U.S. patent application number 10/524940 was filed with the patent office on 2006-01-12 for sealing/pouring combination with security seal.
Invention is credited to Martin Albers, Michael Hase, Markus Kebben, Frank Josef Mertens, Frank Romer.
Application Number | 20060006130 10/524940 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 7974111 |
Filed Date | 2006-01-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060006130 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Romer; Frank ; et
al. |
January 12, 2006 |
Sealing/pouring combination with security seal
Abstract
The invention relates to a sealing/pouring combination with
security seal, comprising a sealing cap piece (1), for mounting on
a pouring piece (2) with a through passage (3) and for sealing the
through passage, whereby the sealing cap piece has a cap
circumferential wall (6) and complementary engaging means provided
on the sealing cap piece and the pouring piece which come into
engagement with each other during the assembly of the sealing cap
piece on the pouring piece. The above prevents a movement of the
sealing cap piece in a direction against that of the assembly
direction. The engaging means on the cap are provided on at least
one circumferential wall region (11), recessed in the
circumferential wall of the sealing cap piece, connected to the cap
circumferential wall with at least a pair of webs (12, 13) in the
region of the circumferential ends thereof, of which at least one
is embodied as a tear-off web (12). The engaging means further
comprise a planar projection (10), provided on the recessed
circumferential wall region (11), which may be brought to engage
under an engaging connection (7) on the pouring piece.
Inventors: |
Romer; Frank; (Finnentrop,
DE) ; Hase; Michael; (Finnentrop, DE) ;
Kebben; Markus; (Kirchhundem, DE) ; Albers;
Martin; (Sundern, DE) ; Mertens; Frank Josef;
(Finnentrop-Heggen, DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
THE FIRM OF KARL F ROSS
5676 RIVERDALE AVENUE
PO BOX 900
RIVERDALE (BRONX)
NY
10471-0900
US
|
Family ID: |
7974111 |
Appl. No.: |
10/524940 |
Filed: |
August 1, 2003 |
PCT Filed: |
August 1, 2003 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP03/08543 |
371 Date: |
February 10, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
215/253 ;
215/344 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D 41/3447
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
215/253 ;
215/344 |
International
Class: |
B65D 53/00 20060101
B65D053/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Aug 14, 2002 |
DE |
202 12 541.6 |
Claims
1-8. (canceled)
9. A tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly comprising: a container
neck centered on an axis and forming an axially upwardly open
passage; a radially outwardly projecting rim formed on the neck and
having an annular lower rim face; a cap having an annular wall
fitted over the neck in an installed position and formed with a
radially through going cutout generally level with the rim in the
installed position; a wall part in the cutout formed with a
projection extending radially inward and bearing upward in the
installed position on the lower rim face; and a leading web and a
trailing web flanking the wall part, extending angularly between
the wall part and the wall, unitary with the wall part and wall,
and supporting the wall part in the cutout, one of the webs being
frangible.
10. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein the projection is of generally the same angular length as
the wall part.
11. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein both webs are frangible.
12. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein the other of the webs is not frangible.
13. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein the cutout is axially downwardly open and the wall and the
wall part have lower edges that are generally level with each
other.
14. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9,
further comprising a flexible web connecting the projection to the
wall part.
15. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein the projection has an upper face generally perpendicular to
the axis and bearing in surface contact with the rim face in the
installed position and a lower face extending inward and upward at
an acute angle to the axis.
16. The tamper-indicating pour-cap assembly defined in claim 9
wherein the wall part is formed with a stabilizing formation
adapted to fit with an installing tool for fitting the cap to the
neck in the installed position.
Description
[0001] The invention relates to a pour cap with a tamper indicator
according to the introductory clause of claim 1.
