EP1495980A1

EP1495980A1 - Container made of metal sheet material and having a shock absorbing closure

Info

Publication number: EP1495980A1
Application number: EP03388050A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Lars Erik Sebbelov
Original assignee: CONSAFE ApS
Current assignee: CONSAFE ApS
Priority date: 2003-07-08
Filing date: 2003-07-08
Publication date: 2005-01-12
Also published as: NO20042892L

Abstract

The container comprises a container body (2) with a circumferential shell (3), a lower bottom, an upper opening and a rim (4) surrounding the opening, the rim (4) having a sealing area (23) adapted to engage a corresponding sealing area (14) of a lid (5) for sealing of the container by contact between the metal sheet materials of the rim and the lid. At at least at one of the sealing areas (14, 23) securing means (16, 17, 24) are provided which are integral with the rim (4) and/or the lid (5) for retaining the lid (5) on the container body (2), when the lid is in a closing position, said securing means (16, 17, 24) being designed in such a manner that securing engagement is obtained thereby that the lid (5) is taken downwards relative to the container body (2) to its closing position. Near the rim (4) the shell (3) is provided with at least one circumferential bead (27) positioned outside the sealing area (23) of the rim.

Description

The present invention relates to a container made from a metal sheet material and having a shock-absorbing closure, comprising a container body with a circumferential shell, a lower bottom, an upper opening and a rim surrounding the opening, the rim having a sealing area adapted to engage a corresponding sealing area of a lid for sealing of the container by contact between the metal sheet materials of the rim and the lid, in which at least at one of the sealing areas securing means are provided, which are integral with the rim and/or the lid, for retaining the lid on the container body, when the lid is in a closing position, said securing means being designed in such a manner that securing engagement is obtained thereby that the lid is taken downwards relative to the container body to its closing position.

Containers of this type are used for transport and storage of paint and the like technical liquids. The securing means are to prevent the lid from coming off incidentally, for instance if a container is dropped or for any other reason subjected to an impact.

The metal sheet material, from which the container is made, or the metal sheet materials, from which the various parts of the container are made, may be of any suitable type and may be provided with lacquer, paint or a similar thin coating on one or both sides, as it is known per se.

For this type of containers security clearances exist, by which the containers are classified on the basis of dropping tests, in which filled, closed containers are dropped in such a manner that they land on the edge of the rim, which is consequently heavily deformed. The classification is made dependent on the height, from which a container can drop, without leaking.

Examples of a container of the type described by way of introduction are found in WO-A-92/04248, which describes containers, in which the securing means comprise at least one annular bead of a deformable material retained at one of the two sealing areas, the bead constituting an extension of the sealing area, in which an adhesive has been applied to at least one of the sealing areas, whereby the lid, when taken to its closing position, is brought into contact with the container body via the deformable bead, the adhesive binding the bead retained at one sealing area to the other sealing area.

WO-A-00/68107 discloses another container, in which the securing means comprise a circumferential, protruding portion of the lid or the rim near the sealing area, said protruding portion, when the lid ) is taken to its closing position, snap-engaging in a locking manner a corresponding, circumferential portion at the other sealing area.

In the containers disclosed in WO-A-92/04248 and WO-A-00/68107 the rims are constituted of independent members, which are flanged on the material of the shell at the upper edge of the container body.

WO-A-98/35882 describes an example of a container, in which the rim is designed integrally with the material of the shell.

GB-A-2 125 381 describes a container for storage of food articles under pressure (low pressure or overpressure) with a shell of corrugated material, a lid with a valve and a tightening band to keep lid and container body together. Between the rim of the container body and the lid sealing rings have been inserted in such a manner that there is no direct contact between the sheet materials of the container body and the lid. The object of the corrugations, which are not discussed in detail, is reinforcement, and the corrugations are shown as sine-shaped with inflections inclined approximately 65° relative to vertical. The tightening band, or alternatively a row of clamps, are supplementary members, which are to be applied to the container after application of the lid. This entails extra work, which is undesirable in connection with the present invention.

The object of the present invention is to design a container of the type mentioned by way of introduction in such a manner that its ability to prevent leakage, when dropped, is improved. It is thus the object to provide an improved container, which can be classified in a better safety class.

The object is met in that near the rim the shell is provided with at least one circumferential bead positioned outside the sealing area of the rim.

When a container falls from a high height, for instance 1 meter, the rim and the adjacent parts of the shell and the lid are heavily deformed with sharp bends between deformed and (substantially) not deformed portions. These sharp bends seem to be critical in respect of leakage. By designing a container according to the invention said bends seem to become less sharp, and tests have shown that a container designed according to the invention resists leakage at drops from substantially higher heights than a corresponding container without a bead according to the invention.

