AU633809B2 - Sealed container - Google Patents

Description

C_ ai ru~ P(c OPI DATE 19/07/89 APPLN. ID 29011 89 IX:rr7ATRTTn,'AT APPI "TA1 AOJP DATE 17/08/89 PCT NUMBER PCT/AU88/00483 (51) International Patent Classification 4 11) Ii ernl al u lica Number: WO 89/ 05759 35/52, B65B 3/02 (43) ternatonal Publication Date: 29 June 1989 (29.06.89) (21) International Application Number: PCT/AU88/00483 (81) Designated States: AT (European patent), AU, BE (European patent), CH (European patent), DE (Euro-; (22) International Filing Date: 20 December 1988 (20.12.88) pean patent), FR (European patent), GB (European patent), IT (European patent), JP, LU (European patent), NL (European patent), SE (European patent), (31) Priority Application Number: PI 6093 US.

(32) Priority Date: 21 December 1987 (21.12.87) Published (33) Priority Country: AU With international search report.

Before the expiration of the time limit for amending the claims and to be republished in the event of the receipt (71) Applicant (for all designated States except US): DAVID of amendments.

G. EVANS AND ASSOCIATES PTY. LTD. [AU/ AU]; 29 The Crescent, Homebush, NSW 2140 (AU).

(72) Inventor; and Inventor/Applicant (for US only, EVANS. Geoffrey.

Walter [AU/AU]: 16 Werona Road, Lane Cove, NSW 2066 (AU).

(74) Agent: SMITH SHELSTON BEADLE: Suite 7, 207 Great North Road, Five Dock, NSW 2046 (AU).

(54) Title: SEALED CONTAINER r, 6 7 (57) Abstract A blow-moulded capsular container has a localised line of weakness at which the container may be split open by digital pressure applied to the container adjacent the line of pressure. The line of weakness coincides with the floor of an external groove in the surface of the container whereby contact of the line by external bodies is largely prevented. Also disclosed is a method of making and filling a capsular container comprising the steps of placing a plastics parison within a mould space and expanding the parison to conform it to the mould space, characterised by the further steps of feeding a charge of filling material into the parison, sealing the expanded and charged parison and removing it from the mould Sspace.

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1 SEALED CONTAINER FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to sealed, single use containers for the storage and transport of predetermined quantities of fluent filling materials.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART It has become commonplace at to-day's restaurants, fast food outlets, at sports venues, in planes and trains or wherever pre-prepared meals are supplied or sold, for adjuvants to the main courses, such as sauces, spreads, syrups, granulated sugar, milk and the like to be furnished in hermetically sealed, single serve packages which are discarded after use.

A widely used package of the kind in question comprises a rigid plastics tub with a metal or other foil diaphragm sealing the mouth of the 15 tub. The diaphragm has to be peeled back to gain access to the contents.

Other containers of the kind in question may be in the form of foil *i sachets openable by means of tear strips or the like.

Still others, used frequently for small quantities of toothpaste for use by travellers, comprise a collapsible tube with a screw neck (and cap) sealed by an integral plug which has to be pierced to enable the contents to be dispensed.

Many people, especially elderly people who may be suffering from arthritis or poor eyesight, find it difficult to open such containers and 2 extract or dispense the contents as needed. Those difficulties are compounded in situations where normal table facilities are not available.

Notwithstanding the foregoing the usage of h containers is widespread and growing because of their perceived convenience and cheapness by comparison with possible alternative solutions to the problem of furnishing small quantities of materials to individual consumers.

Specific proposals to simplify such containers and overcome the above indicated difficulties include the containers of U.S Patents 3825157 and 4252257 (A.M.Herzig). Those containers are single component containers which are openable merely by being squeezed, but they depend for their sealing on pressure between two resilient lips defining an outlet. Such a seal is scarcely hermetic and renders the containers unsuitable for foodstuffs and prone to leakage during transport.

British patent 797720 'B.F.Gassaway) addresses the problem inherent in the Herzig container by uniting the two resilient lips by an external rupturable bead, described as a "thin membrane". The bead of the Gassaway container, being the outermost part of the container 20 surface and being of soft elastic material, is subject to abrasion and damage during transport.

Australian patent specification 15538/66 (Vynol Paints Pty. Ltd) discloses a one piece hermetically sealed container, but in its case scissors or the like are needed to cut off a portion of the container to open it.

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4 L9 3 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a hermetically sealed capsular container adapted for the above discussed usage which ameliorates the general difficulties met with heretofore in that it is openable by one hand and is robust enough to withstand normal transport and handling shocks without damage.

The invention consists in a capsular container of stiff but manually deformable plastics material comprising a bulbous body with a nozzlelike extension projecting therefrom terminating in a tip of elliptical or oval cross-section, wherein a line of weakness coincident with the floor of a groove in the external surface of the container extends across said tip in register with the long axis of the tip's cross-section; said container being openable by compressing said tip between the thumb and forefinger of one hand in the direction of said long axis to cause the tip to split along said line.

