WO2003059752A2

WO2003059752A2 - Security closure for drinks bottle

Info

Publication number: WO2003059752A2
Application number: PCT/KR2002/002366
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gyeong-Jin Jeon
Original assignee: Gyeong-Jin Jeon
Priority date: 2001-12-28
Filing date: 2002-12-16
Publication date: 2003-07-24
Also published as: KR200270770Y1; KR100952217B1; AU2002367004A1; AU2002367004A8; WO2003059752A3; KR20040077859A

Abstract

The present invention relates to the security closure for drinks bottle through which a drink counterfeiter cannot introduce counterfeited drinks into the drinks bottle, so that production and marketing of the counterfeited drinks can be inhibited. The security closure for drinks bottle comprises an upper cap, a lower cap, a disk type bottom plate which is movably inserted into a guiding pin of the upper cap and a supplementary guide.

Description

SECURITY CLOSURE FOR DRINKS BOTTLE

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tamper-proof container, and more particularly to a stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles capable of preventing producers of fake alcoholic beverages from introducing a counterfeit high-class alcoholic beverage into an empty bottle, whereby crime prevention effects can be accomplished by preventing production and sale of such a counterfeit alcoholic beverage and by preventing introduction of substances harmful to the human body.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, with the increase in living standards, drinking habits have been considerably changed. A certain report has shown that an increment rate of consumption of low-price alcoholic beverages, such as beer, soju (distilled alcoholic beverage with an alcoholic content between about 20% to 25%) and so forth, have generally slowed down, while that of high-price alcoholic beverages, such as whisky, brandy, cognac and so forth, have grown rapidly. In particular, the consumption of high-class alcoholic beverages used for entertainment has grown explosively, regardless of whether they are domestic alcoholic beverages or foreign alcoholic beverages.

In fact, producers of fake alcoholic beverages are increasing who join this trend of making large amount of money by counterfeiting high-class alcoholic beverages and then distributing them illegally. Fake alcoholic beverages produced by such producers are widely distributed to various drinking places by means of some intermediaries including agents and retailers. As a result, there is frequently generated a case in which consumers drink such a fake alcoholic beverage without knowing, thus undergoing a monetary loss as well as harm to health. Therefore, various structures for bottle caps have been developed to prevent production of fake alcoholic beverages. One example is designed so that a consumer can directly check whether or not the bottle cap has been opened. To this end, two approaches have been employed to the bottle cap, one of which is to mount a covering with a pre-partitioned tear-off line, in general, on a lower end of the bottle cap, and the other is to attach a cover foil made of plastic or metal on an outer circumferential surface of the bottle cap. However, this cap structure has a difficulty in being employing for bottles for containing a high-class alcoholic beverage due to a low-grade appearance. Further, the cap structure has a disadvantage in that it has decreased reliability because it is easy to imitate the covering and/or the cover foil. In other words, because it is impossible to prevent producers of fake alcoholic beverages from introducing a fake alcoholic beverage into an empty bottle with such a cap structure, consumers have a difficulty in buying original products with confidence. This problem results in a distrust of products.

For this reason, there has been recently developed and sold a tamper-proof structure in which a ball valve is employed to the interior of a cap, instead of the foregoing cover foil and covering. This tamper-proof structure is designed so that when a bottle is stood up vertically, the ball valve blocks a mouth of the bottle so that a harmful substance cannot be introduced into the bottle, and when a bottle is slanted, the mouth of the bottle is opened so that contents of the bottle can be discharged.

However, as reported through recent mass communications, such a tamper- proof structure still has a problem in that, while the bottle is slanted at a certain, angle, a fake alcoholic beverage can be introduced into the bottle using a syringe and so on, and thus it is impossible to check whether or not the contents of the bottle are counterfeited, and it is difficult to obtain reliability of products.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above- mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles capable of preventing production and sale of fake alcoholic beverages by preventing producers of fake alcoholic beverages from introducing a counterfeit high-class alcoholic beverage into an empty bottle.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles capable of accomplishing crime prevention effects by preventing introduction of substances harmful to the human body.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles capable of improving productivity by shortening a production process through simplification of components and structures and by saving the production cost. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a stopper having a temper-proof construction for bottles, comprising: an upper stopper; a lower stopper; a disk type bottom plate and a supplementary guide which are slidably coupled with a guiding pin of the upper stopper; wherein the supplementary guide is provided above the bottom plate; a radial inner wall of a body of the upper stopper being provided with at least two protrusions; each of the protrusions including a horizontal extension which extends in a radial inward direction perpendicular to the radial inner wall of the body and a vertical extension which extends at a predetermined length in a downward direction perpendicular to the horizontal extension, so as to take a shape of an inverse "L" character as a whole; the vertical extension being provided with at least one through-hole at a middle thereof; the body being integrally formed with a guiding pin at a middle thereof; a head of the guiding pin being vertically spaced apart from the horizontal extension of the protrusion at a predetermined interval; and the guiding pin extending outward the lower portion of the upper stopper being horizontally spaced apart from the vertical extension of the protrusion at a predetermined interval. Preferably, the bottom plate and the supplementary guide are provided through holes at their centers, and the lower stopper is formed with a catching step in its lower portion which extends in a radial inward direction, wherein the catching step is integrally formed with a bottom plate-supporting piece having a "crisscross" shape on a lower portion of the body of the lower stopper in a diametrical direction, thereby the bottom plate-supporting piece has radially multi-branched forks between which a plurality of outlets for alcoholic beverages are defined.

