Bottle caps
AssigneeMaxcap, Inc.
InventorRobert L. Nolan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plastic screw cap for carbonated beverage bottles having standard necks. Screwing the cap on forces its antitamper skirt over a shoulder of the bottle neck. Unscrewing the cap causes the skirt, or a portion connecting the skirt to the main body of the cap, to break. The skirt has a throat whose I.D. (inside diameter) is smaller than the O.D. (outside diameter) of the bottle threads, but is large enough so that the cap can, under light pressure, wobble or rock down the neck to seat the cap properly for screwing on. The skirt may have a flap which becomes effective to decrease the effective skirt diameter when the cap is being unscrewed.
Claims17
A combination of a bottle and a molded plastic cap therefore,
- said bottle having a neck carrying an outwardly extending thread and having an outwardly extending shoulder beneath said thread,
- said cap comprising a top wall, an annular sidewall extending down from said top wall and having an inwardly extending thread for cooperation with said neck thread, and an integral antitamper skirt connected to said side wall,
- said skirt having at least a lower portion which, when the cap is fully screwed onto said neck, is at a level below said shoulder, said skirt having also an integral inwardly projecting flap which is integrally hinged thereto and which as molded projects inwardly, the construction and arrangement being such that
- (a) when, during the operation of screwing said cap onto said neck, said cap moves downward, said flap is engaged by said shoulder and pushed upward and outward thereby and then, on further downward movement of said cap during said operation, said flap is moved past said shoulder and
- (b) when, during the operation of unscrewing said cap from said neck, said cap moves upward, said flap engages the lower part of said shoulder and is forced by said engagement downward and outward into abutting relationship with said lower portion of said skirt so that the presence of said flap decreases the effective internal diameter of said lower portion of said skirt so as to prevent said skirt, while intact, from passing up over said shoulder.
A molded plastic cap for use with a bottle having a neck carrying an outwardly extending thread and having an outwardly extending shoulder beneath said thread,
- said cap comprising a top wall, an annular sidewall extending down from said top wall and having an inwardly extending thread for cooperation with said neck thread, and an integral antitamper skirt connected to said side wall,
- said skirt having at least a lower portion which, when the cap is fully screwed onto said neck, is at a level below said shoulder, said skirt having also an integral inwardly projecting flap which is integrally hinged thereto and which as molded projects inwardly, the construction and arrangement being such that
- (a) when during the operation of screwing said cap onto said neck, said cap moves downward, said flap is engaged by said shoulder and pushed outward thereby and then, on further downward movement of said cap during said operation, said flap is moved past said shoulder and
- (b) when, during the operation of unscrewing said cap from said neck, said cap moves upward, said flap engages the lower part of said shoulder and is forced by said engagement downward and outward into abutting relationship with said lower portion of said skirt so that the presence of said flap decreases the effective internal diameter of said lower portion of said skirt so as to prevent said skirt, while intact, from passing up over said shoulder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.