Pourer with improved locking and cap equipped with same

Abstract

The invention concerns a pourer (3) associated with a closure cap (1) and designed to be fixed inside a container neck (9), comprising a peripheral skirt (4), a pouring element (8), and means for temporarily assembling said pourer and said closure cap. The invention is characterised in that: a) said peripheral skirt (4) comprises a lower part (5) capable of being radially spaced apart for the pourer to be fixed to the neck; b) the pourer (3) comprises a rigid component (6) axially mobile downwards, inside the peripheral skirt (4); c) the pourer (3) comprises means for causing the lower part (5) and the rigid component (6) to co-operate so as to transform the axial movement of the rigid component (6) into a radial movement of the lower part (1).

Description

[0001] The invention relates to the field of containers, usually bottles, the orifice of which is provided with a pourer, typically for packaging liquors, aperitifs, alcohol.STATE OF THE ART[0002] Many different types of pourers associated with closure caps are already known, distinguished particularly by their method of attachment to the container neck and by the pouring element itself.[0003] The pouring element itself may either have a fixed configuration as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 or a variable configuration, and particularly an axially mobile configuration as described in patents FR 2.057.345, GB 922,188, U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,935 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,464.[0004] Concerning the method of attachment to the container neck, the pourer may be force fitted into the neck, being usually provided with circular sealing ribs as shown in FIG. 2 and described in patents FR 2.057.345, GB 922,188 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,935.[0005] Problem that Arises[0006] These pourers are associated with a c...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0092] Firstly, the invention considerably reduces problems encountered on the capping line in that caps are no longer damaged without any need to modify the capping lines, thus avoiding production stoppages and losses of products resulting from these problems.[0093] Furthermore, the invention describes means of adapting the pourer to any type of cap and any type of diameter.[0094] Furthermore, the invention can be used to insert a complementary function such as non-refillability, without any significant extra cost. In this case, the pourer according to the invention comprises means that make it impossible, or at least difficult, to extract the pourer from the neck, in order to reduce possibilities of fraud.[0095] Finally, during use, the cap and its associated pourer are practical to use since the consumer will not see any significant difference in the height and size of the bottle or the manual opening force, between a standard cap without a pourer and a cap with a pourer according to the invention, particularly to eliminate cooperation between the insert (2) and the pourer (3) through temporary assembly means (20) and (40, 60) that remain within the range of what the consumer considers to be normal.1 List of marks Closure cap 1 Metallic part 10 Vertical axis 11 Annular solidarisation groove between 10 12 and 2 Insert 2 Temporary assembly means 20 Axial displacement means for 6 21 Solidarisation lip with 10 22 Sealing lip 23 Pourer 3 Non-refillable pourer 3I Pourer peripheral skirt 4 Temporary assembly means 40 Sealed attachment means - ribs 41 Upper rim 42 Click fit element with 62 43 Skirt with tapered inner wall 44 Rigid lower part of the peripheral skirt 5 Thinned part - Hinge O 50 Hinged element - angular sector 51 Inside OD 510 Outside OC 511 Sealing ribs 512 Insulated rigid tab 52 Rigid tab fixed to a skirt 53 Flexible skirt 530 Rigid heels 54 Click fit notch with 740 540 Fins 541 Rigid component of pourer 6 Rigid component in high position 6H Rigid component in low position 6B Temporary assembly means 60 Lower end 61 Click fit element with 43 62 Rigid component or portion of part 63 forming cage Ball contained in cage 6C 630 Cage arch 631 Rigid part with tapered outside skirt 64 Pouring element hinge 65 Cooperation means between 5 and 6 7 Hinge - End A 70 Hinge - End B 71 Rigid element 72 Rigid element with triangular section 73 Side adjacent to end B 730 Rigid locking rod 74 Lock 740 Flexible circular lip forming the pouring 8 element Flexible lip in the deployed state 8D Flexible lip in the deflected state 8F Neck of a container 9 Edge 90 Thread 91 Counter-ring 92

Problems solved by technology

Under these conditions, some closure caps may be damaged as a result of the magnitude of this force, particularly by buckling of the skirt or modification of easy opening means.

Therefore, the problem to be solved is to have a pourer which can be attached to the neck by a relatively low axial force, typically less than 20 daN, so that the said pourer can be associated with any type of closure cap, even the least mechanically resistant caps, due to the continuing trend towards reducing the thicknesses of packaging materials and weights.

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