Bottles and jars – Closures – Self-sealing – piercable-type closure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-10
2001-12-11
Newhouse, Nathan J. (Department: 3727)
Bottles and jars
Closures
Self-sealing, piercable-type closure
C215S251000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328174
ABSTRACT:
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
As expressed in the title of this specification, the present invention consists of an airtight stopper and as such provides a series of relevant and advantageous characteristics with regard to those that presently exist for the same purpose and which are of the same type.
This stopper is especially applicable to all types of carbonated beverages (champagne, sparkling wines, beer, carbonated drinks, etc.), having the purpose, aside from ensuring perfect closing that prevents accidental opening of the stopper by an accumulation of overpressure inside the container or vessel that closes, that the container can easily be closed again for subsequent use, until the contained liquid is consumed, without losing the gas, that is to say, without the gaseous content dissipating from the container.
In the specific case of champagne and sparkling wine, contained in bottles that are normally closed by a cork stopper (very costly), upon the stopper being replaced by the one that the invention proposes, effectiveness and greater economy are likewise achieved.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Utility model no. 9,602,251 claimed a stopper of this type, which had an inside tubular wall for insertion in the mouth of the bottle or container, and another outside covering that was placed around the neck of the container, having some through windows through which respective teeth of some radial tongues that could articulate in their connecting line with the top part of the outside covering itself, entered. Once these teeth that passed through the cited windows, they became housed under the ring-shaped projection conventionally provided for on the outside of the neck of the bottle or container, maintaining the retaining position by means of a ring that moved axially in order to remain overlying the tongues, preventing the teeth from coming out of their housing.
Spanish utility model no. 9,500,853 contemplates a ring-shaped seal with a central tubular rod that seals the mouth of the bottle and whose walls are provided with circular ribs, to provide greater airtightness. In the top part it has a ring-shaped flange from which descend some wings that are place around the mouth of the bottle until the first recess where the stoppers are of another type normally fasten by different processes. This body of the stopper is completed with another top one that constitutes a ring that is connected by means of some tearable points, which break when the ring is pushed in the packaging operation to remain fitted blocking the descending wings of the bottom body, this airtight closing position remaining until it is not released again upon being moved in the opposite direction, or broken.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,456,143, 5,314,084 and 5,522,518 also refer to stoppers and closing systems that reflect the prior art related to the patent of invention applied for over which the latter provides outstanding advantages.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In broad outline, the improved stopper that constitutes the object of the invention, presents as a special characteristic, the inclusion of an independent top cap that is connected to the rest of the stopper in the bottling stage, this cap in turn supporting the sealing ring. In the coupling position, coinciding with its bottommost location with regard to the bottle, once the stopper is closing the neck of the bottle or container, this cap keeps the retaining means of the stopper itself blocked. The cap includes a discoidal closing surface, from the bottom of which originates the cylindrical wall or neck that is inserted inside the container to close its mouth, there being parallel to this cylindrical surface some tongues which in their inside part support the teeth which are to remain retained in the ring-shaped recess of the neck of the bottle or container. Precisely due to the presence of the contained gas, it is necessary that such lugs are kept blocked in order to prevent the accidental discharge of the stopper, which is achieved upon placing the cap in the correct position.
The discoidal sealing surface of the stopper has at the top a tubular portion that has an outside ring-shaped projection in order to constitute the retaining means of the cap in the uppermost position of the same, the cap being axially movable from a bottom closing and sealing position of the peripheral tongues, up to another top position that permits removal of the stopper, or the opening of the bottle or container.
The cap has in the center a threaded axial projection for connection thereof in the threaded inside of the top tubular portion of the stopper itself. In a position coaxial to this threaded projection, there are other axial tongues whose ends finish in a spear tip, in a similar way that the retaining tongues have in the ring-shaped recess of the bottle neck, naturally emerging from the bottom of said cap. These tongues are duly guided in a ring-shaped part that forms part of the stopper itself, placed in the top part of the same and that keeps them in an axial position, preventing their deviation. These spear tipped projections will remain located between the discoidal surface of the stopper itself and the ring-shaped projection of the top tubular portion of the same, determining the distance at which these cited elements are located, the axial path of the cap.
The approximation of the cap so that its ring-shaped flap surrounds the neck of the container or bottle in order to ensure the sealing thereof, in a closing operation subsequent to the opening operation, is achieved once the container or bottle is closed, first with a slight axial movement and then by screwing. The same thing happens when opening the bottle or container, in the initial breaking of the seal and the different times when the bottle is opened until the contained liquid is consumed. Naturally in the latter opening operations the sealing ring is detached or broken and the ring remains on the neck or is thrown away.
The ring-shaped part that keeps the tongues of the cap together, preventing them from coming off the ring-shaped tooth of the top tubular portion of the stopper itself, is connected to the rest of the stopper by easily breakable portions, this breaking taking place in the initial assembly of the stopper, in the bottling factory. This ring-shaped part is formed in the injection molding process itself of the stopper itself and advantageously the easily breakable ribs or portions emerge from the edge of the tooth or ring-shaped projection of the outside of the top tubular portion or neck of the stopper itself, these ribs breaking when sealing itself takes place upon axially introducing the cap.
Forward and backward movement of the cap with regard to the main body of the stopper, which happens by means of screwing, can also be achieved more effectively upon providing that the retaining tongues are formed by means of axial cuts in the outside covering of the main body, whose outside periphery is fitted with a thread that connects with the one existing on the inside edge of the cap.
In the last case referred to the sealing ring remains connected to the cap where the threaded area ends and the inviolability is ensured due to the fact that it remains retained by its bottom edge on the neck itself of the bottom or container.
In order to provide a better understanding of the features of the invention and forming an integral part of this specification, some sheets of drawings, in whose figures the following has been represented in an illustrative and non-restrictive manner, are attached hereto.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3905502 (1975-09-01), Wassilieff
patent: 4192428 (1980-03-01), Segmuller
patent: 4251003 (1981-02-01), Bodenmann
patent: 4456143 (1984-06-01), Davis et al.
patent: 5307945 (1994-05-01), Hidding et al.
patent: 5314084 (1994-05-01), Folta et al.
patent: 5316163 (1994-05-01), von Schuckmann
patent: 5522518 (1996-06-01), Konrad et al.
patent: 5615788 (1997-04-01), Larguia
patent: 5813554 (1998-09-01), Graziani et al.
patent: 5879345 (1999-03-01), Aneas
patent: 5957314 (1999-09-01), Nishida et al.
patent: 5
Gomez Cao Jose Luis
Marangoni Graziani Antonio
Marangoni, legaless by Cristina
Diseno Industrial Mago. S.L.
Klauber & Jackson
Marangoni, legaless by Cristina
Newhouse Nathan J.
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