Bottles and jars – Closures – Having warning means or means impeding closure removal
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-20
2001-10-02
Newhouse, Nathan J. (Department: 3727)
Bottles and jars
Closures
Having warning means or means impeding closure removal
C215S330000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296130
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to cap and bottle packaging and, in particular, to screw on caps for bottles with externally threaded neck finishes.
PRIOR ART
Screw on bottle caps have a tendency to loosen from a tightened condition on a threaded bottle neck finish. This tendency has a number of causes which include temperature change, creep in the bottle and cap materials, relaxation of a liner or sealant material, and vibration during handling and shipping. This problem is more frequently encountered when the screw threads have a high pitch to enable the cap to be quickly removed and reinstalled with limited twisting action. Loose caps create problems for the manufacturer and retailer of packaged goods and even for the ultimate user. Loose caps can falsely indicate tampering and, of course, allow spillage or leakage of the contents as well as entrance of moisture into the container. A good moisture seal is especially important, for example, when pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements can be adversely affected by excess moisture content. While “anti back off” features are known in the industry, these features have not generally been available with caps that have child resistant features.
Certain child resistant screw on caps have sections that flex on hinges for movement between locked and unlocked conditions. It has been difficult to provide a hinge with desirable spring back and creep resistant properties while avoiding thick wall sections.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a screw on cap and bottle construction that resists back off or loosening of the cap from a tightened, closed position. The cap includes a hinged portion that carries stop surface areas engageable with complementary stop surface areas on the bottle. The cap hinged portions have spring back characteristics that assure reliable operation of the anti back off surface areas.
In one disclosed embodiment, the bottle, ideally a blow molded product, has a stop surface area that provide a child resistant function and other surface areas for achieving the anti back off function. In the cap, the child resistant and anti back off features are produced on finger manipulatable hinged levers that include separate surface areas for these features.
The disclosed hinge construction achieves highly reliable spring characteristics that assure both child resistant and anti back off properties. The spring characteristics of the hinge allow relatively small closely spaced surface formations to be used on the bottle to obtain high angular resolution in the anti back off function. The spring hinge performance allows proper results to be achieved despite the difficulty in obtaining precise closely spaced surface formations in blow molded bottles. The anti back off stop surface elements have unique complementary configurations that are particularly suited for blow molded bottles and that enhance their performance. As disclosed, where desired the hinge construction can be used to obtain an anti back off function in threaded caps without child resistant properties.
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Black James P.
Forsyth Michael J.
Martin Douglas S.
Seaman Bradford R.
Webster Charles A.
Newhouse Nathan J.
Pearne & Gordon LLP
Weatherchem Corporation
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