JP7139219B2 - foam pouring container - Google Patents

Description

FOAM DISPENSING CONTAINER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a foam dispensing container that enables the production of extremely fine foam.

Conventionally, in beverages such as cappuccino coffee and cocoa, by forming foam such as liquid dairy products on top of coffee or cocoa, the beverage has a mild taste and a smooth texture. ing.

There are several methods for forming foam, and the invention described in Patent Document 1 involves adding an emulsifier and ethyl alcohol to a beverage and forcibly mixing them with gas to obtain foam.

In addition, in the invention described in Patent Document 2, by filling the container with a beverage in an amount smaller than the standard volume, a space for generating bubbles is created in the container, and the consumer shakes the container before drinking the beverage. By doing so, it is possible to provide a packaged beverage with sufficient foam.

JP-A-4-356160 JP 2014-27949 A

However, in the foamed beverage formed by the above method, the foamability and size of the foam varies, and the stability of the foam is not sufficient, which may deteriorate the taste of the beverage. In particular, very fine lather provides a pleasant mouthfeel and excellent texture to the consumer, but it has been difficult to obtain finer lather by conventional methods.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, the present invention is a foam injection method that enables the foam generated by shaking a container filled with a content liquid to be extremely fine and excellent on the tongue. The task is to create a container for discharging.

Among the means for solving the above problems, the main means of the present invention are
A foam dispensing container comprising a container body filled with a liquid content and a cap for sealing a mouth portion of the container body,
An inner plug having a mesh portion that allows passage of the content liquid is provided between the cap and the mouthpiece,
The inner plug is provided on the cap side before the cap is attached to the mouthpiece, and when the cap is removed from the mouthpiece after attachment, the inner plug moves to the mouthpiece . That's what it means.
According to the main means of the present invention, large bubbles among bubbles of various sizes generated by shaking the container can be removed to form a bubble portion consisting only of small bubbles.

Another means of the present invention is the addition of means that the inner plug has a plurality of mesh parts arranged opposite to each other with a distance in the height direction to the above main means.
Since the above means can remove large bubbles a plurality of times, it is possible to reliably generate extremely fine bubble portions.

According to another means of the present invention, in addition to any one of the means described above, a leg portion is provided hanging from the lower end of the inner plug, and a mesh portion is arranged on the lower end surface of the leg portion. It is a thing.
With the above means, it is possible to increase the distance in the height direction between the mesh portion on the upper side and the mesh portion on the lower side, so that extremely fine bubbles can be obtained.

Another means of the present invention is any one of the above means plus a means that the mesh portion on the lower side is formed with a mesh that is coarser than that of the mesh portion on the upper side. .
With the above means, the bubbles can be made finer by removing them step by step in order from the larger particle size, so it is possible to obtain extremely fine bubble portions.

According to another means of the present invention, in addition to any one of the above means, the pull ring portion is connected to the inner plug via a detachable weakened portion.
With the above means, the pull ring portion can be formed integrally with the inner plug, and the pull ring portion can be obtained by breaking the weakened portion as necessary.

In the present invention, by making the bubbles generated by shaking the container filled with the content liquid into extremely fine bubbles, it is possible to generate bubbles with excellent texture.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a foam dispensing container during circulation as a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the foam dispensing container showing a state in which foam is generated; Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the foam dispensing container showing a state of use with the cap open; FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the foam pouring container showing an example at the time of pouring. Fig. 2 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing a second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 11 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing a third embodiment of the present invention; A is a plan view showing an inner plug as a fourth embodiment of the present invention, and B is a cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container provided with the inner plug of A. FIG. FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing an example of use in the fourth embodiment;

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a foam dispensing container during distribution as a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the foam dispensing container showing a state in which foam is generated, and FIG. 3 is a use with the cap open. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the foam pouring container showing a state, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the foam pouring container showing an example at the time of pouring.

A foam pouring container 1 according to the present invention is a container capable of converting foam generated in a liquid such as a beverage such as coffee or cocoa or a seasoning into finer foam.
As shown in FIG. 1, the foam dispensing container 1 comprises a container main body 10 mainly filled with a content liquid, a cap 20 sealing a mouth tube portion 12 of the container body 10, and a mouth tube portion 12 and the cap 20. and an inner plug 30 disposed between.

