WO1998034846A1

WO1998034846A1 - Closure

Info

Publication number: WO1998034846A1
Application number: PCT/AU1998/000068
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stephen John Mowbray
Original assignee: Stephen John Mowbray
Priority date: 1997-02-06
Filing date: 1998-02-06
Publication date: 1998-08-13
Also published as: AUPO499097A0

Abstract

A closure (10) for a container such as a carbonated beverage bottle. The closure (10) has a top (11), a side wall (12) surrounding the top and depending therefrom, connection means (13) on the side wall (12) for connecting the closure (10) to a neck of a container. A circular sealing gasket (14) is disposed within the closure (10) close to the underside of the top (11), which gasket is adapted to form a seal with the neck of a container (10). An object such as a gold coin (15) is positioned between the sealing gasket (14) and the top (11) of the closure (10) which may be removed from the closure (10) upon removal of the sealing gasket (14) therefrom. A plate (16) is positioned between the object (15) and the sealing gasket (14), the plate (16) is of substantially the same diameter as the sealing gasket (14) and has on an upper face spacer means (17) to space that face of the plate (16) from an underside of the closure so as to define a space housing the object (15) therebetween and to provide support for the gasket (14) where it bears against the neck of the container.

Description

"Closure" Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a closure for containers such as carbonated beverage containers. More particularly it relates to such closures which can contain an object in a user releasable way while still preserving an hermetic seal between the closure and the neck of a container on which it is disposed. Background Art

It is well known that carbonated beverages and other goods are sold in containers with removable lids or closures. These closures typically comprise a circular top and a depending skirt portion. Such closures are usually secured in place by a screw thread on the inside surface of the side wall of the closure and a complimentary thread on the container, or by some similar pair of complementary engagement means on the closure and the container. In the case of containers to contain liquid or semi-liquid materials there is usually a sealing gasket of some type to provide a seal between a top edge of the neck of the container and the underside of the top of the closure. There are a number of different types of such gaskets, however one of the more common ones involves the use of a circular disk of a suitably resilient material positioned within the side wall of the closure and lying in juxtaposition with the inside surface of the top of the closure.

It is known from US patent specification 1,711,469 to provide an intermediate, indicia bearing, disk between the underside of a closure and a sealing gasket. While this disclosure is suitable for the inclusion of a disk of the same size as the sealing gasket in a concealed manner within a closure for a container, such as a bottle of soft drink, it does not satisfy the need to conceal within such a closure an article of a different size or shape. In the case where the disk is of the same size and shape as the sealing gasket the container can be sealed in a gas tight manner as the gasket will be pushed down onto the neck of the container evenly around its full circumference. In the case of an irregularly shaped article or one smaller than the gasket, however, the gasket will not be pressed evenly onto the neck of the container and leakage of the contents of the container may result.

The present inventor has realised that the presence of the sealing gasket in the closure provides the opportunity for the vendors of goods in containers carrying such closures to distribute promotional and other goods together with the normal contents of the container even when the inclusion is not of the same size and shape as the sealing gasket and when maintenance of an hermetic seal between the closure and the container is a significant consideration. Disclosure of the Invention

The present invention consists in a closure for a closure for a container, the closure having a top. a side wall surrounding the top and depending therefrom, connection means on the side wall for connecting the closure to a neck of a container, a circular sealing gasket disposed within the closure, which gasket is adapted to form a seal with the neck of a container on which the closure is connected, the sealing gasket lying adjacent to but spaced apart from an inside surface of the top and engaging the closure so that it is releasably held in place in the closure, and an object positioned between the sealing gasket and the top of the closure which may be removed from the closure upon removal of the sealing gasket therefrom, the closure being characterised by the presence of a plate between the object and the sealing gasket, the plate being of substantially the same diameter as the sealing gasket and having on an upper face means to space that face of the plate from an underside of the closure so as to define a space housing the object therebetween and to provide support for the gasket where it bears against the neck of the container.

The present invention further consists in a container having affixed thereto in sealing relationship a closure according to the present invention. The closures according to the present invention may be used on any suitable containers however they are particularly well suited for use with carbonated beverage containers. This is because the marketing of carbonated beverages, such as cola drinks, lends itself to the use of promotional devices. The idea could be used with other products such as alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, toppings and sauces, honey, jam and a very wide range of other goods. While it is usual to have a sealing gasket of some sort in the closure of closures of many types of containers the need for them is particularly strong in the case of carbonated beverages due to the positive over-pressure pertaining in a carbonated beverage container.

The sealing gasket must obviously be of a size and shape and be of a material such that in use it will form a suitable seal with the container onto which the closure is to be applied. Typically the sealing gasket will be formed of a sufficiently resilient synthetic plastics material, possibly in the form of a foam. Other materials such as rubber or cork could also be used to form the sealing gasket.

The gasket is preferably so sized that once pushed into a closure it will stay in place by frictional engagement between the gasket, on the one hand, and the side wall of the closure or the connection means, on the other hand. These objectives are most suitably achieved by the provision of a gasket which is in the form of a circular disk. The disk should be of a diameter that it will just fit inside the side wall of the closure and frictionally engage the inside surface of the side wall sufficiently to be retained in place once inserted into the closure. It is to be understood that the gasket could be held in place in the closure by means other than, or in addition to. the frictional engagement of the gasket with the side wall of the closure. The gasket could, for instance, be provided with an adhesive coated edge so that it was releasably held in place by contact between the adhesive and the closure.

