WO1995024178A1

WO1995024178A1 - Beverage container

Info

Publication number: WO1995024178A1
Application number: PCT/GB1995/000388
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Stewart Hamilton
Original assignee: Gleneagles Spring Waters Company Limited
Priority date: 1994-03-11
Filing date: 1995-02-24
Publication date: 1995-09-14
Also published as: AU1715095A; GB9404774D0

Abstract

A disposable container of or for a beverage, comprising a beverage-containing portion having a closed base and an open top, the top being initially covered by a removable closure sealed by frangible means; characterised by a detachable base compartment, removably attached to the base of the beverage-containing portion, the compartment housing a teat having attachment means for fastening said teat to said top of the container, in use, when said closure is removed. Thus, prior art disposable bottles may be overcome, in that a standard form of bottle mouth closure may be used and at the same time the need for a separately packaged teat is avoided. In a preferred arrangement, a novel interlocking arrangement for the teat is provided which ensures that the teat remains firmly anchored to the bottle.

Description

Beverage Container

The present invention relates to disposable bottles of beverage for babies.

There are many types of baby's feeding bottles available. The classic bottle comprises a glass or heavy duty plastic bottle and a teat of rubber-type material which is removably attached to the mouth of the bottle. The milk or other beverage is made up and poured into the open mouth of the bottle and the teat is then fixed in place. After the feed, the teat is removed and the entire bottle and teat must be thoroughly cleaned and sterilised before the next feed. The teat is normally attached to the bottle by means of an attachment ring which threadedly engages with the bottle mouth and which engages over the teat with a lateral flange thereof trapped between ring and bottle.

However, with re-usable bottles and teats, it is extremely important that all liquid and baby contacting parts are sterilised prior to each usage. The traditional method is to immerse all the parts in boiling water or in a sterilising fluid. More recently, several types of sterilising systems have been brought onto the market to save time and labour and to ensure effective sterilisation.

However, sterilisation is very time consuming and tedious and, therefore, in order to save time and effort, pre-sterilised disposable bottles and teats are sometimes used, particularly in hospitals or when travelling.

Various types of disposable bottles are known. A bottle and teat arrangement similar to that of the classic re-usable bottle may be provided, but made of lighter, less expensive material, e.g. lightweight plastic and supplied in sterile packs. The bottle is filled by the user and the teat is attached. After the feed, the entire bottle can be thrown away and a new sterile bottle and teat is then used for the next feed.

In an alternative type of disposable bottle, the bottle is pre-filled with formula milk or other beverage and formed into a sealed pre-sterilised unit. The bottle may be provided with a fixed teat covered by a suitable cap, or with a separate teat supplied in a separate sterile pack which is engaged with the bottle mouth immediately prior to use in place of a sealed closure with which the bottle is initially fitted.

These prefilled disposable bottles can be manufactured and sold as ready-to-use bottles of beverage each containing a single feed. Such bottles are especially convenient for use on holiday or whilst travelling etc., when it would be impractical to carry unwieldy sterilising equipment around. Pre-filled disposable bottles are also used in hospital maternity wards.

However, prefilled bottles with fixed teats require especially adapted and tooled machines for their manufacture, thus increasing their manufacturing costs. Also, such bottles are limited to use by bottle-fed babies and, therefore, have limited applicability. The other type of prefilled bottle has the disadvantage of having to supply sterilised teats in separate packs, which is generally unattractive from a retailing and consumer point of view.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disposable container of or for a beverage, comprising a beverage containing portion having a closed base and an open top, the top being initially covered by a removable closure sealed by frangible means; characterised by a detachable base compartment, removably attached to the base of the beverage containing portion, the compartment housing a teat having attachment means for fastening said teat to said top of the container, in use, when said closure is removed.

Thus the above problems associated with the prior art disposable bottles may be overcome, in that a standard form of bottle mouth closure may be used and at the same time the need for a separately packaged teat is avoided.

The container is preferably a bottle having a neck and a mouth at the open end. Before use, the bottle preferably has the appearance of a standard, disposable bottle of drink. In use, with the teat attached, the bottle has the appearance of a baby's bottle.

