High-oxygen-barrier tap for dispensing liquids from vessels, particularly adapted for aseptic applications

Abstract

 A tap (1) is disclosed for delivering liquids from a vessel comprising: a dispensing mouth (2) to be placed on the external surface of the vessel; an elongated cylindrical support body (3) with fitting means (5) with the mouth (2) closed by a plug (7), and laterally equipped with an opening (8) for making liquid go out; a control member (9) which is able to be actuated with wings (11) for opening and closing the opening (8) of the body (3); and at least one valve member (12) operatively connected to the control member (9) that elastically distorts it when opening and that, when closing, takes back the control member (9) to the closing rest position of the opening (8).

Description

[0001] The present invention refers to a high-oxygen-barrier tap for dispensing liquids from vessels, particularly the so-called vessels of the "bag-in-box" type, especially adapted for aseptic applications.

[0002] Various configurations of taps of this type are known in the art, some of which derive from document EP-A-0432070, which can be called the parent of this product. The prior tap disclosed in this document, as main characteristics, provides for: an opening/closing control plunger equipped with outwards projecting wings; plunger guides on the tap body; a removable warranty seal; a resilient membrane that performs the seal and automatically returns to its initial closing position; a particular geometry in the connection to the vessel.

[0003] Starting from this innovative solution, some variations have been developed, that however have a high number of component parts, and therefore high manufacturing costs, and a seal that is not always satisfactory. For example, taps are known that are equipped with dome-shaped valve members contained inside the tap body; the dome-shaped part of the valve member is squashed against the body itself when opening and bents over itself. This arrangement, however, in order to be realised, needs a high number of parts.

[0004] Object of the present invention is solving the above prior-art problems, by providing an improved dispensing tap that is made of a minimum number of parts, is equipped with an internal sealing membrane, that is the main tap member, that allows realising both closing and opening automatic operations of the tap, and a greater oxygen seal, also due to the high-sealing elastomeric material of which it is composed.

[0005] A further object of the present invention is providing a tap as stated above that realises a double seal of the plunger on the body, thereby obtaining a high increase of oxygen barrier, due to a further seal of the above-mentioned membrane. The oxygen barrier improvement is further obtained due to the fact that the closure is directly performed on the disk through a sealing offset of the body and the control member, between which part of the elastomeric vale is arranged and works as "gasket", removing the leakages due to the various parts exposed to the outside (that allow the passage of oxygen from the plastic material structure and the various parts couplings); moreover, all system members, for such purposes, are housed inside the control member that is placed on the front area of the tap. The valve, given this unusual housing with respect to the prior art, is protected by the cap lip which avoids damages due to following sterilisation steps.

[0006] The inventive tap is equipped with a high oxigen barrier and a protection of members, that are usually made of very fragile plastic material that does not support cycles of aseptic treatments, while here, being inside, they are protected by the driving member structure coupled with the protection wings of the internal member placed on the cap. Moreover, the majority of aseptic taps must necessarily weld onto the liquid outlet month an opening, usually made of aluminium, to guarantee the outlet mouth protection and the protection of internal members from treatments, above all thermal ones, while in this case seal and hygiene are guaranteed also without openings. Therefore, the inventive tap is adapted for aseptic applications, and therefore for aseptic treatments, which, sometimes, can be damaging and therefore cannot be applied to some types of taps, since their dispenser must be subjected to sterilisation cycles with hot steam or gamma rays, or distilled water or other agents (also mutually associated), that in some cases are aggressive, impairing the closure operation.

[0007] For its realisation, the inventive tap has an automatic closure with drop-preventing or drop-cutting system, and is further equipped with a warranty seal that also protects the liquid outlet hole, not shown in the drawings.

[0008] Moreover, the gemoetry with disk with which the body is equipped immediately orients the tap in the right position, highly simplifying the vessel manufacturing companies, above all of the bag type, that manage to assemble the tap on the mouth immediately in the exact position.

[0009] The assembling of the cap body can be provided of the restrained type (through coupled undercut geometries), or due to hot laser or ultrasound welding.

[0010] Moreover, the inventive tap is made with compact sizes with respect to other taps that can be found on the market in a "light" version; moreover, and above all, especially as regards the body back and the mouth, the heights has been taken to a minimum, realising the 10 mm value with respect to the 19 mm value of the majority of commercialised mouths.

