The present invention relates to a bottle cap for opening and closing a bottle, and more particularly, to a bottle cap for cutting a seal attached to a spout of a bottle to seal an opening of a bottle.
An opening is defined at an upper end of a bottle 30 by a spout 33, and the opening is closed by coupling a bottle cap 10 to the spout 33. Most of bottles for receiving drinking water and medical supplies include seals 20. The seal 20 is attached to an upper end of the spout 33 of the bottle 30 to seal the opening of the spout 33. The seal 20 serves to guarantee that the bottle 30 has not been opened before and to maintain a state in which contents received in the bottle 30 are airtight to prevent the contents from spoiling during distribution. Thus, the seals 20 are requisitely adopted in most of the bottles 30. The seals are manufactured of various materials such as paper, plastic, and vinyl.
When a user wants to extract the received contents, the user detaches the seal 20 from the spout 33 after separating the bottle cap 10 from the bottle 30. However, since the seal 20 is generally bonded to the spout 33 firmly to store the contents for a long time or to prevent liquid contents from being leaked, it is difficult for a user to remove the seal 20 clearly. Thus, since a user should use a separate tool such as a knife to clearly remove the seal 20, it is rather bothersome for the user to remove the seal 20.
Meanwhile, a grip 23 may be formed on a lateral surface of the seal 20 to easily remove the seal 20. Since a marginal space, in which the grip 23 can be interposed between an outer peripheral surface of the opening of the bottle 30 and an inner peripheral surface of the bottle cap 10, is required when the grip 23 is formed, an inner diameter of the bottle cap 10 should be somewhat large in light of this. However, if a strong tightness is also required after the seal 20 is opened since the contents received in the bottle 30 is liquid or perishable, it is not preferable that an inner diameter of the bottle cap 10 is manufactured larger than an outer diameter of the spout 33 to receive the grip 23. Further, since an entire area of a raw material of which the seal 20 is punched and manufactured is larger by a protrusion width of the grip 23 to manufacture the seal 20 including the grip 23, manufacturing costs of the seal 20 increase.
It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a method by which a user can clearly and easily remove a seal without using a separate tool and an airtight sealing of a bottle can be guaranteed after the seal is removed.
The object is achieved by a bottle cap for cutting a seal attached to a spout to seal an opening defined in the spout of a bottle, wherein a recess recessed to have a width corresponding to a thickness of the spout is formed at a portion of an outer surface of the bottle cap, and a cutter for cutting the seal attached to the spout while the recess is engaged with an end of the spout is integrally formed with the bottle cap to protrude from a bottom surface of the recess.
According to the present invention, a user can clearly remove a seal by an easy way without a separate tool, and an airtight sealing of a bottle is guaranteed after the seal is removed.
Hereinafter, a bottle cap according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompany drawings.
The recess 120 is sunken to have a width corresponding to a thickness of the spout 33, and formed at a portion of an outer surface of the bottle cap 100, and more specifically, in an edge area of a lower end of an outer peripheral surface of the bottle cap 100 in the present embodiment.
The cutter 130 protrudes from a bottom surface of the recess 120. The cutter 130 is directly integrally formed with the bottle cap 100. The cutter 130 serves to cut the seal 20 attached to the spout 33 while the recess 120 is engaged with an end of the spout 33 of the bottle 30.
The bottom surface of the recess 120 is formed to be inclined with respect to an outer surface of the bottle cap 100. That is, as shown in
The cutter 130 is formed at a location adjacent to a lateral surface 140 (a left surface in
Lower ends 142 of opposite surfaces 140 of the recess 120 are formed to be curved so as to be easily engaged with the spoilt 33 when the recess 120 is moved to be engaged with the spout 33.
The bottle cap 100 is coupled as shown in
According to the present invention, the seal 20 may be easily cut by using the cutter 130 formed in the bottle cap 100 without using a separate tool. Then, since the cutter 130 is integrally formed with the bottle cap 100, manufacturing costs of the cutter 130 do not increase as compared with the bottle 100 which is produced alone. Further, a user can clearly eliminate the seal 20 through an easy operation.
The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment of the present invention in that a plate surface of a cutter 230 is curved to correspond to a curvature of the spout 33. Further, a surface (a right surface of
In the above-mentioned first embodiment, in a state of
In the present embodiment, a height of a cutter 430 (a height from a bottom surface of a recess 420) is formed to be lower than a depth of the recess 420. To this end, a front edge 432 of the cutter 430 is formed as an inclined surface to be recessed from an outer peripheral surface of the bottle cap 100 as it goes downward. Further, in the present embodiment, the cutter 430 is formed somewhat shortly such that a lower end 437 of the cutter 430 is located at a higher position than a lower end of the bottle cap 100. According to this configuration, since the cutter 430 does not protrude from an interior of the recess 420 when a user grips the bottle cap 100, a hand of the user does not directly contact the cutter 430. Thus, the hand of the user is prevented from being scratched and injured.
Further, in the present embodiment, a lower edge 434 of the cutter 430 is inclined to face upward as it goes toward an inner side of the recess 420. A degree of slope then corresponds to an angle where the lower edge of the cutter 430 forms a right angle with respect to a plate surface of the seal 20 while the bottle cap 100 is engaged with the spout 33 as shown in
In the present embodiment, a pair of cutters 630 are formed at locations adjacent to opposite lateral surfaces 640 of the recess 620, respectively. Then, an interval T1 between the cutters 630 is formed to correspond to a thickness of the spout 33 of the bottle 30. According to this configuration, the right cutter 630 of the two cutters 630 cuts the seal 20 when the bottle cap 100 is engaged with the spout 33 in a state shown in
An upper portion of the bottle cap 100 is coupled to the spout 33 of the bottle 30 as shown in
Meanwhile, the protrusions 710 may not be formed at an upper portion of the outer peripheral surface of the bottle cap 100 as shown in
Furthermore, the protrusions 710 may be formed at a corner connecting the upper surface of the bottle cap 100 and the outer peripheral surface of the bottle cap 100. In this case, an upper corner of the bottle cap 100 may be formed in a shape which is cut, and the protrusions 710 may be preferably formed at the cut portion.
In this embodiment, the bottle cap 100 is disposed in an inclined state such that the upper edge 860 of the recess 820 is positioned parallel to an upper surface of the spout 33 when the bottle cap 100 is engaged with the spout 33 of the bottle 30 as shown in
According to the present embodiment, the plate surface of the seal 20 does not contact a left surface 840 of the recess 820 in a state of
The above-described embodiments may not be configured alone, but may be combined. For example, the pair of cutters 230 are formed as shown in
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings, it is merely exemplary. It is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and other equivalent embodiments can be made from this. Thus, the scope of the present invention should be determined by the subject matters of the attached claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2010-0137447 | Dec 2010 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/KR2011/009582 | 12/13/2011 | WO | 00 | 7/12/2013 |