FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an adaptor for a dispenser assembly and in particular refers to an adaptor having a pair of screw threads which enables the adaptor to

interconnect a container to the dispenser assembly.

In particular, the adaptor of the invention enables connection of a container such as a bottle of any conventional screw thread to a dispenser assembly which previously could only be used with containers of a specific screw thread design or form.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is known to provide adaptors for containers and reference can be made to for example JP 2000238807 which describes a moisture retention bottle cap which has an external screw thread and internal screw thread. This enables an auxiliary cap to be fitted to the external screw thread and the bottle cap connected to a container by the internal screw thread. This arrangement improves sealing capacity of the container by providing an airtight assembly to prevent contents of the container from hardening due to air penetrating the container.

JP 2008007200 also provides an adaptor for a container which enables a funnel to be used for filling the container. The adaptor or joint cap has an internal thread for connection to the container and an external thread for attachment of the funnel.

US Patent Publication 2012/0024903 describes a multiple beverage dispenser with a spigot wherein standard containers having different screw threads can be fitted to a plurality of mating internal threads wherein each different thread of the container can engage an associated internal thread of the dispenser. The dispenser aiso includes an internal fluid channel with the spigot having an internal thread for connection to a manually operated flow control valve.

US Patent Publication 2008/0120894 refers to a multifunctional bottle cap or adaptor having a plurality of differently sized bottle neck thread diameters located in the adaptor for attachment of differently sized containers as well as another internal thread for attachment of an attachment ring collar for attachment of a drinking mechanism selected from a flexible nipple, a spout and a straw.

US Patent 2814418 refers to an adaptor for connection of a dispenser arrangement such as a faucet or pump to a container wherein the adaptor has an interna! thread for attachment of the dispenser arrangement and an external flange for attachment to the container.

Dispenser assemblies capable of connection to a container of a specific screw thread are exemplified by dispenser assemblies illustrated by US Patents 3953550 and 5209378. Such dispenser assemblies include a main body or frame providing a carbon dioxide bottle or cylinder and a hinged!y mounted aerating head carrying a tube connected with the cylinder through a manually operated valve and a socket for receiving a bottle or container containing the liquid to be carbonated. The aerating head is accessible for insertion or removal of a bottle only when pivoted away from the main body. In the operative position of the aerating head a platform on the main body can be raised by a lever-operated cam to press the neck of the retained bottle against a resilient nozzle on the aerating head. The bottle as described in US Patent 5209378 is engaged with the aerating head wherein an external thread on the bottle engages with an internal thread of the aerating head.

In practice such dispenser assemblies are marketed under the trade mark SODA STREAM described in Wikipedia and at www, j eff s re v i ews . co m and the bottle is provided with a specific thread to be connected to a mating or corresponding thread of the aerating head. This appears to be for restricting use of the SODA STREAM dispensing unit to bottles only provided with the dispensing assembly and to prevent use of the dispensing assembly with a conventional or standard bottle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided an adaptor for a dispenser assembly, the adaptor comprising a body having a first screw thread that is configured so that the adaptor can be threaded into engagement with a socket of a dispenser assembly such as a dispenser assembly as described above having a specific thread and a second screw thread that is configured so that the adaptor can be threaded into engagement with a conventional or standard bottle such as a bottle used for containing soft drink beverages such that the adaptor can provide a passage of gas from the dispenser assembly and into the bottle.

The body may be generally cylindrical and tubular with opposed, open ends.

The first and second screw threads may be one of a pair of external screw threads and a pair of internal screw threads.

The first screw thread may be an external screw thread and the second screw thread may be an internal screw thread. The external screw thread may be threaded or screwed into engagement with the socket of the dispenser assembly and the internal screw thread may engage the screw thread of the conventional bottle.

A radially extending flange may be arranged on the body adjacent the internal thread. The flange may be positioned so that when the adaptor is threaded into engagement with the conventional or standard bottle, the flange can bear against a lip or ridge that extends radially from the conventional bottle.

The body and the flange may be adapted to define an overall shape that

correspondence generally with a neck and lip of a bottle that is adapted specifically for use with the dispensing assembly. The invention also provides a combination of the dispenser assembly as described above to which is attached the adaptor of the invention. However, such combination may relate to any dispenser assembly having a cylinder of carbon dioxide releasably attachable to a dispenser body also having a socket for attachment of a bottle of a specific thread.

