EP2424784A1

EP2424784A1 - Pour spout fiments with tamper evident arrangement

Info

Publication number: EP2424784A1
Application number: EP10719769A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Wolfgang Kieser; Frode Enemark
Original assignee: Elopak Systems AG
Current assignee: Elopak Systems AG
Priority date: 2009-04-29
Filing date: 2010-04-29
Publication date: 2012-03-07
Also published as: WO2010125354A1; GB0907294D0

Abstract

A package comprises a container (28) and a pour spout fitment (2) attached thereto, the fitment (2) comprising a pour spout (6), a closure (4) covering an outer end of the spout (6), and a tamper-evident arrangement attached to the spout (6) or the container (28), on the one hand, and, more weakly, by at least one frangible bridge (14) to the closure (4), on the other hand, the arrangement being such that, through opening of the closure (4), the or each bridge (14) is broken, but at least one significant portion (15) of the tamper-evident arrangement remaining attached to the spout (6) or the container (28) can project laterally outwards noticeably. In one embodiment, the or each significant portion (15) is pre-stressed laterally outwardly and is a leg portion (15) extending longitudinally of the spout. In other embodiments, the or each significant portion (42) is arcuate and extends about the spout (6).

Description

POUR SPOUT FIMENTS WITH TAMPER EVIDENT ARRANGEMENT

This invention relates to a pour spout fitment, a package including such fitment, and a method of opening such fitment.

In a sealed package comprising a filled container and a pour spout fitment attached to the container, it is commercially important to provide tamper-evidence, i.e. even partial opening of the fitment prior to purchase by the consumer. It is advantageous if the evidence of tampering is relatively immediately obvious to a potential purchaser of the package. With screw-cap pour spout fitments, past tampering is easily recognizable if elements indicating past tampering project noticeably laterally from the fitment. It is known for the laterally-projectable tamper-evident elements to be carried by a turnable cap and to be caused to protrude outwards by camming members on. the pour spout when the cap is turned relative to the spout in an opening sense, such that frangible bridges between the tamper-evident elements and the remainder of the cap are broken and the elements are swung laterally outwardly relative to the remainder of the cap. Such arrangement is disclosed in, for example, GB-A-2277320, WO-A-95/28334, WO-A-2008/002249 and EP-A2-1847469. JP-A-2009-040442 appears to disclose a tamper-evident arrangement in which two arcuate bands connected by weak and strong frangible bridges to the remainder of the cap have the weak bridges broken when the cap is being unscrewed, but once the cap has been removed from the pour spout the strong bridges can ^■ be broken manually to remove the arcuate bands from the cap. JP-A-2007-001604 and JP-A-2007-153420 appear to disclose tamper-evident bands which are broken into pieces upon unscrewing of the cap, so that the tamper-evident band is not left at the spout. It is also known for the tamper-evident elements in question to be part of a ring relatively distinct from the cap and the pour spout. Such an arrangement is disclosed in GB-A-2240098.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pour spout fitment comprising a pour spout, a closure covering an outer end of said spout, and a tamper- evident arrangement attached to said spout, on the one hand, and, more weakly, by at least one frangible bridge to said closure, on the other hand, the arrangement being such that, through opening of said closure, the or each said bridge is broken, but at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to said spout can project laterally outwards noticeably.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a package comprising a container and a pour spout fitment attached thereto, said fitment comprising a pour spout, a closure covering an outer end of said spout, and a tamper-evident arrangement attached to said spout or said container, on the one hand, and, more weakly, by at least one frangible bridge to said closure, on the other hand, the arrangement being such that, through opening of said closure, the or each said bridge is broken, but at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to said spout or said container can project laterally outwards noticeably.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of opening a pour spout fitment of a container, comprising turning a cap of said fitment relative to said container so as to break at least one connecting bridge of a tamper-evident arrangement of said fitment, with the result that at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to a pour spout of said fitment or to said container projects noticeably laterally outwards.

Owing to the invention, whereby at least one significant portion of the tamper-evident arrangement remains attached to the spout or the container, rather than remaining attached to the closure, the possibility for a tamperer of simply replacing the closure by a plain closure and thereby disguising the fact of tampering, is not feasible. Furthermore, in comparison with a tamper-evident arrangement in which such significant portion becomes detached from both the cap and the spout or container, the present invention avoids littering of the environment with such detached portions .

