FR2780031A1 - Collapsible plastic bottle especially for baby's feeding bottle - Google Patents

Abstract

The bottle has a with pleated sides. Each corrugation is formed by the sides of adjoining cones set at different angles to a transverse plane between them, the upper angle ( alpha ) being greater than the lower one ( beta ) by 4 deg or more, the lower angle being between 35 deg and 40 deg . The curvature of the trough between two corrugations is under 0.2 mm in radius.

Description

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  BOTTLES, ESPECIALLY REMOVABLE BIBERS.

  The present invention relates to bottles, in

particular bottles.

  The object of the invention is to provide retractable flasks, the height of which can be reduced in

outside periods of use.

  In the state of the art, various embodiments of bottles or bottles have been proposed.

retractable.

  The French patent FR2467146 discloses in particular a semi-rigid packaging constituted by a corrugated sleeve, the waves of substantially triangular shaped section, allow a stable clipping by tilting at least part of them beyond a equilibrium position so that each of said waves has a stable position in the compressed state or in the deployed state. The sleeve delimits an interior volume can vary in a significant relationship between states

  extremes o all waves are compressed or deployed.

  Another document of the prior art, US Pat. No. 5,348,173 discloses details of embodiment.

  such a retractable package.

  US Pat. No. 2,780,678, US Pat. No. 3,143,429, British Patent GB2181062 or European Patent EP300786 are also known concerning compressible containers also having a general shape of bellows. Indeed, the products of the prior art retains the memory of folding: when unfolding the bottle after a long period of maintenance in position

  folded, it does not regain its nominal capacity.

  These packages, however, have defects. They do not guarantee the capacity in the deployed position. Indeed, significant variations can

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  intervene when the conditioning of the prior art is subject to multiple manipulations of extensions and retraction. On the other hand, the devices of the prior art do not guarantee a smooth and uniform folding or deployment of the bellows, and often do not guarantee the stability of the extreme and intermediate positions. These disadvantages make the device of the prior art unsuitable for certain applications,

  especially to the realization of a bottle.

  Indeed, for such applications,

  certain characteristics are required.

  It is desirable that the capacity of the bottle in the deployed position is constant and reproducible, to allow accurate dosing of the content using benchmarks

Lateral graduation.

  The devices of the prior art do not make it possible to guarantee such a constancy of the capacity, and the lateral references which could be affixed to the wall would not make it possible to deduce the

  volume of liquid introduced into the packaging.

  Moreover, it will be noted that no document of the prior art suggests the use of such reference marks of

graduation.

  Second, a bottle must be sufficiently stable, in the extended position, to prevent untimely axial pressure from causing inadvertent folding. Such a refolding would have very detrimental effects, by creating an overpressure of the contents, an overflow of the liquid, and a risk of suffocation of the

  Infant by excess of liquid delivered by the bottle.

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  Finally, it may be desirable that the capacity of the bottle can be periodically adjusted to expel the air, to reduce the risk of air absorption by the infant. The absorption of an excess of air causes risks of aerophagia resulting, for the infant, by abdominal pains. To do so, it must allow the alienation of

  stable intermediate positions.

  Furthermore, the shape of the bellows in retracted or partially folded position must allow a liquid flow without formation of stagnation zones

  liquid contained in the container.

  The object of the invention is to improve the bellows packaging of the prior art for

remedy these disadvantages.

  For this purpose, the invention relates to a bottle, in particular a bottle, having a retractable body of substantially cylindrical plastic, characterized in that the body is constituted by a succession of conical sections (3 to 10), alternating, rigid / flexible enabling at least two stable extension positions to be obtained, and a plurality of stable intermediate positions having axial symmetry, and in that the angle a is greater than the angle λ, adesigning the angle formed between the upper flank and a transverse plane; Pdescribing the angle formed between the side

lower and a transverse plane.

  Preferably, a-d greater than or equal to 4.

  For this purpose, the upper flank is thicker, and therefore more rigid, than the lower flank, which is

  made more flexible than the upper flank.

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  Advantageously, the radius of curvature of the connection zone (11) between the upper conical wall and the lower conical wall is greater than or equal to 2

times the thickness of the wall.

