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US 4,093,124 AGranted
Atomizer with air inlet valve
AssigneeL'oreal
InventorsBruno Morane, Yves Hardouin, Jean-Louis Gueret
Life of this patent
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AssigneeL'oreal
InventorsBruno Morane, Yves Hardouin, Jean-Louis Gueret
Estimating the term…
Atomizer for liquids is mounted on a compressible container for the liquid so as to define an atomizing chamber in the neck of the container, which has an outlet nozzle and is connected through a depending tube to the lower part of the container and through a short duct to its upper part. The container is also connected to the open air through inlets controlled by non-return valves preventing the escape of fluid therethrough. When the container is compressed liquid flows into the atomization chamber through the tube, and air flows into it through the duct, so that a spray is dispensed through the nozzle. When the container is permitted to expand air is sucked in through the air inlets, which are larger in section than the nozzle. In one embodiment filters are provided to filter air drawn in through the air inlets.
In an atomizer for spraying a liquid product, said atomizer comprising a container having flexible walls and a neck, a spray head mounted on said neck, an atomization chamber inside said spray head, a depending tube inside said container opening into said atomization chamber, at least one valveless ejection orifice leading from said chamber to the exterior of said container, and at least one duct connecting the spray chamber to the interior of the container so that the liquid product can be sprayed in atomized form both in an upright and an inverted position of the container, said spray head comprising an annular bottom the edges of which are connected to a peripheral mounting skirt fitted inside said neck and a hollow central shaft encircled by the mounting skirt, said hollow shaft being closed at its upper end by a wall pierced by said at least one ejection orifice, at least one air intake orifice in the annular bottom of the spray head cooperating with a valve member, the improvement according to which the depending tube terminates in a tip seated inside the hollow central shaft and cooperating with said spray head to define said atomization chamber, and the valve member is a flexible washer which covers said at least one air intake orifice when urged thereagainst by pressure within said container, said washer being centered around said tip and gripped between a collar formed on said tip and the corresponding area on the inner surface of said annular bottom.
In an atomizer for spraying a liquid product, said atomizer comprising a container having flexible walls and a neck, a spray head mounted on said neck, an atomization chamber inside said spray head, a depending tube inside said container opening into said atomization chamber, at least one ejection orifice leading from said chamber to the exterior of said container, at least one duct connecting the spray chamber to the interior of the container, said spray head comprising an annular bottom the edges of which are connected to a peripheral mounting skirt fitted inside said neck and a hollow central shaft encircled by the mounting skirt, said hollow shaft being closed at its upper end by a wall pierced by said at least one ejection orifice, and at least one air intake orifice in the annular bottom of the spray head cooperating with a valve member, the improvement which comprises at least one porous filter positioned between said valve member and the outside of said atomizer in the path of air entering said container through said at least one air inlet orifice, in which the porous filter is made of a material which is not wetted by the product stored in the container and, in which the material of which the filter is made is treated with a bactericidal product which is insoluble in the product to be atomized and does not react therewith.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.