[0011] Such known mouths had been realised in this way since it was feared that the coupling formed by the tap back with the mouth, not having much space for creating certain geometries, did not guarantee an optimum seal. Another problem derived from the fact that heights were small and it was feared that the clip-type pre-assembling of the tap cannot be guaranteed. The Applicant has realised a minimum height and has created two sealing rings on the body at a very near distance one from the other, and on the mouth a sealing area with a diameter height that immediately realised a coupling seal, and has had to create a clip-type pre-assembling groove, however guaranteeing the perfect coupling seal. On known taps, on a height of 19 mm, usually the first 13 mm starting from the mouth top make no seal, and instead there is a greater diameter (also for realising a tap mouth and preventing the coupling from being immediately pulled): only the last 6 mm make the body-mouth coupling seal.

[0012] The fact of manufacturing a less high, and therefore less encumbrant, tap is due to the fact that shipment costs has to be optimised at a maximum: namely, realising the tap smaller, there will be more taps in the shipment boxes and the spaces in the boxed themselves will be exploited at a maximum.

[0013] Moreover, the valve member and the control member are equipped with further arrangements to improve their mutual seal.

[0014] Still more, the tap warranty seal is obtained with a simple male mould coupled with a female, without using saddles (even if it is anyway possible to create a tap of this type, with seal, using a mould with saddles), thereby realising a less complex, less costly and quicker mould.

[0015] Finally, the tap body is equipped with a recess that allows discharging the forces operating on the sealing lip of the control member, when this latter one is in its rest position, thereby guaranteeing its longer operating life. Such sealing lip is flexible and therefore is able to perfectly suit to the body cylinder, with a geometry that will allow its flexure, or better the not excessive stiffness, that will perform the seal at any time, through a pointed outline composed of a small triangle on the end part of the control member lip, that can be found at the end of the lip itself and rubs against the body cylinder.

[0016] The spring-type valve is housed inside the control member and operates above all when the tap is in its opening phase and therefore the valve is pulled. The valve operates also when it is in its closing position: in fact, the components are coupled (especially the cap abutment with the valve), so that the membrane, when it is in its closing position, has a pre-load that forces it to push the control member against the valve gasket and in turn against the body, forcing it to remain in its closing position and therefore compelling it to realise the oxygen seal, so that a force is created that from inside the member is discharged outside it, till the body cylinder, guaranteeing a greater pull but also a greater seal: everything is then compensated by the fact that the membrane discharges its distortion force on the internal wall of the control member in its flexible area, and in turn the resulting force will be discharged on the body cylinder. Such force can be easily defined as compensated, since due to the small lip outside the member, it will be always optimally distributed.

[0017] The thereby-devised tap is much simpler, and therefore much cheaper, to be moulded, since the high-flexibility mouth is made with a curved geometry that on one side allows distributing the forces that are generated thereon when the bag is full or other, and that, if concentrated, could even bring about the mouth breakage; on the other hand, such mouth geometry allows associating thereto a position of the moulding point that allows injecting the material against the curved part of the piece, so that the material can be injected immediately on a narrow area of the imprint, in order to increase the pressure and therefore the material injection speed: in this way, the material will be injected in the mould at lower pressures and temperatures with respect to the majority of existing mouths, and therefore less stresses will be created inside the piece, these stresses being one of the causes which concur in creating a stiffer piece, and above all with more brittle areas.

[0018] The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are reached with a dispensing tap as disclosed in claim 1. Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.

[0019] The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the tap according to the present invention;
• Figure 2 is an exploded side view of the tap of Fig. 1;
• Figure 3 is a side sectional view of the tap of Fig. 1 in the liquid delivering position;
• Figure 4 is a sectional view of the tap mouth of Fig. 1;
• Figure 5 is a detailed view of the geometry of the mouth of Fig. 4;
• Figure 6 is a sectional view of the support body of the tap of Fig. 1;
• Figure 7 is a sectional view of the valve member of the tap of Fig. 1;
• Figure 8 is a sectional view of the control member of the tap of Fig. 1;
• Figure 9 is a side sectional view of the tap of Fig. 1 in a closure and rest position;
• Figure 10 is a detailed view of a sealing area of the tap of Fig. 9;
• Figure 11 is a top view of the tap of Fig. 1, that points out the warranty seal; and
• Figure 12 is a sectional view of a variation of the tap mouth of Fig. 1.

[0020] With reference to the Figures, a non-limiting example of an embodiment of the delivering tap 1 of the invention is described. It will be clear for a skilled person in the art that the described tap could be realised with equivalent shapes, sizes and parts, and could be used in various types of vessels, for example the so-called "bag-in-box", but also the stiff ones or others.

