US3378163A - Composite closure for fiber cans with easy-open and reclosable features - Google Patents

Description

Aprfl 16, 1968 E. D. GRIFFITH 3,378,163

COMPOSITE CLOSURE FOR FIBER CANS WITH EASY-OPEN AND RECLOSABLE FEATURES Filed Dec. 30, 1966 INVENTOR. Emwm D. GRlF'FITH ATroKUQQS United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Easy-open, reclosable closure for container comprising a ring-shaped fitment snugly positioned over the container rim, a container end having a panel and an annular flange tightly engaging the ring-shaped fitment. At an outward location, the fitment is provided with a pull-tab for closure removal.

Background of invention This invention relates to a container of wide-mouth configuration, inclusive of fiber cans, tumblers and the like, in which an otherwise open end is sealingly closed by a closure for packaging a product. More particularly, the invention relates to a fibrous composite container in which its open end, subsequent to being filled with a product, is closed by composite closure means which sealingly and concurrently engage the interior and exterior surface of the container walls in an endless pattern at a location adjacently beneath the rim of the container.

Initially composite containers for liquid and semiliquid products were equipped with metal ends or closures which were integrally attached to the container by means of an end seaming process. Because of certain deficiencies in these container ends, the most notable being that foreign implements were required for their removal and, once removed, the ends could not be replaced upon the container, attempts were made to produce an easy-open, reclosable closure. These attempts typically took the form of providing a pull-out strip, between the closure and the container which, upon removal, allowed for the easy release of the closure. Generally, these strips are of two varieties; in one the strip is enclosed within an end seam of the container, and in the other the pull-out strip is formed as an integral part of the container body, typically taking the form of a hem which is provided with a weakened tear line. With the formed type, the pull-out strip is initially separate and distinct from either the container body or closure end. The incorporating of this separate strip into the end seam gives rise to serious manufacturing problems in that it necessitates precise control and registration of the strip throughout the various manufacturing operations. The latter type strip also has its practical shortcomings in that it requires additional manufacturing operations; for example, in the case of spirally wound fibrous containers having an internal lining of aluminum, the additional steps of forming the hem and subsequently weakening the hem by passing it under a suitable rotating cutter wheel would be required.

Summary 0 invention Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel closure and sealing means for a composite container.

It is another object of this invention to provide a composite container having an easy-open feature which is simple to manufacture.

It is yet another object to provide a composite container which is easily opened, without the use of foreign implements, and may be reclosed to protect the unused portion of the container contents.

3,378,163 Patented Apr. 16, 1968 It is still another object of this invention to provide a novel closure for a container, wherein said closure may be attached to said container in a manner which eliminates the need for deforming the container.

It is also an important object of this invention to pro- Vide a composite container having an easy-open, reclosable closure which sealingly and concurrently engages the interior and exterior surfaces of the container wall in an endless pattern adjacently beneath the container rim.

Numerous other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description, which, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings discloses a preferred embodiment thereof.

The foregoing objects, and others, are accomplished by providing a container with a composite closure comprised of a flexible and resilient first member and a moderately resilient second member; said first member being a ringshaped fitment which snugly fits over the container rim and said second member being a container end having means for tightly engaging the first member, whereby the latter is frictionally secured to the container and the former is urged into intimate sealing contact with the inner and outer container wall surfaces; said first member including outwardly disposed means for simultaneously releasing and removing said first and second members from the container.

Drawing description Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the outer component of the composite closure of this invention with portions thereof cut away to show a central transverse section;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to that of FIGURE 1 showing the inner component of the closure;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing the composite closure of this invention positioned upon a neckless container, portions being cut away to show a transverse section of said closure and container;

FIGURE 4 is an isometric view, showing the easy-open features of this invention.

In'a preferred embodiment, this invention relates to a container of spirally wound fiberboard construction for use in packaging aqueous products, frozen citrus juice for example, in which the wall of the container has an internal liner of spirally wound moisture-impervious material, for example aluminum foil or aluminum foil laminated to a paper backing. Depending upon the nature of the packaged product, the liner may in addition to or in lieu of possessing the moisture-impervious characteristic, have other resistant qualities, grease resistance and oxygen impermeability being the most common. Other liner materials suitable for those purposes include polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinylidene chloride, copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate, glassine paper and various combinations thereof; these materials are included not by way of limitation, but are intended to be exemplary of the types of materials having one or more of the above noted qualities. The drawings generally show a container 14 of wide-mouth configuration, particularly a neckless container, having circumferential walls 34 terminating in a peripheral rim 36 defining an open end or mouth thereof. Attached about the otherwise open end of the container is a composite closure, including an outer member 10 and an inwardly disposed member 12.

Member 12 is a ring-shaped fitment having its cross section define a continuous downwardly concave flange 32 and including at an external location an integrally attached pull tab 26. This U-shaped flange 32 includes 9 Q3 nerging inner and outer walls, 28 and 39 respectively, and is dimensioned in such fashion that it snugly fits over he rim 36 of the container in an endless pattern with said nner and outer walls snugly engaging the respective conainer surfaces adjacently beneath said rim. A pull tab 25 :xtends downwardly from the outer flange wall 30.

Preferably, the ring-shaped fitment is constructed of a iexible, resilient plastic. These properties are important for several reasons; first of all, it is desirable that the nember be able to deform sufficiently to accommodate iormal irregularities in the walls of the associated convainer, and secondly, these properties greatly facilitate he maintenance of the snug engagement with the con- :ainer walls. Additionally, these properties are important n accomplishing the easy-open features of this invention as will subsequently be described. Typical materials which are suitable for use in forming the ring member 12 in- :lude polyolefins, for example low density polyethylene and polypropylene, plasticized vinyls, foamed plastics and :opolymers of ethylene and vinyl esters, for example an :thylene vinyl acetate copolymer. These materials are in- :luded not by way of limitation but are intended to ac merely exemplary of the general types of materials which are suitable for the practice of this invention.

