Captive mixing cap arrangement for multiple chamber container

A container is provided with two chambers, each with a mechanism for expressing its contents toward an outlet neck. The neck mounts a captive cap with an opening through its end wall. A web which longitudinally divides the outlet neck, has an outer tip which is positioned to clean out and close the cap opening as a collar which encircles the captive cap is rotated to axially move the captive cap further onto the container. Rotation of the collar in the angularly opposite sense axially projects the cap so that container contents moving out the neck in the individual lumens can mix where the lumens merge and flow out together through the captive cap outer end opening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present inventor is the named patentee in U.S. Pat. 4,046,288, issued 
Sept. 6, 1977. 
That patent shows a dispenser in which a plurality, e.g. two, fluid 
product-containing cylinders are joined, side-by-side in a body, with 
their dispenser spouts adjoining one another. An operator assembly is 
fitted on the opposite end of the body and unites a cap, an operator, such 
as a handwheel, a helically threaded rod for each cylinder, a piston 
mounted on each rod for longitudinal travel upon rotation of the rod, a 
gear plate receiving a set of gears which interconnect the threaded rods 
with the operator, so that as the operator is turned, the pistons are 
advanced. 
In that patented dispenser, the outlet conduits from each reservoir run 
along inside a common neck and there is an axially short manifold region 
just back of the dispenser tip of the neck, in which the outlet conduits 
merge into one. The closure shown is a snap-on/removable cap. 
The Bridgeport Chemical Corporation, an employer of the present inventor 
markets many adhesive and caulking products, to other manufacturers, to 
builders, hobbiests and to do-it-yourselfers. One of its affiliates 
markets various caulking products in a container that, to the casual 
observer, looks like what is shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings hereof, i.e. 
a container 10 that has a generally cylindrical body 12, with a dispenser 
spout arrangement 14 at one end and a rotatable actuator 16 at the 
opposite end. Unseen within the container 10 some plastic product is 
contained; in order to get that product out, the actuator 16 is rotated in 
a sense to advance a piston means that is unseen within the container and 
thus force product out of the tip 18 of the dispenser spout 14. 
The existing caulk-dispenser is shown and described in my earlier U.S. Pat. 
No. 4,144,988, issued Mar. 20, 1979. 
In short, what the present invention was developed to provide is a 
dispensing container for multiple component products which is an 
improvement upon what is shown in my aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 
4,046,288, particularly as to the captive cap and closure plug of the 
invention, and to provide a product which advantageously may have much the 
same appearance as the single component dispenser of my aforementioned 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,988. 
The disclosures of both my aforesaid prior U.S. patents in their entireties 
are incorporated herein by reference. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A container is provided with two chambers, each with a mechanism for 
expressing its contents toward an outlet neck. The neck mounts a captive 
cap with an opening through its end wall. A web which longitudinally 
divides the outlet neck has an outer tip which is positioned to clean out 
and close the cap-opening as a collar which encircles the captive cap is 
rotated to axially move the captive cap further onto the container. 
Rotation of the collar in the angularly opposite sense axially projects 
the cap so that container contents moving out the neck in the individual 
lumens can mix where the lumens merge and flow out together through the 
captive cap outer end opening. 
The present invention provides a container having a captive cap of the 
outlet-ported, axially movable type, an internal plug to stopper the 
outlet port of the cap when the cap is axially moved to one extreme; the 
container having wall means defining at least two internal reservoirs for 
contents, all on different sides of an internal longitudinal web means on 
an outer end of which said internal plug is mounted in juxtaposition with 
said outlet port. 
The principles of the invention will be further discussed with reference to 
the drawings wherein a preferred embodiment is shown. The specifics 
illustrated in the drawings are intended to exemplify, rather than limit, 
aspects of the invention as defined in the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to FIG. 1, the container 10 has a generally cylindrical body 12, 
with a dispenser spout arrangement 14 at one end and a rotatable actuator 
16 at the opposite end. Unseen within the container 10 (in this Figure) a 
plastic product is contained. In order to get that product out, the 
actuator 16 is rotated in a sense to rotate a piston means (unseen in this 
Figure) and thus force the product out of the tip 18 of the dispenser 
spout 14. 
As shown in FIG. 2, the container 10 may be molded and assembled of plastic 
parts, with the caution that the contained product must not be one which 
will dissolve or adversely react with the container material. The tubular 
side wall 20 is shown integrally formed with an annular forward end wall 
22 from which a tubular dispenser spout 24 coaxially forwardly projects. 
The tubular side wall 20 also is integrally formed with a web 26 which 
extends longitudinally centrally within the internal space of the 
cylindrical body 12, which also extends longitudinally centrally within 
and is integrally formed with the tubular dispenser spout 24. 