The invention also provides a method of use of a dispenser assembly as described above for use with a conventional bottle wherein the dispenser assembly has a socket having a specific thread, the method comprising the steps of

attaching the first thread of the adaptor as described above to the socket; and

attaching the second thread to a corresponding thread of a bottle of conventional design.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG 1 is a perspective view of a conventionai dispenser apparatus used in the SODA STREAM system described above;

FIG 2 is a sectional view through line A-A of FIG 1 ;

FIG 3 is a perspective view of a conventional bottle used in the SODA STREAM system;

FIG 4 is a side view of the adaptor of the invention; FIG 5 is a view along line A-A of FIG 4;

FIG 6 is an exploded view of a conventional soft drink beverage bottle and the adaptor of the invention; and FiG 7 is a detailed view of area "X" shown in FIG 5. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

In FIG 1 reference is made to a conventional dispenser assembly 10 for dispensing carbon dioxide into water for example.

The dispenser assembly 10 includes a support body 1 1 having a base 12, an upright wail 13, and a top part 14 to which is attached an actuator handle 15. A standard carbon dioxide cylinder 16 is fitted into a space 17 between the base 12 and the top part 14 adjacent the upright wall 13.

A bottle 18 is attached to the dispenser assembly 10 as shown in FIG 1. It will be noted that the bottle 18 is of a non-standard or specialised design having a neck 19 which has a thread 20 which is a double start thread which means that upon rotation of 360° the neck 19 advances axially by the width of two ridges 21. This is in contrast to single start threads wherein upon rotation of 360° the neck 19 would have only advanced by the thickness of one ridge 21.

Also as shown in FiG 1 the dispenser assembly 10 may be as described in US Patent 3953550 or US Patent 5209378 or marketed under the SODA STREAM trade mark and thus its detailed structure will not be described because such structure is already described in US Patents 3953550 and 5209378 which are totally incorporated herein by reference.

The thread 20 of the neck 19 of the bottle 18 allows the neck 19 to fit into a socket 22 of the dispenser assembly 10 as shown in FIG 2 which has a corresponding internal thread 23. This means that only the bottle 18 having the specialised thread 20 will be able to be threaded into the socket 22. A lip or ridge 41 extends radially from the neck 19, below the thread 20. Soft drink bottles of a conventional design often have a thread design or thread formed of a single start trapezoidal cross sectional shape as shown in FIG 7 applied to a thread 26 of a soft drink bottle 24. This means that the thread 26 of the bottle 24 cannot be fitted or attached to the socket 22 by being threaded into the socket 22.

The thread design or form of neck 19 of bottle 18 is double start as mentioned above. However, it may also have a cross sectional shape known as a buttress shape which is of triangular shape having a load bearing thread face which is normal to the neck 9 or screw thread 20 axis. The other face may be slanted at about 45° to the axis. However in another variation the load bearing face may be orientated at about 7° to the perpendicular.

This particular type of thread 20 is designed to handle extremely high axial thrust in one direction and has the same low friction properties as a square thread form but has about twice the shear strength due to a long thread base.

In FIGS 4-5 reference is made to an adaptor 30 of the invention. The adaptor 30 has a generally cylindrical, tubular body 32 having a hollow interior 33 and open ends 28 and 29. The body 32 has a first or external thread 34 which has the same thread form as that of the thread 20 utilised on the bottle 18. Thus, the thread 34 may fit into or engage with socket 22 of dispenser assembly 10 by being threaded into the socket 22. Also, a second or internal screw thread 35 of the adaptor 30 can engage the thread 26 of the neck 25 of the bottle 24 of conventional shape. This is clearly shown in FIGS 6-7.

A flange 31 extends radially from one end of the body 32, generally aligned with the internal thread 35.

The above demonstrates that the adaptor 30 of the invention has considerable advantages in that it enables the dispenser assembly 10 to be used with any soft drink bottle 24 of conventional form whereby the internal thread 35 engages with the thread 26 of the conventional bottle 24 and the external thread 34 engages with the socket 22 of the dispenser assembly 10. This means that with the use of the adaptor 30 the dispenser 10 is not restricted to use of the specialised bottle 18 having the specific thread 20 and thus can be used with any soft drink bottle of a conventional design. it will also be appreciated that conventional bottles 24 which can be formed of any suitable plastics material such as PET can have screw threads 26 of any particular form and thus are not restricted to a single start trapezoidal shape. Thus, for example the thread 26 can be single start, double start or other multi start and can have any suitable cross sectional shape such as trapezoidal, buttress, square or triangular.

It will also be appreciated that the thread 20 of the bottle 18 and the corresponding thread 23 of the socket 22 may have any specific thread as long as the thread 20 engages with the mating thread 23. Both threads may have any suitable thread form or design such as being single start or multi start and any suitable cross sectional shape such as trapezoidal, buttress, triangular, square and the like. This means that the thread 20 does not have to be restricted to the exemplified single start buttress form. This also applies to the external thread 34 of the adaptor 30.

It will also be appreciated that the external thread 34 of the adaptor 30 will have the proper array of thread criteria such as cross sectional shape of each ridge or thread form, thread angle, pitch, and number of starts which will correspond to the thread 23 of the socket 22. This also applies to the mating threads 35 and 26.