The container main body 10 has a narrow tubular neck portion 12 erected on a substantially cylindrical body portion 14 extending upward from a bottom portion 15 via a shoulder portion 13 having a reduced diameter. A male threaded portion 16 is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the upper portion of the mouth tube portion 12, and a locking ring 17 is protruded around the lower portion thereof. The container body 10 shown in this embodiment is made of a synthetic resin material such as a PET bottle, but may be made of other materials such as a bottle can or a glass bottle.

The cap 20 is a short cylindrical member having a top wall portion 21 and a cylindrical outer peripheral wall portion 22 hanging down from the outer peripheral end of the top wall portion 21 . An inner ring 23 that can be fitted to the inner peripheral surface of the tubular mouth portion 12 on the container body 10 side protrudes from the lower surface of the top wall portion 21 . A female threaded portion 24 is formed which can be screwed into the male threaded portion 16 provided in the . Further, the outer peripheral wall portion 22 is provided with knurls 28 for preventing slippage, and the lower end of the outer peripheral wall portion 22 is connected to the lower end of the outer peripheral wall portion 22 via connecting ribs 25 which are rupturably provided at a plurality of positions in the circumferential direction. A ring 26 is provided. A locking projection 27 is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the sealing ring 26, and the locking projection 27 can be engaged with the locking ring 17 on the container body 10 side in an unreleasable state. It's becoming

The inner plug 30 includes a cylindrical inner plug main body 31, a ring-shaped upper flange portion 32 formed on the outer upper end of the inner plug main body 31 so as to expand in the outer diameter direction, and an inner plug main body 31. It has a ring-shaped lower flange portion 33 provided at the inner lower end, and is integrally formed by, for example, injection molding a thermoplastic synthetic resin material such as polyethylene. A mesh portion 34 is provided on the lower end surface of the lower flange portion 33 . The mesh portion 34 is, for example, insert-molded when the inner plug 30 is injection-molded, and is molded integrally with the inner plug 30 . The mesh forming the mesh portion 34 may be made of synthetic resin or metal.

Next, the operation of the foam dispensing container having the above configuration will be described.
The inner plug 30 is provided inside the cap 20 before the cap 20 is attached to the container body 10 side. After the container body 10 is filled with the content liquid, the cap 20 having the inner plug 30 is screwed onto the mouth tube portion 12 of the container body 10 and tightened, so that the outer peripheral surface of the inner plug body 31 is pushed into the mouth tube portion 12. The container body 10 can be sealed because it fits and adheres to the peripheral surface. Further, since the locking projection 27 of the sealing ring 26 engages with the locking ring 17 on the container body 10 side, the cap 20 is set in a state in which it cannot be easily removed from the mouth tube portion 12 . Then, the container body 10 set in such a state is delivered to the consumer through the distribution process.

When the consumer drinks the content liquid with foam, the content liquid 40 is foamed by shaking the foam dispensing container 1 before drinking. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the content liquid 40 is separated into a liquid portion 41 and a bubble portion 42, and a bubble portion 42 is formed on the liquid portion 41 accumulated on the bottom portion 15 side of the container body 10. FIG. The bubble portion 42 formed here is in a dispersed state in which coarse bubbles of various sizes are mixed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the consumer unscrews the cap 20 while gripping the knurl 20 to open the mouth tube portion 12 . At this time, the cap 20 is screwed and tries to move upward, but the sealing ring 26 with the locking protrusion 27 engaged with the locking ring 17 on the container body 10 side is not together with the cap 20. It will remain in that position because it cannot move to Therefore, when the cap 20 is turned strongly, the connecting rib 25 connecting the cap 20 and the sealing ring 26 is broken, and only the cap 20 can be removed from the mouth tube portion 12 . Accordingly, the consumer can easily determine whether or not the foam dispensing container 1 has been tampered with during the distribution stage by visually checking whether the connecting rib 25 is broken or not. That is, the lower end of the cap 20 is provided with a tamper-evident mechanism capable of preventing tamper-evident opening of the foam dispensing container 1 .
At this time, the inner plug 30 whose inner plug main body 31 is fitted to the inner peripheral surface of the mouth tube portion 12 is set so as to be removed from the cap 20 and completely moved to the mouth tube portion 12 on the container body 10 side. It is

