EP1955954B1

EP1955954B1 - A collapsible lightweight container

Info

Publication number: EP1955954B1
Application number: EP07101790A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michel A. L. Bourguignon; Marc Laupie
Original assignee: Nestec SA
Current assignee: Nestec SA
Priority date: 2007-02-06
Filing date: 2007-02-06
Publication date: 2010-03-31
Anticipated expiration: 2027-02-06
Also published as: US20100140294A1; DE602007005595D1; WO2008095849A1; AU2008213001A1; ATE462655T1; ES2341298T3; EP2109568A1; AU2008213001B2; EP1955954A1; MX2009008112A; PT1955954E; BRPI0807129A2

Abstract

The present invention concerns a container (1) suitable for packing and dispensing a non flowable food product, said container comprising a collapsible container body (2) and a container neck (3) with a dispensing opening (4), said container body having an internal volume (V1) when said body is in fully compressed configuration and an internal volume (V2) when said body is in a fully expanded configuration, characterized in that: (i) said container is manufactured by injection-blowing process out of a thermoplastic material chosen from the list comprising: polyethyleneterephtalate (PET), polyethylenenaphtalate (PEN), polyethyleneterephtalateglycol (PETG), polypropylene (PP), or a combination thereof, (ii) said body walls (2) have a thickness not higher than 100 ¼m, and (iii) the ratio V1/V2 is lower than, or equal to, 0.05.

Description

The present invention concerns a collapsible lightweight container according to the preamble of claim 1, in particular a container suitable for packing and dispensing non flowable food products.
By non-flowable products, it is meant products which do not flow, or hardly flow under their own weight.
In the following description, the products to be contained in the invention will be described as dairy semi-liquid or pasty products, for instance yogurts with or without fruit pieces and the like. It should be however understood that the present invention applies to all non flowable food products.
In the recent years, many nutritional and food products, were developed which are proposed to the consumer in a ready-to-drink form, i.e. in a liquid or semi-liquid form, for instance creams, gels, viscous liquids. This allows a consumer to consume the product "on-the-go", that is to say, without using a specific tool, directly from a bottle or bottle-like container into which such products are packed.
It was found however that the viscosity of such products prevents correct and full dispensing of the product from its container, which is highly undesirable to the consumer, for product quality image and also legal aspects. Indeed, it is very frequent that about 10% of the product volume as marked on the container label, cannot be dispensed and is lots for the consumer, because due to its viscosity, it stays inside the container, even though this container is turned upside-down by the consumer.
Although collapsible containers exist, they are most of the time directed to large volumes, and therefore not applicable in the case of small food portions. In addition, although they are collapsible, their internal volume cannot be sufficiently reduced by collapsing the container body, so as to allow forcing the remaining of a small food portion out of the container.
Document EP 1650133 A1 is a patent application to Nestec S.A. It discloses a squeezable assembly for shelf-stable, chilled or frozen pasty products comprising a body formed by a tube or a container presenting a bottom lateral walls and a rim in the accordion form, a rigid plastic cap attached to the end of the tube or the rim of the container comprising an aperture, a cover seal to close the aperture and a product contained in the assembly. This document fails however to teach a construction of a squeezable container which optimizes the emptied volume of the container and the dispensing output of the product as well.
It is therefore one main purpose of the present invention to propose a collapsible container made such that the internal volume of the container body can be reduced by more than 95% by collapsing at least part of the said body.
The purpose described above is achieved with the present invention according to claim 1.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the description of the presently preferred embodiments which are set out below with reference to the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic profile view of the prior art;
Figure 2 is a schematic profile view of an embodiment of the invention ;
Figure 3 is a bottom view of the container shown in figure 2;
Figure 4 is a schematic profile, partially cut, view of the container shown in figure 2, said container being in a collapsed configuration.

The present invention, as illustrated in figure 2, concerns a container 1 suitable for packing and dispensing a non flowable viscous dairy product like a yogurt with fruit pieces, which has a viscosity index of about 10000 to 35000 centipoises.
The container 1 comprises a collapsible container body 2 and a container neck 3 with a dispensing opening 4. The whole container is manufactured by blowing in a mould an injected preform that is made out of polyethyleneterephtalate (PET).
As shown in figure 2, the container 1 can be set in a first configuration wherein the said container body 2 is fully expanded and has an internal volume V2.
In a second configuration illustrated in figure 4, the container body 2 can be collapsed. In the fully collapsed configuration shown in figure 4, the container body 2 has an internal volume V1.
According to the present invention, the container walls have a thickness not higher than 100 µm, so that the whole container has a particularly low weight.
Also, according to the invention, the ratio of the internal volumes of the container body between the fully collapsed and fully expanded configuration, V1/V2, is about 0.03.
As can be seen from figure 2, such a very low collapsing ratio is obtained by a special configuration of the container body which has a shape such that it can entirely fold from its bottom upwards into its upper parts.
As can be seen from figure 1 illustrating the prior art, the whole container body profile has a generally frusto-conical shape and a series of bellows 5 with concentric cross-sections from the bottom - smallest cross-sections - to the top - largest cross sections -, so that each bellow of said body can fold exactly into the upper bellow.
Similarly, as shown in figure 2 that illustrates an embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the lower half of the container body 2 has symmetrically the same cross section - up to the functional play - than the upper half, so that said lower half can be turned outside in, to exactly fit the upper half of said container body, as illustrated in figure 4.
In order to be sufficiently flexible to be turned outside in, the lower half of the container body comprises one helical ridge 6 extending all around the whole circumference of said container body from the flat bottom part 7 of the container body 2, up to the top part 8 of the lower half of said container body, as shown in figure 3.
More generally, the said container body comprises two halves, the lower half being so flexible as to be foldable upwards into the upper half, in order to collapse entirely said container body.
Whatever the particular shape of the container, the said container is meant to be formed, then filled in its fully expanded configuration, and then closed, for instance by means of a screw cap that is screwed onto the neck.
At use, the consumer unscrews the cap to open the container, and then consume the contents by pressure on the container, collapsing the container body by applying a small pressure onto the container top and lower ends, so that the internal volume of the container body that is left is just sufficient to contain the rest of the product. Then the container can be closed again until the next use.
When the container is almost empty, the consumer can use the collapsing effect to reduce as a minimum the internal volume of the container body and therefore force the viscous product remaining inside the container out. Due to the minimal volume inside the body when the container is fully collapsed, the consumer can be sure that almost the entire amount of product as labelled is dispensed and consumable. Basically, one can consider that the internal volume of the container that cannot be collapsed, corresponds to the volume of the neck. This maximises the appearance of the container and indicates to the amount of product remaining in the container to the consumer.

Claims

A container (1) manufactured by injection-blowing process, out of a thermoplastic material comprising: polyethyleneterephtalate, polyethylenenaphtalate, polyethyleneterephtalateglycol, polypropylene, or a combination thereof, said container being suitable for packing and dispensing a viscous food product, the walls of said container body (2) having a thickness not higher than 100 µm, said container (1) comprising a collapsible container body (2) and a container neck (3) with a dispensing opening (4), said container body having an internal volume V1 when said body is in fully compressed configuration and an internal volume V2 when said body is in a fully expanded configuration, the ratio V1/V2 being lower than, or equal to, 0.05, said container body (2) comprising two halves, the lower half being so flexible and shaped as to be foldable upwards into the upper half, in order to collapse entirely said container body, said lower half of the container body (2) comprises at least one groove and/or at least one ridge (6) extending at least once around the whole circumference of said container body, characterized in that the groove and/or ridge is helical.