This invention relates to pacifiers and soothers for babies. These essentially consist of a nipple substitute and a mouth shield which has the function of preventing the infant swallowing or choking on the nipple part.

It is known to mould the nipple and shield as a unitary article from a plastics or rubber material, but many cheaper materials are not considered satisfactory because of the high purity required of an article which may be in an infant's mouth for long periods of time. The materials which are more suitable are expensive leading to a high production cost for the material. Cheaper materials do not have the required purity by contemporary standards. Also, the physical requirements in terms of flexibility/stiffness are or may be different for the nipple and for the shield and hence the choice of materials available for the one piece construction has been limited in attempts to find compromises for the incompatible requirements.

For these reasons it has been more usual to mould the nipple from a softer flexible material, perhaps having a higher degree of purity, and mould the mouth shield from a harder material, and then assemble the two together. With such constructions the problem is to ensure that the nipple cannot be pulled out of the shield. It is that problem which is addressed by the present invention.

In accordance with the invention, a baby pacifier or soother comprises a mouth shield

and a nipple made as separate components, the nipple extending through an aperture in the shield and having a radially extending flange located in a recess formed at least in part by said 5 shield, characterised in that said recess is completed by a third component fixed to the shield by high frequency welding of the shield and third component.

According to a feature of the invention, 0 the shield comprises a sealed chamber containing rattle elements, and the sealing of the chamber is effected by the same high frequency welding operation.

High frequency welding of plastics, or so-called 5 "ultrasonic welding" is a well understood process for which apparatus is readily available and the technique of the welding will not be further described in this specification for this reason. The constructional features of the pacifier rendering 0 it suitable for this manufacturing technique will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:-

Fig. 1 is an exploded part-sectional elevation of a first embodiment, in this case of a rattle/pacifier; 5 Fig. 2 shows the components of Fig. 1 assembled together;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the Figs. 1 and 2 embodiments;

Fig. 4 shows a second embodiment of pacifier; U and

Fig. 5 is a plan view thereof.

Referring to the drawings and first to Figure 1, the rattle/pacifier comprises a nipple substitute

10 having a tubular portion 12 and a radially extending flange 14 of generally circular radial cross-section at its rear end which is to be assembled to the mouth shield.

5 The mouth shield comprises two annular dish-like parts 16, 18 to be assembled together mouth to mouth to form a closed and in this case wholly sealed annular chamber 20 (Figure 2) to retain a number of rattle elements 22 with freedom for U them to move. This sealing is a feature of the invention and is achieved by the same ultrasonic welding step.

For this purpose, one of the annulli 16 has a planar face 24 about its periphery and 5 with an upstanding rib or fin 26 with lateral flanks convergent as they extend from said face. The other component 18 has a complementary flat face 28 stepped to provide a radially outermost lip 3U. Considering now these formations at U the outer periphery before going on to describe other interconnections of the parts lό, 18, the dimensions are such that when parts 16, 18 are assembled together at first the edge or line where the convergent faces of the rib 26 meet 5 will contact face 28 and lip 30 will be spaced from face 24. The parts are held thus under pressure, whilst high frequency vibrations are imparted which effectively causes the material of which the parts are made, possibly polycarbonate u to flow and the parts become welded together. This flattens the rib, and brings the lip into contact with the face 24. Two parallel weld lines are thus produced, but the welding may continue until the faces 24 and 28 are effectively 5 fused over a broad band around the complete periphery

4. of the components. Figure 2 shows an intermediate stage in which the faces are in contact and the fusion is not far advanceo.

At the inner periphery of the annulli the components 16, 18 have interfitting telescopically engaged tubular portions 34, 36 of stepped diameters so that upon beginning the weld a first seal is effective in one plane at 42, and if the parts are closed together completely, a second weld is effected in a parallel plane at 44.

The illustrated rattle/pacifier has three equi-spaced holes 40 extending wholly through the assembly. There are similar interfitting stepped tubular portions 46 formed around each of these holes, and the same welding is effected at one and the same time.

The assembly is completed by a finger ring 5U having inter-fitting end portions 52, 54 so that the ring can be expanded, and those portions inserted into the bore 56 in a plug and the ring will then be pivotable about the axis of the plug bore 56. The plug has a stepped diameter head 58 and a projection 60. The largest diameter step 58 is slightly in excess of the internal diameter at 62 of the component 18, so that the assembled ring and plug can be snap-engaged with the component 18.

The assembly steps include first passing the tubular shank 12 of the nipple through the aperture 66 in the component 16 so as to seat flange 14 in the recess portion 68 Figure 1, assembling the ring, plug and component 18 in

the manner described above, and then assembling the two components 16, 18 with their sub-assemblies together, or generally as shown in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, the part 60 enters the open end of the nipple 1U so that the neck of the nipple immediately adjacent the thickened flange is trapped between part 60 and the base of the recess 68.

In the assembled condition, ultrasonic welding 0 is effected as mentioned to cause the fusion or welding of the components 16, 18 with one another and at the same time effect fusion or welding of the plug where it interfits with the component 18 as generally indicated by the reference 5 numeral 70 in Figure 2.

It is preferred to use a liquid silicon rubber material for the nipple substitute, which has a higher melting point than the synthetic resinous material used for all of the other components, D and that liquid silicon rubber may be unaffected by the welding operation.

Figures 4 and 5 show the second embodiment which is a pacifier but not a rattle. There is a mouth shield 90 formed with an internal recess, 5 a nipple substitute 82 having an enlarged thickned flange 84 located in a recess in the mouth shield, a plug 86 having an enlarged head 88 located internally of the nipple substitute, and with a boss 90 to snap-engage into the recess formed 0 with the mouth shield and in this case the ultrasonic welding operation is effective around the interfitting parts of the plug and mouth shield at 92 and again is effective to trap and fix the nipple in place, although the nipple is not itself affected 5 by the ultrasonic welding operation.