JP2003128078A - Liquid container - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a liquid container capable of accurately and easily confirming the remaining amount of liquid regardless of various conditions such as the color and viscosity of the stored liquid or the orientation of the container body. An airless container-type liquid container configured to prevent air from entering by providing a moving bottom portion that varies the storage amount according to the usage amount of the stored liquid, wherein the container body has a liquid remaining amount. A liquid container having a see-through window for visually checking the remaining amount of liquid by visually checking the position of the bottom during the movement from the see-through window.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid container, and more particularly to an airless container type liquid container capable of visually confirming the remaining amount of the contained liquid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A liquid container is a type of material used for the container body (glass, synthetic resin, metal, etc.), design (surface coloring, surface printing, coloring / printing coating, etc.), or the nature of the liquid to be contained ( The container body is transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque depending on the necessity of light-shielding). In particular, in the case of cosmetics or the like as the liquid to be contained, it is often colored by printing or the like to shield light, and the container body is often opaque.

When the container body is opaque as described above, the remaining amount of the liquid contained inside cannot be visually confirmed from the outside. Therefore, a transparent window is formed by making a part of the side surface of the container body transparent or semi-transparent, and the liquid level of the stored liquid can be visually confirmed through the transparent window to confirm the remaining amount of the liquid. Is proposed (for example, the actual Kaihei 4-86).
See No. 739. ).

[0004]

In the technique for confirming the remaining amount of liquid by visually observing the liquid surface of the contained liquid through the see-through window, there are colorless, transparent or translucent liquids depending on the type of liquid. If the container body is colorless and transparent plastic or glass, it is difficult to visually confirm the remaining liquid. Especially in the case of a liquid container that is shaded for liquids such as cosmetics that require quality retention, the size of the see-through window is only the minimum size necessary to confirm the remaining amount of liquid. Visual confirmation is more difficult.

Further, in the case of the above-mentioned colorless, transparent or semi-transparent liquid, in order to confirm the liquid surface position, the liquid surface position is in a state where the container main body is erected straight and at a line-of-sight position perpendicular to the see-through window. There is an inconvenience that must be confirmed.

Further, when the liquid to be contained is viscous, the liquid level at the portion in contact with the see-through window part may deviate from the correct liquid level due to affinity with the inner wall surface of the liquid container, surface tension, and the like. Not only that, but when the container body is tilted or shaken, the viscosity of the liquid may cover the entire inner wall surface of the container in a thin film form, and the liquid surface position may be unclear, and visual confirmation may not be possible.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid container in which the remaining amount of the liquid can be accurately and easily confirmed regardless of various conditions such as the color and viscosity of the contained liquid or the orientation of the container body. It is in.

[0008]

The above-mentioned objects of the present invention can be achieved by the following constitutions.

1. It is an airless container type liquid container configured to prevent air from entering by providing a moving bottom part that changes the contained amount according to the used amount of the contained liquid, in order for the container body to visually check the remaining liquid amount. A liquid container having a see-through window part and being capable of confirming the remaining amount of liquid by visually checking the position of the moving bottom part from the see-through window part.

2. 2. The liquid container according to 1 above, wherein at least the upper edge of the moving bottom has a thickness of 5 mm or less, and the upper edge is kept liquid-tight with the container body.

3. 3. The liquid container according to 1 or 2 above, wherein the liquid is cosmetics.

4. 4. The liquid container according to any one of 1 to 3 above, wherein the container is of a push pump type.

5. 4. The liquid container according to any one of 1 to 3 above, wherein the container is a trigger pump type.

6. 6. The liquid container according to any one of 1 to 5 above, wherein the transparent window portion has a mark or a scale.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The details of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the liquid container according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view for explaining the airless structure of the liquid container of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 to 6 are other perspective windows. It is a side view which shows an Example.

