ES2341298T3 - LIGHTWEIGHT FOLDING CONTAINER. - Google Patents

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

Lightweight folding container

The present invention relates to a container lightweight folding according to the preamble of claim 1, in particular to a suitable container for packaging and distribution of non-fluid food products.

For non-fluid food products, you want say products that do not flow, or that flow with difficulty under your own weight

In the following description, the products that they will be contained in the invention will be described as products semi-liquid or pasty dairy products, for example yogurt with or without pieces of fruit and the like. However it is due understand that the present invention applies to all products non-fluid foods

In recent years, they have been developed many nutritional and food products which are proposed  to the consumer in a form prepared to drink, for example in a liquid or semi-liquid form, that is, creams, gels, viscous liquids. This allows the consumer to consume the product "on the fly", that is, without using a specific tool, directly from a bottle or a container similar to a bottle in which the Products of this type.

However, it was found that the viscosity of Products of this type prevent correct distribution and Complete the product from its container, which is highly undesirable for the consumer, for the quality image of the product and also for legal aspects. Of course it is very often about 10% of the volume of the product that It is marked on the container label, it cannot be distributed and the consumer loses it, because due to its viscosity it remains inside the container, even if the consumer gives the back to the bowl

Although there are collapsible containers, the most of the time they are oriented to large volumes and so both not applicable in the case of small parts of food. In addition, although they are foldable, their interior volume cannot be sufficiently reduced by compressing the body of the container, so as to force it out of the bowl the rest of a small part of the food.

EP 1650133 A1 is a request for Nestec S.A. patent Reveal a compressible set for refrigerated or frozen pasta products stable on shelf comprising a body formed by a tube or a container that It has side and bottom walls and a flange shaped accordion, a rigid plastic cap attached to the end of the tube or of the flange of the container comprising an opening, a gasket of cover to close the opening and a product contained in the set. This document however does not show the construction of a compressible container which optimize the empty volume of the container as well as the product distribution outlet.

Therefore it is a main purpose of the present invention propose a collapsible container made of such so that the inner volume of the container body can be reduced by more than 95% by compressing at least part of that 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 revealed to from, the description of the embodiments currently preferred which are set with reference to the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic view of the profile of the prior art;

Figure 2 is a schematic view of the profile of an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 is a bottom view of the container depicted in figure 2;

Figure 4 is a schematic view, partially in section, of the profile of the container represented in the Figure 2, said container being in a configuration compressed

The present invention, as illustrated in the Figure 2, refers to a container 1 suitable for packaging and the distribution of non-fluid viscous dairy products as per example a yogurt with pieces of fruit, which has an index of viscosity of approximately 10,000 to 35,000 centipoise

The container 1 comprises a body of the compressible container 2 and a neck of container 3 with a distribution hole 4. The entire container is manufactured by molding in a mold from an injected preform that It is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

As depicted in Figure 2, the container 1 can be set in a first configuration in which said container body 2 is fully expanded and has a interior volume V2.

In a second configuration illustrated in the Figure 4, the body of the container 2 can be compressed. In the fully compressed configuration shown in figure 4, The body of the container 2 has an internal volume V1.

According to the present invention, the walls of the container have a thickness not exceeding 100 µm, so that The entire container has a particularly low weight.

Also, according to the invention, the ratio of the interior volumes of the container body between the fully compressed and fully expanded configuration, V1 / V2, is approximately 0.03.

As can be seen from Figure 2, a Very low compression ratio of this type is obtained by a special configuration of the container body which has a form such that it can be completely folded from its bottom to top.

As can be seen from figure 1 that Illustrates the prior art, the profile of the container body complete has a globally trunk-conical shape and a series of bellows 5 with concentric cross sections from the bottom - the smallest cross sections - to the top -the major cross sections-, of so that each bellows of said body can be folded exactly in the inside of the upper bellows.

Similarly, as depicted in the Figure 2 illustrating an embodiment of the invention, is you can see that the lower half of the body of the container 2 has symmetrically the same cross section - up to the game functional - than the upper half, so that said lower half it can be turned inwards to adjust it exactly in the upper half of said container body, as illustrated  in figure 4.

In order to be flexible enough to flip it in, the lower half of the body of the container comprises a helical edge 6 that extends all around the full circumference of said body of the container from the flat bottom 7 of the container body 2 to the upper part 8 of the lower half of said body of the container, as shown in Figure 3.

More generally, said container body It comprises two halves, the lower half being as flexible as so that it can be folded up inside the middle upper, in order to fully compress said body of the container.

Whatever the particular form of the container, said container is meant to be formed, filled then in its fully expanded configuration and then it closes such as by means of a screw cap that Thread over the neck.

For use, the consumer unscrew the lid to open the container and then consume the contents pressing the container, compressing the body of the container by applying a small pressure on the ends top and bottom of the container, so that the interior volume of the container body that is left is just enough to Contain the rest of the product. Then the container can be close again until the next use.

When the container is almost empty, the consumer can use the compression effect to reduce to a minimum the internal volume of the container body and therefore force out the viscous product that is inside the container. Due to the minimum volume inside the body when the container is fully compressed, the consumer you can be sure that almost the entire amount of the product such As it is labeled it is distributed and can be consumed. Basically, the internal volume of the container that cannot be compressed, corresponds to the volume of the neck. This maximizes the appearance of the container and indicates the consumer the amount of product that remains in the container.

Claims (1)

A container (1) manufactured by a blow injection process, from a thermoplastic material comprising: polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, polyethylene glycol terephthalate, polypropylene, or a combination thereof, said container being suitable for packaging and distributing a viscous food product, the walls of said container body (2) being provided with a thickness not exceeding 100 µm, said container (2) comprising a compressible container body (2) and a neck of the container (3) with a distribution hole (4), said body of the container being provided with an internal volume V1 when said body is in a fully compressed configuration and an internal volume V2 when said body is in a fully expanded configuration , the ratio V1 / V2 being less than or equal to 0.05, said container body (2) comprising two halves, the bottom half being t still flexible and shaped in such a way that it can be folded upwards inside the upper half, in order to fully compress said body of the container, said lower half of the body of the container (2) comprises at least one groove or at least less an edge (6) that extends at least once around the entire circumference of said body of the container characterized in that the groove or the edge is helical.