Color-coded shrink wrapped closure system

Abstract

A packaging system for improved management of cap inventory when different beverages, such as different types of milk (skim, 1%, 2% and whole) or water (spring, distilled, fortified, mineral etc.) are bottled in the same bottling lines at various facilities. The system includes maintaining a supply of standard caps, which may be free of colorants or pigments, and a supplies of reels of different colored (or differently printed) shrink sleeve material. The different types of beverage are bottled in containers that have a single standard cap and standard uniform bottles, and the different contents of said bottles are differentiated from one another by the application of colored (or distinctively printed) shrink sleeves or bands. The cap and/or the bottle neck are adapted to be engaged by the shrink band in a way that protects the bottle from being tampered with, and when threaded caps are used, helps prevent the inadvertent loosening of the caps during in shipment.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to closure devices, and in particular, relates to a shrink-wrapped and injection molded tamper resistant bottle cap and neck for bottles which hold liquids, such as milk, water or juice, and a system for providing color-coded shrink-wrapped injection molded tamper resistant bottle cap and neck for bottles. [0002] Injection molded caps for blow molded bottles (made of HDPE—high density polyethylene) have been used for many years. In addition, shrink wrapping bottle cap and necks has been used for many years. Generally, two types of bottle caps are available, push-on caps and thread-on caps. Push-on caps are installed by aligning the cap with the opening of a bottle and simply applying an axial force to the top of the cap. Thread-on caps generally require that the cap and bottle be aligned and that a rotational force be applied to the cap. In some cases, threaded caps, if carefully designed in conjunction with the b...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] In order to eliminate many of the problems associated with capping systems now in place, the inventions disclosed and claimed herein, in a milk bottling application, allows a bottler to use caps of a single color, e.g., white or pigment-free, for all kind of milk, and then relies upon shrink sleeves or bands of different colors placed over the cap and neck of a bottle to differentiate one kind of milk from another. The cap and neck of a bottle are configured in such a way as to allow a mechanical interference between the shrink sleeve and both the cap and the bottle neck to help prevent the cap from backing off of a tightened position during shipment. By placing shrink sleeves of different colors on the bottle neck and by using cap of one standard color, a line change will entail a simple change in the color of shrink wrap is used rather than unloading and loading different colored caps from the feeder bowls

Problems solved by technology

In the bottled water industry the pull tab on push-on caps for 5-gallon containers, for example, is not easily removable from the cap, and only partial tearing of the pull tab allows removal of the cap from the bottle.

While the combination of a bottle cap with a tamper evidencing ring and a bottle neck with ratchet teeth provides for an acceptable tamper-evident connection and seal, this combination does have its limitations.

Furthermore, on smaller or single serving containers, the ratchet ring can become a nuisance as a consumer takes a sip directly from the bottle.

In some cases the hoppers from which caps are fed are difficult to access and empty.

These changeovers can require considerable time and effort to accomplish, and may be required to be done every day, or even multiple times a day.

Other problems associated with capping facilities using the typical capping syst

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