DE20117501U1 - Portioned container for product which is turned upside down such as pudding has aeration in bottom of pot and which in transporting state of container is closed off by tear-off sealing label - Google Patents

Abstract

The portioned container for puddings and suchlike is in the form of a pot which has an aeration hole (4) in the bottom. In the transporting state of the container the aeration hole is closed off by a tear-off sealing label (5). A flat recess is provided in the bottom of the pot, and an aeration nipple provided to encompass the aeration passage. The nipple protrudes outwards from the base of the recess up to approximately the height of the edge of the recess, and is transferable from a transporting position, in which the aeration passage is closed, to a delivery state, in which the aeration passage is open, thereby allowing outside air into the inner side of the bottom. Independent claims are included for the manufacture of a portioned container, and for tooling to carry out the said manufacture.

Description

KING ■ PALGEN ■ SCHUMACHER ■ KLUIN

DÜSSELDORF-ESSEN PATENT ATTORNEYS

OUR SIGN: 101 730 PP/ra Düsseldorf, 10 October 2001

File No. 23V

GIZEH Packaging GmbH & Co. KG Breiter Weg 40

D - 51702 Bergneustadt Portion containers for products that can be turned over, such as pudding or the like

The invention relates to a portion container of the type corresponding to the preamble of claim 1.

Such portion containers are well known. They are made of thin-walled plastic, similar to yogurt containers. The circumference of the container can have a decorative design that allows the contents to fall over, and which is retained in the product when it is turned over. The product when turned over should therefore have a certain strength that makes it self-supporting to a certain extent. This is the case with pudding and similar products such as so-called "Jakkelpeter", which are poured into the container from above and fill it completely. After a while, the contents solidify to the well-known pudding consistency. After filling, the portion container is sealed on the open side with a removable sealing lid.

When the product is to be removed, the sealing lid is removed and the portion container is turned upside down. The product, which has been filled in liquid form, adheres to the wall in an airtight manner. Because air cannot get to the bottom, but the surface of the product, which is now facing downwards, is subject to the effect of air pressure, the product remains in the portion container without special measures and can only be removed from the portion container by forceful burping or using a knife, which usually involves a lot of effort.

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at least partial destruction of the decorative external appearance of the product and may lead to injuries.

To remedy this problem, the base of the known portion container has a shallow, concave depression, seen from the outside, roughly in the shape of a spherical section, from the lowest point of which protrudes a ventilation nipple, the upper end of which is located approximately at the level of the edge of the depression. The ventilation nipple is relatively thin-walled and brittle in the part furthest from the interior of the portion container and can be broken off or cut off either by hand or with the aid of a tool, thereby opening a ventilation opening on a ventilation channel formed inside the nipple, which gives the outside air access to the inside of the base and cancels out the pressure difference so that the product can slide out of the portion container.

The recess has a protective function for the ventilation nipple. The portion container can be handled and placed without having to worry about the ventilation nipple because the ventilation nipple is located within the recess and is protected from accidentally breaking off.

However, the ventilation nipple in the recess is not completely protected. An object with a hard edge can always enter the recess on the side of the nipple and break it off prematurely or damage it, causing the contents to come into contact with the outside air. If the ventilation nipple breaks off, small splinters can also form that can get into the product.

Moreover, the normal breaking off of the ventilation nipple is not easy to accomplish, so that in many cases this function is omitted and the product is left in an unsightly state.

The invention is based on the object of improving the function of a generic portion container.

This object is solved by the invention set out in claim 1.

By using the seal label, it is no longer necessary to break off a ventilation nipple. No tools are required. The seal label is simply pulled off the ventilation opening that was already there. The ventilation device itself no longer needs to be breakable and can therefore be made more stable, reducing the risk of it accidentally breaking off or being damaged.

Claim 1 is directed to the principle of the invention, in which only one ventilation opening of some kind must be present.

Claim 2 shows a specific embodiment which has a ventilation nipple as in the prior art, but which functions differently and is not destroyed but merely opened. The ventilation nipple itself no longer needs to be breakable and can therefore be made more stable, so that the risk of it breaking off accidentally is reduced.