Advantageously, the or each significant portion is pre- stressed laterally outwardly, thereby tending to ensure that, through opening of the closure, the or each significant portion does project laterally outwards noticeably.

In one embodiment, the or each significant portion is a leg portion extending longitudinally of the spout.

In another embodiment, the or each significant portion is an arcuate band extending about the pour spout. In the latter embodiment, the or each band is attached to the closure by another frangible bridge which is stronger than the first-mentioned frangible bridge. Furthermore, in the latter embodiment, the or each band is fixedly mounted at respective ends thereof upon respective legs of the tamper- evident arrangement.

In the 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 an axial sectional view through a screw cap of a first embodiment of a pour spout fitment for a liquid packaging carton;

Figure 2 is an axial sectional view illustrating the pour spout fitment attached to a fragmentarily shown wall of the carton;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the pour spout fitment of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an axial sectional view of the pour spout fitment and the wall of Figure 2 following opening and re- closing of the fitment;

Figure 5 is a side elevation of a screw cap of a second embodiment of the pour spout fitment;

Figure 6 is an enlargement of a detail X of Figure 5; Figure 7 is a side elevation of a modified version of the screw cap illustrated in Figure 5;

Figure 8 is an enlargement of a detail Y of Figure 7;

Figure 9 is an axial sectional view of the second embodiment of the pour spout fitment attached to a fragmentarily shown wall of a carton;

Figure 10 is an enlargement of a detail Z of Figure 9;

Figure 11 is a top plan view of the second embodiment of the pour spout fitment at a stage following unscrewing of a screw cap thereof relative to a pour spout thereof through an initial angle a°;

Figure 12 is a view similar to Figure 11 but showing a stage of unscrewing of the screw cap relative to the pour spout fitment to a greater angle b°;

Figure 13 is a view similar to Figure 12 but illustrating a stage following removal of the screw cap from the pour spout; and

Figure 14 is a view similar to Figure 8 but of a detail of another modified version of the screw cap.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4, in this embodiment the pour spout fitment 2 consists of a screw cap 4 and a flanged pour spout 6. Figure 1 shows the cap 4 before attachment to the spout. The cap has internal screwthreading 8 and an internal, annular, sealing lip 10. The cap 4 has been injection-moulded of thermoplastics, as has the spout 6, and includes four legs 12 depending from the rim of the skirt of the cap and connected to that rim by way of frangible bridges 14. The legs 12 include respective feet 16, each of which extends upwardly and outwardly at an angle θ to the remainder 15 of its leg 12, which is parallel to the axis A of the screw cap. The legs 12 may be interconnected by a bottom ring 18 co-axial with the axis A, for stability of the positions of the legs 12. The angle θ is about three- quarters of a right-angle, for example substantially 70°.

The body of the pour spout has external screwthreading 20 for co-operating with the screwthreading 8 and, at its lower, i.e. inner, end, has an external flange 22. In assembling the fitment 2, the cap 4 and the spout 6 are pressed or screwed together until the roof 24 of the cap 4 abuts the upper, i.e. outer, rim of the spout 6, in which condition the legs 12 extend to immediately adjacent to the flange 22. The fitment 2 so assembled is received over an anvil (not shown) which transports the fitment into a hole 26 through a wall 28 of the carton until the up-turned feet 16 encounter the inside surface 30 of the carton wall 28. A recessed, ultrasonic horn is then caused to receive the cap 4 until the horn presses an annular portion of the wall 28 firmly towards the anvil and so turns the feet 16 towards the flange 22 until they are substantially perpendicular to the axis A and then welds the wall 28 to the feet 16 and to the flange 22 and welds the feet 16 to the flange 22; i.e., the feet 16 are sandwiched and welded between the wall 28 and the flange 22. The wall 28 preferably comprises a laminate comprised of a paperboard substrate and innermost and outermost moisture barrier layers of thermoplastics, possibly with the inclusion of an oxygen barrier layer internally of the laminate. For each leg 12, the turning of its foot 16 through about one-quarter of a right-angle, for example through substantially 20°, pre-stresses outwardly the remainders 15 of the legs 12, but without breaking the bridges 14. This condition is illustrated in Figure 2. To open the pour spout fitment, a consumer unscrews the cap 4 from the spout 6, with the result that the bridges 14 are broken and the pre-stressed remainders 15 then automatically swing outwards about the feet 16 and so come to project laterally outwards noticeably. Even after the cap 4 has been re-closed, the remainders 15 are still immediately noticeable, as will be appreciated , from Figure 4.

