LIQUID DONOR

The present invention relates to a liquid dispensing device and to a flexible connector that can be used in such a device.

The prior art has addressed a need to have the pickup end of a pickup tube track a low point within a liquid reservoir, which low point migrates about the bottom of a container as the container is tipped.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,656, issued to Kenneth A. Taschner on January 20, 1970, discloses a pickup tube for use in spray dispensing apparatus employing compressed gas propellant. The pickup tube is flexible along its entire length, and includes a weighted pickup terminal end.

U.K. Pat. Application No. 2,136,057A, published on September 12, 1984, shows a pickup tube providing similar function to that of Taschner. The U.K. reference discloses tube structure comprising series connected, hollow compartments communicating through common openings. Each compartment has an expanded center portion and a constricted waist, each waist being common to adjacent compartments. Flexure at the waists is cumulative, the result being that a length including a plurality of compartments enables considerable being capability. Thus, the pickup tube of the U.K. reference achieves bending even though the tube is not highly flexible along a continuous length, as is provided in Taschner. The U.K. reference also discloses a weight disposed at the pickup end of the tube.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,974, issued to Frederick J. Mann, on June 9, 1992, discloses a pickup tube selectively from a high or low location within the container, dependent upon the upright orientation thereof.

German patent application DE-A-3129885 discloses a spray apparatus comprising a container for material to be sprayed and a hand-operated nozzle having a dispensing tube connected thereto that extends to the bottom of the container. The dispensing tube can adopt a vertical position when the container is tilted.

None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a liquid dispensing device, comprising:

1. a liquid container having an opening and a bottom;
2. a dispensing unit connected to said container at said opening;
3. a pickup tube in the range of stiffness from semi-rigid to rigid connected to said dispensing unit and extending through said opening in said container, said pickup tube having a distal end and being arranged so that said distal end moves in close proximity to said bottom of said liquid container to accommodate sway of the device during operation and to enable substantially or complete evacuation of liquid stored in said liquid container; and
4. a flexible connection, wherein said pickup tube is connected to said dispensing unit by said flexible connection to provide tilting of said pickup tube relative to said dispensing unit to accommodate sway of the device during operation, said flexible connection being defined by a flexible membrane connector sealing a suction chamber of said dispensing unit, said flexible membrane connector being provided with an opening for accommodating and sealing with said proximal end of said pickup tube.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a liquid dispensing device, comprising:

1. a liquid container having an opening and a bottom;
2. a dispensing unit connected to said container at said opening;
3. a pickup tube in the range of stiffness from semi-rigid to rigid connected to said dispensing unit and extending through said opening in said container, said pickup tube having a distal end and being arranged so that said distal end moves in close proximity to said bottom of said liquid container to accommodate sway of the device during operation and to enable substantially or complete evacuation of liquid stored in said liquid container; and
4. a flexible connection, wherein said pickup tube is connected to said dispensing unit by said flexible connection to provide tilting of said pickup tube relative to said dispensing unit to accommodate sway of the device during operation, said flexible connection being defined by a flexible membrane connector sealing a suction chamber of said dispensing unit, said flexible membrane connector provided with an opening for accommodating and sealing said proximal end of said pickup tube, said flexible membrane connector being defined by a membrane disc sealing a cylindrical end portion of said suction chamber.

According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid dispensing device, comprising:

1. a liquid container having an opening and bottom;
2. a dispensing unit connected to said container at said opening;
3. a pickup tube in the range of stiffness from semi-rigid to rigid connected to said dispensing unit and extending through said opening in said container, said pickup tube having a distal end and arranged so that said distal end moves in close proximity to said bottom of said liquid container to accommodate sway of the device during operation and enable substantially or complete evacuation of liquid stored in said liquid container;
4. a flexible connection, wherein said pickup tube is connected to said dispensing unit by said flexible connection to provide tilting of said pickup tube relative to said dispensing unit to accommodate sway of the device during operation, said flexible connection being defined by a flexible bladder provided with an opening for accommodating said proximal end of said pickup tube.

The present invention also provides a flexible connector for connecting a pickup tube to a dispensing unit of a liquid dispensing device, said flexible connector comprising:

1. first connector means connecting said flexible connector to said pickup tube;
2. second connector means connecting said flexible connector to said dispensing unit; and
3. a flexible connection means defined by a flexible membrane being disposed between said first connector means and said second connector means allowing tilting of the said pickup tube relative to said dispensing unit.

1. Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a prior art spray bottle;
2. Figure 2A is a detailed cross-sectional view of a flexible connector of the invention for the conventional sprayhead shown in Figure 1;
3. Figure 2B is a detailed cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the flexible connector according to the present invention;
4. Figure 2C and 2D are detailed cross-sectional views of further embodiments of the flexible connector according to the present invention.

The present invention allows a flexible connector to be provided between a dispensing unit (e.g. sprayhead) and a pickup tube in a liquid dispensing device to allow for tilting of the pickup tube relative to the sprayhead to accommodate sway during operation of the liquid dispensing device such as a spray bottle.

