GB2099800A

GB2099800A - Bottle closures

Info

Publication number: GB2099800A
Application number: GB8214679A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-06-05
Filing date: 1982-05-20
Publication date: 1982-12-15
Also published as: ES279688Y; IT8267720A0; NL8202160A; BE893275A; DE3218937A1; FR2507160A1; IT1157023B; CH650467A5; ES279688U; GB2099800B

Abstract

A bottle closure comprises a hollow plastics material member (2) provided with, as shown, a thread (32) for fixing it to the neck of a bottle and is characterized in that face (21) is provided with two coaxial circular skirts (3, 4), the outer skirt (4) having an outer conical face (41). Also provided is a security ring 6 and a guard ring 8. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Stoppering device for bottles The present invention relates to a stoppering device for bottles.

Stoppering devices made from plastics materials are required to satisfy opposing criteria in that the plastics material must be sufficiently flexible to elastically press against the bottle neck and ensure a good seal, whilst being sufficiently hard to enable the bottle to be handled during its sealing and opening without deforming.

In addition, when this stoppering device is provided with a saftey ring showing that the bottle has not already been opened, the plastics material must be brittle to permit the ring to break during unstoppering.

Therefore, numerous hitherto produced plastics material stoppering devices have been formed from two or three parts, namely a dish located within the bottle neck and made from a flexible plastics material, a hollow member or plug made from a hard plastics material and optionally a ring made from a brittle plastics material. It is therefore obvious that such stoppering devices are onerous, due to the large number of parts involved.

The problem of the present invention is to obviate these disadvantages and to this end relates to a stoppering device for bottles comprising a hollow plastics material member provided on its inner circular side face with means, such as a thread for its fixing to the neck of a bottle, characterized in that the inner bottom face of the hollow member is provided with two coaxial circular skirts, the outer skirt having an outer conical face.

According to another feature of the invention, the outer skirt has a wall thickness decreasing from the inner bottom face of the hollow member.

According to another feature of the invention, the inner skirt is cylindrical and has a constant wall thickness.

According to another feature of the invention the stoppering device 12 has a conical area at the junction of the inner bottom face and the inner side face, said conical area sloping in the opposite direction of the outer wall of the outer skirt.

The invention is described in greater detail hereinafter relative to a non-limitative embodiment and the attached axial sectional view showing the same.

Therefore, the object of the invention is to provide a stoppering device ensuring a tight, secure sealing of a bottle and which can be made in one piece using a single plastics material and as a result the device is inexpensive.

This device comprises a hollow member 1 made in one piece by moulding a sufficiently hard and brittle plastics material. The bottom wall 2 of this hollow member has on its inner face 21, two circular skirts 3, 4 coaxial to the axis X-X of the hollow part 12 of member 1 and therefore coaxial to the inner circular face 31 of side wall 3.

The inner skirt 3 is cylindrical and has a constant wall thickness, whilst the outer skirt 4 has a conical outer wall 41, whose diameter decreases from the bottom wall 2. The thickness of the outer skirt 4 also decreases from bottom wall 2 and towards the free end of said skirt. The free end of outer skirt 4 is preferably at the same level as the free end of inner skirt 5.

As a result of this arrangement, on screwing hollow member 1 onto the neck of a bottle using thread 3a provided on the inner face 3, of side wall 3, the inner edge of the bottle neck progressively bears on the outer conical face 41 of the outer skirt 4, whilst producing a tight seal.

Thus, as screwing progresses, the outer skirt 4 increasingly deforms due to the radial pressure directed towards axis X-X and exerted by the neck of the bottle in such a way that the free end 42 of the skirt, which is relatively flexible in view of its limited thickness, elastically engaged against the outer face of skirt 3. This limits the deformation of the free end of skirt 4 and prevents the deformation exceeding the elasticity limit beyond which there would be a permanent deformation or a breaking of the skirt.

Thus, as the skirt is maintained by its free end 42 against cylindrical skirt 3, outer skirt 4 tends, towards the end of screwing, to bend elastically inwards, which further reinforces the tight assembly of the outer wall 41 of skirt 4 on the bottle neck.

This flexibility of the deformation of outer skirt 4 held by inner skirt 3 also ensures that there is no breaking of the bottle neck during stopper engagement. Such a fracture or breakage would result from a combination of the radial reaction force directed towards the outside of skirt 4 against the inner wall of the bottle neck and the axial force exerted on the neck by thread 32 In order to be even more certain that the bottle neck does not fracture, the invention provides for a conical area 5 at the junction of the bottom wall 2 and the side wall 3.This conical area 5 is inclined in the opposite direction to outer face 4 of outer skirt 4 in such a way that, at the end of the screwing, the neck of the bottle is applied by its outer edge against the conical surface 5, whilst the inner edge tightly bears against the outer face 41.

