Patent ID: 6866039

Claim:
Dispensing apparatus for dispensing a powdered product comprising: a housing defining an outlet, a shaft having a storage chamber therein for a powdered product provided with a first inlet and a first outlet, a sheathing member slidably mounted on the shaft and having a second inlet and a second outlet closed by a frangible membrane, and a variable volume member operatively connected to the shaft; wherein the shaft is moveable, on operation of the variable volume member to reduce the variable volume so as to pressurize gas in an interior of the variable volume member, from an initial storage position in which the first and second inlets are out of alignment so as to close a gas flow path, to a dispensing position, in which the first and second inlets are brought into alignment by action of the housing against the sheathing member and in which the frangible membrane is ruptured by the shaft so as to open the gas flow path, such that pressurized gas from the interior of the variable volume member is discharged along the gas flow path comprising the first and second inlets, storage chamber, second outlet and first outlet, to thereby entrain powdered product and dispense it through the housing outlet.