[0021] The tap 1 of the invention is used for delivering liquids from a vessel (not shown), and substantially comprises:

• a dispensing mouth 2 adapted to be placed on an external surface of the vessel (in practice it is welded onto the bag);
• an elongated cylindrical support body 3 equipped at one end with fitting means 5 with the mouth 2 and adapted to be closed, at an opposite end, with an abutment plug 7; the support body 3 is laterally equipped with at least one opening 8 for making liquid go out therefrom;
• a control member 9 for opening and closing the tap 1; such control member 9 is slidingly contained inside the support body 3 and is able to be actuated through a thrust on at least one (and preferably and commonly two) projecting wing-shaped member 11 with which it is equipped, in order to respectively open and close the opening 8 of the body 3; and
• at least one valve member 12 contained inside the control member 9; such valve member 12 is operatively connected to the control member 9 and is adapted, when opening the tap 1, to be elastically pulled and distorted by the control member 9. Moreover, the valve member 12 is adapted, when closing the tap 1 when the pulling force on the control member 9 is released, to go back to its initial rest phase and to take back the control member 9 to a closing position of the opening 8.

[0022] In particular, the control member 9 is made with a cylindrical shape adapted to slide inside the support body 3 and is equipped with one outward diverging end 20 with respect to its own axis in its end part with a projecting point: such end 20 is adapted to elastically engage an internal surface of the support body 3 in order to guarantee a liquid seal between the support body 3 and the control member 9.

[0023] Moreover, the support body 3 is equipped with a recess 13 adapted to provide a rest area for the end 20 of the control member 9 when the control member 9 is in its closing position of the opening 8.

[0024] Preferably, the valve member 12 is shaped as a dome, and such dome is equipped on its greater base with an external lip 22 adapted to abut against the support body 3 and the control member 9 in order to guarantee a liquid seal between the support body 3, the control member 9 and the valve member 12.

[0025] The valve member 12 is further equipped, on the greater base of said dome, with a seat 19 for an operating anchorage of a respective projecting tooth 21 with which the control member 9 is equipped. Also such tooth 21 is slightly flexible, to compensate for the dilatation force of the valve when it is pulled (but also when it is at rest), making the resulting force, which is then discharged onto the external flexible lip and which in turn is discharged on the body cylinder, always compensated and optimum, to enable the sliding, but also an optimum seal.

[0026] As regards the mouth 2, it is welded onto the vessel (usually a bag of the "bag-in-box" type) and is used as connecting member between vessel and tap 1. When the vessel is full of liquid, the lower part of the mouth 2 is very stressed, above all when a sterilisation or a bag filling with an hot procedure is performed, since the liquid causes such stress, being at a temperature of about 70 °C (such temperature value is obviously not limiting, but an example), and above all for a long period of time (not estimated), since, in case of a "bag-in-box", the hot-filled bag is placed in a cardboard box and closed. As known, cardboard is a good heat insulator, which makes the heat dispersing time inside the bag increase a lot; therefore, for example, in this specific case of an hot filling, the mouth is subjected, in addition to the bag distortion action, also to the heat action, and it is in this case that the better moulding and internal piece tensions comes into play: the majority of so-far known mouths were structured with a staircase-shaped outline till the desired thickness was reached, and all these thickness variations became, under certain conditions, brittle areas. Instead, the inventive mouth 2 provides for an external curved surface 18 of the "excavated" type, which provides better flexibility to the piece in its most stressed area. Two possible geometries and shapes of the external surfaces 18 can be better seen in Figures 4 and 12.

[0027] Moreover, in order to further improve the piece flexibility, the above curved excavated geometry has been associated also with a moulding point position (point A in Fig. 5) which allows injecting the proper material against the curved wall 18 of the mouth 2, so that the material can be injected immediately on a narrow imprint area, in order to be able to increase the pressure, and therefore the injection speed, of the material itself. In this way, the material will be injected into the mould at lower pressures and temperatures with respect to the majority of known mouths, and therefore less internal stresses will occur in the piece, such stresses being one of the reasons that concur in creating a more brittle piece.

[0028] In particular, the mouth 2 is further equipped with an undercut 40 for the unmovable operating seal of the support body 3.

[0029] Still preferably, the plug 7 is composed of an internal cylindrical member 17 and is further equipped with at least one circumferential wing 14 for protecting the internal member 17. Such internal member 17 allows a perfect centring between plug 7 and valve member 12, and also and above all operates as abutment member, since, with the valve member 12, the abutment member is the most important part of the tap 1, since it determines the pull of the valve member 12 and therefore the pull which the control member 9 will have on the gasket and on the body 3.

[0030] Finally, the inventive tap 1 is further equipped with sealing means 30 adapted to guarantee the tap 1 against possible tampering.

[0031] In particular, the sealing means 30 can be composed of a clamp 30 wound around the plug 7 and ending with a tongue 32 for grasping and tearing the clamp 30, in which such clamp 30 is removably connected to the plug 7 through a plurality of teeth 33 adapted to be broken, when the clamp 30 is removed from the plug 7 through a grasping and tearing action of the tongue 32.

