would naturally choose the internal dimensions of.

Although this disclosure shows and describes only the preferred embodiments of the invention, as noted above, the invention can be used in a variety of pond combinations and conditions and the inventive concepts presented herein. It is to be understood that changes and modifications may be made within the scope of.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-section along the axial plane of a bottle according to the invention, kept in a convenient position for dispensing liquid contents in droplets. FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view along the axial plane of a bottle according to a preferred embodiment of the invention used at least once for dispensing liquid in droplets. Drawing engraving procedure 1) , -, tE document (1) We will submit the official drawing 1i111 as shown in the attached sheet. 1999 11) J 20th 41F Editorial Office Director Yoshi [Kuchi Bunki-dono 1, 11 indications] Patent Application No. 224742″-!t2, Title of Invention: Dripping liquid into cloth by dripping The relationship between the bottle 3 to be given and the beach/bakuji to be corrected

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. made internally as an outwardly open passageway of an elongated frustro-cone having a wide end that creates individual droplets of liquid and a narrow end that receives a regulated flow of liquid from the bottle; a liquid flow regulating insert element having a dispensing tip and an internal lumen of a predetermined cross-sectional area and length, the insert element being located at the narrow end of the tip to allow the dispensing tip to flow from the bottle. A bottle that controllably dispenses liquid contents as droplets dispensed within a predetermined size range that regulates the flow of liquid into a bottle. 2. The dispensing tip is made to have an annular recess of a predetermined depth and a cross-sectional area larger than the wide end of the passageway, and communicates therewith so that individual droplets are within the predetermined size range. 2. A bottle according to claim 1, wherein said recess is controllably separated therefrom. 3. The insert element has a generally cylindrical shape with an outer cylindrical surface matable with the dispensing tip during its formation.
Bottle listed. 4. The bottle of claim 3, wherein said dispensing tip is configured to sealingly adhere to a sealing cap to seal said passageway and any liquid contained in said bottle contents. 5. The bottle of claim 4, wherein said insert element includes a first plastic material and said bottle is formed of a second plastic material moldable around said union. 6. A bottle according to claim 5, wherein said second material is a thermoplastic material. 7. A bottle according to claim 1, wherein the internal lumen of said insert element is in the range of 130-150 microns. 8. A bottle according to claim 5, wherein the internal lumen of said insert element is in the range of 130-150 microns. 9. a dispensing tip formed internally as an outwardly open passageway of an elongated frustro-cone having a wide end for creating individual droplets and a narrow end for receiving a regulated flow of liquid from the bottle; a liquid flow regulating insert element having an internal lumen of a predetermined cross-sectional area and length, the narrow end of the tip portion such that the insert element regulates the flow of fluid from the bottle into the tip; A tip element attachable to a container body, e.g. a plastic bottle, for controllably dispensing liquid contents as droplets dispensed within a predetermined size range located therein. 10. The dispensing tip is formed with an annular recess of a predetermined depth and a larger cross-section than the wide end of the passage, and communicates therewith to control when individual droplets are within a predetermined size range. 10. The tip element of claim 9, formed with said recesses that are separable. 11. The insert element has a generally cylindrical shape with an outer cylindrical surface matable with the dispensing tip during its formation.
Tip elements as described.