VESSEL COMPRISING A HOLED ELASTIC MEMBRANE

The present invention relates to a vessel for table service for dressing foodstuff, or for containing bath salts for personal hygiene, comprising a holed elastic membrane.

The prior art deals with: kitchen vessels; kitchen devices equipped with tools for milling coffee and the like; table services in general; vessels used in cosmetics, perfumes, sopas, and for personal hygiene.

Kitchen or bath salt is often subjected to variations of its own hydro-thermal balance, showing compacting, crystallisation and total or partial solidification effects, creating foulings which cover the vessel walls. In the specific case in which the vessels also distribute the product contained therein, by being shaken and with the help of holes obtained in the cover which protects the contained product, foulings easily clog the holes, making it difficult to dress the foods - in case of a table service - or the delivery of bath salts - in case of personal hygiene.

A vessel for table service, particularly adapted for dressing foodstuff, or for containing bath salts for personal hygiene, comprising a holed elastic membrane, is the subject matter of Claim 1, solving the above described problem of clogging the holes .

The vessel of the present invention, due to the peculiarity of the presence of an elastic membrane and/or elastic or deformable nozzles, falls within the following categories, in addition to those already known and mentioned at the beginning of the present description: covers equipped with elastic parts which allow adapting the cover to the vessel sizes; non-metallic covers, particularly completely made of silicone, having high elasticity and deformability for being adapted to the vessel sizes.

The vessel equipped with a holed elastic membrane is made in particular of silicone, silicone for foodstuff use, thermoplastic, elastomer and, more in general, of elastic material adapted for cooking at 300 ^α C and freezing at -5O ⁰ C.

Deformability in the elastic field, which is proper of a holed membrane and/or of nozzles overlapping the cover of a vessel used in a kitchen or in a bath, allows crushing the foulings which clogs the product passing channel, this latter one being characterised by a granulometry ranging from a few microns, of the dust type, till some millimeters, such as kitchen coarse salt.

In order to crush the foulings which clog the passing holes of the contained product, in fact, one operates by shaking the elastic membrane in which the product passing holes are obtained. If the holes obtained in the membrane are equipped with projecting elastic nozzles, the shape change of the nozzles is acted upon through a manual intervention. In this case, the membrane wall is deformed; or a vibration is induced in the wall itself, making

. wall next to the ^' holes, detach.

The present invention . is described in detail with reference to the enclosed figures:

- figures 1 and Ia: an axonometric view and a sectional view of a vessel made in a single piece, equipped with a holed elastic membrane and a plug at its base;

- figure 2: an axonometric view of a vessel equipped with membrane cover with projecting elastic nozzles and equipped with a cap overlapping the membrane cover;

- figures 3a and 3b: two axonometric views of the exploded parts composing the assembly of figure 2;

- figure 4: cross sectional view of the parts composing the assembly of figure 2;

- figure 5: enlarged part of the cap equipped with internal projections adapted to vibrate the elastic wall of the covering membrane.

A vessel 1, for loose products characterised by a granulometry which can range from a few microns to several millimeters (not shown) , is made of a single piece comprising a container 2 and a membrane cover 3, this latter one having an elastic behaviour and being easily deformable.

The vessel 1, made of a single piece, has a side edge or surface which is thicker than the elastic membrane 3, which has a suitably thinner thickness in order to be free of being deformed by applying a slight pressure on its surface. The surface of the membrane cover 3 is equipped with at least one hole

11 whose side edges are possibly reinforced through ad edge having an increased thickness.

A variation of the above described vessel made of a single piece is an open vessel 2a, made of a rigid or semi-rigid material, dleimited by -a lip- type edge 8, coupled to a membrane cover 3a which covers it, comprising a surface 4, whose perimeter is almost equal to the opening delimited by the lip 8; a side edge or surface 5 equipped with a lip 7, by being elastically deformed, suits itself to the sizes of the lip-type edge 8 of the vessel 2 by occupying the undercut seat 9. The surface 4 of the membrane cover 3a is equipped with at least one hole 11 whose side edges compose a tubular surface 12 having an extension which is approximately equal to three, four times the diameter of the hole itself. The side surface 12 of the hole 11a projects from the surface 4 of the membrane cover 3a by rising outside the cover itself.

The membrane cover 3a protects the food, being made of an elastic deformable material which is adapted to the opening sizes of the open vessel 2a. According to a further variation of the invention, said cover 3a is made of rigid or semi-rigid material, and is equipped with deformable nozzles 12 made of elastic material and permanently applied to the cover, or which can be easily removed from the cover through nozzle insertion techniques: molding in the step following the molding of the cover 3a; by over-molding with respect to the cover 3a; by molding in a monolithic piece.

According to a further variation of the invention, a cap 6 made • of rigid or semi-rigid materiale overlaps the membrane cover 3, 3a, being equipped with one or more holes 21 occupied by each one of the elastic nozzles 12 belonging to the cover 3, 3a.

Such cap 6 in fact reproduces the shape of the membrane cover 3, 3a, creating a sort of coating therefor, making the nozzles 12 project from the holes 21.

A further variation performed on the cap 6 consists in providing the intrados surface with projections 24 whose function is deforming the elastic membrane of the cover 3, 3a.

The side surface 22 of the cap 6 ends with a lip-type edge 23, which is coupled with the undercut 10 adjacent to the undercut 9 of the vessel 2a. The sizes of the coupling with play between lip 23 and undercut 10 are such as to allow the cap 6 to rotate in its own undercut-type seat 10. By performing rotation acts with respect to the seat 10, the cap 6 transmits a shearing action to the elastic nozzle 12, passing by the hole 21; in the variation which provides for the presence of the projections 24 applied in the cap 6 intrados, during such rotation acts, the cap 6, through the projections 24, makes the elastic wall of the cover 3, 3a inwards deformed, creating a sort of vibration of the wall 3, 3a.

The shearing action of the nozzle 12 and possibly the vibration induced on the elastic wall of the membrane 3, 3a by the projections 24, crush possible foulings deposited on the membrane 3, 3a

and on the nozzle 12, removing in particular the compacted or solidified matter which clogs the holes 11, 11a.

The membrane cover 3, 3a, in particular the nozzles 12, are made of thermoplastic material, silicone, platinum silicone, peroxide silicone, or an elastomeric material.

The shape of the elastic nozzles 12 and the projections 24 can change; in addition to rounded shapes and circular sections, polygonal sections having more or less rounded edges can be mentioned.