Patent Publication Number: US-10315830-B2

Title: Metering device made of plastics material

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a metering device made out of plastic, which can be placed onto a bottleneck to form a tight seal, with a metering container, which on its outlet-side end is sealed prior to initial opening by means of a cover surface with drinking spout tightly placed on the opposing, actuation-side end, wherein the drinking spout has passed through it a pressure pin, which is operatively connected with a piercing mechanism, and that two concentric annular walls are molded onto the metering container, wherein the outer annular wall is provided with an internal thread, and wherein the pressure pin is further joined with a pressure head. 
     BACKGROUND 
     For about twenty years, development has been underway on metering devices combined with seals for bottles or plastic containers for dispensing liquid or free-flowing substances into the bottles or containers onto which these metering devices are applied. Even though, as already noted above, such metering devices were already developed roughly twenty years ago, the latter have only been on the market for a little while. The initial idea was to offer medication together with a relatively small bottle, so that a traveler could take his or her medication together with a beverage without having to give any special thought to corresponding beverages or first having to go into a restaurant to obtain a corresponding, suitable beverage. This initial idea has today been largely abandoned. Such metering devices made out of plastic are today being offered for a great many, varied, liquid, free-flowing or even solid active substances present in tablet form. They make it possible to precisely maintain a specific mixing ratio of active substance to bottle contents. For example, plant fertilizers continue to be offered in relatively large bottles or containers, which then are to be added in small liquid doses. For example, only an amount of 10 milliliters of a plant protection product or insecticide, pesticide or fungicide has to be added to a watering can with five liters of water. A threaded lid is most often used as a measuring cup when such an amount is to be dispensed from a two-liter plastic bottle. Experience shows that these measuring cups are hardly used, and a user meters by eye, and hence practically always meters too much. This is ecologically and economically disadvantageous. 
     Metering closures suitable for dispensing active substances in solid form most often have a somewhat more complex structural design, since these active substances are most often present in blister packs, so that the latter are protected against light and moisture until the time they are to be dispensed into a liquid. In particular in the case of beverages, these active substances are vitamins, which are not stable in the liquid phase, and also decompose when exposed to light. WO2008/002160 shows a typical example of such metering closures. In such metering closures, the blister pack is most often configured and dimensioned in such a way that its welded edge is non-positively and positively held with the threaded part of the seal between a bottleneck and lateral wall of the closure part. The tablet in the blister pack can be ejected by means of a piercing mechanism, which is held above the blister pack and can be actuated by a guided pressure head. A protective cap is most often held over the piercing mechanism and pressure head, and must be removed prior to initial actuation. 
     If the content to be dispensed in such a metering device is liquid or free-flowing, use is usually made of a device having a cap that incorporates a sealed chamber, and this chamber is opened by a relative movement between this chamber and a piercing mechanism, so that the content of the chamber gets into the container. For example, in a solution known from CN201235991Y, the piercing mechanism is fixedly secured to the lower part of this metering closure, and given an abductive movement of the sealing cap in which the sealed chamber is secured, the membrane that seals the chamber is cut open. A very similar metering closure with a receiving chamber in the cap of the closure is known from JP2006176193. 
     GB2471994A shows a metering device comprised of a lower closure part and an applied cap, wherein a chamber is here molded into the lower part of the metering closure, and incorporates a piercing mechanism that can be displaced into a lower position after removing a cap, and thereby punches open the metering chamber, which is closed at its lower end by a membrane. 
     All known metering devices with a metering container integrated therein are conceived in such a way that the metering container has a diameter exhibiting maximally the inner diameter of the bottleneck. If the metering container is secured to the upper part of the metering device, this diameter is again reduced by the wall thickness of the metering container. 
