MX2007004573A - Bottle . - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of producing a liquid food and beverage product in a bottle made from a polymeric material that is closed by a roll-on tamper evident ("ROTE") closure is disclosed. The method includes a step of applying a top load of less than 120 kg to a bottle filled with the liquid food and beverage product to apply the ROTE closure.

Description

BOTTLE The present invention relates to bottles used to maintain the concern in the market as liquid food products and premium drink, such as wine, olive oils, fine vinegars, dressings, and other high value food products, where the aesthetic appearance The package is an important part of the brand image.

For these products, the traditional sealing system is cork or other plugs.

More recently, the revolving screw cap closures with "ROTE" seal, typically formed of aluminum, have become an accepted top-quality product closure. An example of this type of closure is the "Stelvin®" closure of 30 x 60 mm (diameter per height) used in the wine industry and the olive oil industry (for premium olive oil).

The ROTE closures consist of a lid and a skirt, which is interconnected by fragile edges of the safety seal that break when the lid separates from a bottle. The lid is typically secured with thread and can be repeatedly opened and closed as desired. When placed in a bottle, the cap fits over a bottle finish and the skirt extends down into the neck of the bottle.

When the lid separates for the first time from a bottle, an audible sound is heard when the fragile edges break, indicating that the bottle had not been opened before. The skirt is retained in an axial direction on the bottle by means of the profile of the skirt when pressed and formed in an annular groove in the neck of the bottle, which is commonly known as the "bottom folding". The action of unscrewing the cover places the fragile edges in tension, this last causes the breaking of the edges.

The use of screw cap closures is described in depth in a publication entitled "Taming the Screw - a manual for winemaking with screw caps", by Tyson Stelzer, 205, Wine Press, of Brisbane, Australia. On page 48 of this text, Stelzer describes a re-stretching process, which provides a seal between a ROTE closure liner and one side of a finished bottle finish (near the top) and between the liner and a flat nominal surface on top of the finished bottle. The process depends on the finish of the bottle, known as a "Bague Berre Stelvin" finish or BVS, in which the upper part of the bottle's thread starts at 0.8 inch from the top of the bottle. The closure is formed towards the finished region to achieve the lateral seal. The re-stretching process is very popular for ROTE closures because it reduces leakage due to lateral impact on the top of a closure after the bottle has been sealed.

Traditionally, bottles for food and beverage products, particularly 750 mmr wine bottles have been made of glass.

However, the problems in the market with glass bottles can be the weight of transport and the lack of robustness of the glass container of first quality.

Bottles made of polymeric material packaging like PET have a number of advantages compared to glass bottles, such as lower cost, lighter weight, and much greater resistance to destruction. They are also eminently suitable for public events, where glass container restriction is increasing for many public events and places, for example sports stadiums, due to public safety risks from broken glass. The container of polymeric material is also preferred in airplanes since it reduces the risk of broken glass in the narrow limits of an airplane cabin. These risks may include the use of broken glass in a terrorist event.

However, notwithstanding the aforementioned advantages, containers of polymeric material or have the same acceptance in the market as glass containers for food products and premium drink.

It is desirable to be able to offer to the market a container of polymeric material that has first quality commercialization, which provides both shelf life performance and brand equity.

The use of a ROTE closure in a closed bottle made of PET or other polymeric materials makes it possible to design bottles that look similar to traditional glass bottles used in this market, thereby potentially improving the perceived value of the product in the mind of the consumers. This is particularly the case when using the ROTE closure of 30 x 60 mm accepted.

Upon reading this description, it should be understood that the technical functions required of a closure for these first quality products, such as the ability to close, seal efficiency, gas barrier, and safety seal can easily be achieved using different closures to the ROTE closures 30 X 60 MM. The reason for choosing this closure is based entirely on the factors of aesthetics and commercial image, in particular that the ROTE closure of 30 X 60 mm is associated in the minds of many consumers with a premium product.

The matching of glass bottle thread designs (finished) refers to international finishes such as the CETIE BVS-GRP-29394 or the Rotel-GRP-0417 finish.

