US3446170A - Method and system for making a container closure - Google Patents

Description

May 27, 1969 E. F. ANDERSEN METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAKING A CONTAINER CLOSURE Sheet of2 Original Filed Sept. 22, 1965 FIGJ.

INVENTORZ ELI FRANK ANDERSEN WW ATTYS.

E. F. ANDERSEN May 27, 1969 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAKING A CONTAINER CLOSURE Sheet Original Filed Sept. 22, 1965 INVENTOFU ELI FRANK ANDERSEN ATTY S United States Patent US. Cl. 113121 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method or system for making a truly tamperproof closure for a pharmaceutical bottle or the like by forming a cap of cup-like form with an annular top portion having a side wall depending from the outer peripheral edge of the top and a button disposed centrally of the top portion and connected thereto by fracturable bridge means. Thereafter a disc-like cover member made of a heat deformable material and having a central opening is placed over the cap so that it overlies the top thereof and circumscribes the button. The button is then deformed to securely hold the cover member in place over the top of the cap and thereafter the cover is heated to deform the cover member to provide a circumferentially extending lip engaging over the side wall of the cap whereby the cover member inner face conforms to the shape of the top.

This is a division of my copending application Ser. No. 489,184, filed Sept. 22, 1965, for Container Closure and Method of Making the Same, and now Patent No. 3,358,865, issued Dec. 19, 1967.

This invention relates to improvements in tamperproof container closures and to a new and improved simplified method for making the same.

Container closures of the type to which the present invention relates are particularly adapted for use on pharmaceutical containers or bottles. At present, closures for certain types of pharmaceutical bottles have a piercable closure member in the form of a disc or stopper made of rubber or like material and a metallic cap to hold the stopper in place. The metallic caps generally include an inner central removable disc portion detachably secured to an outer annular top portion of the cap by fracturable bridge means. In this type of closure, the user removes the central disc portion by inserting a fingernail beneath the disc to pry it upwardly thereby fracturing the bridge conmotions and exposing the stopper for piercing by a hypodermic syringe to withdraw the contents of the container. This type of closure in addition to being comparatively expensive to make, presents several disadvantages in use. For example, removal of the disc in the normal use requires both hands of the user, one to support the bottle and one to grip the disc adjacent the bridge connections. The proximity of the hand to the bridges presents the possibility of injury on the rough sharp edges of the fractured bridges created on removal of the disc. Additionally, in some instances during assembly of the caps on the bottles, the connecting bridges have been broken in tumbling about due to the instability of the disc and the tendency to tilt or be tilted out of the plane at the top whereby the edge of one cap is caught or twisted under an upturned edge of another resulting in premature breaking of the disc.

In another prior type of container closure, a cover member which overlies the top and disc of the cap is provided which has a depending central portion engaging under the edge of an opening in the disc member. Even though this type of container closure is elfective for the purposes intended, it has been found that special equipment is required to assemble the cover to the cap and that the overall method of assembling the elements of the container closure is somewhat expensive.

With the foregoing in mind, an object of the present invention is to provide a so-called tamperproof cap and cover for pharmaceutical containers or bottles which is extremely simplified in construction and which lends itself to a one-hand removal operation, and wherein there are no sharp or jagged edges Which present a risk of injury to the user.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved simplified method of making a tamperproof closure in a highly economical manner.

One form of container closure in accordance with the present invention comprises an outer cap having an annular top portion with a central opening, a disc member disposed between the top portion of the cap and the stopper and a button secured by fracturable bridge means to the disc and projecting through the opening in the cap. This assembly is extremely economical to make. Moreover, in order to withdraw the contents of the container by means of a syringe, the user merely supports the bottle in one hand and tilts the button with the thumb of the hand whereby the button is severed from the disc at the fracturable bridge connections to expose the stopper through the opening in the top portion of the cap. By this construction, the top portion of the cap overlies the fractured bridges thereby minimizing the possibility of injury to the user. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the button is connected to the top portion of the cap by fracturable bridge means and a cover member with a central opening is supported by the button in overlying relation to the top of the cap. With this arrangement, the button is removable to expose the stopper simply by engaging the cover and prying it upwardly relative to the cap.

