Claims:We claim:
1. A tamper-evident closure for a receptacle having a cylindrical neck (1) with a mouth (2), the tamper-evident closure including:
a cap (10), made of a single molded part, adapted to close the mouth (2) of the receptacle;
a capsule (20), made of a single molded part, with a lower portion (21) with coupling configurations adapted retain the lower portion around the cylindrical neck (1) of the container and an upper portion (22) surrounding the cap (10), preventing the opening thereof, the upper portion (22) being or including a capsule tear-off seal detachable from the lower portion (21) by breakage, the capsule tear-off seal including a gripping tab (23);
characterized in that
the cap (10) includes a cap twist-off seal (11) including anti-rotational coupling configurations (12) adapted to be attached to the cylindrical neck (1) and adapted to urge the cap twist-off seal (11), or portions thereof, outwards in a radial direction when the cap (10) is rotated in regard to the cylindrical neck (1) producing a break of the twist-off seal (11).
2. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 1 wherein the anti-rotational coupling configurations (12) are downward projecting retaining tabs radially distributed around the cap (10), defining housings in between adapted to house radial protrusions (3) of the cylindrical neck (1).
3. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 2 wherein an upper region (11a) of the twist-off seal (11) is surrounded by the upper portion (22) of the capsule (20) and a lower region (11b) of the cap twist-off seal (11), including at least a portion of the downward projecting retaining tabs, is surrounded by the lower portion (21) of the capsule (20), preventing the expansion of the lower region (11b) in the outwards radial direction.
4. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 1 wherein the cap twist-off seal (11) is adapted to be retained around the cylindrical neck (1) of the container above the lower portion (21) of the capsule (20).
5. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 1 wherein the cap (10) includes threaded engagement configurations adapted to attach the cap to the receptacle in a releasable repeatable manner.
6. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claims 1 wherein the cap twist-off seal (11) is a continuous annular cap twist-off seal.
7. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 6 wherein the cap twist-off seal (11) is connected to the rest of the cap (10) through an annular weakened line (13) between the cap twist-off seal (11) and the rest of the cap (10), said annular weakened line (13) being adapted to break when the cap twist-off seal (11) is urged in an outwards radial direction.
8. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 7 wherein the annular weakened line (13) includes at least one reinforced weakened portion (14), which retain the cap twist-off seal (11) connected to the rest of the cap (10) after the break of the cap twist-off seal (11), but which can be manually teared off.
9. The tamper-evident closure as claimed in claim 6, 7 or 8 wherein the cap twist-off seal (11) includes at least one transversal weakened line (15) defining a break point of the continuous annular cap twist-off seal (11), said transversal weakened line (15) being adapted to break when the cap twist-off seal (11) is urged in an outwards radial direction. , Description:Technical field
[01] The present invention is directed towards a tamper-evident closure for a receptacle having a cylindrical beck with a mouth, typically a glass bottle.
[02] The proposed tamper-evident closure includes a cap and a capsule and is a closure that can only be opened producing a partial destruction thereof, which cannot be later reconstructed, providing an observable evidence that the closure has been never open, ensuring the quality of the content of the receptacle.
[03] In the present case the proposed closure includes two different tamper-evident seals, one in the capsule and another in the cap.
State of the Art
[04] Tamper-evident closures are known in the art. These closures generally include a cap, which is removably associated with the rest of the closure, and a tamper-evident element, which is used to provide first opening evidence.
[05] GB2285623 discloses a tamper-evident closure that comprises a pouring device defining a pouring orifice, a skirt for fixing the pouring device to the container neck, a cap for engaging and disengaging the pouring device to close the pouring orifice and a hood that internally surrounds the skirt and the cap and has an annular portion permanently engaging a lower portion of the skirt. The hood comprises a tear strip which is configured to leave the annular portion engaged with the skirt when the tear strip is torn, thereby providing evidence of first opening of the closure.
[06] EP1818272 discloses a tamper-evident closure comprising a cap for engaging and disengaging the pouring orifice of a pouring device fixed to the mouth of a container and a hood that surrounds the cap and has an annular portion permanently engaging the container neck. The hood comprises a tear strip which is configured to leave the annular portion engaged with the container neck when the tear strip is torn, thereby providing evidence of first opening of the closure.
[07] The above closures have the drawback of not being immune from fraudulent attempts to restore the closure into the configuration it had prior to the first opening by counterfeiters. A counterfeiter may remove not only the part joined to the strip but also, rather easily, the part that remains on the container. Then, the counterfeiter may open the cap, replace the content of the container with some other low-quality content, close the cap and apply a new hood with a seal strip, thereby exactly restoring the closure and container to the configuration they had prior to the first opening.