Containers according to the invention are capsular, that is to say formed as a unitary, imperforate hollow body. They may be conveniently manufactured as a plastics moulding, and for preference a one piece blow-moulding. Furthermore, in such a capsular container it is preferred that the line of weakness and the groove in the container wall be not only of limited extent, so that the split in the container wall is of a predetermined size, but also positioned and sized relative to the body of the container so that the digital pressure applied by the user to deform the zone adjacent the groove and effect the splitting of the container wall along the floor of the groove has little or no effect on the shape of, and therefore the pressure within, the container as a whole.

To that end, the line of weakness is situated at the free end or tip of a nozzle-like extension of the container.

d i Containers according to the invention may be made by placing a plastics parison within a mould space and expanding the parison to conform it to the mould space. They may be simultaneously filled by feeding a charge of filling material into the parison, sealing the expanded and charged parison, and removing it from the mould space.

For preference the expansion of the parison is effected in conventional manner by inserting a gas supply needle into the parison within the mould space, feeding gas in through the needle, withdrawing the needle and sealing the needle hole in the inflated parison without allowing gas to escape. Likewise, the charge of fluent filling material to be contained may be fed into the inflated parison in the mould through the same or a second such needle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a plan view of a container according to the invention, 15 drawn to an enlarged scale.

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Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the container of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the container of fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4 of fig. 1 drawn to a still larger scale.

20 Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5-5 of fig. 2 drawn to the still larger scale.

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j Ii DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The illustrated container is a capsular container intended to store a charge of a fluent material such as a food adjuvant, for example tomato sauce. It is a unitary blow-moulding made from a resilient, thermoplastic material suitable for the blow-moulding process, for example, a food grade polyethylene. The moulding has a relatively thick wall so that the container is stiff or self-supporting as distinguished from a pliant sachet type container. It may be described as resilient but nevertheless stiffly yielding so that relatively small strains or deformations are accompanied by substantial internal stresses.

The container comprises a bulbous body portion 5 and a tapering nozzle-like extension 6.

An external groove 7 extends about the tip of the extension 6 to :create a thin wall portion underlying the groove and constituting a line of oo 15 weakness in the tip of the extension 6. Thus the line of weakness ocoincides with the floor of the groove 7.

°o The extension 6, at least near its tip, is of oval or elliptical crosssection and the splitting of the container wall along the floor of the 00 o groove 7 is effected by squeezing the end of the extension 6 along the longer axis of the ellipse. This tends to deform the extension tip into a circular cross-section to thereby increase the volume of the extension tip and, if anything, reduce the internal pressure in the container so that at the instant of splitting there is a tendency for air to enter the container rather than for its contents to be expressed.

6 Thus, the tip of the extension 6 may be squeezed between the thumb and first finger at the place indicated by the arrows in fig. 1 to deform the tip and effect a split in the wall along the line of weakness, but with virtually no effect on the charge of sauce (not shown) or the like in the body portion Once the splitting has occurred it is merely necessary to similarly squeeze the body portion 5 where indicated by the arrows in fig. 2 to express the contents of the container in a readily controllable manner.

The illustrated container may be blow-moulded and filled utilising gas and material supply needles in the manner described earlier. That is to say, except for the additional step of introducing a charge of filling material into the container through a needle during its formation in the mould, the container may be made by an essentially conventional method for making a sealed, hollow, blow-moulded article, which calls for little further description. In particular, the step of sealing the or each needle hole as the needles are withdrawn may be performed by conventional closure elements which come together in the mould to pressure weld together the margins of the still active plastics material of the moulding surrounding the hole, in well known manner. Those closure elements may be shaped to press form the external groove, o constituting the line of weakness, in the container wall if the needle 00 insertion point coincides therewith. If that is not so, the mould space is shaped to produce the required groove elsewhere.

According to another embodiment of the invention generally similar to the illustrated embodiment, the line of weakness and the groove lie in a cross-sectional plane of the tip of the extension near but spaced from the free end of that tip. They may extend from about one Send to the other end of the longer axis of the ellipse of the crosssection, that is to say about half of the elliptical circumference or a little more. Alternatively, they may extend from the same end points but lie in an inclined transverse plane in which the longer axis lies.

For preference, to enable conventional blow-moulding apparatus to be used with a minimum of modification, two needles are used, one for inflation and the other for filling, disposed coaxially one within the other. They may then be moved in and out of the mould as one with either the gas or filling material entering by way of the inner needle and the other by way of the annular space the needles.

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Claims (2)

1. A capsular container of stiff but manually deformable plastics material comprising a bulbous body with a nozzle-like extension projecting therefrom terminating in a tip of elliptical or oval cross- section, wherein a line of weakness coincident with the floor of a groove in the external surface of the container extends across said tip in register with the long axis of the tip's cross-section; said container being openable by compressing said tip between the thumb and forefinger of one hand in the direction of said long axis to cause the tip to split along said line.

2. A capsular container substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. Applicant DAVID G. EVANS AND ASSOCIATES PTY LIMITED 'Date 2 November 1992 Attorney ROBERT G. SHELSTON F.I.P.A.A. of CARTER SMITH BEADLE I *e