Mouth Closure Assembly for Mouth of Foam Liquid Dispensing Container

This invention relates to a mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container which is adapted to mix foamable liquid and air together and dispense the mixture in the form of foam sol and which enables replacing air to flow easily and rapidly into the container in repetition.

There have been proposed and practically employed a variety of mouth closure assemblies for the mouths of foam liquid dispensing containers, but any one of the prior art mouth closure assemblies for the mouths of foam liquid dispensing containers is complicate in construction and requires a great number of parts and as a result, the prior art mouth closure assemblies have the disadvantage that they are difficult to assemble the parts together.

And in the prior art mouth closure assemblies for the mouths of foam liquid dispensing containers, in order to dispense foam liquid in a metered amount in repetition, the open air has to be passed into the interior of the dispensing container taking a rather long time and as a result, the prior art mouth assemblies have the disadvantage that they encounter difficulties in dispensing foam liquid in a predetermined amount in repetition.

Therefore, one purpose of the present invention is to provide a mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container formed of elastic material such as thermoplastic synthetic resin which is adapted to mix foamable liquid and air together in a suitable ratio and dispense the mixture in the form of foam liquid in a metered amount and which is simpler in construction and production.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container which is adapted to rapidly dispense foam liquid in a metered amount in repetition.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container which is adapted to dispense foam sol in a predetermined amount in repetition, which has replaceable components and which has a pleasant external appearance.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container which can be used in any position and which is adapted to easily dispense foam sol in a metered amount.

The above and other object and attendant advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which shows one preferred embodiment of the present invention for illustration purpose only, but not for limiting the scope of the same in any way.

FIG. 1 is a vertically sectional view of the mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a foam liquid dispensing container constructed in accordance with the present invention showing the foam liquid dispensing port being closed by the closure cap; and

FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1, but shows the foam liquid dispensing port being uncovered.

The present invention will be now described referring to the accompanying drawing which shows one preferred embodiment of the mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a squeezable foam liquid dispensing container of the invention. Shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is the mouth closure assembly for the mouth of a squeezable foam liquid dispensing container which is foamed of elastic material such as thermoplastic synthetic resin and generally shown by reference numeral 10 (the container is partially shown in these Figures). The mouth closure assembly generally comprises an inner foaming portion 11 fitted in the externally threaded mouth of the container 10 and an outer foam liquid dispensing portion 21 surrounding both the inner foaming portion 11 and the container mouth and formed with external threads for threaded engagement with the externally threaded container mouth. The inner foaming portion 11 includes an inverted U-shaped porous foaming member 12 uprightly disposed in the center of the container mouth and defining a mixing chamber 19 therein, an inverted U-shaped pipe holder 12a positioned right below and depending from the porous foaming member 12 and formed in the top thereof with a through hole 16 in communication with the mixing chamber 19 defined by the porous member 12, a pipe 15 fitted in and depending from the pipe holder 12a and a holder 14 for the porous foaming member 12 having through holes 13 in the peripheral wall thereof for the purpose to be described hereinbelow. The holder 14 is formed with an air vent hole 18 through which air passes and a check valve 17 is disposed within the holder and normally assumes the open position when the container is disposed as shown in these Figures.

The outer form liquid dispensing portion 21 tapers upwardly and terminates at the inclined top and includes a cavity 22 defined by the hollow interior thereof, and upwardly tapered plug member 22a extending upwardly and outwardly from the inclined top, an annular engaging projection 27 extending upwardly and outwardly from the inclined top in spaced surrounding relationship to the plug member and having a bulge on the outer surface of the leading or outer end portion thereof and through holes 22b formed in the inclined top between the plug member 22a and engaging projection 27.

A closure cap 23 normally closes the outer foam liquid dispensing portion 21 and includes a foam liquid dispensing port 25 formed in the top 24 of the cap, an annular engaging projection 26 extending inwardly from the top 24 and having a bulge on the inner surface of the lower end portion thereof for engaging the bulge on the engaging projection 27 and an annular guide 26a extending inwardly from the top 24 in inwardly spaced relationship to the engaging projection 26 for guiding the engaging projection 27 therealong. The annular guide 26a is shorter than the engaging projection 26. When the foam liquid dispensing container is not used, the engaging projection 26 seats on the inclined top of the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 and the plug member 22a enters the dispensing port 25 to close the port. The mating bulges on the engaging projections 26, 27 cooperate with each other to prevent the closure cap 23 from coming off the dispensing portion 21 when the dispensing port 25 in the closure cap 23 is opened for dispensing foam liquid from the container 10.

