CA1302950C

CA1302950C - Tamper indicator lid

Info

Publication number: CA1302950C
Application number: CA000577557A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Anthony Paul Piano
Original assignee: Warner Lambert Co LLC
Current assignee: Warner Lambert Co LLC
Priority date: 1987-12-30
Filing date: 1988-09-16
Publication date: 1992-06-09
Anticipated expiration: 2009-06-09
Also published as: US4838448A

Abstract

ABSTRACT
A container for holding articles includes a tamper detectable lid which is integrally attached to the container to overlay a capped opening to the container. Removal of the lid from the container provides evidence of tampering and must, in any event, be accomplished to operably expose the capped opening to the container.
PAT:10732-05

Description

1~

l BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIO~

2 This invention relates generally to tamper resistant 3 product containers. More specifically, the present invention 4 pectains to tamper indicator closures for covering the openings of product containers. This invention is particularly, but not 6 exclusively, useful in cooperation with a container or package 7 designed to hold edible or ingestible products.

Various packaging techniques have been disclosed in recent 11 years which are intended to provide evidence of tampering.
12 Unfortunately, these techniques and disclosures have been 13 necessary because of several incidents involving the 14 adulteration or substitution of a package's contents. As should be expected, the particular device and materials used to 16 indicate whether tampering has occurred will depend to a great 17 extent on the nature of the packaging. For example, packaging 18 which is made of a frangible wrapping material, such as the 19 popular "blister" package currently used for pharmaceutical tablets, will necessarily employ means which are quite 21 different from those used with other kinds of containers.
22 Regardless of the type of container, however, the specific 23 intent is to provide some means whereby it can be determined 24 whether tampering has occurred. Typically, indications of tampering are detected by the destruction or partial 26 destruction of the device.

~L3~

l The present invention is primarily concerned with bottle 2 and can type containers which are made of rigid or semi-rigid ~ materials such as a hard plastic or a metal. With such 4 containers, tamper indicators are typically associated with the s opening to the container and the cover for the openin~. An 6 example of such an indicator is the plastic band which is heat-7 shrunk onto the area where the cap connects with the bottle 8 neck. Such an indicator, however, can be broken, removed and 9 then relatively easily replaced with another look-alike band after the contents of the container have been disturbed.
Il Another example of a tamper-indicator for a bottle type 12 container is the bottle-in-a-can combination device. With such 13 a device, a normal bottle is completely sealed within a can 14 which is itself a tamper proof container. Thus, any tampering with the outer container provides evidence to warn the consumer 16 of the possibility that the inside bottle may have also 17 suffered tampering. The main difficulty with such a 18 combination stems from the necessity to effectively package the 19 product twice. rhis double packaging increases costs and causes additional manufacturing steps which are avoidable.
21 The present invention recognizes that a normal easily 22 accessible bottle or can type container can be provided with 23 means which provide evidence of tampering. More specifically, 24 the present invention recognizes that many problems associated with the manufacture of such containers can be obviated by 13~?~9~1~

1 providing a tamper indicating lid which overlays an underlying 2 capped entrance to the inside of the container.
3 In light of the above, it is an object of the present 4 invention to provide a container which will give easily identifiable tamper evidence. Another object of the present 6 invention is to provide a container with tamper indicating 7 means that overlays the operable opening to the container.
8 Still another object of the present invention is to provide a g container which is relatively easily manufactured. Other objects include providing a tamper indicator article container 11 which is cost effective to manufacture and which is easily 12 used.

A preferred embodiment of the novel tamper-proof product 16 container includes a receptacle for holding products or 17 articles. An opening or orifice to the receptacle is encircled 18 by a raised rim, and a removable standard or child-resistant 19 cap is provided to cover the orifice for holding products in the receptacle. A lid i5 integrally joined to the rim to 21 overlay the capped orifice so that the separation or removal of 22 the lid which is necessary to attain access to the capped 23 orifice will also provide evidence of tampering.
24 The novel features of this invention, as well as the invention itself, both as to its structure and its operation 26 will be best understood from the accompanying drawings, taken ~7~

~3~29~
l in conjunction with the accompanying description, in which 2 similar reference characters refer to similar parts, and in 3 which:

... . ~
6Figure l is a perspective view of the container of the 7 present invention;
8Figures 2A and 2B are exploded perspective views which 9 successively show removal of the lid and the cap from the container of the present invention;
11Figure 3 is a side cross sectional view of the container 12 as seen along the line 3-3 in Figure l; and 13Figures 4A a~d 4B are exploded perspective views which 14 show the cooperative rela~ionships between the major components of the container according to the present invention.