It is most important when feeding babies that all of the equipment is sterile. Thus, in the container of the invention, at least the teat, the mouth of the container and the contents should be sterilised and kept in a sterile condition until use. Thus, it is essential that the mouth of the container is covered and sealed before use. Although different ways of achieving this may be envisaged, e.g. use of a foil shrink-wrapped seal over the mouth of the container, the most preferred type of closure is a screw cap adapted to be screwed onto the neck of the container and rendered tamper-proof by a frangible seal. In such an embodiment, the teat is provided with an inner thread corresponding to that of the cap and the neck of the container such that the teat is interchangeable with the cap. In addition to providing a secure fastening means, the above-mentioned embodiment may provide particular advantages in manufacturing. The neck of the container and the cap can be manufactured using standard bottle- top preforms. Thus, it is not necessary to use special machinery to form the top of the container as in the case of known pre-filled disposable baby's bottles where the teat is formed integrally with the bottle.

In view of the need for sterilisation, the use of a frangible tamper-proof seal is essential. If this seal is broken, this indicates that the bottle has been opened and may no longer be sterile. A container with a broken seal should not be used.

All of the components of the container and teat are preferably sterilised during manufacture. A tamper- proof seal should preferably also be provided to indicate if the teat container has been opened. The teat may also be sealed inside a sachet within the teat compartment.

Any type of frangible seal which is permanently broken if the base compartment is removed from the container is suitable. However, in the preferred embodiment, this seal is provided by a wrap-around label which extends between the container and the detachable base compartment, such that the label must be torn or removed before the base can be detached. Thus, a broken or removed label indicates that the base may have been removed and the teat may no longer be sterile, so the bottle should not be used. The use of such a label may further enhance the resemblance of an unopened container to a standard, disposable bottle of drink.

Whilst the base compartment could be removably attached to the base of the container in different ways, e.g. by use of corresponding threaded portions on the container and the base compartment, the preferred method, which involves a minimal amount of machining and provides a good, tight fit is a push fit. A groove may be provided around the container, near its base, with a corresponding ridge or projections on the inner surface of the base compartment engaging in this groove when the base compartment is pushed onto the base of the container. Although this provides a tight, secure fit such that the base compartment will not fall off, it can be easily detached by applying a small pulling force.

As stated above, the container is preferably in the form of a bottle. Thus, in use, the bottle has the look and feel of a normal bottle of drink. Indeed, another advantage of such a bottle is that it is not limited to use by young babies. It can instead, or when unfinished by a baby, be used without the teat in the same way as a normal bottled drink.

The bottle is preferably moulded from P.E.T. Its component parts and the contents may be sterilised either separately, before assembly and filling or together. Sterilisation may be achieved by exposing the bottle or bottle parts to UV in a known manner.

Alternatively, some or all components may be exposed to ozone or gamma irradiation.

Although the container can clearly be used for any beverage, one particular application for the container which is envisaged is for bottled sterilised spring water. Thus the disposable bottle of this invention lends itself especially well to a sterile, pre-filled, disposable, ready- o-use bottle of spring water with a sterile teat which can be attached to the mouth of the bottle to form a baby's bottle containing spring water. This may be given to bottle fed babies, and to breast fed babies during and af er weaning from the breas .

As discussed above, the mouth of the bottle preferably engages a screw fit bottle top of a traditional type thereby avoiding the need for specially adapted and costly preforms for the threaded parts in the bottle moulding tool. Accordingly, there is a restricted radius for teat/locking ring engagement since the locking ring's dimensions are also constrained to be similar to that of a standard bottle top.

In a preferred arrangement, a novel interlocking arrangement for the teat is provided which ensures that the teat remains firmly anchored to the bottle.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a baby's feeding bottle having a threaded neck and a removable teat assembly adapted to be attached to the neck, the teat assembly comprising a locking ring having a cylindrical internally threaded wall with an inwardly extending flange at its upper end defining a teat aperture, and a teat comprising a bulb with an outwardly extending base flange, wherein the locking ring flange is provided adjacent the teat aperture with a downwardly depending annular lip, and the teat base flange including annular grooves in its upper and lower surfaces which are arranged respectively to receive the locking ring lip and the top edge of the bottle neck.

