FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
The invention relates to a system for packaging and marketing / selling of inflammable liquid products in a pilferproof, safe, user and transport friendly manner.
BACKGROUND:
Bottles for soft drinks, beer, milk and other beverages are often stored and transported during the distributing stages thereof in short-walled cardboard trays or in cardboard boxes. These cardboard structures are generally not rugged enough for reuse and therefore must be broken down and discarded by the retailer at his expense. This not only creates a costly and labor intensive process for the retailer, but also contributes to the problem of environmental waste. In addition, the paperboard cartons are flimsy and can collapse when wet.
An example of a prior art cardboard case is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,752,385 to Woodgate. This case additionally provides a plastic divider which, when placed in the case, forms separate bottle receiving compartments. The plastic divider, however, does not overcome the aforementioned disadvantages generally associated with paperboard boxes. Thus, there has been a need for returnable and reusable case for storing and transporting bottles and the like. This case should be light weight, easy to manipulate and carry, able to hold and separate two bottles from each other and economically construed.
Reusable plastic trays have been developed for transporting and storing the bottles. In U.S. Patent No. 4,823,955 these trays often have a height which is greater than the height of the bottles contained therein such that when stacked, the trays do not rest on top of the bottles of the lower
tray. Rather, the sides of the tray bear the loads of the upper tray and their contents.
In "castle crate" design of the tray disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,899,874, a plurality of columns project upwardly from bottom crate portion and together with the side walls help define a plurality of bottle retaining pockets. These columns are hollow to permit empty crates to stack top to bottom. These low profile empty crates have spaced side columns to provide added strength and yet still expose the containers therein.
However, divided crates are used in industry today to transport a variety of goods. Such divided crates have an open compartment into which the goods are placed. When transporting bottles or the like, typical crates do not allow the bottles to maintain an upright or aligned configuration but instead allow for play. Such alignment is desirable particularly when crates are stacked upon one another. Bottles can tilt away from vertical alignment upon stacking if conventional partitioned cases having low side walls are used to contain the bottles. Tilted bottles in the lower cases of a stack may cause the stack to fall. Above all a glass bottle may be broken and the fluid may come out.
Further, U.S. Patent No. 5,351,814 discloses a case which maintains bottles in an upright position, it does not resolve the possibility that the labels may be subjected to wear from the case dividers and walls.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved crate for storing and transporting containers such as bottles, whereas, the bottles are stable, upright and do not tend to tilt from vertical. It should also have container like pockets with closed side walls and closed base structure capable of storing the product in case of breakage of the glass bottle, prohibiting it
from flowing outside, should be capable of stacking and cross-stacking, and bottle labels should be protected from rubbing, wear and other damages resulting from contact with the crate's dividers and/or walls.
U.S. Patent No. 7,252,196 discloses another prior art crate for storage and transportation of the bottles. The crate disclosed in this prior art has closed side walls and dividers resulting in plurality of pockets in the crate and also lid to cover the crate but has bottom surface with projections and not the closed bottom.
In U.S. Patent No. 4,592,475 and 4,673,158, a plastic pilfer-proof, screw-on bottle cap is disclosed having a substantially co-planar ring section attached thereto with frangible bridges.
And also the U.S. Patent No. 5,145,078 discloses a pilfer-proof cap but for plastic material.
However, none of the prior art discloses a complete system which can be used for packaging, transporting, storing and selling the petroleum products more particularly petrol, diesel, kerosene and lubricating oils.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
Petroleum products like kerosene, gasoline, diesel or lubricating oils are highly inflammable and need extra care in transportation or storage of these products. Day-by-day depletion of world's petroleum resources and increasing International price of crude petroleum touching a new high of US$140/ - per barrel and expected to touch a level of US$200/- in coming days, has led the world to think about the conservation of petroleum products and minimize the wastage. Petroleum products being highly inflammable are handled with extra care. Petroleum products like
diesel and gasoline used as fuel in vehicles are sold at the petrol pumps which are highly protected and no-smoking, no-flame zones.
Whereas, the kerosene is normally used as fuel in jet engines, kerosene lamps and lanterns. One other major use of kerosene is as fuel in stoves for cooking food. While petrol(Gasoline) and diesel are sold with intensive care at petrol pumps, the kerosene is normally sold at shops where it is stored in open containers and is sold by filling and refilling in small bottles or in small plastic jericans. Even the petrol and diesel are also sometimes sold in small mineral water, plastic or glass bottles for domestic use. Storing and selling the petroleum products in such a manner is always hazardous and inviting a disaster to take place. There are a number of people who visit these shops and smoking or a little sparking or even a short circuit cannot be ruled out practically and completely. In case of such an event, the vapours of the petroleum product present in the atmosphere will easily catch the fire which may result in loss of life or property or both.
Further, the bottles in which these products are carried by the customer, are often open bottles without a cap and/ or the cap is leaking and not air-tight or pilferproof. This once again leads to the same type of risks to the entire community which comes in the way from shop to the user's home.
Therefore, there was always felt a need for a complete system which could enable the safe packaging of the petroleum product in small, easy to transport and easy to handle user friendly device. Also was the need felt for a transportation system which could carry the filled device safely with minimum risk of breakage or wastage to the retail outlets, where it has to be sold off. Also, it was felt that the system should have a device for filling the product with a pilferproof, tamperproof and non-refillable
structure. And most importantly it should be environment friendly and non-polluting.