. .. ~
18Referring initially to Figure l, an article container in 19 accordance with the present invention is shown and generally designated l0. As shown, container l0 includes a lid 12 which 21 is attached to a receptacle 14 in which articles can be held.
22 A ring 16 is attached to lid 12 by an attachment 18 well known 23 in the pertinent art, such as a clamp or a keeper pin. It will 24 also be seen that a depresser 20 is formed on ring 16 on one side of attachment 18 for a purpose to be subsequently 26 disclosed. Lid 12 is provided with a score line 22, or _5_ 1 3~ C~) l weakened area, neac its periphery 24. The structure and 2 associated structure thus disclosed for lid 12 is such that a ;~ manipulative lifting of ring 16 will cause attachment 18 to act as a fulcrum and move depresser 20 in a manner which will make an initial break in lid 12 at score line 22 and allow 6 separation of lid 12 from receptacle 14 as shown in Figure 2A.
7 The opening of container 10 will be best seen by reference 8 to Figures 2A and 2B. As will be appreciated with reference to 9 Figure 2A, the separation or removal of lid 12 reveals a still lo unitary receptacle 14 in which articles can be held.
l Specifically, this is so in order to require a separate initial 12 operation, i.e. removal of lid 12, before articles can be 13 removed ~rom receptacle 14. This will provide dramatic 14 evidence of any tampering that may have occurred prior to operational use of the article container 10. As will be 16 appreciated from the subsequent disclosure, lid 12 is joined to 17 receptacle 14 in a manner which easily indicates tampering even 18 though lid 12 may not be completely removed. This is so 19 because any breaking of score line 22 will also provide easily identifiable evidence of tampering 21 Still referring to Figure 2A, it will be seen that a layer 22 26 forms part of receptacle 14. More specifically, layer 26 23 establishes a recess 28 which rises to present a rim 30. In 24 Figure 2B, it w~ll be seen that layer 26 includes a threaded neck 32 which surrounds an orifice 34. A cap 36 is provided 26 which is threadably engageable with neck 32 to cover orifice ~L3V~9~

l 34. It will be understood by the skilled artisan that a 2 standard cap, as well as any child-resistant or tamper 3 indicating cap, may be used for the purposes of the present 4 invention. Indeed, several examples of each type cap can be easily found in the market place.
6 The actual construction of container 10 will perhaps be 7 best understood with reference to Figure 3. There it can be 8 seen that receptacle 14 is essentially cylindrically shaped 9 with a closed bottom 38 and an open top which defines a lip 40. The edge 42 of layer 26 is crimped or joined to lip 40 of l receptacle 14, in any manner well known in the pertinent art, 12 to establish rim 30. Periphery 24 of lid 12 is joined to rim 13 30 in a like manner. It is to be understood, however, that the 14 joining of periphery 24 to rim 30 and the joining of edge 42 to lip 40 can be accomplished by different methods and need not be 16 done in a set order.
17 The packaging of articles 44 in container 10 is best 18 appreciated by reEerence to Figures 4A and 4B wherein it is 19 seen that lid 12, with ring 16 attached, is positioned to overlay layer 26 with cap 36 engaged. Specifically, periphery 21 24 of lid 12 is joined to edge 42 of layer 26 to establish a 22 cover which is generally designated 46, as shown in Figure 23 4B. Cover 46 is then engageable with lip 40 of receptacle 14 24 to hold articles 44 therein. The result is a container 10 as substantially shown in Figure 1.

13~ Sf~

As intended for the present invention, container 10 is presented as an integral unit. Access to articles 44 being 3 held in receptacle 14 requires either ~i) removal of lid 12 for 4 operable access to cap 36, (ii) damage to receptacle 14 or S (iii) the prying of cover 46 off of receptacle 14. In either 6 case, container 10 is inalterably changed to show evidence of 7 tampering. The preferred manner of opening container 10 is, of 8 course, to lift ring 16 and break score line 22. ~urther 9 lifting of ring 16 allows progressive breaking of score line 22 until the line 22 is completely broken and lid 12 can be 1l removed from container 10. This presents cap 36 in a manner l2 which allows its disengagement from layer 26 to permit removal l3 of articles 44 from receptacle 14. A sequential illustration l4 of this cooperation of structure is provided by Figures 1, 2A
and 2B.
16 While the particular tamper proof article container as 17 herein shown and disclosed in detail is fully capable of 18 obtaining the objects and providing the advantages herein 19 before stated, it is to be understood that it is meeely illustrative of the presently preferred embodiments oE the 21 invention and that no limitations are intended to the details 22 of construction or design herein shown other than as defined in 23 the appended claims.

2s

Claims

1. A tamper indicator cover for an article receptacle which comprises:
a layer having an edge attached to said receptacle and said layer formed with an orifice;
means engageable with said layer to cover said orifice;
a lid having a periphery, said periphery being joined to said edge of said layer; and means attached to said lid for separating said lid from said layer.

2. A cover as recited in claim 1 wherein said cover is integrally attached to said receptacle.

3. A cover as recited in claim 2 wherein said separating means is a ring.

4. A cover as recited in claim 3 wherein said lid is formed with a breakable score line which is positioned on said lid near said periphery of said lid.

5. A cover as recited in claim 4 wherein said engageable means is a cap.

6. A tamper-proof article container comprising:
a receptacle having an orifice and formed with an externally raised portion surrounding said orifice to establish a rim;
means for covering said orifice to hold articles in said container; and a lid having a periphery, said periphery being breakably joined to said rim to overlay said covering means.

7. A container as recited in claim 6 wherein said covering means is a cap.

8. A container as recited in claim 7 wherein said lid is formed with a score line at said periphery of said lid to facilitate separation of said lid from said container.

9. A container as recited in claim 8 further comprising a ring attached to said lid, said ring being manipulable to separate said lid from said container.