[0002] A pour cap with a tamper indicator is known. In general the
wall of a closure cap is formed with a tamper-indicating ring to
which it is connected by frangible webs and which is formed with an
undercut that is fitted with the neck region of a container when
the cap is mounted on the neck of the container. The
tamper-indicating ring forms in some known closure caps an axial
extension of the cap wall, as in DE 1,955,047. In other known
arrangements the tamper-indicating ring extends beyond the radial
outer surface of the cap. In both cases there is the danger that
during manufacture, transport, or automated fitting of the
tamper-indicating ring to a container, it is separated from its cap
by the forces acting on it and thus loses its tamper-indicating
function, resulting in a high number of rejects for packaging
reasons. A further disadvantage of the known systems is that the
provision of the tamper-indicating ring uses up quite a bit of
material and that, once it is separated, it leaves a relatively
large piece behind or on the container. Finally, tamper-indicating
rings, especially when they project radially past the cap, are
unattractive. In response to this it has been suggested (German
utility model 20 111 584) to build the tamper-indicating into the
wall of the cap in that a barb engages in the container neck when
the cap is screwed on to latch them together and thus engage with
an abutment connected via frangible webs with the rest of the cap
wall.
[0003] It is an object of the invention, starting from the
tamper-indicating cap of German 20 111 584 to provide a cap that is
easy to install with automatic equipment on a container neck and
that is of simple manufacture.
[0004] This object is attained by the features of claim 1. As in
above-cited DE 20 111 584 the tamper-indicating pour cap according
to the invention does not have a tamper-indicating ring, since the
tamper-indicating function is integrated into the wall of the cap,
that is there is a limited cut-out wall part that can be separated
by a predetermined force from the rest of the cap wall so as to
eliminate a blocked condition between the wall part and the neck
and allow the cap to be taken off the neck like a standard cap. The
cut-out wall part is positioned, for esthetic reasons, in the plane
of the cap wall edge and for this reason is not subjected to any
particular forces during manufacture or transport of the cap that
might separate the wall part from the rest of the cap wall. In
order to improve this basic concept, the invention proposes that
the neck have an annular retaining rim that is engageable with a
flat projection of the cap in the latched position. Thus it is no
longer necessary to orient the two interengaging formations axially
and angularly with one another, since the projection can engage in
any angular position to latch under the rim. This substantially
simplifies mounting of the cap on the neck since there is no need
to align the formations angularly with each other during assembly.
Since the invention only requires that the container neck have a
simple rim, not actual complex retaining formations, the
manufacture of the bottle neck is simple and it can be made out of
any material, for example even glass. In addition the appearance of
the cap is improved in that the projection can be made so flat that
it generally fills the cutout in the cap wall to the point of not
being readily noticed and thus does not form an actual hole in the
cap wall. The invention makes it possible to manufacture the cap
and the container neck efficiently by injection molding with an
appropriate plastic such as polyethylene, polystyrol,
polypropylene, and the like and demolding the cap will not be
complicated by the provision of a tamper-indicating ring. According
to a further embodiment of the invention a two-part stabilizing
system can be used in order to hold the cut-out wall part together
in a predetermined position during assembly and to thus prevent
damage to the webs during initial installation. Further
advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the
claims.
[0005] The invention is more closely described in the following
with reference to an embodiment. Therein:
[0006] FIG. 1 is an overall view of a tamper-indicating cap
according to an embodiment of the invention;
[0007] FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section through the cap of FIG.
1;
[0008] FIG. 3 is a section taken along line III-III of FIG. 2;
[0009] FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section of the entire cap assembly
according to the invention; and
[0010] FIG. 5 is a large-scale sectional view of a detail of the
tamper-indicating cap according to the invention.
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION
[0011] In the following the terms "upper" and "lower" refer to the
orientation of the tamper-indicating cap as shown in the
drawing.
[0012] The tamper-indicating cap shown in the drawing is identified
generally at. 1 and the container neck at 2. The neck 2 can be the
mouth of a container, a separate welded-on part, or a wholly
separate part.
[0013] The neck 2 has a generally tubular shape with a through
going passage 3 that forms an inlet opening allowing access to the
interior of a container. The neck 2 is provided with an external
screwthread 4 that fits with a complementary internal screwthread 5
in a wall 6 of the cap 1 so that the cap 2 can be screwed onto the
neck 2, which action seals the passage 3. The screwthread 5 can be
continuous or have, as shown, discontinuous flights.