As shown (see FIG. 4), the web divides the internal space into two separate 
compartments 28, 30, having respectively separate channels or lumens 32, 
34 out through the dispenser spout to the vicinity of the tip 14. 
A typical arrangement for co-dispensing both components of a two component 
plastic product from the container 10 also is shown in FIG. 2. Here, the 
two product components are illustrated at PC.sub.1 and PC.sub.2 partly 
filling the respective chambers 28, 30. The quantums of product are backed 
by respective pistons 36 sealingly, slidably fitted in the respective 
chambers 28, 30 behind the respective quantums of product. Each piston 36 
is of noncircular transverse cross-sectional figure, and has a respective 
drive screw 38 threadedly received therethrough via a correspondingly 
threaded central, axially extending opening 40. Accordingly, rotating both 
drive screws in respective first angular senses advances both pistons 
axially decreasing the volume in the cylindrical body ahead of the pistons 
and thus forcing the product components to be compressed and seek to 
escape through the tubular dispenser spout 24. 
In the illustrated embodiment, the rear ends of the compartments 28, 30 are 
closed by a sealing disk 42 which has openings 44 out through which the 
drive screws 38 project. The disk 42 may be secured in place by any 
convenient means, e.g. by being force fit over a central projection 46 on 
the web 26 rear end and solvent welded about its periphery 48 to the 
internal surface of the side wall 20. A gear-mounting plate 50 is shown 
provided with a three-lobed compartment 52 in its inner face. The central 
pocket of the compartment 52 includes an opening 54 which extends 
outwardly through the plate 50 and the two flanking lobes which intersect 
with the central lobe each include sockets 56 which open forwardly to act 
as sleeve and thrust bearings for the unthreaded stubs 58 at the rear ends 
of the respective lead screws 38. Each lead screw 38 has a driven gear 
fixedly provided thereon near the respective stub end thereof. These are 
received in the respective flanking lobes of the compartment 52. The 
central lobe of the compartment 52 receives a driving gear 62 that is 
assembled in meshing, driving relation with both gears 60. The web central 
rear projection 46 has a tip portion (obscured in FIG. 2) which is 
received in a corresponding central detent (also obscured) in the forward 
face 64 of the driving gear which functions as a centering bearing 
therefor. The driving gear 62 has a stub shaft 66 which projects coaxially 
rearwardly and is shown provided with a radially outwardly opening 
circumferential detent groove 68. 
The gear mounting plate 50 is shown provided in the forward face thereof 
near the outer periphery thereof with a plurality of undercut sockets 70 
into which correspondingly located bulbous projections 72 on the rear face 
of the sealing disk 42 are snap fit to secure the plate 50 to the disk 42 
with the gears 60, 62 housed therebetween as shown. Incursion of the plate 
50 into the rear end of the internal space of the cylindrical body 12 is 
peripherally limited by abutment of an axially forwardly facing 
circumferential shoulder 74 with the rear end 76 of the tubular side wall 
20. 
The rotatable actuator 16 is shown constituted by a disk-shaped body 78 
integrally formed with a coaxially forwardly projecting tubular skirt 80. 
The axially forward face of the body 78 is centrally provided with a boss 
82 in which a forwardly opening socket 84 is coaxially formed. The socket 
side wall 86 is coaxially provided with a circumferentially extending, 
radially inwardly projecting bead 88. The rotatable actuator 16 is 
assembled to the container by pushing the stub 66 into the socket 84 until 
the bead 88 snaps into the groove 68. When so assembled to the container, 
the skirt 80 of the actuator 16 hides the abutment 74/76. 
The actuator 16, if rotated angularly of the container causes the stub 66 
and thus the driving gear 62 to rotate. As the driving gear 62 is rotated, 
the driven gears 60 and thus the drive screws 38 are rotated to advance 
the pistons. (Rotation of the actuator 16 in an angularly opposite sense 
can be performed when the user is finished with dispensing in order to 
take the pressure off the remaining contents of the container.) 
By preference, the drive screws 38 do not extend all the way forwardly in 
the chambers 28 and 30, but terminate short of reaching the forward end 
wall 22 by an amount which is related to the structure of the piston. 
Referring to FIG. 5, one can see the container at a later stage than in 
FIG. 2, a stage at which the container's remaining contents are almost 
exhausted; the pistons are beginning to run off the forward ends of the 
drive screws. A couple of additional turns of the actuator 16 will advance 
the pistons only slightly further. Then the threads in the piston openings 
40 will run off the threading of the drive screws 38 and any further 
turning of the actuator 16 will be to no effect. This provision is made in 
order to prevent continued turning of the actuator, once the container is 
substantially empty from destroying the integrity of the container by 
compression of the pistons 36 against the forward end wall 22. 