The adaptor 30 can be of a one-piece construction. For example, the adaptor 30 can be moulded. The adaptor 30 can be of a material that enhances sealing engagement with the dispensing assembly 10. For example, the adaptor 30 can be of an elastomeric material that is sufficiently rigid to allow for threading while maintaining a sealing effect. Any other form of plastics material might also be suitable. The flange 31 and the body 32 can be adapted to define a shape that corresponds generally with the shape of the neck 19 and lip 41 of the bottle 18. This allows the adaptor 30 to simulate the neck 19 and lip 41 .

Many conventional bottles, such as the bottle 24, have a lip or ridge 42 extending radially from the neck 25, below the thread 26. The flange 31 can be adapted to bear against the lip or ridge 42 when screwed onto the neck 25. This can enhance a sealing effect.

The above described prior art shows that adaptors having both an internal screw thread and external screw thread are known for connection of a dispenser to a container, such prior art does not refer to a solution of the problem solved by the present invention which is to interconnect a dispenser assembly for dispensing carbonated fluids to a container wherein the dispenser can only be attached to containers of a specific screw thread and cannot be attached to containers or bottles not having the specific screw thread. In other words, by the provision of the adaptor of the invention the dispenser assembly can be connected to any suitable container.

The invention therefore provides an adaptor which enables a dispenser assembly preferably of the type shown in US Patents 3953550 or 5209378 or marketed under the SODA STREAM trade mark to enable a conventional or standard bottle to be fitted to such dispenser assembly and thus substantially overcome the problem of restriction of such dispensing assembly to the use of a bottle having the specific thread as described above.

Throughout the specification, including the claims, where the context permits, the term "comprising" and variants thereof such as "comprise" or "comprises" are to be interpreted as including the stated integer or integers without necessarily excluding any other integers. it is to be understood that the terminology employed above is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The described embodiments are intended to be illustrative of the invention, without limiting the scope thereof. The invention is capable of being practised with various modifications and additions as will readily occur to those skilled in the art.

Various substantially and specifically practical and useful exemplary embodiments of the claimed subject matter, are described herein, textually and/or graphically, including the best mode, if any, known to the inventor(s) for carrying out the claimed subject matter. Variations (e.g., modifications and/or enhancements) of one or more embodiments described herein might become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this application. The inventor(s) expects skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventor(s) intends for the claimed subject matter to be practiced other than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, as permitted by law, the claimed subject matter includes and covers all equivalents of the claimed subject matter and all improvements to the claimed subject matter.

Moreover, every combination of the above described elements, activities, and all possible variations thereof are encompassed by the claimed subject matter unless otherwise clearly indicated herein, clearly and specifically disclaimed, or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate one or more embodiments and does not pose a limitation on the scope of any claimed subject matter unless otherwise stated. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed subject matter as essential to the practice of the claimed subject matter.

The use of words that indicate orientation or direction of travel is not to be considered limiting. Thus, words such as "front", "back", "rear", "side", "up", down", "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", "forwards", "backwards", "towards", "distal", "proximal", "in", "out" and synonyms, antonyms and derivatives thereof have been selected for convenience only, unless the context indicates otherwise. The inventor(s) envisages that various exemplary embodiments of the claimed subject matter can be supplied in to any particuJar orientation and the claimed subject matter is intended to include such orientations.

Thus, regardless of the content of any portion (e.g., title, field, background, summary, description, abstract, drawing figure, etc.) of this application, unless clearly specified to the contrary, such as via explicit definition, assertion, or argument, or clearly contradicted by context, with respect to any claim, whether of this application and/or any claim of any application claiming priority hereto, and whether originally presented or otherwise:

1. there is no requirement for the inclusion of any particular described or illustrated characteristic, function, activity, or element, any particular sequence of activities, or any particular interrelationship of elements;

2. no characteristic, function, activity, or element is "essential";

3. any elements can be integrated, segregated, and/or duplicated;

4. any activity can be repeated, any activity can be performed by multiple entities, and/or any activity can be performed in multiple jurisdictions; and

5. any activity or element can be specifically excluded, the sequence of activities can vary, and/or the interrelationship of elements can vary.

The use of the terms "a", "an", "said", "the", and/or similar referents in the context of describing various embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "comprising," "having,"

"including," and "containing" are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including, but not limited to,") unless otherwise noted.

Moreover, when any number or range is described herein, unless clearly stated otherwise, that number or range is approximate.

Accordingly, every portion (e.g., title, field, background, summary, description, abstract, drawing figure, etc.) of this application, other than the ciaims themselves, is to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive, and the scope of subject matter protected by any patent that issues based on this application is defined only by the claims of that patent.