Lid made of fibrous material

Abstract

A lid consisting of fibrous material, in particular of fibrous material containing cellulose fibers, for at least partly covering an opening of a container is provided. The lid comprises a domed portion which is configured to at least partly cover the container opening and an attachment portion which externally surrounds the domed portion at least in portions. The lid attachment portion is configured to attach the lid to a counter attachment portion in the region of the opening of the container, preferably on an opening edge delimiting the container opening of the container. The lid can be formed at least in portions, preferably completely, from a uniform material with respect to its constituents, and the lid can have material characteristics which differ in different regions within a portion of a uniform material composition.

Claims

1. A lid constructed from a fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and configured to at least partly cover an opening of a container, the lid comprising: a domed portion which is configured to at least partly cover the opening of the container, and an attachment portion which at least partially externally surrounds the domed portion and is configured to attach the lid to a counter attachment portion of the container, wherein the counter attachment portion of the container is located around a perimeter edge of the opening of the container, wherein the lid includes a first lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and a second lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres, wherein the first lid part has a first set of material characteristics comprising a first density, a first surface roughness, a first flexural strength, and a first porosity, wherein the second lid part has a second set of material characteristics comprising a second density, a second surface roughness, a second flexural strength, and a second porosity, wherein at least one material characteristic of the first set of material characteristics differs from a corresponding at least one material characteristic of the second set of material characteristics, wherein the first and the second densities are defined by the number of cellulose fibres per unit volume of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres, wherein the first density is less than the second density, and wherein the first lid part comprises the attachment portion and the second lid part comprises the domed portion.

2. The lid according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the supporting region is configured for supporting the lid on the counter attachment portion of the container and at least partially contacting the counter attachment portion when the lid is in an attached state, and wherein the undercut region has a smaller clearance than the supporting region and is configured for at least partially engaging an exterior side of the counter attachment portion of the container when the lid is in the attached state.

3. The lid according to claim 2 wherein the domed portion comprises an outer peripheral wall extending generally upward from the supporting region of the attachment portion and a central covering wall extending generally across the outer peripheral wall, wherein the first lid part comprises the supporting region and the second lid part comprises the outer peripheral wall, wherein at least one of the first density is greater than the second density, the first surface roughness is less than the second surface roughness, the first flexural strength is greater than the second flexural strength, and the first porosity is greater than the second porosity.

4. The lid according to claim 1, wherein as a transition region between the domed portion and the attachment portion, the lid comprises a concavely curved grooved region when observing an outside of the lid which is directed away from the container when the lid is attached as intended to the container, wherein the concavely curved grooved region forms a recess between the domed portion and the attachment portion.

5. The lid according to claim 4, wherein the second density is greater than the first density by not more than 25%.

6. The lid according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the lid further comprises a peripheral region which externally surrounds the attachment portion and extends outwards away from the undercut region.

7. A lid constructed from a fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and configured to at least partly cover an opening of a container, the lid comprising: a domed portion which is configured to at least partly cover the opening of the container, and an attachment portion which at least partially externally surrounds the domed portion and is configured to attach the lid to a counter attachment portion of the container, wherein the counter attachment portion of the container is located around a perimeter edge of the opening of the container, wherein the lid includes a first lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and a second lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres, wherein the first lid part has a first set of material characteristics comprising a first density, a first surface roughness, a first flexural strength, and a first porosity, wherein the second lid part has a second set of material characteristics comprising a second density, a second surface roughness, a second flexural strength, and a second porosity, wherein at least one material characteristic of the first set of material characteristics differs from a corresponding at least one material characteristic of the second set of material characteristics, wherein the first flexural strength is less than the second flexural strength, and wherein the first lid part comprises the attachment portion and the second lid part comprises the domed portion.

8. The lid according to claim 7, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the supporting region is configured for supporting the lid on the counter attachment portion of the container and at least partially contacting the counter attachment portion when the lid is in an attached state, and wherein the undercut region has a smaller clearance than the supporting region and is configured for at least partially engaging an exterior side of the counter attachment portion of the container when the lid is in the attached state.

9. The lid according to claim 8, wherein the domed portion comprises an outer peripheral wall extending generally upward from the supporting region of the attachment portion and a central covering wall extending generally across the outer peripheral wall, wherein the first lid part comprises the supporting region and the second lid part comprises the outer peripheral wall, wherein at least one of the first density is greater than the second density, the first surface roughness is less than the second surface roughness, the first flexural strength is greater than the second flexural strength, and the first porosity is greater than the second porosity.