  The angle P formed between the transverse plane and the lower conical wall is between 35 and 40. According to one particular variant, the ratio I / R between the length I of the lower flank and the radius R

  hollow level is between 0.35 and 0.50.

  According to another variant, the bottom has a

  ring to pull on the body of the bottle.

  Advantageously, the ratio between the generatrices S and I of two consecutive conical sectors

is about 1.25.

According to one variant, the constraint

  is less than or equal to 80% of the stress of a.

  According to an advantageous embodiment, the bottle according to the invention has on its wall graduation marks for the determination of the volume of liquid

  contained in the bottle in the deployed position.

  The invention will be better understood when reading

  the description of an example of realization which follows,

  Referring to the accompanying drawings o: - Figures 1 and 2 show sectional views of a detail of a bottle, in unfolded and folded position respectively; - Figures 3 and 4 show sectional views of the bottle; FIGS. 5 and 6 represent views of

details of the body of the bottle.

  The body of the bottle according to the invention, represented in the accompanying figures, consists of a

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  succession of conical sections (1 to 2) connected, when the bottle is in the deployed position, in the form of lenses to form a corrugated hollow body. These upper conical sections (1) and lower (2) are connected at their vertices (100) and their recesses (200). When the bottle is folded, the lower conical section (1) is folded under the upper conical section (2). The lower conical section (2) tilts with respect to the transverse median plane (300). The lower section (2) is above the transverse plane (300) passing through the hollow (200) of a lenticular segment (400) when the bottle is deployed. It is below the

  transverse plane (300) when the bottle is folded.

  The bottle will be described in the following by way of non-limiting example, for a maximum capacity (corresponding to the deployed position) of the container of 305 milliliters, for a height of 147.4 mm and a section

maximum of 64 mm.

  The body comprises a plurality of lenticular elements (3 to 10) formed by the addition of two

conical sections (1, 2).

  The connection (11) between two lenticular elements, at the level of the hollow, has a radius of curvature close to 0, in any case less than or equal to 0.2 millimeters. The thickness is an element that can disturb the operation of the part, folding and unfolding as well as maintaining the turn in the folded position, it

  can even prevent folding if it is important.

  1-Influence of the optimal distribution of

thicknesses on the geometry.

  2- Influence of the rigidity of the material:

  Young's modulus on bending and unfolding efforts.

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  The condition of folding and nesting of a turn at the thickness not to mention the energy of folding but only feasibility results in a

  radius of the neighboring hollow of 0 to 0.2 millimeters.

  The hollow is a crossroads of the thickness of the lower flank and the upper flank At this location, unlike the summit, the material expands less because of its proximity to the center. To create the nesting, it is necessary to break the accumulation of materials at this point so that the coil

fold and remain folded.

  The mechanisms involved in the folding of the bottle are as follows: Two types of buckling modes may appear. 1. The first mode is a mode accompanied by large displacements which leads to a sudden increase in the stiffness of the room (figure 5) 2.The 2nd is a more local mode accompanied by much more displacements

  weak localized on the flanks of the turns.

  The appearance of this second mode does not induce a significant increase in rigidity (FIG. 6). A non-homogeneous distribution of the thicknesses (thicknesses at the vertices, hollows and flanks of different turns depending on the turns) favors the appearance of the first buckling mode. A homogenization of the thicknesses therefore has the direct consequence of reducing the energy required.

folding.

  The decrease in the thickness at the level of the turns and at the vertices allows a substantial gain on the bending energies. But in both cases, the decreases in thickness do not allow to better control the appearance and type of buckling mode

represented in FIGS. 5 and 6.

  The introduction of a greater thickness on the upper flanks than on the lower flanks of the turns makes it possible, on the one hand, to better control and prevent the appearance of the other types of mode by increasing the rigidity of the upper flanks. on the other hand to create privileged zones of flexion on the lower flanks. This concept therefore allows a significant gain on energy

necessary for folding the bottle.

