Patent Application
20200047955
The present disclosure relates to caps and crowns for beverage bottles and other containers, and in particular, to a reduced gauge corrugated bottle cap.
Published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/597,385 to Merino Caballero (“Caballero”) discloses a low gauge crown cap in which the top panel exhibits grooves in various shapes, depending on the embodiment, to achieve corrugation and obtain a crown that has a low gauge of crown material such as steel. Although not prior art due a priority date subsequent to the priority date of the present disclosure, the present inventor acknowledges the Caballero application because it was published prior to the filing date of the present disclosure.
Related application Ser. No. 12/903,533, and its parent Ser. No. 11/698,247 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,061,544), referenced above, disclose a bottle crown that has a seat in which rests a pull tab assembly so that the pull tab assembly is flush with the top of the crown. The seat is formed by means of a depression or recess in the top of the crown. A benefit of the recessed top is that the recess functionally acts to corrugate the top of the crown. As is well understood, corrugation has the advantage of stiffening a sheet of material against forces that are perpendicular to the direction of corrugation. That is, a corrugated sheet is harder to bend than a non-corrugated sheet, at least in certain directions. A bottle crown that has corrugation across its top will be stiffer than a non-corrugated crown. Therefore, to achieve the same degree of stiffness of a non-corrugated crown, a corrugated crown may be thinner, or have a lower gauge, of crown material such as steel or tinplate. The advantages of corrugation that are implicitly inherent in the crown of the '533 application are made explicit in the present disclosure. The present disclosure, therefore, describes a corrugated crown and the advantages thereof.
The detailed description that follows, by way of non-limiting examples of embodiments, makes reference to the noted drawings in which reference numerals represent the same parts throughout the several views of the drawings, and in which:
Panel 130 is recessed, that is, it is lower than top 110 but is contiguous with top 110 by virtue of transition surface 120, which will be referred to herein for convenience as recess 120. Recess 120 may formed in crown 100 in a variety of suitable way to provide advantageous shapes. For example, in specific exemplary embodiments concentric tiers, grooves or steps are integrally formed in the crown 100 material until the desired depth of panel 130 is obtained, as illustrated in
Skirt 140 descends from top 110 along the external perimeter of crown 100 and in specific exemplary embodiments smoothly merges into downwardly and radially outwardly extending flange. The skirt 140 is preferably adapted to be crimped onto the neck of a bottle for sealing. Specific exemplary embodiments of skirt 140 are divided into undulating, repeating portions that define the flutes 150 and lands 152. Preferably, the repeating portions are circumferentially evenly spaced apart such that each flute 150 is identical to all other flutes 150 around the circumference of the crown cap 100, and each land 152 is identical to all other lands 152 around the circumference of the crown cap 100. It should be understood that the crown cap 100 may include any number of flutes 150 and lands 152.
Referring to now to
A specific amount of material strengthening from corrugation is achieved by selecting an embodiment with a particular combination of panel diameter 210, 310 or 410, for example, and recess depth 220, 320 or 420, for example. Exemplary embodiment 2A/B, for instance, has panel diameter 210, which is relatively wide, and recess depth 220, which is intermediately deep. Exemplary embodiment 3A/B has panel width 310, which of intermediate width, and recess depth 320, which is the deepest of the three exemplary embodiments. Exemplary embodiment 4A/B has panel diameter 410, which is the narrowest of the embodiments, and recess depth 420, which is the shallowest depth of the three embodiments. To obtain a desired amount of material strengthening from corrugation, a combination of panel width 210, 310, or 410, for example, and recess depth 220, 320 or 420, for example, is selected to achieve a specific embodiment.
Corrugation strengthens materials. This is particularly true of laminar materials formed into a sheet or plane. A laminar product can use less of a material if the material is corrugated to provide lateral strength. A bottle cap is a laminar product in which the sheet material, often steel or tin plate, is shaped to be affixed to the top of a bottle or other container. A standard pry-off or twist off cap has a thickness of material that is predominantly determined by considerations of leak prevention and the secureness of the attachment of the cap to the container.
Billions of bottle caps are used worldwide and the cost of the caps is largely determined by the amount of material required for the caps. Corrugation allows caps that use less material to have the equivalent strength of a standard thick crown, a corrugated crown is thinner, that is, it has a reduced gauge, in comparison to a standard bottle cap. An advantage of a reduced gauge cap is the money savings obtained by using less material.
Another advantage of a reduced gauge corrugated cap comes into play with innovated “pull-off” caps, which have a pull tab assembly attached to the crown as described in the related patent applications, one embodiment of which is described in detail below with reference to
In addition to the structures illustrated in the figures herein, it is understood that other structures will imbue a cap of the present disclosure with the advantages of corrugation and provide a reduced gauge crown for a bottle. For instance, concentric rings, which progress from the top of the skirt toward the center of the panel, and decorative shapes such as stars, brand logos, sports team logos, religious insignia, and the like, formed in the plane of the cap, are embraced in the present disclosure.
Corrugation forms may be provided to a bottle cap by a variety means, including without limitation, metal stamping, pressing, embossing and so forth. Non-metal crowns of the present disclosure may be formed by injection molding for plastic crowns, or by other suitable means of production.
