Dual pump hand cleaner foam dispenser

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11305306-B2
Application number	US-202017115946-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2020
Priority date	Apr 21, 2017
Publication date	Apr 19, 2022
Grant date	Apr 19, 2022

Abstract

A hand cleaner foam dispenser with a first pump arrangement that discharges a first liquid and first air from the atmosphere through a first foam inducing member into a mixing chamber and a second pump arrangement that discharges a second liquid into the mixing chamber, and in which there is a simultaneous discharge of the first liquid, first air and the second liquid from the mixing chamber through an outlet foam inducing member to produce a foamed product delivered onto a person's hand. Preferably, the second pump arrangement may discharge not only the second liquid, but also second air drawn from the atmosphere and discharge the second liquid and the second air through a second foam inducing member into the mixing chamber.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of operation of a hand cleaner foam dispenser to dispense a foamed mixture,
the method comprising providing the dispenser comprising:
a first reservoir containing a first fluid;
a first pump arrangement operative to draw the first fluid from the first reservoir and to draw first air from the atmosphere and to simultaneously discharge the first fluid and the first air through a first foam inducing member into a final mixing chamber;
a second reservoir containing a second fluid;
a second pump arrangement operative to draw the second fluid from the second reservoir and to discharge the second fluid into the final mixing chamber;
the final mixing chamber open to a discharge outlet via an outlet passageway; and
an outlet foam inducing member across the outlet passageway,
the method further comprising:
operating the first pump arrangement to draw the first fluid from the first reservoir and to draw the first air from the atmosphere and to simultaneously discharge the first fluid and the first air through the first foam inducing member into the final mixing chamber,
operating the second pump arrangement to draw the second fluid from the second reservoir and to discharge the second fluid into the final mixing chamber,
operating the first pump arrangement and the second pump arrangement to simultaneously discharge the first fluid and the first air through the first foam inducing member into the final mixing chamber and the second fluid into the final mixing chamber, forcing the flow of the first fluid, the first air and the second fluid simultaneously from the final mixing chamber through the outlet foam inducing member and out the discharge outlet as a final product onto a person's hand,
providing as the first fluid a first alcohol and water solution with not greater than 40% v/v alcohol and providing as the second fluid a second alcohol and water solution with greater than 40% v/v alcohol, and
selecting (a) a relative volume of the first alcohol to water in the first fluid, (b) a relative volume of the second alcohol to water in the second fluid, (c) a volume of the first fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber, and (d) a volume of the second fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber compared to the volume of the first fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber such that in the final product discharged from the final mixing chamber through the outlet foam inducing member and out the discharge outlet has a volume ratio of alcohol to water greater than 40:60;
including providing the first fluid to include a first foaming agent, the first foaming agent provided in the first fluid comprises a base amount plus an additional excess amount, the base amount being an amount of the first foaming agent required to foam the first fluid as it passes through the first foam inducing member,
wherein the excess amount of the first foaming agent is sufficient to foam the second fluid if the second fluid including the excess amount of the first foaming agent were to be passed with air through a foam inducing member.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first fluid is selected to be a liquid which when discharged with the first air through the first foam inducing member produces a first foam.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the second fluid is a liquid which, if discharged with air through a foam inducing member, would produce a foam.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first pump arrangement and the second pump arrangement are configured and operated such that at atmospheric pressure a volume of the first air is in the range of 5 to 20 times the volume of the first fluid, and a volume of the first fluid is in the range of ¼ to 4 times the volume of the second fluid.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein selecting (a) the relative volume of the first alcohol to water in the first fluid, (b) the relative volume of the second alcohol to water in the second fluid, (c) the volume of the first fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber, and (d) the volume of the second fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber compared to the volume of the first fluid discharged into the final mixing chamber such that in the final product discharged from the outlet the volume ratio of alcohol to water is greater than 60:40.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 including providing the first fluid to include a first foam stabilizing agent provided in the first fluid to comprise a base amount plus an additional excess amount, the base amount being an amount of the first foam stabilizing agent required to stabilize the first foam produced by the first fluid as it passes through the first foam inducing member.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second fluid contains no foaming agents.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the excess amount of the first foaming agent is 1 to 3 times the base amount.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 30% to 40% by volume alcohol.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the second fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 70% to 90% by volume alcohol.

11. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the second fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 70% to 90% by volume alcohol.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein the excess amount of the first foaming agent is 1 to 3 times the base amount.

13. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the second fluid contains no foaming agents.

14. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the excess amount of the first foaming agent is 1 to 3 times the base amount.

15. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the first fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 30% to 40% by volume alcohol.

16. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the second fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 70% to 90% by volume alcohol.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the second fluid comprises an alcohol and water solution with 70% to 90% by volume alcohol.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the excess amount of the first foaming agent is 1 to 3 times the base amount.

19. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the second fluid is a liquid which, if discharged through a foam inducing member simultaneously with air and the excess amount of the first foaming agent, would produce a foam.

20. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the second fluid is a liquid which, if discharged through a foam inducing member simultaneously with air and the excess amount of the first foaming agent, would produce a foam.

Assignees

• Op Hygiene Ip Gmbh

Inventors

• Ophardt Heiner
• Jones Andrew
• Shi Zhenchun

Classifications

• A61L2103/05

  Living organisms or biological materials · CPC title

• A61L2/18

  Liquid substances · CPC title

• B05B11/1092

  automatically released from a loaded state at the end of the loading stroke · CPC title

• B05B11/1087

  Combination of liquid and air pumps · CPC title

• B05B11/1084

  each liquid or other fluent material being pumped by a separate pump · CPC title