10. The lid according to claim 7, wherein as a transition region between the domed portion and the attachment portion, the lid comprises a concavely curved grooved region when observing an outside of the lid which is directed away from the container when the lid is attached as intended to the container, wherein the concavely curved grooved region forms a recess between the domed portion and the attachment portion.

11. The lid according to claim 10, wherein the second flexural strength is not greater than the first flexural strength by not more than 25%.

12. The lid according to claim 7, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the lid further comprises a peripheral region which externally surrounds the attachment portion and extends outwards away from the undercut region.

13. A lid constructed from a fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and configured to at least partly cover an opening of a container, the lid comprising: a domed portion which is configured to at least partly cover the opening of the container, and an attachment portion which at least partially externally surrounds the domed portion and is configured to attach the lid to a counter attachment portion of the container, wherein the counter attachment portion of the container is located around a perimeter edge of the opening of the container, wherein the lid includes a first lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres and a second lid part consisting of the fibrous material containing cellulose fibres, wherein the first lid part has a first set of material characteristics comprising a first density, a first surface roughness, a first flexural strength, and a first porosity, wherein the second lid part has a second set of material characteristics comprising a second density, a second surface roughness, a second flexural strength, and a second porosity, wherein at least one material characteristic of the first set of material characteristics differs from a corresponding at least one material characteristic of the second set of material characteristics, wherein the first porosity is greater than the second porosity, and wherein the first lid part comprises the attachment portion and the second lid part comprises the domed portion.

14. The lid according to claim 13, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the supporting region is configured for supporting the lid on the counter attachment portion of the container and at least partially contacting the counter attachment portion when the lid is in an attached state, and wherein the undercut region has a smaller clearance than the supporting region and is configured for at least partially engaging an exterior side of the counter attachment portion of the container when the lid is in the attached state.

15. The lid according to claim 14, wherein the domed portion comprises an outer peripheral wall extending generally upward from the supporting region of the attachment portion and a central covering wall extending generally across the outer peripheral wall, wherein the first lid part comprises the supporting region and the second lid part comprises the outer peripheral wall, wherein at least one of the first density is greater than the second density, the first surface roughness is less than the second surface roughness, the first flexural strength is greater than the second flexural strength, and the first porosity is greater than the second porosity.

16. The lid according to claim 13, wherein as a transition region between the domed portion and the attachment portion, the lid comprises a concavely curved grooved region when observing an outside of the lid which is directed away from the container when the lid is attached as intended to the container, wherein the concavely curved grooved region forms a recess between the domed portion and the attachment portion.

17. The lid according to claim 16, wherein and the first porosity is greater than the second porosity by not more than 25%.

18. The lid according to claim 15, wherein the attachment portion comprises a supporting region extending generally horizontally away from the domed portion and an undercut region extending generally perpendicularly away from the supporting region, wherein the lid further comprises a peripheral region which externally surrounds the attachment portion and extends outwards away from the undercut region.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) In the following, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying figures. These figures illustrate a preferred embodiment of the present invention:

(2) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a lid according to the invention,

(3) FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the lid of FIG. 1 in a cross-sectional plane which contains the lid axis,

(4) FIG. 3 shows a detail enlargement of the cross-sectional view of the attachment portion of the lid of FIGS. 1 and 2 in a state attached to a container, and

(5) FIG. 4 is substantially the view of FIG. 3 with the lid released from the container.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(6) In FIG. 1, a lid which is preferably formed completely from material containing cellulose fibres is generally denoted by reference numeral 10. To facilitate its handling, the lid 10 can be configured to be approximately rotationally symmetrical with respect to a lid axis D which passes through the centre of the lid 10.

(7) The lid 10 has a domed portion 12 which is located radially relatively close to the lid axis D and also has an attachment portion 14 which preferably radially surrounds the outside of the domed portion 12 and preferably completely surrounds the domed portion 12 in order to provide the most reliable attachment possible of the lid to a container.

(8) The domed portion 12 has a covering region 16 which is preferably located radially relatively close to the lid axis D and which, in the illustrated example, extends substantially orthogonally or at a slight incline to the lid axis D but, in a deviation to this, can be configured to be concavely or convexly curved at least in portions.

(9) In the covering region 16, an introduction opening and/or removal opening 18 can be provided which allows the handling and/or removal of contents of a container covered by the lid 10.

