FI91737B - Improvements in or related to dispensers - Google Patents

Abstract

Dispensing arrangements, comprising a gas-pressurized container for a material to be dispensed with a valve actuable to open a discharge passage through the valve and through a valve and a valve actuator to an actuator discharge outlet, are well known in the art. The invention proposes a non-liquefied gas-pressurized dispensing arrangement capable of being used with relatively low initial gas pressures, and of discharging a relatively high percentage of the dispenser contents with an acceptable spray pattern. The proposed dispensing arrangement attains these advantages by arranging the cross-sectional area of the valve port (17c) to be many times greater than the cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet (22a). In one recited embodiment the actuator outlet has a cross-sectional area in the region of 0.049 mm<2> whilst the total cross-sectional area of the valve ports, the valve having four ports, is some sixteen times greater.

Description

! 91737

This invention relates to dispensers, and more particularly to the dispensing of flowable materials from gas pressurized containers.

It is well known in the art to dispense fluids from a reservoir having fluid and propellant, the gas forming an upper space above the liquid. 10 To dispense fluid, the container is placed in a position where the outlet of the valve orifice is below the material / gas surface, whereby when the valve is opened, propellant pushes the fluid through the valve into the outlet.

15 When the tank is to be used upright, the valve is conveniently located in the upper areas of the tank and the riser within the tank extends from the valve to the lower areas of the tank so that when the tank is upright, the riser outlet is below the material / gas boundary until substantially all of the tank material is dispensed.

In one well-known and widely used dispensing device, the valve is opened by pressing the actuator and the valve port opens into a chamber inside the actuator, from which material is dispensed through an outlet in the actuator.

Such a material dispensing device is hereinafter referred to as a "defined type dispensing device".

30

It should be noted that in a dispensing device of the specified type, the material flowing through the riser passes through a first restriction defined by the valve port and then through a second restriction defined by the outlet of the actuator. Other restrictions can be caused by the valve housing, back piece and riser.

In some dispensing device designs of the specified type: the valve may include more than one valve port 91737 2 and / or the actuator may have more than one outlet. Throughout this specification, the term "valve gate cross-sectional area" means the valve gate cross-sectional area in a single valve gate device and the sum of the cross-sectional areas of all valve ports of a multi-valve gate device the sum of cross-sectional-10 causals.

One problem with dispensing devices of the defined type is the charging of a pressurized gas capable of maintaining sufficient pressure throughout the life of the container to push at least a greater portion of the material content of the container.

The above problem seemed to be overcome by using so-called "liquefied gases", i.e. gases at normal temperature 20 and pressures which condense at relatively low, above-atmospheric pressures, generally between one and twelve atmospheres. This is often reduced to the order of three atmospheres by the presence of other components in the composition.

25

When such liquefied gases are used in dispensing devices of a specified type, evaporation of the liquefied gas creates a pressure in the gas space sufficient to expel the material contents out of the container; all material content has been removed.

35

Liquefied gas, which is readily usable with a wide range of products while allowing material to be removed with a material content of often 70% excess tank volume and allowing the use of a relatively inexpensive low pressure tank 91737 3 over a wide range of materials, has substantially dominated the dispensing industry for the past 40 years.

Serious disadvantages in the commercial use of liquefied gases 5 arise from the specific installations, equipment and installations necessary for the safe transport, storage and handling of such gases and the practical application and control of the special precautions and provisions applicable to them.

10

Furthermore, liquefied gases, and in particular chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), are now recognized as harmful to the environment or have other undesirable properties and the dispenser industry has been forced to look for alternative systems, essentially using compressed gases, virtually all remaining in the gas phase. the gases are hereinafter referred to as "non-liquefied gases".

20

The gases obey the gas laws, at constant temperature the pressure decreases in proportion to the increase in volume, and for non-liquefied gases the starting gas content must be sufficient to maintain the pressure sufficient to push the material content of the dispensing device through the riser and valve device.

Since the gas pressure depends on the volume of material content in the dispenser, the dispenser 30 with its valves and actuators must be designed to safely withstand the high outlet gas pressure that occurs when the dispenser is charged with a predetermined material content.

35 However, it is believed that with careful design of the dispensing device and reduction of the predetermined material content contribution to less than 70% and preferably less than 65% of the volume of the dispensing device, it is possible to design. a dispensing device that meets the above propellant requirements, «4,91737 that the feed gas pressure is slightly greater than 0.703 kg / cm2 (100 psi).

