US2949215A

US2949215A - Dispensing caps for collapsible containers

Info

Publication number: US2949215A
Application number: US722059A
Authority: US
Inventors: Will M Mudge; Robert C Alexander; James W Alexander
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1958-03-17
Filing date: 1958-03-17
Publication date: 1960-08-16
Anticipated expiration: 1977-08-16

Description

Aug. 16, 1960 W. M. MUDGE ET AL DISPENSING CAPS FOR COLLAPSIBLE CONTAINERS Filed'llaroh 1-7, 1958 :5 Irweit'loras will M. MLLdQQ. Robert C. GJGK11 LQ1- J'avnes ulalexandal' United States Patent DISPENSING CAPS FOR COLLAPSIBLE CONTAINERS Will M. Mudge, St. Louis Park, Minn. (2301 Westridge Lane, Minneapolis 16, Minn); and Robert C. Alexander, 301'5 Fairehild Ave., and James W. Alexander, 3003 Fairchild Ave., both of Wayzata, Minn.

7 Filed Mar. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 722,059

1 Claim. ((31. 222-490) Our. invention relates to improvements in dispensing caps for collapsible containers such as tubes in which tooth pastes, shaving creams, hair creams and the like are commonly sold.

Tubes and other collapsible containers of the nature indicated are conventionally of a construction in which the container body is provided with an externally threaded discharge neck for which an internally threaded closure cap is provided, said closure cap being screwed onto thecontainer neck, when the container is in disuse, and being unscrewed from said neck and removed therefrom when material is to be dispensed from the container. Such conventional closure caps, when removed from the necks of containers, are easily and often misplaced or lost to the inconvenience of the user and to the detriment of the contents of the containers.

So-called captive closure caps have been tethered in one way or another to collapsible containers to pre vent the misplacement or loss of the caps, but such expedients require costly departures from the conventional in container construction, or are otherwise prohibitively costly. I

=Elforts have been [made to provide dispensing caps for collapsible containers which do not require removal from or replacement on the threaded container necks. However, insofar as we are aware, no fully adequate container cap of the dispensing type has been heretofore devised. .A fully adequate dispensing cap should cost no more than an ordinary closure cap and, like the ordinary closure cap, should be readily screwable onto the usual. threaded neck of a conventional tube or other containerby machines of conventional design. The fully adequate dispensing cap, initially placed on the neck of a tube .or other container, should not only seal the container against leakage throughout all of the times of its packaging, transportation and storage up tothe time of preparation for its use by the user, but also thereafter and at all times between uses until the entire content of the container is dispensed therefrom. Additionally, no more than a minimum of'effort, withoutskill and unattended with the use of an instrument of any kind, should be required on the part. of-a user in preparing the. dispensing cap for use;

An object of our invention, therefore, is to provide a construction in dispensing'caps for collapsible containers, attended" with the various features aforesaid which, in 'our contemplation, are requisite in a fully adequate cap of such nature.

Other objects of the invention reside in the novel combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter illustrated and/r described.

In the drawing:

-'Fig. 1 is an elevational view, in enlarged scale, of a dispensing cap constructed in accordance with our invention, said view showing broadside the near side wall of the nozzle of the cap.

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the cap shownin ice Fig. 1, said Fig. 2 showing broadside the near end walltudinally of said wall, said cap being shown as applied to the threaded neck of a collapsible tube.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of said cap taken in a plane extending longitudinally of the cap centrally thereof and intersecting the caps terminal will laterally of said wall.

Fig. 5 is afragmentary sectional view in detail of the nozzle of said cap, said view corresponding in section with that of Fig. 1 and being enlarged in scale thereover, said view showing a slit-score in the terminal wall of the nozzle at the inner face of said wall.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view in detail of the nozzle ofsaidcap, said view corresponding in section with that of Fig. 2' and being enlarged thereover, said Fig. 6, like Fig. 5, showing the slit-score in the terminal wall of the nozzle at the inner face of said wall.

Figs. 7 and 8 are detail sectional views corresponding to. Figs. 5 and 6, respectively, the slit-score in the nozzles terminal wall being shown at the outer face of said wall rather than at the inner face thereof.

Figs. 9 and 10 are detail sectional views corresponding to Figs. 5 -and 6, respectively, illustrating a weakening of the nozzles elongated terminal wall along a line longitudinally thereof, the weakening of said wall extending completely therethrough from the inner to the outer'face thereof.

V The illustrated form of dispensing cap has a skirt -A and a nozzle B extending therefrom longitudinally there of, the structure beinggenerally tapered from the base ofthelskirt A to the end of said nozzle B. Said cap is a molded structure of a material that is resilient, polyethylene being a suitable and desirable material.

at its base with an outwardly extending annular flange 12. i The lower portion of the annular wall 11 of said skirt A is formed with internal threads 13 which threadedly receive external threads on the neck of a tube or other collapsible container, such as the tube 14- shown in Fig. .3 with a neck 15 having external threads 16 thereon. H

The nozzle B of the illustrated cap has an elongated terminal wall b, opposed side walls 17 joining said terminal wall at its side extremities along the length thereof, and opposed end walls 18 joining said terminal wall b at its extremities along thebreadth thereof. The terminal. wall b. is longitudinally arched from end to end thereof and laterally arched from one side thereof to the other. .Saidterminal wall b, throughout its entire area, .is relatively thin, as compared with the annular wall 11 of the skirt A. The side walls 17 are likewise relatively thin substantially throughout the same, while the end walls 18,. at. their upper portions, are similarly relatively thin. This relative thinness in Wall structures, amongother things as will later appear, conserves in the amount of material used in molding the cap. Said side walls, 17,. substantially throughout the same, are exteriorly concave longitudinally of the cap,and said end walls 18, at said upper portions, thereof, are also exteriorly concave longitudinally of the cap, the said side walls 17 and the said end walls 18 meeting the terminal wall b substantially at right angles relative thereto.

