US2078251A - Receptacle closure - Google Patents

Description

April 1 c. J. JESNIG 2,078,251 RECEPTACLE CLOSURE I Filed March 11, 1936 VE TOR IN 62 /7792 ESJ [SA l6,

RNEY

Patented Apr. 27, 1937 UNlTED STATES PATENT OFFlCE RECEPTACLE CLOSURE Application March 11, 1936, Serial No. 68,158

4 Claims.

This invention relates to receptacle closures, with particular reference to closures of the so called non-refillable type.

In earlier applications, numbered Ser. No.

5 756,021 and Ser. No. 33,450, there was disclosed the detailed structure and function of a valve and valve assembly for receptacles, and particularly for bottles, that marked a great advance over the known art, in the provision of a simple, economical, rugged assembly that could be easily manufactured and installed, and which was nonrefillable as far as commercial possibilities were concerned, even including efforts to refill under a vacuum. However, under certain favorable conditions, and utilizing all necessary time and elaborate apparatus for the purpose, it was in some instances a laboratory possibility to introduce liquid to the valve of the applications noted, under a slight gravity head, or the like, while no the receptacle was inverted and inclined, by

which a slow seepage into the receptacle was possible. This was necessarily slow, and attempts to increase the rate of fill simply caused the valve to shut to prevent further ingress of fluid. The use of the variable gravity head, or

the like, on the inverted opened valve, while being impractical from any commercial viewpoint, so far as understood, was a form of pro cedure by which some sort of refilling might occasionally occur and was therefore a potential criticism of the supposedly non-refillable re ceptacle of the prior applications. It is to be observed also that even a perfect non-refillable type of bottle cannot be sold if its price is too high, and that as between devices of even only superficial similarity of effectiveness, the cheaper device is the one ordered, so that reductions in costs of production are of importance.

It is among the objects of this invention: to

40 improve generally the art of non-refillable receptacles; to provide a receptacle closure with a float controlled valve arranged to permit outward pouring while the bottle, of course, is inverted and inclined, but arranged to close by flo- 45 tation when the fluid flow is inward of the bottle while in the same inverted and inclined position; to provide improvements in the inventions shown in said earlier filed applications; to provide improved means for preventing insertion of wires 0 into such non-refillable bottles, and other re- 'ceptacles; to provide a valve device for bottle closures with means such as to generate a valve closing pressure in response to inward fluid mo tion; to provide a substantially non-refillable 55 bottle with a minimum of parts and of small evident that the invention can be applied to any 10 other sort of container or receptacle, such as jars, drums, tanks, metal bottles and the like, and such scope of application and use is contemplated herein.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 represents a fragmentary vertical section through the upper end of a bottle neck with the improved valve assembly of the invention shown in closed position, and with the opened position shown in dotted lines,

Fig. 2 represents a fragmentary vertical section through a valve and valve housing of modi fied form, and

Fig. 3 represents a fragmentary plan of the Valve element and housing.

Referring to the purely illustrative disclo- 2 sure of Fig. 1, it Will be observed that a valve seat housing Ill is provided, having a lower valve seat portion H, which is preferably planar and is provided with an axial hole 12. The housing comprises the outwardly extending rim portion l3, and the connecting, preferably substantially cylindrical, housing and guiding portion M. In the usual case the rim portion of the housing will be supported on a gasket [5, on the mouth or rim it of a bottle, of which the fragmentary neck portion l'i only is disclosed. It is preferred that the valve seat H be of a hardened or glazed and non-porous finish where the valve, to be described, engages the seat, and in the interests of cheapness and simplicity, as well as of a hard finished non-porous valve seat, will com.- prise a molded or die cast material of plastic nature, as of some of the chemical plastics that are now available as later recited. This material is preferred for use throughout, with a possible exception that will be explained. The valve housing described hangs within the neck of the bottle, either from the rim as shown, or from an interval shoulder as disclosed in the above mentioned applications.

The valve element I3 is preferably in the form of a single or double ended cup, although for purposes of explanation the double cup is preferred and will be described. As shown in Fig. 1,

the valve is generally in the shape, in section, of a letter H with the cross bar usually below the center. Specifically the valve comprises a lower valve cylinder 29, the lower peripheral edge M of which has a sealing engagement with the surface of the valve seat II. The lower cylinder is terminated by the transverse web 22, and comprises a relatively small cup against which outwardly pouring liquid in the bottle can strike to force the valve ofi of its seat.

