Patent Publication Number: US-9901517-B2

Title: Feeding device and a feeding apparatus with such feeding device

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention is relating to a feeding device and a feeding apparatus with such feeding device. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Milk Bottles are used to contain liquid state food such as milk or beverage for feeding infants and other person of inconvenience for food, such as disabled, elderly, or patients. But, when take pieces of fruit such as pear, apple etc or vegetable, jellies yogurt and minced meat, this kind of milk bottle is not feasible. So it is in needed to develop a new feeding device for the inconvenient and/or baby to take such kind of foods. 
     SUMMARY 
     This invention tries to solve the above drawbacks of the prior arts. It provided a feeding device to make it more convenient for the infant or those inconvenient persons to take foods. 
     One embodiment provided in this invention to solve the said problem is: Develop a feeding device made of a soft resilient material, which includes a circular base and a sac formed by extended down from the circular base, at the end of the said sac there are one or more apertures. It is characterized that the said sac includes a collapsible part. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the said collapsible part is located at the end of sac near to circular base. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the said collapsible part ( 22 ) is in gradual contraction shape from top to bottom. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the said collapsible part includes a plurality of spaced apart annular protrusions and annular recesses. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the thickness of the said protrusion of the sac is more than that of the said recess of the sac. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the cross-section of the said recess is arc-shaped. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the cross-section of the said recess is wedge-shaped. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the said collapsible part includes three or four annular recesses and three or four annular protrusions spaced apart by the said recesses. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the thickness of the said recess ( 222 ) of the said sac ( 2 ) is from 0.4 to 0.7 times of that of other part of the sac. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, further includes a connection part extended up from the said circular base. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the said connection part includes a circular connection piece, a circular groove is formed between the said circular connection piece and the said circular base. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the outer peripheral of the said circular connection piece has notch for positioning. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the feeding device is made of transparent or translucent resilient material of food grade. 
     In one embodiment of the said feeding device in this invention, the feeding device is made of colored or colorless resilient material of food grade. 
     One embodiment of this invention also provides a feeding apparatus, which includes the feeding device said above. 
     The implementation of this inventive feeding device and feeding apparatus has the following advantageous effects: Since the sac of the feeding device includes collapsible part, in one aspect, the sac can contain more food, in the other hand, the collapsible part can function as a pump to make it easier to extrude food from the sac and more feasible for the food feeding. Furthermore, the collapsible part may be bent to an angle, which promotes the usability and practicality. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Specific embodiment of this invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is the perspective view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 2  is the front view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 3  is the left view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 4  is one type of partially cross-section view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 5  is another type of partially cross-section view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 6  is the perspective view of the second embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 7  is the front view of the second embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 8  is the left view of the second embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 9  is one type of partially cross-section view of the second embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 10  is another type of partially cross-section view of the first embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 11  is the perspective view of the third embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 12  is partially cross-section view of the third embodiment of the feeding device; 
         FIG. 13  is the front view of one preferred embodiment of the feeding apparatus; 
         FIG. 14  is the diagram without outer cover of feeding apparatus as showed in  FIG. 13 ; 
         FIG. 15  is the exploded view of feeding apparatus as showed in  FIG. 13 ; 
         FIG. 16 a -16 d    shows the bent status of the feeding device during feeding food. 
         FIG. 17 a -17 b    shows the pump function status of the feeding device during feeding food. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     To make it clearer and easier to understand the features, this invention is described in more detail about the selected embodiments referring to the drawings. 