[08] DE102014011539A1 describes a closure including a capsule with a tamper-evident closure and also a cap with an additional tamper-evident closure. The capsule can be completely removed by tearing off the tear-off seal, and the cap can be opened by rotating the cap, producing the breakage of a weakened line between the cap and lower portion of the cap, which remains attached to the cylindrical neck of the receptacle.
[09] The broken weakened line is hardly noticeable and can be re-attached with adhesives to provide the breaking feeling.
[10] WO2013132384A1 also describes a similar solution but including a tear-off seal band to release the cap, but the gripping tab of this band is not easy to be grasped, because it has to be small enough to be contained under the capsule before it is detached.
[11] Therefore, a need arises in the art as described above for a tamper- evident closure with a tear-off seal, whereby restoration of the closure to the configuration it had prior to the first opening is prevented or at least becomes highly complicated and expensive, and which is easily openable by the user.
Brief description of the invention
[12] The present invention is directed towards a tamper-evident closure for a receptacle having a cylindrical neck with a mouth, the tamper-evident closure including, in a manner already known in the state of the art:
a cap, made of a single molded part, adapted to close the mouth of the receptacle;
a capsule, made of a single molded part, with a lower portion with coupling configurations adapted retain the lower portion around the cylindrical neck of the container and an upper portion surrounding the cap, preventing the opening thereof, the upper portion being or including a capsule tear-off seal detachable from the lower portion by breakage, the capsule tear-off seal including a gripping tab.
[13] According to that, the capsule prevents an unintended opening of the cap, which is housed within the capsule.
[14] The lower portion includes coupling configurations, for example gripping means, adapted to allow an insertion of the capsule around the cylindrical neck in an axial direction but preventing the extraction thereof in said axial direction. This coupling configuration can be, for example, a tapered configuration oriented downwards in combination with a stepped configuration oriented upwards.
[15] It will be understood that the orientation definitions, such axial, radial, annular, upwards, downwards, etc, are referenced to a central vertical axis, concentric with the capsule and with the cap which preferably have a generally cylindrical shape. Said central vertical axis is intended to be coincident with the central axis of the cylindrical neck once the closing is coupled thereto.
[16] The upper portion of the capsule is a capsule tear-off seal, or includes a tear-off seal, with a gripping tab, allowing a user to grip an initial end of the tear-off seal and to tear the tear-off seal completely detaching the upper portion from the lower portion. Once the upper portion of the capsule has been removed, the cap is exposed and accessible to the user.
[17] The present invention further comprises the following features, which are not known from the available state of the art:
the cap includes a cap twist-off seal including anti-rotational coupling configurations adapted to be attached to the cylindrical neck and adapted to urge the cap twist-off seal, or portions thereof, outwards in a radial direction when the cap is rotated in regard to the cylindrical neck producing a break of the twist-off seal.
[18] According to that, the anti-rotational coupling configurations prevent non-destructive rotation of the cap, because when the cap rotates in regard to the cylindrical neck an expansion force is applied to the cap twist-off seal, produced by said anti-rotational coupling configurations in combination with the cylindrical neck, pushing the twist-off seal outwards in the radial direction producing its expansion and breakage, providing an additional tamper evidence.
[19] Those anti-rotational coupling configurations are adapted to be housed around the cylindrical neck in a first angular position, surrounding regions of the cylindrical neck with a first outer diameter without producing expansion force and to be moved to a second angular position, dragged by the rotation of the cap, said anti-rotational coupling configurations surrounding regions of the cylindrical neck with a second outer diameter bigger than the first outer diameter, producing an expansion force in an outward radial direction on the twist-off seal, producing its breakage through weakened lines.
[20] According to one embodiment of the present invention the anti-rotational coupling configurations can be, for example, downward projecting retaining tabs radially distributed around the cap, defining housings in between adapted to house radial protrusions of the cylindrical neck radially distributed around the cylindrical neck.
[21] When the radial protrusions of the cylindrical neck are housed in the housings between the downward projecting retaining tabs, the anti-rotational coupling configurations produce no expansion force, but when the cap rotates, the anti-rotational coupling configurations are dragged to a position overlapping the radial protrusions of the cylindrical neck, producing the expansion of the twist-off seal.
[22] Other features of the invention appear from the following detailed description of an embodiment.