Next, the consumer gradually inclines the posture of the foam pouring container 1, squeezes the body portion 14 of the foam pouring container 1, and pours out the content liquid 40 from the mouth tube portion 12 and installs it outside. Pour into the cup 50 (see FIG. 4). At this time, the liquid portion 41 and the bubble portion 42 that constitute the content liquid 40 pass through the mesh portion 34 provided in the inner plug 30 .

Here, the mesh part 34 employs a fine mesh. Therefore, by passing through the mesh part 34, the variation of the bubble part 42 formed by shaking the foam dispensing container 1 is removed, that is, the bubbles with a large particle size are filtered, and the particles with a smaller particle size are filtered. By changing the bubbles to diameters (hereinafter referred to as "miniaturization"), a bubble portion 42' consisting of only extremely fine bubbles can be generated on the liquid portion 41 in the cup 50. FIG. That is, it is possible to make the texture of the content liquid (coffee etc.) smooth and excellent texture.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing a second embodiment of the present invention.
The foam pouring container according to the second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the configuration of the mesh portion 34 provided in the inner plug 30, and other configurations and effects are the same as in the first embodiment. be. Therefore, the points different from the first embodiment will be mainly described below.
The foam dispensing container 1 according to the second embodiment has a structure in which the mesh portion 34 is arranged in two stages, upper and lower. part 34 is arranged, and a mesh part 35 constituting the upper stage side is arranged on the upper end surface of the lower flange part 33,

In the foam dispensing container 1 according to the second embodiment, the attitude of the foam dispensing container 1 is gradually tilted, and the body portion 14 is squeezed to pour out the content 40 from the mouthpiece 12 into the cup 50. When poured, the bubble portion 42 of the content liquid 40 is first made finer in the mesh portion 34 provided in the lower stage , and then made finer in the mesh portion 35 provided in the upper stage . In this way, by arranging the mesh portions 34 and 35 respectively at positions facing each other with a distance in the height direction, the bubbles can be made finer twice, and thus, compared to the first embodiment, Since the filtering function is enhanced, extremely fine bubble portions 42' can be reliably generated.

The mesh portion 34 on the lower side and the mesh portion 35 on the upper side may be formed with meshes having the same roughness, or may be formed with meshes having different roughnesses. Alternatively, the mesh portion 34 on the lower side may be configured to have a coarser mesh than the mesh portion 35 on the upper side. In this configuration, the mesh portion 34 on the lower side removes bubbles having a large particle size. Then, the mesh part 35 on the upper side removes coarser bubbles with different particle sizes in a stepwise manner such that bubbles with medium particle sizes smaller than that are removed. Since the bubbles can be made finer, it is possible to obtain the bubble portion 42' made up of extremely fine bubbles as compared with the first embodiment. The size of the bubbles to be removed in each of the mesh portions 34 and 35 can be adjusted by appropriately selecting the mesh roughness.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing a third embodiment of the present invention.
The foam dispensing container according to the third embodiment differs from the second embodiment in that a short cylindrical leg portion 39 is integrally suspended from the lower end face of the lower flange portion 33 of the inner plug 30. The point is that the mesh portion 34 forming the lower side is arranged on the lower end surface of the leg portion 39 . The structure of the upper mesh portion 35 is the same as that of the second embodiment.
In the foam dispensing container according to the third embodiment, the distance in the height direction between the mesh portion 35 on the upper side and the mesh portion 34 on the lower side can be made larger than in the second embodiment. It is possible to obtain extremely fine bubbles compared to the second embodiment.

By the way, the empty foam dispensing container 1 is discarded after the content liquid is poured out. In some cases, it is desired to dispose of the container main body 10 and the inner plug 30 separately. However, in the above first to third embodiments, there is a possibility that the inner plug 30 cannot be easily removed from the mouth tube portion 12 of the container body 10 . Therefore, the inner plug 30 that can be easily removed from the mouth tube portion 12 of the container body 10 at the time of disposal will be described below.

