Pouring devices for viscous liquids

Abstract: Pouring devices for accurate blending of colour tinters to a base paint are known, but are generally of metal construction comprising a spout covered by a movable cover plate. Such devices produce accurate pouring due mainly to the rigidity of the metal components. The invention enables an accurate pouring device to be produced from plastics material. The pouring device comprises essentially two plastics components, a cover plate (3) and operating means (4) therefor being integral and providing one component and a spout (10) formed integrally with a support body (1) providing the other component. Connection means (6) are provided for detachably connecting the support body over an aperture (20) of its liquid container. The support body base (5) is elongate and engages over an extended area of the adjacent container wall (19) to provide a stable support and absorb loads applied during use. The connection means may include a threaded boss (25) forming part of a collar (21) which can be snap fitted into a standard-sized aperture, whereby the device can be used for a range of different sized and/or shaped containers.

Description: This invention relates to a pouring device for pouring liquid suspensions (referred to herein collectively as liquids) and is especially useful for pouring liquids (for example, paints and paint components, especially waterborne paints), that tend to be viscous. The paint manufacturer is faced increasingly with a demand from the public to supply paints in greater ranges of colours. In relation to decorative paints, (that is to say paints to the decoration of buildings) professional specifiers and do-it-yourself enthusiasts call for access to a wide range of colours and finishes. In motor vehicle refinishing, that is to say the repainting of vehicles after crash repair and the respray of commercial vehicles in company livery, there is a call for access to a wide range of paint colours. The only practical way such calls can be met is for the paint manufacturer to provide a mixing scheme. Typically a mixing scheme consists of a base paint (generally called a mixing basic), a collection of coloured tinters and other paint components and a recipe card. The tinters and other components are added to the base paint according to the recipe card to produce the required colour. In the case of paints for motor vehicle re-spray it is usual for the tinters to be added by being poured by hand from individual containers, eg paint cans; of course, this operation needs to be carried out accurately to ensure that the exact colour required is obtained. Normally, this is achieved by placing a container partly filled with the base paint to a predetermined weight on scales and pouring the or each tinter required into the base colour container up to a weight prescribed by the recipe. It is known to provide a pouring device for this operation which is constructed out of metal and comprises a lid provided around its periphery with a number of rotatable locking levers by which it can be fitted and sealed onto a standard container of a single particular size (eg 1 litre or 2½ litre round can) the lid being integral with a pouring spout. The mouth of the pouring spout is defined by a frontal lip and is normally closed by a cover plate having a mating face. To achieve closing of the spout, the cover plate is either mounted on a pivot and biased downwardly into abutting contact with the frontal lip, or the cover plate is mounted to be moved in sliding contact along said frontal lip, and is biased to cover the spout. The spout can then be readily uncovered by manual pressure via an appropriate operating lever against the bias. In use, each tint container is tipped to a position in which the plane of the frontal lip is substantially vertical so that the tint liquid will separate cleanly from the lip. Such devices have proved efficient in use and, in particular, the seal provided by the metal cover plate on the spout has been effective due mainly to the rigidity of the metal components. However, the known constructions do not readily enable the device to be made in plastics material, due mainly to the difficulty in achieving an effective seal because of the inherent resilience of suitable plastics material. Furthermore, they cannot be used for a range of different sized standard containers. A container top is known from US-A-2272867 which has a pouring device in accordance with the preamble of claim 1 and designed for pouring a viscous liquid such as syrup. Thus, the pouring device comprises a spout having a frontal lip defining its mouth, a cover plate associated therewith which is mounted to pivot about an axis and biased into abutting closing contact with the mouth lip, and operating means for the cover plate. The frontal lip is extended rearwardly to provide an annular opening, an inner wall defining the annular opening tapering outwardly towards the mouth lip to provide an annular seat, and an abutting face of the cover plate being formed with a shaped wall adapted to fit snugly within and around said seat when closed. The arrangement of the seat and the shaped wall on the cover plate, together with the fact that these components are of metal, or like rigid non-resilient material, enables the flow of syrup to be sheared-off and prevent drippage. However, it will be appreciated that accuracy of pouring is not important with this known kind of pouring device. An object of the invention is to provide a pouring device generally of the kind discussed above having a construction which enables it to be produced from plastics material and provide accurate pouring in use. A further object of the invention is to provide a pouring device generally of said kind which can be used for a range of different sized and/or shaped containers. According to the invention, such