CONTAINER COMPRISING A SINGLE-PIECE HEAD SECTION

Abstract

The invention relates to a container, which consists in particular of a plastic material, is produced using a blow-fill-seal method, and comprises a container body (1) for receiving a fluid as well as a neck section (5) that is connected to said container body (1) and has, at its free end, a dispensing opening (13) for said fluid which is sealed, via a separating region (15, 19), with a head section (17) that can be removed from the neck section (5) by actuating a movable sleeve section (35), by releasing the separating region (15, 19) such that said dispensing opening (13) is exposed. The invention is characterized in that, from the unactuated state to the actuated state in which the separating region (15, 19) is released, the sleeve section (35) is guided so as to be at least partially in contact with a guide path (23) that is part of the removable head section (17).

Claims

1. A container, consisting in particular of a plastic material and produced using a blow-fill-seal method, comprising a container body (1) for receiving a fluid as well as a neck section (5) that is connected to the container body (1) and has, at its free end, a dispensing opening (13) for said fluid that is sealed, via a separating region (15, 19), with a head section (17) that can be removed from the neck section (5) by actuating a movable sleeve section (35), by releasing the separating region (15, 19) such that the dispensing opening (13) is exposed, characterized in that, from the unactuated state to the actuated state in which the separating region (15, 19) is released, the sleeve section (35) is guided so as to be at least partially in contact with a guide path (23) that is part of the removable head section (17).

2. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that, for actuating the sleeve section (35), provision is made of a male thread (7) arranged on the neck section (5) and of a female thread (37) on the sleeve section (35) that can be brought into engagement with said male thread (7), and that, by screwing the sleeve section (35), the separating region (15, 19) can be released and the dispensing opening (13) exposed.

3. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the separating region (15, 19) can be released with the screwing of the sleeve section (35) and further characterized in that a contact shoulder (45) of the sleeve section (35) in contact with the head section (17) entrains the latter so as to release the separating region (15, 19).

4. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the sleeve section (35) has flexible contact fingers (43) on its free end face, which engage in an underhand grip with a projection (23) on the head section (17), and which, with the separating region (15, 19) released, entrain the head section (17) as the sleeve section (35) is being unscrewed.

5. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that, by unscrewing the sleeve section (35) with the separating region (15, 19) not released, the contact fingers (43) engaged in an underhand grip with the projection (24) of the head section (17) entrain the latter and release the separating region (15, 19).

6. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the guide path is formed on the outside (23) of a ring collar (21), which surrounds the head section (17) and which extends between the separating region (15, 19) and an annular groove (27) that forms the space on the head section (17) for receiving the contact fingers (43).

7. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer diameter of the ring collar (21) corresponds to the inner diameter of the neck section (5), in the region of its male thread (7).

8. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the ring collar (21) has an axial extension, the length of which corresponds to the axial length of the annular groove (27), measured over the smallest diameter size thereof.

9. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that, with the contact fingers (43) of the sleeve section (35) engaged in an underhand grip with the projection (29) of the head section (17), an allocatable contact surface (47) of the sleeve section (35) is in full contact with the guide path (23) of the ring collar (21) and that the contact shoulder (45) of the sleeve section (35) overlaps the end (25) of the ring collar (21) at the upper end of the guide path (23).

10. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that a reinforcing rib (19) that projects inwardly toward and connects to the separating region (15, 19) is present on the inner circumferential side of the ring collar (21).

11. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that, at least with the sleeve section (35) unactuated, the reinforcing rib (19) is wedge-shaped in cross section, wherein the longest cross leg of the wedge in the direction of the neck section (5) ends at the separating region (15, 19) and is spaced parallel apart from another boundary line (19) closing the reinforcing rib (19).

12. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the dispensing opening (13) of the neck section (5) is delimited by an annular bulge (15), which projects over the separating region (15, 19) toward the unactuated sleeve section (5) [sic] and borders the separating region (15, 19) with its largest cross-sectional dimension.

13. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer contour of the sleeve section (35) is provided with a bevel (41) in the direction of the run-out of the contact fingers (43), which is adapted to an inclined position of the contact fingers (4).

Description

[0016] The invention is explained in detail in the following, with reference to an exemplary embodiment illustrated in the drawings.

[0017] Shown are:

[0018] FIG. 1 a perspective oblique view, illustrated in approximately the natural size of a practical embodiment, of an exemplary embodiment of the container of the invention, with the opening-actuation element in the standby position;

[0019] FIG. 2 an illustration corresponding to FIG. 1, in which the actuation element has been omitted;

[0020] FIG. 3 a longitudinal section, drawn on a larger scale, of just the neck section and head section region of the container, in which the actuation element is shown in a partially screwed-on starting position;

[0021] FIG. 4 a longitudinal section corresponding to FIG. 3, in which the actuation element is illustrated in the standby position;

[0022] FIG. 5 a sectional view corresponding to FIGS. 3 and 4, in which the actuation element is illustrated in the screwed-on position after the opening of the container, and

[0023] FIG. 6 a corresponding sectional view, in which the actuation element is illustrated in a position in which it is partially unscrewed from the opened container.

