ES2282845T3 - BOTTLE CLOSURE. - Google Patents

Abstract

Bottle closure, which is constituted by a plastically deformable metal lid (12), which covers the bottle and has a knurled marginal area (15), which positively surrounds the bottle (13) in the closed state, as well as by a sealing element (1) fixedly connected with the metal lid (12), which is supported in the area of the opening of the bottle (13) therein, the sealing element (1) being constituted by a disc ( 2) which closes the opening of the bottle (13), in which an essentially cylindrical hollow section (3) is connected, which is inserted in the closed state in the opening of the bottle (13) and rests on the inner wall of the bottle (13), and in which a marginal area (4) of the disc (2) projects beyond the hollow cylindrical section (3) to be placed on the bottle (13), and in which, in addition, the marginal area (4) of the sealing element (1) has a sealing groove (5), which is intended for sealing n facing the bottle (13) in the area of its front surface, characterized in that the hollow cylindrical section (3) of the sealing element (1) is constituted by a base section (12), a central section (11) with inner surface and outer surface (9, 8) essentially cylindrical and by an introduction section (10) with a chamfer or rounding at the end, and because the hollow cylindrical section (3) presents in the area of the base section (12 ) on its inner side a toroidal transition surface (7), so that an accumulation of material is formed together with the transition to the sealing groove (5).

Description

Bottle closure

The invention relates to a bottle closure according to the preamble of claim 1 of the patent.

It is known from EP 0 798 225 A a closure of bottles of the type described above. In general, such closures are also designated as crown plugs. These They serve especially to close bottles, which contain drinks with Carbonic acid content, such as beer or lemonade. Crown caps have a very simple structure and can be manufacture with favorable cost. In a corresponding configuration of these crown caps, an effect of sufficient sealing to ensure a safe closure of the bottle and to ensure sufficient stability of drinks sensitive The stability of the beer depends essentially on the rate at which gases can be diffused through closure.

An alternative embodiment of the bottle closures are called type bottle closures crab, in which a closure element provided with a gasket seal is fixed on a fabricated lever construction, In general, wire, in the bottle and guarantees in the state closed a fixed seat of the sealing element. Such closures of Crab-type bottle possess, in addition to a shutter effect improved against a crown plug, the advantage of generating, to the opening, a loud and live "Plopp" noise. Such closures of Crab-type bottle are, however, expensive in the manufacturing and, therefore, cost intensive, and bottles equipped with such closures can only be integrated with difficulty in a safety circuit.

It has been proven that drinks, especially beers, offered in bottles with type bottle closures crab, are considered many times of higher quality, even when the content is identical with products offered in bottles with crown caps. The reason for this is noise "Plopp" described above during the opening of the bottle, which is not produced in closed bottles with caps Conventional construction type crown.

The problem of the present invention is develop a bottle closure of the type of construction described previously, so that without additional expense you can get a loud and alive noise during the opening of the bottle.

It is known from document AT 401.378 B a Two-part bottle closure for champagne bottles. The closure of bottles consists, on the one hand, of a crown cap of conventional construction type, that is, by a cover of sheet with a shutter plate arranged inside the sheet metal lid and with a one-piece plastic plug hollow cylindrical The closure of bottles is constituted of such so that the plastic cap remains, after the removal of the crown cap, first in the opening of the bottle and to then it can break along a groove pre-formed, to open the bottle. In this system known, both the plastic cap and the crown cap represent closure systems independent of each other, which is expresses, among other things, because the shutter plate of the crown plug must project radially beyond the plastic cap to rest directly on the bottle and from this way to make an independent sealing surface. He sealing effect of the plastic cap is performed main and exclusively along the surrounding surface of the piece hollow cylindrical gross, which presupposes a pressing correspondent.

The noise during the opening of the bottle does not It is of no importance in the case of a bottle closure of the type described above, since it is a closure provisional, which is only used during production and not Get in touch with the consumer. For the rest, an opening Selective bottle in such a closure can only be perform through the breakage of the plastic plug, which does not It causes considerable noise. Therefore, such a closure It is not adequate to fulfill the tasks described previously.

Another problem in the solution described in the document AT 401.378 B is that a bottle closure of this type can only be arranged in a convenient way in bottles with relatively small tolerated inside diameter in the mouth area If higher tolerances occur, then the plastic cap will present a part of the bottles with a tightening pressure not sufficient to ensure tightness. In another part of the bottles with relatively inside diameter reduced, however, in the normal production procedure not it is possible without difficulties to introduce the closure of bottles in the bottle.

