EP2802235B1 - Plastic container for a roll-on - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a plastic container for a deodorant roller according to the preamble of patent claim 1.

The usual in the past containers made of white or stained, glass or ceramic are increasingly being replaced by plastic containers. In particular, for the packaging of fluid substances, such as beverages, household products, care products, etc., now mainly plastic containers are used. The low weight and the lower costs certainly play a significant role in this substitution. The use of recyclable plastic materials and the overall more favorable overall energy balance in their production also contribute to the consumer's acceptance of plastic containers, in particular of plastic bottles. Also in the field of personal care and cosmetics, the usual glass containers are increasingly replaced by those made of plastic.

To combat unpleasant body odor, for example by perspiration, so-called deodorant are used more often lately. In particular, the deodorant rollers are intended to replace the previously used deodorant sprays whose propellant gases have proven to be disadvantageous for the ozone layer in many cases. A Deoroller consists of a receptacle for a deodorant, which has at its upper, provided with the outlet opening a roller cage for an application ball. The ball is rotatably held in the cage. When screwing the closure, usually a rotary closure, on the receptacle, the ball is pressed against an annular peripheral sealing area and prevents leakage of the deodorant contained inside. When the closure is removed between the spherical surface and the sealing area remains a narrow gap. The gap makes it possible for the portion of the ball wetted with the deodorant to pass to the body site to be treated, for example the armpit, during the rotation of the ball, where it emits a thin deodorant film. Because of the double function, on the one hand sealing, on the other hand dispensing deodorant, there are relatively high demands on the dimensional accuracy of the cage and the ball. The roll cages are therefore manufactured in an injection molding process, which ensures the required accuracy.

In the past, the receptacles were often made of glass, to which the injection-molded plastic roll cage was pressed or screwed. The application ball is pressed after filling the deodorant in the receptacle in the roll cage and is held there rotatable and captive. Meanwhile, a number of deo scooters are known, which have a receptacle made of plastic. The plastic container can be produced in a stretch blow molding process or in an extrusion blow molding process. The injection-molded roller cage is in turn pressed onto the neck of the receptacle or screwed and welded, for example, additionally for fixing and sealing. The roller cage and the receptacle must have exactly matched tying sections, so that tightness problems can be avoided.

The known Deoroller usually consist of four components, the receptacle, the roll cage, the application ball and the cap, which are each made separately and must be coordinated with each other in terms of dimensional accuracy. The logistical effort for the production, storage and merging of the coordinated components of the Deoroller is not insignificant. The production of the roller cage by injection molding is relatively complicated and expensive because of the necessary for the rotatable and captive holding the application ball undercut. The tool costs for the injection mold for the roller cage and the tool costs for the tool for the production of the receptacle play a significant role. Finally, even a separate assembly and fixation of the roll cage on the plastic container is required, which increases the cost and cost of the production of deo scooters.

The document US2007 / 0071547A1 discloses the subject matter of the preamble of claim 1.

The document WO2009 / 006713A2 discloses a plastic container with a sealing membrane. There is therefore a desire to reduce the cost of manufacturing, storage and merging of the individual components and for the installation of deodorant scooters. The tool costs should be reduced.

The solution to these problems consists in a plastic container for a Deoroller having the features listed in claim 1. Further developments and / or advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

The invention proposes a plastic container for a deodorant roller which has a receptacle and a roller cage for the captive rotatable mounting of an application ball. The roll cage is formed in an extrusion blown from an extruded tube integral with the receptacle. This eliminates the need for separate tools for the production of the roll cage and for the production of the receptacle. For the integrally formed plastic container only a single tool is required, which has an advantageous effect on the tool costs. For sealing, the integrally formed roller cage at a transition to the receiving container forming portion of the plastic container on an annular peripheral sealing area. The roller cage is provided at least in this sealing area with an inner layer which is softer than an outer layer of the roll cage. This ensures that the application ball inserted into the roller cage, which usually consists of a harder material, for example polypropylene, polyamide, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), etc., produces an adequate seal when pressed against the sealing area of the roller cage. For example, if the application ball is made of polypropylene, the adjacent surface of the roll cage is HDPE, for example. In this case, the entire roll cage can be designed in one layer and consist of HDPE. The inner layer of the roll cage is made by coextrusion. Coextrusion is particularly used in the extrusion blow molding process to produce multilayer containers or articles. It allows a very exact arrangement and dosing of the additional layer (s) to adjust their wall thickness accurately.

