GB2282590A - Container closure - Google Patents

Abstract

A closure comprises a lid 1 of slightly elastic material in the form of a flattened circular plate, with a peripheral indentation in its peripheral skirt housing a wire for fastening the lid to the receptacle, the wire being tensioned by its ends being retained by a metal plate 5 provided with a slot at one end and by a push-in tab or tabs 6 formed by the material of the plate itself. The container contains food products, such as patés, jam, custard, ice creams. To open the lid the metal plate is moved to a horizontal position (Figure 18) and the wire is loosened from the slot such that the tension is released, (Figure 19). <IMAGE>

Description

DEVICE FOR CLOSING RECEPTACLES AND CONTAINERS The present application relates to a device for closing receptacles, e.g. hermetically.

Receptacles or containers intended for the sale of preserves, pates, foie-gras, custard, ice-creams, jams, etc., are fitted with a lid and sealed in various ways which we may consider to be normal, but there are some containers such as ceramic, earthenware, porcelain, etc., which, due to their variable characteristics, cannot be fitted with a lid and sealed with certainty, unless recourse is had to capping by the retraction-type system. Embodiments of the present invention provide a solution to this problem, with which the manufacturers of these containers will have an outlet for their products and manufacturers of the range of foodstuffs will have the benefit of a novel presentation.

Likewise for industry in general.

This method makes it possible to fit a lid to containers with significant + variations in their dimensions. In order to understand this point, let us take as an example the difficulty of fitting a lid to ceramic and porcelain receptacles. In this case, contractions and deformations come into play in the manufacturing process (for ceramics and porcelain), due to the composition and variation in the raw materials, the degree of humidity, the moulding phase, the phase of drying and of firing. In the process as a whole, the size of the ceramic pot may contract by up to 8 % and the porcelain pot by 18 %.

These contractions are difficult to control and the receptacles, although manufactured in quantity, do not maintain an exact finished shape, making it impossible to guarantee a tolerance, a roundness and a flatness of their lips which would make it possible to fit a lid to them with already known methods.

The principle of the invention is based on a wire, cable, belt, etc., which will be tensioned around a lid made of flexible material, which, in its outer part, has a groove for housing the said wire and a catch or metal device situated at the ends, which locks and maintains the tension which has been given on closing the receptacle. It also has the feature of being able to be slackened or opened manually, without the use of utensils.

This invention is usable principally but not exclusively for fitting a lid to ceramic, earthenware, porcelain, glass, metal, cardboard, plastic, etc. receptacles, of the size of a jar or of a breakfast milk cup, or also a container for individual portions and also of a slightly larger family rize, and is intended, among others, for those manufacturers who package foodstuff products such as, for example: ice-creams, pates, foie-gras, jams, preserves, mayonnaise,, dried fruit, precooked foods, etc., as well as for industry in general.

For a better understanding of what has just been set out, and only by way of example, devoid of any limiting significance, the attached drawings illustrate a practical embodiment: Fig. 1 presents the theoretical diagram of the closure system.

Fig. 2, the profile of the injection-moulded circular lid (polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, etc.), Reference3 depicts an external groove or indentation around the same, which will house a wire or cable of stainless steel (it may be of any material) for tightening and locking the lid once it is fitted on the receptacle.

Reference 1 shows the cross-section of the lid, and reference 4 the rim which on the one hand closes against the recep tacle, and, on the other hand, avoids the wire escaping from the groove, reference 2 shows a cavity for fitting closely with the edge of the receptacle.

Fig. 3, shows a closure part or plate 5 of stainless steel, which will lock and seal the wire which goes round the lid in question, once the said wire has been tensioned by use of a machine which controls the tension, cuts the wire and drives home the tabs 6 and 8, the tab 10 being intended to retain the ends of the wire, so that they do not adopt a perpendicular direction to the part 5 as they can prick the hands when the said catch is manipulated. The said Figure 3 shows the contour of the part 5 and the tabs 6, 8 and 10, the latter being open (because they have been bent at the ramps 17, 18 and 19, when the plate is stamped out), which makes it possible to thread the wire element through.

Reference 11 shows a groove with non-parallel sides, which will make it possible to relieve the tension on the wire at the moment of removing the lid from the receptacle; references 7 and 9 show a flared part of the tabs, which is bent in order to avoid them coming back once they are pressed in; references 12, 13, 14, 15 show the groove through which the wire passes at the moment when the tabs are pressed in.