To fulfill the above requirements, the present invention relates to a pilferproof, safe, user and transport friendly system for packaging, marketing and usage of inflammable (liquid) products comprising:
(i) a crate for transporting the glass bottles; further
comprising a solid bottom surface; side walls in a
rectangular shape, each wall perpendicular to each other;
ribs on walls and bottom to provide additional strength to
the crate; inner space of the crate divided into 12 pockets,
each of the size to tightly hold the glass bottles; all four
dividing walls of each pocket having an angular shape at
the bottom to provide additional support to hold the
bottles; and
(ii) a glass bottle; further comprising ultra thin walls to
minimize the weight of the bottles and transparent
cylindrical bottle with threaded neck;
(iii) a pilferproof cap for the bottle comprising vents, liner and
pilferproof ring; said cap is made of aluminium; cap has polyethylene liner inside the cap for closing the ventilation when the cap is screwed back to avoid leakage; ring coming out with the cap when seal is broken and the cap is opened.
The above said inflammable liquid products can be selected from the group consisting of petroleum fuel, diesel, kerosene, motor sprit and gasoline.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS:
FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the crate.
FIGURE 2 is front view of the bottle in an upright and a sealed cap
position.
FIGURE 3 is a side view of the cap in broken seal position.
FIGURE 4 is top plan view of the components of the system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
Figure 1 shows the crate of the system having integrated pockets as well as bottom and side closed wall surfaces to restrict the spillage of the highly inflammable petroleum product out of the system, in case of breakage of the bottle. The figure 1 also shows twelve pocketed crate with inward slant in the sides of each pocket increasing towards the bottom for snug fitting of bottles. The height of the pockets is little more than the half the height of the bottle to avoid rattling during transit, and little less than the handle openings on side walls, to facilitate any spilled kerosene to flow into other pockets, instead of spilling out from crate. Ribs have been provided on sides and bottom of the crate to impart strength to the crate. Each side wall has been provided with integrated strong grips for ease of handling. The crate is scientifically developed to minimize the overall weight of the crate. The crate's weight is about 2 kilogram which can accommodate 12 bottles each filled with 1.0 liter of petroleum product together totaling to 20 kilogram payload, which is just the optimum packaging load to be handled by a single person. The manufacturing material of the crate is virgin HDPE which is completely recyclable. The blue colour of the crate is widely accepted safest global colour and more particularly is global colour code for packaging kerosene. Bottom and side closed designs of the crate help to effectively contain spilled kerosene or other inflammable petroleum products in case of breakage of glass bottle during transportation.
Figure 2 shows the shape and design of the glass bottle in an upright, sealed cap position. The bottle is very light weight and thin walled, made from glass. The glass is selected instead of plastic due to it's ecofriendly, non-polluting, recyclable nature.
Figure 3 show the side view of the pilferproof metal cap in an open cap position. As it is also clearly shown in the figure 3, the ring of the cap comes out alongwith the cap when the seal is broken. This pilferproof cap is meant to provide a leakage resistant, temperproof and non-sealable at the local level, sealing device to the bottle.
Figure 4 shows all three components of the system when taken together but not in a ready to use position.

We claim:
1. A pilfer proof, safe, user and transport friendly apparatus for
marketing and usage of inflammable liquid products comprising: a light
weight crate (10) for transporting bottles (20) with pilfer proof caps(30)
wherein the crate (10) comprises a solid closed bottom surface (6) and
closed side walls (1) in a rectangular shape, each wall arranged
perpendicular to one another and having a handle opening (2) wherein
the inner space of the crate (10) is divided into 12 pockets (3) for snug
fitting and easy handling, each pocket having a slanted base (5) to
ensure the close grip of the bottle (20), said slant being inward in the
sides of each pocket (3), increasing towards the bottom (6) of the pocket.
2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inflammable liquid product is petroleum fuel.
3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inflammable liquid product is diesel.
4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inflammable liquid product is kerosene.
5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inflammable liquid product is motor sprit or gasoline.
6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bottom surface (6) and side walls (l)of the crate (10) being integrated with ribs (4) to provide additional strength to the crate (10).
7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the height of the pockets (3) is little more than half the height of the bottle (20) and little less than the handle opening (2) on the side wall(l).
8. An apparatus as claimed in claims 1-3, wherein the crate (10) is
manufactured from HDPE having weight of about 2 kilograms.
9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bottle(20) is
cylindrical glass bottle having minimum curves and uniform distribution
of glass along the vertical axis of the bottle to optimize stress and
strength.
10. An apparatus as claimed in claims 1 and 9, wherein the glass bottle
(20) has ultra thin walls to minimize the weight of the bottle.
11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the glass bottle (20) is
transparent cylindrical bottle with threaded neck.
12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cap (30) has
pilferproof, temper evident breakable ring (8).
13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the cap (30) is made
of aluminium.
14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12 and 13, wherein the cap (30) has ventilation (7) to allow highly volatile vapors escape during unscrewing of the cap (30).
15. An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 and 12 to 14, wherein the cap (30) has polyethylene liner inside the cap for closing the ventilation when the cap (30) is screwed back to avoid leakage.
16. An apparatus such as herein described in the description with reference to the foregoing tables, examples and drawings.