Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D41/00—Caps, e.g. crown caps or crown seals, i.e. members having parts arranged for engagement with the external periphery of a neck or wall defining a pouring opening or discharge aperture; Protective cap-like covers for closure members, e.g. decorative covers of metal foil or paper
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D2203/00—Decoration means, markings, information elements, contents indicators
  • B65D2203/10—Transponders

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a closure for containers, such as bottles or jars, which is made of plastic and incorporates taggant elements in its structure, for designating its origin.
• taggant elements are detected by a special device, e.g. a handheld device, they allow identification of the closure and its origin, and further afford assessment of whether the product in the bottle is authentic or should be deemed as counterfeit.
• Closures particularly capsule-type closures made of plastic and having taggant elements, known in this particular field with the name of taggants, are disclosed, for example, in WO 2005/085087 and WO 2005/040001.
• the taggant elements include materials that are embedded in the plastic material designed to form the closure, i.e. by injection or casting into special molds.
• taggant materials When such taggant materials are hit by an electromagnetic ray emitted by a detection and control device, they are excited and emit a light signal or, more generally, an electromagnetic signal whose intensity is proportional to the amount of taggant that is embedded in the plastic material that forms the closure.
• the closure being examined may be deemed or assessed to be authentic and the content of the bottle having that closure may be deemed to actually be the original content.
• the closure is deemed to be patently counterfeit or not matching the original.
• the recovered material actually retains the entire amount of taggant material that was added and embedded in the original plastic material, in case of an authenticity examination, the signal emitted by the taggants of the closures formed with such recovered material might still fall within the range of values designating a authentic state, even with counterfeit closures.
• Closures with taggants as described in WO 2005/085087 were also found to be susceptible to counterfeiting due to the possibility of separating the taggant-containing material from the taggant-free material.
• the closure as disclosed in WO 2005/p85087 comprises a base wall from which a tubular skirt.
• the base wall may be a multilayered wall and include the taggants in an intermediate layer.
• a seal may be disposed on the inner surface of the base wall, and attached thereto by an adhesive layer or overmolded on the base wall.
• the taggant particles may be embedded in the seal and/or in the adhesive layer, in addition to or instead of the taggant embedded in the base wall. If the taggant particles are only embedded in the seal, then the closure is exposed to tamper by a counterfeiter, who may remove the seal and isolate the taggant-containing element from the remaining taggant-free material. Thus, the counterfeiter may form a new closure with the recovered seal and apply it to a container which will be found totally authentic by an authenticity examination.
• the present invention has the purpose of solving the problem of false authentic signals resulting from closures formed with plastic material recovered by authentic taggant-containing closures.
• Figure 1 is a perspective view of the inventive closure as viewed from the outside;
• Figure 2 is a perspective view of the first component part of the inventive closure
• Figure 3 is a perspective view of the second component part of the inventive closure
• Figure 4 is a perspective view of the inventive closure as viewed from the open end;
• Figure 5 is a sectional view if the closure, as taken along the line V-V of Figure 1.
• numeral 1 generally designates a container closure, particularly a capsule closure.
• the closure 1 has an inner surface la and an outer surface lb.
• the closure 1 is formed by a plastic molding process and comprises a first part, generally referenced 2 in Figure 2, and a second part, generally referenced 3 in Figure 3, which is overmolded on the first part 2, with which it forms a single body.
• first part 2 and the second part 3 form a single one-piece body.
• the closure 1 as a whole, as shown in Figures 1, 4 and 5, it comprises a tubular band 4 having a longitudinal axis X-X.
• the tubular band 4 is closed at one end 20 by a flat wall 5, transverse to the longitudinal axis X-X, and has an aperture 21 at the opposite end, defined by the circular edge 6.
• the tubular band 4 has an inner surface 4a and an outer surface 4b, and the flat wall 5 has an inner surface 5a and an outer surface 5b.
• the inner surface 4a of the tubular band 4 and the inner surface 5a of the flat wall 5 define the inner surface 1 a of the closure 1.
• outer surface 4b of the tubular band 4 and the outer surface 5b of the flat wall 5 define the outer surface la of the closure 1.
• the closure of the above mentioned figures has a plurality of axial ribs, referenced 8 and 9, in the inner surface 4a of the tubular band 4, said ribs being evenly arranged around the periphery and being designed to ensure coupling with other elements of the closure, such as valves, not shown as being unnecessary for the understanding of the invention, which are in turn mounted to the neck of a bottle, not shown, the latter being designed to contain, for instance, valuable spirits.
