Dispensing – With lock or fastening seal – Plural
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-29
2004-09-21
Mancene, Gene (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
With lock or fastening seal
Plural
C222S153070, C222S153140, C222S541500, C222S541900, C222S547000, C215S252000, C215S256000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06793101
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention refers to a synthetic resin bottle cap unit having a tamperproof function, which comprises an inner cap, fitted to the bottleneck and provided with a pour spout for the liquid content, and an outer cap to open or close the pour spout of this inner cap, wherein the bottle cap unit is configured so that separate collection is advantageously carried out at the time of waste disposal.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There is a need for separately collecting synthetic resin products for efficient reutilization of discarded synthetic resin bottles and containers. As a means of such separate collection, there is a prior-art technology disclosed in the Official Gazette of Japanese patent application laid open No. 1999-255251, which refers to a bottle cap fitted to the neck of a bottle or container to form a pour spout and which shows a mechanism that enables the bottle cap to be readily removed from the bottle when it is discarded.
The bottle cap of that prior-art invention comprises an inner cap having an attaching cylinder, which is tightly fitted around the bottleneck and locked by climbing over the neck to form a pour spout, and an outer cap, which is detachably screwed on or off the inner cap to close or open the pour spout. The locking recession corresponding to the first locking part is integrally formed on the outer circumference of the portion having locking engagement with the bottleneck, and this locking recession is disposed on the lower part of the attaching cylinder of the inner cap and is provided with plural, vertical expanding slots. A locking ring having the second locking part is connected via the plural breaking pieces to the lower part of the outer cylinder of the outer cap that is fitted around this attaching cylinder. The second locking part locks with the first locking part of the attaching cylinder in a manner that the second one is unable to climb over the first one in the upward direction but is able to climb over the bottleneck in the downward direction by the forced pulling operation.
In this prior art, tamper-proof action is displayed by the separation of the locking ring from the outer cylinder of the outer cap. The fitting of the inner cap to the bottleneck is tightly maintained by the locking action of the locking ring to lock with the lower portion of the attaching cylinder. The inner cap can be readily removed from the bottleneck by breaking the locking ring away in the downward direction from the lower end of the attaching cylinder.
However, in this prior art, the lower portion of the attaching cylinder of the inner cap is in an exposed state, which has caused a problem in that the inner cap can be easily broken away from the bottleneck by inserting a hard tip of, e.g., a screwdriver, into the gap between the attaching cylinder and the bottleneck and picking the inner cap out of the bottleneck.
It is necessary in this prior art to form both of the portion having a bottleneck-locking function and the locking recession corresponding to the first locking part that locks the outer cap, integrally in the lower portion of the attaching cylinder of the inner cap. This first locking part is engaged with the second locking part so as to hinder the locking ring from rising upward and from moving freely, but to permit the ring to be moved forcibly. Thus, another problem arises here in that the structure becomes all the more complicated.
In addition, after the breaking pieces have been broken, there is no visible change in the relationship of the locking ring with the lower portion of the attaching cylinder because the pieces remain at the same position in the lower portion of the attaching cylinder. Before and after the breakage, there is no change in the position of the locking ring. It is difficult, therefore, to recognize the breakage of the breaking pieces from the looks of them. For this reason, still another problem brought about was that sometimes the tamper-proof effect has not been fully demonstrated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been made to solve these problems found in the above-described prior art. An object of this invention is to make it impossible to break open the inner cap unjustly from the bottleneck by means of a hard tool. Another object is to give the bottle cap unit a simple structure. Still other objects are to demonstrate a clear tamper-proof effect, to enhance the safety of bottles as commercial products, and to reduce the production cost reasonably.
In the first embodiment of this invention, there is provided a synthetic resin bottle cap unit. It comprises an inner cap having an attaching cylinder that is tightly fitted around bottleneck, and locked by climbing over the neck, to form a pour spout. It also comprises a cylindrical, flat-topped, outer cap, which is detachably screwed on or off the inner cap to close or open the pour spout. This attaching cylinder of the inner cap is provided with the first locking part disposed on the outer cylindrical wall of the portion opposed to the bottleneck-locking part. The outer cap is provided with an outer cylinder and a locking cylinder disposed in the lower portion of the outer cylinder and integrally connected thereto through multiple breaking pieces. The locking cylinder has a bore diameter larger than the outer diameter of this neck ring, and is provided with the second locking part that goes into the locking engagement from underside with the first locking part under the condition that the outer cap has been screwed on the bottleneck. In this configuration, attachment of the inner cap to the bottleneck is set at such a strength that the inner cap can be manually snapped out of the bottle neck, and yet that strength is within a range enough to keep the inner cap fitted tightly to the bottleneck but not to allow to inner cap to be slipped out of the bottleneck because of a water-hammer force of the liquid content nor to allow the inner cap to move freely around the bottleneck.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Under the condition that this synthetic resin bottle cap unit has been fitted to the bottleneck, the outer cap closes the pour spout of the inner cap now that the outer cap has been screwed on the inner cap. At that time, the outer cap is fitted around the attaching cylinder of the inner cap, and the locking cylinder allows its second locking part to enter the locking engagement from underside with the first locking part, which is formed on the outer circumference of the attaching cylinder of the inner cap.
When the outer cap is turned in order to screw it off the inner cap, the locking cylinder is unable to ascend because of the locking engagement between the first and second locking parts, unlike the combination of the main cylinder and the outer cylinder of the outer cap, which continues to ascend. As a result, the breaking pieces are broken at one time of this ascent.
Once the breaking pieces have been broken, the locking cylinder falls downward due to its own weight, and its position changes to a large extent before and after the breakage. Because of this large positional change in the locking cylinder, it becomes possible to know clearly that the breaking pieces have been surely broken and to demonstrate the tamper-proof function.
After the breakage, the locking cylinder falls easily and smoothly down to the limit of fall, with no interference from the neck ring because the locking cylinder has a bore diameter larger than the outer diameter of the neck ring.
When the bottle cap unit is separately collected from the bottleneck, the inner cap can be forcibly snapped out of the bottleneck by grasping the inner cap with a hand, acting a wrenching force, and deflecting and deforming the attaching cylinder in the direction in which the diameter is widened.
At that time, if the combination of the main cylinder and the outer cylinder of the outer cap is screwed on the inner cap that has been fitted to the bottleneck, the bottle cap unit can be grasped firmly with a hand under a favorable condition.
After the inner cap has been snapped out of the bo
Shinozaki Natuo
Tamura Masaru
Buechner Patrick
Mancene Gene
Yoshino Kogyosho Co. Ltd.
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