A conventional sprayhead and pickup tube assembly 400 for a spray bottle is shown in Figure 1. The assembly 400 comprises a sprayhead 402 and semi-rigid pickup tube 404. The proximal end of the semi-rigid pickup tube 404 is received within a rigid connector 406. The rigid connector 406 having a suction chamber 408 is received within cylindrical housing 410. An upper portion of the rigid connector 406 is provided with a ball check valve 412.

The proximal end of the pickup tube 404 is forced fit into the rigid connector 406 by controlling the dimensions of the outer diameter of the pickup tube 404 and the inner diameter of the rigid connector 406 providing a slight interference fit connection therebetween. The interference fit connection allows the pickup tube 404 to be forced fit into the rigid connector 406 of the sprayhead 402 during assembly, and prevents separation of these component during the useful life of the spray bottle.

An embodiment of a flexible connection between the pickup tube 404 and the sprayhead 402 is illustrated in Figure 2A. In this embodiment a modified cylindrical suction chamber 408' having a greater diameter than the suction chamber 408 in the sprayhead 402 illustrated in Figure 1 is provided.

A flexible membrane connector 414 is provided for connecting the pickup tube 404 to the cylindrical suction chamber 408' in a manner to allow tilting of the pickup tube relative to the sprayhead. The flexible membrane connector 414 comprises a flexible web portion 416 connecting an outer compression sealing ring 418 to an inner tension sealing ring 420. The flexible membrane connector 414 also provides a liquid seal between the pickup tube 404 and sprayhead for proper operation of the pump assembly. Thus, the flexible membrane connector 414 must properly seal therebetween by the type of sealing connections selected and/or through the use of adhesive.

The flexible web portion 416 is made so as to be sufficiently flexible to allow tilting of the pickup tube 404 relative to the sprayhead. Preferably, the flexible membrane is made sufficiently flexible to allow the pickup tube 404 to tilt relative to the sprayhead under the influence of gravity under the weight of the pickup tube 404 alone (i.e. no weight added to pickup tube) to reduce manufacturing, assembly, and materials costs.

The flexibility of the flexible web portion 416 is controlled by material thickness, diameter, and composition. Thus, a proper material and thickness must be selected to provide proper tilting operation of the pickup tube relative to the sprayhead. Further, the material should be selected to withstand chemical attack and wear during the operational lifetime of the spray bottle. Materials used could come from a variety of readily available stock materials such as latex, teflon, neoprene, silicone, etc., or combinations thereof.

The outer compression sealing ring 418 connects the flexible membrane connector 414 to the suction chamber 408, typically having a cylindrical configuration. Specifically, the outer compression ring fits within the inner diameter of the of the suction chamber 408, and seals against the inner wall thereof by means of compression.

The inner tension sealing ring 420 connects to the pickup tube 404, typically having a cylindrical configuration. Specifically, the inner tension sealing ring 420 fits around the outer diameter of the pickup tube 404 at its proximal end, and seals against the outer wall thereof by means of tension.

The flexible web portion 416, the outer compression sealing ring 418 and inner tension sealing ring 420 can be made of a one piece construction, such as by molding elastic material, or can have a composition construction. For example, the outer compression sealing ring 418 and inner tension sealing ring 420 can be made as separate ring components 418' and 420', as shown in Figure 2B, and then connected to the flexible web portion 416'. In such an embodiment, the rings 418 and 420 can be made of metal (e.g. stainless steel, anodized aluminum), plastic or other suitable material with a flexible material, such as elastomeric material, forming the flexible web portion 416. Further, the flexible web portion 416 my be made of a composite material or multilayer film material tailored to be both flexible and chemically resistant.

The diameter of the suction chamber 408' should be sufficiently great so that there is no contact of the proximal end of the pickup tube 404 with the suction chamber 408', which would inhibit the desired tilting/swaying of the pickup tube 404 relative to the sprayhead. Further, increasing the diameter of the suction chamber 408' increases the flexibility of the flexible connector.

A further embodiment of a flexible membrane connector 414'' is shown in Figure 2C. In this embodiment, the flexible membrane connector 414'' comprises a flexible web portion 416'', a outer tension sealing ring 418'' and an inner tension sealing ring 420''. The outer tension sealing ring 418" seals against the outer surface of the suction chamber 408'' by means of tension, and the inner tension sealing ring 420" seals against the outer surface of the proximal end of said pickup tube 404.

In the embodiments shown in Figures 2C and 2D, a piston P for the pump mechanism moves up and down as indicated by the arrow. In the conventional sprayhead of this type, the piston P is provided with an opening for receiving and rigidly connecting to the proximal end of the pickup tube, thus, the pickup tube moves up and down during operation. However, in the embodiments shown in Figs. 42C, the pickup tube 404 is no longer rigidly connected to the piston P due to the use of the flexible membrane connector 414". This may be significant with respect to the substantially complete evacuation of the liquid bottle, since the up and down movement of the distal end of the pickup tube may interfere with the evacuation of a significant level of liquid. Specifically, in the conventional arrangement the distal end of the pickup tube would pickup air as it moves upwardly during the pumping stroke withdrawing the distal end from the remaining fluid level causing the suction of air into the pickup tube and impairing the pumping operation.