Preferably, the bottom plate and the supplementary guide are made of plastic.

In a stopper having a tamper-proof construction according to the present invention, because alcoholic beverage outlets formed between the upper stopper and lower stopper has a shape of an inverse "L" character, injection of a fake alcoholic beverage or any impurities such as poisonous substances by means of a syringe and so on can be prevented exhaustively. Therefore, it is possible to sell and buy reliable products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: Figure la is a partial longitudinal sectional view showing the structure in which a temper-proof stopper for bottles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is mounted to the neck of the bottle;

Figure lb is a plan view of an upper stopper of a temper-proof stopper for bottles shown in FIG. la;

Figure 2 is an exploded view of a temper-proof stopper for bottles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a lower stopper of a temper-proof stopper for bottles shown in FIG. la; and

Figure 4 is a view explaining the operation of a temper-proof stopper for bottles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to a temper-proof stopper for bottles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figures la to 3 show a temper-proof stopper for bottles according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

First, referring to figures la to 2, the temper-proof stopper 10 for the bottle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes an upper stopper 20, a lower stopper 30, and a disk type bottom plate 40 and a supplementary guide 42 which are slidably coupled with a guiding pin 24 of the upper stopper 20. Preferably, the upper and lower stoppers 20 and 30 are made of plastic by an injection molding process. Further, the bottom plate 40 and the supplementary guide 42 are made of silicon.

A male threaded portion 22 is formed on an outer wall of a body 21 of the upper stopper 20. The male threaded portion 22 has a shape corresponding to a female threaded portion which is formed on a radial inner wall of a main cap (not shown). A radial inner wall of the body 21 is formed with a plurality of protrusions 26. Therefore, each of the protrusions 26 comprises a horizontal extension 26a which extends in a radial inward direction perpendicular to the inner wall of the body 21 , and a vertical extension 26b which extends at a predetermined length in a downward direction perpendicular to the horizontal extension 26a. Each protrusion 26 takes a shape of an inverse "L" character as a whole. Here, the vertical extension 26b is provided with a through-hole 23 (see FIG. 4) at its middle. The through-hole 23 functions as an inlet/outlet of air while contents of the bottle are poured, and at the same time as an outlet of the contents of the bottle. Meanwhile, the guiding pin 24 is integrally formed at the middle of the body 21. The guiding pin 24 extends downward apart from the vertical extension 26b of the protrusion 26 at a predetermined interval. Here, one end, i.e. a head 24a, of the guiding pin 24 is vertically spaced apart from the horizontal extension 26a of the protrusion 26. The other end of the guiding pin 24 extends outward the lower portion of the upper stopper 20. Therefore, the guiding pin 24 and the vertical extension 26b of the protrusion 26 are horizontally spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval.

To mount the tamper-proof stopper 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention to the bottle B, when the upper stopper 20 is coupled with the lower stopper 30, the guiding pin 24 of the upper stopper 20 is slidably fitted to the bottom plate 40 and the supplementary guide 42. To this end, the bottom plate 40 and the supplementary guide 42 are provided with through holes 42 at their center.

The lower stopper 30 includes a cylindrical body 31. The body 31 of the lower stopper 30 has an outer diameter smaller than an inner diameter of a neck of the bottle B to which the tamper-proof stopper 10 is mounted. An upper flange 32 is formed on an upper end of the body 31 of the lower stopper 30 in a radial outward direction. This flange 32 corresponds to a lower flange 28 which is formed on a lower end of the body 21 of the upper stopper 20 in a radial outward direction. The upper flange 32 of the lower stopper 30 functions as a catching step while the tamper-proof stopper 10 is fitted into the neck of the bottle B, so that the tamper- proof stopper 10 is prevented from dropping down the neck of the bottle B.

As shown in figure 3, the lower stopper 30 is formed with a catching step 34 which extends in a radial inward direction. The catching step 34 is integrally formed with a bottom plate-supporting piece 36 in a diametrical direction. Preferably, the bottom plate-supporting piece 36 has a "crisscross" shape on a lower portion of the body of the lower stopper 30. Therefore, the bottom plate- supporting piece 36 has radially four- branched forks between which four outlets 38 for alcoholic beverages are defined.