     For example, if a quantity of 50 milliliters is to be dispensed into a bottle having a bottleneck with an inner diameter of 22 millimeters, the metering chamber, or the metering container, would have to have a height of 13 centimeters. Bearing in mind that a piercing mechanism must also be present, which is to perform a certain stroke and exhibits a pressure head, it can be assumed that the height of such a metering device would practically have to measure 15 centimeters. However, this is unpractical and unusable in every aspect. Bearing in mind that a liter bottle has a height of over 35 centimeters, for example, and a metering device with a height of roughly 15 centimeters is to be applied hereon, there would have to be more than half a meter distance between two shelves in a sales rack. This would be completely uneconomical, and such a bottle would also be impractical to transport and also store in the household. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A metering device that is suitable for dispensing a larger volume into a bottle without significantly increasing the overall height is disclosed. 
     If a larger volume is ready for metered dispensing, not only can the unstable or light-sensitive content be stored in the metering container, or in the metering chamber, but space is then also available for additionally dispensing concentrated liquids, such as fruit concentrates, coffee concentrates, sugars or sweeteners. 
     In an embodiment, a metering device made out of plastic of the kind mentioned at the outset, is characterized in that the metering container has a floor designed as a funnel, whose outlet sleeve is comprised of the mentioned inner annular wall, and whose conical region of the funnel extends over the outer annular wall in a radial and axial direction, and the inner annular wall is molded onto the lower side of the conical region, and wherein the upper edge of the funnel adjoins a cylindrical wall, which continues downwardly as a circumferential skirting and extends until under the level of the two annular walls, and whose lower edge forms a standing surface, and wherein the metering container is further sealed by a cover surface comprised of pouring spouts, through which the piercing mechanism is passed. 
     It is most preferred that a push button be formed at the upper end of the piercing mechanism. 
     If this push button is shaped like a dome and the lower, circumferential edge region is made separable, this lower edge can, prior to initial use, rest on a circumferential collar on the cylindrical wall of the metering chamber designed as a funnel, and thereby comprise a closed and secured structure, wherein the circumferential lower edge region can then serve as a guarantee strip. In order to give the injection molds for manufacturing the metering device out of plastic the simplest possible design, it is expedient and advantageous to have the piercing mechanism consist of two parts, as disclosed in claim  4 . Additional advantageous embodiments may be gleaned from the dependent claims. The drawing shows a preferred embodiment of the subject matter according to the invention, and explains it based upon the following specification. Shown on: 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a side view of the metering device made out of plastic prior to initial actuation, and 
         FIG. 2 a    is a diametric section of the metering device according to  FIG. 1 , cut along the C-C line, 
         FIG. 2 b    is the circled detail from  FIG. 2  on a magnified scale, 
         FIG. 3  once again is a side view of the metering device according to  FIG. 1 , but after initial actuation, and correspondingly 
         FIG. 4 a    once again is a diametric section of the metering device according to  FIG. 3  along the D-D line, wherein 
         FIG. 4 b    once again is the detail circled on  FIG. 4  on a magnified scale, 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded drawing of the metering device prior to initial actuation, while 
         FIG. 6  once again is an exploded drawing of the metering device after initial use as depicted on  FIGS. 3 and 4 . 
         FIG. 7  shows an alternative embodiment of the metering device, which can be placed on a sealed bottleneck, in the position prior to initial opening, and 
         FIG. 8  the same embodiment in the same view after initial opening, 
         FIG. 9  is the metering device taken by itself, also in a diametric section. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The metering device is marked  1  overall. The term metering device was here selected instead of the term metering closure device. In metering closure devices, the latter is always marketed mounted on the corresponding bottle. This does not hold true in the case at hand. The metering device as such is here marketed, and can then be applied to a bottle with a standardized bottleneck. The metering device according to the invention is thus provided with means adjusted to the bottleneck, which will be touched upon further below. 
     The metering device according to the invention essentially consists of three or four parts, as may be discerned from  FIGS. 5 and 6 . These parts are the metering container  2 , the piercing mechanism  3 , the pressure head  4  and the cover surface  5  of the metering container  2 . As evident from  FIG. 5 , the piercing mechanism  3  and cover surface  5  can be fabricated as a single piece, and they are then only separated during initial use of the metering device. These individual parts will now be described in detail below. 
