US2757501A - Device for effecting the hermetic closure of containers for preserves and analogous purposes - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 7, 1956 M. A. s. MUNOZ 2,757,501

DEVICE FOR EFFECTING THE HERMETIC CLQSURE OF CONTAINERS FOR PRESERVES AND ANALOGOUS PURPOSES Filed Aug. 20, 1953 //v VENTOR MIGUEL ANGEL 5/41 MMu/voz United States Patent DEVICE FOR EFFECTING THE HERMETIC CLO- SURE OF CONTAINERS FOR PRESERVES AND ANALOGOUS PURPOSES Miguel Angel Salia Mufioz, Mexico City, Mexico Application August 20, 1953, Serial No. 376,786

1 Claim. (Cl. 56-441) This invention refers to a process for effecting the hermetic closure of containers to be used repeatedly, for solid and liquid preserves, as likewise to the device for carrying out said process, said process and device providing, respectively, a coordinated series of successive operations and a combination of means which allow of efficiently obtaining an eifectively hermetic seal which differs, by virtue of its effects, from the presently known process and device, as described hereinafter.

The principal object of the invention is the provision of a new and original process by means of which a normal peripheral pressure can be applied to the container so that the usual closure means for such containers, i. e. the ring and cover, provide a true and efficient hermetic closure, not obtained heretofore by the usual process of complementary joining by means of rotary wheels which produce a peripheral and successive tangential pressure on said container but which process is ineflicacious for establishing a perfect and fluid-tight seal.

Another object of the invention is to provide a process, with the device for carrying it out, by means of which there is obtained a liquid-tight seal of a metal cover or one made of some other appropriate and deformable material, with an elastic closure ring, for example of rubber or plastic, both adapted to the edge of a frusto-conical container, such as a glass made of plastic or glass, and by means of which the normal uniform peripheral pressure is not applied to the container but rather directly to the elastic ring, which absorbs the stress and is uniformly compressed throughout its mass between the edge of the cover and the surface of the container next to its edge, thus establishing a perfect liquid-tight seal.

As a proof of the advantageous nature of this closure or seal, compared to that obtained by means of complementaiy joining, it can be mentioned that a container closed by means of the rotary wheel system, is easily opened by hand, simply by pulling the container cover upwards, whereas this does not occur with containers closed in accordance with the process constituting the object of the invention.

Furthermore, the known processes, by means of the application of pressure tangentially to the container, are costly because of the great number of containers which break due to any defect in their shape. It can likewise be affirmed that due to the impossibility of applying strong pressures, in the known systems of tangential complementary joining, an hermetic seal is never obtained, it being necessary therefore to employ chemical preservatives which may harm ones health.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a combination of means which constitute a device formed by two elements, male and female, similar to dies; the pressure required to effect the closure being exerted by means of said device.

Other objects will become evident in the course of the following description, to which is attached, by way of il- 2,757,501 Patented Aug. 7, 1956 ICC lustration, a sheet of drawings in the figures of which appear the means utilized for carrying out the process.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate, respectively, in conventional perspective, the cover and a container with the packing ring, said cover and ring being used to effect the closure of the container, as is the present practice.

Figure 3 illustrates, in elevation and partial vertical section, the container with the male and female elements or dies in their preliminary position, said elements being used to effect the closure in accordance with the process which is one of the objects of the invention.

Figure 4 illustrates, in elevation and partial vertical section, the same elements in final position after having effected the operation, i. e. the hermetic closure.

Referring to said figures, the invention is characterized substantially by providing a process for the hermetic sealing of containers with elastic rings, made of rubber or other appropriate material, and laminar metallic covers or the like, said process comprising the following operations: (1) A ring, 1, of rubber or some other elastic material, is placed close to the edge of mouth 2 of the frustoconical or slightly conical container, made of glass or plastic or even metal, 3. (2) On top of the mouth or orifice 2, of container 3, one places laminar cover 4, provided with a skirt 5, the transverse section of which presents an entrant right angle 6 and another projecting right angle 7, the elastic ring 1 being enclosed by the annular portion having the entrant angle 6, of the skirt of cover 4. (3) The container is introduced into the female die, 8. (4) Male die 9 is placed on top of cover 4. (5) Finally there are applied, in the press, two opposed pressures, namely pressure P on the lower part of female die 8 and another pressure P on the upper part of male die 9, whereby is produced the uniform and simultaneous complementary joining along all the periphery of the ring of elastic material, which is compressed between the skirt of the circumferentially fit cover and the periphery of the container, near the edge of its mouth.

