EP1385633A1

EP1385633A1 - Metering pump

Info

Publication number: EP1385633A1
Application number: EP02730397A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Daniel Crosnier; Jean-Marie Dulery
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Crosnier Daniel; DULERY, JEAN-MARIE
Priority date: 2001-05-10
Filing date: 2002-05-07
Publication date: 2004-02-04
Anticipated expiration: 2022-05-07
Also published as: DE60223671T2; WO2002089996A8; FR2824538A1; EP1385633B1; US7178701B2; DE60223671D1; FR2824538B1; ES2296925T3; WO2002089996A1; US20050023298A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a metering pump comprising a pump barrel (1) housing a dose chamber (32) and control means that can be moved between a discharge position and a rest position. The inventive metering pump is characterised in that the control means comprise: a push rod (2); a piston (3) that can slide in relation to the push rod (2) and in relation to the pump barrel (1) all the while remaining in permanent contact with said two elements; and an elastically-deformable annular valve (4) that rests permanently against the push rod (2). The control means are moved between the rest position and the discharge position in two steps: the push rod (2) slides in relation to the piston (3) in the pump barrel; and subsequently the push rod (2) and the piston (3) slide jointly in the pump barrel (1) and a discharge opening (42) is released.

Description

"Metering pump" The subject of the present invention is a metering pump intended to be mounted in particular by screwing, snap-fastening, welding, etc. on various rigid or flexible containers such as bottles, tubes or jars, in particular containers containing cosmetic or pharmaceutical products or food products of different viscosities which can range from liquid products to products having the consistency of creams.

There have been various types of dosing pumps on the market for many years, all of which use a certain number of parts such as springs, balls, valves, plugs and the like. In addition to the fact that the manufacture and assembly of these parts are expensive in terms of labor, these metering pumps generally have the drawback of an insufficient seal as well as a return of air from the outside to the inside during opening and closing, which requires incorporating preservatives into the contents to avoid oxidation.

To overcome these drawbacks, metering pumps have already been proposed, in particular in accordance with document EP-0 726 097, comprising a pump body made of a rigid or semi-rigid material adaptable to a container and containing a dose chamber as well as means of elastically deformable control, operable from the outside and capable of being successively moved between a dispensing position and a rest position so as to allow the expulsion of a dose of product from the dose chamber towards the outside by an opening expulsion and then the transfer of a new dose of product from the container to the dose chamber and so on.

The pump body of such metering pumps is generally delimited at its internal part by an annular side wall and by a front face comprising a filling opening which communicates with the interior of the container.

In accordance with this prior art, the control means are automatically recalled from the dispensing position to the rest position in the absence of any external stress acting on them, this by creating a depression allowing the aspiration of a dose of product to the dose chamber. Despite their undeniable qualities, such metering pumps have the disadvantage of often being relatively expensive and sometimes ineffective during the first priming.

In addition, the metering of high viscosity products is not always easy and the elastically deformable control means sometimes have difficulty returning to their initial shape when they are transferred from the dispensing position to the rest position, which can cause some external air intake.

The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a simple, efficient and reliable dosing pump which at the same time makes it possible to dose products which are not only liquid, but which can also have a relatively high viscosity, by creating volume doses. important.

To this end, the invention relates to a dosing pump of the aforementioned type characterized in that the control means consist of a plunger in a rigid or semi-rigid material, by a piston in a flexible thermoplastic material capable of sliding relative to the pusher and relative to the pump body by being in permanent contact with these two elements as well as by an annular valve made of an elastically deformable material constantly pressing against the pusher.

According to an essential characteristic of the invention, the movement of the control means between the rest position and the dispensing position takes place in two stages, namely on the one hand a first stage in which the pusher slides relative to the piston in the pump body and the dose chamber is isolated from the expulsion opening, and on the other hand a second step in which the pusher and the piston slide integrally in the pump body and a dispensing opening allowing the setting in communication of the dose chamber and the expulsion opening is cleared.

The deferred release of the dispensing opening corresponds to a very advantageous characteristic of the invention since it greatly facilitates the priming of the metering pump during the first uses. According to another characteristic of the invention, the pusher comprises a bearing face as well as a median rod which is constantly in abutment against the annular valve and is surrounded by a channel annular expulsion delimited by a tubular wall and which communicates with the expulsion opening.

The piston has a tubular end piece mounted around the middle rod of the pusher at the free end thereof and extending at its outer periphery by a peripheral fin so as to define a surface forming a stop for the free end of the tubular wall of the pusher during the second stage of movement of the pusher between the rest position and the dispensing position.