• the inner surface 4a of the tubular band 4 may have single or double threads, for possible direct coupling of the closure 1 with the neck of a bottle, should the latter be also threaded.
• the first part 2 and the second part 3 are overmolded together such that each of the inner and outer surfaces la, lb of the closure 1 has a portion of the first part 2 and a portion of the second part 3. This will hinder or even substantially prevent separation of the first part 2 from the second part 3, when not using instruments or requiring times that are not compatible with counterfeiting activities.
• the first part 2 and the second part 3 are overmolded together at least along a part of the tubular band 4 and the flat wall 5 such that each of the inner and outer surfaces 4a, 4b of the tubular band 4 and the inner and outer surfaces 5a and 5b of the flat wall 5 has a portion of the first part 2 and a portion of the second part 3.
• tubular band 4 and the flat wall 5 have portions that are internally and externally defined by both first and second parts 2, 3 and portions that are internally and externally defined by one of the first and second parts 2, 3.
• Figure 5 shows portions that are internally and externally defined by one of the first and second parts 2, 3 and portions 13 that are internally and externally defined by both first and second parts 2, 3.
• the second part 3 overmolded on the first part 2 may be used to define areas on at least part of the visible surface of the tubular band 4 and the flat wall 5, such as the areas referenced 10 and 11, whose color is different from that of the part 2 and said areas possibly having different surface areas. Furthermore, the second part 3 may be also used for the visible surfaces to display text, graphics or various indications among which the logo of the manufacturer or user on the visible surfaces of the closure.
• the second part 3 is formed with a volume V2 of the plastic material that is smaller than the volume VI of plastic material that is used to form the first part 2.
• the volume of plastic material that is used to form the second part 3 ranges from 1/3 to 1/6 of the volume of material that is used for the first part 2.
• the second part 3 comprises a given amount Q of taggant elements or taggants, embedded in its mass.
• the amount Q of taggant elements embedded in the second part 3 is selected to output a response signal higher than a preset authenticity threshold, when the closure 1 is subjected to an electromagnetic exploration ray emitted by a checking device, and to output a response signal lower than such preset authenticity threshold, when the amount Q of taggant elements is embedded in a volume of plastic material which is equal to at least the sum of the volumes VI and V2 that are used to obtain the first part 2 and the second part 3.
• a capsule closure having an outside diameter of about 32 mm and a total axial dimension equal to about 20 mm is formed using a volume of plastic material equal to about 2665 cubic mm for molding the first part 2 and a volume of about 657 cubic mm for molding the second part 3, and a taggant or a taggant is introduced into the material of the latter in such an amount Q that, upon reading by a checking device, i.e. an infrared ray device, a response signal is generated which is higher than a predetermined authenticity threshold, such that the closure 1 is deemed to be authentic.
• a checking device i.e. an infrared ray device
• the closure 1 is ground to recover the plastic material of the first part 2 and the second part 3, whose volume is equal to the sum of the volumes VI and V2, and the recovered material is used to mold another closure having the same dimensional characteristics as the original, with the addition of dyes to reproduce the same color as the two layers that compose the original closure, when an authenticity check is made, the detected signal will be found to be well below the preset authenticity threshold assigned to the original closure, thereby generating a false signal.
• the invention fulfills the purpose of avoiding false positive signals emitted by closures that are seemingly identical to the original closures, but obtained by the ground plastic material of the original closures and later molding of the recovered plastic material.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Details Of Rigid Or Semi-Rigid Containers (AREA)
• Sampling And Sample Adjustment (AREA)
• Devices For Use In Laboratory Experiments (AREA)
• Catching Or Destruction (AREA)
• Tubes (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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Citations (3)

• 2012
  • 2012-04-11 IT IT000584A patent/ITMI20120584A1/it unknown
• 2013
  • 2013-04-10 EP EP13724410.9A patent/EP2836442B1/en active Active
  • 2013-04-10 ES ES13724410.9T patent/ES2568028T3/es active Active
  • 2013-04-10 WO PCT/IB2013/052840 patent/WO2013153516A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2013-04-10 IN IN8801DEN2014 patent/IN2014DN08801A/en unknown
  • 2013-04-10 EA EA201401118A patent/EA025726B1/ru unknown
• 2014
  • 2014-05-16 CO CO14106286A patent/CO6960519A2/es unknown

Patent Citations (4)

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