WO2012104258A1

WO2012104258A1 - Bundle of beverage bottles assembled by means of horizontal annular ligatures and with a cross vertical ligature serving as the handle

Info

Publication number: WO2012104258A1
Application number: PCT/EP2012/051462
Authority: WO
Inventors: Léon Ribi
Original assignee: Ribi Leon
Priority date: 2011-01-31
Filing date: 2012-01-30
Publication date: 2012-08-09
Also published as: CH704414B1; CH704414A1

Abstract

Assembly or bundle of beverage bottles or similar containers made of PET or equivalent and/or biodegradable materials held together by strip-like annular retainers or strings arranged on planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the bottles and by another one, which is, on the contrary, arranged parallelly to the longitudinal axes of the bottles, serving as an equivalent of a handle for the transport.

Description

RIBI LEON

BUNDLE OF BEVERAGE BOTTLES ASSEMBLED BY MEANS OF HORIZONTAL ANNULAR LIGATURES AND WITH A CROSS VERTICAL LIGATURE SERVING AS THE HANDLE.

PREAMBLE .

The transport of PET bottles, and generally of similar beverage containers by the end user plays an important role in deciding the purchase amount since the weight and the overall dimensions for the transport of several containers is limited by the purchaser' s force. In order to facilitate such task in general the containers and particularly the PET bottles are assembled and constrained into groups of four to six elements by means of thermoshrinking plastic films that, once applied thereto, are called as bundles. The cost of such packages is a considerable percentage if compared to the cost of the consumable product, whose value is very low and anyway lower than the packaging and bottling costs.

The present invention aims not only at replacing the packaging made of thermoshrinking plastic material with strip-like retainers that are suitably arranged and sealed or knotted in order to reduce the cost, but it aims also, and above all, at creating an equivalent of a handle by means of a further retainer arranged on a plane perpendicular to the horizontal sections of the bottles with a considerable economical and practical advantage for the manual transport. A further advantage consists in reducing the weight of the hardly naturally degradable materials. The further ecological step will consist in producing not only the bottles with biodegradable plastic materials, and not PET, but the retainers subject of the present invention as well.

DESCRIPTION

First version (Fig. N° . 1)

Assembly of four bottles made of PET or equivalent containers and/or made of self-degradable polymers

Four bottles 1 assembled such to form, on any horizontal plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the bottles 1, a square whose vertices correspond to the intersection of the longitudinal axes of the bottles 1 with said horizontal plane. Thus four pairs of generatrices faced each other of the four circular cross-section bottles 1 will contact each other along four vertical parallel straight lines, even discontinuous ones. The bottles 1 with a cross-section different than the circular one will be in contact mainly by four, even discontinuous, surfaces.

If we take a Cartesian tern reference x, y and z with the origin 0 in the base of the bottles 1 at the centre of said square and where the z-axis is the vertical one, the contacts of the generatrices will be on x,z and y,z planes respectively while the sides of all the squares defined by the four longitudinal axes of the four bottles 1 will be on four parallel planes ax+d=0 and -ax+d=0 and by+d=0 and -by+d=0 respectively while the two ligatures 2 that will tighten the bottles 1 will be on two general planes c z + d=0 one of which, preferably but not necessarily, will be at the neck of the bottles 1.

In these last two arrangements the two annular ligatures are composed of sealed strip-like retainers 3 or by knotted strings 4. These retainers 3, 4 will be mainly housed, but not necessarily, into annular horizontal grooves 5 obtained on the walls of the bottles 1.

A further closed annular retainer 6M constituting an equivalent of a handle will be arranged on one of the vertical planes x,z or y,z such to perpendicularly wrap the two retainers 3 placed on c z +d=0 planes .

This last retainer 6V, in the weight-bearing condition, in addition to being used as a handle, will further stretch said two horizontal retainers 3.

Second version (Fig. N° . 2)

Assembly of six bottles made of PET or equivalent containers and/or made of biodegradable polymers

Six bottles 1 assembled in two parallel rows of three each such to form, on any horizontal plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the bottles 1, a rectangle whose vertices correspond to the intersections of the axes of the four peripheral bottles 1 with said horizontal plane.

Seven pairs of generatrices faced each other of the six circular cross-section bottles 1 will contact each other along seven vertical straight lines, even discontinuous ones.

The bottles 1 with a cross-section different than the circular one will be in contact mainly by seven, even discontinuous, surfaces arranged on vertical planes .

If we take a Cartesian tern reference x, y and z with the origin 0 in the base of the bottles 1 at the centre of said rectangle and where z is the vertical axis, four contacts, two by two, of the generatrices will be on by+d= 0 and -by+d=0 planes while three contacts will be on the y,z plane. Two annular ligatures that will tighten the bottles 1 will be on two general planes c z + d=0 one of which, preferably but not necessarily, will be at the neck of the bottles 1.

In these last two arrangements the annular ligatures are composed of ultrasound sealed strip-like retainers 3 or by knotted strings 4. These retainers 3 will be mainly housed, but not necessarily, into annular horizontal grooves 5 obtained on the walls of the bottles 1.

A further closed annular retainer 6M constituting an equivalent of a handle will be preferably arranged on the y,z plane such to perpendicularly wrap the two retainers 3, 4 placed on c z +d=0 planes.

Even in this second case this last retainer 6M, in the weight-bearing condition, in addition to being used as a handle, will further stretch said two horizontal retainers 3, 4.