[0024] As can be discerned from FIGS. 1 and 2, this exemplary embodiment of the container of the invention has a main container section 1 in the form of a plastic bottle which, with reference to a central main axis 3, possesses a square cross section with rounded corner regions and is designed with a 150 ml fill volume for receiving a fluid. As FIG. 2 most clearly shows, a neck section 5 coaxial to the axis 3 is molded onto the upper surface of the main section 1, the diameter of which neck section corresponds to roughly half the width of the main section 1 and the outside of which neck section is provided with a male thread 7 on ca. half of its length. As FIGS. 3-5 most clearly show, in its upper region the neck section 5 has, at a short axial distance from the uppermost winding of the male thread 7, an annular surface 9 that runs radially inwards and is upwardly inclined toward the axis 3, and transitions at the upper end into an end surface 11 that runs upwards and diverges outwards from the axis 3, the end edge of which end surface 11 surrounds the access opening 13 of the neck section 5. An edge bulge 15 that protrudes slightly outwards is thus formed on the edge of the access opening 13. As a sealing section for the access opening 13, a head section 17 is molded on the edge of said access opening 13 as an integral part of the neck section 5, wherein the edge bulge 15 and a reinforcing rib 19, which is located on the front-facing end of the head section 17, jointly form a separating region in which the junction point between the edge bulge 15 and the reinforcing rib 19 forms a predetermined breaking point, at which the head section 17 can be detached from the neck section 5 in order to expose the access opening 13 for an extraction process. The reinforcing rib 19 is present as a wedge-shaped, radially inward-extending projection on the end of a ring collar 21, the outside of which forms an outer cylinder surface 23, on the upper end of which is formed a step surface 25 that borders the radial length of said outer cylinder surface 23 and that extends radially inwards into an adjoining annular groove 27 of the head section 17. The upper end of the annular groove 27 is delimited by a flange-shaped radially outward-extending projection 29, which transitions into the upper end surface 31 of the head section 17.

[0025] As a tearing-off aid for releasing the head section 17 at the predetermined breaking point formed at the separating region 15, 19, a sleeve section 35 can be screwed onto the male thread 7 of the neck section 5, said sleeve section 35 possessing a female thread 37 in a circular cylindrical longitudinal section and a longitudinal riffle 39 on the outside. A sloping surface 41 adjoins the circumferential section having the riffle 39, which sloping surface 41 reduces the outer diameter of the neck section 35 toward the upper free end face. Starting from the sloping surface 41, a ring of contact fingers 43 extends to the upper end face, wherein the contact fingers 43 are inclined toward the axis 3. In the region between the sloping surface 41 and the contact fingers 43, the neck section 43 forms an inside contact shoulder 45 in the form of an annular surface lying in a radial plane.

[0026] FIG. 3 shows the sleeve section 35 in a starting position in which it is only partially screwed on, in which the contact shoulder 45 is located at a distance from the step surface 25 on the ring collar 21 and the contact fingers 43 extend to the upper end surface 31 of the head section 17. FIG. 4 shows the state in which the sleeve section 35, after being screwed on further, is in a standby position in which the contact fingers 43 are snapped into the annular groove 27 of the head section 17 beneath the projection 29. The sleeve section 35 has moved sufficiently far downwards such that a circular cylindrical inner contact surface 47 located in the region of the sloping surface 41 on the sleeve section 35 is in full contact with the outer cylinder surface 23 of the ring collar 21. The outer cylinder surface 23 thus forms a guide path for the sleeve section 35, on which said sleeve section 35 is guided in its axial movement as it is being screwed on. As it is being screwed on further from the standby position shown in FIG. 4 to the opening position shown in FIG. 5, in which the contact surface 47 of the sleeve section 35 slides on the guide wall formed by the outer cylinder surface 23 of the ring collar 21, the contact shoulder 45 of the sleeve section 35, which overlaps the step surface 25 of the ring collar 21, entrains the head section 17 such that the predetermined breaking point tears at the separating region 15, 17 and the access opening 13 is exposed (see FIG. 5, in which this state is illustrated).

[0027] FIG. 6 shows the sleeve section 35 in a position in which said sleeve section 35 is partially unscrewed from the position shown in FIG. 5 after the opening or tearing-off process. During this axial movement, the head section 17 is entrained by the underhand grip of the contact fingers 43 on the projection 29 such that when the sleeve section 35 is completely unscrewed, the head section 17 is removed together with the sleeve section 35 and is thus undetachably secured to the removed sleeve section 35. Should a subsequent closing of the bottle be desired, the head section 17 is thus available without any intervention on the user's part for being screwed back on together with the sleeve section 35. Because the inner contact surface 47 of the sleeve section 35 is in full contact with the outer cylinder surface 23 of the ring collar 21 that forms the guide path, a counter-bearing can be formed for the ring collar 21, and the access opening 13 can be resealed by tightening the screw connection and by the reinforcing rib 19 contacting the annular surface 9 of the neck section 5 (see FIG. 5).

[0028] If the contact fingers 43 are configured as sufficiently rigid, the opening process can also be carried out by unscrewing the sleeve section 35 from the standby position (FIG. 4), wherein during the upwards-running axial movement, the contact fingers 43 in underhand grip with the projection 29 entrain the head section 17 for an upwards-running shearing movement.