Patent Application
20190084729
The present invention generally relates to a secondary-closure capsule having a head and a skirt formed of a heat-shrink piece of foil. It also relates to a bottle or similar container having a closed neck and capped with such a secondary-closure capsule.
The present invention also relates to an anti-drip spout, which is disposable after use and which is intended to be inserted into the neck of a bottle-type container or the like. Finally, the present invention relates more particularly to the use of the skirt of a secondary-closure capsule of the aforementioned type to produce such an anti-drip spout.
Containers of the bottle type are usually closed by a stopper. The stopper may be inserted into the opening of the neck or alternatively it can cap the neck of the container. In the presence of the second alternative, the term “stopper” or “capsule” (stopping capsule) is used interchangeably. For example, a stopper may be frictionally inserted into the opening of the neck, screwed onto the neck or into the opening, crimped onto the neck, etc. In order to improve the aesthetics of the closure and/or to make the container inviolable, it is known to then cover the assembly with a secondary-closure capsule.
Secondary-closure capsules are known of the type mentioned in the preamble above. These capsules are formed of a heat-shrink cylindrical sleeve, which is closed at one end by a top disk. To put the capsule in place on a bottle or similar container, you first cap the neck of the container with the capsule, before heating the capsule. The material of which the capsule is made shrinks under the effect of heat, so that the wall of the cylindrical sleeve tightens around the neck. Once the secondary-closure capsule has contracted around the neck, it is no longer possible to remove it without tearing it. Secondary-closure capsules that have a tear strip are particularly appreciated because they can be opened without the need for an instrument such as a knife.
Anti-drip spouts are also known, which are intended to be inserted into the neck of a bottle-type container or the like. Indeed, a well-known problem with containers of the bottle type is that, when the container is put back upright after pouring part of its contents, a drop of liquid is often found hanging from the rim surrounding the orifice of the container. This drop then tends to flow on the outer wall of the container under the effect of gravitation, from the orifice towards the bottom of the container. The anti-drip spouts are therefore intended to avoid this problem. U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,481, in particular, discloses a spout having an anti-drip beak, and which consists of a piece of flexible and elastic foil material rolled into a hollow tube having a circular cross section. Once rolled into the form of a tube, the piece of foil is intended to be inserted into the neck of a bottle containing a liquid intended to be poured from the bottle in a drop-free manner. Due to its elasticity, the rolled piece of foil exerts a centrifugal pressure on the entire inner wall of the neck. This pressure causes sufficient adhesion of the piece of foil to the inner wall to provide a seal between the inner wall and the foil. Part of the tube formed by the rolled piece of foil material protrudes from the neck and constitutes the beak of the anti-drip spout.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,481 further indicates that before being rolled, the elastic piece of foil is flat and convex in shape. The end of the beak of the spout is formed by a portion of the convex edge of the piece of foil. The prior document further explains that in order for the spout to be satisfactory as an anti-drip spout, it is necessary in particular for the piece of foil material to have a small thickness, to have sharp edges, and for the surface of the foil material to have little affinity with the liquid contained in the container.
A disadvantage of this known spout is that it is normally supplied to the consumer separately from the container and its contents. In addition, when a consumer has emptied all the contents of a first container and opens a second, he is supposed to keep the stop spout to transfer it to the second container. It will be understood that this way of proceeding is likely to cause hygiene problems. In addition, more prosaically, it is not always easy to get one's hands on the spout when it is needed again. Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,481 clearly contemplates the possibility of supplying the spout with the container and discarding it after use. However, in case where the container and the spout are packaged and sold together, it is necessary to provide a protective envelope for the elastic piece of foil; which has a cost, failing which hygiene problems can crop up.
Patent document WO2006/048673 proposes to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art that have just been described by providing a heat shrinkable plastic secondary-closure capsule for a bottle of wine. The secondary-closure capsule has a head and a skirt formed of a rolled piece of foil, and comprises at least one tear line provided with a tear strip and which delimits a portion of the rolled piece of foil which is adapted to be formed into a spout for the bottle of wine. The document further teaches that two things happen when pulling the tear strip. Firstly, the secondary-closure capsule is completely removed from the bottle so as to give access to the cork or stopper, and secondly, a lower portion of the secondary-closure capsule is detached from the remainder of the capsule, so that the bottom portion is ready to be used as an anti-drip spout.