  The unfolding does not lead to the appearance of buckling mode but the above conclusions remain true: a more homogeneous distribution of the thicknesses makes it possible to reduce the unfolding energy, the hinge effect of vertices is greater than that of the hollows, the creation of thicker and therefore more rigid zones on the upper flanks and correlatively that of preferred flexion zones on the lower flanks

  reduces the energy required for unfolding.

  The decrease in the YOUNG modulus of the material does not bring significant gains compared to those resulting from an optimized distribution of thicknesses. The reduction of the module if it leads to lower folding energies also leads to more flexible parts whose stability, in particular lateral, in operation can

be greatly diminished.

  A better distribution of thicknesses and possibly a YOUNG module material lower than 950 MPa (800 and 650 MPa) make it possible to reduce

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  (almost 100%) the energy needed to unfold and fold the bottle. It should be noted that for an identical effort, the unfolding energy is generally equivalent to the folding energy but that the observations made above make it possible to unfold the bottle with low intensity efforts that do not allow folding. We can therefore generally unfold the bottle with

  a lower effort than that required for folding.

  The lower lenticular element (3) comprises a lower element whose external section is 64 mm and the height of 5.4 mm, and an upper conical element whose generator is 13.0 mm, and forms with the vertical angle of 28.5. The total height of this

  first lenticular element (3) is 17.7 mm.

  The next lenticular element (4) has a height of 16.9 mm. The lower conical sector has a length of 8.9 mm and forms with the vertical an angle of 39. The upper conical sector has a length

  of 10.5 mm and forms with the vertical an angle of 44.

  The following five lenticular elements (5 to 9) are formed by a lower conical sector whose generatrix has a length of 10.2 mm and forms with the vertical an angle ú of 40, and an upper conical sector whose generator presents a length of 12

  mm and forms with the vertical an angle a of 47.

  To avoid the effects of hysteresis, it is necessary to respect a certain geometry of the flanks between them. Dimensions and angles are referred to in reference to the

figure 3.

  Lower flank dimension = I Upper flank dimension = S R = radius from hollow to center, on

the transverse plane.

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  the angle formed between the upper and the transverse plane is the angle formed between the lower flank and

the transverse plane.

  For the bottle according to the invention, the following formulas must be verified: a> S. at the angle of the upper flank, S that of

lower flank that flames.

  I / R must be between 35% and 50% In the example described, I = 8.9 mm

R = 25 mm The ratio is 35.6%.

  must be greater than g by at least 4. This

  value includes the possible thickness of Bottom Flank.

  Ideally g must be between 35 and

   . Beyond 40, it becomes difficult to fold.

  should be larger by at least 4 compared to S because after kinematics, the lower flank S goes

  place to g. If S 'hits the upper flank at g'-

  the lower flank does not bend but deforms and can bounce. If the dimensions are otherwise respected, alpha must be larger but not exceed 20%. According to an exemplary embodiment, a = 44 = 39 (g = 88% of a). The angle S is closer to the straight line.

  from the peaks, the more the folding is facilitated.

  The concept of retractable flasks whose height can be reduced outside periods of use is applied here for disposable bottles

  characterized by a spiral geometry.

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  The bottle is sold sterile and folded, it must

  so be unfolded to be used.

  At the end of use, the bottle is folded to be discarded. In any case, the user must be able to unfold and fold the bottle easily. However, it must be able to use it without there being any risk of aliasing during use. For such bottles, the folding and unfolding phases must be able to be carried out with minimal efforts guaranteeing

  however the stability in use.

  The "constraint" "Point of passage": To ensure a buckling of the lower flank before buckling of the upper flank, and to avoid the phenomena

  hysteresis, it is necessary to optimize the stress of the flanks.

  At folding: Inferior: The projection of the lower flank towards a virtual point situated on the horizontal starting from the vertices, represents with the radius of this same flank on

  the horizontal, the value of the constraint.

  The constraint of & must not exceed 22% ±

  1% of the dimension of the lower flank.

  The constraint of ú must be between 21 and 23% of I (lower flank dimension) The stress of o must be greater than that of ú If the opposite occurs, it is the upper flank that will tend to deform first. In order for the lower flank alone to bend, it is necessary to ensure that the stress of the upper flank is greater than that of the

lower flank.