The market demand for bottles of polymeric material that fit with the ROTE closures have been tested by means of their existing availability in small bottles. For example, PET bottles of 187 mL that fit with ROTE closures (smaller) are used in airline supplies, for the reasons mentioned above.

However, the use of PET bottles in larger sizes, particularly the 750 mL volume size commonly used for wine, has been limited and has not been successful so far due to mechanical problems to achieve the sealing performance required for the ROTE closures normalized.

More specifically, it has traditionally been understood that the proper place of a ROTE closure in glass containers requires the application of a vertical load to apply the closure of between 150 kg and 200 kg, a vertical load specification of 170-180 kg being cited. , to properly re-form the closure around the glass finish.

Table 1 indicates details of the recommended discharge pressures for commercially available 30 x 60 mm ROTE closures that support the aforementioned traditional view.

Table 1 - recommended discharge pressures for ROTE closures of 30 x 60 mm.

The data for the Auscap, Global, and Newpak closures were provided by Stelzer, Appendix 3, and the data for the Amcor closure were provided by the applicant.

The applicant determined by means of the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) that achieving a vertical load resistance greater than 170 kg for PET bottles of larger sizes, such as 750 mm PET bottles for wine, is not commercially viable using the process of current injection molding manufacturing used by the applicant in Australia.

The current manufacturing process is based on an injection-molded manufacturing process, where the PET resin first melts and forms a preform in an injection mold and, after conditioning it at a controlled temperature, the preform is stretched and then The final shape of the bottle is blown into a blow mold. The process may be the known process "one stage", wherein the preform is blown immediately after injection molding, or the known "two stage" process, where injection molding and blow molding are physically separate processes.

In particular, the current manufacturing process requires the following: • A threaded section formed in the first stage of the process of the same geometry as the final threaded section, since this section is used to support the bottle during blow molding.

• A straight neck section under the thread to imitate a standard wine bottle.

• A conical preform to allow easy separation of the injection mold.

• A degree of vertical elasticity of the preform during the blow molding of approximately 1.5: 1 to impart a vertical orientation to the polymer filaments, which help to increase the top loading of the blown bottle.

· A maximum wall thickness of the preform due to the cooling requirements. ? As the wall obtains thickness, it exponentially increases the required cooling time inside the injection mold and this quickly leads to economic and production problems with excessively thick walls.

The aforementioned requirements combine to define a maximum volume of polymer material for a preform using the applicant's existing equipment.

The maximum volume in turn results in a maximum PET weight of the preform of approximately 55 g.

While in this case the applicant has been limited to 55 g due to the aforementioned manufacturing problems, it should be appreciated that a lightweight bottle has many advantages on its own, as a lower cost, (due to the reduction in the amount of resin required), lower environmental impact, and lower transport weight. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the advantages of the solution to the manufacturing problems identified above will still apply in cases where it is only possible to manufacture polymer bottles of 750 mL with a net weight greater than 55 g.

Using Finite Element Analysis, the top load resistance of a 55 g PET bottle is 120-130 kg. This has been confirmed with the production of test bottles.

Being less than the upper load resistance of 170 kg considered necessary for glass bottles, the applicant was concerned that the resulting closure would not have adequate sealing capacity.

A potential option to equalize the load to apply the closure with the top load achieved is to redesign the ROTE closure to work with a reduced top load. Although viable, the redesign would involve significant research and development costs. In addition, the applicant, together with other suppliers in this market, already has a ROTE closure company of 30 x 60 mm in Australia, and the plants in Australia where the wine bottles are filled are already configured to apply the ROTE closures of 30 x 60 mm, and therefore a change in closure design would require significant capital costs for both the applicant, other suppliers of ROTE closures, and the different bottle filling plants and is undesirable on this basis.

Having determined that no, it is feasible to achieve the superior load resistance of the normal stopper for the ROTE closures in a 55 g PET bottle, the applicant also determined that the reason for the high top load requirements for the glass bottles was irregular in the finish of the bottle due to differences in the formation of glass.

The applicant has the theory that the tight sealing of the ROTE closures can be achieved with the reduced application of load, providing the variation of the dimensions of the finish are reduced compared to the BVS finish for glass currently used in industry practice.