The upper portion of the valve comprises the substantial cylinder 23 arising from the web 22. This provides a cup having several functions. One important feature being to form a buoyant chamber causing the valve to float to seating when it is attempted to fill the inverted bottle by a small gravity head of liquid, another being to force the valve toseating when an attempt is made to refill the bottle in its upright position by pouring liquid downwardly from above, another being to form a small reservoir to hold liquid left in the mouth at the termination of pouring to prevent its seepage down the outside of the bottle neck by leakage out from under the seal to be described. Another function is to form an upper part of the valve in such manner that it cannot be grasped or engaged by an inserted wire. A further function is found in the provision of an elongated member such as to support fins to be described. The transverse web and open upper cylinder aflord further means to receive a valve stop extending vertically into the cylinder to limit valve movement.

The valve i8 is dropped and seated gravitationally in the valve seat housing, in substantially concentric relation to the cylindrical wall l4 thereof. In order to maintain suitably guided relation of the parts, it is preferred to provide a plurality of fins 2 5 between the valve and valve housing, which are preferably mounted radially on the cylinder 23 of the valve, and have easy sliding relation with the cylinder wall. It will be clear that with the parts as shown in Fig. 1, inverting the bottle will cause the contained liquid to travel up the neck to impingement against the lower cup, thus driving the valve from the seat and permitting the contents to be poured from the bottle. An interesting and important function of the lower valve cup lies in the fact that it provides a piston structure with relation to which differential air pressures, as might be incident to attempts to fill the bottle under a vacuum, causes the valve to snap shut, and to stay shut under further attempts to fill the bottle. The vacuum closing of the valve is effective as well during efforts to unseat the valve by impacts on the bottle aimed to cause surges of liquid in the bottle to impingement against the valve to unseat same. It is found that despite the absence of a flexible washer as in certain of my earlier cases, or as shown in Fig. 2, the valve, even if unseated momentarily by the surges noted, will immediately snap shut again before any more liquid can be forced into the bottle, due, in part at least, to the lower cup formation.

The closure comprises further a combined wire guard and valve stop of simplicity and which is also preferably formed of an integral molding of a plastic material. The material of all parts of this device may be formed of a phenolic condensation product, or of casein, or urea, or the like, or of vulcanized materials, such as rubber and the like. The wire guard comprises a transverse wall 25 from the center of which depends the valve stop 26, arranged to extend into the upper valve cup, in such spaced relation as to enable the valve to unseat to proper pouring clearance before engaging the end of the stop 25. The outer periphery of the plate or wall 25 merges into the interrupted substantially perpendicularly extending cylinder 2'! having the peripherally elongated pouring ports 28, and which cylinder merges into the short rim 3%. In efiect the interrupted cylinder is a continuation of the valve housing cylinder IA.

The pouring spout and wire guard comprises the outwardly tapered member 3| having the restricted axial spout 32 which is preferably externally threaded as at 33, to receive a cap 34. The enlarged end 35, of the spout structure includes a bead or flange 36 provided with an annular recess 3'! within which the rim 30 of the wire guard is disposed to anchor the latter firmly in position. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the entire assembly is held rigidly and firmly on the bottle by the metallic or other shell 39, having the upper constriction 38 to engage over the bead 36 of the spout, and having the skirt 4% arranged to be spun into the peripheral groove M of the bottle neck after the parts are in place.

In the modification shown in Fig. 2, the valve seat housing comprises the substantially cylindrical portion 42 terminating at the bottom in the inwardly extending seat portion provided with the annular bead or valve seat peak as, surrounding the aperture 44. The valve comprises the cylinder 45, having the closed lower end 46, open at the upper end toward the pouring sp0-ut,. and provided with the flexible washer 47 having the margin 48 arranged to overlie the seat peak 43. The washer disclosed functions as shown in the earlier mentioned applications and need not be further mentioned at this point other than to mention that it is arranged to flex axially in both directions. The valve has guide fins 5G. The advantages of this structure will be obvious.

