JP2014524872A - Packaging for flowable products with spout - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a deformable container body (2) having at least one compartment for containing a flowable liquid, semi-liquid or jelly-like product having a viscosity of less than 1 Pa · s at 20 ° C. A container (1) comprising at least one dispensing opening (4) arranged in the spout element (3) for dispensing the product and having a capacity of at least 10 ml, preferably at least 50 ml the targets, features cross-sectional area of the at least one dispensing opening, it is constant, and a 0.002mm ² ~7mm ^2, preferably 0.008 mm ² to 0.8 mm ^2, more preferably 0 a .03mm ² ~0.4mm ^2, and most are preferably the 0.07mm ² ~0.2mm ^2, therefore, at least 0.5kg of an external force, the external force of preferably at least 1kg More preferably an external force of at least 3kg are products only after being added to the vessel body wall toward the inside of the container body to flow through the dispensing opening.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a container for a flowable product having a spout having an opening that prevents leakage when not closed.

  In the field covered by the present invention, “fluidity” is intended to encompass liquid or semi-liquid products having a viscosity of less than 1 Pa · s at 20 ° C.

  The container of the present invention is particularly advantageous when containing edible products. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to such edible products but can also be applied to non-edible products such as finishes and detergent products such as bleach, softener products and household detergents.

Some examples of fluid edible products that can be accommodated in containers according to the present invention are listed in Table 1 below along with their corresponding viscosities.

  When taking fluid products, especially food and drink while walking, packaging solutions usually include a container with a spout that can be closed again by a closure element such as, for example, a screw cap. Such packaging is widely known and allows the consumer to dispense the contents at an appropriate flow rate.

  However, in order to ensure dispensing and to ensure proper flow rate, the container should not be closed when the outlet is not closed, when the container is tilted, or generally when the contents are in contact with the outlet. The contents can be spilled. In such cases, the contents flow directly out of the spout.

  In order to overcome this weakness, so-called “sport bottle closures” have been developed that comprise a dispensing channel that can be easily closed by pushing a closure element that is generally not removable from the rest of the closure. Such sports bottle closures are widely known, and various systems such as push-pull closures and hinged closures have been proposed. However, such closures are complex and costly to manufacture, so the price of consumer products is high, especially if they are containers for ingesting products with limited internal capacity. Become. Furthermore, such closures require large amounts of material for their various parts. In addition, one major weakness is that if the consumer does not close such a sports bottle cap, the cap will leak.

  Due to the weaknesses of sports bottle closures, another type of closure with an elastomeric valve such as a slit valve has been developed. Such valve closures are reliable and are increasingly used in the food packaging industry, such as stuffing honey, ketchup, and the like. One particular advantage that is very important is that such closures do not necessarily require an additional overcap to seal the valve. In other words, the valve itself is elastic enough to reclose after dispensing, so that even if the container is tilted, the contents in contact with the inner surface of the valve will not leak. This is clearly an advantage for consumers.

  However, such slit valves are expensive to manufacture because some material for the closure is required, i.e. the closure body is generally made of polyethylene or polypropylene, and the slit valve itself is attached to the closure body. Made of silicon or other similar resilient material that must be assembled or co-injected with the closure body.

  Another type of container is known which is a single member flask made by extrusion blow molding a thermoplastic material such as polyethylene. Such containers include a container body that is manufactured integrally with a removable tip. When the tip is peeled off by the user, a very small dispensing opening is formed in the container wall, and the contents can be poured out. Such containers are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to provide a single dose for treating the topical area, for example with eyewash (ie ear drops or eye drops). Such eye wash single dose containers are liquid, or at least have a high fluidity, but do not leak from the dispensing opening even when in contact with the inner surface of the dispensing opening. Have advantages. However, such single-dose containers for eyewashes are intended for food industry consumers who require containers with contents of, for example, more than 10 ml, preferably more than 50 ml, due to the manufacturing process and structure. It has the obvious disadvantage that it is only suitable for very small internal volumes, usually less than 5 ml, which are not clearly compatible with the product.

  Therefore, it has an internal volume (that is, usually more than 10 ml, preferably more than 50 ml, more preferably more than 25 cl) that is compatible with the intake of fluid consumer goods such as food and drink, and has a large production cost. A shaped container is required.

