US2141744A - Article closure and method of applying same - Google Patents

Description

D F, EVANS ,7

ARTICLE CLOSURE AND METHOD OF APPLYING SAME Dec. 27, 1938.

Filed Oct. 18, 1954 FIG. 2

. INVENTOR. flax id Franklin Evans ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 27,1938

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE David Franklin Evans, Buffalo, N. Y., assignor, by

mesne assignments, to E.

I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Application October 18, 1934, Serial No. 148,919

2 Claims.

This invention relates to article closures and more particularly it relates to a closure for bottles and the methods of. applying the same thereto, to prevent forgery or counterfeiting of labels and to prevent the sale to the consumer of a product of inferior quality to that represented by the indicia on the bottle.

In the bottling of spirits of liquor, and other beverages, extensive use has recently been made of seamless tubes of non-fibrous, cellulosic, and other non-fibrous materials as protective and decorative coverings around the stoppers and necks of bottles. These tubes are applied in a wet state and allowed to shrink in place as a result of the loss of the contained water. Such tubes are generally desirable due to their comparative ease of application, inexpensiveness, attractiveness in appearance and especially to the difliculty of removing them without destroying the same.

As an added insurance against duplication of such tubes, it has been customary to print thereon the trade-mark of the merchant in such a manner as to be diflicult of imitation. For such printing, it has been customary to make the tubes opaque by incorporating in the material, for example, viscose, from which the tubes are made, a quantity of pigment or opacifying material, such as titanium oxide. If it is attempted to use printed transparent tubes, the printing thereon will show to very poor advantage, particularly where the pellicles are applied to dark colored bottles.

Recently, there has come into force a Government regulation requiring the clear display of all parts of. a tax stamp placed over the closure or mouth of a bottle containing spirituous liquor and extending down the neck thereof. If opaque, shrinkable tubes are applied over these tax stamps, the latter will be completely obscured. A transparent tube, on the other hand, will present a very poor appearance, especially when it has printed indicia thereon. It has been suggested to overcome this difliculty by applying a stamp over the tube, but this procedure requires that the tube be completely dry before the ap plication of the stamp. This will necessitate a large storage capacity and bottling plant since the process of drying the tubes takes considerable time.

It is therefore an object of this invention to produce a covering fora bottle or other container adapted to clearly display all portions of a Gov ernment tax stamp and providing a suitable background for the printing thereon, of any desirable indicia, in a non-imitatable manner.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a covering for a bottle or other container, said covering having a transparent, window-like 5 section and an adjacent opaque section.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a sealed container having a Government tax stamp over the neck and mouth thereof. and a tubular, non-fibrous, cellulosic sleeve surroundl0 ing the neck of said bottle and covering said tax stamp, saidv sleeve having a window-like, transparent section for display of the entire surface of the Government tax stamp.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The objects of the invention may be attained in general by providing a seamless, cellulosic tube having a plurality of longitudinal sections therein, some of said sections being composed of plain. transparent material and other sections having opaque or translucent portions which provide a background suitable as a base for the printing thereon of any desired indicia. This tube, while in its wet state, is slid over the top of a bottle having a Government tax stamp arranged over the neck and mouth thereof. The tube or sleeve is adjusted on the bottle neck in such a manner that the transparent, window-like section is in alignment with the tax stamp whereas the opaque portions thereof cover the remaining portions of the bottle neck, and then allowed to shrink in situ.

The details of. the invention and the advantages thereof will become more clearly apparent by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying illustration of one specific embodiment thereof and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a liquor bottle with a tubular closure of the type contemplated 40 by this invention, applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a section of flat tubing illustrating the manner of printing the same;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a non-fibrous sleeve or tube having one or more transparent and opaque sections therein.

Referring to Fig. 3 of the drawing, reference character l0 designates generally a tube or sleeve composed of non-fibrous sheet material, such as, for example, regenerated cellulose, which is adapted to shrink during drying thereof, into the form or shape of the object on which it is positioned. The tube or sleeve comprises two opposing transparent, window-like sections II, the

remainder of the tube being formed of opaque sections which Will lend a suitable background for printed matter to be placed thereon. Fig. 2 illustrates the manner in which the tube l may be flattened or collapsed to present an even surface for the printing of the opaque sections thereof.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, l5 designates a bottle which may obviously have any desired form or shape, having a Government revenue or similar stamp i4 over the mouth of the bottle and extending down the neck thereof, and a pigmented, translucent or opaque sleeve or tube shrunk in place over the edge of the bottle closure and around the neck of the bottle. This sleeve is provided with a transparent section or sections H which is in superposed relationship with the Government stamp so that the entire tax stamp may be visible to an observer. An opaque or translucent portion of the sleeve is provided with printed indicia which is clearly legible against the pigmented background thereof.

The invention'will be described in relation to cellulose bottle tubes regenerated from viscose although it is to be understood that cellulose may be regenerated from other cellulosic solutions, such as cuprammonium solution, and that tubes of cellulose esters, such as cellulose acetate, or cellulose ethers, such as glycol cellulose, may be used. Furthermore, all other non-fibrous pelcient to produce the required opaquing or translucent effect, such as titanium oxide, talc, barium sulfate, mica and others. White pigments arepreferred, but colored pigments may be used if desired, or the various portions of viscose, whether or not they contain opaquing pigments may be colored in different shades or colors as desired. Tubes opaqued with white pigments may be subsequently dyed with any suitable coloring material, if desired.

