GB2200299A - Sealing inflation necks of inflatable items - Google Patents

Abstract

A balloon comprises an inflatable body (1), a neck (2), and in a preferred embodiment, a tube (3) received within and extending from said neck (2). A portion (4) of the neck (2) is folded back on itself and an annular part (5) of portion (4) is coated with a contact adhesive. The balloon can be inflated either by mouth or by attaching the tube (3) to an outlet of a suitable gas source. Once the balloon is inflated, the tube (3) can be removed and the folded portion (4) unfolded by a simple pulling action. A gas tight seal can then be made simply by pinching the neck (2) in the region of the coated part (5).

Description

"Balloon and Gas Canister" This invention relates to self-sealing balloon and to a gas canister.

Balloons in various shapes and sizes are sold for use at many social gatherings (e.g. children's and Christmas parties) and are used in larger quantities at many promotional or sporting events. Traditionally, balloons are inflated either by blowing into them by mouth or by filling them with helium gas from a large cylinder. The neck of the balloon is then knotted to prevent gas escaping. The knotting operation requires great dexterity and becomes all the more tiresome when large quantities of balloons need to be inflated and sealed at, for example, promotional events.

Furthermore, a gas tight seal can never be achieved simply by tying a knot in the neck of a balloon, since there will always remain a minute passage through which gas can escape.

One known method of overcoming the problem of knotting balloons is to use a plug or spring clip.

Spring clips are typically applied to the twisted end of the balloon's neck to pinch or squeeze the end thereby halting gas escape. However, irrespective of the force applied by the spring clip, minute passages still exist in the neck allowing gas to escape. Plugs on the other hand are inserted into the neck of the balloon, but these are unsatisfactory as they rely on a force fit which in turn requires very high manufacturing tolerances to provide a gas tight seal.

Furthermore, the use of plugs and spring clips is in general too expensive and too heavy to be of practical use.

It is now common to seal the Mylar balloons by heat. The balloon's neck is subjected to hot pressing which locally melts the neck and forms a seal. This requires expensive machinery and in unsuitable for use with the normal elastomeric toy balloons, since these melt destructively under this treatment.

United States specifications 4,560,360 (Isaacs et al.) and 4,516,949 (Schwartz) describe a balloon sealing method in which a seal is made by bringing together opposed inner surfaces of the neck of a balloon which surfaces have previously been coated with a suitable adhesive. Premature sealing is prevented by means of a interior protective insert or strip. In both cases, a tube is inserted into the neck between the protective inserts to allow for the inflation of the balloon. Such balloons are expensive to manufacture since they require extra elements such as protective inserts or strips. Furthermore, considerable manual dexterity is required to remove the inserts or strips once the balloon is inflated.

The present invention provides a balloon which can be easily sealed by the use of an adhesive, which can be manufactured at low unit cost, which does away with the need for interior protective sheets and which can be adapted to all types of balloons.

According to the invention there is provided a balloon comprising a body and a neck characterised in that at least a portion of the neck is turned inside out and at least an outer annular part of said portion is coated with a contact adhesive.

The balloon can be sealed after inflation, simply by unfolding the neck of the balloon with a pulling action and by pinching the neck. The seal produced is entirely gas tight. The balloon does not require any protective strips, since contact adhesive will only stick two itself and premature sealing is prevented by the folding of the neck of the balloon. The balloon has the additional advantage in that it can be reused, since it is possible to break the seal by pulling the opposed surfaces of the neck apart.

Preferably, a tube is received within the neck of the balloon. This prevents collapse of the neck during inflation and also eases folding down the neck of the balloon during manufacture. The tube may be of a plastics material and may optionally be removed once the balloon is inflated. Plastics tubing is cheap and thus this part may be disposable.

Preferably, the tube extends out of the neck of the balloon. This prevents spittle affecting the contact adhesive, if the balloon is to be mouth inflated. The tube may also be easily removed if it extends out of the balloon. Such a tube is preferably provided with means adapted to form a substantially gas tight connection with 'a gas source. Preferably, these means are one part of bayonet fitting. This arrangement allows for a simple gas tight connection to be made to a suitable gas source such as a helium cylinder.

The outer annular part coated with contact adhesive may be provided with a removeable protective strip to prevent a collection of the balloons packaged loose together sticking together. The strip may simply be removed from the exterior of the balloon's neck prior to inflation. Alternatively, there maybe provided an assembly comprising a plurality of balloons each having a tube extending out of its neck wherein the tubes are attached to, or integral with a common member at spaced apart intervals. For example, the tubes may form an integral injection moulded comb provided with frangible portions for the ready removal of individual balloons.