As the liquid to be stored in the liquid container according to the present invention, cosmetics, non-solid cosmetics such as liquids and gels such as emulsions, non-solid pharmaceuticals such as liquids and gels, cleaning liquids, beverages, In addition, liquids that can be stored in this type of liquid container can be stored without any special limitation.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a liquid container is composed of a container body 1 and a bottom cover 2 fixed to an open bottom portion of the container body 1.
And a nozzle portion 3 which is a liquid ejecting means, a lid body 4, and a see-through window portion 5 for visually observing the remaining amount of the contained liquid. 1 and 2, the lid 4
Are shown as transparent. Further, the bottom cover 2 is configured to house accessories such as a permanent electric dipole crystal mineral ceramic body (see Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-263853), and is not an essential constituent element.

The liquid container of the present invention, as shown in FIG.
The main configuration of the container body 1 adopts an airless container type in which air is prevented from entering by providing a moving middle bottom portion 11 that varies the storage amount according to the usage amount of the stored liquid.

In the case of a normal container that is not an airless container,
Each time the liquid is taken out of the liquid container, an amount of air corresponding to the used amount of the liquid enters the liquid container. This inhalation of air is inevitably accompanied by contamination of bacteria in the air, and inhalation of moisture and oxygen in the air. This means that the liquid contained in the container is a liquid requiring hygiene control such as cosmetics. , The composition changes due to decay, oxidation, volatilization of volatile substances, changes in water content, changes in fragrance and quality and freshness due to changes, etc.
Has various adverse effects. Further, when the contained liquid has a viscosity, it is difficult to reliably remove the viscous liquid from the liquid container to the end, and the liquid cannot be used up, resulting in waste.

The airless container is a container configured to solve the problem of such an ordinary liquid container. In the present invention, the container body 1 corresponds to the usage amount of the contained liquid. An airless container system having a moving middle bottom portion 11 that is a middle bottom portion that is moved to reduce the amount of container body 1 accommodated is adopted. As this airless container system, a known system can be adopted without any special limitation. A typical example is as follows.

That is, in FIG. 2, (1) the moving middle bottom portion 11 indicated by a solid line at the bottom of the container body 1 is in an unused state,
That is, the position when the liquid is full, (2) container body 1
The moving middle bottom portion 11 indicated by the alternate long and short dash line at the substantially central portion of the state is a state where the liquid is used in about half, that is, the position when the storage amount of the container body 1 is about half, (3) the uppermost portion of the container body 1. The moving bottom part 11 shown by a two-dot chain line in the vicinity indicates a state in which the liquid has been used up, that is, a position when the storage amount of the container body 1 becomes substantially zero, respectively.

The moving middle bottom portion 11 has a structure that moves while maintaining a liquid-tight state inside the container body 1, and at least the upper edge portion 12 is held liquid-tight with the container body 1. However, as in the present embodiment, the upper edge 1
It is preferable that a double liquid-tight structure is provided at two positions, that is, the upper and lower portions of 2 and lower edge portion 13.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the central portion of the moving bottom portion 11 has a recess 14 corresponding to the shape of the liquid absorbing portion 32 of the nozzle portion 3, and as shown in FIG. When the liquid absorbing part 32 is housed in the recess 14 when the state becomes
The liquid can be used up completely.

The container body 1 is a material known as a material for this type of liquid container, and is made of transparent or translucent (for example, translucent by satin treatment), colorless or light colored. In particular, it is preferably made of synthetic resin. In the present invention employing the airless container system, in order to exert the function of not sucking the same amount of air as the amount of liquid used into the container, it is made of a rigid material having a strength that is not deformed by a change in internal pressure.

In the airless container type liquid container having the above-described structure, the remaining amount of the contained liquid can be confirmed through the transparent window portion 5 provided on the side surface of the container body 1. The see-through window portion 5 is transparent or semi-transparent, preferably transparent, with a part of the side surface of the container body 1 that is opaque due to dark coloring or printing being left without printing. With this configuration, the inside of the container body 1 can be seen through.