The utility of the wire guard will be better understood by reference to the dotted lines of Fig. 1, by which an exaggerated spout structure is indicated to insure utmost efficiency as regards tamper proofness. In the full line disclosure the same factors maintain, consonant with enhancement of the ease of pouring. The spout closely surrounds the disc, both laterally and axially, until it diverges about shoulder 50, and thereby a plurality of relatively staggered shoulders is secured, so that an inserted wire must first bend about shoulder 50, then about the upper edge of disc 25, then about the lower edge of disc 25 into aperture 21, and thereby such bending is secured as either to break the wire, or to so divert it that it cannot engage any part of the valve. A form of description would be that cylinder 2'! if prolonged intersects the spout remote from the opening. The provision of bottle shoulder 5| insures, when tightly engaged by housing I 4, that air is so entrapped in the space externally of the housing, that no liquid enters, and so that all of the contents are directed toward aperture I2.

I claim:

1. In a closure for a container having a neck, a primary flanged section having a reduced neck portion and a pouring opening therein, a substantially cylindrical valve-containing secondary section flanged at both ends, an intermediate section forming a guard comprising an imperforate disc, a perforated disc of larger diameter than said imperforate disc and spaced connecting means extending substantially perpendicularly of the perforated disc and forming horizontal radial openings between the discs, means formed on contiguous portions of the flange of the primary section and a flange of the secondary section to receive said larger diametered disc, said primary and secondary sections being disposed in relative juxtaposition, a flat washer-like gasket about said valve-containing section, and container-engaging means to abut the flange of the upper section and thereby permanently to secure the perforated disc in said means and a flange on each of said sections in superposed relation on said gasket and against the outer end of the container neck.

2. In a closure for a container having a neck, a primary flanged section having a reduced neck portion and a pouring opening therein, a secondary hollow substantially: cylindrical valvecontaining section having at one end a flange forming a valve seat and port and at the other end a flange in axial alignment with the flange on the primary section, an intermediate section comprising two spaced discs of different diameters the larger disc being centrally apertured and positively engaged between the said axially aligned flanges of the primary and secondary sections, a hollow valve in said lower section having an annular seat engaging portion and having a horizontal web forming a float chamber in the valve, valve movement limiting means on said intermediate section, and container engaging means abutting the flange on the primary section and thereby securing the flange on the secondary section against the end face of the container neck.

3. In a closure for a container having a neck, a primary flanged section having a reduced neck portion and a pouring opening therein, a sub- 40 stantially cylindrical valve-containing secondary section having an internal flange and an external flange at its respective ends, the flange of the primary section and the external flange of the secondary section being juxtaposed, and the in- 5 ternal diameter of the secondary cylindrical section being smaller than the internal diameter of the primary section adjacent its flange, a wire guard comprising an imperforate transverse annular disc disposed within the primary section in spaced relation thereto of a diameter not less disc of larger external diameter than the imperforate disc and spaced axially from said imperforate disc, connecting means between the discs'to form laterally extending apertures beneath the said imperforate disc, means engaging the larger disc between the juxtaposed flanges to anchor the wire guard, a valve movable in the container, means for guiding the valve in the container in substantially centered relation and stop means mounted on the imperforate disc extending into the valve to limit its movement relative to the internal flange of the secondary section, and means engaging the primary section and a bottle neck to pull the juxtaposed flanges together and into seated engagement relative to the end of a bottle neck.

i. In a closure for a container having a neck, a primary flanged section having a reduced neck portion and a pouring opening therein and a flanged end, a substantially cylindrical valvecontaining secondary section having an internal valve seat flange and an external supporting flange at its respective ends, the said flanged end and the said supporting flange being substantially juxtaposed, and the internal diameter of the secondary cylindrical section being smaller than the internal diameter of the primary section adjacent its flanged end, a wire guard comprising an imperforate transverse annular disc disposed within the primary section in spaced relation thereto of a diameter substantially similar to the external diameter of said substantially cylindrical section, and the wire guard having a perforated disc of larger external diameter than, and spaced axially from, said imperforate disc, connecting means between the discs to form laterally extending apertures beneath the said imperforate disc, the larger disc disposed in part between the substantially juxtaposed flange and the flanged end to anchor the wire guard, a valve movable in the secondary section, means for guiding the valve in the secondary section in substantially centered relation, stop means mounted on the imperforate disc extending toward the valve to limit its movement, and means engaging the primary section and a bottle neck to pull the substantially juxtaposed flanges toward each other and to anchor all of the parts except the valve in relatively fixed mutual relation and into seated engagement relative to the end of the bottle neck.

CHARLES J. JESNIG.

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