In promotional events it is common to inflate balloons with helium gas to provide balloons bouyant in air. However, helium is only available in large industrial type cylinders. These cylinders are very expensive to hire and transport, and are on the whole difficult to use. In practice, very small quantities of gas is required to inflate a balloon and thus fine control of the flow of gas is required. This is often difficult to achieve. Usually very little gas is required for filling all the balloons and the cylinders have to be returned almost full. This is uneconomic.

Moreover, helium cylinders currently available for this use contain substantially pure helium and whilst being an inert gas and thus not in itself dangerous, it may cause suffocation if misused by children, since no oxygen is present.

Thus, currently available cylinders are expensive to use in the promotional setting, and totally impractical and possibly even dangerous for use in the home.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a hand-held gas filled canister containing a mixture of oxygen and helium wherein the oxygen content in the can is at least 20 mole %.

The canister of the invention is safe, portable and is ideal for inflating toy balloons. The gas can be inhaled without adverse effects since the oxygen level present is approximately equal to the oxygen present in the atmosphere. This gas mixture has the harmless, non-lasting side effect of making the voice squeak in a "Donald Duck" fashion due to a temporary reduction in gas density in the voice box. This effect can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. The gas mixture will be under a much lower pressure than in industrial helium cylinders and thus fine control of the flow of gas into a balloon can be achieved. The canister may be filled with a means for making a substantially gas-tight seal to a balloon, such as a balloon of the first aspect of the invention. Suitably a bayonet fitting is provided.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a kit comprising a package containing one or more balloons of the first aspect of the invention and a gas-filled canister of the second aspect of the invention.

The present invention is now described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows, in cross section, a detail of the neck of a toy balloon comprising an inflatable body 1 and a neck 2. A tube 3 is received within and extends from the neck 2. A portion 4 of the neck 2 is folded inside out and an outer annular part 5 of the portion 4 is coated with a contact adhesive (i.e. an adhesive which will only bond to itself).

The tube 3 is provided with members 6 which act as the male fitting parts of a substantially gas-tight bayonet fitting.

The gas canister itself, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, has approximate external dimensions of up to 10 cm x 25 cm and contains, under a pressure of approximately 1.5 to 3 atmospheres, a mixture of helium and oxygen gases in an approximate molar ratio of 80:20 helium to oxygen.

The canister is provided with a simple outlet valve such as commonly provided on an aerosol can. The outlet valve is attached to an outlet tube, the end of which is provided with a female part of a bayonet fitting. This part cooperates with the male members 6, provided on the tube 3, to produce a substantially gas tight fitting.

To inflate the balloon, the outlet tube of the gas canister is attached to the cdnduit 3 via the bayonet fitting. The gaseous mixture is then released from the canister into the balloon. Having inflated the balloon, the tube 3 is removed and the neck portion 4 unfolded. The annular adhesive coated part 5 is then brought together by a pinching action. This seals the neck of the balloon.

When the balloon needs to be deflated, the seal can be broken without damage to the rest of the balloon, by carefully pulling the neck portion apart.

This is particularly advantageous, since the balloons can then be re-used.

It will be appreciated that the present invention has been described by way of example only and modifications of detail can be made within the scope of the invention. For example, the balloons of the present invention may be inflated by any suitable gas source using any suitable fitting. The balloons could also be inflated by mouth. The gas canister may also contain any other inert gas provided that the oxygen content remains at at least 20 mole %.

It will also be appreciated that the invention can be adapted for use with any balloon such as, for example, bladders, footballs and bicycle inner tubes.

Claims (13)

CLAIMS:

1. A balloon comprising a body and a neck characterised in that at least a portion of the neck is turned inside out and at least an outer annular part of said portion is coated with a contact adhesive.

2. A balloon as claimed in claim 1 having a tube received within the neck of the balloon.

3. A balloon as claimed in claim 2 wherein the tube extends out of the neck of the balloon.

4. A balloon as claimed in claim 3 wherein said tube is provided with means adapted to form a substantially gas-tight connection with a gas source.

5. A balloon as claimed in claim 4 wherein said means is one part of a bayonet fitting.

6. A balloon as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said outer annular part is provided with a removeable protective strip.

7. An assembly comprising a plurality of balloons as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 5 wherein the tubes are attached to or integral with a common member at spaced apart intervals.

8. A hand-held gas filled canister containing a mixture of oxygen and helium gas wherein the oxygen content is at least 20 mole %.

9. A hand-hld gas filled canister as claimed in claim 8 provided with a gas outlet tube, said tube being provided with means adapted to fit a tube of a balloon as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 6.

10. A gas filled canister as claimed in claim 9 wherein said means is one part of a bayonet fitting.

11. A kit comprising a package containing one or more balloons as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 or an assembly as claimed in claim 7 and a hand-held gas filled canister according to any one of claims 8 to 10.

12. A balloon substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.

13. A gas canister substantially as hereinbefore described.