     The metering container  2  has a funnel-shaped floor  20 . This funnel-shaped floor  20  exhibits an upper edge  21 . In the following, the terms upper and lower are always understood to mean that upper always refers to the direction toward the pressure head  4 , and below to the direction toward the connection means yet to be described for attachment to a bottleneck. A continuous lateral wall  22  adjoins this mentioned upper edge  21  of the funnel-shaped floor  20  as a single piece. This lateral wall  22  is downwardly elongated over the upper edge of the funnel-shaped floor  21  as an apron  23 . This apron  23  defines a flat surface, which forms the standing surface  24  of the metering device. As already mentioned at the outset, these metering devices are preferably sold separately from the bottles upon which they are suitably attached. In principle, however, it would indeed also be possible for these metering devices to be marketed already mounted onto the bottle. 
     A collar  25  with a u-shaped cross section is molded on the upper end of the lateral wall  22 . This u-shaped collar  25  forms a continuous channel  26 , which serves to tightly and positively join the cover surface  5  with the metering container  2 . 
     Two concentric annular walls are molded onto the lower side of the funnel-shaped floor  20 . The inner annular wall  27  forms a pouring spout  27  of the metering container  2 . An outer annular wall  28  running concentrically to the inner annular wall  27  is molded onto the lower side of the funnel-shaped floor  20 . Both annular walls  27 ,  28  end at the same height, but above the standing surface  24 . The outer annular wall  28  exhibits an internal thread  29 . Of course, this internal thread is tailored to the external thread of the bottleneck onto which the metering device  1  is to be screwed. In this regard, let it be briefly mentioned that a large number of liter and 1.5 liter bottles exhibit standardized threads. This applies both to PET bottles and glass bottles. 
     Placed onto the metering container  2  is the pressure head  4 . This pressure head  4  exhibits an essentially cup- or dome-shaped pressure surface  40 . This pressure surface  40  exhibits a flattened portion  41  at the very top. The spherically curved pressure surface  40  is downwardly adjoined by a continuous, cylindrical edge  42 , which can be separated from the actual pressure surface  40 . To this end, a separating seam  43  runs between the pressure surface  40  and continuous edge  42 , and is formed either by a continuous thin point or by a plurality of predetermined breaking point bridges. The continuous edge  42  is severed and a pull tab is molded onto the side facing away on  FIG. 1 . The continuous, separable edge  42  thus serves as a guarantee strip prior to initial use, which ensures and makes discernible that the metering device is unused. The initial actuation can take place only after the continuous edge  42  has been severed. The term initial actuation is here somewhat misleading, however, but indeed used for such metering devices, even though the metering device only serves for one-time use, so that only an initial actuation takes place, and in no way a repeated use. 
     Prior to first use, the lower edge of the separable, continuous edge  42  rests at the very outside on the u-shaped collar  25 . After the continuous edge  42  has been severed, the lower edge of the dome-shaped pressure surface  40  then also at the very outside rests on the u-shaped collar  25 . 
     A first part  30  of the piercing mechanism  3  is molded on underneath the pressure surface  40 , in the example shown here underneath the flattened portion  41  of the pressure head  4 . This first part  30  of the piercing mechanism  3  is formed by a first part  31  of a pressure pin, which consists of two parts in all. Only this first part  31  of the pressure pin is molded onto the pressure head as a single piece. The pressure pin here consists of three star-shaped, radially outwardly directed guiding walls  32 , which are peripherally molded onto a cylindrical enveloping wall  33  as a single piece. This cylindrical enveloping wall  33  is cut at an angle at the very bottom, and its lower edge exhibits a separating blade  34 . The significance of this separating blade  34  has yet to be described below. The guiding walls  32  are shortened at the lower end in a radial direction, and there engage into a second part  35  of the piercing mechanism  3 . This second part  35  of the piercing mechanism  3  exhibits a tubular section  36 . This tubular section  36  exhibits a lower, closed end  37 . A continuous collar  38  is molded onto the upper end of the tubular section  36 . A punching sleeve  39  is molded onto the lower, closed end  37  of the tubular section  36 . This punching sleeve is cylindrical and mounted so that it can slide in the interior annular wall  27 , which comprises the pouring spout  27   I . The punching sleeve  39  is in turn cut at an inclination to its central axis, and exhibits a blade  39   I  at the lower edge. The punching sleeve  39  is joined with the tubular sleeve  36 , or with its lower, closed end  37 , by means of at least one radially outwardly directed connecting wall  39   II , with the punching sleeve  39 . 
