Pump device for a metering dispenser

Abstract

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 personal care. The pump device comprises: a pump body (1) having a cylinder (2); a piston (3); a pump channel (7) extending in a hollow piston rod (6); a pump head (10) having a discharge channel (11) and discharge opening (12); a spring element (17); an intake line (5) having a non-return valve (4); and a screw-on sleeve (19) to be screwed onto the bottle neck, wherein the pump head (10) comprises a guide collar (15) which is guided in the guide sleeve (25) during a pump movement. Channels (28) are provided between the screw-on sleeve (19) and the guide sleeve (25) in order to drain liquids which could penetrate between the guide collar (15) and the guide sleeve (25) into the interior of the guide sleeve (25). A pump neck (24), preferably formed by the screw-on sleeve (19), prevents penetrated liquids from getting to the spring element (17) and the pump body (1), or, very generally, reaching the interior of the screw-on sleeve (19) and, from there, the interior of the bottle. This particularity results in important advantages for the hygiene properties.

Description

[0001] Pump device for a dosing dispenser

[0002] Description

[0003] The invention relates to a pumping device for a dosing dispenser for providing and dispensing a liquid, in particular a detergent or a personal care product, according to the preamble of claim 1. The invention also relates to a dosing dispenser with such a pumping device and a wall-mounted dosing dispenser with such a dosing dispenser. The pumping device enables the metered dispensing of the liquid from the dosing dispenser and is inserted into the neck of a bottle used to store and provide the liquid, so that the liquid can be dispensed in measured amounts directly from the bottle.

[0004] A pumping device of this type comprises at least a pump body with a cylinder, a piston movable within the cylinder, a pump channel extending within a hollow piston rod, and an inlet into the pump channel located in the region of a cylinder-side end of the piston. Furthermore, a pump head attached or molded onto the piston, opposite its cylinder-side end, for actuating the piston. A discharge channel arranged on the pump head and connected to the pump channel, with a discharge opening. A spring element arranged between the pump head and the pump body, which spring element is supported directly or indirectly on the pump body. A suction line for the liquid opens into the cylinder via a check valve. The pumping device also has a screw-on sleeve with an internal thread for screwing onto the bottle neck, which secures 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 has a guide collar oriented downwards towards the pump body, which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve which is coaxially formed on the screw-on sleeve or fastened to it or placed on it.

[0005] Dosing dispensers with pump devices have been widely used in various designs in private households, hotels, restrooms in restaurants and the like for a long time, especially for the provision and measured dispensing of liquid soap.

[0006] In hotel bathrooms and wellness areas, such dispensers are often used not only for soaps and hand sanitizers, but also for shower oil, shampoo, and other care products such as lotions or similar. The liquid products contained therein can be dosed as needed and dispensed hygienically without having to use unsustainable, individually wrapped small containers of the corresponding care products for one- or two-time use. At the same time, a certain volume of liquid products can be stored in reserve to extend the usage period, typically several days, until the dispenser needs to be refilled or the dispenser or its bottle needs to be replaced.

[0007] For use in hotels, dosing dispensers with a pump device are also often used as part of a wall-mounted dosing dispenser, whereby a wall bracket holds the dosing dispenser and is in turn attached to a structural fixture, which is usually a wall, but can also be, for example, a piece of furniture, a special bracket or a frame.

[0008] A pumping device for a dosing dispenser, as it is commercially available as a ready-made component and can be attached to the neck of a dispenser bottle with a screw-on sleeve, is conventionally designed in the style of a squeezing piston pump. A special feature of this type of pumping device is that the pump head has a guide collar. Furthermore, there is a guide sleeve that is coaxially molded onto the screw-on sleeve, coaxially attached to it, or slipped over it, and guides the guide collar of the pump head during a pumping movement.

[0009] This special feature offers important advantages for the hygienic properties of the dosing dispenser, because simple versions of conventional dosing dispensers are designed so that the piston rod, on which the pump head sits, protrudes upwards from the pump body or screw-on sleeve in a freely visible and accessible manner when the pressure is released. However, a dosing dispenser is generally used with wet hands, so that when the pump head is operated, water from the wet hands gets onto the pump head, runs from there along the piston rod or drips directly onto the piston rod, and then, during the pump stroke, dips into the bottle neck with the piston rod and from there into the liquid stored therein or into the liquid to be dispensed. This should be avoided for hygiene reasons.

