RU207414U1 - Food container - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to packaging. The container for foodstuffs contains a thin-walled lid and a tray made of a transparent polymeric material with a bottom and a side wall extending from the bottom and ending with a flange. Under the flange, the side wall of the tray is stepped to form a first flat surface to support the flange of the lid and a second flat surface lying at a level below the first surface and designed to support the projection on the lid. The cover is made along the perimeter under the flange with a protrusion having a side wall for contact when placing the cover in the tray with the tray wall between the first and second flat surfaces of the stepped part of the tray. There is a jumper through which the lid is connected to the tray, and a tab associated with the lid for pulling the lid out of the tray. The petal is connected to the cover, placed in the central part of the bulkhead, and on the parts of the bulkhead located on the sides of the petal, there are lines of weakened section of the bulkhead material directed across the bulkhead, one of which is the line of the loop-shaped bend of the bulkhead. The petal associated with the cover is separated from the lintel by a cut of the lintel material. And the lines of the weakened section of the bulkhead material used to break the bulkhead and directed across the bulkhead are made in the areas where the bulkhead is connected to the cover and on the areas of the bulkhead connected to the cover to the zone of the loop-shaped bend of the bulkhead. 6 ill.

Description

The utility model relates to containers and, more specifically, containers for food products such as salad, which provide tamper resistance and tamper evident. The utility model in relation to this type of containers also considers the issue of convenience and simplicity of opening the container lid to provide access to the contents.

A typical prior art food container consists of a transparent tray and a transparent lid associated with the tray. To maintain the quality of the food content and to prevent tampering with the contents of the sealed container, it is desirable that the food container, once initially sealed, cannot be initially opened without a visible indication that the container has been opened. To achieve this function, container manufacturers have developed containers with built-in tamper-evident features. Typically these containers consist of a lid that is hinged to the base. The cover fits snugly against the base by overlapping the edge of the cover over the edge of the base. These types of plastic containers are sold as one-piece containers and are often referred to as "clamshell" containers or packages.

In one type of hinged tamper-evident container, the lid and base have locking elements located at or near the lid edge and base edge, respectively, where the two edges meet and interact with each other when the container is sealed. is located on a ledge or flange extending from the edge of the cover or base. One or both tabs of the locking element are attached to the corresponding edges of the cover and tray with a fragile piece of plastic. When the cover seals the tray, the locking members on the cover and tray engage and lock together. To make such a sealed container, it is necessary to break the fragile part of one or both of the tabs to release the tab or tabs from the container. Since the locking sealing elements are located on the projections, rupture of one or more projections from the container disengages the locking mechanism. A torn tab indicates the container has been opened. An example of such an implementation is the known solution described in US 2010181323 (A47G 19/00, B65D 41/32, B65D 51/04, publ. 22.07.2010).

One disadvantage of such a food container is that the locked tabs can be cut from the container in a clean manner using scissors to remove any features of the container having a tamper evident mechanism. In addition, in many tamper evident containers, one flange (usually a lid) is superimposed on another flange (usually a tray) so that at least one of the edges of the rim is exposed and manipulated. With this type of seal and design in plastic containers, the lid and tray can be partially opened by inserting a thin object under the open edge of the flange at a point on the container away from the tamper evident indicator.

Due to the problems associated with incorporating a tamper-evident mechanism into the connecting edges of the hinge container, some manufacturers have included tamper-evident devices as part of the structure that forms the hinge. Such a container is designed to require a break near the hinge in order to unseal the container. This design makes the hinge disposable.

An example of such a solution is the container design described in US 2020031534, B65D 43/16, publ. 01/30/2020 This solution describes a container for food products (for example, for salad), which consists of a thin-walled tray made of transparent polymeric material, having a bottom, a side wall extending from the bottom upwards and ending with a flange, the surface of which lies in plane parallel to the bottom surface (conditionally, we assume that the bottom surface has a flat surface at least in part of its area). In the upper part under the flange, the side wall is stepped to form a first surface for supporting the flange of the lid and a second surface lying at a level below the first surface and intended for supporting the projection on the lid. The cover is made of a transparent polymer material and is a flat thin-walled structure with a flange along the perimeter and a ledge made under it along the perimeter. When closed, the lid is placed in the tray, rests with its flange on the surface of the first step in the tray and rests with the side wall of the protrusion on the wall of the tray between the first and second steps (it is held in this position due to the friction forces of the wall of the protrusion with the wall of the step transition).