Referring to figures la and 2 again, when the tamper-proof stopper 10 is mounted to the bottle B, a cover sealing foil 50 made of a metallic foil is attached to the outer surfaces of the lower flange 28 of the upper stopper 20 and the upper flange 32 of the lower stopper 30, both of which are closely contacted to each other. This cover sealing foil 50 functions to inform whether or not the bottle B with the tamper-proof stopper 10 is opened initially. Hereinafter, a brief description will be made regarding a stopper with a tamper-proof construction for bottles constructed as mentioned above, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

When the tamper-proof stopper 10 constructed as above-mentioned in figure la is mounted to the neck of the bottle B, the bottom plate 40 fitted with the guiding pin 24 of the upper stopper 20 is positioned at the lowermost position of the guiding pin 24 owing to its own weight. As a result, the bottom plate 40 is seated on the bottom plate-supporting piece 36 of the lower stopper 30, thereby closing the outlets 38 for alcoholic beverage of the bottom plate-supporting piece 36. Also, when any person applies a pressure to the bottom plate 40, a phenomenon separating between a circumferential edge of the bottom plate and the supporting piece may occur. To prevent this phenomenon, the supplementary guide 42 is arranged above the bottom plate 40. The pressure from anyone is not transmitted directly to an upper surface of the bottom plate due to the supplementary guide, accordingly, the phenomenon separating the circumferential edge of the bottom plate from the supporting piece is prevented. Here, an interval formed between the head 24a of the guiding pin 24 and the horizontal extension 26a of the protrusion 26 as well as an interval formed between a vertical body (a reference numeral omitted) of the guiding pin 24 and the vertical extension 26b of the protrusion 26 define a channel, which take a shape of an inverse "L" character as a whole. Therefore, it is difficult for any person who wants to introduce a fake alcoholic beverage or impurities into the bottle B to insert a syringe into the channel, so that production of a fake alcoholic beverage as well as introduction of other harmful substances can be prevented.

Meanwhile, when an alcoholic beverage in the bottle B, of which the tamper-proof stopper 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is mounted to the neck, is poured, the bottle B is slanted at a certain angle, as shown in figure 4. In this case, a hydraulic pressure of the alcoholic beverage causes the bottom plate 40 to be deflected along the guiding pin 24 toward the mouth of the bottle B, and thus the alcoholic beverage in the bottle B is discharged.

To be more specific, while the bottom plate 40 is pushed along the guiding pin 24 toward the vertical extension 26b of the upper stopper 20, the outlets 38 for the alcoholic beverage of the lower stopper 30 are opened. As a result, the alcoholic beverage in the bottle B flows through the outlets 38 for the alcoholic beverage of the lower stopper 30 into a space between the vertical extension 26b and the inner wall of the upper stopper 20. Subsequently, the alcoholic beverage continues to flow through the through hole 23 of the vertical extension 26b into the channel between the guiding pin 24 and the vertical extension 26b of the protrusion 26 and between the head 24a of the guiding pin 24 and the horizontal extension 26a of the protrusion 26, and then is discharged out of the bottle.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As seen from the foregoing, the tamper-proof stopper 10 for bottles according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention can prevent a fake alcoholic beverage from being produced and sold by preventing intrusion of a syringe, etc. in order to introduce a counterfeit alcoholic beverage into an empty bottle. Further, it has an excellent effect of crime prevention because it keeps anyone from introducing impurities, such as a poisonous substance etc., into a bottle. Moreover, the tamper-proof stopper has a simple internal construction as compared with the conventional closure cap, so that it has the simple production process, the effective production costs, and the improved productivity.

In addition, the tamper-proof stopper for the bottle can be put in the place of a very expensive tamper-proof closure cap which has been distributed in markets to date.

While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment and the drawings, but, on the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and variations within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

We Claim:

1. A stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles, comprising: an upper stopper 20; a lower stopper 30; a disk type bottom plate 40 which is slidably coupled with a guiding pin 24 of the upper stopper 20; and a supplementary guide 42 which is slidably coupled with a guiding pin 24 of the upper stopper 20 and provided above the bottom plate, wherein: the upper stopper 20 has a body 21, a spiral inner wall of which is provided with at least two protrusions 26; the protrusion 26 each includes a horizontal extension 26a which extends in a radial inward direction perpendicular to the inner wall of the body 21 and a vertical extension 26b which extends at a predetermined length in a downward direction perpendicular to the horizontal extension 26a, so as to take a shape of an inverse "L" character as a whole; the vertical extension 26b is provided with at least one through-hole 23 at a middle thereof; the body 21 is integrally formed with a guiding pin 24 at a middle thereof; the guiding pin 24 has a head 24a which is vertically spaced apart from the horizontal extension 26a of the protrusion 26; and the guiding pin 24 extends outward the lower portion of the upper stopper 20 being horizontally spaced apart from the vertical extension 26b of the protrusion 26 at a predetermined interval.

2. A stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles according to claim 1 , wherein the bottom plate 40 and the supplementary guide 42 of the lower stopper are provided with through holes 42 at their centers, the lower stopper 30 is formed with a catching step 34 which extends in a radial inward direction, the catching step 34 is integrally formed with a bottom plate-supporting piece 36 taking a "crisscross" shape on a lower portion of the body of the lower stopper 30 in a diametrical direction, whereby the bottom plate-supporting piece 36 has radially multi-branched forks between which multiple outlets 38 for alcoholic beverages are defined.

3. A stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bottom plate 40 and the supplementary guide 42 are further arranged between the upper stopper and the lower stopper.

4. A stopper having a tamper-proof construction for bottles according to claim 3, wherein the bottom plate is made of silicon, and the supplementary guide 42 is made of synthetic resin.