Thus, in use with the locking ring fully tightened, the teat flange is trapped both radially and axially between portions of the neck and locking ring.

This arrangement provides a secure fastening of the teat to the bottle and ensures that the baby cannot pull the teat off and be in danger of swallowing it . This may be achieved within the radial size constraints imposed by standard preforms for threaded bottle necks and tops.

A preferred embodiment of this invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a bottle according to the invention, before use;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view, partly cut away, of the base of the bottle of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the bottle of Fig. 1 in use, with the base compartment detached; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged partly cut away view of the attachment of the teat to the bottle in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

The bottle comprises a cylindrical beverage containing portion 1 with a neck 2 and an open mouth at one end, and a closed base 3 at the other. This is preferably formed with dimples 4 to make it easier to hold during feeding. The bottle is preferably made of transparent, lightweight plastic, e.g. P.E.T., and may be provided with a volume scale marked on the side to show the amount of beverage in the bottle. The neck 2 of the bottle has an outer threaded portion 5.

Initially, the mouth of the filled bottle is closed by a lid 6 which has an inner thread matching the threaded portion 5 of the neck 2 of the bottle for a tight screw- fit.

A one-shot, tamper-proof, frangible seal 7 is provided between the lid 6 and the bottle. This is preferably in the known form of a ring around the neck 2 of the bottle below the threaded portion 5 and of a slightly smaller diameter than the ridges of the thread such that the ring cannot slip off over the threaded portion. During manufacture, the lid 6 is screwed onto the bottle and attached to the sealing ring by a number of weak frangible joins (not shown) which break when the lid 6 is screwed open. Thus it can clearly be seen when the lid 6 has been opened. This is particularly important in the application of baby's feeding bottles since everything must be sterile. Thus, a broken seal indicates that the bottle has been opened and may no longer be sterile. If a bottle has a broken seal it should not be sold or used.

A removable, cup-shaped container 8 is push-fitted onto the base 3 of the beverage containing portion 1. The push-fit may be provided by, e.g. an annular groove 9 around the cylinder 1, near the base 3 into which a corresponding ridge or projections 10 around the inner wall of the cup 8 engage. The cup-shaped container 8 houses a sterile teat unit 11 which may itself be sealed inside a sterile sachet (not shown) . The teat unit 11 comprises a teat locking ring 12 and a teat 13.

The ring 12 has a cylindrical wall with an inner thread 14 corresponding to the threaded portion 5 on the neck 2 of the bottle. One end of the wall has a radially inwardly extending flange 15 around a central teat aperture 16.

The teat 13 has a bulb portion 17 and a base 18 with a radially outwardly extending flange 19. The teat 13 protrudes through the aperture 16 and is restrained by the flange 19 of the teat abutting against the flange 15 of the ring 12.

The present invention has an additional special feature to improve the holding of the teat 13, which prevents the baby pulling the teat off and swallowing it . The base flange 19 of the teat is provided with a circumferential upwardly standing ridge 20 defining a groove 21 between this ridge 20 and the bulb of the teat . The flange 15 of the teat holding ring 12 is provided with a downwardly depending inner circumferential lip 22 defining a groove 23 between this lip 22 and the wall of the ring 12. Thus, the lip 22 of the ring 12 engages in the groove 21 of the teat, to form a secure interlocking engagement. The securing of the teat is further improved by providing an annular groove 24 around the underside of the teat flange. The diameter of this groove is the same as that of the mouth of the bottle such that, in use, the groove 24 and mouth inter-engage.

Thus, the teat flange 15 is gripped both axially and radially between the locking ring 12 and bottle neck 2.

The outer surface of the locking ring 12 is preferably ribbed so that it can be gripped more easily, to facilitate fastening and unfastening.

During manufacture, the bottle, its contents, the lid 6, the teat unit 11 and the teat container 8 are all sterilised. The components may be sterilised together or separately e.g. by ultra-violet sterilisation.