  Such containers should allow a sufficient flow rate at the time of dispensing, but at the same time when the dispensing opening is not closed by the closure system and the container is tilted so that the contents of the dispensing opening It is important that the contents should be prevented from leaking even when in contact with the inside.

The objects described above are achieved by the present invention, which is less than 1 Pa · s (preferably less than 500 mPa · s, more preferably less than 100 mPa · s) at 20 ° C. A deformable container body having at least one compartment for containing a flowable liquid, semi-liquid or jelly-like product having at least one note disposed on the spout element for pouring the product out comprises an opening, the capacity of at least 10 ml, preferably provide a container which is at least 50 ml, functional cross-sectional area of the at least one opening is a constant, and at 0.002mm ² ~7mm ² There, preferably 0.008 mm ² to 0.8 mm ^2, more preferably 0.03 mm ² 0.4 mm ^2, most preferably 0.07m ² ～0.2Mm is ^2, therefore, at least 0.5kg of an external force, preferably at least 1kg of force, more preferably an external force of at least 3kg is, after being added to the vessel body wall toward the inside of the container body only The product is characterized by flowing through the dispensing opening.

  “Functional cross-sectional area” means the hollow internal cross-sectional area of the dispensing opening.

  Since the pressure applied to the surface of the container body is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the surface of the container body, the deformation applied to the surface of the container body is due to the force applied to the surface of the container body. Note that it is represented.

  In a highly preferred embodiment of the invention, the container comprises a plurality of dispensing openings that are at least 6, preferably at least 12, more preferably at least 18.

  The container preferably further comprises a closure system coupled to the spout element. In that case, it is advantageous if the closure system comprises a tamper-evident means that can be peeled off by hand.

  The tamper-evident means may be, for example, a laser engraved precut arranged so that the closure system can be peeled off in order to communicate the contents of the container through the opening.

  The deformable container body may be a flexible film pouch, or alternatively a plastic with a wall having at least one portion having a thickness of less than 200 microns, preferably less than 100 microns. It may be a made bottle.

  In the latter case, the bottle is preferably made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) and is produced from a PET preform or PEN preform, respectively, by a stretch blow molding process.

  In yet another case, the deformable container body may be a bottle with at least one deformable accordion-like portion having a bellows that can be deformed when a force is applied.

  In all of the above embodiments of the present invention, each of the at least one dispensing opening is 0.1 mm to 20 mm long, preferably 0.5 mm to 10 mm long, more preferably 1 mm to 7 mm long. It may take the form of a channel having a thickness.

  Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the description of the presently preferred embodiments described below in connection with the drawings.

1 is a schematic side view of a flexible pouch according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a flexible bottle according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic top view taken along line AA in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 is a schematic top view similar to FIG. 3 with an alternative design of the dispensing opening shown in FIG. 3. 1 is a schematic view of a closure system. Same as above Same as above FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of a closure system.

  In the present invention, the fluid product accommodated in the container body 2 can be poured out, the dispensing opening is opened, and the container is arranged so that the fluid product contacts the inner surface of the dispensing opening. Sometimes, a container 1 with a dispensing opening constructed and designed to allow a fluid product to be retained inside the container without leaking through the dispensing opening is intended.

  A container 1 shown in FIG. 1 has a deformable container body 2 having one compartment for containing a flowable liquid, semi-liquid or jelly-like product having a viscosity lower than 1 Pa · s at 20 ° C. Is provided.

  The container body shown in FIG. 1 is a flexible film pouch 2.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the spout element 3 is attached to the container pouch body 2. The spout element is an injection molded element made of a thermoplastic material such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP). The spout element comprises a base which is sealed by the film pouch 2 and is thus prevented from leaking.

As shown in FIG. 3, the spout element 3 includes a plurality of openings that extend in the height direction of the spout and establish fluid communication between the inside and the outside of the pouch. According to the present invention, functional cross-sectional area of the pouring opening is constant, and a 0.002mm ² ~7mm ^2, preferably 0.008 mm ² to 0.8 mm ^2, more preferably 0.03mm a ² 0.4 mm ^2, and most are preferably the 0.07mm ² ~0.2mm ^2, therefore, at least 0.5kg of an external force, preferably at least 1kg of force, more preferably an external force of at least 3kg is, the container The product flows through the dispensing opening only after being applied to the container body wall towards the interior of the body.

  The extraction opening shown in FIG. 3 is a linear flow path having a circular functional cross section and a length of about 15 mm. In some alternative embodiments, the flow path may be curved or may have a sloped portion.