The cover is connected to the tray with a jumper. When the container is closed, the web is bent in a loop and remains in this position until the container is opened. At the other end of the container (opposite to the location of the jumper), there is a tongue that serves two functions: it is used as a tongue for pulling the lid out of the tray and is used as an indicator that the container is open.

This tongue is made in the form of a separate fragment of the petal located in the central part of the latter. Most of the tongue is gathered in a corrugation or fold and by lines of weakened section, and the tongue itself and its corrugations or folds are connected to the body of the petal. To open the container, you need to pull out the lid recessed into the tray. To do this, the user presses the tongue, it is torn off from the body of the petal (the end part of the tongue and its corrugations or folds are torn off), the user pulls the tongue (the end part of the tongue is made with corrugations or small protrusions) and the corrugations or folds are straightened, which leads to the pulling out of the cover from the tray. In this case, according to the state of the integrity of the petal and the corrugation or folds of the tongue, the user evaluates the state of the container according to its initial (initial) integrity.

The disadvantage of this solution is that nothing limits the user's ability to pull not the tongue, but the petal itself by its base, without touching the corrugations or folds with the finger. In this case, the petal with the tongue in the central part remains intact. This known solution also allows you to remove the cover by picking up a flange with a thin flat object such as a knife blade anywhere, including under the petal. As a result, we can conclude that the location of the petal with the tongue only on the lid does not guarantee that their integrity is evidence that the container has not been opened and is not reused.

In addition, the design of the petal with the tongue is structurally complex and technologically laboriously feasible, since any forceful touch, including accidental, leads to damage to the tongue due to its separation along the lines of the weakened section from the body of the petal.

Also known is a container for food products containing a thin-walled lid made of polymeric material and a thin-walled tray with a bottom and a side wall extending from the bottom and ending with a flange, under which the side wall is stepped to form a first flat surface for supporting the flange of the lid on it and a second flat surface lying at a level below the first surface and intended to support a protrusion on the lid, which is made along the perimeter under the flange with a protrusion having a side wall for contact when the lid is placed in a tray with the tray wall between the first and second flat surfaces of the stepped part of the tray, as well as a jumper through which the lid is connected to the tray, and a petal connected to the lid for pulling the lid out of the tray, while the petal is connected to the lid and is located in the central part of the jumper, and the lines of the weakened are made on the parts of the jumper located on the sides of the petal cross-section of material le pestle directed across the lintel, which are lines of bend of the lintel when the lid is recessed in the tray and at the same time lines that break the lintel when the lid is opened (US 2017166362, B65D 43/02, B65D 43/26, B65D 55/02, publ. 04/17/2018).

This decision was made as a prototype for the declared object.

The disadvantage of this solution in terms of the performance of the opening indication mechanism is the low operational reliability. This is due to the following. The line of weakened section, which is both the bend line of the lintel and the rupture line when the cover is removed, does not guarantee that both problems can be solved simultaneously. A line of weakened section is a line in which the material from which the container is made has a strength that is significantly lower than the strength of adjacent areas of the same material. If this line is used as an inflection line, then its strength is due to the need to maintain the integrity of the lintel after the inflection. And the line of weakened section, which has the function of the broken line, is made with the strength of the material along this line, allowing it to break when a force is applied, in which the parts on the sides of this line are bent relative to each other. That is, when pressure on the left (right) side of the line or on the line itself, it breaks. This weakened cross-sectional line is obtained by molding the lid and the bridged tray. Moreover, if the strength of this line is designed to break, then when the jumper is bent, this line will begin to break. If this line is prepared in terms of strength only for the bend of the lintel, then it will not work as an indicator. That is, to break it, it is necessary to apply a sufficiently large effort. But in this case, this line does not work as an indicator of tampering, since with great efforts to break it, you can safely open the lid and close it again without violating the integrity of the jumper.

For this type of containers, it is necessary that the jumper implements the function of bending when closing the lid and does not affect, when bending, the lines used for rupture as indicators of opening the container.