In a preferred embodiment the bead, seen in a vertical, diametric cross-sectional view of the container, is provided with sides inclining 25° - 35° relative to vertical, preferably approximately 30°. By designing certain areas of the shell, in which the material is not positioned in the substantially vertical plane as the remaining portions of the shell, a weakening is introduced, which has a negative influence on the carrying capacity, to be understood as the number of filled container, which can be stacked for transport. Therefore, the inclination of the sides of the bead relative to vertical must not be too big. On the other hand, a too small inclination will exclude or weaken the desired effect. 30° seem to be close to the optimum compromise between these two conflicting factors.

The shell normally has a conical or cylindrical portion between the bottom and the rim. The bead is preferably positioned at the upper border of the conical or cylindrical portion. One or more beads provided to strengthen the middle part of the shell may thereby disrupt the conical or cylindrical portion, or a single bead may be provided in a conical portion to determine a nested position for a container in a second, empty container.

The bead is preferably extending outward relative to the interior of the container.

In connection with containers of the type in question it is preferred that the shell is substantially smooth, as the exterior side of the shell is normally decorated by direct printing on the material of the shell. Therefore, beads generally constitute an undesirable disruption of an otherwise smooth, decoration-carrying surface. In an embodiment, in which several closely spaced beads are provided at the rim, the closely spaced beads defining a bead section, a bead-free portion of the shell therefore preferably delimits said bead section. The bead section extends around the container body and has a given width in vertical direction. The bead-free portion is at least of the same width as the bead section and preferably substantially wider.

The bead section may contain exactly two beads. This embodiment has turned out to have good safety properties in respect of drops of the above-mentioned type.

The container is often designed in such a way that the lid in its closing position extends somewhat downwards into the container body relative to its upper edge. Consequently, the bead section preferably extends at the bottom level of parts of the lid in its closing position. Said parts of the lid are in this connection usually constituted by a circumferential depression close to the periphery of the lid.

In an embodiment the securing means comprise an adhesive at at least one of the sealing areas, the lid being, when taken to its closing position, brought into contact with the container body via the adhesive.

In other embodiments the securing means are designed as described in the above-mentioned WO-A-92/04248 or WO-A-00/68107.

The invention will be described in detail in the following by means of examples of embodiments with reference to the schematic drawings, in which

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a container according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a sectional view along the line II-II,

Fig. 3 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2, but the lid has been lifted from the container body, and

Figs 4 and 5 are views corresponding to Fig. 2 but of alternative embodiments.

Figs 1-3 show a container 1 with a container body 2 formed by a circumferential shell 3, a bottom not shown, which closes the container at the bottom, and an attached rim 4, which surrounds an upper opening in the container. The opening is in Figs 1 and 2 closed by means of a lid 5. The container is provided with a handle pivotally secured in holders 7, one of which only being shown in Fig. 1.

The container body is preferably slightly conical such that empty container bodies may be nested. In this connection the holders 7 constitute stops, which determine how far the container bodies can be nested, whereby wedging is avoided. It is also known to let a circumferential carrier bead placed at a level corresponding to the one shown in respect of the holders 7 constitute such a stop.

The container is provided with a closure device of the type described in WO-A-92/04248.

The lid 5 is formed from a metal sheet material having a thickness of 0.15-0.5 mm and comprising a substantially plane middle portion 11 surrounded by a slightly elevated portion 12, which is in turn surrounded by a U-shaped duct 13, the bottom of which constitutes the lower part of the lid in its usual closing position shown in Figs 1 and 2. The exterior side of the outer leg of the U forms a substantially cylindrical sealing area 14 having a projection 15. Adjacent to the sealing area 14 a circumferential deformable bead 16 is provided, said bead being provided with an adhesive 17.

The shell 3 of the container body 2 has a substantially smooth, conical portion 21 extending from the bottom and close to the rim 4. The conical portion may, as indicated above, comprise a circumferential carrier bead on a level with the holders 7. The shell 3 has a shoulder piece 22, whereby a cavity is established, which accommodates the attached rim 4, a substantially cylindrical sealing area 23 of the rim 4 extending in extension of the conical portion 21. At the sealing area 23 a bead 24 of a deformable material is provided. The rim 4 is connected with the upper edge of the shell 3 by a folded seam 25. Between the sealing area 23 and the conical portion 21 a groove 26 is provided.

