EP2424783B1

EP2424783B1 - Pour spout fitments with cutting/rupturing tooth

Info

Publication number: EP2424783B1
Application number: EP10719771.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Wolfgang Kieser
Original assignee: Elopak Systems AG
Current assignee: Elopak Systems AG
Priority date: 2009-05-02
Filing date: 2010-05-04
Publication date: 2020-03-11
Anticipated expiration: 2030-05-04
Also published as: GB0907662D0; RU2011149135A; WO2010128302A1; RU2555654C2; EP2424783A1; ES2796128T3

Description

This invention relates to a cutter for a pour spout fitment and to a fitment including such cutter.
The precise details of the disclosure in FR-A-2659298 are occasionally unclear but it does disclose a package comprised of a plastics tube and an accessory for cutting a seal of the tube. The accessory, which is generally of bush-form, is screwed on a sealed neck of the tube and carries a tooth used for cutting the seal during the screwing. This accessory is made of plastics which is harder than that of the seal; it includes an internal crown carrying the tooth and advancing in the neck during screwing; it comes into local contact with the seal after at least two-thirds of a turn of screwing and the end of this screwing corresponds with a cutting of the seal over 290° to 330° and it seems to be followed on the internal crown by an inclined edge pressing and folding the seal into the tube as its cutting proceeds. The package is usable in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and hygiene fields and also in the packaging of food and maintenance products. The bush can be topped by an externally threaded neck of its own to receive an applicator nozzle.
US-B-6279779 discloses a closable opening device having a frame defining a through hole and fitted about a pierceable portion of a sealed package for pourable food products; a removable threaded cap which screws onto the frame to close the hole; and a tubular cutting member, which engages the hole in movable manner along a spiral feed path, is connected angularly to the cap during disengagement of the cap from the frame when first opening the package, and has an end edge in turn having, on its face, a single cutter acting about a major portion of the periphery of the pierceable portion to open the package. The cutter is defined by a tooth formed on the end edge of the cutting member and having a substantially triangular profile defined by a cutting edge crosswise to the pierceable portion of the wall, and by a lateral cutting edge having a curved profile sloping with respect to the axis of the device and connecting a free end of the cutting edge to the end edge. More specifically, the cutter comprises a cutting portion projecting axially with respect to the end edge and defined, inwards of the cutting member, by a surface sloping slightly with respect to the pierceable portion so as to define a cross-section of the cutting portion decreasing towards the pierceable portion. Adjacent to the cutter, the end edge of the cutting member has a ramp-shaped recess increasing in depth towards the cutter, and defining an axial height of the cutting edge greater than the axial height of the cutting portion.
US-A1-2004/0149786 discloses a pour spout fitment which is arranged above a pierceable point of a filled and sealed carton. The fitment comprises a flanged pour spout, a screw cap thereon and an annular piercing element. Screwthreadings are used to displace the piercing element, which is open at both ends, downwards in an axial direction in a helical manner under the action of unscrewing of the cap. The piercing element has two cutting teeth offset at an angle which produce continuous, interconnected cutting lines, and a displacing tooth which shifts a partially cut-out disc of the carton from the region of the spout. Each cutting tooth has a sharp apex preceded by a knife edge.
US-A1-2005/0242113 discloses a pour spout fitment comprising a spout having a lower flange which is to be moulded or glued to a composite packaging, an associated screw cap as well as a carton opening sleeve arranged within the spout. This sleeve can be made to rotate by the screw cap upon unscrewing of the cap. The inner surface of the spout is provided with four guide webs having varying inclines arranged over its inner circumference. These interact with specially formed guide ribs on the outer wall of the sleeve such that the sleeve, when continuously rotated in the inside of the spout, and by being guided by these ribs, describes an uneven downwardly directed movement, superposed on its rotational movement. Thus, the sleeve first pierces a paper or cardboard laminate of the packaging with the tip of a single piercing tooth thereof in a steep, downwardly directed movement, and thereafter performs a horizontal rotational movement about 340°, whilst it cuts part of a circular disc of the laminate with a sharp cutting edge, and thereafter pivots this disc part downwards and retains it in that position.
US Patent 5,082,136 discloses a container and cap construction.
Document DE 10 2006 016113 B3 discloses an annular cutter for a pour spout fitment according to the pre-amble of claim 1.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an annular cutter for a pour spout fitment, comprising an annular body, a cutting tooth protruding from an axial end of said body, characterised in that said tooth, at its tip, being of a knife-edge shape circumferentially of said annular body and, as viewed radially of said body, said knife-edge shape being curved.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pour spout fitment, comprising:-