In particular, the specification of the BVS finish allows the variation in the diameter of the critical external diameter of the finish in the re-stretched area of 0.6 mm, and is inactive in the allowed deviation from the flat part.

The variance and comparison of corking dimensions typically shown in the commercial glass bottles shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Finishing variation and capping tolerances for the 30BVS finish, as measured by the applicant From the data in Table 2 it can be deduced that the variation of glass finishes for the wine bottles, whether specified (Diameter E) or unspecified (variation of the finish height) is significant. As a consequence, a high top load is required to ensure adequate sealing in the presence of this variation.

Partially for this reason, field experience has shown that the upper seal is only insufficient to provide sufficient sealing for robust commercial use. In particular, field experience has shown that the use of re-stretching in excess of 1 mm below the closure has been necessary, and compression in the re-stretched zone varies markedly as described. It was found from empirical experience that a re-stretching load of approximately 170 kg is necessary to compensate for the variation in the dimensions of the glass.

The roughness of the fine scale of the sealing surface of a glass wine bottle (the edge in the very top part of a screw bottle) is routinely inspected during the manufacture of the glass bottle, and the inspection system it is set to reject bottles with small defects of about 0.1 mm deep or greater. Using the parameters of rejection for diameter or flatness of less than 0.1 mm is not commercial since this control is outside the capacity of the current technology to manufacture glass bottles.

The present invention is based on the possibility that the dimensions of the finish for the bottles made of polymeric materials may be considerably less susceptible to variations than in the case of the glass finishing dimensions, with the result that high top loads To seal the ROTE locks on the bottles of polymeric material are not necessary.

In accordance with the present invention there has been provided a method for producing a liquid food product and beverage in a bottle made of a polymeric material which is closed by a rotary seal with a security seal ("ROTE"), the method includes a step of apply a top load of less than 120 kg to a bottle filled with the liquid food product and drink to apply the ROTE closure to the filled bottle.

Preferably the method includes applying a top load of less than 110 kg to a filled bottle.

More preferably the method includes applying a top load of less than 100 kg to a filled bottle.

Preferably the filled bottle contains more than 700 mL of the liquid food product and beverage.

Preferably the bottle as-manufactured has a net weight of 60 g or less.

Preferably the bottle as-manufactured has a capacity of 750 mL and a net weight of 60 g or less.

Preferably the bottle as-manufactured has defects in a sealing surface in the upper part of the bottle of less than 0.1 mm in height or depth.

Preferably the as-manufactured bottle includes a finish that is flat within 0.4 mm, more preferably 0.2 mm, with reference to the bottle placed on a horizontal surface.

Also preferably, the outer diameter of the finish is less than 0.2 mm, more preferably 0.1 mm, oval in shape.

Preferably, the average diameter of the finish is within 0.4 mm, more preferably 0.2 mm, of a nominal diameter.

More preferably, the bottle finish is flat in less than 0.2 mm, oval in shape less than 0.05 mm, and has an average diameter within 0.1 mm of a nominal diameter.

Preferably the ROTE closure includes a lid for opening and closing the bottle and a skirt that is fragile connected to the lid and which is retained in the bottle when the lid separates.

Preferably the bottle as-manufactured includes a neck having a first section in which the skirt of the closure can be adjusted and a second section, which when the bottle is in a vertical orientation, is a region immediately below the neck. first section, and wherein an outer diameter of the first section is smaller than the outer diameter of the second section.

It is preferred that the length of the first section in an axial direction of the bottle is in the range of 20 mm to 60 mm.

Preferably the first section has a length that is considerably the same as the length of the skirt and the end of the skirt splices against the second section of the neck of the bottle. This arrangement minimizes the possibility that a person (he or she) cuts with the end of the skirt. This arrangement also prevents the appearance of any space or gap between the inner face of the skirt and the surface of the first section being visible and therefore improves the appearance of the bottle, which is important when first quality products such as wine are sealed.

Although it is possible that the change in diameter from the first to the second sections is a gradual increase, it is preferable that the change in diameter be a change in increments or steps.

It is not necessary that the first, or second, or both sections are cylindrical in shape. In a preferred embodiment, one or both sections are frustoconical to carefully locate the cutting edge of the closure radially in the passage between the sections, and to maintain a pleasing aesthetics in the finished package.