The crown caps 100 preferably are formed with steel of increased hardness compared with conventional crown caps presently in commercial production. For example, conventional crown caps are often formed of single reduced, T4, tinplate having a thickness of from 0.21 mm to 0.23 mm. Such tinplate has an average hardness (that is, the reported hardness value regardless of +/−variations) of approximately 61 on a 30 T hardness scale, in accordance with ASTM 623. Crown caps 100 described herein may be made thinner and lighter weight compared, with the prior art, for example, crown caps 100 may be formed of a material having a thickness of about 0.16 mm to 0.18 mm that have the same or roughly equal performance as conventional, thicker caps. These decreases in metal usage are more easily achieved when the structure of crown caps 10 are made with steel having increased hardness. For example, the inventor has demonstrated the effectiveness of low gauge crowns having grooves using DR8 (according to ASTM 623) or DR550 (according to EN 10203). Optionally, the inventor surmises that other materials may be used, such as single reduced tinplate or like material having enhance tempering, tin-free steel having similar properties as those described herein, and the like.
The crown caps 100 preferably have an average hardness of greater than 62 on the 30 T scale (conforming to ASTM 623), more preferably greater than about 65, more preferably greater than about 68, more preferably greater than about 71. The embodiments shown in
The crown caps 100 may be formed with conventional press equipment, with only minor changes to parts of the tooling to form the structure (such as the grooves, crosses, stars, and dimples). And crown caps 100 may be crimped with conventional equipment, only modified to have a smaller throat compared with existing, conventional crimpers.
Because hardness has a relationship to strength as reflected in the yield point, the aspect of the hardness of the crown may be expressed in yield point on a corresponding scale. For example, DR8 or DR550 tinplate may has a yield point (in a tensile test) of 550 MFA. The inventor believes that the most advantageous crown cap has a combination of one or more of the structured described herein and harder plate as described herein. A crown of the present disclosure, however, encompasses crown caps that do not have all of the structure, materials, and/or advantages in this specification.
According to this description, commercially acceptable crown caps formed according to the present disclosure can be commercially made with up to 25 percent less steel compared with many conventional crown caps, which has corresponding advantages in carbon emissions. The savings in steel weight are approximately proportionate to the reduction in metal thickness. Further, even though energy required to cool an individual crown is tiny, the energy required to cool the total number of crowns produced each year (approximately 45 billion, in North America and approximately 300 billion throughout the world) and the corresponding reduction in that energy, it significant.
In addition to the various structures described herein, certain advantages over the prior art are bestowed on the present crown by the recommended specifications shown in Table 1.
In particular, a tinplate material which, demonstrates an approximate hardness of T-4 on the Rockwell 30 T Hardness Scale is preferred for the present cap (see item 3 in table 1). This may be contrasted against the prior art which typically uses tinplate having a hardness of K-3 on the Rockwell scale. The preferred softer tinplate material requires less force to open and tear with the opener assembly of the present crown while still providing sufficient sealing of the container contents. For the purposes of this disclosure, tinplate refers the any material, including tin or tin alloys, from which a crown may be fabricated and does not necessarily mean that the crown is made from tin or a tin alloy.
The foregoing description is provided for the purpose of explanation and is not to be construed as limiting the invention. While the invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments or preferred methods, it is understood that the words which have been used herein are words of description and illustration, rather than words of limitation. Furthermore, although the invention has been described herein with reference to particular structure, methods, and embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed herein, as the invention extends to all structures, methods and uses that are within the scope of the appended claims. Those skilled in the relevant art, having the benefit of the teachings of this specification, may effect numerous modifications to the invention as described herein, and changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, any features of one described embodiment can be applicable to the other embodiments described herein.
Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept if more than one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.
In summary, the present disclosure describes a crown for a container opening. The crown has a top portion and an inner portion contiguous with the top portion. The inner is portion formed into a panel. An outer portion contiguous with the top portion is formed into a skirt that descends from the top portion. The crown has corrugation formed in the panel.
The present disclosure also contemplates methods for making the crown described above. Methods include the steps of shaping a sheet of crown material to provide a top portion and an inner portion contiguous with the top portion and formed into a panel. An outer portion contiguous with the top portion is formed into a skirt that descends from the top portion. The methods also include forming corrugation in the panel.
In specific embodiments the step of forming corrugation in the panel consists of forming a recess that descends from the top portion to the panel in the inner portion.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
The description has made reference to several exemplary embodiments. It is understood, however, that the words that have been used are words of description and illustration, rather than words of limitation. Changes may be made within the purview of the appended claims, as presently stated and as amended, without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure in all its aspects. Although description makes reference to particular means, materials and embodiments, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed; rather, the disclosure extends to all functionally equivalent technologies, structures, methods and uses such as are within the scope of the appended claims.
The present disclosure is a continuation of U.S. patent application entitled “Reduced Gauge Bottle Cap” filed May 5, 2017, and assigned Ser. No. 15/588,263, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 14/243,437, filed Jul. 24, 2012.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15588263 | May 2017 | US |
| Child | 16660461 | US | |
| Parent | 14243437 | Sep 2014 | US |
| Child | 15588263 | US |
