Unilever Home and Personal Care USA, Division of Conopco, Inc.

Precision Valve Corporation

Nigel Laurence Jackson

Adalberto Geier

Ian Stuart Midgley

Gunter Kolanus

Andrew Claughton

Richard Paul McNabb

Guenter Kolanus

Norman Clark

Karen Michelle Dickinson

A camless aerosol valve actuator with a top portion mounted on and rotatable with respect to a bottom portion from an inoperative to an operative position. A first collar of the top portion has a side opening and a first central opening with a depressible finger pad mounted therein. A second collar of the bottom portion has a depressible product channel member with a nozzle positioned adjacent the second collar. A finger pad first protuberance overlies and aligns with the product channel member only in the operative actuator position. The nozzle aligns with the first collar side opening only in the operative actuator position, and the nozzle is blocked by the first collar in the inoperative position. A finger pad second protuberance braces the product channel member in the operative actuator position. The finger pad can be depressed downwardly in both the operative and inoperative positions, with the first protuberance moving below and bypassing the product channel member in the actuator inoperative rotated position. A support on the second collar connects to the product channel member by a frangible tag, and said support also provides a lower limit stop for the finger pad in both the operative and inoperative actuator positions. The finger pad first protuberance has a knife-edge which cooperates with an off-center groove in the product channel member in the operative position.

Aerosol valve actuator

In the present invention, an actuating mechanism for a hand held canister is provided in which a slider is moveable by finger pressure from a valve-disengaged position into a valve-engagable position and a concealed spring returns the slider to a valve-disengaged position when finger pressure is removed. The spring is preferably molded with the slider, projects through a slit in the over-cap of the canister and acts in a vertical plane against a stop depending from the over-cap. It is energised when the slider is moved into the valve engagable position. The slider is preferably releasably locked in the valve disengaged position.

Actuator mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Peterborough, United Kingdom

Nigel Laurence Jackson