It has been found that particularly desirable ornamental and protective effects, which are difficult of imitation, can be produced by incorporating into the opaqued viscose small particles of regenerated cellulose or small particles of silk fibers or the like. The small particles of regenerated cellulose may be of a particular size, shape or design such as, for example, the diamond shaped particles shown in Fig. 2. These particles may be produced by die stamping or the like and would of course add to the difficulty of imitation.

The differently colored portions, or opaque and colored portions, of viscose are introduced into separated sections of a suitable extrusion die.

The portions of viscose are passed through the die in substantially parallel relationship while being maintained separate from each other up to a point closely adjacent the outlet of the die. Immediately after being joined, the sections are coagulated, for example, by immersion in a suitable coagulating bath.

The following are examples of compositions, and the products obtained thereby, useful in the practice of this invention. In all the following examples, where percentages are mefitioned, it is to be understood that the percentage is based on the weight of the cellulose in the viscose.

Example I.Two separate viscoses are made up in the customary fashion. To each portion is added 1% of the red dyestuif known under the trade-name Pontamine Fast Scarlet 4-BS (Color Index No. 326). To one portion only is added, in addition, of titanium oxide. An annular extrusion device of known design is used having four arcuate chambers separated by four, dividing walls spaced at approximately equal distances from each other. The portion of viscose to which titanium oxide has been added is introduced into two opposite chambers and to the other two chambers is added the portion of the viscose without the titanium oxide. These various viscoses are passed from the extrusion device through a common orifice and coagulated immediately after passage from the orifice. A striped tube of beautiful red appearance is thus formed, having opaque portions suitable for printing, and transparent portions suitable for disclosing portions of the neck of the bottle or a Government tax stamp located thereon.

Example II .The same procedure is followed as in Example I except that the red dye is omitted from both portions of the viscose. A tube of beautiful white appearance is obtained, having alternate transparent and white stripes with dis tinct lines of division, which may be used as a closure for a liquor bottle in the same manner set forth in Example I.

After coagulation, the completely formed pellicles are regenerated into cellulose and subsequently purified in well known manner. The pellicles, while still in their wet state, may then be flattened, as shown in Fig. 2, with the opaque section thereof uppermost in order to print'said opaque section in any desired manner. This printing is preferably of such a nature as to be difiicult of imitation. The pellicles, after being printed, may be stored in a suitable container with an aqueous solution and shipped in their wet state to the user. The user may then remove the tubes from the container and apply them to the bottle over which the governmental tax stamp has already been placed. The sealed bottles may then be placed in the customary shipping cartons, the drying of the pellicles then proceeding automatically. When the tube is dried, it shrinks into very close contact with the governmental stamp, thus insuring the easy legibility of the same. There may thus be obtained, as is clearly evident from an inspection of the drawing, a. package of attractive appearance which will clearly display the governmental tax stamp, and which will have sections of an opaque nature which willafiord a clear display of matter printed thereon. Obviously, if desired, the printing may be placed on the tube after the same has shrunk in place on the bottle neck.

Tubes of the nature described above may be provided with any number of transparent sections to afford visibility to various other stamps or indicia on the neck of the bottle, or the sections may obviously be of any desired width. Furthermore, the opaque sections of the tube may be in the form of a series of stripes or other designs to afford any ornamental effects desired.

My invention has enabled me to provide tubes of regenerated cellulose or other non-fibrous sheet material of novel and ornamental appearance having stripes of opaque, colored, and/or transparent materials for use as protective and decorative sleeves over the necks of liquor bottles in combination with governmental tax stamps placed underneath, such tubes being adapted to contain advertising or other indicia thereon.

The use of opaque sleeves having non-imitatable designs or printing thereon was highly desirable due to the protection afiorded thereby against counterfeiting and forgery of labels by unauthorized parties; nevertheless, such sleeves have recently been prohibited because of the nature of the above mentioned governmental regulation.

n the other hand, as above pointed out, trans-- parent sleeves have been found undesirable by reason of the fact that they do not afford a suitable base for printing matter thereon. By providing opaque sleeves with transparent sections, it is now possible to obtain the protective characextending over said closure, a sleeve surrounding said stamp and container, said sleeve composed of non-fibrous cellulosic material and containing as integrant parts thereof a longitudinal transparent section and a longitudinal opaque section, said longitudinal transparent and opaque sections extending the full length of said sleeve, said opaque section having an opaquing agent embodied therein, and said transparent section overlying said stamp, said opaque section being "of suflicient width to serve as a background for indicia which may be placed thereon and said transparent section being sufiiciently wide to expose to view substantially the width of the stamp covered thereby.

2. A sealed container having a closure, a stamp extending over said closure, a sleeve surrounding .said stamp and container, said sleeve composed of non-fibrous cellulosic material and containing as integrant parts thereof transparent and opaque sections on opposite longitudinal sides thereof, said opaque sections having an opaquing agent embodied therein, and said transparent sections overlying said stamp.

DAVID FRANKLIN EVANS.

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