The device which likewise constitutes an object of the invention and by means of which the above-described process is carried out, is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, and is formed substantially by the combination of two cooperative pieces or dies, one of them being the female die 8 and the other being the male die 9.

Both dies are of a shape conforming to that of the cover, which in turn conforms to the shape of the container, which is circular in the present instance.

Accordingly die 8 has a cylindrical shape in its interior part 10, larger in diameter than the container. Near its upper part there is another cylindrical part 11, larger in diameter than the former, said diameter corresponding, on the one hand, to that of skirt 5 and, on the other, to the outer diameter of die 9. The outer and lower portion of this die has a recess or step 10 for the purpose of placing it in the punch press for the pressure fit or complementary joining.

The depth of cylindrical portion 11 is substantially the same as the vertical dimension of skirt 5. The lower part of cylindrical portion 11 tangentially engages the lower part of a half-tubular or grooved annular surface 13, the free peripheral edge of which, 14, engages cylindrical surface 10.

Die 9 has an annular edge 15, the width and height of which correspond respectively to the portions of cover 4, whose transverse section forms entrant right angle 6. Said die has a flat central portion 16 and a cylindrical orifice 17, to bear upon cover 4. Another upper cylindrical cavity 18, larger in diameter than the former, serves to lighten the die and to secure it in the punch press which in the present instance acts as the pressure-fitting device, inasmuch as once cover 4 and its ring 1 have been placed upon the mouth of container 3 and die 9 has been placed upon this cover and said die has been telescoped upon die 8 of the press, it suffices to exert the proper pressure on these dies, by action and reaction, to effect the closure; it being precisely the half-tube or groove 13 which forces skirt 5 to bend upwards'from below and inwardly from the outside, on elastic ring 1, in order to compress it uniformly throughout its peripheral extent, against the associated periphery of the container.

This system of pressure fitting or complementary joining, by means of pressures which are colineal, coactuating, and opposite in direction, is wholly different from the system of complementary joining by means of rotary wheels which act tangentially and successively upon the periphery of the packing ring and produce a defective seal. By contrast, the seal obtained by the coactuating colineal action of the oppositely directed pressures, applied to the dies, in combination with the semi-tubular form given to the female die, and on which the elastic packing ring is shown placed, causes the skirt of the cover, by being forced to follow the direction of said half-tubular form, to fold upward pressing the ring, said ring adapting itself with uniform stress at each of its points to the peripheral surface of the container, thus forming an efiicacious and perfect seal.

It is evident that some modifications can be made in the combination of elements intervening in the die device, with regard to the form thereof which, instead of being circular, could be oval, square, etc., according to the shape of the mouth of the container and therefore according to the shape of the cover; likewise the container may be cylindrical and provided with a groove or flutings in which the elastic ring is placed, without this altering the essence of the invention as set forth in the attached claim.

Having thus described the invention, what I consider as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A device for effecting the hermetic sealing of a cover having a skirt portion, an elastic ring and a frusto-conical container, said device comprising cooperative male and female dies; said female die comprising an annular ring the internal surface of which is stepped axially thereof and defines a lowering opening and an upper opening with an intermediate offset therebetween, said lower opening being slightly larger than the maximum dimension of the container and said upper opening being larger than said lower opening and corresponding to the dimension of the cover skirt portion, said offset comprising an annular channel of substantially semicircular section with its outer periphery substantially contiguous with the surface of said upper opening and its inner periphery substantially tangent to the surface of said lower opening; and said male die comprising an annular flange telescopically engageable within the upper opening of said female die for depressing the cover skirt portion into said channel to roll the edge of the skirt portion around the elastic ring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,067,797 Chellis July 22, 1913 1,154,352 Townsend Sept. 21, 1915 2,686,624 Podesta Aug. 17, 1954

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