The shell 3 is near the rim 4 provided with two circumferential, closely spaced beads 27. The beads may have a triangular or sine-shaped cross-section or something between. Their sides or inflexions form angles α and β of approximately 30° and approximately 150°, respectively, with vertical as shown in Fig. 3. The beads 27 have in the embodiment a width b of approximately 5 mm. The upper bead 27 may be positioned immediately under the shoulder piece 22 or it may be displaced slightly downward relative thereto such that a small conical portion having a width h is provided between the shoulder piece 22 and the beads 27. The width h may be of the same size as the width of the beads 27, but it has preferably a size corresponding to half the width of a bead.

The beads 27 protrude outwards relative to the interior of the container in order not to bar the possibility of nesting empty containers by reducing the interior free diameter.

The two beads 27 form together a bead section placed under the sealing area of the rim. Under the bead section the shell has a smooth, bead-free, conical portion, which by and large extends down to the bottom. If the containers had been provided with a carrier-bead, a smooth, bead-free, conical portion would be present between the bead section and the carrier bead, said conical portion having a width which would at least be equal to the width of the bead section.

When the container is to be used, the container body 2 is filled with a material for storage and/or transport, for instance paint. Then the container is closed thereby that the lid is pressed down into its closing position shown in Fig. 2. This makes the projection 15 engage the groove 26, and the adhesive 17 is brought into interconnecting the beads 16 and 24, said beads thus constituting extensions of their respective

adjacent sealing areas

14, 23.

The connection between the container body and the lid by means of the two beads 16, 24 and the adhesive 17 constitutes a shock-absorbing securing means, which has the effect that the container can endure to drop down on the folded seam 25 from a certain height. The presence of the beads 27 has the effect that this height is substantially bigger than if no beads were present.

Figs 4 and 5 show other embodiments of the invention with other closure devices known from WO-A-92/04248, where the same reference numerals designate the same elements as in Figs 1-3.

Claims

A container made from a metal sheet material and having a shock-absorbing closure, comprising a container body (2) with a circumferential shell (3), a lower bottom, an upper opening and a rim (4) surrounding the opening, the rim (4) having a sealing area (23) adapted to engage a corresponding sealing area (14) of a lid (5) for sealing of the container by contact between the metal sheet materials of the rim and the lid, in which at least at one of the sealing areas (14, 23) securing means (16, 17, 24) are provided, which are integral with the rim (4) and/or the lid (5), for retaining the lid (5) on the container body (2), when the lid is in a closing position, said securing means (16, 17, 24) being designed in such a manner that securing engagement is obtained thereby that the lid (5) is taken downwards relative to the container body (2) to its closing position, characterized in that near the rim (4) the shell (3) is provided with at least one circumferential bead (27) positioned outside the sealing area (23) of the rim.
A container according to claim 1, characterized in that the bead (27), viewed in vertical, diametric cross-section of the container (1), is provided with sides inclining 25° - 35° relative to vertical, preferably approximately 30°.
A container according to claim 1 or 2, in which the shell (3) has a conical or cylindrical portion (21) between the bottom and the rim, characterized in that the bead (27) is positioned at the upper border of the conical or cylindrical portion (21).
A container according to claims 1-3, characterized in that the bead (27) is extending outwards relative to the interior of the container.
A container according to claims 1-4, characterized in that several closely spaced beads (27) are provided at the rim (4), the closely spaced beads (27) defining a bead section, which is delimited downwards by a bead-free portion of the shell (3).
A container according to claim 5, characterized in that the bead section contains exactly two beads (27).
A container according to claim 5 or 6, in which the lid in its closing position extends somewhat downwards into the container body relative to its upper edge, characterized in that the bead section extends at the bottom level of parts of the lid in its closing position.
A container according to claims 1-7, characterized in that the securing means comprise an adhesive (17) at at least one of the sealing areas (14), the lid being, when taken to its closing position, brought into contact with the container body via the adhesive.
A container according to claims 1-7, characterized in that the securing means comprise at least one circumferential bead (16, 24) made from a deformable material and retained at one of the two sealing areas (14, 23), the bead (16, 24) constituting an extension of the sealing area (14, 23), that an adhesive (17) has been applied to at least one of the sealing areas (14), whereby the lid (5), when taken to its closing position, is brought in contact with the container body via the deformable bead (16, 24), the adhesive (17) binding the bead retained at one sealing area to the other sealing area.
A container according to claims 1-9, characterized in that the securing means comprise a circumferential, protruding portion (15) of the lid (5) or the rim close to the sealing area, said protruding portion, when the lid is taken to its closing position, snap-engaging in a locking manner a corresponding, circumferential portion (26) at the other sealing area.