a pouring device is substantially wholly provided by two components, the operating means are in the form of a lever, which is formed integrally with said cover plate to provide one of said components, said lever extends oppositely to the cover plate relative to its pivot axis, the spout is formed integrally with a support body to provide the other component, the support body has connection means by which the device can be detachably and sealingly connected over an aperture in a liquid container to which it is to be fitted, said support body defining a passage for communicating with liquid in the container, the pouring device being characterised in that the two components are formed from suitable plastics material and in that the base of the support body is elongate and extends laterally from said connection means beneath the lever whereby, when fitted to the liquid container, said base engages over an extended area of an adjacent container wall to provide a stable support and absorb loads applied by said lever to the wall during use. Conveniently, the connection means may comprise a recess having a screw thread adapted to screw onto a threaded boss for the aperture, a threaded closure cap being provided for said boss when the pouring device is not fitted. Preferably the pivot axis for said integral cover plate and lever is positioned close to the spout whereby the annular opening of said spout can be opened and closed via the cover plate by a rocking motion of said lever. In order that the invention may be readily understood, a preferred embodiment of pouring device particularly for blending colour tinters with a base paint to produce a waterborne paint of a required colour for the re-finishing of motor vehicles, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view from above of the preferred pouring device Figure 2 is a perspective view from below, of the device Figure 3 is a side-elevation of the device in a closed condition , and Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3, partly in cross-section, in an open condition and showing exploded the connection components to the container, and Figure 5 is a further perspective view from above showing the device in an open condition and fitted to a container in the form of a standard size circular paint can. Referring to Figures 1 to 4, the pouring device comprises essentially a support body 1 and a closure 2 providing a cover plate 3 and an operating lever 4 integrally formed therewith. Thus, the device is substantially wholly provided by two components which may conveniently be moulded from a suitable thermoplastics material, ie a material having a high degree of rigidity which is non-toxic and chemically resistant to the colour tints; suitable materials may be Polypropylene and Nylon, or filled plastics, for example Nylon filled with fibre glass. The support body 1 is formed with an elongate base 5 which defines a circular recess 6 (see Figure 2) provided with a screw thread 7 and the end wall 8 of this recess defines a shaped aperture 9 constituting a communicating passage which opens into a flared spout 10 upstanding from the base. The frontal lip 11 of the spout 10 is rounded as shown so as to be easy to clean. Rearwardly of the spout, the support body has side walls 12 which are formed to provide shaped recesses to accomodate opposed side walls 13 of the closure 2. The side walls 13 of the closure are pivotally mounted on the side walls 9 of the body 1 via cooperating bearing holes through which a pivot pin 14 extends. It will be noted that the connection between the closure 2 and support body 1 is such that the pivot axis provided by the pin 14 is close to the spout 10. Hence, the spout can be readily opened and closed via the cover plate 3 by a rocking motion of the lever 4. The cover plate 3 of the closure 2 is normally biased to its closed condition by a torsion spring which is wound around the pin 14 and has opposed straight ends 14A and 14B (see Figure 2) acting between the support body 1 and operating lever 4. The cover plate 3 of the closure 2 is rounded and dimensioned to mate with the lip 11 of the flared spout 10. The lip 11 in this embodiment (see particularly Figure 3) is angled as shown at 15 along its rearward extension. This angle is designed to present the frontal part of the lip in an advantageous orientation for efficient pouring i.e. so that the container does not need to be tipped completely into the horizontal plane to enable the plane of the lip to be substantially vertical during use. Also, the mating angle provided in the cover plate enhances the rigidity of this plate. Referring particularly to Figures 4 and 5, it will be seen that the frontal lip 11 of the spout is extended rearwardly to produce an annular mouth opening 16 which is circular; the inner wall of the body 1 defining this mouth provides a circular seat 17 which tapers outwardly and upwardly to the mouth lip. Furthermore, the mating face of the cover plate 3 is provided with a projecting annular rib 18 having a tapered circular outer face which is dimensioned to fit snugly into and around the seat 17 when closed. In this manner, the spout 10 can be closed positively, the rib 18 cutting through the colour tint being poured and into engagement with its seat, thereby providing an abrupt cut-off to the flow. This enables accurate pouring to be achieved. Furthermore, the annular rib 18 provides further rigidity to the cover plate 2. Referring to Figure 4, the pouring device is adapted to be attached to a range of different colour tint paint containers, e.g. circular plastics cans of different diameters collapsible, bag-in-box type containers, shaped blow-moulded bottles, etc. In this embodiment, the device is shown attached to the lid 19 of a known design of round plastics can. The lid is provided with an aperture 20 of a single, standard diameter