EP0309314A1 - Container for beverages convertible into a tumbler or other drinking utensil - Google Patents

Abstract

The container for preserving a beverage, in particular a wine, consists of a body in the form of a drinking glass or another drinking utensil, whose rim opening is hermetically closed by a removable cap and which comprises a filling passage closed off by a leaktight stopper. The filling passage 6 continues beyond the bottom of the body via a throat forming a hollow-foot stem 5 for the glass in its drinking-use position. The cap is a cover 2 which covers the lateral wall of the glass by means of a lateral skirt 17 retained by anchoring members 23, 24 projecting on the lateral wall of the glass. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to a container for storing a drink, in particular a wine, constituted by a body of a drinking glass or other drinking utensil, the mouth opening of which is hermetically closed by a removable capsule and which includes a filling passage formed through the bottom of the body and closed by a tight plug.

A bottle of wine, once uncorked, no longer ensures the conservation of its content and it appeared desirable to market the wine, and in particular the grands crus, in smaller individual doses, corresponding for example to the normal quantity absorbed on average by one person during a meal.

It has already been proposed, in particular in FR-A-2286765, a packaging for drinks constituted by a body, having the general shape of a drinking glass, provided with an annular base inside which is provided a neck provided, after filling the glass with an airtight capsule, the upper opening of the drinking glass being closed by a removable waterproof cover.

Such beverage packaging has been found to be complicated to manufacture with regard to the base and unattractive and practical for the consumption of drinks deemed to be noble, such as wines of controlled designation or alcohols. One of the objects of the present invention is precisely to provide a beverage packaging which is more practical and more economical to manufacture and which ensures better conservation of the beverage it contains while taking the form of a real glass drink suitable for tasting noble drinks such as fine wines.

To this end, according to the invention, the filling passage continues beyond the bottom of the body by a neck constituting a hollow stem for the glass in its position of use for drinking.

The container according to the invention which forms a drinking glass also constitutes a small overturned bottle, the closed cavity of the body corresponding to the body of the bottle and the hollow foot at its neck. As in traditional bottles, the filling by the foot of the body makes it possible to visualize as well as possible the minimum of air introduced into the container, in order to avoid oxygenation of the wine and thus to ensure a good aging of this one. this. In addition, the deposits of aged wine can advantageously be stored and masked in the glass base which will act as a decanting well during the tasting.

Advantageously, the capsule is constituted by a cap which covers the upper edge or "drinking" of the glass and covers at least the upper side wall of the glass by a side skirt attached to anchoring members projecting from the side wall of the glass. , these anchoring members preferably being constituted by two pellets fixed in recesses or cavities in the side wall of the glass and fitting into cutouts made in the side skirt of the cap.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the pellets each have a passage through which a guarantee strip encircles the glass body and the cap, to prevent any fraudulent removal of the cap.

Advantageously, the mouth opening of the body or drinking glass is defined by a wall section with a substantially straight cylindrical inner face, on which the flexible cap fits fits tightly by a groove formed between its skirt. lateral and a hollow central cover, to achieve a hermetic closure of the body. To guarantee a long-term sealing, the face of the seal which comes into contact with said wall section comprises at least one annular seal which can be constituted by a compressible one-piece annular rib. with the cover and whose cross section substantially forms a half section of O-ring.

Equipped with all these characteristics, the container according to the invention offers the same guarantees of conservation and inviolability of its content as traditional bottles, which is more particularly advantageous for fine wines.

It follows that this container can be used to safely package small quantities of wine, such as conventional doses of 10, 18.7 or 25 centilitres, which allows in particular during the same meal to diversify the good wines in minimal quantities, for example in conformity with the legislation on the alcohol level of the drivers.

Another advantage of the containers according to the invention is that they are compact and can be stacked on top of each other, resulting in greatly simplified storage and transport. To favor this stacking, the inner cover is preferably given larger dimensions than those of the foot or the bottom of the body.

Furthermore, thanks to the present invention, the wine can be offered to consumers in a new original and attractive presentation, which can be embellished, in particular by making the anchoring tablets in the form of false stones or in another aesthetic aspect. .

We will add that the opening of the container according to the invention can be done without the use of a corkscrew and without leaving traces in the wine or on the edge of the glass, unlike what is the case with corks. cork from traditional bottles.

In this regard, to facilitate the opening of the container, it is advantageous to provide the side skirt of the cap with two tabs which are joined by a tear-off strip formed, in the cap, by two pre-cutting lines, the cut-outs of the cap which receive the anchoring pads preferably being made in these tabs.

