WO1995032130A1

WO1995032130A1 - Containers for liquid products

Info

Publication number: WO1995032130A1
Application number: PCT/GB1995/001185
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Frank Ball
Original assignee: Carnaudmetalbox Plc; Carnaudmetalbox S.A.; Carnaudmetalbox N.V.; Carnaudmetalbox (Holdings) Usa Inc.
Priority date: 1994-05-25
Filing date: 1995-05-24
Publication date: 1995-11-30
Also published as: GB9410493D0; AU2533895A

Abstract

A packaging container (10, 50) contains a liquid product formed of two or more parts at least one of which is a liquid. The parts are held in the container in separate chambers one of which contains a gas under pressure, e.g. carbon dioxide. The chambers are separated by a wall which is permeable to the gas so that after the container has been closed permeation of the gas through the wall will establish an equilibrium raised pressure throughout the container. When the container is subsequently opened for dispensing the release of pressure from the container causes the wall to be grossly ruptured and allows the parts of the product to be mixed intimately together for dispensing. In the described embodiments an insert (18, 26) in the container holds a gas-free product such as whisky and the container outside the insert holds carbonated water at an elevated pressure of carbon dioxide gas; at least a part of the insert is moulded from a thermoplastic material which is highly permeable to carbon dioxide.

Description

CONTAINERS FOR LIQUID PRODUCTS

This invention relates to containers for liquid products having two or more parts of which at least one is a liquid.

There may be a requirement with containers for products having two or more parts that the parts should be kept separate until the container is opened. The present invention is concerned to provide a container by which this requirement is met, and accordingly provides a container for a product having first and second parts of which at least one part is a liquid, the container having an enclosure openable to release the product for dispensing, and compartmenting means separating the interior of the enclosure into a first chamber in which the said first part of the product together with a gas at an elevated pressure may be received, and a second chamber in which the said second part of the product may be received, the compartmenting means being permeable to the said gas and after a period of gas permeation by the gas being capable of being grossly ruptured by release of pressure when the container is opened whereby the parts of the product are freed for mixing and release together.

The term "grossly rupturable" is used to distinguish the invention over the disclosure of PCT Publication WO91/07326 in particular, in which a restricted orifice is required through which gas (alone) can be "jetted" into a beer drink for forming a creamy head on the drink. In the present Application it is required that the contents of the chambers should be freed in a substantially non-restricting manner for mixing together as quickly and as totally as possible. The difference is apparent from the orifices used in WO91/07326, which are typically 0.1mm² or less in area; in contrast, the orifices provided in the present Application are made as large as possible and are therefore likely to be one or more orders of magnitude greater in cross-sectional area than those of WO91/07326.

Whilst it is not essential, as in the embodiments of the invention now to be described the compartmenting means is preferably in the form of a second enclosure disposed wholly within the first-mentioned enclosure as a separate insert; the first enclosure may then be, for example, a conventional metal beverage can having an easy-opening tab or a plastics bottle having a reduced diameter neck for pouring.

Two embodiments of the invention are now described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a beverage container of a gaseous whisky and soda water product, generally as seen in central vertical section;

Figure 2 shows the container as seen in section on the line II-II of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows, in central vertical section, a bottle in which a carbonated water product and a milk product are separately held; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged view of part of the bottle of Figure 3.

Referring now to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, a beverage container is in the form of a conventional metal can 10 having a unitary body 12, and an end closure 14 of the easy-opening kind attached as its top end by a peripheral double seam 16. The pull tab of the end closure 14 is denoted by the reference 17. A hollow insert 18 is disposed inside the body 12, being located in position by four equally spaced resilient arms 20 in engagement with the body wall 22. The insert is a two-part moulding of a suitable plastics material. It has a container portion or body 24, and a closure portion or piston 26. The body 24 has a tubular body wall 28 which is closed at its lower end by a base 30 and carries the arms 20 from its exterior surface.

The piston 26 of the insert 18 has a generally plane closure panel to close the open mouth of the body 24, and a cylindrical skirt 36 arranged in sliding engagement with the bore of the body wall 28 at a feather edge 38. The closure panel extends radially outside the skirt to determine the fitted position of the piston in the body.

The container is used for a whisky and soda water drink the components of which are held separately within it. The whisky component 40 is charged into the body 24 of the insert 18 under normal pressure and the body is then closed by push-fitted insertion of the piston 26, leaving a headspace above the whisky. The insert so formed is then pushed into the container body to the position shown.

