Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D35/00—Pliable tubular containers adapted to be permanently or temporarily deformed to expel contents, e.g. collapsible tubes for toothpaste or other plastic or semi-liquid material; Holders therefor
  • B65D35/44—Closures
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D1/00—Rigid or semi-rigid containers having bodies formed in one piece, e.g. by casting metallic material, by moulding plastics, by blowing vitreous material, by throwing ceramic material, by moulding pulped fibrous material or by deep-drawing operations performed on sheet material
  • B65D1/02—Bottles or similar containers with necks or like restricted apertures, designed for pouring contents
  • B65D1/06—Bottles or similar containers with necks or like restricted apertures, designed for pouring contents with closable apertures at bottom
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D35/00—Pliable tubular containers adapted to be permanently or temporarily deformed to expel contents, e.g. collapsible tubes for toothpaste or other plastic or semi-liquid material; Holders therefor
  • B65D35/02—Body construction
  • B65D35/10—Body construction made by uniting or interconnecting two or more components

Definitions

• Dough container tube comprising a refill device locked by a screw cap.
• the invention relates to a device for making rechargeable a tube used for packaging and dispensing of pastes such as toothpaste.
• tubes intended for the packaging of pasta are well known; the tubes are essentially single-use products made up of a thin and flexible tube, either metallic or plastic; one end of the tube has a narrowing with a neck on which comes to adjust a plug which is generally screwed; the other end of the tube is first used to fill it with the dough to be packaged, then it is closed by crimping or welding.
• the object of the present invention relates to a device allowing the reopening and reclosing of this tube with a wide opening, so that, when it is empty or insufficiently filled, it is possible to put dough back into it; indeed, if one wants to use a non-standard tube for single use (element of a compact toilet bag for example), there immediately arises a problem of restocking which is almost impossible to solve; hence the need to offer buyers toilet bags containing tubes that they can fill themselves and reload from the standard tubes they usually use; this concept of refillable tube helps to limit the consumption of packaging material for everyday products.
• the concept of the rechargeable tube has already existed for several years; the tube is generally composed of a flexible plastic tube capable of resuming its initial shape, if possible without wrinkling, when the tube having been emptied, it is refilled; but the solutions used to date have drawbacks which it is advantageous to eliminate in order to simplify their implementation.
• the known systems there is first a mechanical locking clamp of a tube whose bottom has been previously folded back on itself; this very simple system has the disadvantage of requiring a certain skill to put the clamp in place and it is an operation which is difficult to mechanize for the manufacturer of the tube who must put it in place first.
• Another system easier to use, consists of the use of a plug with a cylindrical skirt forced into the tube; the drawback of such a system lies in the poor locking of the plug and tube assembly, resulting from the creep of the tube under tension, the diameter of which widens; so that when the tube is pressed the plug escapes from its housing.
• the invention relates to a device for fitting, at the filling end of the tube, a plug which is correctly lockable and easy to handle.
• Fig.1 shows a dough container tube according to the invention with the dispensing orifice facing down and the refilling orifice, in exploded view, to see the inside of the tube when the cap is in place.
• Fig.2 shows, in partially exploded view, the part of the tube intended for its recharging in the case where the thread is molded at the same time as the tube.
• Fig.3 shows an exploded view of the closure cap of the refilling orifice modified to also serve as the product dispensing orifice.
• Fig.4 shows the part of the tube, intended for its recharging, with the end piece, into which the cap is screwed, when it is fixed by welding or gluing before its installation in the tube.
• Fig.5 shows the part of the tube, intended for its recharging, with the tip, into which the cap is screwed, when it is fixed by snap-fastening.
• the other end of the tube which may either have a neck distribution as shown in Fig.1, or include a crushing closure of the tube which is welded or crimped.
• the device, object of the invention consists in equipping the filling end (1) Fig. 1 of the refillable tube (2) with a screw thread (3) either inside or outside the tube (2), leaving the largest possible filling passage (1), onto which a plug (4) is screwed. In what follows we will only describe the case of the internal thread.
• the tube (2) When the tube (2) is obtained by injection, it is technically possible to obtain the thread (3) directly by injection; the threaded neck (5), of small diameter, used to extract the dough from the tube, has a male thread while the thread (3), from the filling orifice (1), into which is screwed a plug (4 ) is a female thread; under these conditions a screw cap (6) of conventional type may be suitable for closing the tube of the side (7) for the extraction of the product and a plug (4) with male thread closes it on the side (1) of the filling. It is also possible, when the tube is obtained by injection, to manufacture a tube (8) Fig.2 having at one end (9), a female internal thread (10) in the tube (8) into which a plug will be screwed (4) Fig.