With the above-mentioned construction and arrangement of the components of the container, when the foam liquid is desired to be dispensed from the container, first of all, the closure cap 23 is pulled up from the dispensing portion 21 until the bulge on the engaging projection 26 engages the mating bulge on the engaging projection 27 whereupon the dispensing port 25 is uncovered and the dispensing container 10 is then turned upsidedown.

When the container is turned upsidedown, the check valve 17 falls down by its own gravity within the porous member holder 14 to clog the air vent hole 18. With the air vent hole 18 maintained in the closed condition, an external squeezing force is applied to the container 10 on the side thereof, the pressure within the container increases so as to cause the check valve 17 to clog the air vent hole 18 more positively. The foamable liquid within the container flows under pressure through the through holes 13 in the porous member holder 12 into the mixing chamber 19 defined in the porous member 12 and at the same time, the air within the container 10 flows through the pipe 15 and the through hole 16 in the pipe holder 12a into the mixing chamber 19 to mix with the foamable liquid flowing into the chamber to form a mixture which then flows through the pores in the porous member 12 out of the member 12 into the cavity 22 defined in the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 as a foam liquid having foams distributed uniformly therein. The foam liquid is then flowed from the cavity 22 through the through holes 22b in the top of the dispensing portion 21 to the dispensing port 25 in the closure cap 23 from where the foam liquid is dispensed.

When the external squeezing force applied to the container 10 on the side thereof is released from the container, the container returns to the normal or original shape by the restoring force inherent to the elastic material of the container whereupon the pressure within the container decreases and the air from the atmosphere enters the dispensing port 25 and flows through the cavity 22 to push the check valve 17 to uncover the air vent hole 18 whereby the air is allowed to flow through the air vent hole 18 into the body of the container 10.

Even if the container is used in its normal upright position with the mouth disposed top or any inclined position with respect to the vertical, when the container is squeezed on the side thereof, the internal pressure of the container increase to push the check valve 17 up to clog the air vent hole 18. So long as the external squeezing force is maintained on the container, the air under pressure within the container is forced to flow through the through holes 13 and the pores in the porous member 12 into the mixing chamber 19 therein and at the same time, the foamable liquid is forced to flow from the body of the container through the pipe 15 and the through hole 16 in the pipe holder 12a into the mixing chamber 19 where the liquid mixes with the incoming air to form an air-liquid mixture which then flows through the pores in the porous member 12 out of the member 12 as the foam liquid having foams distributed uniformly therein and the foam liquid is dispensed through the dispensing port 25. Thereafter, when the external squeezing force is removed from the container, the container returns to its original shape by the restoring force inherent to the elastic material of the container whereupon the internal pressure of the decreases. The decrease in the internal pressure allows the check valve 17 to drop by its gravity so as to uncover the air vent hole 18 whereby the air from the atmosphere is allowed to enter the container 10 easily and rapidly.

Since the above-mentioned liquid forming and open air inflow are attained by the action of the foaming portion 11, the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 is merely required to be designed to include the cavity 22 having shape and size suitable for the foam liquid and open air to pass therethrough.

Since the cavity 22 is merely required to have shape and size suitable for the foam liquid and open air to pass therethrough, the shape and size of the cavity are not limited to particular ones. Thus, the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 may extend uprightly with the surface of the top thereof laying in a horizontal plane or be disposed in various other orientations within the scope of the invention other than that illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the container mouth closure assembly comprises the inner foaming portion 11 and the outer foam liquid dispensing portion 21 surrounding the foaming portion and thus, the mouth closure assembly can be applied to various other containers other than the illustrated container 10 by replacing only the foam dispensing portion 21 with ones suitable for the other containers. As mentioned hereinabove, since the container mouth closure assembly of the present invention comprises the inner foaming portion 11 including the check valve 17 and porous member 12 and the internally threaded outer foam liquid dispensing portion 21 surrounding the foaming portion 11 and including the cavity 22 defined therein and the closure cap 23 fitted on the top of the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 to normally close the container to seal the content within the container from the open air, the mouth closure assembly of the invention has the advantage that the external appearance of the foam liquid dispensing portion 21 can be varied within a wide range by varying the orientation of the foam liquid dispensing portion.

Therefore, the mouth closure assembly of the invention has the advantage that the same one foaming portion 11 can be employed in conjunction with foam liquid dispensing portion having various other shapes and/or orientations without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In the foregoing description has been made of only one specific embodiment of the invention, but it will readily occur to those skilled in the art that the same is illustrative in nature, but does not limit the scope of the invention in any way. The scope of the invention is only limited by the appended claims.