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[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] This invention relates to a screw cap of plastic and to a container of plastic or soft material with a pour-out, wherein the screw cap has a guarantee strip at the lower circumferential edge, which via break-off webs is connected to the lower edge of the casing wall of the screw cap.
[0003] 2. Discussion of Related Art
[0004] Screw caps of the above mentioned type have been known for many years, and their design shape is not least dependent on the material from which the container on which the closure is placed is manufactured. With glass bottles the pour-out is usually standardized and the rotary closures must accordingly correspond to the standard. With containers of plastic one may vary the pour-out much more freely. With containers of so-called soft material, pour-outs of plastic are fastened thereon, which may be manufactured with a large degree of freedom with regard to design. This invention relates to screw caps which cooperate with containers of plastic or soft material, having a pour-out manufactured of plastic and wherein the screw cap and pour-out are matched to one another.
[0005] It will be discussed what is understood by containers of soft material. Containers of soft material may be flexible tubing containers of plastic films or containers of coated cardboard or in particular also containers which are manufactured of multi-layer laminated film materials. Such multi-layer laminated films can have a paper or cardboard layer which is designed multi-layered with plastic films or an aluminum foil layer.
[0006] In the present case, only screw caps with a guarantee strip are of interest, which may only be opened by rotating the screw cap, wherein simultaneously the guarantee strip is separated from the screw cap. Design forms of such closures are taught by German Patent Reference DE-A-31 11 692, from European Patent Reference EP-B-0'149'496, from European Patent Reference EP-B-0'460'557, from European Patent Reference EP-B-0'593'396 or from European Patent Reference EP-B0'625'950. The manufacture of such screw caps is problematic. On manufacture, the core must be torn out of the screw cap. Although the rear-engagements in the region of the thread are not a problem, the rear-engagements in the region of the break-off webs represent a large problem. These relatively fragile locations are often destroyed on manufacture. This leads to interruption of production and to the rejection of the manufactured closures. In order to reduce the danger of destruction one must provide relatively many break-off webs. The result of this is a difficult opening of the screw cap. As is known, on screwing open, all break-off webs are loaded uniformly in tension so that their forces sum and their result is directly related to the number of the required break-off webs. Break-off webs are very thinly designed material bridges in whose region there arises an alignment of molecule chains during the injection procedure. These molecule chains then run in the direction of the break-off webs and have their greatest force of resistance precisely in their running course. In other words the forces occurring on screwing-open run practically axially to the pour-out direction and thus exactly in the running direction of the break-off webs. Added to this is that on screwing-off the tension forces are increased relatively slowly, wherein a material stretching occurs which leads to a further alignment of the molecule chains and effects an increased tear strength.
[0007] In order to reduce the danger of destruction of the guarantee ring or of the guarantee strip on removal from the mold, one also applies injection tools with sliders. This however leads to extraordinarily expensive tools.
[0008] In order to avoid these problems, according to German Patent Reference DE-A-31 00 629 one has put forward a screw cap with a guarantee strip with which the guarantee strip initially is integrally formed on the screw cap over the entire wall and the break-off line is produced only retrospectively way of a suitable cutting while leaving the break-off webs. Such closures are considerably easier to open and may be produced almost without rejections. The manufacture however is enormously expensive, alone on account of the two-step manufacture. Accordingly such closures are scarcely on the market.
[0009] Snap hinge closures are also known in the most varied of design forms, which are placed onto specially shaped plastic containers, in particular are also screwed on the containers. With this, on the lower part of the snap hinge closure there are guarantee strips with several tear tabs which may be placed into a suitably designed container neck in a rotationally secure manner. Thus, the removal of the rotary closure from the container is prevented without opening the snap hinge closure, and may be placed on afterwards. All these closures however have one guarantee strip with a tear-open tab, and the guarantee strip must first be removed by hand, and subsequently the snap hinge closure may be brought into its position of use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,449 shows an example of such a closure.
[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,428 teaches a screw cap of the above mentioned type with which ratchet-like projections are attached on the pour-out which cooperate with ratchet-like positive-fit means on the guarantee strip. This solution requires a guarantee strip which is not closed per se, with a tear-open tab, wherein the guarantee strip must be removed before screwing off the closure. Furthermore, the assembly is a further problem of this embodiment. The ratchet-like design is necessary because the screw cap is screwed on. This is possible because the guarantee strip, as already mentioned, is not closed per se, but comprises an opening by which the required elasticity is provided. These closures are not regarded as particularly secure. On screwing-on, the edges of the ratchet-like parts are slightly deformed, and thus such closures may often be also unscrewed without damage to the guarantee strip.
[0011] It is one object of this invention to provide a screw cap of the above mentioned type which may be screwed off with a considerably lower force, without disadvantages of the known screw caps. The various embodiment forms of this invention are discussed in the claims, and their effect and significance are explained by way of the drawings and the following description.
[0012] It is another object of this invention to specify a method for assembly of the screw caps according to this invention, which permits a particularly rational and inexpensive assembly.
[0013] In the accompanying drawings there are embodiment examples of the subject matter of this invention and these are subsequently described in detail, wherein:
[0014]
[0015]
[0016]
[0017]
[0018]
[0019]
[0020]
[0021]
[0022] The screw cap
[0023] In the embodiments shown, the pour-out is always drawn as a separate part. This however is not necessary. The pour-out may be manufactured as one piece with a plastic container. The form of the pour-out shown here includes an annular wall
[0024] In order to avoid such a rear-engagement, the positive-fit
[0025] The positive fit
[0026] Another embodiment is shown in the
[0027] The screw cap
[0028] Various assembly methods are useful according to the various design forms. The assembly is simple with an embodiment form according to the
[0029] With the embodiments according to the FIGS.
[0030] On opening such a screw closure for the first time the screw cap