According to claim 3, the ventilation nipple can end in a plane running parallel to the ground and be sealed with the sealing label at the front side there.

The ends in one plane can be achieved by means of a corresponding processing process. Preferably, however, the essentially flat boundary surface at the end of the ventilation nipple is produced by melting or removing the dome-shaped end of the ventilation nipple, which is present from the drawing process of the portion container, so that the material in the cross section of the ventilation channel is pushed to the side and this is open under the sealing label, so that the ventilation channel is easily accessible when the sealing label is removed.

In detail, the design can be as claimed in claim 4.
When the seal label sits on the edge of the seal, the material in the area of the ventilation nipple melts away and is pushed aside to the same height. (Claim 5)

In a modified embodiment, according to claim 6, the base in an area immediately surrounding the ventilation opening is designed as a sealing surface on which the sealing label is sealed.

This has the advantage that the seal surrounding the ventilation opening is not limited to the cross-section of a ventilation nipple, but is applied over a larger area, which significantly increases the resistance to penetration.

In this embodiment, too, the sealing surface can be supplemented by a sealing edge surrounding the sealing surface at a radial distance, in which one or more annular additional seals can be made.

According to claim 8, the ventilation opening can be formed on a ventilation nipple protruding from the flat sealing surface, which is pressed down into the plane of the sealing surface during sealing.

To facilitate the removal of the seal label, a known handling device according to claim 9 is recommended.

Claims 10 to 13 set out procedural aspects of the invention.

Claim 14 represents a tool arrangement for producing a portion container with pierceable ventilation nipples.

The drawing shows embodiments of the invention; Fig. 1 shows the principle of the invention in a partial longitudinal section of the base of a portion container in the inverted position;

Fig. 2 and 3 show perspective views of a modified embodiment with the sealing label closed and opened respectively;

Fig. 4 shows a partial longitudinal section according to Fig. 1 through the base of the embodiment according to Figs. 2 and 3;

Fig. 5 shows a section of Fig. 4 in a phase shortly before sealing;

Fig. 6 to 8 show partial longitudinal sections corresponding to Fig. 1 of a further embodiment.

The cup-shaped portion container, designated as a whole with 100 in Fig. 1, is shown upside down, i.e. with the open side facing downwards and the bottom at the top. In the exemplary embodiment, the portion container 100 has an axis A and a base 1 perpendicular to this axis, which has spherical decorative formations 2 around the edge on which the

Portion container 100 rests on a supporting surface in the transport position.

In the middle of the base, it has a small convex, i.e. outwardly rising elevation 3 with a central ventilation opening 4. The ventilation opening 4 is closed by a sealing label 5 sealed onto the outside of the base 1 or the raised part 3, which can be pulled off by means of a handle 6 and then releases the ventilation opening 4.

In the exemplary embodiment, the portion container 100 is filled with a pudding 7, represented by dots, which was introduced in liquid form into the transport container with the opening facing upwards and has now solidified. The pudding 7 completely fills the portion container 100 and could not be removed from it without special measures even if the portion container 100 were tipped over. However, if the sealing label 5 has been removed after the tipping, the outside air has access to the inside 1' of the base 1 or to the top T of the pudding filling through the ventilation opening 4, so that the pudding 7 can be led out of the portion container 100 without damaging its decoratively shaped outside.

In Figs. 2 to 5, a portion container 200 is shown which differs from the portion container 100 in the area of the ventilation opening 4. The portion container 200 is also shown inverted. The open side of the cup-shaped portion container 200 is also directed downwards in Figs. 2 to 5 and is closed in the transport state by a sealing lid which is sealed to the sealing edge 8 (Figs. 2 and 3).

The same reference numbers are used for functionally equivalent parts.

However, in the portion container 200, the base 11 has a concave recess 12 in the middle with a slightly raised edge 13, which serves as a sealing edge and can have a diameter of the order of 20 mm. The recess 12 can have the shape of a spherical shell section and can be 3 mm to 5 mm deep from the edge 13 located in one plane. From the deepest

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At the location of the recess 12, a ventilation nipple 14 projects outwards, which encloses a continuous ventilation channel 16, which opens into the ventilation opening 4 at the upper end according to Fig. 4.

