Container stoppers
AssigneesJess Paul Fuller, David Bodley Orr
InventorsJess P Fuller, David B Orr, Steven J Watkins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cork stopper for a wine bottle or the like is coated with, for example, silicone rubber to prevent impurities in the cork from contaminating the contents of the bottle. The coating may be applied by dipping or immersion preferably with ultrasonic agitation to improve penetration of the coating material into the cork pores. Prior to coating, the corks may be soaked in a solvent to leach out taint compounds from the surface of the cork, thereby reducing the likelihood of such compounds concentrating on the coating surface.
Claims9
A method of applying a thin surface sealing coating to a stopper comprised of a body of cork or cork derivative to prevent impurities in the body from escaping the body and contaminating the contents of a container stopped with the stopper, said body having pores and an outer surface, said method comprising:
- coating the body with a thin coat of silicone rubber by immersing the body for at least one minute in a quantity of coating material made up of transparent or translucent silicone rubber dissolved or dispersed in a solvent, ultrasonically agitating the body and/or the coating material during the immersion to displace air from the pores of the body and to produce a deposited coating of the coating material on the outer surface of the body, removing the body from the quantity of coating material, and evaporating solvent from the deposited coating and curing the silicone rubber of the deposited coating to obtain a final coating of cured silicone rubber on the outer surface of the body which final coating completely seals the body and has a thickness of 20 μm or less so as to not substantially affect the appearance of the body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.