The elongated terminal wall b is weakened along a line longitudinally thereof, which weakening defines in said tenminal wall a line of severance and opposed lips 19 meeting along such line. To thus weaken the terminal wall b of the nozzle B, a slit-score 20 is formed in said terminal wall, said slit-score extending longitudinally of the terminal wall along the middle thereof at its inner face Figs. 5., 6), or its outer face, (Figs. 7, 8) or, instead of a slit-score, a slit is formed in said terminal wall b, as at 21 in Fig. 10, 'such slit being thereafter fracturably sealed closed by the application of heat to the slitted terminal wall b, or otherwise, such seal being represented in the sectional area 22 in Fig. 9. The slit-scoring or slitting of the terminal wall b is preferably done by an instrument with a knifeedge, rather than by molding, so that the lips 19 of the terminal wall b will normally meet each other and be securely closed against the leakage of material therethrough.

The cap is exteriorly fluted to provide ribs '23 extending lengthwise of the cap for coaction with capping machinery of the type conventionally employed in applying threaded caps to the threaded necks of collapsible containers.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that the contents of a collapsible container, fitted with a dispensing cap of the construction aforesaid, will be sealed within the container securely against escape therefrom throughout all of the times in the packaging, shipment and storage of such container which intervene between the capping of the container and the conditioning of the dispensing cap for use. To condition the dispensing cap for use, the user simply brings finger-squeezing pressure against the opposite end walls 18 of the nozzle B. Under such pressure, said nozzle B is flexed, the arched terminal wall D of said nozzle being thereupon more sharply arched longitudinally thereof and thereby fractured along its line of weakening, severing the terminal wall b between the lips 19 defined therein by such line of weakening. Releasing such pressure employed in fracturing said terminal wall b, the resilient cap resumes its initial undistorted condition, wherein the terminal walls lips 19 assume contacting relationship secure against escape of material from the cap in the absence of collapsible pressure applied to the container.

After the terminal wall b of the nozzle B has been fractured, as aforesaid, material may be dispensed from said nozzle by collapsing the container. This operation forces material from the container into the cap. Such material, under pressure, flexes the side walls 17 of the nozzle B bulging them outwardly and parting the lips 19 of the terminal wall b, the said material under pressure within the nozzle being thereupon extruded there- B by cutting the slit-score 20 thereinto, said wall b is thereby prepared for its ready fracturing severance through the thickness of said wall continuing from and left uncut by said slit-score, as will be readily understood. After the terminal wall b has been fractured by digital distortion of the nozzle B in providing the ultimate discharge slit between the lips 19 of the terminal wall b, the respective fracture-formed and score-cut surface portions of the confronting edges of said lips, defining said slit, met each other and effectively close the slit as the nozzle resumes its initial undistorted condition.

Other than to conserve in the cost of material going into the molded cap, the terminal wall b of the nozzle B and the side and

end walls

17, 18 thereof are relatively thin to promote the opening of the lips 19 of said terminal wall b under tolerable container-collapsing pressures. Yet, in such thin-walled nozzle construction, the lips 19 of the terminal wall b come tightly together when collapsing pressure upon the container ceases.

Changes in the specific form of the invention, as herein described, may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is:

A dispensing cap for a collapsible container having a neck for the discharge of material therefrom, said cap being of resilient material having a skirt adapted to be applied to such container neck and having a nozzle extending from said skirt longitudinally thereof, said nozzle having relatively thin walls including opposed side walls, opposed end walls and an elongated terminal wall, said terminal wall being longitudinally arched and having a slit-score cut thereinto at one face thereof as with a knife edge, said slit-score preparing the terminal wall for its ready fracturing severance through the thickness of said wall continuing from and left uncut by said slit-score, such slit-score extending longitudinally of the terminal wall and defining therein opposed lips at the opposite sides of the slit-score, said nozzle walls being adapted to flex under squeezing pressure exerted by the fingers against the nozzles opposed end walls, the arched terminal wall being adapted under such squeezing pressure to arch more sharply and to fracture through said thickness thereof prepared for fracturing in the cutting of said slit-score, thereby completing a discharge slit in said terminal wall between said lips, said walls of said nozzle being adapted upon cessation of such squeezing pressure against them to resume their initial undistorted condition wherein the respective fracture-formed and score-cut surface portions of the confronting edges of said lips meet each other and effectively close said discharge slit, the walls of the nozzle being adapted to fiex under internal pressure exerted against them by ma terial forced into the nozzle from the container when collapsing force is applied to the container, said lips of the terminal wall being adapted thereby to be parted from each other opening said slit for the extrusion of material therethrough from within the nozzle, said nozzle walls when relieved from such internal pressure being adapted to resume their said initial undistorted condition and thereby reclose said slit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,048,255 Winklemiller Dec. 24, 1912 2,005,642 Thornton June 18, 1935 2,550,132 Woods Apr. 24, 1951 2,738,907 Lacher Mar. 20, 1956 2,802,608 -Gassaway Aug. 13, 1957