The conical area 5 then exerts a radial force on the bottle neck, which balances the force in the opposite direction exerted by skirt 4. This eliminates any risk of the bottle neck breaking during its closure, whilst further improving the tight seal.

Thus, the seal provided by the device according to the invention is of two different natures. In the case where, as indicated in the drawing, part 5 is conical and its slope is in the direction opposite to that of member 4, the neck of the bottle or container is squeezed in a type of wedge formed by members 4, 5, which is doubtless one of the best ways of ensuring a seal.

Then, the neck of the container, during its introduction exerts a pressure on skirt 4. Bearing in mind that the skirt 4 has flexibility, due to its flexibility and its decreasing thickness, skirt 4 is pressed against wall 3. The latter is rigid, its thickness being constant and adequate to ensure its rigidity. Therefore, skirt 4 exerts a pressure against the wall of the container neck such that it ensures a remarkable seal by elastic deformation of skirt 4 progressively limited with wall 3.

The limited risk of the neck of the glass bottle breaking is explained by the fact that the neck is symmetrically secured between 5 and 4, whereas in many known stoppering systems where the seal is ensured by the interior of the neck, a force is only exerted from the interior of the neck towards the exterior without any compensation by a member 5, Thus, a sort of overhang is obtained, which can lead to the breaking of the neck of the bottle.

One the edge of its opening, hollow member 1 also has a cylindrical ring 6 having on its inner wall regularly distributed bosses 61 for fastening to an annular rim provided on the outer face of the bottle neck. This ring is also connected to the edge of the opening 12 of hollow member 1 by tongues 7. Thus, the ring forms a safety device, whose presence on the stopper sealing a bottle guarantees that the latter has not previously been opened.

Thus, during the unscrewing of hollow member 1 ring 6 is held on the bottle neck by bosses 61 which produces an axial pull on tongues 7 which break, in order to permit the complete unscrewing of hollow member 1.

The edge 12 of the opening of the hollow member is also provided with a circular extension 8 extending outside tongue 7 and over at least part of the height of ring 6 in order to make these tongues invisible. It also ensures that, despite the hardness of the plastics material used, that it is not possible to introduce a tool beneath ring 6 in order to disengage the bosses 61 from the bottle and therefore permit the opening of the bottle without bringing about the breakage of tongues 7.

The disengagement of extension 8 from the body of hollow member 1 permits the introduction of an injection mould component between extension 8 and ring. This component ensures the appropriate injection moulding of parts 6 and 7, which guarantee that the bottle has not been opened.

In the present description, it has been indicated that the inner skirt 3 is cylindrical and has a constant wall thickness. However, it should be noted that in practice the skirt has slightly conical inner and outer faces to permit the removal of the device from the mould. For the same reasons, the inner face of skirt 4 is also slightly conical.

The description has also stated that the outer skirt 4 has an outer conical wall 41. However, the generatrix of this cone can e.g. be concave instead of rectilinear, the curvature of the generatrix being a function of the height and diameter of the skirt and its thickness at the junction with bottom 2, as well as the nature of the plastics material used.

Claims

1. Stoppering device for bottles comprising a hollow plastics material member provided on its inner circular side face with means, such as a thread for its fixing to the neck of a bottle, characterized in that the inner bottom face (21) of the hollow member (1) is provided with two coaxial circular skirts, (3, 4) the outer skirt (4) having an outer conical face (41).

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer skirt (4) has a wall thickness decreasing from the inner face (21) of bottom (2) of the hollow member and consequently ensures that it has a certain elasticity.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the inner skirt (3) is cylindrical, has a constant wall thickness and is rigid.

4. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a conical area (5) at the junction of the inner face of the bottom (2) and the inner lateral face (31) said conical area being inclined in the opposite direction to the outer wall (41) of the outer skirt (4), the walls (4, 5) forming a wedge in which is inserted the neck of the bottle in order to ensure sealing in a concomitant manner.

5. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the open end (12) of hollow member (1) is provided with a ring having on its inner face fastening means (61) for engaging on a rim of the bottle neck, said ring (6) being connected to the hollow member by tongues.

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the hollow member has at its open end a circular extension (8) extending outside tongues (7) and ring (6) over at least part of the height of said ring.

7. A stoppering device for bottles substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A bottle cap having internal sealing means to engage the neck of a bottle, the sealing means comprising two skirts one within the other, the outer skirt having a frusto-conical face to engage the inner surface of the bottle neck.