In high quality drinks, such as champagne, it is possible to maintain relatively low tolerances in the manufacture of the bottles, since the production costs of the bottle compared to the product price only They have a relatively secondary importance. On the products in dough, such as beer or lemonades that contain carbonic acid, Bottle production costs are critical, and tolerances corresponding cannot be prescribed discretionally little.

It is known from EP 0 798 225 A -as already mentioned- a crown cap, which has a plug-shaped insert. A similar solution is shown in the document DE 1 432 107 A. It has been proven that the solutions represented in this publication are not suitable for generating from the described opening noise in a safe and reproducible way previously.

Another problem of the invention is, therefore, indicate a bottle closure, which can be inserted without interference also in the normal production cycle with bottles conventional.

According to the invention, these problems are solve through a bottle closure with the characteristics of claim 1 of the patent.

Especially through the forecast of a accumulation of material at the base of the hollow cylindrical section is make this hollow cylindrical section especially rigid to bending in the area of the transition to the disc, so that in this area you get especially good support against the bottle opening With such a construction you can get especially loud and melodious noises during the bottle opening In this context it is especially advantageous that the hollow cylindrical section present in the area of the section of base on its inner side a transition surface so toroidal, whose radius of curvature in the longitudinal section is greater than the wall thickness in the middle section area. From this way, it is possible for the metal lid to generate through a pressure on the sealing element in axial direction in the plate area a bending moment, which acts outward, in the hollow cylindrical section area, which implies an improvement Additional opening noise. It is especially advantageous here that the radius of curvature of the transition surface so toroidal be at least double the wall thickness in the area of the central section

It is especially advantageous that the element of sealing is integrally formed in a casting process by Injection in the metal lid. In this case the recognition that the shutter element must be connected fixedly with the metal lid, to be extracted with it. Other essential precondition for the functional capacity of the invention is that the primary sealing is performed in the area of the front surface of the bottle opening, where the element shutter is pressed through the metal cover on the bottle. In the area of the hollow cylindrical section of the element of shutter is carried out in effect in the same way a shutter, but due to the inevitable tolerances of the bottle production, this shutter would not be enough to less in a part of the bottles to guarantee resistance required for dissemination.

The solution according to the invention possible represent a closure of very structure bottles simple, that provides a very loud and live "Plopp" noise during the opening of the bottle, even if it is frozen.

In a preferred manner, the hollow cylindrical section is prestressed in the closed front state inside the bottle This previous tension is achieved, between other things, because the outer diameter of the cylindrical section hollow in the force-free state is larger than the diameter inside the bottle in the opening area.

A variant embodiment especially favorable of the invention provides that the sealing element is constituted by a material composed of ethyl methyl acrylate and a thermoplastic vulcanizing of a thermoplastic elastomer. With regarding difficult marginal conditions in manufacturing and in the application of the closure of the bottle, it has been considered to be Critical material selection. The material of the element of shutter must be soft enough to achieve an effect shutter also with relatively tight pressures reduced and, on the other hand, must be sufficiently rigid to can be introduced under pressure without problems in the opening of the bottle also at high production speeds. The material above meets these requirements in an optimal way and also It is in terms of cost within the admissible zone.

It is also especially advantageous that the section hollow cylindrical sealing element present a length which is less than the axial extension of the metal cover. Usually, bottle closures are transported from the production facility towards the filling facility as heap. Crashes that occur during transport can cause metal caps to damage sealing elements of Other closures. This danger is minimized because the elements Shutters are not projected onto the plane covered by the edge of the metal cover.

A shutter effect is achieved especially good because the shutter groove of the element of shutter has a cross section essentially trapezoidal

Another embodiment variant especially favorable of the invention provides that the base section is thickened in front of the central section and present a height, which is greater than the wall thickness of the central section. In this way, it get the hollow cylindrical section to be especially rigid to flexion in the area of the transition to the disc, so that in this area gets especially good support against the bottle opening With such a construction you can get especially loud and melodious noises during the bottle opening In this context, it is especially advantageous that the radius of curvature of the transition surface so toroidal be at least double the wall thickness in the area of the central section In this way it is possible that the metal lid generate through a pressure on the sealing element in axial direction in the area of the plate a bending moment, which acts outward, in the area of the hollow cylindrical section, which It implies a further improvement of the opening noise. Here it is especially advantageous than the radius of curvature of the surface Toroidal transition is at least twice the thickness of wall in the area of the central section.

