Pouring closure

Abstract

Pouring closure for liquid containers with pour spout sealingly fixed to a container neck, the cross section of which is closed by a membrane before use. A portion of the membrane extends transversely, approximately pear-shaped, and connected to the remaining portion via an easily tearable line of weakness and can be detached from the membrane. After detachment, an opening in the membrane is released that is correspondingly pear-shape, and liquid poured selectively out of a relatively narrower section or wider section. The pouring closure is produced by tearing out a membrane section and facilitates dosed pouring. Webs on the inner surface at a close distance parallel to the line of weakness and outside the tear-out section run on both sides of the narrow section of the tear-out portion or of the opening and along at least a portion of a transition region between the narrower and the wider sections.

Claims

1. Pouring closure for liquid containers, with a pour spout which can be sealingly fixed to a container neck and the cross section of which is closed by a membrane before use, wherein a portion of the membrane extending transversely over the membrane and approximately pear-shaped in plan view, is connected to the remaining portion via an easily tearable line of weakness and can be detached from the membrane, with the result that after the detachment it releases an opening in the membrane, which is correspondingly pear-shaped in plan view, with the result that liquid can be poured selectively out of a relatively narrower section or out of a relatively wider section of the pear-shaped opening when the container is tilted, depending on the orientation thereof, wherein the membrane has webs on its inner surface, at a close distance beside the line of weakness and outside the tear-out section, which extend inwards away from the membrane surface, and which run on both sides of the narrow section of the tear-out portion or of the opening and along at least a portion of a transition region between the narrower and the wider sections, and wherein the web height increases from the beginning of the web close to its first end of the narrow section remote from the wide section as it approaches the transition region.

2. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the maximum height of the webs, measured perpendicular to the membrane surface, is between 2 and 10 mm and is more than 10% and up to 50% of the internal diameter of the pour spout.

3. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the web height, from the beginning of the webs close to their first end of the narrow section remote from the wide section, at least doubles up to a maximum web height as it approaches the transition region.

4. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the web height decreases by at least 50% from a maximum height in the transition region to the second end beside the wider section (7).

5. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the minimum height of the webs close to the free end of the narrow section of the opening is 1 mm.

6. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the webs extend beyond the transition region, but end at a distance before an outer edge of the membrane.

7. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the distance of the webs from the line of weakness along the narrow section and optionally along the transition region is at most 10% of the membrane diameter and is at most 3 mm.

8. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the narrow section of the tear-out portion of the membrane has a reinforcing rib extending parallel to both edges of the narrow section, which optionally extends on the inner surface of the membrane.

9. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the pear-shaped opening extends approximately over the whole diameter of the membrane with its free ends of the narrow and of the wide section facing away from each other and optionally comprises the geometric centre of the membrane.

10. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the narrow section has a maximum width which is less than one quarter of the membrane diameter and the wide section has a maximum width which is more than one third of the membrane diameter.

11. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein an edge of the pear-shaped opening in the narrow and in the wide section has a substantially convex shape or runs in a straight line, wherein the transition region between the narrow and the wide sections is defined by the fact that it has a concave course.

12. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the transition region is defined by the section between 45% and 55% of the distance between the free ends of the narrow and of the wide section lying opposite each other.

13. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the narrow section extends approximately from an edge to the centre of the membrane.

14. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the cross section of the narrow section is less than one third of the cross section of the wide section.

15. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the cross-sectional area of the wide section is at least one sixth of the whole membrane surface area.

16. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein an end of the wide section is provided with a pull-out aid.

17. Pouring closure according to claim 16, wherein the pull-out aid is formed as a pull-ring.

18. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the narrow section has a maximum width which is less than 15% of the membrane diameter and the wide section has a maximum width which is more than half of the membrane diameter.

19. Pouring closure according to claim 1, wherein the cross-sectional area of the wide section is at least one quarter of the whole membrane surface area.

Description

(1) FIG. 1 a plan view of a pouring closure from inside and below,

(2) FIG. 2 a side view of the closure,

(3) FIG. 3 a view of the closure according to FIG. 1 from above, wherein the pull-ring has been omitted,

(4) FIG. 4 a sectional view along the line BB in FIG. 1,

(5) FIG. 5 a perspective view of the pouring closure from below,

(6) FIG. 6 a plan view of a closed membrane from below,

(7) FIG. 7 a plan view of an opened membrane from below.

(8) A closure 100 can be seen in FIGS. 1 to 5, which can be snapped onto a cylindrical neck of a container and which has an outer closure casing 20 encompassing a container neck from the outside and an inner pour spout 10, the lower section of which tightly engages with the inner surface of a container neck. The transition between the lower and the upper section 10′ of the pour spout 10 is closed by a membrane 1 extending over the cross section of the pour spout 10. The closure also has a threaded attachment 30 surrounding the upper section of the pour spout 10, which serves for closing by means of a screw cap (not shown).

(9) In the plan view from above according to FIG. 3, a membrane 1 with an approximately pear-shaped, central and detachable section 1′, which is bordered by a line of weakness 2 drawn in in bold, can be seen inside the pour spout 10. The line of weakness 2 is introduced (carved or impressed) into the surface of the membrane 1 from the outside and is therefore not visible in a view from below (FIG. 1).

(10) In the perspective view from below according to FIG. 5, it can be seen that two curved webs 8 run on the right and on the left on the inner surface of the membrane, which follow approximately the course of the line of weakness 2, without this being visible in FIG. 5, and in fact, as can be seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, above all along the narrow section of the detachable portion 1′, beyond a transition region 9, and which extend into the lower half of the wide section of the tear-out portion 1′ of the membrane 1.