     The metering container  2  is sealed at its upper end by a cover surface  5 . This cover surface  5  has a pot-shaped configuration. As illustrated here and most preferably realized, the floor  50  of this pot-shaped cover surface  5  can be joined as a single piece with the continuous collar  38  and tubular section  36 . Since the tubular section  36  is also sealed at the bottom, the floor  50  in conjunction with the continuous collar  38  and tubular section  36  comprise a closed termination of the metering container  2 . The continuous collar  38  is tightly joined by means of a perforation skin  51  with the floor  50  of the pot-shaped cover surface  5 . An upwardly directed, annular wall forms a drinking spout  6  that adhesively adjoins the outermost edge of the perforation skin  51 . This drinking spout  6  incorporates the cylindrical enveloping wall  33 , which together with the guiding walls  32  forms the first part  31  of a pressure pin. 
     An outer, continuous pot wall  52  borders the floor  50  of the cover surface  5 , which has a pot-shaped design. Its upper cross section is bent like a hairpin. This bent part  53  engages into the continuous channel  26  of the collar  25  a u-shaped cross section. The outer or inner wall of the channel  26  exhibits corresponding positive locking means, and the bent part  53  of the pot wall exhibits corresponding diametrically opposed positive locking means, so that the cover surface  5  is irreversibly and fixedly joined with the metering container  2 . The pressure head  4  also has corresponding positive locking means both on the continuous, separable edge  42 , and above the separating seam  43  in the curved region of the pressure surface  40 , which are removably connected with diametrically opposed positive locking means on the upper, outer edge of the bent part  43  with diametrically opposed positive locking means. 
     Finally, the metering container  2  is sealed by means of a membrane  7  before the initial opening. This membrane is welded or adhesively bonded to the inner annular wall  27 . 
     In the preferred embodiment described here, the second part  35  of the piercing mechanism  3  is fabricated so as to be joined as a single piece with the cover surface  5 , as described above in detail. However, it is certainly possible to fabricate the second part  35  of the piercing mechanism  3  separately from the cover surface  5 . In this case, an annular film is adhesively bonded or welded under the cover surface  5 , which is likewise welded or adhesively bonded with the continuous collar  38 , and thereby also yields a sealing and retaining connection between these two parts. Given such a solution, the tubular section  36  and punching sleeve  39  would then advantageously be fabricated as separate parts that can be snapped together, to in this way be able to apply the annular film. 
     Finally, stiffening ribs  54  can be molded onto the floor  50  of the cover surface  5 , which are joined with the drinking spout  6 . 
     The outer wall of the punching sleeve  39  can also exhibit a continuous retaining bead, for example, and the interior side of the inner annular wall  27  can exhibit a diametrically opposed retaining groove, which engage into each other once the lowermost position of the punching sleeve has been reached, thereby securing the punching sleeve in this position so as to prevent the second part  35  of the piercing mechanism  3  to fall into a bottle. However, this should likely not be necessary in most instances, since the first part  31  of the pressure pin is positively held in the tubular section  36 . 
       FIGS. 7-9  show an alternative embodiment of the metering device  1  according to the invention. The pressure head  4 , the cover surface  5  and the drinking spout  6  here remain unchanged. By contrast, the metering chamber  2  and piercing mechanism  3  along with the membrane  7  have been slightly modified. This will now be taken up in detail below. 
