Pump device for a metering dispenser
Patent Information
- Application Number
- AE202602375
- Authority / Receiving Office
- AE · AE
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2024-01-16
Smart Images
Figure ABST_ABST
Abstract
Description
TRANSLATION OF PCT / EP2024 / 050907 PUMP DEVICE FOR A METERING DISPENSER DESCRIPTION The invention relates to a pump device for a metering dispenser for providing and discharging a liquid, in particular a detergent substance or a care product for body care, according to the preamble of claim 1. The invention also relates to a metering dispenser with such a pump device and to a wall-mounted metering dispenser with such a metering dispenser. The pump device allows the metered discharge of the liquid from the metering dispenser, and it is inserted into the bottle neck of a bottle which serves to store and provide the liquid, such that the liquid can be removed in metered fashion directly from the bottle. A pump device of the present type comprises at least one pump body with a cylinder, a piston movable in the cylinder, having a pump channel running in a hollow piston rod, and having an inlet into the pump channel, arranged in the region of a cylinder-side end of the piston, furthermore a pump head which is fastened to or molded on the piston, opposite the cylinder-side end thereof, for actuating the piston, a discharge channel which is arranged on the pump head and is connected to the pump channel and has a discharge opening, a spring element which is arranged between the pump head and the pump body and which is supported directly or indirectly on the pump body, and an intake line for the liquid which opens into the cylinder via a non-return valve. The pump device also has a screw-on sleeve with an internal thread for screwing onto the bottle neck, which screw-on sleeve fixes the pump body in the bottle neck. As is known per se, for example from DE 10 2021 126 805 A1 of the applicant, the pump head of the present type finally also has a guide collar oriented downward toward the pump body, which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve which is formed coaxially on the screw-on sleeve or is fastened to it or is placed thereon. Dispensers with a pump device have been in use for a long time both in private households and in hotels as well as in restrooms of restaurants and the like in various designs and are widely used, especially for the provision and metered dispensing of liquid soap. In bathrooms and wellness areas of hotels, such metering dispensers are often used not only for soaps and hand disinfectants, but also for shower oil, hair shampoo and other care products such as lotions or the like. The liquid products stored in them can be metered as needed and removed in a hygienically safe manner without having to provide individually packaged and therefore unsustainable small containers of corresponding care products for one-time or two-time use. At the same time, a certain volume of the liquid products can be kept available in order to extend the service life until the metering dispenser is refilled or until the necessary replacement of the metering dispenser or of its bottle to longer time intervals of typically several days. For use in hotels, metering dispensers with a pump device are also often used as part of a wall-mounted metering dispenser, a wall holder holding the metering dispenser and in turn being attached to a structural device which is generally a wall, but can also be, for example, a furniture part, a special holder or a frame. A pump device for a metering dispenser is conventionally designed in the manner of a scoop piston pump, such as is commercially available as a finished installation part and can be fixed to the bottle neck of a dispenser bottle by means of a screw-on sleeve. As a special feature of the pump device of the present type, the pump head has a guide collar. In addition, there is a guide sleeve which is integrally formed coaxially on the screw-on sleeve or is fastened coaxially thereto or is slipped over the latter and guides the guide collar of the pump head during a pumping movement. This special feature brings important advantages with regard to the hygiene properties of the metering dispenser, since simple embodiments of metering dispensers of the conventional type are designed such that in the relieved state the piston rod on which the pump head sits protrudes freely visibly and upwardly accessibly from the pump body or the screw-on sleeve. However, a metering dispenser is generally used with wet hands, so that when the pump head is actuated, water passes from the wet hands onto the pump head, runs along the piston rod from the latter or drips directly onto the piston rod, and then, during the pump stroke, plunges with the piston rod into the bottle neck and from there can pass into the liquid stored therein or into the liquid to be dispensed. This must be avoided for hygiene reasons. The guide collar on the pump head largely prevents potentially contaminated water from the hand of a user, which gets onto the pump head when using the metering dispenser, from running down the piston rod, since it can hardly reach the piston rod from the guide collar. Despite the presence of a guide collar, however, it is still possible for water to pass from the surroundings, in particular from the wet hand of a user, into the interior of the bottle of the metering dispenser; this is because when water runs downward on the outside of the guide collar and, during the pump stroke, passes