US2082267A - Closure device for rendering bottles nonrefillable - Google Patents

Description

.June 1, 1937. w STATTMANN 2,082,267

CLOSURE DEVICE FOR'RENDERING BOTTLES NONREFILLABLE Filed Feb. 1, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 1, 1937. 2,082,267

CLOSURE DEVICE FOR RENDERING BOTTLES NONREFILLABLE W. A. STATTMANN Filed Feb. 1, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a v V structure of the present invention will be pointremains immersed in the liquid and upon ad-- 25 Patented June I, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLOSURE DEVICE FOR RENDERING BOTTLES NONREFILLABLE Walter A. Stattmann, Chicago, Ill.

Application February 1, 1935, Serial No.4,423

1 Claim. (01. 215-30) The invention relates to a closure device Fig. 11 is a 1 plan sectional view on the line adapted to be mounted upon the discharge end I l-Il of Fig. 10. of a bottle or other receptacle for rendering It has been attempted heretofore to render such bottle or receptacle incapable of being rebottles non-refillable by applying thereto valved filled after the contents thereof have been exclosure devices of which there are many examhausted. ples' in the art, made of various materials and The main object of the present invention is wherein a gravity operated valve similar to a to provide a simple, relatively inexpensive and check valve is employed to prevent refilling of efficient device of this character, wherein rethe bottle and wherein the valve has been ren- 0 filling of the bottle equipped with the closure dered inaccessible to a wire or other tool to device is incapable of being accomplished, either maintain the same off its seat during bottle remechanically or by the employment of vacuum filling operations.

means for first exhausting air from the bottle The valves of prior art structures also have and then causing the same to refill itself by reabeen relied upon to prevent the refilling of the son of such vacuum. bottle by the very common expedient of invert- 15 A further object of the invention is to proing the bottle equipped with the closure device vide a closure device of the character set forth in a sealed tank containing a given level of which, per se, is assembled at the place of manuthe liquid to be introduced into the bottle and facture and which is shipped in assembled form then, by applying vacuum pump to the tank,

to the distillers or bottlers for mounting of same exhausting the air from the same and likewise,- on the bottle in the condition in which the deof course, from the inverted bottle until a very vice is received from the factory. high degree of vacuum, as for example, equal to Further objects of the invention relating 'to thirty degrees of mercury, has been obtained. specific advantages and characteristics of the During this operation the neck of the bottle ed out in or fully understood from the following mitting air to the tank so that atmospheric specification: pressure is restored gradually, the said liquid The invention may be embodied variously and is caused to fiow into the bottle in an obvious several embodiments thereof are illustrated in manner while the Valve controlling the discharge the accompanying drawings, wherein, port of valve structure is maintained off its seat 30 Fig. 1 is a fragmentary, vertical, longitudinal by gravity or by mechanical means. section of the upper or discharge end portion Many of the prior art closure devices have of a bottle neck equipped with a closure device been successfully constructed so as to prevent constructed in accordance with the present inaccess to the valve by a wire or other device vention, the said device being shown in central, for the purpose of holdingit from its seat durlongitudinal section. ing refilling operations, but few, if any have Fig. 2 is a plan sectional view of the sam been able to defeat the success of the abovetaken on the line 22 of Fig. 1. described method of effecting discharge of liquid Fig. 3 is a plan sectional view taken on the from the bottle that the valve controlling the line 6-6 of Fig. 1. discharge port shall open very easily and to 40 Fig. 4 is a view in side elevation of one of that end a very light valve which reseats by the valves employed in the structure, the same gravity upon restoring the bottle to uprightpobeing shown partly in section. sition has been required.

Figs. 5 and 6 are perspective. views of the In the instance of the present invention the said valve. filling of the bottle by resorting to the afore- 45 Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another of the said vacuum method as Well as by merely mevalves employed in the structure, the same being chanically maintaining the valves from their shown partly in section. seats is obviated as will appear more particu- Fig. 8 is a. view similar to Fig. 1 showing anlarly by reference to the drawings and from other or modified embodied of the invention. the following description. Whlere means for 50 Fig. 9 isa plan section of the same taken on preventing access to the valve have been prothe line 9-9 of Fig. 8. posed, the freedom of flow from the bottle has Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 8 illustrating been reduced to such an extent as to defeat in another modification of construction of the delarge measure all the advantages of the strucvice. I ture. To provide an efiective. closure of the 55 type to which the invention relates which assures free discharge from the bottle constitutes another object of the invention.

The closure device comprises an outer sheet metal cap (I) which normally comprises a substantially cylindrical skirt portion terminating at its upper end in an inwardly projecting annular flange (2) bordering a central opening (3). Mounted within said cap or shell (I) is a valve casing (4) composed preferably of a suitable vitreous material such as glass or porcelain.