into which is force fitted a collar 21 whereby a flange 22 on the collar is forced against the outer face of the lid; thus the flange acts to seal the aperture and to strengthen the lid around said aperture. The collar has a threaded boss 23 with a feathered edge 24 for sealing. The aperture in the lid is normally closed-off for storage and transportation by a cap 25. When the can is to be used, the cap is simply unscrewed and the pouring device fitted and sealed onto the boss via its threaded recess 6. Referring to Figure 5, it will be noted that the elongate base 5 of the pouring device has a shaped bottom edge so as to provide a pair of parallel projecting lugs 27. Thus, when the pouring device is fitted into position on the boss 23, the lugs 27 bear on the surrounding flat area of the lid 19 between the boss and a circumferential lip 28 normally provided around the perimeter of the plastics lid. Thereby, the elongate base 5 is in contact over a significant area of the lid and acts to provide a stable support and absorb loads applied to the lid when the lever 4 is operated during use. It will also be noted that the lever 4 is of a significant width and its free end 29 is extended so that it projects clear of the can it is fitted to. This is to enable the end of the lever to be freely available to the user during the pouring operation. Thus, in use, the can would be tipped close to the hoizontal to bring the pouring lip substantially vertical over the base paint container. Pressure would then be applied by the user's fingers rather than thumb of one hand to the end of the lever, as appropriate, to produce a rocking motion of the lever around its pivot pin 14, thereby causing the cover plate 3 to open for accurate dispensing of a required weight of colour tint. The end of the lever 4 has a downwardly directed wall 30 to facilitate lifting of the can, particularly from a storage shelf, and handling of same.

Claims: A pouring device for viscous liquids of the kind comprising a pouring spout (10) having a frontal lip (11) defining its mouth, a cover plate (3) associated therewith which is mounted to pivot about an axis and biased into abutting closing contact with the mouth lip, and operating means (4) for the cover plate, and in which the frontal lip (11) is extended rearwardly to provide an annular opening (16), an inner wall defining the annular opening tapers outwardly towards the mouth lip to provide an annular seat (17), and an abutting face of the cover plate (3) is formed with a shaped wall (18) adapted to fit snugly within and onto said seat when closed, the device being substantially wholly provided by two components, the operating means (4) being in the form of a lever, which is formed integrally with said cover plate (3) to provide one of said components, said lever extending oppositely to the cover plate relative to its pivot axis, the spout (10) being formed integrally with a support body (1) to provide the other component, the support body having connection means (6) by which the device can be detachably and sealingly connected over an aperture (20) in a liquid container to which it is to be fitted, said support body defining a passage (9) for communicating with liquid in the container, characterized in that the two components are formed from suitable plastics material and in that the base (5) of the support body is elongate and extends laterally from said connection means beneath the lever (4) whereby, when fitted to the liquid container, said base engages over an extended area of an adjacent container wall (19) to provide a stable support and absorb loads applied by said lever to the wall during use. A pouring device according to Claim 1, characterised in that the connection means (6) comprise a recess in said support body (1) having a screw thread (7) adapted to screw onto a threaded boss (23) for the aperture (20), and in that a threaded closure cap (25) is provided for said boss when the pouring device is not fitted to it. A pouring device according to Claim 2, characterised in that the threaded boss (23) is provided by a collar (21) forming part of the pouring device adapted to be located in the aperture (20) of the container the device is to be fitted to, the collar having a flange (22) which is forced against the outer face of the surrounding container wall (19) to seal said aperture and to strengthen said wall around said aperture. A pouring device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the pivot axis for said integral cover plate (3) and lever (4) is positioned close to the spout (10) whereby the annular opening (16) of said spout can be readily opened and closed via the cover plate (3) by a rocking motion of said lever. A pouring device according to claim 4, characterised in that the lever (4) is of a significant width to enable the user to effect the rocking motion using the fingers rather than thumb of one hand, and in that the free end of said lever has a downwardly directed wall (30) to facilitate lifting and handling of the container to which it is fitted. A pouring device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the frontal lip (11) of the spout (10) is angled to present an advantageous attitude for pouring, the cover plate (3) having a mating angle which enhances the rigidity of said plate. A pouring device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the shaped wall (18) provided on the cover plate (3) for fitting within and around said annular seat (17) is provided by an outer tapered face of an annular rib (18) projecting from the inner face of said cover plate, said rib enhancing the rigidity of said cover plate.

Inventors: CANE MICHAEL ROGER, CANE, MICHAEL ROGER
Applicants: ICI PLC, IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES PLC
Application year: 1992
Main classification: B65D45
IPC codes: B65D47, B65D43, B65D45