EP0111798B1 - Automatic closure for a flexible container - Google Patents

Abstract

A lock for a flexible bottle for containing a fluidic or pasty filler, such as skin cream or the like, includes a locking cap axially displaceable over the neck portion of the bottle and carrying a lip valve, and a sealing member mounted in the through passage of the neck portion. The lip valve has a lip-supporting ring-shaped portion extending into the sealing member and having two sealing surfaces cooperating with the sealing member upon the axial displacement of the locking cap with the lip valve relative to the neck portion of the bottle.

Description

The invention relates to a lip valve closure with a transport lock for a flexible container intended for holding a liquid or pasty filling material, in particular a tube for skin cream, shampoo and the like, with an axially adjustable cap, the top of which has a circular opening for a ring-shaped one made of an elastic material Lip valve is provided, which has an annular flange as a holder; This lip closure is known from DE-U-1 700 085.

In the international PCT application WO-A-82 00 128 an automatic container closure is described, in which the closure cap has a membrane with an annular sealing lip, which interacts with a sealing body clipped onto the passage of the container. If the container is pressed together by hand, the filling material lifts the membrane and can escape to the outside through the opening in the center of the membrane, which is released by the sealing lip. If pressure is no longer exerted on the container, air can enter the container through a valve in the sealing body, so that it returns to its original shape, while the membrane of the closure cap returns to its closed position and its annular sealing lip seals against the sealing body creates. If the container opening is to be closed tightly, so that even with strong pressure on the container z. B. during transport, no product can escape, then the membrane is locked in its closed position by rotating the cap, which is rotatably placed on the sealing body. However, the known closure arrangement is complicated in construction and cumbersome to handle, expensive in the manufacture of the individual parts and their assembly and requires an anti-rotation device for the sealing body attached in the neck of the container.

It must be noted that document US-A-3578 223 relates to a non-generic closure, since this is not designed as a self-closing closure or valve. From document US-A-1748681 a self-closing closure with a lip valve is known, which is provided with a rotatable disc valve as a transport lock against inadvertent opening of the lip valve. Due to the design, overpressure of the container can cause an undesirable leakage loss via the disc valve, namely between the disc valve seat and the lip valve disc. A combination of features of these documents, which could lead to the subject of the application, is not disclosed here, especially since the disk valve is an exclusively radially actuated part; the closure according to US-A-35 78 223, however, must be moved axially.

GM-17 00 085, which is considered to be the closest prior art, has also become known. This closure is provided with a cap which is axially adjustably connected to a container neck via a screw connection. The cap has a central opening for a disk-shaped lip valve. The lip valve is provided with a mounting flange and is arranged between the neck end and the cap opening. By turning the cap closed, the lip valve is held together by the cap opening wall, which brings about a transport lock, but which does not withstand a higher internal container pressure. When the cap is unscrewed, the fastening flange of the lip valve is in a leaky position, which is why the container contents can undesirably flow outwards via the screw connection of the cap. In addition, a residual liquid can disadvantageously accumulate in the free space between the cap opening and the mounting flange, which must be regarded as disadvantageous especially when the cap is closed again as a transport lock, since the space accumulated with liquid is then reduced, which then leads to the Cap opening is squeezed out. In addition, the residual liquid accumulated in the free space can harden, as a result of which the functionality of the lip valve and the transport lock can be restricted.

It is an object of the invention to improve a lip valve closure according to the preamble of the main claim in such a way that no fillings smear or functional impairment of the lip valve and the transport lock can occur on the closure and that the transport lock keeps the closure tight even at high internal container pressure.

This object is achieved according to the invention by the features contained in the characterizing part of claim 1.

The lip valve closure according to the invention can advantageously be attached easily and without a lot of work to the passage channel of the container. The insertion of the lip valve into the closure cap and the insertion of the sealing body into the passage channel or the neck of the container does not require any special aids and can be done by hand without much time. Because of the simple design of the individual parts, these can be produced inexpensively from plastic by injection molding, so that the conditions for economical mass production are met. The closure can be designed, for example, as a rotary closure or as a push-pull closure.

Further developments and refinements and further advantages of the invention can be found in the subclaims, in the drawing and in the associated description of the drawing.

• Fig. 1 einen Längsschnitt durch den oberen Teil einer zusammendrückbaren Kunststofflasche, deren drehbare Verschlußkappe sich in Schließstellung befindet,
• Fig. 2 einen Querschnitt entlang der Linie 11-11 in Fig. 1,
• Fig. 3 einen Schnitt entlang der Linie 111-111 in Fig. 1,
• Fig. 4 eine Draufsicht auf die Kunststofflasche nach Fig. 3,
• Fig. 5 eine von Hand zusammengedrückte Flasche mit einem Längsschnitt durch den Verschluß, dessen Verschlußkappe sich in Offenstellung befindet,
• Fig. 6 eine Draufsicht auf die Flasche nach Fig. 5 und
• Fig. 7 einen Längsschnitt durch eine weitere Ausführungsform des Verschlusses mit auf- und abbewegbarer Verschlußkappe in Schließstellung.

Two exemplary embodiments according to the invention are shown in the drawings, namely:

• 1 shows a longitudinal section through the upper part of a compressible plastic flap, the rotatable closure cap of which is in the closed position,
• 2 shows a cross section along the line 11-11 in FIG. 1,
• 3 shows a section along the line 111-111 in FIG. 1,
• 4 shows a top view of the plastic bottle according to FIG. 3,
• 5 a hand-compressed bottle with a longitudinal section through the closure, the closure cap of which is in the open position,
• Fig. 6 is a plan view of the bottle of Fig. 5 and
• Fig. 7 shows a longitudinal section through a further embodiment of the closure with up and down movable closure cap in the closed position.