When the closure and in particular the skirt fits the bottle, it is preferred that the first section of the bottle has an outer diameter that is smaller than the internal diameter of the closure skirt by 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm.

Preferably the external diameter of the first section is less than the internal diameter of the closure skirt by 0.2 to 0.5 mm.

When the closure flap has been applied or adjusted to the bottle, it is preferred that the outer diameter of the second neck section be equal to or up to 0.5 mm greater than the outer diameter of the closure flap.

In a situation where the closure is a ROTE closure of 30 x 60 mm, it is preferred that the first section of the neck of the bottle has a diameter or cross section in the range of 26 to 29.5 mm and, suitably, 28 to 29 mm .

When the closure flap has been fitted to the bottle, it is preferred that the flap be freely rotatable around the neck of the bottle.

The term ("freely rotate") is meant herein to mean that the skirt can manually rotate around the neck of the bottle without friction between the skirt and the neck of the bottle preventing the skirt from rotating.

Preferably, the bottle as-manufactured is made of PET or PBT or a combination of different polymeric materials.

The bottle may include coloring materials, UV barrier additive, passive gas barrier materials, and active barrier materials (oxygen scavengers).

Preferably the bottle is a bottle blow molded by injection.

According to the present invention there is provided a bottle made of a polymeric material and having one or more of the structural characteristics described above which is closed by a rotary seal with a safety seal ("ROTE") by means of the method described above.

The present invention is further described hereinafter as means of example with reference to the accompanying figures, of which: Figure 1 shows a typical glass wine bottle; Figure 2 shows a published finish specification of the applicant for 30BVS finishes in glass bottles; Figure 3 shows an embodiment of a bottle of polymeric material of the present invention suitable for use in an embodiment of the method of the present invention, superimposed with a preform suitable for the development of the method of the invention; Figure 4 shows the preform of Figure 3 in greater detail; Figure 5 shows another embodiment of a bottle of polymeric material of the present invention suitable for use in an embodiment of the method of the present invention; Y Figure 6 shows an enlarged view of a part of the neck of the bottle contained within the circle shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 shows a typical glass bottle of the known art. The bottle consists of a hollow bottom (or straight) 1, a stand area 2, a heel 3, a panel for label 4, a shoulder 5, an elongated neck 6, and a finish 7 that defines an opening 8 of the bottle .

The finish 7 consists of an upper surface 9, a lateral sealing surface 10, a thread 11, and a safety protrusion 12.

The neck 6 of the bottle further consists of a controlled diameter section 13 of 59.5 mm from the sealing surface 9, where the glass finish is the finish known as 30BVS-60 which is commonly used in the wine industry.

The finish 7 is described in more detail in Figure 2. The combined compression sealing area, defined by the upper surface 9 and the lateral sealing area defined by the side sealing surface 10, is shown highlighted in this figure and identified with the number 29 - see section AA.

As described above, the Applicant found that variations in diameter of the area of the side sealing surface 10, a lack of flatness of the upper sealing surface 9, and a non-parallel relationship of the upper sealing surface 9 and the area of stand 2 of Figure 1 are the basis for the high capping requirements for glass bottles of the known art, as described above.

Figure 3 shows an embodiment of a bottle of the present invention for use in the method of the present invention and a precursor preform (shown in dashed lines) and identified with the numeral 14 to form the bottle.

The bottle and the preform 14 are manufactured using a single stage injection blow molding machine as is known in the art, in this case an Aoki SBIII-100 (Aoki Technical Laboratory, Japan). The present invention is not confined to use in this particular machine. In addition, the present invention is not confined to manufacture bottles by means of the single stage injection blow molding process.

The following description of the physical limitations of the bottle and the preform 14 also apply to other single stage and two stage processes for manufacturing injection blow molded bottles.

Figure 3 shows a bottle with the same number used to describe the same characteristics of the glass bottle of Figure 1.

Figure 4 shows the preform 14 in detail. The preform 14 consists of a finishing area 15, a preform body 16, an end cap 17, and an injection burr 18.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the finishing area 15 is formed in an injection mold and remains intact after blow molding, and the body of the preform 14 is stretched vertically to form the body, the heel and the base of the body. bottle.