The upper end of the ventilation nipple 14 and the edge 13 lie essentially in a plane perpendicular to the axis A. The recess 12 is covered by a sealing label 15 which is sealed to the edge 13 and to the upper end of the ventilation nipple 14. When the sealing label 15 is pulled off the handle 6, the ventilation channel 16 is released and outside air can reach the lower side 11' of the base 11 in Fig. 4 in the direction of arrow 17 and thus between this and the upper side 7' of the pudding 7, so that the pudding can slide downwards out of the portion container 200.

The portion container 200 is deep-drawn from a suitable plastic. It goes without saying that this plastic and the coating present on the lower side of the sealing label 15 according to Fig. 4 are compatible sealing partners. During the deep-drawing process, the ventilation nipple 14 is initially closed at the top in a dome-shaped manner as shown in Fig. 5 and protrudes slightly, e.g. 1 mm, above the sealing edge 13. When the sealing label 15 is sealed on, the sealing head 18 initially presses the sealing label 15 onto the highest point 14' of the ventilation nipple 14, which melts and is pressed sideways in the manner indicated in Fig. 4 by the bead 19, before the outer edge of the sealing label 15 is sealed onto the sealing edge 13. When the highest point 14' melts, it breaks through, creating a passage, i.e. the ventilation opening 4. When the sealing label 15 is removed, the ventilation channel 16 is immediately open without any further measures.

The portion container 300 of Fig. 6 to 8 has a substantially flat base 21, which is surrounded by an edge bead 32 protruding towards the opening of the portion container 300, which serves for stabilization and on which the portion container 300 stands during handling. In the middle of the base 21, a ventilation nipple 14" with a front surface 20 is provided, which is initially closed. The ventilation nipple 14" is surrounded by a circular disk-shaped sealing surface 34, which is part of

of the flat base 21 and extends directly to the ventilation nipple 14'. The sealing surface 34 is in turn surrounded by an annular bead 35, which is intended to reduce the occurrence of radial stresses in the base 21. Radially outside the recess 35 there is an annular sealing edge 23, which borders the bead 32 radially on the outside.

In the first phase of preparing the base 21 according to Fig. 6, a stamp 30 with a needle 31 comes down from above in the direction of the arrow, which penetrates the front side 20 of the ventilation nipple 14" and creates a hole there, which can be seen in Fig. 7 and forms the ventilation opening 4. After the hole has been punched, the stamp 30 with the needle 31 is guided laterally away from the area of the portion container 300 and instead a sealing label 15 with a slightly smaller diameter than the base 21 and a sealing head 18' are brought over the base 21, which can be lowered in the direction of the arrow. The sealing head 18' has a central sealing zone on the flat front side facing the base 21 and perpendicular to the axis A, which corresponds to the sealing surface 34, is concentric to the axis A, is circular disk-shaped, projects slightly in relief onto the flat side on the active side. 44 and, at a distance radially outside thereof, two further narrow annular sealing zones 45 and 46 concentric to the axis A, which correspond to the sealing edge 23.

When the sealing head 18' descends, the circular disk-shaped sealing label 15 is first pressed onto the front side 20 of the ventilation nipple 14", which is heated and plasticized by the heat conduction from the heated sealing head 18'. When the sealing head 18' descends further, the material of the ventilation nipple 14' is pressed laterally over the sealing surface 34, whereby the ventilation opening 4 does not close again if the diameter of the needle 31 is suitably dimensioned, but remains open with a reduced diameter if necessary. In the immediate vicinity of the ventilation opening 4, a particularly intensive sealing takes place, which in the final phase shown in Fig. 8 extends over the entire sealing zone 44 formed by the sealing surface 34 and the two outer ring-shaped sealing zones 45, 46.

This ensures that no contents of the portion container 300 can escape from the ventilation opening 4 into the space between the sealing surface 34, i.e. the central sealing zone 44 and the outer annular sealing zones 45, 46. Different thermal expansion coefficients of the material of the base 21 and the sealing label 15 do not lead to radial stresses that strain the seals because the annular bead 35 does not allow such stresses to arise.