Once the cap has been removed, by a simple tearing force exerted on the two tabs, the container according to the invention automatically takes the form of a drinking glass, which means that it will find a particularly interesting application in collective restaurants, self-service restaurants, tea rooms and passenger transport, such as airplanes.

According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the hollow stem stem is closed by a stopper secured to a base to form, if necessary, either a stemmed glass or a drinking glass of generally cylindrical shape. The stopper may have, on its connection with the base, a groove or a slot causing the separation of said base in the event of an attempt to fraudulently open the stopper.

According to an embodiment of the invention further improving the security of the conservation of the drink in the glass body, the stopper is hollow and has a small thickness relative to the base, so as to cause the separation of the stopper and the base in the event of an attempted fraudulent opening of the cap. In addition, at least the bottom of the hollow plug and the closure cap of the removable capsule are made oxygen tight, for example by a thin coating of aluminum.

• - la figure 1 est une vue en perspective d'un premier mode de réalisation du récipient selon l'invention;
• - la figure 2 est une vue en coupe verticale selon la ligne II-II de la figure 3;
• - la figure 3 est une vue latérale du récipient des figures 1 et 2;
• - la figure 4 est un agrandissement d'un détail de la figure 2;
• - la figure 5 représente en demi-coupe verticale le verre nu constituant le corps du récipient des figures 1 à 3;
• - la figure 6 est une vue éclatée en perspective d'un deuxième mode de réalisation du récipient selon l'invention, en forme de verre à pied;
• - la figure 7 est une vue éclatée en perspective d'un troisième mode de réalisation du récipient selon l'invention.

Other objects, characteristics and advantages will appear on reading the description of various embodiments, given without limitation and with reference to the appended drawing where:

• - Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the container according to the invention;
• - Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view along line II-II of Figure 3;
• - Figure 3 is a side view of the container of Figures 1 and 2;
• - Figure 4 is an enlargement of a detail of Figure 2;
• - Figure 5 shows in vertical half-section the bare glass constituting the body of the container of Figures 1 to 3;
• - Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view of a second embodiment of the container according to the invention, in the form of stemware;
• - Figure 7 is an exploded perspective view of a third embodiment of the container according to the invention.

Figure 1 shows a container according to the invention consisting of a body 1 of drinking glass of "balloon" shape capped with a removable hermetic capsule 2 preferably flexible.

As shown in FIG. 5, the bottom 3 of the glass is connected all around a central opening 4, to the tubular wall of a foot rod 5 which is hollowed out by a central filling passage 6 over its entire height, to lead, under its base 7, to a filling orifice 8. The stem 5 thus forms a neck for filling the glass. Under the base 7, a balancing sole 9 can also be glued which has a hole 10 extending the filling orifice 8.

Furthermore, the upper side wall 11 of the glass, which curls slightly inwards towards its free edge, ends in a short section with a straight cylindrical inner face 12a delimiting the mouth opening 12 (and the upper rim or "drinking" 12b) of the glass. Two shallow rectangular recesses or cavities 13, 14 are formed externally in the side wall 11 of the glass, in diametrically opposite positions. These cavities 13, 14 can be replaced by one-piece anchoring projections with the body 1.

As can be clearly seen in FIG. 2 and better still in FIG. 4, the capsule 2, generally made of flexible plastic material, constitutes a cap which has an annular groove or cavity 15 formed between a recessed or hollow central cover. 16, substantially the same diameter as the mouth opening 12, and a side skirt 17. Thanks to this groove 15, the cap 2 fits on the free upper or "drinking" edge 12b of the glass, the cover 16 coming into leaktight contact with the inner face 12a of the mouth opening 12, by means of annular seals constituted here by two compressible radial and circular ribs 18 integral with the seal 16. The seal between the cap 2 and the upper edge of the glass can also be produced by pressing the bottom of the groove 25, if necessary coated with a flexible sealing washer on the free upper annular edge 12b of the glass. This annular edge having a small width and a rounded section, it is thus possible to obtain relatively high sealing pressures. The cover 16 being in place in a leaktight manner, a space or capacity of glass 1ª is determined inside the glass body 1 which can be filled through the central passage 6. In fact, if the body 1 from above, this body should be handled in conditions of instability which would not allow filling, leaving a small and substantially constant volume of air. The skirt 17 is applied externally over the entire side wall 11 of the fragile upper part carrying the "drink" of the glass and protects it from impact.