However, liquefied gases, when used with certain material contents, solvents or additives in the material contents, offer the additional advantage that said liquefied gases can be dispensed through the material content in the dispensing device. As the material content passes through the outlet of the actuator, the liquefied gas 10 therein evaporates, disintegrating the exiting material into discrete particles and blowing the particles apart to form a relatively constant injection pattern. This is particularly advantageous when the material content is a liquid, with evaporation of the liquefied gas leaving the drive outlet breaking the liquid material content into fine droplets, particularly advantageous for many uses such as hair sprays, air fresheners and liquid insecticides. Further decomposition can be achieved by spilling propellant into the liquid stream from the gas gas.

20

It is now appreciated that while, as discussed above, it is possible to design a dispensing device of the specified type to allow non-liquefied gases to eject an acceptable portion of the material content, such design cannot, in the prior art, provide acceptable material content to be pushed through the actuator outlet. deletion pattern properties.

The reasons for this are, as will be apparent from the above description, that the pressure of the non-liquefied gas propellant decreases continuously as the material content exits the dispenser and without the liquefied gas contained in the dispensing material there can be no "blowing" of the dispensed material inside the dispenser. also reduces the flow rate of the material to be dispensed.

The present invention seeks to provide a dispensing device of the specified type which is capable of imparting essential standard 91737 removal properties to the material to be dispensed for a greater portion of the life of the dispensing device.

According to the present invention, there is provided a dispensing device of the defined type for use with non-liquefied gases, and the device is characterized in that the cross-sectional area of the valve port is greater than twice the cross-sectional area of the outlet of the actuator.

The cross-sectional area of the valve port is even more preferably greater than five times the cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet, and most preferably said cross-sectional area of the valve port is greater than ten times the cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet.

The cross-sectional area of the outlet of the actuator is preferably 0.02 to 0.126 mm2 and even more preferably 0.04 to 0.071 mm2.

In the preferred embodiment, the actuator has one output 20 with a diameter of 0.25 mm.

The cross-sectional area of the valve port is preferably 0.196 to 1.57 mm2 and even more preferably 0.2 to 0.8 mm2.

In a preferred embodiment, the valve has more than one port, and in an even more preferred embodiment, said valve has four ports.

When the valve has more than one port, said valve ports 30 are preferably equal in diameter, and most preferably the diameters of the valve ports are in the range of 0.5 mm.

The invention also takes into account dispensing devices of the defined type with actuators according to the invention. I make the output / valve port ratio of devices charged with non-liquefied gas.

Said non-liquefied gas preferably comprises air, <91737 nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

The invention will now be further described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which 5

Figure 1 shows a vertical section through a valve system for a dispensing device according to the present invention,

Figure 2 shows the valve gate arrangement on an enlarged scale 10 with respect to Figure 1 with the valve gate open,

Figure 3 shows graphically how the outlet velocities through the fixed valve port differ at the outlets of different actuators for a liquid material having a viscosity of 510 cps (mPa s) 15 using nitrogen as a non-liquefied gas.

Figure 4 shows graphically the results of an experiment identical to that described in Figure 3, but using air as the non-liquefied gas, and

Figure 5 shows graphically the results of an experiment identical to that shown in Figure 4 for a liquid material having a viscosity of 20 cps (mPa s).

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, the dispensing device generally comprises a valve system supported by a conventional cup 11 for closing an opening in a container C, generally comprising a body 12 rigidly corrugated in a cup 11 within the container C, the actuator / valve assembly 30 being axially supported by the body 12 and transferable.

The body 12 is a rotating body which defines a large bore 13 with a small through bore 14 axially aligned * with and opening into the bore 13.

35

The riser T is fixed to the wall defining the bore 14 on the outer cylindrical surface and extends into the container C to open in the lower regions of said container C.

7 91737

The body 12 includes an annular flange 15 at the radial end to which the bore 13 opens and the radially outer portions of the annular, flexible, resilient seal 16 are compressed between the flange 15 and the cup 11.

5

The valve body 17 with the concealed bore 17a »extends through the free hole in the cup 11, through the hole in the seal 16 and terminates in an integral piece 17 inside the bore 13 with a diameter 10 larger than the diameter of the bore in the seal 16. The helical compression spring 18 acts on the body 17 £ and forces the body 17 & continuously against the seal 16. The valve body 17 has an actuator knob 19 attached thereto.

15

The valve body is frictionally attached to the bore of the seal 16 and includes a valve port defined by a radial opening 17a in the wall of the valve body 17 opening into the bore 17a- The valve port 17a is so located on the body 17 &, 20 that said valve port 17 £ is closed by a seal 16 as shown and is open to the bore 13 when the knob 19 of the actuator is pressed, thus forcing the valve body 17 into the body 12 and bending the seal 16 into the container, as shown in Fig. 2.