It is understood that the base 21 is supported from below during sealing according to Fig. 8. After a certain sealing time, which depends on the materials used in the individual case, the sealing head 18' is lifted off and the preparation of the base for creating an opening when falling is completed. The sealing label 15 can then be grasped by the handle 6 (Fig. 7) and pulled off if necessary.

Claims (14)

1. Portion container ( 100 , 200 ) for products that can be turned over, such as pudding ( 7 ) or the like, in the form of a cup with a base ( 1 , 11 ) in which a closable ventilation opening ( 4 ) that can be opened from the outside is formed, characterized in that the ventilation opening ( 4 ) is closed by a removable sealing label ( 5 , 15 ) when the portion container ( 100 , 200 ) is in the transport state. 2. Portion container according to claim 1, characterized in that a shallow depression ( 12 ) is formed in the base ( 11 ) and a ventilation nipple ( 15 ) enclosing a ventilation channel is provided, which projects outwards from the base of the depression ( 12 ) to approximately the height of the edge ( 13 ) of the depression ( 12 ) and can be converted from a transport state in which the ventilation channel ( 16 ) is closed to a dispensing state in which the ventilation channel ( 16 ) is open and offers access for the outside air to the inside ( 11 ') of the base ( 11 ), and that the ventilation opening ( 4 ) is formed at the outer end of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ). 3. Portion container according to claim 2, characterized in that the ventilation nipple ( 14 ) ends in a plane running parallel to the base ( 11 ) and is sealed at the front side there with the sealing label ( 15 ). 4. Portion container according to claim 3, characterized in that the edge ( 13 ) of the recess ( 12 ) is located in a plane running parallel to the base ( 11 ) and is designed as a sealing edge to which the sealing label ( 15 ) is sealed in addition to the front side ( 20 ) of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ). 5. Portion container according to claim 4, characterized in that the sealing edge ( 13 ) and the end face ( 20 ) are located at approximately the same height along the axis (A). 6. Portion container according to claim 1, characterized in that the base ( 21 ) in an area immediately surrounding the ventilation opening ( 4 ) is designed as a flat sealing surface ( 34 ) to which the sealing label ( 15 ) is sealed. 7. Portion container according to claim 6, characterized in that an additional sealing edge ( 23 ) is formed in the base ( 21 ) and surrounds the sealing surface ( 34 ) at a radial distance therefrom and is parallel to the latter. 8. Portion container according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the ventilation opening ( 4 ) is formed on a ventilation nipple ( 14 ") which protrudes from the flat sealing surface ( 34 ) and which is pressed down into the plane of the sealing surface ( 34 ) during sealing. 9. Portion container according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the sealing label ( 5 , 15 ) has a handle ( 6 ) projecting radially outward beyond the sealing edge ( 3 , 13 ). 10. Method for producing a portion container according to one of claims 4 to 9, characterized in that a sealing label ( 5 , 15 ) with a sealing head ( 18 , 18 ') is sealed simultaneously to the sealing edge ( 13 ) and the front side ( 20 ) of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ) or the sealing surface ( 34 ) and the additional sealing edge ( 23 ). 11. Method according to claim 10, characterized in that during sealing the ventilation opening ( 4 ) at the upper end ( 14 ') of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ) is exposed. 12. Method according to claim 11, characterized in that during sealing the dome-shaped upper end ( 14 ') of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ) is melted away. 13. Method according to claim 11, characterized in that before sealing, the upper end face ( 20 ) of the ventilation nipple ( 14 ') is pierced by means of a needle ( 31 ). 14. Tool arrangement for producing a portion container ( 300 ) according to the method of claim 13, characterized in that the sealing head ( 18 ) is assigned a needle ( 31 ) which projects in the sealing feed direction and by means of which a ventilation opening ( 4 ) can be pierced in the base ( 21 ) of the portion container ( 300 ) and which can be brought into engagement with the base ( 21 ) in alternation with the sealing head ( 18 ').