The foregoing and other objects of the present invention and the various details of the construction and arrangement thereof are hereinafter more fully set forth and described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a container closure in accordance with the present invention secured in position on a bottle;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the closure with a portion of the cover member broken away to more clearly illustrate the construction;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 3 showing the removal of the central disc portion;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating apparatus for carrying out a method of making a tamperproof container closure in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken on lines 66 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of a cap as formed by the cap forming machine; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary view taken along lines 8-8 of FIG. 5.

Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 1-4, reference numeral 10 designates generally a container assembly comprising a bottle of conventional form, a portion of which is shown in FIG. 1, and a stopper 12 adapted to fit in the opening in the neck of the bottle. The stopper 12, which may be made of rubber or like material, has a plug portion 14 adapted to fit within the neck 16 of the bottle, a peripheral flange 18 which seats against the lip 20 of the bottle and a central wall portion 22 of thinner cross section so that it may be pierced by the needle of a hypodermic syringe to gain access to the contents of the bottle. While a particular configuration of stopper has been illustrated, the present invention is not concerned with the particular form employed and other types may be used in lieu of the one illustrated.

A cap 24 of generally cup-like form and preferably made of a sheet material such as aluminum serves to hold the stopper in place to seal the contents of the bottle. The cap 24 has an annular top portion 26 defining a central opening of circular shape 28 and an outer peripheral skirt or side wall 30 depending from the outer periphery of the annular top portion 26. The side wall 30 of the cap which prior to assembly to the bottle is straight is adapted to be crimped or spun inwardly at its lower terminal edge to provide a circumferentially extending, inwardly projecting rim portion 32 adapted to engage under a shoulder 34 on the bottle below the lip thereof, thereby to permanently secure the cap to the bottle.

In the present instance, the cap further includes a central projection in the form of a raised button 40 having a generally cylindrical body portion 42 and a circumferentially extending annular disc portion 44 projecting radially from the lower terminal edge of the cylindrical body portion which in turn is connected to the inner edge of the annular top portion 26 in the present instance by means of three equispaced bridge connections 48. A cover member 50 having a central opening 52 engages over the body portion of the button and is held thereto as illustrated in FIG. 4 between the flattened head 54 of the button and the disc portion 44. This cover member 50 is preferably made of a plastic material and is disc-like in form having an inner face 50a conforming to the configuration of the top portion of the cap and an outer depending circumferentially extending edge or lip 56 which engages over the side wall of the cap and snugly embraces the cap in the manner shown in FIG. 3 so that the cap is snugly nested in the under surface of the cover. In this manner the cover member 50 serves as a seal to preclude infiltration of dirt and foreign matter in the area between the cap and stopper or between the stopper and lip of the bottle. Further the cover member overlies the bridge connections or members 48 thereby eliminating the tendency of the removable disc to be tilted or raised during production and transportation prior to assembly to the bottle.

Now with the closure assembled to the bottle as illustrated in FIG. 4, when the user desires to withdraw the contents of the bottle, the bottle is merely supported in the palm of the hand with the tip of the thumb engaging the peripheral downturned lip 56 of the cover member 50. Now, by exerting an upward force on the cover, it is displaced upwardly, the portion thereof diametrically opposed from the area engaged by the thumb of the user serving as the fulcrum of a lever and supporting the cover as the bridges 48 are fractured. It is noted that the raising of the cover as illustrated in FIG. 4 severs the button at the bridge connections to expose the central portion of the stopper. As illustrated in FIG. 4 the fingers of the user are remote from any edges of the annular top portion of the cap. Further, the fingers of the user are remote from the exposed central portion of the stopper thereby minimizing the danger of contaminating the sterile stopper of the bottle.