This piston is in permanent contact on the one hand with the pusher by a first sealing lip constantly pressing against the external face of the annular expulsion channel, and on the other hand with the pump body by a second lip sealing constantly pressing against the annular side wall thereof.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the annular valve is disposed between the front face of the pump body and the free end of the middle rod of the pusher.

This annular valve comprises an extensible essentially circular closure membrane which is constantly in abutment against the free end of the middle rod of the pusher by its median part and is capable of coming into abutment against the annular lateral wall of the pump body by its periphery so as to close the filling opening.

The closure membrane cooperates with the annular side wall of the pump body and with a piston closure wall, adjacent to the second sealing lip to define the dose chamber.

According to the invention, the tubular end piece of the piston bears against the membrane for closing the annular valve in the rest position and during the first stage of movement between the rest position and the dispensing position in order to close the dose chamber and deviates from it during the second stage of this movement to clear the dispensing opening and allow the passage of the product contained in the dose chamber between this nozzle and the middle rod of the pusher, and its evacuation by the expulsion channel and by the opening of expulsion.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the middle rod of the pusher can be equipped at its free end with at least one longitudinal groove and preferably with a series of longitudinal grooves uniformly distributed over its periphery. These grooves have the function of allowing the passage of the product contained in the dose chamber between the tubular end piece of the piston and the middle rod of the plunger to allow its expulsion towards the outside. According to a particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, the annular valve is constituted by a cylindrical ring, one of the front faces of which is closed by the closure membrane.

According to the invention, this membrane projects on the periphery of the cylindrical ring in order to define a flange capable of coming into abutment against the annular lateral wall of the pump body to isolate the dose chamber from the internal part of the container during displacement of the dosing pump from the rest position to the dispensing position.

When the metering pump moves to the rest position, this flange moves away from the annular side wall of the pump body so as to allow the filling of the dose chamber.

As a result, when the dosing pump is moved from the rest position to the dispensing position, the elastic deformation of the closure membrane of the annular valve creates a seal allowing the dose chamber to be hermetically isolated from the internal part of the container. while creating a spring effect allowing the automatic return of the pusher to the rest position.

This isolation of the dose chamber allows the product contained therein to be evacuated to the outside under the action of its compression following the approximation of the closing wall of the piston and the closing membrane of the annular valve which come in contact at the end of distribution.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the front face of the pump body comprises members for receiving the annular valve.

These receiving members can advantageously be constituted by a tubular sleeve surrounding the filling opening and provided with radial wedge-shaped slots allowing the passage of the product contained in the container towards the dose chamber when the dosing pump is recalled from the position of distribution to the rest position.

According to the invention, the conical internal face of this tubular sleeve acts as a seat for the closure membrane while the external, cylindrical face of the latter cooperates with the pump body to define a housing for receiving the cylindrical ring of the annular valve.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the side wall of the pump body is equipped with an obliquely inclined shoulder forming a seat for the collar of the annular valve and extending to the right of the housing for receiving the cylindrical ring by a series of slots defining passages allowing the transfer of the product contained in the container to the dose chamber when the dosing pump is returned from the dispensing position to the rest position.

The characteristics of the metering pump which is the subject of the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the dosing pump shown in the rest position on the left part and in the dispensing position on the right part,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the annular valve in the rest position,

FIG. 3 is a partial section view of the tubular end piece of the piston mounted around the middle rod of the pusher,

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of the receiving members of the annular valve,

- Figures 5a, 5b and 5c are schematic sections showing the metering pump mounted on different containers. According to Figure 1, the metering pump is essentially constituted by a pump body 1 shown in Figures 5a, 5b and 5c which is mounted on a container R.

This pump body 1 has at its internal part an annular side wall 100 of essentially cylindrical shape and a front face 101 pierced with a filling opening 25 which communicates with the interior of the container R.

The pump body 1 contains a pusher 2, a piston 3 and an elastically deformable annular valve 4.

The pusher 2 comprises a bearing face 5 on which the user can exert pressure according to the arrow F as well as a median rod 6 whose periphery is equipped with longitudinal grooves 7 at its free end 8. These grooves 7 are shown in more detail in FIG. 3.

According to Figure 1, the middle rod 6 of the pusher 2 is surrounded by an expulsion channel 9 which is delimited by a tubular wall 10. The expulsion channel 9 communicates with an opening 11 allowing the expulsion of the product contained in the container R in a manner which will be described in more detail in the remainder of this description.