The present utility model is aimed at achieving a technical result, which consists in increasing the resistance to opening of a container with elements for tampering indication due to the formation of tamper-evident elements on the bulkhead outside the bend of the bulkhead.

The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that in a container for food products containing a thin-walled lid made of polymeric material and a thin-walled tray with a bottom and a side wall extending from the bottom and which ends with a flange, under which the side wall is stepped to form the first flat surface for supporting on it the flanges of the lid and the second flat surface, lying at a level below the first surface and designed to support the protrusion on the lid, which is made along the perimeter under the flange with a protrusion having a side wall for contact when placing the lid in a tray with the tray wall between the first and second flat surfaces of the stepped part of the tray, as well as the jumper, through which the cover is connected to the tray, and the petal connected to the cover for pulling the cover out of the tray, the petal is connected to the cover, located in the central part of the jumper, and on the parts of the jumper located on the sides of the petal donkey lines completed The ablated section of the bulkhead material, directed across the bulkhead, one of which is the line of the loop-shaped bend of the bulkhead, the petal connected to the cover is separated from the bulkhead by a cut of the bulkhead material, and the lines of the weakened section of the bulkhead material used to break the bulkhead and directed across the bulkhead are made in the sections connecting the lintel with the cover and on the sections of the lintel connected with the cover up to the zone of the line of the loop-shaped bend of the lintel.

In this container, the jumper can be connected to the troughs of the tray and lid. The tray, lid and bridge can be made of a transparent polymeric material such as polystyrene or polyethylene terephthalate. The petal can be made with a section on which there is a corrugation.

And the side wall of the lid protrusion is brought into contact with the wall of the tray between the first and second flat surfaces of its stepped part due to the form-fit connection.

These features are essential and interconnected with the formation of a set of essential features sufficient to achieve the required technical result.

The utility model is illustrated by a specific implementation example, which, however, is not the only possible one, but clearly demonstrates the possibility of achieving the required technical result.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a container with an open lid;

fig. 2 is a side view of a container with a closed lid;

fig. 3 is a first example of a form-fitting of a tray with a lid;

fig. 4 is a second example of positive locking of a tray with a lid;

fig. 5 is a top view of the jumper with the lid open;

fig. 6 is a top view of the bridge with the lid closed.

According to the utility model, a device is considered for a container for food products for various purposes, which is completely made of polymer material. Polystyrene or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) approved for food packaging can be used as a polymeric material. In general, the container can be made of a colored polymer material of the listed brands, for example, with the addition of a yellowish or bluish dye while maintaining transparency or another color. But transparent design has the advantage of being able to see the contents of the packaged product directly and without distortion and optical transformations.

The container consists of a tray 1 and a cover 2 that covers the top of the tray.

In plan view, the tray can be an open rectangular, rectangular container with rounded corners and / or slightly curved side walls. It can be circular or oval-shaped, or any other convenient for use as a container for a food product.

A thin-walled tray (Figs. 1 and 2) is a container with a bottom 3, which is made with elements to increase its rigidity in order to maintain its shape and avoid excessive sagging. These stiffeners, for example, annular projections 4 in plan, also make it possible to ensure the carrying capacity of the container. The design of the bottom of the tray can be different. Within the framework of this utility model, the features of the tray bottom are not significant from the point of view of achieving a technical result and therefore are not considered in detail.

A side wall 5 extends from the bottom, which is slightly inclined (to ensure the possibility of stacking trays one into the other when forming a bundle convenient for storage and transportation). The specific angle of inclination is due to the manufacturing technology and therefore is not specified in this case. The presence of such an angle of inclination increases the strength and rigidity of the side wall to increase resistance to deformation from the food product placed in the tray.

In the upper part, the side wall ends with a flange 6 (Fig. 1), which is a stiffening rib of the upper contour of the side wall. Under the flange 6, the side wall is stepped to form a first flat surface 7 for bearing on it the flange 8 of the cover 2 and a second flat surface 9, lying at a level below the first surface 7 and designed to support the projection 10 on the cover (as shown in Fig. 2 ).

This stepped transition for the tray also represents elements of increasing the rigidity of the side wall and ensuring the preservation of the spatial shape of the tray when it is loaded with food. At the same time, this stepped transition is a lodgment for dense packing of lids on its surface.

