EA012670B1 - A tamper evident closure for bottles containing valuable drinks - Google Patents

Abstract

A tamper evident closure for a bottle, particularly for a bottle suitable for containing valuable drinks, said bottle has a neck which extends axially along the longitudinal axis from its base connected to the body of the bottle, the neck has an opening at its free end, said closure comprises stoppering means for the opening of the neck, which means are connected by way of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of a pourer body, the stoppering means has a free circular edge which is directed towards the body of the bottle, a sleeve which is arranged axially along the outer surface of the neck, connected in the axial direction to the pourer body, and provided with means for preventing axial and angular movement thereof relative to the outer surface of the neck, and at least one annular flange which extends radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the neck and which is provided with at least one portion of the radial extent that is positioned between the free edge of the stoppering means and at least one radial portion of the opposite axial end of a tubular element which is placed radially outside the sleeve and concentric therewith, extending axially substantially from the base of the neck of the bottle to the region of the free edge of the stoppering means. According to the one variation of the closure, the tubular element at the portion of its end, directed to the free edge of the stoppering means, has a portion of the cylindrical inner surface which is provided with a great number of cuts. According to another variation of the closure, the tubular element at the portion of its end, directed to the free edge of the stoppering means, has the portion of the cylindrical inner surface extended in the direction to said end in compliance with an arcuate profile having a convexity and a concavity directed to the inner side of the tubular element.

Description

The present invention relates to a lid with visible damage to a bottle, which is particularly suitable for storing expensive beverages and has a neck that runs axially along the longitudinal axis of the bottle from its base, with which it is attached to the body of the bottle, and having an opening in its section. free end.

A known lid comprising a closure for a neck opening, attached by means of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of the pouring body and having a free circumferential face directed to the body of the bottle, a sleeve axially along the outer surface of the neck and having means to prevent its axial and angular displacement relative to the outer surface of the neck and at least one annular flange passing radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the throats a cup and having at least one section of radial length located between the free edge of the closure and at least one radial section opposite the axial end of the tubular element, wherein the pouring body is axially attached to the sleeve, and the tubular element located radially outside the sleeve concentric with it and passing along the axis, essentially from the base of the bottleneck to the area of the free face of the closure (see, for example, the patent of the Netherlands 9401128).

The caps of the above type are known in the art and are suitable for making visible attempts to unauthorized removal for fraudulent purposes, for example when trying to replace the original drink contained in a bottle with another counterfeit drink.

As is well known, for counterfeiting, the operations carried out by forgers include, for example, using an empty bottle fitted with a suitable cap with a damaged seal, but with intact internal valve components, removing these components, refilling the bottle with an equivalent low-quality drink and re-closing the bottle by seal recovery.

In other cases, it turned out that in order to deceive customers, attempts were sometimes made to remove the cap from the bottle without opening the cap itself so that the expensive product contained in the bottle could be replaced with another product of lower cost.

To make it more difficult or impossible for the counterfeiters to restore the seal, cap structures were proposed in which the forcible impact exerted axially on the tubular element, which is fitted to the cap outside and extends from the bottom of the bottle neck to the cork section, leads to the destruction of the element itself integrity of printing or coloring its outer surface, thus making visible the lack of integrity of the cover.

An example of another cover, which, in the case of attempted fraud, works as described above, is illustrated in the publication \ PP 2004/078612.

However, it turned out that in practice such a well-known structure has the disadvantage that when an attempt is made to violate a tubular element, its destruction occurs mainly along continuous and localized lines, which allows, even though it is difficult to perform and is not perfect, again reduce the edges of the fracture line and thus restore the seal.

Considering the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cap for bottles, equipped with means for visualizing the effects of damage, more effective than the known means providing evidence and irreversibility of the effects of damage by creating numerous gaps in the event of damage that are distributed over many tubular areas. an item.