By the roll cage is formed integrally with the receptacle for the deodorant, eliminates the assembly step for a separate roll cage. Leakage problems at Anbindeabschnitten the receptacle and the roller cage can not occur at all. The one-piece design of the two sections of the plastic container, namely receptacle and roll cage, the production of the plastic container is simplified. A complicated logistics for storage and timely merger of two separately manufactured components for their assembly is eliminated. The one-piece design also increases the degrees of freedom in terms of the design of the receptacle forming portion of the plastic container and designed as a roll cage section, since not two separately manufactured components must be equipped with coordinated tethers. The simplified production and the simplified handling also reduces the costs for producing the plastic container for the deodorant. The production of the plastic container with one piece with each other trained receptacle and roll cage in an extrusion blow molding of an extruded plastic tube is very convenient and inexpensive. The extrusion blow molding process, in which a single-layer or multi-layer plastic hose is extruded, inserted into a blow mold and finally inflated by a blowing medium introduced with excess pressure according to the blow mold cavity, has been tried and tested, can be carried out inexpensively and permits short production cycles.

The plastic container with integrally formed receptacle and roll cage can be inflated from a continuously or discontinuously extruded plastic tube. Preferably, however, the production of a continuously extruded plastic tube, since the equipment required for this purpose are simpler in construction. For example, eliminates a jam head in the continuous extrusion of the plastic tube.

For the special design of the integrally molded roller cage, in which an application ball must be rotatable and captive, proves to be a variant of the extrusion blow, as known, which is known as the "lost-head method". In this "lost-head process", an excess plastic section in the region of the roll cage is cut off by extrusion after the extrusion blow molding process. This ensures that the section of the roller cage which is critical for holding the application ball has the required tolerances with regard to dimensional accuracy, wall thickness and rigidity.

By the sealing area is formed as a circumferential annular shoulder, already a relatively small contact pressure is sufficient to achieve a sufficient seal. Due to the formation of a facet or the like in the sealing area, a surface seal between the application ball and the ring cage can be achieved.

A further embodiment of the invention provides that the plastic container is formed in the region of the roller basket at least two layers. The inner layer of the roll cage is softer than its outer layer.

The inner layer of the roll cage expediently has a hardness which is about 35 Shore to 90 Shore, according to ASTM test D-2240 (or to ISO 868 or DIN53505). These hardness values for the inner layer ensure that it is in any case softer than the surface of the application balls used in deo rollers.

The materials used for the inner layer of the roll cage are all extrudable and expandable in a blow molding plastics, such as polyolefins, thermoelastic elastomers, HDPE, LDPE, polyamides, copolymers and material mixtures containing the above materials are used. The hardness properties of the materials used can be adjusted by the addition of plasticizers to the desired extent.

The plastic container is expediently designed to be multi-layered overall. For the outer layer are also all extrudable and expandable in a blown plastic materials, such as polyolefins, thermoelastic elastomers, HDPE, LDPE, polyamides, co-polymers and material mixtures containing the above materials are used. The hardness properties of the materials used can be adjusted to the desired extent by the addition of plasticizers. Usually, the outer layer has a greater hardness than the inner layer of the roll cage.

The invention also provides a deodorant roller comprising a plastic container according to the invention as claimed in claim 1, which has a roller cage formed integrally with the receptacle. An application ball is rotatable and captive mounted inside the roller cage. Finally, the deodorant has a closure cap, the height of which is dimensioned such that an extension projecting from an inner side of a cover surface of the closure cap presses against the application ball when it is fastened to the plastic container and seals the receptacle. In contrast to the deo rollers of the prior art, the deodorant roller according to the invention has a smaller number of components, namely the plastic container with receptacle section and roller cage section, the application ball and the closure cap. The Deoroller is simpler and cheaper to manufacture.

The closure cap of Deoreollers is conveniently designed as a rotary closure. The rotary closure is designed such that when screwing The cap must be overcome before reaching the end position increased resistance. Due to the increased resistance that he has to overcome when screwing, the user of the Deoroller is signaled that he has sufficiently sealed this. Conveniently, the closure cap and / or the plastic container are designed such that for sealing sealing of the plastic container with the cap a minimum torque of 30 Nm to 250 Nm, preferably 60 Nm to 140 Nm, must be applied. Alternatively, the cap can also be connected via a bayonet connection with the plastic container.