(10) The domed portion 10 can have beyond the covering region 16 an outer wall region 20 which can have a roughly conical shape to provide the container, to which the lid 10 is attached, with a protected volume beyond the attachment portion 14 in the axial direction of the lid axis D, for example in the case of foaming beverages such as cappuccino or beer, to provide space in the covered container for a froth which may be present.

(11) While in the illustrated example the covering region has a mainly radial extension, but it only has a small axial extension in the region of its radial extension, the outer wall region 20 has a substantially smaller radial extension than axial extension in the region of its axial extension.

(12) In order to desirably reinforce the domed portion 12 and thus the lid 10, the entire outer wall region 20 can have a reinforcing shape, for example in the form of bulges (not shown) which are distributed along the periphery and taper in the axial direction.

(13) The attachment region 14 which is also shown on an enlarged scale in FIGS. 3 and 4 can have a supporting region 24 which is configured in particular to come into a contacting engagement with a counter attachment portion 26 of a container 28 on which the lid 10 is to be used. The counter attachment portion 26 used is preferably a peripheral bead for the mouth, which radially outwardly delimits a container opening 30, of the container 28. This has the advantage that with the peripheral bead for the mouth which is present anyway to provide a pleasant drinking sensation, a sufficiently stable counter attachment portion 26 is provided in a suitable area of the container 28 to be able to seat the lid 10 thereon in a stable manner.

(14) For this reason, at least the attachment portion 14 of a lid is usually configured to be rotationally symmetrical and can be used to determine the lid axis D even if the domed portion 12 deviates from a rotational symmetry.

(15) Due to its convexly curved, substantially toroidal outer shape, the peripheral bead for the mouth, as the counter attachment portion 26, allows the lid 10 to be secured by producing a releasable locking engagement of the lid 10, in particular of the attachment portion 14 thereof, with the counter attachment portion 26 of the container 28.

(16) For this purpose, preferably configured in the attachment portion 14 is an undercut region 32 which has, at least in portions, a smaller clearance than the adjacent supporting region 24. In the illustrated example, this is due to accumulations 34 of material (see FIG. 4) which are advantageously provided on the inside of the lid 10 directed towards the lid axis D in the case of the attachment portion 14 which preferably radially surrounds the outside of the cup 28. Thus, a surface of the material accumulations 34 has a smaller radial distance from the lid axis D than a surface portion, located in the same direction from the lid axis D, of the supporting region 24.

(17) As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the material accumulations 34 can be provided at a distance from one another in the circumferential direction or alternatively can be provided in a continuously encircling manner.

(18) The attachment of the lid 10 to the cup 28 with a radial engagement over the counter attachment portion 26 on the outside is clearly preferred since, with this type of attachment, the container wall 36 which possibly emanates from the counter attachment portion 26, does not disturb the securing of the lid 10 on the container 28.

(19) When the lid 10 is attached to the cup which usually also extends along a cup axis, the cup axis and the lid axis D preferably run collinearly.

(20) A radially outwardly directed peripheral portion 38 emanating from the undercut region 32 in the attachment portion 14 can be provided as a hand grip protection or also as an information carrier.

(21) The regions with a mainly radial extension, such as the covering region 16, the supporting region 24 and/or the peripheral region 18, if present, preferably have the highest densities and/or the greatest flexural strengths and/or the lowest surface roughnesses and/or the lowest porosities of all the mentioned regions. This means that a particularly stable lid is produced which can be securely supported on the counter attachment portion 26 of the container 28 in particular due to the bending resistant configuration of the supporting region 24.

(22) The peripheral region 38 which is also resistant to bending and which is located completely outside radially provides the lid 10 with a further dimensional stability.

(23) However, the undercut region 32 and a grooved region 40 which is preferably positioned between the outer wall region 20 and the supporting region 24 and which will be described in more detail further below have the lowest density and/or the lowest flexural strength and/or the greatest surface roughness and/or the greatest porosity of all the regions mentioned above.

(24) As a result of the low flexural strength of the undercut region 32, the force required for producing the releasable lock of the lid 10 on the container 28 can be reduced, which facilitates the attachment of the lid 10 to the container 28. This is particularly helpful in the majority of cases when the lid 10 is attached to a container 28 which has already been filled with liquid, because low locking forces help to prevent an accidental and undesirable tilting of the container 28 and thus an at least partial spillage of the contents thereof.