[0014] A rim 7 projects outwardly from the neck 2 level with a
cutout 8 in the wall 6 of the cap 1, so that when the cap 1 is
screwed all the way onto the neck 2 a portion of the rim 7 is
exposed at the cutout 8 as shown in FIG. 4. The rim 7 has a
radially or nearly radially extending lower engagement face 9 that
can engage with a projection 10 carried on a part 11 cut out of the
wall 6 of the cap 1 in order to prevent rotation of the cap 1 in
the unscrewing direction.
[0015] The wall part 11 is formed unitarily with, relative to a
screwing-on direction, leading and trailing webs 12 and 13 by means
of which the wall part 11 is connected with adjacent regions of the
cap wall 6. In addition the wall part 11 has a lower edge 14 that
is level with a lower edge 15 of the cap wall 6. Alternatively the
lower edge 14 can be recessed in the wall 6.
[0016] One of the webs 12 or 13, namely the web 12 that leads in
the screwing-on direction, is so constructed that when stressed
beyond a predetermined limit it breaks so that the wall part 11 in
this location loses it connection with the cap wall 6 and no longer
locks the rim 7 on the neck 2 to the projection 10. If desired,
several such webs 12 can be provided.
[0017] The other web 13 that trails the wall part 11 can be
constructed so that the stresses encountered in normal use are not
sufficient to break it and the wall part 11 remains connected at
its trailing end with the cap wall 6. Instead, the wall part 11 can
bend outward about the web 13 in order to completely free the
projection 10 from the rim 7 when the web 12 is broken through. The
wall part 11 partially freed from the cap wall 6 remains on the cap
1 without presenting an environmental problem. It is however also
possible to make the web 13 frangible. In this case the wall part
11 is completely broken off the cap wall 6.
[0018] The wall part 11 has as shown in FIG. 1 preferably a
generally rectangular shape. It is delimited at its lower axial end
by the lower edge 14 and on its upper axial end by an upper edge 16
that, like the lower edge 14, extends angularly. The upper edge 16
is connected with the projection 10 via a reduced-thickness
connecting web 17 that makes it possible for the projection 10 to
be deformed elastically outward when it is upwardly engaged by the
rim 7 so that the projection 10 can pass the rim 7 when the cap 7
is screwed on without tearing the web 12. Nonetheless the
connecting web 17 is sufficiently strong that the projection 10
will push upward against the lower face 9 of the rim 7 without,
folding over when an axially opposite force is exerted on it.
[0019] The projection 10 is elongated somewhat angularly parallel
to the upper edge 16 of the wall part 11 or, if desired, can be
shorter than it. An upper edge of the projection 10 has a face 18
that is flat and that extends parallel to the lower face 9 of the
rim 7 so as to flatly engage same. On the other hand a lower face
19 of the projection 10 forms an angled slide face so that the
projection 10 can slide over the rim 7 when the cap 1 is screwed
onto the neck 1, the lower face 19 extending in the normal rest
position of the projection 10 upwardly and inwardly at an
angle.
[0020] The wall part 11 is formed near its upper edge with an
angularly extending and outwardly projecting reinforcing rib 20
that can fit with a complementary elongated groove or jaw of a
holding tool of an automatic (unillustrated) screwing-on device in
order to support the wall part 11 radially when screwing it on so
that it is not pushed radially outward too much and the web 12 is
not prematurely broken. Other similar stabilizing means can also be
provided.
[0021] Although the invention is described above with respect to
only a single wall part 11 in a cap wall 6 with a projection 10,
two or more such wall parts with projections can be provided,
angularly equispaced. FIG. 3 shows a pair of wall parts 11 with
projections 10 diametrally opposite each other. In addition to the
nonfrangible trailing web, a further web can be provided parallel
to it near the upper edge as shown at 21 in FIG. 1. The web 21 also
serves to stabilize the wall part 11.
[0022] The wall part 11 that is unitary with the wall 6 of the cap
1 forms a tamper indicator that shows the end user clearly that
there has been no manipulation of the cap 1 so long as the
connection between the wall part 11 and the cap wall 6 is
intact.
[0023] Although the screw mount provided in the illustrated
embodiment of the invention is used on a pourer, the invention is
not restricted to such a mount. It can also be used on a push-on or
force fit. The projection and/or the wall part carrying it can be,
if desired, so flat that when seen from the side the recess in the
cap wall is almost filled in order to improve the appearance of the
cap.
* * * * *