In order to form the transparent or translucent transparent window portion 5, (1) When the container body 1 is colored or printed on the transparent or translucent member as described above, the transparent window portion 5 is formed. The part corresponding to 5 is not colored or printed, and the container body 1
In addition to leaving the transparent or translucent ground of (2)
When the container body 1 is formed of an opaque material, another method such as forming the portion corresponding to the see-through window portion 5 with another transparent or semitransparent member may be employed.

In the liquid container according to the present invention, the confirmation of the remaining amount of liquid from the see-through window portion 5 is not performed at the position of the liquid surface which decreases according to the remaining amount as in the conventional liquid container. 1
As shown in FIG.
Check by the position of.

Referring to FIG. 2, (1) when the liquid is unused, that is, when the liquid is full, the moving bottom part 11 is located at the bottom of the container body 1 at the position indicated by the solid line (note that , At this position, as shown in Figure 1, "full",
It is preferable to display a full indication 53 such as "100%" or "OO push start". ), (2)
When the liquid is used in about half, that is, when the stored amount is about half, the moving bottom part 11 is at the position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in the substantially central part of the container body 1, and (3) the state in which the liquid is used up That is, when the storage capacity of the container main body 1 becomes substantially zero, the moving middle bottom portion 11 becomes a position shown by a chain double-dashed line near the uppermost portion of the container main body 1, and depending on each position state of the moving middle bottom portion 11, At this time, the remaining amount of liquid will be known.

Therefore, even if the liquid to be contained is colorless and transparent, the remaining amount of the liquid can be visually confirmed at the position of the moving bottom portion 11 instead of being confirmed at the liquid level position as in the conventional liquid container. Therefore, the remaining amount of the liquid can be easily visually checked. In order to make it easier to visually confirm, it is preferable that the color of the moving bottom part 11 is not colorless and transparent, but in the case of coloring, it is different from the ground color of the container body 1 (for example, black). It is preferable.

Even if the container body 1 is tilted, the liquid surface does not tilt or disturb or the position does not move unlike the conventional liquid container, and the moving bottom 11 is always in a stable position. It is possible to easily visually confirm the remaining amount of liquid regardless of the orientation of the container body 1.

Further, even if the liquid to be contained has a viscosity, the liquid surface at the portion in contact with the see-through window portion as in the conventional liquid container may deviate from the correct liquid surface or the liquid surface position is unclear. Is different from the one that cannot be visually confirmed,
The correct remaining amount of liquid can be visually confirmed.

The moving middle bottom portion 11 has a structure that moves while maintaining a liquid-tight state in the container body 1, and in order to keep the liquid-tight state more reliably, as shown in FIG. It is preferable that the upper and lower portions of the portion 12 and the lower edge portion 13 have a double liquid-tight structure. In this case, since it is closer to the liquid storage position, it is preferable to set the position of the upper edge portion 12 as the liquid remaining amount display position. However, the upper and lower end positions of the transparent window portion 5 are set to the liquid remaining amount of the moving bottom portion 5. The lower edge portion 13 or another portion of the moving bottom portion 11 may be set as the display position of the liquid remaining amount if it corresponds to the display position portion of.

At least the upper edge portion 12 of the moving bottom portion 11
It is preferable that the upper edge portion 12 and the lower edge portion 13 are formed to have a wall thickness of 5 mm or less, preferably 3 mm or less, more preferably 2 mm or less. This is preferable for exerting the liquid remaining amount display function displayed on the section 5. There is no particular limitation except for the portion that appears in the transparent window portion 5 and indicates the remaining amount of liquid, as long as it is the thickness at which the moving bottom of the liquid container of this type of airless container system is formed.

Although the embodiments of the liquid container according to the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments and, for example, the following other modes can be adopted.

