US3831823A - Openable closure with drip site - Google Patents

Abstract

An opening in the form of a slit in the resilient wall of a hollow conduit has a skeg-like protuberance associated with it which tends to collect liquid flowing from said slit and thereby confine its flow off said conduit from a single site.

Description

United States Patent [191 McWhorter et a1.

[ 1 Aug. 27, 1974 OPENABLE CLOSURE WITH DRIP SITE [75] Inventors: Daniel M. McWhor'ter, Arlington Heights; Frank K. Villari, Oak Park,

both of 111.

[73] Assignee: The Rendall Company, Walpole,

Mass.

[22] Filed: June 3, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 42,978

[52] US. Cl. 222/490 [51] Int. Cl B6501 5/74 [58] Field of Search 222/108, 213, 420-422, 222/490, 556, 562, 428, 541; 251/4, 342;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS MacDonald 222/490 UX Salvesen 222/490 X 2,316,516 4/1943 Hammerstein 222/490 2,520,684 8/1950 Herzog 222/490 3,116,152 12/1963 Smith 222/541 X 3,174,694 3/1965 Kitabayashi 251/342 X 3,325,059 6/1967 Hein 222/420 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,126,173 7/1956 France 222/420 82,991 9/1946 Norway 222/92 Primary Examiner-Stanley H. Tollberg Assistant Examiner-Norman L. Stack, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT An opening in the form of a slit in the resilient wall of a hollow conduit has a skeg-like protuberance associated with it which tends to collect liquid flowing from said slit and thereby confine its flow off said conduit from a single site.

1 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures 1 OPENABLE CLOSURE WITH DRIP SITE This invention relates to a closure for an open end of a liquid conduit and more particularly to a manually openable closure equipped to release small quantities of a liquid from a specific site on the closure.

One of the most convenient forms of an openable closure for taking samples from a liquid contained in a conduit is a resilient cap of rubber or other elastic plastic which is slit so that the slit will open and discharge liquid when the closure is bent along the line of the slit. Such closures are useful adjuncts in manometers for measuring liquid pressure of various body fluids, e.g., spinal fluid, and in other medical instruments where sampling is desirable. Such closures generally are shown in an application for US. Pat. Ser. No. 653,548 filed by one of us on July 14, 1967. An annoying drawback of such structures has however been that liquid discharged from such a slit tends to cling to and flow along the external surfaces of the closure, making it difficult to collect the sample and tending to waste the draw-off by general wetting of the outside surface of the closure and of the fingers of the operator.

It is an object of this invention to allow the more complete collection of the liquid discharged through such a closure slit by reducing losses arising from spreading over the surrounding external surfaces.

This objective is accomplished in accordance with this invention by placing in the path of gravity flow of the liquid along the external surface after it has been discharged from the slit, a shaped drop-former from which is released, in a free drop, a succession of droplets or a stream constituted of the discharging liquid, thereby minimizing uncontrolled spread of the discharging liquid along other portions of the closure surfaces and random dripping.

With the drip site thus unvarying, collection in a vessel held below the drip site is readily accomplished without messiness.

A closure typical of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the closure, partly broken away to show internal structure, and showing at the left the open end of a conduit to which the closure is adapted to be connected;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the closure of FIG. 1, the device being rotated 90 from its position as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the closure shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 44 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the parts shown in FIG. 1 assembled together with certain parts in vertical cross-section and indicating by dotted lines how a finger and thumb can bend the closure upwardly to discharge liquid from the conduit.

The closure shown in the drawings is made of a resilient material such as rubber or plastic and comprises a portion 20 at the left of greater diameter, having a central bore 21, and connected by a conical surface 22 to a portion 24 of smaller diameter having a smaller central bore 25 communicating with bore 21. The right hand end of portion 24 closes the bore 25.

A slit 26 is formed preferably as a cross slit at the juncture of the conical surface 22 with the smaller portion 24 and the closure is provided along its top edge with a reinforcing rib 30 which helps to keep the parts normally in such a position as to compress the edges of the cross slit 26 together and prevent leakage.

The slit or valve 26 may be opened by lifting the closed end portion 24 of the device, as indicated in FIG. 6, which separates the edges of slit 26.

Along the bottom portion of the closure there is a downwardly pointing skeg-like protuberance 32 having a forward perpendicular surface 33 so that as material is discharged, as best indicated in FIG. 5, through the slit it flows down the conical surface 22 and then downwardly on the front surface 33 of the protuberance to its bottom point where drops are formed and are successively released for collection. The rear surfaces 34 and 35 of protuberance 32 are angularly inclined and tapered to a line of juncture 36 to direct the liquid flow towards the bottom of protuberance 32 whenever surface 33 is too small to carry the entire discharge flow.

As shown in the drawings, the top of the reinforcing rib 30 may be marked LIF'T" as an indication to the operator as to how to open the closure.

FIG. 1 shows a hollow conduit 40 to which the closure may be connected by telescoping together portion 20 over a reduced portion 42 of the conduit, as shown in FIG. 6. Liquid in the conduit bore 44 may thus pass into bore 25 with access to slit 26 for flow therethrough when the valve is opened.

What is claimed is:

l. A hollow conduit for liquids comprising a hollow resilient tube having portions of different diameter connected by an intervening conical portion,

an openable slit in said conduit at the junction line between said portion of less diameter and said conical portion, and

a protuberance on the portion of larger diameter adjacent said conical portion forming a drip site, said protuberance having a forward surface extending across the path of liquid flowing from said slit, when opened by bending said conduit, along the outer surface of said conical portion towards said portion of larger diameter and. collecting said flowing liquid and releasing it in the form of successive droplets at said drip site.

3,831,823 August 27, 1974 Patent No. 7 Date Inventor s Daniel M. McWhorter and Frank K. Villari It is certified that error appears in the above-identiied patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In 'the caption, the Assignee, "The Rendall Company" should be --The Kendall Company- Signed and sealed this 3rd day of Dember 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

McCOY M. GIBSON JR. 0. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissipner of Patents

Claims (1)

1. A hollow conduit for liquids comprising a hollow resilient tube having portions of different diameter connected by an intervening conical portion, an openable slit in said conduit at the junction line between said portion of less diameter and said conical portion, and a protuberance on the portion of larger diameter adjacent said conical portion forming a drip site, said protuberance having a forward surface extending across the path of liquid flowing from said slit, when opened by bending said conduit, along the outer surface of said conical portion towards said portion of larger diameter and collecting said flowing liquid and releasing it in the form of successive droplets at said drip site.

Images