Pressurized liquid dispenser with members for locking it in its lowered position

A pressurized fluid dispenser is adapted to be fitted unto the stem of a fluid delivery pump. A skirt portion is flexibly connected to the remaining portion of the dispenser. A tongue projects from the skirt portion. The tongue may be pressed to flex the skirt portion inwardly. A tooth on the outer surface of the free end of the skirt portion project outwardly. The tooth is snap-engageable with an annular rib which projects into the interior of an aperture in the top of a ring cap adapted to attach the fluid delivery pump to a container mouth.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to a pressurized fluid dispenser with members for 
locking it in its lowered position. 
2. Discussion of Background 
Pumps for delivering fluids (liquids or creamy substances) under pressure 
are of many different types and are of widespread common use. The fluid 
pumped by them passes through a dispenser mounted on the head of the pump, 
to be expelled to the outside. 
As the pump plus dispenser occupies a relatively large space in its length 
direction, with obvious drawbacks deriving therefrom, various systems have 
been devised and used for locking the dispenser in its lowered position on 
the relative pump for storage, packaging and transport purposes, and to 
prevent fluid ejection if the dispenser is accidentally pressed towards 
the pump on which it is mounted. 
This is achieved in the known art by providing engagement members between 
the dispenser and a ring cap which is fixed relative to the main pump 
body. To achieve engagement, the dispenser is lowered onto the ring cap 
and is then rotated relative to it, to hence achieve a stable locking 
position. This means that the dispenser can be moved into the engagement 
position only if it is in a precisely defined position relative to the 
ring cap. This operation is annoying enough when done manually by the pump 
user (before lowering and rotating the dispenser he has to correctly 
position it on the ring cap fixed to the mouth of the bottle on which the 
pump is mounted), but when done mechanically at high speed before the pump 
plus dispenser is put onto the market it creates very serious problems. 
As the pump complete with its ring cap and dispenser is often sold already 
in the locked state by the producer company, the firm which purchases and 
uses the pump, and which has to mount and fix it onto bottles or the like 
containing the fluid to be dispensed, has not only the problem of 
mechanically gripping the ring cap plus dispenser, which are locked 
together in a rigid position (in particular if the dispenser is for creams 
or the like, ie is provided with a laterally projecting elongate spout), 
but also, and in particular, the serious problem of mounting the ring cap 
in a well defined position on the bottle with the dispenser locked but 
orientated in the correct direction relative to the body of the bottle 
when this is of irregular shape. For example, if the bottle is flat and 
the dispenser has to dispense liquid soap or a cream through the elongate 
spout, the pump must be fixed on the bottle mouth with said spout locked 
but pointing in the direction of the maximum bottle width (to allow easy 
storage and boxing), this being certainly not simple to achieve when 
operating with high speed automatic machines. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The main object of the present invention is to provide a dispenser which 
can be fixed in its lowered position onto a fixing ring cap or the like, 
irrespective of the position of the dispenser relative to the ring cap. 
A further object is to provide a dispenser with means for its fixing onto 
the respective ring cap, which enable the thus fixed dispenser to be 
freely rotated about the ring cap, so that it can be mechanically handled 
and mounted at high speed onto any bottle or the like. 
These and further objects are attained by a dispenser comprising a manually 
operable head traversed by a discharge hole communicating with a seat for 
its housing on the free end of the stem of a pressurized fluid delivery 
pump, a ring cap connected to said pump, and members for engaging said 
head and removably retaining it in its lowered position on said ring cap, 
characterised in that from said head there projects about the seat 
provided therein a skirt extending towards a substantially circular 
aperture in said ring cap, said skirt being insertable into and 
translatable and freely rotatable within said aperture, in said skirt 
there being provided two longitudinal cuts delimiting a skirt portion 
which is hence connected to the remaining part of the head in a manner 
flexible to it, from the outer surface of said skirt portion in proximity 
to its free end there projecting at least one tooth snap-engagable with 
said ring cap at that edge thereof delimiting said aperture. 
Preferably said skirt is cylindrical and coaxial with said circular 
aperture in the ring cap, from said skirt portion there projecting 
outwards a tongue operable by one finger to cause it to rock on said 
flexible appendix and hence release from the ring cap the tooth projecting 
from it. 
The structure and operation of the lockable dispenser according to the 
present invention will be more apparent from the description of one 
embodiment thereof given hereinafter by way of non-limiting embodiment 
with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
As can be seen from the drawings, the dispenser comprises a head 1 and a 
ring cap 2 which mutually cooperate. 
The ring cap 2 can be fixed to a mechanical pump 3 (shown schematically on 
the drawings) of any known type and having (as in the case of all such 
pumps) a hollow stem 4 through which the pressurized fluid delivered by 
the pump emerges. In the illustrated embodiment, the ring cap is provided 
with a thread 5 by which it can be fixed onto the threaded mouth of a 
bottle or container 6 on which the pump 3 is fitted. In the top (with 
respect to the figures) of the ring cap 2 there is provided an aperture 
into which an annular rib 7 projects. 
The dispenser head 1 comprises an elongate spout 8 with a discharge hole 
which via a duct 9 communicates with a seat delimited by a wall 10 and 
into which the upper end of the pump stem 4 can be inserted and be 
retained, as shown in FIG. 1. 
The head 1 comprises a cylindrical skirt 11 extending towards the ring cap 
2 and coaxial with the rib 7, said skirt 11 being insertable into and 
translatable and rotatable within the space defined by the rib. 
Within the skirt there are provided two longitudinal cuts 12 delimiting a 
skirt portion 13 to which an outwardly projecting tongue 14 is rigidly 
connected. 
The skirt portion 13 with its tongue 14 are connected to the remaining part 
of the head in a manner flexible to it. 
To favor this flexibility, in the top of the head there is provided an 
elongate hole 15 which, together with the two cuts 12, delimits two 
flexible appendices 16 on which the skirt portion 13 can rock. 
Finally it can be seen that an engagement tooth 17 projects from the outer 
surface in proximity to the free end of the skirt portion 13. When the 
head 1 is pressed totally downwards from its released position in which 
the pump can be operated (FIG. 3), the tooth 17 firstly interferes with 
the rib 7 to cause the skirt portion 13 to flex inwards, until the tooth 
snaps below the rib 7 (FIG. 1) to engage it securely and retain the head 1 
anchored to the ring cap 2 in its lowered position (with respect to the 
drawing). 
Assuming the position to be that shown in FIG. 1, the tongue 14 is pressed 
with a finger (FIG. 2) to flex the skirt portion 13 inwards, with the 
result that the tooth 17 disengages from the rib 7 and the head 1 is 
returned to its raised or free operating position (FIG. 3) by the spring 
(not shown on the drawings) present in the pump 3 and which urges the stem 
4 upwards. 
It is important to note two fundamental characteristics of the described 
dispenser, namely that the head 1 can be moved from its free operation 
position (FIG. 3) to its locked position (FIG. 1) by simply pushing the 
head totally downwards onto the ring cap 2 whatever the relative position 
between the head and ring cap, and that when thus anchored in its lowered 
position the head can be freely rotated relative to the ring cap. This is 
of determining importance in enabling said locking to be achieved using 
very simple automatic machines operating at high speed and enabling the 
dispenser to be mounted in the locked position on the mouth of containers 
or bottles of any shape, as the head can be freely orientated relative to 
its anchoring ring cap.