Upon closer inspection, the tubular dispenser spout is seen to be 
externally provided (from nearest the wall 22) with a radially outwardly 
opening circumferential groove 90, a circumferential radially outwardly 
projection flange 92 having an axially forwardly presented shoulder 94, a 
pair of diametrically opposed radially projecting longitudinal ribs 96. 
The ribs are slightly shorter than the neck, so a brief cylindrical 
radially outwardly facing portion 98 is left adjacent the forward end of 
the container neck. 
The captive cap 100 is a tubular body 102 with a longitudinal central 
throughbore 104. Intermediate its ends the bore 104 is provided with two 
diametrically opposed longitudinal grooves 106, which correspond to, but 
are somewhat longer than the ribs 96. When the captive cap 100 is snapped 
into place on the neck, the ribs 96 are received in the respective groove 
106. 
The captive cap 100 further preferably integrally, includes a disk-shaped 
forward end wall 108 that is centrally provided with a dispenser opening 
110, preferably tapered in an undercut manner to provide a convergent 
internal circumferential surface 112. 
Near the rear end thereof, the body 102 is externally threaded as at 114. 
The dispenser spout arrangement 14 further includes an internally threaded 
annular collar 116 having a coaxially annular radially inwardly projecting 
rear end flange 118. When the collar 116 is fully threaded onto the body 
threading 102 at 120, the flange 118 snaps past the flange 92. 
Thus, if the collar 116 is rotated in one angular sense, the cap 100 will 
be pulled down tighter toward the body 12, and the bulbous enlargement 122 
centrally provided on the forward end of the web will be sealingly jammed 
into the dispenser opening 110 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, closing the 
opening and pushing out any mixed components PC.sub.1 /PC.sub.2 found 
therein. If the collar 116 is rotated in the opposite angular sense, the 
cap 100 will be projected forwards opening up a gap in and back of the 
opening 110, between the end wall 108 and the bulbous boss 122, so that 
contents PC.sub.1 /PC.sub.2 may be jointly dispensed in a joint stream as 
shown in FIG. 3, by turning the rotatable actuator 16. The amount by which 
the key ribs 96 are shorter than the keyway grooves 106 defines, by 
alternative abutment of the key ends with the keyway ends the two extremes 
of axial travel of the captive cap. Note that whereas the collar 116 is 
constrained to move essentially angularly, the captive cap 100 is 
constrained to move essentially axially, without angular rotation. 
Although the device 10 was developed primarily to dispense a stream of an 
at least partially mixed two-component adhesive such as epoxy resin, that 
other (even substantially different) two-component products could be 
dispensed in the same way, e.g. to produce a marbled stripe of ketchup and 
mustard on a hot dog or to make a joined, bicolor line of icing or 
frosting upon a decorated cake. Whether equal amounts of PC.sub.1 and 
PC.sub.2 will be dispensed upon turning the actuator 16 is a manufacturing 
choise, determined, e.g. by the relative cross-sectional areas of the 
chambers 28 and 30, whether the gears 60 are of equal ratio with the gear 
62 and whether the drive screws 38 have the same pitch of thread. 
Accordingly, it is as easy to make a device 10 which dispenses, at least 
partially mixed or joined in a single line equal amounts of two 
components, or any desired ratio of one component to the other. 
Although it is presently preferred to use the captive cap arrangement of 
the invention on a dispenser tube having a twistable actuator 16, with 
internal piston-assisted discharge, the same captive cap arrangement could 
be used to advantage on other types of containers, e.g. for two 
squeeze-and-roll-up-type toothpaste tubes screwed into a fitting (not 
shown) that would look a lot like the FIG. 3 fragmentary view, except that 
it would be internally threaded at 124 to receive the two toothpaste tube 
necks, instead of having drive screws 38. 
Although the device 10 has been shown having a generally bisecting-planar 
web 26, it is clear that without departing from the principles of the 
invention, the web 26 could be made to have Y-shape in order to provide 
the cylindrical body and spout with three (instead of only two) separated 
internal compartments communicated to the outlet opening, or to have an 
X-shape in order to provide four separated internal compartments 
communicated to the outlet opening. 
It should now be apparent that the captive mixing cap arrangement for 
multiple chamber container as described hereinabove, possesses each of the 
attributes set forth in the specification under the heading "Summary of 
the Invention" hereinbefore. Because it can be modified to some extent 
without departing from the principles thereof as they have been outlined 
and explained in this specification, the present invention should be 
understood as encompassing all such modifications are are within the 
spirit and scope of the following claims.