US RE49,597 E1
Valvular conduit
Heiner Ophardt, Arisdorf (CH); Andrew Jones, St. Anns (CA); and Zhenchun Shi, Hamilton (CA)
Assigned to OP-Hygiene IP GmbH, Niederbipp (CH)
Filed by OP-Hygiene IP GmbH, Niederbipp (CH)
Filed on May 27, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/331,983.
Application 17/331,983 is a reissue of application No. 15/458,597, filed on Mar. 14, 2017, granted, now 10,299,636, issued on May 28, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. CA 2923831 (CA), filed on Mar. 15, 2016.
Int. Cl. A47K 5/14 (2006.01); B01F 23/235 (2022.01); B01F 25/432 (2022.01); B05B 7/04 (2006.01); B01F 25/434 (2022.01); B01F 101/00 (2022.01)
CPC A47K 5/14 (2013.01) [B01F 23/235 (2022.01); B01F 25/4342 (2022.01); B01F 25/43231 (2022.01); B05B 7/0491 (2013.01); B01F 2101/4505 (2022.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A foaming pump discharging a hand cleaning fluid mixed with air as a foam from a discharge outlet having:
a piston liquid chamber-forming body about a longitudinal axis,
a piston member, a foam generator carried by the piston member having a passageway with an entrance and an outlet [ exit] ,
the piston member coupled to the piston liquid chamber-forming body with the piston member reciprocally coaxially slidable about the axis relative the piston liquid chamber-forming body in a cycle of operation between a retracted position and an extended position to define therebetween both:
(a) an air pump having an air compartment having a variable volume to draw in atmospheric air into the air compartment and discharge the air into the entrance; and
(b) a liquid pump having a liquid compartment having a variable volume to draw a fluid from a fluid reservoir and discharge the fluid to the entrance,
wherein with reciprocal movement of the piston member axially relative the piston chamber-forming body air discharged by the air pump and fluid discharged by the liquid pump are simultaneously forced through the entrance into the passageway, downstream through the passageway, and out the exit to a [ the ] discharge outlet,
characterized by:
the piston member comprising an elongate sleeve member and an elongate center plug member,
the sleeve member extending from a first sleeve end to a second sleeve end about the axis,
the plug member extending from a first plug end to a second plug end about the axis,
the sleeve member having a sleeve side wall with a circumferential radially inwardly directed sleeve inner wall surface about the axis defining a sleeve bore within the sleeve member extending along the axis,
the plug member having a circumferential radially outwardly directed plug outer wall surface about the axis,
at least one plug channelway in the plug outer wall surface of the plug member open radially outwardly relative the axis along its length to the plug outer wall surface of the plug member,
the plug member received coaxially within in the sleeve bore with first plug end proximate the first sleeve end and the plug outer wall surface of the plug member in opposed engagement with the sleeve inner wall surface of the sleeve member defining between each plug channelway and the sleeve inner wall surface of the sleeve member a plug passageway forming a first portion of the passageway,
each plug passageway defined between each plug channelway and the sleeve inner wall surface of the sleeve member to have plug passageway interior walls,
the plug passageway interior walls configured to provide a plurality of mixing portions in series within the plug passageway,
each mixing portion configured to split flow downstream from an upstream main channel into a first channel and a second channel separate from the first channel,
the first channel merging with the second channel into a downstream main channel with the first channel directing flow through the first channel where the first channel merges with the second channel in a first direction and the second channel where the second channel merges with the first channel directing flow through the second channel in a second direction different than the first direction to mix the flow through the first channel and the flow through the second channel on the first channel merging with the second channel,
wherein in passage of the air and the fluid downstream through the plurality of mixing portions, the air and the first fluid are mixed to form a foam of the air and the fluid discharged from the exit and out the discharge outlet downstream from the exit.