[0010] The guide collar on the pump head largely prevents potentially contaminated water from a user's hand, which gets onto the pump head when using the dispenser, from running down the piston rod, as it can hardly reach the piston rod from the guide collar.

[0011] Despite the presence of a guide collar, it is still possible for water from the environment, particularly from a user's wet hand, to penetrate into the interior of the dispenser bottle. This occurs when water runs down the outside of the guide collar and, during the pump stroke, enters the interior of the guide sleeve, unless the guide sleeve wipes the water off the guide collar, which, however, never completely succeeds. In this way, potentially contaminated water can, albeit to a much lesser extent than with conventional designs, enter the area of ​​the screw-on sleeve, which naturally poses the risk that it could ultimately penetrate into the interior of the dispenser bottle.

[0012] The invention is therefore based on the object of further improving a pumping device according to the preamble of claim 1 in such a way that the hygiene requirements for a dosing dispenser can be met even better than before by preventing more effectively than before potentially contaminated water from the outer area of ​​the dosing dispenser from entering the liquid to be dispensed or from entering the interior of the bottle of the dosing dispenser via the bottle neck.

[0013] This object is achieved by a pumping device having the features of claim 1.

[0014] Preferred embodiments and further developments of the pumping device according to the invention are set out in claims 2 to 11. A dosing dispenser with a pumping device according to the invention is the subject of claim 12, while claim 13 relates to a wall-mounted dosing dispenser with a pumping device according to the invention.

[0015] A pumping device according to the invention thus contains, as is known per se, a pump body with a cylinder, a piston movable in the cylinder with a pump channel running in a hollow piston rod and with an inlet into the pump channel arranged in the region of a cylinder-side end of the piston, furthermore a pump head fastened or molded onto the piston, opposite its cylinder-side end, for actuating the piston, a discharge channel arranged on the pump head and connected to the pump channel with a discharge opening, a spring element arranged between the pump head and the pump body, which is supported on the one hand on the pump head and on the other hand directly or indirectly on the pump body, as well as a suction line for the liquid opening into the cylinder via a check valve,The pumping device further comprises a screw-on sleeve with an internal thread for screwing onto the bottle neck, which fixes the pump body in the bottle neck, and the pump head is provided with a guide collar oriented downwards towards the pump body, which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve formed coaxially with the screw-on sleeve, or attached to it, or placed onto it. To achieve the aforementioned object, the pumping device according to the invention provides channels between the screw-on sleeve and the guide sleeve for draining away liquids that may have penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve between the guide collar and the guide sleeve. With these channels provided according to the invention, water that has penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve can be drained outwards.so that it does not accumulate in the area of ​​the bottle neck and thus get into the interior of the bottle.

[0016] The channels are expediently arranged so that any water that penetrates is immediately discharged through the channels. This is facilitated if the guide collar of the pump head is positioned relatively far radially from the piston rod. Water that penetrates with the guide collar during a pump stroke then flows downwards along 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.

[0017] The guide sleeve preferably sits coaxially on the screw-on sleeve and is preferably designed as a separate component and slipped onto the screw-on sleeve. It preferably has dimensions that make it suitable not only for guiding the guide collar of the pump head, but also for covering the screw-on sleeve, the spring element, and the piston rod, which would otherwise be accessible from the outside in a space between the guide collar and the screw-on sleeve. Such a design of the guide sleeve also prevents water from the outside from directly reaching the piston rod without first having to run down the pump head.

[0018] The guide sleeve preferably configured in this way is particularly preferably shaped such that it tapers in an end region oriented toward the pump head. This allows the guide collar of the pump head to be designed relatively slim; it therefore does not have to have a radial extension that approximately corresponds to the outer diameter of the screw-on sleeve, but can be constructed more narrowly. This results in, in particular, smaller leverage effects in the event of a jamming of the pump head, so that the pump head can be easily moved into the guide sleeve when the pump device is actuated, even if the pump head is subjected to force not only from above but also from the side and is in danger of jamming in the guide sleeve.