Third version (Fig. n° . 3)

Assembly of seven bottles made of PET or equivalent containers and/or made of biodegradable polymers Seven bottles assembled such to form on any horizontal plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the bottles 1, a centered hexagon whose vertices and whose centre correspond to the intersections of the longitudinal axes of the seven bottles with said horizontal plane. Twelve pairs of generatrices faced each other will contact each other along vertical straight lines, even discontinuous ones: six pairs by perpendicularly intersecting a circle having a radius equal to half the diameter of the bottles, that is all in contact with the surface of the central bottle 1 and the other six ones by perpendicularly intersecting a circle having a radius equal to the diameter of the bottles 1 multiplied by the sine of 60° .

If we take a Cartesian tern reference x, y and z with the origin 0 in the centre of the bottles at the centre of the hexagon where z is the vertical axis the two annular ligatures that tighten the bottles 1 will be on two planes c z + d=0 one of which, preferably but not necessarily, will be at the neck of the bottles 1.

In these two arrangements the two annular ligatures are composed of ultrasound sealed strip-like retainers 3 or by knotted strings 4. These retainers 3, 4 will be mainly housed, but not necessarily, into annular horizontal grooves 5 obtained on the walls of the bottles 1.

A further closed annular retainer 6M constituting an equivalent of a handle will be arranged on the x,z plane or on the other two homologous planes, offset by 60° on one side and on the other side, with respect to the χ , ζ plane such to perpendicularly wrap the two retainers 2bis placed on c z +d=0 planes.

Even in this third case, this last retainer 6M, in the weight-bearing condition, in addition to being used as a handle, will further stretch said horizontal retainers 3. It will further support the central bottle 1 on the bottom thereof.

LEGEND

1) Bottles or similar containers

2) Seal (or knots)

3) Sealed strip-like retainers

4) Knotted strings

5) Annular grooves on the bottle walls

6M) Annular closed retainer constituting an equivalent of a handle

7) Elastic tube or equivalent envelope arranged about the 6M in order to facilitate the grip.

N.B. In Fig.2 the broken line on view a) denotes the projection of the retainer 6M. A similar projection on Fig. n. 1 a) has not been shown for useless redundancy purposes. A projection on Fig. n.3 a) with the variant of a passage underneath the central bottle has not been shown since it lies on a x, z plane.

Fig. n.°l Picture of the assembly of 4 bottles

Fig. n.° 2 Picture of the assembly of 6 bottles

Fig. n° 3 Picture of the assembly of 7 bottles

Claims

1. Assembly for transporting four six or seven beverage bottles (1) made of PET or equivalent biodegradable materials characterized in that it is obtained by annular ligatures arranged around the assembled bottles (1) and made of strip-like retainers 3 or strings 4 housed into circular grooves (5) or recesses, already existing or purposely made, on the side surface of the bottles (1) along horizontal sections that is perpendicular to the vertical axes of the bottles (1) and by a further annular retainer (6M) externally wrapped on said ligatures that is lying on a plane perpendicular to said horizontal ligatures and further passing preferably by the centre of gravity of the assembled bottles (1) such to be the equivalent of a handle at the necks of the bottles (1) and contemporaneously a means for further tightening said annular horizontal ligatures when said assembly is in the weight-bearing condition.

2. Assembly according to claim 1 for transporting six bottles (1) characterized in that the further vertical retainer (6M) lies on a plane that necessarily is between the two rows of three bottles (1) each.

3. Assembly according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the annular horizontal ligatures is on a plane at the necks of the bottles (1) .

4. Assembly according to claim 1 characterized in that the annular ligatures are composed of plastic straps or strip-like retainers (3) sealed by ultrasounds or other equivalent method.

5. Assembly according to claim 1 characterized in that the annular ligatures are composed of strings (4) or equivalent retainers, preferably knotted ones.

6. Assembly according to claim 1 characterized in that the further annular retainer (6M) lying on a vertical plane constituting the equivalent of a handle is provided with an elastic tube (5) or an envelope made of an equivalent material surrounding the retainer (6M) at the necks of the bottles (1) in order to facilitate the grip for the transport.

7. Assembly for transporting 7 circular cross- section bottles (1) made of PET or equivalent materials, even biodegradable ones, characterized in that six bottles (1) are arranged with their vertical axes on the vertices of an equilateral hexagon while the seventh one is at the centre of said six bottles that are held together by annular ligatures arranged around the assembled bottles (1) made of strip-like retainers (3) or strings (4) housed into grooves (5) or recesses, already existing or purposely made, on the side surface of the bottles (1) , while a further annular retainer (6M) arranged on a perpendicular plane passing by the centre of gravity of the assembly and externally surrounding the horizontal retainers (3, 4) constitutes the equivalent of a handle at the necks of the bottles (1) and contemporaneously a means for further tightening said annular horizontal ligatures when said assembly is in the weight-bearing condition and for supporting the seventh central bottle (1) on the bottom thereof.

8. Assembly for transporting six beverage bottles (1) made of PET or equivalent biodegradable materials characterized in that it is obtained by annular horizontal ligatures arranged around the assembled bottles (1) by ultrasound sealed strip-like retainers (3) or knotted strings (4) housed into grooves (5) or recesses made on the side surface of the bottles (1) along horizontal sections that is perpendicular to the vertical axes of the bottles (1) and by two further annular vertical retainers (3, 4), parallel each other, externally wrapping the two annular horizontal ligatures and lying on two vertical planes corresponding to the planes of contact between the three adjoining pairs of bottles (1) such to further tighten said horizontal ligatures.