JPH10417A - Liquid applying apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid applying apparatus with a valve mechanism which can increase the inner pressure by introducing air into a liquid receiving part only when liquid can hardly be discharged, can avoid the excessive discharge of the liquid due to the excessive increase in the inner pressure, and is easy of air introduction operation, simple in structure, and less expensive in manufacturing. SOLUTION: An apparatus is composed of an applicator main body 1 having an application part 11 on one end side of a liquid receiving part and a cap 2 which is engaged with the application part 11, an outflow opening 5 formed at the end of the application part 11 is energized by spring force to be sealed by a valve body 6 part of which is projected outside, a pressure chamber 8 is formed in the inside with a cap 2A engaged with the application part 11, the end side of the application part 11 is inserted into the pressure chamber 8 airtightly, and the pressure chamber 8 has an expanded wall part 8a expanding outside from the end surface of a cap main body 20.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an applicator for liquids such as correction liquids, paint marker inks, adhesives, and cosmetic liquids.
In particular, it relates to a liquid applicator with a valve mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a liquid applicator having a valve mechanism of this type, a part of a valve body protrudes from an outlet of an application section provided at one end of a liquid container, and this protruding portion is provided on a surface to be coated. When pressed, the valve body retreats and opens, and the liquid agent inside is discharged from the outlet. However, the outflow property of the liquid material depends on the gravitational effect caused by turning the application side downward at the time of application and the internal pressure of the liquid material container based on the vapor pressure of the liquid component. The internal pressure decreases as the remaining amount decreases, and the internal pressure decreases significantly due to continuous application or repeated application within a short period of time. Often run out of spills,
There has been a problem that smooth application cannot be performed stably.

[0003] Conventionally, the liquid medicine container is formed of a flexible material such as semi-rigid plastic, and the liquid medicine container is pressed and deformed with the valve mechanism opened during application, thereby squeezing the liquid medicine. Those that have been used have been put to practical use. However, in such a liquid applicator, the liquid container is pressed with a finger each time the liquid is applied, and the amount of application is adjusted according to the degree of pressing. Since the gripping portion is soft, the usability is inferior, and an inexpensive metal can cannot be used for the liquid container, so that the manufacturing cost is high.

In recent years, various proposals have been made to provide a mechanism for forcibly pressurizing air into the storage section in order to solve the problem of insufficient flow due to a decrease in the internal pressure of the liquid storage section. These air injection means utilize the fact that the valve mechanism of the application section is a check valve form, and when the cap is fitted to the application section in an airtight sliding state, the compressed air in the cap is discharged from the outlet. A method in which the liquid material is press-fitted into the liquid container (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
-58090, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-12095),
An air introduction hole and a check valve to seal it are provided at the rear end of the applicator body, and the cap removed from the application part on the front end side during application is fitted to the rear end side in an airtight sliding state to compress. The air in the cap is press-fitted into the liquid medicine container through the vent hole at the rear end (Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-16088), and at the rear end of the applicator body provided with the same vent hole and check valve, By knocking the knock cylinder by slidably fitting the knock cylinder in an airtight state, closing the through hole provided at the top end of the knock cylinder with a finger, and knocking.
The compressed air in the knock cylinder is press-fitted into the liquid agent container from the vent hole at the rear end (Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-16088).

[0005]

However, in the conventional configuration in which air is press-fitted when the cap is fitted to the application section, the cap is used each time the cap is used after use regardless of the internal pressure of the liquid agent storage section. Since the air is injected, there is a problem that the internal pressure becomes too high and the liquid agent is too much discharged when used. In particular, in the case of a liquid applicator that uses a small amount of liquid per application, such as a correction liquid, and that is used repeatedly within a short period of time, the amount of air injected increases due to the small pressure drop accompanying application, resulting in excessive The internal pressure of the valve mechanism tends to rise, and the liquid material may be applied to unnecessary parts and drying may take a long time, causing trouble. There was also a danger of falling out of the applicator body without being able to withstand the internal pressure. Furthermore, when the internal pressure is extremely low, it is necessary to repeat the attachment and detachment of the cap until it becomes easy to come out, and there is a problem that the operation is very troublesome.