together with the water into the interior of the guide sleeve, insofar as the guide sleeve does not strip the water off the guide collar, which, however, never succeeds completely. In this way, potentially contaminated water can get into the region of the screw-on sleeve, although to a substantially lesser extent than in the conventional construction, which naturally entails the risk that it can finally get into the interior of the bottle of the metering dispenser. The invention is therefore based on the object of further improving a pump device according to the preamble of claim 1 in such a way that the hygiene requirements on a metering dispenser can be met even better than hitherto in that, better than hitherto, potentially contaminated water is prevented from passing from the outer region of the metering dispenser into the liquid to be dispensed or via the bottle neck into the interior of the bottle of the metering dispenser. This object is achieved by a pump device having the features of claim 1. Preferred refinements and developments of the pump device according to the invention are set forth in claims 2 to 11. A metering dispenser with a pump device according to the invention is the subject matter of claim 12, while the subject matter of claim 13 is a wall-mounted metering dispenser with a pump device according to the invention. A pump device according to the invention therefore contains, as is known per se, a pump body with a cylinder, a piston which is movable in the cylinder, with a pump channel running in a hollow piston rod and with an inlet into the pump channel which is arranged in the region of a cylinder-side end of the piston, and furthermore a pump head which is fastened to or molded on the piston opposite the cylinder-side end thereof, for actuating the piston, a discharge channel with a discharge opening which is arranged on the pump head and is connected to the pump channel, and a spring element which is arranged between the pump head and the pump body and which is supported on the one hand on the pump head and on the other hand directly or indirectly on the pump body, and an intake line for the liquid which opens into the cylinder via a non-return valve, wherein the pump device also has a screw-on sleeve which fixes the pump body in the bottle neck and has an internal thread for screwing onto the bottle neck, and wherein the pump head is provided with a guide collar which is oriented downward toward the pump body and which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve which is integrally formed coaxially on the screw-on sleeve or is fastened thereto or is placed on said guide sleeve. In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the pump device according to the invention, channels are provided between the screw-on sleeve and the guide sleeve for draining away liquids which could have penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve between the guide collar and the guide sleeve. By means of these channels present according to the invention, water which has penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve can be discharged to the outside, so that it cannot collect in the region of the bottle neck and in this way, for example, nevertheless pass into the interior of the bottle. The channels are expediently arranged in such a way that any water that has penetrated is discharged directly through the channels. This is facilitated if the guide collar of the pump head is relatively far away radially from the piston rod. Water which penetrates with the guide collar during a pump stroke then runs downwards on the inside of the guide sleeve and cannot reach the piston rod directly from there. The channels according to the invention are therefore expediently arranged on the inside of the guide sleeve, in particular between the guide sleeve and the screw-on sleeve. The guide sleeve is preferably seated coaxially on the screw-on sleeve and is preferably designed as a separate component and is slipped onto the screw-on sleeve, and it preferably has dimensions with which it is suitable not only for guiding the guide collar of the pump head, but also covers the screw-on sleeve, the spring element and the piston rod, which would otherwise be accessible from the outside in an intermediate space between the guide collar and the screw-on sleeve. Such a design of the guide sleeve thus also prevents water from reaching the piston rod directly from the outside without having to first run down from the pump head. The guide sleeve preferably designed in this way is particularly preferably shaped such that it tapers in an end region oriented toward the pump head. This makes it possible to design the guide collar of the pump head to be relatively slim; it therefore does not have to have a radial extent which corresponds approximately to the outer diameter of the screw-on sleeve, but can be made narrower. This causes in particular smaller lever effects when the pump head tilts, such that the pump head can also be moved easily into the guide sleeve when the pump device is actuated if a force acts on the pump head not only from above but also from the side and there is a risk of jamming in the guide sleeve. The channels according to the invention expediently run substantially vertically, so that water that has penetrated with the guide collar is discharged from the outer region as quickly as possible through the channels by gravity. The guide sleeve, which is seated coaxially on the screw-on sleeve and is preferably configured as a