The cover follows the shape of the tray in plan. A feature of the container under consideration is that the lid is recessed into the tray and does not go beyond the height of the upper contour of the tray.

The cover is made along the perimeter under the flange 8 with a protrusion 10 having a side wall 11 for contact when placing the cover in the tray with the tray wall 12 between the first and second flat surfaces of the stepped part of the tray. When closed, the lid is recessed from above into the cavity of the tray. Its flange 8 rests on the surface 7 of the stepped part of the side wall, the lid projection 10 with its flat bottom part is located on surface 9 or at this surface (there may not be a direct stop, but when the tray is loaded, surface 9 becomes a support stop to prevent the cover from being pushed into the tray ), and the side wall 11 of the projection 10 comes into contact with the side wall 12 of the stepped part of the tray. The side wall 11 of the lid protrusion is brought into contact with the wall 12 of the tray between the first and second flat surfaces of its stepped part by means of a form-fit connection.

The lid is held in this position due to the form-fit, it is a well-known solution - (typical for lower pairs) - the contact of the elements of the links, which is provided by their shapes. In this case, the lid can be held in the tray by frictional forces between the walls 11 and 12, which occur when the lid is tightly fitted into the tray (adhesive engagement). Alternatively, such a closure can be performed in the form of a reverse slope of the walls 11 and 12 (Fig. 3) or by making the convexity 13 of a hemispherical shape on one wall (for example, on the wall 11) and a counter depression on the other wall (for example, on the wall 12) (fig. 4). In any case, it is essential that the lid is deeply set in the tray, its flange is below the level of the flange of the tray, which makes it almost impossible to remove the lid without using improvised means.

Such containers have found wide application, and for the most part, after closing, the lid is sealed with an adhesive stacker glued to the lid and simultaneously to the side wall of the tray. This stacker presses the lid against the tray and prevents it from being elastically squeezed out of the stepped part of the tray. In order to open the lid, it is necessary to break the stacker at the level of the lid flange. But the peculiarity of this type of containers is that after tearing off the stacker, the lid is difficult to pull out of the seat due to the lack of direct access to its flange, which could be grasped.

Within the framework of the non-standing utility model, the cover 2 is connected to the tray 1 by a flat thin-walled bridge 14 (Fig. 1). The jumper is made in one piece with the tray and the lid of the same polymer material when the container is molded. Therefore, the lintel is also transparent, that is, it has a transparency that matches the transparency of the lid and tray. When the lid is placed in the tray, the jumper 14 is bent in a loop (Fig. 2).

The jumper serves not only as an element for connecting the lid to the tray, but also as an element that allows the lid to be pulled out of the tray, and as an indication element of container non-opening. In a preferred embodiment, the bridge is connected to the flanges of the tray and lid.

In the central part of the bulkhead 14, a petal 15 is arranged in the form of a part of the surface of the bulkhead body. This petal was obtained by cutting the bulkhead material (separated from the bulkhead by the cutting line of the bulkhead material). One end of the petal is connected to the lid 2. When the lid is turned over to close the tray, the jumper parts 16 located on the sides of the petal are bent in a loop, and the petal remains flat, protruding from the hinge zone (Figs. 2 and 5). Pulling on this tab will remove the cover from the tray. For the convenience of pulling the cover and to prevent slipping, the petal is made with a section 17, on which there is a corrugation.

To solve the problem of indicating the state of non-opening or opening of the container on the parts 16 of the bulkhead located on the sides of the petal, lines 18 of the weakened section of the material of the petal are made, directed across the bulkhead. The same lines 19 of weakened cross-section are present in the areas where the jumper is connected to the cover. These lines of weakened web material represent linear reductions in material thickness. A feature of such lines in relation to polymeric materials of the type of polystyrene or polyethylene terephthalate is that the bending of the material in the case of an external force is applied precisely in these lines. And this bend does not have an elastic characteristic; when the lines are bent, partial destruction of the material occurs. This bend or bend can only be done once. When bending or a simple application of an external force, complete destruction occurs and the element splits into two parts. This feature is used in the bulkhead and serves as an indicator of the integrity and non-opening of the container.