On the other hand, in the conventional configuration in which an air introduction hole and a check valve are provided at the rear end of the applicator main body, the valve mechanism is incorporated at the rear end side separately from the valve mechanism at the coating destination side. Because it becomes extremely complicated and the number of parts increases, and the material cost and the manufacturing cost become very high,
There is a problem that it is difficult to apply to a so-called disposable type applicator in which a liquid material is used up and abandoned.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention provides a liquid applicator with a valve mechanism, which can increase the internal pressure by injecting air into the liquid container only when the liquid is hardly discharged. In addition to avoiding excessive outgoing due to excessive internal pressure rise, the operation of air injection is very simple,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a structurally simple and inexpensive product.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a first aspect of the present invention is to provide an applicator body having an applicator at one end of a liquid agent container, and a cap fitted to the applicator. Wherein the outlet provided at the tip of the application section is urged by a spring force and is partially sealed with a valve body projecting outward, wherein the cap is fitted to the application section. A pressure chamber is formed in the interior of the cap, and the distal end side of the coating portion is fitted in the pressure chamber in an airtight state, and the pressure chamber has a bulging wall portion made of an elastic material bulging outward from the distal end surface of the cap body. It has a configuration that has

According to such a configuration, the volume of the pressure chamber is reduced by pressing the bulging wall of the pressure chamber inward, whereby the air in the pressure chamber is compressed, and the air pressure causes the valve body to be compressed. The retracting operation is performed, and air is press-fitted into the liquid agent container from the opened outlet, whereby the internal pressure of the container increases.

However, the press-fitting of the air does not accompany the fitting of the cap to the coating portion, but requires an operation of pressing the bulging wall portion. Since the internal pressure does not increase every time it is attached, and the user only has to perform the above operation when the liquid material becomes difficult to come out, the liquid material excessively increases due to the excessive increase of the internal pressure contrary to the user's will. It is possible to avoid the problem and to apply an appropriate amount of fluid smoothly, and it is possible to prevent the valve body of the valve mechanism and the chip holding the same from falling out of the applicator body due to the internal pressure. In addition, since the amount of air press-fitted into the liquid container can be adjusted by the degree of pressing of the bulging wall, if the difference between the maximum volume of the pressure chamber and the minimum volume by pressing is set to be large, the internal pressure is considerably low. Even in such a case, it is possible to cope with a single press, and there is no need to repeatedly attach and detach the cap as in the conventional case.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the liquid medicine applicator according to the first aspect, the bulging wall portion of the pressure chamber has a ventilation hole penetrating inside and outside, and the bulging hole is closed by a finger. By pressing the wall portion, the air in the pressure chamber is press-fitted into the liquid agent storage portion, and by opening the vent hole after pressing, the air flows into the pressure chamber and the bulging wall portion has an elastic restoring force. Because it is configured to return from the depressed state to the bulging state, even when the internal pressure of the liquid agent storage section is extremely low, the internal pressure can be easily increased by a so-called pump-up method that repeats the above-described pressing and releasing operations. Can be enhanced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect,
Since the valve body in the liquid medicine applicator adopts a spherical configuration, the open / close operation of the valve body as a check valve is good, and the press-in operation of the bulging wall facilitates press-in of air. At the time of coating, a very smooth coating can be performed by a ball-point pen system in which a valve body pressed against a surface to be coated rolls.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the liquid applicator of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG.
2 is a side view showing a coating portion in a cap-mounted state by cutting through the cap, FIG. 3 is a side view of the entire coating device, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the coating portion in a cap-mounted state, and FIG. FIGS. 6 and 7 are side views showing the application portion at the time of air press-fitting by cutting through the cap. FIGS. 1 and 6 show the first embodiment, and FIGS. 2 and 7 show the second embodiment. It is related.

As shown in FIG. 3, the liquid applicator includes an applicator main body 1 having an applicator 11 provided at one end of a liquid container 10 formed of a long cylindrical metal can, and fitted to the applicator 11. It is formed in a pen type including a cap 2 to be put on, and a liquid agent 3 such as a correction liquid and a stirring body 4 are stored in a liquid container 10. As shown in FIG. 5, a coating portion 11 of the main body 1 has a tip holding tube 13 made of a hard synthetic resin molded product at a distal end opening 12a of a tapered cylindrical body 12 made of a hard synthetic resin product. Is the lower half 13a
A coating tip 14 made of a metal tube is press-fitted and fixed inside the tip holding cylinder 13 so as to protrude outwardly from a slightly tapered tip side. The distal end opening forms an outlet 5 for the liquid agent 3.

Thus, a bag-like ball holding portion 14a is formed inside the outlet 5 of the tip 14 to be coated.
A valve body 6 made of a metal ball is loaded in the ball holding portion 14a in a loosely fitted state and partially protrudes from the outlet 5, and a coil spring loaded in the chip 14 in a compressed state. 7 is a valve element 6 at the end of the linear portion 7a on one end side.
Is pressed from the inside, whereby the valve body 6 always seals the outlet 5 from the inside. Note that the tip holding cylinder 13
An inwardly protruding spring receiving portion 13b is formed at an inner end of the coil spring 7, and the other end of the coil spring 7 is locked to the spring receiving portion 13b.