The piston 3 which is inserted between the pump body 1 and the pusher 2 has a tubular endpiece 12 which is mounted around the middle rod 6 of the pusher 2 near the free end 8 thereof and is extends at its external periphery by a peripheral fin 13 so as to define a surface forming a stop 14 for the free end 80 of the tubular wall 10 of the pusher 2.

According to FIG. 1, the pusher 2 can slide in the internal part of the pump body 1 between a rest position represented on the left part of the figure and a dispensing position represented on the right part of it.

The piston 3 can also slide along the pump body 1 and also along the pusher 2 and is in permanent contact with these two elements 1 and 2 on the one hand by a first annular sealing lip 15 constantly in abutment against the external face of the expulsion channel 9 of the pusher 2 and on the other hand by a second sealing lip 16 constantly in abutment against the annular lateral wall 100 of the pump body 1. The two annular sealing lips 15 and 16 are shown in Figure 3.

According to Figures 1 and 2, the annular valve 4 is inserted between the pusher 2 and the piston 3 on the one hand and the front face 101 of the pump body 1 on the other hand and is constituted by a cylindrical ring 18 whose one of the front faces is closed by a closing membrane 20 of circular shape.

This membrane 20 projects from the periphery of the cylindrical ring 18 to define a flange 21 capable of coming to bear against the annular side wall 100 of the pump body 1. According to FIG. 1, the middle part of the closure membrane 20 of the annular valve 4 is constantly in abutment against the end 8 of the central rod 6 of the pusher 2, and can be deformed elastically by it as shown on the right side of this figure.

According to FIG. 1, the side wall 100 of the pump body 1, the closure membrane 20 of the valve 4 as well as a closure wall 33 of the piston 3 situated between the second sealing lip 16 and the end

17 of the tubular end piece 12 cooperate to delimit a dose chamber

32 whose role will be described in more detail in the remainder of this presentation.

This dose chamber is permanently hermetically closed by the second sealing lip 16 and can be isolated from the outside and from the internal part of the container R on the one hand by the free end 17 of the tubular end piece 12 of the piston 3 coming to bear against the closing membrane 20 of the valve 4 and on the other hand by the flange 21 coming to bear against the side wall 100 of the pump body 1.

According to FIG. 1, the front face 101 of the pump body 1 is equipped with receiving members 23 of the annular valve 4.

According to Figures 1 and 4, these receiving members 23 include a tubular sleeve 24 surrounding the filling opening 25 for communicating the pump body 1 with the internal part of the container R. This tubular sleeve 24 has an external face 26 of cylindrical shape and an internal face 27 of conical shape inclined in the direction of the filling opening 25 and is equipped with radial slots 28 in the form of wedges.

The conical internal face 27 of the tubular sleeve 24 acts as a seat for the closure membrane 20 of the annular valve 4.

The cylindrical outer face 26 of the tubular sleeve 24 cooperates with the pump body 1 so as to define a housing 29 for receiving the cylindrical ring 18 of the annular valve 4.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the side wall 100 of the pump body 1 is equipped with an obliquely inclined shoulder 30 forming a seat for the flange 21 of the annular valve 4.

This shoulder 30 extends to the right of the reception housing 29 towards the front face 101 of the pump body 1 by a series of longitudinal slots 31 defining lateral passages for the product contained in the container R towards the dose chamber 32.

According to FIG. 1, the longitudinal slots 31 are extended by transverse slots 34 provided on the front face 22 of the pump body 1, the role of which will be explained in the following description. According to FIGS. 1 and 5a, the container R is made of glass, in particular by blowing or in a thermoplastic material by extrusion, blowing, injection-blowing, etc.

According to these figures, the pump body 1 is equipped with a dip tube 35 extending to the bottom of the container R so as to allow the suction of the product contained therein.

According to this configuration, the body 1 is further equipped with an opening 36 allowing the passage of compensating air coming from the outside towards the inside of the container R. According to FIG. 5b, the container Ri is associated with a piston 37 mounted at the bottom thereof and capable of moving upwards as indicated by the arrow by sliding inside the container Ri in proportion to the dose of product discharged to the outside.

According to FIG. 5c, the container R2 is equipped at its internal part with a retractable pocket 38 capable of shrinking in proportion to the dose of product discharged towards the outside as indicated by the arrows represented in this figure.

