Air sealable container with automatically actuable pressure equalizing valve

Abstract

An air sealable and preferably air and water sealable container having an automatically actuable pressure equalizing valve primarily adapted for operation upon opening and closing of the container. The pressure equalizing valve, which is in the nature of a pressure relief valve, is automatically actuable to allow air pressure in the container to equalize with an ambient pressure to enable easy opening of a lid of the container.

Description

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention[0002] This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in hand engageable carrying containers which are provided with an automatically actuable valve capable of equalizing pressure on the inside of the container with respect to an exterior ambient pressure upon opening a member forming part of the container.[0003] 2. Brief Description of Related Art[0004] Conventional carrying cases such as briefcases, satchels, purses and the like which are not fluid sealed have no need for any type of pressure relief valve or pressure equalizing valve. Generally, the interior of these types of containers will assume the same pressure which exists as the ambient exterior pressure.[0005] In many carrying cases, and particularly those which are fluid sealed, such as air sealed, or even more so, air sealed and water sealed, a pressure differential can exist between the interior and the exterior of the container. As a simple example, if a contain...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] It is another object of the present invention to provide a carrying case of the type stated in which the automatically actuable valve can be constructed into or form a part of a movable lid or lock mechanism on the carrying case, and which does not require the need of manual actuation by a user.

[0013] It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a carrying case of the type stated which can be constructed with an automatically actuable valve at a relatively low cost, and which is simple in operation but highly effective in use.

[0014] It is another salient object of the present invention to provide a method of allowing for pressure equalization between an interior of a carrying case and an exterior ambient atmosphere with respect to that carrying case, and which automatically allows for such pressure equalization upon moving a portion of the carrying case.

[0015] It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method of the type stated which automatically allows for venting of the interior of the carrying case to allow easy opening thereof, regardless of the pressure differential which may exist across that carrying case.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, one who attempts to open the container may not be able to do so because of the force on the lid of the container created by the vacuum in that container.

While these conventional manually actuable valves may constitute an effective means to vent the interior of a carrying case to the external ambient atmosphere, they nevertheless require the manual intervention of the user.

One of the main problems which exists is that the user will frequently open the valve and forget to close the valve thereafter.

This introduction of water could seriously damage the contents carried on the interior of the container.

Another one of the drawbacks of these manually actuable valves is the fact that they are usually of a relatively simple and concomitantly low cost construction.

This is due to the fact that any expensive valve mechanism would materially add to the overall cost of the container and would not be commercially feasible.

Frequently, after a period of use, these valves will break or wear out with no convenient means of repairing same.

Thus, the entire carrying case, which can be a moderately expensive item, must then be discarded.

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