     Remaining unchanged here are the lateral wall  22  and apron  23  adjoining it, which is configured as a lower elongation of the lateral wall  22 . A slight change here involves only the inclination of the funnel-shaped floor  20 , which here is only slightly inclined in design with a tightening angle of roughly 5 to 10°. As particularly conspicuous, however, the inner annular wall  27  now marked  270  is no longer directed from the edge of the outlet of the floor  20  downwardly toward the standing surface  24 , but rather upwardly into the interior of the metering container  2 . This inner annular wall  270  is segmented, so that the content can still flow out of the metering container  2  anyway. Correspondingly, the inner annular wall  270  is comprised of friction ring wall elements  271 , between which recesses  272  are pulled down up to the edge of the outlet in the floor  20 . This solution is correspondingly especially well-suited for the job of liquid active substances. Thanks to this solution, the membrane here marked  70  can now be sprayed as a single piece with the floor  20 . This membrane  70  is so thin-walled in design that the piercing mechanism  3  can be punched out by means of its punching sleeve  39 , which is here marked  390 , upon actuation of the piercing mechanism  3 . This solution is conceived especially for application onto a bottleneck that itself is in turn hermetically sealed by means of a membrane applied to the bottleneck. 
     The metering device is in turn screwed onto a now sealed bottleneck. To prevent the inner annular wall  27  from already destroying the membrane on the bottleneck in the screwing process, this inner annular wall now marked  270  is upwardly directed, as described above. A downwardly directed annular wall is now also no longer required, since a seal for the bottleneck during transport and storage is no longer needed, as the bottle already is and remains hermetically sealed, as mentioned. 
     This solution now requires that the punching sleeve  30  has to be shortened in its axial alignment. This shortened punching sleeve  39  is thus marked  390 . Prior to the initial actuation as depicted on  FIG. 7 , the shortened punching sleeve  390  now lies completely inside of the upwardly displaced inner annular wall  270 . As already mentioned, the membrane  70  integrally fabricated with the floor  20  can thus be displaced onto the plane that binds the outlet of the metering container  2  after the membrane  70  was separated out. Since as already mentioned the inner annular wall  270  is divided into partial annular wall elements  271  by recesses  272  that extend downwardly up to the floor  20 , the content can be discharged completely from the metering container  2 . 
     After the membrane  70  the blade  392  at the lower edge of the shortened punching sleeve  390  has punched through the membrane  70 , it then punches through the membrane (not shown in the drawing) on the bottleneck on which the metering device  1  is screwed. The internal thread  29  on the outer annular wall  28  along with the inclined running floor  20  now abut tightly enough against the bottleneck that no additional seals are required. 
     Since the punching sleeve  390  is shortened by comparison to the previously described solution, the connecting walls  391  run largely outside of the punching sleeve  390 , and extend from the latter upwardly toward the closed end  37  of the tubular section  36 , as well as toward the wall of this tubular section  36 . 
     Also shown here as simply one other option is that the apron  23  can be configured with an internal thread  290 . This also makes it possible to secure the metering device  1  according to the invention to a bottle with an especially wide bottleneck. As a result, the metering device can be connected onto bottles with varying bottleneck diameters. 