an annular pour spout,
an annular cutter comprising an annular body, a tooth protruding from an axial end of said body, said tooth, at its tip, being of a curved knife-edge shape circumferentially of said annular body,
said cutter being substantially co-axial with said pour spout,
a cap mounted on said spout so as to be turnable about the axis of said spout for turning said cutter about said axis so that said leading knife-edge precedes said tip,
and a motion-guiding arrangement effective between said spout and said cutter such that said cutter can be displaced both axially away from said cap and turningly about said axis with said leading knife-edge preceding said tip.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a package comprising:-

a carton formed of a laminate; and
a pour spout fitment attached to a wall of said carton and comprising:-
- an annular pour spout,
- an annular cutter comprising an annular body, a tooth protruding from an axial end of said body, said tooth, at its tip, being of a curved knife-edge shape circumferentially of said annular body, said cutter being substantially co-axial with said pour spout,
- a cap mounted on said spout so as to be turnable about the axis of said spout for turning said cutter about said axis so that said leading knife-edge precedes said tip,
- and a motion-guiding arrangement effective between said spout and said cutter such that said cutter can be displaced both axially away from said cap and turningly about said axis with said leading knife-edge preceding said tip,
- and wherein said turning of said cutter forms through said wall a cut of open loop character.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of opening a package comprising a carton formed of a laminate; and a pour spout fitment attached to a wall of said carton and comprising an annular pour spout, an annular cutter comprising an annular body, a tooth protruding from an axial end of said body, said tooth, at its tip, being of a curved knife-edge shape circumferentially of said annular body, said cutter being substantially co-axial with said pour spout, a cap mounted on said spout so as to be turnable about the axis of said spout for turning said cutter about said axis so that said leading knife-edge precedes said tip, and a motion-guiding arrangement effective between said spout and said cutter such that said cutter can be displaced both axially away from said cap and turningly about said axis with said leading knife- edge preceding said tip, comprising turning said cutter around said axis to form through said wall a cut of open loop character, said tooth tending to ride on said wall as said tooth cuts said wall, rather than digging into said wall.
Owing to those aspects of the invention, because the tooth, at its tip, is of a curved knife-edge shape circumferentially of the annular body, it is possible to arrange that it does not dig into a packaging wall to be cut and thus tear the wall, leaving unsightly edges and even torn-off portions which may enter the contents of the carton to be poured or being poured, rather than relatively cleanly cutting through the wall. Among persons skilled in the art, there is sometimes a dispute as to whether the verb "to cut" is restricted to the usual action of a knife, or whether it also covers pushing upon packaging material so as to cause the material to fracture along a line, whether curved or straight. In the present Specification, the verb (and its corresponding nouns, adjectives and adverbs) is used in the broader sense, i.e. so as to embrace both possibilities.
Advantageously, the curved knife-edge shape is substantially part of a sinusoidal wave form. Furthermore, the tooth advantageously has a leading knife edge extending obliquely away from the tip towards the annular body, with the leading knife-edge being preferably another part of the sinusoidal wave form. In a preferred embodiment, the tooth, as viewed radially of the annular body, is substantially one-half of the sinusoidal wave form. Advantageously, a pour spout fitment including the annular cutter comprises an annular pour spout substantially co-axial with the cutter, a cap mounted on the spout for turning the cutter about the axis so that the leading knife-edge precedes the tip of the tooth, and some motion-guiding arrangement effective between the spout and the cutter such that the cutter can be displaced both axially away from the cap and turningly about the axis with the leading knife-edge preceding the tip. Advantageously, upon turning of the cap, the motion-guiding arrangement causes the cutter to displace simultaneously axially away from the cap and turningly about the axis with the leading knife-edge preceding the tip.
In order that the invention may be clearly and completely disclosed, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an annular cutter of a pour spout fitment;
Figure 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the sinusoidal form of a cutting tooth of the cutter;
Figure 3 is a side elevation of the cutter but taken at right-angles to the side elevation of Figure 1;
Figure 4 is an underneath plan view of the cutter; and
Figure 5 is an underneath perspective view of a plastics-coated paperboard wall in a test rig and illustrating a final stage in the cutting of a hole through the wall.