The retractable pocket 38 can be fixed either to the container R or to the pump body 1. According to FIGS. 5b and 5c, the containers Ri and R2 are provided with an opening 39 in contact with the atmosphere at their lower part, but, it is not necessary to provide an external air intake similar to the air intake 36 (Figure 5a) on the pump body 1.

According to FIG. 1, the operation of the metering pump is as follows:

In the rest position shown on the left-hand side of FIG. 1, the pusher 2 is shifted upwards as much as possible and the lower end 80 of the tubular wall 10 is not in abutment against the abutment surface 14 of the piston 3 but located at a certain distance from it.

In this position, the dose chamber 32 contains a dose of product and is hermetically closed by the second sealing lip.

16, by the flange 21 of the annular valve 4 and by the end 17 of the tubular end piece 12 of the piston 3 which is in abutment against the middle part of the closing membrane 20 of the annular valve 4.

If from this rest position, the user exerts a pressure F on the bearing face 5 of the pusher 2, as shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 1, this pusher slides downwards in the body of pump 1 and the lower end 8 of the central rod 6 elastically deforms the closing membrane 20 of the annular valve 4.

From the initial position in which the free end 17 of the tubular end piece 12 of the piston 3 is held in abutment against the closing membrane 20 of the valve 4 so as to isolate the dose chamber 32 from the outside, this displacement is carried out in two stages: in a first stage, the pusher 2 slides along the piston 3, until the lower end 80 of the tubular wall 10 comes to bear against the surface forming a stop 14 and l effect of lowering the middle rod 6 pushes the closing membrane 20 of the annular valve 4 while the piston 3 is still without movement so that this closing membrane 20 moves away from the free end 17 of the end piece tubular 12 to create a dispensing opening 42.

In the second step, that is to say when the end of the tubular wall 10 of the pusher 2 is in abutment against the abutment surface 14, the dispensing opening 42 is released and the product present in the dose chamber 32 can be evacuated towards the expulsion opening 11 as shown schematically by the arrows a shown in phantom by first passing between the tubular end piece 12 of the piston 3 and the middle rod 6 of the pusher 2, penetrating in the longitudinal grooves 7 of this rod 6 then in the annular expulsion channel 9.

This sliding integral with the pusher 2 and the piston 3 in the pump body 1 continues until a peripheral flange 40 of the pusher 2 comes to bear against an opposing peripheral flange 41 of the pump body 1.

In this position, which corresponds to the actual dispensing position shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 1, the closing wall 33 of the piston 3 is in abutment against the closing membrane 20 of the annular valve 4 and the dose chamber 32 thus has been completely emptied.

During the emptying of the dose chamber 32, the tightness thereof is guaranteed on the one hand by the second sealing lip 16 of the piston 3 and on the other hand by the flange 21 of the annular valve 4 which is constantly in abutment against the side wall 100 of the pump body 1. From the dispensing position shown on the right part of FIG. 1, the pusher 2 is automatically returned to the rest position shown on the left part of the FIG. 1 following the elasticity of the closure membrane 20 of the annular valve 4. During this movement, the distribution opening 42 located between the tubular end piece 12 of the piston 3 and the closure membrane 20 closes and the closure wall 33 of the piston 3 separates from the closure membrane 20 creating a vacuum . This depression causes the flange 21 to be raised from the shoulder 30 of the side wall 100 of the pump body 1 and the suction towards the dose chamber 32 of the product contained in the container R by the wedge-shaped radial slots 28 of the annular sleeve 24 and by the slots 31 and 34 as shown diagrammatically by the arrows b shown in phantom.

The dose chamber 32 is thus automatically filled and the user can again exert a traction F on the bearing face 5 of the pusher 2 to empty this chamber 32 and release a dose of product and so on. According to FIG. 1, during the displacement of the pusher 2 of the piston 3 and of the annular valve 4 from the distribution position towards the rest position of the outside air is drawn towards the interior of the container R as shown schematically by the arrows c shown in dashed lines.

