Patent ID: 11857127
Assignee: NEWCO ENTERPRISES, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A touchless automatic liquid product dispensing station apparatus, comprising:
a housing carrying:
a reservoir disposed in the housing, having an interior cavity for receiving and holding a first quantity of the liquid product;
an enclosed liquid path extending upward from the interior cavity of the reservoir to a pump disposed above the reservoir, the enclosed liquid path comprising a manifold having a manifold chamber for holding a quantity of the liquid product equal to several multiples of the discrete quantity of the liquid product, disposed between the reservoir and the pump, the pump being controllably operable in a prolonged priming mode to create a partial vacuum condition within the enclosed fluid path to draw the liquid product from the interior cavity of the reservoir up through the enclosed liquid path into the pump, the pump having an inactive standby mode to pinch closed the enclosed liquid path sufficient to hold the liquid product therein, and the pump being controllably operable from the standby mode in a momentary dispensing mode multiple times shorter than the prolonged priming mode to dispense a discrete quantity of the liquid product while creating a partial vacuum condition in the enclosed liquid path sufficient to draw more of the liquid product from the reservoir into the enclosed liquid path to replace the dispensed liquid product;
an elongate enclosed dispensing conduit extending from the pump through a dispensing spout attached to the housing, to a dispensing outlet located external to the housing from which the discrete quantity of the liquid product is dispensed to flow down along a predetermined elongate open dispensing path externally of the dispensing conduit and the dispensing spout;
an electrically powered control device connected in operative control of the pump, comprising:
an input operable activate the pump to operate in the prolonged priming mode to fill the enclosed liquid path and optionally all or part of the enclosed dispensing conduit with the liquid product, and thereafter deactivate the pump to the standby mode;
a touchless input device including a circuit board, a sensor having an on state to sense presence of a person's hand along a predetermined elongate sensing region external to the sensor when the pump is in the standby mode, and circuitry on the circuit board automatically operable to immediately initiate operation of the pump from the standby mode in the momentary dispensing mode responsive to the sensed presence of a hand in the elongate sensing region, then automatically return the pump to the standby mode, or again initiate operation of the pump in the momentary dispensing mode responsive to the sensed presence of another hand in the sensing region, the circuit board being located in or on the dispensing spout to position the sensor in predetermined relation to the dispensing conduit such that the sensor faces down to position and orient the elongate sensing region coincident with the dispensing path such that the sensor will sense the presence of a hand when in the dispensing path, including when spaced a hand span or more below the dispensing outlet within the sensing region.