Closure device for drinking from containers

A closure device for drinking from a liquid container (2) is sealingly mounted with a bottom part (3) of a main body thereof extending into an opening of the container. A top part (4) has a circular-arc portion with a groove (6) therein. Liquid-emitting and air-admitting bore holes (10, 11) are positioned in a base of the groove. A pivotally movable cap (14) is mounted on the top part covering the groove. When the cap is pivoted, it causes a flexible hose (12) mounted in the liquid-emitting bore hole to bend and thereby closes it. At the same time, the bent hose closes the air-admitting opening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a closure device for liquid containers having a 
main body with a bottom part sealing a container opening and a top part 
defining an approximately-centered liquid-emitting bore hole and a further 
closable air-admitting bore hole, with the closure device further 
including a closable drinking hose extending from both sides of the 
liquid-emitting bore hole and being flexible in at least a portion thereof 
extending to the outside. 
Such a prior-art drinking closure device, known as a "Coleman Sport 
Bottle", depicted in FIG. 5, is closed by inserting a plug onto an upper 
end of an outside portion of the drinking hose. This plug has the 
disadvantage of requiring both hands for opening it, something which is 
often, for example when riding a bicycle, impossible, or only possible at 
the risk of an accident. 
From prior-art patent document DE-OS 37 08 750 a container, such as a can, 
for beverages is known wherein a drinking hose is arranged on the inside 
thereof. In this device, special measures are taken so that the drinking 
hose "pops" outwardly from a container opening upon the opening thereof, 
thereby allowing its end to be engaged by a mouth. This action is achieved 
by means of springs pressing an end of the drinking hose elastically 
against the removable closure so that the drinking hose, after removal of 
the closure, extends outwardly from the opening for drinking. The closure 
is in the form of a removable, or pull-off, loop of a can. This drinking 
closure device cannot be resealed. In addition, handling of the device is 
difficult and its activation can certainly not be done with one hand. 
From prior-art patent document EP O 336 168 a container closure device is 
known which can easily be opened and closed, even with one hand. The 
container has an inflexible pour spout located on a container wall which 
has a convex and circular-arc shaped surface, onto which is set a cap, 
movable about a center axis line of the circular-arc shaped portion. The 
cap has an elastic plug on its inside which closes the opening of the 
inflexible pour spout when the cap is moved. This closure device has 
neither a resealable drinking hose nor a resealable opening for air 
admission and is thus not suitable as a drinking closure device. 
It is an object of this invention to provide a drinking closure device 
wherein both a drinking hose as well as an air-admitting opening are 
resealable; an outside end of the drinking hose can be covered to protect 
against contamination; and this cover can be operated easily with one 
hand. 
SUMMARY 
According to principles of this invention, a top part of a main body of a 
closure device has a convex and circular-arc shaped surface extending to 
both sides of a longitudinal plane passing through a liquid-emitting bore 
hole; a groove is arranged along the elongated, convex and circular-arc 
shaped surface; outside openings of the liquid-emitting bore hole and an 
air-admitting hole are located in a base of the groove; a depth of the 
groove is smaller than an outer diameter of a flexible, outside portion of 
a drinking hose; a cap is arranged above the top part to be pivotal about 
a center axis line of the circular-arc shaped surface; the cap covers a 
portion of the circular shaped surface; and the inside of the cap is 
arranged concentric with, but spaced a short distance from, upper 
longitudinal edges forming the groove, or it bears slidingly against them. 
By moving the cap such that it covers the groove, the outside portion of 
the flexible drinking hose is bent, thus closing itself. In this manner, 
the drinking hose is laid inside the groove and is pressed against the 
base of the groove, thereby closing the air-admitting opening at the same 
time. 
In a beneficial embodiment of this invention, the groove extends from the 
outside liquid-emitting opening to an edge of the top part, thereby 
ensuring that the groove is completely covered when the cap is in its 
closing position.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
FIGS. 1-3 depict the neck 1 of a liquid container 2 whose opening is closed 
by a bottom part 3 of a closure device. A top part 4 of the closure 
device, built as one piece together with the bottom part 3, is a 
circular-segmental portion of a disk, or cylinder, mounted on the bottom 
part at a sectional intersection area. A groove 6 is arranged on a convex 
and circular, or arc, shaped surface 5 of the segmented 
cylindrically-shaped top part 4, having outer opening 8 of a bore hole 10 
for emission of liquid and outer opening 9 of a bore hole 11 for admission 
of air. The bore hole 10 for emission of liquid is provided with a 
drinking hose 12, 13, one end thereof extending from the drinking closure 
device to the outside and the other end extending to the bottom of the 
container. This drinking hose may be one piece, however, it is beneficial 
if it comprises two sections wherein one section 12 enters the closure 
device through the liquid emitting bore hole 10 from the outside of the 
container 2 and the other section 13 enters the bore hole 10 from the 
inside of the container 2, extending at its other end to the container's 
bottom. In this regard, at least that portion of the drinking hose, 
extending to the outside, is highly flexible. 
The groove 6 does not extend over the entire circular arc 5 of the top 
part, but rather only over approximately half of the it, that is, from one 
end of the circular arc 5 to a rear edge of the opening 8 of the 
liquid-emitting bore hole 10. The remainder of the circular arc 5 is 
reduced in size by a step to have a smaller radius. 