Referring to the drawings, the pour spout fitment is of the general character disclosed in US-A-2004/0149786 , with the major difference that the annular cutter (herein referenced 2) has only a single tooth (herein referenced 4) depending from an annular body (herein referenced 6) of the cutter 2. The annular body 6 is formed externally peripherally with acme screwthreading 8 for co-operating with internal screwthreading of the pour spout. The tooth 4, at its tip 10, is of a curved knife-edge shape circumferentially of the annular body 6. The tooth 4 also has a leading knife-edge 12 extending obliquely upwardly away from the tip 10 to the body 6. The tooth 4, as viewed radially of the body 6, is substantially one-half of a sinusoidal wave form, as indicated in Figure 2. As can be seen from Figure 3, an imaginary extension 12' of the leading knife-edge 12 in a sense away from the body 6 is angled obliquely outwardly.
As can be seen from both Figures 3 and 4, the leading knife-edge 12 is chamfered at both sides 12a and 12b thereof.
Referring to Figure 5, there is seen an inside surface of a carton formed of a laminate 14 which comprises a paperboard substrate with innermost and outermost layers of moisture barrier thermoplastics, possibly with the interposition of an oxygen barrier layer. In Figure 5, the annular body 6 and its tooth 4 as well as the pour spout 16 are visible. It can be seen that the tooth 4 has cut from the wall 14 and turned aside inwardly a major segment 18 of a disc. That final stage has been reached by unscrewing the screw cap of the pour spout fitment, with the result that the tooth 4 moves downwards and turns about the axis of the fitment and presses downwards on the laminate 14 and, especially if the laminate 14 contains a relatively tough oxygen barrier layer, tensions that barrier layer to promote the cutting action of the tooth 4. The shape of the tip 10 and the leading edge 12 of the tooth 4 are such that the tooth tends to ride on the wall as it cuts it, rather than dig into it. In the final relative position of the tooth 4 as seen in Figure 5, the segment 18 is located outwardly of the tooth 4. Assuming that the tooth turns in a circular path, the angle of cutting by the tooth 4 is, of course, less than 360°, preferably about 300°, so producing a through cut in the form of an open loop. If, however the tooth were to turn in a spiral path, the angle of cutting could be more than 360°, a through cut in the form of an open loop still thus being produced. The test rig 20 is seen round the exposed part of the wall 14.

Claims

An annular cutter for a pour spout fitment, comprising an annular body (6), a cutting tooth (4) protruding from an axial end of said body, characterised in that said tooth (4), at its tip (10), being of a knife-edge shape circumferentially of said annular body (6) and, as viewed radially of said body (6), said knife-edge shape being curved.
A cutter according to claim 1, wherein the curved knife-edge shape is substantially part of a sinusoidal wave form.
A cutter according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said tooth (4) has a leading knife-edge (12) extending obliquely away from said tip (10) towards said annular body (6).
A cutter according to claim 2 and 3, wherein said leading knife-edge (12) is another part of said sinusoidal wave form.
A cutter according to claim 4, wherein said tooth (4), as viewed radially of said annular body (6), is substantially one-half of said sinusoidal wave form.
A cutter according to claim 3, wherein said leading knife-edge is chamfered at both sides (12a, 12b) thereof.
A cutter according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein an imaginary extension (12') of said leading knife-edge (12) in a sense away from said annular body (6) is angled obliquely outwardly.
A pour spout fitment, comprising an annular pour spout (16), a cutter (2) according to any one of claims 3 to 7 and substantially co-axial with said pour spout (16), a cap mounted on said spout (16) so as to be turnable about the axis of said spout (16) for turning said cutter (2) about said axis so that said leading knife-edge (12) precedes said tip (10), and a motion-guiding arrangement effective between said spout (16) and said cutter (2) such that said cutter (2) can be displaced both axially away from said cap and turningly about said axis with said leading knife-edge (12) preceding said tip (10).
A pour spout fitment according to claim 8, wherein, upon turning of said cap, said motion-guiding arrangement causes said cutter (2) to displace simultaneously axially away from said cap and turningly about said axis with said leading knife-edge (12) preceding said tip (10).
A package comprising:-
a carton formed of a laminate (14); and

a pour spout fitment according to claim 8 or 9 attached at a wall (14) of said carton and wherein said turning of said cutter (2) forms a through cut of open loop character.
A package according to claim 10, wherein said laminate (14) comprises a paperboard substrate with innermost and outermost layers of moisture barrier thermoplastics.
A package according to claim 10 or 11, wherein said laminate (14) contains a relatively tough oxygen barrier layer.
A method of opening a package according to any one of claims 10 to 12 and including turning said cutter (2) around said axis, said tooth (4) tending to ride on said wall (14) as said tooth (4) cuts said wall (14), rather than digging into said wall (14).
A method according to claim 13, wherein said package is according to claim 12 and wherein said tooth (4) tends to tension said oxygen barrier layer to promote the cutting action of said tooth (4).