separate component, is particularly preferably provided with vertical ribs in a region of its inner surface in which it covers the screw-on sleeve, which engage in a knurled configuration of the screw-on sleeve and on the one hand form a form fit with the knurled configuration of the screw-on sleeve and on the other hand form the channels. These ribs thus perform a double function, and the form fit between the guide sleeve and the screw-on sleeve can advantageously prevent the guide sleeve from being able to be rotated. Further advantages result if the screw-on sleeve, tapering toward the pump head, continues into a pump neck which in particular guides the spring element, but in any case additionally prevents any water that has penetrated getting into the region of the piston rod. The screw-on sleeve can taper in one piece into the pump neck, but the pump neck can also be attached to the screw-on sleeve as a separate component. It is only important that no joint through which any water present can penetrate is formed between the pump neck and the screw-on sleeve. It is particularly advantageous if the pump neck, which is connected to the screw-on sleeve, the tapered end region of the guide sleeve and the guide collar are arranged coaxially in such a way, and the radial extents thereof are matched to one another in such a way, that, in axial projection, an annular space is formed between the pump neck and the guide sleeve, in which annular space the guide collar can move when the pump device is actuated. In this case, the tapered end region of the guide sleeve and the pump neck are arranged axially spaced apart from one another in such a way that they complement one another during the guidance of the guide collar. In the embodiment of the pump device according to the invention with a pump neck, it is particularly preferred if the transition from the screw-on sleeve to the pump neck is formed by a shoulder, preferably by a shoulder which slopes radially outward and on which any water which has penetrated is discharged to the outside due to gravity. In this case, the channels according to the invention expediently then extend from the shoulder, which forms the transition from the screw-on sleeve into the pump neck, to a lower end of the screw-on sleeve in order to reliably discharge the water to the outside. Particularly preferably, an inner surface of this shoulder, which is oriented toward the bottle neck, fixes the pump body in the bottle neck when the screw-on sleeve is screwed onto the bottle neck. The pump neck can have a somewhat smaller radial extent than the pump body, so that the shoulder for the pump body acquires the property of a projection which prevents the pump body from being able to come loose from the bottle neck. Finally, in the pump device according to the invention, it is particularly preferred if the entire pump device, including the spring element, is made of plastic, that is to say no helical spring made of steel is employed, as is conventionally used. This also contributes to improved hygiene of the pump device according to the invention and, moreover, brings manufacturing advantages and cost savings during production. An exemplary embodiment for a pump device according to the invention will be described and explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the description below of the figures is merely by way of example and does not restrict the scope of the invention, but may nevertheless contain features according to the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1: shows a sectional illustration of a pump device configured according to the invention in a lateral view; Figure 2: shows a plan view from below of the guide sleeve of the pump device from Figure 1; Figure 3: shows Figure 1 with additions. Figure 1 shows a lateral sectional illustration of a pump device for a metering dispenser, which pump device is designed according to the present invention and can be inserted into a bottle neck (not illustrated) of a bottle (not illustrated) for storing and providing a liquid, in particular a detergent substance or a care product for body care, and is used for the metered discharge of the liquid, as a result of which the pump device together with the bottle then forms the metering dispenser. The pump device illustrated in Figure 1 comprises a pump body 1 with a cylinder 2 in which a piston 3 can be moved. On its underside, the cylinder 2 is provided with a non-return valve 4 which closes or opens an intake line 5 opening into the cylinder 2 during the pump stroke, depending on the movement phase. The piston 3 has a hollow piston rod 6, which in the present case is assembled from two individual parts for production reasons. In its interior, the hollow piston rod 6 forms a pump channel 7 which is connected to the interior of the cylinder 2 via an inlet 8 formed by a plurality of openings and is closed by a piston ring 9 in the situation illustrated in Figure 1. The piston rod 6 is seated at its end opposite the cylinder 2 in a pump head 10, in which the pump channel 7 continues and opens into a discharge channel 11 with discharge opening 12. The pump head 10 comprises three regions in one piece: An actuating surface 13 for the user, a discharge spout 14 for discharging the liquid at the discharge opening 12, and a guide collar 15 which forms an annular space 16 for receiving a spring element 17. The spring element 17 surrounds the hollow piston rod 6 and is supported on a cylinder cover 18, which is fixed in the pump body 