In this embodiment, the discharge system of the container body 1 is illustrated as a publicly known push pump system, but a publicly known trigger pump system may be used instead of the push pump system.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the transparent window portion 5 may have a mark or scale 51.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a mark or scale 51 is added to the side of the transparent window portion 5 of the embodiment shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the indication of the indication 52 of the remaining amount makes it possible to know the indication of when to prepare or purchase the next liquid container (or refilling liquid). The remaining amount of liquid in the mode shown in FIG. 3 is displayed as a slightly larger amount than about 40 pushes.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the long rectangular see-through window portion 5 is deformed into a circle at regular intervals, and a mark or scale 51 is displayed on at least a part of the circular portion. According to this aspect, the mark or the scale 51 is clearer than that shown by a thin line on which the mark or scale 51 is printed, and the mark or scale 51 is not erased like printing or hidden by dirt or the like. The remaining amount of liquid in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is about 30.
The amount displayed is much larger than the amount of pushes.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the transparent window portion 5 is only the circular portion shown in FIG. According to this aspect, it is effective in the case where it is not necessary to finely display the transition of the remaining amount of liquid and only a rough display is required, or in the case where the transparent portion is reduced as much as possible to enhance the light shielding property. The liquid remaining amount in the mode shown in FIG. 5 is almost displayed for about 30 pushes.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the remaining amount of liquid remains in the transparent window portion 5, and the next liquid container (or refill liquid)
Is displayed only when the time to prepare or purchase is approaching. According to this aspect, it is effective when it is not necessary to display the transition of the remaining amount of the liquid until the amount of the liquid is reduced to some extent, or when the light-shielding property is enhanced by reducing the transparent portion as much as possible. The remaining amount of liquid in the mode shown in FIG. 6 is displayed as an amount that is slightly less than about 20 pushes.

In another mode, the end portion of the bottom portion 11 during the movement or a portion near the end portion, which can be visually confirmed from the see-through window portion 5, is mirror-finished or plated-finished so that the liquid remaining amount is displayed. The position of the insole 11 can be made to shine.

[0043]

According to the present invention, since the remaining amount of liquid is confirmed by the position of the moving bottom which can be visually confirmed through the see-through window, the liquid to be stored is, for example, colorless / transparent or light-colored / translucent. Even in this case, the remaining amount of the liquid can be easily visually confirmed. Even if the container body is tilted, the bottom part is always in a stable position during movement,
The remaining liquid amount can be easily visually checked regardless of the orientation of the container body. Further, even if the liquid to be contained has viscosity, the position of the bottom body during movement is clear, so that the correct remaining amount of the liquid can be visually confirmed. Therefore, it is possible to provide a liquid container in which the remaining amount of liquid can be accurately and easily confirmed regardless of various conditions such as the color and viscosity of the contained liquid or the orientation of the container body. In particular, according to the aspect based on the confirmation of the position of the upper edge portion where the bottom portion is kept liquid-tight with the container body during movement, the reliable remaining amount is ensured without making the liquid surface and the line of sight horizontal. Confirmation becomes possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of a liquid container according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an airless structure of the liquid container of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing another embodiment of the see-through window section.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing another embodiment of the see-through window section.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing another embodiment of the see-through window section.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing another embodiment of the see-through window section.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 container body 11 Moving bottom 12 Upper edge 13 Lower edge 14 dent 2 Bottom lid 3 Nozzle part 31 outlet 32 Liquid absorption part 4 Lid 5 Perspective window 51 mark or scale 52 standard display 53 Indication that it is full

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An airless container type liquid container configured to prevent air from entering by providing a moving middle bottom part for varying the contained amount according to the used amount of the contained liquid. A liquid container having a transparent window portion for visually observing the amount, and being capable of confirming the remaining amount of liquid by visually confirming the position of the moving bottom portion through the transparent window portion. 2. The wall thickness of at least the upper edge of the moving bottom is 5
The liquid container according to claim 1, wherein the liquid container has a size of not more than mm, and the upper edge portion is liquid-tightly held with the container body. 3. The liquid container according to claim 1, wherein the liquid is a cosmetic product. 4. The liquid container according to claim 1, wherein the container is of a push pump type. 5. The liquid container according to claim 1, wherein the container is of a trigger pump type. 6. The liquid container according to claim 1, wherein the see-through window portion has a mark or a scale.