The plastic flap 1 according to FIGS. 1 to 4 has at its upper end a neck 3 with an external thread 4 forming the passage channel 2, onto which the closure cap 6 provided with an internal thread 5 is screwed. In a central opening 7 of the cap 6, a lip valve 8 is inserted with its holder 9, which has an annular groove 10 for receiving the edge of the opening 7. The lip valve 8 can be made of plastic, rubber or another elastic material, so that easy insertion into the cap opening 7 is possible. A sealing collar 11 with a sealing surface 12 is attached to the holder 9. The sealing collar 11 prevents the filling material from penetrating into the threads 4, 5 and the sealing cap 6 from sticking to the bottle neck 3. In the passage channel 2, a sealing body 15 is used, which cooperates with an essentially conical sealing surface 16 in the holder 9 of the lip valve 8 and in the closed position according to FIGS. B. a pressure is exerted on the bottle 1 during transport. The sealing collar 11 sealingly engages in an annular recess 17 in the sealing body 15, so that no filling material can get into the thread 4 on the bottle neck 3. The annular recess 17 has through openings 20 and 21 for the filling material. The outer wall 22 of the sealing body 15 lies sealingly against the neck 3 of the bottle 1 and has an annular flange 23 as a stop for the edge of the passage channel 2. A beveled annular bead 25 at the free end of the neck 3 acts to form a snap connection with an annular bead 26 on the Inside of the cap 6 together, so that it can be unscrewed or pulled off the bottle neck 3 only by applying greater force after being placed on the bottle 1.

In the closed position according to FIG. 1, the peg-shaped sealing body 15 projects into the holder 9 of the lip valve 8 and lies against the sealing surface 16. No filling material can then escape from the lip valve 8, even if a greater pressure is exerted on the bottle, as can be the case during transport. 5, the sealing body 15 clears the passage for the filling material, as indicated by the arrows 30, so that when the bottle 1 is pressed, the filling material by the lips 31 and 32 formed slot 33 comes out, since the pressure of the filling material drives the two lips 31 and 32 of the lip valve 8 apart and causes the slot 33 to open, as can be seen from FIG. 6. When the pressure on the bottle 1 decreases, outside air is sucked into it through the lip valve 8 until both lips 31 and 32 close again and the bottle 1 has assumed its original shape. The lips 31 and 32 now form an automatically opening and closing closure, the closure cap remaining in the position shown in FIG. 5, so it does not have to be rotated. A turning back of the closure cap 6 into the position according to FIG. 1 is only necessary again when the bottle 1 is not to be used for a long time or is to be transported to a more distant place. To completely empty a filling residue or to refill the bottle 1 with filling, both the closure cap 6 and the sealing body 15 are removed from the bottle neck 3.

The embodiment according to FIG. 7 has a cap 34 that can be moved up and down. In this case, the thread 4 and 5 are replaced by a cylindrical outer circumferential surface 36 on the bottle neck 35 and a circumferential rib 37 on the inside of the cap 34, which seal together cooperate so that the cap 34 is guided axially displaceably with the rib 37 on the outer circumferential surface 36.

Reference symbol list

• 1 plastic bottle
• 2 passage channel
• 3 container neck
• 4 external threads
• 5 internal threads
• 6 sealing cap
• 7 opening
• 8 lip valve
• 9 bracket
• 10 ring groove
• 11 sealing sleeve
• 12 sealing surface
• 15 sealing body
• 16 sealing surface
• 17 recess
• 20 and 21 openings
• 22 outer wall
• 23 ring flange
• 25 ring bead
• 26 ring bead
• 30 arrows
• 31 and 32 lips
• 33 slot
• 34 sealing cap
• 35 container neck
• 36 outer surface
• 37 circumferential rib

Claims (5)

1. A lip valve closure with a device for securing it during transport, for a flexible container to be filled with a liquid or pasty substance, in particular a tube for skin cream, shampoo and the like, with an axially displaceable cap (6) which is provided on the upper side with a circular opening (7) for an annular lip valve (8) consisting of a resilient material and having a ring flange as a mounting, characterised by the following features :

- the mounting (9) of the lip valve (8) has on its outer side a ring groove (10) for inserting into the opening (7) of the cap (6) ;

- the mounting (9) has in the interior a sealing surface (16), running substantially conically or cylindrically, for a peg-shaped sealing member (15) projecting out of a passage duct (2) of the container (1) ;

- the mounting (9) is provided with a sealing collar (11) projecting into an annular recess (17) of the sealing member (15), with a sealing surface (12) ;

- the annular recess (17) of the sealing member (15) has passage openings (20, 21) for the filling material ;

- the outer wall (22) of the sealing member (15), inserted into the passage duct (2) of the container^* (1), rests in a sealing manner and has an ring flange (23) which serves as a stop for the edge of the sealing duct (2).

2. A closure according to Claim 1, characterised in that the free end of the container neck (3) is provided with an bevelled annular bulge (25) which functions together with an annular bulge (26) in the cap (6) in order to form a snap connection.

3. A closure according to Claims 1 and 2, characterised in that the closure cap (6) and the container neck (3) forming the passage duct (2) are provided with threads (4, 5) in order to enable axial displacement of the lip valve (8) by turning the closure cap (6).

4. A closure according to Claims 1 and 2, characterised in that the closure cap (34) has on its inner side an encircling rib (37) which rests in a sealing manner on the outer jacket surface (36) of the container neck (35) and enables displacement of the closure cap (34) in the axial direction.

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