Vessels exist that are portable, convenient to use, and designed to contain volatile and/or aggressive products for use. These types of portable vessels usually consist of a jar and lid assembly, that when assembled together provide an effective barrier for containing the volatile product. The airtight portable vessels may be designed to contain the volatile product with minimal weight loss. Moreover, the airtight portable vessels are designed to contain the volatile product with minimal environmental communication. The jar and/or lid are typically made of a glass, a plastic, a metal, combinations of the foregoing, or the like, that when closed together create an airtight seal. These jar and lid assemblies may be sealed by a thread fastening mechanism, a snap fastening mechanism, or a clamp fastening mechanism, that when fastened together usually compress an o-ring or a gasket interposed by the jar and the lid. Such vessels are used in the cosmetics and personal care industries for containing a product to be applied to a body, where, as described above, the product to be applied to the body is volatile and/or aggressive. As such, without the vessels effective barrier the product may degrade and/or expire. While, existing portable vessels may provide an effective barrier for containing a volatile product, they may be fragile or brittle in nature, and may have loose parts, which make them susceptible to damage and difficult to manage.
Portable vessels have been developed to contain volatile products in a compact and airtight assembly and are built with a plastic pot and a loose plastic lid that are housed by a protective shell. However, because these vessels have a loose lid, it is difficult to manage both the loose lid and the protective shell while applying the contained product to a body. Further, because the product is contained in the plastic pot, these vessels may not be suitable for containing a volatile product to be applied to the body. Also, because these vessels are configured to compress a gasket interposed between the plastic pot and the loose plastic lid by tightening a lid of the outer protective vessel onto the loose plastic lid, it is difficult to achieve sufficient compression of the gasket. As a result, the gasket is indirectly compressed by the protective vessel and the resulting seal is poor compared to a gasket directly sealed by a single lid.
This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts of airtight compacts for containing a volatile product in a pot, directly sealed by a rotatable lid pivotably attached to a base. The compacts are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In one implementation, the airtight compact comprises a pot that is at least partially encased by a base assembly and a rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled to the base assembly. The rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled to the base assembly is configured to removably lock to the base assembly and directly squish a liner fixed to a bottom surface of the rotatable lid assembly to a rim of the pot.
In some implementations, the airtight compact comprises a rotatable lid assembly having a liner over-molded to a bottom surface of the lid assembly. The rotatable lid assembly is pivotably coupled to the base assembly and is configured to removably lock to the base assembly and directly compress the liner to the rim of the pot.
In some implementations, the airtight compact comprises a translucent pot that is at least partially encased by the base assembly which has the rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled thereto. The translucent pot may comprise a plastic (e.g., Surlyn® made by DuPont™), a glass, or any other suitable material having high-barrier characteristics. As used herein, translucent materials are those that allow passage of light, and include materials that are transparent, clear, colorless, and tinted, as long as they allow passage of a substantial amount of light so that the volatile product is visible through the material of the pot. Further, the base assembly may be configured with an opening for providing visibility to the translucent pot and the volatile product contained therein.
In some implementations, the airtight compact may comprise a bottom assembly for easily removing and installing a replaceable translucent pot. Here, the replaceable translucent pot is at least partially encased by the base assembly of the airtight compact. For example, a user may wish to carry on their person a particular color of volatile product. In this case, the user may easily remove the translucent pot containing the undesirable color from the base assembly of the airtight compact and easily install a different translucent pot containing a volatile product having the desired color. It is contemplated that the replaceable pot may comprise a disposable peel away seal that is removed subsequent to installing a replaceable pot. Likewise, it is further contemplated that a storage lid may be snapped on the removed translucent pot for later use.
Depending on the desired esthetic and mechanical properties of the airtight compact, components may comprise plastic, glass, and/or metal. For example, as discussed above the pot may comprise terpolymer (e.g., Surlyn® made by DuPont™) or glass. Further, the base assembly at least partially encasing the pot may comprise acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), metal, or any other suitable material, or the like that is suitable for forming individual components of the base assembly. Likewise the rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled to the base assembly may also comprise ABS, SAN, or metal, as well as, polypropylene (PP), silica gel, rubber, thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), silicone, neoprene, or any other suitable material, or the like that is suitable for forming individual components of the rotatable lid assembly.