[0019] The channels according to the invention expediently run essentially vertically, so that water from the outside area which has penetrated through the guide collar is discharged as quickly as possible through the channels by gravity.

[0020] The guide sleeve, which sits coaxially on the screw-on sleeve and is preferably designed as a separate component, is particularly preferably provided with vertical ribs in an area of ​​its inner surface where it covers the screw-on sleeve. These ribs engage with a knurling on the screw-on sleeve and, on the one hand, form a positive connection with the knurling of the screw-on sleeve and, on the other hand, form the channels. These ribs thus fulfill a dual function, and the positive connection between the guide sleeve and the screw-on sleeve can advantageously prevent the guide sleeve from rotating.

[0021] Further advantages arise when the screw-on sleeve tapers towards the pump head into a pump neck, which, in particular, guides the spring element but also prevents any water that may have penetrated from reaching the piston rod. The screw-on sleeve can taper into the pump neck as a single piece, but the pump neck can also be attached to the screw-on sleeve as a separate component. It is important, however, that no gap forms between the pump neck and the screw-on sleeve through which any water could penetrate.

[0022] 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, and their radial dimensions are coordinated in such a way that, in the axial projection, an annular space is formed between the pump neck and the guide sleeve, in which 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 at such an axial distance from one another that they complement each other in guiding the guide collar.

[0023] When designing 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 a radially outwardly sloping shoulder, over which any water that has penetrated is drained outward due to gravity. In this case, the channels according to the invention expediently extend from the shoulder, which forms the transition from the screw-on sleeve to the pump neck, to a lower end of the screw-on sleeve in order to reliably drain the water outward.

[0024] 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 slightly smaller radial extension than the pump body, so that the shoulder for the pump body has the property of a projection that prevents the pump body from becoming detached from the bottle neck.

[0025] Finally, it is particularly preferred for the pumping device according to the invention if the entire pumping device, including the spring element, is made of plastic, thus avoiding the use of a conventional steel coil spring. This also contributes to improved hygiene of the pumping device according to the invention and also provides manufacturing advantages and cost savings.

[0026] In the following, an exemplary embodiment of a pumping device designed according to the invention is described and explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description of the figures is merely exemplary and does not limit the scope of the invention, but may nevertheless contain features according to the invention. They show:

[0027] Figure 1: a sectional view of a pumping device designed according to the invention in a side view;

[0028] Figure 2: a plan view from below of the guide sleeve of the pumping device from Figure 1;

[0029] Figure 3: Figure 1 with additions. Figure 1 shows a side sectional view of a pumping device for a dosing dispenser, which is designed according to the present invention and can be inserted into a bottle neck (not shown) of a bottle (not shown) for storing and providing a liquid, in particular a detergent or a personal care product, and serves for the metered dispensing of the liquid, whereby the pumping device together with the bottle then forms the dosing dispenser.

[0030] The pumping device shown 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 check valve 4, which closes or opens a suction line 5 leading into the cylinder 2 during the pump stroke, depending on the movement phase.

[0031] The piston 3 has a hollow piston rod 6, which in this case is composed of two individual parts for production reasons. The hollow piston rod 6 forms a pump channel 7 within its interior, which communicates with the interior of the cylinder 2 via an inlet 8 formed by several openings and, in the situation shown in Figure 1, is closed by a piston ring 9.

[0032] 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 dispensing channel 11 with a dispensing opening 12. The pump head 10 comprises three sections in one piece: an actuating surface 13 for the user, a dispensing spout 14 for dispensing the liquid at the dispensing 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, so that the spring element 17 preloads the pump head 10 and the pump body 1 against each other.

[0033] A screw-on sleeve 19 with an internal thread 20, also attached to the pump body 1, can be screwed onto an external thread of a bottle neck (not shown) to secure the pump device in the bottle of a dosing dispenser. By means of a circumferential projection 21, the screw-on sleeve 19 holds a projecting upper edge 22 of the pump body 1 and presses it against a seal 23, which seals against the bottle neck (not shown).