1, such that the spring element 17 pre-loads the pump head 10 and the pump body 1 against one another. A screw-on sleeve 19 with an internal thread 20, which is also fastened to the pump body 1, can be screwed onto an external thread of a bottle neck (not shown) in order to fix the pump device in the bottle of a metering dispenser. For this purpose, the screw-on sleeve 19 retains a projecting upper edge 22 of the pump body 1 by means of a circumferential projection 21 and presses the latter against a seal 23 which seals off against the bottle neck (not shown). The screw-on sleeve 19 tapers in its upper region into a pump neck 24. Finally, a guide sleeve 25 with a tapered end region 26 oriented toward the pump head 10 is seated on the screw-on sleeve 19. The guide sleeve 25 has vertically oriented ribs 27 in a contact region with the screw-on sleeve 19, which, on the one hand, establish a form-fitting connection with a knurled portion 31 of the screw-on sleeve 19 and, on the other hand, form vertical channels 28 for discharging water which, for example, has penetrated into the intermediate space between the guide sleeve 25 and the pump neck 24. Figure 2, a view of the guide sleeve 25 from below, illustrates the arrangement of these ribs 27 and channels 28. As Figure 1 also shows, the piston rod 6 also has an actuating ring 29 which, during a pumping movement, entrains the piston ring 9 downward. However, this takes place in a delayed manner owing to a corresponding play when the piston 3 plunges in, such that the piston ring 9 is entrained in a delayed manner, in the process is detached from the cylinder-side end of the piston 3 and releases the inlet 8. When a user presses on the actuating surface 13, the pump body 10 moves downward toward the pump body 1 against the restoring force of the spring element 17, as a result of which the piston 3 is moved downward in the cylinder 2 via the piston rod 6. As a result of the delayed entrainment of the piston ring 9 just described, the latter releases the inlet 8 into the pump channel 7, such that liquid displaced from the cylinder 2 by the plunging piston 3 is pressed via the pump channel 7 into the discharge channel 11 and is discharged at the discharge opening 12 of the discharge spout 14. The discharged dose is determined by the amount of liquid displaced from the cylinder 2 by the piston stroke. The non-return valve 4, which in the present case consists of a spherical-shell-shaped, elastically movable diaphragm, prevents liquid from being forced from the cylinder 2 into the intake line 5 here. When the user releases the pump head 10, the latter moves upward on account of the restoring force of the spring element 17. Here, the piston ring 9 is again entrained in a delayed manner, such that it closes the inlet 8 and thus prevents liquid that has remained in the pump channel 7 and in the discharge channel 11 from flowing back into the cylinder 2. The negative pressure arising during the reverse movement of the piston 3 opens the non-return valve 4, so that liquid flows from the bottle (not illustrated) into the cylinder 2 via the intake line 5. During the pump stroke, the pump head 10 and thus also the piston 3 is guided with its piston rod 6 by means of the guide collar 15 in the tapered end region 26 of the guide sleeve 25. In the further course of the pump stroke, the pump neck 24 then also takes over part of the guidance, since in axial projection the tapered end region 26 of the guide sleeve 25 and the pump neck 24 form an annular space in which the guide collar 15 can move in a guided manner. The pump neck 24 simultaneously stabilizes the spring element 17 and covers the latter radially outward, while the tapered end region 26 of the guide sleeve 25 has the effect that, during the pump stroke, potentially contaminated water from the outer region, in particular from the wet hand of a user, which runs down on the outside on the guide collar 15 of the pump head 10, is stripped off from there and deflected outward. In any case, to prevent liquids from the surroundings of the metering dispenser or of the pump device, which could for instance still have penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve 25, from passing into the interior of the screw-on sleeve 19 and from there possibly into the interior of the bottle, as visualized in Figure 3, the pump neck 24 formed by the screw-on sleeve 19 ensures that the liquid that has penetrated cannot penetrate at all as far as the spring element 17 and the pump body 1. In order furthermore also to rule out the possibility that such liquids which may have penetrated into the guide sleeve 25 can collect on a shoulder 30 of the screw-on sleeve 19, the channels 28 which are provided between the guide sleeve 25 and the screw-on sleeve 19 have the effect that such liquids can be diverted to the outside by gravity. as is symbolized by arrows 32 in Figure 3. The exemplary embodiment of a pump device according to the invention shown in the figures thus satisfies the highest hygienic requirements. By manufacturing the pump device, including its spring element, from one and the same plastic material, the pump device according to the present exemplary embodiment can be manufactured advantageously from a sustainability point of view; corrosion problems, for example in the case of the spring element, are also a thing of the past. Reference Signs: 1 Pump body2 Cylinder3 Piston4 Non-return valve 5 Intake line6 Piston rod7 Pump channel8 Inlet9 Piston ring10 Pump head11 Discharge channel12 Discharge opening13 Actuating surface14 Discharge spout15 Guide collar16 Annular space17 Spring element18 Cylinder cover19 Screw-on sleeve 20 Internal thread21 Projection22 Edge23 Seal24 Pump neck25 Guide sleeve26 End region (of 25)27 Ribs28 Channels29 Actuating ring30 Shoulder (of 19)31 Knurled portion 32 Arrows (water flow direction)