To the applicant's knowledge, the aforementioned prior solution has never been commercially successful. This lack of success may be explained by the fact that the secondary-closure capsule proposed in this document is incompatible with certain social prescriptions. Indeed, it seems that some wine lovers consider that good manners require that the skirt of the secondary-closure capsule of a bottle never be removed. For example, the site www.labelleecole.fr which is dedicated to the “handling with finesse of good manners and the daily art of living”, explains that to open a bottle of wine according to the rules of the art, it is necessary first to remove the head of the secondary-closure capsule, without however, under any circumstances, tearing off the skirt wrapped around the neck.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing a secondary-closure capsule for a bottle of wine, which can be used to make an anti-drip spout, but which also allows to serve the wine without first removing the skirt of the capsule.
The present invention achieves the above object as well as others by providing a secondary-closure capsule according to the appended claim 1.
Note that the term “bottle or similar container” here means a container adapted to contain a liquid and which is provided with a neck. It should further be noted that the term “below” (in the claims) refers to a situation where the capsule is oriented with the head upwards. On the other hand, the term “roll” is to be taken as meaning a cylinder made of a piece of rolled-up foil material. In addition, the verb “tear” is to be taken in the sense of “cutting without using a sharp instrument”.
According to the invention, the secondary-closure capsule has the advantageous characteristic of being easily transformed into a spout without the need to use an instrument such as a knife to detach the skirt of the secondary-closure capsule from the neck of a container. It will be understood that, thanks to this feature, the invention makes it possible to market together a container and an easy-to-use spout, without significantly altering the usual appearance of the container.
Furthermore, the secondary-closure capsule of the invention is also arranged to allow tearing the first tear strip, so as to detach the head from the skirt, while preserving the integrity of the skirt. It will be understood that, thanks to this feature, it is possible to open a container provided with the secondary-closure capsule of the invention, and to pour the liquid without having to remove the skirt of the capsule beforehand.
To make the anti-drip spout, the heat-shrink piece of foil detached from the neck of the container is rolled-up, and the obtained roll is then inserted axially into the uncorked neck of the bottle. It will be understood that to achieve a seal between the heat-shrink piece of foil and the inner wall of the neck, it is necessary that the elasticity of the piece of foil is sufficient for it to positively engage the inner wall of the neck with sufficient strength. This requirement can be problematic. Indeed, because of certain properties of heat-shrink materials which are known to those skilled in the art, when heating a secondary-closure capsule sufficiently for it to contract and enclose the neck of a container, the shape of the neck is imprinted into the material. It can be said that the heat-shrink material adopts and remembers the shape that it has taken under the effect of heat. Under these circumstances, when, subsequently, the skirt of the secondary-closure capsule is removed from the neck to make a pouring nozzle, the plastic foil removed from the neck of the container will, naturally and without constraint, keep a rolled configuration. It will therefore be understood that no elasticity prevents the winding of the piece of foil on itself as long as the diameter of the formed roll is not smaller than the outside diameter of the neck from which the skirt has been removed. The applicant has discovered that, quite surprisingly, the difference between the inside diameter and the outside diameter of the neck of most bottles is sufficient to cause the elasticity of the heat-shrink foil material to exert enough force on the inner wall of the neck to ensure the desired seal.
It may further be specified that the spout, with which the neck of a particular container is provided, preferably comes from the secondary-closure capsule of the same container. However, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to this preferred case. Indeed, the spout could also be made from the secondary-closure capsule of a first container and be mounted on a second container. In the latter case, it is however necessary that the inside diameter of the neck of the second container is smaller than the outside diameter of the neck of the first container.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description, given solely by way of non-limiting example, and made with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
The illustrated secondary-closure capsule has a head 3 and a skirt 5 having the shape of a substantially cylindrical tube, and whose wall is formed of an elastic piece of foil of heat-shrink plastic. It can be seen that the head of the capsule is arranged to close the upper end of the tube formed by the skirt 5. The head may be made of the same material as the skirt, but it may also consist of an aluminium disk for example.
