CN1248951A - Lid of container for beverages - Google Patents

Abstract

A beverage container cover (1), comprising a cover body (10) and a pull cover (20), which are made of thermoplastic resin. The lid body (10) is provided with an opening (11) so that, when the container lid is mounted on the beverage container (40), the contents are discharged from the container. The pull cover (20) includes a cover part (21) and a pull piece part (22), which are connected to each other. The cover is made of a laminated material including an easy peel layer and a gas barrier layer. The easy-peeling layer is formed on the outermost surface of the cover. The opening (11) in the cover (10) is covered by a gas barrier film (15), and the film is bonded to the peripheral portion (14) of the cover (10) surrounding the opening (11). The lower surface of the peripheral part (23) of the cover part (21) is detachably fixed to the upper surface (13) of the cover body (10) through the gas barrier film (15).

Description

Container lids for beverage containers

field of invention

The present invention relates generally to container closure constructions and, in particular, to container closure constructions for beverage containers which include being opened to drink the beverage or discharge the contents and subsequently reclose the container.

Background of the invention

A conventional container for packaging beverages has a structure in which the opened upper end of the container is covered or closed by a container cap. In this type of beverage container, the interior of the container is sterilized, and the container is filled with beverage in an aseptic state.

Known container closures for containers of the above-mentioned type generally take several forms. A container lid of a so-called peel-off sealing type (hereinafter referred to as a diaphragm type) made of a sheet material comprising a stretched PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film on an aluminum foil material The surfaces of the layers form laminated layers, and the easily peelable layer is arranged on one side of the container cover, and the container cover and the container are in contact with each other. The container cover is installed and covered on the upper opening of the container, and is fixedly positioned by heating and melting.

Another form of container lid involves a sheet of material which covers the upper opening of the container and is provided with an opening, thereby serving as an aperture for drinking or expulsion of the contents. The container lid has a pull tab covering the opening formed from a small piece of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and aluminum foil with an easy peel layer.

A different container lid construction is a container lid made of drawn-formed aluminum foil.

Another type of container closure involves the preparation of container closures, which are formed by means of so-called insert injection molding, wherein an aluminum foil is previously inserted into a mould, the surface of the aluminum foil is covered with PE (polyethylene), and the aluminum foil of the container closure has the required The opening device, said container lid is molded by insert molding.

Conventional container closures of the type described above suffer from various drawbacks or disadvantages. For example, in said membrane-type container closures, the seal strength between the container closure and the container must be high enough to withstand various modes of handling during delivery of the product. On the other hand, where it is necessary to remove the container lid from the container, the strength of the opening should be small enough to allow easy opening of the container. However, it is quite difficult to strike a balance between these two needs.

And because after taking out the container cover from the container, the opening that forms is quite large, in case of running into an accident, beverage is easy to spill, for example, while walking, drinks the beverage in the container, makes beverage discharge from container easily.

In the case of the aforementioned container lids having a pull tab, the above problems are generally not commonly associated with diaphragm type container lids. However, since the pull tab is made of a membrane-type sheet, the container cap cannot provide a high-quality appearance or appearance, but gives the user the impression that the container cap has a rather "cheap appearance".

The drawn aluminum foils in the container lids described above have the disadvantage that they are relatively expensive.

The last type of container closure described above has gas barrier properties, however, it still presents problems. Because it is quite complicated to cover the aluminum foil with polyethylene, and the container lid is easy to be peeled off.

Most of the above-mentioned conventional container caps are removed and separated from the beverage container, and the container is subsequently opened, thereby creating a disposal problem of the container cap. Even when the container cap is opened, the opened container cannot be resealed in the prior art without removing the container cap from the container.

Summary of the invention

The object of the present invention is to find a way to solve the above problems. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a container cover for beverage containers, which can withstand various handling conditions in the process of conveying products, the container cover is easy to be opened, the container cover has good gas barrier performance, and has high Moreover, once the container is opened, the container can be reclosed, which is suitable for filling beverages into the container under aseptic conditions.

