Bottles and jars – Closures – With means to facilitate closure removal
Patent
1996-12-16
1998-03-03
Cronin, Stephen
Bottles and jars
Closures
With means to facilitate closure removal
215296, 81 315, 81 349, B65D 3900
Patent
active
057225486
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a novel device to be incorporated in a bottle stopper for removal of the stopper and to a combination of the device with a stopper. The device has particular application with corks and similar stoppers for wine and the like bottles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The "packaging of beverages" art is replete with novel approaches to providing simplified means for opening the packages, particularly in light of the demands of consumers as well as the demands of high speed production equipment.
Wine and related types of beverages are most often packaged in glass bottles and depending on the kind or quality of the wine, the bottles are sealed with a cork. Some wines are bottle packaged with "screw tops" and movement in this direction is obviously predicated to some extent on meeting consumers' demands for packaging which is easily opened without the necessity of additional equipment.
However, "corking" is still and will continue to play, a large part in wine packaging. Some wines, e.g. champagnes, are corked with stoppers having enlarged heads and which can be grasped and twisted. However, the majority of red, white and rose wines are "corked" with stoppers made out of cork which is recessed in the neck of the bottle requiring some implement such as a corkscrew to extract the cork.
There is in some cases consumer resistance to the use of natural corks in table wine products predicated in large part on the need to use a corkscrew or other device for removal of the cork. Typically, women generally avoid the physical/mechanical requirement for removing corks from table wine products and have demonstrated a reluctance to purchase wine products stoppered with corks, due to the awkwardness of cork removal. Many consumers avoid purchasing "corked" bottles of wine due to the need to uncork the wine, there being some apprehension of breaking up the cork, failing to remove it properly and/or allowing cork particles to drop into the wine.
In "corking" wine, the cork is usually sized to a predetermined size for the particular bottle and after filling the bottle with wine, the cork is peripherally compressed and pushed into the neck of the bottle. Modern high-speed bottling and corking equipment necessitates that the cork be presized and readily acceptable to established corking equipment.
Any modification to a cork stopper therefore must keep in mind the continued necessity of use of the same high-speed corking equipment.
Applicant's invention is directed to providing a cork stopper having associated therewith a device for quick and easy removal of the cork without the necessity of a corkscrew or other like device and which continues to meet the necessary type of established modern day "corking" equipment.
PRIOR ART
There have been attempts in the past to provide a cork stopper with a self-contained pulling device and the United States patent to Spelling, U.S. Pat. No. 1,204,712 is representative of such early prior art devices.
The present inventor's earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,251, issued 26 Dec. 1989, illustrates an improved combination cork and puller which overcomes many of the problems of the prior art, and which is usable with high speed corking equipment. Nonetheless, it has been found that the device disclosed in that patent, while useful in many situations, does not completely answer prior problems. In some small number of cases, the device will fail before removing a cork. It would be desirable to reduce the failure rate to substantially zero.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides improvements in the manner of assembly of the inventive device and in its reliability.
Thus the invention provides a bottle stopper remover for use with a bottle stopper where the stopper is cylindrical and of resilient material and has top, bottom and side surfaces and a deep well extending into the stopper from the top surface; the stopper remover comprising a hollow sleeve substantially confirming in cross-section to the well, the sleeve having top and bottom en
REFERENCES:
patent: 523972 (1894-08-01), Butterfield
patent: 1204712 (1916-11-01), Spelling
patent: 2046224 (1936-06-01), Vanderhoof
patent: 3307727 (1967-03-01), Garay
patent: 4889251 (1989-12-01), Hojnoski
patent: 5636757 (1997-06-01), Porvaznik
Cronin Stephen
Kwik Kork International Inc.
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