The thermoplastics of the fitment 2 is advantageously high density polyethylene (HDPE) , particularly because HDPE has a relatively good memory and this promotes the swinging outwards of the remainders 15.

Although the fitment 2 has been illustrated with four equi-angularly spaced legs 12, it may have any other suitable number of legs, for example six or eight.

In the second embodiment, the noticeable lateral projections are produced not by pre-stressing outwards of upright portions 15 of legs, but by utilising unscrewing of the cap to increase bowing of arcuate tamper-evident portions. Referring to Figures 5 and 6, the cap 4 has depending from its skirt four frangible bridges 40 integral with four tamper-evident arcuate bands 42 co-axial with the axis A of the cap 4 and each extending through almost a right-angle about that axis. The bridges 40 are at respective ends of the 'bands 42, whilst the other ends of those bands are firmly fixed to respective footed legs 44. Those legs are connected by respective frangible bridges 46 to adjacent ends of respective bands 42 to which the legs 44 are not firmly fixed.

The modified version shown in Figures 7 and 8 differs from the version shown in Figures 5 and 6 in that the lower parts of the legs 4 are fixedly interconnected by arcuate bands 48 to provide greater stability, particularly to avoid premature breaking of the bridges 46.

Figures 9 and 10 show the second embodiment of the fitment, including the- cap version the version of Figures 7 and 8, following assembly of the fitment and sandwiching ultrasonic sealing of the feet of the legs 44 between the wall 28 and the flange 22.

In opening of the second embodiment of the fitment, commencement of unscrewing of the cap 4 breaks the bridges 46, which are weaker in tension than the bridges 40 are in torsion. Because the arcuate bands 42 remain attached through the bridges 40 to the skirt of the cap 4 and, because they are anchored relatively to the pour spout 6 at their ends fixed to the legs 44, they bow increasingly outwards, as illustrated in Figures 11 and 12, where the unbroken bridges 40 can be considered to have moved first through the angle a° and then through the angle b°. Further turning of the cap finally breaks the bridges 40, until, for example, the condition shown in Figure 13 is attained, in which the bands 42 remain anchored to the legs 44 and project noticeably laterally outwardly. However, in this condition, the tamper- evident bands 42 do not interfere with pouring or drinking of the contents from the carton, which, for clarity, is not illustrated in Figures 11 to 13. The arrangement may be such that the bridges 40 break after turning of the cap 4 through between one-half of a right-angle and a right-angle. The degree of turning required to produce fracturing of the bridges 40 depends partially, of course, upon the coarseness of the screwthreading between the cap 4 and the spout 6. The memory of the thermoplastics of the fitment 2 and thus of the bands 42 promotes outward spreading of those bands. Again, the number of legs 44 and thus the number of portions 42 may not be four as shown, but could be any suitable number.

Referring to Figure 14, the cap 4 in its final form has been produced by injection moulding of thermoplastics and then by forming of interrupted slitting 50 which is performed after moulding of the cap 4 and preferably after assembly of the pour spout fitment. Slitting as a method gives greater dimensional accuracy, particularly of the frangible bridges and thus greater reliability of their strengths than does injection moulding. The slitting 50 can be performed by rotation of the cap 4 (whether or not on the pour spout 6) relative to a slitting device, which may itself be rotary. The cap or the fitment may be rolled over the slitting device in the form of a stationary arrangement of knives, with interruptions therein providing the bridges. Such slitting device has the additional advantage that change of particularly the breaking torque required can be carried out simply be replacement of the device by a differently dimensioned slitting device, rather than by replacement of a mould or mould inserts. The slitting 50 includes a slit 5OA which is interrupted by pairs of bridges, each pair consisting of a stronger bridge 52 and a weaker bridge 54, as well as a slit 5OB transverse to the slit 5OA and connected therewith at a location intermediate the bridges 52 and 54 of each pair, and also a short slit 5OC connected to the inner end of each slit 5OB and extending parallelly to the slit 5OA. There thus remains an annular band 56 encircling the spout and this is ultrasonically connected to the flange 22 by way of a plurality of feet 58 integral with the band 56. Thus the slitting 50 profiles the bands 42 and 56. In this version, upon unscrewing of the cap 4, the weaker bridges 54 break first and the stronger bridges 52 cause the arcuate bands 42 to bow outwards and then the stronger bridges 52 break and the cap 4 is completely unscrewed from the pour spout.