• this plug Fig.3 may further include a ribbed collar (13) to facilitate its screwing on the end (9) Fig.2 of the tube (8) and its unscrewing; the tube (8) is closed, at the other end, by a thermal weld as for the other plastic tubes; filling is done by unscrewing the neck assembly Fig. 3 product extraction plug, then when this assembly is screwed back, it is sufficient to extract the product by unscrewing the extraction plug;
• the advantage of such a system is to be able to use traditional filling lines if one wants to deliver the already filled tube for a first use.
• the filling neck is made by the provision of an intermediate piece (15) of annular shape, comprising a female thread (16), fixed permanently and sealingly, at the filling end (14) of the tube; a plug (4) Fig.1 as described above makes it possible to close the tube Fig.4 once it is filled;
• this end piece (15), of annular shape comprises a cylindrical outer part (17) comprising a chamfer (18) at its lower end, so as to be fitted into the end (14) of the tube and comprise at the upper end a collar (19) whose width is for example the thickness (20) of the tube on the end (21) of which it comes to bear; then the end piece (15) can be fixed by known techniques such as thermal spot welding or ultrasonic or friction, gluing or latching; the choice of materials is then made accordingly.
• the end piece (15) made of a material compatible from the point of view of the welding with the material of the tube, can be force-fitted and thermally welded through the wall (22) of the tube, at the height of the fitting, in an area of sufficient size to prevent the end piece (15) from escaping .
• Friction welding can be obtained by putting the end piece (15) in rotation so as to obtain for example the welding of the flange (19) on the end (14) of the tube; this latter solution will nevertheless require a particular development allowing the flexible tube to be maintained during the welding phase so that it does not twist.
• Snap-fastening can be obtained by making at least one protrusion (23) Fig.
• the wall of the tube (31) takes its place and comes to block the end piece (25) to prevent it from coming out again, while the flange (29) abuts on the end (32) of the tube (31) to prevent the tip (25) from sinking further; it is preferable to provide a device for controlling the relative orientation of the tube (31) and the end piece (25) for their automatic assembly; it may be for the tube a notch (33) opening on its upper edge (32), produced simultaneously with the hole (30) intended for the snap-fastening, which makes it possible to know the position of the tube (31), which is associated with a mark (34) located on the nozzle (25); the mark (34) and the notch (33) can be designed to serve as guide so that when they fit into each other, at the time of fitting, the protuberance (23) is correctly oriented in line with the bore (30).
• the plug (4) Fig.1 which is the same as that used in the configurations described in Fig.4 and Fig.5 has a male threaded cylindrical part (35) Fig.1 which is screwed into the end piece (15) Fig. 4 or (25) Fig.5; this threaded part (35) Fig.1 is integral with a cylindrical part (36), the diameter of which is slightly greater than the outside diameter of the tube (2) in the case described in Fig.1 and of the flange (19) Fig. 4 or (29) Fig.5 of the nozzle, and whose cylindrical wall (37) is striated to allow a good grip for screwing and unscrewing; the lower part (38) of this striated cylindrical part abuts on the upper part of the collar (19) Fig.4.
• the assembly of the plug (4) Fig.1 and the endpiece (15) Fig.4 comprises a braking or locking device preventing its untimely unscrewing; the upper part of the collar (19) may for example include a device (38) for locking the plug (4) Fig.
• the two-part stopper described in Fig.2 can also be fixed on flexible cylindrical tubes comprising at one end an end piece (19) Fig.4 or (25) Fig.5 and which can be closed at the other end by welding obtained, as described above, by crushing the tube, or crimping or any other means of closure.
• the plug assembly system (4) with the female screw thread (3) is taken as an example because other known systems can be used, in particular systems making it possible to obtain an assembly correctly locked in a quarter turn using for example threads interrupted, or applied to a conical surface, or a bayonet fixing system.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Ceramic Engineering (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Coating Apparatus (AREA)
• Pens And Brushes (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=9419118

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Cited By (6)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (5)

• 1991
  • 1991-11-14 FR FR9114268A patent/FR2683797A1/fr active Granted
• 1992
  • 1992-11-16 WO PCT/FR1992/001064 patent/WO1993010013A1/fr active IP Right Grant
  • 1992-11-16 EP EP93900253A patent/EP0611356B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1992-11-16 CA CA002123434A patent/CA2123434A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 1992-11-16 DE DE69210037T patent/DE69210037T2/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1992-11-16 ES ES93900253T patent/ES2087708T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime

Patent Citations (5)

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