Container made of a synthetic material and method for making same
AssigneeJean Gallay S.A.
InventorPierre-Henri Gallay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A container made of a synthetic material, e.g., a bottle (10), comprising a closed bottom wall (11) and an opening (12) in the upper portion opposite the bottom wall. The container is produced according to a blow moulding, stretch blow moulding or thermoforming method, and its wall (9) comprises at least one fold line (13) consisting of a narrow linear area (13a) of said wall, in which the synthetic material has a different physical structure, whereby it is less plastically deformable but has at least as much tensile strength as the rest of the wall (9). This structural modification is obtained by mechanical or thermal processing or by exposure of the area in question to suitable particle radiation. The resulting bottle is readily foldable with a view to disposal after use.
Claims36
A container made of synthetic material comprising:
- an elongate container wall being formed from a synthetic material;
- said container being closed at bottom portion thereof and being open at an opposed upper portion thereof;
- and
- at least one elongate foldable region being formed in said container wall;
- wherein said synthetic material forming said foldable region has a different molecular structure from said synthetic material which forms the remainder of said container wall thereby facilitating folding of said container along said foldable region when said container is flattened for disposal.
A method of making a container from a synthetic material, said container comprising an elongate container wall being formed from a synthetic material, said container being closed at a bottom portion thereof and being open at an opposed upper portion thereof, and at least one elongate foldable region being formed in said container wall such that said foldable region has a different molecular structure from the molecular structure of remainder of said container wall, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) partially forming a container by one of blow molding, stretch blow molding and thermo forming;
- and
- b) modifying said molecular structure of said synthetic material of said foldable region so that said molecular structure of said synthetic material of said foldable region is different from the molecular structure of said synthetic material of remainder of said container wall to facilitate folding of said container along said foldable region when said container is flattened for disposal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.