Safety cap

A safety closure assembly comprising in combination:

• the container neck defining an opening through which the container contents may be inserted and removed;
• a closure cap coupled with the container neck and extending across the opening and cooperating in confining the contents within the container until it is desired to remove same therefrom, the cap including an upper closed end and a lower open end;
• the exterior of the neck and the interior of the cap having cooperating interengaging means for coupling the cap to the neck in relatively easy fashion and permit the uncoupling of the cap from the neck only upon informed deliberate manipulation of the cap relative to the neck, said cooperating interengaging means comprising a zone of mating threads on the interior of the cap and exterior of the neck, said cooperating means further including rib means and recess means at a predetermined location relative to the threaded zones and adapted to engage with one another to assume a child-deterrent position at which the cap threads and neck threads are disengaged and the cap may be turned relative to the neck in either direction without permitting the threads to become engaged to permit withdrawal of the cap from the neck, the rib means being on the interior of the cap and being in the form of an annular inwardly extending rib located at the open end of the cap, the recess means being on the exterior of the neck and being defined by a concavity in a circumferentially extending raised strip, the strip being located at a predetermined distance below the threaded zone on the container neck so that when the rib is disposed in the recess the cap threads are disengaged from the neck threads with the cap threads being disposed in the space between the neck threads and the strip, the cap being permitted to be withdrawn from the neck by initially retracting and pulling the cap in an axial direction relative to the neck to cause disengagement of the rib means and recess means and thereafter twisting the cap relative to the neck to permit the cap threads and neck threads to become engaged whereupon further twisting of the cap relative to the neck will permit removal of the cap.