The outline of the first tear strip 7 defines a circumferential tear line for detaching the head 3 from the skirt 5 of the capsule. In a manner known in itself, it is normally necessary to remove the head of the capsule to access the cork, or more generally the stopper, (not shown) in order to open the container. In a manner known per se also, the first tear strip extends along a line of least resistance 15 which determines and guides the path of the tear line. According to the invention, the secondary-closure capsule is arranged so that it is possible to tear the first strip 7 in order to open the bottle, without harming the integrity of the skirt 5.
As already mentioned, according to the invention, the secondary-closure capsule is arranged so that it is possible to tear the first strip 7 in order to open the bottle, without harming the integrity of the skirt 5. For this purpose, the capsule 1 comprises a more resistant small intermediate area (not shown) which is interposed between the first line of least resistance 15 and the upper end of the second line of least resistance 17. With this characteristic, it is possible to tear the first strip 7 without causing the skirt to rupture at the second line of least resistance. If one desires to remove the skirt from the container completely, one simply pulls on the skirt so as to break the small bridge of material between the lines of least resistance 15 and 17.
According to a first implementation of the method of the invention, once the piece of elastic foil constituting the skirt 5 has been released from the container, it must be rolled up, making sure that the side of the foil which was inside the skirt is now inside the roll obtained (the roll is referenced 19 in
The next step is to insert axially the roll 19 into the neck of the container, while leaving one end of the roll protruding outside the neck. It will of course be understood that in order to insert the roll into the neck, it is necessary in principle that the outer diameter of the roll is equal or less than the inside diameter of the neck. Furthermore, it is obviously also necessary that the container be open, the cork, or stopper, having been previously removed.
Once the roll 19 in place, it is released so that the plastic foil, out of which it is made, unrolls slightly due to its elasticity and presses against the inner wall of the neck with sufficient force to achieve a seal between the piece of plastic foil and the inner wall of the neck. The spout is then ready for use as shown in
The end of the roll that protrudes outside the neck is the anti-drip beak 21 of the spout. When the container is tilted, the liquid passes through the cylindrical duct of the spout and escapes through the beak 21. As the spout is formed by a thin piece of foil, the liquid passes without transition from the spout to the outside. An advantage of this feature is that it limits the probability that a drop of liquid will remain suspended from the beak of the spout. Furthermore, the material of which the piece of foil is made is preferably a material which is only slightly wetted by most common liquids. Indeed, this feature allows to further limit the appearance of drops of liquid suspended at the edge of the spout 21. The skilled person will have no trouble choosing a material having this characteristic among the large number of materials available today for producing heat-shrink secondary-closure capsules.
Once the skirt has been opened along the section of the second tear line defined by the tear strip 113, it is possible to just grab both flaps of the skirt and gently pull them in order to detach the skirt by tearing along the line of least resistance 123. It will therefore be understood that in this second embodiment of the secondary-closure capsule, the second tear line is not limited to the section defined by the second tear strip, but also comprises a second section which encircles the capsule. This second section is formed by the line of least resistance 123. It is worthwhile to note that the second section is not directly associated with a tear strip.
As in the embodiment shown in
Once the elastic piece of plastic foil forming the skirt 105 has been released from the container, it is possible to make a spout 119 (
A first difference between the third embodiment that is the subject matter of this example and the two previous embodiments is that the tear line 217 defined by the second tear strip 213 is not rectilinear and longitudinal but curvilinear and generally inclined. Referring to
The rear view of
As shown in the drawings, the first tear strip 307 is bordered on either side by a line of least resistance (315a and 315b respectively) surrounding the capsule. In addition, the second tear strip 313 is also bordered on both sides by two parallel lines of least resistance 317a, 317b which extend longitudinally from the lower edge of the skirt 305 substantially up to the level of the line of least resistance 315b. In the present embodiment, the lines of least resistance 315a, 315b and 317a, 317b are each formed of a succession of small straight slots arranged along a line and spaced apart from each other. In addition, each small straight slot of a line of least resistance lies directly across from one of the small straight slots of the line of least resistance on the other side of the tear strip. It will be observed in the drawings that these lines formed of small dashes are easily distinguished from other lines drawn in dotted lines, and which conventionally represent elements visible in transparency. The small slots forming the lines of least resistance 315a, 315b and 317a, 317b preferably go all the way through the skirt across its entire thickness. It will be understood, however, that the lines of least resistance could be of another type.