[0034] 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 towards the pump head 10 is slipped onto the screw-on sleeve 19. The guide sleeve 25 has, in a contact region with the screw-on sleeve 19, vertically oriented ribs 27 which, on the one hand, create a positive connection with a knurling 31 of the screw-on sleeve 19 and, on the other hand, form vertical channels 28 for discharging any water which has penetrated into the space between the guide sleeve 25 and the pump neck 24.

[0035] Figure 2, a view of the guide sleeve 25 from below, illustrates the arrangement of these ribs 27 and channels 28. As Figure 1 further shows, the piston rod 6 also has an actuating ring 29, which drives the piston ring 9 downward during a pumping movement. However, due to a corresponding play when the piston 3 plunges, this occurs with a delay, so that the piston ring 9 is driven with a delay, detaches from the cylinder-side end of the piston 3, and releases the inlet 8.

[0036] When a user presses on the actuating surface 13, the pump body 10 moves downwards towards the pump body 1 against the restoring force of the spring element 17, whereby the piston 3 is moved downwards in the cylinder 2 via the piston rod 6. Due to the delayed movement of the piston ring 9 as just described, the piston ring opens the inlet 8 into the pump channel 7, so that liquid displaced from the cylinder 2 by the plunging piston 3 is pressed via the pump channel 7 into the dispensing channel 11 and dispensed at the dispensing opening 12 of the dispensing spout 14. The dispensed dose is determined by the amount of liquid displaced from the cylinder 2 by the piston stroke. The check valve 4, which in this case consists of a spherical shell-shaped, elastically movable diaphragm, prevents liquid from the cylinder 2 from being forced into the suction line 5.

[0037] When the user releases the pump head 10, it moves upwards due to the restoring force of the spring element 17. The piston ring 9 is then delayed in moving along, closing the inlet 8 and thus preventing any liquid remaining in the pump channel 7 and the discharge channel 11 from flowing back into the cylinder 2. The negative pressure created by the backward movement of the piston 3 opens the check valve 4, allowing liquid to flow from the bottle (not shown) into the cylinder 2 via the suction line 5. During the pump stroke, the pump head 10 and thus also the piston 3 with its piston rod 6 are guided by the guide collar 15 in the tapered end region 26 of the guide sleeve 25.As the pump stroke progresses, the pump neck 24 also assumes part of the guidance, because 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 it radially outward, while the tapered end region 26 of the guide sleeve 25 ensures that potentially contaminated water from the outside, in particular from the wet hand of a user, which runs down the outside of the guide collar 15 of the pump head 10, is wiped off and deflected outward during the pump stroke.

[0038] In order to prevent at all costs that liquids from the vicinity of the dosing dispenser or the pumping device, which might still have penetrated into the interior of the guide sleeve 25, can reach the interior of the screw-on sleeve 19 and from there possibly into the interior of the bottle, the pump neck 24 formed by the screw-on sleeve 19 ensures that, as visualized in Figure 3, the penetrated liquid cannot even penetrate to the spring element 17 and the pump body 1. In order to further rule out the possibility of such liquids that may have penetrated into the guide sleeve 25 accumulating on a shoulder 30 of the screw-on sleeve 19, the channels 28 provided between the guide sleeve 25 and the screw-on sleeve 19 ensure that such liquids are drained outwards due to gravity, as symbolized by arrows 32 in Figure 3.

[0039] The embodiment of an inventive device shown in the figures

[0040] The pumping device thus meets the highest hygiene requirements. By manufacturing the pumping device, including its spring element, from one and the same plastic material, the pumping device according to the present embodiment is advantageously manufactured from a sustainability perspective; corrosion problems, for example, with the spring element, are also a thing of the past.