     The use of the metering device according to the invention will now be briefly described below. If the objective is to apply the contents of the metering device  1  according to the invention in a standardized liter bottle, the threaded closure located thereon is first unscrewed. The metering device is now screwed onto the bottle. The bottleneck comes to lie between the inner annular wall  27  and outer annular wall  28  in the process. The thread  29  fits onto the thread of the standardized liter bottle. Once the metering device  1  has been screwed on, the detachable, continuous edge  42  of the pressure head  4  is removed. This pressure head with detached edge  42  is clearly visible on  FIG. 6 . By now pressing on the pressure head  4 , the cylindrical enveloping wall  33  is made to impact the perforation skin  51 , as evident on  FIG. 2 a   . As a consequence, the continuous collar  38  and part of the tubular section  36  are pressed out of the floor  50  of the cover surface  5 , severing the perforation skin  51 . The cylindrical enveloping wall  33  that presses onto the mentioned perforation skin does not necessarily require a blade for this purpose. However, in cases involving a connection by means of an adhesively bonded or welded film, it makes sense to configure the cylindrical enveloping wall on the lower edge as a separating blade  34 . The latter can here also be equipped with a perforating tooth (not shown here). When pressing down the pressure head  4 , the first part  31  of the pressure pin situated inside of the cylindrical enveloping wall  33  of course also begins to move downward, and thus also hits the second part of the pressure pin  35 , which is designed as a tubular section  36 , downwardly with the punching sleeve  39 . This punching sleeve here cuts through the adhesively bonded or welded on membrane  7 . Since the punching sleeve  39  is open on both sides, a communicating connection is now established between the metering container  2  and interior of the bottle. The contents of the metering container  2  thereby get into the bottle. 
     As already mentioned at the outset, the inner diameter of the metering container  2  need in no way match the bottleneck, but thanks to the funnel-shaped floor  20  of the metering container  2  is far larger in diameter than the inner diameter of the bottleneck. This means that far larger quantities can be dispensed without any problem, despite the lower overall height. Since the interior of the metering container also has a communicative connection with the bottle after initial opening, this content can be larger than the hollow space still to be filled in the bottle when the latter is in its original fill state. The two communicating spaces of the metering chamber  2  and bottle now both still remain tightly sealed by the cover surface  5  and cylindrical enveloping wall  33 , which is molded closed on the pressure head  44 . Only once the cover surface  44  of the pressure head  4  is open can the user now drink the contents directly through the drinking spout  6 , or pour it out through the drinking spout. As opposed to the known metering devices, which are only able to dispense at most roughly 10 milliliters in content, it is now possible to also add a content of 50 to even 100 milliliters to the bottle content. This yields completely new possible applications. In this way, fruit concentrates can be added to mineral water or an isotonic beverage in high dosages, wherein the percentage in the metering container  2  protected against light remains so until added, while the light-insensitive beverage in the bottle can be delivered. 
     REFERENCE LIST 
     
         
           1  Metering device 
           2  Metering container 
           3  Piercing mechanism 
           4  Pressure head 
           5  Cover surface of metering container 
           6  Drinking spout 
           7  Membrane 
           20  Funnel-shaped floor 
           21  Upper edge of funnel-shaped floor 
           22  Lateral wall 
           23  Apron as lower elongation of lateral wall 
           24  Standing surface 
           25  U-shaped collar 
           26  Continuous channel 
           27  Inner annular wall 
           27   I  Pouring spout 
           28  Outer annular wall 
           29  Internal thread 
           30  First part of piercing mechanism  3   
           31  First part of a pressure pin 
           32  Guiding walls 
           33  Cylindrical enveloping wall 
           34  Separating blade 
           35  Second part of piercing mechanism  3   
           36  Tubular section ad second part of pressure pin 
           37  Lower closed end of tubular section  36   
           38  Continuous collar at upper end of tubular section  36   
           39  Punching sleeve 
           39   I  Blade of punching sleeve 
           39   II  Connecting wall 
           40  Pressure surface 
           41  Flattened portion 
           42  Continuous edge, separable 
           43  Separating seam 
           50  Floor of cover surface 
           51  Perforation skin 
           52  Pot wall of cover surface  5   
           53  Bent part of pot wall 
           54  Stiffening ribs 
           70  Membrane 
           270  Inner annular wall, upwardly displaced 
           271  Partial ring wall elements 
           272  Recesses 
           291  Sealing elements between  23  and  28   
           390  Shortened punching sleeve 
           391  Connecting walls 
           392  Blade of punching sleeve  390