The invention also extends to a Deoroller according to claim 10 which contains a deodorant.

Fig. 1

eine perspektivische Darstellung eines erfindungsgemäss ausgebildeten Kunststoffbehälters mit einem Aufnahmebehältnis und einem einstückig angeformten Rollkäfig;

Fig. 2

eine axial geschnittene Ansicht des Kunststoffbehälters aus Fig. 1; und

Fig. 3

eine axial geschnittene Ansicht eines zusammengesetzten Deorollers mit aufgeschraubter Verschlusskappe.

Further advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment with reference to the schematic drawings. It shows in not to scale representation:

Fig. 1

a perspective view of an inventively designed plastic container with a receptacle and an integrally molded roller cage;

Fig. 2

an axially cut view of the plastic container Fig. 1 ; and

Fig. 3

an axially sectioned view of a composite Deorollers with screwed cap.

In the following description of the figures, the same reference numerals designate the same components.

In the perspective view in Fig. 1 and the axially cut representation in Fig. 2 the plastic container formed according to the invention is in each case provided with the reference numeral 1 in its entirety. The plastic container 1 has a receptacle 2 and an integrally molded roller cage 3. The section forming the receptacle 2 extends up to a constriction 4. On the outside of the region of the receptacle 2 adjoining the constriction 4, a thread 5 is formed. The roller cage 3 adjoins the constriction 4 and has an approximately spherical segment-shaped or toroidal outer contour. At the transition from the roll cage 3 to the constriction 4 is on the inner wall 6 of the rolling cage 3 is an annular circumferential Shoulder 7 formed. The shoulder 7 bounds an opening 8 in the receptacle 2 and forms a sealing area in cooperation with an application ball held in the roll cage 3 (US Pat. Fig. 3 ).

The plastic container 1 with an integrally formed receptacle 2 and roll cage 3 is produced in an extrusion blow molding process. In this case, a single-layer or multi-layer plastic hose is preferably extruded continuously, inserted into a blow molding tool and finally inflated and demolded by a blowing medium introduced with excess pressure according to the blow mold cavity. The production of the roll cage 3 takes place with advantage in a so-called "lost-head process". In the "lost-head method", an excess plastic portion in the area of the roll cage 3 is cut by the extrusion blown method by cutting. This ensures that the critical for the holder of an application ball portion of the rolling cage 3 has the required tolerances in terms of dimensional accuracy, wall thickness and rigidity.

At least in the region of the annular circumferential shoulder 7, a layer is provided on the inner wall of the roller cage, which has a lower hardness than the usually usable application balls. Advantageously, the entire roll cage 3 and optionally also the receptacle 2 has an inner layer which is usually softer than an outer layer of the plastic container 1. A hardness of the inner layer measured according to ASTM Standard D-2240 is about 35 Shore to 90 Shore ,

As materials for the inner layer of the roll cage 3 are all extrudable and expandable in a blow molding plastics, such as polyolefins, thermoelastic elastomers, HDPE, LDPE, polyamides, copolymers and material mixtures containing the above materials are used. The hardness properties of the materials used can be adjusted by the addition of plasticizers to the desired extent. The plastic container 1 is expediently designed to be multi-layered overall. For the outer layer are also all extrudable and expandable in a blown plastic materials, such as polyolefins, thermoelastic elastomers, HDPE, LDPE, polyamides, co-polymers and material mixtures containing the above materials are used. The hardness properties of the materials used are by the addition of plasticizers in the desired Circumference adjustable. The outer layer usually has a greater hardness than the inner layer of the roll cage 3.

Fig. 3 shows an axially sectioned view of a deodorant roller, the overall reference numeral 10 carries. In contrast to the deodorant rollers of the prior art, which have four individual components, the deodorant roller 10 according to the invention consists only of three individual components, namely the plastic container 1 with integrally formed receptacle 2 and roller cage 3, an application roller 13 which is rotatably and captively held in the roller cage 3 is, and a closure cap 14, whose internal thread 15 cooperates with the external thread 5 of the plastic container 1. The plastic container 1 with integrally formed receptacle 2 and roll cage 3 is manufactured in an extrusion blow molding technology.