Another favorable embodiment variant of the invention provides that the base section is configured on the side cone-shaped outer trunk and represent in axial direction more than half of the hollow cylindrical section. Specially in In this case, the base section can present a direct transition to the trapezoidal groove. In this variant embodiment it is especially advantageous that in the force-free state, the outer diameter at the end of the basic section is clearly greater than the inside diameter of the bottle in the area of the opening. In this way a deformation is carried out especially strong during the introduction of bottle closure during production in the base section of the section cylindrical This presupposes, in effect, relatively large forces during the introduction, which do not lead, however, to a Inadmissible destruction or deformation of the sealing element, since this one, at the moment in which these forces occur, It is already introduced relatively much in the bottle. It has been proven that in such an embodiment, it occurs a voltage state, which generates an opening noise especially attractive.

In a particularly preferred way, it is provided that the sealing element is constituted at least in part by a material that swells under the action of moisture, The so-called superabsorbents are usually used for this purpose to absorb unwanted moisture and to keep dry objects. This is especially the case, for example, in diapers Children's or food packaging. Super absorbent to Acrylic acid base are marketed with the designations Norsocryl®, Aquakeep® and Favor®. But they can also be used derivatives of phosphorylated starches, carbamidated, such as a product that can be obtained under the designation Carbion® S. A through the swelling an additional tension is generated in the hollow cylindrical section, which reinforces the opening noise, without the introduction of the sealing element during the bottle closure

The following explains in detail the present invention with the help of the embodiments shown In the figures. In this case:

Figure 1 shows a first variant of embodiment of a sealing element according to the invention in section.

Figure 2 shows a bottle closure placed on a bottle with the sealing element of the Figure 1.

Figures 3 and 4 show other variants of realization of sealing elements in a section according to Figure 1, and

Figure 5 shows another variant embodiment of a bottle closure in the section.

The sealing element 1 of Figure 1 is constituted by a disk 2, in which a hollow cylindrical section 3 is integrally formed. The disk 2 has a marginal zone 4, which projects beyond the hollow cylindrical section 3 and which It has a circumferential sealing groove 5, which is configured to rest on the front surface of a bottle opening and to form a hermetic seal.
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The hollow cylindrical section 3 has on one side bottom a rounded area 6, which should ensure an insertion without sealing element 1 problems in the opening of the bottle. On the inner side, the hollow cylindrical section 3 passes with a transition surface 7 toroidally towards disk 2. The outer peripheral surface 8 and inner surface 9 of the hollow cylindrical section 3 are parallel in a middle area in the section, that is, they are concentric. This section area hollow cylindrical 3 with height h as axial extension is designated with central section 11 and connects at the top in a introduction section 10, which features rounding 6. On the side upper is connected in the central section 11 a base section 12, which is bounded on the inner side by the surface of toroidal transition, and on the outer side the shutter groove 5. Since the radius R_ {1} of the surface toroidal transition 7 is approximately double the size of the thickness D in the area of the central section 11, occurs in the area from the base section 12 an accumulation of material, which causes a relatively large stiffness at the base of the cylindrical section hollow 3. A stiffness in this area has a positive impact on the quality and intensity of opening noise.

Figure 2 shows a bottle closure using the sealing element 2 of figure 1. The closure of bottles is constituted by a metal lid 12, in which it is formed the sealing element 1. The bottle shown only It is partially designated with 13. The metal cover 2 of the bottle routinely surrounds an annular cord 14 in the area of the opening of the bottle with a knurled marginal zone 15, with that a connection is established by positive union. Slot seal 5 adapts to the outer surface 16 of the bottle 13 and this results in a reliable seal. Additionally to the hollow cylindrical section 3 rests on the surface inside 17 of the bottle 13 to provide a seal additional. However, it is essential that for a period of time very short during the opening of the bottle 13 stay in this zone a shutter, although shutter groove 5 has been already detached from the bottle 13. Only when the closure of bottles has detached from bottle 13 to the point that it the hollow cylindrical section 3 has been removed out of the bottle 13, Get the desired opening noise.

Figure 3 shows a variant embodiment of the invention, wherein the radius R 1 of the surface of transition 7 toroidal shape is clearly smaller than in the variant embodiment described above. In addition, the section introductory has a chamfer 18, which extends at an angle of approximately 45º with respect to the axis of the cylindrical section hollow 3. With a closure of figure 3 results are achieved relatively good, when the tolerance of the inner diameter D1 of bottle 13 is relatively small.