At its end entering the actuator knob 19, a bore 17a of the valve body 17. opens into the chamber 20, which may include a conventional vortex groove 21, and the outlet passage 19a from the chamber 30 20 is closed by a sealing plate 22 in the actuator, the plate having an opening 22a therethrough defining an actuator outlet.

The valve device described so far is conventional in construction 35 when the actuator knob 19 is released, the spring 18 forces the valve body 17 £. and the body 17 up to the position shown in Figure 1, where the seal 16 closes the valve port 17a.

• »8 91737

When the actuator knob 19 is pressed, the body 17 & moves downwards away from the seal 16, the seal 16 bends in the bore 13 exposing the valve port 17 and the propellant pressure in the tank C pushes the tank contents 5 along the riser T into the bore 13 and through the valve port 17 £ into the bore 17. into the chamber 20 and along the channel 19fi. and through the actuator output 22a for discharge.

In a conventional device for non-liquefied gases, the cross-sectional area of the valve port 17a would be the same as the cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet 22a, but for a material dispenser of the type defined according to the present invention this ratio is disregarded and the actuator outlet is much smaller.

In the example thus described, using a non-liquefied gas such as nitrogen, a liquid material content that takes up 50-60% of the tank volume and a gas space initially charged at a pressure of 7.03 kg / cm 2 (100 psi), the actuator outlet 22a the diameter should suitably be 0.25 mm, giving a cross-sectional area of 0.049087 mm2 (0.049 mm2) and each of the valve ports, suitably four ports 17 £ in a common plane at right angles to the axis 25 of the body 17, may be 0.5 mm in diameter, giving a cross-sectional area of 0 , 7854 mm 2 (0.79 mm 2).

As will become apparent hereinafter, such ratios have been shown in practice to allow a substantially uniform discharge rate over substantially the entire life of the container, resulting in a relatively fine droplet size and a widespread dispensing jet pattern compatible with that of a liquefied gas dispenser.

35 KOE I

Six dosing devices were used for each experiment, each tank was charged to 55% of its volume with a furniture polish having a viscosity of 510 cps i 9171737 (mPa s) and the remaining volume in each tank was charged with nitrogen at a pressure of 7.03 kg / cm 2 (100 psi). All six dispensers had a valve gate device with four 0.5 nozzle gates, making a cross-sectional area of 0.79 mm 2.

The dispensers differed only in the cross-sectional areas of the outputs of their respective actuators, and Table II shows the output sizes of the different actuators for the six dispensers.

Table II

Dosage Outputs Output Output Output area: 15 laws? lyfant diameter cross section v.port area mm mm2 A 1 0.6 0.283 0.36 B 1 0.5 0.196 0.25 C 1 0.45 0.159 0.2025 20 D 1 0.4 0.126 0.16 E 1 0, 3 0.071 0.09 F 1 0.25 0.049 0.0625

Each dispenser was emptied as a series of 25 second sprays and the material removed in each spray was measured and recorded.

On average, the tanks emptied about 94% of their polish content.

30

The experiment was repeated and Figure 3 graphically depicts the averages obtained at the outlets of the various actuators during the experiment, with the outlet in grams plotted vertically and the number of sprays for 10 seconds horizontally.

35

Figure 3 clearly shows that as the output of the drive was reduced, the dispensing rate became more uniform and contrary to what would be expected due to the continuously decreasing propellant pressure, the described Dispensers E and F removed more than 90% of the material content at a substantially constant removal rate.

ΕΩΕ II

5

Experiment I described above was repeated by simply replacing the nitrogen with air as the propellant and Figure 4 shows graphically the results of the air experiments. In Figure 4, the cross-sectional areas of the output of the different actuator are given in Table II.

10

TABLE II

Graphic cross-sectional area of the actuator output 15 mm2 0.283 a 0.196 h 0.159 c 0.126 d 20 0.071 e 0.049 f

A comparison of the results depicted in Figures 3 and 4 clearly shows that nitrogen replacement with air had little, if any, effect on the results obtained and the small variations that occurred are due to small differences in discharge characteristics of different dispensers in the valve body, end piece and riser as defined above.

30

It was also found that the cross-sectional area of the valve port increased relative to the cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet as the area covered by the spray pattern became more stable over the life of the dispensing device.

35

TEST III

Six substantially identical dispensers, each with an actuator outlet cross-sectional area of 0.049-91737 mm 2, were applied to furniture polish to 55% of their volume and then nitrogen up to a pressure of 7.03 kg / cm 2.

