Safety feature for fire extinguishers

Claim 2

A safety feature for a fire extinguisher having a container to store fire extinguishing materials therein and a head assembly closing the container, in which the head assembly has a discharge valve with means to manually actuate the valve to release the fire extinguishing material, said safety feature comprising: a removable pull pin for extending through the head assembly to prevent the inadvertent actuation of the discharge valve, said pull pin having two ends; a frangible seal means for affixably mounting on one end to prevent the pull pin from being removed from the head assembly without breaking the seal means to visibly display whether or not the pull pin has been previously removed; and gripping means associated with the other end to facilitate the manual removal of the pin and the breaking of the seal means prior to intentional actuation of the discharge valve.

Claim 3

The safety feature as defined in claim 1 wherein the seal means is insertable onto the one end and wherein the one end and the seal means have cooperating interlocking means to prevent the seal means from being removed once the seal means is inserted onto the one end without first breaking the seal means.

Claim 4

The safety feature as defined in claim 2 wherein the interlocking means includes a shoulder formed on the one end and wherein the seal means has means for engaging the shoulder once the seal means is inserted on the one end to Prevent the seal means from being removed without first breaking the seal means.

Claim 5

The safety feature as defined in claim 2 wherein the interlocking means includes a recessed notch formed in the one end to define a shoulder and wherein the seal means has a plurality of frangible radial prongs surrounding an aperture that has a normal diameter less than the diameter of the one end in which the prongs may be deflected slightly by the one end to enlarge the aperture to receive the one end to enable the seal means to be inserted onto the one end with the prongs deflected and engaging the shoulders to prevent the removal of the seal means without first breaking at least one of the prongs.

Claim 6

The safety feature as defined in claim 4 wherein the radial prongs are made of thin plastic material that may be slightly bent in one axial direction to receive the one pin end and which is sufficiently fragile to break when the one pin end is moved in the other axial direction with respect to the seal means.

Claim 7

The safety feature as defined in claim 5 wherein each radial prong has a stress groove formed therein to facilitate breakage of the prong when the one pin end is moved in the other axial direction with respect to the seal means.

Claim 8

A safety feature for a fire extinguisher having a container to store fire extinguishing material therein, a head assembly closing the container, in which the head assembly has a discharge valve and a boss with a lever pivotally mounted thereon for actuating the discharge valve, in which the lever and boss have apertures formed therein that are aligned when the fire extinguisher is not in use, said safety feature comprising: a removable safety pin for extending through the boss and lever apertures to prevent the inadvertent actuation of the valve by the lever during normal handling, in which the safety pin is made of a frangible plastic material having sufficient shear strength characteristics to withstand normal handling yet being capable of shearing between the apertures in response to the intentional manual operation of the lever to enable the discharge valve to be intentionally actuated even though the safety pin is not removed.

Claim 9

A safety feature for a fire extinguisher having a container to store fire extinguishing material therein, a head assembly closing the container, in which the head assembly has a discharge valve and a boss with a lever pivotally mounted thereon for actuating the discharge valve, in which the lever and boss have apertures formed therein that are aligned when the fire extinguisher is not in use, said safety feature comprising: a removable safety pin for extending through the boss and lever apertures to prevent the inadvertent actuation of the valve by the lever during normal handling, in which the safety pin is made of a frangible plastic material having sufficient shear strength characteristics to withstand normal handling yet being capable of shearing between the apertures in response to the intentional manual operation of the lever to enable the discharge valve to be intentionally actuated even though the safety pin is not removed.

Claim 10

The safety feature as defined in claim 7 wherein the removable safety pin has two ends extending from the head assembly in which gripping means is associated with one and to facilitate the manual removal of the safety pin and a frangible seal means mountable on the other end which is broken when the safety pin is removed from the head assembly.

Claim 11

The safety feature as defined in claim 8 wherein the safety pin has a recessed notch formed in the other end to interlock with a frangible prong of the seal means when the seal means is mounted on the other end to prevent the seal means from being removed from the pin without breaking the frangible prong.