Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050045658A1/en
Timestamp: 2018-12-10 05:09:01
Document Index: 442257391

Matched Legal Cases: ['application No. 2002', 'art 320', 'art 820', 'art 820', 'art 520', 'art 520', 'art 520', 'art 520', 'art 520', 'art 820', 'art 520', 'art 520']

US20050045658A1 - Low profile, fine mist, finger-operated, precompression-type spray pump - Google Patents
US20050045658A1
US20050045658A1 US10681050 US68105003A US2005045658A1 US 20050045658 A1 US20050045658 A1 US 20050045658A1 US 10681050 US10681050 US 10681050 US 68105003 A US68105003 A US 68105003A US 2005045658 A1 US2005045658 A1 US 2005045658A1
US6913169B2 (en )
Various configurations of spray pumps have been developed whereby the pumping of fluid can be carried out by closing and opening the bottom entrance of a housing (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as a housing bottom entrance”) to vary the pressure in the interior of the housing (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as the “housing interior”). As a closing/opening means of the housing bottom entrance during pumping, a metal ball is generally used. However, the metal ball fails to entirely close the housing bottom entrance because of its spherical shape. Furthermore, the metal ball cannot rapidly respond to the variation of pressure of the housing's interior, resulting in leakage by dripping at the nozzle, characterized by the leakage of some fluid owing to a small gap between the metal ball and the housing bottom entrance and hence the slow loss of pressure from the housing's interior. In addition, the metal ball acts to close the housing bottom entrance by gravity upon application of a downward force to the push button, and open it in response to loss of pressure in the housing's interior upon release of the downward force; however, the density of fluid present in the housing's interior increases upon application of the downward force to the push button and thus the relative gravity of the metal ball decreases, making the rapid closing of housing bottom entrance difficult Therefore, owing to the pressure loss in the housing's interior and the slow response to the variation of pressure, a leakage by dripping occurs at the initial step and final step of a spraying procedure.
The spray pump in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,558 has a demerit that the sliding seal being moveable along the outer surface of a poppet valve must be molded with high precision, or else will malfunction The spray pump in Korean patent application No. 2002-67623 and the spray pump in Korean registered utility model No. 204024 exhibit an excellent precompression function but have demerits of relatively high manufacturing cost due to the use of numerous parts. The spray pump in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,097 has a demerit that a housing of relatively large size is required to provide the variable volume sufficient for compression of the fluid with the housing's interior, thereby needing a piston able to travel a large distance.
In addition, it is desirable that the number of pumping actions to be performed to effect a first spraying under the condition that the housing's interior is empty (“empty pumping number”), be minimized to increase convenience of use, especially in the case of certain pharmaceutical products which should not be held for a long time in the housing's interior.
FIG. 1A shows the longitudinal section view of a spray pump according to one embodiment of the present invention being in the release mode (more particularly, rest mode), and FIG 1B shows the longitudinal section view of the spray pump being in the compression mode (more particularly, spray mode).
A housing 300 is configured as a multi-step structure with its diameter decreasing downwardly by steps. In the bottom entrance 310 of the housing 300 is inserted a suction tube (not shown), which is immersed in the fluid to be nebulized. The housing 300 is illustrated in more detail, referring to FIG. 4 showing a top view (a), a vertical cross-sectional view (b) and a bottom view (c) thereof. In the housing 300 of the multi-step structure, a first step 320 is formed, as shown in FIG. 11B, at the position where a piston 400 no longer moves downward in the compression mode, and a second step 330 is formed, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, at the position where a spring 600 is located, and a third step 340 is formed at the position where the second valve 800 closes and opens the housing bottom entrance 310 with the glans part 320 thereof.
The second valve 800, disposed between the poppet valve 500 and the housing bottom entrance 310, is illustrated referring to FIG. 6 showing a top view (a) and a vertical cross-sectional view (b) thereof. Referring to the vertical cross-sectional view (b) of FIG. 6, the second valve 800 comprises the cylindrical body 810 of the upper portion and the glans part 820 of the lower portion, the glans part 820 having a larger diameter than the cylindrical body 810. The cylindrical body 810 is moveable upwardly and downwardly along the inner surface of the cylindrical extending part 520 of the poppet valve 500. In order for the body 810 to smoothly move within the extending part 520 while retaining the sealing condition, the outer diameter of the body 810 is formed to be slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the extending part 520 and simultaneously slightly larger than the inner diameter of the annular protuberance 522. Since the extending part 520 is of resilient plastic material, the sealed state can be maintained between the extending part 520 and body 810 in the pumping procedure, and also the upward and downward movement thereof can be smoothly carried ouL Moreover, a pair of small lugs 812 is formed on the outer surface of the body 810 in proximity to the glans part 820. As will be illustrated later concerning the operation of pump 100, when the poppet valve 500 descends and thus the fluid present in the housing's interior (A) is precompressed and sprayed in the compression mode, the cylindrical extending part 520 of the poppet valve 500 reaches the small lugs 812 of the second valve 800 at the time of completion of spraying and passes them in the continuous descent thereof, whereby the cylindrical extending part 520 is slightly separated from the body 812, and then the pressurized fluid present in the housing's interior (S) is discharged though the separating gap toward the container. The detailed description of this procedure will be illustrated later with reference to the operation of the pump 100.
As described above, the low profile, fine mist finger-operated, precompression-type spray pump according to the present invention can be operated even with a short travel distance of its piston, thus it is possible to reduce the height of a push button spaced from a closure, which contributes to the beauty of a final product containing liquid to be sprayed, on which the spray pump is mounted. The spray pump according to the present invention can be smoothly pumped without leakage and also fabricated with a small number of constituent parts, resulting in the remarkable reduction of its manufacturing cost and assembly cost In addition, it can start to pump with a small empty pumping number.
1. A low profile, fine mist, finger-operated precompression-type spray pump for the nebulization of fluids, comprising:
a closure holding a pump securely to the neck of a container,
US20050045658A1 true true US20050045658A1 (en) 2005-03-03
US6913169B2 US6913169B2 (en) 2005-07-05
CN1258647C (en) 2000-10-19 2006-06-07 （株）钟于实业 Hand operated pump for small amount spray
DE10107002A1 (en) 2001-02-15 2002-08-29 Consortium Elektrochem Ind A process for the fermentative production of O-acetyl-L-serine
US6913169B2 (en) 2005-07-05 grant