The ring member may be manufactured by any one of numerous methods known in the arts for forming plastic materials, such as injection molding, low molding, rota- :ional molding and vacuum forming. Additionally, these rings may be colored by the addition of suitable colorants in methods also well known in the arts.

The outer closure component is constructed of a substantially rigid, yet modestly resilient material. Such material may for example be a metal such as aluminum or tinplate. This closure component comprises a recessed panel portion 16 transversely spanning the otherwise open mouth of the container at a location axially beneath the container rim, and inc.udes an integrally attached, downwardly concave, circumferential flange 20. The flange 20 comprises a substantially vertical outer skirt 22 which joins a substantially vertical inner skirt 13, the latter merging with the panel portion 16. In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the outwardly disposed skirt 22 of the endless flange 20 is deformed at its lower margin to produce an inwardly extending peripheral bead 24, the distance between the innermost surface of this bead 24 and the outer surface of inner flange skirt 18 being less than the combined thickness of the container walls and the attached ring member 22. Subsequent to snugly fitting the ring member 12 about the rim 36, the end closure 10 is frictionally secured to fitment 12 and container 14. By means of the inner skirt 18 and bead 24, the closure compressingly and endlessly engages the inner and outer walls of the ring fitment 12, thereby urging them into more intimate contact with the adjacent container walls and insuring tight engagement of the closure with the fitment and container.

To facilitate the easy-open features of this invention, the length of the walls comprising the flange 32 of the ring shaped fitment 12, or at least the length of the outer wall 30, is such that an annular portion of the wall 38 protrudes outwardly of the outer closure skirt 22 and downwardly along the container.

In opening the package the pull tab 26 is firmly grasped and pulled up and across the container top, thereby causing the container walls 34 to separate from the compressed walls (28 and 30) of the ring fitment 12. During the opening of the container, the exterior portion 38 of the ring-shaped fitment, which as noted above extends beneath the lower margin of the outer closure skirt 22, curls up and around the closure bead; this curling of the plastic fitment provides the necessary leverage to facilitate easy closure removal. Once the composite closure has been removed, the ring-fitment 12 and outer closure member 10 may be easily separated from each other. Thus, the reclosable features of this invention may be accomplished by replacing only the outer closure 10 unto the container or, if a more durable seal is desired, the ring-filament and outer closure may both be replaced.

The containers to which this invention is particularly applicable, namely fibrous composite containers, typically have an upper edge of raw fibrous material. It is generally felt that there is no need to provide an additional material for sealing this raw edge as the sealing means of this invention is suflicient to prevent the container contents from contacting and being absorbed by this edge. However, in the case of packaged liquids and especially those which are not consumed in their entirely, it is desirable to do so since there is momentary contact during the dispensing operation. By sealing this edge, for example with a conventional hot melt material, the useful life of the container will be substantially prolonged because the products will be unable to permeate the container walls. Paraffin, microcrystalline waxes, or commercially avail able compositions, for example Amprol 30 which is manufactured and supplied by the Atlantic Refining Company of Philadelphia, Pa., may be used to obtain a satisfactory seal.

While a specific embodiment of the closure has been described in detail, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiment may be modified. Consequently, the foregoing description is to be considered exemplary rather than limiting, and the true scope of the invention is that defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. An improved article of manufacture, wherein said article is an easy-open, reclosable container, comprising in combination: a container having walls terminating in an upper annular rim defining a mouth opening of said container; an annular member having a downwardly concave cross section snugly fitting over said rim; a container end having a panel ortion substantially spanning said open container mouth and including integrally attached peripheral means for compressingly engaging said annular member, whereby said end is frictionally secured to said member and container; said annular member including at an external location means for simultaneously releasing said annular member and said container end from said container.

2. The article of claim 1, wherein said annular member is a flexible, resilient plastic.

3. The article of claim 2, wherein said plastic is polyethylene.

4. An improved article of manufacture, wherein said article is an easy-open, reclosa'ble container, comprising in combination: a container having a circumferential wall terminating in an upper annular rim defining an open end of said container; a resilient, flexible ring-shaped plastic fitment having a substantially U-shaped cross section snugly fitting over said annular rim in an endless pat-tern, said U-shaped cross section including inner and outer walls which compressingly engage the internal and external container wall surfaces adjacently beneath said annular rim; a substantially rigid container end having a central panel transversely spanning said container at a location inwardly of said rim and a circumferential, downwardly concave flange integrally formed at the periphery of said panel portion, said flange overlying and tightly engaging said ring-shaped fitment, thereby urging said fitment into intimate contact with the container wall surfaces; the outer wall of said plastic fitment including an integrally attached downwardly extending pull tab, whereby said fitment and said container end may be simultaneously released from said container.

5. The article of claim 4, wherein said downwardly concavc flange includes an externally disposed annular skirt having its lower margin deformed to produce an inwardly extending peripheral head which compressingly engages said outer fitment wall upwardly of its lower extremity.

6. The article of claim 5, wherein said plastic fitment is formed from a material selected from the group consisting of polyolefins, plasticized vinyls, copolymers of ethyl- References Cited ene and vinyl esters, and foamed plastics. I P

7. The article of claim 5, wherein said plastic fitment UN TED STATES ATENTS is formed from a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl ace- 3224627 12/1965 Dlelmann et 220 47 tate. 5 V

8. The article of claim 4, wherein said circumferential THERON CONDON P'lmmy Examiner container wall is constructed of fiberboard having an in- GEORGE T. HALL, Examiner. ternal lining of aluminum foil.

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