Patent Application
20060151419
This application claims priority to German Patent Application Serial No. 10 2004 061 965.4, filed on Dec. 23, 2004.
The present invention relates to a bottle comprising a shoulder and a bottle neck on which a pump can be mounted, and a cap which can be snapped onto the bottle, thereby covering the shoulder and the bottle neck, with an actuating grip member of the pump projecting at the top out of the cap.
Preferably, the bottle consists of an outer container and a rigid, dimensionally stable plastic material and a soft inner pouch which receives the contents of the bottle, preferably a liquid. The pump is preferably an airless pump which sucks the contents of the container out of the soft inner pouch without permitting air to enter into the soft inner pouch for pressure compensation, so that the pouch will contract more and more during discharge of the contents of the container. Openings are provided in the outer container for pressure compensation.
The present invention, however, is not limited to such a bottle, but it can also be applied to single-walled containers which are provided with a cap and a pump.
For operating a bottle of the kind in question, it must be ensured that the grip member of the pump, which in the vertical direction is displaceably seated in the upper opening of the cap, does not “lift off” the cap from the bottle upon its actuation (i.e., when being pressed down) for whenever, as is often the case in practice, the grip member is not pressed by the user exactly in the vertical direction (i.e., in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the bottle inwards), a lateral force acts on the cap that causes a torque which may lead to a detachment of the cap from the bottle, so that the pump is no longer operative. The risk that the cap is “lifted off” is further enhanced in cases where the grip member has an enlarged grip surface for comfortable handling, the grip surface projecting beyond the shaft of the grip member which is displaceably received in the covering cap, so that the above-mentioned torque is created almost automatically by the depression of the grip member, such torque tending to lift off the covering cap from the bottle on the side opposite to the projecting part of the grip member.
EP810036A2 discloses a bottle including a shoulder and a bottle neck, the cap being adapted to be snapped onto the bottle, which cap covers the shoulder and the bottle neck and has an upper opening for a displaceable grip member of the pump. The closure cap is provided on its inside with locking projections which extend in circumferential direction and project approximately radially inwards and which in the mounted state can be snapped into a correspondingly shaped locking groove on the container neck.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a bottle of the type in question, in the case of which it is ensured that the cap is not detached from the bottle by the operation of the pump.
Said object is achieved according to the invention by the features of patent claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention are characterized in the dependent claims.
According to the invention, the bottle neck is equipped on two diametrically opposed circumferential sections with undercuts and comprises laterally projecting attachments on circumferential sections which are also diametrically opposed and are offset thereto by about 90°, each of said attachments being provided with at least one groove extending in the circumferential direction, and that two resilient arms are formed on the inside on the cap, the resilient arms being adapted to be snapped in with molded-on hooks below the undercuts, and at least one circumferentially extending surrounding projection or at least two separate projection sections are formed which can be locked with the grooves of the attachments of the bottle neck. The arrangement of the grooves and of the projection or of the projecting sections can also be chosen the other way around, so that the radially projecting attachments of the bottle neck may be provided with circumferentially extending projections which lock into a corresponding groove or groove sections in the inside of the cap when the cap is snapped onto the bottle.
Advantageously, the bottle has an oval shape when viewed from the top (i.e., it is oval in each cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction) and the dimensions of the bottle can continuously decrease in size from the upper edge and from the lower edge towards the center, so that the bottle is not only given a very pleasant shape, but can also be gripped comfortably and reliably when the pump is operated. In this case, the cap also shows an oval shape, which is also true for its upper opening and the grip member of the pump slidably guided therein, which projects in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the grip member beyond the shaft thereof.
With great advantage, the attachments of the bottle neck extend in the direction of the longitudinal sides of the bottle, whereas the two resilient arms of the cap grip below the undercuts of the bottle neck on the narrow sides of the bottle. The holding force of the resilient arms is supplemented according to the invention by the engagement of the projections, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the cap, into the correspondingly arranged grooves of the laterally projecting attachments of the bottle neck (or the reverse arrangement thereof), so that a surprisingly great holding force is created while the cap can easily be mounted on the bottle, so that the cap is not lifted off from the bottle even upon a strong eccentric operation of the pump. The engagement of the two circumferentially extending projections of the cap into the circumferentially extending grooves of the attachments of the bottle neck ensures that, with the normally arising forces, the cap cannot be turned about the short axis of the oval cross-sectional shape such that it gets detached from the bottle. The torques which are operative around the longitudinal axis of the oval cross-sectional shape upon operation of the pump are at any rate small and do also not cause a detachment of the cap from the bottle.