Said valve casing is cylindrical and preferably is open at its lower end. It is equipped at its upper end with a discharge spout (5) which is 0011-;

centric with the body or circumferential wall of said casing. Projecting inwardly from the said circumferential wall of the casing is a series of equal spaced-apart longitudinal ribs (6) extending radially from and which are integral with said circumferential wall and also, at their upper ends, with the top wall ('I) of the valve casing. Said ribs are of greater length, radially at their upper than at their' lower ends, or in other words, have inner edges which converge toward each other from the lower end of the casing to the lower face of the upper wall (1) of the same. It will be noted that the said inner edges of the ribs (6) y are disposed outwardly of the orifice of the discharge spout (5) and are normally spaced from the circumferential face of the valve (8) which consists of a, truncated cone, the base of which is adapted to rest upon a washer or disk (9) which constitutes a removable bottom wall for the valve chamber. and a seat for the valve. In the instance illustrated, the said L bottom wall disk or washer (9) bears against the annular shoulder (I0) between the thicker upper end portion of the circumferential wall of the valve chamber and the thinner lower end portion (II) of said wall. The length of, the said thinner portion is greater than the thickness of the disk or washer (9) andis adapted to receive the upper annularly flanged portion (I2) of the second valve casing (I3) which is also cylindrical and projects in part into the neck (I4) of the bottle. The valve casing (I3) is also composed preferably of a vitreous material such as glass or porcelainand is open at its upper end so that the disk or washer (9) constitutes the upper wall of said valve chamber (I3) which communicates with the valve casing (4) through the central orifice (I5) of said disk or Washer (9).

In the bottom wall (II) of the casing '(I3) there is a central opening (I8) through which liquid contained in the bottle is discharged into the valve chamber of the casing (I3) and thus into the valve chamber of the casing (4) and thence through the discharge spout (5). Mounted on the. lower wall of the chamber of easing (I3) is a washer (I9) which may be composed of cork or other relatively soft material which forms a seat for the valve (20). The latter also is composed preferably of glass or other vitreous material and is'sufilciently light or of a specific gravity so low as to enable the same to 'be moved easily to its seat, when the bottle is inverted, by fiow of fluid into the bottle through the closure structure.

As shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5, the said valve (20) comprises a cylindrical base portion (2|) whichis equipped with a bottom recess (22) and which, at the top, presents a plurality of equal and equally spaced radial ribs (23) which define the upper ends of recesses in the valve structure which presents what might be termed end of the casing (24).

.ent invention. To promote such free flow the intake ends of the several ports through which liquid-passes from the bottle are provided with Well rounded corners.

The length or height of the valve (20) is only slightly less than that of the chamber in which it is contained and the diameter of the openings opposed to upper ends of the valves are such that no part of a valve will project into such an opening in any position of a valve in its chamber. Upon inverting the bottle for purpose of discharge of liquid from the latter, the said valve will tilt up or move partly from its seat to permit the flow of liquid through the said valve chamber and into the valve casing (4). The inversion of the bottle results also in causing the valve (8) to move from its seat and thereupon the liquid passing through the central orifice (I5) will flow through the recesses between the ribs (6) and around the valve (4) and thus through the discharge spout (5)., it being noted that when the valve (8) is completely engaged by the inner edges of the ribs (6) there is still ample room for flow of liquid past the upper or outer face of said Valve.

One of the main advantages derived fromthe employment of two valves and two valve chambers arranged as illustrated is that access to the valve in the lower chamber by means of a wire or other device, is prevented so that even though the outer valve is held fromits seat mechanically, the action of the inner valve cannot. be

interfered with to'permit refilling of the bottle.

In Figs. 8 to 11, inclusive, the structures are illustrated. as modified tothe extent that both valves employed therein are identical with the structures of Figs. 3, 4, and 5 inclusive. In instances where the device is made of porcelain, cementing said bottom wall to the circumferential wall of the valve casing. prior to baking the structure, causes said bottom to become substantially integral with the circumferential wall, the valve being inserted after drying of the valve casing (24) and before said bottom wall (25) is mounted in place.

In the instance of the present structures of Figs. 8 to 11 inclusive, the bottom wall (25) may consist of disk of any kind of material similarly to the disk (9) of Fig. 1, or the disk (26) may be of a diameter as great as that of the casing (24). If said disk (26) is composed of a flexible material, it may be of greater diameter than the inner diameter of the shell (I) and thus afford another fluid tight joint in the assembly of the component elements of the complete structure.

Thelower valve casing (21) has a cylindrical wallequipped at its upper end with an outwardly extending annular flange (28) which bears against the washer (26) or against the lower Said casing (21) is also provided with a lower inwardly extending annular flange (29) upon which a valve seat- III) washer (30) of suitable flexible material such as cork, is used.