According to the invention, a lid is created with visible damage to the bottle, in particular, suitable for storing expensive beverages and having a neck extending along the longitudinal axis of the bottle from its base attached to the bottle body and having an opening in the area of its free end, the above lid contains a sealing means for opening the neck, attached by means of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of the casting body and having a free circumferential face directed to the body linings, a sleeve located axially along the outer surface of the neck, connected axially to the casting body and having means to prevent its axial and angular movement relative to the outer surface of the neck, and at least one annular flange extending radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface a neck and having at least one radial extension, located between the free edge of the closure and at least one radial portion m opposite the axial end of the tubular element located radially outside the sleeve, concentric with it and passing along the axis, essentially from the base of the bottle neck to the area of the free face of the closure, characterized in that the tubular element at the site of its end directed to the free face The closure has a cylindrical inner surface portion provided with a plurality of notches.

These notches may be axial notches.

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The cylindrical inner surface of the tubular element can be expanded in accordance with the conical profile.

The casting body may be integral with the sleeve or may be attached to the sleeve by means of axial stops and radial stops made on the sleeve and casting body, respectively, and engaging with each other.

According to another embodiment, a cap is created with visible consequences of damage to the bottle, in particular, suitable for storing expensive beverages and having a neck extending along the longitudinal axis of the bottle from its base attached to the bottle body and having an opening in its free end region, the above cap contains a closure for a neck opening attached by means of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of the casting body and having a free circumferential edge directed a sleeve mounted axially along the outer surface of the neck, connected axially to the casting body and having means to prevent its axial and angular movement relative to the outer surface of the neck, and at least one annular flange extending radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the neck and having at least one radial extent, located between the free side of the closure and at least one The other part of the opposite axial end of the tubular element located radially outside the sleeve, concentric with it and passing along the axis, essentially from the base of the bottle neck to the area of the free face of the closure, characterized in that the tubular element at the site of its end directed to the free the face of the closure has an area of a cylindrical inner surface that is widened towards the said end in accordance with the arcuate profile having a bulge or concave directed towards the inside of the tubular member.

In this embodiment of the lid, the casting body may also be integral with the sleeve or may be attached to the sleeve by means of axial stops and radial stops made on the sleeve and the filling body, respectively, and engaged with each other.

The present invention provides such a cover design that, when attempting to remove or remove the closure immediately makes it noticeable.

The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a number of practical embodiments, illustrated as a non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, which depict the following:

FIG. 1 is a side view in partial longitudinal section of a first embodiment of a lid according to the invention;

FIG. 1A depicts an enlarged fragment of the lid of FIG. one;

FIG. 1B is a perspective view of the inner portion of the tubular element of the lid of FIG. one;

FIG. 2 is a side view in partial longitudinal section of a modified form of the lid of FIG. one;

FIG. 3 shows a side view in partial longitudinal section of another modified form of the lid of FIG. one;

FIG. The image shows an enlarged fragment of the lid of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a side view in partial longitudinal section of a second embodiment of the lid in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is a side view in partial longitudinal section of a third embodiment of the lid according to the invention;

FIG. 5A shows an enlarged fragment of the lid of FIG. five.

FIG. 1 shows the housing 1 and the neck 2 of the bottle. The neck 2 extends from the base 3 along the longitudinal axis X-X of the bottle. The neck 2 has a hole 4 in the area of its free end 5. The lid contains closures, which in the illustrated embodiment contain a cap in the form of a cap 6, traditionally equipped with an auxiliary stopper 7.

The cap 6 is provided with an internal thread 8, which engages with a corresponding thread 9 formed on the outer surface of the tubular wall 10 of the traditional casting body 11.

Inside the neck 2 is placed a tubular support 12 to hold the valve components in the form of a ball 13, which allow the traditional way to distribute the liquid from the bottle to the outside and prevent its entry.

The tubular support 12 is attached to the face of the end 5 of the neck 2 using a pair of concentric tubular sleeves 14 and 15, firmly attached to the support 12 and located at the end 5, one on the outside and the other on the inside of the opening of the neck 2.

Another sleeve 16, firmly attached to the tubular support 12, extends toward the cap 6 coaxially with the axis X-X of the bottle.

