EP0106676B1

EP0106676B1 - Liquid fertilizer container

Info

Publication number: EP0106676B1
Application number: EP83306206A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Franco Griselli
Original assignee: Enichem Agricoltura SpA; Unilever NV
Current assignee: Enichem Agricoltura SpA
Priority date: 1982-10-14
Filing date: 1983-10-13
Publication date: 1988-03-30
Also published as: IT1224125B; IT8353820V0; AU2005883A; JPS5993630A; EP0106676A3; EP0106676A2; ZA837550B; ATE33236T1; IT8368061A0; DE3376109D1

Abstract

Liquid fertiliser suitable for house plants is desirably perfumed and coloured to increase its consumer acceptability. It is packaged in a styled container formed with a handle, a spout and carrying a measuring cup, especially a container styled in the form of a garden watering can.

Description

This invention relates to a pack containing a liquid fertiliser composition.
Liquid fertiliser compositions are generally used for fertilising house plants and are regarded as specialist products, that is to say products which are bought and used seasonally rather than routinely. As a consequence little effort has been put into the marketing of such products.
The packaging of liquid fertilisers is generally unattractive and their appearance is regarded as inconsequential and they smell foul.
The applicants have now realised that it is precisely because so little attention has been paid to what might be termed the cosmetics attributes of liquid fertiliser compositions and their packaging that they are not more widely purchased and used.
Known in the art are styled containers for dispensing liquid products.
DE-U-7041742.4 discloses a styled container for liquid products provided with a screw cap where the screw cap is protected by a cover cap; the cover cap is placed over the screw cap and kept still through a trunk placed on the upper end of the container and having the same cross- sectional shape as the cover cap so that the cover cap can be kept still, when inserted, by such trunk. The cover cap is used as measuring device. The container disclosed in DE-U-7041742.4 is provided with only one opening used either for filling or for emptying out the container. This renders the container of the known art unsuitable to be emptied out without fluctuations of the flow rate of the liquid, thus making it difficult to measure out an exact dose of the same in the measuring cap.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the known art and provides a styled container containing a liquid fertiliser composition as being defined by the single claim.
It is particularly appropriate from the marketing point of view if the container is styled in the form of a garden watering can.
The cosmetics attributes of liquid fertiliser composition are hereinafter exemplified:

a) perfume, to counteract the frequently foul smelling of the liquid fertiliser composition;
b) the colour;
although the colour of a liquid is one of its few identifying characteristics, little attempt has been made in the past to secure that liquid fertiliser composition are attractive in colour. The colour is usually regarded as irrelevant provided that the performance of the composition is satisfactory.
c) the mobility;
is a well established fact in fields other than fertilisers that consumers associate an increase in viscosity with an increase in quality and yet no attempt has been made to increase the viscosity of liquid fertiliser composition.
d) the viscosity;
one way of increasing the viscosity of a liquid is to form it into a structured or 'false body' liquid. Liquids of this type are now well-known in the household and personal products industries. The liquid hard surface cleaning composition variously sold under the registered trade marks "Cif" and "Jif" comprise finely divided particles of calcite permanently suspended in a non-Newtonian liquid consisting of selected surfactants and electrolytes, and similarly Procter & Gamble's popular shampoo "Head and Shoulders" contains finely divided zinc pyridine thione in permanent suspension.
There are in general three types of structured, false-body, or non-Newtonian liquids. There is the type in which the suspending capability is imparted to an aqueous medium by means of a colloid-forming clay, examples of which are the systems described in DOS 2432053, 2516003 and 2539733. Secondly, there is the type in which there is a micellar interaction of electrolyte and surfactant which provides the suspending capability, examples of which are the systems described in US Patent Nos. 3579456, 3623990, 3630922, 3813349 and 4129527. Thirdly, there is the rather special case in which the non-Newtonian character is provided by a three-dimensional network of entangled filaments, for example soap filaments. None of these patent specifications relate to liquid fertiliser composition, but we consider that their teaching is applicable to the present field so far as the suspending liquid technology is concerned.
Structured liquids are nearly always, so far as we are aware, opaque to some extent, which is advantageous in the present context in that it allows the colour of the liquid to be well displayed.
e) the shape of the container and its capability to handle liquid fertiliser compositions having the above said cosmetic attributes.

We shall deal particularly with the container. The invention will be further described in the accompanying drawing and in the following example. The single figure of the accompanying drawing shows a styled bottle and over-cap formed with a handle, with a spout and in which the overcap is reversible for use as a measuring cup suitable for containing a liquid fertiliser composition in accordance with the invention.
The body of the bottle 10 is formed with a cutout 11 for a handle and with a spout 12. The top surface of the spout formation 13 is formed with an aperture 14 and carries plug 18 used in filling the bottle. Over-cap 15, which clips onto upstanding land 16 on the bottle is formed with sealing projection 17 which is co-operable with aperture (14) to seal it.
Downwardly extending wall 19 of the over-cap is carried across the cap to define, when the cap is inverted, a measuring space 20.
Summing up the container 10 for liquid fertiliser compositions according to the invention is formed with an upper opening with a plug 18, a handle 11 and a measuring over-cap 15 capable to be clipped into the container 10 to surround said plugged opening and characterized in that the opening is at least partially surrounded by an upstanding land 16 onto which the over-cap 15 is clipped and that the container is provided with a spout 12 having an aperture 14 for dispensing said fertiliser composition, said over-cap 15 being formed with a sealing projection 17 which is co-operable with the aperture 14 to seal the container 10.

Claims

A container (10) for liquid fertiliser compositions formed with an upper opening with a plug (18), a handle (11) and a measuring over-cap (15) capable to be clipped onto the container (10) to surround said plugged opening characterized in that the opening is at least partially surrounded by an upstanding land (16) onto which the over- cap (15) is clipped and that the container is provided with a spout (12) having an aperture (14) for dispensing said fertiliser composition, said over-cap (15) being formed with a sealing projection (17) which is co-operable with the aperture (14) to seal the container (10).