7A is a plan view showing an inner plug as a fourth embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 7B is a cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container provided with the inner plug of FIG. 7A, and FIG. 8 is a fourth embodiment. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a foam dispensing container showing an example of use in an example; FIG.
The foam dispensing container 1 according to the fourth embodiment differs from the first to third embodiments in the configuration of the inner plug 30, and the other configurations and effects are the same as those in the first to third embodiments. This is the same as in the third embodiment. Therefore, the points different from the first to third embodiments will be mainly described below.

As shown in FIG. 7A, in the foam dispensing container 1 according to the fourth embodiment, a weakened portion such as a perforation or a thin portion is provided in the vicinity of the outer peripheral edge of the upper flange portion 32 constituting the inner plug 30. 36 is formed in a substantially C shape along the outer peripheral edge, and a pull ring portion 37 is integrally provided on the outer side thereof. A part of the pull ring portion 37 (the right end portion in FIG. 7A) is provided with an engaging projection 38 formed by bending into a convex shape.

In order to remove the inner plug 30 from the mouthpiece 12, the toe or the like is hooked on the lower end of the hooking projection 38, and then the inner plug 30 is strongly pulled upward to break the substantially C-shaped weakened portion 36. Then, the pull ring portion 37 can be separated from the upper flange portion 32 except for its both end portions 37a. After the separation, the pull ring portion 37 is in a state of being connected to the upper flange portion 32 of the inner plug 30 only at both ends 37a. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, inserting a finger F or the like into the pull ring portion 37 and strongly pulling it upward allows the inner plug 30 to be easily removed from the mouth tube portion 12 of the container body 10 . This makes it possible to discard the inner plug 30 separately from the container body 10 .

As described above, the configuration and effects of the present invention have been described according to the embodiments, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, in the above-described second and third embodiments, the mesh portion having a two-stage configuration has been described. can be Even in this case, it is preferable to set the lower mesh portion to a coarser mesh than the upper mesh portion between the upper and lower mesh portions.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The foam pouring container of the present invention can be used in a wider range of applications in the field of pouring containers for pouring out the content liquid and the foam together.

1: Foam dispensing container 10: Container main body 12: Mouth part 13: Shoulder part 14: Body part 15: Bottom part 16: Male screw part 17: Locking ring 20: Cap 21: Top wall part 22: Peripheral wall part 23 : Inner ring 24 : Female screw portion 25 : Connecting rib 26 : Sealing ring 27 : Locking projection 28 : Knurl 30 : Middle plug 31 : Middle plug main body 32 : Upper flange portion 33 : Lower flange portion 34 : Mesh portion 35 : Mesh part 36: Weakening part 37: Pull ring part 37a: Both ends 38: Locking convex part 39: Leg part 40: Content liquid 41: Liquid part 42: Rough bubble part 42': Extremely fine bubble part 50: Cup

Claims (5)

A foam dispensing container comprising a container body (10) filled with a content liquid (40) and a cap (20) for sealing a mouthpiece (12) of the container body (10),
An inner plug (30) having a mesh portion (34) that allows the content liquid (40) to pass is provided between the cap (20) and the mouth tube portion (12),
Before the cap (20) is attached to the mouthpiece (12), the inner plug (30) is provided on the side of the cap (20). A foam dispensing container characterized in that the inner plug (30) shifts to the mouthpiece (12) when removed from the portion (12) . 2. The foam dispensing container according to claim 1, wherein the inner stopper (30) comprises a plurality of mesh portions (34, 35) arranged opposite to each other at a distance in the height direction. 3. Foam dispensing according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a leg portion (39) is provided at the lower end of the inner plug (30) and a mesh portion (34) is arranged on the lower end surface of the leg portion (39). container. 3. The container for pouring foam according to claim 2, wherein the mesh portion (34) on the lower side is formed with a coarser mesh than the mesh portion (35) on the upper side. 5. The foam dispensing container according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the pull ring portion (37) is connected to the inner plug (30) via a separable weakened portion (36).

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