Collapsible bottle
OwnerRobert G. Dickieinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A collapsible bottle is particularly useful as a beverage bottle such as a water bottle or soda bottle which can be collapsed after its contents are emptied in order to reduce its volume whereby the collapsed bottle takes up less space in trash receptacles, recycling bins and so forth. Grooves are formed in the bottle to facilitate its collapse and visual indicators on the bottle suggest to the user the need to collapse the bottle. These visual indicators may include arrows, fingertip indentations, outwardly projecting ridges or other structures. In one embodiment, annular groove walls define annular grooves in which interruption members are disposed to interrupt the continuity of the grooves. Break spaces may be provided which interrupt the continuity of the groove walls to facilitate collapse of the bottle.
Claims20
A collapsible plastic bottle comprising:
- a plastic bottom wall;
- a plastic annular sidewall which has a top and a bottom, which is connected at its bottom to the bottom wall and extends upwardly therefrom, and which has expanded and collapsed positions;
- an interior chamber defined by the bottom wall and sidewall;
- a top entrance opening of the interior chamber defined by the top of the sidewall;
- a plurality of grooves formed in the sidewall which facilitate movement of the sidewall from the expanded position to the collapsed position in response to a manual force applied to the sidewall to cause one of the top and bottom of the sidewall to move toward the other of the top and bottom of the sidewall;
- and
- a visual indicator on the bottle suggestive of a need to apply the manual force.
A collapsible plastic bottle comprising:
- a plastic bottom wall;
- a plastic annular sidewall which has a top and a bottom, which is connected at its bottom to the bottom wall and extends upwardly therefrom, and which has expanded and collapsed positions;
- an interior chamber defined by the bottom wall and sidewall;
- a top entrance opening of the interior chamber defined by the top of the sidewall;
- a plurality of annular groove walls of the sidewall which substantially circumscribe the interior chamber and respectively define a plurality of annular grooves which facilitate movement of the sidewall from the expanded position to the collapsed position in response to a manual force applied to the sidewall;
- and
- at least one break space in each of the groove walls which interrupts the annular continuity of the respective groove wall and facilitates radially inward movement of a portion of the respective groove wall during movement of the sidewall from the expanded position to the collapsed position.
A collapsible plastic bottle comprising:
- a plastic bottom wall;
- a plastic annular sidewall which has a top and a bottom, which is connected at its bottom to the bottom wall and extends upwardly therefrom, and which has expanded and collapsed positions;
- an interior chamber defined by the bottom wall and sidewall;
- a top entrance opening of the interior chamber defined by the top of the sidewall;
- a plurality of annular grooves formed in the sidewall which facilitate movement of the sidewall from the expanded position to the collapsed position in response to a manual force applied to the sidewall;
- and
- at least one interruption member in each of the grooves which interrupts the annular continuity of the groove.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.