Either before or after the insert is fitted the container body 12 is filled with soda water 42 under pressure of carbon dioxide gas. With the soda water and insert in place the easy-opening end closure 14 is attached by the double seam 16 to complete the container for distribution and sale.

One or both of the portions 24, 26 of the insert 18 is moulded from a thermoplastic polymer which is highly permeable to the carbon dioxide of the soda water, low density polyethylene being a preferred material. Therefore, after the container is formed the pressure of carbon dioxide within the insert will progressively increase until it is equal to the pressure of the soda water outside; during this time the differential pressure across the wall of the insert is in the sense to hold the piston in its closed position. Accordingly, when the container is later opened by a consumer wishing to drink the whisky and soda water product, the sudden release of pressure which occurs when the easy-opening end closure 14 is opened causes the piston 26 of the insert to be blown pneumatically and in an explosive manner out of and away from the insert body 24, the skirt 36 providing a sliding seal until the piston and body have separated.

The whisky is then free to leave the body and to mix intimately with the soda water before the two are dispensed together. It will be noted that the whole cross-sectional area of the insert is available for the whisky to pass, and the insert can be accordingly considered to have been grossly ruptured to achieve this. This is contrasted with the type of rupture which is achieved in PCT Publication WO91/07326, where a small orifice is provided to generate a high speed constricted jet of gas (alone) into a beer product for which a foamed head is required.

Whilst in the container described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 above the insert is arranged to explode or burst generally in the direction of dispensing (i.e. towards the dispensing end of the container) , it may be preferable for the insert to explode or burst in the opposite direction, i.e away from the direction of dispensing. Figures 3 and 4 show an embodiment of the invention which is arranged in this way. In Figure 3 a plastics bottle 50 is moulded to have a shaped body 52 having its bottom end (as shown) closed by an integral standing base 54 having a central dome 55. At its top end the bottle has a substantially cylindrical, reduced diameter neck 56 which forms the mouth of the bottle and is shaped to pour out the contents of the bottle for dispensing.

The free end of the bottle neck 56 is formed as an outturned flange 58 to which a diaphragm closure 60 is heat-sealed for closing the bottle onto its contents after filling. An overcap may be fitted over the neck by clipped attachment onto the flange; for clarity this overcap is omitted from the drawing.

The bottle is proposed for a two-part gaseous drink one part of which is a carbonated water product and the second part of which is a milk product.

The milk product is contained in an insert 62 formed of a generally cylindrical body 64, and a piston 66 fitted to the body.

The body 64 has an integrally formed base portion 68 which is arranged for push-fitted engagement into the bottle neck 56 as is described below, and a major body portion 70 which extends downwardly and freely along the central axis of the bottle to its termination at the free edge 72 of the insert.

The insert free edge 72 is provided by a part 74 of the major body portion 70 which has a reduced wall thickness in relation to the remainder of the body portion. The difference in wall thicknesses appears at a shoulder 76 formed in the interior surface of the body portion. It will be seen from Figure 3 that the free edge 72 of the insert after fitting is located at a substantial spacing from the dome 55 of the bottle 50.

As shown in detail in Figure 4, the piston 66 has a substantially cylindrical shirt 80, and an integral base 82 with a central dome 84. The terminal edge 86 of the skirt is formed on a frustonical lead-in flange 88. A small continuous bead 90 is formed around the skirt exterior and dimensioned to make an interference fit with the bore of the reduced wall thickness part 74 of the body 64. The piston is moulded from a suitable thermoplastics material.

The insert 62 is formed as a subassembly by filling the body 64 with a predetermined amount of the milk product (not shown) leaving a headspace, and then push- fitting the piston 66 into its open mouth until the base of the lead-in flange 88 comes into abutment with the shoulder 76 of the insert body to prevent further movement. The bead 90 generates a substantial frictional resistance by which the piston is held temporarily in that position.

The completed insert 62 is thereafter inserted, piston 66 first, through the bottle neck 56 to the position shown. The outside diameter of the insert at its body portion 70 is slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the neck, and the body portion can therefore be inserted freely into the bottle. The base portion 68 of the insert body is of even smaller diameter, but it has regularly spaced fins 92 projecting outwardly from it and arranged to make holding engagement with the bore of the bottle neck 56. The fins extend axially along the base portion 68 of the insert but are angularly tilted in the same sense in relation to the central axis XX so as to deform uniformly and resiliently as the insert is being moved into position.