The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical items.
Overview
This disclosure is directed to airtight compacts for containing a volatile product in a pot that is directly sealed by a rotatable lid pivotably attached to a base assembly of the airtight compact. The pot may be made of materials such as a translucent glass or a translucent terpolymer, which provide the necessary barrier properties for containing the volatile product, as well as provide visibility to the volatile product contained therein. However, because these materials can be brittle and fragile the pot may be at least partially encased by the base assembly. The base assembly may protect the pot while providing structural strength for pivotably attaching the rotatable lid thereto. The rotatable lid pivotably attached to the base assembly may be configured to removably lock to the base assembly and directly seal the pot. With the rotatable lid assembly pivotably coupled to the base assembly partially encasing the pot, the airtight compacts may remain intact during a time of use. For example, the user may simply loosen the rotatable lid assembly from the base assembly and apply the volatile product to a body without detaching the rotatable lid assembly from the base assembly. To seal and isolate the volatile product from the environment until a time of use, the user may simply tighten the rotatable lid assembly to the base assembly and directly seal the pot.
The base assembly may comprise a base disposed about an outer wall of the pot and a base plate coupled to the base disposed along a bottom surface of the pot. The base plate may comprise an opening for providing visibility to the pot at least partially encased by the base and the base plate. Further, an o-ring is interposed between the pot and the base plate for supplementing manufacturing tolerances of the base assembly, as well as for dampening the pot partially encased by the base assembly.
The rotatable lid assembly pivotably attached to the base assembly may comprise a lid ring pivotably coupled to the base of the base assembly. The lid ring pivotably coupled to the base of the base assembly may comprise a channel for rotatably coupling a lid and multiple pockets for coupling an inner lid. A liner may be fixed to a bottom surface of the inner lid, which may be configured to seal the rotatable lid assembly to a rim of the pot when the rotatable lid assembly is tightened to the base. The liner may be fixed to the bottom surface of the inner lid by a fastening mechanism (e.g., clips or a captive groove), an adhesive, or any other suitable fastening mechanism. Further, the inner lid and the liner may be formed of an integral layered unit. For example, the liner may be over-molded to the bottom surface of the inner lid. Further, the liner may comprise silica gel, rubber, TPE, silicone, or neoprene and the inner lid may comprise PP.
Illustrative Airtight Compact
Further illustrated in
While
Example Method for Manufacturing an Airtight Compact
Method 500 may include an operation 502, which represents encapsulating, at least partially, the translucent pot between a base (e.g., base 210) and a base plate (e.g., base plate 302). Next, the method 500 may continue with operation 504, which comprises over-molding a liner (e.g., liner 112) to a bottom surface (e.g., bottom surface 438) of an inner lid (e.g., inner lid 410) or fixing the liner to the bottom surface of the inner lid with an adhesive. Method 500 may proceed to operation 506, which represents coupling the inner lid to a lid ring (e.g., lid ring 204) via snapping one or more ribs (e.g., one or more ribs 430) of the inner lid into one or more pockets (e.g., one or more pockets 426) of the lid ring. Operation 506 may be followed by operation 508 which rotatably couples a lid (e.g., lid 202) to the lid ring via snapping one or more ribs (e.g., one or more ribs 418) of the lid into a channel (e.g., channel 412) of the lid ring.
Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms of implementing the invention. For example, while embodiments are described having certain shapes, sizes, and configurations, these shapes, sizes, and configurations are merely illustrative. Also, while one example of a method of manufacturing is described, containers according to this disclosure may be made using any other suitable manufacturing methods.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/772,109, filed on Apr. 30, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20140014659 A1 | Jan 2014 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12772109 | Apr 2010 | US |
Child | 14028975 | US |