The closure cap 14 embodied as a rotary closure has a height which is dimensioned such that when the closure cap 14 is screwed on, an extension 16 protruding from an inside of a top surface of the closure cap 14 presses against the application ball 13. As a result, the application ball 13 is pressed against the annular peripheral shoulder 7 and the receptacle is sealed. The sealing is also assisted by the fact that the roller cage 3 has a surface or layer at least in the region of the annular peripheral shoulder 7, which is softer than the material of the application ball 13, which is usually made of a harder material, for example polypropylene, polyamide, Polyethylene terephthalate or a polyamide exists. In cooperation of the application ball 13 with the softer annular shoulder 7, the receptacle 2 is reliably sealed against leakage of the content contained, for example, a deodorant.

The plastic container 1 and / or the closure cap 14 embodied as a rotary closure are designed such that an increased resistance must be overcome when the closure cap 14 is screwed on before reaching the end position. For example, at the end of the external thread 5 and / or the internal thread 15, one or more oversized areas are provided which must be overcome. This gives the user a feedback signal that indicates that the deodorant is now correctly and leak-proof. Ideally, a minimum torque of 30 Nm to 250 Nm, preferably 60 Nm to 140 Nm, must be applied to overcome the increased resistance.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment described, but also includes equivalent embodiments within the scope of the general inventive concept, as long as they fall within the scope of the claims.

Claims (13)

1. Plastic container for a roll-on deodorant, comprising a receptacle (2) and a roll cage (3) for the captive rotatable retention of an application ball (13), wherein the roll cage (3) is integrally molded with the receptacle (2) and is produced in an extrusion blow-moulding process from an extruded plastic tube, characterized in that the integrally formed-on roll cage (3) has an annularly encircling sealing region at a transition to the receptacle (2), and in that the roll cage (3) has, at least in the sealing region, an inner layer which is produced by coextrusion and which is softer than an outer layer of the roll cage (3).
2. Plastic container according to Claim 1, characterized in that the receptacle (2) and the roll cage (3) are molded integrally from a continuously extruded plastic tube.
3. Plastic container according to Claim 2, characterized in that the receptacle (2) and the integrally molded roll cage (3) are produced in a "lost-head process" in which an excess plastic portion in the region of the roll cage (3) is separated off by cutting after the extrusion blow-moulding process.
4. Plastic container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sealing region is an encircling annular shoulder (7), facet or the like.
5. Plastic container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the roll cage (3) is of at least two-layer design, wherein an inner layer (6) of the roll cage (3) is softer than an outer layer thereof.
6. Plastic container (1) one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the inner layer (6) has a hardness which is approximately 35 Shore to 90 Shore.
7. Plastic container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the inner layer (6) comprises extrudable plastics which can be expanded in a blow-moulding process, for example polyolefins, thermoelastic elastomers, HDPE, LDPE, polyamides, copolymers and material mixtures containing the above materials, the hardness properties of which can be adjusted by the addition of plasticizers to the desired degree.
8. Plastic container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is of multilayer design, wherein its outer layer comprises an extrudable plastic material which can be expanded in a blow-moulding process, the hardness properties of which can be adjusted by the addition of plasticizers.
9. Plastic container according to Claim 8, insofar as it refers back to Claims 5 to 7, characterized in that the outer layer is harder than the inner layer (6) of the roll cage (3).
10. Roll-on deodorant comprising a plastic container (1) with a roll cage (3) integrally molded with a receptacle (2) according to one of Claims 1 to 9, and an application ball (13) which is rotatably and captively held within the roll cage (3), and a closure cap (14) whose height is dimensioned such that, upon fastening on the plastic container (1), a projection (16) protruding from an inner side of a top surface of the closure cap (14) presses against the application ball (13), and this seals the receptacle.
11. Roll-on deodorant according to Claim 10, characterized in that the closure cap (14) is a rotary closure which is designed in such a way that, when screwing the closure cap (14) onto the plastic container (1), an increased resistance has to be overcome before the end position is reached.
12. Roll-on deodorant according to Claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the closure cap (14) and/or the plastic container (1) are/is designed in such a way that, in order to close the plastic container (1) in a sealed manner, a minimum torque of 30 Nm to 250 Nm, preferably 60 Nm to 140 Nm, has to be applied.
13. Roll-on deodorant according to one of Claims 10 to 12 containing a deodorant.

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