Claims

1. A pour spout fitment comprising a pour spout, a closure covering an outer end of said spout, and a tamper- evident arrangement attached to said spout, on the one hand, and, more weakly, by at least one frangible bridge to said closure, on the other hand, the arrangement being such that, through opening of said closure, the or each said bridge is broken, but at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to said spout can project laterally outwards noticeably.

2. A fitment according to claim 1, wherein the or each said significant portion is pre-stressed laterally outwardly.

3. A fitment according to claim 2, wherein the or each said significant portion is a leg portion extending longitudinally of said spout.

4. A fitment according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the or each said significant portion is arcuate and extends about said pour spout.

5. A fitment according to claim 4, wherein the significant portion is, or the respective significant portions are, attached to said closure by another frangible bridge, or respective other frangible bridges, which is, or are, stronger than the first-mentioned frangible bridge, or the respective first-mentioned frangible bridges.

6. A fitment according to claim 5, wherein said other frangible bridge is, or said respective other frangible bridges are, in the region of said first-mentioned frangible bridge, or in the respective regions of said respective first-mentioned frangible bridges.

7. A fitment according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the or each said significant portion is mounted at respective ends thereof upon respective legs of said tamper-evident arrangement.

8. A fitment according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein said tamper-evident arrangement includes an annular band encircling said spout and the first-mentioned frangible bridge (s) connect (s) said annular band to said closure, whilst said other frangible bridge (s) connect (s) the significant portion (s) to said closure.

9. A fitment according to claim 8, wherein said annular band and said significant portion (s) have been profiled by slitting.

10. A package comprising a container and a pour spout fitment attached thereto, said fitment comprising a pour spout, a closure covering an outer end of said spout, and a tamper-evident arrangement attached to said spout or said container, on the one hand, and, more weakly, by at least one frangible bridge to said closure, on the other hand, the arrangement being such that, through opening of said closure, the or each said bridge is broken, but at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to said spout or said container can project laterally outwards noticeably.

11. A package according to claim 10, wherein the or each said significant portion is pre-stressed laterally outwardly.

12. A package according to claim 11, wherein the or each said significant portion is a leg portion extending longitudinally of said spout.

13. A package according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the or each said significant portion is arcuate and extends about said pour spout.

14. A package according to ^' claim 13, wherein the significant portion is, or the respective significant portions are, attached to said closure by another frangible bridge, or respective other frangible bridges, which is, or are, stronger than the first-mentioned frangible bridge, or the respective first-mentioned frangible bridges.

15. A package according to claim 14, wherein said other frangible bridge is, or said respective other frangible bridges are, in the region of said first-mentioned frangible bridge, or in the respective regions of said respective first-mentioned frangible bridges.

16. A package according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the or each said significant portion is mounted at respective ends thereof upon respective legs of said tamper-evident arrangement.

17. A package according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein said tamper-evident arrangement includes an annular band encircling said spout and the first- mentioned frangible bridge (s) connect (s) said annular band to said closure, whilst said other frangible bridge (s) connect (s) the significant portion (s) to said closure.

18. A package according to claim 17, wherein said annular band and said significant portion (s) have been profiled by slitting.

19. A method of opening a pour spout fitment of a container, comprising turning a cap of said fitment relative to said container so as to break at least one connecting bridge of' a tamper-evident arrangement of said fitment, with the result that at least one significant portion of said arrangement remaining attached to a pour spout of said fitment or to said container projects noticeably laterally outwards.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said turning of said cap has the result that the or each said significant portion, which is pre-stressed laterally outwards, comes to project noticeably laterally outwards .

1. A method according to claim 20, wherein said turning of said cap has the result that, initially, the or each said significant portion bows noticeably laterally outwards and, subsequently, becomes detached from said cap.