As shown in FIG. 1, a cap 2A of the liquid applicator of the first embodiment is fitted to a double cylindrical cap body 20 made of a hard synthetic resin molded body, and to the tip side of the body 20. And a cap 21 made of a high-molecular elastic material such as rubber or synthetic resin elastomer. In the cap body 20, a short inner cylinder portion 20b whose inner end side is narrowed concentrically is arranged inside a cylindrical outer cylinder portion 20a, and the outer cylinder portion 20a and the inner cylinder portion 20b are formed in an annular shape at the tip end side of the cap. Are integrally connected by a wall portion 20c and a plurality of radial wall portions 20d, and are formed in the annular wall portion 20c at predetermined intervals along an outer circumferentially extending annular locking groove 22 and a circumferential direction outside thereof. Vent holes 23...

The inner cylindrical portion 20b is open at the inner and outer ends, but the cap body 21 is formed with an annular locking protruding portion 21a having a hook-like cross section on the opening side in the annular locking groove 22 of the annular wall portion 20c. By being engaged and fixed to the cap body 20, the outer end side of the inner cylindrical portion 20b is airtightly closed, and the pressure chamber 8 which is opened inward by the inner cylindrical portion 20b and the cap 21 is formed. Is composed. The pressure chamber 8 is configured such that a part of a cap body 21 made of an elastic material protrudes outward beyond the distal end surface of the cap body 20 to form a bulging wall portion 8a, and an annular ridge 8c is formed on the inner peripheral side of the opening 8b. have. When the cap 2A is fitted to the application section 11 of the applicator main body 1, the tip side of the application section 11 fits into the pressure chamber 8 through the opening 8b, and the outer periphery of the tip holding cylinder 13 and the annular ridge 8c Are set so as to tightly close the opening 8b.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the cap 2B in the liquid medicine applicator of the second embodiment has a ventilation hole 9 passing through the inside and outside at the center of the bulging wall 8a of the pressure chamber 8, but the other parts are the same. Are the same as those of the cap 2A of the first embodiment, the same reference numerals are given to the common parts, and the description thereof will be omitted. The applicator body 1 has the same configuration in both the first and second embodiments.

In the liquid medicine applicator having the above-mentioned structure, when the application body of the applicator main body 1 is pressed downward and the valve body 6 protruding from the outlet 5 is pressed against the surface to be coated. Is pushed in against the urging of the coil spring 7 to open the valve, and the liquid 3 in the liquid container 10 flows out from the outlet 5. Therefore, by moving the application destination in the pressed state, the valve element is moved. With the rolling of 6, the liquid agent 3 is smoothly applied on the surface to be coated. If the liquid 3 is difficult to come out at the time of this application, the cap 2 is fitted to the application section 11 of the applicator main body 1, and then the bulging wall section 8a
Press.

That is, in the cap 2A of the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the volume of the pressure chamber 8 is reduced by pressing the bulging wall portion 8a as shown by the arrow in the drawing to reduce the volume. Due to the pressure of the compressed air in the valve 8, the valve body 6 retreats, and the air is pressed into the liquid medicine container 10 from the open outlet 5, and the internal pressure of the container 10 increases. At the time of application, the liquid agent 3 becomes easy to come out due to the increased internal pressure of the storage section 10, and smooth application can be performed. When removing the cap 2A from the application section 11, the valve 6
Seals the outflow port 5 as a check valve, so that the air in the liquid agent container 10 does not escape and the internal pressure does not decrease.
Further, the bulging wall portion 8a after the above-described pressing is in a concave state, but returns to the original bulging state by the elastic restoring force when the cap 2A is removed next time.

In this case, since the amount of air press-fitted into the liquid material container 10 changes depending on the degree of pressing of the bulging wall portion 8a, it is empirically determined according to the degree of difficulty of the liquid material 3 during the previous application. If the degree of pressing can be adjusted, and if the liquid agent 3 does not flow out sufficiently even when pressing to the limit, the cap 2A
And the same pressing operation may be performed.

On the other hand, in the cap 2B of the first embodiment, the bulging wall portion 8a is pressed as shown in FIG. 7, but in this case, it is pressed with the fingertip closing the air hole 9. As a result, the volume of the pressure chamber 8 is reduced in the same manner as described above, and the compressed air in the pressure chamber 8 is pressed into the liquid medicine container 10 from the outlet 5 opened by the retreat operation of the valve body 6. At the time of the next application, the liquid agent 3 becomes easy to come out due to the increased internal pressure of the storage section 10, and smooth application can be performed.