[0041] Reference symbol:

[0042] 1 pump body 20 internal thread

[0043] 2 cylinders 21 projection

[0044] 3 pistons 22 rim

[0045] 4 Check valve 23 Seal

[0046] 5 Suction line 24 Pump neck

[0047] 6 Piston rod 25 Guide sleeve

[0048] 7 Pump channel 26 End area (of 25)

[0049] 8 inlet 27 ribs

[0050] 9 piston rings 28 channels

[0051] 10 Pump head z Actuating ring

[0052] 11 Output channel Shoulder (of 19)

[0053] 12 Dispensing opening knurling

[0054] 13 Actuating surface Arrows (water flow direction)

[0055] 14 Output spout

[0056] 15 guide collars

[0057] 16 Annular space

[0058] 17 Spring element

[0059] 18 cylinder cover

[0060] 19 Screw-on sleeve

Claims

Claims 1. A pumping device for a dosing dispenser for providing and dispensing a liquid, in particular a detergent or a personal care product, wherein the pumping device can be inserted into a bottle neck of a bottle for storing and providing the liquid and serves for the dosed dispensing of the liquid, wherein the pumping device comprises at least a pump body (1) with a cylinder (2), a piston (3) movable in the cylinder (2) with a pump channel (7) running in a hollow piston rod (6) and with 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) attached or molded onto the piston (3) opposite its cylinder-side end for actuating the piston (3), a dispensing channel (11) arranged on the pump head (10) and connected to the pump channel (7) and having a dispensing opening (12),consisting of a spring element (17) arranged between the pump head (10) and the pump body (1), which is supported directly or indirectly on the pump body (1), and of a suction line (5) for the liquid which opens into the cylinder (2) via a check valve (4), wherein the pump device also 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) oriented downwards towards the pump body (1), which, during a pumping movement, is guided in a guide sleeve (25) which is coaxially formed on the screw-on sleeve (19) or fastened to it or placed thereon, characterized in that that channels (28) are provided between the screw-on sleeve (19) and the guide sleeve (25) for draining 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. Pump device according to claim 1, wherein the guide sleeve (25), preferably as a separate component, sits coaxially on the screw-on sleeve (19) and serves 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), also to cover the spring element (17) and the piston rod (6).

3. Pump device according to claim 2, wherein the guide sleeve (25) tapers in an end region (26) oriented towards the pump head (10).

4. Pumping device according to one of claims 2 or 3, wherein the channels (28) extend substantially vertically.

5. Pump device according to claim 4, wherein the guide sleeve (25) is provided in a region of its inner surface in which it covers the screw-on sleeve (19) with vertical ribs (27) which engage in a knurling (31) of the screw-on sleeve (19) and on the one hand produce a positive connection with the knurling (31) of the screw-on sleeve (19) and on the other hand form the channels (28).

6. Pump device according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the screw-on sleeve (19), which is designed for this purpose in one or more parts, continues tapering towards the pump head (10) into a pump neck (24) for covering and / or guiding the spring element (17).

7. Pump device according to claims 3 and 6, wherein the tapered end region (26) of the guide sleeve (25) is arranged axially, viewed in the direction of the pump head (10), above the pump neck (24), and wherein the radial extensions of the guide collar (15), guide sleeve (25) and pump neck (24), which are arranged coaxially, are coordinated with one another in such a way that an annular space is formed in the axial projection between the pump neck (24) and the guide sleeve (25), in which an annular space the guide collar (15) can move when the pump device is actuated.

8. Pumping device according to one of claims 6 or 7, wherein the transition from the screw-on sleeve (19) into the pump neck (24) is formed by a shoulder (30).

9. Pumping device according to claim 8, wherein the shoulder (30) with an inner surface oriented towards the bottle neck fixes the pump body (1) in the bottle neck when the screw-on sleeve (19) is screwed onto it.

10. Pumping device according to one of claims 8 or 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) to a lower end of the screw-on sleeve (19).

11. Pumping device according to at least one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the pumping device including the spring element (17) is made of plastic.

12. Dosing dispenser for providing and dispensing a liquid, in particular a detergent substance or a personal care product, with a bottle for storing and providing the liquid and with a pumping device according to at least one of claims 1 to 11, which serves for the dosed dispensing of the liquid and is fixedly or replaceably inserted into a neck of the bottle.

13. Wall-mounted dispenser comprising a dispenser according to claim 12 and a wall bracket for interchangeably attaching the wall-mounted dispenser to a structural device, in particular a wall.

Images