Stopcock

Claim 1

A stopcock comprising: a hollow plastic body member open at the top thereof and having at least two lateral ports therein open to the exterior of the body; a plastic key member having a sealing portion extending into the interior of the body through the open top thereof and in sealing engagement with the interior walls of the body and a gripping portion extending from the body; the key plastic member being rotatably positioned in the body so as to be shiftable to open and close the ports of the stopcock and regulate flow therethrough; interengaging locking surfaces on the key and on the body to retain the sealing portion of the key in rotatable position within the body while permitting the gripping portion to be gripped and rotated to open and close the ports as desired; the plastic key member being resilient and the sealing portion being hollow and of slightly larger outer diameter than the inner diameter of the body portion so that when the sealing portion is inserted in the body portion it will be partially formed and tending to return to its normal configuration while sealingly engage with the inner walls of the body; the body having an annular flange extending from its outer surface and located adjacent the upper end thereof; the annular flange being formed by two joining tapered surfaces meeting at an apex, one tapered surface being between the upper end of the body and the apex of the flange and the other tapered surface being located with respect to the upper end of the body with the apex and the one tapered surface therebetween; the gripping portion of the key including a lateral base portion extending from the upper extremity of the sealing portion and terminating in an annular skIrt; the inner surface of the skirt having an annular bead including a locking surface tapering outwardly from top to bottom adjacent its lower end so that when the key is inserted into the body the bead will contact the one surface of the flange on the outer surface of the body and the resilient skirt will be deformed so that the key may be inserted until the bead passes over the apex of the flange and the resilient skirt will be permitted to return to its initial configuration and snap into position with the locking surface of the bead in locking engagement with the other surface of the flange on the body; the locking relationship between the key member and the body being assisted by the resilient sealing portion of the key biasing the resilient body portion and flange outwardly while the skirt including the bead tends to return inwardly to its normal configuration thereby increasing the locking forces between the flange and the bead and preventing removal of the key from the body while permitting relative rotation therebetween.