(11) The transition region is defined here by that section of the line of weakness between the narrow and the wider section of the detachable portion 1′ which is characterized by a concave curvature of the line of weakness 2, which otherwise has a substantially convex course.

(12) Furthermore, a central rib 11 extending diametrically over the inner surface of the membrane, which serves above all for reinforcing the narrow section of the detachable portion 1′, can also be seen in FIG. 5. The height of the rib 11 increases along the narrow section of the portion 1′ towards the free end of this narrow section. (FIG. 4)

(13) In the sectional view according to FIG. 4, it can furthermore be seen that, in the side view, the webs 8 have a relatively low web height from a point close to the free end of the narrow section of the detachable portion 1′ of the membrane 1, which then rises approximately linearly up to a maximum value and decreases again towards the other end which is curved away from the plane of FIG. 4. The maximum height of the webs 8 is located in that region which lies closest to the transition region 9 of the line of weakness. The perspective representation in FIG. 5 shows the shape and the course of the webs 8 relatively well. In this region, the webs in plan view likewise have a concave curvature similar to the line of weakness 2.

(14) The free end of the wide section of the detachable portion 1′ of the membrane is connected to a pull-ring 12, with the result that when the pull-ring 12 is pulled, initially the free end of the wide section of the detachable portion 1′ is detached and torn away from the membrane 1 along the line of weakness 2, whereupon when the pull-ring 12 is pulled further, the connection between the detachable portion 1′ and the remaining portion of the membrane 1 is severed along the line of weakness 2. Finally, beyond the transition region 9 the narrow section of the detachable portion 1′ is also seized by the tensile force applied to the pull-ring, with the result that the whole detachable portion 1′ of the membrane can then be separated off along the line of weakness (see FIG. 6) and removed.

(15) In the transition region 9 and along the narrow section the webs 8 and the central rib 11, which form a reinforcement of the membrane material on both sides of the line of weakness 2, ensure that the membrane does not begin tearing on either side of the line of weakness 2 causing the edge of the opening being formed to then run in an uncontrolled manner. The reinforcements through the webs 8 and the rib 11 therefore ensure that the detachable portion 1′ of the membrane 1 also tears off in the transition region 9 and in the narrow region precisely along the predefined line of weakness 2 and then leaves an opening 5 which corresponds exactly to the shape of the detachable portion 1′ which is predefined by the line of weakness.

(16) The opening formed in this way is as a whole denoted by 5, the narrow part of the opening 5 by 6 and the wide part of the opening 5 by 7 (see FIG. 7).

(17) The reinforcing rib 11 is removed together with the detachable portion 1′ of the membrane, with the result that ultimately a membrane 1 remains with the mentioned opening 5 and the webs 8, which extend above all along the narrow section 6 of the opening along the transition region 9 and along the edge of the wide opening in a section adjoining the transition region up to a certain distance before the circumference of the membrane.

(18) With reference to FIG. 7 it can also be seen that in the region of the narrow opening 6 and also in the transition region 9 the webs 8 follow the edge of the narrow opening 6 or the line of weakness 2 at a relatively close distance parallel thereto. The ends of the webs 8 which run further away from each other beyond the transition region can then be at an increasingly greater distance from the edge of the wide section 7 of the opening 5.

(19) With reference to the perspective representation of the webs 8 in FIG. 5 and also in view of the contour of the webs according to the representation in FIG. 4, it can be seen that after a container is tilted with the pouring closure in the dosing position the liquid, when it flows against the inner surface of the membrane with the opening 5 produced in the meantime, can initially only flow through between the sides of the webs 8 running parallel, to the corresponding narrow opening 6 and through the latter.

(20) When the liquid level rises due to an increase in the tilt angle, the webs getting increasingly higher towards the transition region prevent the liquid from also flowing laterally in the direction of the wider opening 7 and through the latter. Thus it is achieved that the tilt angle of the container can vary in a relatively large range without the liquid overcoming the obstacle of the webs 8. The liquid is deflected outwards by the webs 8 into a region which only comes to be located below the liquid level in the case of a relatively large tilt angle. The webs are for this reason also referred to as “deflectors” here. The liquid can then still come out through the full cross section of the narrow region, however without appreciable additional quantities of the liquid also being able to flow out through the wider section 7 of the opening 5. In this way it is ensured that the dosing position allows a much larger tilt angle range as opposed to closures which have no such webs at all and thus significantly facilitates the dosing of liquid.

(21) If the closure or the container is rotated such that when the container is tilted the wide opening 7 lies at the bottom (below or in the region of the liquid level), this wide opening 7 is completely freely accessible to the liquid flowing up to it and the webs 8 then represent a virtually insignificant obstacle to the flow as they now conversely deflect the flowing liquid inwards in the direction of the wide opening 7, wherein the narrow opening 6 then acts as venting opening.

(22) At the same time the webs 8 also serve as reinforcing elements when the detachable portion 1′ of the membrane is torn out and thus ensure that a precisely defined, desired shape of the pouring opening with the sections 6 and 7 is produced.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

(23) 1 membrane 1′ detachable section 2 line of weakness 5 opening (as a whole) 6 narrow part of the opening 7 wide part of the opening 8 web 9 transition region 10 pour spout 11 rib 12 pull-ring 20 closure casing 30 threaded attachment 100 closure