A feature of such lines 18 and 19, which break when the lintel is deformed or when forces (even insignificant) are applied to them or in the area around them, is that these lines preserve the integrity of the lintel only if they are not deformed, that is, the material field on where these lines are drawn, remains flat and not subject to bending. Since the lintel bends in a loop (when closing the lid), these lines must be located outside the loop-shaped bend zone. Within the framework of this utility model, the lines of the weakened section 18 and 19 of the bulkhead material used to break the bulkhead and directed across the bulkhead are made in the areas where the bulkhead is connected to the cover and on the areas of the bulkhead connected to the cover up to the zone of the loop-shaped bend of the bulkhead.

The condition for maintaining the flatness of the sections located outside the zone of the loop-shaped bend of the lintel is the presence of the inflection line 20 in the lintel, which ensures that the bend loop will be only in the central part of the lintel outside the zones where lines 18 and 19 are located. The strength of the bend line 20 exceeds the strength of lines 18 and 19. a weakened cross-section, but sufficient so that the bridge is bent along this line 20 when the cover is folded. Thus, when the lid is closed, the bridge is bent, but the lines 18 and 19 used to break the bridge remain in the sections of the bridge that are not involved in the bending process.

When the lid is closed, the jumper bends in a loop-like manner, while the jumper breaks along line 20, which does not lead to the destruction of the jumper. The web assumes the position shown in FIG. 2. The petal protrudes from the lintel. The petal does not participate in the bending process of the jumper, but occupies a position corresponding to the position of the lid, since it is, in fact, a protruding continuation of the lid flange. The undamaged state of the jumper directly indicates that the container has never been opened after the factory closing.

To access the contents of the container, the user pulls the petal away from the container (moving the petal upward). The lid begins to disengage from the container. In this case, the bridge begins to straighten, which leads to deformation by the section with lines 18 and 19 and to the complete destruction of at least one such line of weakened section. When the container is closed again, the jumper does not restore its integrity.

The same picture is observed when an attacker wants to open the container. The indication of non-opening is based on the property of thin-walled polymer shells or plates to destroy their integrity at the places of stress concentration. In this case, such concentrators are lines 18 and 19 of weakened section, in which the polymer material does not exhibit elastic properties. At the same time, it does not matter by what technological method these lines of weakened section are obtained: during molding or mechanically by applying scratches (mechanical removal of a part of the material).

This utility model is industrially applicable. The utility model makes it possible to increase the resistance to opening of a container with elements for tamper evident by providing connection of the tamper indicating element to the tray and to the lid at the same time.

Claims (7)

1. A container for foodstuffs containing a thin-walled lid made of polymeric material and a thin-walled tray with a bottom and a side wall extending from the bottom, and which ends with a flange, under which the side wall is stepped to form a first flat surface for supporting the flange of the lid on it, and a second flat surface lying at a level below the first surface and intended to support the protrusion on the lid, which is made around the perimeter under the flange with a protrusion having a side wall for contact when the lid is placed in the tray with the tray wall between the first and second flat surfaces of the stepped part of the tray , as well as a jumper by means of which the lid is connected to the tray, and the petal connected to the lid to pull the lid out of the tray, the petal is connected to the lid, located in the central part of the jumper, and lines of weakened section are made on the parts of the jumper located on the sides of the petal material lintels, directional across the lintel, one of which is the line of the loop-shaped bend of the lintel, characterized in that the petal connected to the cover is separated from the lintel by a cut of the lintel material, and the lines of the weakened cross-section of the lintel material used to break the lintel and directed across the lintel are made in the areas where the lintel is connected with a cover and on the sections of the lintel connected with the cover up to the zone of the line of the loop-shaped bend of the lintel. 2. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the jumper is connected to the shafts of the tray and the lid. 3. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the tray, lid and bridge are made of a transparent polymer material. 4. A container according to claim 1, characterized in that the tray, lid and bridge are made of polystyrene. 5. The container according to claim. 1, characterized in that the tray, lid and bridge are made of polyethylene terephthalate. 6. The container according to claim. 1, characterized in that the side wall of the lid protrusion is brought into contact with the wall of the tray between the first and second flat surfaces of its stepped part due to the form-fit connection. 7. The container according to claim. 1, characterized in that the petal is made with a section on which there is a corrugation.

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