The gasket may be provided on it's underside with means to make it easier to remove. This would enable a user to more readily get to the object held between the gasket and the closure. These means may comprise a tab depending from the centre of the gasket that may be grasped by the fingers of a user. It is to be understood that there are a wide variety of means that may be used to assist in the release of the gasket and these are all encompassed by the present invention.

The object held between the gasket and the inside surface of the top is most preferably a disk of material smaller than the gasket in diameter. It may be a piece of cardboard, paper, plastic or other similar material on which some indicia is printed, engraved or embossed. Thus a token, coin, or other disk like article could be provided to purchasers of, for instance, a soft drink without the purchaser being able to see the article prior to purchase. The object may be one which has intrinsic value to a purchaser of the container, e.g. it may be a disk bearing the image of a sports star or of a comic strip character or a coin such as a gold coin. In another embodiment of the invention the object may have no intrinsic value but may be exchangeable for something that does. e.g. it may be a token providing entry to a lottery or a plurality of such tokens may be exchangeable for an article of clothing. If a manufacturer wanted to place an article of an irregular shape in the closure it may be necessary to modify the closure, such as by deepening it to provide space for the enclosed object and the normal screw thread in the depth of the closure. In this case the presence of the plate ensures that the sealing efficacy of the gasket is not compromised. The plate spacer means may consist of short legs, or a continuous lip, to hold it slightly spaced from the underside of the closure top to define the space in which the object is enclosed. Brief Description of the Drawings

Hereinafter given by way of example only are preferred embodiments of the present invention described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

Figure 1 is a partly cut away perspective view of a first embodiment of a closure according to the present invention, and

Figure 2 is an exploded view of another embodiment of a closure according to the present invention. Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention

The closure 10 of Fig. 1 is moulded from polyethylene and has a top 11 and a side wall 12 which surrounds and depends from the top 11. The inside surface of the side wall is provided with a screw thread 13 adapted to cooperate with a corresponding thread on a bottle ( not shown ) to which the closure is designed to be attached. A thin circular sealing gasket 14 of a resilient foam plastics material is positioned within the closure 10 and is of such a diameter that it will be held in place by frictional engagement between the edge of the gasket 14 and the inside surface of the side wall 12. A gold coin 15 of a diameter smaller than the gasket 14 is positioned between the upper surface of the gasket 14 and the underside of the top 11 of the closure 10. A spacing plate 16 is positioned between the gasket 14 and the coin 15. The plate 16 is formed on its upper face with a continuous circumferential ridge 17.

In use the closure 10 is applied to the bottle in the usual manner so that the gasket 14 forms an hermetic seal with the neck of the bottle. The plate 16 and the ridge 17 serve to provide a firm backing for the gasket in the area in which it is in contact with the neck of the bottle which assists in the maintenance of an hermetic seal between the closure 10 and the neck of the bottle. The plate 16 and ridge 17 also serve to retain the coin 15 in place in the closure 10. A consumer who opens the bottle will be able to remove the gasket 14 which will allow the plate 16 to drop free of the closure 10 releasing the coin 15. If desired the gasket 14, with or without the plate 16, may be replaced in the closure 10 after the disk 15 has been removed thereby allowing the bottle to be resealed in the usual way.

The closure 20 of figure 2 is similar in many respects to closure 10 and the following description emphasises those differences and does not describe parts that are essentially the same as those described with reference to Fig. 1. The object is a rectangular prism and would cause the gasket 24 to malfunction if placed between the gasket and the top 21 of the closure 20. To avoid this a spacer 26 is interposed between the upper side of the gasket 24 and the object 25. The spacer 26 is in the form of a circular plate 27 having a diameter just less than that of the gasket 24. The upper side of the spacer 26 has a plurality of upstanding legs 27 around it's periphery. The legs 27 space the spacer 26 from the underside of the top 21 providing a space therebetween in which the object 25 can be accommodated. In addition the underside of the spacer 26 provides a flat surface supporting the gasket 24 and ensuring that it forms an effective seal with the top of the bottle 28.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A closure for a container, the closure having a top. a side wall surrounding the top and depending therefrom, connection means on the side wall for connecting the closure to a neck of a container, a circular sealing gasket disposed within the closure, which gasket is adapted to form a seal with the neck of a container on which the closure is connected, the sealing gasket lying adjacent to but spaced, apart from an inside surface of the top and engaging the closure so that it is releasably held in place in the closure, and an object positioned between the sealing gasket and the top of the closure which may be removed from the closure upon removal of the sealing gasket therefrom, the closure being characterised by the presence of a plate between the object and the sealing gasket, the plate being of substantially the same diameter as the sealing gasket and having on an upper face spacer means to space that face of the plate from an underside of the closure so as to define a space housing the object therebetween and to provide support for the gasket where it bears against the neck of the container.

2. A closure as claimed in claim 1, in which the spacer means comprises a ridge extending continuously around the circumference of the plate.

3. A closure as claimed in claim 1, in which the spacer means comprises a plurality of legs spaced apart around the circumference of the plate.

4. A closure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3. in which the sealing gasket is formed of a resilient synthetic plastics material.

5. A closure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4. in which the gasket is so sized that once pushed into the closure it will stay in place by frictional engagement between the gasket, on the one hand, and the side wall of the closure or the connection means, on the other hand.

6. A closure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, in which the gasket is provided on it's underside with removal means to make it easier to remove from the closure.

7. A closure as claimed in claim 6, in which the removal means comprise a tab depending from the centre of the gasket that may be grasped by the fingers of a user.

8. A closure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7. in which the object is a coin.

9. A container having affixed thereto in sealing relationship a closure according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A container as claimed in claim 9. in which the container is a container for a carbonated beverage.