According to the present invention, there is provided a container cap molded and secured to the upper opening of a beverage container, which is made of a thermoplastic resin material. Such a container cap includes a cap body and a pull cap made of thermoplastic resin. The lid has an opening for discharging the contents from the container. The pull cover includes a cover portion that is disposed on the opening of the cover body. A tab portion is also included, which is connected to the cover portion. The cover is made of a laminate comprising an easy peel layer and a gas barrier layer. The easy-peeling layer is located on the outermost layer of the cover. The opening of the cover is covered with a gas barrier film fixed to a peripheral portion of the cover surrounding the opening. The cover portion has a lower surface facing the upper surface of the cover body. The lower surface of the lid portion is detachably fixed to the periphery of the opening of the upper surface of the container lid through the gas barrier film.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cap for a beverage container, which includes a cap body and a pull cap. The cover is provided with an opening through which the contents can be discharged. The lid has a perimeter that is contoured to fit the container lid to the upper open end of the container. The pull cover includes a cover part and a pull tab part, which are connected to each other. A gas barrier film is sealed to the upper surface of the lid and extends across the opening of the lid to close the opening. The lower surface of the cover portion is detachably secured to the gas barrier film along the periphery of the cover portion so that when the pull cover is separated from the cover body, the gas barrier film covering the opening is separated to open the opening in the cover body.

Brief description of the drawings

Additional detailed structures and features of the present invention will be more clearly understood below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are represented by like numerals, wherein:

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a container cap according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the container cap is fixed to the opened upper end of the beverage container;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the container lid shown along line 2-2 in Figure 1, wherein the container lid is secured to the upper portion of the container;

Fig. 3 is a partially enlarged sectional view of the container cap shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the container cap shown in Fig. 2, which shows that after the container is opened, the pull cap is inserted and installed in the opening of the cap body, and then the container is closed and sealed.

Detailed description of the invention

Referring to FIG. 1, according to the present invention, a container 40 has an upper opening 41 in which a container cap 1 of the present invention is installed to form a container for containing beverages. The container lid 1 is a two-piece structure, which includes a pull lid 20 and a lid body 10 . The cover body 10 is provided with an opening 11, which serves as a beverage hole. The shape of the opening 11 is not limited, and it is fan-shaped in FIG. 1 , but the opening 11 can have any desired shape. As shown in FIG. 2 , a flange 12 is provided on the outer periphery of the cover body 10 , which forms a contact fitting fit with the upper end portion 42 of the container 40 , so that the container cover 1 is installed and fixed on the opened upper end of the container. As shown in FIG. 3 , the gas barrier film 15 is sealed on the upper surface of the cover body 10 , which surrounds the opening at the peripheral portion of the cover body 10 . Thus, the gas barrier film 15 extends across the opening 11 in the cover 10 , covering and sealing the opening 11 .

The pull cover 20 includes a cover part 21 and a pull tab part 22, which form a complete body. The lid portion 21 of the pull lid 20 generally has a peripheral shape corresponding to the opening 11 in the lid body 10, so that after the container is opened, as shown in FIG. 11 in. Thus, the shape of the cover part 21 may vary with the shape of the opening 11 in the cover body 10, only the shape of the embodiment being shown in the drawings.

In the described embodiment, the cover portion 21 is formed in the shape of a triangular truncated cone, with a smaller end of the cover portion, i.e. an upper end as shown in FIGS. The size of opening 11 in 10. The cover portion 21 of frustoconical shape gradually increases in size along its outer periphery such that the maximum outer dimension of the cover portion 21 is equal to or greater than the size of the opening 11 in the cover body 10 . This allows the cover part 21 to fit relatively tightly within the opening 11 of the cover body, as shown in FIG. 4 . As a result, once the container has been opened, the container lid can be reclosed so that the contents of the container cannot be sprayed out.

