US3458084A - Vent closure assembly - Google Patents

Description

4 I A I W y 1969 J. LAURIZIO 3,458,084

VENT CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Filed May (5, 1968 H 1 I 2 z d I (((i'fi mvsmon JEREM/A H A AU/P/Z/O /3 22 /4 /0 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,458,084 VENT CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Jeremiah Laurizio, New Providence, N.J., assignor to American Flange & Mfg. Co., Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 6, 1968, Ser. No. 726,810 Int. Cl. B65d 25/14, 25/34 US. Cl. 220-63 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to closures for lined containers and is particularly concerned with a two-piece vent closure construction for use on drum heads with plastic liners.

In the industrial container field there is prevalent use of drums made from either metal or fiber with metal ends and provided with an interior liner formed of synthetic plastic to protect against the drum contents coming in direct contact with the interior surfaces of the drum shell. Such liners usually include a separate disc which underlies the interior surface of the drum head. The liner disc is provided with a dispensing opening which mates with a similar opening in the drum head for reception of a dispensing closure member sealing the liner to the drum head about the opening. It has become equally desirable to have the respective container and closure parts cooperate in a similar manner in providing a container vent to aid dispensing. The limitations imposed by working in a much smaller circumference opening as well as the cost factor involved has necessitated the development of the invention construction.

Previous attempts at providing a satisfactory vent closure for lined drums have been largely deficient in one respect or another due to a number of problems which become magnified in a small diameter, low cost closure fitting of this type. Perhaps the most serious of these problems is the fact that there are presently in common use a number of liners conforming to different manufacturing and/or government specifications calling for different wall thicknesses. Moreover there is a wide permissible range of wall thickness variation in liners conforming to a single specification, in fact, the wall thickness in any one liner varies over a considerable range. The problem of providing a leakproof vent closure for all these combinations might be solved by supplying a different size vent fitting for each situation. This would, of course, be quite costly and present a troublesome inventory problem. Another alternative might be to form difierent size openings in the drum heads and head liners for reception of a standard closure fitting. The consequent investment in metal forming die parts and plastic mold parts plus the attendant changeover time involved renders this arrangement even less appealing.

The solution presented by the instant invention contemplates the use of a single standard closure fitting for use with a single size opening and which will perform satisfactorily with liner members of widely varying wall thicknesses. At the same time the closure fitting herein disclosed is inexpensive to manufacture and is easily and quickly applied to drum heads.

It is accordingly a primary object to this invention to provide new and improved closures for lined containers.

Another object is to provide a new two-piece plastic vent closure assembly for drums provided with interior liner members.

A further object is to provide a closure assembly for containers having interior liner members of varying thicknesses.

Other and more detailed objects will in part be obvious and in part pointed out as the description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing proceeds.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is an exploded sectional view of the container closure assembly formed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the closure assembly of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view taken on lines 3-3 of FIG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the closure assembly illustrating the manner in which the parts are assembled;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing the assembled closure with cap removed; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to FIG. 5 but incorporating a thicker liner member.

The various parts making up the container closure assembly of the invention are shown in FIG. 1 wherein the container wall or drum head is indicated by numeral 1 and is provided with an opening surrounded by an upstanding neck 2 terminating in a free edge 3. The head liner 4 is formed of synthetic plastic material and is Similarly provided with an opening surrounded by an upstanding neck 5 terminating in a free edge 6.

The two-piece vent closure assembly includes a grommet generally indicated at 10 and a vent insert 20 both of which are formed of synthetic plastic material. The grommet 10 has a cylindrical body 11 defining an internal bore 12. A circumferential flange 13 surrounds the base of the body 12. An annular undercut section 14 is formed radially inwardly of the flange 13 at the base of the bore 12. The body 11 has an upper end surface 15 within which an axially directed annular groove 16 is formed. The groove 16 extends down within the body 11 to a point in relatively close proximity to the flange 13 so that an outer wall 17 and an inner wall 18 are formed on either side of the groove.

The vent insert 20 has a lower hollow stem portion 21 surrounded by a circumferential locking shoulder 22 adjacent the lower end of the stem portion. A short pilot portion 23 is formed at the lowermost end of the stem portion 21. A radially outwardly extending collar 24 having a flat under surface 25 surrounds the upper end of the stem portion 21. A closure cap receiving lip 26 extends above the collar 24 for reception of an overlying snap cap 27 attached to the collar 24 by means of a flexible connecting strap 28. The upper end portion of the vent insert has a reduced cross section bore sealed off by an integrally formed puncturable sealing diaphragm 29.