(25) At the same time, a surface roughness which is particularly increased in the undercut region 26 can on the one hand improve the seat of the lid on the container 28 due to an increased friction and can also increase the grip security of the user handling the lid 10, which is particularly advantageous during the production of the releasable lock of the lid 10 on the counter attachment portion 36 of the container 28.

(26) The low flexural strength of the grooved region 40 ensures an advantageous mechanical uncoupling of the domed portion 12 from the attachment portion 14, so that forces which may act on the domed portion 12, in particular jolt-like forces do not result in the lid 10 becoming detached from the container 28 and also are not transmitted in full strength onto the container 28, so that in this case as well, the risk of an undesirable jolt-induced tilting of the container 28 covered by the lid 10 is reduced.

(27) Due to the low density of the grooved region 40 and thus due to the lower fibre content per unit of volume, the mobility of the individual fibres is increased compared to denser regions of the lid 10, which in particular gives the grooved region 40 an inner damping which makes it possible to dampen in a radially outwards direction impulses acting on the domed portion 12.

(28) Furthermore, the regions of a lower density generally have, due to their lower fibre content per volume fraction, a higher porosity and thus a higher absorptivity compared to denser regions of the lid 10. If the container 28 provided with the lid 10 is tilted too far, these regions can thus absorb liquid in a capillary manner and store it in the volume of the lid 10 before this liquid undesirably spills out of the container 28 provided with the lid 10. The inversely proportional correlation between density and porosity does not have to exist, however, for example if sufficient pore-filling material is added to the lid material. Thus, the lid can be impregnated for example, which eliminates the porosity without compensating for the differences in density.

(29) The outer wall region 20 preferably has for its density and/or its flexural strength and/or its surface roughness and/or its porosity, values which on the one hand lie between those for the covering region 16, supporting region 24 and peripheral region 38 and on the other hand those for the undercut region 32 and grooved region 40. Thus, even in the outer wall region 20, the lid is absorbent at the same time as having an adequate dimensional stability, secure-grip surface roughness and deformability by the user gripping the lid.

(30) For example, the fibre content in the covering region 16, supporting region 24 and peripheral region 38 can be approximately 60 fibres per mm.sup.3.

(31) Furthermore, the increased density in these regions, particularly in the covering region 16 and peripheral region 38 allows selective stamping procedures, for example for stamping the lid 10 out of a composite material or for providing the opening 18 in the covering region 16.

(32) The fibre content in the outer wall region 20 can be, for example, 50 fibres per mm.sup.3, while the fibre content in the grooved region 40 and in the undercut region 32 can be, for example 40 fibres per mm.sup.3. These values are only approximate and depend on the length and diameter of the fibres used.

(33) The grooved region 40 forms a recess 42 between the domed portion 12 and the attachment portion 14 such that a base 44 of the grooved region 40 has an axial distance A from the covering region 16 which is greater than the axial distance a of the portion region 24 from the same covering region 16.

(34) If the covering region 16 is not rotationally symmetrical, the mentioned measurements are to be taken with identical angle coordinates.

(35) However, if a reference plane E is used which is substantially orthogonal to the lid axis D, preferably defined from the peripheral region 38 and which, in FIG. 2, is orthogonal to the plane of the drawing of this figure, then conversely it applies that the distance b of the base 44 from the reference plane is shorter than the distance B1 of the supporting region 24 from the same reference plane E and is likewise shorter than the axial distance B2 of the covering region 16 from the reference plane E.

(36) Therefore, it is possible for liquid which issues undesirably, for example through the opening 18 in the covering region 16 due to the full container 28 being shaken too vigorously, to be collected in the grooved region 40 before it can spill over the hand and/or clothing of a person using the cup 28 with the lid 10. Thus, even if the grooved region 40, which is very absorbent compared to other regions of the lid 10 is saturated, i.e. soaked with liquid, it is still possible for liquid to be collected before it reaches the user of the covered container 28 in question.

(37) The lid 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4 is produced from a material of a uniform composition with respect to the constituents. This means that even if there should be differences in density in the individual regions of the lid 10, these differences in density are formed in one and the same material.

(38) The advantageous differences in the material characteristics of one and the same material in the lid 10 can be produced by an advantageous compression moulding process in which regions of a lid are subjected to the moulding pressure of a different force and/or with a different frequency and/or for a different duration.

(39) Furthermore, following possible punching and/or cutting procedures, the lid 10 can be provided with an impregnation and/or a surface coating to prevent fibres from coming out of the material in the stamped or cut areas.