US2804225A - Closure for receptacle - Google Patents

Description

7, 1957 LING H. LEE

CLOSURE FOR RECEPTACLE Filed May 26, 1955 United States Patent CLOSURE FOR RECEPTACLE Ling H. Lee, New York, N. Y. Application May 26, 1953, Serial No. 357,421

1 Claim. (Cl. 215-43) This invention relates to closures for receptacles such as bottles, and more particularly to closures which tightly or hermetically seal the associated receptacles.

As is well known by everyone who has attempted to remove a screw type closure from a bottle or similar receptacle, such operation is usually impossible to accomplish without the use of a wrench, special bottle opener or the pounding of the cap with a knife handle or other blunt instrument so that the closure is deformed sufficiently to break the seal, any of which procedures requires the use of special tools and is accompanied by the danger of breaking the bottle and the destruction of its contents and the possibility of physical harm from glass cuts.

It is accordingly the objects of this invention to provide a closure for a receptacle which will seal tightly, which can readily be removed, which forms an efiective seal when replaced, which will not distort when the receptacles are stacked one upon top of another, which is Simple and economical to manufacture, which is attractive in appearance, which is adapted to mass production techniques, and which advances the art generally.

A closure according to the invention comprises a cover in the form of a disc having a flange which is threaded or otherwise secured to an annular portion of a receptacle to compress a gasket between the lip of the annular portion and the inner surface of the cover. The cover is provided with one, or preferably more, arcuate embossments which projects outwardly in the opposite direction than the flange immediately above the lip of the annular portion of the receptacle. The spacing between the embossment side walls determined radially of the cover is made less than the thickness of the lip so that the lip extends beyond the embossment on either side and does not interfere with the sealing action of the gasket. The embossment is preferably crowned and the side walls parallel so as better to withstand static loading such as is imposed by the stacking of the receptacles one on top of the other. The closure is loosened by the application of light oblique blows upon the crown of the embossments by a blunt instrument causing a momentary distortion of the closure which breaks the seal.

These and other objects and aspects of the invention will be apparent from the following description of several specific embodiments thereof which refers to a drawing wherein:

Figs. 1 and 2 are plan and side views, respectively, of a first embodiment;

Figs. 3 and 4 are similar views of a second embodiment;

Figs. 5 and 6 are similar views of a third embodiment;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on line 7-7 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on line 8-8 of Fig. 5.

The first embodiment of the invention chosen for the purpose of illustration comprises, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a cover 10 which is in the form of a disc having an integral flange 12 depending from the periphery. Although I prefer to form the integral cover and flange from sheet metal, it is also possible to mold the covers from other material, such as a suitable plastic which is elastic enough to deform under a blow for reasons which will appear hereinafter. The flange 12 is provided with a threaded portion 14 which engages corresponding threads upon the outer periphery of the annular portion 16 of a receptacle such as the bottle B, only a portion of which is shown in Fig. 7 as the bottle forms no part of the present invention and may be of any of the usual designs. Although a closure of the screw type has been used for the purposes of illustration, it is to be understood that my invention is not limited thereto but is applicable to other closures employing other means, such as friction, for maintaining a sealing pressure upon a gasket 18 which is interposed between the inner surface of the cover 10 and the rim or lip 20 forming the end of the annular portion 16 of the receptacle.

Closures of the type' described above are widely used and have many desirable features, but are inherently very difiicult to loosen after having been tightened sufficiently to form a hermetical seal. To overcome this considerable disadvantage, in my improved closure I provide one or more raised arcuate embossments 22 in the cover 10 which project outwardly in the opposite direction to the flange 12. The number of embossments can be varied within the scope of my invention but is preferably proportioned to the size of the cover, it being possible on a small diameter cover to use as small a number as one embossment which is then in the form of a complete annulus or ring. However, I have found it generally better to use a plurality of equally spaced embossments 22 arranged so that the distance between the arcuate ends of adjacent embossments is not greater than half the length thereof.

Receptacles upon which the above described closures are used are often stacked one on top of the other in considerable numbers so that a large force is brought to bear upon the covers of the lowermost bottles by the resulting static loading. To increase the rigidity and minimize the possibility of the deformation of the embossments and destruction of the sealing action as a result of stacking or other static loading, the tops of the respective embossments are crowned as at 28 and the side walls 24 and 26 of the respective embossments are preferably made parallel and arranged substantially normally to the plane of the remainder of the cover 10.

The embossment side walls 24 and 26 are located radially from the center of the cover 10 so that the spacing between the side walls is less than the thickness of the annular portion 16 of the bottle B, and the embossments 22 are positioned when the closure is screwed upon the annular portion 16 so that the lip 20 of the bottle B extends on either side beyond the respective side walls 24 and 26. With such an arrangement the lower ends of the side walls each pinch the gasket against the lip to provide a double seal so as not to interfere with the ef- ,caciousness of the gasket.

The closure is loosened by gently striking oblique blows upon one or more of the embossments 22 by means of a blunt instrument such as a knife handle or can opener. Such blows cause the side walls 24 and 26 of the embossments 22 to spread, momentarily deforming the cover so that the seal is broken and the closure can be manually loosened without the need of special tools.

In Figs. 3 and 4 is illustrated a second embodiment of my invention which is especially adapted to closures having a large diameter. In this embodiment the embossni ents 21a and ZZb are similar to the embossrnents 22 described heretofore with the exception that alternate embossrnents 22b are less than half the, length of emboss ments 22a; he thi d embodiment shown in Figs. 5, "6 and 8-is similar to the second ernbodimentof Figs} and 4 with'theaddition ofinclentations 30,1 one of which is "loc'atedradially of the coverwith respect to each of the 105% s m i 2 Th s indentati n ser to space the gasket 18 f r on the cover 10, l

It shouldb -understood that the present disclosure is for-the purpose ofillust ratio n only and that this invent-ionincludes all modifications and equivalents which fall within the scope of the appendedlclai m. g W H fArelo'sur'efor'a' receptacle such a a bottle comprising a cover iiitheifoi'm' o f'a disc having a substantially cylindricalthreaded"fiang" depending front the periphery thereof engagingaeorresporiding'annular portion of the receptacle to bri'rig'theinhe r surface of thecover against theli'p of the annular portion by rotati'on, an'da gasket interposed between the inner'surfa'ce of the disc and the lip to act as a seal, said cover having an arcuate embossrnent located immediately said distance radially of the cover between the embossment side Walls being less than the thickness of the lip, the lip extending 1 beyond the embossment on either side thereof throughout the length of the embossment so that the embossment does not interfere with the efiicaciousness of the gasket whereby a slight blow upon the. embossment causes a momentary distortion of the closure to break the seal so that the closure can be readily removed.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 791,061 West May 30, 1905 848,785 Towle Apr. 2, 1907 1,095,470 -Schloss May 4, 1914 1,124,450. Ipsen Jan. 12, 1915 1,463,145 Koss July 24, 1923. 1,554,749 Merolle u Sept. 22,,1925, 1,588,652 Brown June 15," 1926 1,608,908 Norwood Nov. 30, 1926. 1,942,810 1934 Gibbs Jan. 9,

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