US3259360A - Dispensing spout - Google Patents

Description

July 5, 1966 R. C. HUG 3,259,360

DISPENSING SPOUT Original Filed Oct. 5, 1962 l 1 II W IN VENTOR.

E1 AIZD C. H G. FIG. I BY United States Patent 3,259,360 DISPENSING SPOUT Richard C. Hug, St. Louis, Mo., assignor to The Clayton Corporation of Delaware, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware Original application Oct. 5, 1962, Ser. No. 228,623, now Patent No. 3,199,150, dated Aug. 10, 1965. Divided and this application Jan. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 432,925 1 Claim. (Cl. 251-303) This is a division of application Serial No. 228,623, filed October 5, 1962, now Patent No. 3,199,150, issued August 10, 1965.

This invention relates to pressure dispenser valves of the type utilizing a rubber seal mounting member and having a metering flow orifice.

In such valves, it has been conventional to utilize a large diameter hollow in the dispensing spout, and to drill, punch or mold a small lateral metering orifice through the stem into the spout. As applied to those valves which operate by tilting, this is particularly unsatisfactory, for the direction of tilt may determine to what extent the flow of product to be dispensed reaches a metering orifice which may be only partly uncovered from the surrounding rubber seal. Regardless how the valve is to be operated, whether by tilting or pushing down, when a drilled or punched metering orifice is used, an extra shop operation is necessary, which adds to the manufacturing cost.

A purpose of the present invention includes providing an improved metering valving spout whose stem has flow openings so large as to avoid restriction even though only partially opened when tilted in a rubber seal. A further purpose is to provide for cleaning out material which may clog its metering orifice.

The present invention, as it relates to the valving spout member, consists generally in providing a valving spout with a large lateral flow passage having a top wall penetrated by a needle-thin metering bore which leads upward into the center of the spout, and having a bottom wall including a needle-thin blind clean-out recess in registration with the metering bore.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of the valve stem, assembled with cooperating valve members shown in section. FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

The type of valving assembly with which the present invention is advantageously utilized is shown in FIGURE 1. The container top member a has a central elevated dome b including a flat, centrally apertured dome top 0 through whose aperture a valve spout member generally designated projects. Such spout member 10 is mounted in a rubber sealing washer d which is clamped against the dome top c by the top flange e of a plastic molded adaptor or nipple 1, through whose bottom inlet g the container contents flow to the valve spout member 10. A compression spring 11, based within the adaptor f and whose top coil surrounds a bottom guide projection 11 of the spout member 10, urges it upward and thus restores it to closed, sealed position if tilted or depressed.

The valve spout member 10 is formed integrally by molding plastic material of sufiicient rigidity to permit such tilting or depressing. Except for its ports and the lateral flow passage 17 which they form, the member 10 is generally symmetrical about its axis xx. It includes, as its upper portion, a tubular stem 12 which serves as a dispensing spout, whose outer wall may include an enlarged lower cylindrical portion 13, preferably molded without any parting line. Below the wall portion 13, the valve spout member 10 has an inward groove 14 interrupted by two relatively large, oppositely disposed flow 3,259,360 Patented July 5, 1966 openings or ports 15 having side walls 16 which may taper inward slightly as shown for purposes of molding. The two flow openings 15 joined at the center of the valve spout member 10 to provide together a lateral flow passage 17, having a bottom wall 18 and a top wall 19.

The bottom wall 18 demarks the upper inperforate end of a valve head portion 20 which is of substantially larger diameter than the lower cylindrical portion 13, and seats against the under surface of the sealing washer d.

The tubular stem 12 has an outlet bore 21 extending along the axis xx from its upper end down to a level somewhat above the lateral flow passage top wall 19. Thence inwardly, there is provided a tapering bore portion 22 which narrows to a metering bore 23 immediately above the level of the flow passage top wall 19. The metering bore 23 provides flow communication from the lateral flow passage 17 to the outlet bore 21. The crosssectional area of the metering bore 23 may be needlethin, while the flow openings 15 are of much greater area. This fact, plus flow communication by means of the groove 14 when the valve spout member 10 is tilted, results in full flow to the metering bore 23, unaffected by degree or direction of tilt. This result is in contrast to prior constructions in which a single metering orifice through the side wall of a stern, whether formed by molding or drilling, might be only partially uncovered on tilting, resulting in reduced rate of flow through the orifice.

The bottom wall 18 of the flow passage 17 has a blind clean-out recess or depression 24 in registration with the metering bore 23 along the axis x-x. The recess 24 has an upper bore portion 25 whose diameter is no greater than that of the needle-thin metering bore 23;; and from its upper bore portion 25 it tapers to a pointed recess bottom 26.

Should anything clog the metering bore 23, such clogging is readily relieved by pressing an ordinary needle axially inward into the outlet bore 21. Such needles tip will be guided by the tapering bore portion 22 to and through the metering bore 23, and it will press the clogging material axially downward. Material not broken up or reoriented may be packed into the tapering bore 26 of the clean-out recess 24. For clean-out purposes, therefore, a needle will be chosen whose diameter is smaller than the metering bore 23.

The valve here described is suitable for a. variety of purposes, some of which may involve taflixing to the tip of the spout member 10, a supplementary actuator or sprayhead including a passage whose diameter may be less than that of the outlet bore 21. In the claim the term outlet bore refers to the outlet bore of the stem 21 and not to any such supplementary member.

Minor modifications which will be apparent to those familiar with the art, and within the scope of the claim, are included herein; and the present invention is not to be construed narrowly, but rather as fully coextensive with the claim.

I claim:

As part of a pressure dispenser valve of the type utilizing a rubber seal mounting member,

a valving spout member including a valve head portion,

a stem portion outwardly of the head portion, said stem portion having a lateral flow passage connecting a plurality of flow openings and having a bottom wall and a top wall, the stern portion further having a needle-thin metering bore into substantially the center of the flow passage top wall forming a constriction at the center of the stem, and an outlet bore of greater diameter than the metering bore communicating therewith, and leading outwardly through the spout member,

said flow passage and each of its flow openings being of greater cross-sectional area, when measured across References Cited by the Examiner,

the path of flow, than the metering bore, and its bottom and top walls being of substantially greater UNITED STATES PATENTS Width than the diameter of said bore, 2,631,814 3/1953 Abplanalp 251353 the bottom wall of the lateral fioW passage having a 5 2,750,230 6/1956 fi et X blind clean-out recess in registration with said me'ter- 2,914,224 11/1959 Mlchel 222 394 ing bore, a said clean-out recess having a diameter no greater than CARY NELSON lma'y Exammer' that of a metering bore. H. KLINKSIEK, Assistant Examiner.

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