Patent ID: 11925948
Assignee: THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 16:
17. A manually operated pump comprising:
an inlet one-way valve;
a pump chamber downstream of and in fluid communication with said inlet one-way valve;
a piston interior to said pump chamber and slideably engaged with said pump chamber;
an actuator engaged with said piston or said pump chamber; and
a block thermoplastic elastomeric spring engaged with said actuator to move said actuator as said block thermoplastic elastomeric spring relaxes;
wherein said block thermoplastic elastomeric spring has an actuator facing surface oriented towards said actuator, wherein only a portion of said actuator facing surface is engaged with said actuator through one or more stress concentrators;
wherein said actuator is engaged with said piston;
wherein said block thermoplastic elastomeric spring is within said pump chamber and between said piston and said inlet one-way valve;
wherein said stress concentrators are between said actuator facing surface and said piston;
wherein said stress concentrators extend from said piston;
wherein said block thermoplastic elastomeric spring is a hollow open ended cylinder;
wherein said block thermoplastic elastomeric spring comprises a thermoplastic elastomer material selected from the group consisting of styrenic block copolymers (TPS), thermoplastic polyolefin elastomers (TPO), thermoplastic elastomer vulcanizates (TPV), thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU), thermoplastic copolyester elastomers (TPC), thermoplastic polyamide elastomers (TPA), non-classified thermoplastic elastomers (TPZ), and combinations thereof; and
wherein said pump comprises an outlet conduit downstream of said pump chamber and a dispenser outlet downstream of said outlet conduit, wherein said actuator, said outlet conduit, and said dispenser outlet together are rectilinearly moveable to drive said piston.