  The number of dispensing openings is selected according to the viscosity of the product contained in the pouch and further depending on the type of dispensing flow to be obtained, ie the content application. For example, the pouring flow may be slower for a viscous product such as a cooking sauce, while a liquid such as mineral water is sufficient to adequately heal thirst Should be able to flow fast.

  Usually, the number of extraction openings may be a multiple of 6, but not necessarily. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the number of extraction openings is seven.

  In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the container body has a very thin wall made of, for example, blow molded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material obtained by stretch blow molding an injected preform. Bottle 5. According to the invention, the bottle wall 6 is flexible and can be deformed by squeezing by hand. Accordingly, the wall thickness of the bottle is preferably less than 100 μm.

  In this embodiment, the spout element 3 is fastened to the bottle body, sealed or similarly attached so that no leakage occurs.

  In all embodiments of the present invention, by increasing the number of openings, the viscosity of the product contained in the container body according to the force applied to the deformable container body despite the small functional cross-sectional area. It should be apparent that fairly good flow rates can be achieved depending on the flexibility of the deformable container.

  In any case, the material used to manufacture the deformable container body is such that a flow rate sufficient to ensure proper dispensing of the product by the consumer, such as The correct flow value is appropriate, i.e. it can be achieved by applying a grip force to the container body wall that is compatible with the use of the container by adults, teens, adults and the elderly.

  According to the present invention, the acceptable flow rate is in the range of 50 ml / min to 5000 ml / min, preferably in the range of 100 ml / min to 1000 ml / min, more preferably in the range of 200 ml / min to 500 ml / min. Should be within.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the appropriate force to be applied to the wall of the container body is defined as follows:
The minimum force is in the range of 1 kg to 5 kg, preferably in the range of 2 kg to 4 kg, more preferably about 3 kg. At such values, in the case of a very fluid product (eg water) with a volume of less than about 3 liters, there will be no flow due to gravity alone.
The maximum force is in the range of 20 kg to 40 kg, preferably in the range of 25 kg to 35 kg, preferably about 30 kg. According to tests, 30 kg is a very strong grip for teens or adults to achieve and is definitely not achievable for infants or the elderly.

  The force is measured using test equipment, methods and conditions as follows. That is, a uniform force is applied to the pouch by placing the pouch on a flat surface and placing various weights on the support plate.

Examples of flow rates realized when various forces are applied to the surface of the container body are shown in Table 2 below. In this case, the product accommodated in the container body is 20 ° C. water (viscosity is 1.002 mPa · s). The container body is a flexible pouch made of a multilayer plastic film having a volume of 250 ml and a total thickness of about 150 μm. The dispensing opening has a circular functional cross section (ie, diameter) similar to the embodiment described above with reference to FIG.

  In an alternative embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 4, the container 1 is similar to the container described above with reference to FIG. 3 except for the design of the dispensing opening. In this embodiment, the dispensing opening 9 has a non-circular cross section, more specifically a trapezoidal cross section. All the openings are arranged in a star configuration, as can be seen in FIG. 4, with the short end facing the center of the star.

  In all embodiments of the present invention, the spout element 3 may be configured with a closure system 7 that closes the spout opening 4 at least during manufacture, filling and storage. In that case, at the time of dispensing, the consumer can be removed by picking and turning as needed, by twisting or by tearing off the closure system 7 by other similar movements.

  For example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the closure system 7 is manufactured as an integral distal element of the spout element 3 and can therefore be removed along the line of weakness 8. After removal of the distal closure system 7, the spout 3 is as shown in FIG. 3, i.e. the spout opening is opened and the product is ready to be spouted by squeezing the container body.

  5a to 5c show an overall view of the spout element (FIG. 5a), corresponding to the perspective view of the spout element 3 with the closure system 7 when the closure system 7 is in place in the container, FIG. A cross-sectional view of the spout element 3 (FIG. 5b) and the spout element 3 and the closure system 7 of FIG. 5a where the distal closure system 7 has been stripped along its line of weakness 8 to reveal a spout opening 4. It is sectional drawing (FIG. 5c).

  According to FIGS. 5 a to 5 c, the spout element 3 has a two-part configuration having a peelable part 10 (distal part of the spout element 3) and a double injection molding part 11 sealed on the container 1. Manufactured as a cap.