The casting body 11 is axially fitted to the sleeve 16 by means of its tubular wall 10.

The housing 11 in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 is integrally formed with a sleeve 17 equipped with means 18 for preventing its axial movement relative to neck 2 and

- 2 012670 means 19 to prevent its angular movement relative to the neck 2 bottles.

Since these tools are traditional, they will not be described further.

As best shown in FIG. 1A, the sleeve 17 is equipped with an annular flange 20 extending radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the neck 2. The lid design in accordance with the invention further comprises a tubular element 22 located radially outside the sleeve 17 and concentric with it.

The tubular element 22, the inner portion of which is shown in FIG. 1B extends along the axis, essentially from the base 3 of the neck 2, where it has a first end 23, to a portion of the free face 24 of the cap 6, where it has a second free end 25. The wall of the tubular element 22 has a central region having a thickness greater than the thickness the same wall of the tubular element 22, in areas sequentially remote from the central region to the free end 25.

In accordance with the invention, the annular flange 20 is located at least in its radial extent between the free face 24 of the closure cap 6 and at least the radial portion of the axial end 25 of the tubular element 22.

In the construction of the lid according to FIG. 1, the tubular element 22 has a smooth cylindrical outer surface, and its end 25 is completely under the flange 20.

As shown in FIG. 1, 1A and 1B, the tubular element 22 in the region of the end 25 has a plurality of axial notches 26, which, as will be clear from the rest of the description, contribute to the occurrence of manipulation of the cover with the occurrence of the destruction of the tubular element 22 at many points with fragmentation of wall sections.

The tubular element 22 additionally has a section 27 of the cylindrical inner surface, extended to its end 25, to facilitate the assembly of the elements. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the expansion has a conical profile, although, alternatively, the same expansion may have an arcuate profile with a concavity directed towards the inner side of the tubular element 22.

The design of the cover is supplemented by means for axially attaching the tubular element 22 to the sleeve 17 located under it. These tools in the construction of FIG. 1 consist of a circumferential face 28 on the sleeve 17 and the corresponding step 29 on the inner wall of the tubular element 22 in the portion of its end 23.

They can be replaced by simple dimensional links between the diameters of the element 22 and the sleeve 17.

The other small radial flange 21 is located in a position remotely along the axis from the flange 20 in the direction of the base 3 of the neck 2. This flange 21 is directed towards the inner wall of the tubular element 22 in the area where it begins to lean towards the central region of greater thickness of the wall of the tubular element.

The flange 20 is removed along the axis from the flange 21 by means of an annular wall 17b, which forms one element with the wall 10 of the neck 11 for dispensing and the coupling 17.

Between these flanges 20 and 21 there are a plurality of small axial partitions 17a, with their ends firmly attached to both flanges spaced apart from each other in the circumferential direction and forming an annular space 17c with the wall 17b to reduce the weight.

The baffles 17a act as thrusts on the flange 20 when the flange 20 must be axially pressed against the plug 6 by the tubular element 17 in case of attempting to perform manipulations over the lid.

In order for the seal to function as protective means to counteract attempts to fraudulently remove the entire lid by sliding it off the bottle neck, flange 20 and, therefore, in accordance with the design of FIG. 1, the housing 11, as well as the sleeve 17, consists of a plastic material of high strength, such as, for example, polycarbonate.

The tubular element 22 may be made of a hard but very brittle material or of a material that has great flexibility and deformability in an irreversible manner.

As a result, in any attempt to remove the tubular element 22 by sliding along the axis, its end 25 is forced to undergo a radial expansion in order to pass the flange 20. This expansion is unavoidable, depending on the material from which the tubular element 22 is made, to rupture element 22 in many areas or to irreversible deformations of such magnitude as to make element 22 visually unsuitable for restoring the cover fraudulently so that it appears intact and genuine.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cover comprises a tubular element 22 having an external surface with a profile provided with a step 22a. The lid also includes a strip of paper material 30 wound so as to pass over the tubular element 22 and the base 3 of the neck so as to make the lower edge of the tubular element to which any axial force is applied to attempt to remove it from the bottleneck, paper strip inaccessible before damage 30.

