CAPTIVE CAP

Abstract

A captive cap for a screw-neck container, with a cap shell, a ring for the retaining thereof to the container, two articulable arms which at their forward extremities are linked to the cap shell and at their rearward extremities are linked to the ring, an upper frangible line extending circumferentially between 210? and 340? and defining a frontal separation between the forward extremities of between 150? and 20?, a lower frangible line extending circumferentially between 180? and 330?, where the lower frangible line comprises a recess located at the frontal separation and projecting toward the cap shell.

Claims

1. A captive cap for a screw-neck container, being the captive cap of the type comprising: a cap shell with an internal thread sized to be screwed onto and unscrewed from the neck of the container, a ring for retaining the captive cap to the container, two articulable arms linked by their forward extremities to the cap shell and linked by their rearward extremities to the ring, an upper frangible line, defining the separable portion of the cap shell with regard to the ring and to the articulable arms, which extends circumferentially between 210? and 340?, while at the remainder of the circumference a frontal separation of between 150? and 20? is defined between the frontal extremities of the articulable arms, a lower frangible line, defining the separable section of the ring with regard to the cap shell and with regard to the articulable arms, which extends circumferentially between 180? and 330?, while in the remainder of the circumference a rearward separation of between 180? and 30? is defined between the rearward extremities of the articulable arms, wherein the lower frangible line comprises a recess located in said frontal separation and projecting toward the cap shell.

2. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 1, where the recess comprises a horizontal upper section, centred in said frontal separation.

3. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where the recess comprises two oblique sections sloping at 45? on each side of the upper section.

4. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where the upper frangible line coincides on the same plane as the upper section.

5. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where the upper section extends angularly at between 10? and 90?, while each of the horizontal separations between the extremities of the upper section of the recess and the extremities of the upper frangible line extend angularly at between 5? and 30?.

6. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where: the upper frangible line extends angularly at between 260? and 300?, the upper section extends angularly at between 30? and 60?, and each of the horizontal separations between the extremities of the upper section of the recess and the extremities of the upper frangible line extend angularly at between 15? and 20?.

7. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where: the upper frangible line extends angularly at 270?, the upper section extends angularly at 60?, and each of the horizontal separations between the extremities of the upper section of the recess and the extremities of the upper frangible line extend angularly at 15?.

8. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 2, where: the upper frangible line extends angularly at 262?, the upper section extends angularly at 60?, and each of the horizontal separations between the extremities of the upper section of the recess and the extremities of the upper frangible line extends angularly at 19?.

9. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 1, where the lower frangible line extends angularly at between 230? and 320?.

10. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 9, where the lower frangible line extends angularly at 300?.

11. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 9, where the lower frangible line extends angularly at 240?.

12. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 1, where the ring comprises at least one cut-out which is centred in said rearward separation and coincides substantially on the same plane as the lower frangible line.

13. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 12, comprising a single cut-out extending angularly at between 0.1? and 90?, while each of the separations between the extremities of the cut-out and those of the lower frangible line extend angularly at between 10? and 85?.

14. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 12, where the lower frangible line extends angularly at between 230? and 320? and comprising a single cut-out extending angularly at between 20? and 30?, while each of the separations between the extremities of the cut-out and those of the lower frangible line extend angularly at between 15? and 35?.

15. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 12, where the lower frangible line extends angularly at 300? and comprising single cut-out extending angularly at 28?, while each of the separations between the extremities of the cut-out and those of 5 the lower frangible line extend angularly at 16?.

16. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 1, where the geometry of the articulable arms is symmetric with regard to a sagittal plane of the ring.

17. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 1, where the height of the articulable arms, defined as the separation between the upper frangible line and the lower frangible line along the length of the articulable arms, is up to 10 mm.

18. The captive cap, as claimed in claim 9, where the height of the articulable arms is between 1 mm and 2.5 mm.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0020] For the better understanding of the description propounded herein, a set of drawings is attached wherein, schematically and solely by way of a non-limitative example, a practical case of an embodiment is portrayed

[0021] FIG. 1Illustration of the frontal view of a preferred embodiment of the present captive cap.

[0022] FIG. 2Illustration of the rear view of the embodiment in FIG. 1.

[0023] FIG. 3Illustration of the lateral view of the embodiment in FIG. 1, in an unscrewed position.

[0024] FIG. 4Illustration of the lateral view of the embodiment in FIG. 1, in a laterally displaced position.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0025] A preferred embodiment of the captive cap is described below, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

[0026] FIG. 1 portrays the frontal view of the present embodiment, showing the following: [0027] the cap shell (1), [0028] the ring (2) retaining the same to the container, [0029] the two articulable arms (3A, 3B) with their forward extremities (31A, 31B) linked to the cap shell (1) and defining the frontal separation (31) between the two, their rearward extremities (32A, 32B) being linked to the ring (2), [0030] the upper frangible line (10), [0031] the lower frangible line (20), and [0032] the recess (21), located in said frontal separation (31) and projecting toward the cap shell (1).

[0033] In this preferred embodiment, the recess (21) comprises a horizontal upper section (21A) centred in said frontal separation (31), and two oblique sections (21i, 21i) at each side of the upper section (21A), these having a slope of 45?.

[0034] FIG. 2 portrays the rear view of the present embodiment, where the rearward extremities (32A, 32B) of the two articulable arms (3A, 3B) may also be seen, linked to the ring (2), these defining the rearward separation (32). In this rearward separation (32) we can see the cut-out (22), centred in, and in this embodiment, coinciding on the same plane as, the lower frangible line (20).

[0035] Throughout the length of the frangible lines (10, 20), prior to opening, the cap shell (1), the ring (2) and the articulable arms (3A, 3B) are linked by one or more regularly- or irregularly-distributed bridges (10, 20), whose dimensions are designed to be easily torn by a user when unscrewing the cap shell (1). The frangible lines (10, 20) and the respective bridges (10, 20) may be created when moulding the cap or subsequently, by means of cutting operations.

[0036] FIG. 3 portrays laterally a condition of the captive cap where the cap shell (1) is separated vertically from the articulable arms (3A, 3B) and the ring (2). This position is equivalent to the position adopted by the cap shell (1) when unscrewed from the container. Given that in this embodiment the geometry of the articulable arms (3A, 3B) is symmetric with regard to the sagittal plane of the ring (2), one of the articulable arms (3A) is hidden by the other.

[0037] FIG. 4 portrays another condition of the captive cap, where in this case the cap shell (1) is displaced laterally. This position is equivalent to a possible final open position of the captive cap (1). As has been portrayed schematically, the joints between the articulable arms (3A, 3B) are twisted or distorted. However, on the one hand thanks to the recess (21) and on the other hand to the cut-out (22), these joints have less rigidity and less resilience, causing the cap shell (1) to remain unmoving in said final open position, causing no difficulty to the user. Likewise, the dimensions of the articulable arms (3A, 3B) are suited to be articulated in such a way that the cap shell (1), in its unscrewed condition, is susceptible to be displaced to one side of the neck of the container without rotating on any spatial axis and without returning when released.