There is illustrated in FIGS. -8 inclusive, a continuous system for making the container closure described above. In this system caps 71 of the form illustrated in FIG. 7 are made in a cap forming machine generally designated by the numeral 70.

This cap forming machine 70 may simply comprise a conventional die stamping apparatus which forms the cap from sheet material such as aluminum. The caps 71 as best illustrated in FIG. 7 comprise a generally cylindrical circumferentially extending skirt 72, an annular top 74 and an elongated button 76 having a radially extending annular projection 78 which is connected to the annular top 74 by a series of fracturable bridges. These caps are automatically fed from the cap forming machine and are positioned on a series of cap support members 80 which as illustrated are connected in end to end relation and are actuated in an endless path by means of a suitable chain type conveyor 82. Each cap support member 80 as illustrated in FIG. 10 includes a body portion 84 conforming generally to the shape of the top and skirt of the top and a spring biased pin 86 which engages interiorly of the button 76. As the caps 70 are advanced by the conveyor from the cap forming machine, they pass under a cover element feed mechanism generally designated by the numeral 90. This feed mechanism includes a pair of feed and take up rolls 92 and 94 for supplying a strip of plastic material through cooperating'die and anvil elements 96 and 98 which stamp out disc-like elements 100 from the strip 101. The disc-like cover elements 100 are delivered by means of a chute 102 to a hopper 104. The bottom of the hopper has two discharge openings 106 spaced on either side of the bottom thereof and a reciprocating slide element 110 which is actuated back and forth in timed relation with the conveyor whereby disc-like cover elements 100 are positioned on top of the caps on the conveyor. Downstream of the cover element feed station, there is provided a reciprocating press which engages the button on the cap and compresses it to secure the cover element in place on the cap. Thereafter, a heated die element 121 engages the assembled cover and cap elements to form the cover element to the final desired shape as illustrated in the extreme left-hand position of FIG. 5. Thereafter, the completed closure elements are ready for application to a container such as a bottle in the manner described above.

While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described herein and while a particular method of making a container closure in ac cordance with the present invention has been illustrated, it is, of course, to be understood that changes and modifications may be made therein within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A method of making a tamperproof closure for pharmaceutical bottles or the like consisting of the steps of forming a cap of cup-like form having an annular top portion, a side wall depending from the outer peripheral edge of the top portion and a button disposed centrally of the top portion and connected thereto by fracturable bridge means, placing on the cap a disc-like cover member made of a heat deformable material and having a central opening so that it overlies the top of the cap and circumscribes the button, deforming the button to securely hold the cover member in place over the top of the cap and heating the cover member to deform the cap to provide a circumferentially extending lip engaging over the side wall of the cap and whereby the cover member inner face conforms to the shape of the top portion of the cap and snugly embraces the top portion.

2. In a system for making a tamperproof closure for pharmaceutical bottles or the like, a cap forming apparatus for forming a cap of cup-like form having an annular top portion, a side wall depending from the outer peripheral edge of the top portion and a button disposed centrally of the top portion and connected thereto by fracturable bridge means, a conveyor mounted for movement in an endless path and having a plurality of support members for the caps, a disc supply station along the path of the conveyor for supplying a disc-like cover member made of a heat deformable material and having a central opening so that it overlies the top of the cap and circum scribes a press downstream of the disc supply station operable to deform the button to securely hold the cover member in place over the top of the cap and a heated die element downstream of the press adapted to deform the cap to provide a circumferentially extending lip engaging over the side wall of the cap whereby the cover member 3,446,170 I s s inner face conforms to the shape of the top portion of 3,069,767 12/1962 Rosenthal 113-121 the cap and snugly embraces the top portion. 3,311,077 3/1967 Andrew et a1. 11'3-1 References Cited RONALD D. GREFE, Primary Examiner. UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 Us. CL X'Rl 2,853,118 9/1958 Schnitzius 113-1 113-1

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