Spring-biased Tilting Valve

Abstract

A dispensing valve having a valve member with rounded cap and means enabling rocking of the tube for progressive opening of the valve by displacing the valve seat relative to the rounded cap.

Description

This invention relates to a valve for a container holding a flowable mass, i.e., a liquid or pasty product, under gas pressure, the valve permitting a controllable distribution rate of the contents of the container.

Most valves designed for the dispensing of liquid or pasty products from containers under gas pressure open completely on release of the valve, i.e., when one presses the button, the exit orifice for the product is completely uncovered. Since this orifice has, generally very small dimensions (0.35 to 0.45 mm.), it is impossible to regulate the pressure on the button so as only incompletely to uncover this orifice. The product is thus expelled on opening with the maximum possible speed, there being no practical way of reducing the speed of distribution.

Known valves of this type have a button sliding axially in the container.

Valves are also known which work on a different principle. In these latter valves, the valve stem can rock and so deform a joint, ensuring the maintenance of a seal around this stem. The joint, normally kept in fixed position, deforms under the lateral pressure on the valve stem, when this is rocked, to free a passage for the product. This operation requires a certain effort to effect the lateral pressure and makes the discharge of strictly limited quantities of product difficult, since it is difficult to estimate accurately the required amount of effort.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a valve which can be opened with only a very small effort exerted upon the button, and which thus overcomes the disadvantages referred to above.

According to the present invention there is provided a valve member with an axially loaded rounded cap and a valve seat provided at the inner end of a discharge tube comprising an extension projecting from the container, and means permitting rocking or tilting of that tube for proportionally opening the valve by displacement of the valve seat relative to the cap.

The rocking discharge tube induces the opening of the valve and uncovers the discharge orifice. Further, since the movement is diminished as a result of the lever-arm ratios between the two extremities of the rocking tube on the one hand and its pivotal point on the other hand, the disengagement of the discharge orifice can be smooth and progressive, which gives perfect control of the discharge speed of the product and of the amount discharged.

A specific embodiment of apparatus according to the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial section of a container for a liquid or pasty product under gas pressure, provided with a valve according to the invention; and

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the same container with the valve half open and completely open, respectively.

As shown in the drawing, a container 1 is closed by a valve indicated generally at 2 which is set into the neck 14 of the container 1 and includes a depending button 15. The neck can be an intermediate portion itself set in an opening of the container.

The valve has a housing 3 of inverted cup shape which can be provided with a plunger tube, to permit usage of the container with the valve at the top, but which, for simplicity, has been illustrated as furnished with a simple orifice 4, preferably lateral, for using the container in the upside-down position.

In this housing there are located a spring 5 designed to ensure closure of the valve and, biased by this spring, a valve body 6 composed of a hollow cylinder which receives the spring 5 and ends in a hemispherical portion 6a. This body normally rests against a cylindrical seat 7 provided in the housing so as to be able to move only axially therein. This guidance of the valve body, which permits no other direction of movement, ensures a very smooth functioning of the valve.

The portion 6a of body 6, in order to ensure closing of the valve, presses against the seat member 7 located at the inner end of discharge tube 8.

The discharge tube 8 comprises exteriorly a rounded shoulder 11 of greater diameter ending in an enlarged head forming a frustoconical skirt 12. The edge 12a of this skirt, which is the part nearest the valve body 6, is located above the vertex of the hemispherical portion 6a of this body. A central bore 9 of this skirt is overlain by the seat member 7 which is in the shape of an annular collar cooperating with the rounded end 6a of body 6. The sealing of the valve is ensured by a deformable supporting gasket 13 against which the rounded shoulder 11 presses and which is held in position by press fitting about the exit tube 8. This gasket is, besides, in contact with the peripheral edge of housing 3.

All these parts are fixed with container outlet by the crimped wall of neck 14.

When the button 15, which is threaded onto the discharge tube 8, is displaced laterally (arrow F, FIG. 2), the tube rocks about a portion of the rounded shoulder 11 engaging the gasket 13 as the seat 7 cams the hemispherical part 6a upwardly, thereby causing a slow and progressive opening of the valve. The opening 9 in the seat member 7 is no longer totally covered by the convex portion 6a. Thus the arrangement frees a passage which starts as an imperceptible slit and increases progressively as a function of the lateral pressure exerted upon the button.

If the user wants to obtain a large supply rate, i.e., a total opening of the valve, he increases the deflection of the exit tube (FIG. 3). At this point, the annular edge 12a of the tube skirt 12 touching the valve body 6 opens it completely and totally unblocks the passage 9 leading to the discharge tube.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A discharge valve for a container holding flowable mass under gas pressure, comprising:

a valve housing receivable in a container outlet and provided with a first end, an open second end and a lateral orifice between said ends;

a discharge tube projecting with axial mobility from said second end, said tube having an enlarged head received with clearance in said housing and forming a centrally apertured substantially flat seating surface confronting said first end;

a valve body in said housing normally resting against said seating surface and closing the central aperture thereof, said valve body being provided with a convex extremity confronting said head and with biasing means axially urging said extremity into contact with said seating surface;

and a deformable support for said head in said housing enabling a tilting of said tube in an axial plane for camming said extremity against the force of said biasing means toward said first end with progressive uncovering of said central aperture and establishment of communication between the latter and said orifice; said head forming a skirt with an annular edge spacedly surrounding said extremity in a normal position of said tube, said edge projecting axially beyond said seating surface and engaging said extremity upon a tilting of said tube into a fully deflected position in which said extremity is disengaged from said seating surface and completely uncovers said central aperture.

2. A valve as defined in claim 1 wherein said deformable support comprises an annular gasket surrounding said tube adjacent said second end, said head having a rounded shoulder bearing unilaterally upon said gasket upon a tilting thereof from its normal position.

3. A valve as defined in claim 1 wherein said tube is provided with an extension threadedly connected therewith outside said housing.

4. A valve as defined in claim 1 wherein said biasing means comprises a compression spring interposed between said valve body and said first end.