Claims

CLAIMS 1 °) Metering pump intended to be mounted on various containers, in particular containers containing cosmetic or pharmaceutical liquid to creamy products and comprising a pump body (1) made of a rigid or semi-rigid material adaptable to the container R , delimited at its internal part by an annular side wall (100) and by a front face (101) comprising a filling opening (25) which communicates with the interior of the container, and enclosing a dose chamber (32) as well as elastically deformable control means, operable from the outside and capable of being successively moved between a dispensing position and a rest position so as to allow the expulsion of a dose of product from the dose chamber (32) towards the outside by an expulsion opening (11) then the transfer of a new dose of product from the container to the dose chamber (32) and so on, the means being automatically recalled from the dispensing position to the rest position in the absence of any external stress acting on them, this creating a vacuum allowing the suction of a dose of product to the dose chamber (32 ), metering pump characterized in that the control means consist of a plunger (2) made of a rigid or semi-rigid material, by a piston (3) of a flexible thermoplastic material capable of sliding relative to the plunger (2) and relative to the pump body (1) by being in permanent contact with these two elements as well as by an annular valve (4) made of an elastically deformable material constantly in abutment against the pusher (2), the displacement of the means of control between the rest position and the dispensing position being carried out in two stages, namely on the one hand a first stage in which the plunger (2) slides relative to the piston (3) in the pump body and the c dose chamber (32) is isolated from the expulsion opening (11) and on the other hand a second step in which the pusher (2) and the piston (3) slide integrally in the pump body (1) and a dispensing opening (42) allowing communication between the dose chamber (32) and the expulsion opening (11) is released.

2) dosing pump according to claim 1, characterized in that the pusher (2) comprises a bearing face (5) as well as a central rod (6) constantly bearing against the annular valve (4) and surrounded by an annular expulsion channel (9) delimited by a tubular wall (10) and which communicates with the expulsion opening (11).

3 °) metering pump according to claim 2, characterized in that the piston (3) comprises a tubular end piece (12) mounted around the central rod (6) of the plunger (2) at the free end (8) of the latter and extending at its outer periphery by a peripheral fin (13) so as to define a surface forming a stop (14) for the free end (80) of the tubular wall (10) of the pusher (2), this piston (3) being in permanent contact on the one hand with the pusher (2) by a first sealing lip (15) constantly in abutment against the external face of the annular expulsion channel (9) and on the other hand with the pump body (1) by a second sealing lip (16) constantly in abutment against the annular side wall (100) thereof.

4 °) metering pump according to claim 3, characterized in that the annular valve (4) is disposed between the front face (101) of the pump body (1) and the free end (8) of the middle rod (6 ) of the pusher (2) and comprises an extensible closure membrane 20 which is essentially circular and which is constantly in abutment against the free end 8 of the central rod (6) of the pusher (2) through its median part, is capable of coming into abutment against the annular wall (100) of the pump body (1) by its periphery so as to close the filling opening (25) and cooperates with this side wall (100) and with a closing wall (33) of the piston ( 3) adjoining the second sealing lip (16) to define the dose chamber (32), the tubular end piece (12) of the piston (3) coming to bear against the closing membrane (20) of the annular valve ( 4) in the rest position and during the first stage of movement between the rest position and the position of dispenser to close the dose chamber (32) and moving away from it during the second stage of this movement in order to clear the dispensing opening (42) and allow the product contained in the dose chamber (32) to pass between this nozzle (12) and the central rod (6) of the pusher (2) and its evacuation by the expulsion channel (9) and by the expulsion opening (11). 5 °) metering pump according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the central rod (6) of the pusher (2) is equipped at its free end (8) with at least one longitudinal groove ( 7) and preferably a series of longitudinal grooves (7) uniformly distributed around its periphery.

6 °) metering pump according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the annular valve (4) is constituted by a cylindrical ring (18) one of the front faces of which is closed by the closing membrane ( 20), this membrane (20) projecting from the periphery of the cylindrical ring (18) in order to define a flange (21) capable of coming to bear against the side wall (100) of the pump body (1).

7 °) Metering pump according to claim 6, characterized in that the front face (101) of the pump body (1) comprises receiving members (23) of the annular valve (4).

8 °) metering pump according to claim 7, characterized in that the receiving members (23) of the annular valve (4) are constituted by a tubular sleeve (24) surrounding the filling opening (25) and comprising on the one hand an external face (26) of cylindrical shape and an internal face (27) of conical shape inclined in the direction of the filling opening (25) and equipped on the other hand with radial slots (28) in the form of wedges, the conical internal face (27) serving as a seat for the closure membrane (20) while the cylindrical external face (26) cooperates with the pump body (1) to define a housing (29) for receiving the cylindrical ring (28) of the annular valve (4).

9 °) metering pump according to claim 8, characterized in that the side wall (101) of the pump body (1) is equipped with an obliquely inclined shoulder (30) forming a seat for the flange (21) of the annular valve. (4) and extending to the right of the reception accommodation (29) by a series of slots (31, 34) defining passages to the dose chamber (32) of the product contained in the container.