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US 5,251,424 AGranted
Method of packaging products in plastic containers
AssigneeAmerican National Can Company
InventorsRichard D. Zenger, Stephen W. Cornell, E. James Schneiders
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of hot filling a plastic container includes the steps of introducing a heated product into the container at a temperature of about 190.degree. F., introducing liquid nitrogen into the container and sealing the container before any significant thermal distortion occurs and cooling the container to room temperature, while maintaining a positive pressure within the cooled container.
Claims10
A method of hot-fill packaging a product comprising the steps of:
- providing a blow-molded plastic container having an inherently high polymer orientation and subject to thermal deformation at an elevated hot-fill temperature;
- introducing product into said plastic container at said elevated hot-fill temperature;
- introducing a predetermined quantity of liquified gas into the container;
- permitting said gas to begin to vaporize;
- and
- rapidly sealing the container before any significant thermal distortion of the container occurs, and to retain an amount of said vaporized gas sufficient to provide a positive pressure within said container and, thereby, to prevent thermal or vacuum induced deformation of said container.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.