In the illustrated embodiment, the tab portion 22 is connected to the lid portion 21 such that the tab portion 22 is inclined upwardly relative to the lid portion 22 . Therefore, the tab portion 22 can be easily pinched or grasped to open the container. However, the tab portion 22 may be positioned parallel to the upper surface 13 of the cover body 10, or contact the easy-peelable layer, which is located on the uppermost side of the cover body 10 in the drawing. In addition, the angle at which the tab portion 22 is inclined upward may be greater than that shown in the drawings.

Since the protruding portion of the tab portion 22 does not exceed the upper surface of the flange 12, the tab portion 22 is unlikely to be caught by something during handling or transportation. Thus, the lid of the container cannot be accidentally opened and the contents cannot be ejected unintentionally. In addition, this structure does not prevent multiple containers from being accommodated in the corrugated box, nor does it affect the performance of the containers on display in a window.

The cover body 10 and the pull cover 20 are integrated or connected together by the connection of the peripheral portion 14 of the cover body, which surrounds the opening 11 and is located on the lower surface of the peripheral portion 23 of the pull cover 20, which is passed through the gas barrier. The film 15 covers the upper surface of the cover along the peripheral portion 14 of the opening 11 as shown in FIG. 3 . In particular, the gas barrier film 15 is sealed to the outer surface of the cover 10 in the region of the cover 10 around the opening 11, while the lower surface of the peripheral portion 23 of the cover part 21 is sealed to the gas barrier film 15. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the gas barrier film 15 is provided between the lower surface of the pull-out cover 20 and the upper surface of the cover body 10 . The connection is formed by fusion bonding or adhesive bonding. However, in the described embodiments, the connection is preferably formed by fusion bonding.

The container lid 1 is preferably formed of thermoplastic resin. Possible thermoplastic resins include: polyolefins, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyamide (PA), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC ), ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer resin (EVA), acrylonitrile butadiene copolymer resin (ABS), methacrylic resin (PMA), polycarbonate (PC), ionomer, cycloolefin-olefin Copolymer resins and other materials. Polyolefins are particularly suitable, preferred thermoplastic materials.

Polyolefins that may be used include polyethylene (PE), e.g. low density polyethylene, medium density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, linear low density polyethylene, polypropylene, e.g. propylene homopolymer, ethylene-propylene random copolymer , ethylene-propylene block copolymer, etc., polybutene-1, polyhexene-1 and polymethylpentene-1. These polyolefins may be used alone or in combination of two or three.

Among the above polyolefins, polyethylene, polypropylene or a mixture thereof is preferably used.

The cover body 10 is made of a laminated material including a base layer composed of the aforementioned thermoplastic resin material, an easily peelable layer, and a gas barrier film layer. The easily peelable layer is located on the uppermost layer of the laminated material in the drawings. Therefore, the laminated material basically has a structure: easy peeling layer (topmost layer)/base layer (middle layer)/gas barrier film layer (inner layer) or easy peeling layer/gas barrier film layer/base layer.

It can be understood that in the basic structure described above, many variations can be obtained. For example, in one embodiment, an adhesive layer or other material layers may be provided between the aforementioned material layers. Also base layers or other layers of material can also consist of multi-layer structured materials. Said layer of this other material may be a so-called chip layer of the resin material used which is not formed during the molding of the cover body.

Since the easy-peeling layer is provided on the uppermost layer or the outer surface of the cover body 10, various films can be used. They include, for example, SANSEAL products produced by SAN-EI CHEMICAL CO.LTD., MAGIC TOP products produced by IDEMITSU PETIOCHEMICAL INC, or VMX products produced by MITSUBISHI CHEMICAL CO.LTD. The thickness of the easily peelable layer may be 100 microns or less.

The gas barrier film forms part of the cover 10 and is preferably made of a material having gas barrier properties, in particular a material having oxygen barrier properties. Such materials may include ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), polyvinylidene chloride, or other materials. Ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers are preferably used. The thickness of the gas barrier film may be 100 microns or less.