The container 1 is filled with beverage, e.g. spring water, in a sterile bottling process. The lid 6 is then fastened and sealed with the tamper-proof seal . The teat unit 11 is assembled and sealed in the sachet, which is then placed into the cup-shaped container 8. This is then push-fitted onto the base 3 of the beverage containing portion 1. A tamper-proof seal is provided between the cup 8 and the beverage containing portion 1. If this is broken, it indicates that the base compartment 8 has been removed and may no longer be sterile. Again, the bottle should not be used if this seal is broken.

In the most preferred embodiment, this tamper-proof seal is provided by a wrap-around label 25 which covers the teat container 8 and the join between the container 8 and the beverage containing portion 1 and is held in place by adhesive where the two ends of the label 25 meet. In addition to providing a tamper-proof seal, the label 25 improves the aesthetic appearance of the bottle.

The filled bottle is then sold as a complete, sealed, sterile package which has the appearance of a standard disposable bottle of, e.g. spring water, of the type commonly available in supermarkets etc.

In use, the lid 6 is opened, and removed, by unscrewing, thus breaking the frangible tamper-proof seal . The lid 6 can be retained for future use.

The base compartment 8 containing the teat unit 11 is then removed from the base 3 of the bottle by removing the label 25 and then merely pulling the compartment 8 away from the bottle. The teat unit 11 is then removed from the sterile sachet and screwed onto the neck 2 of the bottle in place of the lid 6. This forms a baby feeding bottle, ready for use. The volume scale on the side of the bottle indicates how much of the contents have been drunk.

Since the teat is not formed as an integral pre-attached part of the bottle, the bottle is not necessarily limited to use by bottle-fed babies. The bottle can be used without the teat, in the same way as any other bottle of drink. Also the bottle may first be used with the teat, for a baby who might only drink part of the contents. The teat can then be removed and disposed of and the original lid 6 replaced. The remainder of the contents can then be kept and, although no longer sterile and, therefore not recommended for babies, can be drunk by an adult or older child.

When the bottle is finished, the entire package can be thrown away.

Claims

1. A disposable container of or for a beverage, comprising a beverage containing portion having a closed base and an open top, the top being initially covered by a removable closure sealed by frangible means,- characterised by a detachable base compartment, removably attached to the base of the beverage containing portion, the compartment housing a teat having attachment means for fastening said teat to said top of the container, in use, when said closure is removed.

2. The container of claim 1, wherein said container is a bottle having a neck and a mouth at the open end.

3. The container of claim 1 or 2, wherein said closure is a screw cap having an inner screw thread matching an outer screw thread on said container.

4. The container of claim 3, wherein said teat has an inner thread corresponding to that of the cap.

5. The container of any preceding claim, wherein said teat is sealed in a sachet in said base compartment.

6. The container of any preceding claim, further comprising a tamper-proof frangible seal between said base compartment and said beverage containing portion.

7. The container of claim 6, wherein said tamper-proof frangible seal is a wrap-around label extending between said base compartment and said beverage containing portion.

8. The container of any preceding claim, wherein said base container is removably attached to the base of said beverage containing portion by means of a push fit.

9. The container of claim 8, wherein a groove is provided around the container, near its base, with a corresponding ridge or projections on the inner surface of the base compartment engaging in this groove when the base compartment is pushed onto the base of the container.

10. The container of any preceding claim being moulded from P.E.T.

11. The container of any preceding claim, wherein all components are sterilised.

12. A container as claimed in any preceding claim being filled with sterilised spring water.

13. A baby's feeding bottle having a threaded neck and a removable teat assembly adapted to be attached to the neck, the teat assembly comprising a locking ring having a cylindrical internally threaded wall with an inwardly extending flange at its upper end defining a teat aperture, and a teat comprising a bulb with an outwardly extending base flange, wherein the locking ring flange is provided adjacent the teat aperture with a downwardly depending annular lip, and the teat base flange including annular grooves in its upper and lower surfaces which are arranged respectively to receive the locking ring lip and the top edge of the bottle neck.