As shown more particularly in
Although the second tear strip 313 does not extend upwards any further than the line of least resistance 315b, it can be seen that, in the illustrated example, the reinforcing strip 321 extends beyond the line of least resistance 315b in the upward direction until it reaches the top of the side wall of the capsule. According to the embodiment which is the object of the present example, the two reinforcing strips 319 and 321 are arranged to intersect each other, and at the crossing point, the reinforcing strip 321 is sandwiched between the inner face of the skirt and the reinforcing strip 319. Finally, as shown in
As was already the case, with the first three illustrated embodiments, in order to access the stopper of the bottle, it is necessary first to remove the head 303 of the capsule 301 by pulling on the tab 309. In accordance with the present example however, the action of tearing the first strip 307 is also necessary to access the second tear strip 313. Indeed, again referring to
As explained above, the main purpose of the lines of least resistance is to make it possible to have very regular tearing lines with sharp edges. In this regard, it may be noted that the line of least resistance 315b stops at the point of its intersection with the extension of the second tear strip 313. It can therefore be expected that the tear line has a rugged character at this location. In fact, it is observed that when the line of least resistance 315b breaks off, the tear line swerves so as to follow temporarily the lateral edge of the reinforcing strip 319. The tear line then returns to follow the line of least resistance 315b as soon as it has passed the interruption located at the intersection between the tear strips. According to the invention, the secondary-closure capsule 301 is arranged so that it is possible to tear the strip 307 in order to open the bottle, without harming the integrity of the skirt 305 beneath that strip. In the present example, as we have seen, the tear line generated by the strip 307 swerves a little upwards, so that it moves away from the top of the lines of least resistance 317a and 317b associated with the second tear strip 313. When the first strip 307 is torn off, a bridge of material remains between the tear line associated with the first tear strip 307 and the top of the lines of least resistance 317a and 317b associated with the second strip 313. It will be understood that in order to completely detach the skirt 305 from the container, it is sufficient to pull on the tab of the second tear strip with enough force to break the material bridge.
It is important to note, however, that alternatively, the line of least resistance 315b could be designed to cross the second tear strip 313 without interruption, as long as it did so without cutting the reinforcing strip 321. Indeed in the present embodiment, the lines of least resistance 317a and 317b are each formed of an alignment of small straight slots spaced from each other, each small slot of a line of least resistance facing one of the small slots of the line of least resistance on the other side of the tear strip. Therefore, it will be understood that each space between two small slots lies directly across from another space on the other side of the tear strip. In addition, the mechanical integrity of the tear strip 313 is reinforced by the presence of the reinforcing strip 321. Therefore, each of these spaces forms one of the ends of a kind of material bridge connecting two sides of the skirt through the tear strip, and that the other end of this bridge is formed by the space opposite, on the other side of the tear strip. It will therefore be understood that, according to the present example, there are as many material bridges as spaces between the small rectilinear slots. Each of these material bridges is capable of preventing the tearing of the first strip 307 from causing the skirt to rupture at the level of the second tear strip 313.
It will be further understood that various modifications and/or improve-ments obvious to those skilled in the art can be made to the embodiments which are the object of the present description without departing from the scope of the present invention defined by the appended claims. In particular, according to a variation (not shown) of the previously described second embodiment, instead of extending between the bottom of the skirt and the first strip or tear wire, the second tear strip or wire could surround the capsule along a section on the second tear line, at a distance below the first tear strip or wire. According to this last embodiment, to remove the skirt, start by pulling on the second tear strip. It will be appreciated that since the second tear line also includes a portion that extends to the bottom of the skirt, the circumferential tear produced by tearing will naturally propagate a certain distance in the downward direction of the skirt. Then just grab both flaps of the skirt and gently pull on to detach the skirt by tearing it down.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16158514.6 | Mar 2016 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2017/051188 | 3/1/2017 | WO | 00 |