       FIG. 1  to  FIG. 5 , show the first embodiment of the feeding device of this invention. The feeding device is an infant feeding device  100 , which is made of food grade resilient material such as silicon, plastic, rubber or other food grade resilient materials. The feeding device may be transparent or translucent. It also may be with color or without color. The feeding device  100  includes a circular base  1  and a sac  2  extending down from the said circular base  1 . The sac  2  can be used to store food and for feeding a baby. Food is placed into the sac  2  through the open end of the circular base  1 , and the sac can then be closed by a closure, e.g., elements  200  and  400  as in  FIGS. 13-15 . The sac  2 , the sac  2  includes a bulbous end portion  21  having a maximum diameter at an intermediate location  4 . For the feasibility of feeding via the sac  2 , the bulbous end portion  21  is provided with a plurality of apertures  211  for the passage of food from the interior to the exterior of the bulbous end portion. These apertures include apertures above said intermediate location of the maximum diameter of the bulbous end Portion and apertures below said intermediate location of the maximum diameter of the bulbous end portion. The apertures  211  may be in any shape. To comfort and pacify the baby teeth, the sac may be set one or more protrusions (not shown) beside the apertures  211  or between apertures  211 . 
     The sac  2  of the said feeding device  100  includes a collapsible part  22 . The said collapsible part  22  is located at the end of sac  2  near to circular base  1  as one preferable embodiment. the said collapsible part  22  includes a plurality of spaced apart annular protrusions  221  and annular recesses  222 . The said collapsible part  22  may be collapsed with extra force due to the design of plurality of spaced apart annular protrusions  221  and annular recesses  222  and the resilient material used. That is, the said annular recesses  222  are compressed and the said annular protrusions  221  are folded together. 
     To make the said collapsible part  22  easier to be folded, preferably, the thickness of the said annular protrusions  221  on the sac  2  may be thicker than that of the said annular recesses  222 . It can be understandable that the thickness of the said annular protrusions  221  is same as that of the said annular recesses  222 . 
     In this example instance, the thickness of the said annular recesses  222  of the collapsible part  22  is about from 0.4 to 0.7 times of that of other part of the sac  2  except the collapsible part  22 . For example, the thickness of the sac is 1.2 mm, then the thickness of the said annular recesses  222  is 0.6 mm or 0.8 min or other like value. 
     In this example instance, the feeding device  100  is a three-folding feeding device. The collapsible part  22  of the sac  2  contains three spaced apart annular protrusions  221  and three annular recesses  222 . The cross-section shape of the annular recesses  222  may be in arc shape or in wedge shape. As showed in  FIG. 4 , the cross-section shape of the annular recesses  222  is in arc shape. As showed in  FIG. 5 , the cross-section shape of the annular recesses  222 ′ is in wedge shape. That is the annular recess  222 ′ is angular. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the spaced apart annular protrusions  221  are in alternating relationship with at least three spaced apart annular recesses  222 . The annular protrusions and annular recesses are disposed in a series and in symmetrical relationship to a common axis  223 . Each of the annular recesses of the sac, except for an annular recess closest to the circular base  1 , is axially farther than a next preceding annular recess in the series from the circular base, with reference to the common axis  223 . 
     With the collapsible part  22 , in the one hand, the volume of the sac  2  is enlarged to store more food in it; on the other hand, the collapsible part  22  may function as pump so the user is easier to squeeze the food out for feeding. Furthermore, the collapsible part  22  may bend an angle to improve the usability and practicability. In this embodiment, the said collapsible part  22  is in gradual contraction shape from top to bottom. To be understandable, the said collapsible part  22  may be other type of shape, such as cylindrical shape from top to bottom. 
     This inventive feeding device may be used independently. It may also be integrated with other parts to form a feeding apparatus. To make the feeding device  100  feasible to match with other parts, in this embodiment, the feeding device  100  further includes a connection part  3  extended up from the said circular base  1 . The said connection part  3  includes a circular connection piece  31  and a circular groove  32  which is formed between the said circular connection piece  31  and the said circular base  1 . The feeding device is then installed into the feeding apparatus with the circular connection piece  31 . For example, the circular connection piece  31  may be clamped by other parts so that the feeding device is connected with other parts. 