In this case, if the finger is released from the bulging wall portion 8a after the pressing, air can flow into the pressure chamber 8 through the ventilation hole 9, so that the bulging wall portion 8a naturally moves from the recessed state. It returns to the original swelling state. Therefore, it is possible to continuously press the air into the liquid agent container 10 by a so-called pump-up method in which the operation of pressing and releasing the pressure is repeated while the cap 2 is attached, and the internal pressure of the liquid agent container 10 is reduced. Even in the case of extremely low pressure, the internal pressure can be easily increased to a level required for smooth application without detaching the cap 2B.

In the above embodiment, the pressure chamber 8 of the cap 2 is formed in a simple bag shape from the inner cylindrical portion 20b of the cap body 20 and the cap 21, but the shape, volume and The structure and the like can be set arbitrarily. For example, the cap 21 in the embodiment is formed in a double cylindrical shape, and the inner cylindrical portion is used as a pressure chamber 8 so that the tip end side of the coating portion 11 of the coating device main body 10 is fitted in an airtight state. It is good also as a structure which performs. Further, in the embodiment, the cap body 21 made of an elastic material is press-fitted and fixed to the cap body 20 made of a hard synthetic resin molded article. However, the part made of the elastic material and the part made of the hard synthetic resin are integrally formed of different kinds of polymers. It is also possible to form them integrally by a molding technique.

Further, the valve mechanism for opening and closing the outlet 5 of the applicator main body 10 can also employ various configurations. For example, the valve body 6 is preferably spherical as in the embodiment in view of applicability and ease of air press-fitting. Various other shapes such as a shape are also possible.
Instead of directly pressing the valve body 6 with the linear portion 7a, a spring force may be applied to the valve body via a pressing shaft or the like. In addition, in the present invention, detailed designs such as the overall shape of the applicator main body 1, the structure and shape of the application unit 11, and the shape of each part of the cap 2 can be variously changed in addition to the embodiment.

[0026]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, as a liquid applicator with a valve mechanism, only when it becomes difficult to discharge the liquid, air is injected into the liquid container to increase the internal pressure and smooth application. It is possible to reliably prevent the excessive release of the liquid agent due to excessive internal pressure rise and the destruction of the valve mechanism due to the excessive increase of the internal pressure as in the conventional air press-fitting method due to the fitting of the cap. There is provided a product which can adjust the amount of press-fitting and which is structurally simple and can be manufactured at low cost.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the liquid applicator can easily increase the internal pressure by a so-called pump-up system without repeatedly attaching and detaching the cap even when the internal pressure of the liquid container is extremely low. That can secure good coating properties.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided, as the above-mentioned liquid applicator, an apparatus which can easily press air into the liquid container, and which can perform extremely smooth application by a ball-point pen method at the time of application. You.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional side view of an application section of a liquid medicine applicator according to a first embodiment of the present invention in a state where a cap is mounted.

FIG. 2 is a vertical side view of an application section of the liquid material applicator according to the second embodiment in a state where a cap is attached.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view showing the entire liquid applicator in both embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a coating section of a coating device main body in both embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of a coating section at the time of air press-fitting in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of a coating section at the time of air press-fitting in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Applicator main body 10 ... Liquid material accommodating part 11 ... Coating part 12 ... Tip cylinder 13 ... Tip holding cylinder 14 ... Tip to be applied 2, 2A, 2B ... Cap 20 ... Cap body 21 ... Cap body (wall made of elastic material) 3) Liquid agent 5 ... Outlet 6 ... Valve 7 ... Coil spring 8 ... Pressure chamber 8a ... Swelling wall (wall made of elastic material) 9 ... Vent hole

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An applicator body having an applicator at one end of a liquid agent storage section, and a cap fitted to the applicator. An outlet provided at a tip of the applicator is urged by a spring force. In the liquid medicine applicator sealed with a valve body partly protruding outward, the cap constitutes a pressure chamber inside in a state of being fitted to the application section, and the front end side of the application section is provided in the pressure chamber. The pressure chamber is fitted in an airtight state, and the pressure chamber has a bulging wall portion made of an elastic material bulging outward from the tip end surface of the cap body, and the bulging wall portion is pressed inward to reduce the volume of the pressure chamber. The liquid medicine applicator is configured such that the air in the pressure chamber is caused to retreat by pneumatic pressure to press the air inside the pressure chamber into the liquid medicine container. 2. A swelling wall portion of the pressure chamber has a ventilation hole penetrating between the inside and the outside. By closing the ventilation hole with a finger and pressing the swelling wall portion, the air in the pressure chamber accommodates the liquid agent. It is configured so that air is introduced into the pressure chamber and the bulging wall portion returns to the bulging state from the recessed state by elastic restoring force by being pressed into the inside of the portion and opening the vent hole after pressing. The liquid agent applicator according to claim 1, wherein 3. The liquid applicator according to claim 1, wherein the valve body is spherical.