Bottles and jars – Closures – Frangible member or portion
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-16
2001-12-25
Cronin, Stephen K. (Department: 3727)
Bottles and jars
Closures
Frangible member or portion
C215S251000, C215S258000, C220S255000, C220S256100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332550
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to closures for containers and more particularly to an improved tamper-evident container closure.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Containers of the kind with which this invention is concerned are used to contain a wide variety of products including both liquids and solids. These products may be divided into two broad categories which are (a) products for human consumption or application to the human body, such as medicinal and non-medicinal liquids, solids, lotions, pills, capsules and the like, and (b) other products, such as household products and the like. This invention is particularly concerned with containers for category (a) products and will be described in the context of such containers. It will become readily evident as the description proceeds, however, that the closure may also be used on containers for category (b) products. While such containers vary widely in shape and size, they are all characterized by a container body having a normally upper portion or end containing an opening through which the container contents are accessed, and a closure in the form of a container sealing cap or the like to be secured to the upper portion or end of the container body for closing the opening. For convenience, this upper end portion of the container to which the container sealing cap is secured is referred to as the neck of the container regardless of the container shape.
A relatively few years ago, container of the character described were commonly closed by simple caps threaded or otherwise secured to the container necks. Over the years, tampering with such containers, particularly containers for the category (a) mentioned above, has become an ever increasing problem and danger. In many cases, tampering has involved the introduction of lethal substances into the containers which resulted in the deaths of persons who later consumed some of the container contents. For this reason, an ever increasing number of product containers of the kind described, particularly containers for category (a) products, are being made tamper-evident. In this context, tamper-evident means that it is readily evident from the appearance of the container closure whether or not the container has been previously opened.
A wide variety of ways have been devised to render containers tamper-evident. Following are some of these ways: enclosing a container in an outer tamper-evident package which cannot be opened without altering it in a manner which clearly indicates the package has been opened; evacuating and sealing a container in such a way that absence of the sound of air entering the container or some other sound resulting from the loss of container vacuum when the container is opened indicates the container has been previously opened; sealing a container with a tamper-evident closure which is torn, ruptured, or otherwise altered when opened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides an improved tamper-evident closure for containers including an upper neck having an open normally upper end, and a circumferential shoulder about the neck below its upper end. This tamper-evident closure comprises a tamper-evident cap including a circumferential side wall having normally upper and lower ends, an upper end wall joined to the upper end of the side wall and closing the upper end of the cap, an opening in the lower end of the cap circumferentially surrounded by the lower end of said side wall, and cap retaining means on the lower end of the side wall engagable with the container shoulder to prevent upward removal of the cap from the container neck. The preferred cap retaining means are inwardly projecting resilient prongs which are spaced about the lower end of the cap side wall and are upwardly angled in a manner such that the container shoulder deflects these cap retaining prongs outwardly to permit the prongs to pass freely over the shoulder in the downward direction during placement of the cap on the container. The prongs then spring inwardly under the container shoulder to prevent upward removal of the cap from the container neck.
The side wall of the cap has a parting region extending circumferentially about the side wall between its ends at which the cap may be parted into upper and lower cap portions. These cap portions are joined along the circumferential parting region by junction means to which a force may be applied to part the cap along the parting region. Parting of the cap along this parting region permits removal of the upper cap portion from the container by a legitimate user to uncover the container neck and provides an indication to a prospective buyer or legitimate user that the container has been previously opened. In the preferred embodiments of the invention described herein, this junction means comprises a tear strip which may be pulled to sever the cap along the parting region.
In one presently preferred embodiment of the tamper-evident closure described herein the tamper-evident cap is designed to placed over the neck of a container having its own sealing cap. This tamper-evident cap is assembled on such a container by simply pushing the cap downwardly over the container neck and its sealing cap and serves as a tampering indicator only. Other preferred embodiments of the present tamper-evident closure described herein serve the dual purpose of a tempering indicator and a container seal. These dual purpose tamper-evident closures are designed for placement on containers which do not have their own sealing caps and include a tamper-evident cap similar to that of the single purpose tamper-evident closure mentioned above, and means within the cap for sealing the open upper end of container.
The preferred tamper-evident caps described herein have a frangible rupture line along the circumferential parting region of the cap which is stressed when any attempt is made to remove the closure from the container in any other way than by exerting a proper cap parting force on the junction means of the cap. For example, any attempt to unscrew the tamper-evident cap from the container will stress the cap along the rupture line, and this stress will cause the cap to rupture along the rupture line to indicate to a prospective purchaser or legitimate user that the container has been previously opened.
The preferred dual purpose tamper-evident closures described are tamper-evident cap assemblies having an outer tamper-evident cap like that discussed above which provides a tamper indicator for the container and an inner container sealing cap. This inner sealing cap is rotatable with the outer tamper-evident cap and includes internal screw threads for engaging the screw threads on the container neck and sealing means for sealing the open upper end of the neck. During assembly of a dual purpose tamper-evident closure or cap assembly on a container, the inner sealing cap is rotatable by rotation of the outer tamper-evident cap to screw the inner cap onto the container neck. It will become evident as the description proceeds, however, that a dual purpose cap according to the invention could have a unitary cap design in which the inner screw threads and container sealing means within the outer tamper-evident cap are an integral part of this cap.
A tamper-evident closure of the invention may be used on containers intended to be sealed by various types of sealing caps. For example, certain tamper-evident closures of the invention described herein are intended for use on containers which are normally closed by simple threaded sealing caps. Other described tamper-evident closures of the invention are intended for use on containers in the form of squeeze bottles which are normally closed by liquid dispensing caps.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2326480 (1943-08-01), Merolle
patent: 2806620 (1957-09-01), Blanch
patent: 3750821 (1973-08-01), Sourbet et al.
patent: 3901403 (1975-08-01), Menke
patent: 4109816 (1978-08-01), Faulstich
patent: 4205755 (1980-06-01), De Wijn
patent: 4595110 (1986-06-01), Herr
patent: 4597500 (1986-07-01
Bennett Paul H.
Perlmutter Thom M.
Cronin Stephen K.
Garred Mark B.
Stetina Brunda Garred & Brucker
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