Those skilled in the art will also understand that the diameter of the outer surface of the preform 14 shown with the number 19 must be smaller than the diameter of the neck of the bottle shown in Figure 3 with the number 20 to allow the preform 14 to fit within a mold as the mold is closed.

It will also be understood that the diameter should be tapered from the point 21 near the open end of the preform 14 to the point 22 near the closed end of the preform 14 to allow the part to be separated from an injection mold.

Still further, it will be understood that the inner surface 23 of the preform 14 should also be conical, at approximately an angle identical to the outer surface, to allow the part to be separated from an injection mold, and also to maintain a uniformly uniform thickness from points 21 to 22 of the preform 14.

The length 1 of the formable part of the preform 14 of Figure 3 is also limited, and refers to the length L formed in the body. The ratio of the length L to the length 1 is typically about 1.5: 1, based on the empirical findings about the properties of the PET resin commonly used.

It is possible to increase the total volume and in this way the weight of the preform 14 by increasing the thickness of the wall 5 of the preform. However, this is impractical due to the cost of the material (which increases linearly with the thickness t) and the cycle effects of the machine (which increase exponentially with the thickness, due to the cooling requirements).

It is also possible to increase the total volume and in this way the weight, by increasing the length of the preform 14. However, as the length 1 of the preform increases in a proportion of the length L of the bottle, the skill is lost to stretch the upper regions of the preform 14, and the extra material is naturally distributed in the neck area 6 of the bottle, where it does not contribute to improving the load carrying capacity.

The total weight of the preform is approximately 55 g when (a) the diameter of the bottle between the points 24 and the point of the critical diameter 20 is at the maximum allowable for a ROTE closure of 30 x 60 mm (approximately 29.1 mm), (b) the diameter of the preform 14 at the point 21 is sufficiently smaller than the diameter of the mold of the bottle to avoid accidental contact, (c) the thickness of the wall of the preform t is at the practical maximum, and (d) the formable length 1 is at the maximum practicable.

The applicant has determined that the performance of the plugging of the ROTE closures in the bottles of polymeric material, specifically PET bottles, of the type shown in Figure 3 by means of laboratory tests.

At this point, a mandrel of nominal dimensions of the 30BVS finish was produced, with injection molded finish tolerances. A re-stretched mouth hole was fabricated with normal tolerance and specification. The tested parts were mounted on a traction tester (Instron Corporation) and the closures were re-stretched at controlled vertical load. Also tests of coatings were carried out in the absence of the linings of the metal closures).

It was found that for the variety of PET bottles tested in the test mandrel, the compression of the coating could be achieved at a vertical load of approximately 80 kg, the reforming of the closure body beginning to occur at 75 kg, and enough reformed to provide A useful and commercial side seal was achieved by means of a vertical load of 100 kg.

The Applicant determined that the reason for the lower upper loads required for PET bottles compared to those needed to close glass bottles is that the bottle of polymer material can be formed with a more uniform, flatter sealing surface.

Typically, PET bottles can be manufactured with a variation of diameter E and surface flatness of less than 0.1 mm.

Figures 5 and 6 show another embodiment of a bottle of the present invention for use in the method of the present invention, with the same number used to describe the same characteristics of the bottle of Figure 3.

The main feature of the bottle is the structure of the neck 6 of the bottle. In this connection, notwithstanding the aforementioned advantages of PET bottles and other polymeric materials, PET bottles typically have different friction characteristics than glass bottles. In particular, the friction of the PET material in contact with the interior of the ROTE seals is greater than that of the glass in contact with the ROTE seals. This can cause difficulties for the consumer to separate the ROTE seals from the PET bottles. The bottle shown in Figures 5 and 6 eliminates the problem of friction by maintaining the diameter of the neck of the bottle, for the length of the skirt of the closure, less than the internal diameter of the closure.