     As in  FIG. 6  to  FIG. 10 , it is the second embodiment of the feeding device of this invention. The feeding device  100 A is a four-folding feeding device. The structure of feeding device  100 A is similar to that of feeding device  100  in the first embodiment except the collapsible part  22 A of the sac  2 A contains four spaced apart annular protrusions  221 A and three annular recesses  222 A. There is no repeat here. As showed in  FIG. 9 , the cross-section shape of the annular recesses  222 A is in arc shape. As showed in  FIG. 10 , the cross-section shape of the annular recesses  222 A′ is in wedge shape. That is the annular recess  222 A′ is angular. Other labels in the figures are defined as: circular base  1 A, sac  2 A, the end  21 A of the said sac  2 A, apertures  211 A, connection part  3 A, circular connection piece  31 A, and circular groove  32 A. 
     As in  FIG. 11  to  FIG. 12 , it is the third embodiment of the feeding device of this invention. The structure of feeding device  100 B is similar to that of feeding device  100  in the first embodiment except the structure of the circular connection piece  31 B is different from that of the said circular connection piece  31  in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the outer peripheral of the said circular connection piece  31 B has two notches for quickly positioning it with other parts. There is no repeat here to describe other structures. Other labels in the figures are defined as: circular base  1 B, sac  2 B, the end  21 B of the said sac  2 B, apertures  211 B, connection part  3 B, circular connection piece  31 B, circular groove  32 B, collapsible part  22 B, annular protrusions  221 B and annular recesses  222 B. 
     As in  FIG. 13  to  FIG. 15 , it is one preferred embodiment of the feeding apparatus of this invention. In this embodiment, it includes any one of the above said feeding device  100 ,  100 A or  100 B. As example, here refer to feeding device  100 . As in the figures, the feeding apparatus includes the first connection element  200  to connect with feeding device  100 , and a cover  300  to cover the feeding device  100 . The first connection element  200  is hinged with a second connection element  400 . The second connection element  400  is hinged with the connection element  200  at one side and is fastened with the connection element  200  on the other side. The second connection element  400  may include handler for user to handle. 
     As showed from  FIG. 16 a    to  FIG. 16 d   , it showed that a infant feeds himself with the feeding device. The collapsible part  22  of the feeding device  100  can be bent an angle to improve the usability and practicability. Although the baby head rotate of do other movement relative to the feeding device, the collapsible part  22  of the feeding device  100  will bend an angle to follow the relative movement between the baby head and the feeding device  100 . As showed from  FIG. 16 a    to  FIG. 16 d   , the feeding device can bend at any direction so that the feeding device  100  won&#39;t elapse from the baby&#39;s mouth for the relative movement between the baby head and the feeding device  100 . 
     As showed from  FIG. 16 a    to  FIG. 16 d   , the collapsible part  22  of the feeding device function as pump. As showed in the figures, the collapsible part  22  is stretched at first, and then it is squashed. The volume in the feeding device changes in this way so that user is easier to squeeze the food for feeding. 
     Furthermore, since the sac of the feeding device includes collapsible part, in one aspect, the sac can contain more food. The volume of the sac can be adaptable. For example, when the baby is younger, the foldable part can be folded so as to reduce the volume. With the grown up of the baby, the foldable part can be stretched out to enlarge the volume. So this inventive feeding device is adaptable to meet the requirements of baby feeding during his growing up. No need to replace the feeding device in the period of baby&#39;s growing up. 
     Other than used by the baby, the above said feeding device and feeding apparatus are also used by the inconvenient person for feeding himself, such as the disabled, elderly or sick person. These persons can feed themselves by chewing and sucking the sac. Also this inventive products can also be used in the weightless space environment. 
     The above description described some embodiments of this invention. But this invention is not limited to the above embodiments. These embodiments are for example only without limited the concept of this invention. For the ordinary person in this industry, it can make many other embodiments based on the concept of this invention, which are all within the scope of this invention and are protected by this invention.