Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
- 1 214~060
LOCKABLE DISPENSER BUTTON FOR AEROSOL VALVES
The present invention concerns the industrial
packaging of pressurised fluids in ~'aerosolsl' and more
particularly the dispensing buttons for operating the
valve of such packaging.
To prevent accidental or unintentional operation of
the valve of an aerosol the button is usually protected
by a cap that the user must remove to obtain access to
the button. A problem arises in that the user must hold
the cap in their hand or put it down on a table or some
other support during use, with the risk of the cap being
damaged or overlooked. Devices have been proposed in
which the button rotates on a support fixed to the
container and in which it can slide axially in only one
predetermined angular position. This has the drawback of
leaving the dispensing nozzle of the button constantly
exposed to external soiling and often complicates the
operation of fitting the button in packaging lines,
especially if the position of the button nozzle jet has
to be indexed relative to the container.
An object of the invention is to overcome the
drawbacks of conventional dispenser buttons and to
provide packaging in which the nozzle is protected from
external pollution and the valve cannot be operated
between intentional usages, without there being any cap
or other part to be removed to obtain access to the
button and without requiring any specific precautions
when fitting the dispenser button to the container
equipped with its valve.
The invention consists in a lockable dispenser
button for aerosol valves including a one-piece body
whose base includes means for fixing it to an aerosol
container and the upper part of which is articulated to
the base by a flexible tongue defined by a cut-out in the
wall of the body and includes at the side a dispenser
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nozzle located above the articulation tongue and
connected to an axial tube connected to the hollow
actuator and dispenser rod of the valve, which dispenser
button is characterised in that the upper part of its
body is surrounded by a ring which is free to rotate but
which is prevented from axial movement in translation and
is extended radially by a manual operating lever and in
that the edge of the ring towards the base of the body is
inclined, the ring being shorter on the side in vertical
alignment with the lever, whereas its longer side,
diametrally opposite the lever, is in the immediate
vicinity of a circular shoulder on the outside wall of
the base of the body so that when, by rotating the ring,
the lever is moved to the side opposite the nozzle it can
be depressed to operate the valve by inclining the upper
part of the body on the base by virtue of the
articulation tongue located under the nozzle and because
the ring is shorter on the side under the lever whereas,
if the lever is on the same side as the nozzle, it cannot
be depressed because the articulation tongue is then
under the lever and the longer side of the ring is
abutted against the shoulder on the base, opposite the
lever, so that the dispenser button is immobilised in
this position to prevent unintentional actuation of the
valve.
To protect the nozzle, the ring and the lever
preferably have extensions forming a nut in front of the
nozzle in the locked position of the dispenser button.
In most applications su~icient movement to operate
the valve is obtained if the edge of the ring is inclined
at approximately 7 to the axis of the ring.
In one embodiment of the invention the axis of the
nozzle is inclined at approximately 120 to the axis of
the upper part of the body, the nozzle discharging
normally onto an end frustoconical wall of the upper part
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of the body.
To prevent the user from having to position the
lever by trial and error, the ring and the upper part of
the body advantageously carry complementary indexing
means of the elastic lug and notch type for locating the
lever carried by the ring on the same side as the nozzle
in the locked position and on the opposite side to the
nozzle in the operative position.
The invention also consists in pressurised
packaging of the ~aerosol~ type fitted with a lockable
dispenser button in accordance with the invention.
The invention will be better understood from an
examination of and the detailed description of the
appended drawings which show one embodiment of the
invention selected by way of example only from many
possible embodiments, adaptations and variants of the
invention that will suggest themselves to the person
skilled in the art.
In the drawings:
Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view in elevation and in
axial section of a dispenser button in accordance with
the invention in its locked position;
Figure 2 is a view analogous to that of figure 1 of
the same dispenser button in its operative position; and
Figure 3 is a diagrammatic top view of the same
dispenser button.
The same components are identified by the same
reference numbers in all the figures. To simplify the
drawings the respective dimensions and proportions of
these components are not necessarily to scale.
The dispenser button of the invention shown in the
drawings is in two parts moulded from a plastics material
such as polypropylene and nesting one within the other,
namely a body 1 and a ring 2.
The body has a base 3 and an upper part 4
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articulated to a circular shoulder 5 at the top of the
base by an elastic tongue delimited by a circuit arc
shape cut-out 6. Above this tongue the upper part 4 of
the body includes a dispenser nozzle 7 discharging
normally onto a frustoconical wall 8 at the end of this
upper part. The nozzle 7 is connected by a passage 9
inclined at approximately 120 to an axial tube 10
connected to the hollow actuator and dispenser rod 11 of
the valve of an aerosol packaging container 12. The rod
11 is shown in dashed outline in figure 2. The tube 10
is reinforced by radial fins 13, 13'. The inside of the
base 3 includes a marginal bead 14 and radial fins
15a-15e which snap over the marginal lateral part of the
top of the container 12 (figure 2) to fasten the body 1
to the container.
The ring 2 pivots freely about the upper part 4 of
the body 1 but is locked against axial movement because
an internal circumferential rib 16 on the ring clips into
an external circumferential groove 17 on the cylindrical
side wall 18 of the upper part 4 of the body 1. The ring
2 is extended in the radial direction by a manual
operating lever 18 which includes a depression 19 on
which the finger 20 of the user rests (figure 2). The
edge 21 of the ring facing the shoulder 5 on the base 3
is inclined at approximately 7 to the axis of the ring
so that the edge of the shorter side of the ring is below
the lever 18 at a distance from the shoulder 5 and the
edge of the longer side of the ring diametrally opposite
the lever is in the immediate proximity of the shoulder 5
which therefore forms an abutment. The lever 18 has two
sides 21, 22 and a top 23 which, in conjunction with an
extension of the wall of the ring beyond the rib 16,
surrounds the nozzle 7 in the locked position (figure 1)
and so protect it from external pollution. The plate 23
incorporates an axial lug 24 which cooperates with two
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diametrally opposed notches 25, 26 at the top of the
upper part 4 of the body for clear indexing of the lever
and consequently of the ring in either the locked
position (figure 1) or the operative position (figures 2
and 3).