Referring now to FIG. 2, it can be seen that the skirt 17 of the cap 2 is extended at the lower part 11a of the side wall of the glass towards the stem of the glass 5, by two diametrically opposite tongues 19, 20 and which each have a cutout 21 or 22 (see Figures 4 and 6). In each cutout, there is an insert or an anchoring projection 23 or 24, of complementary shape, which is itself fixed, preferably by gluing, in one of the respective recesses 13 or 14 of the lower side wall 11a of the glass 1 (see figure 2). The cap 2 is thus anchored to the glass 1. The anchoring projections can, as already mentioned, come directly from molding with the lower wall 11a of the glass body 1 to produce a substantially smooth glass body wall. inside the drinking glass.

The anchoring pads 23, 24, which have a flattened U shape, may further comprise or form passages 23a, 24a for a paper guarantee strip 27 which is applied over the entire circumference of the side wall of the body of glass 1 by spanning the two tabs 19, 20 of the side skirt 17 of the cap 2. The two ends of this guarantee strip 27 are joined, on the front of the glass 1, by a self-adhesive pad 28 (Figure 1). The anchoring pads 23 or 24 may be in any number greater than 1 and include aesthetic patterns such as seals, coats of arms or pearls.

Usually, the container just described is filled, by turning the glass body 1 hermetically capped with its cap 2 and then introducing the liquid (wine or other drink) through the filling orifice 8. The body 1 hooded and its hollowed-out foot 5 being filled, the orifice 8 is closed with a tight stopper 29, for example a cork stopper, on which a wax overcap capsule 30 which can occupy the hole 10 in the sole 9. It will be noted in FIG. 2 that the stopper 29 only fills part of the passage 6. The remaining free part 6a of the passage 6 can thus serve as a decanting well for the deposits of the wine before its presentation, this well avoiding more cloudy wine during tasting.

To open the container, simply pull strongly on the two tabs 19 and 20 to first tear the guarantee strip 27 and then dislodge each tab from its anchoring pad 23 or 24. The cap 2 can then be removed axially upwards of the "drink" 12b of the glass 1 resting straight on its base 7 or its sole 9. To facilitate the opening of the glass, the two tabs 19, 20 can be connected together by a tear-off strip 31 formed in the cap 2 by two precut lines 32, 33, visible in FIG. 3.

For the two embodiments shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the main difference lies in the fact that the hollow base rod 5 is closed by a plug 35 secured to a base 7 or 36 to form a glass base.

The entire plug 35 and its base can be made of materials such as soft or hard plastic and even glass. In the case of a plastic material, the plug 35 may include at its end a hooking lip 37 and one or more sealing ribs 38 fulfilling the same function as the ribs 18. The sealing of the plug 35 may be insured by separate sealing means, for example by O-rings which are carried by the plug 35 or by the passage 6 of the foot rod 5, but also by cooperation of the thin and elastic wall of the hollow plug 35, with at least one bead or annular projection formed inside the passage 6, preferably at the entrance of this passage from the outside of the body 1. The connection between the base 7 and the plug 35 can be provided in place of '' a fillet or rounded connection, a groove or a breaking slot 39 making it possible to easily separate the base 7 from the plug 35 engaged in the passage 6 of the hollow foot rod 5, so as to transform the solid glass into a bottle whose the hollow foot rod 5 constitutes the neck.

The rupture groove 39 can also be used to prevent fraudulent manipulations on drinking glasses filled with drink because any manipulation of the stopper 35 in order to obtain its opening can only be done via the base 7 or 37 which is then separates from the plug 35. To produce the same protective effect, the plug 35 can advantageously be hollow and have a small thickness which will inevitably lead to separation of the base and the plug in the event of attempts to extract the plug fraudulently.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the assembled glass constitutes a stemmed glass used in particular for the tasting of white wines and alcohols. When assembling the glass, glue rods 41 and 42 of the anchoring pads 23 and 24 are glued into corresponding holes 43 and 44 made on the lower side wall 11a of the glass, for example by locking the guarantee strip 27 whose holes 27a and 27b are crossed by the rods 41 and 42. The cover 16 of the cap 2 is then applied to the opening 12 by engaging the pads 23 and 24 in the cutouts 21 and 22 of the tongues 19 and 20, this which retains the cap 2 in position by applying the ribs 18 to the side wall 12a.

After filling the internal capacity 1a of the glass through the central passage 6 of the foot rod 5, the plugging by the cap 35 accompanied by the base 7 forms a complete drinking glass on which a tax sticker 40 is affixed or caused to be affixed by the administration, preferably on the guarantee strip 27.