[0032] Moreover, as mentioned above, the vessel can be of the "bag-in-box" type and then the tap 1 is adapted to assume an horizontal operating position with respect to such vessel.

[0033] Alternatively, always with the vessel of the "bag-in-box" type, the tap 1 is adapted to assume a vertical operating position with respect to said vessel.

[0034] As regards the operation of the tap 1 of the invention, with reference in particular to Fig. 3 and 9, the closing and opening positions of the tap 1 are respectively shown, in which the valve member 12 assumes a stretched and a squashed configuration, due to its inherent elasticity, and due to the dome shape with which it has been realised. As can be well seen in Fig. 3, the valve member 12, when it is in its "pull" phase, tends to be dilated outwards, pushing against the control member 9 walls: this phenomenon makes the control member 9 more strongly press against the support body 3 walls. Therefore, the more the control member 9 is pulled, the more the valve member 12 pushes onto the body 3 walls, the more is the seal among the various parts.

[0035] Therefore, there is a guarantee of obtaining a high liquid seal; moreover, due to the presence of a flexible lip member 20, the force that is discharged onto the body 3 is made always constant and this allows always keeping the right interference (and therefore seal) between the support body 3 and the control member 9.

[0036] With a tap 1 as mentioned above, composed of a very small number of parts and therefore with an as well reduced cost, it is possible to realise an efficient oxygen barrier through the three different seals cited above, together with the closure which is directly performed on the mouth 2.

Claims

1. Tap (1) for dispensing liquids from a vessel, characterised in that it comprises:

- a dispensing mouth (2) adapted to be placed on an external surface of said vessel;

- an elongated cylindrical support body (3) equipped at one end with fitting means (5) with said mouth (2) and adapted to be closed, at an opposite end, with a plug (7), said support body (3) being laterally equipped with at least one opening (8) for making liquid go out therefrom;

- a control member (9) for opening and closing said tap (1), said control member (9) being slidingly contained inside said support body (3) and being able to be actuated through a thrust on at least one projecting wing-shaped member (11) with which it is equipped in order to respectively open and close said opening (8) of said body (3); and

- at least one valve member (12) contained inside said control member (9), said valve member (12) being operatively connected to said control member (9), said valve member (12) being adapted, when opening said tap (1), to be elastically pulled and distorted by said control member (9), said valve member (12) being adapted, when closing said tap (1) when the pulling force on said control member (9) is released, to go back to its initial rest phase and to take back said control member (9) to a closing position of said opening (8).

2. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said control member (9) is made with a cylindrical shape adapted to slide inside said support body (3) and is equipped with one outward diverging end (20) with respect to its own axis, said end (20) being adapted to elastically engage an internal surface of said support body (3) in order to guarantee a liquid seal between said support body (3) and said control member (9).

3. Tap (1) according to claim 2, characterised in that said support body (3) is equipped with a recess (13) adapted to provide a rest area for said end (20) of said control member (9) when said control member (9) is in its closing position of the opening (8).

4. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said valve member (12) is shaped as a dome, said dome being equipped on its greater base with an external lip (22) adapted to abut against said support body (3) and said control member (9) in order to guarantee a liquid seal between said support body (3), said control member (9) and said valve member (12).

5. Tap (1) according to claim 4, characterised in that said valve member (12) is further equipped, on the greater base of said dome, with a seat (19) for an operating anchorage of a respective projecting tooth (21) with which said control member (9) is equipped.

6. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said mouth (2) is equipped with an external curved surface (18) adapted to uniformly distribute the stress forces exerted by said vessel onto said tap (1) when said vessel is full of liquid.

7. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said mouth (2) is further equipped with an undercut (40) for the unmovable operating seal of said support body (3).

8. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said projecting wing-shaped members (11) are two.

9. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said plug (7) is composed of an internal cylindrical member (17), said plug (7) being further equipped with at least one circumferential wing (14) for protecting said internal member (17).

10. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is further equipped with sealing means (30) adapted to guarantee said tap (1) against possible tampering.

11. Tap (1) according to claim 10, characterised in that said sealing means (30) are composed of a clamp (30) wound around said plug (7) and ending with a tongue (32) for grasping and tearing said clamp (30), said clamp (30) being removably connected to said plug (7) through a plurality of teeth (33) adapted to be broken.

12. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said vessel is of the "bag-in-box" type and said tap (1) is adapted to assume an horizontal operating position with respect to said vessel.

13. Tap (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said vessel is of the "bag-in-box" type and said tap (1) is adapted to assume a vertical operating position with respect to said vessel.

Drawing