In further details of the invention, it is suggested that the attachments are formed on both the bottle neck and the shoulder and extend almost up to the edge of the shoulder. Preferably, the attachments are recessed by a wall thickness of the cap. The grooves of the attachments (or with a reverse arrangement of groove/projection: the projections of the attachments) are preferably directly formed above the shoulder, so that the shoulder forms the lower groove wall.
Furthermore, it is suggested that each of the attachments should extend over a circumferential portion of the bottle neck of about 90°, a circumferential portion of the same order being also suggested for the undercuts.
According to a further proposal of the invention, the upper edge strip of the bottle is recessed in the form of a step approximately by the wall thickness of the cap, and the cap in the snapped-on condition rests with its edge on the surrounding step of the bottle, which also helps to reliably secure the cap to the bottle. Moreover, the arrangement of the bottle and cap obtains a very pleasant continuous outer contour and can comfortably be held by the user in his/her hand during operation of the pump.
The bottle and the cap are made from a plastic material such as polypropylene or PP, which is also true for the grip member of the pump.
Further details of the invention become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment and with reference to the drawing, in which:
While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail several specific embodiments, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered merely an exemplification of the principles of the invention and the application is limited only to the appended claims.
The plastic bottle 1 shown in
The outer container 1 is equipped on its upper edge with a step-shaped recessed edge section 2 which passes into the shoulder 3 of the container from which a neck bottle 4 extends. The neck bottle 4 has undercuts 5 on two diametrically opposed portions facing the short sides of the container, each of the undercuts 5 extending around approximately a quarter of the circumferential portion of the bottle neck 4. The two other portions that are also diametrically opposed have formed thereon laterally projecting protrusions 6 on the bottle neck 4 and on the shoulder 3, each of the protrusions 6 being provided directly above the shoulder 3 with a groove 7 extending in the longitudinal direction of the projections 6. Preferably, the attachments 6 are recessed by a wall thickness of the cap 8. The grooves 7 of the attachments 6 (or with a reverse arrangement of groove/projection: the projections of the attachments) are preferably directly formed above the shoulder 3, so that the shoulder forms the lower groove wall. Furthermore, each of the attachments may extend over a circumferential portion of the bottle neck of about 90°, a circumferential portion of the same order being also suggested for the undercuts.
Moreover, two diametrically opposed resilient arms 16 are molded on the inside onto the cap 8, the resilient arms 16 gripping with hook-like, inwardly oriented projections 17 at their lower ends below the undercuts 5 of the bottle neck 4 when the cap 8 is snapped onto the bottle 1.
The cooperation of the engagement of the annular projection 15 of the cap 8 into the grooves 7 of the projections 6 with the undercuts 5 being gripped from below by the hook-like projections 17 of the resilient arms 16 has the consequence that the cap 8 can be reliably secured to the bottle 1 so that the pump 9 can always be actuated by the grip member 10. In particular, the holding force of the resilient arms 16 is supplemented according to the invention by the engagement of the projections 17, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the cap 8, into the correspondingly arranged grooves 7 of the laterally projecting attachments of the bottle neck 4 (or the reverse arrangement thereof), so that a surprisingly great holding force is created while the cap can easily be mounted on the bottle, so that the cap is not lifted off from the bottle even upon a strong eccentric operation of the pump. The engagement of the two circumferentially extending projections of the cap into the circumferentially extending grooves of the attachments of the bottle neck ensures that, with the normally arising forces, the cap cannot be turned about the short axis of the oval cross-sectional shape such that it gets detached from the bottle. The torques which are operative around the longitudinal axis of the oval cross-sectional shape upon operation of the pump are at any rate small and do also not cause a detachment of the cap from the bottle.
In a preferred embodiment, the bottle and the cap are made from a plastic material such as polypropylene or PP, which is also true for the grip member of the pump.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the upper edge strip of the bottle may be recessed in the form of a step approximately by the wall thickness of the cap, and the cap in the snapped-on condition rests with its edge on the surrounding step of the bottle, which also helps to reliably secure the cap to the bottle. Moreover, the arrangement of bottle and cap obtains a very pleasant continuous outer contour and can comfortably be held by the user in his/her hand during operation of the pump.
It will be understood that modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention, but it is understood that this application is limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2004 061 965.4 | Dec 2004 | DE | national |