The operation of the structure of Figs. 8 to 11 inclusiive, is substantially identical with that of the structure of Fig. 1 so that a repetition of description of operation will not be required.

In the several embodiments shown, the valve casings are slipped into the cylindrical shell of the cap (I) and a packing Washer (3|), of cork or other suitable material, having a central opening of slightly less diameter than the outer diameter of the casings (l3) and (21), respectively, is forced over said casings to bear against the annular flange at the upper end of each thereof so as to firmly engage said casing. The said washer is also of appreciably greater outer diameter than the inner diameter of the shell of the cap (I) so that it must be crowded into the latter under a very appreciable degree of force or pressure and thus serves to hold the several casings very firmly in proper relative positions within the said cap before the structures are mounted on the bottle neck.

The structures are shipped from the factory to the bottling establishment in their completely assembled condition and, upon receipt of the same, are mounted on the bottles by inserting the bottle neck into the mouth portion of the shell of the cap (I) and applying pressure to vertically compress the said washer (3|) and to maintain the same compressed while the mouth portion of the skirt of the cap is spun or otherwise contracted to engage in the annular bead (33) which borders the bottle mouth.

The several valves of the structures are rendered as hollow as possible and are of such specific gravity that they will be moved easily to their seats responsively to flow of liquid into the bottle as hereinbefore described and thus any attempt to refill bottles after exhaustion of the original contents will be defeated and this is rendered particularly true by reason of the fact that the soft seat for the valve in the inner valve casing of each structure permits said valve to hermetically seal the bottle without requiring opposed ground surfaces to be provided.

The soft valve seat of the inner valve casing is of a slightly larger diameter than the inner diameters of the casings in which it is received and is forced into place and held there by friction.

In the manufacture of the structures of Fig. 1 and Fig. 8, respectively, wherein the valve casings are composed of porcelain or similar vitreone material, the valve casings and valves are dried preparatory to entry into the kiln and with respect to the outer valve casing and the disk constituting the bottom closure thereof, a thin film of moist clay may be disposed between the opposed surfaces after the valve has been inserted. This forms a bond which renders said casing and disk substantially homogeneous with each other in the firing.

The necessity of providing a soft seat for the valve of the inner valve casing requires that the latter be fired before the seat washer is inserted but thereafter said inner valve chamber, particularly in the case of the structure of Fig. l, is

substantially welded to the outer valve casing by means of an oxyacetylene flame jet impinging upon the meeting edges of the flange of the inner casing and the surrounding portion of the circumferential wall of the outer casing, this operation being accomplished very quickly to produce two or three spaced apart spot welds.

Resort to the foregoing method of producing a. completely assembled valved structure at the pottery is very advantageous as it prevents loss or displacement of component parts thereof in the event that the packing washer which assembles said structure with the metal cap should fail to hold the parts in assembled relation in transit from the factory to the bottling plant.

It will be noted also that the valve controlled openings of the valve casings are rounded at their intake corners for cooperation with the valves of the types shown to promote free flow of liquid from the bottle. The diameter of said openings is so much smaller than that of the valves below the same as to obviate all possibility of a valve projecting in part into such an opening in event that it becomes tilted in moving from its seat andthus possibly becoming caught or jammed against reseating.

It will be noted that the valve in the upper chamber of Fig. 1 will move by gravity to closed position, by cooperation with the ribs of said chamber, before, or just about the time that the bottle reaches a substantially horizontal position when the same is being restored to upright position. This is advantageous in preventing refilling of the bottle.

I claim as my invention:

Mechanism for rendering a bottle non-refillable comprising a cap, the latter and the bottle equipped with inter-engaged formations for permanently securing said cap upon the bottle, a cup of vitreous material equipped with a peripheral flange along its rim and with a central opening in its bottom wall, a packing washer disposed between said flange and the rim of the bottle mouth, a gravity actuated valve in said cup for maintaining the said opening normally sealed, said valve being of small diameter than said cup and capable of lateral movement therein, said valve equipped at its upper end with a plurality of radial ribs defined by radial recesses each presenting a continuous concave surface vanishing in an upper V-shaped surfacel at the junction of said ribs and extending at a downward incline to a point adjacent the bottom surface of said valve and being of sharply increasing width progressively from the middle portion to the peripheral surface of said valve. a disk having a central opening disposed over said cup and spaced therefrom a distance substantially greater than the height of said valve and confining the latter within said cup, a second similar valve mounted upon said disk, an inverted cup member equipped with a central discharge spout at its upper end and cooperating with said disk to effect confinement of said second valve similarly to said first-named valve, said respective cups being mounted within said cap.

WALTER A. STATTMANN.

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