The present invention relates to a container to be coupled either with a bottle or another similar container, to be used particularly for packaging multicomponent articles.
The trading of multicomponent articles is spreading more and more. With the term “multicomponent articles” has been indicated those products which are sold in separate containers, but are part of a single packaging. In most cases these articles, which are sold on occasion of special offers or promotions, consist of different products being either jointly or sequentially involved in the same application or use, or in similar applications or uses, such as to make a sort of “kit”. Typical examples may be drawn either from the cosmetic field (shampoo/conditioner, eau-de-Cologne/aftershave lotion) or the foodstuffs field (sauces or spices of different types, various seasonings such as oil/vinegar or oil/spices).
Such a type of products is usually packaged by coupling the two or more containers (having often non-homogeneous sizes) side by side and keeping them together by means of bands or films made of transparent plastic material. Such a packaging form, besides being aesthetically unattractive, has the drawback of making the products difficult to be packaged inside the shipping boxes. This drawback is particularly felt when the coupled containers have substantially different sizes, because there are automatically created in the package some empty spaces which are firstly a waste of space and during transportation may further allow the various packagings to move relative to each other, thus resulting in the risk of impacts and breaks, in the case of glass containers.
The problem of providing a packaging of multicomponent articles is felt, which solves the above-listed problems and has a compact shape even in the case of containers having different sizes, in order to obtain an optimum use of the space inside the package.
This problem is solved by means of the invention as defined in the annexed claims.
Further characteristics and the advantages of the container to be coupled being the object of the present invention will be better understood from the description of a preferred embodiment, which is given herein below by way of indicative and non-limiting example, with reference to the annexed figures
With reference to the figures, the container to be coupled according to the invention will be now described herein below.
The container to be coupled, indicated with numeral 1 as a whole, comprises a receptacle 2, of a substantially parallelepiped-shape, being provided with an aperture 3 that is bordered by an externally threaded, substantially tubular neck 4 protruding from the upper base of the container, opposite to the support base.
The container 1 may be manufactured either in glass, or plastic material (such as for example PET) or any other material usually employed for manufacturing containers.
The container of the invention is characterized in that it comprises a through hole 5 having either complementary diameter and shape or a slightly larger diameter than the neck 7 of bottle 6 in which it is intended to be inserted. It should be specified that with the term “bottle” in the present invention has been indicated any type of container being provided with a neck, independently from the size and shape thereof.
Therefore, the inner walls of hole 5 form a substantially tubular duct housing the neck of bottle 6.
As shown in
The length of the tubular duct being formed by through hole 5 is substantially equal to the length of the neck 7 of bottle 6, but it allows the threaded portion of neck 7 on which cap 8 is screwed to protrude outside. On the contrary, the height of container 1 is substantially equal to the width of bottle 6.
Thereby, the bottle 6 and container 1 form a compact assembly 9 enabling to optimise the space within the package, thus filling the empty spaces which might be originated from the different bulk of the body of bottle 6 relative to the neck 7 thereof. On the other hand, the assembly of the invention substantially forms a parallelepiped, so that the various container assemblies, being arranged side by side relative to each other in the package, have a well “packed” and firm configuration.
Moreover, the container 1 is firmly anchored to the bottle 6, by being inserted into the neck 7 thereof, thus making a rigid, or in any case wrapping packaging, such as the known plastic sheet even unnecessary.
The above-listed advantages result in a reduction of the packaging and shipment costs.
Furthermore, the container assembly 9 according to the invention has a pleasing appearance, thus making the product more attractive for the consumer.
Several embodiments of the container 1 may be provided, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
For instance, the hole 5 may also be blind. This configuration is particularly for use with those bottles 6 being provided with a shorter neck.
When hole 5 is blind, it may also be arranged on the support base of container 1, such as shown in
Although the container 1 will mostly have a smaller size than the bottle 6 to which it is coupled, such as in the annexed figures in which, by way of example, a bottle 6 for oil is shown being coupled with a container 1 for spices, nevertheless the bottle 6 and container 1 may have the same size, or the bottle may be smaller than container 1.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
MI2004A001749 | Sep 2004 | IT | national |