The water product is filled into the bottle under pressure of carbon dioxide gas after or, preferably, before the insert is fitted, after which the diaphragm 60 can be heat-sealed to the flange 58 to close the container.

The insert body 64 is moulded from a TPX thermoplastics material which has a substantial permeability to carbon dioxide. After the container has been filled and closed, therefore, carbon dioxide from the water product permeates into the interior of the insert through the insert wall over a period of time (e.g a few days) until equilibrium is attained. When subsequently, the bottle is opened, the sudden release of carbonation pressure creates a pressure differential between the exterior of the insert and its interior which is sufficient to force the piston 66 to move explosively along and out of the body 64. The milk and water products are therefore quickly and thoroughly mixed together prior to dispensing as a mixture through the bottle neck 56.

In non-illustrated modifications of the described arrangements the pistons 26, 66 of the inserts 18, 62 are replaced by flat sheet diaphragms of a suitable material which are peripherally heat-sealed around the mouths of the bodies 24 and 64. In each embodiment the heat seal bond between the two components of the insert is sufficiently weak to burst around a part of its periphery when the container is opened, so providing a large opening for the product in the insert to leave the insert as desired. However, the diaphragm remains attached to the body to assist recycling and for the safety of the consumer.

An insert for a container in accordance with the invention may be made wholly of a flexible material which is sealed closed, e.g by heat-sealing, to form a sachet, pouch or bag. Such an insert may be formed by a form- fill-seal operation. A part of the insert, possibly (but not necessarily) corresponding with its seal, is arranged to provide the desired gross rupturing when the container is opened.

If desired, two or more inserts may be used to contain different parts of the product.

The internal compartmentation of a container in accordance with the invention may include a part of the container wall, rather than forming an enclosure in its own right as do the inserts of the described embodiments and the modifications thereof. Thus, for example, the compartmenting means of the container may comprise a wall, plane or otherwise, which is at least partly of a gas-permeable material and which is peripherally attached to the container within the container interior so as to subdivide the container enclosure into two chambers each containing a respective part of the product. When the container is opened the wall material itself and/or its attachment to the container bursts, so providing gross rupturing as required by the invention. Preferably the wall material then remains tethered to the container for consumer safety.

The invention may be used for dispensing liquid products having a powder dispersed in a liquid carrier and requiring to be mixed with the liquid as shortly as possible before dispensing. This requirement may exist. for example, because the powder would otherwise tend to settle out from the liquid and coagulate in the bottom of the container, or alternatively because the powder is soluble in the liquid but requires to be kept in its discrete particulate form for dispensing.

For some applications of the invention, for example where a powder and a liquid are to be mixed together, the compartmenting means may be liquid - permeable as well as gas-permeable.

Claims

1. A container for a product having first and second parts of which at least one part is a liquid, the container having an enclosure openable to release the product for dispensing, and compartmenting means separating the interior of the enclosure into a first chamber in which the said first part of the product together with a gas at an elevated pressure may be received, and a second chamber in which the said second part of the product may be received, the compartmenting means being permeable to the said gas and after a period of gas permeation by the gas being capable of being grossly ruptured by release of pressure when the container is opened whereby the parts of the product are freed for mixing and release together.

2. A container according to claim 1, which has an insert defining a said chamber within its interior and releasably holding a said part of the liquid product.

3. A container according to claim 2, wherein the said part of the liquid product is the second part thereof.

4. A container according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the insert has a body a thermoplastics material having a substantial permeability to the said gas.

5. A container as claimed in claim 4, wherein the thermoplastics material is TPX.

6. A container according to any claim of claims 2 to 5, wherein the insert comprises a body having a generally cylindrical end portion, and a piston frictionally engaged within the end portion.

7. A container according to any claim of claims 2 to 5, wherein the insert comprises a body and a rupturable diaphragm closing an end of the body.

8. A container according to any claim of claims 2 to 7, wherein the insert is resiliently engaged with the enclosure.

9. A container according to claim 8, wherein the insert has projecting resilient fins by which it engages with the enclosure.

10. A container according to claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the enclosure is a metal can having an easy-opening end closure, and the insert is resiliently engaged with the can wall.

11. A container according to claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the enclosure is a plastics bottle having a neck in which the insert is resiliently engaged.

12. A container according to any claim of claims 2 to 5, wherein the insert has the form of a sachet, pouch or bag formed from flexible sheet material by a sealing operation.