Fig. 4 shows the plate in cross-section bent with a curve 16, this curve makes it possible to position the catch horizontally, in the tensioning and pressing-in phases, and also allows the normal position (vertical) for marketing presentation.

In Figs. 5 and 6 the catch or terminal 5 is seen initially threaded with the wire; references 20 and 21 indicate the part of the wire which goes round the lid.

References 22 and 23 mark the ends of the wire which the packaging machine will grip and tension.

In Fig. 7 the receptacle and the wire are seen in plan view; reference 1 refers to the lid itself; 24 to the wall of the receptacle;references 20, 21 to the wire before being tensioned; references 22 and 23 the ends which the machine will grip and tension.

In Fig. 8 it is seen, in plan view, that the wire is now tensioned and the catch or terminal 5 pressed against the lid.

Figs. 9 and 10 show tab 6 now pressed in.

This action avoids the tension on the wire around the lid being lost, the flared part 7 of the tab has been bent in the same direction as the pressing force in order to avoid the tab 6 giving way under the tension of the wires, and, maintaining the pressure on tab 6, the next phase is reached.

Figs. 11 and 12 show the phase of cutting the ends of the wire, while, as we have already said, the pressure on tab 6 is maintained.

In Figs. 13 and 14 we observe that tab 8 has been pressed in and the flared part 9 has been bent. With this operation, it is then certain that the wire will not slacken the tension around the lid, at the same time the ends of the wire have been drawn back with the aim of avoiding them pricking when the user manipulates the device in order to open the lid.

Fig. 15 shows us the receptacle with its lid fitted and hermetically closed by means of the pressure of the wire in the groove of the lid and the position which the seal (catch) 5 will finally adopt.

Fig. 16 shows us a detail of the position which the catch 5 will finally adopt, which can go from the vertical to the wall of the receptacle.

Figs. 17 and 18 show the initial action which is carried out manually to open the lid.

Fig. 19 shows, in plan view, the second and last action for loosening the steel wire and being able to open the lid (the wire and the plate or terminal 5 are discarded). With this action, the receptacle becomes unsealed and the lid can be taken off and put on easily.

The invention in its essential features, can be put into practice in other shapes and sizes in production, which will differ in detail from that set out by way of example in the foregoing description from which it will also derive the protection which is applied for. Thus it may be constructed in any shape and size, and with the most appropriate materials.

Claims (8)

1. Device for hermetically closing receptacles, especially ceramic receptacles, characterized by comprising a lid of a generally flat shape and made from a slightly elastic material, and means for the closefitting application to the opening of the receptacle.

2. Device for hermetically closing receptacles, according to Claim 1, characterized in that the lid, at its outer surface, exhibits a peripheral indentation, intended to house the close-fitting application means.

3. Device for hermetically closing receptacles, according to Claim 1, characterized in that the means for the close-fitting application of the lid to the opening of the receptacle consist of a wire element, preferably metal, housed, in an incompletely circumferential way, in the external peripheral indentation of the lid and with its ends joined together at a lateral region of the same lid and retained by a metal plate shaped with a groove at one end for the two ends of the wire element to pass through, which remain retained by means of tabs formed by the material of the plate itself.

4. Device for hermetically closing receptacles, according to Claim 1, characterized in that the means for the close-fitting application of the lid to the opening of the receptacle comprise a tubular element, advantageously fitted with a perforated head, intended to accommodate and retain, after it has been plastically deformed, the ends of the wire element.

5. A closure for containers comprising: a lid (1) for fitting over the container; a tension member (20,21) for passing around the lid to press it against the container; and a clamping member (5) for clamping the end portions of the tension member to hold it in tension, the clamping member (5) comprising at least one clamp means (6,8) for holding the end portions of the tension member and an open ended slot through which the tension member passes between the lid and the clamp means, the slot being open in a direction generally transverse to the direction in which the tension member extends around the lid in the vicinity of the clamping member, and the clamping member being rotatable to bring the slot to be open ended in the direction around the lid in the vicinity of the clamping member thereby to allow at least one part of the tension member to escape from the slot and release its tension.

6. A method of closing a container with a closure according to claim 5 in which: the lid is fitted over the container; the tension member is passed around the lid and through the slot and the clamp means of the clamping member while the clamp means is in a non-clamping disposition; the tension member is tensioned; and the clamp means is placed in a clamping disposition while maintaining the tension on the tension member.

7. A closure for containers substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A method of closing a container substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.