With reference to Figure 5, the neck 6 has an upper section 13 and a lower section 16. The upper section 13 has a diameter D in which the skirt of the closure can be adjusted or applied. The lower section 16 is immediately below the upper section 13 of the neck 6 and has a larger diameter DI. The neck 6 has an increase in increments in the diameter or step 18 of the interface of sections 13 and 16. The arrangement is such that the neck 6 has a diameter DI located at a distance L from an opening or upper surface of the bottle The diameter Di is equal to, or greater than, the diameter of the external finish of the ROTE closure (not shown in Figure 5) and defines the lower section of the neck. The distance L is equal to, or greater than, the length of the closure for which the bottle is adapted to fit. The diameter DI can be derived from the specifications and drawings of the closures of the appropriate technique to the container in question. The length L can be determined by measuring the closures applied commercially in bottles of the known art.

Figure 6 is an enlarged view of the bottle that is circulated in Figure 5 and in particular shows the profile of the passage 18 located at the interface between the upper and lower sections 13 and 17 of the neck 6 of the bottle.

An advantage of the smaller diameter D of the upper section is that the ROTE closure can be adjusted or applied conveniently to the bottle without frictional forces interfering with the assembly process.

Furthermore, the increase in the diameter of the neck 6 in step 18 is advantageous because it provides a profile between the upper and lower sections of the neck which can prevent the formation of an unfavorable gap appearing between the base of the fitted ROTE closure and the neck of the neck. bottle.

Furthermore, if the cutting edge of the ROTE closure is exact or approximate, the cutting edge of the closure will butt against the passage 18 advantageously minimizing any risk of injury to the consumer.

Many modifications can be made to the embodiment of the present invention described above without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (1)

1. CLAIMS A method for a liquid food product and beverage in a bottle made of a polymeric material that is closed by a revolving seal with a safety seal ("ROTE"), the method includes a step of applying a top load of less than 120 kg to a bottle filled with liquid food product and drink to apply the ROTE closure to the filled bottle. The method defined in claim 1 includes applying a top load of less than 110 kg to the filled bottle. The method defined in claim 1 includes applying a top load of less than 100 kg to the filled bottle. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the filled bottle contains more than 700 mL of the liquid food product and beverage. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle as-manufactured has a net weight of 60 g or less. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle as-manufactured is a bottle with a capacity of 750 mL and has a net weight of 60 g or less. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle as-manufactured has defects in a sealing surface in the upper part of the bottle of less than 0.1 miti in height or depth. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle as-manufactured includes a finish that is flat within 0.2 mm with reference to the bottle placed on a horizontal surface. The method defined in claim 8 wherein the outer diameter of the finish is less than 0.1 mm oval. The method defined in claim 8 wherein the average diameter of the finish is within 0.2 mm of a nominal diameter. The method defined in any of claims 1 to 7 wherein the as-manufactured bottle includes a finish that is flat less than 0.2 mm, oval to less than 0.05 mm and has an average diameter within 0.1 mm of a nominal diameter . The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the ROTE closure includes a lid for opening and closing the bottle and a skirt that is fragile connected to the lid and retained in the bottle when the lid is removed. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the bottle as-is-manufactured includes a neck having a first section in which the skirt of the closure is applied and a second section in which, when the bottle is located in a vertical orientation , is a region immediately below the first section, and wherein the diameter of the first section is smaller than the outer diameter of the second section. The method defined in claim 13 wherein the length of the first section in an axial direction of the bottle is in the range of 20 m to 60 mm. The method defined in claim 13 or claim 14 wherein the first section has a length that is substantially the same as the length of the skirt and the end of the skirt splices against the second section of the neck of the bottle. The method defined in any of claims 13 to 16 wherein the difference in diameter between the first and second sections of the neck is the result of a change in increments or steps. The method defined in any of claims 13 to 16 wherein, when the closure is applied to the bottle, the first section of the bottle has an outer diameter that is smaller than the internal diameter of the closure skirt by 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm. The method defined in any of claims 13 to 18 wherein, when the closure flap is applied to the bottle, the outer diameter of the second neck section is equal to or greater than 0.5 mm greater than the outer diameter of the flap of the neck. closing. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle is made of PET or PBT. The method defined in any of the preceding claims wherein the bottle as-manufactured is a blow molded bottle by injection. A bottle made of a polymeric material that is closed by a rotary seal with a security seal ("ROTE") by the method defined in any of the preceding claims.