Shown in FIG. 3 and 3A, the tubular lid member 22 has an end 25 modified relative to the structure of FIG. 1, by making a circumferential face 25a that surrounds the flange 20 radially from the outside.

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As shown in FIG. 4, the sleeve 17 has one flange 20, made in one piece with the casting body 11.

FIG. 5 and 5A, a cover is shown in accordance with another embodiment modified with respect to the above-mentioned embodiments, in which the pouring body 11 is not integrated with the sleeve 17, but instead is connected to it by means of engagement.

These tools consist of opposite axial stops 20a and 10a, made on the flange 20 and on the wall 10 of the housing 11, respectively, as well as opposite radial stops 20b and 10b, made on the flange 20 and the wall 10 of the housing 11, respectively.

The tubular element 22 has an outer surface that can be given a different shape, with annular projections 22b and annular recesses 22c carrying many aesthetic functions.

The action of the caps described with reference to FIG. 2-5 with regard to the means of countering possible attempts at unauthorized opening, remain the same as has already been illustrated with reference to the cover of FIG. one.

Naturally, the materials and dimensions may vary in accordance with the requirements, without, therefore, going beyond the scope of the invention, as defined below in the claims.

Claims (8)

1. A cap with visible consequences of damage to a bottle, in particular suitable for storing expensive drinks and having a neck extending along the longitudinal axis of the bottle from its base attached to the bottle body and having an opening in the region of its free end, the aforementioned cap contains a closure for a neck opening, connected by means of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of the pouring body and having a free peripheral face directed towards the bottle body, a sleeve located along the axis along the outer surface of the neck, axially attached to the casting body and having means to prevent its axial and angular movement relative to the outer surface of the neck, and at least one annular flange extending radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the neck and having at least one portion of radial extent located between the free face of the closure and at least one radial portion of the opposite axial the end of the tubular element located radially outside the sleeve concentric with it and extending along the axis, essentially, from the base of the neck of the bottle to the area of the free face of the closure, characterized in that the tubular element at its end portion directed towards the free face of the closure, has a portion of a cylindrical inner surface provided with a plurality of notches. 2. The cover according to claim 1, characterized in that said notches are axial notches. 3. The cover according to claim 1, characterized in that the cylindrical inner surface of the tubular element is expanded in accordance with the conical profile. 4. The lid according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the casting body is integral with the sleeve. 5. The lid according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the casting body is connected to the sleeve by axial stops and radial stops made on the sleeve and the casting body, respectively, and engaged with each other. 6. A cap with visible consequences of damage to the bottle, in particular suitable for storing expensive drinks and having a neck extending along the longitudinal axis of the bottle from its base attached to the bottle body and having an opening in the region of its free end, the aforementioned cap contains a closure for a neck opening, connected by means of a threaded connection to the outer surface of the wall of the pouring body and having a free peripheral face directed towards the bottle body, a sleeve located along the axis along the outer surface of the neck, axially attached to the casting body and having means to prevent its axial and angular movement relative to the outer surface of the neck, and at least one annular flange extending radially in the opposite direction to the outer surface of the neck and having at least one portion of radial extent located between the free face of the closure and at least one radial portion of the opposite axial the end of the tubular element located radially outside the sleeve concentric with it and extending along the axis, essentially, from the base of the neck of the bottle to the area of the free face of the closure, characterized in that the tubular element at its end portion directed towards the free face of the closure, has a portion of a cylindrical inner surface, expanded towards the specified end in accordance with an arcuate profile having a convexity or concavity directed to the inner side of the tube that element. 7. The lid according to claim 6, characterized in that the casting body is integral with the sleeve. 8. Cover according to claim 6, characterized in that the casting housing is connected to the sleeve by - 4 012670 axial stops and radial stops made on the sleeve and the casting housing, respectively, and meshing with each other.