Opening mechanism for plastic vial

Abstract

The plastic vial for dispensing highly viscous or semisolid materials is formed of two sheets of thermoformable plastic. Sheets are thermoformed to form a raised profile defining a cavity. The profile has a spout portion with a parting line extends across the spout portion through particular sheet. A bending top portion of the vial snaps the parting line forming an opening in the spout to permit access to the contents.

Claims

1. A vial for holding contents; comprising; a body having a single flexible top sheet and a single bottom sheet formed of a plastic material, the plastic material being a laminate of PVC/EVOH/PE, with a PE layer of the top sheet being adhered to a PE layer of the bottom sheet, the body having a pair of parallel sides, a top end and a bottom end, each parallel side extending in a straight line from top end to the bottom end, the body having a raised portion defining a cavity for holding the contents and a peripheral planar portion extending between the raised portion and the parallel sides, the raised portion extending outwardly in opposed directions from the peripheral planar portion, the raised portion having a conical spout portion extending toward the top end, the body further having a parting line defined by cuts extending partially through the spout portion of the top sheet the parting line extending orthogonally between the pair of parallel sides to define a top portion and a bottom portion of the body such that when the top portion is bent towards the bottom portion the spout portion of the top sheet separates only along the parting line defined by the cuts and the bottom sheet remains intact opening the spout to access the contents of the cavity.

2. The vial of claim 1 wherein the parting line has a depth of generally 50% of the thickness of the top sheet.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows a strip of vials in accordance with the invention;

(2) FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of a vial taken across the center line 2-2;

(3) FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a vial shown after opening;

(4) FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a strip of vials which are unfilled; and

(5) FIG. 5 is a top perspective view of unfilled vials with the flanges extending from the openings in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(6) A novel vial 10 for containing squeezable, highly viscous, or semisolid material is best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The vial 10 contains has a cavity 14 to hold materials such as lotions or gels. The vial 10 has a parting line 34 to permit the vial snap open to dispense the contents 11. The vial 10 has a body 12 a front side with as a peripheral planar portion 14 extending around a central bottle shaped raised portion 16. The raised portion defines a cavity 18 for holding the contents of the vial. The body has a top 20, bottom 22 and a pair of sides 24. The raised portion extends outwardly in both directions from the planar portion 14 to form a cylindrical portion 26 and a spout portion 28. The spout portion tapers inwardly to a tip 30. The cylinder portion has a bottom wall 32.

(7) As shown in FIG. 2, the body is formed by two plastic sheets 37, 38. A parting line extends 34 from side to side across the planar portion 14 and across the spout 28 near the tip 20 of the top sheet 37. The parting line is laser cut approximately 50% of the thickness of the top sheets 36. The preferred material is a laminate of PVC/EVOH/PE. PVC is poly vinyl chloride, EVOH is Ethylene vinyl and PE is poly ethelene. The PVC is an outer layer and the PE is an adhesive for bonding the two sheets together. The laminate results in a relatively soft sheet material. The sheets are flexible and thin. However when the cavity is filled and sealed, the air in the spout is compressed to make the raised profile rigid. Thus, it is possible to grasp on the top 20 of the vial 10 near the tip 30 and bend the top away from the parting line to snap the parting line 34 to form an opening 36 as shown in FIG. 3. Once opened, the raised profile becomes flexible allowing the user to easily control dispensing of the contents 11 with pressure on the cylindrical portion 16 to force the contents 11 out of the opening 36 in a desired quantity.

(8) The method of forming and filling the vials includes placing two sheets 37, 38 of thermoformable material in a female mold with male mold inserts between the sheets to form the cavity. The outer female molds have cavities to define the raised profile and have flat surfaces forming planar portions that extend around the raised profile. The sheets are then thermoformed to form a strip 40 with raised profiles as shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 5.

(9) As shown in FIGS. 5, flange portions 42 to extend from an opening 44 are also formed at the bottom 32 of the vial to form a strip 40 of vials formed side by side. The flange portions 42 are bent slightly outwardly from the opening 42 to allow access for filling the vial. Once molded, the vial strip 40 is moved to a fill machine. The strip 40 of vials is inverted and held with the spouts 28 pointed downwardly. The contents 11 such as viscous liquid or semisolid material as filled through the opening 44 forcing air that was already within the cavity 16 into the spout portion, compressing the air. The strips 40 are then moved to a seal machine which bends the flange portions 42 inwardly and seals the flange portions 42 together and from the bottom wall 35. The strips 40 are then moved to a scoring machine which forms separation scores 46 between the vial bodies and the parting line 34. The parting line 34 extends from side to side between those edges 26 and runs across the spout 28 to provide the opening of the vial.

(10) Once sealed, the contents and air rigidify the profile. When opening, the top 20 of the vial is grasped and bent away from the parting line 34. As shown in FIG. 3, the parting line 34 across the spout 28 breaks and the raised profile 16 then becomes soft allowing dispensing of the contents by squeezing the cylindrical portion 26 to displace the contents 11 through the spout 28 and opening 36 formed by the break.