  Nevertheless the gap between the two constraints must be compressed. For this, the constraint ú should be greater than or equal to 60% of the constraint of a. Below 60%, there is a problem of strong 11h 2780031 energy to deploy. A constraint of M = 47% of the stress of a results for example in a

excessively hard handling.

  Ex: upper stress 2.9 mm Lower stress 2.0 mm Moreover, when the stress of ú is greater than 70% of the stress of a, the bellows has a shape memory producing the hysteresis effect. Projection of the flank on the same horizontal whose distance from the value of

its radius.

  The closer the angle G is to the line from the vertices, the easier the folding is because the stress of the lower flank approaches its projection and therefore the stress approaches 0. This

  condition is obtained with an angle of 25 and below.

  But with this value, we observe a retention of the liquid in the turns. We lose the reliability and the

reproducibility of the capacity.

  In order to improve the compactness or miniaturization of the bottle, the lower sidewall must represent in dimension at least 80% of the size of the bottle.

upper flank.

  The lower flank can go from 80% to%. If this value is exceeded, the bottle becomes after folding, an inverted conical piece. This value is

  preferably between 80% and 95%.

  The bottle is composed of spiers representing

each a useful volume of 30 ml.

  The upper lenticular element (10) is

  extended by a threaded cylindrical portion (11).

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  The total height of the corrugated portion is 127.6 mm in the deployed position. It presents benchmarks of

graduation (12) graduated in volume.

  The retraction is preferably performed by pressures along alternating oblique axes, and not

in an axial direction.

  Pressure is exerted with a lateral asymmetry to force the tilting of one side of a lenticular element, then a second pressure is exerted with an opposite lateral component to complete

  the folding of this first lenticular element.

  This reciprocating movement is then continued until the desired number of lenticular elements is folded. The bottle then remains in a position

stable intermediate.

  The material chosen here is polypropylene with a 950 Mpa module for its greater resistance to heat, necessary for the heating of the bottle as well as for its transparency to visualize the formation of lumps from milk powder, and finally for its rigidity necessary for the good behavior and stability of the bottle.

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Claims (8)

  1 - Bottle, in particular bottle, having a retractable body of substantially cylindrical plastic, characterized in that the body is constituted by a succession of conical sections, (3 to 10), alternating, rigid / flexible to obtain at least two stable extension positions, and a plurality of stable intermediate positions having axial symmetry, and in that the angle x is greater than the angle, odessing the angle formed between the upper flank and a transverse plane; Pdescribing the angle formed between the lower flank and a transverse plane and in that the radius of curvature of the hollow is less than 0.2 millimeters ..   2 - Bottle, in particular bottle, according to claim 1 characterized in that a-5 superior or equal to 4.   3 - Bottle, in particular bottle, according to claim 1 characterized in that the radius of curvature of the connection zone (11) between the upper conical wall and the lower conical wall is greater or   equal to 2 times the thickness of the wall.   4 - bottle, in particular bottle, according to claim 1 characterized in that the angle 5 formed between the transverse plane and the lower conical wall is between 35 and 40 14 2780031   - Bottle, especially baby bottle, according to one   at least one of the preceding claims characterized in that   that the ratio I / R between the length I of the lower flank and the radius R at the level of the hollow is between 0.35 and 0.50.   6 - Bottle, especially baby bottle, according to one   any of the preceding claims characterized in that   that it has on its wall graduation markings (12) for determining the volume of liquid contained in the bottle in deployed position.   7 - Bottle, in particular bottle, according to one   any of the preceding claims characterized in that   that the length of the lower flank is greater than 80% of the length of the upper flank.   8 - Bottle, especially baby bottle, according to one   any of the preceding claims characterized in that   that the constraint $ is greater than or equal to 60% of the constraint of a.   9 - Bottle, in particular bottle, according to one   any of the preceding claims characterized in that   that the constraint 1 is less than or equal to 80% of the constraint of a.   - Bottle, especially baby bottle, according to   any one of the preceding claims characterized   in that the upper flanks are thicker than the lower flanks.