As mentioned above, the opening 11 is covered with a gas barrier film 15 which is sealed to the upper surface of the lid 10 . This membrane 15 can be made of the same material as the cover 10 . The thin film 15 can be manufactured using the materials mentioned above. In addition, the laminate may be made of two or more layers of materials, and one of said other materials may be the above-mentioned thermoplastic resin material.

A particularly significant advantage in use is that, as the gas barrier film 15, it has a laminated structure in which the layer or part of the material in the laminate that contacts the upper surface 13 of the cover 10 is the same as the thermoplastic resin of the cover 10 material layer. The material layer or part in the laminate that is in contact with the lower surface of the peripheral portion 23 of the slider cover 20 is the same material layer as the thermoplastic resin of the slider cover 20 . In this way, the above-mentioned material layers can be easily melt-bonded to each surface in the structure of the container lid 1 of the present invention, respectively. This film in the described examples has a laminate: polypropylene/ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer/polypropylene (PP/EVOH/PP). Optionally, an adhesive layer is provided between these layers of resin material.

Thermoplastic resin can be selected from the above-mentioned materials to manufacture the pull-up cover 20 . The thermoplastic resin may or may not be the same material as the base layer of the cover body 10 . Preferably, the hardness of the thermoplastic resin used is softer than that of the base material of the cover body 10 . In this way, the obtained pull-out cover is easily deformed, easy to insert and install the cover part 21 in the opening 11 so as to seal the opening 11, and provides good clamping positioning performance.

The soft thermoplastic resin is preferably an irregular polyolefin, especially atactic or amorphous polypropylene.

When the beverage is filled into the container 40 and the container is closed with the container cap 1 , the gas barrier film 15 covering the opening 11 in the cap body 10 ensures that the container cap 1 has sufficient gas barrier performance. Combined with the gas barrier properties of the base layer material of the container 40, this structure can protect the liquid food, and at the same time prevent the food from spoiling, and prevent external odors from adversely affecting the liquid food.

Generally, the containers filled with their contents reach the final consumer through different channels. Of ultimate consumer concern is the ease of opening the container and drinking the contents by pulling the tab portion 22 upward. Since the uppermost layer of the cover body 10 is made of the above-mentioned easily peelable material layer, the pull cover 20 is connected with the gas barrier film 15 in an easily detachable manner. Thus, the opening 11 can be fully opened, allowing drinking or pouring out of the contents. The gas barrier film 15 remains fixed on the lid portion 21 of the pull lid 20 as shown in FIG. 4 .

When the content in the container cannot be completely emptied, the pull cap 20 can be turned upside down from the original fixed state, and then the cap part 21 can be inserted into the opening 11 . In this way, the opening 11 is closed again, so that liquid food can be temporarily stored in this way.

The present invention is advantageous in many respects. In one aspect, the construction of the container lid is strong enough to withstand various handling conditions during transportation and has excellent gas barrier properties. Also, since the gas barrier film 15 is located between the lid portion 21 of the slider lid 20 and the outer surface of the lid, the gas barrier membrane 15 is protected by the lid portion 21 of the slider lid 20 . Therefore, the gas barrier film 15 is not exposed and is not easily penetrated or opened accidentally. Therefore, the gas barrier film 15 does not need to have sufficient mechanical strength, and, moreover, can be made relatively thin. In addition, the gas barrier film is adhered only by the peripheral portion of the lid body 10 surrounding the opening, and only a small force is required to break or peel the film and open the container.

With the easily peelable layer formed on the uppermost or outer surface of the lid body 10, the container can be easily opened. Furthermore, when the contents of the container are not fully used, or are emptied from the container, the opening of the container lid can be well reclosed with the removed pull-top, so that the remaining beverage can be easily stored and the container transported.

Moreover, when the container is to be discarded after drinking the beverage, the container and the pull cap can be integrated by inserting and installing the pull cap taken out from the opening into the opening. The advantages of the invention are also that the container lid has a high quality profile and that after filling with a drink it is easy to sterilize the container.

The principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of the present invention have been described in detail above. However, the claimed content of the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments described above. In addition, the embodiments described herein are illustrative only, and do not limit the present invention. Many modifications and variations can also be obtained through other embodiments or by adopting equivalents without departing from the concept of the present invention. Therefore, all those modifications, changes and equivalents within the scope and concept of the present invention are included in the claims of the present invention.

Claims (18)

1. A container cap fixed to the open end of a beverage container, comprising a cap body and a pull cap made of a thermoplastic resin material, the cap body having an opening to discharge the contents from the container, the pull cap comprising a cap portion, which It is arranged on the opening of the cover body, and also includes a pull tab part, which is connected with the cover part. The cover body is made of laminated layers, which includes an easy-peeling layer and a gas barrier layer. The easy-peeling layer is located at the most an outer layer, the opening of the cover is covered with a gas barrier film fixed to a peripheral portion of the cover surrounding the opening, the cover portion has a lower surface facing the upper surface of the cover, the cover portion has The peripheral portion, the lower surface of the peripheral portion of the cover portion is detachably fixed to the upper surface of the cover body through the gas barrier film. 2. A container closure according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic resin is polyolefin. 3. The container cap according to claim 1, wherein the gas barrier film is a film comprising ethylene vinyl alcohol. 4. The container cap according to claim 2, wherein the gas barrier film is a film comprising ethylene vinyl alcohol. 5. The container lid according to claim 1, wherein the pull lid is made of a material whose hardness is softer than that of the lid body. 6. The container lid according to claim 5, wherein the pull-on lid is made of atactic polyolefin. 7. The container lid according to claim 1, wherein said lid portion has such a contour shape that its outer peripheral dimension gradually increases so that after the lid portion is separated from the lid body, the opening in the lid body is opened, The cover portion can be inverted and positioned in the opening of the cover to reclose the opening. 8. The container closure of claim 1, wherein a flange is provided on the outer periphery of the closure body for attaching the closure to the open end of the container. 9. The container lid of claim 1, wherein the lid portion of the pull lid is covered with a gas barrier film extending across the opening of the lid body. 10. A lid for a beverage container comprising a lid body and a pull lid, the lid body being provided with an opening through which the contents can be discharged, the lid body having a perimeter shaped to fit the lid body to the side of the container an upper open end, the pull lid comprising a lid portion and a tab portion interconnected, the lid having an upper surface to which a gas barrier film is sealed and extending across the opening of the lid to close opening, the cover part has a peripheral part and a lower surface, the lower surface faces the upper surface of the cover body, the lower surface of the cover part is detachably fixed on the gas barrier film along the periphery of the cover part, so that when the cover is pulled When separated from the cover, the gas barrier film covering the opening is separated, thereby opening the opening in the cover. 11. A container closure as claimed in claim 10, wherein said closure body has a periphery on which a flange is provided for mounting the closure to the open upper end of the container. 12. The container lid according to claim 10, wherein the lid body is made of a laminated material including an easy-peelable layer formed on the outermost layer of the lid body, 13. The container closure of claim 10, wherein the thermoplastic resin is polyolefin. 14. The container closure of claim 10, wherein the gas barrier film is a film comprising ethylene vinyl alcohol. 15. The container lid according to claim 10, wherein the pull tab is made of a material whose hardness is softer than that of the lid body. 16. The container closure of claim 15, wherein the tab is made of atactic polyolefin. 17. The container lid according to claim 10, wherein said lid portion has such a structural profile that its outer peripheral dimension gradually increases so that, after the lid portion is separated from the lid body, the upper portion of the lid body can be opened. opening, the lid portion can be inverted and positioned within the opening of the lid body, thereby resealing the opening. 18. The container lid of claim 10, wherein the lid portion of the pull lid is covered with a gas barrier film, the gas barrier film extending across the opening of the lid body.

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