  The double injection molded part is preferably made of polyethylene (PE) -polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but may be made of other materials.

  The sealing of the container spout element is ensured by the elasticity of the material.

  When the consumer wants to remove the product, the distal portion of the closure system 7 is stripped along the line of weakness 8 and then the distal portion of the closure system 7 is separated from the spout element 3.

  The dispensing opening 4 is then accessible and ready for dispensing the product contained in the container to the consumer.

  In the current embodiment, the spout element is molded without holes to obtain good molding properties. The holes are formed during the assembly step, for example by micro-drilling using microneedles or lasers.

  FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the invention in which the closure system 7 of the spout element 3 is made with a two-layer lid 12 comprising two layers 13a and 13b.

  The first layer 13a (upper layer) is a peelable layer having a protective function, and fulfills the unsealing function of the container 1. In the current embodiment, the first layer 13a has a gripping tab 14 that assists in peeling the first layer 13a. In that case, the first layer 13a is defined as a peelable layer.

  The second layer 13b (lower layer) is sealed on the container 1, and a plurality of holes as the dispensing opening 4 are drilled. Each hole restricts the liquid flow of the product as it is discharged from the container and does not allow the product to discharge under a given pressure applied to the container. In that case, this second layer 13b is defined as the extraction layer.

  For example, each hole has a diameter of 0.2 mm and is spaced about 1 mm from each other. This is only an example, and other diameters may be selected depending on the characteristics of the product to be discharged.

  The two-layer lid 12 is sealed on the neck of the container after filling to ensure the sealing property of the package.

  When ingesting the product, the consumer peels off the upper layer 13a, then exposes the lower layer 13b remaining on the neck of the container and exposes the dispensing opening 4. The product is then ready for consumption.

  It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. Accordingly, such changes and modifications are intended to be covered by the appended claims.

  For example, the spout element is intended to be rigid, but it may be envisaged to apply a soft spout element made of an elastomeric material or a spongy material.

Claims (14)

A deformable container body (2) having at least one compartment for containing a fluid, semi-liquid or jelly-like product having a viscosity of less than 1 Pa · s at 20 ° C; In a container (1) comprising at least one pouring opening arranged in the spout element (3) for pouring and having a capacity of at least 10 ml, preferably at least 50 ml. One of the pouring opening function cross-sectional area of the (4,9) is constant, a and 0.002mm ² ~7mm ^2, preferably 0.008 mm ² to 0.8 mm ^2, more preferably 0. a 03mm ² ~0.4mm ^2, and most are preferably the 0.07mm ² ~0.2mm ^2, therefore, at least 0.5kg of an external force, the external force of preferably at least 1kg Container at least 3kg external force more preferably, the product only after being added to the vessel body wall toward the inside of the container body flows through the spout opening, characterized in that (1).   2. A plurality of dispensing openings (4, 9), wherein the number of dispensing openings is at least 6, preferably at least 12, more preferably at least 18. Container (1) as described.   The container (1) according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a closure system (7) coupled to the spout element (3).   Container (1) according to claim 3, wherein the closure system comprises a tamper-evident means that can be peeled off by hand.   5. A container according to claim 4, wherein the tamper-evident means is a laser engraved precut arranged so that the closure system can be peeled off to communicate the contents of the container through the dispensing opening. (1).   Container (1) according to claim 3, wherein the closure system (7) comprises a two-layer lid (12).   A container (1) according to claim 6, wherein the two-layer lid (12) is sealed to the neck of the container.   The container (1) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the two-layer lid (12) comprises a peelable first layer (13a).   Container (1) according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the two-layer lid (12) comprises a second layer (13b) comprising a dispensing opening (4, 9).   The container (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the deformable container body (2) is a flexible film pouch.   The deformable container body (2) is a plastic bottle with a wall having at least one part with a thickness of less than 200 microns, preferably less than 100 microns. The container (1) according to any one of 10 above.   12. Container (1) according to claim 11, wherein the bottle is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PEN (polyethylene naphthalate).   11. The bottle according to claim 1, wherein the deformable container body (2) is a bottle with at least one deformable accordion-like part having a bellows that can be deformed when a force is applied. Container (1) according to item.   The at least one dispensing opening (4, 9) is a channel having a length of 0.1 mm to 20 mm, preferably a length of 0.5 mm to 10 mm, more preferably a length of 1 mm to 7 mm. The container (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

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