Claims
1. A pump device for a metering dispenser for providing and discharging a liquid, in particular a detergent substance or a care product for body care, wherein the pump device can be inserted into a bottle neck of a bottle for storing and providing the liquid and is used for the metered discharge of the liquid,wherein the pump device comprises at least one pump body (1) with a cylinder (2), a piston (3) movable in the cylinder (2), a pump channel (7) running in a hollow piston rod (6) and an inlet (8) into the pump channel (7), arranged in the region of a cylinder-side end of the piston (3), a pump head (10), which is fastened to or formed on the piston (3) opposite the cylinder-side end thereof, for actuating the piston (3), a discharge channel (11), which is arranged on the pump head (10) and is connected to the pump channel (7) and has a discharge opening (12), a spring element (17) which is arranged between the pump head (10) and the pump body (1) and which is supported directly or indirectly on the pump body (1), and an intake line (5) for the liquid which opens into the cylinder (2) via a non-return valve (4),wherein the pump device furthermore has a screw-on sleeve (19), which fixes the pump body (1) in the bottle neck and has an internal thread (20), for screwing onto the bottle neck, and wherein the pump head (10) has a guide collar (15) which is oriented downward toward the pump body (1) and which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve (25) which is formed coaxially on the screw-on sleeve (19) or fastened thereto or placed thereon,characterizedin that channels (28) are provided between the screw-on sleeve (19) and the guide sleeve (25) for draining away potentially contaminated liquids which could have penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve (25) between the guide collar (15) and the guide sleeve (25). 2. The pump device as claimed in claim 1,wherein the guide sleeve (25) is seated coaxially on the screw-on sleeve (19), preferably as a separate component, and is used to guide the guide collar (15) of the pump head (10) and to cover the screw-on sleeve (19) and, in an intermediate space between the guide collar (15) and the screw-on sleeve (19), is also used to cover the spring element (17) and the piston rod (6). 3. The pump device as claimed in claim 2,wherein the guide sleeve (25) tapers in an end region (26) oriented toward the pump head (10). 4. The pump device as claimed in either of claims 2 and 3,wherein the channels (28) run substantially vertically. 5. The pump device as claimed in claim 4,wherein the guide sleeve (25) is provided with vertically oriented ribs (27) in a region of its inner surface in which it covers the screw-on sleeve (19), which engage in a knurled portion (31) of the screw-on sleeve (19) and, one the one hand, form a form-fitting connection to the knurled portion (31) of the screw-on sleeve (19) and, on the other hand, form the channels (28). 6. The pump device as claimed in at least one of claims 1 to 5,wherein the screw-on sleeve (19), which is formed in one or more parts for this purpose, tapering toward the pump head (10), continues into a pump neck (24) for covering and / or guiding the spring element (17). 7. The pump device as claimed in claims 3 and 6,wherein the tapered end region (26) of the guide sleeve (25) is arranged axially above the pump neck (24), as seen in the direction of the pump head (10),and wherein the radial extents of the guide collar (15), guide sleeve (25) and pump neck (24), which are arranged coaxially, are matched to one another in such a way that, in axial projection, an annular space is formed between the pump neck (24) and the guide sleeve (25), in which annular space the guide collar (15) can move when the pump device is actuated. 8. The pump device as claimed in either of claims 6 and 7,wherein the transition from the screw-on sleeve (19) into the pump neck (24) is formed by a shoulder (30). 9. The pump device as claimed in claim 8,wherein the shoulder (30) fixes the pump body (1) in the bottle neck by means of an inner surface oriented toward the bottle neck when the screw-on sleeve (19) is screwed onto the latter. 10. The pump device as claimed in either of claims 8 and 9,wherein the channels (28) extend from the shoulder (30), which forms the transition from the screw-on sleeve (19) into the pump neck (24), as far as a lower end of the screw-on sleeve (19). 11. The pump device as claimed in at least one of claims 1 to 10,wherein the pump device, including the spring element (17), is manufactured from plastic. 12. A metering dispenser for providing and discharging a liquid, in particular a detergent substance or a care product for body care, having a bottle for storing and providing the liquid and having a pump device as claimed in at least one of claims 1 to 11, which is used for the metered discharge of the liquid and is inserted firmly or interchangeably into a bottle neck of the bottle. 13. A wall-mounted metering dispenser having a metering dispenser as claimed in claim 12 and having a wall holder for replaceable attachment of the wall-mounted metering dispenser to a structural device, in particular a wall.