Turning to FIG. 4 it can be seen that the assembly operation is performed by first inserting the grommet body portion 11 up through the mated openings in the drum head 1 and liner member 4. The liner neck 5 is thus pushed upwardly and tightly held against the container wall opening neck 2 by the outer wall 17 of the grommet body 11. With grommet body 11. With grommet flange 13 then rigidly supported on its lower surface the vent insert is first guided into the grommet bore 12 by the pilot portion 23 and then pressed into the grommet until the locking shoulder 22 snaps under the undercut section 14. In order to effect a positive locking engagement between the grommet and vent insert, a slight amount of spring back is provided by the narrow space indicated at 30 between the under surface 25 of the collar 24 and the upper end 15 of grommet body 11 as seen in FIG. 5. This assures the shoulder 22 becoming fully seated on the undercut section 14. Also the undercut section allows the vent insert to become fully seated without protruding below the bottom surface of the grommet which can be simply supported by a flat surface during the insertion operation.

A relatively thin liner member 4 is shown in FIG. 5 which causes a slight radial deflection of the grommet Wall 17. This minimum deflection, however, is sufficient to effect a leakproof joint between the adjacent contacting surfaces of the grommet wall 17, liner member neck 5 and container opening neck 2. It can be seen here that the upper end 6 of the liner neck 5 is forced down over the upper end 3 of the container opening neck 2 by the collar under surface 25. Although the sealing action takes place along the above described adjacent neck surfaces, the radial outward extension of the liner neck 5 aids in permanently locking the liner neck within the container wall opening.

FIG. 6 illustrates the relationship of the parts when a relatively thick liner member is used. Here it can be seen that the grommet wall 17 is deflected radially inwardly to a much greater degree causing the groove 16 to close up a corresponding amount as indicated by the relatively narrow gap 16a. Despite this deflection the sealing action between the grommet wall 17 and the liner member and container wall necks, remains effective. The relatively rigid grommet inner wall 18, however, is not appreciably effected by the deflection of outer wall 17 so that the vent insert stem 21 can still be easily pressed intothe grommet bore 12 and locked therewithin. The thicker liner member, of course, now completely occupies the space provided between the flange 13 and the collar under surface 25'.

The above described vent closure assembly is thus capable of automatically compensating for liner thickness variations without adversely effecting the scalability of the closure. Moreover the closure assembly disclosed is inexpensive to manufacture and can be easily and quickly hand assembled within a drum head without the use of complicated tools or dies. The closure construction of the invention also renders tampering readily detectable in that even if the vent insert were pried out of the container it could not be again inserted without pushing the grommet into the container making such tampering quite obvious.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a container closure construction, a metal container wall, a closure receiving opening in said wall, an upstanding neck formed in said wall surrounding said opening, a synthetic plastic liner member disposed against the interior surface of said container wall, said liner member having a closure receiving opening coaxial with .4 said wall opening, an upstanding neck formed in said liner member surrounding said opening and disposed within the wall upstanding neck, a grommet comprising a cylindrical body portion disposed within and coaxial with said wall opening, an axial bore extending through said body portion, a radially outwardly extending flange surrounding the base of said body portion and underlying said liner member, a closure insert having a lower hollow steam portion engaged within said grommet bore, a circumferential locking shoulder formed on said steam portion in engagement with said grommet body portion, a circumferential collar surrounding the upper end of said stem portion and overlying said grommet body portion and a liner member thickness compensating means integral with said grommet for effecting a leakproof joint between said grommet and said container wall opening neck over a range of liner member thicknesses.

2. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein said liner member compensating means is formed peripherally of said grommet body portion.

3. In a container closure construction as in claim 2, wherein said liner member compensating means imparts a flexibility to said grommet body portion dependent upon said liner member thickness.

4. In a container closure construction as in claim 3, wherein said liner member compensating means comprises an annular groove formed in the upper face of said grommet body portion forming an inner relatively stable wall portion for engaging said closure stem portion and a flexible outer wall for sealingly engaging said liner member neck.

5. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein said grommet body portion bore is formed with an annular undercut section for receiving said locking shoulder on said closure insert stem portion.

6. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein said liner member neck extends radially outwardly at its upper end so as to overlie said container wall neck.

7. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, a closure cap receiving means formed on said closure insert.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS- 917,372 4/1909 Stapley 285--203 X 2,690,861 10/1954 Tupper 22035 X 2,771,221 11/1956 Hammond et al. 22063 X 2,952,379 9/1960 Potter 220 63 X JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner J. R. BARRETT, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

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