Figure 4 shows a variant embodiment, which corresponds essentially to figures 1 and 2, with the difference that the length L of the hollow cylindrical section 3 is increased compared to this embodiment variant. In this way, it can be achieved in the area of the outer surface 8 a improved shutter and opening noise can be obtained improved. Bottle closures with a sealing element 1 of these types are, however, more prone to damage, since the introduction section 10 of the sealing element 1, in as opposed to the embodiment of figures 1 and 2, it projects beyond knurled edge 15 of the metal lid 12.

The embodiment variant of Figure 5 is difference from the embodiments described above because a transition surface 19 is provided, which forms a direct transition from the shutter groove 5 essentially of trapezoidal shape towards the outer surface 8 of the section hollow cylindrical 3. With dashed lines a zone is represented 20, which moves through the application of the element of shutter 1 on bottle 13, thereby causing a state of relatively strong tension in the sealing element 1. This state of tension generates a torque, which pretends the introduction section 10 of the hollow cylindrical section 3 in the Arrow direction 21 out. It has been proven that a variant of this type is especially insensitive against tolerances of the inner diameter D_ {1} of the bottle 13.

The present invention makes it possible to ensure a melodious and loud noise during the opening of a bottle, being well noticeable opening noise also in the state cooled.

Claims (13)

1. Bottle closure, which is constituted by a plastically deformable metal cover (12), which covers the bottle and has a marginal knurled area (15), which positively surrounds the bottle (13) in the closed state, as well as by a sealing element (1) fixedly connected with the metal lid (12), which is supported in the area of the opening of the bottle (13) therein, the sealing element (1) being constituted by a disk (2) that closes the opening of the bottle (13), in which an essentially cylindrical hollow section (3) is connected, which is inserted in the closed state in the opening of the bottle (13) and rests on the inner wall of the bottle (13), and in which a marginal area (4) of the disc (2) projects beyond the hollow cylindrical section (3) to be placed on the bottle (13), and in which, furthermore, the marginal zone (4) of the sealing element (1) has a sealing groove (5), which is intended for the sealing tion facing the bottle (13) in the area of its front surface, characterized in that the hollow cylindrical section (3) of the sealing element (1) is constituted by a base section (12), a central section (11) with inner surface and outer surface (9, 8) essentially cylindrical and by an introduction section (10) with a chamfer or rounding at the end, and because the hollow cylindrical section (3) presents in the area of the base section (12 ) on its inner side a toroidal transition surface (7), so that an accumulation of material is formed together with the transition to the sealing groove (5). 2. Bottle closure according to claim 1, characterized in that the hollow cylindrical section (3) is prestressed in the closed state in front of the inner surface (17) of the bottle (13). 3. Bottle closure according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the sealing element (1) consists of a material composed of ethyl-methyl-acrylate and a thermoplastic vulcanizate of a thermoplastic elastomer. 4. Bottle closure according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the sealing element (1) is integrally formed in the metal lid (12) in an injection casting process. 5. Bottle closure according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the hollow cylindrical section (3) of the sealing element (1) has a length (L), which is less than the axial extension of the lid of metal (12). 6. Bottle closure according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the sealing groove (5) of the sealing element (1) has an essentially trapezoidal cross-section. 7. Bottle closure according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the base section (12) has a height (h), which is greater than the wall thickness (D) of the central section (11) . 8. Bottle closure according to claim 7, characterized in that the transition surface (7) of toroidal shape has a radius of curvature (R1) in the longitudinal section, which is greater than the wall thickness (D ) in the area of the central section (11). 9. Bottle closure according to section 8, characterized in that the radius of curvature of the transition surface (7) in a toroidal shape is at least twice that of the wall thickness (D) in the area of the central section ( eleven). 10. Bottle closure according to one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that the base section (12) is configured externally in the form of a cone trunk and represents in axial direction more than half of the hollow cylindrical section (3). 11. Bottle closure according to claim 10, characterized in that the base section (12) has a direct transition to the trapezoidal groove. 12. Bottle closure according to 10 or 11, characterized in that in the force-free state, the outer diameter at the end of the base section (12) is clearly greater than the inner diameter of the bottle in the area of the opening. 13. Bottle closure according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the sealing element (1) is at least partially constituted by a material that swells under the action of moisture.