In the embodiment of Figure 7, the body 1 is intended to cooperate with a stopper 35 surrounded by a base 36 of cylindrical annular shape to produce a drinking glass of generally cylindrical shape. The body 1 shown without its cap 2 may have on its upper side wall 11 a flange 11b for hooking the cap and at the lower part of its side wall an annular recess 45 on which the upper edge 46 of the base can be fitted 36 when the plug 35 is tightly engaged in the relatively short stem 5 to form the equivalent of a cylindrical glass with a thick, robust and stable bottom because its base can be made of a plastic material imitating glass but more resilient.

We can use, especially for wine and spirits, glasses of other shapes, such as flutes, glasses, etc. Furthermore, in addition to or in place of the self-adhesive guarantee of origin sticker 28, it is possible to place the tax sticker 40 of FIG. 6, which is compulsory in certain countries on the containers for packaging wine and alcohol. The parts of the container which are not made of glass or other material which is perfectly gas-tight and which are liable to be traversed in the direction of the internal capacity 12 by the oxygen in the air such as the cover 16 and the bottom of the cap 35 when the latter is hollow, can advantageously be made oxygen-tight, for example aluminized or otherwise coated with a thin layer of aluminum, inside and / or outside in order to avoid term any action of oxygen in the wine or stored drink.

It goes without saying also that the container according to the invention can be used in all sizes for the packaging of all kinds of drinks including wine and that the glass or the transparent plastic material which constitutes its element. basic, can be replaced by any other suitable material or any other utensil for drinking, such as a cup, a cup, etc ...

In the case of the packaging of fruit juice or other refreshing drinks, the cover 16 may have a premarked part to be pushed in or punctured for the passage of a suction straw.

Claims (14)

1. Container for storing a drink, in particular a wine, consisting of a body (1) of drinking glass or other drinking utensil whose mouth opening (12) is hermetically closed by a removable capsule (2), and which comprises a filling passage formed through the bottom (3) of the glass and closed by a tight plug (29), characterized in that the filling passage (6) continues beyond the bottom (3) of the body by a neck constituting a hollow stem (5) for the glass in its position of use for drinking. 2. Container according to claim 1 characterized in that the capsule is constituted by a cap (2) which covers the upper edge or "drinking" (12b) of the glass and covers at least the upper side wall (11) of the glass by a side skirt (17) attached to anchoring members (23, 24) projecting from the side wall (11a) of the glass. 3. Container according to claim 2 characterized in that the anchoring members consist of two pellets (23, 24) fixed in recesses or cavities (13, 14) of the side wall (11) of the glass and fitting in cutouts (21, 22) formed in the side skirt (17) of the cap (2). 4. Container according to claim 3 characterized in that the pellets (23, 24) each have a passage (23a, 24a) crossed by a guarantee strip (27) encircling the body (1) and the cap (2). 5. Container according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the mouth opening (12) of the body (1) or drinking glass is defined by a wall section (12a) with an inner face substantially straight cylindrical, on which the cap (2) fits tightly by a groove (15) formed between its side skirt (17) and a hollow central cover (16). 6. Container according to claim 5, characterized in that the face of the cover (16) which comes into contact with said wall section (12a) comprises at least one annular seal. 7. Container according to claim 6 characterized in that the seal (18) is constituted by an annular rib integral with the cover (16) and whose cross section substantially forms a half section of O-ring. 8. Container according to any one of claims 2 to 7, characterized in that the side skirt (17) of the cap (2) comprises two tabs (19, 20) which are joined by a tear-off strip (31) formed in the cap, by two pre-cutting lines (32, 33); 9. Container according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the hollow foot rod (5) is closed by a plug (35) secured to a base (7, 36). 10. Container according to claim 9, characterized in that the body (1) forms with said cap (35) a stemmed glass. 11. Container according to claim 9, characterized in that the body (1) forms with said stopper (35) a drinking glass of generally cylindrical shape. 12. Container according to one of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that said plug (35) comprises on its connection with the base (7) a groove or a slot (39) causing the separation of said base (7) in the event attempted fraudulent opening of the cap (35). 13. Container according to one of claims 9 to 12 characterized in that said plug (35) is hollow and has a small thickness relative to the base (7, 36), so as to cause the separation of the plug and the base in case of attempted fraudulent opening of said plug. 14. A container according to claim 13, characterized in that at least the bottom of said hollow plug (35) and the closure cap of the removable capsule (2) are made oxygen tight, for example by a thin coating aluminum.

Images