A cap 14, which is pivotally movable about an axis 15, is arranged on top 
of the top part. The pivotal arrangement can be achieved by axle pins, 
formed on the inside of the cap and reaching into openings in the top part 
4, or vice versa. The cap 14 has the shape of the circular segmental 
portion of the circular cylinder of the top part 4, with its inside shape 
corresponding to the outer shape of the top part 4 and with an angle 
defining its circular-segmental shape being half the size of a 
corresponding angle defining that of the top part 4. There may be "slop" 
or clearance between legs 16 of the cap 14 and parallel planes 17 of the 
cylindrically-shaped top part 4, however, part of a portion 18 forming a 
cylinder wall of the cap 14 slides alongside upper longitudinal edges 19 
defining the groove 6. A depth of the groove 6, and thus an approximate 
distance between a base 7 of the groove 6 and an inside surface of the cap 
14 is smaller than outer dimensions, or a diameter, of the outside 
drinking hose portion 12. Thereby, closing the cap by pivoting it to a 
position for closing the groove, bends the portion 12 of the drinking hose 
to cause it to lie flat inside the groove 6, thereby pressing it together. 
Thus, the hose is closed with a relatively sharp bend therein and, in 
addition, the air-admitting opening 9 is closed. The portion 12 of the 
drinking hose is measured such that it has a length for fitting into the 
groove 6. For opening the drinking closure device, the cap 14 is pivotally 
moved back to the opposite end-position. Thus, the flexible, or elastic, 
portion 12 of the drinking hose stands up by itself, thereby uncovering 
the liquid and air openings. In order to allow good maneuverability when 
pivotally moving the cap 14, the cap has a protrusion 20 in an area 
thereof covering the groove 6. 
In order to use the drinking closure device also for pouring, portion 13 of 
the drinking hose is pulled out of the bore hole 10 and pushed over a 
connecting portion 21, which is an extension of the air bore hole 11. To 
allow this, the connection portion 21 has an outer diameter corresponding 
to a inner diameter of portion 13 of the drinking hose. To prevent liquid 
located in portion 13 of the hose from exiting bore hole 11 when pouring, 
a diameter of this bore hole, at least at an end portion thereof, is 
smaller than that of bore hole 10. 
To ensure that the liquid-emitting opening is securely closed, a 
protrusion, or bump, 22 is arranged, adjacent to the liquid-emitting 
opening 8, extending upwardly from the base 7 of the groove 6. This 
protrusion 22 increases compression locally for portion 12 of the drinking 
hose, thereby providing a further benefit that high compression between 
the bent hose portion 12 and the cap 14 is limited to a section, so that 
only a relatively small amount of force is needed to pivotally move the 
cap. 
The bottom part 3 of the drinking closure device is comprised of a hollow 
plug 24 for sealingly extending into a container opening and of a rim 23 
for overlapping the container opening. The hollow plug 24 has outer 
threads 25 interlocking with inner threads of the container neck 1. 
It is beneficial that a portion of the circular arc, which is located 
adjacent to a end of the groove, has a step spaced a short distance from 
the groove, so that the circular arc then extends with a smaller radius 
than other edges of the arc, thereby ensuring that when the cap bears 
slidingly against the longitudinal edges forming the groove, the force 
necessary for closing the cap is not unduly increased beyond a high 
sliding friction at the point where the flexible drinking hose is bent. 
It is beneficial that the top part has the shape of a circular-arc of a 
circular cylinder in cross section, and that it is mounted on the bottom 
part of the closure device at a sectional-interface area. In this manner, 
the cap can have the shape of a circular-segmental portion of a hollow 
circular cylinder in cross section with an interior shape thereof 
corresponding with its outer shape and with an angle defining its 
segmental size being approximately half of the corresponding angle 
defining the segmental size of the top part. This shape of the top part is 
beneficial not only for manufacturing reasons, but because it also allows 
better sealing of the groove while, at the same time, the cap is easily 
movable. 
A further beneficial aspect of the invention is that the diameter of the 
liquid-emitting bore hole is larger than the diameter of the air-admitting 
bore hole. If the inner portion of the divided drinking hose is connected 
to the bore hole for air admission, the drinking closure device can be 
used as a pouring device. Along these lines, it is beneficial that the 
air-admitting bore hole is defined by a connection portion, or tube 
extension, directed into the container, its outer diameter corresponding 
to the inner diameter of the portion of the drinking hose extending into 
the inside of the container, thus allowing easy conversion of this portion 
of the drinking hose for forming a pouring device. 
To increase sealing reliability of the drinking hose, a protrusion, or 
bump, extends from the bottom of the groove next to the opening of the 
liquid-emitting bore hole. Thereby, the closing of the drinking hose is 
done not only by bending, but also by pressing it together. 
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with 
reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those of 
ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and detail may be 
made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For 
example, a further solution for achieving the object of this invention 
involves arranging the groove on the inside of the cap. In this manner, 
the drinking closure device of this invention would have the following 
features: 
The top part would have a convex and circular-arc shaped surface positioned 
on both sides of a longitudinal plane passing through a liquid-emitting 
bore hole thereof; 
outer openings of the liquid-emitting bore hole and air-admitting bore hole 
would lie in a plane, spaced from one another, which is perpendicular to 
the center axis of the circular arc; 
a front-opening groove is arranged on the inside of the cap extending along 
a line connecting the liquid-emitting and air-admitting openings; and 
the depth of the groove is smaller than an outer diameter of a portion of 
an elastic drinking hose extending to the outside.