PT1-2 pull tab

A combination of a container lid and a pull tab opener,

• a) said container lid applied to a container body, said container lid comprising
• b) a panel having a generally flat horizontal surface, and a scored area in said panel for defining a push-in seal, which is frangibly secured to said panel for enabling said push-in seal to be at least partially severed from said panel and
• c) said pull tab opener, comprising
• d) a rigid non-articulated elongated tab body, having a tab longitudinal axis and a tab transverse axis, said pull tab opener comprising
• e) a nose portion, ending with a nose end and a nose tip, at one end of said tab body, along said tab longitudinal axis,
• f) a lifter portion, ending with a lifter end and a lifter tip, at the opposite end of said tab body, along same said tab longitudinal axis, and
• g) a controlled flex donut plate, being disposed between said nose portion and said lifter portion, proximate the intersection of said tab longitudinal and transverse axes,
• h) two rigid side rails, connecting said nose portion and said lifter portion to each other and to said donut plate and running at a certain distance and a certain angle to said longitudinal axis of the pull tab opener, and
• i) a cross-bridge, connecting said two side rails together, running transverse to the tab longitudinal axis, at a certain distance from said donut plate, and
• j) said combination also comprising a rivet for pivotally securing said pull tab opener to said panel, said rivet being disposed at the intersection of said tab longitudinal and transverse axes, said rivet attaching said donut plate to said panel, and having a rivet axis, being generally vertical, perpendicular to the generally flat horizontal surface of said panel, allowing said pull tab opener to rotate in a horizontal clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, when the pull tab opener and container lid are viewed from a top down direction,
• k) said donut plate also being flexible enough to allow said tab body to have a vertical seesaw rotation or movement, i.e. to seesaw and to rotate in a vertical clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, about the tab transverse axis, when viewed from a cross-sectional side view direction, if and when a force is applied to any part of the tab body, e.g. a downward force on the nose portion or an upward force on the lifter portion, wherein an upward movement of said lifter portion creates a downward movement of said nose portion,
• l) said donut plate being flexible enough, presenting only a small amount of donut flexing resistance against the vertical seesaw rotation of the pull tab opener,
• m) said container lid also having an imaginary rivet-seal axis passing through and from said rivet to the general center of said push-in seal area, and
• said nose end being disposed proximate said push-in seal and said lifter end being disposed remote therefrom, and
• wherein
• n) the pull tab opener and container lid are shaped such that when the tab longitudinal axis is aligned with the rivet-seal axis, then the nose end will be overlying a portion of the push-in seal, but with a certain predetermined nose initial vertical clearance angle between the bottom surface of the nose end and top surface of the push-in seal, requiring that the tab body be rotated through a certain vertical angle, say by raising the lifter end of the pull tab opener a certain distance or angle, before the nose end touches the push-in seal, and
• wherein
• o) the process sequence of opening the container lid and breaking open said push-in seal comprises at least three distinguishably individual and separate incremental process steps, which occur consecutively or sequentially,
• wherein
• p) the first incremental process step or movement is to ensure that the nose end is overlying the push-in seal, by checking the initial position of the pull tab opener, and if the nose end is not overlying the push-in seal, then to horizontally rotate the pull tab opener about the rivet vertical axis, until the tab longitudinal axis is generally aligned, or in line, with the rivet-seal axis, which would bring the nose end to be generally overlying the push-in seal, while during this first movement, only a small amount of horizontal force will be required to rotate the pull tab opener horizontally against any friction at the rivet against the donut plate,
• q) o) the second incremental process step or movement comprises the step of vertically rotating and pivoting or seesaw-ing the pull tab opener, so as to close the nose initial vertical clearance angle,
• r) by moving the nose portion of the pull tab opener downwards towards the push-in seal, traversing said nose initial vertical clearance angle, until the bottom surface of the nose portion reaches and touches the top surface of the underlying push-in seal, but just before engaging the push-in seal, while during this vertical rotation step,
• s) a second incremental force, a vertical force in this case, is required to be applied or exerted on the pull tab opener, the magnitude of said second incremental force being equal to the force required to overcome only the donut flexing resistance, i.e. the resistance of the donut plate against being bent;
• and
• t) the subsequent third incremental process step comprises the step of urging the nose portion of the pull tab opener to break open the push-in seal, during which third step
• u) a third incremental force, being also a vertical force in this case, like the second force, is required to be applied or exerted, in addition to the second vertical incremental force, the magnitude of said third vertical incremental force being equal to the force required to break open the push-in seal,
• v) wherein said third incremental force is considerably larger than said first or second incremental forces;
• w) in other words,
• x) said nose initial vertical clearance between the nose end and the push-in seal creates and introduces a delay in the onset of the larger third incremental force which is required to break open the push-in seal, thus making it easy to go through both the first and second incremental process steps, by applying only the smaller first and second incremental forces to the pull tab opener, before encountering the need to apply the larger third incremental force which is required to break open the push-in seal,
• and wherein
• y) the container lid has a cam feature with at least one cam ramp with a ramp surface, said cam surface being filleted and having smooth transitions, and wherein
• z) the pull tab opener has a cam follower feature, proximate said lifter end, and riding on the ramp surface of said cam feature, and
• wherein
• aa) by rotating said pull tab opener, horizontally, about the vertical rivet axis, a camming action takes place, wherein
• ab) the cam follower rides on the cam ramp, so that at the end of the camming action, the nose end of the pull tab opener would be overlying the push-in seal, and the lifter end of the pull tab opener would be raised to a level wherein the lifter tip gets raised to a higher level over the surface of the lid, higher than its level at the beginning of the camming action, thus creating a larger space between the lifter tip and the lid panel, thus in turn allowing the user to more easily place his/her finger tip under the lifter tip, in the effort to ultimately more easily open and crack the push-in seal, and wherein
• ac) while during all this camming action, the camming action does not totally eliminate all the nose initial vertical clearance angle, so that the nose end still remains above a certain minimum clearance elevation away and above the push-in seal, in other words, even at the end of the camming action, neither the nose end nor the nose tip will engage the push-in seal, so that the neither the nose end nor the nose tip will apply any force on the push-in seal, which makes it that the horizontal rotation of the pull tab opener and the camming action take place without the need of any force related to breaking or to opening the push-in seal.