Manual container mounted pump

#This invention relates to improvements in a dispensing pump of the class of which the pump cylinder communicates with and delivers liquid under pressure into a pressure accumulation chamber from which the discharge of pressurized product to the atmosphere is under the control of an outlet valve which permits discharge only when a predetermined minimum discharge pressure exists in the accumulation chamber.

#Examples of such type of dispensing pump are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. among others: KONDO -- 3,761,022 and 3,921,861; NOZAWA -- 3,908,870; BORIS -- 3,746,260; STEVENS -- 3,877,616.

#In such prior patents the discharge or outlet passage extends through the reciprocable pump plunger or piston and the pump construction involves an appreciable number of components requiring to be separately fabricated and assembled.

#The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying FIGURE of drawing consisting of a cross sectional view in an axial plane of the cylindrical pump chamber, accumulation chamber and surrounding structure of the pump.

#Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawing, the preferred dispensing pump of the invention includes a hollow housing 10 which is preferably mounted on and constitutes an integral portion of a container cap 12 adapted to support the pump on a container neck or spout in communication with the container interior. The cap, shown for purposes of exemplification has an internally threaded skirt exemplifying merely one of numerous ways of attaching the cap to the container. As will be noted the pump housing 10 defines a cylindrical pressure accumulation chamber 14 having an inlet port 16 at the lower axial end thereof for communication with the interior of the container or other source of flowable product to be dispensed. The outlet port 18 for the pump opens radially outwardly from said chamber through the cylindrical wall thereof and communicates with the atmosphere a discharge passage which in the present instance is defined by a discharge spout 20, although obviously the discharge passage may include a spray nozzle or other suitable form of discharge within the scope of the invention.

#In the preferred form of the invention, the bottom end of the pressure accumulation chamber is formed to define an axially upward presented outlet valve seat 22 which desirably is of downwardly divergent conical configuration encircling the inlet port 16 in an annular zone extending between the inlet port and the outlet port 18. The inlet port 16 communicates with the flowable product in the container through a conventional dip-tube 24 in a manner well known in the art, and is controlled by an inlet check valve 26, which from a broad standpoint may be of conventional configuration, although in accordance with a particular feature of the invention, the inlet check valve illustrated is supported from and constitutes part of a unitary structure which also includes the outlet valve 28 and the pump cylinder 30.

#The outlet valve 28 is of generally inverted cup-like configuration, having a depending cylindrical skirt 29 disposed for snug sliding axial movement in the cylindrical accumulation chamber 14 between a closed position adjacent the bottom or lower axial end of the chamber, in which position it blocks communication between the inlet and outlet ports 16, 18, and an open position remote from said lower end of the chamber in which it establishes communication between the inlet and outlet ports. Resilient means in the form of a return spring 32 normally urges the outlet valve toward its lower or closed position.