5 The tanks differed only in the cross-sections of their respective valve ports, as shown in Figure III;

TABLE III

10 Dispensing device Valve gate cross-sectional area (mm2) a 0.071 b 0.159 c 0.196 15 d 0.283 e 0.392 f 0.783

The dosing devices were then sequentially subjected to a standard 20 test in which each dosing device to be tested was held above the horizontal target plane with its axis at an angle of 40 ° to the horizontal (with the actuator at the top) and the center of the dosing device 200 mm above the target plane. The container was then used for 4 seconds 25 and the area covered with the target level dosing agent was measured and recorded.

Each of the dosing devices was then emptied 1/4 full and again subjected to the above experiment, and the area of the target level covered by the dosing agent 30 was measured again and recorded.

Table IV shows the results of one such experiment.

12,91737

Taut <UKKQ_I_V

Valve- TäYdep .1 / -4.- £ 3ΥΑ & Β 1/4-star port area tank tank tank 5 spray area sealing area. % of full tank area mm2 cm2 cm2 0.071 422 110 26 0.159 638 220 34 10 0.196 540 300 56 0.283 651 460 72 0.392 596 410 70 0.983 798 580 73 15 Table IV shows that the percentage of the spray pattern covered by a quarter of a full tank increased from the area of a full tank when the difference increased between the cross sections of the valve port and the actuator output. Because the covered area can be taken as an indication of spray distribution, the results obtained using valve gate areas many times larger than the actuator output area are closely comparable to the results obtained with liquefied gas dispensers.

In all of the experiments described above, the dispensers contained a furniture polish having a viscosity of 510 cps (mPa s) and Experiment IV was performed to determine what effects, if any, the viscosity may have on the dispenser proposed by this invention.

30

TEST IV

Six dispensers were used for each experiment, each tank was charged to 55% of its volume with 35 laundry spray material having a viscosity of 20 cps (mPa s) and the remaining volume in each tank was charged with air to 100 psi (7.03 kg / cm 2).

All six dispensers had a valve gate of 91737 te with four 0.5 mra gates, making a cross-sectional area of 0.79 mm2.

The dispensers differed only in the cross-sectional areas of the outputs of their respective actuators, and Table IV shows the output sizes of the different actuators for the six dispensers.

Table V

10

Dosing Outputs Output Output Output range: device no. diameter cross-section v. gate area mm mm2 A '1 0.6 0.283 0.36 15 B' 1 0.5 0.196 0.25 C 1 0.45 0.159 0.2025 D '1 0.4 0.126 0.16 E' 1 0.3 0.071 0.09 F '1 0.25 0.049 0.0625 20

Each dispenser was emptied as a series of 10-second sprays, and the material removed in each spray was measured and recorded.

The results of this experiment are plotted graphically in Figure 5, with the exit in grams plotted vertically and the number of sprays for 10 seconds horizontally.

A comparison of the results obtained and described in Figures 4 and 5, in which the only differences were in product type, dispensed material viscosity and small variations in dispenser flow characteristics as described above, clearly shows that differences in product type and viscosity had little effect on the dispenser of the present invention. and therefore the dispensing device proposed by the present invention appears to be capable of dispensing virtually all materials that can be dispensed with liquefied gas dispensing devices.

Claims (11)

An output arrangement for discharging flowable material from a container filled with said flowable material and a pressurized, non-condensed gas, the arrangement comprising a valve port (17c) open to allow flowable material to flow through it. actuators (19 - 22) are displaced to a discharge position, and the actuator outlet (22a) disposed downstream of the valve port, characterized in that the cross-sectional area of the valve port (17c) is larger than the double cross-sectional area of the actuator outlet (22a). Discharge arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the cross-sectional area of the valve port (17c) is at least five times larger than the cross-sectional area of the outlet (22a) of the actuator. Dispensing arrangement according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the cross-sectional area of the valve port (17c) is at least ten times larger than the cross-sectional area of the outlet (22a) of the actuator. Output arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the outlet (22a) of the actuator has a cross-sectional area of from 0.02 mm2 to 0.126 mm2. Discharge arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterized in that the actuator (19 - 22) has a single outlet (22a) with a diameter of 0.25 mm. Discharge arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cross-sectional area of the valve port (17c) is from 0.196 mm2 to 1.57 mm2. Discharge arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the arrangement comprises four valve ports (17c) each having a diameter of 0.5 mm. Discharge arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is filled with a non-condensed gas. Discharge arrangement according to claim 8, characterized in that the gas comprises nitrogen gas. Discharge arrangement according to claim 8, characterized in that the gas comprises carbon dioxide. 15 11. Discharge arrangement according to claim 8, characterized in that the gas comprises air. * ·