Brief description of the Figures
[23] The foregoing and other advantages and features will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, to be taken in an illustrative and non-limitative manner, in which:
[24] Figs. 1 to 4 shown a perspective view of the tamper-evident closure coupled around a cylindrical neck of a receptacle in four different stages of the opening process corresponding to the successive stages of completely closed, the upper portion of the capsule removed, initial breakage of the cap twist-off seal and extraction of the cap from the mouth of the cylindrical neck with the cap twist-off seal;
[25] Figs. 5 to 8 shown exactly the same stages than Figs. 1 to 4 but in a vertical section view.
Detailed description of an embodiment
[26] The foregoing and other advantages and features will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, to be taken in an illustrative and not limitative.
[27] The attached figures shown a tamper-evident closure for a receptacle having a cylindrical neck 1 with a mouth 2.
[28] The tamper-evident closure includes a cap 10, made of a single molded part, adapted to close the mouth 2 of the receptacle. Typically, the cap 10 includes threaded engagement configurations adapted to attach the cap 10 to the receptacle in a releasable repeatable manner, as shown in Fig. 8.
[29] The cap further includes a cap twist-off seal 11, it is to say a seal which breaks when the cap 10 rotates.
[30] The cap twist-off seal 11 includes anti-rotational coupling configurations 12 in the form of downward projecting retaining tabs radially distributed around the cap 10, defining housings in between adapted to house radial protrusions 3 of the cylindrical neck 1.
[31] In this preferred embodiment, an upper region 11a of the cap twist-off seal 11 is surrounded by the upper portion 22 of the capsule 20, and a lower region 11b of the cap twist-off seal 11, including at least a portion of the downward projecting retaining tabs, is surrounded by the lower portion 21 of the capsule 20, preventing the expansion of the lower region 11b of the cap twist-off seal 11 in the outwards radial direction.
[32] According to that, when the upper portion 22 of the capsule 20 is removed, only the upper region 11a of the twist-off seal 11, and the rest of the cap 10 connected thereto, are exposed and accessible to the user, but the lower region 11b of the cap twist-off seal 11 remains covered by the lower portion 21 of the capsule 20, retaining at least the lower ends of the downward projecting retaining tabs under the lower portion 21 of the capsule 20. This feature makes more difficult the access and the unintended manipulation of the cap twist-off seal 11 and, once extracted, make more difficult its restoration to the original state.
[33] The outwards expansive force of the cap twist-off seal 11 in the radial direction is applied on the upper region 11a thereof, and because the lower region 11b cannot be expanded, a leverage effect is produced on the weakened lines 13 and 15 of the cap twist-off seal 11, facilitating breakage thereof.
[34] When the breakage of the cap twist-off seal 11 is produced, the lower region 11b of the cap twist-off seal 11 is extracted from the lower portion 21 of the capsule 20, providing an additional tamper evidence.
[35] Preferably the cap twist-off seal 11 is a continuous annular cap twist-off seal 11, surrounding the cylindrical neck 1.
[36] In this embodiment, the cap twist-off seal 11 is connected to the rest of the cap 10 through an annular weakened line 13 defined between the cap twist-off seal 11 and the rest of the cap 10, said annular weakened line 13 being adapted to break when urged in an outwards radial direction. Said annular weakened line 13 further includes at least one reinforced weakened portion 14 which ensures that the cap twist-off seal 11 remains partially attached to the rest of the cap 10 once it has been broken, ensuring the extraction from the cylindrical neck 1, and ensuring that a proper dragging of the cap twist-off seal 11 is produced during the rotation of the cap 10. Said reinforced weakened portion 14 can be manually tear off but requires more force to be broken than the rest of the weakened line 13.
[37] In addition, or as an alternative, to the annular weakened line 13, the cap twist-off seal 11 can include at least one transversal weakened line 15 defining a break point of the continuous annular cap twist-off seal 11, said transversal weakened line 15 being adapted to break when urged in an outwards radial direction, producing the interruption of the continuous annular cap twist-off seal 11.
[38] In will be understood that a weakened line can be defined by a local thickness reduction of the material, for example through a groove, by a discontinuous cut line or by discrete connection bridges connecting two portions of the material separated by a gap, and that the reinforced weakened portion will be a portion where said local thickness reduction is less pronounced, or where the discontinuous cut includes include a higher proportion of uncut sections, or includes thicker or more frequent bridges.
[39] It will be also understood that the upper and lower references are in regard to a bottle positioned in an upright position with the mouth in its upper end.